The way to tell the modern world apart from Murim is, oddly enough, by smell and temperature.
The smell of sweat inside a VR helmet. The heat inside a capsule warmed just right by sunlight streaming through the window.
“Phew.”
Once I took off the helmet and climbed out of the capsule, I finally felt like I could breathe. It was still only the difference between a scalding bath and a hot one, though.
How much time has passed?
I checked the watch on my wrist. The cheap twelve-thousand-won1 digital watch I’d bought from a street stall in front of the Hunter training center about seven years ago had the advantage of an alarm and a stopwatch.
Beep.
[02:05:35]
Two hours, five minutes, and thirty-five seconds.
I had spent around twenty days in Murim, so the timing roughly matched what had happened last time.
Now that I’m back in the modern world, the time ratio must have reversed.
With Logout complete, ten days in the modern world amounted to one hour in Murim. I washed up in the goshiwon’s2 communal shower and returned to my room.
Just as I was about to close the door, a black shadow sprang up.
“Boo!”
Knew it. Of course it was Seong Jinho.
“Oh. My. God. What. A. Surprise.”
“…What’s with that reaction? You knew I was here?”
“Your inhales and exhales were extremely intense. Mr. Jinho, were you excited?”
My five senses had grown sharper with each passing day. I could pick up the sounds and movements around me without even using Qi Sense.
He seemed to have been keeping his breathing quiet as he waited, but to my ears, every tiny movement and breath he made sounded like thunder.
“Try breathing a little more quietly. You’re supposed to be the goshiwon2 manager. It’d be a problem if people started filing noise complaints about you.”
“Damn it. How did you know? You’re just an F-rank Hunter… Oh, right. You became C-rank a while ago.”
“Listen to you. Making fun of me for being F-rank has really become a habit.”
“Hey, wait until you’re my age. I can’t even remember what side dishes I ate yesterday. You think something that happened barely a week ago is going to pop right into my head?”
“A week?”
Was that really all the time that had passed?
To me, it had been well over a month. To Jinho-hyung,3 it had happened just last week. I felt a subtle sense of disconnect.
“Hey. What’s with that look? Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Anyway, what brings you here?”
“Listen to the way you talk. Are we in some kind of business relationship where we only see each other when there’s business involved?”
“Just get to the point. Keep it short.”
Jinho-hyung’s3 face hardened. Had I taken the teasing too far?
Come to think of it, I had been too indifferent lately. Even before returning to Murim, I hadn’t been able to see him often because of all sorts of problems…
“Buy me dinner.”
“…”
“Grilled pork belly. Teppanyaki.4 Fried chicken and beer.”
Shit. Of course.
And he even had the nerve to choose the menu himself.
“Did you leave money with me?”
“Your money is my money. And my money is my money, isn’t it?”
“Pronounce that properly. Unless you want a taste of a C-rank Hunter’s fist.”
Jinho-hyung3 flinched and rubbed his palms together.
“Please, sir. Use your money to grease my parched stomach.”
“…”
That stance switch would make Udyr5 weep.
It was ridiculous, but a quiet laugh escaped me. My stomach had also been screaming after nearly a month without a proper meal.
Let’s eat something decent for once.
I spoke in a solemn voice.
“I approve of your attitude. Lead the way.”
“Where would you like to go, sir?”
“I’m tired of grilled pork belly and teppanyaki.4 Let’s have something a little more expensive today.”
“Th-then, sir!”
Jinho-hyung’s3 eyes widened.
“Hanwoo!6 That pasture-raised beef with the incredible marbling?”
“What the hell are you talking about? We’re going out for gopchang.7”
“…”
“If you don’t like it, starve.”
Thump.
Jinho-hyung3 grabbed my shoulder and declared with a solemn expression, “I’ve always wanted to try it.”
Our early dinner began at five that afternoon and ended at a makgeolli8 bar on our third round. By then, Jinho-hyung3 was completely plastered.
“Krroooorr.”
“…”
I had seen this scene somewhere before.
As a strange sense of déjà vu came over me and I hoisted Jinho-hyung3 onto my back, my phone rang.
└ Designer-Brand Junkie: See you tomorrow at the same time, same place.
A single short text. The sender was Team Leader Choi.
The downside—and upside—of Sleep Mode was that it reduced how much sleep I needed. Except when I’d been badly injured in the fight with Jopil, I had never slept for more than three hours.
It’s useful for training.
Three in the morning.
I woke up in peak condition and sat cross-legged. At some point, circulating my qi had become how I began and ended every day.
Whoosh.
A wave of internal energy began to flow.
The fifteen years of internal energy surging from my dantian cleansed the waste accumulated inside my body and breathed vitality into dormant acupoints.
Ding.
System
- You have finished circulating your qi.
- Your internal energy has increased very slightly.
When the System notification sounded and I opened my eyes, more than two hours had passed. If I were in Murim, I would have gone straight to the training ground to warm up, but the real world came with all sorts of restrictions.
Especially in a goshiwon,2 where the rooms were packed together like a chicken farm.
Damn goshiwon.2 I need to get out of here soon.
Even training cost money these days. People who earned enough had several spacious private training rooms, while broke people like me had no choice but to make do with lousy conditions.
“Hup. Huff.”
I spent the entire morning running through the neighborhood. When I returned, I moved straight into basic bodyweight exercises without taking a break. Maybe it was because my Stats had increased, but instead of getting tired, I felt more energized by the minute.
Jinho-hyung3 watched me with an appalled expression.
“Don’t you ever get tired?”
“Not really.”
“I’ve never seen anyone do one-arm push-ups as easily as you. How many have you done?”
“I don’t know. I counted to three hundred, then got too lazy to keep counting.”
“You’re a monster. Is that normal for a C-rank Hunter?”
“By the way, Seong Jinho.”
“Huh?”
“Why are you here?”
Jinho-hyung3 had shown up about ten minutes earlier looking haggard, and he still hadn’t left my room.
“Can’t you tell? I came to eat ramen.”
Tap tap. Ssshhk.
The way he dropped a raw egg onto the almost-cooked noodles looked completely natural.
His control of the burner flame to leave the egg perfectly runny was worthy of a Peak master.
“Give me three reasons why you need to stuff your face with that in here.”
“First, there’s no TV in my room. Second, there’s a TV in your room. Third, ramen tastes best when you eat it while watching TV.”
He rattled it all off without hesitation, and my blood started boiling.
“Just buy one! If you don’t have the money, just take mine!”
“Ah, I’d rather not. I’m leaving soon anyway. Why bother adding to my luggage?”
“Then stop coming in and out of here and bothering me… Huh? What did you just say?”
“What?”
“Wait. You’re leaving?”
“Ah, that.”
Jinho-hyung3 scratched his matted hair.
“It just worked out that way. The date isn’t set yet, but I’m planning to move out soon. I can’t stay holed up here forever.”
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I awkwardly looked away.
Who lived in a goshiwon2 without a story of their own? I had mine, and Jinho-hyung3 had his. It would be rude to pry.
Still, it’s a shame.
He was someone I’d spent years with, like a friend and a brother. And now he was leaving so suddenly.
Caught up in complicated feelings, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“Hyung,3 by any chance…”
“I know how you feel, but I respectfully decline.”
Had he realized what I was going to say? Jinho-hyung3 cut me off decisively and continued.
“Kid, I’m thirty years old. I can take care of my own bowl.”
“Then there’s nothing I can do.”
I’d thought I could probably live with Jinho-hyung,3 but sticking my nose in too soon seemed to have pricked his pride.
His face scrunched up as he lifted the lid off the pot.
“You should’ve just said so from the start.”
“What are you talking about? You never had any intention of it.”
“What nonsense. I only cooked one because you said you weren’t eating.”
“…?”
Wait a second. How had the conversation ended up here?
After several seconds of silence, I finally asked, “What are you talking about? What’s this about cooking something all of a sudden?”
“Obviously, ramen.”
Jinho-hyung3 glared at me menacingly.
“There’s always someone who says he isn’t eating, then asks for a chopstickful when you cook it well. How many times have I fallen for that one with you?”
“…”
“So a C-rank Hunter reaches into his poor hyung’s3 bowl? Are you even human?”
“…”
So when he’d mentioned his bowl earlier, he’d meant his actual bowl.
I wanted to throw his own words right back at him.
Is that thing even human?
I was a fucking idiot for thinking I could live with someone like him.
Ashamed of myself, I threw on some clothes. It was almost time to meet Team Leader Choi.
Bang!
I slammed the door hard enough to break it and left. One last shout rang out behind me.
“If you’re going to the supermarket, get some kimchi!”
Ah, I wanted to kill him.
Where was the place again?
I dredged up my memories from about twenty days ago and arrived at the meeting place.
It was a large café in the heart of a forest of skyscrapers. A handsome man sitting by the window spotted me and waved.
“Over here.”
I didn’t need him to say anything. There were dozens of tables in the café, yet Team Leader Choi was the only customer sitting inside.
He’s still handsome.
Dressed in a lightweight casual suit, Team Leader Choi looked as though he had just stepped out of a fashion shoot. A successful man in his twenties who had everything: looks, money, personality…
No. Leave personality out of it.
After exchanging a brief handshake, we sat down.
“Have you eaten?”
“No.”
Team Leader Choi tilted his head.
“Really? You seem to have eaten ramen.”
“…”
Damn it. This bastard had a bloodhound’s nose.
It was too embarrassing to explain the whole story about what had happened at the goshiwon,2 so I hurriedly changed the subject.
“It’s lunchtime, but no one’s here.”
“We’re closed.”
“What?”
“The windows are covered with curtains, and there’s a ‘Closed’ sign on the door. Of course no one’s coming in.”
I looked around. Sure enough, everything was exactly as Team Leader Choi had described.
I had assumed the café would be open since it was the meeting place, so I hadn’t noticed. The whole situation was so strange that I blinked.
“But you’re open right now.”
The lights inside were bright, and the air-conditioning kept the place cool. I could glimpse at least ten employees, so why had they closed the door?
Team Leader Choi answered calmly.
“We have to be open. There’s a customer.”
“You just said you were closed.”
“That’s up to the owner, isn’t it?”
“Uh… Team Leader, I’m asking just to be sure.”
“You don’t need to ask. This café is mine.”
Right. I’d figured as much.
Thinking back, the café had also been empty except for the two of us the last time we met.
I keep digging, and the hole never ends.
I said in amazement, “Team Leader, you have a lot of money.”
“I have enough that I don’t need to worry about running short. That’s why I can put a contract like this in front of you.”
Team Leader Choi smiled gently and handed me a folder.
“Now, shall we talk business?”
There was no reason to hesitate any longer. I nodded firmly.
“Let’s.”
An hour later, just as I finished adding my final signature, the System alert rang out.
Ding.
Footnotes
-
Twelve thousand Korean won is about $8.60 or €7.70 at the project conversion rates. ↩
-
A goshiwon is a very small, inexpensive room-for-rent housing arrangement, often with shared facilities. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
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Hyung is a Korean form of address a man uses for an older man with whom he is close. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16
-
Udyr is a League of Legends character known for switching between combat stances. ↩
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Hanwoo is a Korean breed of native cattle whose beef is prized for its marbling. ↩
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Gopchang is a Korean dish made from grilled intestines, usually beef intestines. ↩
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Makgeolli is a Korean alcoholic drink made from fermented rice. ↩
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