―SCREECH.
“We’ve arrived! Enjoy your time here!”
“Thank you. Korea is good.”
The taxi he had paid extra for was worth the money. He had gotten from the Incheon coast to his studio apartment twice as fast.
The current time was 1:30 PM.
“Ha··· I’m a little tired.”
But he could not rest yet.
It was not an important matter, but it was time to take measures to make his family accept the changes he had undergone because of regression.
“Hmm.”
He could use Force to substitute for metabolism such as oxygen and nutrients, but in order to soothe even a little of the mental fatigue that could not be resolved by that.
He stopped by a chocolate café he saw on the way.
“Four dark truffle chocolates, please.”
Handmade chocolates filled with ganache rich in cacao fragrance had also been a snack he liked before his regression.
Chewing them, he hurried his steps toward the bank.
―Ding.
When his number was called, he sat across from the employee at the counter.
“Han Woo-hyun··· sir?”
“I’m his friend. I speak Korean well, so there’s no need to use English.”
When Han Woo-hyun became a player, both his appearance and physique had completely changed.
Naturally, he no longer looked Korean to anyone.
Therefore, for the time being, proving his identity would be somewhat inconvenient.
“I would like to deposit money into designated accounts. Is it all right even if I’m a foreigner? I don’t have a passport or anything with me right now.”
“Ah, yes! Deposits are fine.”
The bank employee’s face flushed faintly.
An unrealistically handsome Westerner with golden proportions. Naturally, he could not help drawing favorable impressions.
“Heh.”
“?”
“It’s nothing.”
Of course, from Han Woo-hyun’s perspective, knowing the future before regression, it was a fairly funny reaction.
Because once players began committing all manner of terrorism and slaughter, unrealistically handsome Westerners became objects of fear.
“What are the account numbers?”
“To these three accounts.”
After finishing everything he had to do today, he had to meet his family.
When that time came, in order to make them accept Han Woo-hyun’s movements and plans, it would be better to make preparations in advance, so he had stopped by despite his intense fatigue.
“Um, excuse me, but what is your relationship···?”
“I owe him a debt, so I came to repay it.”
“Yes, understood.”
“It is 300 million won in checks. Please deposit 100 million won into each of the three accounts.”
Han Woo-hyun placed three checks down on the counter.
The bank employee, who had been staring blankly at Han Woo-hyun’s face, stiffened slightly.
“300 million won?”
“Yes.”
“Um, for small deposits, detailed confirmation is not necessary. But in the case of large sums exceeding 100 million won···”
Han Woo-hyun frowned.
Korea was a country with a strict real-name financial system.
In most countries, deposits were not checked as thoroughly as withdrawals.
Before his regression, Korea’s socioeconomic structure had almost collapsed, and therefore he had hardly needed to use banks.
Even when he did, he mostly did so in America.
In America, Riley Granger had guaranteed Han Woo-hyun’s identity, so he had not paid much attention to the procedures.
So he had overlooked this.
“Is it completely impossible?”
“It is not that it is absolutely impossible···”
Han Woo-hyun relaxed his expression slightly again. Then he looked at the female employee with the gentlest expression he could make.
“I have quite a lot to do today. I need to take care of this quickly.”
“Ah··· yes, I suppose you must be busy···”
Tap.
Han Woo-hyun took out his ID. An ID with his appearance before regression.
“This is the friend I owe. His ID. Due to circumstances, he cannot come right now, but he said his family situation is urgent.”
“Ah, so that is why the ticket was registered under Han Woo-hyun···”
The female employee trailed off.
At that ambiguous attitude, Han Woo-hyun became certain.
Legally, this was a difficult procedure.
But in work done by people, where was there anything absolutely impossible?
Judging by how she trailed off, it seemed common for family members to bring someone’s ID and deposit money on their behalf.
It was merely difficult to let this pass because the person claiming to be a foreign friend was too unusual.
Then he would try.
“If there is any necessary procedure, I will come back tomorrow with my friend and proceed with that part then.”
“Pardon? Tomorrow? But···”
“I ask this of you, beautiful lady.”
Han Woo-hyun felt a dizziness as if the tip of his tongue were twisting.
Before becoming a player, before his regression, and even after his regression.
He had never once done anything like seducing the opposite sex.
So he could not be certain whether the words he had chosen were appropriate.
Han Woo-hyun hid his inner anxiety and looked down at her.
In truth, there was no need to hurry this deposit to his family so much.
If it truly could not be done, he could do it a few days later. By then, players and his position would be officially recognized by society.
He was only rushing because doing it now seemed like it would make it easier to meet and persuade his family later.
Would it work?
“...Y-you’ll definitely come, right??!!”
The female employee mumbled with her face flushed bright red.
Han Woo-hyun quietly bit his tongue.
Thinking, This stupid choice of words actually worked?
“I will deposit it right away, so then the verification procedure will be at the same time tomorrow···?”
“Yes, good. Thank you. I will bring my friend tomorrow as well. You are truly kind.”
Han Woo-hyun smiled brightly.
It was not illegal, but it was clearly a favor that ignored the bank’s internal standards.
If Han Woo-hyun did not come tomorrow, she might be disciplined by the company.
A smile was something he could give as much as she wanted.
“Um, um, but.”
“Yes?”
“Could I possibly take a ph-photo?”
“...?”
Even so, was depositing 300 million won without any evidence a little too much?
Did she need to keep a photo as proof of identity?
It was understandable.
“Yes, well, that much is···”
“Th-thank you!”
―CLICK.
“...Yes.”
Only then did Han Woo-hyun realize he had misunderstood.
The female employee pulled out her phone like lightning, turned it sideways, and took a selfie.
So that both Han Woo-hyun and she were in the photo together.
“I will come again tomorrow.”
“Please make sure you do!”
The female employee, wearing a loose, melting smile, saw Han Woo-hyun off all the way to the entrance.
He felt slightly dizzy.
“Well··· anyway, it worked out, so that is fine.”
Han Woo-hyun shook his head and walked toward his studio apartment.
At the fastest power-walking speed possible, within the limit that would not cause any aftermath around him.
Soon, after arriving at his studio apartment, Han Woo-hyun felt slight dizziness and exhaustion.
“I really am··· tired.”
Han Woo-hyun checked the time. 2:00 PM.
A player’s body boasted transcendent durability and stamina.
However, since midnight last night, he had been running across the sea all day and traveling through China and Southeast Asia.
And that was on his own two legs.
Even considering his transcendent stamina, it was more than enough to make him tired.
Players did not need food or oxygen, but they did need sleep.
That was partly because of the physiological mechanisms of the human body, but also because of mental reasons.
No matter how transcendently reconstructed the brain and nerves were, waste products accumulated. Fatigue accumulated.
If Yggdrasill Force was operated with extreme precision, even that could be resolved.
Before his regression, there had been a department under the United States Department of Defense that analyzed players with the greatest scientific and technological power in the world.
The Bureau of All-Domain Anomaly Investigation, where he had learned countless techniques of that kind.
Together with Riley Granger.
However, that technique unnecessarily consumed too much concentration.
It was a technique worth using only in situations where one had to be pursued for dozens of hours or fight continuously.
Therefore, it was better to simply sleep.
“I should be able to sleep for about three hours.”
Han Woo-hyun decided he should rest.
Now was the time to wait.
“[Character Preset]. [Rest].”
As it happened, the time he had to wake up and the time his younger brother would come coincided.
It seemed he could use that as his alarm.
Han Woo-hyun pulled the blanket over himself.
The senses that had become far too sensitive after becoming a player.
Unless he deliberately blocked the ion channels of the sensory nerves spread throughout his body, it was now difficult for him to fall asleep easily.
Moreover, in the last ten years, he had always lived under tension because he never knew when a boss monster might chase him.
He could not even remember how long it had been since he last slept peacefully.
“Ah···”
It was a softness and comfort he had not felt in a truly long time.
Soon, Han Woo-hyun fell into a sweet sleep.
***
―BANG BANG BANG.
―BANG BANG BANG.
Han Woo-jun, who had been knocking, swallowed dryly.
His brother should definitely be home at this hour, but there was no response at all.
“Hyung! I know you’re in there! Answer me!”
Still, no answer came.
“Fuck, I’m coming in! Don’t do anything weird! I’m your younger brother, Han Woo-jun!”
Han Woo-jun took a deep breath. Then he focused his extremely faint power as much as he could and wrapped it around his body.
Yggdrasill Force spread out from his pineal gland as if seeping through him.
A defensive skill.
[Protection of the Flame Spirit] spread evenly across the surface of Han Woo-jun’s skin and settled there.
“I’m coming in!”
A superpower he had suddenly become able to use.
No, a game skill.
It was the trigger and reason Han Woo-jun had suddenly come to his older brother’s home.
Last night, while on duty at the hospital, Han Woo-jun had experienced something far too strange from a patient.
―SWISH.
―[Ambush]!
―U-uaaagh!
―[Protection of the Flame Spirit]
―Huek!
―Wh-what?
And he himself had directly performed that strange experience as well.
―[Orbital Fireball].
―Insane··· This is a World of Yggdrasill Firemancer skill?
In order to confirm whether or not he had gone insane, Han Woo-jun waited until morning.
And that morning.
Shocking news was reported: scattered terrorist attacks had occurred throughout the world, including Korea, and there had been a superhuman terrorist attack on Pyongyang, North Korea.
“It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t a delusion. It was real···”
Han Woo-jun was a smart person.
So when he faced the absurd situation of a reality in which game abilities could be used.
And when all of it was clearly proven not only by himself, but by the entire world.
Rather than deny reality, he chose to face the changed reality.
With that good mind of his, he slowly analyzed the reality of game superhumans who had appeared in the real world.
―What level was Hyung··· exactly?
In the morning ward, Han Woo-jun’s lips trembled in shock and fear.
Han Woo-hyun, that game-addicted shut-in who did nothing but play games all day and eat food.
He could not even guess what level his older brother was.
When he had last played the game, Han Woo-hyun’s level had already been high enough to enter the rankings.
Han Woo-jun had also briefly played World of Yggdrasill when he was young at his older brother’s recommendation.
Although he had quit without getting deeply into it, so he did not know in detail how the level system and strength worked.
―If the level difference is that large··· defense or attack power? How is this calculated?
However, in Han Woo-jun’s opinion, the difference between them was already clear from that level alone.
And that had been more than five years ago. What about now, when his brother had spent all day holed up in his room doing nothing but playing games?
Perhaps Han Woo-jun might instantly evaporate from a defensive skill Han Woo-hyun used without thinking.
Even so, he had to come.
―No, Woo-jun! What is this?
―Pardon? What is?
―The account! The account! Someone deposited money!
―Pardon?
―It says Woo-hyun sent it··· but that makes no sense! How could he send 100 million won?
―O-one hundred million won?
―Yes! No, 200 million! He sent it to your father too!
―Wait, wait a second··· insane, it came to me too.
―Go see him right now! Find out what on earth is happening!
He had already intended to go anyway, but suddenly, a huge sum of 300 million won had come into his family’s accounts.
And under the name Han Woo-hyun, no less.
No matter what, he had to find out what was going on.
“What the hell did he do···”
He disliked his older brother.
But not to the point of hatred.
If he had truly disliked him that much, he would not have kept sending him living expenses all this time even while nagging him.
Because he was family, in any case. Even if he could not succeed, Han Woo-jun had wanted him to somehow find a way to live.
That was why he had come, worried about what his older brother, who had suddenly gained far too great a power, might have done in his confusion.
“Cough, cough... ugh, dust. Hah... Huh? Hyung?”
And so, to Han Woo-jun, the sight of Han Woo-hyun sitting still on the mattress and looking at him.
Felt far too unfamiliar.
Eyes that were excessively clear, firm, mad, burning with rage, sunken in regret...
Eyes like those of an ascetic with a steel-like will, holding countless emotions within them.
Those eyes.
They were far too different from the eyes of his older brother from before, who had always sat rotting in his room, playing games with the eyes of a dead fish.
“You’ve come, Woo-jun. My younger brother.”
Naturally, even his way of speaking was far too different from before.
So different that it went beyond bewildering, to the point where Han Woo-jun could hardly recognize him.