FLIA 108

“What is there to remember? What’s the point of dredging up bad memories?”

“Right?”

A flicker of doubt crossed Park Seungmin’s eyes, as if wondering whether Yohan truly had no memory. But even if he did suspect, there was nothing he could really do. No one had ever returned alive from the Abyss, so he must have been living with peace of mind until Yohan showed up. How troublesome this must be for him. Yohan smirked inwardly and waved him off.

“I’m getting tired. My head hurts, I need to rest. See you next time.”

“Uh… then, see you next time. We’ll talk again then.”

Park Seungmin left the hospital room still clinging to the thought of using an Eternal Stone to cure corruption. His steps were a little rough, maybe because he was annoyed. As soon as he left, Yohan’s expression went blank and he murmured,

“What are the odds….”

Yohan’s plan had been to pretend to have no memory to put Park Seungmin at ease, then track down the mercenaries from that awakening party. For now, all he had was his own testimony, so he intended to secure other evidence or witnesses and ruin Park Seungmin socially. Even if he couldn’t, that was fine. He would take personal revenge if he had to.

But when he saw Park Seungmin face to face today, he knew it instinctively. Park Seungmin had the potential to awaken as a purifier.

It was surprising, he was the first awakening candidate Yohan had seen since escaping the Abyss. Not that it meant he had great talent. His ability was as faint and small as a firefly, and if left alone, he would likely never awaken as a purifier in his lifetime. In fact, he seemed more suited to something else. Maybe a dealer, or a tanker? Yohan couldn’t tell for sure. What mattered was…

‘I could awaken him as a purifier.’

Yohan could be sure because he had already heard something about this. Over the past few days together, Lee Hyunmook had told him something about high-level awakeners, something no one but a high-level awakener could possibly know.

‘I don’t know yet, but when other awakeners appear, you’ll see. Without a high-level awakener, no low-level awakeners can exist.’

It was true that after Lee Hyunmook vanished into the Abyss, no new awakeners with lightning abilities had appeared. That was why people strongly suspected his death. If a high-level awakener died, maybe no one in the same class of ability could appear again.

In reality, it was because the Abyss was completely cut off from Earth. When the water from the upstream vanished, the midstream and downstream stopped flowing and just sat stagnant. And to prove it, as soon as Lee Hyunmook returned, new awakeners with lightning abilities began to appear.

There was something else Lee Hyunmook had told him, warning him not to tell anyone.

‘If someone has even a little potential, you can force them to awaken. You open up the path for them. And… you can take it back, too.’

The moment Yohan learned the truth high-level awakeners kept tightly hidden, the question he had always carried was answered. Why awakeners who committed heinous crimes often lost their abilities. And why this truth had to stay secret.

If people knew high-level awakeners had this kind of secret, it would be a nightmare. People would come offering huge sums in exchange for abilities. If it ended at business, it would be lucky. Others would take hostages, using something precious to a high-level awakener to control them.

‘They could create armies of artificial awakeners, or threaten any awakener who defied them.’

Why could only high-level awakeners do this? What was the true source of this ability? And why did they, as if selectively chosen, all possess a controlled and upright nature?

Just like no one could clearly define how the Abyss had formed or where it came from, Yohan thought this too was something no mere human could uncover. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter, as long as he could live safely and comfortably in this world.

And right now, that wasn’t the point. After thinking for a long time, Yohan made up his mind and placed a call.

“Chanha-hyung, I have a favor to ask….”

It was a slightly bothersome request, but Lee Chanha readily agreed. After the long call ended, Yohan looked out the window at the sunlight streaming in.

Falling into the Abyss had taught him one thing well. The greatest pain came when someone fell from a dazzling height all the way down to the distant ground below. Yohan planned to give that same helpless plunge to Park Seungmin.

***

“Ah, fuck, nothing ever goes my way!”

Park Seungmin hurled his phone onto the bed. He didn’t have the nerve to throw it on the floor, so he kicked the bed instead, over and over, until his toes hit the dresser and he jumped in pain. Muttering curses, he picked up his phone again, checked the screen, and sighed.

The two weeks after Yohan went missing had been pure happiness. Thinking back to the moment Yang Yohan fell into the Abyss, he felt a little guilty, maybe a little afraid, but his very first thought had been satisfaction. When he saw Yohan’s face twist in shock and fear at the betrayal, he had barely managed to hold back his laughter.

He had first met Yohan in high school. On the first day, someone from his group noticed Yohan and greeted him.

‘Oh? That’s Yang Yohan.’

‘Who’s Yang Yohan?’

‘The guy under that tree. His family’s loaded. What’s their name again, Samyung? I think they’re a pharmaceutical company.’

‘Samyung? Never heard of it. Are they really rich?’

Seungmin had laughed, saying they had to be at least on the level of a famous electronics brand, but he still looked up Samyung Pharmaceuticals. For a high schooler, it was an unfamiliar company. He only ever saw its name in news articles now and then, and it just made him think life was unfair, that some people were lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon.

But after the rifts appeared, pharmaceuticals turned out to be worth even more than he thought. Ordinary people, even when sick, often just endured it, hoping to recover naturally because the medicine was too expensive. And in that situation, Yohan had secretly given painkillers to a friend who was suffering from headaches. From that moment, Seungmin decided to stick to him.

Unlike Seungmin, Yohan chose his friends from people like him. Even in this world, their biggest rebellion was skipping self-study, nothing more than studious geeks. It was unpleasant to force himself to get along with them, but he endured it for the benefits he could get. And all the while, he thought,

Annoying bastard. Living well thanks to his parents, eating his fill every day, and he still whines just because he gets treated a little differently at home.

If only he would drop dead. Or at least end up with something wrong with him. Seungmin meant it. So when the opportunity came, he didn’t hesitate to trip Yohan and watch him get thrown into the Abyss. He didn’t stop it, he enjoyed it.

The Abyss had appeared, and it was unavoidable. If sacrificing one person meant more of them could survive, wasn’t that a good thing? Besides, it wasn’t like he had been the one leading it. The mercenaries had done everything. Even if he hadn’t helped, they would have done it anyway. When the Abyss closed right after they threw Yohan in, the mercenaries themselves had been pretty shocked.

‘Just tossing one guy in and it disappears like that? That guy’s efficiency is insane.’

‘Hey, did you see him grinning after throwing his friend in? Isn’t he a total psycho?’

‘A psycho? If you’d seen how annoying that guy was normally, you would’ve done exactly the same as me.’

Even chatting and laughing with the mercenaries like that had been fun.

Some people couldn’t even get a job, and when they did, they suffered because it didn’t suit them, living like rats. This was how things should be fair. Yohan had already had enough fun in life, hadn’t he?

The only real regret was not being able to watch that smug bastard rot away and turn into a monster in a place like the sewers. The huge sum of money he had wrung from Yohan’s parents under the pretense of funding the search had been sweet as honey.

‘Good thing I didn’t tell them he’d fallen into the Abyss.’

He truly believed that.