Chapter 53

Ding.

System

• Sleep Mode has ended.

“…O-oppa!”¹

I gasped and opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw wasn’t the ceiling of my goshiwon², but Hayeon’s face.

Oh, right. I came home yesterday.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“Huh?”

“You were screaming earlier. And you were sweating like crazy.”

I was?

Before I could ask, I realized my whole body was soaked in sweat, and my throat stung as if I’d swallowed sand.

Why do I feel like this?

The System didn’t only work while I was awake. Sleep Mode let me sleep deeply while restoring me to peak condition.

Nothing like this had ever happened in Murim or since Synchronization. And a nightmare, on top of that?

What did I even dream about?

My head throbbed, but I couldn’t remember the dream at all.

Hayeon asked worriedly, “Has something bad happened lately?”

“No. Nothing like that.”

“If there is, tell me. Don’t suffer by yourself.”

“Yes, nuna.”³

“I’m not joking.”

Her little fist thumped my chest. Faced with Hayeon’s serious expression, I had nothing to say. I scratched my chin.

“Really? Nothing bothering you? Nothing giving you a hard time?”

“I told you, there’s nothing.”

It was a lie. There had been things seven years ago, and there would be things seven years from now. There had been days when I locked myself in my room and cried, and days when I drank myself senseless with Jinho just to forget.

That’s enough.

There were things I couldn’t tell my mother, who had worked until the cartilage in her knees wore down raising the two of us, or my little sister, a high-school senior now preparing for her college entrance exam.

Enduring things alone and overcoming them. I was used to it by now.

I flashed her a grin as if nothing was wrong.

“My life’s finally about to take off. What would I have to worry about? Ah, there is one thing. How I’m supposed to spend all this money. Something like that.”

“Big talk.”

The mood lightened a little. I made a face on purpose.

“Big talk? Don’t you remember yesterday? Want me to show you the bundles of cash again?”

“I’ll give you that. You’re obnoxious, but I can’t argue.”

“I’ve hit the peak of my twenty-seven-year life graph. Nothing’s going on, so you just study hard.”

“My grades are in the top 0.1 percent nationwide, okay? I’m doing more than well enough, so don’t worry.”

Hayeon pouted and started to leave, then stopped and turned back.

“Oppa. But…”

“Yeah?”

“Who’s Jin Wikyung?”

“…What?”

A name I never expected, at a moment like this.

My body went rigid.

Crunch.

I bit into a piece of freshly made young-radish kimchi. It was Mom’s cooking, the food I’d wanted so badly, but I could barely taste it.

Because of the conversation I’d just had with Hayeon.

“Where did you hear that name?”

“From you. You kept saying it in your sleep.”

And then her final question.

“Someone you know? If they show up in your dreams, you must be close.”

I couldn’t answer. I hadn’t found that answer in Murim or in reality.

No. I no longer had any reason to look for it. I had returned to reality, and Jin Wikyung was in Murim.

Then why did Jin Wikyung suddenly show up in my dream…?

My thoughts were a mess. Was it some aftereffect of Murim? The term PTSD came to mind—post-traumatic stress disorder.

This is driving me crazy.

My expression must have hardened without my noticing. Mom asked gently, “Have you lost your appetite? I made all your favorites.”

“Oh, no. When did you make the kimchi? And this doenjang-jjigae⁴ is perfect.”

I hurriedly made excuses and picked up my spoon. For the first time in ages, the three of us were together at one table. I couldn’t ruin this precious moment.

It’s nothing. It has to be nothing.

Slurp.

Even so, the savory doenjang-jjigae⁴ tasted faintly bitter.

The unease nagging at the back of my mind soon faded, and I went back to normal.

I laughed and talked with my family all day. I even took a long nap, and by the time I woke up, it was evening.

Time to go back.

“Stay a few more days. I was going to make boiled pork tomorrow.”

“There goes Lady Kim again. I know how to eat boiled pork too, you know?”

Hayeon grumbled at the reluctance dripping from Mom’s words.

“She packed you a ton of side dishes already, so why are you so worried? At this rate, she could open a side-dish shop.”

“…That’s true.”

The shopping bags Mom had prepared by the front door were packed with side dishes. Even this much was a compromise I’d only managed to reach after talking her down.

I don’t have anywhere to put them.

If I put a fridge in my three-pyeong⁵ goshiwon² room, there really wouldn’t be anywhere left to stand. No—there wasn’t even room for a fridge.

I already had a capsule the size of one.

Should I start looking for a new place?

I was thinking that as I slung the backpack I’d packed the night before over my shoulder.

“…?”

Why was it so heavy? All I’d put inside were a few outfits I’d bought yesterday.

When I set the backpack down, my family suddenly grew frantic.

“Son, you’ll be busy starting tomorrow, right? Hurry back, wash up, and get a good night’s sleep.”

“…A minute ago, you told me to stay a few more days.”

“Oppa, you’re going to miss your ride.”

“I’m taking a taxi, though?”

“The late-night surcharge. You’ll have to pay the late-night surcharge.”

By then, I had a pretty good idea what was going on.

“When did you put it in?”

“P-put what in?”

“The money.”

Their faces answered for them. I sighed.

“I told you to keep it and use it when you need it.”

“…”

“I make plenty of money. And I will from now on, too.”

I mixed fact and fiction fifty-fifty.

The average annual salary of a C-rank Hunter was five hundred million won.⁶ I’d met a generous employer in Team Leader Choi and received a bonus beyond anything I could have imagined, but if the System disappeared, all of it would go up in smoke.

That was why I’d wanted to give even more to my family, but…

“That’s money you risked your life to earn. Spend it on yourself. All right?”

“Mom.”

“Son.”

Then Mom spoke quietly, leaving me at a loss for words.

“Don’t push yourself. And don’t get hurt. That’s all Mom needs.”

What else was I supposed to say?

A little later, I stepped out into the humid summer night.

With shopping bags full of side dishes and a backpack stuffed with bundles of cash.

Vroom.

Throughout the taxi ride back to the goshiwon², I thought about Mom’s final words and the warmth in them.

And about a voice from a memory that was growing fainter and fainter.

“Survive. I’m telling you to run without looking back. That’s your mission.”

Shaaah—

Blood spurted.

Not the green blood of a monster, but red human blood. Fighting through the burning pain in my thigh, I rammed my spear into the Lizardman Chieftain’s chest.

“Keee…”

Ding.

System

• You defeated Lv. 50 Lizardman Chieftain!

• You gained EXP!

Gate cleared. A mana field leading outside formed over the Lizardman Chieftain’s lifeless body.

That was when Team Leader Choi pushed away from the tree.

“Three.”

“Pardon?”

“The number of times you’ve been injured today, Mr. Jin Taekyung.”

His long, sturdy fingers pointed to each wound on my body.

The nape of my neck and my arm, already treated with potions, and my thigh, which was still bleeding.

“I’m fine. They were only grazes. A low-grade potion is more than enough…”

“You’re not fine.”

He cut me off firmly. Team Leader Choi’s expression was always unreadable, but this time something was different.

One thing was certain. The emotion showing on his face wasn’t simple concern.

“You weren’t injured even once last week. Same Gate, same monsters. If this is happening, there can only be one reason.”

His clear eyes fixed on me.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung. Is something wrong?”

One day. Two days. Three days.

Time passed, but things didn’t improve. On the fourth day, I ended up injured in five different places.

“Not in your current condition. Go home.”

Leaving Team Leader Choi’s words behind, I headed for the goshiwon², my head a mess.

What’s the problem?

Everything had been going well. The System hadn’t disappeared, and I had roughly three hundred million won⁷ deposited in the bank. All that remained was to keep riding high as a C-rank Hunter, but…

Those damn dreams.

That was when it started. Ever since my first night at my family’s house, I’d been having nightmares.

The scenes in them grew clearer by the night, and every time a dream ended, I woke up soaked in sweat. Even if I circulated my qi and restored my physical condition, my unstable mind only made me commit more mistakes.

This is going to be a problem.

My body was in reality, but my mind was still trapped in Murim. I was wondering whether I should see a psychiatrist when I reached my goshiwon² room.

Click.

“Oh, you’re back?”

The greeting was so natural that I almost wondered whether I’d walked into the wrong room.

I asked, incredulous,

“What are you doing?”

Jinho answered, “Disassembly and reassembly.”

He was sitting in front of the capsule with a screwdriver. For a second, my vision went yellow.

This bastard isn’t actually—

“Are you crazy? Move!”

“Hey, hey. Hear me out.”

Jinho hurriedly waved his hands.

“I haven’t even started yet.”

“What?”

“I just got here too. Seriously.”

He didn’t look like he was lying. Only after I checked that the capsule was still intact did a sigh of relief escape me.

“Phew.”

Jinho looked taken aback by my reaction.

“Why are you making such a fuss over one junk capsule that doesn’t even work? What happened to tossing it out like a piece of luggage?”

“That was then.”

There was no way Jinho could know about Synchronization, or what that unidentified object—nothing but a junk capsule to him—meant to me.

“Anyway, don’t touch it. Got it?”

“You look ready to beat me to death.”

“I’ll tear you to pieces.”

“…”

I ignored Jinho’s baffled expression and flopped onto the bed.

After that little episode, it felt like all the energy had drained out of me.

“Something going on?”

“Going on, my ass.”

“Complaints about you have been no joke lately. Today, I barely managed to calm down the guy next door and send him away.”

I could guess why.

Jinho gathered up the tools he’d scattered across the floor and continued.

“He says he’s going crazy because you groan all night. Oh, and he asked who Jin Wikyung is.”

That name again.

I buried my face in the pillow.

“Just tell him she’s my girlfriend.”

I saw his hand tremble around the monkey wrench.

“You got a girlfriend? You traitorous bastard.”

“…”

“Is she pretty? How old is she? Show me a picture.”

This guy was thirty. It was tragic.

“The name’s a bit exotic, though. Is she an ethnic Korean from China? Or Chinese?”

“…Chinese.”

It wasn’t exactly wrong.

“This bastard hits C-rank and he’s already gone global. Anyway, introduce me to a girl. I like China. Nǐ hǎo ma?⁸ Wǒ ài nǐ.⁹ What else was there?”

“You fucking bastard.”

“Idiot. You got the tones and pronunciation all wrong. You think you’ll even make it to a hundred days¹⁰ like that? Repeat after me. Nǐ chī fàn le ma?”¹¹

“You fucking bastard.”

“Again. Nǐ chī fàn le ma?”¹¹

“You fucking bastard.”

“…Wait, you bastard!”

I ignored Jinho, enraged by his belated realization, and pointed at the door.

“Get out.”

Please. Just let me have some time to myself.

Once the room was quiet, I sat up and walked over to the capsule. I tapped its old, grime-caked surface and muttered, “What the hell are you?”

As expected, no answer came.

I’d secretly been hoping for one. What a shame.

The System’s already synchronized with reality. Why couldn’t a machine talk too?

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure it was a real machine. Reality had turned into fantasy a long time ago, but wasn’t this a whole new genre?

If I wrote my current situation as a novel, what genre would I even pick? Fantasy? A game novel? Or—

Dimensional travel?

A hollow laugh escaped me. Dimensional travel? I really was losing it. There was no way something like that was possible.

There was no way…

My mind snapped clear as if someone had dumped ice water over my head.

…It is possible.

Dimensional travel had happened in the past, and it still existed now.

The invasion of the Demon King Asmodeus and the Gates were proof.

We only passed through Gates to leave and return to our world, but decades ago, an army of monsters had crossed through one from another dimension to Earth.

The Demon Realm.

A land of evil. The home of monsters. The Demon King’s domain.

An unknown dimension no human had ever set foot in or even glimpsed. That was how humanity defined it.

But what if this capsule in front of me was a kind of Gate leading to another dimension? What if Murim was another unknown dimension?

Murim is another reality.

Everything I had seen and experienced there.

Water. Earth. Wind. And people, too.

They weren’t NPCs.

I stared at my vacant face reflected on the capsule’s faded surface.

For a long while after that.