Chapter 76 Unable to call his father “father.”
Exactly one week ago.
It happened when a blond boy followed Katarina into an old, shabby detached house that was currently serving as the Monster Group’s hideout.
Katarina first introduced him as her guest to her three surprised subordinates.
Then she took the boy down to a secure basement for a private conversation.
And there, she heard an unbelievable truth.
“Wait, so Shin-woo is actually the monster from Jamsil?!”
“Yes, that’s correct. And to add to that, Katarina, you will be killed by Han Shin-woo. Exactly 18 years from now.”
“Eighteen years later?! At least I live quite long! Wait, I die? I still have…”
“If it’s about the ability to traverse parallel worlds, yes. In all timelines of my world, Katarina, you are exterminated forever. You will cease to exist in every world.”
“…!”
Parallel worlds.
It was a multiverse theory where even a trivial decision, like whether to pick up a spoon or chopsticks first during a meal, could create two separate universes.
But Katarina, who could utilize the existence of that world in an almost infinite number, was completely annihilated.
“By the way, kid, how do you know all this?”
“……”
“What exactly are you? Even while bringing you to the hideout, I was using my ability. I asked many versions of myself across different timelines about you…”
All the Katarinas in countless parallel worlds gave the same answer.
“No one has seen ‘you’ before.”
“……”
“In a near-infinite number of parallel universes, I am the only one who has met you.”
It didn’t make sense.
Although parallel worlds might differ, they were created by very small differences.
Meeting a ‘unique existence’ in such a near-infinite number of worlds didn’t make sense.
If that was possible…
“Kid, you also came from the ‘future,’ didn’t you?”
A theory similar yet different from parallel worlds.
So-called time travelers.
Entities that, in parallel worlds that should change little by little, cause great ripples like a rock dropping into calm water.
Katarina was convinced that a mythical or legendary figure had appeared before her eyes.
And as she thought,
“Yes, that’s right. I came from exactly 20 years into the future.”
“From 20 years in the future…!”
The blond boy revealed that he came from the future.
“I came to the past to change the dreadful future that is to come and to protect the current world.”
“And you could come to the past because of your ability?”
“No. I came using equipment. It can only be used twice, once for coming and once for returning.”
If one could freely travel to the past, the timeline would have been a mess long ago.
The fact that the opportunity was available only twice might have been a stroke of luck for the boy.
“But will changing the past actually alter the future?”
“You’re saying it won’t affect it because it’s already a different timeline, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. The existence of parallel worlds already means that changing the past doesn’t change the future, just like in the Avengers movie.”
Even if one changes the past out of concern for the future,
The universe would just split into two, one with the altered past and one with the original grim future.
Even if this world’s future was saved by the blond boy, his future world would remain as grim as ever.
“Yes. Even if I intervene, this world’s future will merely branch off in a different direction. My world will not be saved.”
“Then why did you come to the past? If your future is so bleak, wouldn’t it be hard enough just to take care of it?”
Did he come to retrieve something from the past?
Or was there someone he needed to meet?
Katarina speculated on the blond boy’s seemingly meaningless time travel.
But there seemed to be something much greater.
“But Katarina,”
“Yes?”
“What if the two parallel worlds of the past and future could be newly linked into one?”
“…What?”
The blond boy began to reveal the last plan of the future’s humanity, which was now almost extinct.
“What do you mean by that…?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. The reason the future cannot be changed by altering the past is that our two worlds are separate entities in an infinite universe. But we’ve found a way to combine the altered past and the present future into one universe.”
“Combining two universes… is that possible?”
“Yes. Because, just like me, there is one more human who exists only in this world, right?”
“…!!”
That’s right.
There was.
A man who existed only in this world, no matter how many timelines she searched through, just like the blond boy before her.
“…Shin-woo?”
“Yes. Han Shin-woo is not a common entity that exists in every parallel universe. Even though the universe is ‘infinite,’ the future created by the ‘unique’ Han Shin-woo must be finite.”
As if following a predetermined scenario.
Only one future existed, no matter what past the Han Shin-woo living in the original flow might complete.
In other words, by drastically twisting the past, which served as the starting point of that future, the future could be changed.
It was like cutting off one of the few roots that branched out from a tree trunk.
The blond boy had come to the past for that purpose.
“Before dying, the future Katarina told me. Almost all parallel universes where Han Shin-woo exists look the same. The parallel universes without him have long since become worlds where neither humans nor monsters can survive, but the world he rules is an even worse hell.”
“Wait, that means…!”
“So she entrusted me with the mission of preventing the turning point that will change Han Shin-woo.”
It was not about eliminating Han Shin-woo.
Doing so would mean that the world would be destroyed by unforeseen disasters because it had lost the immense power of Han Shin-woo.
Therefore, the mission of the blond boy from the future was to help the past Han Shin-woo, who was struggling to save the world.
But Katarina had a question here.
Why was such an important mission entrusted to such a young boy?
Even if he could turn into a national-level disaster monster, he was still a young, inexperienced kid.
At least in her current state, she wasn’t crazy enough to send a child to the battlefield, no matter how dangerous the situation.
Then the possibilities were two.
‘Either the future me is a senile fool, or…’
It meant the situation in the future was so chaotic that there was no one else to trust and entrust this mission to.
As she pondered what was true,
“By the way, the reason I came to the past is that I’m the only one who can exist in this world.”
“Can’t exist…?”
“Exactly. No matter how many universes there are, there’s only one Katarina in each one. What do you think would happen if two Katarinas appeared in one universe?”
“Well…”
It would violate the laws of the universe.
No one knew what kind of backlash it might cause.
In the worst case, the universe itself might be destroyed due to the backlash.
“This is a world before I was born. That’s why I, the strongest, volunteered to come to the past without violating the laws of the universe.”
“I see…”
The blond boy spoke as if he needed no sympathy.
Katarina understood why her future self had entrusted such an important mission to this boy.
“By the way, Katarina, I would like to seek the cooperation of the Monster Group as well.”
“Of course. If my future self sent you in her place, I should help.”
“Thank you.”
Katarina readily agreed, and the blond girl, who was talking to her again for the first time in two years, smiled brightly.
But the more she looked at him…
“Hey, you kind of…”
“?”
“You look a lot like Shin-woo…? I’ve been secretly watching him, you know. Your smile is exactly the same.”
“?!”
Katarina, who still considered Han Shin-woo her favorite despite him dooming the world, said he resembled her.
The blond boy bit his lip as if he had heard something harsh.
“…That’s inevitable.”
Since it seemed okay to tell Katarina.
No, it was Katarina who had informed him of his origins in the future.
“It’s inevitable.”
“…?”
“Because I’m his son.”
“W-what?!”
A son who came from the future to stop his father’s atrocities.
“He threw my mother, who was pregnant with me, into a pit of corpses.”
“S-Shin-woo did?! That sweetie committed such a grotesque act?!”
“Yes. Fortunately, I didn’t die in my mother’s womb thanks to inheriting his genes, but my mother died back then. She turned into a charred coal-like figure…”
The blond boy’s words.
At least his voice, filled with a desperate tone, indicated that everything he said was true.
But Katarina couldn’t believe it.
“Kid, what’s your name?”
“Han Jae-hyun.”
“Jae-hyun, could you tell me your mother’s name?”
How much must Han Shin-woo have hated her to throw his wife into a pit of corpses?
Curious about her identity, Katarina asked.
“My mother?”
The blond boy.
Han Jae-hyun, Shin-woo’s son, answered without hesitation, just as the future Katarina had
informed him.
“My mother’s name is Sophia.”
“…What?”
“I know she was once the closest person to my father.”