The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Truck driver, Kang Seok-Du, clutched his twisted ankle and screamed.

“Ahhhh! You bastard!” The bones he had barely managed to piece together just before began to twist around again. As the areas between his bones and joints scratched each other, a dull pain spread from his soles to his hips. When he gained his senses, the vessels in his eyes had popped from the increased pressure around the area.

Huff. Huff. Huff.

Kang Seok-Du checked his twisted ankle. It was twisted much more than before. Since he didn’t give muscles and joints enough time to heal and stabilize, bones that had been moved out of place were more easily twisted with even less force. He needed to endure the pain and put it back into place again. Yet, he couldn’t do that while the crazy bastard—Bong Tae-Yoon—was watching him.

He was nineteen years old right now, but who knew how many more years this monstrous demon actually lived? Kang Seok-Du looked at the madman standing in the opposite direction from him. Tae-Yoon spat out the blood that had collected in his mouth to the floor. Though his face was quite beaten up, he still maintained his original beauty and gazed arrogantly at Kang Seok-Du.

“…Why don’t you go? Let me see how far you can go.” Tae-Yoon even proclaimed to let him go as if he was going to be the one hunting now.

Kang Seok-Du, who had been the hunter until now, didn’t feel pleased about their change in roles. Yet, it wasn’t like he could continue staying here. If he remained in this place and got his other leg twisted up, it would be like he was giving himself up for torture.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’ Kang Seok-Du cursed inside his mind and crawled back towards his car. He leaned his body against the tire and touched his twisted ankle again.

‘Let me do things one at a time. One at a time,’ he thought. He inhaled sharply and put a towel in his mouth to prevent himself from accidently cracking his teeth.

“Ahhhhh!” While twisting his ankle, he felt a prickling pain that climbed up all the way to the back of his neck and spread. All the muscles and bones in his body vibrated from the pain. His vision turned completely white and blood soaked the towel he was biting on.

“Haaa…haa…haa….” Though his ankle returned to its original angle, it was a mystery whether it could still maintain its original functions.

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No, it probably couldn’t. His body was already full of parts that could no longer resume its original functions. The muscles in both of his arms had already deteriorated to the point that he had severe muscle tremors and had trouble eating. His pectoralis major, trapezius, and erector spinae muscle all showed signs of muscle deterioration too. This was the price of pushing his body beyond human limits. Yet, he simply brushed it off, thinking he could easily get a new body once he finished all these missions.

[Within one year, kill Bong Tae-Yoon and then, annihilate all the Siren members.]

[Upon success, the overturning of this world]

[Upon failure, death]

It was a very simple but direct message. Yet, the result of success was anything but ‘simple’. ‘The overturning of this world’— he didn’t understand what this reward was at first but as time passed, thoughts came to his mind as if he was receiving a revelation. Two sides existed in this world and one side was the one that moved this world to its original direction while the other side moved to overturn this world; it was the world of reversal.

When the power of the original direction’s world was strong, the world of reversal couldn’t use its powers properly and was only pushed back. Yet, as one stumbled on a pebble on the ground, there were times when the original direction’s world was pushed back too. Those were the rare moments when the world of reversal could push back the original direction’s world.

And if Kang Seok-Du killed the original direction’s world’s regressor one more time, the world would flow in the reversal direction instead of the original direction. As the one who made the world flow in reversal, he would be able to manipulate the world.

‘I have to endure…grit it out till the end.’ Though it was a mission that put his life at risk, the reward superseded that. In the first place, this was the kind of world where people without money and support had to die; it made sense to him that he would risk his life for a far bigger reward, and in his mind, Siren was nothing more than an obstacle that he needed to get rid of for his goals.

“Haa….haa….” After confirming that his ankle returned to its original position, he got up. He didn’t know where Tae-Yoon went. His heart felt anxious but there was nothing he could do. Running away was his priority right now and after getting in the driver seat, he moved to activate the car.

Unfortunately, and very frustratingly, he couldn’t find his car key anywhere. He fumbled with his pockets to find it, but it was nowhere to be found. He wondered if he had lost it while fighting with Tae-Yoon on the ground.

“Ahhhh!” This ancient car couldn’t be activated without a physical key. Kang Seok-Du slammed his fist on the car handles and pounded on it. Then, he looked outside the car window. While he was inside the car, he felt a strange assurance that he was safe. His brain probably had created that illusion after being unable to overcome the rising anxiety, but nevertheless, Kang Seok-Du suddenly felt baffled by the situation.

He needed to kill Bong Tae-Yoon, but in this situation, it felt as if Tae-Yoon was trying to kill him instead.

‘If I kill him right now, the world of reversal told me I won’t get another chance…shit, is it telling me to kill him or not?’ The moment he thought he finally achieved his goal, a voice intervened inside his mind strongly like he was receiving a prophecy. In the end, he had no choice but to stop what he was doing and back off until he reached his current state.

“I need to kill him…kill him…damn it, I need to exterminate this bastard now…” Kang Seok-Du murmured his habitual lines and bit his fingernails. His murderous desire couldn’t be appeased no matter what. He couldn’t even properly function in daily life anymore. After he awakened to his system’s commands after meeting Tae-Yoon at Yasan for the first time, this pure murderous desire had completely eaten up his brain.

From then on, Kang Seok-Du found it unable to restrict his boiling bloodlust and passion for violence and couldn’t bear it without self-harm or acting out of the ordinary. It felt as if he had become the embodiment of violence and chaos. He was originally not someone who lived a normal life but ever since the incident at Yasan, he had crossed lines even he couldn’t fathom. Yet, if one asked if he disliked the transformation he underwent, he would say that wasn’t the case at all.

After leaving all his rationality and decisions to pure instincts and impulse, it felt as if his mind had climbed to a higher dimension. This was the kind of person he originally was; he just never had the trigger to manifest it before. Now that the chance was given to him, he had simply transformed into his complete, true self.

Kang Seok-Du scanned the dark parking lot with wide eyes. He needed to see in which direction Tae-Yoon would come for him. His instinct told him that there was a high possibility that Tae-Yoon possessed his car key. He needed to subdue Tae-Yoon as quickly and efficiently as possible, recover his key, and escape. If possible, his goal was to knock Tae-Yoon unconscious, load him to his car, and run.

Then, he could lock up Tae-Yoon until he received a decree that he could kill Tae-Yoon now. There were many ways to knock a person unconscious. He could constrict Tae-Yoon’s neck until Tae-Yoon lost consciousness from the lack of oxygen; or he could give a big shock on Tae-Yoon’s head so that it would knock his brain right out. Whatever the means, it was possible for him with the powerful strength the system gave him.

Though the aftereffects of using the system’s power would remain in his body forever, his physical body was of no importance to him. Kang Seok-Du now regretted the fact that he had broken the parking lot’s electric circuit. It wasn’t easy to decipher Tae-Yoon’s figure in this darkness. He put his hand on the handle and pierced his fingernails into the handle’s leather. Feelings of anxiety made him feel the need to do something.

He needed to kill but couldn’t. If things went wrong, he could be the one captured and killed instead. Inside this darkness, a future that he didn’t know lay dormant. Nobody knew what kind of terrible predicament this future would put him in. The powerlessness he felt from not knowing irked his nerves.

It made him so agitated that he opened his car’s door half-way and yelled, “Fuck you bastard, Bong Tae-Yoon! Quickly show yourself! You think I won’t be able to fucking find you?!”

“Show yourself!” Only his voice rang in this empty, dark parking lot. At this point, it seemed Tae-Yoon wasn’t in this space. He couldn’t feel even the faintest sound of feet moving or a person breathing. He couldn’t sense the presence of another human right now.

“…Did he leave?” Though his brain told him that wasn’t possible, it brought up the scenario that he wanted the most right now: Bong Tae-Yoon left just like that and there was no reason for him to be anxious anymore. Though he didn’t manage to knock out Tae-Yoon and load him into his car, this was enough. There were many ways to kill Tae-Yoon and he just needed to do that when he received the next revelation, allowing him to do that.

Click. Kang Seok-Du closed the car’s door, gripped the car handles tightly, and waited. After counting to ten, he planned to go outside and run with all his might.

“1…2…3…4.” Numbers flowed out of Kang Seok-Du’s mouth. “8…9…”

Then, the moment he opened the car door to leave, a voice other than his said, “10.”

It came from the passenger seat right behind the driver seat. There were two pupils staring at him. It was Bong Tae-Yoon.

“Fuck!” Tae-Yoon had already been in the car since he first came inside. Before he could run away, Tae-Yoon soon caught him again. He did a head-lock on Kang Seok-Du and wrapped his arms around Kang Seok-Du’s neck.

Gasp!

As strong pressure became applied around his neck, Kang Seok-Du felt his oxygen level drop sharply. Though he scratched Tae-Yoon’s forearm with his fingernails, he only got some bits of flesh and Tae-Yoon didn’t loosen his grip. Tae-Yoon’s eyes that he saw through the back mirror were simply calm and peaceful. He didn’t feel any trembling or movement in Tae-Yoon’s eyes, and those eyes pushed Kang Seok-Du into a deeper state of anxiety.

It felt like a sure and absolute death would swallow him up calmly like this. The more evil a person was, the more attached they were to living, and Kang Seok-Du felt a stronger survival instinct than anyone else.

“Ahhhh!” He borrowed the system’s power to draw out a strength that surpassed a human’s limitations. He grabbed Tae-Yoon wrist and threw him outside. Yet, Tae-Yoon didn’t remain still. He pushed himself in the center console between the driver seat and the passenger seat next to it.

Then before Kang Seok-Du could escape, he activated the car. Even in that short period, Tae-Yoon’s hand exactly found the place to insert the car’s key and stuck the key inside. As expected, Tae-Yoon was the one who had the car key.

Tae-Yoon pressed on Kang Seok-Du’s right thigh hard. The activated engine made the entire car lightly vibrate.

“What the…” Without giving Kang Seok-Du a break to even think, Tae-Yoon gripped Kang Seok-Du’s neck. The strong grip tightened around Kang Seok-Du’s respiratory tract. Then, with skillful movements, Tae-Yoon pounded on his thigs again and Kang Seok-Du’s feet moved to the gas pedal unbeknownst to his will. He realized that things would be over the moment he stepped on this pedal.

In this period of peace, it was a ‘car’ that killed more people than a knife or a gun. And right now, they weren’t on this vehicle for the purpose of transport but as a mean for joint suicide. Though his head rang alarm bells to tell him of the danger, there wasn’t much he could do. All he could do was put more strength in his thighs and resist from stepping on the gas pedal with all his might. Yet, even that became impossible with Tae-Yoon’s machine-like order.

“Step on it.”

—Step on it

Brooooom!

Kang Seok-Du stepped on the gas pedal with full force.