Free Web Novel“What would there be to remember? Digging up bad memories, what good would that do?”
“Right?”
A flicker of doubt crossed Park Seungmin’s eyes—was it really true that Yohan remembered nothing? But even if suspicion lingered, there was nothing he could do. No one had ever returned alive from the Abyss before; he had been living comfortably under that assurance. And now Yohan had reappeared. How troublesome that must be for him. Yohan smirked inwardly and waved his hand, issuing his dismissal.
“I’m getting tired. My head hurts—I need some rest. Let’s talk another time.”
“Y-yeah, sure... ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ next time. We’ll talk then.”
Unable to shake off his lingering desire for the Eternal Stone, Park Seungmin left the hospital room, his footsteps heavy with frustration. As soon as he was gone, Yohan’s expression went blank and he muttered,
“What a coincidence...”
Yohan’s plan had been simple: pretend to have lost his memory, lull Seungmin into false security, then track down those mercenaries from the Awakening Party. With solid proof or witnesses, he could destroy Park Seungmin publicly. And if that failed, private revenge would suffice.
But facing him in person, Yohan realized something instinctively.
Park Seungmin had the potential to Awaken as a Purifier. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
It was shocking—his first time seeing a candidate since returning from the Abyss. Still, the potential was weak, flickering like a firefly, so faint he never would have Awakened naturally in his lifetime. In fact, Seungmin seemed better suited to something else, maybe a dealer or a tanker. Yohan couldn’t know for sure. What mattered was—
I could force him to Awaken as a Purifier.
He could be sure of it because of what Hyunmook had revealed in the past few days—secrets only a high-tier Awakener could know.
‘You’ll learn when more Awakeners appear. No Awakener can exist without a high-tier leading the way.’
Indeed, after Hyunmook vanished into the Abyss, no one with lightning powers ever Awakened again. People began to suspect his death, saying no more appeared because the high-tier source was gone.
In truth, it was because the Abyss severed all connection to Earth. Without the upstream flow, the river below stagnated. And sure enough, the moment Hyunmook returned, new lightning Awakeners began to appear.
Hyunmook had confided something else as well, warning Yohan not to tell another soul.
‘If someone has even a little potential, you can force them to Awaken. You just open the waterway for them. And... you can take it back, too.’
The moment Yohan learned this truth that high-tiers guarded so fiercely, his long-held questions finally made sense. Why did Awakeners who committed heinous crimes sometimes suddenly lose their powers? Why did the world keep this hidden?
Because if the truth spread, chaos would follow. People would beg for power, offering fortunes. Worse, they’d take hostages, blackmail high-tiers, and try to control them.
They’d build artificial armies of Awakeners. Or threaten any who refused to obey.
Why were only high-tiers capable of this? Where did this power come from? Why did it choose, almost as if deliberately, those with disciplined and restrained temperaments?
It was like the Abyss itself—no human could truly define its origins. And maybe that didn’t matter. What mattered was that humanity could live safely in this world. freewebnoveℓ.com
But that wasn’t Yohan’s focus now. After long deliberation, he picked up his phone.
“Chanha hyung, I need a favor...”
Though the request might have been troublesome, Lee Chanha accepted without hesitation. After the long call ended, Yohan gazed out at the sunlight spilling through the window.
After falling into the Abyss, he had learned one truth: nothing is more agonizing than falling from dazzling heights into the depths below. And he intended to give that agony to Park Seungmin.
* * *
“Goddamn it! Nothing ever works out!”
Park Seungmin flung his phone onto the bed, too afraid to smash it on the floor. Instead, he kicked the bed furiously until his toes hit the dresser, making him yelp in pain and hop around. Grumbling, he picked up the phone again, checking for damage before sighing heavily.
For the first two weeks after Yohan’s disappearance, life had been bliss. When Yohan fell into the Abyss, Seungmin had felt a pang of guilt, a little fear—but above all, exhilaration. He could never forget Yohan’s shocked, terrified face as betrayal dawned on him. Seungmin had nearly burst out laughing.
He had first met Yang Yohan in high school. On the first day, one of the guys he hung out with pointed and said,
“Hey, that’s Yang Yohan.”
“Who’s that?”
“That kid under the tree. His family’s loaded. What’s the name again... Samyeong? They own a pharmaceutical company.”
“Samyeong? Never heard of it. They really that rich?”
Seungmin had scoffed, saying a real name should be like one of the major electronics brands, but later he secretly looked it up. To a high schooler, the company was obscure. Still, he saw it mentioned in news articles and thought bitterly—life was unfair. Some people were just born with silver spoons.
Then the rifts appeared, and pharmaceuticals became worth more than he ever imagined. Ordinary people suffered without medicine, unable to afford it. And there was Yohan, quietly handing painkillers to a friend writhing with headaches. Watching that, Seungmin decided to stick close to him.
Unlike Seungmin, Yohan surrounded himself with nerds—kids whose biggest rebellion was skipping self-study. It was torture to hang out with them, but Seungmin endured, mooching off Yohan while seething inside.
Lucky bastard. Living fat just because he had rich parents. Whining about being mistreated at home. What I wouldn’t give for him to just drop dead. Or at least be crippled somehow.
He truly wished it. So when the chance came, he tripped Yohan and let him fall. When the mercenaries threw him into the Abyss, Seungmin didn’t stop it—he savored it.
It was inevitable, after all. Better that one die so the rest could live. Besides, it wasn’t even his hands that did it—the mercs had carried it out. He told himself they would’ve done it anyway. Even they were shocked when the Abyss closed immediately after Yohan was tossed in.
“Just for throwing in one guy, it disappears like that? That efficiency’s insane.”
“Hey, did you see him grinning after tossing his buddy? Total psycho, that kid.”
“Me, a psycho? You should’ve seen how annoying that bastard was every day. You would’ve done the same.”
Even their jokes had been fun for Seungmin.
Some people couldn’t find jobs, or hated the crappy ones they got, living like rats. This was fair. Yohan had had his fun, now it was over.
The only regret was not seeing him rot into a monster in that cesspit with his own eyes. Still, the fat stack of money he squeezed from Yohan’s parents under the guise of “search efforts” was sweet.
Good thing I never told them he fell into the Abyss.
He truly believed that.
