*
Jin Siwon hurried into the headquarters of the Awakener Management Bureau.
—We urgently need your power. Could you come here?
It was because of a summons from Go Gang, Director of the Awakener Management Bureau.
Knock, knock.
After giving a perfunctory knock, Jin Siwon stepped inside. The first person he saw was On Jurim, turning to look back.
“You’re here. Now we can begin.”
Go Gang, Director of the Awakener Management Bureau.
“Ah, Team Leader Jin Siwon. It’s been a long time.”
Behind him, the Minister of Interior and Safety reached out to shake his hand.
“Good to see you.”
They truly had not seen each other since his naturalization, so it had indeed been a long time.
Only after he had exchanged greetings in succession with the association president and several cabinet members did Go Gang call Jin Siwon over.
“Come this way.”
“Yes.”
At Go Gang’s call, Jin Siwon moved to the center of the monitor room.
Beyond the glass, Professor Kim was in the middle of attaching a lie detector to someone.
As Jin Siwon turned his head to check the face of the man wearing the lie detector, Go Gang spoke in a grave tone.
“Team Leader Jin, I’ll tell you in advance: what happens today is top secret.”
Top secret? Jin Siwon shifted his gaze past Go Gang, who had said as much.
Just then, Professor Kim, who had been blocking the man’s face, stepped aside.
“……!”
At the sight of the man’s fully revealed face, words slipped from Jin Siwon’s mouth like a groan.
“Hunter On Ijo……?”
He resembled On Jurim, but with a gentler impression.
There was no mistaking those cheeks, where dimples sank in whenever he smiled.
On Jurim’s older brother, who had climbed the Tower with him.
The hero who had vanished along with the 100th floor.
On Ijo.
As if seeking confirmation that he really was On Ijo, Jin Siwon looked at On Jurim with trembling eyes.
“…….”
But when On Jurim lowered his eyes and crossed his arms, Go Gang answered in his stead.
“That is what I’d like you to find out from now on.”
*
On Ijo tapped his fingers.
In time with the motion, the sensors of the lie detector attached to his fingertips tapped against the armrest of the chair.
“A lie detector, I see.”
On Ijo’s tone carried no particular emotion, but Professor Kim, feeling guilty in advance, spoke as if making an excuse.
“You’re wearing it only as a formality. Please don’t be nervous and answer comfortably.”
“Ahaha, a formality. Mm.”
On Ijo nodded in acceptance. He, too, had been harassed by procedures and formalities, so he surely knew that protesting to Professor Kim would be pointless.
Unlike his usual self, Professor Kim sat down across from On Ijo while visibly tense.
Who on earth could help but be conscious of On Ijo, the hero?
He glanced once at On Ijo, who was smiling brightly, then began the questioning.
“First, I’ll confirm your name.”
“I’m On Ijo.”
Professor Kim checked the graph and continued his questions.
“How old are you?”
At that question, On Ijo hesitated for a moment and counted.
“As of this year…… thirty.”
“Are the walls here cement-colored?”
“They are.”
A lie detector determines what physiological differences a subject shows when they are nervous or lying.
For that reason, they had to establish a clear baseline, and afterward, several trivial questions were exchanged to set that baseline.
As he checked the graph while asking about things like the color of the glasses he was wearing or today’s weather, Professor Kim wiped away his sweat and adjusted his grip on the questionnaire.
The baseline had been confirmed.
Was he truly On Ijo?
Professor Kim stared at On Ijo with sharp eyes.
On Ijo did not look nervous in the slightest. If anything, the one utterly tense was himself.
Moistening his dry lips, he asked,
“Is your claim that you have no memories from after the clear until the present true?”
“It is true.”
After On Ijo appeared, emergency alarms had gone off in every sector.
It had already been six years since On Ijo cleared the Tower.
Where and what on earth had he been doing during all that time?
But On Ijo kept silent, saying he had no memories of that period.
His brother and father testified that the man before them was indeed “On Ijo,” but the government needed a definitive answer as to whether he was “truly On Ijo.”
And also to clarify what had happened during that time.
That was what today’s meeting was for.
“How did you know Miss On Geuru was your biological daughter?”
“Mm……. The first thing I did after becoming aware of myself was look for Geuru’s mother. Back then, I didn’t even know there was a child. In the process, I met a famous troubleshooter, and through that person, I came to know about Geuru.”
Professor Kim’s fingertips trembled faintly.
If he truly was On Ijo.
Depending on his answer now, the entire world would be overturned.
“What kind of place was the 100th floor?”
On Ijo smiled deeply.
*
“It’s all the truth.”
Jin Siwon, who had been sitting in a chair in the monitor room and observing On Ijo, spoke.
It was right after On Ijo had answered that it was true he had no memories.
“So he really has no memories?”
“Then that means he has no idea where he’s been or what he’s been doing all this time before showing up now.”
“How could something like that……”
“Perhaps it’s because of what happened on the 100th floor……”
Murmuring voices could be heard.
Jin Siwon let those sounds pass him by and focused on On Ijo.
The same went for On Jurim, who stood beside him with his arms crossed.
Jin Siwon deliberately avoided looking at the people around him. Everyone’s thoughts were so chaotic that his head felt muddled.
For now, the skill that read thoughts had to be focused on On Ijo alone.
‘So he cleared the 100th floor and hasn’t returned until now because he has absolutely no memories?’
His skill was “Barrett’s Whisper (SSS).”
Unless On Ijo could break through an SSS-rank skill, everything he said should be true.
Jin Siwon was pressing hard on his suddenly exhausted eyes when it happened.
“What kind of place was the 100th floor?”
With the question, a sudden silence descended.
At the mention of the 100th floor, everyone held their breath.
“Well. Shall I start by stating how many times I’ve already talked about the 100th floor?”
On Ijo lifted his shoulders with a bored air.
It was the reaction of someone sick of having testified about the 100th floor time and time again.
Professor Kim spoke in a fluster.
“I’m sorry to trouble you, but please tell us again.”
“Hmm……”
On Ijo, a smile on his face, did not answer for a long while.
The inside of the monitor room seemed to freeze over.
“The 100th floor was—”
Gulp.
The sound of someone swallowing rang out loudly.
In the silence, On Ijo spread both hands and raised them for all to see. Then, waving his empty hands, he said,
“There was no—thing at all.”
*
On Ijo lowered his eyes and sank into thought.
The time when he had passed the 99th floor and ascended to the 100th was vivid in his mind.
The 100th floor truly was a space where nothing existed.
A space that could not even be thought of as a space at all—literally, “nothingness.”
In that dark space where he could not distinguish up from down, he even felt a confusion as if his very existence were being erased.
There, he did not see the master of the 100th floor, whom he had secretly feared.
Only a single window appeared before his eyes.
“You are the being closest to a god among the humanity of the current civilization. Do you agree to clear the Tower by permanently eliminating all of your skills and abilities?”
At On Ijo’s words, Professor Kim’s eyes shook violently.
The people gathered in the monitor room were the same.
Even though they had already heard the story countless times, it was still unbelievable.
The being closest to a god among humanity had been required to give up his power.
What sort of heart had made such a thing possible?