Earlier, the moment Hajung sat down in the chair in front of him, a translucent status window suddenly floated up before his eyes.
[system: Skill acquired.]
Insight (Lv. 1)
You can check the info window of a designated target. As the skill’s grade grows, the number of viewable categories increases.
Of course, Sihyun did what he always did and smoothly pretended he hadn’t seen the status window, then looked for an opening mid-conversation and used the skill. Then he confirmed that, on top of a pale red window rather than a blue one, at least part of Lee Hajung’s information was being written out.
"But still, the Crimson Flame Witch. It suits you, Hajung."
He caught on fast. Hajung seemed to use magic, and since back when they used to game together Hajung always played a mage or a ranged DPS anyway, it felt like a combination that fit her well.
"This world really did change like hell.... Seeing it for real makes it hit different."
On the first day after returning, he had watched a battle from far away, but seeing it this close—on top of that, seeing a close acquaintance become an ability user—made the changes in this place start to feel even more immediate.
Propping his chin in his hand and staring blankly at a computer that was booting up at a painfully slow pace, Sihyun waited for the screen to fill in one thing at a time with a slightly complicated expression. Then he opened the internet and started looking up the Gate accident.
2-Details
Currently, Gates exist from F-rank up to A-rank, and the nine Gates that existed from the beginning have no rank. They’re collectively called God’s Mine.
As you know, normally when a Gate appears, Hunters follow the procedure of entering and subjugating the inside to eliminate it, but with those nine, if you clear each floor (or area) inside, monsters and quests do not respawn. (Detailed explanation of each Gate’s raid status is in the link.)
And the most important thing is that Magic Stones keep getting discharged, and although there’s a fixed amount per month so infinite supply is impossible, research results have shown that even that alone is enough for humans to use. (The problem is that five of the nine are monopolized by major corporations and guilds.)
"Magic Stones? What the hell is this now. Don’t tell me it’s the one I know."
Magic Stones were a magical byproduct you couldn’t leave out of fantasy novels.
Stones with magical energy condensed inside them, used when casting spells or making magic tools—according to what he found when he looked a little more, it really did seem to match that purpose in reality too.
"So they just named most of it with words from novels or comics. That’s lazy as hell...."
As the amount of information he had to know grew bigger than he expected, Sihyun pressed hard at the space between his brows again, then refocused on the screen packed tight with text.
When a Gate appears, the surrounding area begins to be eroded into the Gate’s internal environment, centered on that point of energy.
Then, if Hunters fail to handle the Gate or exceed the time limit, the eroded space reaches the same density as the inside, and a Break occurs.
(In the case of ordinary people, they get caught up in the mana and you can’t even find the body, so be extremely careful.)
-Sometimes, a Gate that’s already on the verge of exploding can appear from the start, and unless there’s at least an A-rank Hunter nearby, there’s no answer. Just pray an explosive Gate doesn’t show up around you.
At something more serious than he’d expected, Sihyun grabbed his head and let out a small groan.
'So that’s why they couldn’t even find any trace of my friends.'
Only then did he feel like he understood why Hajung’s eyes had looked so hurt. And yet, even in the middle of that, Sihyun was sick of himself for not being able to grieve all that deeply.
To be sad over someone’s death, he’d seen far too many things dying. Even if it had been inside a game, the ones dying and suffering were the same.
"This is insane."
The truth was, there had been a time when he’d indulged in a ridiculously optimistic delusion—what if, someday, he could take Taewoon with him and leave for his world. If a real human like him could go into a game, what was stopping a game character from coming out into reality?
But even if that were possible, now he found himself thinking it was a relief the kid hadn’t come here.
A Gate explosion was, literally, a natural disaster, and now this place was a world where countless things he didn’t even know about could erupt nonstop, a world you couldn’t predict even a little. So it was obvious he wouldn’t have been able to properly take care of Taewoon.
"I don’t know if that’s going to hit right away.... But still, that means there are threats of death everywhere."
On top of that, threats humans couldn’t do anything about.
Sihyun closed the window, where the text went on even longer, shut down the computer, and sat back down cross-legged.
He’d changed his mind. It wasn’t like he was trying to do something in particular, but to prepare for whatever might happen, it felt like he should quickly at least secure some means of protecting his own body.
'Even if Hajung became a Hunter, you never know....'
Sihyun briskly swept away the thoughts that had been cluttering his head. Then he slowly closed his eyes, let out a thin, long breath, and quickly sank into a state of no-mind.
***
The human body has 365 meridians, and as you age, impurities naturally accumulate there and hinder the circulation of qi.
That meant that no matter how good a cultivation method you used to absorb the energy of nature and how diligently you trained, the efficiency would drop off sharply. That was why, if you weren’t young, you shouldn’t even dream of reaching a higher realm.
Yeah, normally that was how it worked, but for some reason, Sihyun’s meridians were wide open—like an empty eight-lane highway—unlike before.
The cause was a 'reset'.
He’d spent ten years in the game living with elixirs and spirit herbs practically in his mouth, but he’d fallen in there at twenty-three, and of course it was impossible to make his body completely clean.
But the moment he came back to the modern world, in exchange for having all his stats taken away, he gained an unexpected benefit.
"Ah, that feels good."
Sihyun, who’d been sitting cross-legged, bounced his body up with a spring and stood up in one go.
In the dantian below his navel, the amount was small, but a dense, tightly gathered qi—far more stable than anything he’d had in the past—was packed there.
After briefly stretching, rolling his limbs around, Sihyun leisurely walked to the window and looked outside.
High-rise buildings and pavilions still sitting there, blocking his view, and sometimes even people flying through the sky, cutting across it.
He found it absurd, all over again, how he’d gotten used to this kind of thing in just a few days.
"No. It hasn’t even been a few days."
Sihyun lifted his phone and checked the date. Exactly thirty days. A full month had passed since he’d returned to reality, and of course that meant he’d been alone for just as long.
As his mood suddenly began to blur, Sihyun forced himself to pretend he didn’t notice and dragged up today’s appointment in his mind.
Last night. Hajung had called pretty late. And only then had Sihyun finally been able to hear a detailed explanation about the current state of his place.
-You saw the new buildings that popped up in that neighborhood, right. Those are the Baekhwa Guild and Yale Guild buildings. Haa.... Because of that, the jeonse deposit for your place went up a lot. I handled it temporarily, but soon we’re going to have to either move you out or deal with it properly.
"What...? How much.... Ah, no. Don’t tell me for a second.... First, I’m really sorry."
"Haa...."
So, what grabbed him by the ankle again was money.
In a world where monsters and ability users were running rampant, land near a famous guild was the biggest gold mine there was.
Even the people you’d call the powerful were scrambling to secure land near there, and some were even moving in to live there themselves.
And two guilds, at that. He was scared to even ask how much the jeonse deposit had gone up.
On top of that, if she said she handled it temporarily, that meant Hajung had spent money. But before his curiosity about how she’d done it could even surface, the thought that it was a debt he’d have to pay back anyway made his throat tighten on its own.
"No wonder the construction around here never stopped...."
With a deep sigh at the grim situation, Sihyun fumbled around in the bank app.
But in the three years he’d been gone, so much had changed—there were a ton of things he had to install, and even the terminology was hard—so in the end, with a heavy frown, he had no choice but to toss aside the phone he was holding.
Then, with a fwump- sound, a small chunk of metal drew a perfectly stable arc and slipped right into the blankets.
In the end, after wriggling around the house for a long time, Sihyun hauled out his body—which felt like it would rather die than go outside—and trudged to the bank.
And once again, he had to face this dogshit reality.
"I’m sorry. Mr. Jeong Sihyun, additional loans are difficult for you at this time."
"Yeeah...."
On the off chance, he went around to several banks and asked, but of course, there wasn’t a single place willing to lend money to an unemployed guy like him.
And in the meantime, the loan interest that kept going out steadily had already made his account absurdly light. He’d roughly expected it, but when the negative result hit him in the face right now, it stung for no reason.
Still, for nearly ten years, he’d lived without lacking anything off money he got from quest rewards, but the moment he returned to reality and started getting knocked around from every direction, his motivation to do anything—martial arts or whatever the hell—kept fading away.
"Fuck.... I don’t want to live."
So his appointment with Hajung wasn’t set for some grand purpose or anything. It was just to deal with this problem.
Sihyun wrapped himself up in a black cap and black clothes and left the apartment. He arrived a bit early, went into a nearby cafe, and soon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the menu.
'The world got flipped upside down, so why do they still charge different prices for hot and iced.'
As he recalled his now-lighter bank account, Sihyun ordered a hot Americano he probably wouldn’t even be able to drink, then sat on the sofa by the window and lifted his phone.
He didn’t want to look around anymore. From the lights floating around to the game-like structures and buildings.
The surroundings were so obviously different than before that he kept feeling this sense of dissonance, and at the same time, all it did was make him feel cut off from the world.
The years he’d lived as a modern person didn’t help him even a little right now.
Since most of what he had left was the life he’d lived as a martial artist, a small sigh slipped out from Sihyun’s lips.
"Hey, hey!! I think a Gate popped up over there! Wanna go watch?"
"Are you insane?"
"Why nooot. Maybe Lord Shin Ryuha might show up."
At that moment, while he was only staring at his phone and looking around to see what happened to the old games, the word Gate suddenly reached his ears, and Sihyun subtly leaned an ear toward the conversation between the two people behind him.
But before the conversation could go any further, the relaxed atmosphere in the cafe stirred for a moment, and starting with a small scream, customers and staff alike began bolting outside like lunatics.