WHOFA 3

The fine hairs on his entire body stood on end, the back of his head throbbed, and his hands trembled.

A sense of foreignness and discomfort, as if seeing something that should not exist in the world.

An intense aversion and hatred that turned his vision crimson.

Murderous intent boiled up inside him.

He wanted to smash this bulletproof glass right now and strangle that man.

He wanted to burn down the entire interrogation room.

He wanted to make him disappear from this world. It felt like killing that man was the only way for the world to return to its natural order.

The people outside in the corridor had left because they could not bear this very murderous intent. Now he could understand.

And…

“…!”

Gam Yigeon felt a momentary dizziness and steadied himself against the wall.

His heart pounded, thump, thump, thump.

He was a hateful being whose neck he wanted to snap right this instant.

But he could not take his eyes off him.

It felt as if the moment he looked away, that being would disappear from the world.

The emotions Gam Yigeon was feeling toward that being right now were not just hatred, anger, and murderous intent.

A storm of indescribable emotions raged within him.

As he held his breath and suppressed his feelings, the hateful being on the other side tilted his head.

“Did someone come?”

It was a voice heavy with deep exhaustion.

“Mr. Gam Yigeon?”

Gam Yigeon first flinched at the sound of his own name flowing from that being’s lips, and only then did he realize.

He should not have been able to see him, yet he had read his presence from this side. Through the shielding walls of the fifth basement level of the Awakened Safety Department.

“Ah, you are here. Let me know when you have calmed down. For your information, I cannot give you much time. The end comes three years from now. To be precise, in 2 years, 364 days, and 23 hours. Even if we start moving intensely right now, time will be tight. I will give you exactly five minutes to calm down.”

For someone who had prophesied the end of the world, his attitude was light and playful.

Gam Yigeon tried his best to interpret this situation as rationally as possible.

Could a person hate someone this much?

Of course, he was no saint, and there were people he disliked. But he had never felt such a surge of intense aversion before.

Thinking rationally, this level of unrealistic hatred toward someone he was seeing for the first time was surely… the effect of a mind control skill or a mind manipulation item.

Gam Yigeon brought up his status window.

[Gam Yigeon

Grade: S
Spirit Power: 9910
Mind Power: 9400
Flame Power: 9600
Protective Power: 9190
Attribute: ……]

Spirit Power, the energy for using skills granted by the Spirit-Body System.
Mind Power and Flame Power, the energy for using natural abilities based on personal attributes.
Protective Power, which automatically activates in response to attacks directed at oneself.

Gam Yigeon’s maximum protection value was 9190, and right now, it was not activated at all.

This meant the owner of this mind control skill was Class S or higher… or, contrary to his expectations, no skills or items were being used at all.

First, he had to talk to him.

Even if facing him made his skin crawl. Even if he wanted to crush his face right in front of him. While suppressing the unknown emotions that boiled up along with his anger.

Rationally.

Rationally.

Gam Yigeon mustered every ounce of self-control he could.

By the time he had calmed down, those who had taken refuge in the hallway returned. They could not avoid it forever. They sat down with contorted faces and uncomfortable expressions.

After regaining his composure, Gam Yigeon pressed a button.

“Hunter Seo Hwa. This is Gam Yigeon.”

The young man smiled faintly with a tired face.

“Yes, Mr. Gam Yigeon. This is the first time I am seeing you in this timeline. Have you calmed down?”

“…I will ask first. You say the world is going to end.”

“In three years, the Earth will be completely finished.”

“Is it a dungeon.”

The climate crisis had already been overcome. Nuclear weapons could be defended against with the skills of the Awakened. The trajectory of an incoming asteroid could also be distorted with scientific technology.

If the world was to end despite all that, the only reason he could think of was the appearance of an overwhelming dungeon.

“You are quick on the uptake, as expected. In three years, on April 10th at 4 AM, a Grade 6 dungeon will appear, and if this dungeon is not cleared, the world will be destroyed.”

Grade 6. Everyone had expected it would appear someday. But in three years, not thirty, was too soon. There was also a point that was difficult to accept.

If they failed to clear a Grade 6 dungeon, the surrounding area would be engulfed in an explosion and monsters would pour out from inside. The grade of the escaped monsters would be one grade higher than the dungeon itself. The appearance of a Grade 7 monster would certainly be a huge problem. An entire continent might have to be abandoned. However, while that disaster might bring about the decline of humanity and civilization, it would not lead to the end of the world.

The young man continued speaking, as if he could see Gam Yigeon’s expression.

“I know what you are thinking. The important thing is that this dungeon includes a hidden mission.”

“A hidden mission?”

[Using skill <Mind Reading>.]

“The content of the hidden mission is to clear the dungeon. The success reward is a secret, and the failure penalty is the destruction of the world. It opens automatically in the middle of the dungeon raid, so the mission cannot be avoided. In the end, it means that if we fail to clear that dungeon, the world will be destroyed.”

[<Mind Reading> interprets the subject’s statement.
It is the truth.]

Gam Yigeon wrote ‘Truth’ on a piece of paper. Dammit, the director and the vice minister cursed. Gam Yigeon began the interrogation in earnest.

“Reveal your identity.”

“My name is Seo Hwa. I am twenty-six years old. Class S, magician attribute. I came from the future. We failed to clear the Grade 6 dungeon that appears in three years, and right before the destruction, I used my skill to return to the past, three years ago.”

“Are you saying you regressed.”

“Yes.”

“If that is true, your identity from this timeline should exist.”

“It is because the timeline of this place is rejecting me. Not the world I was in, but this world’s System, the great intangible power that protects this world… for convenience, I will call it the timeline. The timeline is ostracizing me, so it deleted my pre-existing existence, and now it is trying to annihilate my existence that returned from the future.”

“……”

“When you look at me now, you feel a strong sense of foreignness and discomfort, right? Anger, hatred, aversion, murderous intent. Things like that. You feel those emotions because every single particle that makes up Mr. Gam Yigeon is intensely rejecting me. For every person in the world, even animals and plants, to suddenly hate one being all at once, rationally thinking, Yigeon, it is a phenomenon that makes no sense. In this day and age, if you point to the System as the cause of an impossible phenomenon, you are usually right. You can think of it as a kind of skill side effect.”

[<Mind Reading> interprets the subject’s statement.
It is the truth.]

“What is your regression skill.”

“I reverse-expanded <Flight of Time>.”

“Please explain that skill.”

“It is a skill that stops time for as long as I want or moves me through space-time. Expanding it in the forward direction takes me to the future, and reverse-expanding it returns me to the past. I reverse-expanded it to come back here.”

The young man’s answers were smooth. He seemed skilled at explaining. As if he had practiced countless times. Or…

“How many regressions have you been through?”

People were surprised by Gam Yigeon’s question. The young man, on the other hand, smiled as if he had expected it.

“This is the fifth. For your information, I have never used the skill for personal reasons. The side effect of being ostracized by the timeline grows stronger with each regression. I have never used it carelessly, and from the very first regression to this fifth one, I have used it every single time to save the Earth from the Grade 6 dungeon.”

“That means…”

“That is right. It means the Earth has already been destroyed five times.”

[<Mind Reading> interprets the subject’s statement.
It is the truth.]

When Gam Yigeon wrote ‘Truth’ on the paper again, people let out sighs or groans.

“I know all the dungeons and events that will occur in the future. Using my abilities and experience, I will raise the Awakened and then clear the Grade 6 dungeon that will appear in three years. For that goal, I made contact with the government first.”

“And you expect us to believe that.”

“You have to believe it. What can you do? <Mind Reading> says it is the truth.”

There had not been a single Awakened who had deceived <Mind Reading> until now. Gam Yigeon was one of only five Class S Awakened in the world, and because he was decked out with items that enhanced his mental-type skill stats, even another Class S Awakened could not deceive this skill.

Everything that being was saying right now was the truth.

Now that the authenticity had been confirmed, the next step was to actively cooperate and create a three-year plan to save the world together.

However, his lips would not part. To join hands with this person felt like falling into a devil’s cunning and clever trap.

The minister and the chief clutched their heads and lowered them.

“Dammit… I cannot listen to his voice anymore.”

“My head is not working. It feels like it is filled with hatred instead of a brain…”

If what that being said was true, no, since it had been determined to be true, there were many things that needed to be asked and answered.

But the only thought in their minds was that they had to kill him.

They were fighting against a hatred so intense they could not even think to dig for more detailed information.

Gam Yigeon, too, thought he had to say something, but he just clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly.

“You know. I am curious.”

From beyond the glass, the young man asked with a pale face.

“Do I feel like a criminal who committed a terrible crime? Or do I feel like some kind of giant house centipede or a super-sized cockroach?”

“……”

“No, it is just that the reactions seem particularly intense in this timeline. A criminal and a cockroach are both horrible, but they are slightly different types, you know. Which of the two is it closer to?”