These Lunatics are Obsessed With Me

ED: Cheerycheri

“Ugh…”

“Hey, Eden!”

Eden’s scarred face frowned. When I called his name again, his pinkish black irises came into view. His trembling and dazzling eyes opened a little wider when they saw me.

“…Han Yi-jin?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Luckily, Eden recognized me and opened his mouth.

“Is this a dream?”

“…”

As expected, he’s still out of his mind. I clicked my tongue and looked at the system window floating in front of me.

[Incubator in use. Time remaining: 19 minutes and 57 seconds.]

“Hmm.”

It’s a bit risky to wait for it to finish. After thinking for a while, I helped Eden up.

“Let’s get out of here, now. We shouldn’t be here.”

“What?”

Soon the people from the association will barge in and discover this hidden room. I have to take Eden out before then. Otherwise, Eden, who acted as Jang Tae-san’s hands and feet, will be arrested. I have to prevent that.

“The people from the association and the police have caught that bastard Jang Tae-san. We need to get out of here as well.”

“W-wait, just what ha… Ugh.”

“Hey, get a grip.”

I wanted to slap him on the cheek a few times to wake him up, but there was no uninjured place on his scarred face to hit. With the body of an A-class hunter, wounds like these should’ve healed in an instant, but currently, it seemed that his body had become like that of an ordinary person by the use of a sealing item. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have gotten the unlocking item from Sim Dante along with the incubator.

“Anyway, let’s get out quickly. Where’s your contract?”

“…”

“Eden?”

I looked at Eden who didn’t answer.  Eden, whose face turned white, muttered something I didn’t understand.

“No, I can’t… if I leave here… can’t…”

“What?”

I didn’t hear him well and asked back, but Eden closed his mouth with his pale complexion. Ha, Jang Tae-san, you bastard. You gave him PTSD. Damn it, really. 

I had no choice but to give up on trying to force Eden to come to his senses and search the room. In the novel, there are several hidden compartments that Jang Tae-san has in this corporal punishment room, it was said that their purpose was to serve as a storage for dirty things he had to hide.

Personal inventories are limited in terms of what they can store, so people have to hide things in the classic way. Like in this suspicious vault, for example.

“Wait, don’t tell me he put it here.”

I didn’t think Jang Tae-san would leave them behind so carelessly, but I found it, so I opened the vault door. It seems the door works by entering a password, but I forced it open. Surprisingly, the door of the vault opened with the strength of Han Yi-jin’s weak body.

“Oh.”

I reached into the vault with a bit of admiration. ‘Did he put money in there?’ I thought it was real money because there was the sound of rustling paper, but it wasn’t.

“Uh?”

It was hard to describe how I felt when I easily found something I thought would be hard to find.

The high-level hunter contracts were really in the vault. Is it okay to store it so poorly? When I roughly skimmed over the contract, I saw Eden’s name on the third page.

“No, but…”

Why can’t I take the contract out of the vault? I gave up trying to remove it and simply held the contract with a whimper, and started to read the contract. Then the system window appeared.

[The item cannot be acquired due to the immovable skill. Rating: ??]

“What is that?”

I wondered why Jang Tae-san had stored it so poorly, it turned out to have an immovable skill placed on it. Considering that Han Yi-jin’s window system couldn’t recognize it, it was at least A-class or higher.

Ah, I’m so annoyed. I should have asked the Odin Guild to escort me instead of sneaking in.

While harboring such thoughts, I turned around, leaving the vault door open. Eden, who still looked confused, was panting heavily as he leaned against the wall.

Unlike me who was a whistleblower, if Eden is arrested, he will be punished for his involvement with Jang Tae-san. Even the Odin Guild wouldn’t be able to help the criminals much. Because unlike in the novel, Eden didn’t betray the Loki Guild because of me.

Initially, the role of a whistleblower was played by Eden. In a way, I stole Eden’s role and did what he was supposed to, so I had no choice but to sneak in here to save Eden and send him to a safe place. I can’t let anyone in the Odin Guild find out about this operation.

“Eden, we don’t have much time. Get up quickly!”

I don’t have much time to sneak out of this punishment room even with the item I received from Sim Dante. It doesn’t really matter if I get caught right after sending Eden out, but I can’t waste my time here. I will deal with Eden’s contract later, but for now I have to take Eden out first.

“Ugh.”

“Uh…”

The problem is that Han Yi-jin’s body is average in size and is weak. Of course, it was a weak body that had recently leveled up and improved a lot, but still, a weak body is a weak body, damn it.

Moreover, Eden has a physique similar to Han Yi-jin, and his body is currently extremely heavy as if it were made of stone.

“Uh, really… You should stop…!”

“…Ugh.”

Eden’s eyes opened wide. His eyes were blank as if he was looking somewhere far away, and not at me. I frowned at his condition which seemed worse than before. Did Jang Tae-san drug him?

“…Mother…”

“…!”

Eden called out to someone with his pupils dilated. Eden’s mother, Lee Eun-soo.

Just as Han Yi-jin’s younger brother was held hostage, Eden’s mother was also held hostage by Jang Tae Sang. I know the situation because Eden’s story appears more than Han Yi-jin, who has a small part in the novel.

Jang Tae-san was a gangster before he awakened. Eden’s mother, Lee Eun-soo, worked at a bar run by Jang Tae-san. At that time, she was pregnant with Eden, and she gave birth to the child despite being threatened by the gang. That’s how Eden grew up under the gang. He didn’t know what would happen to his mother if he rebelled, so even after he awakened, he had to do as he was told, like a dog. It would never have been easy for Eden to help me secretly without telling Jang Tae-san.

However, if this world follows the story in the novel, then Eden’s mother has already…

“Mister, I’m sorry. I’ll be punished, and my mother, please…”

“…Eden!”

The abuse that Eden had been put through had been going on for a long time since he was young. I couldn’t tell from his usual smiling face, but he must have been rotting inside.

Fuck you, you son of a bitch, Jang Tae-san. It’s not enough just to send you to jail for this.

I closed my eyes for a moment before opening them once more. I grabbed Eden’s shoulders with both hands as he kept muttering nonsense. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

“Eden, you already knew it.”

“Ugh…”

“Your mother…”

Originally, it wasn’t Han Yi-jin who played this role of informing Eden about his mother. This role was played by a heroine by Kang Yoo Hyun’s side in the novel.

She had a connection with Eden’s mother before she awakened, and she continued to search for Eden. It was to convey his mother’s will to Eden. Jang Tae-san purposely did not inform him of his mother’s death to continue using Eden.

When she finally learned that Eden was his son, she led Eden to betray the Loki Guild and take the good path. Their story is one of the few touching moments in the novel. It’s obvious that it is deceitful for me to say this. Because it wasn’t me who had to play this role in the first place.

“Your mother has passed away.”

“Ah…”

“And she wanted you to live freely.”

Eden’s mother’s only wish was for her son to live freely. Those were the last words she left, the last words of a woman who had blamed herself for being a burden to her son. Eden’s hazy eyes gradually refocused. I made eye contact with Eden nervously.

“…Eden?”

“Han– Yi-Jin…”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Eden blinked slowly and lowered his head. He let out a shallow sigh and muttered in a low voice.

“Right, I… already knew.”

“…”

“But I pretended not to know… If I do what mister tells me… I feel like my mother is still alive.”

Eden always looked worried. He empathized with Han Yi-jin, whose younger brother was being held captive like his mother, and expressed his anxiety all the time, even when acting as a watchdog.

“…You can leave now.”

“…”

“Come with me, Eden.”

Right when Eden raised his head, and slightly moved his lips—

Bang!

I turned my head in surprise. The door was roughly opened, broke away from its hinges, and flew away.

“…!”

“There you are, in a place like this.”

A sharp gaze was pointed at me. It was Baek Si Hoo, an S-class hunter from the Loki Guild. I looked at him in surprise.

Wasn’t he arrested with Jang Tae-san?  Even if his identity was different from what was publicly known, the association would not leave Baek Si Hoo, the strongest hunter in the Loki Guild, alone.

“Why are you here… Kugh!”

“You did something stupid.”

Baek Si-hoo, who shortened the distance instantly, grabbed my neck with one hand.  It was unexpected and I didn’t have the strength to stop him, an S-class, so I was seized helplessly. I groaned and glanced at the open system window.

[Incubator in use. Time remaining: 3 minutes and 51 seconds.]

I need to buy a little more time. I managed to open my mouth, and lowered my head towards Baek Si Hoo.

“Ugh, the Laufey guildmaster… Has he noticed it already?”

“What?”

Baek Si Hoo’s eyes glowed conspicuously. His face that was prettier than a woman’s showed interest in me.

He was actually the henchman of the Laufey Guildmaster. His identity was originally revealed in the middle of the novel when Eden betrayed the Loki Guild. When Jang Tae-san was captured and the Loki Guild collapsed, Baek Si Hoo escaped the association’s pursuit and returned to the Laufey Guild.

“Was your stupidity all an act? I’m astonished. Han Yi-jin.”

“Ugh…!”

“I should take you to the guildmaster as a trophy.”

“Who… wants to!”

I aimed the gun I took out from the inventory at him. But before I could shoot, my body was flipped over. Baek Si Hoo grabbed my neck with one hand, lifted me up, and threw me to the ground.

“Kugh, kuh…!”

The gun bounced out of my hand as a result of the impact, rolling away on the floor.

Pow, Baek Si Hoo’s foot pressed down against my chest. That alone made me unable to move.

“Well, you’ve always been rebellious. It’s troublesome.”

“Argh, this–bas–tard.”

“Were you planning to go to the Odin Guild this time and rely on Kang Yoo-hyun?”

Baek Si Hoo’s eyes glistened as he looked at me. Baek Si Hoo, who has an inferiority complex towards the main character, is disgusted with Kang Yoo-hyun. In episodes where the two fight, the surroundings will always be destroyed. Baek Si Hoo looked down at me coldly as I struggled under his feet.

“You wouldn’t think that if I cut off one of your legs.”