FLIA 123

“It also serves the purpose of expanding the Taeyang Guild’s scale a little more. The Sunrise Team depended entirely on a single unit, but the Taeyang Guild cannot do that. Considering the Great Rift, our team will have to operate overseas in the future, so we need to recruit more personnel and establish a more systematic dispatch system….”

While Yohan was listening carefully to these matters, he felt a presence. Everyone turned their heads, and soon there was a knock on the door. A moment later the door opened and the secretary came in with an awkward face. Even after seeing Yohan attending the Taeyang Team’s meeting, he showed no sign of surprise, perhaps because he had been informed in advance.

“Sorry to interrupt the meeting. There is something urgent to deliver.”

“It’s fine. What is it?”

“Awakener Go Jaewon has come to visit. What should we do?”

Lee Chanha suddenly smiled brightly. Since he rarely smiled, the secretary flinched. It was not a smile that looked positive from any angle. Thinking of the recent rumors about Go Jaewon made it even clearer.

“Good. Let’s meet him.”

Contrary to Yohan’s expectation that he would be turned away at the door, Lee Chanha immediately gave permission.

***

Perhaps because of heavy stress lately, Go Jaewon’s face looked dark and irritable. He shook his leg nervously and spoke.

“Does it have to be here? Let’s at least go into a meeting room.”

Go Jaewon had a very troubling reason. It was because the place Lee Chanha had chosen to meet was the cafe located in the lobby on the first floor. It was an open space where everyone passing through the lobby could see them. The moment they sat down in the cafe, the number of people who ordered drinks for no reason, or just stared at the menu board while eavesdropping, suddenly increased.

But despite Go Jaewon’s words, Lee Chanha only kept smiling. He gave no answer and did not get angry. Not only Lee Chanha but the others were the same. Go Jaewon felt fear at the sight of them just smiling at him with unblinking, gleaming eyes. If they had gotten angry or shown scorn, it would not have been this frightening.

‘Is it because he reawakened and the power gap widened?’

He pinned his hope on the kindest one, Lee Hyunmook, and looked at him. But the moment their eyes met, Lee Hyunmook quickly turned his head away. The hair all over his body stood on end. What was that? He had looked perfectly normal. He had not even been smiling. Yet it felt like he had just faced something indescribably eerie and dreadful.

“I think you’ve misunderstood, Chanha.”

Go Jaewon began speaking in a small voice. He also felt he was being wronged in some parts of this matter. He had only intended to deal with Lee Chanha. He could never go after Team Leader Lee Hyunmook, so he had only tried to push aside someone around his age, Lee Chanha, and take that seat. He never dreamed it would lead to the entire Sunrise Team vanishing.

The more he thought about it, the more unfair it felt. He had not even thought about throwing Lee Chanha into the Abyss. He had only intended to make him a little corrupted and make him rest comfortably in a government detention facility. After the Sunrise Team disappeared, he had suffered do much, struggling desperately to keep the Sunrise Guild afloat. He had barely managed to hold on to the number one guild spot, but now that the Sunrise Team had returned, he felt like dying of resentment.

The past month had been nothing short of a nightmare for Go Jaewon. Everywhere he turned, people asked why they had abandoned him to form the Taeyang Guild, accusing him of betrayal. On top of that, a large number of employees resigned, and many of them transferred to the Taeyang Guild. His pride in running the top guild in the country was crushed. Overnight, the Sunrise Guild had fallen to a position lower than the number two, even number three guilds. The problem was not only the weakened Sunrise Guild’s strength. It was also the vicious public opinion against him.

“I also read the interview. You said there were mysterious assailants three years ago. But I really don’t know anything about it.”

In fact, he knew very well what it was. He had staged a rescue request to lure out only Lee Chanha. His mistake was not realizing that Ju Hoyoung would return so quickly.

“I was carrying out rescue work in another place. It’s true. There are several witnesses.”

It was true that he had done rescue work, and it was true there had been witnesses. Everything else was lies and schemes.

Grinding his teeth, Go Jaewon tried hard to explain and plead, recalling that his former teammates had been kind and soft-hearted people. He hoped at least one of them would say there might have been a misunderstanding. In a situation where he was under fire from the press and facing people’s condemnation alone, his former colleagues were the only ones he could cling to.

“And no matter what, this isn’t right. If you take away all the guild members like this, what happens to the Sunrise Guild? Don’t you remember? We really worked hard to build the Sunrise Guild…. We worked so hard….”

Go Jaewon’s voice grew small and his words faltered. He swallowed dryly and clenched his trembling hand. Cold sweat had been seeping out for a while, and now even his back was damp.

“Say something. Why, why are you just staring at me like that!”

Unable to withstand the pressure of those faces that had only been smiling and staring at him from earlier, Go Jaewon shouted. Sweat drenched his forehead. He was scared. But he could not understand why it was so terrifying and horrifying, so he could not even run away.

“A-Anyway, you came back safely…!”

Not only had they come back safely, they had even reawakened, and on top of that, they had brought back Eternal Stones that could purify corruption. The misfortune had turned into fortune, right? But then something happened. When he heard the words “came back safely,” Lee Chanha laughed loudly.

“What did you just say? Came back safely? Us? Hahaha!”

It was not only Lee Chanha who laughed. Yoon Seungryong laughed holding his stomach as if he had just heard the funniest thing in the world, Seo Yakrin slapped the armrest and roared with laughter, and Ju Hoyoung chuckled noisily. Only Lee Hyunmook kept a gentle smile.

At first Go Jaewon had only listened with a stiff face, but his face grew paler and paler. This bizarre, ridiculous laughter just went on endlessly. They were laughing so horribly, yet why did the people around them not find it strange?

To say they were really not corrupted… they looked far too corrupted for that…!

Go Jaewon hurriedly looked around. The laughter still continued, while people only peeked over with curious faces. It was as if Go Jaewon alone was seeing this grotesque scene.

‘A-A hallucination?’

Go Jaewon recalled the survivor who had come out of the Abyss with them. That person was not here now, but he suspected maybe they were a hallucination-type ability user hiding their power. Since Lee Chanha had fallen into the Abyss because of hallucination, it had to be payback in the same way.

“Stop it! Answer me, damn it!”

In the end, Go Jaewon, overwhelmed with fear, jumped to his feet. No matter how he looked at it, his pleas and appeals were not going to work, so there was no point talking further. At that moment, Yoon Seungryong, laughing so hard he was out of breath, wiped his tears and spoke.

“Hey, Go Jaewon. You’re going to fall into hell.”

Unlike before, he did not even call him hyung. It was a rude way of speaking. But it felt like finally a somewhat normal reaction, and Go Jaewon almost felt relieved. Then Seo Yakrin, who had been laughing so hard dhe was nearly rolling off her chair, stopped and spoke.

“I’ll make you feel such terrible pain from now on that you’ll beg to be killed.”

“What…?”

Were they saying they would take revenge on him openly in a place with so many people? Go Jaewon hastily looked around. Just like when they were laughing madly, there was no change in people’s reactions. Go Jaewon clenched his teeth. Fine. He had a recorder. And the threats kept coming.

“Let’s slice up the traitor, trim him, blanch him, and freeze him.”

“Boil him down, roast him, boil him again, tear him apart, steam him through, then chop him and shred him into pieces.”

“We have to eat him alive, one bite at a time. Raw meat is always the tastiest.”

What…?

Go Jaewon stumbled back. Were these things the kind of words they would say? Only then did he realize that maybe the people before his eyes were not the ones he had once known. Seo Yakrin, with bloodshot eyes gleaming, kept shouting.

“With fists! Bam! Bam! Pound him to a pulp, rip him apart, crush him, kill him! You fucking bastard! Die! Die! Die!”

“No, he won’t taste good. Too bad to eat. Let’s dig deep into the ground and ferment him. Rot him down and use him as fertilizer! Our vegetables and fruits will grow well.”

“Freeze him, drrrrrr! Wow! Just imagining it is fun!”

It was because of hallucinations, right? The reason his former comrades looked completely insane had to be because of hallucinations, right?