Japan (1)
“Ah, I’m so drunk.”
Don’t joke like that. Kim Min-hyuk managed to swallow the words that bubbled up to his throat.
Hochi was emptying his glass of soju and then stumbled drunkenly and slurred his words. Of course, this situation wasn’t real.
Even the average Awakened couldn’t easily get drunk, so Hochi couldn’t have gotten drunk after just a few glasses of soju.
Kim Min-hyuk endured Hochi’s behaviour with a patient heart, pretending nothing was wrong.
“Hey! Anyone can get drunk if they drink! Why are you looking at me like that?”
Of course, a person can get drunk while drinking. They may also behave differently than usual. However, he thought it wasn’t right of Hochi to pretend to be drunk even though he wasn’t.
Whatever Kim Min-hyuk thought, Hochi kept emptying his glass. He lowered his head and sighed loudly.
Hochi looked drunk as hell, and his acting was exceptional.
“Hey…I have a problem,” Hochi said.
Hochi was pretending to be drunk because he wanted to talk about this problem.
From what he read in the books, characters often talked aboutt their troubles while drunk and revealed rather embarrassing stories int eh open. Most importantly, there was no worry about being ashamed of them.
His train of thought was a side effect of learning about the world only through writing.
Kim Min-hyuk thought about ignoring Hochi’s words for a while, but he finally decided to answer back.
“What problem do you have?”
“Career Problem.”
That was a grave concern. Unlike Kim Min-hyuk, who was dispirited, Hochi was extremely serious.
“What should I do in the future?”
Kim Min-hyuk had nothing to say. He didn’t know much about Hochi.
He was proud to know quite a bit about Lee Ho-jae, but the only thing he knew about Hochi was that he was Lee Jo-jae’s clone, liked to eat, read novels, and was occasionally childish.
So Kim Min-hyuk gave him the best answer he could think of. “Would it be possible to live doing what you want to do?”
Hochi became more serious upon hearing those words.
* * *
Kim Min-hyuk eventually decided to give Hochi a job.
That was also a silent indication that he would rather throw a bomb at others rather than suffer from a stress-induced attack.
And after hearing Hochi’s troubles, there was one thing he was sure of. Kim Min-hyuk couldn’t leave Hochi, who was agonizing over his future, alone at home. Even if Kim Min-hyuk tried to stop him, he was sure that Hochi would go out and try different things.
Kim Min-hyuk quickly looked for work for Hochi. He resolved the issues with the government, which he had considered most seriously.
Instead of letting Hochi do some work for the government, Kim Min-hyuk quickly got the government to agree to cover up the Seoul Station incident neatly.
A few days later…
Hochi, Seregia, and Yong-yong boarded a plane departing for Japan.
“Can’t we just fly straight there?” Seregia asked. She laid on her back with her pulled back to its limit. She was talking with her head turned to the side.
Hochi thought it was a little strange for her to ask that while she was having more fun eating in-flight meals earlier than anyone else.
“We can’t. We’re going with the Korean government.”
After finishing talking, Hochi glanced at Lee Joon-suk. Lee Joon-suk nodded as if he was right.
Flying without permission came under the jurisdiction of one law or another.
However, the biggest problem would be if the Japanese side perceived the unauthorized entry of Hochi and his party as a serious threat.
In that case, the situation would become very dangerous. For Japan, at least.
Lee Joon-suk was extremely anxious.
He had no idea why Kim Min-hyuk was sending them to Japan with him.
In fact, he had just gotten his hands on a bomb.
All the more so because Lee Joon-suk had seen Yong-yong cry in front of the corpse of a bloody mantis in Pyongyang.
No one knew who was going to die by mistake this time.
He had hoped Hochi would clamp down Yong-yong’s behavior a little more, but Hochi didn’t seem to have any intention of doing so.
Compared to Lee Joon-suk, who was in deep thoughts, Hochi was busy looking out the window.
He couldn’t get enough of the scenery outside the window.
It was beautiful.
He wondered why the others were not interested.
The cool open blue sea made his heart cool just by looking at it.
Maybe it was because Hochi was born and raised on the 60th floor.
Yong-yong was too, but Hochi’s position was slightly different.
When Hochi was born, the 60th floor was a place that had collapsed because of Lee Ho-jae’s whims and he had to rebuild it from time to time.
It had always been dark, chaotic.
It was Hochi’s daily routine to spend time in the rubble of some collapsed buildings.
Ever since Hochi was declared useless, he had always been stuck in the rubble.
At that time, Lee Ho-jae didn’t even want to think of Hochi.
He may have wanted to treat it as if it had never happened.
Remains of buildings piled up in a corner because he was too lazy to rebuild after destroying them.
With that, Hochi thought his situation was no different.
Maybe that’s why he was used to being trapped in a narrow place.
And when his eyes fell on the expansive view in front of him, he felt a strange emotion surging in him.
* * *
“Wow!”
He let out a gasp.
Was the airport supposed to be this noisy?
Hochi thought to himself.
A camera flash went off from the front.
It was distracting.
Seregia quickly disappeared.
The reporters and the crowd who witnessed it became more surprised, and shouts and whispers rang out.
Lee Joon-suk was looking at Hochi and Yong-yong with anxious eyes.
Of course, it was a welcome from Japan, but usually, Awakened people did not like the situation.
“Hello!”
Fortunately, it seemed that Yong-yong liked it.
Lee Joon-suk’s heart was about to jump out of his throat.
At the moment, he was very nervous because he thought Yong-yong was going to do something else other than greeting.
His only consolation was that Hochi was holding Yong-yong.
Initially, he had to give a brief interview, but Lee Joon-suk tried to get them out of the airport as soon as possible.
With his subpar Japanese, he urged the bodyguards to move ahead. He claimed to be a guard and sent the party through the crowd.
Sometimes whenever Yong-yong gave a high five to someone’s hand, a bead of sweat rolled down Lee Joon-suk’s face.
Only after getting in the waiting limousine did Lee Joon-suk breathe with ease.
Although he had superhuman lung capacity, the lack of breathing from psychological pressure was inevitable.
“But is the airport always like this? You used to come to Korea very quietly,” asked Hochi.
Of course, he always came quietly to Korea.
Kim Min-hyuk had never tried to expose his entrance to the public.
This trip was a huge sensation in Korea, too.
Hochi’s dispatch to Japan was reported as breaking news.
The government tried to arrange a press conference, including them.
They even scheduled a visit to the Blue House and a meeting and planned to broadcast the entire departure process live, but all of it fell through because of Kim Min-hyuk’s fierce opposition.
In the end, the government had to be satisfied with putting the words “government supervision” in front of the party’s departure to Japan.
“Because Min-hyuk isn’t in Japan.”
Hochi was quickly convinced.
There were a few more reasons.
Kim Min-hyuk had made sure that the Japanese government understood his intentions, but the Japanese government ignored it.
It wasn’t a correct decision for this situation, but the Japanese government was in a hurry.
While the world was slowly stabilizing, Japan was still one of the countries classified as the front line.
It was difficult for them, considering that most of the people on the front lines were originally from third-rate countries or remote areas with few people.
In the meantime, the influx of Awakened was decreasing, and the Awakened people responsible for the Japanese front were starting to leave Japan one by one.
Even awakened Japanese have begun to stick to the goal of individual advancement rather than joining in melting the crisis.
The people thought it would be better to go abroad before it was too late.
The sun was setting.
It was so dark that he couldn’t see it beyond the horizon.
That was the world’s judgment on Japan, and the truth was.
“It’s my first time out of the country.”
Hochi mumbled.
Not really.
The South Pole was also a foreign place.
Anyway, this was the first time that Hochi had ever been abroad in his perception.
“I’ve been to Japan.” said the mantis, who was sitting quietly in the box.
“Oh, yeah?” Hochi asked in wonder.
And Lee Joon-suk felt gloomy inside.
He didn’t care about that.
The tiny collection box was hanging on Yong-yong’s neck.
The wart that looked like a winged female human being in that box.
This was going to become a huge mess in its own way.
‘I don’t care anymore. It’s going to work somehow.’
After thinking for a while, Lee Joon-suk finally gave up.
The mantis talked about its experiences when it came to Japan.
“The eastern coast of Japan is a disaster. Awakened people from different countries and groups form a military camp, and monsters pop up once in a while from the coast. It’s almost like a mobile game.”
A G-class monster referring to mobile games.
It was the end of life.
“Sometimes monsters come out in large numbers, or stronger ones come out. Humans call them ‘waves’.”
“Oh.”
Hochi was very interested.
The wave in eastern Japan was a very grave threat that had been mentioned a few years ago as ‘The reason for the end of East Asia’.
“Then I got mixed up with the Awakened. It’s so crazy when there’s a wave. Well, there wasn’t much talking or anything. We just ate all that we can see.”
The mantis recalled the days with a sigh…
Lee Joon-suk had no choice but to feel disgusted at the mantis talking in a nostalgic tone.
Among those who died in Japan were Lee Joon-suk’s former colleagues.
“You can’t eat anyone now.”
“Did you get caught?”
Yong-yong and Hochi said to the mantis.
Unfortunately, no one among them felt the same way as Lee Joon-suk.
* * *
“I’m sure.”
Park Min answered to the voice that asked again.
The voice asked Park Min as if it was dissatisfied.
‘Your voice sounds weak. What’s the matter?’
At the question, Park Min started to feel angry.
No matter how hard he tried to conceal his feelings, the god tried to bring out his hidden feelings.
Park Min asked back like a beast growling in a low tone.
“…what do you mean?”
God was amused to hear the voice.
‘Now it sounds better. That’s not weak, but I do sense hatred.”
Park Min didn’t say anything more.
Instead, a crackling sound came out of his mouth quietly.
‘Why can’t you be a little more grateful? I think I saved your life.’
The voice wasn’t serious, asking for a severe change of attitude.
Instead, it was a playful, teasing way of speaking.
The voice was right.
If Park Min had met Lee Ho-jae as scheduled, his head would have been pulled out at once.
Lee Ho-jae had no intention of hunting G-class in Park Min’s mind, and he could probably see that Park Min wanted to take advantage of the confusion that G-class would bring.
The result would have been the same, even if any excuse had been prepared.
The god spoke to Park Min, who was struggling in the office.
Let’s make a deal.
The deal was simple.
Let’s cooperate to drive out our common enemy named Lee Ho-jae.
First, the god made Park Min and Lee Ho-jae not meet, and Park Min decided to let them know Lee Ho-jae and his party’s ways.
The god kept his word.
By murdering Park Min’s father, who was lying in bed.
It was Park Min himself who wanted to avoid Lee Ho-jae.
However, he did not want to make such an extreme escape by his father’s death.
‘Are you sure you have the right information?’
He wanted to yell at him to get out of his head at once, with a hate-filled voice.
But he couldn’t scream like that, since he would just be driving a knife inside his own chest.
He could not give the god’s assistance up now.
The result was obvious if the god refused to help.
He would either hide somewhere and live as a fugitive for the rest of his life, or he’ll die because of Lee Ho-jae.
He could have died at once by the hands of the God of Hope.
It wasn’t because he was wasting his life.
Nor was it because of his ambition.
What had already been lost was too great.
To make it meaningless, Park Min had to win in the end.
There was no turning back, no breaking-off, no way out.
“…yes, only the three of them are going to Japan. Lee Ho-jae is still in Seoul. And he was said to out-of-town for a while because he had some work to do.”
