Chapter 163
“Sumin, over here! Come sit here.”
The girl called Sumin looked too mature for her age, unlike Yura.
She also looked very different from Yura.
Yura seemed slightly older than her peers, but Sumin looked much more grown-up.
Sumin quickly sat next to Yura and asked cautiously, glancing at Yu-hyun across the table.
“Yura, who is this…?”
“Oh, this is Kang Yu-hyun oppa. I told you before, right? I have an oppa I know.”
“Ah. So this is him. Nice to meet you. I’m Sumin Seo, Yura’s friend.”
“Uh, uh. Yeah. I’m Kang Yu-hyun. Nice to meet you.”
Yu-hyun nodded his head belatedly, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Sumin.
Or rather, he was fascinated by the glowing book above her head.
‘Is that possible?’
The book that Sumin had.
It was two volumes.
One of them was a brown-covered book that a normal student like Sumin would have.
What caught Yu-hyun’s attention was not that, but the other book.
It was similar in size and shape to other books, but it emitted a light that was incomparable to anything else.
A brilliant and dazzling rainbow.
The other book that Sumin had was a book that Yu-hyun had never seen properly before.
‘A rainbow…’
This was the second time he saw that light.
The first time was when hundreds of books owned by Kwon Jia merged into one.
But Yu-hyun had to admit that Sumin’s book was more valuable.
Kwon Jia had over 600 books, and all of them combined to create that light.
On the other hand, Sumin had only one book.
Just one book, and it had more value than the 600 regressions of an infinite regressor.
‘What is this…’
Yu-hyun instinctively felt it.
He couldn’t read that book.
He couldn’t even touch it.
If it had been a decent gold color, he might have been tempted, but no matter how he looked at it, it seemed too hard for him to reach at his level.
‘Is she a regressor too? Or a returnee? Having two books means this is her second life.’
Yu-hyun realized that the third person he was desperately looking for was right in front of him.
He was curious about Sumin’s previous life. But he wasn’t stupid enough to ask her directly. How could he find out her identity?
‘The second book. Maybe there’s a clue in there?’
Yu-hyun thought so and secretly took Sumin’s second book.
“Hmm?”
“Huh? Sumin, what’s wrong?”
“No, I just felt a strange sensation.”
‘Could it be?’
Yu-hyun couldn’t help but be surprised again.
Sumin reacted to him taking the book.
She didn’t seem to know why either, but Yu-hyun knew it was because of his action.
‘She sensed something that no one else noticed before? How did she do that?’
Sumin looked puzzled and kept glancing at Yu-hyun.
Yu-hyun cursed inwardly at her behavior.
It was a skill that even Satan, a first-generation spirit being, didn’t notice.
She had a good sense, too good.
It wasn’t just human intuition, but something else that only transcenders or those who surpassed the wall could have.
‘She must have been an extraordinary being in her previous life? But why is her second life so dull and colorless?’
Yu-hyun wondered about that.
If she was such a being, she would have an enormous aura around her just by standing there.
That’s what the level of existence means.
Yu-hyun hadn’t seen anyone with a higher level than Sumin’s book among the people he had seen so far.
‘No. Maybe Choi Do Yoon? But he had to polish himself for 10 years after the apocalypse to be comparable. Considering that, this girl named Sumin is too strong and too alien.’
Her first book, which seemed to represent her previous life, was on par with the celestial beings of spirits.
But her new life’s book was too insignificant.
It wasn’t even a comparison between the sun and fireflies.
Compared to her previous life’s book, her current life was practically nonexistent.
‘Is that possible?’
Yu-hyun was sure there must be some reason for this unequal life.
“Hey, oppa. You’ve been staring at our Sumin for a while.”
That’s when Yura, who had been watching the situation quietly, narrowed her eyes. Her lips curled up slightly like a cat who had caught the perfect timing for mischief.
She had started talking casually with him after a while, and now she was teasing him.
Yu-hyun immediately waved his hand and denied it.
“What? No, I was just curious because she’s your friend.”
“What’s so curious about my friend?”
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
“The fact that she became friends with you?”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying I’m weird?”
“Oops. You got me.”
Yu-hyun laughed playfully and eased the tension.
Yura grinned and hugged Seo Sumin, who was sitting next to her.
“Our Sumin is really pretty, isn’t she? She has a beautiful face. She has a nice personality. She’s good at both studying and sports. I understand why you have a crush on her.”
“I don’t.”
“But, our Sumin is very shy, you know? And no matter how much you like her, she can’t give you what you want. If you want to take her away, you’ll have to go over my dead body!”
“I said I don’t.”
Yu-hyun said that while glancing at Seo Sumin.
She was listening to Yura’s words with an awkward smile on her face.
Her smile lacked strength.
Not only that, but her whole behavior seemed to be devoid of soul.
“So, how did you two meet?”
Yu-hyun tried to change the topic and secretly opened Seo Sumin’s book.
He was worried that she might not react again, but fortunately, she seemed to be too focused on the conversation to notice.
“I met Sumin when we entered middle school. We became seatmates when we were assigned seats, but at first I thought she was cold and scary. But as we spent more time together, I realized that she was actually very gentle and kind. And then we became friends.”
“I see.”
Yu-hyun gave him a skeptical look and Seo Sumin nodded in response.
Yu-hyun answered that he understood and quickly scanned the book he had opened.
Name: Seo Sumin
Race: Human
Description: An ordinary middle school girl who didn’t have many friends because of her aloof and weak behavior. She met some good friends and started to show a brighter side than before.
(History)
Yu-hyun turned the page with a sigh.
There was no clue about Seo Sumin’s past life in the book she had now.
To find out about her past life, he had no choice but to look at the book that didn’t budge at all.
‘This feels like the difficulty level has gone up a lot.’
***
“Well, I’ll be going then!”
“Okay, bye.”
Yu-hyun waved his hand at Seo Sumin and Kang Yura who were leaving.
Even after they disappeared, Yu-hyun stood still in his seat and recalled what had happened.
‘She didn’t write anything about her past life. Does that mean I have to find out for myself?’
Yu-hyun tried to deduce Seo Sumin’s identity one by one.
First of all, her past.𝑛օνℯ𝑙𝔟Ꭵ𝓃.𝐧ℯ𝑡
He didn’t know the exact details, but Yu-hyun judged that Seo Sumin was a transcendent being who had immense power in her past life.
‘There are returnees who disappear with vanishing and come back from another world, and there are regressors who die and go back to the past and start over. There could also be transcendent beings who die in another dimension and reincarnate in this place and live a new life.’
Yu-hyun walked slowly along the road, thinking about her.
Her appearance, personality, behavior, eyes. He recalled everything he had seen in detail and analyzed it.
‘Her actions, speech, or eyes didn’t seem to show any interest in anything. She was indifferent even when we talked about collectors. Does she not care? Or is it too ridiculous from her perspective?’
Whatever the case, it was clear that she had power but didn’t use it.
The book she had now told him everything.
Compared to her past life where she lived a brilliant life, her current life was too insignificant.
‘Not only is the book brown now, but the light coming from the book itself was dull. It was practically nonexistent. She doesn’t have any ambition to succeed or rise higher in this life.’
She might have been tired of living a fulfilling life and craved for an ordinary one.
But what stimulated Yu-hyun’s mind the most was that her existence didn’t appear at all in the future.
‘Seo Sumin didn’t exist in the future either. Even after the end of the world. Does that mean she died without gaining any power and lived an ordinary life until the end?’
Yu-hyun wondered about that.
He might be able to live an ordinary life now, but he didn’t think that would be possible after the end of the world.
People have innate talents.
They can’t hide them no matter how much they rationalize them away.
Especially when faced with death, their suppressed instincts become stronger.
Yet he didn’t remember anything about her.
‘Seo Sumin. She died without anyone knowing after or during the end of the world.’
Yu-hyun came up with such a hypothesis but felt doubtful.
‘Could such a strong person do that?’
He didn’t know what kind of life she had lived, but judging by the light of the book, he thought she was at least at the level of a transcendent being.
Who are transcendent beings?
They are the ones who break the wall of their limits as lower beings and reach the realm of spirits, who exist in the upper world.
She might be living a different life now, but she couldn’t completely shake off her past life.
That’s human.
In fact, Seo Sumin reacted when Yu-hyun looked at her book.
She felt something that even Satan didn’t notice.
No matter how thick or layered the pocket is, the awl will protrude.
She was trying to hide her power and not show it, but in the end, she was such a being.
But then, Yu-hyun came up with another hypothesis about her death.
‘Suicide. It’s possible, considering her detached attitude towards everything.’
What could be the reason then?
It didn’t seem likely that someone who possessed a multicolored book would end their life because of exhaustion or despair.
‘No. That’s too presumptuous of me. People have different personalities, after all.’
The fact that she was a transcendent in her previous life and now lived a normal school life with friends proved that.
‘Celine, who was born as a Wing People and wanted to be a Teller, couldn’t compare to her.’
What was Seo Sumin’s purpose then? To live a peaceful life different from her previous one?
Yu-hyun focused on the fact that Seo Sumin lived a life that seemed to avoid standing out.
If she wanted to live a more normal life, she would need to put in some effort accordingly, but she didn’t even do that.
It wasn’t her ambition to live her second life moderately.
‘Despair. Or emptiness.’
The more Yu-hyun pondered and thought, the more he found the answer by fitting the pieces of the puzzle together.
‘Her actions felt like that. Without any motivation, she just tried to live as she was. That means something happened in her previous life. Trauma? Or PTSD. Maybe something similar to that.’
Even if she was a transcendent, that was only her physical strength, not necessarily her mental resilience.
Yu-hyun reached one conclusion about Seo Sumin.
‘A transcendent who achieved great feats in her previous life, but lives a completely different life now because of some reason. Even so, she has to suppress her outstanding talent forcefully. She is living an ordinary life now.’
But, in terms of talent alone, she was the most suitable for the third collector.
‘This is troublesome.’
After Kwon Jia, who was tired of regression and became distrustful of humans.
Now he had to target a transcendent who was reborn and lived a listless life because of trauma.
Yu-hyun smirked bitterly at his unfortunate fate.
But he couldn’t give up on someone with such talent.
Considering the events he would face in the future, recruiting someone like Seo Sumin was essential.
‘First, I need to think of a way carefully.’
He made up his mind until then and stopped abruptly in his tracks.
It was only for a moment. Yu-hyun soon moved again and acted naturally.
‘Someone is following me.’
Yu-hyun walked along the street and turned into a narrow alley where no one passed by.
And then, right after.
“Don’t move.”
Something touched his back.
“You’re here.”
Yu-hyun spoke without looking back.
He didn’t need to see it.
He could feel it through his skin, even from behind.
The brilliant rainbow aura.
“Seo Sumin.”
