Translator: Nox
Chapter: Chapter 36
Two Choices
When the Hunters opened their eyes, they had been moved to the front of a waterfall valley.
In front of the valley, a pile of yellow ore, transported by the Parrot Poison Bird, was stacked high.
"Good timing. The ore has just been delivered. From now on, you will polish and cut this ore."
"C-Cut?"
"Yes. Cut it into this shape."
Cheon Dowoon tossed a huge piece of ore into the air.
Each time he moved his fingers, the ore bounced in the air and began to be cut.
When the work was finished, three long rectangular stones, about 60 centimeters in length, fell with a thud.
"Clean the ore and cut it into this size, then stack it up. All the ore over there."
The Hunters looked at each other, dumbfounded by the sudden ore cutting task.
They didn't know why they were being asked to do this, but it was just cutting stones. It was a piece of cake for them, A-Class Hunters.
'I thought he would ask us to do something difficult. It's nothing.'
'I can finish this right away.'
'Let's report this to the guild as soon as we get back. We'll form a large team and come back.'
The Hunters communicated with glances and nodded.
"Ah, right. I almost forgot. Nam Ki-seok. Did you do everything I asked?"
"Yes, Big Bro! I made them all!"
Nam Ki-seok ran from afar at Cheon Dowoon's call. In the bowl he held out, white powder was clumped into small pills.
"I'll give you this every time you cut a piece of ore. Take one each time."
"What is that?"
"Dust of Oblivion."
For a moment, they doubted their ears.
Dust of Oblivion, which could erase memories just by inhaling it. Pollen from a plant that grew in the Cliff Zone.
They recoiled in horror at the offer to eat it.
"E-Eat it? That stuff erases memories just by inhaling it."
"That's right."
"The minimum unit of memory loss is supposed to be three hours. You want us to eat all of that..."
Was this what he meant by letting them live? They looked at the pills in the bowl.
"How much memory is lost by eating one?"
"Well, it's most effective when inhaled. Taking it orally doesn't have much of an effect. One pill will only erase about a month's worth of memories."
A month. Cheap for the price of their lives.
The problem was that the ore to be cut was piled up like a mountain.
They had to eat one Oblivion Pill each time they finished cutting one piece.
Would they have any memories left to take back when they finished cutting all that ore? As the Hunters turned pale, Cheon Dowoon smiled.
"I'm not forcing you. I told you I'd give you a choice."
"T-Then is there another choice?"
"Yeah. You can go back with all your memories erased, or you can hold out without eating and die from the time limit. Since you're A-Class Hunters, you can last more than ten days in the Demon Realm. Pick whichever you like."
"This... what kind of choice is this!"
"You don't like it?"
"Of course not! Who would accept something like this!"
"If you don't like it, I'll just kill you."
The Hunters flinched at the casually spoken words. Cheon Dowoon looked around at them and said,
"Think carefully. This is your last chance to go back alive."
"Why... why are you doing this? What did we do so wrong?"
"You haven't done anything that deserves death yet. But you will when you get back."
"Huh...?"
"You're going to request support and come back, aren't you?"
It was a pointed remark, but the Hunters shook their heads.
"N-No, we're not."
"You're not? You're planning to form a team and come back, right? You could live comfortably for the rest of your lives just by taking the Mandragora in the garden. And it would be nice to kill me and get revenge for the dent in your pride. Right?"
"Absolutely not! We would never...!"
"Enough. Make your choice. I'm telling you again, this is your last chance."
It was a relaxed voice. A sincere voice. If they argued again, the choice itself would disappear.
The Hunters, sensing this, turned ashen. They realized that it was useless to say anything, as he saw through their intentions.
"Looks like you've made your decision. I'll be watching from above. Nam Ki-seok, you supervise them here."
"Yes, Big Bro!"
Cheon Dowoon left those words and jumped up above the waterfall.
As Nam Ki-seok was left alone, the Hunters' eyes gleamed again.
"Hey. You're a Hunter too, right? Let's make a deal."
"A deal?"
"We'll just pretend to eat it, so turn a blind eye. We'll pay you whatever you want when we get back. We're all three A-Class Hunters. We have plenty of money saved up."
"We'll leave our Hunter IDs here as proof. How about it?"
The three took out their cards from their pockets. Nam Ki-seok, seeing this, also took out his card.
Why are you taking out your Hunter ID too? The Hunters, who had that look on their faces, widened their eyes.
"T-That's...!"
A black card that shone like an opal depending on the angle. The exclusive property of the upper class that they had only heard about. Nam Ki-seok held up the black card.
"You're talking about payment in front of me? Do you have more money than me?"
He never thought that bringing his wallet when crossing the Gate would be this helpful. Nam Ki-seok grinned and looked at the Hunters.
A sense of pity as a fellow Hunter. Compassion to secretly do them a favor.
He didn't have even a speck of that.
"I get to take revenge for what happened a year ago like this."
"What? What are you talking about..."
"Don't you remember? I remember your faces clearly. You laughed at me at the promotion exam."
The Hunters were flustered. Having become A-Class Hunters at lightning speed, they had lived a life where it was natural to look down on others.
The words that they had laughed at someone at the promotion exam. There were too many possibilities, so they didn't know what he was talking about.
"You don't remember. You called me a fool who doesn't know how to give up. You said my pride was falling out along with my hair? When did you ever pour the coffee you were drinking on me in front of everyone? Why are you clinging to me now?"
"What... N-Nam Ki-seok? That guy who's been taking the exam for six years..."
"I'm glad you recognize me now. Everyone in this industry knows how dirty your personalities are. This is great. There's a lot of Dust of Oblivion here. Let's go for a personality reset."
Nam Ki-seok laughed, tapping the ore piled up next to him.
Is this what they mean by meeting your enemy on a narrow bridge?
He never thought he would meet those three here. He never thought he would get to vent his anger like this.
"As expected, if you follow Big Bro, good things come even when you're sleeping."
Today is a really happy day. Nam Ki-seok laughed heartily.
The Hunters, whose last hope had been cut off, slumped down with miserable faces.
* * *
Cheon Dowoon arrived at the waterfall cliff where the siblings were sitting. The siblings, who had been watching the situation, burst into laughter as soon as he arrived.
"Is this what you mean by giving them a choice? This is hell no matter what you choose."
To live, they had to cut the ore. Each time they cut it, they had to erase their own memories one by one.
In that dilemma, they would experience sticky regret and anguish.
"You said you used the method you used on the instructor at the research center? What happened back then?"
The siblings asked with fascinated faces. It wasn't a secret, so Cheon Dowoon began to talk about what happened back then.
"You know I had Pollen Allergy when I was young, right?"
"Yeah, I know. It was really bad."
"After you guys escaped, I received a transplant of cells from a plant. It wasn't for the development of Chimera abilities. It was an experiment conducted at the request of another company."
A backroom deal with a pharmaceutical company.
At the time, it was not uncommon for legitimate companies to commission illegal research centers to conduct human experiments.
It had only been 20 years since the Gates opened.
A time of chaos when the world, which had once collapsed, was just beginning to prepare to rise again.
In those days, when the line between law and illegality was blurred, such things were common.
[The request we received this time is for a drug to improve allergies, right? It would be perfect to experiment on No. 17 with this, wouldn't it? He has a really bad Pollen Allergy.]
The cells that were injected in that way were cells from the white flower of the Cliff Zone, the Flower of Oblivion.
[We have modified the cells to be transplanted as planned. The ability of Oblivion has been removed.]
[So, if we inject these cells, only the allergy will disappear.]
[Yes. Let's do it.]
The researchers were confident, but the experiment ended in failure.
Cheon Dowoon's constitution was improved and his allergy disappeared, but it had no effect at all in other experimental groups.
The research was covered up in a vague way.
"In the beginning, I didn't have the ability of Oblivion either. I had cells transplanted that had that ability removed. I could secrete white powder from my body, but that was it."
If he wanted, powder would pour out of his skin. The problem was that it was powder with no ability at all.
It was just like creating dandruff from his body.
"I was just going to live my life controlling the powder so it wouldn't come out. But at that time, there was an instructor who kept picking fights with me."
Cheon Dowoon was a person of interest in many ways within the research center. From some point on, the researchers and instructors also avoided him carefully.
There was an instructor who didn't like that atmosphere.
[He's just a kid anyway. He's just a test subject. I heard he even had an Explosion spell engraved on his body. We're holding the leash, so why are you guys being so careful around him?]
[Well, the director of the research center also gave instructions...]
[Enough. Don't tell me what to do with my training policy. That's why I was scouted.]
The former C-Class Hunter had a strong sense of pride.
He would say as a habit that he would have become a B-Class if he hadn't injured his leg.
To him, this research center, where Awakened below D-Class were instructors, seemed ridiculous.
[Just watch. I'll completely break that guy's spirit within a month.]
[What are you going to do?]
[I'm going to work him to death under the guise of training. If I make him run around for a few days, he'll cry and beg. I'll make him crawl like a dog.]
[No, that method was used by the instructor who was here before...]
The researchers stopped talking. How many employees had disappeared without a trace after acting like that?
'Another one's going like this.'
That's all they did was click their tongues. From that day on, the instructor began to abuse Cheon Dowoon under the guise of training.
[This is a training method I researched. You'll have to verify whether it's effective.]
[Is this training? Starving me and not letting me sleep for more than ten days?]
[It's training. Chimeras sometimes have their abilities activated when they're in extreme situations. I'm doing that experiment.]
[Experiment? You're not a researcher, instructor.]
[No, I'm not. But there's no law that says only researchers can experiment. Isn't that right?]
The instructor grinned. Cheon Dowoon, hearing those words, also grinned.
Why are you smiling? The instructor felt a strange sense of foreboding and goosebumps. Cheon Dowoon repeated the instructor's words and nodded.
[That's right. There's no law that says only researchers can experiment. I needed to do an experiment too.]
Cheon Dowoon looked at the instructor and smiled again. He had a good test subject in front of him.
Why are you smiling? Why are you smiling? The instructor held back the urge to ask.
From that day on, Cheon Dowoon's experiment began.
He put Dust of Oblivion on the instructor's clothes. He sprinkled it on his hair. He put it in his coffee cup.
He broke into his room while he was sleeping and sprinkled it on his bed.
"It was a very beneficial time."
At first, there was no change. Nevertheless, Cheon Dowoon did not stop the experiment.
1 year. 2 years. 3 years. In the ongoing experiment, changes occurred little by little.
"Whether I should call it the regeneration ability of a monster. The ability that was removed at the cellular level was regenerated."
The first unit of memory he erased was 10 seconds. The lost memory quickly returned.
It was at the level of forgetfulness, but Cheon Dowoon, having confirmed that it could affect memory, accelerated the experiment even more.
30 seconds, 1 minute, 1 hour... The amount of time he could erase memories gradually increased, and it took 10 years for that ability to be activated.
"10 years?"
"Yeah. It was an ability that was removed at the cell transplant stage. When you think about it, it's a miracle that it was regenerated."
"So... that instructor ate and inhaled Dust of Oblivion for 10 years."
Cheon Dowoon, who developed his abilities tirelessly for 10 years, and the instructor, who endured being a test subject for 10 years without even knowing it.
Both are amazing. The siblings had confused faces, not knowing which part they should be surprised at.
"So, did that instructor lose all his memories?"
"Not completely. The power of Oblivion I had at the time was weak. He thought he had a brain disease for 10 years."
[What did I do so wrong? Why are you tormenting me for 10 years! Hey, you crazy bastard, are you even human! Give me back my memories!]
The instructor who shouted that flashed through his mind.
The instructor, who learned the truth, packed his bags that day and resigned as if running away. Cheon Dowoon did not know his whereabouts after that.
"You've lived so dynamically even after we left the research center."
The siblings admired, but then looked over Cheon Dowoon's shoulder.
"Wait. Aren't those the roots you're raising?"
Yoo-beom discovered the small roots with his unique eyesight.
The path that Cheon Dowoon had naturally created while going back and forth between his house and the waterfall. The Mandragora were walking in a line along that path.
-Hoo-eung.
-Hueung!
-Hoo-eung.
-Hueung!
Open the way. We're coming. The Mandragora, who were regularly hueung-ing as if shouting that, looked around.
They looked quite dignified with their heads held high.
"It's time for them to sleep in the garden. Why are they here?"
The Mandragora do not stray far from their habitat unless something happens.
Did something happen? Cheon Dowoon jumped down towards the Mandragora.
