Chapter 2

Those Bastards Aren’t Worth Feeling Sorry For

Gaining a Superpower

Youngsu looked peaceful as he lay in the coffin dressed in a burial shroud.

Not long ago, Youngsu had talked hopefully about how the landlord who had disappeared had finally been caught, and how he might be able to get his deposit back.

I had heard that from Youngsu’s older brother, Hyeoksu.

“Let’s go. It’s too hard to keep looking at him.”

Kang Hyeonyeong was right. It was hard to keep looking at Youngsu’s dead face.

“You and Hyeonyeong-noona go first. I’ll stay for five more minutes.”

“Okay.”

Kang Hyeonyeong and I left the mortuary.

“Maru, what the hell happened?”

It was the typical rental fraud story: after searching for a landlord who had disappeared for a year, they discovered that the man was merely a figurehead.

I told her what had happened.

“How much was it?”

“Of the 240 million won deposit, 180 million was apparently bank debt.”

“What a fucking terrible world. Jeez.”

Kang Hyeonyeong let out a deep sigh before continuing.

“Why do bad things never leave us alone? You said you got scammed too, right? What happened to the money?”

“I can’t get it back.”

“Why?”

I had lost the 200 million won I had saved over ten years as a career soldier.

I had invested it after deciding to start a business with the one fellow soldier I trusted enough to confide in.

Then the bastard disappeared.

That had happened the year before last, and in January of the previous year, I heard that he had killed himself.

“Why did he kill himself?”

“He died in Macau.”

“Did he gamble?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t know he was that kind of guy?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

He had been someone I could rely on during the difficult years in the military, the only friend with whom I truly connected.

I learned that the person closest to you could be the one capable of destroying you most deeply.

The aftermath of the betrayal lasted for months, and eventually, I had to see a psychiatrist just to keep myself going.

Rattle—

The door opened, and Hyeoksu came out of the mortuary with eyes swollen from crying.

“Hyung, Noona, thanks for coming.”

“What words could possibly comfort you? Still, you have to live on strongly enough for Youngsu, too. That’s what Youngsu would want.”

Kang Hyeonyeong.

The only older girl at Sanseong Orphanage who had ever treated Hyeoksu and me warmly.

When she entered her second year of middle school, she was taken somewhere at night, and it was only after she left the orphanage that she learned she had been used as the director’s plaything.

That incident completely ruined her life.

“Yeah. I’ll listen to you, Noona. Hyung, you’re probably busy too, so you can go. There isn’t even anywhere for you to stay since we’re having a funeral without a funeral hall.”

“I have to go to work this afternoon, so I’m sorry. Maru, take good care of your brother.”

“Don’t worry.”

After Kang Hyeonyeong left, Hyeoksu and I sat down on the chairs.

“Hyeoksu, I know it’s hard, but let’s get through this.”

“We have to.”

Hyeoksu had entered the orphanage with his younger brother, Youngsu, when he was five years old.

I could never forget that day.

Hyeoksu had screamed and cried at the top of his lungs from the very first day, until the orphanage director beat him so badly that he broke his leg.

Because he wasn’t treated in time, he still limped to this day.

A den of demons.

That was what Sanseong Orphanage, where I grew up, had been.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Since Youngsu died, I want to find Mom even more.”

It was impossible for Hyeoksu to find his mother.

Ten years ago, a fire broke out at Sanseong Orphanage, burning all the records.

The orphanage director, who had been waiting in the third-floor bedroom to engage in some secretive activity, died in the fire.

The sole and only fatality.

That was why the people who had grown up in the orphanage believed that Heaven had punished him.

“When you become famous, Mom will come looking for you.”

“You think so?”

“She will.”

“Hyung, don’t you want to see Mom?”

“You vaguely remember her, but I don’t even have a memory of her.”

“Still, you could have family out there. You might have an older brother or sister, or even a younger sibling.”

“How would I find them?”

Hyeoksu looked troubled.

“True. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. To me, you and Hyeonyeong-noona are the most precious family I have.”

“Thanks, hyung.”

I wasn’t the kind of person who easily became attached to others.

Perhaps we had simply grown close because we had been beaten together so often.

Or maybe the instinctive longing for family had created an empty space inside me, and Hyeoksu and Kang Hyeonyeong had filled it.

“Hyung.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s something I heard the last time I talked to Youngsu.”

“What?”

“He said Pilhyo-hyung introduced him to that house.”

“Gong Pilhyo?”

“Yeah.”

Gong Pilhyo.

He had been one year older than me and the enforcer who kept order at the orphanage.

There had been an old storage shed at the orphanage.

Once a week, we were gathered there, forced to perform disciplinary exercises, and beaten.

“Haa…”

“Hyung, I’m sorry. I brought back memories you wanted to erase for no reason.”

“It’s okay. Why? What does Gong Pilhyo do these days?”

“He’s apparently a real estate consulting manager. I just thought there might be more victims among the people from the orphanage, so I mentioned it. Do you have anyone you keep in touch with?”

“You and Hyeonyeong-noona are the only ones.”

Gong Pilhyo.

The moment his face came to mind, the horrifying memories of the orphanage and my school days became vivid.

I thought I had forgotten most of it, but I hadn’t.

Just as a single drop of ink spreads across traditional paper, the mere mention of Gong Pilhyo’s name brought every detail of those old wounds back to the surface.

I had wondered if isolating myself from the outside world while training my body brutally would finally allow me to forget my painful past.

That was why I had even taken an extra year and eventually become a special forces NCO.

I thought I had forgotten.

I hadn’t.

“Where is Gong Pilhyo?”

“They said they can’t reach him because he changed his number.”

“Looks like he’s traveling around the country scamming people.”

I unconsciously bit down hard on my lower lip.

How could someone stab another person in the back when they had both been abandoned by the same people?

Only someone like Gong Pilhyo could do that.

“Hyeoksu, let’s go eat. We need food to have the strength to keep going.”

“Yeah.”

He was considerate to the end.

He probably had no appetite at all, but he agreed because he wanted to make sure I ate.

The frozen ground was finally beginning to thaw, and fresh green shoots were sprouting everywhere.

Yet another pitiful life had withered away.

“You were abandoned on a village platform by the river, weren’t you? That’s why your name is Kang Maru!”

“Fuck, what kind of bitch abandons a kid on a platform and just leaves? That’s fucking ridiculous.”

“You can beat that bastard. Seongtae’s been with him since elementary school. Apparently, no matter how much you beat him, nobody ever comes looking for him.”

“Exactly. That bastard’s in a worse situation than an abandoned dog.”

Fists and kicks rained down on my body.

“Fuck! You’ve got a good tolerance for pain. Makes beating you even more fun.”

“Look at this bastard! He’s covering his head so he won’t get hit. You fucking bastard! Lower your arms!”

“Fuck! Let’s see how tough that belly of yours is!”

A kick slammed into my abdomen.

The pain felt like my intestines were being torn apart, but I had to protect my head.

I had an older brother who had become mentally disabled after being beaten in the head by the orphanage director.

My instinctive defense was to make sure that didn’t happen to me.

“Fuck! Even beating you is tiring.”

The beating ended only when the bastards grew tired.

“Seriously, what a tough bastard! Should we just kill him?”

Hwang Seongtae didn’t sound like he was joking, which made it even more frightening.

“That’s what makes it more fun. Let’s stop here for today.”

“Jeongsuk’s here. You’re dead now.”

Two female students approached while smoking cigarettes, their uniform skirts pulled up to just beneath their underwear.

Oh Jeongsuk and Yeon Gyeongwon.

“Is this bastard really that tough?”

“We’ve been beating him for over an hour, and he still takes it. Fuck! I’m the one who’s tired.”

“We should make the Big Dipper. Jungseong, that’s okay, right?”

“Do whatever you want.”

Jung Jungseong.

He was the leader of this group.

Oh Jeongsuk pulled off my pants.

Shame was a luxury in the face of violence.

All I could do was hope that this moment would end as quickly as possible.

“I’m sorry. Please, stop.”

“You have to prove just how tough you are.”

The burning tip of a cigarette pressed into my thigh.

“AAAAARGH!”

My scream was muffled by a palm.

It felt as though my flesh itself were burning.

The nauseating smell of scorched, rotten fish filled my nose.

“I’ll do the other three.”

Yeon Gyeongwon smiled brightly as she blew cigarette smoke into my face.

“I was so happy when they delivered a toy to our school, but its performance is pretty good.”

The scorching sensation boring through my flesh sent pain so intense that it felt like my head would explode.

“Ugh… ngh.”

“Bravo! The Big Dipper came out beautifully.”

“Move aside. I need to connect the seven stars.”

Gong Pilhyo approached with a switchblade in hand and a vile smile on his face.

“Pilhyo-oppa, don’t go too far.”

“This bastard never screamed even when he was being beaten at the orphanage. We should cut his skin, put ink in the wounds, and carve him a tattoo.”

“No!!!!!!”

I shot upright.

Sweat had formed across my forehead.

Fortunately, it had only been a dream.

Gong Pilhyo had appeared after Youngsu’s death.

He was dredging up fragments of the horrific memories I had shoved deep into the storage room of my heart.

The wound on my left thigh still hadn’t healed completely.

I wanted revenge.

Against every bastard who had tormented me.

Every single one of them.

After the death of the fellow soldier who had taken all my money, I started working as a cleaner.

While I was receiving psychiatric treatment for depression, my doctor told me that cleaning could help with my recovery, so I chose it as my profession.

Just as the doctor said, cleaning made me feel as though the resentment, bitterness, wounds, and pain that had accumulated inside me were being wiped away.

Song Sukja, an employee of the cleaning company, had arrived at the site before me.

“Uncle, do you like the place you moved into?”

“It’s on the top floor, so it’s good for exercising.”

“That’s a relief. They said he wasn’t discovered until fifteen days after he died. Deaths from living alone are a serious problem these days. Now that the weather’s warming up, we’re finding a lot of dead people.”

People who had died alone during the winter, unnoticed by anyone.

As the weather warmed, the stench began to spread, leading to the discovery of those who had died alone.

“Uncle, let’s hurry up and get out of here. It’s creepy. I feel like the dead man’s spirit is still here.”

“Yes.”

The basement of the villa.

The corpse had already been removed, but the two-room apartment was filled with cockroaches and maggots.

I was used to this kind of work.

First, I sprayed insecticide to kill all the bugs, then gathered them up with a broom.

Put the trash in garbage bags, sort the recyclables separately, and the job was done.

After cleaning the floor and even stripping off the wallpaper, Song Sukja spoke.

“Uncle, the boss says there’s another site that needs urgent attention, so she wants me to go. Can you finish up by yourself?”

“Yes. There isn’t much furniture here anyway. Take care.”

After she left, I began taking the clothes off the rack.

Then an elderly woman entered the house.

“Tsk, tsk. I thought he had gone to the countryside for work, but he died here.”

The old woman approached me and asked,

“Are there any valuables?”

“No. I haven’t found any yet.”

“Of course not. What would a manual laborer have? He only ever brought home piles of strange junk. Throw it all away.”

“Understood.”

The old woman looked around the room before leaving.

She must have been the landlord.

Just as she had said, the corners were filled with things like hinges, buckles, ornamental stones, and spent bullet casings.

But what caught my eye was a black silicone mask.

What was this?

Without thinking, I picked up the mask and put it on my face.

“Huh?”

The mask tightened around my face, then my skin seemed to loosen before being pulled taut again.

At the same time, a status window appeared before my eyes.

[Persona System activation complete.]

▶ Time Remaining: 11:59:59

[Rules]

• The mask can be maintained for 12 hours.
• After one use, a 24-hour cooldown is required.
• All abilities are increased by 10% compared to the original body.
• The mask provides a recovery function.

[Reward Conditions]

• Upon achieving 1 act of revenge, a transformed Persona will be unlocked.
• Each act of revenge allows 1 use of a transformed Persona.
• The transformed Personas added are a young woman and an elderly person, and each can be maintained for 6 hours.
• For every 10 acts of revenge, you can use 1 immediate-unlock ticket.

[Warning]

• The mask can be removed starting 1 minute before the end of its duration. If it is not removed, you cannot return to your original face.

What was this?

I checked the mirror and froze.

A middle-aged man I had never seen before was trapped inside the reflection.