Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 616

A faint black light.

It was a very weak light that Jang Hyun-jun could not see with his eyes.

“Dong-dong must have known. That I’m here.”

“What do you mean…?”

“You said it yourself. You didn’t see any evil spirits at all when you were in the divine sword or the training camp.”

As Jang Hyun-jun nodded blankly, Seo-jun smiled and continued.

“I think it was Dong-dong’s doing. Dong-dong must have thought that I could help you.”

“…Our…Dong-dong?”

His voice was strained with bewilderment and resentment.

He still remembered the softness and warmth of the black fur that seemed to linger on his hands.

“Yeah. He must have really wanted to help you, since he found me.”

“But how could Dong-dong know anything about the divine sword or the training camp…”

“Maybe he went to ask some spiritual souls. He must have wondered how you could get out of this difficult situation.”

He thought of ‘that thing’ (white dog) that he met in Gangwon-do. He couldn’t deny that there were other goblins or strange and mysterious gods in ‘this world’.

Somehow.

He imagined Dong-dong wagging his black and fluffy tail and barking ‘Hyun-jun! I have to protect you! Tell me how!!’ and a god looking at Dong-dong with a perplexed expression and saying ‘Hmm. Well… try chasing the evil spirits on this day and that day. You might be able to meet the noble one.’

Jang Hyun-jun seemed to have a similar thought. Tears welled up in his eyes.

“Is…is Dong-dong here, sergeant?”

“He is, but… he’s using up all his strength right now. His presence is faint. I think it’s time for him to leave.”

Jang Hyun-jun jumped up in surprise.

And he looked around. But it was too faint and his ability was too weak to see it.

“Where…where is Dong-dong…”

“Right here…”

Seo-jun cupped his hands in front of Jang Hyun-jun, as if to embrace the air.

“You won’t be able to see him. He’s too small and too blurry. And he felt like he was protecting you, so I left him alone. But it turned out to be Dong-dong.”

Jang Hyun-jun looked at Seo-jun’s hands with a choked face. As Seo-jun said, he couldn’t see anything, but he felt a longing.

Dong-dong.

His name couldn’t even come out of his mouth, mixed with tears.

“Why…why are you suffering here… You should be comfortable in the dog star…”

He couldn’t believe that meeting this sergeant and getting this bracelet was thanks to Dong-dong.

“Why are you…suffering here…”

Dong-dong, who was like a family to him, who always protected him.

He couldn’t stop crying when he realized that Dong-dong was still protecting him even after he died.

“Sergeant…”

“Yeah?”

“If Dong-dong…used up too much of his strength…would his soul disappear? Would he not be able to go to reincarnation or…heaven?”

Jang Hyun-jun’s question was full of worry. Seo-jun pondered for a moment.

He would reincarnate right away when he died, but he didn’t know how the mechanism of ‘this world’ worked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think his soul would disappear even if his power was gone. If it’s his turn to reincarnate, he would reincarnate. If there’s a place called heaven, he would go there.”

Jang Hyun-jun sighed in relief and wiped his tears.

“Thank you. If it wasn’t for you, sergeant… I wouldn’t have known that Dong-dong was helping me.”

“What are you talking about? I just told you what I saw. Dong-dong must have really liked you. He went to the trouble of finding me.”

Jang Hyun-jun smiled brightly with his tear-stained face at Seo-jun’s words.

***

“I’ll tell the officers about the bracelet.”

Soldiers were not allowed to wear accessories, so it was better to tell them in advance. It would be fine if he said he needed it.

“Yes. Thank you.”

The amulet bracelet, and the story of Dong-dong.

Jang Hyun-jun, who had been crying with gratitude, thanked him sincerely.

“Um. Hyun-jun.”

“Yes?”

“Isn’t the food in our unit good?”

Jang Hyun-jun, who was curiously touching the two beads on the bracelet, looked up at Seo-jun’s sudden question.

“Yes. It’s much better than the unit I was in before.”

“That’s because of my ability.”

Jang Hyun-jun blinked at Seo-jun’s words.

“…The food? You can do that too?”

“It’s an ability that makes people’s senses more sensitive. I made the cooks’ senses more sensitive, so the food tastes better.”

Jang Hyun-jun was shocked to learn that the secret of the food that the White Tiger unit members were curious about was thanks to Seo-jun’s ability. No wonder they couldn’t figure it out.

“Then did you put an amulet in the cafeteria?”

“Something like that. I’ll show you tomorrow when we go to the cafeteria.”

Seo-jun smiled and got to the point.

“I told you earlier that I need energy to use my ability, right?”

“Yes.”

Jang Hyun-jun’s head stopped for a moment.

Ability, energy, charging, discharge…

Jang Hyun-jun’s eyes slowly widened as he looked at Seo-jun.

“Then…”

“When I discharge, I can’t inject energy. Then I can’t use my ability either.”

“…The food will taste bad then.”

It was a shocking revelation.

Jang Hyun-jun, who was now a private first class, had about a year left until he was discharged. When he compared the food he ate in the unit before he transferred and the food in the White Tiger unit, his eyes went dark.

Seo-jun scratched his cheek.

“And there are other abilities that I used here and there.”

Jang Hyun-jun opened his mouth without realizing it as Seo-jun explained his abilities (reducing stress, comfortable sleep, accident-free training, etc.). Then he nodded as if he understood.

“…I see…that’s why.”

There was a reason why the White Tiger unit was comfortable.

“What I want to ask you is, while you’re here, could you charge them for me? I’ll charge them fully on the day of discharge, but.”

Fully charged.

Jang Hyun-jun snickered at Seo-jun’s words.

“But how do you charge…”

“You just have to touch the beads on the bracelet. Let’s try it tomorrow at the cafeteria.”

Jang Hyun-jun nodded at his words.

He felt that he had experienced a lot of unusual things in his 20 years of life, but today seemed to be the most memorable. He would never forget it for the rest of his life.

“And…”

Jang Hyun-jun, who was fiddling with his rosary, lifted his head. Seo-jun was hesitating to speak, opening and closing his mouth.

“Did you say there was no one in your family who had a similar constitution to yours?”

“Yes. That’s what I heard.”

“Then the chances of passing it on to your children are very low.”

…Children.

Jang Hyun-jun’s body jolted.

Family. Offspring.

Those were words he had never dreamed of, having a strange ability.

He thought his grandparents were his only family…

Jang Hyun-jun’s hand, which was touching the rosary bracelet with beads around it, trembled. He wondered if he could really have a loving person, a loving family, that he had only hoped for in his dreams.

“Of course, that’s assuming you get married.”

“…Yes…Yes. That’s right.”

Love. Marriage.

Jang Hyun-jun nodded his head repeatedly, his face flushed like an adolescent boy. He didn’t even know if he was listening properly.

“But it could still appear later, right?”

“Well, yes, it could.”

Jang Hyun-jun and his grandparents didn’t know if there were any distant ancestors who had a similar ability to Jang Hyun-jun.

“Then I have one favor to ask you.”

“A favor? Please, just tell me! Anything is fine!”

Seo-jun smiled as he saw Jang Hyun-jun’s sparkling eyes.

“Later, if any of your descendants have a similar ability to yours,”

…Descendants?

Jang Hyun-jun blinked his eyes, thinking it was a very distant future.

“Do you remember the hill we drew in the painting?”

“Oh, yes! The one with the red flowers and white butterflies?”

“Yes. There.”

Seo-jun thought of the nameless ‘thing’ that liked humans. He hoped that the ‘thing’ would be born normally and meet a good fate after a long time.

“If a descendant with a similar ability to yours is born, I’d like you to go there.”

“…What’s there?”

Seo-jun grinned as he saw Jang Hyun-jun blink his eyes.

“You said your soul was like candy, right? Usually, they are protected by a powerful master in a form of divine blessing, but you can’t do that because you don’t have a master.”

“Yes. You said that. You said I’m not tempting enough for the powerful spirits.”

“There’s a powerful soul on that hill. A mountain god, or a goblin. Something like that. But it likes humans, so it will protect your descendants.”

Jang Hyun-jun looked at the rosary and then at Seo-jun.

“Then…wouldn’t it be easier to introduce me to that soul?”

Seo-jun smiled softly.

“Well, it hasn’t been born yet.”

Jang Hyun-jun’s mouth opened wide at that.

How did this sergeant know about a goblin or a mountain god that hadn’t been born yet? The more he looked at him, the more he seemed like a mysterious being that only appeared in old stories.

“Can I ask you a favor?”

Jang Hyun-jun nodded his head at Seo-jun’s question.

“Yes. I would like to ask you for a favor, too. I might lose this bracelet that you gave me in the distant future, even though I’m fine now.”

Not a child, nor a grandchild.

A descendant that he didn’t know if he would have or not in the far future.

Jang Hyun-jun, who had lived a hard life until now, hoped that his descendants would not suffer the same pain.

“Then do you need anything?”

“Need anything?”

Seo-jun tilted his head.

“Don’t you usually offer a sacrifice or something when you receive a divine blessing? Like a ritual table. Or a shamanic ceremony.”

Aha.

Seo-jun pondered as he saw Jang Hyun-jun’s enthusiastic expression.

“Then how about some meat…and a wooden plate?”

“…Excuse me? Did I hear you wrong?”

Jang Hyun-jun asked back, a beat late to Seo-jun’s words.

“A dog toy would be nice, too. It likes those things.”

“…A dog toy…?”

“Yeah. One that makes noise.”

Seo-jun laughed as he saw Jang Hyun-jun’s dumbfounded face.

***

Not too long after.

A descendant of the Jang clan, who followed the will of his great-grandfather who said he could see ghosts, came to Gangwon-do and looked at the hill where red flowers bloomed. It was a classic masterpiece, an independent film [Hwa], and even after a long time, it was a popular tourist spot that was neatly arranged.

The descendant sighed as he looked around at the tourists who came to visit.

“I should have been more careful…”

Until a few years ago, he was able to live normally thanks to the amulet bracelet that was his great-grandfather’s legacy, but he broke it by mistake.

After that, he suffered from the lowly ghosts for a few years, and then he found his great-grandfather’s will and came here with a desperate hope.

He tried to ignore the lowly ghosts that interfered with his sight and opened the paper bag he was holding. He sighed again when he saw what was inside.

“Shouldn’t it be something precious or mysterious at times like this, great-grandfather?”

Wooden plates and dog toys.

He pressed the squeaky toy a few times and moved his feet.

Squeak-squeak-

Heck-heck-

All his great-grandfather said was to bring ‘meat and dog toys’ to ‘this place’.

He didn’t even tell him the name of the spirit that would help him (he doubted they would let him perform a ritual at a tourist spot anyway), so he had no idea how to find it.

Squeak-squeak-squeak-

Heck-heck-heck-

He was half-dazed, playing with the toy and looking at the hill, when he heard a strange sound.

Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak-

Heck-heck-heck-heck-

The descendant looked down.

A white-haired Jindo dog was wagging its tail and looking at him, or rather, at the toy in his hand. He swallowed his saliva as he saw the shiny black eyes.

“…Could it be…”

He felt an ominous aura from ‘this being’ that looked like an ordinary Jindo dog. The lowly ghosts that were hovering around had disappeared.

“…Are you…it?”

“Woof!”

The Jindo dog, who was barking happily at the descendant with a stunned expression, released its disguise.

It had gathered enough natural energy to be born properly, so even though it was not lacking in power, it still had the appearance of a small child in a white robe that it had when it was with Seo-jun. Its eyes were also very similar to Seo-jun’s.

The ‘thing’ smiled brightly.

“Hello! Human! Nice to meet you!”