"Keuheok!"
Jeong-min, gasping for breath, woke up and clutched his chest, looking around.
'Where...am I...?'
Racking his memory, Jeong-min recalled being struck hard in the chest by a large green monster.
Reminiscing about the feeling of his chest being crushed, Jeong-min shuddered and thought.
'Did someone...save me...? But where is this...?'
Wiping the blood from his mouth, Jeong-min surveyed his surroundings.
A square space about 5 meters wide and long.
Although all sides were blocked, it wasn't completely dark due to a faint light emanating from somewhere.
No matter how much he looked around, he couldn't see a door to exit.
Jeong-min examined the objects piled up on all sides and realized they were all items he had stored in his inventory.
Jeong-min slumped to the floor and muttered.
"This is...inside my...inventory..."
Jeong-min was confused.
'How did I get into the inventory? Living beings aren't supposed to be able to enter the inventory...so am I dead...was I?'
Jeong-min could feel goosebumps rising on his skin.
'..I was hit in the chest by that big green monster...and my heart must have stopped momentarily..'
Jeong-min picked up a small box on the floor and opened the lid.
Inside the box was the corpse of a white hamster, lying as if asleep.
'Cloud's twisted leg...is back to normal..'
Cloud's leg, which had broken after falling from the table and hadn't been properly treated before dying, was back to its original state.
Jeong-min gently stroked Cloud's leg with his hand before closing the lid again.
After putting down the small box, Jeong-min picked up a small frame containing a photo taken with his mother.
The glass, which had a fine crack in the corner, was perfectly repaired as if nothing had happened.
'Repair magic...'
Jeong-min gently touched the chest where he had been hit by the monster.
It throbbed and hurt quite a bit, but it didn't feel like anything was broken.
'...Was I also repaired...? Thanks to that, my heart started beating again...?'
Thinking about how Cloud had been sucked into the inventory when his heart stopped, Jeong-min could roughly understand the current situation.
'I was...really lucky...Even if the wound was healed, the fact that my heart started beating again...is truly heaven's help...I survived...I survived that hellish place...'
Looking at the photo taken with his mother, a sense of relief washed over him, and his vision blurred.
Jeong-min hugged the frame to his chest and sobbed quietly.
After a while, when his mind had calmed down to some extent, Jeong-min began to worry.
'It's good that I survived...but how do I get out of here?'
He already knew there was no door, having searched the surroundings thoroughly.
'I came in through the inventory gate...so can I...go out too?'
Jeong-min summoned the inventory gate.
"Inventory."
As Jeong-min spoke, an inventory gate was created in the middle of the inventory wall, not in front of him.
"It opened...Heok!!"
Jeong-min, delighted, ran towards the inventory gate but took a step back in surprise.
He saw the green monster beyond the open inventory gate.
The green monster, seemingly unaware of the existence of the inventory gate, wandered around with a guttural sound before disappearing in another direction.
Jeong-min muttered with a look of shock that hadn't faded.
"I can...see outside...? I can hear sounds too...The gate opened in the place where I last opened the inventory..."
Amazed by the fact that he could see and hear the outside situation through the inventory gate, Jeong-min approached the inventory and looked outside.
It seemed that quite a bit of time had passed, as the outside was very bright.
Jeong-min took out his smartphone from his pocket and checked the time.
"It's past 7...I was unconscious for a really long time.."
Looking at his smartphone, Jun-ki came to mind.
'That guy...is he safe and sound?'
He wanted to contact him right away, but his smartphone displayed a "No Service" message.
Jeong-min turned off his smartphone to save battery and put it in his pocket.
Jeong-min felt dismayed by the outside situation he saw through the inventory gate.
A huge gate visible in front. The monster's gate that Jeong-min had seen last night.
The area around the gate was filled with monsters.
'They said monsters guard the gate...Of course, it's bound to be swarming with monsters...But...I can't get out like this...'
No matter how much he looked around, there were monsters everywhere.
If he went outside through the inventory gate, he would be immediately surrounded by monsters.
'I was really lucky last night...To survive in the base of so many monsters...'
Jeong-min, watching the monsters wandering around without noticing the inventory gate, was lost in worry.
'...Waiting for the monsters to disappear from the surroundings and then going out is...impossible. As long as there's a monster's gate right in front...this area will always be overflowing with monsters...This is difficult...'
Jeong-min looked at the inventory gate and gently placed his palm on it.
[Living beings cannot pass through the inventory gate.]
'.......I can't get out anyway......'
Jeong-min lay down on his back with a dejected expression.
And then immediately jumped up.
"Spatial Movement!"
Jeong-min thought while looking outside.
'The Spatial Movement skill allows me to move to any place within my sight! I can use that skill to get out!'
Jeong-min was excited with anticipation, but soon deflated again and drooped his shoulders.
'Even if I can get out...the problem is what happens after that...Can I shake off the monster horde outside with just three Spatial Movements? Haa...It's really one mountain after another..'
Jeong-min lay on his back, looking at the ceiling inside the inventory, and thought.
'Once I use Spatial Movement to get outside, I can never come back here again. The outside inventory gate doesn't show the inside...So it's only a onetime opportunity...I have to be careful...'
Jeong-min looked around and thought.
'It's a waste...This place is an absolutely safe zone where no one but me can come...To think I can't come back once I leave...'
Suddenly, a thought pierced through his mind, and Jeong-min jumped up and shouted.
"Base Designation!"
Jeong-min's mind began to race.
"Why didn't I think of that? This inventory is the absolutely safe zone I've been searching for so desperately! Where else is there a space as perfect for Base Designation as this!"
Jeong-min got up and walked back and forth in the inventory space, muttering.
"If I designate this place as a base, I can come back anytime even if I leave...If I run away with the Spatial Movement skill and it doesn't work out, I can open a gate to the base and come back. How could I only think of such a good method now!"
Jeong-min moved to the middle of the inventory.
After taking a deep breath, he used the Base Designation skill.
"...Base Designation"
As he used the skill, a light flashed in the spot where Jeong-min was standing and quickly disappeared.
Immediately, a message appeared in front of Jeong-min's eyes.
[Base has been designated. You can open and close a gate to the base from anywhere.
The gate can only be used by the owner and registered personnel. (Maximum registered personnel: 1)]
'Only registered people can use it...So one more person besides me is possible? Will the number of usable people increase if I raise the skill level...?'
Jeong-min pondered about the skill and said.
"First...should I open it...Gate Open"
Jeong-min tried using the gate skill, but nothing happened.
'Hmm...Well, it doesn't make sense to open a gate to the base from inside the base...To test it, I have to go outside first...'
Jeong-min picked up his sword and took a deep breath.
'Don't be nervous...I can do it...'
Jeong-min, looking outside through the inventory gate, looked at a place where monsters were not densely populated and used the Spatial Movement skill.
Jeong-min's figure disappeared from the inventory and appeared among the monster hordes.
Stagger.
Jeong-min, staggering from the severe dizziness that washed over him, collapsed.
'Eugh...'
The monsters, surprised by Jeong-min's sudden appearance, were momentarily stunned before screaming and rushing towards him.
Even while struggling to stand due to the dizziness, Jeong-min quickly opened a gate to the base.
'Gate Open!'
A blue, oval gate was created in front of Jeong-min's eyes.
Jeong-min gritted his teeth and threw himself towards the gate.
Thud.
Jeong-min, who had returned to the inventory, couldn't stand up at all due to the even more severe dizziness.
'Why...why am I so dizzy?'
Jeong-min lay on the inventory floor with his eyes closed for a long time.
After some time passed and the dizziness subsided a bit, Jeong-min opened his eyes again and sat up.
The gate that Jeong-min had opened and entered had already disappeared.
"Ah...I'm in trouble...Why am I so dizzy? Does the base gate have some kind of side effect when passing through it...? No...I was extremely dizzy when I first went outside with Spatial Movement too...Why is that..?"
Jeong-min walked to the corner of the inventory, looked at the opposite corner, and used Spatial Movement.
"...I'm fine...? It's just like usual...But why am I so dizzy when I go out and come back.."
Jeong-min pondered deeply but couldn't figure out the cause.
"..I don't know the reason, but I get extremely dizzy when I go out and come back to the inventory, right? I have to get used to it as much as possible...Sigh.."
Jeong-min sighed and opened the status window.
"Status Window"
[Choi Jeong-min
Strength: 14
Stamina: 15
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 10 [MP:1/18]
Skills Held: Gate(Lv.1), Spatial Movement(Lv.2), Clairvoyance(Lv.1)]
'Base Designation is...changed to 'Gate'..and if the remaining mana is 1...that means I used Spatial Movement twice and Gate once so far...so the amount of mana consumed for Gate is 7..'
Jeong-min sat on the floor and thought carefully.
'Considering using the gate, the maximum number of Spatial Movements I can use to escape is two...But can I escape that place with just two? Not just that, but in a state accompanied by extreme dizziness...?'
Jeong-min shook his head.
'There's no such thing as impossible. If I can't escape, I might have to live here forever...I have to escape no matter what..'
Jeong-min waited for his mana to recover.
"It recovers by 1 every ten minutes...170 minutes...It takes almost three hours to fill up the mana...Should I eat something..."
Jeong-min remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since last night and looked for something to eat.
After roughly finding some snacks to eat, Jeong-min waited for his mana to fill up again.
"..I'm getting restless just waiting without doing anything...Should I exercise or something.."
Jeong-min couldn't overcome the boredom and got up to stretch.
A small question flashed through Jeong-min's mind as he blankly looked at the inventory wall.
'But...where is this place where the inventory is located?
Could it be some kind of four-dimensional space? It's not Earth...is it?' Jeong-min opened the status window to check his mana.
'It's only up to 4 now...The mana consumed for one Clairvoyance skill is
2...Should I use it just once..?'
Curiosity arose, and Jeong-min slowly approached the inventory wall.
'If it's more than 10cm, I can't even use Clairvoyance...I have to hope that the thickness of the inventory wall is thin.'
Jeong-min used Clairvoyance on the wall.
A bluish energy seemed to settle in Jeong-min's eyes, and he began to see the other side of the wall.
'....I can see it..?! Fortunately, it's not a very thick wall..!'
Jeong-min strained his eyes, which were covered in blue energy, and stared at the other side of the wall.
Soon, the blue energy disappeared from his eyes, and Jeong-min's face was filled with surprise.
Jeong-min's heart began to beat.
"That place...was the same space as this...The same as this place where I'm standing..."
Jeong-min tried to calm his racing heart.
He clearly saw it.That in this very space where he stood, various objects were piled high.
"Beyond this wall is..."
Jeong-min took a small, deep breath.
"An inventory... not mine... someone else's inventory...!"