‘…This, what in the world…….’
As soon as I was hit, I lost consciousness completely. When I finally woke up, I was in an unfamiliar place, inhabiting a body that should have long since been dead and decayed.
‘I must be dead.’
I could still vividly remember the sensation of my body slamming into the asphalt, so I wondered how this body could be perfectly intact.
“…….”
‘Don’t be stupid. Panicking won’t solve anything.’
Caught off guard by the completely unexpected situation, I was momentarily flustered. But as always, I quickly pulled myself together and began thinking calmly. The coldness in my chest and goosebumps on my skin didn’t calm down right away, but I believed that if I gritted my teeth and consciously rotated my thoughts, I would gradually feel better.
‘Is this really reality?’
The first thing that came to mind was the possibility that this was a dream. That, just like before, I was seeing past memories as dreams.
But something felt different about this. Even when I dreamt about my father, I was aware it was a dream. There was nothing I could do about it, like watching a movie that had already been filmed, and I was just an observer.
‘But right now I feel like I’m in control of this body, even though I can’t move it because it feels heavy.’
There was also the issue of how unfamiliar this space felt. While I could have assumed it was a memory wiped by Han Seungbeom, it was so unfamiliar that I couldn’t possibly say I’d been here before. In the first place, I was someone who absolutely couldn’t sleep in an unfamiliar place—it was either the house I lived in with Seo Yuseong, the homes of the Prism members, or Choi Jeokhyeon’s house. So, how could I possibly be in such an unfamiliar bed?
‘If the clock isn’t wrong, then today’s date is the present.’
I sighed and shook my head, glancing once more at the digital clock beside the bed.
So, was this just a meaningless dream created by my brain that wanted to return to my body? The thought crossed my mind, but then I titled my head. I didn’t usually dream of anything too outrageous, just constant replaying of memories from my past, so something about it didn’t seem quite right.
‘The sensations are too vivid to be a dream. My consciousness is also clear.’
From the feel of the sheets brushing against my fingertips to the warmth of my skin, every sensation seemed to be conveyed vividly. Despite the anxiety and confusion I felt about the situation, a feeling of undeniable joy welled up inside me at being able to move my own body again after so long.
My heart was beating faster and faster.
“…….”
This is really my body.
The body I had missed so much.
I stared down at it in a daze, feeling an indescribable longing.
Then I noticed something strange.
‘…Why does my hair seem to have grown?’
My hair, which used to reach my waist, was now far longer than it had been before I died, so much that it trailed on the sheet even when I was sitting. It was as if I had been ‘
alive
‘ during the time I spent in Han Seungbeom’s body.
When I thought about it, I remembered what Choi Jeokhyeon had said when he met me.
“Your body disappeared right before my eyes, without a trace.”
Coming from someone so far removed from normality, it wasn’t very credible. He even said himself, ‘
Even if I’m not in my right mind, it doesn’t matter because I was able to meet you again
‘. But given the circumstances, it seemed like a story I couldn’t completely dismiss as nonsense.
At last, wrestling with my reluctance to be disappointed and the realistic thought that it was impossible, I allowed myself to consider the one possibility I’d been putting off until the very end.
‘No way, is my body really still alive?’
If my body had disappeared as Choi Jeokhyeon said, it must have been moved somewhere. And surely, someone’s will must have been involved in that. If I think about it logically, the most likely culprit would be Han Seungbeom.
Then I remembered the story Lee Hwayoung had told me about the ‘
giant beast
‘.
The story of how I was instantly restored to health after my condition worsened to the point where I lost consciousness.
‘What if, with Han Seungbeom’s abilities, it’s possible to heal even the most severe, life-threatening injuries?’
I couldn’t equate recovering from simple fatigue with healing injuries severe enough to cause death. However, as I considered this, I remembered a line from Han Seungbeom’s diary.
[On the road, I found a cat that had been hit by a car, and was dying without anyone paying attention to it.]
If Han Seungbeom had indeed succeeded in restoring the cat’s body, then this wouldn’t be a far-fetched notion.
As hope flickered, my expectations grew, and I began to desperately wish that this most unrealistic possibility would somehow be true. Because only then could I return to my original body, and Han Seungbeom’s body would be spared from being damaged in this accident. Even if the former proved impossible, the latter was something I desperately prayed for.
‘If I knew what had happened to Han Seungbeom’s body right now, I might have been able to be more certain.’
Since I had been unconscious from the moment of the accident until now, I had no idea what state Han Seungbeom’s body was in right now. I did, however, faintly recall hearing Jay’s voice, so thankfully, he seemed to be alive.
Once I’d settled on giving that last possibility the most weight, a new question naturally followed.
‘Then, was it Han Seungbeom who brought me here?’
The hypothesis that my body had been restored by Han Seungbeom was convincing.
But who on earth was the person who brought my unconscious body to this house and has been taking care of it with respect all this time?
“…….”
Didn’t I already mention it once? This place had a similar atmosphere to Choi Jeokhyeon’s house.
I didn’t feel any human warmth in this house, not at all.
It wasn’t a house that an ordinary 20-year-old man would live in. If Han Seungbeom had been able to move freely, it didn’t make sense that he hadn’t contacted either his aunt or me at least once.
‘…It’s not Han Seungbeom.’
As soon as my thoughts reached that point, I instinctively realized that it wasn’t Han Seungbeom who had been taking care of me until now. I briefly considered Choi Jeokhyeon’s house, since he seemed to be hiding something from me, but I quickly dismissed that idea. This place was definitely not his house.
‘It’s too big to be an ordinary person’s house, but too small to be Choi Jeokhyeon’s.’
Choi Jeokhyeon would undoubtedly be one of those who wanted me to return to my original body the most. If he knew my body was still alive, he wouldn’t have needed to threaten me to prevent Han Seungbeom from returning, nor would he have needed to fear my death.
‘The smell of fabric softener.’
As I looked at the thin, black shirt and comfortable pants I was wearing, I realized someone had been regularly changing my clothes. I also noticed my neatly groomed nails and the hair that, despite growing too long, was completely free of tangles.
My body must have been in pretty bad shape when it was first brought here.
But how many people in the world could take care of my body to this extent, for such a long period of time, without batting an eye?
‘
If it’s not Choi Jeokhyeon, and it’s not Han Seungbeom, then who?’
And if such a person existed, could they really be considered
normal
?
‘…Damn.’
As soon as I realized that, I felt a sense of urgency that I had to do one of two things: check out the window and guess the location of this place, or escape from this house. While the rational part of me knew that if they had any intention of harming me, they would have done so already, there was no telling what they might do once they found out I had woken up.
And at that moment, as I gritted my teeth and tried to force my heavy body, as if made of metal, to rise….
[Excessive movement detected in SEO YUTAE’s body.]
[The conditions for using the body have not yet been met.]
[Quest violation, penalty imposed due to forced participation of another user.]
A translucent window appeared right before my eyes.
And just as I began to question the words ‘penalty imposed’ inside it, I suddenly felt my body plummet downwards, followed by excruciating pain as if every bone and organ in my body being crushed to pieces.
“Aaah … Aaah!”
Thud!
Against my will, my knees buckled, and I immediately collapsed to the floor.
I couldn’t put any strength into my body, making me unable to stand up properly.
It seemed like my body hit the floor pretty hard, but I didn’t feel anything because I was already suffering from something much stronger than the pain I could have felt from that.
‘All of sudden, why is this happening……’
My body began to tremble, accompanied by a sensation as if every cell was screaming in agony
It definitely wasn’t this cold just a little while ago, but now I felt unbearably cold.
It didn’t seem like I was bleeding, or that I had a specific injury somewhere.
Clearly, this pain wasn’t caused by any actual problem somewhere, but rather a virtual pain imposed by that status window.
[The system persona wishes for SEO YUTAE’s death.
Penalty: Simulating SEO YUTAE’s death.]
‘No way, this is supposed to be the penalty…….’
But I didn’t know why it all felt so familiar.
It felt as though the pain I had experienced the day I fell from the rooftop was continuously being sent to me. As I flailed my arms and legs, barely gasping for air, red windows began to appear one after another, tightening around my throat.
[Give me back my son.]
[He disappeared because of you.]
[I wish you were dead.]
“…….”
Apparently, my first impression wasn’t wrong.
This status window was hostile to me from the very beginning.
‘…I, It’s not like this happened because I wanted it to…….’
“Haaa, ha ……. Ugh.”
The pain was becoming so unbearable I felt like I was going to lose consciousness. Sensing the crisis, I frantically looked around for anything that could help. Then, in the corner of my blurry white vision, I spotted a phone on the nightstand next to the bed—one of the same model I had used. With trembling hands, I reached for it and pressed the screen.
The screen was locked.
I entered the password I had used in my life, as if clinging to a rotten rope for dear life.
Then, the screen unlocked.
Without hesitation, I immediately pressed the call app and dialed the number my hand reached for.
Beeeeep. Beeeeep.
The ringtone continued for a long time, but the other person didn’t pick up.
‘Please, pick up.’
The ringing stopped, and then there was silence. There was no voicemail or call rejection tone either. This meant that the other person had picked up the call but was simply remaining silent.
Realizing this immediately, I strained my voice to call out his name.
“…Choi Jeokhyeon.”
“…Yutae?”
As soon as I heard Choi Jeokhyeon’s voice, small windows appeared, filling the entire room with a bright red glow. Every one of them displayed the same message.
[Glitch!]
And I could feel the pain that had been tormenting my body diminish, though only slightly.
[Please block Glitch’s access. The system will crash.]
I had no idea what was happening, but the window seemed to be very shaken by Choi Jeokhyeon’s appearance.
“Yutae-ya, Seo Yutae!”
“Choi Jeokhyeon, I, please……”
The moment I barely managed to get those words out, I heard the door open and footsteps approaching.
“…….”
It’s a person.
Someone walked in.
‘Damn it, I need to see their face … but I can’t put any strength into my body.’
Even though they saw me lying helplessly on the floor, unable to even turn my head, they did nothing but stand there. Shortly after, they picked up the phone lying near my mouth and ended the call.
[Glitch’s access has been successfully blocked.]
As I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling like my last hope was gone, a hand reached out.
At first, I thought they were trying to strangle me.
But all I could feel was my body twisting in a seizure and a hand pressing hard against my mouth.
I should have asked “
Who the hell are you?
“, but in an instant, my vision turned completely black, and I lost consciousness.
.
.
.
When I blinked and opened my eyes again, I was met with Jay’s tear-stained face, and he was holding onto me.
“…Hyung?”
Once again, I was back in Han Seungbeom’s body.
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Translator’s Corner:
Well : D
Choi Jeokhyeon kinda has it worst. Imagine he’s busy doing, uh, what he has to do, then suddenly his phone ringing … he picked up maybe thinking it’s one of his subordinate but when he saw the screen … it’s Yutae’s original phone number …. maybe he’s dreaming … or maybe some bastard used the phone that he failed to find … after thinking for a long time, he picked it up …. then he heard Yutae’s original voice … but not long after he heard Yutae’s pained face, the call ended … omg, I would have already burned RH building if I were him