Chapter 3

The three lives that had passed were filled with regret. However, with the repeated opportunities, there were things that Soram had already resolved on his own.

There was a life where he had struggled for recognition from his family. He had also experienced failure and regret regarding that early on. For Soram, his family was already people he had cut off from his heart in his second life.

"Huh, Jin Soram. Are you... in your right mind? Is your head not fully awake yet?"

"You just asked if I was crazy earlier. Then, did you think it would be that easy to do business with a child you had abandoned?"

"You little bastard! Where are your manners! Hey!"

To the current Soram, his father's loud voice no longer had much impact. The raised hand was not a threat either. If an ordinary person tried to hit a 1st-grade hunter, only their own hand would hurt.

"Please be quiet. This is still a patient's room where bones were broken, and flesh was torn for surgery."

Soram tried to bring his hand to the corner of his mouth but put it down as if throwing it.

"Ah, I have to stop smoking again for 2 years..."

As soon as he realized that fact, the deepest sigh yet came out.

"...Jin Soram, think carefully. Are you getting cocky just because you became an awakener? If you act like this, I can immediately put an end to the only usefulness you've gained."

"Assemblyman Jin Sung-tae."

Jin Sung-tae, whose name was called, was startled for a moment. The look in Soram's eyes as he called his name was too unfamiliar. As if he wasn't his own son.

"What are you going to do?"

"You're just a high school student. If you get kicked out of the house..."

"Yes, yes, I'll get kicked out. Let's cut ties while we're at it. Let's never contact each other and live as if we're dead to each other from now on. Promise. Make sure to announce that we've cut ties to the public as well."

Being held back by a selfish family was enough with just one time. He had absolutely no lingering attachment to them anymore.

"You, you, how dare..."

Soram, who had longed for his family's attention so much, talked about cutting ties as if it was nothing. Seeing that, Assemblyman Jin Sung-tae couldn't open his mouth right away. However, a little later, anger rose at the fact that he had been pressured by a worthless bastard. The one who had been useless and couldn't tell right from wrong all this time.

"You've become a completely unfilial bastard. How did your mother teach you? Not knowing how comfortably you've lived at home until now!"

"Then tell me. What have you ever done for me, and what can you threaten to take away?"

"The allowance you've been receiving..."

"You know that my brothers took it all, and there wasn't a single penny left for me. You even praised them for managing the hierarchy well when you saw that."

"You only think about the money you received? How much have I fed and clothed you!"

"I was also starved and beaten."

As he tried to say one more thing, Soram pulled the nurse call button next to the bed. Because the patient was a heroic high school student reported on the news, a doctor quickly entered along with a nurse. Assemblyman Jin Sung-tae, whose public image was extremely important, shut his mouth when outsiders appeared, but he couldn't hide his outraged expression.

"Jin Soram... Mr. Patient. How's your body?"

To the worried nurse, Soram answered with a gentle smile that he was fine. Cutting off his family was moving at first, but now it didn't have much impact.

"Um, my father says he'll listen to the explanation of the surgery now and write the guardian consent form."

The doctor and nurse realized that this was a rescue signal sent by Soram. Although it was a single-patient room with good soundproofing, the yelling couldn't be completely hidden.

"I understand. Then, Assemblyman, please come out."

"No, I..."

"You must be busy, so it's best to go straight to the administration office and listen. I'll contact them to prepare a seat on the 1st floor right now."

"Yes."

"You'll be going straight home. Take care."

Soram waved his hand.

"Ah, I'll be living on my own at the headquarters from now on, so please keep my brothers in check."

That was Soram's sincere advice, having seen three futures.

Assemblyman Jin Sung-tae was pushed out of the hospital room. Since several people had heard the farewell, he wouldn't be able to come back.

Finally, the hospital room became quiet. Soram leaned his body back and closed his eyes.

"Haa..."

The images of his past lives were tangled in his head.

In his first life, Jin Soram was a kid. It was the path a child who knew nothing and suddenly became an 18-year-old hero would take. He was swayed by a family trying to use the awakener who had become a hot topic, and he was crushed by the expectations and burdens poured on him for the first time, yearning for the recognition from his family that he had never received. In the process, he involved fellow awakeners in political affairs and prioritized his family's orders over the headquarters.

Struggling with attention and running around without being able to tell right from wrong, he had his life saved by the sacrifice of his teammate Han Tae-un during the 3rd Great Rift incident. However, in the end, he died in vain without being able to do anything.

So, he thought the second chance at life that came was a miracle to make up for the pathetic previous life.

Soram gritted his teeth and ran forward, determined to live the opposite of the first time. He thought and acted as if he was born only to eliminate the rifts, without looking back at himself and his surroundings. He also thought that it was repaying the life Han Tae-un had given him in his first life. In that way, he struggled frantically to find a way to destroy the 3rd Great Rift and protect this country.

In the third life, he continued the sprint from the second life and eventually stopped the 3rd Great Rift. Even that time was full of regrets, and there were many facts he had turned a blind eye to. But with this, he believed he had solved the reason why Han Tae-un had saved him and why he had lived the same life three times.

However, he knelt again in front of the 4th Great Rift that followed. There, death came to him once more as he was saved by Han Tae-un again.

Thus, the fourth life arrived.

"Han Tae-un..."

He would meet him again in this life. How to treat Han Tae-un, who had placed a life debt so heavy that it suffocated him, was a problem that needed a little more thought.

But for now, the weight of despair that hadn't changed despite the desperately repeated lives was too great.

He wanted to close his eyes for just a brief moment and then wake up and think. He was too tired to even recall any thoughts at the moment.

1. Cloudless

8 years later, 2023. Near Seolleung Station.

"No. No. Taking pictures is not allowed either. We don't know what might pop out of that rift. Left side! 5th and 6th floors of the building, close the windows quickly! It's dangerous, so close the windows and don't stand nearby!"

Upon hearing the warning, the windows facing the scene that were open halfway closed, but in less than 5 minutes, people stuck their heads out again.

"It hasn't turned into a dungeon yet. Then it should be safe... They say it takes more than 24 hours for a rift to become a dungeon!"

"That's the average, and there can always be exceptions!"

"Eh, it doesn't even look that big!"

The onlookers surrounding the police line also protested, emitting white breath from their mouths. However, the police also had their own circumstances. If they carelessly let people close and something happened, the responsibility would fall entirely on them. However, the citizens kept approaching, stretching out their hands holding cell phones, and countless hashtags and photos such as #RiftOccurrence and #SeolleungStation_Rift were already being uploaded on social media.

On a weekday morning, the heart of Seoul boasted a high population density as dense as the packed buildings. Of all places, a long black line was drawn about 20m away from the sidewalk.

That crack in the empty air was called a rift.

The pitch-black rift, which looked like a black ribbon string floating from afar, was fortunately grade 4 or weaker according to detection. If it was a rift of this grade, it could be eliminated by firing live ammunition or detonating small bombs without deploying hunters.

The problem was that this place was Gangnam at 9:20 in the morning.

"I told you not to come close! No, crazy, a drone... Ha..."

Befitting a bustling area where IT companies were heavily located, a drone flew out of a window, hovered around, and then fled. The police officer rubbed his throbbing forehead.

If it had been a secluded place, they could have blocked the road and completely controlled the surroundings, but they couldn't even block the sidewalk at this busy hour. They were short-handed not only for rift removal but also for stopping the people peeking around.

A police officer who was struggling to hold back the crowd asked his junior next to him.

"When did they say the person from the Rift Headquarters is coming?"

"They said they sent someone right away."

A citizen who overheard the conversation due to being at the very front brightened up.

"A hunter from the Rift Headquarters is coming? Who's coming? Awesome. I hope many of them come."

"Everyone needs to step back for the dispatched hunter to approach the rift!"

"You really must not come inside this line, absolutely!"

8 years after the destruction of the 2nd Great Rift.

Until now, no rift that could be called a disaster on the scale of that time had occurred. However, rifts of various sizes continued endlessly. The number of awakeners who possessed supernatural abilities to eliminate such rifts also increased.

Among the awakeners, the government officials belonging to the Rift Phenomenon Management Headquarters gained a new title called hunters. Now, in Korea, the term hunter has taken root more than agent, awakener, or hero.

Moreover, their treatment had completely changed from the past when their activities ended with just a single line in an article.

At the news that a hunter from the headquarters had been dispatched, people didn't even make way; they took their spots and tapped on their cell phones. Messages like "They called a hunter here. Come quickly!" spread rapidly through social media via radio waves.

"Isn't he here yet? Ah, there are so many people... I should have just come out the other exit."

A citizen who arrived late at the scene reached the end of the crowd. He raised his toes and peeked at the scene.

At that moment, someone tapped his shoulder. It must have meant to move, so he ignored it, pretending to look ahead. However, the hand tapping his shoulder was persistent.

"Ah, what! ...Oh, gasp...!"

Standing where he turned around was a brown-haired man in a black suit. That face was one he had seen countless times on the screen. In the numerous rift destruction videos spread on the internet, he had looked somewhat small, but in reality, he was much taller.

"I'm trying to get the kickboard out."

He pulled the public kickboard (electric scooter) wedged between the onlooker and the tree. The trembling finger pointed at him.

"Jin Soram!"

Hearing that sound, a few people who looked back opened their mouths.

"Gasp, Jin Soram! Crazy, Soram appeared!"

"Yes, hello. This is okay to use, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes! U-use it, it's there for that."

"Hey, hey. You'll regret stomping your feet for not coming today. Soram is here!"

Soram hung the bag he had brought on the kickboard handle. And without even kicking the kickstand, he got on the kickboard as it was. As he sat on the handle, the kickboard floated up, carrying him.