Ch. 4

Still Alive (2)

Bubbling.

I heard the sound of boiling water and picked up my ramen sari. I tore it in half and threw it into the pot.

“….”

I looked around the house, feeling hungry. I searched the shelves and the kitchen and found a surprising number of food ingredients.

I wondered if the original me could cook.

In fact, the only thing I knew how to cook was ramen, so I was boiling ramen.

-Han Serin.

As time went on, I became more and more afraid of myself.

I didn’t know if I had gotten inside the woman I used to be, or if I had just come back and this was what I had become.

There was no way to tell one from the other.

-You can go back now.

-You’ve been suffering, you don’t have to suffer anymore.

God.

A transcendent.

Or something like that.

The words were strangely clear through my hazy consciousness, but I couldn’t identify the being that had sent me back, not even its face.

It was always on its terms when it sent me into the game, and even when it sent me back…it was always on its terms.

And when I returned, it wasn’t really my body and the space was unfamiliar.

I looked around this strange house, noticing things one by one.

Something was different about this apparently modern world.

The more information I looked up on the computer, the more confused I became.

From the current president to the level of technology, to celebrities, to history, everything was different from what I knew.

Some of the brands I remembered were there, some of the items were familiar… but…

I picked up the classy-looking silver smartphone on the table next to me.

The date.

-July 13, 2031.

“Phew…”

I sighed inwardly as I checked the date.

It was so strange to think that the year in the world before I entered the game was clearly 2021.

I wondered if I had spent 10 years in the game world, and all sorts of things went through my mind.

But I quickly pushed those thoughts out of my head.

Even if I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out the answer.

I checked the various apps on my smartphone.

Many of the apps were strangely game-like.

I tapped the phone icon, feeling an odd sense of recognition as if it were my original self.

I looked at my recent call history and saw a bunch of nonsensical numbers.

Oddly, none of the numbers were saved with proper names.

The only ones that stood out were.

-Attorney Park.

-Han Seo-yoon.

Those were the only two.

Everything else was recorded as numbers, and it felt like they were the only two people I had ever talked to.

Click-click-click-click

Then, out of the blue, I got a crazy idea and typed in one phone number.

-$%#@$.

The number dialed, and I heard an unfamiliar ringing sound as the call was connected.

“…”

My heart pounded like crazy.

The number I just dialed was my phone number from earlier.

What if…

What if it was me?

What would I do then?

Ding.

The phone rang and the call was connected.

I spoke carefully.

“…Hello?”

“Yes. This is Choi Si-hyun.”

The male voice and name sounded so unfamiliar.

The content left me speechless for a moment.

“Hello? Who is this?”

The person on the other end of the line spoke in a questioning tone as I remained silent, but my hands continued to shake.

“I… I must have dialed the wrong number, I’m sorry.”

That’s all I could manage to say, and I hastily ended the call.

My hand on my phone continued to shake.

The unfamiliar voice and name I had just heard was definitely not me.

Yes, it was definitely not me.

Of that, I was certain.

There was no me in this world.

If I was right, I wouldn’t be thinking about changing my number.

The moment I realized that this world was different from the original one I knew, from its history to its people, goods, and brands, I felt a shock.

I didn’t even realize that I had just made the call because I wanted to deny it.

Then…if she answered.

My heart sank at the thought.

I felt an overwhelming sense of relief that it wasn’t me on the other end of the line.

What if it had been me…?

How would I have reacted?

Sizzle!

Clang!

The pot started slightly shaking.

I turned off the heat, wrapped my hand in a damp cloth, and picked up the pot.

I sat down at the table and ate my ramen in a daze, coughing uncontrollably.

“Cough!”

When I coughed and realized.

The original me could hardly eat spicy food.

And it was the same with this woman’s body now.

***

Time passed faster than I thought it would.

I opened my eyes and it was the next day.

It was as if I had been dreaming, wandering the world as I walked every day, slaying monsters and feeling the pleasure of killing.

I was melting into this world faster than I thought possible.

I was stuck in a luxuriously decorated house, waking up, running my PC, and learning about the world.

The main thing I learned so far.

There was something about me.

Han Serin. 25 years old. Unemployed.

Based on the information I found, it seemed like she used to have a job, but her current “me” had recently quit her job and had been resting after an accident.

And the accident was the truth that she had recently lost her parents in a car accident that she didn’t remember.

It had been a few months since the funeral.

As if she was shocked by it, the original Han Serin had stopped working and had become a recluse who rarely went outside.

The fact that she rarely left the house was evidenced by the access logs of one of the apps on her smartphone.

An app called Integrated Control System doubled as a security system.

Other than that, I found out that she had a younger sister who was studying at a university far away.

Her name was Han Seo-Yoon, which I found out from the history of the world’s most famous social networking app called ‘BANANATOK’.

  [Seo-yoon: I want to see your face. I’m having a hard time these days].

  [Seo-yoon: Why are you so slow to answer me?]

  [Seo-yoon: Are you sure you’re okay…? I’m a little scared].

Even now, days later, I was still wondering what I should say to that text that rang several times a day.

I didn’t even feel like she was my sister in the first place, so she was practically no different from anyone else.

She had been reaching out to me and sending me texts like she was worried about me.

I had been going through the history of our previous conversations and sending appropriate responses, but it felt weird.

“Well… I’m glad I don’t have to worry about money.”

When I looked up my accounts, I was surprised to see how much money I had.

-Shinhan Preferred Main Account (Savings Deposit)

2,734,322,045 KRW

At first, I thought it was a death benefit for my parents, who had died a few months earlier, but when I checked other accounts, the death benefit was clearly in a different account.

So what was this 2.7 billion won all about?

As I thought about it, I realized that the numbers were vaguely familiar.

Then a thought struck me.

The amount of money I had accumulated in the game world.

-2.73 billion silver.

It must have been the silver I had glanced at after cleaning out the byproducts in my inventory when I had killed five thousand Desert Drakes.

I felt like I had robbed myself of everything I had accomplished by sending them to this world.

I wondered if the money had any conscience, but that was ridiculous.

If that was the case, I might as well leave some of my equipment with them.

‘…I mean, what’s the point of all that in this world?’

I sighed again for no reason and moved my body.

As I fiddled with my PC and browsed various websites, my eyes were drawn to an item in the center of the room, shaped like a round sphere.

It was hollow enough for a single person to fit inside, and it looked pretty sophisticated.

Future technology.

An electronic device that contained technology I had yet to experience.

A device that enabled virtual reality.

In short, it was like a “gaming machine” of sorts.

The official name was ‘Another World’

“A game…”

I was sure I liked games, but I rarely felt the urge to play them immediately after falling into this world.

I was sure there were moments in my old life when I was obsessed with games…

The experiences I had after falling into the world of games were very real.

The satisfaction of physically moving and training, learning skills one by one, and developing a real “me” instead of a game character.

The feeling of slashing monsters.

The feeling of resistance as the blade pierced through the monster’s skin.

The distinctive red aura that surrounded my body and blade.

I could still remember it all so vividly now.

I didn’t see a mouse-and-keyboard game anywhere.

However, I was intrigued by that virtual reality game machine called “Another World” that existed in this era.

It had been a few days since I came back to this world.

I had had a few days to collect my thoughts, and I was able to face reality.

Interest eventually led to action.

-Whoosh.

The sound of a gaming machine in the form of a giant black sphere rang out.