And he asked Raon:
“How many years have you been here, Team Leader Raon?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking how long it’s been since you transmigrated.”
“…”
K asked with a surprisingly nonchalant tone.
Raon was momentarily speechless at the unhesitating question.
His mind raced. K and all the Named members of Apophis were all Transmigrators like himself.
If so, were they also under the control of the System?
Was that why they committed these terror attacks?
But he couldn’t be sure of anything yet.
Raon didn’t even know the reason how K found out he was a Transmigrator.
“How did you know I was a Transmigrator? Did you only confirm it just because you noticed the location of the terror attack?”
“Actually, it wasn’t just that.”
K shook his head, still with a smile.
And he looked down at the terminal he was holding and recited fluently:
“Han Raon, the genius Team Leader, his command saved countless members. Espers, one and all, praised him, the Guide, and were unstinting in their admiration for his unique sharp insight.”
“…”
“But before that, there were only people who cursed Team Leader Raon, weren’t there? Isn’t that right?”
K asked, laughing as if delighted. Raon couldn’t refute his rhetorical question.
All this time, Raon had done everything he could to save people.
He desperately blocked the variables of the Irregular Gate, using all the information from the novel and everything he had.
In the process, he hadn’t considered that those who knew his past would be puzzled.
The reason was that an ordinary person wouldn’t even recognize that this world was inside a novel.
Therefore, he never imagined that someone would figure out he was a Transmigrator.
“Since we are all Transmigrators, only one reason came to mind for why Team Leader Raon suddenly changed like a different person.”
“And the location of the terror attack that the Intelligence Division shouldn’t have known about was leaked?”
“Exactly. Now that I see you, that suspicion has completely turned into certainty.”
K stretched out his hand and playfully tapped Raon’s cheek.
Since he couldn’t completely hide his bewilderment upon confronting them like this, it would have been only a matter of time before they found out he was a fellow Transmigrator anyway.
Raon stared silently at K, who was excited to meet a comrade.
Even though they were fellow Transmigrators, their positions were different.
Although he wasn’t a soldier, he was a Guide belonging to the Center, with an obligation to protect the country.
But they were terrorists who didn’t care about the country’s peace.
Furthermore, they seemed determined to continue their roles as terrorists even as Transmigrators.
‘Is it because of the System after all?’
If they were forced to carry out the role of terrorists because of the System, he could fully understand.
He had been through the same thing.
But a persistent feeling of unease lingered.
‘But would the System tolerate them revealing that they are Transmigrators?’
The System was extremely obsessive.
When Raon was heavily controlled by the System, it would frantically block and warn him if he acted even slightly differently from the real Han Raon.
K’s actions were certainly the kind that would provoke a warning.
Terrorists in the novel would never approach a Guide from the Center like this.
‘They aren’t under the control of the System either.’
He didn’t know whether the System never interfered with them from the start, or if they were released after regressing, like him.
K only talked about transmigration, not regression.
Raon instinctively felt he should hide the fact that he had regressed.
“What is your goal? Why are you continuing to be terrorists even though you’re Transmigrators?”
“Hmm.”
At Raon’s question, K stroked his chin again, as was his habit.
He lowered his gaze slightly and opened his mouth towards Raon.
“Team Leader Raon, you didn’t read the whole novel before transmigrating, did you?”
“That…”
At the sharp question, Raon was momentarily speechless.
It was true that he hadn’t finished the novel before transmigrating.
No, maybe he had finished it. It was just that the memory was strangely blurry.
Raon frowned at the situation he couldn’t be sure of himself.
“Shall I tell you how the novel ends?”
“…”
His smiling eyes curved right in front of him.
Raon silently glared at K, who couldn’t hide his delight.
K continued speaking, as if Raon’s reaction didn’t matter.
“Everyone died.”
“What did you say?”
“Everyone died in the end. Because they couldn’t stop the final Black Gate.”
“Ha…”
Raon let out a hollow laugh at K’s words.
That was unbelievable.
A bad ending for the novel?
That couldn’t be true.
“Are you asking me to believe that?”
He asked with a frown, but K merely shrugged his shoulders.
His gesture suggested he didn’t care whether Raon believed him or not.
“But Team Leader Raon also found out what kind of person Seo Dojin is this time, right? If a person like that is the main character, there’s no way he stopped the Black Gate.”
“That is…”
Raon was speechless again this time.
Raon’s voice also faded when Seo Dojin was mentioned.
Seo Dojin was a competent Esper in the original work, but he often showed selfish tendencies even then.
There were many unstable factors in the original work, to the point where they faced crises every time if the main subject, Hamin, hadn’t supported him.
After the regression, those flaws were highlighted even more due to Raon, so he failed to properly carry out his role as a leader.
Raon was also confused by K’s words.
“Listen closely to me, Team Leader Raon. This world is going to be destroyed anyway. That is a predetermined ending, and it won’t change no matter what you do.”
“…”
The gentle voice dug into Raon’s ears.
They were words that were somehow hard to deny.
Compared to the other Named members, K’s ability was not well revealed in the novel.
This was because Seo Dojin, who led the sweep, failed to catch the Apophis leadership and it ended ambiguously.
That’s why K, the leader, didn’t appear much compared to the other Named members.
However, there were parts where his astonishing insight was mentioned.
Scenes appeared where he evaded the Intelligence Division’s pursuit or disrupted the military’s actions as if he knew them in advance.
That’s why K even had the moniker ‘Prophet’.
This was something an Intelligence Division Esper had mentioned in passing before the regression.
Perhaps K knew the Intelligence Division’s movements in advance because he was a Transmigrator.
Although Raon still couldn’t be sure since when he had transmigrated into the novel.
“Why won’t it change? How are you so sure of that?”
“That’s because I’ve tried to change it several times myself.”
“…!”
Raon’s suspicion quickly turned into certainty.
They also transmigrated like him, and they had also experienced regression.
Several times, in fact.
“It seems Team Leader Raon has only regressed once so far?”
“…How many times have you done it?”
“Very many. And no matter what we did, we couldn’t stop the world from being destroyed.”
“But surely…”
Raon recalled the System window that popped up before he died.
At that time, the System clearly said that Raon had saved the world by fulfilling the role of the villain and dying.
Then K, seemingly catching on to what Raon was about to say, curled his lips crookedly and opened his mouth.
“Are you so naive as to believe the System’s words, Team Leader Raon?”
“…!”
“Well, we believed those words once, too. But the ending was always the same.”
The Named members who had taken off their masks looked at each other’s faces and wore hollow smiles.
Raon gritted his teeth, unable to think of a counter-argument.
They seemed to have regressed countless times, unlike him.
But in the end, the world was destroyed, and they were continuously repeating the regression afterward.
They were trapped in a ruined world.
“The System is crazy. It’s not in its right mind. It kidnapped people from other worlds and made them do all sorts of things, trying to save a world that was already destroyed, but in the end, nothing changed.”
K shook his head and muttered. Raon, who had been listening to him silently, asked:
“Then what are you planning to do?”
“What do you mean, what?”
“Are you just going to live as you please since it’s going to be destroyed anyway? Or is there a way to escape this world?”
K clapped his hands and laughed at the exasperated question.
He nodded and answered:
“That’s a good question, Team Leader Raon.”
K, wearing a satisfied smile, looked down at Raon.
Raon, tied to the chair and unable to move, stared at him with anxious eyes.
“We are going to make contact with the Black Gate and completely eliminate the System.”
“…What did you say?”
Raon couldn’t understand his words.
Because he didn’t know what connection the Black Gate had with the System.
However, the Black Gate was the culprit of the world’s destruction.
If, as K was so sure, there was a way to cut off the System at the Black Gate, he thought it might be possible.
“Is there a way to contact the System there? And destroy it?”
“Of course.”
K looked triumphant and nodded largely.
Raon swallowed dryly, watching his certainty.
He felt somehow nauseous.
