Side Story Chapter 21 - Temple of Truth (4)

"What...?"

Kim Tae-Ho turned around in confusion, unable to understand what he had just heard, after a short silence.

[A-Aaaahh,] groaned the golden monkey as it pulled on its golden mane like that of a lion. Its rageful eyes pointed at Tae-Ho. [You, you, YOOOOUUUUU!! SO YOU'RE THE ONE WHO DISTURBED MY SACRED PURSUIT OF TRUTH!]

Its screeches shook the entire temple. The golden monkey, hysterically pulling its hair, glared at Tae-Ho with animosity.

"W-Wait! It wasn't me!!" shouted Tae-Ho in pallor and belatedly pointed at Oh Kang-Woo. "I-It was that damn brat!!"

[I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'LL KILL YOOOOUUUU! HOW DARE YOU, HOW DARE YOOOOOUUUUU!!]

"I said it wasn't me!!"

Tae-Ho's shouts no longer reached the golden monkey's ears. It gritted its teeth and crouched as if it were about to charge at Tae-Ho any second.

"

Tsk, tsk,

" Kang-Woo clicked his tongue after confirming the golden monkey was solely focused on Tae-Ho.

'That's why you should always watch your step.'

The monster was disturbed because Tae-Ho broke the floor.

'He's reaping what he sowed.'

Come to think of it, Tae-Ho was an antisocial psychopath who had tried to use a little boy as bait just to save himself.

'He has no empathy.'

Kang-Woo clenched his fists, boiling with anger. Someone who would use a fellow person as bait without hesitation to save themselves could not even be considered human.

'Sick bastard.'

Kang-Woo was certain the tile Tae-Ho stepped on broke for absolutely no reason because of all the bad karma he had accumulated in his life thus far. Kang-Woo turned around as if it couldn't be helped.

"Tae-Soo. Take that lady and run," he said as he pointed at Choi Eun-Hee trembling in fear.

Unlike the antisocial maniac psychopath Kim Tae-Ho, who would use even a little boy as bait for a monster without batting an eye to save himself, Kang-Woo was a saint who always paid back a debt he was owed. Eun-Hee had protected him, so he would naturally do the same.

"Wh-What about you, hyung-nim?" Kang Tae-Soo asked.

"I'm gonna stay here."

The energy exuding from the monster in front of him was on another level compared to the other golden monkeys they had encountered. No matter how strong Tae-Soo had gotten, he would stand no chance against it, and neither would Tae-Ho.

'In the end, there's no other choice but for me to face it.'

It would have been a different story if the monster had not noticed them, but now that it had, a battle was unavoidable. Regardless, they would come across that monster sooner or later as long as they were stuck in this dimensional space.

Kang-Woo examined with deeply sunken eyes the golden monkey charging at Tae-Ho. He took a few steps back to widen his distance from it. The reason why he was widening the distance despite deciding to fight was simple.

'I need as much info on it as possible.'

Kang-Woo's body was not yet in its complete state; the fact that he couldn't even fight properly until the enemy attacked and stimulated the Demonic Sea was a fatal weakness. To make a comparison, he was a bomb that would obliterate everything around him if he were touched. In other words, he was powerless to do anything unless he was attacked.

'The monkeys we've come across until now didn't have the intelligence to figure that out.'

However, the monkey in front of him was intelligent enough to speak.

[Aaaahh, Akart, Akart, o great Akart!! Bestow unto me the answer!! THE TRUUUUUUUUTH!!]

'Well, I doubt I have to worry about that from the state it's in, but you can never be too careful. Nothing better than gaining info about a monster at the cost of an antisocial maniac psychopath's life.'

It was like killing two birds with one stone.

"I-It is too dangerous for you to stay here by yourself, hyung-nim!"

"Enough. Take that lady with you and run already," Kang-Woo repeated firmly.

He glared at the hesitant Tae-Soo, who then flinched and bit his lip anxiously.

"I will trust you, hyung-nim," he replied as he rushed to the blankly standing Eun-Hee and lifted her.

"K-Kyaah!! Wh-What are you doing?!"

"Bear with it for just a moment!"

Tae-Soo placed her over his shoulder and turned to run into the garden.

"Y-You bastard! What are you doing?!"

[O GREAT AKAAAAAAAAAAAAART!!!]

Tae-Ho tried to chase after Tae-Soo, but the golden monkey roared as it leaped, the eight-meter-tall monkey soaring through the air as if it grew wings.

"M-Motherfucker!!"

"Gaaaahhh! H-Hyung!! Don't come this way!! That monster is coming after you!!" shouted Jung Hyun-Soo, who was about to run away as well after seeing Tae-Soo running, after seeing Tae-Hoo approaching him.

"Wh-What did you just say? Don't tell me you're trying to run away, you fucking bastard!" Tae-Ho shouted.

"What the hell do you want me to do when that crazy monster is chasing you?!"

"Use magic or something to stop it!!"

"Don't fuck with me, you dipshit!!"

"Wh-What did you say to me? Dipshit? Did you just call me a dipshit?!"

Tae-Ho and Hyun-Soo grabbed each other's collars, their faces red with anger amidst the chaos.

"Ahh," Kang-Woo expressed. "With this—"

The kind woman who tried to protect the boy's life was saved, the irredeemable scumbags who tried to save themselves by using fellow people as sacrifices were punished, and the boy destined to fight to the death against the anti-human monster attained knowledge to defeat it.

"— a world where no one is hurt has been completed."

Kang-Woo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"The hell are you acting all cool for, you fucking brat?!"

"Hurry up and do something about that mons— Arghhh!! H-Help me!"

[Graaaaaahhh!!]

Once Kang-Woo closed his eyes, the noisy screeches and curses sounded like music to his ears.

***

Crunch—!

"Kurgh,

cough...

!"

Blood spewed from Tae-Ho's mouth. His broken limbs were drooped lifelessly like those of a Momo figure (yukata ver.) dropped by a nephew who came over on a holiday.

"Fu...ck." Tae-Ho looked up using what remained of his strength as he writhed in pain. "Argh..."

He could see Hyun-Soo, collapsed on the ground in a similar state. He wondered how this could have happened. Tae-Ho shifted his gaze to the boy with a slightly arrogant look in his eyes, who was examining him intently as if Tae-Ho were a science experiment. The boy then smiled brightly.

"Shouldn't be a problem," he remarked.

Tae-Ho had no idea what the boy meant by that.

"Argh... you... fucking... brat..."

All he knew was that the boy was responsible for making him this way. Tae-Ho glared at the boy fiercely.

"Thanks. You were a great help," the boy said as he snickered and leisurely walked toward him.

Tae-Ho remained silent. "You..."

In Tae-Ho's eyes, a silhouette of a demon faintly overlapped with the pure and innocent boy who had been crying in Eun-Hee's arms earlier.

"I thought about letting you die, but Eun-Hee noona will get sad."

Bash!

The boy smiled and kicked Tae-Ho on the chin.

"Kurgh!"

"Right, then."

Kang-Woo looked down at the unconscious Tae-Ho and then slowly raised his head.

[Aaaahh, o great Akart, I beg of you... Bestow unto me, me, me the answer...]

The golden monkey who had overpowered Tae-Ho and Hyun-Soo was crouched and pulling on its hair. Kang-Woo walked toward the monkey. He had not gained much but became sure of two things.

'It can talk, but other than that, it's no different from the monkeys in the garden.'

The giant monkey did not possess enough intelligence to figure out Kang-Woo's weakness.

'And one more thing...'

"You," called Kang-Woo as he stared at the monkey with deeply sunken eyes. "You were also dragged here by that damn golden lion, weren't you?"

The giant monkey and the other smaller monkeys killing people in the garden had never been Akart's subordinates— they were nothing more than one of the countless victims taken captive by the Wikiholic like the Players and the werewolves.

- Only those who have realized the Great Akart's truth may leave this temple.

Kang-Woo recalled the words written on the fountain they saw when they first arrived in the garden. The golden monkey was in a mad pursuit of the truth and mercilessly attacked anyone who disturbed his pursuit.

"Because you haven't found a way to get out of this damn place either."

[A-Aaaahh.] The golden monkey twisted and turned in agony. It screamed madly, [No, no, NOOOOOOOOOO! I am not trapped!! The Great One has bestowed knowledge unto me! The Great One has blessed me!! Only those enlightened by the truth can break that golden wall and earn the right to return to his side!!]

The golden monkey pointed at the golden wall that it had repeatedly smashed its head into earlier. On the glowing-gold wall was an intricately engraved design of a balance scale.

[That's why, that's why, that's why, that's why, that's why!!]

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The golden monkey scratched its face with its sharp claws, blood pouring out of the scratches like a fountain.

[THAT'S WHY I HAVE BEEN ENDURING HIS MISSION OF PURSUIT FOR ALL THIS TIME!!]

"That's what we call being trapped, dumbass," mentioned Kang-Woo with a frown.

[Ahh, o Akart! O Almighty Akart!!] The golden monkey shed tears of blood. [I beg of you, bestow upon Rajang the truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, TRUUUUUUUUUUUTH!!!]

The golden monkey roared— no, it was no longer a roar. It was but a desperate scream from a

victim

trapped in this unknown dimension for who knows how long.

"Hah," chuckled Kang-Woo as he stared at Rajang, the desperate golden monkey.

He did not feel much sympathy for it; there was no need to since he had also experienced the same thing.

"I doubt your parents managed to find the answer either, so why bother even trying, dumbass?" Kang-Woo gestured for the monkey to come at him with his index finger. "Shut the hell up and bring it already."

Boom—!!!

Rajang aggressively stomped on the ground.