KEG 15

“How did you know that Gil Sangwook was the culprit?”

“I found out when I revived his corpse.”

“Why did you revive Gil Sangwook’s corpse?”

“Uh, uh, since it was his first second awakening, he used his abilities without knowing his limits… and died from going bersek… I-I found out about this later! At first, rather than me moving the body myself… I thought it would be easier to have him walk out of the gate on his own… so I revived him temporarily…”

Despite my warning, Park Suheon was dragging on. This needed to be cut short.

“You are talking way too much.”

“I-I am sorry!”

Park Suheon immediately apologized and stopped speaking. I synthesized the answers given unauthorized copyso far and drew a conclusion.

Park Suheon discovered the dead Gil Sangwook. And because he didn’t want to move the body, he revived him using necromancy, only to discover the whole truth. That was the story.

“Fuu…”

I exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke.

Tired of standing there, I perched on a protruding curbstone on the ground and gestured with my chin for Hunter Park Suheon to sit down as well.

However, contrary to my expectations, he respectfully knelt before me. I was about to get annoyed by his attitude, but I couldn’t let my temper get the better of me.

“It seems that if you revive a corpse, you can also see its memories.”

“Yes. That is correct.”

“It doesn’t look like Gil Sangwook-ssi know he had went through a second awakening. Read onWas that your doing, Hunter Park Suheon?”

“Yes… I felt that if I revived him normally, he would kill me too, so I only restored his memories from before his second awakening.”

So, it was not just about reviving him, but even memory manipulation was possible? I realized his ability was more dangerous than I had thought.

But it was none of my business.

After all, my only goal was to find the culprit.

“Do you intend to turn yourself in?”

At my question, Hunter Park Suheon hesitated for a moment, took a deep drag on his cigarette until his cheeks hollowed out, and said he wanted to meet his Pair one last time.

“You will likely be punished for desecrating a corpse, but you won’t spend much time in jail. The situation is unique and your motive is clear, so if you hire a good lawyer, you might be able to receive leniency for emergency escape, even if it isn’t self-defense. You are an Esper, a national asset, and since the world has been turned upside down, the law will likely be applied differently.”

I said this because I was worried he might do something stolen content reckless if he became too intimidated. However, at my remark, Park Suheon wore an even more complicated expression.

“…You know the law well? Were you a police officer…?”

“I was a gangster.”

“What?!”

“Gangster bastards always know the laws that are disadvantageous to them inside and out.”

It is criminals who are indicted, arrested, physically experience the investigation process, and stand in court more often than the police.

After witnessing so many instances of people risking their lives over a single phrase in an indictment, racking their brains with lawyers in back rooms to cut their sentences on the line, I was able to feign some knowledge.

“But you should have just pulled Gil Sangwook out of the gate; why did you keep him alive?”

“It was my first time using necromancy, visit our sitetoo… I didn’t know he would be wandering around for this long.”

Park Suheon replied that he hadn’t used it before because he felt uneasy about it. Upon realizing it, I came to the understanding that Espers, including Hunter Kim Haeseon, did not properly understand their own abilities and were not fully aware of their limits.

An unknown power capable of developing without limits is like a car full of fuel; it can go anywhere, but if the direction is unknown, it cannot move forward.

“Withdraw your necromancy skill. Unless you want to die.”

“I don’t know how to do it…”

Then I guess I have no choice but to do it myself.

As I raised my hand to scratch the back of my head, wondering if it was possible to kill a dead person again, I saw Hunter Park Suheon flinch.

“I won’t hit you. I just gesture a lot. Don’t be scared.”

“Ah, no, it’s just the atmosphere…”

Since he was acting like a sinner even though he hadn’t done anything wrong to me, I took a pack of cigarettes from my pocket and placed it on his lap.

“When we get out, make sure you turn yourself in. You should stay with your Pair for a long time.”

***

“Seongho, where have you been? You’re just coming back now?”

Gil Sangwook was gathering up the drones, completely unaware that he had died once.

After realizing the truth, I noticed his cornea behind his sunglasses was opaque and his movements were somewhat stiff; unnatural enough that it was hard to call him alive.

“We’re moving now, so let’s get moving.”

“Do you still want to kill the Hunters?”

When I saw Gil Sangwook put on an innocent look as if he didn’t understand my question, I became convinced that he was the type of person who could sleep soundly even after killing someone.

Outwardly, he pretended to be an ordinary person, but his inability to control the impulses and abnormal remarks that kept surfacing was exactly that.

“I feel the same way. It’s annoying and makes you want to beat the hell out of those pathetic losers.”

“What? Ah, hahaha! You too? I know, I know~”

Perhaps recognizing that I was on his side after my remarks, Gil Sangwook continued the conversation in a much softer mood.

“Seriously, it sucks when they act all high and mighty just because they have some pathetic ability.”

“Yes. It’s driving me crazy.”

“Hahaha!”

As I chimed in and disparaged the heroes respected by society, he grew more thrilled; with his stiff, cold body, he even put his arm around my shoulder and whispered cautiously.

“I found an organization… do you want to join?”

Confused by what he was talking about, I stopped in the middle of using my skill and looked at him.

“It’s an anti-Esper group called ‘A Wakener.’ They accept Espers as long as you pay them.”

“What is the organization’s goal?”

“The isolation of Espers and Guides from society.”

Even if he felt inferior to high-class Espers, joining a cult that supported such things when he was an Esper himself was something a person in his right mind wouldn’t do.

“Look. Ever since Awakeners appeared, monsters have been running rampant. Haven’t you considered that the destruction of order and all the chaos in this world is due to the arrival of Awakeners? Espers and Guides are the keys to destruction that are ruining this once-peaceful unauthorized copyworld. The true golden palace can only be reached by destroying them.”

This was giving me a headache.

You are one of those Awakeners yourself. Gil Sangwook, you fucking cult bastard.

“Did a Hunter borrow money from you and not pay it back?”

Unable to hold back my revulsion, I finally asked. Just what kind of Hunter had tormented him to drive him so insane that his mind became twisted to the core?

“Even today! Those crazy bastards spat on me! Hit me! Cursed at me! Didn’t you see?”

Gil Sangwook lifted his tattered shirt to reveal his wounds, but they were marks left from trying to dodge building debris flying in all directions during the boss raid.

Seeing him in that state, I realized just how troublesome it was when a being beyond human suffered from mental illness. A national-level mental care system was desperately needed for Hunters, rather than honing their skills or developing weapons to fight stronger enemies.

“Has it been a long time since you received guiding?”

“Who wants to be paired with an F-class! If you don’t have money, you have no choice but to enlist or take the radiation guiding offered at a gate’s entrance like a thief!”

I had never even thought about that. I thought that Gil Sangwook’s life must have been very difficult. However, I didn’t really want to understand why he used his inferiority complex and anger to murder the Hunters.

“Baek Yejun, that bastard, fuck that bastard…he called me some pathetic loser with no Pair…!”

“Baek Yejun, that bastard, didn’t even speak to you once today.”

“He stepped on me! Hit me! Fuck! Fuck!”

“I’m telling you, he didn’t.”

As I listened, even I started wondering if something like that had really happened.

“Gil Sangwook-ssi, when did the Hunters start hitting you?”

“Huh? Uh…. since long ago?”

“If they hit you, you should have just filed a medical certificate and a complaint. Why did you stay quiet?”

“The healers are in on it too. They beat me and then heal me, so when I get home there are no injuries left!”

I had dismissed his remarks as delusions of a mentally ill Esper, but upon reflection, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

There must have been external factors, not just his own, that caused him to lose his mind to this extent.

“I’ll ask you just one last question.”

“What is it?”

I asked as I gazed into his ​stolen content​unfocused, hazy eyes that looked slightly calmer after a moment of intense excitement.

“You mean that Hunters only attacked you whenever you entered a gate?”

He answered, and I made the sign of the cross over my chest.

Just as a system message announcing the Esper’s exile appeared in the corner of my vision, Gil Sangwook collapsed to the floor. I laid him down, picked up my phone, and sent a message to Baek Yejun.

“So, you can kill a dead person again.”

I removed the sunglasses from Gil Sangwook’s corpse lying on the floor and closed his eyes.

It seemed my skill was an ability unrelated to the death of the body.

Is it the ability to separate the ‘soul’ from the body, a vague concept whose very existence is doubtful?

“Is he really dead?”

Park Suheon, who had been hiding in the corner, came out and asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. Park Suheon didn’t ask any further questions and helped me take care of Gil Sangwook.

Seeing how guilty he looked, even though he hadn’t killed the man himself, made me doubt how he had managed to make a living as a Hunter. He was so weak-willed.