Chapter 9: Something isn’t right (3)
The crimson-haired teenager pulled down his hood even lower and used Sound of the Wind to arrive at the orphanage faster.
He passed by the empty streets filled with poisonous fog and sometimes met monsters. However, the monsters didn't attack him and ignored him.
Soon, night arrived and Cale decided to take a break in a nearby convenience store.
'There should be one around here…'
He saw the building he was searching for and entered it.
Unexpectedly, the glass doors at the entrance were broken. Someone seemed to have already looted the place.
The crimson-haired man avoided the glass shards on the ground and entered the dark convenient store.
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' murmurs that the place is creepy.]
Xin Jian who can't send messages anymore: Yeah, right?
Cale used Fire of Destruction to create a spark and lit up the surroundings before stepping forward into the darkness.
As he illuminated the way, the teenager frowned.
He saw that the store's shelves had been turned over, scattering their contents everywhere and making it harder to walk around.
Cale made the flame in his hand bigger to be able to see more of the place.
Suddenly, he stepped on something sticky and lowered his head.
It was blood.
Cale hesitated to go further, doubting whether this was really a safe place to spend the night, but decided to continue. Other places shouldn't be much different anyway.
Since he already had a lot of experience surviving through an apocalypse in his time as Kim Rok Soo, he picked up his pace and headed to the back door where the storage room should be until he hit something.
The teenager frowned harder as he noticed a head rolling near his feet, its eyeballs sticking out.
Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder.
Cale kept a stoic face and tried to maintain his composure as goosebumps appeared all over his body.
Then, he slowly turned his head and was met face to face with the empty eye sockets of a rotting corpse.
With his movement, the body fell on him. It should have been standing against the wall when it died and Cale had made him fall by moving away the head which originally supported its feet.
The corpse's head detached itself from the corpse, approaching Cale's face as the man stepped back in disgust and pushed the dead body away from him.
Cale had now another traumatic event he didn't want to remember.
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' comments that this is a zombie apocalypse.]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' agrees.]
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' realizes that she is able to send messages once again and leaves to the channel where Yoo Jonghyuk is to cause trouble.]
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' was unfortunately dragged away by her boss and couldn't do anything.]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' empathizes with your predicament.]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' chuckles and says that she'll wait for you there.]
Annoyed, Cale checked that the walls weren't made of wood and burned everything around him, successfully triggering the fire alarm and making water pour down into the room.
Cale sighed and ran a hand through his now wet hair.
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' makes a thumbs up.]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' says that you are handsome even when you're soaked.]
Cale ignored the constellation and proceeded to the storage room.
Surprisingly, every shelf of that place was empty, leaving nothing untouched. As the crimson-haired man wondered who could have done this, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed an opening in the floor.
Cale turned his head and saw an entrance leading underground. Moreover, it was open.
He apprehensively approached it and slowly went down the ladder, discovering a huge basement that would be fit to protect him for the night.
Cale looked all around the basement and sighed in relief when he realized that it was empty.
Then, he went up the ladder, closed the entrance and went back down before leaning against the wall and counting his breaths.
In his time as Kim Rok Soo, he had lived a long time with monsters and had learned how to fall asleep quickly to get more rest. After all, sleeping was necessary and it would be bad for him if he was in a bad condition because of a lack of sleep when he had to fight against monsters.
He closed his eyes and, soon, Cale fell into unconsciousness…
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' wishes you 'Good night'.]
When dawn arose, Cale sleepily opened his eyes and heard a breathing sound next to him.
Suddenly, he completely regained his senses. The teenager was pretty sure the basement had been empty before he went to sleep.
In the dark, a playful voice echoed, chuckling at him.
"Oh, you are awake."
Cale put up his guard and lit up a flame, illuminating the head of the person squatting one step away from him and observing him.
It was a man with a thin face and pale skin. His hair was thin and black; he had long eyelashes, dark circles and a slender physique.
The man had a calm countenance and wore an eye-catching white coat.
Xin Jian reacted quickly and woke up the Oldest Dream.
"There are people who need sleep here…"
"I know, but look, isn't this man strangely familiar…?"
The Oldest Dream looked down at where Xin Jian was pointing and suddenly froze.
His eyes widened as chills appeared throughout his body.
"Who is this?" He asked.
[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is shocked.]
[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' checks his eyes and wonders how this is possible.]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' wonders what is happening.]
Meanwhile, the mysterious man smiled and stood up.
Cale also stood up and ignored the constellation's messages as he thought that the man must have arrived while he was sleeping.
The stranger playfully looked at him.
"Hey! Aren't you the famous hacker Cale Henituse?"
Cale froze.
'Damn.'
He mentally cursed as he realized that his hood had fallen during his sleep and pulled it further down to cover his face.
That was why he was wearing a hood.
In the orphanage, to earn money easily, Cale often anonymously caught high-ranking criminals for money. However, as he hacked machines better than professionals, some high-ranking people grew more and more curious of his identity.
In an operation, since Cale often had to move himself from the orphanage to the scene of the predicted crimes to put on cameras or hack the systems in advance, Cale was captured by accident by a witness he hadn't noticed and was thus discovered by the authorities.
Fortunately, since he was a minor, his privacy was protected and the video was taken down, but there were still people who knew his face.
And of course, the man in front of him had to be one of these people!
Cale continued to curse. It would have been better if only Xin Jian was aware of the truth, why did a witness have to be there? And why did this person remember this after so long? (It's because Cale is handsome.)
He sighed and followed the man out of the basement.
"Where are you going?"
The teenager answered without stopping, followed by the man in a white coat.
"To an orphanage."
"Why?"
Seeing the sun in the sky, Cale felt that he had wasted a lot of time and walked faster.
"To find someone."
The man understood that Cale didn't want to talk about it and stopped asking.
They left the convenience store together and Cale's stomach rumbled; he hadn't eaten anything since the previous day. However, Cale ignored it.
As they walked for a few more hours, the stranger looked at Cale in disbelief.
"Do you even know where you're going?"
Cale kept a stoic face and replied:
"Yes."
However, the other man cheekily bugged him.
"How do you know the way? Do you have a special skill that lets you not get lost?"
Cale perfunctorily answered him.
"Yes."
Although it wasn't a skill that let him know the way, but an ability that enhanced his memory.
The other man shook his head.
"Is it still far?"
"Yes."
"How far away?"
"Yes."
The stranger shut up and stared at Cale.
The teenager calculated the remaining distance and estimated that it would take another half a day before they arrived. They would reach the orphanage he had grown up in in the evening.
He hoped that Xin Jian was safe there, but there was still the possibility that she had gone underground because of the second scenario.
As for the third possibility… Cale dared not think about it.
Xin Jian was fine. She had to be fine.
Cale was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by the presence by his side and realized that they would probably spend a while together.
"What's your name?"
"Hmm? You're only asking now?"
The man that Cale didn't find mysterious anymore after being bugged by him for a few hours shook his head before making a mischievous smile.
"My name is Dokja. Kim Dokja."
***
Meanwhile, Yoo Jonghyuk began to receive strange messages from the constellations watching two channels at the same time.
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' whispers that her boss is gay.]
"…?"
Yoo Jonghyuk began to question his life's choices.
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is shocked by the revelation!]
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' blushes.]
[The constellation 'Believer in Mysteries' has an ominous feeling.]
The Oldest Dream who was looking at another timeline frowned.
"What are you doing?"
As if she had done nothing wrong, Xin Jian answered with a blank expression:
"Socializing."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone