INHO 13

End and Beginning (13)

At my words, Yul crossed his arms.

“Fine. I’ll admit you know more than I expected.”

Considering his earlier reaction, he was surprisingly composed now. He must have sorted some things out in his head.

“But no matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t make sense. There’s no one who could’ve told you about me, or even knows who I really am.”

“That’s because you—”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s why I decided to at least hear you out. I promised, after all.”

All that running around since broad daylight—and seeing things I never wanted to see—was finally paying off.

I sat back down on the bed and steadied my voice. This would be a long story. I just hoped that after hearing it, Yul wouldn’t go into full denial.

“So basically,”

The sky outside was already tinted with the cold light of dawn. My throat stung from talking nonstop all night.

“Humanity is going to be wiped out soon—and I die, too.”

“Yeah.”

“And it’s because of a poison that came from the Gate.”

“That’s right.”

Yul rubbed his forehead.

“And you’re saying I was your friend…?”

He sounded more shocked about that than the part where humanity perished.

“Best friend, actually.”

“There were only two people left in the world and you’re calling that a best friend?”

Even now, he couldn’t help but talk back.

“So, you believe me, right?”

“How can I not? You knew the name of the dog I had as a kid and even the brand of my old school sports bag. Wait—did I really tell you that?”

“You did. You saw a smashed store sign once and it reminded you of it.”

“Right…”

With a defeated sigh, Yul collapsed back into the sofa. He looked utterly drained.

“And there was something else you told me before.”

He looked half-dead, but I had to continue—this was the real point.

“You thought this whole thing might not be a natural disaster.”

“What?”

“You said there might have been intent behind it.”

Yul looked at me speechless.

I calmly repeated what I’d heard before.

“You said the social systems collapsed too quickly. Like a row of dominoes someone had carefully set up. As if they’d been waiting for the poison to spread.”

But in the chaos, no one had time to notice. Even I hadn’t thought about it back then.

When everything was already over and only time was left, Yul began piecing things together, finding connections, questioning coincidences.

They were small details—little things most would dismiss as chance—but…

“Right before everything went to hell, the Association President suddenly died in an accident, and the top-ranked hunters were all at each other’s throats. Once the poison spread, people kept dying no matter how much we tried to contain it.”

“Maybe it was just bad leadership…”

“Don’t you think it’s strange?”

Why did the Association President, who never visited the field, go to the Gate entrance that day?

Why did Rank 2’s raid—of all raids—end with Rank 3’s lover dead?

“At the time, I thought you were just spouting nonsense.”

I mean, who would want to destroy their own world?

But humanity wasn’t the only thing that died on that ruined Earth. With the hunters who could close Gates all wiped out, monsters poured out endlessly, and the ecosystem collapsed completely.

A literal hellscape.

“But once I came back, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said.”

Back then, I scolded you for your ridiculous theories. But now that I actually had the chance to change things, it was hard to dismiss the possibility.

Besides—

“Even if purification skills were rare, someone else had to have them. So why was I, a mere B-rank, the only one left alive?”

That had always been the strangest part. I just hadn’t thought about it deeply then.

“So when I came back, I started assuming I couldn’t trust anyone.”

“…Yeah, it is strange. You said multiple Gates opened simultaneously?”

“Yeah. They closed them early on, but no one knows how the poison spread.”

“I think I get why I suspected it wasn’t natural.”

Everything had happened too perfectly—like a carefully designed chain of disasters leading to one inevitable end.

“So you came to me because you want help stopping the apocalypse?”

Yul sat up straight again. I nodded.

“If I already know the future, I can change the past and steer away from the worst outcome…”

“But would that even matter? Let’s say everything goes according to plan—like how you saved Min Hajun. If someone did orchestrate this, do you really think they’ll just sit back and let you interfere? They might try to stop us. Or something else could change—the butterfly effect.”

He spoke with a cynical tone.

“Then at least we can find out who did it.”

My voice was cold, my eyes sharper. If someone created that hell, I’d never let them have their way. I’d drag them down, even if it killed me.

“Why go that far?”

Yul looked genuinely curious, as if he’d seen something desperate in me.

“People die anyway. Maybe that’s just humanity’s fate.”

“There’s someone I want to live happily—no matter what happens.”

I’d survived longer than anyone, through everything imaginable. Maybe that’s why I no longer cared about myself. But there was one person whose future I wanted to gift with peace.

If I only saved Mom, she might survive with me—but in a ruined world full of corpses, that’s not living.

No one knows better than I do that staying alive isn’t the same as living.

So I’d do everything in my power to give her a future where she could live twenty, thirty more years peacefully—in a noisy, bustling world, not a quiet hell.

Outside, the sun had fully risen.

After hearing everything, Yul stayed silent for a while. Then, slowly, his attitude softened.

Once the storm passed, we were finally able to have a productive conversation.

“You said your new skill is ‘Absorption,’ right? Can it absorb anything?”

He probably imagined something like a black hole, but after plenty of experiments, I’d found the skill had strict limits.

“No. It doesn’t work on water or solid objects. Based on when I absorbed energy from a Gate core, I think it only works on mana.”

I remembered all the ridiculous things I’d tried before—

Trying to absorb shower water, grabbing electronics to see if I could suck up electricity… all pointless. The skill only responded to mana.

Still, even that made it overpowered. I could use far more mana than I actually had.

“Can you absorb it from people?”

I’d already tried that.

“I tested it on Min Hajun once, but I couldn’t see the full result—the capacity limit kicked in.”

I recalled the time Hajun naively offered me his hand. I opened my status window, planning to check my current limit.

‘…Huh?’

The numbers shocked me. My mana, which had been full to the brim—overflowing—was gone. Not even half of my usual amount remained.

The last time I used a skill was…

No way. That purification skill I cast inside the hallucination?

Unbelievable.

Did I just waste mana on thin air?

“You said I was unconscious when you found me, right?”

“Yeah. You were drenched in cold sweat.”

Then it must be true.

So this chill and headache—it’s mana overuse.

It felt like I’d thrown wads of cash into the wind and was left penniless.

“I think I used up all the mana I’d saved.”

“What?”

Yeah, that happened.

I stared blankly at the status window. Well, I could always recharge… eventually.

It had taken a lot to get that mana, but fine—it wasn’t really mine anyway. That’s what I told myself.

“…You sure you’re not a scam artist? I’m starting to doubt you.”

“Shut up and give me your hand. I’ll just test it again.”

I reached out confidently, but unlike Hajun, Yul didn’t take my hand so easily.

“Why should I give you my mana?”

“You got anything else here with mana?”

When he pulled his hands to his chest protectively, I advanced on him. Did he really think I could only absorb through hands?

Since the skill didn’t specify any body part, I simply grabbed his neck.

“Cannot use skill due to mana holder’s resistance.”

‘Seriously? This skill has morals now?’

I clicked my tongue at the message hovering in front of me. In this cruel world, my skill decided to grow a conscience?

“Forget it. I can’t take it by force.”

“You tried to steal it by force? No wonder your eyes were gleaming like that.”

Yul relaxed, stepping back several paces. As if I’d steal that much anyway.

“Come on, just cooperate. Show me that S-rank generosity.”

“I’m a small but precious S-rank.”

I stared at the tall man—easily two heads taller than me—and shook my head.

“Min Hajun was a lot more obedient.”

“Him?”

“He was like a puppy.”

“Ha! That idiot…”

Yul snorted several times, clearly exasperated.

“No wonder he looked like that back then…”

“Back then?”

“…Nothing.”

When I kept staring, sensing he was hiding something, Yul averted his gaze and finally extended his hand.

“Here. Happy now?”

He was clearly changing the subject, but this mattered more. Before he changed his mind, I grabbed his hand.

“Don’t you dare pull away midway.”

I gripped his thick fingers tightly and activated the skill.

“Absorb.”

At once, mana swirled between us.

It felt different from when I absorbed a Gate core—not painful, just… cold.

‘Does mana’s nature change depending on its owner?’

It was like being wrapped in a chilly breeze. I focused, trying to memorize the sensation.

The unfamiliar mana flowed through my arm, gradually warming and blending until it completely disappeared into me.

When it was done, I tried to release his hand—

But there was no hand to release.

“…Where’d he go?”

I froze mid-motion.

Yul, who had been standing right in front of me, was gone—vanished like a mirage.