Chapter: 41
It’s a common story.
A house crushed by poverty.
An alcoholic father.
A helpless mother.
A young brother and sister abused through violence and neglect by those two adults.
It’s the kind of clichĆ© setup used in countless movies, dramas, novels, and comics.
Park Ji-hoo was no different.
For as long as he could remember, he had lived in this hellish reality.
Even soā
“Where’s Si-yeon?”
There was one person he wanted to protect.
His little sister, Park Si-yeon.
He wanted her to grow up bright and pure, untouched by the filthy darkness of adults.
So he tried.
Even if he couldn’t protect himself, he made sure they could never lay a hand on his sister.
His father’s brutal beatings.
His mother’s vicious words.
He endured all of it alone.
At least, until a month ago.
“You little bastard. What gives you the right to glare at me like that?”
The hand that had been raised toward his mother changed direction.
Thud. Thud.
His father strode over and raised his thick hand high into the air.
That hand had slapped him countless times.
Ji-hoo had always been small and frail from never eating properly.
Compared to him, the hand of a man hardened by a lifetime of construction work was practically a weapon.
One slap was enough to split his lips, rattle his skull, and knock him unconscious.
Whoosh!
The palm cut through the air, its path etched clearly into Ji-hoo’s eyes.
It was violence he had never once tried to dodge or block.
But things were different now.
Inside the Tower, his father wouldn’t even be Level 1.
Compared to the monsters Ji-hoo had fought, this attack wasn’t even as threatening as a Red Goblin’s sneeze.
Almost instinctively, Ji-hoo stepped back.
Whoosh!
The hand grazed the tip of his nose before slicing harmlessly through empty air.
“…You dodged?”
His father had never expected that.
Until now, Park Ji-hoo had always been a pathetic coward who never resisted.
He would glare with hatred, but the moment he got hit, he’d collapse to the floor and lie there groaning.
That Park Ji-hoo was gone.
‘I can see it.’
The weak, timid boy no longer existed.
Standing proudly before this endless violence was a Level 30 Player.
Someone who could crush his father with a single finger.
“I’m asking you one last time, so think carefully before you answer. Where is Si-yeon?”
His voice was heavy enough to suffocate.
Was it the eerie feeling coming from him?
Or simply how completely different his son had become?
His father could only dart his eyes around, unable to move.
“So you’re not going to answer.”
Hum…
Mana gathered around Ji-hoo’s tightly clenched fist.
It was an overwhelming force that could tear flesh from bone with the slightest touch.
His father had no idea what it was.
But instinct told him it was dangerous.
“T-The hospital! She’s in the hospital!”
Ji-hoo, who had been thinking about breaking at least one of his father’s arms, froze.
“…The hospital?”
“After you ran away… there was an accident.”
An accident?
What kind of accident?
“She went out late at night looking for you… and ended up running into some bad people…”
Ji-hoo’s eyes turned icy.
He could already guess.
He knew exactly what kind of people they were.
“So? What happened?”
“W-We reached a settlement… and she’s hospitalized… getting treatment now.”
“A settlement?”
He didn’t need any more details.
That damn father of his had undoubtedly squandered every penny of the settlement money on alcohol and gambling.
Just like he always had.
Ji-hoo’s cold gaze shifted to his trembling father and his mother, who stood there with her lips tightly sealed.
‘Mother.’
Some people said it was the warmest, most precious word in the world.
But not to Park Ji-hoo.
To him, she was a complete stranger.
No words described her better.
After staring at his parents with emotionless eyes for a moment, Ji-hoo turned around.
I want to kill them.
If he followed his heart, he’d beat them over and over until all his resentment disappearedāand then beat them to death.
But he couldn’t.
No matter what, they were still the people who had given birth to him and Si-yeon.
He didn’t want to live carrying the sin of murdering his own parents.
So this was where he would end it.
Before, he hadn’t been able to.
Now, he had to.
If only for the sake of his one and only little sister.
He started walking.
There was only one hospital near this miserable neighborhood where she could have been admitted, so there was no need to ask.
Nothing came from behind him.
No curses.
No one calling after him.
He could only feel the murderous stares of the two people watching his back as he walked away.
‘Let’s never see each other again.’
And with that, Park Ji-hoo severed all ties with them.
“Si-ah!”
The tightly shut iron gate swung open, revealing the face she had wanted to see more than anything.
“Mom!”
Lee Si-ah, tears welling in her eyes, ran barefoot toward her mother.
“Si-ahāugh!”
Her mother gagged.
It was probably because of the horrible stench coming from Si-ah and the state she was in.
Even so, her mother didn’t stop.
She kept coming until she finally wrapped Si-ah in a tight embrace.
“W-Where have youāugh! Where have you been all this time?!”
Judging by how she gagged after every sentence, the smell really was that terrible.
“Mom…”
Tears streamed down Si-ah’s face as she felt her mother’s warmth.
The family she’d thought she’d never see again.
Their warmth filled her with happiness.
At the same time, she felt miserable because of the condition she was in.
“Can I take a shower first? I’ll explain everything afterward.”
A whole month.
That was how much time had passed since Lee Si-ah disappeared.
Her mother should have been demanding answers immediately.
Yet she simply nodded.
“Of course! Hurry and wash up! We’ll… ugh… we’ll talk after that.”
Relief.
Sadness.
Anger.
Patience.
A storm of emotions swirled across her mother’s face.
With tears still falling, Si-ah stepped back into the home she hadn’t seen in a month.
Shhhhhā
How long had it been since she’d experienced modern civilization?
The warm water pouring from the shower seemed to melt her entire body.
‘I bet I’ve lost at least two kilograms.’
As the dried monster blood and bits of flesh that had hardened onto her skin washed away, even her body felt lighter.
It was like shedding an old skin.
Ten minutes.
Thirty minutes.
An hour.
After scrubbing herself for an entire hour, she finally felt clean again.
“Next time, I should at least wash before coming out.”
Promising herself she wouldn’t make the same mistake again, she dried herself with a soft towel.
As she opened the bathroom door, she found her mother anxiously waiting outside with a fresh set of clothes.
“Mom!”
She hugged her once more.
Now that the rotten smell was gone, replaced by the gentle scent of shampoo, her mother finally burst into tears as she embraced her daughter.
“Where have you been?! Do you have any idea how hard your father and I looked for you? And what happened to you?!”
She sounded like she was scolding her.
But beneath those words was nothing but worry and concern.
“Well… it’s…”
Si-ah wondered where to even begin.
Explaining the Tower wasn’t exactly easy.
At best, she’d sound insane.
But she couldn’t simply make something up.
She only had one week.
After that, she’d have to return to the Tower.
If she wanted to prepare for that, then at least her family had to know the truth.
‘I don’t have a choice.’
Whether her mother believed her or not would be entirely up to her.
“So… here’s what happened.”
Si-ah began explaining.
The Tower.
The Tutorial Floor.
Terra.
The monsters.
Everything.
She softened her descriptions as much as possible.
If she described everything exactly as she’d experienced it, her weak-hearted mother might have a heart attack.
She made it sound difficult, but not truly life-threatening.
She wanted her mother to feel reassured.
Though the moment she mentioned being forcibly summoned, her mother’s face had already turned deathly pale.
“Y-You’re telling the truth?”
Her mother stammered, wearing a strange expression.
‘She definitely doubts me.’
But at the same time…
She didn’t look like she thought Si-ah was completely crazy.
“You really went into that Tower… and came back out?”
“…That Tower?”
The way her mother said it…
It almost sounded like she already knew about the Tower.
“Mom… you know about it too?”
Her mother nodded vigorously.
“You don’t know because you’ve been gone… but the whole world’s been turned upside down because of those Black Towers.”
Then she pulled out her smartphone, opened MeTube, and played a video.
Namsan.
Where Namsan Towerāthe famous Seoul landmarkāshould have been…
A gigantic black tower now stood instead.
A tower so enormous that its peak disappeared into the sky.
“Things like this suddenly appeared all over the world. The same day you disappeared.”
Si-ah couldn’t say a word.
Come to think of it, there had been plenty of Black and White Players on the first floor.
Far more than Asians.
That alone proved the summoned people weren’t limited to Korea.
They were probably all people from countries where those Towers had appeared.
‘The whole world must be in chaos.’
It wasn’t just one or two people.
Tens of thousands had disappeared simultaneously.
Compared to the world’s population, the number wasn’t enormous.
But the way they vanished was unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
There was no doubt massive investigations were already underway to uncover the connection between the Towers and the missing people.
‘I need to keep my head down.’
She, Park Ji-hoo, and that insane monster were probably the first people to escape the Tower.
If anyone learned that fact…
Every country in the world would rush to investigate them.
She wasn’t about to waste her precious one week of freedom being interrogated.
‘I absolutely can’t let anyone find out.’
She needed to make her mother promise.
No matter what, she couldn’t tell anyone that Si-ah had been inside the Tower.
Just as she was about to say soā
“Huh? What’s this?”
When the MeTube video ended, another one automatically began playing.
It was a live broadcast from a news channel.
The footage showed a huge commotion near Namsan.
“…Is that a person?”
Her mother pointed at a ragged man in an old tracksuit fighting soldiers.
He moved with speed and strength no human should possess.
Holding nothing but a sword, he tore through soldiers armed with guns and modern weapons like a raging storm.
The sight was all too familiar to Si-ah.
“…No way.”
She stared at the screen, hoping she was mistaken.
Then she became certain.
That lunatic…
It really was that lunatic.
A troublemaker in the Tower would obviously be a troublemaker outside it too.
“…Seong Yu-jin.”
Crunch.
Unlike her, who had just decided to stay hidden, that madman was openly causing absolute chaos.
At that moment, Si-ah instinctively realized something.
Her quiet, peaceful week of freedom was over.
From the moment she got involved with that lunatic, an ordinary life was no longer possible.
“Goddamn bastard…”
The curse slipped out so naturally that her mother could only stare at her in stunned silence.
