The man who had climbed out of the driver's seat rushed toward me in alarm.
“P-Please put that down, sir! You're going to be in serious trouble if you keep holding it!”
He hurried over, snatched the Farming Worm from my hand, and threw it onto the ground.
HISSS—
“Ow, ow······.”
His palm turned red as though he'd been scalded with boiling water.
Many creatures in the Otherworld possessed poison. I knew that sensation all too well. Before I'd figured out how to neutralize their toxins, eating meat had meant enduring a corresponding amount of pain.
Just remembering it sent a shiver down my spine.
“A-Are you all right, sir? I sincerely apologize. If you've been injured, our company will··· Huh?”
I showed him my palm.
“So you're immune to the miasma. Were you the one who dealt with it?”
“I happened to be nearby when I saw the accident. It startled me, and I ended up getting involved before I knew it.”
The employee's eyes widened considerably.
“With your bare hands···?”
I felt a little awkward and didn't say anything.
The employee rubbed his forehead, looking back and forth between me and the Farming Worm.
“Thank goodness. If that thing had burrowed underground, we could've had a really serious disaster on our hands.”
“What were you planning to do with that thing?”
“I'm not entirely sure myself. I'm just a transporter··· From what I've heard, they're experimenting with some new farming methods.”
“Farming methods?”
“Wasn't it in the news recently? Something about Farming Worms being able to make the soil fertile and help control harmful pests.”
He looked at the Farming Worm's corpse with an expression of utter disgust.
“It's madness. I mean, didn't we import things like bass and nutria because we thought they'd be useful? And now they're invasive pests, aren't they? Good grief··· Anyway, you saved our lives. Our company's disposal team will come and collect that thing.”
I nodded and turned toward Cha So-hee.
She was standing some distance away, speaking with headquarters.
“So, it seems a civilian took care of the Farming Worm for us··· A stalker, you say? I'm not sure about that either··· Seeing him handle it with his bare hands, he definitely seems to be immune to the miasma.”
Apparently, she hadn't recognized me.
Maybe it was because my hair had grown long enough to almost reach my shoulders, or because my skin was so deeply tanned. Or perhaps she was simply too preoccupied to take a proper look at my face.
'To think she was unemployed just two years ago···.'
Seeing her working like that felt strange.
Judging by her unhealthy complexion, she'd grown into a fine, upstanding member of society.
“Anyway, I'm free to leave now, right?”
“Ah, yes, of course. Could I trouble you for your contact information?”
I casually left him my number and hurried away before Cha So-hee could get a proper look at my face.
Of course, I made sure to take this with me.
<Farming Worm's sensory organ.>
An organ that emitted faint electrical signals whenever it detected living creatures nearby.
Back when I lived in the Otherworld, this little thing had saved my life more than once.
I had a feeling it would come in handy again, so I took it.
Besides, taking this much was only fair.
Once I'd put enough distance between myself and the scene, I sent a message using my phone, which had only just been reactivated.
[Me: Hey] 1
[Me: Hey] 1
[Me: Heyheyheyheyhey] 1
The number 1 disappeared right around the time Cha So-hee seemed to have finished her call.
[Cha So-hee: ???]
[Cha So-hee: ????????????]
Imagining Cha So-hee panicking brought a smile to my face.
How long has it been since we last met?
From her perspective, it had been two years. But even that wasn't a short time. It was roughly the length of mandatory military service.
There was plenty I wanted to tell her, but there was even more I wanted to hear.
She works in a field related to the Otherworld, right?
I was relieved at the thought that I might be able to learn a great deal without much difficulty.
***
I stopped by my house, wiped away the accumulated dust, and sprayed some Febreze on the clothes that had absorbed a musty smell before heading out again.
The moment I saw those wide, round eyes staring blankly at me from the middle of the street, I burst out laughing.
“You···.”
Cha So-hee's lips moved, but she couldn't seem to find the words.
“···What the hell happened to you?”
“Is that what you say to a friend you've known for twenty years when you see him again after two?”
“No, before that, didn't we meet earlier?”
I nodded and gave her a rough explanation of what had happened.
“That was you? Wait, before that, you beat a Farming Worm to death with your bare hands? No, more importantly, where the hell have you been and what have you been doing··· I don't even know where to start!”
Watching her clutch her head and shout, I realized that her personality hadn't changed one bit.
Well, two years wasn't enough to change a person that much.
Cha So-hee and I went to a nearby pub.
Alcohol··· When was the last time I had any?
The beer tasted incredible.
I downed an entire 500cc glass in one go and savored the refreshing coolness as it washed down my esophagus.
“······I was really worried about you, you bastard.”
“Is that the face of someone who was worried? I thought you'd be bawling your eyes out.”
“You think way too highly of yourself.”
We exchanged meaningless banter for a while before getting straight to the point.
“What's that company you work for? Why are you transporting monsters around? Are you the Men in Black?”
“It's a company that researches and exhibits animals from the Otherworld. There are quite a few of them in Korea. One of the two dimensional gates in Asia opened in Seoul, you know.”
“Is it like OWIC? I met a researcher from there earlier.”
“That place is practically a government-affiliated corporation. Almost a public enterprise. I just work for a small company··· Sigh. And it looks like I'm about to get fired from even that.”
“Fired?”
“Office politics got way too ugly. You know what assignment I got this time? An expedition into the Otherworld.”
She's going into the Otherworld?
“What about the miasma?”
“There are quite a few people who aren't affected badly enough by the Otherworld's miasma to die from it. As long as the side effects don't prevent someone from operating over there, they're given permission. They developed testing equipment ages ago.”
Even if the miasma problem had been resolved, the Otherworld was still dangerous to humans, just as the researcher from OWIC had said.
If even corporations obsessed with money were reluctant to rush in, that said everything.
“It's a popular way for companies dealing with the Otherworld to force employees into resigning these days. Basically, they're telling you to choose between dying and quitting. I've been assigned to survey the outskirts of the Eastern Bermuda Forest··· Ugh.”
“······.”
“Let's stop talking about work. It's depressing.”
Cha So-hee shook her head as she said that.
I realized that the rules of society hadn't changed in the two years I'd been gone.
The hardships of working life remained the same.
No, they'd simply evolved into something even stranger and crueler.
“I'm more interested in hearing about you. You survived in the Otherworld for two years?”
“At least six years. It wouldn't surprise me if it was twice or even three times that long. I don't know why only two years passed on Earth, though···.”
“···What did you do over there?”
Kang Seon-hu took three large, thick notebooks out of the bag he'd brought with him.
“About seven hundred pages each.”
“What are these?”
“The journals I kept while living in the Otherworld.”
THUMP.
The moment she heard that, she snatched one of the notebooks and began reading it frantically.
The beginning contained entries I'd written while staying in a city in the Otherworld.
A large portion of it was practically a study notebook for learning the language of that world.
I'd only found out today that it was called Rune Language.
From the second notebook onward, the contents were devoted to my life as a wild man.
Most of the entries contained information about the plants and animals of the Otherworld, along with the knowledge necessary for survival.
“Did you get these in the Otherworld?”
“No. When I got dragged there, they were already in my bag.”
“Three notebooks with seven hundred pages each? That's roughly six kilograms. Don't you remember what you always used to say?”
Grams are kilograms.
It was a saying commonly used among people who spent a lot of time outdoors on expeditions.
Put simply, it meant, 'Don't dismiss something just because it weighs only a few grams. Cut down on everything you can, because once you're carrying it around, even grams start feeling like kilograms. Heavy as hell. Seriously.'
“And you're telling me someone like you accidentally packed three enormous, heavy notebooks?”
In truth, it was a question I'd asked myself while living in the Otherworld, too.
But when I was struggling just to survive another day, I hadn't had the luxury of worrying about something like that.
“The moment I filled the last page of these notebooks, I was able to return to Earth.”
“Then these···.”
There was a possibility that the notebooks weren't something I'd packed myself, but rather the very things that had sent me to the Otherworld.
Of course, that was still nothing more than a hypothesis.
In any case, the world had changed dramatically by the time I returned, and the information filling those notebooks···.
“···This is incredible. And no matter how I look at it··· there's no way this is only two years' worth of information.”
Exactly.
Just as she'd realized, those notebooks were an enormous fortune.
Cha So-hee quickly skimmed through the contents before returning to the first volume.
“What language is this? Did you learn it in the Otherworld?”
“I didn't know what it was either··· Apparently, it's something called Rune Language.”
“This is Rune Language? I've never seen it written down before. Wait, you actually learned Rune Language in the Otherworld?”
“I didn't exactly learn it. I just tried everything I could to figure it out. Everyone in the city where I first arrived spoke this language, you see. I thought it was their standard language.”
The YouTube video I'd watched that morning had said the same thing.
Apparently, it was a special language that even people in the Otherworld rarely used.
“···Don't tell anyone about this. Men in Black might come barging into your house at night and steal it.”
“Is it really that important?”
“People suspect that Rune Language is what mages in the Otherworld use. There's a theory that the secret of magic might lie in it··· or something like that.”
“Isn't that true?”
“What a load of bullshit. What's next, negative-ion jade heating mats? It's pseudoscience imported straight from the Otherworld. Does it make any sense for a language to have power? What, you shout 'Fire!' and fire just appears? What is this, children playing make-believe?”
“······.”
“The government even allocated funding to organizations researching that stuff. I'm telling you, the country's gone completely insane.”
“Hmm, really? Hasn't anyone succeeded?”
“Nope. It's simple logic. Thir! Thir! Thir! Mohs! Mohs! Nothing happens. The end. Thank you very much!”
I tried to maintain a serious expression and move on, but I couldn't stop myself from laughing.
Cha So-hee gave me a sulky look before turning her attention back to the notebook.
Every word I'd painstakingly recorded during my first year was in that first volume.
“Anyway, you're saying all of this is Rune Language, right? And the stuff toward the back··· that's information about the Otherworld?”
“That's right. Everything in there comes from my own experiences.”
“You experienced all of this yourself······.”
Cha So-hee closed the notebook and began rolling her eyes from side to side.
She always did that whenever her mind wandered off into a field of flowers or she started plotting something.
That was why she'd never been any good at lying.
“Seon-hu?”
There was only one reason she'd call my name in such an affectionate voice.
“Um, about that expedition into the Otherworld I've been assigned to··· Could you maybe help me······?”
“Let's make a deal.”
“Hey! Your friend's about to get her head chopped off, and you're talking about a deal? A DEAL? Want me to deal you a massive beating?”
“Hey, this chicken is delicious.”
“···I'll pay for everything here, for starters.”
I could tell exactly what she was thinking just from her tone.
Besides, Cha So-hee was particularly sensitive when it came to matters of principle.
She might have been speaking awkwardly, but I knew she was actually feeling terribly guilty.
She was the type who'd rather die than ask someone to do her a favor without offering anything in return.
“The bonus for completing the survey is three million won. I'll give you all of it.”
“Oh.”
“And we'll probably be able to bring back a few things from the expedition, right?”
“Are you allowed to take whatever you want?”
“No. But there aren't any CCTV cameras in the Otherworld, are there?”
“So you're planning to pocket a reasonable amount.”
“Everyone does it. The company knows about it and turns a blind eye. You can have my entire share. That's usually around five hundred thousand won, or maybe a million if we're lucky.”
“That's all?”
“···One free pass for a night of drinking.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Hey··· Come on, give me a break. I'm offering you everything I've got.”
Of course, I was only joking.
I didn't know exactly how dangerous that place would be, but if civilians were being permitted to conduct surveys there, it would probably be little more than a casual stroll for me.
No matter how dangerous the Otherworld was, its wilderness was relatively safe as long as you followed certain rules of conduct.
People were simply afraid because they didn't know those rules.
“Why don't you tell me about the plan first? I'll listen and then decide. I still feel more like resting for now.”
She took a tablet PC out of her bag.
What had started as a drinking session meant to forget about work was gradually turning into a business meeting.
“We're leaving on Monday, the week after next. The expedition is expected to take three days. As for the location··· Hold on, I've got a map the company gave me.”
At first, I approached the matter casually.
But the more I saw and heard···
“There's a list of precautions and an abbreviated preliminary report beside it, so take a look.”
··the more my thoughts began heading in an entirely unexpected direction.
“···This isn't how you're supposed to do it.”
“Hm?”
Humanity's understanding of the Otherworld in this era was far worse than I'd imagined.
“You've got it completely wrong. What the hell does your company actually know?”
I began pulling out the knowledge of the Otherworld that I'd always kept at the forefront of my mind for survival, but had temporarily tucked away on a shelf in my subconscious.