There’s nothing lighter than the weight of a stranger you don’t care about.

The cargo so precious it was worth all our lives turned out to be a board game.

[Beg for Change and Become a Billionaire! Super Rich Begging Game]

I wish they’d at least pretend to be happy about it.

“Ah, fuck. It’s dented. Seriously. Delivery riders these days can’t even handle one package right. Ha!”

Those sharp-eyed bastards blurt out whatever’s on their mind without a single filter, no matter if we’re standing right in front of them.

Not that I care.

We don’t have any business with them anyway.

The only thing they can do is complain to us.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I ran into an Antibody on the way here.”

Jo Yong-gu kept bowing and apologizing as he retreated from the outpost.

Of course, once we were far enough away, he muttered what he really felt.

“Fuck this shit, I can’t stand it anymore!”

He glanced at me.

“Seriously, isn’t this just too much?”

It wasn’t just my imagination that Jo Yong-gu’s attitude had shifted slightly.

Before making the delivery to the outpost, he had asked me a casual, probing question.

“Hey, you did show off your skills back there, right? I thought I heard something like chopping wood with an axe.”

I only answered with a vague smile.

There’s no need to spill everything.

I started thinking about what comes next.

The dangerous zone called the Outer Edge isn’t far.

The point I agreed to meet Jo Yong-gu is right at its entrance.

Beyond the Outer Edge, the escort gets heavier and stricter, and Jo Yong-gu’s final delivery destination is an outpost not far past the entrance.

Once I collect my cargo there, I’ll start my own journey.

I looked toward the distant area known as the Outer Edge.

Nothing special.

Just a plain grayish-white expanse.

Snow-like particles drift down at the horizon, as if endlessly spawning monsters.

The line between the Outer and Inner areas is defined by the frequency and intensity of Antibodies.

They appear constantly out there, and the threat they pose is no joke.

Not only that, but strange “natural phenomena” occur frequently inside the Crack—things I’ve never experienced myself.

The worst of them is something called the “Frog Pot,” where the surrounding temperature in a wide area spikes above 1,000 degrees, slowly cooking anyone inside alive.

True to its name, there’s no visible change to warn you. If you’re unlucky, you’re trapped as the temperature rises and end up being steamed alive while standing there.

Fortunately, in parts of the Outer Edge, they’ve set up tall poles that change color in response to temperature shifts so you can react to sudden, large-scale heat waves.

Aside from that, they say surreal events like sandstorms, gusts strong enough to fling people, random rockfalls, and even mass hallucinations happen all the time.

None of this had been reported when I explored the Crack in the past.

It’s a shameful reminder of my own complacency.

While I was building my bunker and hiding inside, others were pushing further into the Crack, facing unimaginable phenomena, and expanding the boundaries of knowledge I couldn’t even dream of.

I had my chance too.

Kim Jeong-hwan said in the truck that the pioneers weren’t the precious Awakened but mostly old-school hunters like me.

“Huh? What’s going on?”

When I got back to the transport line, the air was tense.

A crowd had gathered.

I pushed through the people and saw a man lying on the ground.

It was Kang Gu-cheol.

He was groaning, clutching his stomach as if he’d been badly beaten.

In front of him, two men were dragging a woman.

Cha Chae-eun.

“You used to enjoy it before, so what’s with the attitude now, huh?”

I looked at the men’s faces.

They were the same bastards who raped Cha Chae-eun before.

She spotted me.

“Help me.”

I hesitated for a second, but the thought didn’t last.

I slowly walked forward.

One of the men turned toward me, scowling.

“What the hell?”

Thud!

I’m not exactly some righteous avenger or anything.

But everyone has their own line of decency.

When one of the men’s temples took my hit and he slammed to the ground, the other guy cursed and rushed me, swinging his fist.

I watched his punch swing with full force, then stepped back and grabbed his head.

He stumbled forward, and I kicked him hard on the crown of his skull.

The man tried to get up.

I grabbed a handful of sand, flung it in his face, then kicked him again as he half-rose, stomping his face repeatedly with my boots.

Someone tried to stop me from behind, but when they saw how brutal and merciless I was, they backed off on their own.

I don’t like resorting to violence, but once I start, I hit as hard as I can.

Especially in an environment like this, it’s crucial to make sure there’s no backlash.

Piiiii—

A whistle blew.

I turned my head.

Soldiers I hadn’t seen before were approaching.

Unlike Kim Jeong-hwan’s group, these guys wore neat uniforms. They must be the soldiers assigned to guard us from the Outer Edge.

A man with a friendly face looked at the fallen guy and asked,

“What happened here?”

The rapist’s female accomplice approached the soldier and whispered something.

Jo Yong-gu came up to me.

“I think you messed up.”

“Messed up?”

“Those bastards... I figured they had someone backing them. Turns out they’re in with that short bastard. That’s why they tried to drag her off even in front of everyone here.”

He scoffed.

“Hell, maybe they were planning to let that guy have a go, too. This is why I kept telling you to stay out of Crack politics.”

He shot a glare at Cha Chae-eun.

Cha Chae-eun spoke.

“I’m leaving. I’m done with this hellhole!”

She looked at me.

There was hesitation written all over her bruised face.

Then she bowed her head to me.

That’s probably the best way she can express herself to me.

The soldiers stared at me, whispering.

I don’t like this feeling.

They left after a while, but another soldier walked over.

Kim Jeong-hwan.

He gestured for me to follow.

We moved to a secluded spot.

He looked at me with a crooked smile.

“Why did you do that?”

He must be blaming me for beating up those men.

And his scolding wasn’t small.

“Stuff like that happens all the time here. A pretty girl with no one to protect her? Coming here was already her first mistake. I figured she had some sponsor. Everyone probably thought so. That’s why no one touched her in the beginning. But once it was clear she didn’t, everyone jumped in. It’s her own fault.”

He’s not wrong.

I wasn’t planning to step in.

The old me, Professor, would’ve ignored it.

I let out a shallow sigh.

Ever since I entered this place, I’ve felt like someone’s watching me from afar.

Maybe it’s just the Crack’s madness, but still, what I did was an altruistic act.

Maybe even self-sacrifice.

A change that’s completely un-Professor-like.

And yet, I feel some resistance to that thought.

It’s altruistic, but not really.

It’s a contradiction, but that’s how I see it.

“...Maybe so. But how do I put it.”

I recalled what I saw when I took down the Nemesis type.

That endless chain of contradictory logic.

It’s similar, but not the same.

No.

It’s clearly different.

I looked at Kim Jeong-hwan and said calmly,

“It’s just... disgusting, you know?”

I’m still Park Gyu, still the Professor.

Maybe I just wanted to protect that feeling.

Kim Jeong-hwan gave me a bewildered look and shook his head.

Then he said,

“You’re the Professor, aren’t you?”

“...”

I’d expected this.

I knew he might recognize my face.

But it’s not a pleasant discovery.

Especially being called out like this in a place like this—it gives me a bad feeling.

I thought about the axe strapped to my back.

The surest thing would be to kill this guy.

It’s too soon to bail, but the rail tracks should connect to the Crack’s nerve lines.

Maybe leaving early to go find Kang Han-min is the answer.

Dozens of ways to kill him flashed through my mind, but then Kim Jeong-hwan continued.

“You really are the Professor, right?”

I slid a hand behind me and grabbed the axe handle, nodding slightly.

Kim Jeong-hwan smiled faintly.

“Yeah. I saw you from a distance once. My buddy said, ‘That’s the guy with the Golden Fleece, the best hunter the school ever produced.’”

“...”

I gripped the axe and reconsidered.

Would killing him really be the best option?

“Why is someone like you hiding your identity and sneaking into a place like this? Someone like you could have walked in openly. Do you have some ulterior motive?”

Even after thinking about it, killing him wouldn’t be the best solution, but it’d be the most efficient.

That’s how I’ve always done things.

Not the best solution, but the optimal one.

I can’t say if I’m right or wrong.

At least, by Professor standards, maybe that’s right.

While I hesitated, Kim Jeong-hwan sighed deeply.

“I joined the school because of you.”

“...?”

“The government censored the news, so I could barely find your name. But on Chinese sites, I read rumors about a powerful Korean hunter called the Skull Warrior.”

Skull Warrior.

Yeah. That’s where ‘Skelton’ came from.

My grip on the axe loosened slightly.

“When I learned that was you, the Professor, I became obsessed. You were the only hunter the Chinese, who always bash Koreans, admitted was legion-level.”

“...”

“I joined the school because of you. ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) But I couldn’t endure the process. To be exact, our generation was already obsolete. Kang Han-min had already appeared.”

Kim Jeong-hwan let out a heavy sigh.

It resonated with me.

“After that, everything felt meaningless. I just drifted along. It felt like someone else was living my life for me.”

He looked up.

“The only thing I’m aware of now is that my end isn’t far off.”

As I thought.

He’s deep into the Crack’s corruption.

There’s no real will to live in his eyes.

“You saw Young-ho die, right?”

“That guy earlier?”

It was the first time I answered.

“In the Cabinet, people die just like that. When Young-ho died, I honestly thought about dying too. Even if you survive something like that, losing your gear means you’re done. And if I leave here, reality will kill me anyway. I don’t have the strength to survive out there, in that broken Seoul.”

Kim Jeong-hwan rummaged in his pocket.

After a while, he pulled out a photograph.

Or rather, a smeared, printed photo.

In it were boys and girls wearing familiar uniforms.

“Huh...?”

School uniforms.

I used to wear the same outfit with my old friends and comrades.

“We were young then.”

Kim Jeong-hwan said.

Yeah.

There’s that saying.

“I didn’t graduate, but I got one thing out of it. Just the fact I went there let me scrape by here, doing crap jobs while others died in Seoul.”

His hand tightened around the photo.

“My friend, the one who did something worthwhile, died.”

I asked him,

“What class were you?”

With a bitter smile, Kim Jeong-hwan answered,

“Seventeenth.”

He looked at me.

For the first time, something like life flickered in his dull eyes.

“And at the end of despair, you appeared.”

I released my grip on the axe.

I even felt ashamed of having reached for it.

“My idol from the past, suddenly real in front of me. And you achieved the future I wanted to have.”

“...”

“Now I don’t care about anything anymore. Life has been meaningless for a long time. It’s like these dull, gray colors all around us.”

Kim Jeong-hwan sat down.

“Your light shining here won’t change anything. But at least I want to bet on something.”

He lowered his head and mumbled weakly.

“Like when hope still existed.”

The crumpled photo lay in his hand.

He didn’t bother to smooth it out.

His voice was barely a whisper.

“Go.”

He kept speaking.

“The Outer Edge soldiers won’t let you go. They’ll shoot you dead from where you can’t see them. I can’t let someone like you die here. Turn back. Follow the tracks and you’ll reach the Outer boundary.”

“I have to go forward.”

Kim Jeong-hwan looked up.

“Forward?”

I nodded.

“I need to meet Kang Han-min.”

Kim Jeong-hwan looked confused for a moment, then smiled like a child.

“Knew it!”

He laughed out loud.

“So you had a plan!”

Then, cautiously, he asked,

“Sorry, but what’s the plan?”

I didn’t answer.

He looked a little disappointed but brushed it off and stood up.

Whether it was from being stuck in the Crack for so long or from the surge of emotion, he staggered slightly.

I grabbed his hand.

Though his spirit was broken, there was strength in his grip.

I told him,

“Life doesn’t end just because the environment changes.”

I slowly nodded, reflecting on my past.

“It’s up to you to decide.”

It was something I said to my juniors back then, but also to myself.

I raised my head and looked up at the sky.

Again, I felt that distant gaze on me.

*

“From there on is the Outer Edge. Be careful.”

I took the cargo.

Forty-five kilos. Heavy as hell.

I tested the movement of my exoskeleton strapped to my legs and right arm while slinging my rifle.

The machines, now little more than hunks of scrap, still moved as smoothly as the smell of grease wafting from them.

I nodded at Jo Yong-gu.

“Alright.”

Jo Yong-gu and Kim Jeong-hwan watched me.

No, there was one more.

Cha Chae-eun stood a distance away, holding onto Kang Han-min’s electric weapon, watching me.

With their fleeting farewell behind me, I stepped onto the gray-white earth.

The Outer Edge.

The unknown path awaits.

Step—

The load is heavy.

I’m not used to the balance yet.

But I’ll endure.

This is the path I chose.

At least it’s less regretful than staying in the familiar darkness of my bunker.

That darkness will be my final bastion.