Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World

Did he really say that himself?

 

Jeong Mueum retorted with an incredulous expression.

 

“Why would I make that up? Yes, really. At least, that’s how it was back then.”

 

“Hmmm.”

 

So he didn’t pair up with anyone because he thought they’d get in the way, huh.

 

Hwashin hid his expression behind his crossed arms. It was true that Cha Jaeha didn’t particularly like working as a pair. No, it would be more accurate to say he avoided it. Even in <YHH>, it was mentioned that Cha Jaeha had this tendency in the beginning.

 

It seemed that during the time Mueum was referring to, Cha Jaeha was still struggling to control his powers. Well, that made sense, considering his past.

 

‘It’s not something that can be easily overcome. It’s also a fundamental part of who Cha Jaeha is.’

 

Cha Jaeha’s childhood trauma.

 

On the day the gate opened, Cha Jaeha awakened and killed his parents with his powers.

 

At least, that was what Cha Jaeha believed.

 

The burnt bodies turned to ash, irretrievable. He had incinerated them completely. His own parents, by his own hand, with his own power.

 

At the funeral without bodies, young Cha Jaeha didn’t cry.

 

In the original work, Cha Jaeha described himself as a ‘beast’s offspring’. An offspring of beasts that should be in hell.

 

「I don’t deserve to cry. How can a beast that killed its own parents shed tears? The right to cry belongs to a human, not a beast. I am worse than a beast.」

 

Since then, Cha Jaeha had been obsessed with saving people with his powers. At the same time, he didn’t value his own life much. He believed that he deserved to die, thinking that he was a sinner.

 

He cursed himself for having powers that could kill people, and he tried to use those powers to save others.

 

If Cha Jaeha, who had such trauma, had a hard time controlling his ability.

 

‘He probably said he didn’t want to pair up because he thought he’d be a hindrance. Mueum, being a genius, handled his powers well from the start.’

 

Hwashin sighed softly.

 

Cha Jaeha could have just said, ‘I’m worried that my fire might hurt you’, but instead, he kept his mouth shut. Even though Cha Jaeha was his favorite character, that part of him was frustrating.

 

Cha Jaeha was like that with everything. He tried to solve things on his own.

 

He handled dangerous situations alone and saved people alone. It wasn’t until he had a big fight with Yoo Jian that he started to change.

 

– You need to fix that attitude first. So what if you’re strong? You want to save more people, right? That’s your role, isn’t it? Well, good luck saving more people if things get worse here. Get your act together. I’m with the SH1 unit, and so are you. You want to act like a hero? Then fight with us.

 

Yoo Jian was really good with words. He couldn’t wait to see Yoo Jian in action as well.

 

Thinking of his favorite characters, he couldn’t help but smile. At his creepy grin, Jeong Mueum made an ‘ugh’ sound before continuing.

 

“Anyway. I’m telling you this because you seem to be expecting too much about teaming up with Cha Jaeha when you probably won’t even make it into the SH unit.”

 

This guy, despite looking insensitive, actually looked out for others quite well.

 

“Mueum, you’re younger than me, but you really take good care of people. Is that just how you are?”

 

“Yes?”

 

Jeong Mueum’s earlobes turned bright red.

 

He was definitely young, reacting so quickly to every word said to him.

 

Now that he thought about it, Jeong Mueum in <YHH>, despite his prickly personality, took extremely good care of his people. Looking back, it was always Jeong Mueum who quietly looked after the team members’ meals and health.

 

Moreover, he was so good to his fans. The novel described it in several pages about how he refused all idol casting offers because he couldn’t do aegyo, but in front of his fans, he would smile brightly.

 

With that face of yours, smiling like that should be a crime, you rascal.

 

However, unlike his reddened face, Mueum in front of him scrunched up his fine features and answered:

 

“When did I ever do that?”

 

At that moment, Yoo Hwashin was certain.

 

Ah, as expected.

 

Mueum was fun to tease.

 

***

 

After a brief speech from a high-ranking official, whose face Hwashin didn’t even recognize, the selection exam began starting from Waiting Room No. 1.

 

As previously explained, a hero was randomly chosen from Waiting Room 1 to enter the arena.

 

The selected person was an S-rank hero, a young man with a similar appearance to Mueum. He was cute and young. He’d probably be popular too. Though his constantly smiling demeanor seemed to be the opposite of his personalities.

 

It would be quite amusing to put the two of them in the same room.

 

After a quick explanation of the match, the competition began immediately. It was a match between S-rank and A-rank.

 

‘I wonder what kind of ability the S-rank has.’

 

Each waiting room had one S-rank hero, and Cha Jaeha was in Waiting Room 5. It would take at least one full round to get to him.

 

Hwashin yawned widely. He hoped it wouldn’t take too long.

 

To Hwashin’s surprise, the match ended very quickly and in an anti-climatic way.

 

The A-rank hero seemed to have the ability to create clones, as he duplicated himself into four and charged at the S-rank hero. The S-rank hero was small, so if the charge had succeeded, it might have been a good move.

 

But the man soon stopped. His clones also halted.

 

The A-rank mumbled something, then began to cry. Then he started begging someone. Soon after, he grabbed his own neck with both hands. His once lively black eyes had rolled back, leaving only the whites visible.

 

‘Hmm, illusion-based abilities are indeed impressive.’

 

All of his joints suddenly bent backward unnaturally. With an agonized scream, the A-rank foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the floor. Having fallen forward, his cheekbone was probably broken from the impact.

 

The man continued to convulse even while lying down. His flailing resembled a fish out of water.

 

There was no back-and-forth combat. The arena was silent.

 

‘Illusion-types are certainly interesting, but not very entertaining.’

 

Hwashin leaned back, wiping away tears from yawning.

 

“…D-Due to one side being incapacitated.”

 

Even the staff conducting the exam seemed surprised by the one-minute match. With thunderous applause, he announced the result.

 

“It’s Jin’s victory!”

 

Some heroes used code names instead of their real names, and Jin from the 3rd Unit was one of them.

 

‘Now that I hear his name, I’m certain.’

 

S-rank illusion-type hero, Jin. Although there hadn’t been many descriptions beyond him being bright and cheerful, seeing him in person was fascinating in a completely different way from seeing Cha Jaeha and Jeong Mueum.

 

This place, where even extras were fully alive, was a world of its own. A truly existing world. That realization sent chills down Hwashin’s spine once again.

 

Jin blew a kiss to the heroes in the audience before exiting.

 

Jin and Theo were the heroes who joined SH Unit 3. Theo seemed to have the opposite personality of that guy. Hwashin rubbed his chin.

 

Meanwhile,

 

“It’s our waiting room’s turn.”

 

Mueum pointed to the staff member who had started drawing lots. The number on the drawn paper was ironically 2-1.

 

As if by a twist of fate, the owner of number 2-1 was—

 

“It’s me.”

 

…The muscular guy from earlier. As soon as he stood in the arena, he grabbed the microphone without hesitation. His booming voice called out his desired opponent.

 

“F-rank, Yoo Hwashin!”

 

I knew it.

 

Hwashin stood up, rotating his arms a couple of times as if he had expected this.

 

“…It’s tough being popular. Isn’t it?”

 

The mention of an F-rank drew everyone’s attention to Hwashin. Of course, the looks weren’t very favorable.

 

He seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit.

 

“I’ll be back.”

 

Hwashin gave Mueum a soft eye-smiling glance and headed towards the arena.

 

***

 

On the arena.

 

They stood about 1 meter apart, waiting for the match to begin. Since the first match ended quickly, not much time was needed for preparations.

 

Hwashin slowly rotated his next.

 

Even before light stretching, a bit of warm-up exercise was essential. The man opposite him clapped his rock-hard fists together. It seemed too stupid to be intimidating, so Hwashin closed his eyes.

 

Let’s see. Earlier, the audit staff said… what was his name again?

 

‘Oh, right. Goyoung… Oh? Huh? Ah, Goyoung. That’s a really cute name.’

 

Hwashin squinted one eye open. He didn’t know the man’s ability, but it didn’t seem like it would take much karma to command him.

 

A few days ago, after testing it himself, Hwashin found out that this body wasn’t very efficient at using karma.

 

Although his ability to manipulate karma remained the same, his physical compatibility with it was poor. Naturally, the number of times he could use it was also limited.

 

It worked fine with ordinary people, but forcibly using commands on awakened individuals could result in a punctured lung or coughing up blood.

 

‘Even though healing internal injuries is easy, it also requires using karma, so I need to be careful about how much I use it.’

 

That didn’t mean it would be difficult to blow away that gorilla, though.

 

“Seeing you too scared to speak, this match will be over quickly.”

 

In response to the man’s provocation, Hwashin gave a sly smile instead of replying.

 

‘…Should I just kill him?’

 

Surely he wouldn’t cough up blood just from killing one awakened person.

 

‘…But the situation doesn’t really allow for that.’

 

He needed to join SH1 unit, stick close to the protagonist, and prevent his death.

 

However, right now he was an F-rank. If he showed off impressive abilities, they’d start questioning why his measurement wasn’t accurate.

 

‘I’d likely be under special surveillance even before getting into the SH1 unit.’

 

Moreover, if it were about simply breaking or blowing something up, that would be more suited to Yoo Jian or Jeong Mueum. The SH1 unit didn’t lack that kind of ability.

 

To match Cha Jaeha’s ability, he would need a nature-based power, but using commands to manipulate that category was tricky. In the first place, karma-based magic and nature types didn’t have good compatibility.

 

So, nothing flashy, no nature-type, something moderate. An ability absolutely necessary for Unit 1 but could still be judged as F-rank under measurement standards.

 

In the tournament, he could pretend to have advanced through the first round by luck and then show that he was becoming familiar with his ability from the second round onward.

 

Such an ability. Hwashin clapped his hands together.

 

‘…I can’t think of any at all.’

 

“Then we’ll begin the match for heroes from Waiting Room No. 2. I, a staff of the Audit Department, will be the judge. The match will be decided when continuing becomes impossible, or when one side declares defeat.”

 

Hmm, what could work? Even furrowing her brows in thought, he couldn’t think of anything that met all those conditions.

 

Cruelly, time kept flowing, and the start of the match drew near.

 

“Then, the first match from Waiting Room 2.”

 

“Hahaha! My fists are crying! Yoo Hwashin, I’ll teach you a lesson!”

 

…Wow. I really want to kill him.

 

The staff’s hand rose high towards the ceiling lights.

 

“Begin!”