Episode 178.
“Th, what is that….”
Han Min-ah couldn’t understand what Lee Min-jung was saying.
Baek Seon-je is the director of the inspection bureau.
Such a white paper is in danger.
Wouldn’t it be natural to help him?
However, Lee Min-jung shook her head, saying that it couldn’t be done.
Could it be because the situation outside is so urgent right now?
Are you unable to afford to help Baekseonje?
Well then, I understand.
But now.
“The director has instructed us not to help him no matter what happens.”
Han Min-ah couldn’t understand Lee Min-jung.
To be exact, I couldn’t understand what Lee Min-jung was saying.
Baek Seon-je instructed you not to help?
“What do you mean? The director told me not to help…?”
But Lee Min-jung remained silent.
Right then.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwa─!
A terrible wave of power was felt from inside the building.
Han Min-ah couldn’t feel the power of magic.
That’s why Baek Seon-je and Oh Ju-won.
I couldn’t tell whose power it was.
But it wasn’t Lee Min-jung.
Lee Min-jung could tell whose power this ominous energy was.
“There’s no time. We need to get out of here quickly.”
Lee Min-jung spoke, urging him on.
Han Min-ah didn’t move.
“Then what about you, Director? Even if you are the Director, the man inside is strong enough to threaten you─.”
“The director knew everything!”
Lee Min-jung shouted in anger.
He burst into a scream that bordered on anger.
But it wasn’t directed at Han Min-ah.
Lee Min-jung, it was her feelings towards herself.
“The Director knew what Pandemonium was up to.”
Lee Min-jung was biting her lower lip.
Even though blood was gushing out, Lee Min-jung didn’t care.
There were various emotions expressed in Lee Min-jung’s expression.
“Oh Ju-won will not follow Hunter Maeng Si-woo. From here… From here…!”
The inability to do anything.
The helplessness of not being able to do anything else.
“…We need to get out of here quickly.”
Lee Min-jung took Han Min-ah’s hand and led her.
* * *
Countless magic circles encroaching on all sides.
At a guess, there were roughly thousands of magic circles engraved around it.
“It’s an amplification magic circle….”
Baek Seon-je muttered quietly.
An amplification magic circle that greatly amplifies the target’s magical power.
All of these thousands of amplifying magic circles were amplifying Oh Ju-won’s power.
This kind of amplification magic circle wasn’t something that could be created overnight.
It required a long period of preparation and was limited to a specific location.
The preparation was also quite remarkable.
It’s not something you can do openly in the heart of Seoul.
That was definitely not something a wanted criminal from Pandemonium could do.
“Did you have an assistant?”
There is someone who helped Oh Joo-won.
And this is the SH Group headquarters building.
It wasn’t hard to figure out who the helper was.
So, what this situation suggests now is one thing.
“Was this a trap set to get rid of me from the beginning?”
Oh Ju-won had been aiming for Baek Seon-je from the beginning.
This stage is a trap to kill Baek Seon-je.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
Oh Ju-won’s prosthetic left eye sparkled.
“I can’t only see the short-term future.”
It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was a ‘foresight’ of the future.
In the end, it was like playing around with the plan that Oh Joo-won had set up.
And everything Baekseonje does from now on.
All of this could be said to be a future that Oh Ju-won had foreseen.
I’m just a puppet dancing to a predetermined conclusion.
but.
“Even if you’re a fool, you can still hit it.”
Baek Seon-je could only laugh.
“Sometimes, my father said this to me.”
A very long time ago.
This happened when Baek Seon-je was training under his father, Baek Seon-pyeong.
What happened when Baek Seon-pyeong wasn’t caught up in his own justice?
One day, Baek Seon-je was sparring with Baek Seon-pyeong.
It didn’t even brush the collar of Baek Seon-je’s black Baek Seon-pyeong’s clothes.
It was as if I was reading Baekseonje.
It was as if Baek Seon-je’s movements had been seen from the future.
‘Preemption is knowing your actions in advance and avoiding them.’
‘How can a person know what will happen in the future?’
Baek Seon-je, of course, did not believe it.
To this, Baek Seon-pyeong replied as follows.
‘Seonje, there is a sick child in front of you who is on the verge of death. And there are two carriages. One is old and the other is new. Which carriage will take the sick child to the doctor quickly?’
‘Of course it’s a new carriage.’
‘Why is that so?’
‘Isn’t an old carriage prone to breaking?’
‘That never happened. How could an old carriage not break down?’
‘That may be possible, but isn’t it more likely to break?’
Baek Seon-je nodded and said.
‘You are asserting future events that have not yet occurred. How can you say that you cannot know future events?’
Meanwhile, Baek Seon-pyeong studies people’s behavior, personality, and tendencies.
He added that by understanding these aspects, one can ‘predict’ the other person’s actions.
It taught me that while we cannot know the full future, we can know something about it.
At that time, the young Baek Seon-je could not understand the meaning of those words.
But as I grew older and learned more about the world, I began to vaguely understand its meaning.
“You’re just setting the table. You’re saying the table has a high probability.”
It could be seen as a kind of insight.
A calculation of the likelihood that something will happen.
“Your short-term foresight ability is also like that.”
It was nothing more than a ‘prediction’ made using extreme insight.
This is literally just a glimpse into a possible future.
That was also the reason why it had a 10-second limit.
The insight that humans can have.
Because that feeble power had a limit of 10 seconds.
“You can’t see the future, can you?”
Oh Ju-won’s foresight (S) is only a possibility that can unfold.
It is not an established reality.
So the ending wasn’t set in stone.
“But did you foresee the future or anything? If you look closely, you tend to overestimate your own abilities.”
Baek Seon-je said with a sly smile.
“They say I’m just a show-off.”
“……”
“Hmm? Don’t you know what I mean? It’s a term used by young people these days. They use the character “insect” to describe an act of fanaticism that is supported out of ignorance. A fake, a fake-out. That’s how it is said.”
“……”
“Hey, tsk tsk. How could you know what’s going on in the world when you’re stuck in a dark and gloomy place?”
Baek Seon-je shook his head from side to side.
Oh Ju-won didn’t say anything.
He just stared at Baek Seon-je silently with the prosthetic eye in his left eye.
A moment of silence.
“so.”
Oh Ju-won slowly opened his mouth.
“Baekseonje, in the end, weren’t you caught in the trap I set up?”
“Well, that’s true.”
Baek Seon-je shrugged his shoulders.
And that was true.
Although he did not foresee the future, Baek Seon-je eventually fell into a trap.
Oh Ju-won’s insight was not much different from foreseeing the future.
but.
“But do you know that?”
Baek Seon-je said with a small smile.
“I’m saying that there are people with far greater insight than you. Your insight pales in comparison.”
“Is this all a bluff?”
Oh Ju-won continued speaking, adjusting his grip on the dagger.
“As you said, there is no such thing as a braggart.”
“Oh. You learn faster than I thought, kid.”
Baek Seon-je looked surprised and exclaimed in admiration.
And this time, Oh Joo-won didn’t react.
“Let’s end the joke here.”
Kiiiiiing─!!
Oh Ju-won’s crimson magic exploded.
At the same time, the scenery around Oh Ju-won became distorted.
The distorted landscape became thousands of tragedies that tore through space.
“It’s brutal.”
Baek Seon-je let out a light laugh.
But, despite his words, a deep tension appeared on his face.
Kwakwakwakwa!
A devastating blow that sweeps across the entire space.
Even the word “murderous” was a sanitized expression.
Baek Seon-je immediately threw himself down.
That tragedy cannot be stopped.
How do you stop the entire surrounding space from being engulfed in tragedy?
Baek Seon-je quickly moved away from Oh Ju-won.
But did Oh Joo-won anticipate this?
Oh Ju-won quickly caught up with Baek Seon-je.
Kwajajajajak─!
Every time Oh Ju-won moved, the space around him was destroyed indiscriminately.
The walls of the building were torn to shreds.
The broken debris disintegrated again and scattered into sand grains.
When I looked at Oh Ju-won, he wasn’t wielding a pair of daggers.
Nevertheless, the space surrounding Oh Ju-won was haphazardly clawed at.
A speed at which even afterimages are not visible.
It was as if the existence of Oh Ju-won was approaching as a tragedy.
‘This is dangerous.’
Baek Seon-je couldn’t show any more playfulness.
Oh Joo-won’s vision of a long-term future was a lie.
It was definitely a show-off.
But the short term future.
It was a clear fact that we had to look 10 seconds ahead.
Of course, that was only a possible future.
However, among countless possibilities, Oh Ju-won was able to choose the one that was most advantageous to him.
Plus now.
Kiiiiiing─!!
Oh Ju-won’s power amplified by the amplification magic circle.
Because of that, Baek Seon-je’s individuality did not work.
This time, the part of the future that Oh Joo-won saw could not be erased.
The current situation was clearly in Oh Joo-won’s hands.
Baek Seon-je moved differently.
A future of possibility as envisioned by Oh Joo-won.
We need to create some variables in that future.
however.
“No matter how much you struggle, the result won’t change.”
With the cold voice of Oh Ju-won!
Baek Seon-je’s chest was cut open and popped up.
“Baekseonje.”
And then I heard Oh Ju-won’s voice again.
“You die here today.”
Oh Ju-won’s twin daggers rushed towards Baek Seon-je’s heart.
* * *
A steep mountain path with no proper path.
Here, numerous trees and waist-high grass block the view.
Mt. Halla in Jeju Island.
“Ugh…! Ugh…!”
Park Tae-min let out a rough breath.
Park Tae-min, team leader of the Inspection Bureau’s regional investigation team.
The reason Park Tae-min was here, on Mt. Halla, while Seoul was in chaos was not much different.
‘Team Leader Park. You go find your father.’
Director of the Inspection Bureau, Baek Seon-je’s request.
‘Then, I’ll leave it to you, Team Leader Park.’
To be exact, it was an order disguised as a request.
So, Park Tae-min came to Hallasan Mountain to find Baek Seon-je’s father, Geom-seon.
Of course, the swordsman was in hiding from the world and his whereabouts were unknown.
But Park Tae-min knew that the swordsman was here.
Because I came to see Baekseonje and Geomseon in the past.
Although I haven’t seen the swordsman’s face.
But the approximate location remained in my memory.
So now.
“Ugh…!”
Park Tae-min moved his body, biting his teeth.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa─!!
A feeling of pressure that weighs down on your entire body.
Park Tae-min endured this pressure with great difficulty.
“Cough…!”
But it wasn’t easy to move forward.
I couldn’t move my body, as if my whole body was crushed.
I couldn’t overcome the momentum.
It was a power that was so incredible that I couldn’t believe it was human.
“Kwaaaaak!”
But Park Tae-min did not give up.
I mustered up all my strength and got up.
Knock knock, knock!
I could hear the joints snapping.
Crunch─!
The overworked muscles were torn and ruptured.
Still, Park Tae-min did not stop.
Because this was nothing.
Those of you who are having a hard time in Seoul right now.
And the director of the inspection bureau, Baek Seon-je.
By now, Baekseonje… .
Crunch!
Park Tae-min bit his lip.
This is nothing.
“Ugh…!”
Park Tae-min did not give up on moving forward.
Could it be because of Park Tae-min’s firm will?
Saaaaaaa….
The momentum that had been weighing down Park Tae-min gradually weakened.
Soon after, the momentum completely disappeared.
Only a faint trace of momentum remained.
Park Tae-min used that momentum as a sign and moved his body.
How long did it take to move like that?
In the distance, a simple thatched-roof house came into view.
It was a landscape that did not fit at all in the deep mountains.
Park Tae-min walked toward the thatched house without hesitation.
That moment.
“You are the one who came with the preemptive strike.”
An old voice was heard from inside the thatched house.
It was a voice I heard for the first time.
However, I could tell that it was the voice of the Sword Immortal, Baek Seon-pyeong.
“I allowed myself to hear the story because I was impressed by his unwavering will.”
Baek Seon-pyeong’s voice is heard again.
“Why have you come to me?”
At the same time, Kwaaaa …
From inside, a tremendous momentum exploded once again.
The aura of Baek Seon-pyeong that I saw up close was truly transcendent.
This was definitely not something a human could endure.
At the same time, it wasn’t the kind of thing that a human could have.
Park Tae-min snapped this!
“The director’s… The director’s… .”
I finally opened my mouth, which I could not bring myself to open.
“I came to tell you… news of death…!”
At that moment, it stopped.
The oppressive momentum suddenly subsided.
Subscribed to the Transcendent’s channel
()
fantasy,
