chapter 10
10 – Black Lotus
The search went very well. As Aram said, there were no other gang members in the underground area.
The orphans found by gangsters are treated like servants if they are men, and sold to prostitutes if they are women.
There are cases where people are treated as exceptions. Exactly, Awakeners.
In a world where strength matters, the usefulness of the Awoken is endless to say the least.
The reason why I easily entered this facility equipped with its own security system was because Aram, an awakened person, helped me.
I said it was a treat, but of course I didn’t mean it in a good way.
‘It’s a forced leash.’
We’ll feed you, we’ll give you something good too. So work for us. Must.
If you ignore their hospitality, you’ll be immediately locked up in a basement like this. After that, they resorted to gaslighting using nasty means such as drugs or violence.
‘Do you really want to do that to such scumbags and green-eyed kids?’
Anyway, if there is a child here, it is 100% Awakened.
In the original work, the protagonist of Part 5 suddenly suffered from a fever when he turned 11 years old.
There are no hospitals in the slums. However, to ask for help from the surroundings, the human hatred that developed while living in hiding here held back their ankles.
Naturally, she didn’t ask for help, and she survived alone in the dirty sewers.
After 30 hours of excruciating pain and the boundary between life and death, she eventually seized her life.
He was reborn as an Awakener, gaining a powerful protection befitting the protagonist chosen by the manga.
For reference, she shares the same birth year as hers. She should be 10 years old by this year.
So, unless the original version and the present have changed, we should bear in mind the possibility that she is not the same this time around.
Kiik opened the door and carefully went inside.
The fishy smell of her blood filled her nose. It seems that severe torture was carried out.
After that, the figure of a girl caught my eye through the iron window.
“… ….”
Her jet-black hair was down to her waist. Her skin was clean without blemishes, and the color of her face was palpable.
Likewise, the jet-black eyes had a faint purple tint. It revealed her true identity in an implicit way.
Black Lotus, Cha Yeon-hwa.
The main character of Part 5, which I was desperately looking for, was there. Even in her haggard state, she was almost perfectly beautiful.
In the meantime, I had the chance to meet the original extras several times. Right now, Aram is an extra who appeared in Part 5.
However, this is the first time I have met the protagonist of the original work. After all, this is the main character.
What should I say at this monumental moment? Pleasant excitement rushes through her head.
It was a time when I thought about it for a long time. Cha Yeon-hwa raised her right arm. She reshaped her hands into a V shape and placed her index finger in front of her eyebrows and her middle finger under her eyes.
If someone who doesn’t know anything sees it, it’s a pose that would make them mistaken for taking a picture. But I knew what it was.
‘This is the best personality!’
Immediately, she lowered her head.
Sureung― Chow ah!
The space at the intersection was cut, and huge fingernail marks were carved on the wall.
A few strands of cut hair fell to the floor. Even if she lowered her head a little later, what fell here was my neck. The fact gives me goosebumps.
I shook my head. It was only later that the interior came into full view.
A sprawled body. Dismembered body parts. Cha Yeon-hwa’s body is very clean.
The answer was simple.
The blood that was prevalent around her did not belong to the girl.
It belonged to an organization member whom the girl presumed to have murdered.
“I told you not to come in here.”
A purple light shimmered in her jet-black eyes.
***
Inside the cage, Cha Yeon-hwa stared into the void with her blank eyes.
That same day, I tried to escape to get out of this hellish slum. The result was zero.
What was the problem? I figured out the time when people in the slums moved. Predicted the movement of monsters. After that, after repeated analysis, it was only when it was judged safe that it moved its body.
Obviously, he succeeded in escaping to the outside of the slum. But when I opened my eyes, I always rolled over the familiar garbage dump.
That was the price of suffering from a terrible fever, and it was the same even after obtaining the Divine Protection.
She is a tea yeonhwa who has never been in contact with TV, but she also has her common sense of the world. Awakeners gain power beyond humans. She didn’t know the truth.
So she always thought that if she became an Awakener, if she had power, she could easily get out of this slum. She had hope. She said that she was smashed.
The girl’s anger was directed at the slums.
She had to slaughter all the trash she had to avoid. She then met the villain, whom she defeated and captured. After that she was put behind bars like a monkey in a zoo.
She has a reason to live. But that was the case when it was possible to get out of the slums.
If she couldn’t get out of the gutter, she didn’t care if she died.
“Ugh….”
I have a headache. It was because those guys who said they would tame him smoked a lot of strange incense.
As a warning not to do that again, the one who burned the incense has already been sent to heaven.
But I’ll be back soon.
‘Yes.’
It was as expected by Yeonhwa Cha. The door opened, and a boy walked inside.
Those who are terribly deaf. He seemed to think that if he looked the same age, he wouldn’t be able to kill him. But what about Cha Yeon-hwa was confident that she would bite off whoever her opponent was.
I activated the protection. It’s been almost a month since I woke up, but I still felt an unfamiliar sensation.
I decided where to cut it between my fingers. Target neck.
I saw it carefully and cut it with scissors.
“… ….”
But it didn’t cut it.
‘How?’
Cha Yeon-hwa was embarrassed. She had never been able to dodge her own attacks before.
“I told you not to come in here.”
To hide his embarrassment, he uttered words of threat. But the boy didn’t care.
I took something out of the air and pointed it at Cha Yeon-hwa.
‘A gun?’
When she was still living in a hilly neighborhood, it was a weapon she had come across in books at the library.
Cha Yeon-hwa knew how that thing could kill people. She is already a life she has given up and given up on running away from the slums. She thought it would be okay if she died from the first weapon she saw.
Bang-bang-bang-!
The pain never came. The three bullets went through the lock. The boy opened the door and came inside.
“Let’s go.”
He held out his hand and said so.
“Who are you?”
“The person who came to help.”
“Help me? Ha, do you think I’m here because I can’t get out of the cage right now?”
I was dumbfounded by the boy’s words. He held out his left hand and activated his protection. Thus, he bent the barbed wire left and right from a distance.
“Looking at this right now… ….”
“I know, you hotheaded guy.”
Cha Yeon-hwa frowned. Are you hot? It was the first word I ever heard. She didn’t even remember seeing it in the dictionary. It may seem like an insult. It just seems like an abbreviation.
“The reason you can’t get out of the slums is simple. It’s because you don’t kill the monster who kidnaps you when you’re asleep.”
The boy knew exactly what situation he was in. Cha Yeon-hwa was surprised by the fact, but responded in a fierce tone.
“Who doesn’t know that? I’ve even fought against that faceless monster. But the attack didn’t reach. My power can slaughter countless pieces of garbage here. That strong Even so, I couldn’t win. Know?”
“When exactly was that? Isn’t it right after you wake up?”
“…… ?”
“After awakening, I must have continued to challenge myself for about a week.”
Does it have the power to see the past? One week. The boy was right.
“That was a misjudgment. You don’t become incredibly strong right away just because you’ve received divine protection. Think about it, did you start running right away? There must have been a period of adjustment for at least a few weeks.”
A minimum of one month must pass for the divine protection and spirit to stabilize.
As Bi Eun-hyeon guessed, it has been about a month since Cha Yeon-hwa woke up. So, all of her looks would have stabilized. The output of the power he had then and now would be the difference between heaven and earth.
“You are stronger than him now.”
With a jerk, I opened the door and Aram came in.
“Are you okay?”
She hurriedly ran and checked Bi Eun-hyeon’s condition. Then she hugged her tightly.
“You sensed that the cat was alive, so you were worried.”
“That’s okay. Breath….”
Aram was already carrying two voluptuous things. It was hard to breathe, apart from the softness of the hug.
“Oh? You found it! Your friend!”
Aram was unexpectedly at his own pace. He didn’t pay the slightest attention to the bloody mess around him.
“Friends…… ?”
Cha Yeon-hwa made an impression.
“Hmm? Eunhyeon, isn’t this the friend you were looking for?”
“You are the friend I was looking for.”
“But the reaction… ….”
“He is very shy.”
“Who… !”
Bi Eun-hyun whispered in her ear as she lightly closed her tea Yeon-hwa’s mouth.
“If we become friends now, I will teach you how to never come back here again. Do you want to do it or not?”
For a moment, hatred for humanity soared, but the temptation to leave forever was too great.
Cha Yeon-hwa nodded her head in agreement.