Chapter 185 (1/2)

185, The Last Episode

“You said you wanted to see me…”

“…”

Alvin did not raise his bowed head. In fact, he seemed to be sleeping on his knees. Then, after a few minutes, he finally responded to Yoo-seong.

“You…”

“Yes?”

“How…?”

‘How am I alive?’ Yoo-seong assumed that was what Alvin wanted to ask him.

Sending a nuclear warhead across the crack. It had actually been a pretty clever and well-thought-out move from Alvin.

He hadn’t resisted being arrested because he had already calculated what was going to happen.

Once Oh Yoo-seong and the tools that could open and close cracks at will were gone, the flow of events would have soon returned to normal. The world would have had no choice but to proceed with Alvin’s plans. The numerous giants, and even his father, who had abandoned him, would have no one else to rely on but him.

He would just have had to spend a little leisurely time in prison and wait for the world to need him.

“You seemed pretty confident about it,” Yoo-seong remarked.

“Why wouldn’t I? After all, humans depend on heroes.” Alvin shrugged.

“And you thought that, with your plan, you could erase the responsibility of launching nuclear warheads over foreign territories?”

“Hey! It’s not as if it was the territory of another country!” Alvin’s laughter rang out in the cell.

“Your father called and warned our government,” Yoo-seong said.

“He… he’s weak.” Alvin’s laughter stopped abruptly. He looked like he had just swallowed a bitter pill.

However, before long, he recovered. “Even if he warned you, they had no way to stop the warhead. Everything would have worked out so well…”

“If only you’d managed to kill me, right?”

“Yes, if only you were gone!”

Bloodshot eyes stared at Yoo-seong.

“So, why did you come here? To bask in your glory? To enjoy your time as a winner? What?”

“Of course not,” Yoo-seong answered. “I am a very busy person.”

Yoo-seong sighed as he fixed his tie.

“When the hell will I be free? Later, I will be in a meeting with your new government leaders. In fact, your new president was the one who gave me the clearance to meet you.”

“…….”

What had brought about Alvin’s complete defeat was not only the fact that Yoo-seong had survived. No matter how powerful he and his family were, the United States was not a country that an individual could control. Complaints about Alvin and his father’s actions had begun popping up all over the place since the bombing in Nevada.

Alvin’s unauthorized entry and access to nuclear warheads had been the final straw.

His father’s call to Korea had been made as a desperate move to save their political position. The United States government had wanted it to look like they’d had nothing to do with Alvin’s actions.

Still, that did not completely settle the situation, and in the end, the country’s top officials, including Alvin’s father, had faced impeachment for allowing an insane Miracle Boy free rein.

“After that meeting, I have to visit a few countries in South America as well… To be frank, you don’t have any business value that would make it worth devoting my time to you.”

“……!”

“I just stopped by here for personal reasons.”

Alvin tried to swear. Despite being tied down in chains, he was desperate to hurt Yoo-seong somehow, even just with his words.

However, before a syllable came out of his mouth…

Cheek-!

With a short metallic sound, the chains that had been clamping down on his limbs fell. Almost instantly, he had been released.

“……..?!”

Alvin was stunned. He did not know why he was being released.

“I can’t believe it…”

Alvin stared at Yoo-seong, who had his back turned against him.

Yoo-seong was calmly walking away.

“Is your power gone?” Yoo-seong provoked him without even looking back.

The distance between them was about ten steps.

Alvin knelt on one knee and raised his arms to the height of his chest.

2.5 seconds.

That was all it took for Alvin’s brain to calculate the scenario of defeating Yoo-seong and escaping the facility.

“You are now free to…”

Alvin did not miss the opportunity as Yoo-seong spoke. From his bent knee, he gained momentum and bounced off for a tackle.

It was a simple but effective attack, a single blow that contained all of Miracle Boy’s physical energy.

His speed transcended that of sound, and the impact was enormous.

Kuwooong-!

The reverberation from the impact was so sudden and powerful that it seemed to stop all the airflow in the room.

In that frozen moment, there were only two things that were moving: Alvin’s pupils… and his all-out tackle that couldn’t quite reach Yoo-seong.

Casually raising a knee as he turned, Yoo-seong struck Alvin’s chin as the latter rushed in.

Alvin could clearly hear it…

Pagak-!

The sound of his bones shattering.

The next moment, he found his body soaring into the air.

Meanwhile, Yoo-seong had already fully rotated and thrown his right foot up to follow Alvin’s body.

His foot glowed with intense light.

Annihilation.

The most powerful kick, of such strength that it could dissolve even a nuclear warhead.

With it, he hit Alvin’s lower abdomen.

“K-oh!”

Blood spurted out of Alvin’s mouth as his body was thrown backward.

“As I was saying”—Yoo-seong once again fixed his tie and his suit—”your new president was actually opposed to me coming here. But as soon as he knew what I was going to do, he welcomed it with open arms.”

“……”

“In my heart, what I really wanted was to destroy you. You have done things a human being should not do.”

Yoo-seong’s words were sincere.

Alvin hadn’t just tried to kill him. His attempt had also been a threat to the Needle and Thread, the tools to salvation that would save millions of lives.

“But it’s not my way. As much as possible, I wouldn’t want to kill another human being.”

“You… what did you…?”

Alvin struggled to stand. Not because of the physical damage, but because of a psychological one.

The physical damage he’d sustained in his lower abdomen was surprisingly small, considering that he’d been hit by the Annihilation Kick.

However, a feeling of emptiness stood out to him.

“What… to me…”

Yoo-seong, with his Annihilation Kick, had erased Alvin Hawkin’s core.

“What have you done to me?!”

“It’s the punishment that you deserve.”

Through Sung-wook, Yoo-seong had learned firsthand how hunters felt after losing their core. The more pride a hunter took from their achievements, the more empty they would feel with their power gone.

“I thought about consuming it,” Yoo-seong added, “but honestly, the amount is just not worth it.”

“Goddamn, you…!”

At that point, Alvin rushed at Yoo-seong with his fists.

Yoo-seong did not fight back. Instead, he quietly took Alvin’s kicks and punches.

Even so…

“Oh, ouch ouch!”

Alvin’s flesh was torn, and his bones broke from the impact against Yoo-seong’s body.

Now, he was just an ordinary person. He couldn’t win even against the weakest hunter.

“As I was saying”—Yoo-seong watched the broken Alvin—”you are now free to go.”

Yoo-seong brushed Alvin’s blood off his suit.

“You no longer deserve to be imprisoned here. I spoke with your new president about your new life. You will be on parole with an electronic anklet to track your movements. A police officer will be assigned to monitor you anywhere you go.”

“Lord, just kill me!”

“Commit suicide, if you want,” Yoo-seong said coldly. “I won’t stop you.”