NOVPUBAfter the replay, when Jeon Mu-young was swallowed into the spatial anomaly with Seong Guk-eon, he was unable to discern where the anomaly connected or who used the power with what intention. However, Jeon Mu-young immediately activated Gwanglim, not to escape with Seong Guk-eon, but to take advantage of the brief opening and retaliate.
The result was that even when Seong Guk-eon's mind was consumed by the ability, Jeon Mu-young remained unharmed.
‘Guk-eon-hyung...!’
Immediately after the teleportation ended, Seong Guk-eon had been by his side, but there was no time to escape, and Jeon Mu-young was overwhelmed. Staring at Seong Guk-eon’s vanished spot, he felt a deep sense of despair but quickly surveyed his surroundings to assess the situation.
‘Is this a garden? It seems likely to be a garden connected to the Jin Tribe, given the clouds and the strange energy in the air. There’s not just one Jin Tribe here either. Guk-eon-hyung, where are you...?’
With Seong Guk-eon missing and in imminent danger, Jeon Mu-young’s thoughts were clouded.
Moreover, he had been continuously using Gwanglim, the “Shadowless Time,” so the energy consumption was significant, and his focus began to falter.
Jeon Mu-young tried to trace the remnants of energy at the spot where Seong Guk-eon had vanished, but aside from the powerful ability that had overwhelmed him, he couldn’t find anything useful.
Then, a voice broke through his focus.
“Where’s the secretary? You brought them with you.”
“They were with us just before the teleportation.”
When Jeon Mu-young turned around, he saw the twins from before, their voices high and unsettling. They appeared young and frail, but there was a palpable force emanating from them. While Jeon Mu-young didn’t have the piercing gaze like Seong Guk-eon to see through the Jin Tribe, he could tell that these were powerful beings.
“Did you lose them? If you lose the secretary, it’s going to be a hassle, you know.”
“I’m sure they were here. Did they hide when we came in?”
“Well then, we’ll have to find them! He said we need to get rid of both of them.”
The twins conversed in an innocent and unguarded tone, but their words were chilling.
Jeon Mu-young held his breath, eavesdropping on their conversation.
“They’re probably somewhere in this garden. No matter how they hide, they won’t last long.”
“We need to strengthen the entrance to make sure they can’t escape. I’ll have to pull more of the Unsa’s power.”
“Isn’t it going to collapse the garden connected to somewhere else? It’s already taking a lot out of us to deal with Seong Guk-eon.”
“That’s true, but if we make sure this garden is secure, it should be fine.”
Jeon Mu-young was caught in a dilemma.
The enemies couldn’t see through the Shadowless Time, and even if they sealed the garden, there was a chance to escape if he used the Gwanglim wisely.
If he could escape and call for help, he might be able to rescue Seong Guk-eon. However, in the time it would take, he wasn’t sure what would happen to Guk-eon.
‘If I join with the Member, I can find a way to resist. If I’m with them, the conditions for their Gwanglim will be fulfilled.’
It was safer to call for reinforcements from outside, but there was no guarantee that he would succeed in escaping.
Jeon Mu-young decided to go the route of joining Seong Guk-eon instead.
Listening to the twins’ conversation, he gathered more information.
‘The Member was attacked by mental abilities? That means the Member is safe. They couldn’t have been mentally subdued.’
The twins were full of arrogance, confident in their tremendous strength.
They had no idea that Jeon Mu-young had been listening so closely to their conversation, assuming they would easily detect anyone nearby.
They didn’t think someone could be this close without them noticing.
‘This garden seems to be controlled through something called the Unsa, the source of power.’
The mention of Unsa rang a bell for Jeon Mu-young.
Unsa appeared in myths as a being who presided over rituals and controlled the weather, close to the divine.
‘Could it really be referring to that Unsa? Or maybe it’s just a figurative expression, or a symbolic name. This garden has many clouds, so maybe they call the source of the power Unsa.’
Jeon Mu-young didn’t believe that the Unsa they were talking about was the real one, but he gathered and processed the information he could.
The twins had talked a lot, and Jeon Mu-young managed to learn some things.
If possible, he would have liked to continue eavesdropping until he could join Seong Guk-eon.
However, his time was running out.
‘There’s not much time left for the Gwanglim. The Member hasn’t shown signs of coming out yet.’
The Shadowless Time was about to end.
Though Gwanglim allowed for perfect concealment, it was only effective for a limited time.
Knowing the time limit, Jeon Mu-young moved away, ensuring he stayed out of their sight.
‘If I completely suppress my presence and stay out of sight, I might not be detected.’
Fortunately, the garden was dark and full of clouds, providing plenty of places to hide.
Jeon Mu-young optimistically moved farther away.
He distanced himself enough so that the twins wouldn’t be able to sense him.
But he couldn’t move too far, as he still needed to reunite with Seong Guk-eon.
Just as Jeon Mu-young deactivated Shadowless Time, he heard a voice.
“Hmm?”
“Hmm.”
The twins’ voices were much closer now.
As soon as he deactivated Gwanglim, they seemed to leap towards him.
Despite Jeon Mu-young’s desperate attempt to hide, he couldn’t escape their gaze.
“Found you. Here you are, daring to trick our eyes?”
The twins were deeply insulted.
Although it hadn’t been long, the fact that a human had managed to hide from their sight was deeply unsettling to them.
They decided to change their plan.
“Aah, it would’ve been nice if both the Member and the secretary had gone mad together.”
“Let’s just kill him.”
They had planned to drive both Seong Guk-eon and Jeon Mu-young insane, but now, it seemed they intended to kill Jeon Mu-young.
Grinding his teeth in frustration, Jeon Mu-young had no time to argue. He had no choice but to engage in combat.
However, Jeon Mu-young wasn’t a combat-focused player.
He was more adept at supporting roles and intelligence-gathering, rather than fighting directly.
He was certain he would be overwhelmed, unable to escape.
‘This is strange. How am I avoiding their attacks and moving like this...?’
Jeon Mu-young managed to hold his own longer than expected.
Using movements that felt more adept than usual, he evaded their attacks, finding the best routes to move and staying out of their ability range.
But soon, his limits were reached.
“Got you.”
Crack!
The child using wind abilities struck Jeon Mu-young’s abdomen with force, sending a shock that felt like being hit by a car.
Before Jeon Mu-young could use a recovery item, he was engulfed in the shock, as one of the twins kicked him into the center of an ability-based attack.
“I’ll make sure you face the same fate as the human you serve before you die.”
Jeon Mu-young’s mind went blank.
With a fatal blow and the mental abilities attacking him, it felt as if he were already dead.
There was a chance he could recover if he escaped the abilities before his body perished.
But it was difficult to suppress the physical pain and focus while dealing with the mental attack.
Moreover, time was running out.
Having suffered a potentially fatal blow, it seemed unlikely his body could hold on long enough to escape the abilities.
As Jeon Mu-young faced agonizing pain, he was consumed by past regrets.
‘Teacher... Si-wan...’
Jeon Mu-young, who was known for his composed, calm demeanor, had never expressed his emotions much. However, the truth was different.
He used to get incredibly angry when Seong Guk-eon got hurt and would even joke about quitting as a secretary. When he met his beloved teacher, he acted like a child and nearly cried when he realized his teacher was still alive after a nightmare.
He had only stopped expressing his emotions because, being by Seong Guk-eon’s side, there had been no need for him to reveal them.
Jeon Mu-young had never openly expressed his feelings, but Seong Guk-eon always knew, and in the political world, that was a good thing.
‘I’ve always been grateful. Thank you...’
But the greatest regret Jeon Mu-young held was different.
‘Guk-eon-hyung!’
It was from before he was teleported here.
‘Wasn’t there a way to protect Guk-eon-hyung? Really?’
Jeon Mu-young regretted not being able to protect Seong Guk-eon.
The ability that consumed Jeon Mu-young’s mind showed him the moment when he was pulled away from Seong Guk-eon.
The pain of the dying body wasn’t as overwhelming as the fear that Seong Guk-eon might die soon too.
‘If only I had used Shadowless Time to escape the enemy’s gaze instead of Seong Guk-eon-hyung, he might have found a way to survive.’
Jeon Mu-young watched as his regrets repeated, seeing the images of the moment just before leaping from the air sedan and being swallowed by the spatial anomaly.
“Mu-young, get down!”
Jeon Mu-young’s body was nearing its limit.
Limping, unable to make a different choice, Jeon Mu-young reached out to Seong Guk-eon, not even realizing what he was doing.
Hiss...
Then, Seong Guk-eon, who had been within Jeon Mu-young’s reach, vanished.
In the illusion, Jeon Mu-young used Shadowless Time on Seong Guk-eon, not himself.
Seeing Seong Guk-eon vanish, Jeon Mu-young smiled brightly.
At that moment, Jeon Mu-young’s mind was shaken as he broke the rule of regret and made a different choice.
At the same time, his physical body met death.
That was the end of the replay Jeon Mu-young experienced.
Upon returning to reality, Jo Yi-shin spoke to Jeon Mu-young.
“Mu-young, I have an exercise I’d like you to practice.”
“Hah, are you giving me homework, Yi-shin?”
“Yes,” Jo Yi-shin replied seriously.
Jeon Mu-young laughed at Yi-shin’s serious tone but soon understood the gravity of the situation.
“You must have realized something about Gwanglim in the last moments of the replay. It’s difficult, but I need you to practice using it on someone else.”
Jeon Mu-young had always thought of Gwanglim as a power for perfect concealment. He had never tried using it on others, always keeping it solely for his own protection. But now, after surviving the intense experience, he had discovered a new potential of his ability.
"Just before death, some players undergo enlightenment and unlock new abilities," Jeon Mu-young thought. "This is likely my case too."
Jeon Mu-young, though he hadn’t previously experimented with using Gwanglim on others, decided to give it his all. He knew that, if successful, it could keep Seong Guk-eon safe.
While Jeon Mu-young had tried learning magic in the past, it seemed that the new potential of his Gwanglim was far more useful.
He completed his task and came to the present.
Jeon Mu-young was able to use Shadowless Time to protect someone and then face a mental attack from the enemy.
"How severe was this compared to my training with the old simulator?" he reflected. "I wonder if Yi-shin is doing alright."
Without preparation, it would have taken much longer.
Jeon Mu-young shuddered at the chilling sensation that the past and regret had given him.
Looking up at the garden he had seen in the replay, he sank into thought.
“Looks like a battle has begun somewhere. They’ll likely be distracted now. Even if they attack us, it’s not an issue. I’ll join up with Yi-shin...”
Then, at the edge of his sight, a familiar silhouette appeared.
“...Is that Guk-eon-hyung? No, that’s Yi-shin!”
Jeon Mu-young quickly ran toward Yi-shin.
Yi-shin staggered and pressed his left eye, blood flowing from beneath his hand.
Before Jeon Mu-young could worry, Yi-shin blocked him from getting too close.
"...Mu-young, the enemy is still near."
Yi-shin, imitating Seong Guk-eon’s tone, stopped Jeon Mu-young from getting too close.
Yi-shin, seemingly still using Seong Guk-eon’s appearance, had been trying to stay hidden.
"Could they still not have been detected? But the eyes...!" Jeon Mu-young thought, noticing that Yi-shin’s eyes were under threat from the enemy.
The enemy might target Yi-shin’s eyes, as Seong Guk-eon, the true possessor of those eyes, was from a higher existence, making his eyes a prime target.
Though Mu-young had many thoughts running through his mind, he decided to align with Yi-shin.
“If you’re injured, please step back. I’ll handle the rest.”
"I’m fine. There’s something I still need to find," Yi-shin replied firmly.
Jeon Mu-young realized that he couldn’t stop Yi-shin, so he decided to let him go and take care of things on his own.
Just as Shadowless Time was nearing its end, something shifted in the atmosphere.
"I’ve brought someone to assist with the task," Jeon Mu-young spoke confidently.
With the Shadowless Time deactivated, the person he had brought along appeared—Hwang Ho.
Hwang Ho’s gaze locked onto Yi-shin’s left eye.
