Novel East
Chapter 208
I was too stunned to speak. I had thought he overheard our conversation to some extent as he seemed to know that Woon, Do-seung, and I shared a suspicious conversation on the emergency stairs. However, I hadn’t expected him to know the whole story.
“Shall we go out? Bong Tae-Yoon?” Dong-Jun suggested going out, and I had no choice but to follow up.
“Get ready quickly and come out.”
“Yes.”
I got up from my seat after taking my phone and wallet. While going out, I kept thinking of how to safely overcome this situation, and what kind of attitude I should take in my conversation with Dong-Jun; whether it was right to open everything or not. My mind was muddled with thoughts but I had to go for now. I had no choice but to face this challenge head-on.
***
The place where Dong-Jun and I headed was the old van we brought from WD Entertainment. We took the car key while Yeon-Hoon was taking a shower. Frankly, we had no choice but to use this van as there were a lot of people everywhere around here, and there would be one or two people who would recognize us. Dong-Jun took out the memory card in the black box before saying something.
“They do this in the movies,” Dong-Jun said.
“Ah...Yes.” It seems like even at a moment like this, he was still playful.
Dong-Jun and I sat at the back seat, and I kept making eye contact with Dong-Jun through the rear-view mirror.
“Can you tell me everything you heard first?” Even though it seemed like he heard everything, I still needed to check.
“What I heard?”
“Yes.”
“I heard everything from the beginning.”
“...”
“I heard you talk about how the Billboard Hot 100 entry mission came up, and if you fail that mission, Do-Seung and Woon will die.”
“...” It was dizzying to hear my mission from someone else other than a fellow regressor.
I looked into Dong-Jun’s eyes through the rearview mirror once again. He smiled brightly and continued, “And I heard that Do-Seung and Woon are some kind of different regressors? And I think I heard you guys talk about multiple regressions and things like that.”
He really heard everything from start to finish. My hands began sweating now.
“At first, I thought you guys were talking about a game because of how unrealistic it sounded. I thought the three of you were making some kind of game.”
“Making a game?”
“You know, TRPG or something.”
“Ah...”
“But while hearing you guys, it seemed like you weren’t talking about a game but things that are happening in real life. But no matter how much I thought about it, the content was so realistic that I’m quite confused even now.” Dong-Jun looked quite calm for someone who said he was confused.
I wondered where to even start. Would he believe me even if I told him everything now? No, even if he didn’t believe me, I had a way to make him believe. I could use Insight and command someone, and he would have no choice but to believe in me after witnessing a supernatural ability. However, I wondered if it was a good decision for me to reveal all of this now.
I turned my gaze towards the window. The parking lot had a somewhat bleak atmosphere. People always died in places like this in the movies. After getting side-tracked for a bit, I dragged my mind back to the urgent matter at hand.
Dong-Jun was currently staring at me. I compared the two—reason for me to tell him versus reason for me to not tell him. However, when I thought about the reason why I shouldn’t tell him...
‘...Is there a reason?’ Dong-Jun was a trustworthy person. I thought he had a stronger mentality than the other members, but above all, he was not the type of person to harm me. I didn’t think it was necessary for me to keep this a secret since he already knew everything. Of course, I didn’t have to open everything, I thought I could at least give him the answers to his questions.
“It’s awkward to say this because it feels like I’m saying movie lines but...” I calmly began, and Dong-Jun also listened to me with a serious attitude. “I’m from the future, not in a very distant future but about five years from now.”
When I finished speaking, Dong-Jun pretended to be calm at first but then slowly opened his mouth and made a hollow laugh. He said, “This isn’t a surprise prank, right?”
“Yes.”
“For real? You’re really from the future?”
“Yes, I swear.”
“What’s your evidence?”
“Hmm...” Was there anything I could quickly use as evidence? If there was something I could use right now, I could mention future information.
“Other than the apartment in Gangnam, you have one more apartment in Gwacheon and Yongsan under your name, right? They would lose 2-3 billion won next year as interest rates increase. It doesn’t matter if you sell them or not but keep that in mind.”
“...Did I tell you that I had apartments in Gwacheon and Yongsan?”
“No, I just heard it directly from your father—in the future.”
“...”
At the time, Dong-Jun’s father said he would let me live in one of the apartments under Dong-Jun’s name. I didn’t know if it was because he felt sorry that I was the only one who survived or he saw Dong-Jun through me. Dong-Jun’s eyes widened as he heard about the apartment; he looked quite shocked.
“...Ha. It must be real.” Dong-Jun couldn’t say anything for about a minute and looked at the ground with his mouth slightly open.
“You said you came from the future 5 years later, right?”
“Yes.”
“What were we doing 5 years later? Did we enter the Billboard and get the grammy by then?”
“No.”
“What?”
“Everyone died except me.”
“...What?” Dong-Jun’s expression stiffened as I revealed additional details. “Die?”
“Do you remember when we went to Sokcho together before our debut?”
“Yeah.”
“Originally, we got hit by a truck on our way back and everyone died—except me.”
“By the truck that narrowly missed us that day?”
“Yes.”
Sigh... Dong-Jun clenched his fist with the shocking information. “..Then...What did you do afterwards...” Dong-Jun seemed worried about what I did in the future after everyone died.
“At first, I just lived a life that was basically as good as dead...I even thought about really dying...but then I began writing.”
“Writing?”
“Yes. It may be hard to believe, but I wrote a web novel. It sold pretty well too.”
“...Geez.” Dong-Jun seemed to realize I was softening my words to lighten the mood. “Then you know the future to some extent, right? Even till the point?”
“Yes.”
“No wonder...I thought you suddenly became too mature from the day we went to Sokcho. And you became too smart.”
“Haha...”
“If it’s 5 years, you must have been 24. Then aren’t you older than me? Should I call you hyung?”
“Don’t be gross.”
“Tae-Yoon hyung~”
“Ah...”
“...You’re no fun.” Dong-Jun and I went back to the main topic at hand after lightening up the atmosphere.
Dong-Jun asked, “Then what’s with the Billboard mission, who would die, and second regression and all that.”
“After I regressed, the mission is something that I constantly get from an unidentifiable system. And if I don’t achieve a goal, someone from our group dies.”
“Do they really die?”
“Yes, for real.”
“...”
“And about the second regression and so on...that part is a little complicated...” I didn’t explain everything to Dong-Jun. I just told him that Woon and Do-Seung were regressors from another universe but somehow their memories were transferred to this world. Therefore, I told him that their self-identities as regressors from another universe and self-identities of this world who didn’t know anything co-existed in a careful balance. I left out all the complicated parts about transferring memories from other worlds thanks to my Insight ability.
“Then I must have also regressed in a different universe?” Dong-Jun was curious about himself in another universe.
“Probably so.”
“Then...My memories there can also be connected to me in this world somehow.”
“...That’s right.”
Dong-Jun precisely pointed out the part that I specifically omitted from my explanation as if he knew that I was responsible for that event instead.
“If that happens to me too, tell me directly that I now have memories of a regressor from another universe.”
“Really?”
“That’s me anyway. Why would I feel uncomfortable about changing into me?” Dong-Jun said and grabbed me by the shoulder. “And if you get a mission, share it with me. Don’t try to carry it all by yourself.”
“...Yes.” I looked at Dong-Jun. It was the first I’d been so honest with someone in this world who wasn’t a regressor. I felt reassurance from just this fact.
“Then the current mission is to enter the Billboard, right?”
“Yes.”
“Is it to enter the Hot 100?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Do you have a fixed time limit?”
“Three months.”
“...That’s insane.” Dong-Jun’s expression became serious when he heard the mission.
“If you fail, Do-Seung and Woon will die, right?”
“...Yes.”
“...This is crazy.”
After talking about regressors, Dong-Jun and I naturally shifted to talking about how to clear the mission.
“To reach the Billboard Hot 100, the local reaction in the U.S. is more important than the local reaction in Korea.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“I think our schedule will be too tight to enter the U.S. market in three months...”
“So I thought it might be better to make them call us there than trying to enter the market...”
Like this, we began to have a lengthy discussion about how we can get into the Billboard Hot 100.
“...Hold on, Tae-Yoon.” Dong-Jun suddenly cut me off, and his gaze was directed towards outside the window, not me. I had a foreboding feeling.
“Did we lock our car?”
“What? The car door?”
“You didn’t, right?” Dong-Jun said this out of the blue. I wondered why he asked me if I locked the car all of a sudden.
“Lock the car door!” As soon as he shouted—
Tap! He locked the car door right away.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Someone tried to open the back door of the van and failed. I looked back in amazement, and the person who was standing there was...
“What the heck...” It was a familiar face I had met once in the Sokcho Expressway and once again in the hills nearby—the truck driver.
“Why the hell is that bastard here...” One part that was different about him was that his appearance had become a bit cleaner.
Whoosh! And he was holding a baseball bat. The man swung the baseball bat with all his might. No matter how old the van we were in now was, it was still a car. I thought there was no way the glass could break with a single hit from a baseball bat. However...
Crackkkk—!
Nearly 80% of the glass was damaged by that single swing.
“Who the hell are you!” Dong-Jun shouted. Then he quickly took out his phone and pressed 112. The man pain no heed to him and swung his baseball bat one more time.
Bang!
“Dong-Jun! Get off!”
The man completely smashed the window this time. Then the man’s hand quickly moved inside the car and soon, he released the lock himself and opened the door. Fortunately, Dong-Jun had opened the van’s door on the other side, and we had left first.
“Run, Dong-Jun!” The most important thing right now was to get out of this underground parking lot, and we had to move to a place where there were a lot of people as it would be crazy to confront him one-on-one.
“Aghhhh! Why is the van parked on the 3rd basement floor!” The problem was that car was too deep underground for us to quickly go above ground. Dong-Jun and I frantically climbed up the parking lot and then looked back.
“Dong-Jun! Go up quickly by yourself!”
“What the hell, man?”
“I’ll try to stop him somehow so please call the police.”
“Do you seriously think I’ll go just because you told me to?”
“Come on, just go! Going right now would be helping me!”
“...I’ll be senseless too actually believe that!”
“Just go! I have a plan.”
“Are you crazy? Just fight him together then! If two people rush at him, we might be able to catch one person!” Dong-Jun didn’t seem to properly assess this situation. That man was not an ordinary human. If we fought him together, the damage may be doubled. However, I didn’t think Dong-Jun would listen to me with just words, so I activated Insight.
Zing—
I used Insight.
—Go up and call the police.
I told Dong-Jun to leave me alone and call the police. Only then did Dong-Jun speed up and go up. I looked at the truck driver running towards us after sending Dong-Jun away. It was the first time I’ve faced him since our fight at the hill. I thought he wouldn’t be able to move for a while because his muscles in both arms were all torn up, but he came back in a much healthier state than even back then.
‘What the heck.’ I glared at the man. He was about 175 cm, and he was likely around 80kg. If I fought him one by one, I thought, ‘I would definitely lose, since he has a weapon.’
I didn’t even think about hand-to-hand combat in the first place. Instead—
Ziing—!
I used Insight again. All I had to do was keep the truck driver here for a bit while Dong-Jun called the police outside. I gave out an order with Insight on.
—Drop your weapon and get down on the floor.
The man seemed to falter a bit but slowly started to lay on the floor. I just needed to hand in here a little longer. However, the man took a deep breath.
Swooosh.
Then he screamed and refused the order I gave with Insight.
“Ackkkkkkk!”
Whoosh!
Soon, Insight was ripped off by sheer force.
“...That’s crazy.” This was getting a bit serious, and I had no other way now.
“Ah.” I tried to run, but was it because Insight was forcefully released without my will? My legs gave in for a bit, and the man took that opportunity to swing the baseball bat as hard as he could. n𝚘𝚟𝚎l𝚎𝚊st.𝚌𝚘𝚖
Swoosh!
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