Chapter 83

"Give me the melon bread later, but feed me now, field mouse."

"Forget the melon bread. It's hot, back off a bit."

"It's Cha Seo-un who's conducting the interrogation. Even if I give in a hundred times, you're still under house arrest, right?"

Seo-un thought he understood why there was no longer any hesitation in physical contact. Ever since Cha Haya had started pulling him strongly, their relationship had returned to what it was before, but it had become even more intimate than before. In high school, there had been no physical contact beyond a certain level, but now Cha Haya would touch him at any time.

It was as if Cha Haya was exerting a gravitational pull on him. He had even instilled the idea that it was natural for them to be this close. Seo-un had not realized that their physical contact had become so natural, as if he had been living without feeling the gravity of the Earth.

Where did it all start? Or was he just giving it unnecessary meaning?

Seo-un stopped his thoughts and poked Cha Haya's side.

"Turn on the air conditioner."

Cha Haya laughed and moved his hand from Seo-un's shoulder to his waist. Seo-un's waist jutted forward from the tickling, but Cha Haya put his hand inside Seo-un's waistband and pulled him back to his side.

Seo-un jumped in surprise when Cha Haya's hand touched his tailbone. Cha Haya quickly withdrew his hand, not expecting to poke Seo-un's buttocks, but he still held onto the bottom of Seo-un's shirt to keep him from moving.

As a result, the thin shirt stretched taut, revealing the outline of Seo-un's navel.

"Your navel is so sexy."

Cha Haya muttered.

"Are you crazy!"

Before Seo-un could scold him for stretching the shirt, Cha Haya started flapping the fabric. It was so intense that it felt like a typhoon rather than a breeze.

***

There was no children's set menu in the Tachun restaurant district, but Cha Haya managed to get an omelet and ham steak set. The Western restaurant chef had to make a dish not on the menu twice because Seo-un had once requested it, and this time the portion was three times larger.

Seo-un was rolling his oil pasta on the opposite side of the table from Cha Haya, who was eating heartily. There were no other customers, but the restaurant was still staffed by the same old employees.

When Cha Haya went into hiding, Seo-un decided to put a game center in the restaurant district to alleviate the boredom of the staff. Of course, Kangsan and Yuchan were even more excited than the staff.

It might seem like an easy job to sit and earn money, but the staff were people who had taken the risk to work there. Working among the monsters who enjoyed extraterritorial rights was not an easy task.

"Cha Haya, what do you think?"

"Hmm, the Gate?"

Cha Haya quickly grasped the intent of the question.

"It's strange. Even if what I experienced was an illusion, I wandered in the Gate for three days."

The Gate was the passage connecting the Narakga and Earth.

Could it be that it can also move to different dimensions and times?

If I had mistakenly flown to the Crayon Planet, what would the Cha Haya there have been?

He definitely called me a field mouse there too. The kiss on the cheek felt affectionate, which was confusing. Seo-un suspected that what he saw in the Gate might not have been an illusion.

Seo-un kept rolling the pasta with his fork, not eating it. Fortunately, Cha Haya was eating well without asking to be fed.

"Ugwangseok's core is a collection of cosmos. The Gate uses this as fuel to move the Manshengzhong to Korea."

That much was what the Manshengzhong in Narakga had also predicted. Seo-un listened quietly to Cha Haya.

"Then the Gate must continuously consume a lot of cosmos. What's the reason for that?"

"The black wall... Of course, we called it by a different name, but the black wall gradually consumed Gajan's territory."

Seo-un remembered the words of the child who called it a chicken mutant.

"To expand its territory?"

Seo-un muttered without realizing it. Cha Haya's pupils widened as he stared at Seo-un.

"Why?"

"That... I don't know either."

Cha Haya placed a shrimp from the fried rice on a separate plate and put a sheet of seaweed next to it.

"Let's say this shrimp on the left is Cha Seo-un in Narakga, and the seaweed in the middle is the Gate."

Shrimp / Seaweed

They were placed in this order. Cha Haya dipped the shrimp and skipped over the seaweed.

(Empty space) / Seaweed / Shrimp

"Here, the Cha Seo-un shrimp crossed over to Seoul and transferred Ugwangseok's cosmos to the Gate. After the stay period, it returns to Narakga."

He moved the shrimp back to the left.

Shrimp / Seaweed / (Empty space)

"The only thing that doesn't move is the Gate, like a turnstile. But the Manshengzhong have only used one-way tickets to Earth, haven't they?"

Seo-un opened his mouth slightly.

"Are you saying they lose their cosmos when they return to Narakga?"

"Cha Seo-un, if you meet your father, tell him you're a genius."

"Don't change the subject."

"It's just my guess. Narakga is not an Earth planet. But this Gate has been pulling Earth people into Narakga. How much cosmos do you think is needed to maintain that?"

The number of Manshengzhong in Narakga is nearly ten thousand. To keep that many there would require an unimaginable amount of cosmos.

At some point, a Gate that looked very similar to the black wall suddenly appeared at the intersection. Unlike the black wall, the Gate used Ugwangseok as a medium to send the Manshengzhong to Seoul and made sure they returned after their stay.

Considering the circumstances, there is only one answer.

"So, the Gate is making the Manshengzhong offer Ugwangseok, which contains cosmos, to live in Narakga?"

"Most of the Manshengzhong currently using the Gate are mid-to-high-level."

It was rare for those who hunted and obtained Ugwangseok to freely distribute it to lower-levels. Naturally, only mid-to-high-levels used the Gate. If they lost their cosmos when returning to Narakga from Korea...

A chill ran down his spine.

While lower-levels can use cosmos, the amount of energy is minimal. The combined cosmos of a thousand lower-levels would not compare to that of one high-level.

Seo-un began muttering to himself, trying to organize his thoughts.

"Only from level 3 Ugwangseok could the Gate be used. This means the Gate didn't need the lower-levels. In other words, it wanted to consume the cosmos of stronger beings, which means the Gate is considering cost-effectiveness."

Could the Gate be a living entity with intelligence surpassing humans? Or a technology created by someone?

"That's just my guess."

Cha Haya smiled and popped the shrimp into his mouth.

"Huh?"

After chewing the shrimp once, Cha Haya let out a puzzled exclamation.

"Why, why are you doing that?"

"The Cha Seo-un shrimp is delicious."

He added, "Yum yum." Seo-un slumped back in his chair.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, Seo-un slapped the table. Although there was no one around, he leaned in close to Cha Haya and whispered.

"Could it be that I lost my strength as soon as I got to Narakga because the Gate ate all my cosmos?"

"I need to recover a genius. The Gate can't consume level 6, you idiot field mouse."

Seo-un wanted to grab Cha Haya's mouth for him.

Cha Haya said he shouldn't go back to Narakga, and Seo-un naturally agreed. After experiencing the Gate's variability, he couldn't use it without risk. And Cha Haya seemed to have no idea why he ended up on the Crayon Planet.

In any case, everything they discussed was just a hypothesis, and the Gate was still a mystery.

Seo-un finally put the rolled pasta in his mouth and chewed. Just as he was about to speak, a loud noise came from outside.

Bang! There was no reason for a loud noise in the office building, which was supposed to be a safe zone. As Seo-un stood up to leave the Western restaurant, Cha Haya grabbed his wrist.

"Finish eating."

"Hey, just now."

"There's still food left."

It was hard to pull away from the tightly held hand, but Seo-un twisted his wrist to free it. Since it was their office, it was more important to check what was happening.

Before Seo-un could step outside the Western restaurant, someone burst in.

"Damn it! Cha Haya! You crazy bastard!"

Handonhee, out of breath, shouted with a red face. The intensity of his voice, fueled by cosmos, was almost as loud as a lion's roar. If there were any staff around, their eardrums would have burst.

"You psycho!"

Handonhee, dressed head to toe in luxury, looked as if he had just emerged from a jungle. Seo-un, covering one ear, tried to calm Handonhee to understand the situation.

"What if you tear the Gate? You money-grubbing bastard!"

Seo-un glanced at Cha Haya. He was rolling the remaining pasta with Seo-un's fork.

"Make Cha Seo-un spit it out if he's already eaten it."

While saying this with a calm tone, he put the pasta in his mouth. The fork he pulled out of his mouth with a "pop" was as clean as new.

"Tore it."