Deadly flower (2)

Han Sooyoung, who was passing by, caught a glimpse of Yoo Jonghyuk and hurriedly hid behind a pillar.

With the regressor's recent habit of cutting off heads, if he noticed her, she was done for.

Han Sooyoung shivered and waited for Yoo Jonghyuk to pass by, afraid of the sunfish as much as Fors was afraid of Gehrman, except that this time the danger was real.

Meanwhile, the regressor seemed engrossed in his thoughts.

Hanahaki disease is a disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. It ends when the beloved returns their feelings, or when the victim dies.

["Be damned! You heartless being, you will die because of the person dearest to you!"]

The curse Yoo Jonghyuk was bearing now seemed to be a variant of the Hanahaki disease.

Here, like when Kim Dokja's fate was read in the 3rd round, the 'person dearest to him' didn't necessarily mean that he loved them romantically but that it was the person he was the most attached to.

In theory, it would end simply if he confessed his feelings to the person in question.

However, that was the problem.

(Because who else would the person he is attached to be other than the one he had met in the 0th round and decided to endure thousands of regressions for?)

Who would he be the most attached to?

Lee Jihye? Or the currently dead Lee Hyunsung or Kim Namwoon? Was it his sister? Or…

"Cough… Cough!"

Yoo Jonghyuk looked at the red petal he had just coughed out in his hand, tainted with blood, then clenched his fist.

'Kim Dokja…'

But how could he ever confess that he considered Kim Dokja as a true companion if the man was dead to begin with?

[You will die because of the person dearest to you.]

He scoffed and endured the pain in his chest. It was foolish of him to have even become attached to a man who was present in only one regression.

As a regressor, how could he make that mistake?

Maybe, if he had cared more about his other companions instead, it would have been easier.

Or if Kim Dokja hadn't died there in the first place…

Yoo Jonghyuk gritted his teeth.

Nothing was happening as he wanted.

This round was also a mistake.

But when had anything happened as he wanted anyway?

From the beginning, from the moment that he had to regress alone to save the world, he had been unlucky…

Han Sooyoung frowned.

Did she see it right? Yoo Jonghyuk coughed blood? Was the regressor perhaps terminally ill?

She decided to ignore it and ran away in the sunfish's blind spot.

Meanwhile, the child that Cale had saved woke up and noticed the crimson-haired teenager.

While the child registered the situation, Cale asked him a question.

"Did you see my… childhood friend? The girl I am always with."

He still didn't remember her name.

The child returned to his senses and his attention turned back to Cale.

"What? Ah, you mean that crazy bitc-?"

Cale glared at him with murderous intent.

The child was frightened and mumbled under his breath.

"Tch… I forgot you had a sister complex."

He lifted his head.

"And what do I gain by answering your question?"

Cale kept a stoic expression.

"Your life. If you don't answer, I can always hand you over to people who would need to sell you for money."

"What? You wouldn't dare-"

The child shut up, doubting if Cale would really not dare to do that because of the gaze the teenager was giving him.

"…Fine. I'll tell you."

"So, where did she go after the scenario was over?"

"I don't know."

Cale frowned.

"What?"

The child sighed.

"As I said, I don't know. That girl left the orphanage right after you, she wasn't with us at the orphanage when the scenario started."

Cale paused.

'What?'

If she wasn't at the orphanage, then were was she? Where could she have gone?

Xin Jian usually stayed in a corner to read books, so the fact that she had gone outside was already unusual.

However, he didn't know that Xin Jian may have been even closer to him than he expected before she joined the Oldest Dream.

Cale, who didn't remember that Xin Jian was his constellation, was searching for his childhood friend.

***

Bonus: How Cale became the Number 1 hacker.

At the orphanage, Xin Jian was begging Cale to help him with his work.

"No."

At the firm answer, Xin Jian first pretended to be angry.

"Why don't you want my help? I just want to help. Am I useless? Is that it?"

She pouted on the side and her eyes gradually filled with tears while Cale simply ignored her.

Xin Jian: *years of experience with crying over nothing*

She continued to stare at Cale with eyes on the verge of tears for a minutes until Cale glanced at her.

"…Do you even remember why you're mad at me?"

Xin Jian thought about it then honestly answered him.

"No."

"…"

Cale closed his eyes and breathed in. Seeing that Xin Jian was still pouting, he resigned himself.

"Fine."

Xin Jian tilted her head.

"Fine what?"

Cale sighed.

"I'll let you help me."

Xin Jian immediately blinked away her tears, ending her comedy and remembering what she was crying for in the first place.

"Really?"

Cale stoically nodded then opened a drawer and handed her a sheet of paper.

"Here are a list of tasks."

Xin Jian took it and looked through it before lifting her head.

"Which ones is it not problematic if I fail them?"

Cale circled a few tasks.

"These ones are less important."

Xin Jian blinked.

"I thought you'd only give me unimportant ones."

Then, she left to do one of the unimportant tasks first.

Her mission? Infiltrating a certain organization to gather information on them.

She went to the given address and entered a big building.

Xin Jian low-key opened the bag of a seemingly important person before naturally taking (stealing) some files inside it and closing the bag.

Then, she looked through it, folded the files and put them in her pocket.

She was so skilled at pickpocket since she was in high school a thousand years ago and was bored enough to open all of her classmates' bags' front pocket then close it to pass time. I mean, she had never exercised pickpocketing like any normal person would and was just lucky.

She then went to the front desk and asked to enter the secret organization.

The clerk looked at her in bewilderment, not understanding what she was talking about.

"…Er, wait for a bit. I'll relay your request to the boss."

After a while, a man came and took her inside a private room.

"How did you hear about this organization?"

Xin Jian enjoyed the free cookies, not caring at all if they were poisoned or contained some kind of drugs. However, she decided to not take a few with her for Cale just in case and focused on eating everything.

"I dwon't know."

*munching sounds*

Xin Jian interpreted from the look on the man's face that he regretted that there were cookies here distracting her and sped up eating in case they were taken away.

She would definitely not bring Cale any, these ones were too good compared to the cookies at the orphanage.

Xin Jian choked on a cookie and tried to catch her breath.

Meanwhile, the man asked her a few more questions.

Finally, Xin Jian finished the cookies and stared at the empty table with regret. The man, suspicious, knew that she must have a hidden motive for trying to join them.

"Why do you want to enter our organization?"

"Why do you want to know?" She asked back.

"I won't let you join us if you don't tell me what your purpose."

The man was firm so Xin Jian straightforwardly told her purpose.

"I want to infiltrate your organization to spy and gather information on you. Now that I've told you, can I join you?"

The man looked at her in a daze, as if he was facing an idiot. These words didn't sound like sarcasm.

Xin Jian stared back at him.

The man continued to fixedly gaze at her and put his cheek in his hand, still staring.

Finally, the man spoke up, interested.

"…Can I have more details?"

However, although the man thought that Xin Jian was an idiot, he didn't consider that it would be suspicious that someone who had just affirmed coming to their organization to spy on them would really divulge who was giving them orders.

To Xin Jian, the idiot was this man.

"What details?"

"I want to know who ordered you to do this."

She thought for a moment, recalling the name of the Number 1 hacker who was ranked right above Cale (Cale was number 2 at that time) and reputed to have better hacking skills that his friend, and mercilessly sold his name.

"The one who gave me this mission is the hacker Spades Z."

After that, Spades Z was in trouble and couldn't continue working as a hacker. Thus, Cale took his place as the Number 1 (against his will).

Anyway, Xin Jian thought that Cale was already very famous so it wouldn't change much, and decided to focus on teasing her friend.

After unknowingly being arranged by Xin Jian, Cale looked at his returning friend.

"So?"

Xin Jian pointed at the mission she chose.

"They refused to take me into their organization."

She deliberately hid the details so that he wouldn't know that she sabotaged it on purpose because it seemed annoying.

Cale shook his head.

"It's not a big deal, I have another way…"

Xin Jian blinked and cut him off.

"What are you saying? I said I failed to join them, not that I failed the mission."

"What?"

She took the folded files out of her pocket.

"My mission was to infiltrate to collect information on them, but I found information."

Thanks to her pickpocketing skills (do not do this at home), Xin Jian's mission was a success (?).

That's how Cale became the Number 1 hacker worldwide.

Spades Z, the (former) Number 1 hacker: I tell you I didn't order anyone to infiltrate you, damn it! Who the hell are you?!