Chapter 165 : Kim Youngjun
Chapter 165: Kim Youngjun
“······.”
“······.”
The two men, Baek Woohyun and Kim Youngjun, silently assessed each other with a blade caught between them by telekinesis.
This standoff existed because both had their reasons to gauge the other—Baek Woohyun as Baek Woohyun, Kim Youngjun as Kim Youngjun.
It also helped that neither had any intention of immediately transitioning from here into combat.
However, this uncomfortable standoff didn’t last very long.
They both knew they couldn’t just stand there staring at each other forever.
That’s why they each took a few steps back in tacit agreement.
“Is this how you greet people here?”
“···I wasn’t trying to hurt or kill you.”
Kim Youngjun shrugged at Baek Woohyun’s belated question. It was an answer that felt rather shameless.
Who would believe someone who just tried to hold a blade to their throat—a vital point—then claimed they weren’t trying to hurt or kill them?
If Baek Woohyun hadn’t known him from ‘over there,’ he would have snapped back telling him to cut the crap.
“I’ve been screwed over so many times that I hate talking unless I have the advantage.”
“······.”
It was an explanation only Baek Woohyun could understand.
Because in the past ‘over there,’ when he had just escaped the research facility, he had been the same way.
Everyone in the world felt like his enemy, so there was a time when he didn’t want to deal with anyone unless he had a clear upper hand.
When he saw someone who wasn’t an ally standing on equal footing, it felt like they would attack him at any moment.
It must have been a psychological problem born from enduring the hellish experiments at the research facility.
“Why did you call me here?”
So Baek Woohyun asked a different question instead of pressing Kim Youngjun further. It was truly an incredibly lenient response.
If it had been anyone other than Kim Youngjun who gave such an answer, they would be pinned to the ground by telekinesis by now.
After that, they would have heard Baek Woohyun sarcastically say, “I feel the same way. I also hate talking unless I have the advantage.”
“Because from what I saw, you seemed like an ally.”
“So nowadays, allies hold blades to each other’s throats before talking?”
“There were so many pretending to be allies.”
“It’ll sound like an excuse to you, but—well, I guess it is an excuse.” Kim Youngjun added, habitually shrugging his shoulders.
“But even so, you’re willing to accept someone as an ally just based on them being a former test subject?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“······.”
“Because only we can truly understand each other’s pain.”
Kim Youngjun, abandoning his somewhat mocking attitude, looked at Baek Woohyun with serious eyes.
Because everything from his speech to his behavior and even his smallest gestures were perfectly identical to him from ‘over there,’ Baek Woohyun closed his mouth without being able to say more.
For a moment, he saw him from ‘over there’ overlapping beyond the mask covering his face.
Though frivolous in personality, Kim Youngjun had been thorough in his duties—he was the person Baek Woohyun had spent the longest time with, a comrade who had survived deadly situations together.
He was also a perfect partner who stayed with him until just before completing all Special Missions and returning to this side.
If asked to name the first person who came to mind with the word ‘friend’ from ‘over there,’ Baek Woohyun could confidently say it would be him.
“······.”
But what about now?
The friend with whom he could finish communicating with just an exchange of glances without needing to speak had now become a complete stranger.
A stranger with whom conversation had to begin with the cold, stiff greeting of “Nice to meet you.”
‘Ah.’
Baek Woohyun, finally realizing what he had lost to regain what he had, froze in place. Because the pain he had tried so hard to ignore was consuming him.
At the same time, the darkness he thought he had been gradually driving away through Reverse Planet gameplay and personal broadcasting quietly colored his surroundings.
The pressure of a weight so heavy that even a Superhuman would struggle bore down on him. As if trying to make him kneel at any moment.
-······.
-······.
In the place he barely managed to lift his head to look at, the comrades he had lost were facing him from within the warehouse shadows where light barely reached.
Still with haggard, withered faces, thick tears of blood flowing from both eyes. Yet somehow, only their mouths, which usually cried out for revenge, remained tightly shut.
Baek Woohyun’s eyes widened as he discovered that even people whose deaths he hadn’t directly witnessed were mixed among them.
‘Why···?’
He had clearly seen them alive until he crossed from ‘over there’ to ‘this side’—so why were they standing there with the dead?
And why were the vengeful spirits who always cried out for revenge now silently looking at him with sad eyes?
Baek Woohyun, who had thought everything was getting better since returning here, couldn’t understand···.
“Hey! Snap out of it!”
“······.”
Baek Woohyun turned his gaze toward Kim Youngjun, who was loudly trying to wake him up. Through the mask, eyes more lifeless than ever were revealed.
Though Baek Woohyun’s pitch-black eyes were directed at Kim Youngjun, they didn’t contain him. They were simply looking at someone else.
For instance, the shadow of a close friend he could never meet again.
“Why are you just spacing out in the middle of our conversation? Was what I said that moving?”
“······.”
“Still, seeing you’re not in your right mind, you must be an ally after all.”
Kim Youngjun let out a self-deprecating joke and chuckled.
“Man. The boss will be sad again. He said he wanted to welcome a somewhat normal guy as an ally.”
“─Boss?”
Baek Woohyun, who had been quietly listening, asked back.
Even amid his confusion, he heard a word he absolutely couldn’t let pass.
As far as he knew, there was only one person Kim Youngjun called ‘boss,’ and that wouldn’t have changed even in Reverse Planet.
“Why? Curious who the boss is?”
Kim Youngjun spoke in a tone that subtly suggested he might tell him.
His attitude clearly showed he would use this as bait to pull Baek Woohyun in as an ally if given the chance.
However, even without hearing details from Kim Youngjun, Baek Woohyun already knew who the ‘boss’ was.
It was natural—if he didn’t know, he wouldn’t have reacted to that word in the first place.
‘Ah, I see. That bastard would still be here.’
“······.”
Any expression had already disappeared from Baek Woohyun’s face behind the mask.
If someone saw his bare face now, they would mistake it for a painted plaster statue—that’s how lifeless it felt.
He used to make this face when confronting an enemy he absolutely couldn’t tolerate. The person called ‘boss’ was one of them.
‘Filthy traitor bastard.’
Baek Woohyun swallowed his boiling rage internally.
He wasn’t crazy enough to rant and rave when the target wasn’t even present.
Venting his seething emotions could wait until he faced an enemy he could tear apart.
“What do I need to do to be accepted as an ally?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious?”
At Baek Woohyun’s question, Kim Youngjun’s eyes curved gently. Though hidden by the mask, he probably smiled brightly.
That’s how much he was looking forward to and happy about what was to come. Though most test subjects would probably feel the same way.
“Revenge.”
-······.
-······.
Was it drawn in by the sweet word ‘revenge’ that Kim Youngjun whispered?
The vengeful spirits that had clearly been standing in the shadows watching had somehow completely surrounded Baek Woohyun and Kim Youngjun.
It was a barrier so thick that no one could easily come or go. Though it was invisible and had no effect on anyone except Baek Woohyun.
“There happens to be a suitable research facility. For some reason, quite a bit of their forces left recently. I was originally going to handle it alone.”
Kim Youngjun glanced at Baek Woohyun and shrugged.
“But now that I have an ally to go with, there’s no need for that. Let’s go together.”
“Alright.”
With a ding, a system message flickered saying a mission had been created, but Baek Woohyun paid it no attention.
He had seen the system plenty ‘over there,’ and right now he didn’t have the capacity to care about such trivial matters.
He was already struggling just to forcibly hold together his mind that seemed ready to crumble at any moment while desperately acting normal.
‘Why on earth─ No, don’t think about it. Not now.’
Baek Woohyun bit his lip and forcibly suppressed the emotions and questions that seemed ready to overflow.
Even in his agitation, his rationality clearly recognized the fact that he was in the middle of a personal broadcast.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that thanks to the constraint of personal broadcasting, he was maintaining his sanity.
Without even that, he had been shaken enough that he didn’t know what he might have done.
“The research facility isn’t far from here, so we’ll arrive soon. I didn’t choose this as our meeting place for nothing.”
Kim Youngjun took the lead, striding along only the deserted back alleys.
Seeing him not even considering the possibility of a surprise attack from behind, he had apparently already half-accepted Baek Woohyun as an ally.
Even Baek Woohyun, following his unguarded back, was curious about what he had sensed during their brief standoff and observation.
Though he didn’t expect to get an answer if he asked. He had never gotten a proper explanation ‘over there’ either.
To Baek Woohyun’s question, Kim Youngjun had only given vague talk about how broken people easily recognize each other.
Though perhaps that was the best answer he could give.
“We’re here. See that building over there? Those bastards brazenly set up a research facility in the building’s basement.”
“······.”
Baek Woohyun looked at the building Kim Youngjun pointed to.
Soon his telekinesis extended in wave form, detecting the personnel and structure inside the building, and as a result he discovered what was presumed to be a research facility underground.
Along with several armed guards stationed inside the building on alert.
After finishing his decent reconnaissance, he immediately dispersed the telekinetic waves. It was a precaution against any possible awakeners.
If there was an awakener deep in the basement, unlike the armed guards who noticed nothing, they might sense something and prepare.
It was a speculation based on clear evidence from his experience ‘over there.’
“Indeed.”
“You know, it’s really funny when you think about it.”
Kim Youngjun raised the corners of his mouth. It was a smile dripping with thick killing intent. The kind of smile that made you want to ask what exactly was funny about it.
Because the wounded face faintly visible through the cracked mask didn’t seem to feel any amusement at all.
“The bastards who curse at us calling us cockroaches are the ones acting most like cockroaches. Spreading sneakily in places you can’t see.”
“······.”
“Even the part where if you find one, there are dozens more behind it is the same. Oh, and that you need to exterminate them as soon as you spot them.”
Seureuruk.
Kim Youngjun, drawing his dagger, vanished as if melting into his surroundings. It was concealment so perfect that even Baek Woohyun felt he had completely disappeared.
Of course, he could detect him using methods like telekinetic waves, but the very fact that he had to do so was the problem. And even that had a high probability of being inaccurate.
Truly fitting skill for someone who had reigned as the terror of research facilities until Baek Woohyun’s appearance.
“I’ll support you from behind, so go ahead and do as you please.”
“···Got it.”
Baek Woohyun didn’t care about Kim Youngjun’s declaration that nakedly revealed his intention to test his abilities.
He didn’t care how he was assessed, and this time he wanted to go forward first and smash everything himself.
He needed a place to vent the tangled thoughts and seething emotions somehow.
Jeobeok.
Anyway, now that he had received permission, there was no reason to hesitate.
Baek Woohyun immediately walked toward the building, and in the process, he saw CCTVs that had been monitoring the surroundings and caught him drooping down.
Probably the concealed Kim Youngjun had busily moved around and dealt with them. Just like when they had worked as partners ‘over there’ in the past.
‘Damn it.’
Gooooo-!
Baek Woohyun’s discomfort manifested entirely as transparent flames rising up.