CH 24

In fact, anxiety had already gone beyond its limit and turned into fear. The fear of not being able to get out of this staircase forever swallows me.

It was a time when I couldn’t even spit out swear words in such a feeling that my reason was paralyzed. The end of the stairs finally appeared where the darkest darkness fell in the distance. Black floors began to be seen, not round walls. 

I sped up a little more, hoping for a different landscape. Then, without overcoming the forward inertia and even after all the stairs were completed, my feet lost energy and fell down.

“Argh, I’m going to die!” 

It was not enough to fall over, so when I rolled over and stretched out on the floor, I felt like I was swallowed in the mouth of a dark space. I lay on the floor and looked up, but saw nothing but darkness.

Rather, there was hope that I was going well when I saw Han Chorok reflected on the wall, but this space made me think of such a thing.

“Where am I?”

I woke up slowly on the floor with a loud sound as if I were bluffing on purpose. I’m looking around in an indistinguishable space, and a blurry light flashes far away.

“…Ha. It feels more uncomfortable in this side.” 

I sighed for a long time as I looked at the blinking light with my narrow eyes. Being uncomfortable didn’t mean there was another option. Eventually, I moved and headed in the direction of light.

The pace I was walking slowly gained little by little and was running from a certain moment. This is because no matter how close the light that I thought was near me became, I never thought about getting any closer.

“Fuck, what nightmare! I’ll kill you if we meet again!”

Out of frustration, I screamed and ran.

After running for a long time with my head down, I slightly raised my eyes and began to see a figure far away. And at the same time, a voice that seemed to resonate in a huge space was heard.

<That’s why I said I don’t want to have children!>

<Are you saying that in front of a child? Did I give birth to that child alone?>

The voice of a man screaming that he didn’t want to have children and a woman who is angry about having a baby alone. It stays still in front of me. 

Han Chorok, who was watching that, was looking like he was just five years old.

<Don’t you think you’re too harsh to debate that in front of a child when you can’t even see him?!>

<Why are you only doing this to me? Parenting is something that couples do together!>

<Ah, so that’s why you came in at that time yesterday? You ignored all the calls and drank a lot?>

<This is not what a person who has never given a meal to a child would say.>

It was ridiculous. I burst into laughter when I saw the two people who were busy blaming each other while not willing to take responsibility for the child. 

As they looked at each other with their arms folded, the two eventually ran towards each other and even started a fight. I didn’t know how to fix my frowned face in a fight where it wasn’t clear if they were both hunters or not.

After a while, the image that had been shining as an illusion faded, and the scene changed. Han Chorok’s height also suddenly increased, and he was transformed into a teenager.

I don’t know exactly how old he was, but although he was tall, he looked small and dwarf. There, looking at the withered shoulders as if frightened, I unknowingly took a step forward. 

<Chorok, you must not lose faith. Our Chorok is a good boy, so you will we listen to the leader, right?>

This time, a handsome middle-aged man appeared and stroked the young Chorok’s hair. His gaze gently scanned the young body that had not yet grown. This is a scene I’ve seen in a game too.

Han Chorok was left in an orphanage run by a pseudo-religious cult after his parents abandoned him.

<Dedicate your heart to God. That’s how you can go to paradise.>

Crazy bastard. Would it be paradise to go to with your heart?

However, the man took Han Chorok’s hand and led him with a disgusting smile. Suddenly, a shape that looked like an operating table appeared in front of him. Chorok’s head was stroked once more by the man who placed him there.

<It’s okay. It’ll be over soon. Let’s meet again in paradise.>

It was also on the news a while ago. It was news that a strange religious group was targeting the hearts of hunters and committing murder. A few ignorant people believed the myth that the power of a Hunter resides in the heart and tried to save the heart in order to become a Hunter. 

And Han Chorok’s orphanage was a strange pseudo-religious organization that supported such nonsense. If there was a child who appeared as a hunter among the children who had been with him, he would take out his heart and worship it as a sacrifice.

In the game, Lee Jehee, who appeared just in time, saves Han Chorok. At that time, it was near the start of the game, and I used to look for Han Chorok first when the game started to recruit Han Chorok as a colleague. After that, he left Chorok in another facility, leaving a message to visit after he grew up.

I’ve raised him a few times because I felt sorry for the story, but in most plays, I followed the strategy book that it’s more beneficial to break the main story with another character. 

I shouldn’t have done that—.

Now, I regret the past when I played along with the strategy book. 

For Han Chorok, Lee Jehee had no choice but to be a God. A living God who can’t be compared to a fake God, like a heart sacrifice. To a child, parents are like gods, and to young Han Chorok, that existence was Lee Jehee.

So, even though he doesn’t have his biological parents, he should have been able to grow up by being properly loved by Lee Jehee’s side—

While I regretted abandoning him according to the strategy book, a middle-aged man picked up a knife. In this nightmare, Lee Jehee didn’t appear to help the young Han Chorok.

And after a while, the shape faded and the landscape changed.

This time, it was Han Chorok who became an adult. The Han Chorok I knew, and in front of it, was Lee Jehee. As usual, Lee Jehee is smiling as if annoyed with a bored face.

<Let’s stop it.> 

<Go your way, Chorok.>

<I’m tired now. It’s annoying. So don’t look for me anymore.>

Lee Jehee, who simply finished what he had to say, turned his back. Even though the back that left without regret was getting smaller, Han Chorok was only looking at the back without doing anything.

Even though he grew taller and his shoulders were broad, he still looked weak and helpless. Perhaps that’s why I felt sorry for the tears on his cheeks. 

It was not what happened in the past as in the previous video. It is the future that has established itself as the greatest fear in Han Chorok’s mind.

The fear of being abandoned by Lee Jehee.

The figure of Han Chorok, who stood still and watched Lee Jehee moving away while crying silently, became younger again. At the same time, the vision in front of me changes and shows the couple fighting.

The nightmare that repeats endlessly. It was eating some human spirit by constantly showing dreams of breaking the hope of a happy family and losing a life-like savior.

This was the effect of the skill ‘Ruler of Nightmares’. To make you despair by falling into a deep nightmare that you can’t escape by yourself. Skills that make it impossible to wake up forever. 

“That damn skill.” 

While looking at the appearance, I slowly took a step and touched Han Chorok’s shoulder. I felt his shoulders flinching and trembling under my palms. I took my hands off him and covered his ears with both hands.

“Hey, if you don’t want to listen, don’t listen. Why are you listening to such a trashy conversation? If you’re going to do that, at least curse.”

The young Han Chorok said nothing. However, because my voice was not heard, his shoulders, which had lifted due to his tension, gradually lowered. I fully covered his eyes as soon as the couple began arguing. 

“Don’t listen, don’t look, turn your head, don’t stand and get hurt.”

(….)

The vision in front of me continued to fight. Then, after a while, Han Chorok’s height suddenly grew taller. In front of him was a middle-aged man approaching with a sly smile.

“Nice to meet you, you punk!”

I hit him right away since he didn’t want to look at me. I was worried that there would be no sense of hitting because it was in someone else’s dream, but he fell in a ridiculous shape and looked up perplexed. 

It’s really a dream. A literal dream containing his hope that the young Chorok would be like this.

“Hey, what are you doing? You come and lose too! Get revenge in your dreams! That’s should be what you dream about!”

He call Han Chorok with one foot on the guy who had fallen on the floor. However, he pulled his arm and led him to the front of the man, seeing the stuffy figure still standing motionless.

As he looks down at the man sitting still with an expressionless face, Han Chorok lowers his gaze with the hand that stroked his head. After that.

(Ack! Han Chorok! What is this! God is angry if you do this to me!)

Chorok’s foot stepped on the hand of a man on the floor. Chorok’s shoulder flinched when the man, who was screaming painfully, stared with his red-blooded face. I quickly slapped the back of his head.

“Why are you making so much noise in a dream? Damn it, shut up, you bastard!”

(….)

“Han Chorok, you punk! Don’t be scared of dreams! When you put a sword on me, you’re trying to look cool. But what is this!”

Despite my angry cry, Han Chorok remained silent until the end. He shifted his gaze for a moment, as if he was looking at me, and quickly lowered his gaze again, only giving strength to the foot that stepped on the man’s hand.

(Aaaaack!) 

The evil figure melted away into the darkness.