TTOA Chapter 94

“To what extent can I handle things with my current shooting skills?”

“With your skills, Jae-jin, creatures, you mean.”

“I’ve been practicing diligently at the underground shooting range according to the curriculum Seo Eui-woo taught me. I haven’t been lazy for a single day, and I’ve put in the effort.”

Why he was suddenly grabbing Seo Eui-woo and asking such a question was beyond comprehension.

He had decided to run away to the 6th Residential District, to abandon everything – Esper, Mutant, Esper, Guide – and live a normal life, mingling with ordinary people and having an ordinary romance, so why was he suddenly trying to fight something…?

Why…?

“Let’s see… if Jae-jin were to fight alone, maybe one Beta Creature.”

Seo Eui-woo answered plainly. Kwon Jae-jin was shocked and stunned.

“One…? Is that it?”

Isn’t that the same level as before? It’s exactly the same.

Jae-jin blinked blankly, feeling dejected. Seo Eui-woo nodded firmly, as if it were obvious. The sharp, honed gaze was intimidating. This was Seo Eui-woo’s area of expertise.

“You’ve only practiced hitting one moving target, Jae-jin. If there are two targets, are you confident you can hit both of them? And they aren’t stationary targets. They are two moving targets.”

“No, that would be difficult…”

“Yes, exactly. You have no chance against two or more. You’d have to rely on luck, and it would become dangerous.”

“…”

“Don’t be discouraged. You are very talented, Jae-jin. Usually, it takes trainees almost half a year to hit one moving target. But you did it in two weeks.”

“Trainees are young. I’m an adult.”

“No, you’re truly gifted. You have an extraordinary eye. What they call dynamic visual acuity.”

Seo Eui-woo reached out and cupped Jae-jin’s cheeks. He held his face firmly, pulling him closer to make eye contact. He stared directly into Kwon Jae-jin’s dark, resolute eyes and gave him an honest assessment.

Kwon Jae-jin’s discerning gaze was as outstanding as it was unwavering.

“Listen, do you know what it means to hit a moving target? It means you can now shoot and kill a charging Creature in one shot.”

“…”

“If it’s just one, you’re guaranteed to win.”

Ah… is that so?

So, he can now immediately hit a Creature that he couldn’t kill even with dozens of rifle shots last time. If that’s the case, then he has improved. Kwon Jae-jin nodded slowly. For some reason, his palms started to sweat. His heart also began to beat more vigorously.

“Then, what do I need to do to hit two moving targets?”

He hadn’t even intended to ask, but his mouth opened on its own, blurting out the question. He was going to run away now. Kwon Jae-jin’s future was running away with Seo Eui-woo. Yet, faced with that future, Jae-jin was asking how to fight.

More than a five-part bamboo documentary, he was actually more curious about this.

“Well, a little technique and consistent practice, of course.”

Seo Eui-woo smiled nonchalantly, as if he were asking the obvious.

“Do you want to know?”

“Yes.”

Kwon Jae-jin answered naturally, without even a moment’s hesitation. His voice rushed out eagerly.

“Yes. I want to know.”

“Alright, then. I’ll teach you.”

The two didn’t cross the threshold of the study, heading straight down to the underground shooting range. As Jae-jin held the well-maintained gun and skillfully loaded the magazine, he forcefully suppressed the questions that were slowly rearing their heads from deep within his gut, preventing them from surfacing. Questions like ‘Why am I doing this?’ and ‘What am I trying to do?’ were suppressed and subsided.

Seo Eui-woo briefly passed on some tips. He left out the unnecessary details and focused on the basics and core principles.

“Now, from now on, you shouldn’t look at the target when you shoot. You have good eyes, but you need to train to hit it by feel.”

“Hit it by feel?”

“Yes, you roughly predict where to shoot to hit it. You read the Creature’s movements and fire, or even guide its movements to fire.”

Seo Eui-woo put earmuffs on Jae-jin. Then, he manipulated the shooting range system, and the blue holographic target that appeared on the wall increased from one to two.

Jae-jin habitually followed the targets moving in all directions with his eyes. Seo Eui-woo mouthed, “That’s not it.”

“If you look and shoot, you’ll always be too late. Don’t look, just shoot.”

Jae-jin nodded in acknowledgment, shouldered the rifle, and fired in bursts. He missed both targets. He tensed his body to prevent being pushed back by the recoil and fired again. Still, he didn’t even graze them.

Two moving targets were difficult. You can only be deployed in actual combat if you can shoot these. Jae-jin, unaware of such a standard, aimed the gun at the randomly appearing holographic targets and persistently fired.

Even though Kwon Jae-jin was busy, there was still time until spring. It would be alright to practice shooting. A faint spark of keen joy flickered in his resolute eyes.

*

It was, without fail, the universe.

Kwon Jae-jin, standing beneath Saturn and its satellites, turned around. Even without the 24-year-old Seo Eui-woo pointing, he could now find the target he needed to see on his own. From the vast and dark reaches of space, the Creatures were advancing, seemingly without end.

Jae-jin calmly gazed at the swarm of Creatures filled with murderous intent. Their movements were noticeable. How fast they were moving, what their body characteristics were, what part he should aim for to kill them.

The 24-year-old Seo Eui-woo, who had suddenly appeared beside Kwon Jae-jin, reached out his arm again. A long object appeared in his translucent palm.

It gradually lengthened, hardened, and took shape. It was a black rifle. And a model he was familiar with. Load it, fire it, disassemble it, oil it, reassemble it, he had done it countless times, so much so that it appeared in his dreams.

Jae-jin swallowed a hollow laugh. It felt like he had an ‘affection rifle’ in addition to his ‘affection knife.’

‘Here. You mustn’t run away.’

The mature Seo Eui-woo smiled and handed him the gun. Jae-jin accepted it without hesitation. He raised the gun towards the approaching swarm of Creatures and said with a resigned tone.

‘…Don’t you think you’re going too far? What do you want me to do?’

As Jae-jin shot the targets by feel, according to the technique Seo Eui-woo had taught him, he muttered in a scratchy tone. His voice was troubled and self-deprecating, like muddy water.

‘You took away all my memories as they were, disappeared so I couldn’t even resent you, and I… why do I have to see you in my dreams, when I can’t even meet you again?’

The first-timeline Seo Eui-woo is selfish.

He took away Kwon Jae-jin’s entire childhood, yet he himself remained only in Kwon Jae-jin’s memory.

Nowhere in this world could even a trace of the first-timeline Seo Eui-woo be found.

Kwon Jae-jin was the only one who knew him, and Kwon Jae-jin was the only one who remembered him.

He erased everything and remained only in Kwon Jae-jin, how could he be so selfish?

‘Why do I have to listen to you telling me that I mustn’t run away?’

Jae-jin frowned fiercely.

Was trying to live a good new life with the second-timeline Seo Eui-woo running away?

Was leaving the world behind and going off alone with him running away?

No, well, yeah. That’s right, it is running away.

But there was no reason for the first-timeline Seo Eui-woo to point that out and object. Even if it was a dream created by Kwon Jae-jin’s subconscious.

The long rifle spewed fire in rapid succession.

He missed countless times, but his accuracy gradually improved. The black blood of the Creatures flowed abundantly on the black surface of the universe. Even after shooting like that, the horde of Creatures didn’t diminish. Stepping over the fallen corpses, the Creatures relentlessly approached.

‘Do you… hate me that much?’

A chilling arm reached out from behind. The 24-year-old Seo Eui-woo carefully corrected Jae-jin’s posture as he held the rifle. He made him widen his stance to lower his center of gravity and raised the angle of his elbows. His accuracy improved even more.

‘So much that you can never forgive me?’

Seo Eui-woo, now with an even taller stature and the face of a fully matured, captivating young man, skillfully gave the signal to fire.

‘Even so, please bear with it for now.’

‘What…?’

‘Even if you want to resent me, you should be looking over there, not at me.’

Listening to the cruel voice that painfully tore at his heart, Jae-jin fired incessantly. He killed so many Creatures that he didn’t even realize he was hitting two moving targets in a row. He shot three, he shot four, relentlessly firing and replacing the magazine with a new one.

‘You mustn’t run away. You can’t run away.’

Seo Eui-woo hugged Jae-jin from behind.

His thick, firm arms felt painfully heavy.

Kwon Jae-jin, filled with resentment for having a hole in his head and for having his entire childhood stolen, finally realized that his feelings toward the first-timeline Seo Eui-woo had bitterly reversed.

The precarious yet beautiful attachment and affection, built up in layers of coercion, force, tears, pleas, love, and hate, painfully resonated in his heart.