* * *
It felt like snapping a reed, but I knew better than anyone that I hadn’t actually done something like that.
“Ah.”
“Aaagh! Uwaaaaah!”
Sure enough, the man who had grabbed me was screaming, clutching an arm that was twisted at an unnatural angle and blackened like it was dead.
The cold that had settled over my head was now replaced with a sudden, feverish heat.
I was confused.
Even though I was seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe what I’d just done.
I already knew that even without using my ability, I was far, far stronger than any normal person—so strong that even a small action could have destructive results—but I didn’t think it would be this bad.
Maybe I’d let my guard down because Taehwan, who touched me most often, was so tough that no matter what I did to him, he never seemed to mind.
I really had tried to control my strength.
Honestly, all I’d wanted was to push him away so he couldn’t lay a hand on me.
“I—I didn’t do that on purpose…”
They, too, hadn’t expected me to actually break someone’s arm.
I could see the clear unease on their faces.
“Damn it, I was gonna take you nicely.”
If things had gone this far, I’d hoped the damage would be enough to scare them off—but unfortunately, the opposite happened.
Maybe they got angry seeing their comrade injured, because in an instant, the air among them turned hostile.
The ones who’d had empty hands were now pulling out weapons, and even those who had been standing back to watch began advancing toward me.
“Ah…”
I instinctively stepped back—but ironically, in this situation, I was by no means the one most in danger.
Were they really here to target an S-rank awakened?
They had numbers, sure, but they weren’t that strong.
I wondered if they even had an awakened among them.
If we fought head-on, they’d fall like leaves in an autumn wind.
Besides, even now, their bodies were wrapped in countless red lines of varying thickness and length.
These were the same lines that could shred monsters in an instant—there was no way an ordinary human could stand against them.
Let alone an awakened one, a regular human wouldn’t stand a chance.
The problem was… my ability was too strong.
Even if I tried not to take their lives, every time I used it, there was no guarantee their limbs would remain attached.
That alone was horrifying—but for a non-awakened person to survive such injuries was even less likely.
If I didn’t use my ability and tried to fight them hand-to-hand… well, I’d never learned martial arts.
With so many of them, it would turn into a desperate contest of strength, and if I lost control again, someone could end up dead.
The mere thought made me feel nauseous.
But just because it was hard to deal with them didn’t mean I could just let myself get caught.
These people had approached me with clear malice.
Who knew what they’d do?
Even if I came out of it alive, Taehwan would be worried sick.
That alone was enough to make it impossible for me to give in.
…In the end, there was only one way to get out of this.
“Get him! Kill that bastard!”
Run!
So what if I looked pathetic?
It didn’t matter.
It’s not like I’d ever cared about looking cool in the first place.
At the very least, I couldn’t let them catch me before Taehwan got here.
But things didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped.
With the body of an S-rank hunter, I thought I could shake them off quickly—but maybe I wasn’t used to running yet, or maybe it was just the exhaustion from everything that had happened.
Even running at full speed, I didn’t seem to be putting much distance between us.
Worse yet, I heard the sound of a car engine starting.
There was no road this way—were they seriously planning to chase me down in a vehicle?
A chill of fear ran down my spine.
If they caught me, there was no way this would end peacefully—whether I hurt them or they tried to hurt me.
I had to get out of here before that happened.
In the end, I tore open the first blue line I saw and jumped through it without thinking.
“What the hell?”
“Wait—he’s an awakened?”
“I knew something was off!”
“Nobody said he was an awakened—”
“…Heeya!”
For a moment, I worried they’d come right after me through the line—but apparently, they hadn’t known I was awakened.
That was unexpected. I’d assumed they were targeting me because I was an easy-to-grab S-rank, but it seemed they hadn’t even realized.
It only made their motives more confusing, but at least it worked in my favor for escaping.
They clearly hadn’t expected me to have any kind of movement ability, so their reaction was slow, and maybe the blue line itself understood my urgency—because the moment I passed through, it snapped shut.
The passage between the two places closed, leaving my surroundings eerily quiet, with no trace of human presence.
Only after confirming the blue line had completely vanished did I finally let out a shaky breath, leaning on my trembling knees as I tried to calm my ragged breathing.
‘Just now… did I hear Taehwan’s voice…?’
…No.
That was impossible.
It had to be my imagination—just me missing him so badly that I thought I heard him.
There were still at least two or three hours before he’d be back at the campsite.
He was probably only just arriving at the supermarket by now, parking and starting to shop.
Either way, I sighed—half in relief—knowing I’d managed to shake them off, and straightened my back.
“…Where even is this place?”
A forest. No… a mountain.
Probably near the campsite.
I’d tested my ability with Taehwan before, and if I tore open a blue line without specifying a location, it would connect to a random place.
Each time it had been somewhere different.
Since I didn’t know the area well, it had probably just linked to somewhere nearby.
I would’ve preferred a village where I could call for help or contact Taehwan, but… for now, I had to be satisfied with simply being out of immediate danger.
I doubted I’d gone very far—maybe far enough to walk back.
“How do I even get back…?”
The blue lines required at least a sense of direction.
Without knowing where I was, I couldn’t return to the campsite that way.
Not that I could go back immediately anyway, with those people still there—but even later, it meant I couldn’t use the lines to find my way.
And if I kept using them to go to random places…
I might just end up getting farther and farther away from the campsite.
I could even end up somewhere dangerous, like a construction site.
Calling for help was also out of the question.
I was completely empty-handed—no phone, no watch, not even a piece of trash in my pockets.
I regretted not carrying my phone around like Cha Taeyang did, but regret wasn’t going to solve anything now.
“Oh.”
Still… maybe I wasn’t entirely out of luck.
Something in my sight caught my attention—something welcome.
A golden line!
Following it had never led me into trouble before.
Not yet, anyway.
Relieved, I started after it—and only a few steps later, I understood why the golden line was leading me in this direction.
Ah, water!
Thanks to the heavy rain, the stream had swelled, making a loud, lively noise as it flowed.
Water flows from high places to low.
If you follow the flow of water, you can always go downhill without wandering in circles.
It might not lead directly to a village, but at the very least, I could get out of the mountain.
If I could find a road or something, there’d be a way to contact someone.
Whether my guess was correct or not, by the time I reached the water’s edge, the golden line had already disappeared.
“Now I just have to go down.”
To clear my head, I splashed my face with the icy water from the stream.
Up to this point, everything was fine.
I had a clear goal, and the outcome was obvious—so I felt a surge of hope.
But when I finished washing my face and looked up, I realized I had another problem.
‘It’s… getting dark.’
The sun was setting.
Even though it had only just started to dip, I could already imagine the kind of darkness you never experience in the city.
I didn’t have a flashlight—hell, I didn’t even have my phone.
Cold sweat slid down my spine.
I bit my rapidly drying lips hard.
My steps along the stream grew more and more hurried.
But no matter how fast I moved, there was a limit to how quickly you could go down an unpaved trail.
The forest grew darker and darker.
And to make things worse, the weather was terrible—thick clouds overhead, meaning that once the sun was completely gone, there would be no moonlight or starlight.
The thought alone made my chest tighten.
Was the sun always this quick to disappear?
I’d heard countless times that days were shorter up in the mountains, but this was my first time feeling it for myself.
One moment it was just a little dim, and the next I couldn’t see the tree in front of me without reaching out to touch it.
Before I knew it, I couldn’t even see my own toes.
“Ah.”
It was like the dense darkness was swallowing me whole.
Like… I’d gone back to that Gate that had consumed me when I was a child.
* * *
