Chapter 26: Ghost of Retribution
Cha Hwa Rim turned from the faded butterfly back to her surroundings to see a swirling, churning sea of grey fog and mist with speckles of something scattered throughout. She could see the semblance of shapes trying to emerge, yet they would collapse as soon as they began emerging.
Then Cha Hwa Rim felt the tattoo on her skin begin to burn as smoldering heat seemed to radiate from the broken flaming sword. Her black ink began to turn orange, then red, as the drawing took on a more realistic look, almost popping out of her skin.
As this happened, Cha Hwa Rim could feel a faint link, like a line stretching into the endless distance—a weak tether tugging at something. Suddenly, there was a ringing in her head.
[Ding]
[Due to the Title: Ghost of Retribution, multiple effects have been activated.]
{Passive Effect: Haunting Presence has been activated. Passive Effect: Mark of the Guilty has been activated. Passive Effect: Unfinished Business has been activated. Active Effect: Judgment has been triggered.}
[Weighing the Scales of Justice.]
Before Cha Hwa Rim could gather her thoughts, she could feel her own legs gain sentience as they carried her forward. The great expanse of mist whipped past her while the infinite expanse of grey began to blink with little dots of stars, both blue and red, each one blinking with a different frequency.
Dan Woo felt dissociated from all that was happening to him as Cha Hwa Rim, simply replaying the last conversation he had with the Butterfly Anomaly.
He was currently in the Dream Realm, and according to the butterfly, he had to do a story point—whatever that meant—for his own constellation.
The first question that came to him was, what was a constellation? He didn’t remember writing about such existences in his own story, or stars too.
The butterfly had referred to itself as a star and referred to Cha Hwa Rim as a star too. So what was the relationship between the two? Were stars like subordinates to constellations? But how? From his meeting with the butterfly, he could tell that it was one of the most powerful entities he had ever gazed upon. So how powerful were these so-called constellations if a star held such vast abilities?
Then his eyes landed on his system panel.
"Wait... is this so-called constellation responsible for my system?"
The thought came as he stared at his system interface. If that was the case, then maybe if he found this so-called constellation, he could find a way back home.
But then the butterfly’s words resounded in his head.
He needed to get a story point, whatever that was.
Was this the time he got those cool system missions where he had to achieve the said task? He turned to his screen, waiting for a prompt from his system—one giving him the mission he was to complete to get out of the Dream Realm and back to the real world.
Yet there was nothing.
His body just continued zooming across the endless space.
Was there something blocking the mission transmission? That couldn’t be it... could it?
No, of course not, Dan Woo assured himself.
After all, he had never received any other mission apart from the need to act. He had an Acting System, not a Constellation System, so of course no prompt would come.
But the question of what a constellation was came back.
This was definitely a question the Bureau of Anomaly Affairs would help him answer, making it even more paramount for him to join the Bureau.
But first, he needed to get out of this dream world. But how?
The butterfly had told him about getting a story point for a constellation as a quest, yet with no idea of how to go about that, what could he do? There was not even a single thing in this so-called Dream World. Only an endless expanse of fog and mist, and maybe irrationally dancing stars, but apart from that there was nothing—no cities, places, buildings, or even dreamers.
I thought that in the Dream World people were supposed to be dreaming.
Then suddenly Dan Woo paused as something familiar seemed to click.
Dreamers.
That’s what his sister called Baek Hari’s family.
Was Baek Hari also a star?
She seemed to have abilities over dreams, so maybe...
It didn’t matter if she was a star. Wasn’t his answer right in front of him if only he could reach out to Baek Hari? But how could he?
Then another question popped up.
The Han Soo Hee he saw in the first instance... was that an imagined Han Soo Hee, or was that Baek Hari?
But before he could think any further, his eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of one of the far distant stars twinkling erratically. It began to grow at an exponential rate before becoming a bright bubble made of crimson light.
Then it burst open, blinding Cha Hwa Rim for a brief second.
When her vision returned, a teenage girl stood in front of her.
Immediately, as this happened, Cha Hwa Rim could feel the sword on her chest blaze up with even fiercer flames. Instinctively, Cha Hwa Rim knew the reason behind the sudden eruption.
The Mark of the Guilty had detected something.
Yet she didn’t know why, or for what reason.
But before she could steady herself and understand the situation, something burst out of her chest as it connected to the teenage girl.
A rusted chain.
It linked the two souls together, growing hotter and hotter as a host of unfamiliar memories flooded her mind. Memories seemed to pass through the chain, and with each passing memory, the flames on her chest grew even hotter and fiercer.
[Judgment Being Passed]
Without any warning, the surrounding area became blazing hot as Cha Hwa Rim seemed to enter a state that was beyond abnormal.
"My name is Cha Hwa Rim, and I am the Ghost of Retribution."
Her voice rang across the endless expanse, carrying more than her own authority.
"And today..."
A slight pause followed as the flames around the broken sword flared once more.
"I am here to deliver my judgment."