Earth, drifting through the solar system.And within it, a space no bigger than a speck of dust.Inside the philosophy hall, a restless noise echoed.

  His stomach, empty after skipping three meals, growled loudly,begging for anything—anything at all.In the end, Baek Gyeongsu gave in to Hyeonpil’s relentless pressureand began fasting seven days in advanceto align himself with the coming Awakening Day.

  This time, he had sworn he would endure it.That he would hold on and succeed, no matter what.He had even sealed the resolve by bumping fists with Hyeonpil.Yet not even a full day had passedbefore he felt himself faltering,and the weakness disgusted him.

  Going home at dinnertime wouldn’t help anyway.There would be food he couldn’t eat,and even the smell might knock him flat.So he decided it was better to stay late at the philosophy halland suffer through the hunger there.

  Hyeonpil, having promised to keep pace with Gyeongsu,sat quietly at his seat, absorbed in a book.

  “Sir… there’s something I’ve been wondering.Is it okay if I ask?”

  Hearing Gyeongsu’s stomach growl,Hyeonpil spoke up, hoping to distract him from the hunger,even if only for a moment.

  “Sure. What is it?”

  As if he’d been waiting for the question,Gyeongsu stepped out of the consultation room.

  “You said last time… that I needed to awaken.So I wanted to ask—how do you actually do that?I don’t think I really understood what you meant.”

  Gyeongsu paused.He hadn’t expected the words he’d tossed out casually a month agoto come back so clearly, unchanged.

  “So… you’re asking what awakening really means?”

  “Yes.”

  Hyeonpil waited, his face twisted into its usual frown.

  “Then let’s start with the basics,” Gyeongsu said.“To awaken to something, in the end,means making a concept truly your own.When people first encounter Myungri,the first thing they hear about is Yin and Yang.

  So tell me—what do you think Yin and Yang are?It’s one of the most important parts.”

  Hyeonpil hesitated, shifting in place,before finally answering.

  “Yin and Yang… the books say they’rethe balance of two opposing energiesthat make up everything in heaven and earth.Yin representsthe moon, cold, night, darkness, shadow, the hidden side, the north, women…and Yang representsthe sun, heat, day, light, brightness, the front, the south, men…”

  He rattled it off smoothly,like he’d memorized an entire textbook page.

  “Listen, Hyeonpil,” Gyeongsu said calmly.“At its core, Myungri is a discipline for humans.Myeong (命) means human life itself,and Ri (理) means the principles behind it.That’s why, when you place humans at the center,awakening becomes much easier.”

  He continued, his hands moving naturally as he spoke.

  “Honestly, the Yin and Yang you just described?I don’t really understand them either.It’s just a list of opposites.Most explanations like that are nothing morethan phrases copied straight out of books.”

  At that, Hyeonpil’s eyes lit up.

  “So let me explain Yin and Yang again—this time from a human-centered perspective.Why do we call women Yin,and men Yang?If you only see this as ‘opposites,’you can read books your whole lifeand still never move forward.”

  He pulled his chair a little closer.

  “Put simply, Yin is the inner side, and Yang is the outer side.They exist within the same person—like inside and outside—two different roles within one whole.Just as women and men are both, ultimately, human.”

  After a brief pause, he went on more plainly.

  “The force that moves, clashes, and acts outwardly is Yang.The force that strengthens the inner space of lifeand holds daily living together is Yin.For example,when a man meets the wrong Yin, his life gets tangled,and when Yin meets the wrong Yang,it turns into a sea of tears.”

  He lowered his voice and added the conclusion.

  “You’ve heard the phrase ‘Yin and Yang are in harmony,’ right?In the end, it means this:when each role is balanced,the principles of the world keep turning.”

  Gyeongsu paused to breathe.Hyeonpil spoke carefully.

  “But… these days, men and women are equal, aren’t they?Women work outside,and men share household responsibilities too.That’s how people think now.”

  Gyeongsu nodded with a faint smile.

  “That’s true.What I described is only a general framework.Not everyone lives the same way.”

  He continued evenly.

  “Myungri sets a reference point first,then asks why people live differently.Why this person thinks one way,why another acts differently from me—it’s a tool for seeing those differences.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  With a slight smile, he added,

  “So Myungri isn’t fortune-telling that predicts the future.It’s a set of principlesthat explains why people are different.”

  Just then, a sharp vibration buzzed from the phone on the desk.Startled, Hyeonpil grabbed it.

  “I’ll be right there, Mom.I was talking with my teacher—it got really interesting.”

  It seemed his mother, Im Hyojeong,had called out of concernwhen he hadn’t come home so late.

  “Dinner? Yeah, I ate.I’ll be home soon.”

  Hearing the call,Gyeongsu stood and switched off the lights in the consultation room.

  “Hyeonpil, let’s go.It’s already eleven.Your mom must be worried.And hey… did you tell her you’re fasting?You should.She’d worry even more if she didn’t know.”

  Hyeonpil lowered his head, embarrassed.

  “…Yes. I’ll tell her.”

  The two left the philosophy hall side by side.Like a father and son,they walked quietly toward the subway station.

  Above them,the full moon hung high in the night sky,watching over the pair with a calm, knowing glow.

  --------

  The headquarters of Reapers Inc.stands at the core of a vast spiral galaxy known as the Milky Way.

  Nearly one hundred thousand light-years across—a figure that signifies far more than sheer size.It describes a colossal structure of order,sustained by hundreds of billions of starslocked in slow, relentless rotation,each bound together by gravity.

  The Milky Way is not a closed circle.Its spiral arms coil inward toward the center,scattering blue starlight and crimson nebulae,wrapping around the galaxylike blood vessels in a living body.

  At the point where all motion converges—toward Sagittarius,the heart of the galaxy—there exists a supermassive black hole.

  An absolute abyssfrom which not even light can escape.And yet, at the same time,the gravitational axisthat anchors every orbitand preserves the galaxy’s order.

  That is wherethe headquarters of Reapers Inc. resides.

  The point where chaos grows deepest.The origin against which all trajectories are measured.A place where life and death,time and records,retrieval and judgmentalign into a single coordinate.

  From this center—bearing the heaviest responsibilityto keep the galaxy from collapsing—Reapers Inc. continues, even now,to quietly maintain the order of the universe.

  Far from the galactic core,the solar system that houses the Earth Branchorbits roughly twenty-six thousand light-years away,along the Milky Way’s outer rim.

  If the galactic heart is whereall authority and judgment converge,then this region is the frontline—where those decisions first take effectwithin physical reality.

  Earth, the planet of human life.If the administration of the underworldwere positioned too close to it,the world would not endure for long.

  That is why the Earth Branchmaintains a deliberate distance from Earthand is stationed on Titan, a moon of Saturn.

  A desolate satellite,shrouded in dense atmosphere and ice.A place beyond the easy reachof human sight and technology.Yet for observing the entire solar systemand regulating intervention with Earth,no location could be more suitable.

  On Titan,the Earth Branch does not stand alone.

  The Heaven Division exists there as well.

  The Earth Branch records life and action.Heaven preserves and refines their outcomes.Separate in function,yet sharing the same orbit,the two divisions maintaina precise and deliberate balance.

  If headquarters is the center of judgment,then Titan is the hub of execution and observation.

  It is the first pointwhere decisions descending from the galactic coremake contact with human time.From here, the administration of the underworldmoves toward Earth—quietly, yet with exact precision.

  Titan is the largestof Saturn’s many moons.

  With a diameter of approximately 5,150 kilometers—larger even than Earth’s Moon—it is not merely a satellite,but something closer to a complete world.

  Encasing Titanis a thick atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen (N?),rich with methane (CH?).It softens harsh radiationand filters sunlight before it reaches the surface.

  As a result,the light that touches Titanis always tinged with muted gold.

  Across its surfacestretch lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane.A landscape where hydrocarbons flow instead of water—alien and hostile to humans,yet perfectly suitedto stillness and buffering.

  The average temperature is –179°C.Energy resists motion.Change slows.Reactions are reduced to a minimum.

  And for that very reason,Titan is special.

  Here, time does not rush.Energy does not surge.External stimuli are sealed away.In this environment,souls can release the residual heat of lifeand set down the inertia of existenceunder the most stable conditions possible.

  The dense atmosphereacts as a buffer between souls and the external world.The soft golden lightserves as neutral illumination—present, but never intrusive.

  That is whyReapers Inc. chose Titan.

  Titan is the most stableadministrative buffer zonebetween life and the afterlife—the quietest answerto the problem of intervening in the human worldwithout shaking it apart.

  And farther still.

  At the edge of the solar system,along a boundary where light and planetary order barely reach,lies Pluto.

  Here,the Middle Realmand the Hell Division are installed.

  Pluto measures approximately 2,376 kilometers in diameter.A dwarf planet barely two-thirds the size of Earth’s Moon,it drifts nearly 5.9 billion kilometers from the Sun.

  Even by numbers alone,this is a place completely severedfrom the solar system’s center—less a planetary domainthan a zone of boundaries and remnants.

  Sunlight scarcely reaches this far.The line between day and night blurs.Even time itselfseems loosely unwound.

  The surface is a desolate expanseof ice and rock.Layers of nitrogen and methane ice form the crust,and beneath them remainthe scars of ancient impacts,etched like old wounds.

  The average temperature is –230°C.Energy barely moves.All motion is suppressed to an extreme.

  Here, souls do not progress.Memories loop.Emotions do not escalate.Even the possibility of escapeis denied.

  And that is why Plutois not a place of punishment.

  It is the final halt—where souls burdened with sin and karmamust recalculate their own orbit.

  The Middle Realmserves as a holding zonefor souls whose judgment is completebut who cannot yet be retrieved or erased.The Hell Division existsto isolate and purify residual energy entirely,so it cannot threatenthe order of the universe.

  Endless silence.Dim light.

  In an environment without escape or consolation,souls do not struggle against the outside world.

  They face onlythe traces they themselves have left behind.

  Pluto standsat the edge of the solar system—the final stationestablished by Reapers Inc.

  Beyond it,there is no next planet.No next choice.

  Only when purification is completemay a soulproceed to the next stage.