6.
Mind reading.
Min Woo-seong, a high-ranking ascendant with the ability to read people’s minds, had often found himself surrounded by power-hungry figures at the association. To survive, he had instinctively cultivated the skill of discerning the true intentions of those in power.
‘This is nothing new.’
His insight, developed through sheer effort aside from his mind-reading ability, suddenly flashed.
‘That hesitation, it’s the kind seen when soone does sothing they don’t want to do. That ans Hae Eung-eung is looking for a reason to save that monster.’
It wasn’t an easy thing to do.
There had already been casualties in the raid.
And the caran were still recording.
Any footage leaking out would result in the action of not killing the monster being seen as a betrayal of humanity.
‘This is a dangerous thing to report, and it should never be reported.’
The National Security Agency couldn’t learn about it.
If Hae Eung-eung made such a dangerous choice, it would lead to a terrifying future where returnees and monsters united to invade humanity from the inside and out.
Min Woo-seong feared that kind of future.
‘But at the sa ti, it’s an opportunity.’
From what he had seen of Hae Eung-eung so far, despite the insane powers typical of returnees, she still adhered to modern sensibilities and so degree of secular morality.
She followed small rules that seed insignificant compared to her violent nature.
‘If I’m wrong, I’m no better than that crazy psychologist.’
But if he was right…
This could be the opportunity he needed to earn her trust.
"You are a great loyalist."
"Transfer Jumping Rabbit to Ujiu, and from now on, handle the HR departnt."
"Of course, if A-Young threatens you to play gas, I’ll sternly warn her that you’re valuable and too busy to play."
If he could earn her trust, he would be free from Jumping Rabbit.
The journey to becoming a max-level rabbit, the hours spent fighting through over 100 challenges, would all be over.
For that happy future, Min Woo-seong gathered his courage and reinforced the psychologist's observation.
"Arachne is the first human to win against the gods, but her talent and arrogant nature brought her the gods' wrath and she was cursed."
"!"
"Perhaps what the psychologist said was an attempt to interpret that part."
One more mistake, and Min Woo-seong was ready to kill her himself.
When he subtly showed the gun hidden in his coat, the psychologist turned pale.
"Resentnt is a simple concept! It's about a weak person who blas their helplessness on being good! They believe the reason for their weakness is because they are too kind!"
[What does that have to do with Arachne?]
"Arachne, despite winning the contest, is still a loser in the face of divine violence. So she believes that as the righteous loser, whatever she does must be justified."
It was textbook theory and a textbook tragedy.
It was then that Hae Eung-eung understood what the psychologist was trying to convey.
[That’s enough.]
The psychologist’s words hadn’t been in vain.
Min Woo-seong gave her the help she needed most.
[Woo-seong, take him and retreat.]
The monster, once incomprehensible, now revealed its essence to Hae Eung-eung’s eyes.
She sheathed her sword.
‘I can do it now.’
She had a strong premonition.
7.
Arachne revealed her anger.
"Are you also going to call a slave and a loser?"
[No, I’m not.]
There was no aning in further fighting.
Hae Eung-eung did not respond to her anger with anger of her own.
[You said you saw an enemy in .]
[I see my past in you.]
Arachne’s leg slamd down harshly.
On the shaking surface of the spiderweb, Hae Eung-eung didn’t even blink.
[There was an enemy. The ruler of the human world, who thought that by taking everything from , I would be forced to rely on him.]
[The brainwashing imprinted in my soul by his curse created many restrictions for for a long ti.]
Once a month, after losing a sword contest with the king, I had to shorten the length of the clothes I wore by an inch (3 cm) each ti.
Each loss to the king increased my submission to him.
When I couldn’t perform well enough at the king’s banquet, I had to endure all humiliation until the banquet was over, becoming nothing more than furniture.
There were other sches devised to slowly break down my body and mind,
the emperor’s malicious brainwashing.
[The sha directed at , I could bear. But the deaths of my sect, people who were like family to , I could never forgive.]
Arachne’s raised leg froze as it hovered above Hae Eung-eung’s head.
[So used my grudge for their own gain. They imprinted the Blood Ranger’s curse on , making unable to feel pain, allowing to exert even greater strength than before.]
[Honestly, I was glad. With the power of the Blood Ranger, I could finally take revenge.]
The Blood Cult’s curse.
A power that could be broken at any ti if she willed it.
She hadn’t rejected it because she had chosen it for herself.
She saw it as a tool needed for revenge.
[For the Blood Cult that gave strength, I was willing to kill anyone who stood in the way.]
[There were those who sought my body as well, but after dealing with them a few tis, no one dared to try anything further.]
[But one day, I t another survivor of my annihilated sect.]
Soone she had longed to et again.
It was a reunion she had thought would never happen.
She should have been happy.
She wanted to hold their hand and shed tears of joy.
But the leader of the Blood Cult spoke.
"Are you going to forgive the betrayer who abandoned the sect?"
"He, unlike you, stayed by the sect’s side."
"Yet he failed to protect the sect and survived alone. Can soone like that not be called a betrayer?"
Kill the betrayer.
At those words, the reunion ended.
All that remained was the judgnt of the betrayer.
"Awaken, Hae Eung-eung. I trust you. You are... not soone who would do such a thing."
A hand reached toward her.
Her heart raced, fearing an attack.
The talisman she threw pierced his vital point out of reflex.
He slowly, deliberately, took the wanted poster that described her, made his way to the distant lands of Haenampa, and, whenever she grew disheartened, he brought her sweets wrapped in cheap paper, reminding her of a forgotten lie.
"The sweetness of the sweets... it’s sothing needed by those whose hearts are troubled... just like how soone who knows bitterness craves sweetness..."
It was a lie, one ant to soothe soone like a child, a lie long forgotten.
“No. Don’t die. I was wrong.”
She cried, clinging to him, biting her hand and carving words into it.
Then, the elder of her sect, who had been dying, smiled.
"At last... I’ve t the child I knew. You’ve grown well. Truly well..."
The elder, who had traveled tirelessly to et her, whose feet were worn down and whose skin had suffered in the journey, was now the one she had to kill herself.
The terrible sin of destroying the teacher and betraying her ancestors, this was the mont she realized the cost of revenge.
"You are not the one to bla."
"Nor was he to bla."
"The ones to bla are the Martial Arts League and the Emperor, who led you both to this tragedy."
It was at that mont that Hae Eung-eung’s eyes opened.
She hadn’t been seeking revenge.
The vengeance that blinded her, that led her to accept the curse of the Blood Cult and use it, was all part of the cunning whispers of the Blood Cult’s leader.
Her thoughts had never been her own.
Her experiences hadn’t been judged by her own reasoning.
She had trusted the connections from her sect and followed their guidance, and this tragedy was the result.
The long dream filled with revenge and hatred had finally reached its end.
[The revenge and grudge have not been abandoned.]
[But I will no longer let the handle of the sword be taken from .]
The sword is not sothing handed to soone else.
It is sothing you hold within yourself.
[Now I understand. I’ve beco stronger because of this.]
[And I will not make the sa mistakes again.]
[So that I won’t repeat an irreversible tragedy.]
Because of this past, because she had overco it,
Hae Eung-eung could now extend her hand to Arachne.
[My past might not be exactly the sa as yours.]
[But it could be a lesson for you, so you don’t repeat the sa mistakes.]
The Arachne that Hae Eung-eung saw now
was no longer a figure of fear or hatred.
It was rely another version of herself, trapped in the body of a gigantic monster.
[If my past had been imprisoned by the Blood Cult’s curse, now you are trapped in the body of a monster.]
"Don’t talk like you know everything. Even without the Blood Cult’s curse, I had other powers, but without the body of a monster, I have nothing."
[You are the first human to defeat a god, the first in human history.]
"All of that was pointless. It had no aning in the face of the whims and violence of the gods!"
[You must have tried.]
Arachne’s eyes widened.
[For a long ti.]
[For an unimaginable amount of ti.]
[You must have sacrificed much pleasure and freedom.]
[Only for one purpose.]
[To beco the greatest in the world.]
Even though weaving and swordsmanship are different skills,
Hae Eung-eung understood well the harshness of striving to be the best.
[You must have wanted to prove it.]
[That you weren’t wrong.]
[You must have wanted recognition.]
[From everyone in the world.]
[And from every ruler of the world.]
You wanted only to be recognized as the strongest.
The highest point in the world.
Purely, only that.
[And you have already been recognized.]
"... recognized?"
[You’ve heard it before. The first human to defeat a god. You were already recognized. It took a long ti for that fact to be acknowledged.]
All your effort,
your battle...
[It was not in vain.]
At Hae Eung-eung’s sincere words,
tears fell from Arachne’s eyes.
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