TTOA Chapter 97

#97

Seo Eui-woo curtly replied,

“I haven’t killed them yet. Not a single one.”

The ability, scattered with a barren, desolate voice, was unbelievably eerie, making even a peaceful answer sound like a threatening statement. ‘I haven’t killed them’ felt like ‘I’m going to kill them all.’

“Not yet…?”

“Then what do you want me to do? It’s all over now.”

With each word Seo Eui-woo uttered, the pressure intensified. As if a Gate had opened in this very spot, magnificent and sinister power gathered around him. The swirling, intangible force even crushed the atmosphere. From the eye of the raging storm, Seo Eui-woo glared mercilessly at the Special Task Force members who had formed a circular encirclement.

If this power were to pierce their Cores, they would all die.

The eyes of the Espers kneeling on the ground, overwhelmed by the deepening murderous intent, turned yellow, one after another. It wasn’t just a metaphor anymore; they truly felt like they were about to lose their breath. One by one, they frothed at the mouth and fainted, and the only ones who managed to stay conscious were Major Ma Tae-o, an A-rank Defense Type Esper, and Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san, an A-rank Enhancement Type Esper, along with a few others.

“I know you don’t want to kill people, Jae-jin, but there’s no other way. We can’t let a single one of them live. If we let them go, we’ll be tracked down again.”

“…Seo Eui-woo. We can’t.”

“It’s not just you, Jae-jin, but this time, even I, I’ll be tracked down. Since I’ve become an Esper who’s clearly out of control. I’ll be executed on the spot.”

“…”

“We decided to run away, didn’t we? To abandon everything, you and I, and leave to live in hiding. But now, we can’t even do that…”

Seo Eui-woo chuckled weakly.

Not a single spark of light flickered in his cold, gray eyes. He was cornered like a person driven to the edge of a cliff. No matter how much he thought about it, only one way out of this situation came to mind.

“Ah… I should have just taken care of that from the beginning.”

Seo Eui-woo stared down at Major Ma Tae-o, who was still holding on, with fierce eyes. It was a gaze that seemed to pierce through his head. As soon as that gaze touched him, the barrier that had spread out in the form of a sphere around Major Ma collapsed instantly. The shape began to break from the bulging end, as if an eggshell was being crushed.

“If I had, it would have been a problem solved with just one person…”

Along with the collapsing barrier, Major Ma was slammed into the ground. The floor caved in deeply, and the outpouring force intensified. Blood flowed from Major Ma’s nose.

“Kuhuk!”

He desperately mustered his ability to maintain the barrier. He seemed to know that he would die if he didn’t give it his all.

“Stop it! Are you really going to kill him?”

Kwon Jae-jin grabbed Seo Eui-woo’s arm forcefully, making him look at him. Seo Eui-woo snarled fiercely. He looked like he would devour him whole.

“Then, what if I don’t?”

Due to the aftereffects of the surging ability, even the remaining Defense and Enhancement Type Espers couldn’t withstand it and fainted, bleeding from their eyes, noses, and ears. There was no one left conscious.

“The situation is different from last time. Back then, you wanted to kill, but now, you have to kill.”

No matter how much Seo Eui-woo thought about it, he couldn’t find any other answer besides killing.

“If we don’t solve it by killing, then what!”

Kwon Jae-jin had said that they couldn’t have a comfortable relationship if he massacred the Espers, so he was barely suppressing his murderous intent because of that one word, but even that seemed about to crumble soon.

If they didn’t kill everyone and leave, it would be dangerous even if Kwon Jae-jin refused and he had to force him to do it.

Not only for Kwon Jae-jin, but for Seo Eui-woo as well.

If they let these people live here, they wouldn’t be able to avoid being tracked down, no matter where they ran, whether it was the 6th Residential District or any general residential district. Even if they ran to the Frontier District, the situation would be similar.

If they wanted to leave, they would have to go to an Uncharted Territory untouched by humanity, to the desolate land in the creature’s domain. But was that even possible?

The situation was different from when it was just a matter of capturing one Mutant. It had been revealed that Seo Eui-woo, an S-rank Esper, was a subversive element, and Seo Eui-woo had even shown all of his inherent power hidden deep within the abyss.

Not a single hidden card remained.

If they were tracked down in this situation, they wouldn’t be able to avoid an all-out war. No matter how great Seo Eui-woo was, he hadn’t even resolved all of his imbalances yet. Besides, he also had a weakness. If his Core was destroyed, it would be over.

“I’m sorry, but I have to do it, even if I have to force you.”

Seo Eui-woo, who had lowered his eyes, moved his scattered ability.

In a critical situation, facing Seo Eui-woo, who was emitting a clear murderous intent, Kwon Jae-jin shook his head.

Slowly, and resolutely.

“…No, there’s another way.”

“What do you think? Are you still thinking of running away?”

“Will you ultimately choose the path of escape?”

His straight, black eyes looked directly ahead. Kwon Jae-jin exuded the scent of flames.

“We don’t have to kill them, and we don’t have to run away. Besides that.”

“Besides that…?”

Massacring them or running away wasn’t the only solution.

There was a way to overcome this crisis without doing so.

The only, complete, single path leading to the end.

“Yes, besides that.”

Kwon Jae-jin nodded, letting out a weary groan. It was a situation where he was repeatedly driven into a corner to the point where he resented the sky, but even so, there was still an answer.

There was another path that Kwon Jae-jin’s subconscious had pointed out several times.

Strictly speaking, that kind of choice wasn’t the best.

It was only a second-best option.

To put it in a metaphor, it was a normal ending. With this, he couldn’t reach the true ending.

It meant that he couldn’t reach a true happy ending.

Kwon Jae-jin squeezed his throat and spoke laboriously. His chest was hot, and it felt like he could hear gunshots again.

“Didn’t Seo Eui-woo say that we have to do everything properly? You definitely said that.”

“Yeah. Jae-jin and I have to do everything properly.”

“Do you understand what I’m saying? We have to do everything properly!”

Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin, the two of them, had to do everything properly, as they had always done.

They had to Guide properly, date properly, and live a proper life. It seemed like they had to.

Now, the second act of his life had begun. The second chance given to Kwon Jae-jin was far too precious to waste on a halfway path. He couldn’t leave even a trace of regret. He had no intention of wasting this miraculous opportunity just to regret it.

“Actually, you know everything, don’t you? What Jae-jin is aiming for. Where you should point the gun.”

“What Kwon Jae-jin needs to do to live a new life…”

He couldn’t make a mistake at this crossroads.

Kwon Jae-jin would make the right choice.

Killing them or running away were, in the end, just temporary measures. The fundamentals would not change at all.

A cruel society.

A twisted system.

Controlled Espers and innocently slaughtered Mutants.

“So, we just have to do it properly…”

Kwon Jae-jin shouted loudly, clearing his throat, and pointed to the fallen group of Espers. They were not enemies to be killed.

There was a different place where Kwon Jae-jin’s gun should be aimed.

“Instead of those Espers, let’s properly confront the greater evils.”

His determined gaze shone brightly.

In fact, he had known it from the beginning. The root of the problem was the heartless system and the uncritical repetition of that system. He knew that a paradigm shift and a change in ideology were needed more than anything else, but he couldn’t dare to put it into practice.

Because Kwon Jae-jin was neither a normal person nor an Esper, but a half-baked, precarious hybrid, a Mutant who deserved to die.

Until now, Kwon Jae-jin had been too busy taking care of himself.

He wanted to die, couldn’t die, and lived on like that.

There was no way he would have the mental capacity to design a proper life, and it was already too much to decide to live with Seo Eui-woo for the rest of his life.

However, Seo Eui-woo had shed light on him.

The second iteration of Seo Eui-woo gave Kwon Jae-jin a new life,

and the first iteration of Seo Eui-woo gave Kwon Jae-jin enlightenment.

The second iteration of Seo Eui-woo led Kwon Jae-jin to a bright place, and the first iteration of Seo Eui-woo remained alone in the darkness, becoming a counterpoint so that the light shining on Jae-jin could appear even brighter. Like yin and yang, light and darkness, day and night.

Seo Eui-woo was Kwon Jae-jin’s salvation.

“Eui-woo, Seo Eui-woo.”

Kwon Jae-jin reached out his arms, grabbed his own salvation, and looked him in the face.

On the ground where the Espers who had been tracking Kwon Jae-jin had all fallen, he appealed to Seo Eui-woo’s gray eyes. In the storm-like swirling ability, their hair and clothes fluttered in all directions.

“Actually, I think it’s okay to abandon everything and run away, to live in hiding. But if we do that, we’ll have to live as criminals for the rest of our lives.”

“Jae-jin…”

“It’s the same even if we kill them. How long can we live like this, just trying to get by? The reason why we’re so anxious and disillusioned, what’s it all because of…”

Instead of killing the Espers, they had to enlighten them.

Instead of running away to the 6th Residential District, they had to tear down the walls so that they could travel freely at any time.

Instead of killing uncontrollable Espers and uncontrollable Mutants, they had to break down the system that was made up of control.

Kwon Jae-jin wanted to fire a gun. Towards the world.

And towards the devil who had turned this world into hell.