Chapter 25
\[Person123: Seo Dong-woo\]
It wasn't like I had any particular thought in mind when I sent the whisper.
My insides were boiling because the bastard who almost killed my father was blatantly showing himself here.
I sent it impulsively and thought I had done something useless.
“...”
A reply came immediately.
\[So-yeong: Are you really that person?\] \[So-yeong: You're the First Nightmare Conqueror, right? I think you are?\]
What should I do?
All sorts of thoughts ran through my head.
I held back the urge to spew curses and regained my composure for now.
\[Person123: That's me\] \[So-yeong: Oh shit\] \[Person123: Are you Seo Dong-woo?\] \[So-yeong: Of course I am\] \[So-yeong: Do you want to talk to me? Why did you send a whisper?\] \[Person123: Korea is in an uproar because of you. I'm interested in your next moves too.\]
Showing hostility would be meaningless here right now.
Let's pretend to be interested in him. Maybe I can dig up some information.
\[So-yeong: Wait a minute\] \[So-yeong: But are you by any chance Korean?\] \[Person123: Well\] \[So-yeong: Wow, that's fascinating. You are really Korean? The First Nightmare Conqueror?\] \[Person123: What are you planning to do from now on? Are you just going to keep running away?\] \[So-yeong: Hmm\~ What should I do? Should I tell you?\] \[So-yeong: You aren't affiliated with the Government, are you? You aren't setting a trap to catch me or something?\] \[Person123: I'm an Unregistered Climber like you\] \[Person123: I'm also in a position where I'm hiding that I'm a Climber, so why would I do that?\] \[So-yeong: But why are you hiding that you're a Nightmare Challenger? It's a huge deal, isn't it?\]
I thought for a moment before replying.
\[Person123: The country could use it against me\] \[Person123: I also agree with what you said, that Climbers should rule the world\] \[So-yeong: Really? You're on that side too?\] \[So-yeong: Hahaha, this is really nice to hear\] \[So-yeong: Right? I knew you would understand. There's no reason for us to live quietly when we have this kind of power\] \[Person123: Yeah. That's why I'm interested in you. Because you're proudly doing what no one else could\] \[Person123: So what are you going to do now? Don't you have more plans?\] \[So-yeong: Of course I do! The problem is I have too many\] \[So-yeong: How should I have fun next? Should I go on a proper rampage in a crowded place?\] \[So-yeong: Or maybe I should take over a building and start a hostage situation\~ I've always wanted to try that at least once\]
...Crazy bastard.
What the hell should I do with this guy?
\[So-yeong: Oh right, should we meet up and talk in person? How about it?\] \[So-yeong: I'm so curious about what kind of person the First Nightmare Conqueror is\] \[So-yeong: I'm really interested in you too. I read all the posts you uploaded. They were no joke. How exactly did you clear it?\]
Seo Dong-woo suddenly made an absurd proposal.
A guy who broke out of prison and is on the run is requesting a meet-up?
His head definitely wasn't right.
\[Person123: Shall we meet up then?\]
But I had no reason to refuse.
As I stared at the communication window with sunken eyes, Seo Dong-woo gave a location.
The location was an abandoned school in Incheon.
\[So-yeong: I can trust that we're already friends, right? You can't come swarming in with a bunch of other people, okay?\]
“Don't worry.”
This is because I'll be going alone.
I searched for the location of the abandoned school on my phone's map.
\[Person123: But what's your level? It seems pretty high\] \[So-yeong: Are you curious?\] \[Person123: If your level is too high, it'll be a bit much for me to meet you\] \[So-yeong: Is that so? I'll just tell you that I'm in the Level 20s. The exact number is a secret\~\]
I closed the communication window and immediately left the house.
I knew I wasn't being rational.
What was I going to do there? Fight him? What if he was stronger than I thought?
He was badly hurt, but my father is still alive.
I could just think of it as being bitten by a crazy beast and let it go.
I was about to do something with difficult repercussions, swayed by the emotions of the moment.
...Fuck, but I still can't do that.
Not unless I completely shatter every bone in that bastard's body, at least.
Right, and it's not just for personal reasons.
If I left a guy who might never get caught, alone, there was no telling what kind of rampage he would go on next. More people could die and get hurt.
Even just to prevent further damage, that bastard Seo Dong-woo couldn't be left alone.
I called a dawn taxi and headed to the meeting place.
---
Kang Juhyeok received the call and was urgently heading to the Seoul Metropolitan Area.
After three days of no progress in the search, Seo Dong-woo suddenly appeared in Seoul.
“How could they lose his location this badly...”
He muttered nervously, waiting for the light to change.
The police seemed to be tracking his route, but Kang Juhyeok was completely anxious. Unless the SWAT team surrounded him all at once and opened fire, wouldn't he be hard to catch?
The team members of the Climber Surveillance Department were all hurrying as well, but Shin Sujin was probably the only one in the Ascension Monitoring Department capable of facing Seo Dong-woo.
“And why isn't the Team Leader answering? This is driving me crazy.”
But Shin Sujin herself couldn't be reached, not by phone, nor through the communication window.
It was a situation where they had to move as quickly as possible before they lost him again. She couldn't be reached because she was sleeping at dawn.
As soon as the light changed, Kang Juhyeok stepped on the accelerator at top speed.
---
\[So-yeong: Puhaha! You're that daughter from back then? Really? This is a completely fateful coincidence, man\] \[So-yeong: Are you curious where I am? Should I tell you? Or not?\] \[So-yeong: Alright, alright. If you want to see me that badly, come find me.\] \[So-yeong: But it's a secret from other people, got it? If you don't come alone, I'm bouncing\~\]
The time arrived when dawn was slowly breaking in the sky.
Shin Sujin ignored all the calls from people looking for her and arrived at the destination alone.
At an abandoned school in Incheon, she climbed over the wall and went inside.
She crossed the field and entered the old gymnasium building, finding a man lying with his legs crossed in the middle of the auditorium.
“Oh, you're here?”
Seo Dong-woo stretched and sat up.
Shin Sujin's eyes, staring intently at him, were filled with murderous intent.
“What's with that name?”
Shin Sujin asked abruptly.
Seo Dong-woo tilted his head slyly.
“Huh? What did you say?” “Your communication window nickname... what is it?”
Seo Dong-woo burst into a snicker.
“Ah\~ So-yeong? This?” “...” “Aren't you glad to see it? It's your mom's name.”
Blood seeped from Shin Sujin's tightly clenched fists.
Ten years ago, she was a middle school student.
A robber broke into their house. That monster first killed her father as he resisted right in front of the mother and daughter, and then tried to kill her mom next.
While her mom begged for her life, Shin Sujin was frozen and couldn't do anything.
And the monster eventually killed her mom too.
Even as her mom was stabbed and dying, she couldn't make a single sound.
“You remember that time, right? Your mom didn't make a single sound because I said I'd kill you first if she made even a little noise. It was amazing\~ Thanks to that, you lived back then, right? Pain isn't something you can just control with human willpower, you know.”
Seo Dong-woo wiped the corners of his eyes with his hand as if he was touched.
“That maternal love could even move the heart of a guy like me. So I decided to remember that woman for the rest of my life. Because I didn't have a mom like that.” “Shut your mouth, you son of a bitch...!”
Shin Sujin's voice trembled with rage.
Afterwards, Seo Dong-woo was caught by the police and received life imprisonment.
To Shin Sujin, who had lost her entire family overnight, that was no comfort.
Even when she lived as if she had forgotten, it was hard to suppress the sudden surges of intense emotion. She had nightmares of that day at least once a week.
Then one day, she became a Climber. Disgusted by weakness, she climbed the tower.
She was climbing the tower, working, climbing, just living as the days flowed by.
When she heard the news that Seo Dong-woo had broken out of prison, what she felt probably wasn't just anger.
“...Thank you, Seo Dong-woo, for breaking out of prison like this.”
Shin Sujin took a deep breath.
“Thanks to you, I can finally kill you with my own hands.”
Seo Dong-woo giggled.
“Ooh, so scary. You're overflowing with confidence, huh? Did you bring your comrades or something? I didn't check because I figured you'd come alone just fine.” “I'm more than enough alone for a bug like you.”
With those words, Shin Sujin leaped. The wooden floor cracked.
Avoiding the swinging fist, Seo Dong-woo also lightly jumped back and retreated.
Sticking close to Seo Dong-woo, Shin Sujin continued her assault. Seo Dong-woo continuously retreated, dodging or blocking.
Shin Sujin assessed her opponent.
“His Physical Ability is similar.”
In that case, he was probably Level 20 as well, since Hard Difficulty was divided into units of 4 levels.
Being pushed back, Seo Dong-woo threw a punch to counterattack.
Shin Sujin dodged the punch, grabbed his arm then and there, and slammed him down.
“Uwaah!”
Seo Dong-woo's body flew and slammed into the gymnasium wall.
Shin Sujin's fist was dyed in a blue light.
Shin Sujin dashed forward and threw a punch to finish him off right then, but Seo Dong-woo twisted his body and dodged by a hair's breadth.
BOOM!
With a massive vibration, dust rained down from the gymnasium ceiling.
Retreating with quick steps, Seo Dong-woo spoke with a surprised look.
“That's that, right? The Aura Skill. You've got something good, huh?”
Aura. It was a Physical Skill considered a tier 1 rare grade.
Shin Sujin didn't answer and rushed at Seo Dong-woo again. Her offensive raged even more fiercely.
Because of the Aura wrapping her fists, Seo Dong-woo couldn't even block anymore and only narrowly dodged her attacks.
Shin Sujin was continuously keeping Seo Dong-woo's Skill usage in check. At around Level 20, it was likely he had at least one rare-grade Skill too.
However, even though he was pushed into a pinch, there was still no sign of his using one.
Maybe it was a magic type or a passive. Then she just had to kill him like this.
“W-Wait a minute! Spare me!”
As if he had reached his limit in dodging, Seo Dong-woo cried out urgently.
Shin Sujin ignored him and pushed him even harder.
“Spare me! I was wrong! I'll really reflect on it!”
Just one hit and it would be over. She could soon blow his head off...?
The moment Shin Sujin realized there was laughter mixed in Seo Dong-woo's voice, she checked his expression.
He was giggling and smiling. The urgency from just a moment ago was nowhere to be found.
“Spare me\~. I said I was wrong\~. Aing\~.”
In an instant, Seo Dong-woo's body moved at a much faster speed than before.
“...!”
Unable to react, Shin Sujin was struck in the side and sent flying through the air.
Seo Dong-woo walked over to where she had collapsed on the floor.
“You were excited, weren't you? It was a real shame\~ You could have won if you had just done a little more.”
Shin Sujin urgently pushed herself up and backed away.
“You...!”
Only then did she realize that the bastard was a much higher level than Level 20.
She had just been toyed with from the very beginning.
“I cleared up to the Hard 7th Floor, you see, meaning I'm Level 28. Let's see, are you somewhere in your early 20s?”
Grinding her molars, Shin Sujin rushed at him again.
With movements distinctly different from before, Seo Dong-woo easily dodged her attack and kicked Shin Sujin again.
Even though she blocked it with her arms, her body bounced away like a rubber ball.
“With only this much, what kind of confidence made you come alone? It's ridiculous, really.” “Keugh, hah...” “Thank you, Seo Dong-woo\~ I can finally kill you with my own hands\~ Pfft! What a famous line. I thought we were shooting a movie.”
Seo Dong-woo snickered.
“Actually, another precious guest is supposed to come besides you. I'll play with you a bit until then.”
Shin Sujin staggered to her feet.
As soon as she stood up, a fist slammed into her stomach. An agonizing pain like her internal organs rupturing washed over her.
Seo Dong-woo grabbed her by the neck and lifted her in mid-air.
“Keuheuk...” “Don't you have anything else? If you have another Skill, hurry up and bring it out\~ You can't go see your mom's face like this, can you?”
Shin Sujin glared at him murderously with bloodshot eyes.
“God... damn it...”
Even though she had gotten so much stronger than back then, she was this helpless again.
She felt like she would go crazy from the frustration. She wanted to tear the monster in front of her to death right now, but she didn't have the strength to do so.
Her consciousness was gradually fading from the grip tightening around her neck.
“Seo Dong-woo.”
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice cut in.
At the gymnasium entrance, before anyone knew it, a man wearing a hood was standing there.
Seo Dong-woo looked at him, his face lighting up, and casually tossed Shin Sujin aside.
“Oh, you're here! Person123!”
Person123...?
Shin Sujin also coughed and stared at the newly appeared man.
The man looked back and forth between Seo Dong-woo and the collapsed Shin Sujin before asking.
“Who is that person?” “Ah, this\~? It's nothing much. Just a Climber who came to kill me, so I was playing with her a bit while waiting for you.”
Seo Dong-woo waved his hand dismissively.
“Nothing to worry about. Let's just have a fun chat now. First, let me get rid of this bitch...”
The man cut him off.
“Chat my ass.” “Huh?” “I came here to kill you too, though?”
Taking his hands out of his pockets, the man strode forward.