Chapter 1364. Friendship on the Run (2)

“I'm sorry, Oppa,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

“...”

“It was my fault. I should’ve been more thorough...” she added.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“No, this isn’t your fault, noona.” I told her.

It wasn’t something I said to comfort her or defend her. Even if I had done the background check instead of Ji-Hye noona, the result wouldn’t have been much different.

These were people who could fool even my eyes.

If I had taken into account the missing woman when I first entered this mansion, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.

Ji-Hye noona probably knew that as well. They were prepared, and we weren’t.

Seeing Ji-Hye noona gnash her teeth in silence was only natural.

‘She’s really angry.’

Her pride was clearly hurt. She had to have realized that she had been outplayed.

It was just a background check, but there was no way Ji-Hye noona would do a sloppy job. I couldn't even imagine how much time and manpower she would spend before any report could reach me.

She had never been the type to handle things carelessly.

I felt like she had even considered the possibility that they were transcendents.

Despite her painstaking investigation, the final report ended up being proof that she had been deceived.

With her personality, there was no way she could just accept that.

Unlike her usually talkative self, she bit her lip tightly. The confidence she once had in her own conclusions was gone. Realizing that everything she had done was for nothing, she looked so tense that it looked like she would grab someone by the throat anytime now.

“Unbelievable...

ha...

” she muttered.

“...”

“...”

“Unbelievable..." Soon, she entered the empty room, and I heard the sound of things being thrown. Ha Yeon-Soo went in after her to calm her down, but it wasn't working.

The cacophony of noises continued for quite some time.

‘I need to calm down, too.’

Of course, it wasn’t exactly a situation where I could calm down either. Everything was so vague that it made my head hurt. From the assistant with the long hair to the doctor who disappeared into thin air, the situation made it clear that things had gone far beyond the bounds of normality, yet it still didn’t feel real.

‘Who’s the problem here?’

There was no way to tell if the woman who had vanished was Doctor Michele’s retainer or if she had been the one controlling Michele. No, I felt like both of them had been deceiving us all along.

At first, I thought that woman was the villain, but how could I possibly know for sure?

The only thing that mattered was the reality that Kim Hyun-Sung had likely disappeared with them.

Before I knew it, Ji-Hye noona pulled herself together, walked out of the empty room, and said, “I’ll ask the higher-ups to look into it again. I’ll include Commander Jin, too."

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” I said.

“And... I just got a message from Max. He said it wasn't caused by a rift or anything related to a dungeon. There’s nothing wrong with the Rift Museum either,” Lee Ji-Hye added.

“Have we considered those who crossed into our dimension and settled here?” I asked.

“Not yet. There are no official records, or at least, not of anyone capable of causing such anomalies. If something like that had entered the continent, Benigoa or Belial would know it for sure. The gate’s still sealed anyway. The only possible window would have been when you had just returned from Rohen.

"There were a lot of holes back then, so it was the perfect time to sneak in,” Lee Ji-Hye explained.

“If we assume they’re not human?” I questioned.

“Do you really have to think about that? At least one of them definitely isn’t human,” Lee Ji-Hye answered.

‘She’s right.’

“Actually, both of them are probably not human. Personally, I find the assistant more suspicious. It doesn’t make sense that every trace of her life has vanished. Dr. Michele might just be a pawn or a human who’s been brainwashed. If not...” Lee Ji-Hye trailed off.

Her thoughts were exactly the same as mine.

“He could be a homunculus. Everything was fabricated, and it wasn't just a fake identity, but lies turned into reality. How else could this be explained unless someone from above was involved?

"Either it’s those bastards up there who want another dimensional war, or the demons still drooling over our continent,” Lee Ji-Hye said, making assumptions.

“So there’s a demon with a similar power?” I asked.

“We’ll have to find out. Lonovera,” Lee Ji-Hye called out.

“If that’s true...” I paused.

“Then we can’t rule out the possibility that Kim Hyun-Sung crossed into another dimension,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

‘No. That can’t be it.’

I shook my head slightly, and Ji-Hye noona added, “Of course, the odds are low.”

“It’s not just low. It’s impossible. When I came back from Rohen, sure, things were messy, but our administrators aren’t idiots. You know how much holy power it takes to move between dimensions. There’s no way that much holy power can be moved without us noticing it. Coming in is easy, but leaving isn’t, noona,” I told her.

“That’s true, but... I don’t want to rule out any possibilities,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

‘If anything, it’s more believable that he went to the first life.’

Just imagining it made my head ache.

“...”

“...”

“Mr. Chang-Ryeol,” I called out.

“Yes, sir?” Lee Chang-Ryeol said.

“If you find any magic circles inside the mansion, let me know. Actually, not just the mansion—cordon the entire surrounding area,” I ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Lee Chang-Ryeol said.

“...”

“...”

“So... you think he went there?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.

“The odds aren’t low, especially with how things are right now. Nothing happens without a reason, noona. Considering the current state of the continent, forcing the pieces to fit might actually make sense,” I said.

“Do you really think they’ll fit?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.

Noona’s doubt made sense. There was a major flaw in concluding that Kim Hyun-Sung had gone to the first life. Admitting that he had gone there would mean disregarding all the data and formulas we had built up until now.

Just the fact that dimensional travel was only possible through a hexagram made that clear enough.

The decisive point was that there were no visible hexagrams anywhere near the mansion, the cabin, or even the surrounding grounds.

The Continental Protection Management Committee was already monitoring and controlling every hexagram in existence.

If Kim Hyun-Sung had tried to use one, he would have been caught.

There hadn’t been any reports of a newly-formed gate, either.

Even if we assumed he’d traveled through a new gate, the logic still wouldn't hold.

A gate would disappear upon use, which meant that, if he had used one, traces of it ought to have remained for us to detect.

There was also the time dilation issue.

A single day in the first life was a blink of an eye here.

Of course, the time dilation ratio varied from gate to gate, but we had learned from experience that time flowed faster in the first life.

Still, we didn’t have enough data to reach any definitive conclusions. With fewer than ten recorded cases, I couldn’t claim my hypothesis was correct, and research had stalled.

In other words, using prior examples was the only reasonable way for me to make a conclusion here.

“Of course, if we assume all our previous data is meaningless, then it’s not entirely impossible,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

“Why? If those two are connected to what’s happening now, and if we assume it’s possible to move to the first life without a hexagram, then Kim Hyun-Sung going there isn’t that strange. Do you remember what happened at the Blue Guild’s Youth Center?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.

“When Commander Jin cried?” I asked.

“No, not that. Remember that one guy there, too? The one wearing the hexagram pendant. That guy we caught on our surveillance cameras,” Lee Ji-Hye reminded me.

“

Ah

, right, I remember,” I answered.

“He’s the same,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

“...”

“...”

“That guy disappeared without a trace, too. He used to come and go from the Youth Center all the time, but we still haven’t found even traces of him. Ha-Yan even released Anemone’s Eye across the entire continent to find him, but we haven’t caught a single lead.

"It’s not that the rangers are incompetent. Maybe those bastards—the woman who was here, Dr. Michele, and that guy with the pendant who went into the Blue Youth Center—I feel like all three of them can move between dimensions.

"If that's true, then everything would line up. They might be the ones marking hexagrams everywhere, or they might be the ones summoning those tentacled monsters,” Lee Ji-Hye explained.

“Couldn’t Dr. Michele just be a civilian who got caught up in this by accident? He didn’t look particularly dangerous...” I told her.

“No, he’s one of the Six Stars scum too,” Lee Ji-Hye argued.

“Can you explain that in a way that makes sense?” I asked.

“No. He just is. He’s just one of them,” Lee Ji-Hye answered.

“...”

“Anyway, that quack’s part of the Six Stars, too,” she repeated.

“Okay. So you’re saying Dr. Michele’s one of them. Then you’re suggesting those three are connected to the system, right?” I asked.

“...”

“Benigoa and Belial said it. It’s best to view this phenomenon as a supernatural event caused by the system. That’s the only way to explain it. Wasn’t that dimension created to complete the continent’s narrative? If that hypothesis is right, then what the hell are those three people?

"The system is just a system. It doesn’t have a will,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

“I don’t know either, noona. How could I? I agree with Benigoa and Belial to an extent, but there’s still a possibility that it isn’t purely natural. The system might be using them to create a narrative. Maybe the system and those bastards have the same interests and were granted temporary authority,” I told her.

“So you’re saying the system is letting them handle it?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.

“That’s exactly it. The sacrifices, the cultists, even the tentacled monsters could be their doing,” I answered.

“If your assumption is right, then Kim Hyun-Sung might’ve had no choice but to disappear,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

I noticed Ji-Hye noona bringing her hand to her chin, thinking deeply.

“I don’t know if you’re forcing things because you want to be optimistic, but it's plausible. Of course, for your assumption to work, we have to assume Kim Hyun-Sung is no longer on this continent, but it’s better than some absurd reason like running away because of some friendship or something,” Lee Ji-Hye said.

‘Right. He didn’t run away because of our friendship.’

I felt like there was some circumstance that forced him to leave with them.

“They might’ve offered Kim Hyun-Sung a different deal. I don’t know what it was, but he had enough reasons to choose to go to the first life himself. He has his own problems to deal with, and I feel like seeing you suffer because of this place might have made him want to shoulder everything alone this time.

"The Six Stars probably knew something about his tendencies,” I said, assuming things.

‘Geez... that idiot always does unnecessary things.’

“So you’re thinking all this might have been for you? Is that what you want to say?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.

‘How can I say that out loud?’

“Aren’t you interpreting things too conveniently for yourself? You’re in your right mind, right? You haven’t lost it, have you?” Lee Ji-Hye questioned.

“...”

“I’m not saying your assumption is ridiculous. Some parts are strange, but there are aspects that

only

your theory can explain. I'm saying that maybe—just maybe... you’re too emotionally attached to this. I agree with you to an extent. I’m just saying this as a precaution,” Lee Ji-Hye continued.

For some reason, I couldn’t help but think Kim Hyun-Sung still hadn't changed. Of course, I disliked the idea that he went to the first life.

It was burdensome that he didn’t just use a hexagram but had fallen into a time or place unknown to me by virtue of a method unknown to me as well.

Thinking about the stupid things he had done so far, however, the assumption that he had no choice made it plausible.

He was probably in some unavoidable circumstance. No, he had to be.

“...”

“...”

“So what do we do next?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.

“What do you mean by that? Of course, we'll bring him back,” I answered.

“...”

“As fast as possible,” I added.