บท 2: 2
2. Hwang Yongmin
A dark alley.
Psshht- Pop!
A group opens beer cans and gulps them down.
"Awesome! We can finally drink beer legally."
"Hey, not yet. There's still 30 minutes until the new year."
"This sucks! Really. How long do we have to hide in alleys like rats to drink?"
"You're the rat. Why lump us in with you?"
"I'm just annoyed. Aren't you guys annoyed too?"
Hwang Yongmin, who had emptied his can in one go, threw it away irritably.
"Hey, got a light?"
"Here you go, Boss Yongmin."
Click-click- Only after lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag did the wrinkles on Yongmin's forehead smooth out.
"I don't get why those old farts won't let us do this good stuff."
"That's why they're old farts, right?"
"Kekeke."
Yongmin and his friends laughed gleefully.
When they occasionally saw people passing through the alley, they'd stop laughing and give cold stares.
As if to say, mind your own business and keep walking.
And sure enough, people would pretend not to see them and hurry away.
It happened again just now.
"Heheh, did you see that? They ran away scared of my glare."
"What glare? Your eyes have night vision or something? They probably only saw the cigarette light in the dark."
"Hey, but wasn't that girl who just passed by pretty? She kinda looked like Seo Arin."
"Seo Arin? Really?"
"Ah, I want to snuggle up in Seo Arin's arms."
"Kukukuku, you crazy bastard."
"Kekekekeke!"
When Yongmin made a funny face, his friends burst into laughter.
"Heheh, if you like her, go get her number or something."
"Would she give it to a minor?"
"What are you scared of? We'll be adults soon."
As they said, the year would change at midnight.
Their high school days were almost over.
"When vacation ends, we'll finally graduate from that boring school."
"What are you going to do after graduation?"
"I'll ask my dad to buy me a motorcycle and look for delivery jobs. I heard delivery pays well these days."
"Is that so? What about you, Taesik?"
"I'm thinking of working at a factory with a dorm until I enlist in the army. My parents nag so much, I can't breathe at home, damn it."
Yongmin chuckled as he watched his friend exhale cigarette smoke with a sigh.
"What about you, Yongmin?"
"Me? Didn't I tell you before? I'm going to join a gang."
"What, you were serious about that?"
"I thought you were joking."
Yongmin frowned at his friends' surprised reactions.
"I answered seriously, and you thought it was a joke?"
"Of course. Who considers joining a gang as a future career these days?"
"A gang... Aren't you scared? You could end up stabbed in the gut and dead."
Yongmin just scoffed at his friends' concerns.
"Damn it, do we live life once or twice? You just live however and that's it."
"This guy's really got no fear, for real."
"Kukukuku."
His friends laughed, but they were all thinking the same thing.
'He's crazy.'
They were known troublemakers at school, but compared to Yongmin, they were nothing.
To his friends, Yongmin was just a complete thug.
'Yeah, you do whatever you want...'
'I need to cut ties with this guy after graduation.'
'What a psycho...'
Yongmin was the kind of person who made even friends he'd known since middle school want to distance themselves.
"By the way, Yongmin, what's going to happen to that shuttle you've been bullying when you graduate?"
"Which shuttle?"
"You know, that loser in our class."
"Ah, that kid with no parents?"
The corner of Yongmin's mouth curled up in pleasure.
"I'm not letting that bastard go even after graduation."
"Kekeke, you're going to keep using him even after graduating?"
"Of course. He's my personal shuttle."
"Wow... that's so pitiful. He probably thinks the shuttling will end when he graduates."
"Who says it ends? I'm going to play with him as much as I can."
"You're seriously a devil. Even Satan would call you big brother, kekeke."
The bullies laughed and finished their beer cans.
Then they suddenly checked their phones and saw it was almost midnight.
"Hey, it's almost the new year."
"Oh, really?"
"Should we go watch the bell-ringing? They're having an event right up ahead."
"Okay okay. Let's go."
Yongmin and his gang headed to Bosingak Pavilion to hear the New Year's Eve bell.
"Wow, there are so many people."
"It's swarming like an ant colony."
"Look for any pretty girls."
As they were looking around at the crowd.
"Oh? Yongmin, look over there."
A friend tapped his arm and pointed.
"Isn't that him? Your personal shuttle."
Yongmin's gaze turned to Ryumin.
"Oh, it is. My shuttle."
Seeing him outside of school somehow made Yongmin feel oddly glad.
"That loser came to watch the bell-ringing too?"
"Maybe he came to pray not to be bullied by Yongmin in the new year."
"Kekeke, that's an impossible wish."
"That's what I'm saying, hehehe."
Yongmin laughed and started to approach Ryumin, but stopped.
'Hm? That bastard...'
Ryumin was just standing there, seemingly lost in thought.
But the atmosphere around him was different.
He didn't look like the usual slumped-shouldered shuttle Yongmin knew.
'What is this? He feels subtly different from before...'
Just then, the host shouted.
"The time has finally come. Let's count down together!"
People cheered and started counting.
Yongmin and his gang joined in, hoping for the new year to arrive.
'I'll let you off today, punk.'
Not wanting to start bullying on the very first day of the new year, he didn't approach any further.
"...3, 2, 1! The new year 2022 has finally arrived!"
"Wooooooo!"
A cauldron of excitement.
In the midst of it, Yongmin and his friends said to each other:
"Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!"
"We're finally adults! Hope everyone achieves their goals this year..."
[Kekeke.]
Yongmin suddenly couldn't continue his well-wishes.
It was because of an unidentified voice that came out of nowhere.
[Kyohohoho. You look just like monkeys trapped in a cage.]
The voice that rang out again wiped the smiles off people's faces.
It was no different for Yongmin.
"This is a joke, right? Right?"
At first, he dismissed it as a prank by the broadcasting station, but seeing the angel appear with light from the sky changed his mind.
'Th-this is real. It's definitely not a joke.'
It was hard to believe even seeing it with his own eyes, but there was no other way to explain the floating angel.
Moreover.
Splat!
When he saw the head of a young man who spoke informally to the angel explode.
"Kyaaaaa!"
"Huk!"
Yongmin's expression could only freeze like the other citizens.
'What the hell...! What kind of shit is this on New Year's Day!'
He had never witnessed someone die in his life.
Especially not such an intense death where the head exploded like a firework.
That's why Yongmin couldn't even breathe properly in front of the angel.
When he turned his head, he saw his friends were the same.
'But...'
Yongmin's gaze turned to Ryumin.
'Why is that shuttle bastard's expression unchanged?'
The Ryumin he knew should have been scared or frozen like a statue.
But the Ryumin he saw now wasn't scared at all, and even looked relaxed.
Moreover.
'Huh?'
He suddenly turned his head and made direct eye contact with Yongmin.
'How did that bastard know I was here...'
Not only that, but he even curled up one corner of his mouth.
As if mocking him.
'That bastard...!'
Seeing the shuttle's confident expression that he had never seen at school, Yongmin's mood twisted, but that was all.
'Just you wait, shuttle bastard.'
Now was not the time to express anger.
Because he learned they were caught up in a hellish survival game where they had to survive 20 rounds.
[Well, that's about it for the explanation, shall we go? Kyohohoho.]
Finally, with the devil-like angel's laughter behind him, Yongmin's vision went dark.
* * *
'As expected, Hwang Yongmin was watching.'
When he attended high school, Ryumin was a quiet kid.
He was an ordinary student who didn't particularly stand out or have any notable quirks.
'I thought there wouldn't be any problems if I just stayed quiet without bothering others.'
But things didn't go as planned.
Just because he sat near Hwang Yongmin, Ryumin was targeted.
Even though he didn't do anything particularly annoying or stand out.
'After that, well... I suffered every kind of bullying there is.'
Being mocked during every break was just the basics. When they were bored, he'd be called to the hill behind the school and beaten up.
Of course, he was forced to be a bread shuttle and buy cigarettes and alcohol too.
When he got caught by the convenience store owner and the police called his parents, he had to say with a bitter face:
-I... don't have parents.
When asked why not, he had to reluctantly answer:
-They passed away in a car accident when I was in middle school...
At this point, the police officer would look at him with pity and just tell him not to do it again before sending him home.
'And then the bullying would repeat again.'
A vicious cycle.
There was nothing Ryumin could do in front of the strong.
He suffered all kinds of humiliation to the point where he was afraid to go to school.
'But not anymore.'
After countless regressions and deaths, Ryumin became a completely different person.
His timid and weak self was gone now.
99 regressions turned the ordinary him into an extraordinary being.
Was that why?
He could maintain his composure even when seeing Hwang Yongmin who had bullied him.
'Actually, I don't feel anything seeing him.'
The reason was simple.
He had already taken revenge to the point of boredom through repeated regressions.
'Was it from the 7th regression that I started taking revenge on him?'
After gaining some confidence in his strategy and becoming stronger, Ryumin took revenge on Hwang Yongmin.
He paid him back as much as he had suffered.
He heard him beg for his life, but killed him as a vengeful ghost.
Not just once.
Every time he repeated a regression, he killed him again and again.
Until all his resentment was resolved.
'But even that became meaningless after repeating it over 20 times.'
Because he had finished his revenge to the point of boredom, now in the 100th regression, he felt nothing seeing Hwang Yongmin.
'There's no meaning in taking revenge again at this point. There's no benefit. Even if I kill him, I should use him and then kill him.'
He already had plans in his head for how to use him.
But he had no intention of taking him to the final round.
'For now, what I need to do is...'
Ryumin raised his gaze.
He found himself alone in an empty pure white space.
Shortly after.
[Kyohohoho, I'm sure you're all curious where you are?]
The familiar devilish voice was heard.
[You are now in individual spaces where you can't see each other. Before soul transfer, we need to construct your bodies. In terms of games humans enjoy, it's like creating an avatar.]
'It's a kind of customization.'
While most would be flustered at the mention of avatars, Ryumin remained calm.
He had created avatars dozens of times before.
Soon, an avatar that looked exactly like him appeared in the white space.
The avatar moved like a mirror, following his movements.
[From now on, you can adjust your face or body as you wish. You can also choose a nickname to use in the other dimension. It's exactly the same process as creating a character in a game, so there shouldn't be any difficulties.]
There shouldn't be any problems with the process, since they had captured teens and young adults already familiar with games.
[You only have one chance, so everyone should decide carefully. Shall we start with choosing nicknames?]
Shortly after, a mechanical voice very different from the angel's was heard.
[Please say the nickname you want to register in the system within 30 seconds.]
[If you don't choose within the time limit, your real name will be automatically registered.]
'My nickname is...'
Ryumin's lips moved without a moment's hesitation.
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