Unprepared changes had always been a negative, unsettling force for Cha Eui-sung. Not once in his life had anything that arrived without warning turned out to be good. Sure, Reawakening and Regression were more like lucky breaks, but even those came hand-in-hand with death. If that wasn’t the definition of a twisted, sick cosmic joke, what was?
So it was only natural that Cha Eui-sung found himself irritated and uneasy every time he lost control and got swept up in unfamiliar emotions in this third life.
I need to stay on edge…
Goddamn it. Why did his brain turn into a flower field every time he stood next to the one person he should be the most cautious around?
It all started the moment he admitted—however small the margin—that he liked the guy. Whether it was by a nail’s width or a full palm didn’t matter. The instant he accepted that absurd emotion, something had gone horribly off track.
It was like not realizing you were hurt until you saw the wound—and the pain suddenly surged in like a tide.
The moment he acknowledged even part of the feeling he’d been gritting his teeth to ignore, that tangled mess of suppressed, problematic thoughts unraveled and came loose.
Sure, the gauge is damn satisfying, but still.
He couldn’t go on like this. Letting every single thought get dragged toward Moon Tae-young was painfully inefficient. He’d already wasted a long night ruminating over Moon Tae-young instead of focusing on Oh Se-dan.
Even as he left the house at dawn and made his way to Kim Jeong-baek, he couldn’t stop thinking about how Moon Tae-young had held him the night before.
Sigh.
Just like that, a ticklish breath escaped and his whole body relaxed. God, what a useless idiot he was.
And then, without warning, the memory shown by the Faded Photograph Fragment flashed through his mind again. That moment in the past, seen only in shadow—Moon Tae-young boiling corn. What the hell had he been showing his ex-lover with that raised arm?
And once that thought took root, he couldn’t stop wondering about the Outer God and the Demon King either. According to the System, interfering with another world devoured energy at an absurd rate.
So what if the avatar the Outer God created refused to accept destruction? Would the Outer God really go, “Oh okay, nvm lol” and quietly retreat? Would the Demon King survive?
Damn it. The thoughts just wouldn’t stop. Before, thinking about Moon Tae-young used to help him clear his mind—but now it only filled him with anxiety. He started to consider Moon Tae-young’s life.
The Demon King could end up however. This so-called Hero only needed to fill the Savior Gauge and that was it. So why the hell was he thinking about crap like this?
Ding-dong—
The door flew open the instant he pressed the bell.
It wasn’t the usual brusque expression that greeted him. Kim Jeong-baek’s face was layered with visible anxiety.
His hair stuck out in weird angles like he’d been tossing and turning all night, and the failed attempt to wet and smooth it down had left an obvious mark on the left side of his head.
That was odd. Normally, if someone didn’t call right away, Kim Jeong-baek would just assume it wasn’t that important and shrug it off.
Had he picked up on something strange?
“What’s going on? You usually just brush me off when I tell you to be careful.”
“What do you mean, brush off? I honestly agreed with you. Besides, back then, I didn’t really know you all that well, did I?”
Kim Jeong-baek replied in a grumpy tone. Which basically meant, back then I didn’t know what kind of punk you were, but now that I’ve seen how sharp you move, turns out you’re pretty damn capable.
That annoying brat who used to make bizarre requests had somehow turned into a prodigy in his eyes—one who could see through the future, make grenades out of pinecones, and run across water.
So the moment he saw the name Oh Se-dan, Kim Jeong-baek must have remembered.
The persistent warnings—no, borderline harassment—that his insightful little boss had drilled into him.
“If you ever see the name Oh Se-dan anywhere, just drop the gold, the diamonds, everything—and run like hell.”
“You’ve already said that like a million times—”
“I’ll say it a million more if that’s what it takes to drill it into your skull. If you even hear someone mumble a syllable of that name in your sleep—Hunter Association, whatever—just get up and hurl yourself out the window.”
“…Hmm.”
Cha Eui-sung blinked quietly.
Now that he thought about it… yeah. That’s right. At the start of his regression, he’d emphasized it so hard his ears had practically bled.
Avoid the Association. But above all else—watch out for Oh Se-dan.
Because Oh Se-dan was that kind of person. The kind of threat that could sniff him out even in this rural hideaway. A serious enough danger that he’d always kept tabs on her every move before taking action.
Every bit of caution he’d taken back then hadn’t been an overreaction. Not by a long shot.
Yeah… this is the more appropriate reaction, isn’t it?
As he recalled his outrageous behavior the night before, Cha Eui-sung finally scrunched his brows. Shit. Yeah, there’s a definite problem here.
Normally, Demon King or not, he’d have been drowning in a sense of crisis for at least half a day.
But I just… liked it. Fucking hell.
Instead of panicking about the situation, he’d ended up entangled with Moon Tae-young on the sofa, enjoying himself without a care.
Of course, panicking wouldn’t have produced any answers in the heat of the moment anyway. He couldn’t exactly have kicked Moon Tae-young out that same night just to rush off to Kim Jeong-baek and stir up suspicion for no reason.
Considering it was a snap decision made in a flood of emotion, it had actually been a fairly reasonable choice. Still, Eui-sung couldn’t shake his discomfort.
“I mean, like I said—I didn’t do anything reckless. Just remembered how obsessively you warned me, and figured I’d report it.”
Seeing Eui-sung’s unsettled expression, Kim Jeong-baek jumped in with a defense no one had asked for.
Which yanked his attention right back from wandering thoughts and returned it squarely to the issue of Oh Se-dan.
“I’m not here to interrogate you. I just wanted to confirm the situation.”
“I was working like usual, found a lead in a document I was scanning, and the moment I saw that name, I stopped and contacted you. That’s all.”
“Are you usually able to access that kind of intel so easily? You used to complain like you were dying anytime I asked. And if it was Oh Se-dan’s personal records, shouldn’t it have been even harder?”
“Well… that’s what struck me as odd too, actually. The more I think about it, the weirder it gets.”
Kim Jeong-baek winced as he answered, right as Eui-sung touched on the part he’d been most curious about.
He hesitated for a moment, clearly mulling something over, then sighed in resignation before continuing.
“Look… I’m only telling you this because it’s you. You already know my investigative methods are a little different from others. I use a Skill…”
“I know.”
“I can’t explain in detail, but if the info I’m after isn’t caught in a full scan, I cross over at specific points of connection. Think of it like hopping along related keywords. Like surfing linked search terms.”
“And?”
“It sounds simple, but the process isn’t easy. There are tons of restrictions. The tighter the security, the harder it gets. And if there are no connections—if it’s private info—then it’s nearly impossible. Like I said before, I can maybe dig up someone’s profile or history, but I’ll never be able to get their personal diary or anything like that.”
“But the info you sent me wasn’t a diary. Even if it’s considered personal records.”
“Still tough to reach. It was even more obscure than recent S-rank status reports. By all logic, I shouldn’t have been able to find that data without first locating some current activity or status…”
He kept laying down groundwork. Why was he suddenly talking about his Skill—something he normally zipped his lips about? What was he building up to?
“But the second I plugged in a certain keyword, I got a hit. Just like that. Way too easily.”
“What keyword?”
“…You.”
“…Me.”
Well, that explained a lot.
At the unexpected answer, Cha Eui-sung’s eyes narrowed. Why the hell would he need to use him to track an S-rank status?
Kim Jeong-baek wasn’t stupid. He’d probably figured out long ago that Eui-sung was an Unregistered Awakened—but knowing he was an S-rank? That was a different level.
As Kim had said before, the only data he could obtain through investigation was information that had been documented somewhere in the world.
And the fact that Cha Eui-sung was an S-rank in this third life? Only he and Moon Tae-young knew… No, wait—now Go Yeong-won silently knew too. That was it.
“H-Hey, don’t make that face… I didn’t mean anything shady by it! When nothing works, I just plug in random names to try a spin. I know they’re not connected so nothing ever comes up anyway… it’s not like a background check, seriously!”
“Out of all people, why me?”
“I mean, I even throw in my useless little brother sometimes… why not you, Boss?”
His expression said it was no big deal—and he didn’t look like he was lying. It was probably similar to when you’re working on a document and just start typing nonsense like “idk whatever blahblah” because nothing’s clicking.
It left a bad taste in his mouth, but rather than dig into that now, it made more sense to hear the rest of what he had to say.
Cha Eui-sung let out a long sigh, pressing a hand to his forehead as he opened his mouth again.
“Haah… so what you’re saying is, the data you found was directly linked to me.”
“Exactly.”
“Where did the connection start, specifically?”
“Oh, ‘start’—I like that phrasing. You really get the nuance, huh?”
“Just the facts. Get to the point.”
“Well… the very first thing I hit wasn’t S-rank data. It was actually some random reporters’ personal info, and a member of the National Assembly, of all things. Pretty sure that last one came from one of Oh Se-dan’s records.”
“…An Assemblyman?”
“A woman named Jeong Mi-hyeon. Looked her up—nothing particularly special. She’s got an election coming up, likely to win her third term.”
“…”
“People seem split on her, but most agree that she gets results when she sets her mind to something… Boss?”
