The moment Cha Seohu asked the question, his shoulders trembled slightly.
Even though he knew he couldn’t take the words back, he regretted it. He wasn’t prepared to handle the answer.
What would he do if Cha Sahyeon said “yes”?
And if he said, “No, that’s a misunderstanding”... would that be enough?
He couldn’t be sure of anything. Which made the question entirely, completely wrong.
Cha Seohu himself wasn’t ready to hear the answer.
He wanted to know whether this stranger was the “kid” or the “Catastrophe.” And at the same time, he didn’t want to know.
Right now, Cha Sahyeon was like a shadow encountered in twilight—uncertain whether it was a dog or a wolf, and if it was a wolf, unsure of what choice to make. He hadn’t made up his mind.
Cha Seohu’s lips parted in the heavy silence as if to say something—but just before he could turn his gaze away and flee—
“Who knows.”
A calm answer drifted out.
“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not.”
At those words, Cha Seohu’s expression twisted slightly. Seeing that, Cha Sahyeon shook his head faintly.
“I’m not joking. I mean my memories are incomplete.”
“...I asked if you were the Catastrophe.”
“Then what do you think the ‘Catastrophe’ is, hyung?”
Cha Seohu was momentarily at a loss for words.
Cha Sahyeon looked at him calmly, as if talking about the weather. Whenever the wind brushed past, his hair rippled, and a deep emerald hue flickered faintly in the darkness.
“Is it the memories the Catastrophe holds? Or the terrible will that killed countless lives and ended the world? If I have that, does that make me the Catastrophe?”
“That’s...”
His mind shook violently.
The Catastrophe. The being that could drag him by the hair back into the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) dirty, agonizing memories of that day at any moment.
But Cha Seohu had never once actually asked himself what the “Catastrophe” truly was.
He thought of the “trial version” that the fake had shown him.
If he returned to the ruined world and met the Catastrophe there, then yes—it would definitely be the being he feared. Because they would have met in the same world, the same time.
But what about the Cha Sahyeon standing in front of him now?
“I figured you’d realize I’ve changed. You’ve always been quick-witted, and sometimes you hit on the sharp points.”
His neatly trimmed black hair—not the long locks from before—fluttered in the wind.
“If what you mean by the ‘Catastrophe’ is someone who inherited the will to destroy the world... then I’m not it.”
“......”
“I inherited the memories. That part can’t be helped, not when I’ve already synchronized with this power.”
“...You mean you have memories from before regression?”
“Regression?”
Cha Sahyeon tilted his head with an odd expression, then nodded in understanding.
“Regression... yeah, I suppose that’s one way to put it. You’re right. More precisely, I have the memories of all the ‘repeated timelines.’”
“All of them?”
“The end of this world is always the same. It collapses the moment I awaken. Then, the one upholding the core of the world turns back time.”
After that, the Catastrophe falls asleep again. And someday, he awakens again—and breaks the world once more.
“But this time, that flow has started to change.”
Cha Seohu had been just another person living in ignorance amid that dull repetition. Until now.
“I’m the same.”
Cha Sahyeon smiled softly as he looked at Cha Seohu.
“A new past has been added.”
The black bird that had stayed beside Cha Seohu suddenly flapped its wings and flew off beyond the sky, as if reacting to those words.
“You saved me, hyung.”
“I...”
“You protected me. You taught me so much.”
Cha Sahyeon looked genuinely happy—and that made Cha Seohu unable to answer.
He wouldn’t know.
He wouldn’t know that Cha Seohu had actually intended to kill him.
The only reason he saved Cha Sahyeon was because the system gave him a quest. And because even if he killed the bearer of the “Seed of Catastrophe,” it wouldn’t vanish.
“If you hadn’t saved me, I would’ve stayed asleep forever. Until I awakened again... inside never-ending pain.”
Cha Sahyeon took a cautious step forward. As if approaching a wild animal, he slowly walked up to Cha Seohu and extended a hand.
“As long as I have memories of being with you, I’ll never harm you. I won’t defy your words. I’ve become someone different from the one in the previous world, and it was you who made me.”
Cha Sahyeon truly believed that.
Memories were the core of one’s existence—and the moment Cha Seohu gave him new memories, he was reborn.
“But I know it’s hard for you to trust someone like me.”
From his outstretched palm, a black haze rose—and then a small object appeared.
Cha Seohu realized it was the item Cha Sahyeon had retrieved. The one capable of masking his L-rank energy.
“So I’ll give this to you.”
The item was a loop of black string with a green gemstone embedded at the center.
It looked like a necklace, but narrower than usual. Too wide to be a bracelet, too slim to be a collar.
It was what people called a choker—a tight accessory meant to fit snugly around the neck. Cha Seohu’s gaze drifted to Cha Sahyeon’s pale, slender neck.
“It’s okay if you don’t trust me. If you say you don’t want me around... I’ll leave. I’ll leave a shadow behind to protect you—it’d be dangerous otherwise.”
Isn’t that not really leaving? Cha Seohu almost scoffed at the absurdity, but Cha Sahyeon continued.
“If you ever decide you want me by your side...”
He handed the item to Cha Seohu and smiled with his eyes.
“Put it on me.”
The soft fabric touched his palm.
Nothing was resolved. Cha Seohu still didn’t know enough. And Cha Sahyeon still had things he was hiding.
Cha Seohu couldn’t trust him.
Even if Sahyeon said he had memories from the time when he was called “kid,” that alone didn’t solve everything.
I know.
No one knew that better than Cha Seohu himself. And his decision...
“......”
After staring at the item in his hand for a long time, Cha Seohu finally gripped it tightly. It was his way of accepting the offer.
Cha Sahyeon’s eyes sparkled with joy as he embraced Cha Seohu.
“Let’s go.”
The black shadow that rose from the ground swallowed the two of them whole.
The bird that had flown off on its master’s orders arrived at a destination—and from the shadows, Cha Sahyeon and Cha Seohu stepped into a new cave.
It was so small and narrow it was questionable whether it could even be called a cave. Something inside was gently swaying in the winter wind.
“There it is.”
Cha Sahyeon told him, noticing that Cha Seohu couldn’t see clearly in the dark.
“The flower is blooming in there.”
Just as he suspected, the thing hidden inside the cave was the same flower they’d discovered back at Gwanghwamun.
A sudden question popped into Cha Seohu’s mind. He stepped back from Cha Sahyeon and asked,
“Do you know how to deal with it?”
“You just have to pull it out. Roots and all.”
“And after that?”
“Once the roots are removed, the effect disappears. Doesn’t matter what you do with it after.”
The good thing about having Cha Sahyeon around was how easily he answered cult-related questions.
Cha Seohu crouched and reached into the cave, carefully pulling out the flower. Making sure not to snap the stem, he lifted it up gently and extracted the roots completely.
After securing the flower in his inventory, he looked around—but nothing seemed to have changed.
Apparently, the issue wouldn’t be fully resolved until he purified the gemstone embedded in The One Who Walks Above Snow’s forehead.
Cha Sahyeon also looked up at the black sky where snow was falling, and said,
“I’ll have to use my skill again. I like traveling with you, hyung, but...”
As Cha Seohu stored the flower in his inventory, Sahyeon sent another bird flying into the air.
“You’ll freeze to death if we stay here too long.”
“I’ll use divine power.”
“Divine power isn’t free. Your energy isn’t infinite.”
“......”
Free, huh. Who would’ve imagined the Catastrophe would ever say something like that.
Cha Sahyeon’s hand, gripping his wrist, felt even warmer than before. Since the cold didn’t affect him, that only meant Cha Seohu’s body was growing colder.
Cha Seohu looked down at Sahyeon’s hand with a complicated expression. Slightly larger than his own, that hand no longer resembled the child’s it used to be. It was fully grown—an adult’s hand.
Frowning, Cha Seohu seemed to ponder something deeply, then raised his eyes to meet Sahyeon’s.
“You said you’d leave if I refused.”
“Yeah.”
“If you leave... where would you go? Don’t tell me...”
Are you planning to return to those cult bastards?
If what Sahyeon said was true, and he inherited memories from past timelines—then it would be natural for him to return to them. They were his original guardians, after all.
If he really planned to do that, then Cha Seohu would have to stop him immediately. He couldn’t let the current Sahyeon become the Catastrophe—not if he got tangled up with them again.
Biting his lip hard, Cha Seohu grabbed Sahyeon’s arm. Startled, Sahyeon blinked at him.
“Go where...? I don’t really have anywhere.”
“What?”
“I’ll just wander. Preferably where there aren’t many people.”
“Wait, why? You have those bastards who protected you. That lab.”
“You want me to go back there?”
Cha Sahyeon’s voice was full of bitterness as he countered, and Cha Seohu froze like a broken machine.
“Even if I went back to the lab, it’d be the same. Ever since awakening, I’ve always been alone.”
“Alone? With no place to stay?”
“Yeah.”
That short reply left Cha Seohu shaken.
No place to stay—traveling alone?
In other words...
The Catastrophe was homeless?
He was beginning to understand why the copy of the Catastrophe he’d met up close looked the way he did—with long unkempt hair and a ragged robe.

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