I Became the Drug-Addicted Childhood Friend-Chapter 84

I kept waiting.

Waiting for Shihu.

Until, suddenly, it hit me—he wasn’t coming back.

It dawned on me, perhaps because I had used so many drugs at once.

Even the distant past began to resurface.

Ever since I remembered that my mother had abandoned me, things had felt strange.

Memories I had buried deep within were clawing their way back up, one by one.

It started when I was staring at the empty syringes.

A powerful sense of déjà vu struck, making me realize I had forgotten something important.

Drugs.

The doctor.

"This is... bad."

That was the conclusion I reached.

I had been waiting for Shihu for twelve hours now.

Twelve hours might already be too late.

"I need to stop him."

I remembered who the doctor was.

And why Shihu couldn’t beat them in a fight.

Cold sweat poured down my face.

I wasn’t sure if it was the drugs or the sense that something had gone terribly wrong.

Shihu had left Yu Seo Ah behind and gone somewhere again?

At this point, a decision like that could only lead to one thing.

A direct path to the bad ending.

"Where is Shihu?"

I didn’t know.

Yu Seo Ah wasn’t competent enough to know that.

I had always wanted to be the protagonist, but in the end, I was nothing more than a fool.

Someone who got swept up in events without ever taking charge.

But this time, I had to do something.

Think.

Where would a despairing Han Shihu go, and what would he be doing?

"Home?"

This wasn’t home.

So I needed to find it.

How?

Thunk.

I stabbed a syringe into my arm.

Nothing entered—it was empty.

It was just a way to injure myself and try to jog my memory.

For some reason, doing this helped bring memories back.

Thunk.

It was self-harm, pure and simple, but the sensation was familiar.

I needed to remember.

There was something else I had forgotten.

Thunk.

I remembered.

There was something Yu Seo Ah could do.

Something involving black magic.

Thunk.

Right, I had created a weapon before, hadn’t I?

I needed to recall what I had done with it.

I had attacked.

Shihu, or someone else.

So why couldn’t I use that ability now?

Thunk, thunk, thunk...

Blood poured from the wounds.

So what?

Remembering was what mattered.

In the past, these injuries would have healed in no time.

But now, it felt like something was blocking me.

Like a leash around my neck.

"A necklace."

The necklace I was wearing.

The one Shihu had insisted I keep on at all times.

It was an artifact meant to control Yu Seo Ah.

So I had to take it off.

A necklace like this...

Though, since Shihu had given it to me, I wouldn’t throw it away.

I’d just set it aside.

Clink.

The necklace fell.

A strange feeling washed over me.

The world looked... different.

[...]

I began to see something.

Something very familiar.

[201 hours, 3 minutes]

Time.

I could see time itself.

And I began to consume the magic around me.

Instinctively, I started devouring everything nearby.

This... was the dragon.

[1,009 hours, 18 minutes]

More.

More.

I was turning into a monster.

[9,981 hours, 20 minutes]

Even more.

Surpassing ten thousand hours.

And then I ran.

I had to find Shihu.

***

A radius of 10 kilometers experienced a loss of magical energy.

A dragon had appeared.

Fortunately, it happened in a sparsely populated area, so the damage was minimal.

It couldn’t be identified by satellites.

It wasn’t captured on surveillance cameras.

Even to the naked eye, there was nothing visible.

“Quite a big one, considering the monsters have been disappearing lately,” muttered Cheon Yuseong.

Standing next to him was the one called the Doctor.

Despite Han Shihu’s interference, the Doctor had easily thwarted him.

The plan was a success.

The project to permanently eradicate magic from Earth was proceeding smoothly.

The purification device was wiping out all magical energy in the city.

As a result, the Awakened were losing their footing.

Monsters no longer appeared even on the outskirts of the city.

Although some still ventured into the countryside to hunt, the frequency of monster encounters had drastically declined.

“This might be the last dragon,” said the Doctor.

“You probably know this, but the first monster to appear was also a dragon.”

The first monster outbreak, which had displaced countless people.

Before the first Awakened managed to stop it, there had been enormous loss of life.

“Once we take it down, it’ll be over.”

The dragon’s magical signature was the only one detected.

It was moving in a straight line toward the city center.

“This might be the Awakened’s last job. You should call your sister,” Cheon Yuseong remarked.

“Haha...”

The academy was already in the process of shutting down.

There was no longer any reason to train or accommodate the Awakened.

As long as the Doctor’s purification devices functioned, neither monsters nor the Awakened would retain their power.

Cheon Yuseong was increasingly convinced he had made the right choice by cooperating with the Doctor.

The Doctor had already gained immense power.

Sometimes, Yuseong wondered if this person could even be called human anymore.

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“But won’t the dragon lose its power once it enters the purification field?”

“Until the magic stored within its body is completely depleted... who can say?”

If left unchecked, the dragon would cross the city’s borders.

They intended to let it.

Once it entered the purification field, it would lose its power.

With the surrounding magical energy gone, the dragon wouldn’t be able to maintain its invisibility.

Its overwhelming abilities would be stripped away one by one.

They might not even need the Awakened to deal with it.

Under normal circumstances, the appearance of a dragon of this scale would have been a catastrophic emergency.

But now, it could be handled as if it were nothing.

“It’s here.”

The dragon, which had been moving at high speed, began to slow.

Its purpose in approaching the city remained unclear, but its limits were evident.

If its initial magical response had been rated at a level of 10, it was now at 7.

The Doctor made no move to intervene.

The dragon’s form was still undetectable.

6, 5, 4, 3...

Its speed decreased proportionally with its diminishing magical presence.

2, 1, 0.5...

When it reached the city’s outskirts, the dragon’s presence vanished entirely.

It was no longer a dragon.

“This is... impressive.”

If this were a game, it would have been a boss monster.

A foe requiring the cooperation of several top-tier Awakened to defeat.

But now, it had disappeared as if it were nothing.

By this point, Cheon Yuseong couldn’t understand why Han Shihu opposed the Doctor.

Wasn’t world peace the goal of a self-proclaimed hero like Shihu?

What was the problem?

There didn’t seem to be one.

“To think a world where monsters are no longer a threat could actually come to pass...”

Relying on the erratic power of the Awakened to transform the world had always been foolish.

The return to a world governed by predictable laws, instead of unpredictable powers, was inevitable.

Even if some were saddened or resisted, it didn’t matter.

Since the advent of the Awakened, the world had regressed rather than progressed.

All the Doctor was doing was restoring the natural order.

The idea of labeling the Doctor as an agent of evil seemed absurd.

The Doctor was, quite literally, healing the world.

***

I ran.

Toward the place where the house I once lived in was.

Did dragons have a homing instinct?

I was running to the place where Shihu had to be.

I might have flown for part of the journey.

I had obtained incredible power, the kind worthy of a protagonist.

And yet, all I could do with it was run to find Shihu.

I didn’t even know who the real enemy was or who I was supposed to hunt.

But maybe, just once, if I was given the chance, it would be okay to save just one person.

I could feel the dragon trying to consume my mind.

But I regained control.

[6,054 hours 30 minutes]

As I approached the city, an incredible amount of time began to drain away.

[5,539 hours 4 minutes]

This timer might not have been measuring the drug's effectiveness.

It was probably just a gauge for the remaining magic in my body.

Regardless, I kept running.

[4,771 hours 42 minutes]

The rapid loss of time was inevitable.

I kept running.

I had to go home.

I had to find where home was.

I had to stop Shihu.

I knew what he was trying to do.

I just hoped it wasn’t too late.

A crucial memory had surfaced.

The final chapter of the novel came to mind.

I remembered the conversation between Han Shihu and the Doctor.

It was after Shihu had subdued the Doctor, who was armed with highly advanced technology.

I remembered Shihu using his purification skill on the Doctor.

I knew why Shihu had that purification skill.

It was for the story.

I could picture the way Shihu pitied the Doctor, even in that moment.

I ran and ran.

[800 hours]

There wasn’t much time left.

That number, which once represented an abundance of time, now felt so small.

My speed began to falter.

I could feel the dragon’s abilities fading.

I had reached my destination.

The outskirts of the city, a sprawling slum.

A ruined part of town.

Finally, familiar streets came into view.

Streets that grew more decrepit the farther I went.

[788 hours]

By not using my powers, the timer drained more slowly.

I found where Shihu was.

It was the playground near his old house.

I saw him sitting quietly on a swing.

This playground held so many memories.

I never imagined we would meet here again like this.

"...Another hallucination?"

It wasn’t the kind of thing Shihu would usually say.

But the way he glanced at me as he spoke said otherwise.

Of course, it didn’t make sense for me to be here.

How could Yu Seo Ah possibly find Han Shihu and return to this place?

But somehow, I had done it.

I found him.

I wasn’t too late.

This was my way of repaying Shihu for always coming to find me.

This time, it was Seo Ah who had found Shihu.

I walked over to the swing and sat on the empty one next to him.

I was exhausted.

I looked down at my shoes—they were completely torn apart.

Of course, they were, after running here at that speed.

But Shihu was here, beside me.

Just like the old days, when we would swing together.

[770 hours 7 minutes]

How much longer could we stay like this?

It was time to say what needed to be said.