Pssshhhhk—
The capsule's hatch opened and cool air came in.
Not the clinging damp of the jungle, but the crisp breeze of an air conditioner.
"Aghh, back from the dead!"
I stretched and pushed myself up out of the capsule.
Every joint in my body creaked, but my mood at least was at its peak. It didn't matter that the inside of my leather armor was soaked through with sweat.
Because the numbers from the settlement window I'd seen earlier were tap-dancing in my head.
"Hyung, I sliced them all up and came back. I made an absolute fortune out there!"
The moment I was out of the capsule, the first thing I did was look for my senior.
He had already gotten up from the monitor and was waiting for me, his face thoroughly flushed.
"I saw, you money-hungry ghoul. I honestly didn't think you'd sweep the whole map like a vacuum cleaner."
"So how much did I make today? Come on, hurry up!"
"$156,000 in mark-kill bonuses alone. Add the base pay and the win bonus on top of that and it's close to $200,000."
"200,000? Wow, so in Korean money that's...... 270 million? No, nearly 300 million won?"
I swallowed hard.
It was a fortune so large I couldn't even begin to calculate how many burger sets it came to.
"......This punk's eyes sparkle the second money comes up. And you picked up a Waldstein Series on top of it. You hit the real jackpot today, kid."
"Makes it worth nearly going off to high-five my dad."
My mouth was stretched to my ears as I swung one leg out over the hatch.
And just as I was about to pull my body fully out of the capsule.
"Huh?"
Hot liquid came welling out of my nose. Tap, tap, onto the floor. Bright red blood dripped down.
At the same time my head spun.
The world tilted sharply. No strength would go into my legs.
And the place Christopher had cut hurt far too much.
It felt like being branded with an iron heated in a fire.
"What, what's wrong?"
My senior's alarmed face receded into a blur.
I mumbled with unfocused eyes.
"Hyung, I think I'm going to die. I need to sleep a bit......"
"Hey! Pull yourself together! You can't sleep like this, wipe that nosebleed first!"
My senior's shout, laced with a scream, reached my ears.
I could feel rough hands shaking my shoulder hard, but my body was already endlessly heavy, like cotton soaked in water.
"Don't know. I'll stop the bleeding when I get up......"
My eyelids weighed a thousand tons.
Even as my consciousness cut out, 300 million won and the shape of the Waldstein stayed branded into my head as vividly as a tattoo.
Those I wasn't handing over, not even dead.
"Hey! Hey, Go Tae-min! This bastard, honestly...... all right, sleep! Sleep, then, sleep! But we're having a debut-match party this evening, so tell me what you want to eat before you pass out!"
At my senior's voice, my closing eyes trembled very faintly.
It was instinct.
"......Are you paying, hyung?"
"Yeah, kid. It's on me! I know perfectly well what you went through, so you think I can't buy you that much? So pick the menu."
An extraordinary declaration that would never have come out of my senior on a normal day.
Holding on to the last thread of consciousness I had, I murmured that magnificent name I had never been able to get past my lips because of the state of my wallet.
"Korean beef......"
"You said you don't even like beef, you punk. Every day it's 'hamburgers are a complete food' this, hamburgers that!"
My senior's exasperated shout reached me from beyond my receding awareness.
***
A vicious smell of disinfectant pricking my nose made my head throb.
'......Huh?'
I doubted my own eyes at the unfamiliar sight that came into view.
I was fairly sure I had died gloriously in action (?) while demanding my senior buy me Korean beef, and yet the first thing I saw on opening my eyes was not a meat grill but an unfamiliar white ceiling.
"Hm. Where is this......"
A cracked voice came out the moment I parted my lips.
My throat was dried up like the Sahara, and my whole body creaked as if I had been run over by a large truck and got back up.
When I turned my head slightly, I could see an unfamiliar cityscape out of the window.
This was neither my senior's workshop nor the basement room my family lived in.
"Where is this now? Don't tell me I really did cross the river of the dead to go and high-five Dad?"
"Your father, my foot. Isn't your face too thick to be meeting your ancestors?"
I turned my head at a familiar, prickly voice.
My senior, sitting on the sofa beside the bed and tapping at a laptop, was looking at me as if I were pathetic.
He must have been up several nights straight, because the dark circles hollowed under his eyes looked ready to reach his chin.
"Hyung, why are we here? We were supposed to go and eat Korean beef."
"This punk starts in about food the second he wakes up. Do you know where you are right now?"
"Where?"
"A hospital, that's where. Don't you remember collapsing and pouring blood the moment you opened the capsule door? Do you know how badly you scared me with that, you punk!"
"Huh? Did I? I thought I was just a bit tired and got a good deep sleep."
"Deep sleep? Hey, you've been out cold like a dead man for 3 days. The doctor told me. Neural overload. He said an ordinary person would have passed out long before or had the capsule's safety system kick in, but you held out past your limit on that brainless willpower of yours until your body went into shock."
I'd been lying here 3 days?
At that I jolted upright in shock.
But at the same moment a heavy pain in my flank collapsed me back onto the sheets.
Agh! Why does this hurt so much?
No, that isn't what matters.
"3 days? Then what about my money? My $196,000! And that Waldstein blade!"
I shouted as though I would seize my senior by the collar.
To me, the numbers that would be printed in my bank account and that famously expensive blade were more precious than any 3 days.
"Honestly, this is unbelievable. Even in a situation like this, those are what come to you first?"
My senior clicked his tongue and turned the laptop screen toward me.
"Don't worry. The settlement came through cleanly, and there's over 260 million won sitting in your account."
"What? Why 260 million?"
"The 3.3% withholding has to come off, kid. And the Waldstein Series was delivered safely to the office. Here, look at the CCTV."
The laptop screen he showed me had the familiar view of the office entrance up on it.
Set carefully in one corner was a long black rectangular box. A box that gave off an uncommon air at a glance.
Only then did I let out a breath of relief and lean back against the bed's headboard.
My flank still hurt, but thinking about my account balance made it bearable.
"Hyung, that Korean beef you promised isn't canceled, is it?"
"Hey, you earned hundreds of millions! If you had any conscience you'd be paying this time!"
"What are you talking about. Every single one of my brain cells remembers you saying you'd pay, hyung. No backing out now."
I cackled and tapped at the IV stand.
The fluid bag dangling there seemed to be agreeing with me.
'Life is one big swing after all.'
Thinking back to the days of rolling through mud near the Kisangani jungle and having staring contests with earthworms, the air of a hospital VIP room was genuinely sweet.
That aside.
"Hyung, how long do I have to stay here? My body feels like it moves a bit now."
"Just wait a moment. The doctor should be coming soon anyway."
No sooner had my senior finished speaking than the ward door opened and a doctor in a white coat came in with a crowd of nurses.
It seemed to be the ward round.
The doctor skimmed the chart hanging at the foot of my bed, then looked at me kindly over his glasses and spoke.
"Mr. Kim Min-su, are you feeling more alert?"
Kim Min-su, was it......
At the unfamiliar name, I smiled awkwardly and nodded.
"Yes, thanks to you. Maybe it's because the bed is good, but I slept wonderfully. I don't think I'll need to sleep for about a week, will I?"
"Haha, you mustn't say such things even as a joke. Hm, let's see. First of all...... the test results aren't bad. No external injuries, and your brainwaves and blood values are all normal. If I had to find a reason...... it's severe overwork. What on earth do you do with your days, to drive yourself until your body gets into this state? It's practically the level of doing high-intensity labor for several nights without sleep."
The doctor wrote 'temporary shock due to overwork' on the chart and added:
"Your nutritional balance is poor too, and your chronic stress levels are high. Your body decided it couldn't take any more and cut its own power. Fortunately, Mr. Kim, your baseline fitness is remarkably good, so you recovered quickly. Even so, you must rest for a few days. Sleep properly and eat something good."
"Yes, thank you."
The medical team filed out of the ward in a crowd and the quiet returned.
I leaned my back against the bed and looked slowly around me.
A heavy sigh slipped out of my mouth on its own.
Seeing it, my senior tilted his head at me as he gathered up his laptop.
"What? A minute ago you were raising hell about being discharged, and now you don't want to go?"
"No, it isn't that."
"Then what is it now. Something else hurting?"
I worked my lips, then pointed vaguely around the ward.
However I looked at it, this was no ordinary ward. The room was spacious, and there was a private sofa and even a TV.
Argh, he'd booked a nice place too.
Another long sigh came out of me.
"I was thinking the hospital bill must have come to a lot."
At my heartfelt worry, my senior let out a laugh of disbelief.
Then he knocked me lightly on the head and said:
"Hey, you punk. Worry about things worth worrying about. This is a Veterans Hospital. You're a person of national merit. It's free, kid."
"What? Really? Free?"
"Yes. Not a penny of hospital fees under your merit benefits, so set your mind at ease."
In that instant it felt as though fireworks were going off in my head.
"Wow, amazing! Absolute win!"
The face that had been all misery a moment ago broke into a full beam in no time.
So devoting this one body to my country had been worth something after all.
Who knew the title of person of national merit would feel this reassuring.
"And since I was out cold for 3 days, that saved me 3 days of food costs too, didn't it? Wow, I spent not a penny while I slept and saved 3 days of meals. Hyung, I think I get sick really economically."
"......This bastard really is a lunatic."
My senior shook his head with the expression of a man who had genuinely seen something he shouldn't have.
***
A belated celebration party was held at my senior's workshop.
The attendees were my senior and my sister-in-law, plus So-yeon and me.
The four of us spread newspaper over the workshop floor and grilled Korean beef.
"Tae-min, eat this first. They said you went 3 days without food and your face has gone to half its size."
The moment the meat was cooked, my sister-in-law was piling it onto my plate.
"Hey, I'd like some too......"
"You eat it every day. Tae-min has only just woken up after lying in a hospital bed, so is the meat your problem right now?"
My senior lifted his chopsticks and opened his mouth to protest, but one flash of my sister-in-law's blue-steel glare and his tail went straight down.
That's our sister-in-law.
Her skill at beating a man with words was as formidable as ever.
I put a well-cooked piece of sirloin in my mouth with eyes brimming with emotion.
The juices bursting inside my mouth made me wonder whether this was the taste of capitalism itself.
"Thank you, sister-in-law. It's genuinely delicious."
"I'm glad you like it. So hurry up and meet a good person and get married first. That's the only way my mind will be at ease."
"......Khuh!"
I nearly choked on the arrow that came flying out of nowhere.
Reflexively I made a sturdy shield of So-yeon, who was beside me chewing diligently through her meat.
"So-yeon, shall Uncle make you a special Korean beef wrap? Here, say aah."
I laid two slices of meat on a piece of bread, dipped it in ssamjang and popped it straight into So-yeon's mouth.
The amount must have been too much, because So-yeon's cheeks puffed out like a squirrel's.
It was so adorable that I poked her cheek with a finger.
"Mmff, nom nom......"
Having worked her cheeks diligently and swallowed the wrap, So-yeon this time picked up a well-cooked slice of meat with her chopsticks.
Then she pushed the meat right up to my mouth with her tiny hand.
"Uncle, have shome too. Aah."
"There's nobody like So-yeon."
I promptly took the meat she was feeding me.
The rich, nutty aroma spreading through my mouth brought a smile to my face on its own.
If she'd wrapped it in white bread to Uncle's taste, it would have been even better.
The absence of that 2% of missing carbohydrate was a slight regret, but saying anything of the sort in front of meat my niece was feeding me by hand would have earned me a smack on the back from my sister-in-law, no question.
The boisterous conversation, the sound of meat cooking on the grill plate, and my senior pressing soju on me with that galling smile.
'This is good. Really good.'
For the first time in a long while it felt like living as a person should.
Only a short while ago I had been adjusting a demon mask on a jungle floor reeking of blood.
Honestly, you really never can tell with the way things go.
Once the enjoyable meal was finished, my sister-in-law and So-yeon went up to the workshop roof to look at the stars.
My senior drained his glass and jerked his chin at one corner of the workshop.
"Oh, right, you need to check this too."
There, set down, was the long black rectangular box I had seen on the laptop screen earlier.
Waldstein Series No.113.
That's right. That was here, of course.
I sprang up and went over to the box.
Seen up close, the box was not ordinary plastic.
Over a carbon-fiber case with a faint sheen to it, a red LED was blinking like a pulse.
"That's fingerprint recognition. It won't open for anyone but you."
"Huh, how did they know my fingerprint?"
"They must scan it when you connect to virtual reality. I don't know the details either."
"What? Couldn't that expose my identity if something goes wrong?"
"Hey, kid, do you think the Nova guys care about your name? They just hold biometric data like irises and fingerprints because of the one-account-per-person rule. That alone doesn't tell them who you are, so stop grumbling and open it."
At my senior's words I swallowed and set my thumb on the scanner at the center of the case.
Tring—
The case's catches released along with a bright electronic tone.
As the heavy carbon-fiber lid tilted slowly upward, a pitch-black blade revealed itself inside.
Waldstein No.113.
The two of us pushed our heads into the box at the same moment.
And a moment later, two entirely different exclamations burst out.
"Oooh."
"......Huh?"
The one who reacted first was my senior.
His face, swollen with expectation, was covered over with disappointment in an instant, and he stared emptily down at the thing in the box.
"This is a real Waldstein Series? Did the NAA guys make a delivery mistake or something?"
The sword in the box gave off neither the brilliant luster of a masterwork nor any of that distinctive imposing air.
If anything, with its faded black edge and a plain hilt without a single ornament...... it looked like a lump of scrap iron, less impressive even than a practice sword you might find rolling around in a junk shop.
But to my eyes it looked entirely different.
'......Whoa.'
As if enchanted, I reached out and took hold of the sword's hilt.
The instant my fingertips touched it, a strange sight unfolded in my field of view.
Tk, tk-tk.
Over the ink-dark blade, slender white lines rose up and writhed as though they were living creatures.
Unusual.
It was the first time in my life I had seen an object with so many white lines wavering over it.
Feeling a pleasant shiver, I lifted the sword.
"A fun sword. This guy's kicking up a fuss about being hungry right now?"
TL Notes:
TL Note: Person of national merit — a Korean state status recognizing service-related injury or distinction, which carries concrete legal benefits including free treatment at the Veterans Hospital.