RG 39

I needed to do something before I went to prevent the rift incident. It might even be more important than the rift itself.

I knelt in front of Cha Sahyeon to make eye contact before leaving the office.

“Hey, kid.”

Cha Sahyeon, who always looked half-dazed when not talking to me, tilted his head at my call.

“Let’s make a promise.”

“A promise?”

“You don’t like waiting here alone, right? You want to come with me.”

“…”

“Then promise me this. And you have to keep this promise if you want to come along.”

Cha Sahyeon glanced at me nervously and asked reluctantly, “…What’s the promise?”

“Promise you won’t get mad if I need to have a skinship- I mean, hold hands with others, and that you’ll do as you’re told.”

Cha Sahyeon’s eyes turned icy cold in an instant. How can such a young kid give such a fierce glare?

I couldn’t afford to lose the upper hand here. I responded even more firmly, “If you don’t make the promise, you won’t come along. You’ll have to stay here and wait until I get back.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Then promise you won’t get mad.”

“I don’t want to do that either.”

“If you don’t like either, what do you want to do? You have to choose one.”

“…”

“Hurry. Do you want to stay here, or come along and be with me?” I deliberately pressed him to prevent him from thinking too deeply. Cha Sahyeon frowned and pouted his lips in displeasure.

Cha Sahyeon was visibly worried that I might actually leave him behind. After anxiously contemplating his response, he finally slumped his shoulders and spoke, “What if I get mad? I can’t control that.”

“You have to try to hold it back. Everyone else does.”

“It’s hard…”

“Life is hard.”

It might seem odd to talk about life like this, but Cha Sahyeon was no ordinary child. The less he could control his emotions, the quicker the great calamity would come, leading to the end of the world. So, more than anyone else, Cha Sahyeon needed to learn how to manage his emotions properly.

“Hey, kid.”

But… he wasn’t wrong either. Holding back anger and managing emotions wasn’t easy, even for adults. Even I would storm off when I got annoyed.

Cha Sahyeon’s sensitivity to my interactions with others stemmed from a deep-seated anxiety about being abandoned. Forcing him to suppress those feelings wouldn’t solve the problem.

“If you keep the promise well, I’ll buy you another present.”

“A present?”

“Yeah. This time, something you really want. We’ll go shopping together.”

The word ‘present’ brought a spark of life to Cha Sahyeon’s big eyes, his cheeks flushing a light pink. “Really?”

“Really. And except when I’m working, I’ll stay with you. I’ll even bring you snacks. How’s that?” I grinned as I asked, and Cha Sahyeon, now clearly blushing, nodded eagerly.

“I-I’ll go. I’ll keep the promise.”

Seeing his earnestness, I ruffled his hair. Having successfully persuaded Cha Sahyeon, I let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll hold you to that. Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

Straightening up, I took his small hand in mine. Still blushing, Cha Sahyeon looked up at me with eyes that seemed to sparkle. Meeting his gaze gave me a strange feeling. It was as if he thought I was the center of the universe, the only thing that mattered.

“….”

Had I ever received such unconditional affection in my life?

I felt a sudden nausea. Swallowing the feeling that rose to my throat, I turned my head away.

***

I rode in a car sent by Kwon Taehyeok and headed to Ui-dong in Gangbuk-gu, where a rift was expected to appear.

The car drove up near Mount Bukhan and stopped in front of an area cordoned off with caution tape. I got out of the car with the child and looked around.

This place, near the Ui-dong Valley, resembled a quiet rural village and was often used as a filming location for dramas in the 1980s. Now, perhaps due to the rift, large guards were blocking the entrance to the public, and only people who appeared to be from the Yesung Guild and the Management Bureau were milling about.

At that moment, a secretary who had been waiting nearby approached and greeted me politely, “Welcome, Guildmaster of One.”

I recognized him as Kwon Taehyeok’s secretary, whom I had seen several times before. It seemed he had come to meet me at the expected time of my arrival.

“Please follow me.”

Following the secretary past the guards blocking the path, I saw even more Hunters than I could see from the outside.

Apart from the Management Bureau officials, they were likely all members of the Yesung Guild. They must have been called here with a firm resolve to ensure no damage would come to the nearby residences.

As we passed the Hunters and went deeper inside, a familiar figure appeared. Unlike the last time, when Kwon Taehyeok was dressed in a neat suit, he now wore a white shirt with a black leather chest harness.

“You need to leave in ten minutes.”

“We still have three hours left. What’s the rush?”

“It’s dangerous.”

Kwon Taehyeok was in conversation with someone. Only after getting closer did I see who it was, as the secretary had obscured the person.

“Don’t worry. I value my own life, too.”

A soft, gentle voice, contrasting with Kwon Taehyeok’s stiff tone, passed by my ear. At the same time, I noticed a head of brightly shining white hair.

The face under the white hair, which partially covered the forehead, was strikingly beautiful. The flawless, pale skin and large, defined features on a small face gave him a doll-like appearance, but his tall height and the robust physique visible under his clothes unmistakably identified him as a man.

When I paused, feeling a sense of familiarity with this person I was meeting for the first time…

Ding!

User Information: Eun Woojeong (Main Character)

Age: 30

Primary Skill: Chain Summoning and Manipulation (Class S)

Title: The Spider King

Attack Power: Class S

Attack Speed: Class S

Movement Speed: Class S

Agility: Class S

Special Note▼

ㄴ The main character who will prevent the calamity

‘…What?

Wait a second, I’ve seen this status before. The other party with the title ‘The Spider King’ was definitely…

[I’ve told you, right? We’re an information group. Naturally, we’re curious about your identity.]

He was the leader of the information organization ‘Spider’s Web.’ And now, the same status is displayed on the man standing before me.

While I stood there, shocked by the content of the status window that appeared, Kwon Taehyeok, noticing my arrival, turned around.

“Hunter Cha Seohu.”

“…”

“Hunter Cha Seohu?”

“Oh, yes.” Barely regaining my composure at Kwon Taehyeok’s repeated call, I awkwardly smiled and approached the two men. “It seemed like you were in the middle of a conversation with an acquaintance.”

“It’s alright, come this way.”

Kwon Taehyeok, having dismissed the secretary who had guided me here, introduced me to the other man with a hint of resignation, “This is Hunter Cha Seohu, the guildmaster of One Guild. Hunter Cha Seohu, this is… Actor Eun Woojeong.”

At Kwon Taehyeok’s hesitant introduction, the man, Eun Woojeong, smiled warmly at me, “Nice to meet you. Should I call you Guildmaster?” Eun Woojeong extended his hand, as refined and elegant as his face. 

Suppressing my confused feelings, I shook his hand. “…Just calling me Hunter Cha Seohu is fine.”

“Alright, Hunter Cha Seohu.”

Following the slight upward curve of Eun Woojeong’s lips, I forced a casual smile as well.

‘Last time, the name and age didn’t appear. Is it because I’m seeing his real face, not through a mask, that this hidden information is revealed?’

I knew Eun Woojeong quite well. He had quickly risen to fame over the past few years and was especially popular. His face appeared in commercials whenever you turned on the TV, and on billboards when you walked down the street, making it impossible not to know him.

For someone like him to be the leader of Spider’s Web… Although, looking at both of them, they did share the same white hair and similar physiques. However, the idea that the two might be the same person never crossed my mind… Eun Woojeong, being a celebrity, frequently changed his hair color through dyeing. Just recently, in the refrigerator commercial that’s been airing, he had brown hair.

But more important than the hair color was this:

‘Why… can’t I feel any power from him?’

The leader of Spider’s Web I met back then was definitely an S-class Hunter. I confirmed it myself during our fight, sensing the skills and power he wielded. The status window also listed skill names and described him as S-class.

Yet the Eun Woojeong standing before me now… was just an ordinary person. Not someone with a low rank or a Support like me, but an entirely non-Awakened individual. And as far as I knew, Eun Woojeong the actor was indeed a regular person.

Through our touching palms, I felt his cool body temperature. As we shook hands, I looked into Eun Woojeong’s eyes up close.

Despite not being interested in celebrities, the main reason I remembered Eun Woojeong was his distinctive eyes. His eyes were so beautiful that the term “jewel-like” naturally came to mind. They were two different colors.

They were a mix of bright gold, reminiscent of midday sunlight, and sky blue. Such eyes were rare even in this era of various hair and eye colors caused by awakening. Moreover, he had a prominent teardrop mole. Altogether, his appearance was captivating in many ways.