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“Youth, I see it in your eyes. Your directionless desire has finally found its path, and you are walking the right road.”

The assailant was strange.

He appeared to be wrapped in insects, or perhaps it seemed like he had scales from fish covering his body. His skin shaped like a grotesque manifestation of darkness reached out toward him, approaching as if sliding slowly over ice, despite his feet remaining still.

Reaching right up to Lee Jae-soon, the assailant flashed a golden mask and spoke.

“Metal may be solid, but when buried underground, it serves no purpose. Only by emerging from the earth, melting in the hot fire, and being shaped by the blacksmith’s hammer time and again does it find its true use.”

His gaze stirred a peculiar sensation on Lee Jae-soon’s face, and strangely enough, recognizing that gaze made him feel a tingling beneath his skin, as if thousands of sharp-jawed ants were moving underneath, slowly chewing away at him.

It stung.

It stung too much.

He wanted to raise a hand and slap his face hard right this moment.

He yearned to strike with enough force to obliterate the swarm of ants gnawing at him beneath his skin.

He wanted to do it right now.

However, Lee Jae-soon could not move an inch.

It was as if he were under a trance, completely immobilized.

His hair stood on end, and sensations surged through his body like a mad rush.

It was as if he had taken a gulp of awakening liquid straight from a bucket, sharpening every sense to the extreme.

The heightened senses didn’t merely assist him; they rampaged wildly, feeding his brain an avalanche of external information.

But.

Nonetheless.

He could not move.

His bristled hair perceived the chill of the night air.

Yet not a single finger could he lift.

His keen nose detected an odd odor emanating from the assailant’s body.

It was the scent reminiscent of burning insects that he also recognized.

Yet even then, he couldn’t wrinkle his nose in disgust.

His eyes, wide open as if fixed in a vice, stared intently at the man with the golden mask.

Gazing at the golden mask, he felt as if he might be entranced by its sparkling light even in the darkness.

Staring at the rhythmically shimmering golden mask, he felt his mind drift into a haze, as if his senses vanished, then floated, only to repeat that strange state.

But he couldn’t even blink.

Lee Jae-soon simply looked at the man, unable to resist, and had no choice but to obediently listen to his words.

And it was at this moment that something emerged again within Lee Jae-soon’s heart.

What held him paralyzed.

The thing that had been momentarily forgotten, now surging forth in a harsher form.

The thing that could send his brain into a frenzy while simultaneously paralyzing it.

The emotion that could freeze a person’s reasoning.

It was fear.

He remembered the horrifying dread of the assailant, the immense fear that arose from the thought that he could no longer use his notebook.

But it was too late.

He had already stepped carelessly into the abyss of fear, facing it head-on.

“I have seen your desire clearly. Yes, I have witnessed it. Ha! Your craving for honor and social standing—yes, that desire seemed like a needle capable of piercing through anything. A needle? No, let us say a sword instead. You have refined your desire, shaped it into form. And that desire, now shaped, will serve you with the awakening of self-awareness.”

The eyes of the assailant smiled.

“It will finally propel you toward greater heights.”

With those words, the assailant reached out slowly and snatched Lee Jae-soon’s bag.

Then, with sharp claws grown like talons, he began to tear the bag apart, turning it inside out, shaking it until the items fell to the ground. He started to poke around the scattered items with his spiky feet, searching for something.

And after a few kicks, he found what he was looking for.

An old notebook.

The very same notebook he had given to Lee Jae-soon.

He dangled the notebook in front of Lee Jae-soon, as if holding onto thin air.

Then, he shook it with the tips of his claws and asked.

“Desire enables one to overcome everything. Just as you have done.”

He spoke to Lee Jae-soon.

“Indeed, you possess desire. Aha, a tremendous desire. A truly enormous one. And as long as you hold onto it, you can achieve anything.”

The assailant swung the notebook slowly, like it was a coin suspended by a thread.

From left to right.

From right to left.

Moving at a slow yet rhythmic pace.

One capable of deeply affecting his brain.

For patterns create experiences and information, and experiences and information become tools the brain can utilize.

A person thinks of the future using acquired experiences and information, sometimes transcending reality itself.

The trajectory of the notebook the assailant was swinging was no different.

Just a very simple movement.

A very simple movement of swaying left and right.

The speed remained constant, the distance of movement unchanged, and the notebook’s position stayed the same.

Yet paradoxically, it was so regularly patterned that it began to create an optical illusion.

The familiar path of the notebook left an afterimage wherever it went, and those afterimages moved as if real, causing dizziness. The notebook seemed to preemptively appear in places it hadn’t yet gone, existing in duplicates, creating countless afterimages like when two mirrors face each other.

If only he could blink strongly.

Lee Jae-soon’s eyes slowly began to unfocus on the notebook he couldn’t manage to close.

Slowly.

Slowly.

Lee Jae-soon’s eyes were burdened with fatigue, and his mind was overwhelmed by the confusion the notebook provoked.

And right at that moment.

The assailant elongated the nails of his other hand and began to bring them toward Lee Jae-soon’s body.

He sharply poked Lee Jae-soon’s finger with the tip of his nail and said.

“You see, you can do anything. You can move your finger.”

A slow metallic sound.

A sharp sensation on his finger.

Lee Jae-soon absorbed his words with a dazed mind.

“And next, it’s your arm. You can move your arm.”

Following his finger, the body that could merely twitch its fingers was suddenly able to move its entire arm now.

“You can blink your eyes now.”

He was able to blink.

“You can move your mouth now.”

He could move his mouth and let out breaths.

“Your legs will soon be free.”

The legs, which had been firmly stiffened, softened, causing him to collapse to the floor.

“And now, you can converse with me.”

And finally.

He could now engage in conversation.

With the man who had frightened him, the assailant.

The assailant tilted his head.

Then, with a bizarre motion that seemed to hang his neck, he brought his face close to Lee Jae-soon’s.

“Such is the power of desire, boundless, infinite. Now you can converse with me. So, let me ask: what has brought you back here?”

“Uh, um, that.”

Lee Jae-soon struggled to answer the assailant’s question.

The earlier impact lingered.

It felt as though his brain had solidified, making it hard to think clearly, and despite having thoughts clamoring to express themselves, his mouth could only fumble out lifeless words.

The assailant waited patiently, giving no hint of impatience, allowing Lee Jae-soon to finally voice his intentions.

“I-I used up the notebook…!”

“Hah.”

Those words, wrung from his overloaded brain, were painful to utter.

The assailant chuckled upon hearing this.

His laughter echoed like air being blown into a rusty metal pipe, reminiscent of the sounds of scraping iron that vaguely resembled human laughter.

It was an exceedingly ominous sound.

“Indeed.”

The assailant spoke with a tone of affirmation following the ominous laughter.

“Everything is finite, so how could that trivial gift last long?”

The assailant looked at Lee Jae-soon with glimmering eyes.

“Tell me, young man. Did you like the gift I gave you?”

“Y-Yes? Y-Yes. Yes!”

“Ah, yes. A gift should delight the receiver, for in doing so it brings the giver unparalleled joy, a blessing like no other. I’m quite pleased.”

The assailant spoke to Lee Jae-soon softly.

Of course, that gentle voice was nearly drowned out by the terrible sound akin to scraping metal, threatening to tear apart his ears.

“Y-Yes! It really, um, was satisfying. So… um.”

“So?”

“I want to use that notebook more…!”

“You wish to use it more?”

Seeing the assailant displaying a seemingly friendly demeanor, Lee Jae-soon mustered his courage and expressed his plea.

He had liked the gift he received and had returned to seek it because he wanted to continue using it.

He desperately requested that it be repaired and returned to him.

The assailant replied to his earnest plea.

“Young man. Can you return burnt firewood to its original state?”

 

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