Chapter 368
Chapter 368
‘…So, this is how it is.’
I came to my senses in the practice room of another agency, facing a Cheong-ryeo who looked to be about twenty.
The situation was insane.
I turned my head. Only then did I lock eyes with myself in the massive full-length mirror that took up the entire wall.
“……!”
“It’s how you used to look, isn’t it, Junior?”
It was.
Reflected in the mirror was Ryu Gun-woo. My original body. But it wasn't the version in his late twenties, haggard from years of studying for the civil service exam.
He looked like he had just graduated high school—roughly the same age as the current Cheong-ryeo.
I swallowed hard and raised my hand. The young Ryu Gun-woo in the mirror followed suit.
‘…Ryu Gun-woo.’
But something… something about his impression was different from how I remembered myself back then.
The area around the eyes, the atmosphere, the bone structure.
“It almost looks like some of Park Moon-dae’s features are still there. Like a blend? Haha, how peculiar.”
A chill ran down my spine.
‘No, fuck, don’t just jump to conclusions.’
It might have just been my expression.
Around this age, I hadn't looked very good due to the stress of entrance exams and financial issues, but the guy in the mirror looked quite well-groomed.
‘…….’
Why was he well-groomed?
“The starting point has changed this time. Hmm, the age is different, too.”
I turned my head. Cheong-ryeo had already found his smartphone and was checking the date and the situation.
I reached into the pocket of my training suit. I felt a vintage smartphone.
“You said the age is different.”
“Yeah. Usually, the restart always happened at age eighteen. But twenty… and the date is several years later… Hmm, it doesn't add up. Is it because someone else restarted with me?”
I pulled the smartphone out of my pocket and checked the date on the lock screen.
[201X / 01 / 08]
“…!”
The date was definitely strange.
If I was around twenty, it should have been several years earlier than this.
In the first place, Ryu Gun-woo was supposed to be older than Cheong-ryeo, but right now, they looked to be about the same age.
‘None of this makes sense.’
Only then did my head clear. The path was obvious.
This was no different from a ‘Daydream.’
“This is a dream.”
“Pardon?”
“I can’t be certain, but I’ve experienced something similar before.”
I briefly explained the Daydream I had experienced while in a coma after the car accident. Cheong-ryeo listened without much of a change in expression.
“…And for you, the age and the year don’t match. For me, my appearance and the place where I woke up don’t match either.”
I reached a conclusion.
“So, rather than the past, I think we’re inside an inconsistent dream.”
“Ah.”
Cheong-ryeo chuckled.
“Isn’t it just that you want to believe that?”
“…….”
I clenched my fist.
“Then do you have a better hypothesis for this situation?”
“A supernatural event like returning to the past has already occurred, yet you think it’s a dream just because other elements are contradictory? Isn't that a bit too arbitrary?”
“…….”
“We should act under the assumption that this is reality, Junior. Or, hmm… should I call you Gun-woo Hyung?”
“Stop it.”
This bastard was getting way ahead of himself.
However, after taking a deep breath, I regained my composure.
Because he wasn't wrong.
“For now… you’re right. I should respond realistically.”
“Yes.”
It’s foolish to view a situation only as you want to see it. It’s more rational to act while assuming the worst-case scenario.
And one more thing.
‘This guy… his eyes have gone completely vacant.’
Though he had volunteered to tag along and ended up in this mess… he was now in a state where it looked like he had restarted his loop all over again.
I couldn't tell if his face looked excited or like he wanted to kill someone.
‘I need to keep my wits about me.’
There was no telling what kind of erratic behavior he might exhibit. I kept my mouth shut.
And… I had to identify the cause.
‘Where did the error occur?’
Let’s retrace the situation on the plane.
The glitched status windows had been popping up like crazy all around us, and that guy….
—Hmm… I can see this.
“…!”
Cheong-ryeo had seen the status window, too!
An intuition hit me like a blow to the head.
‘No way.’
This bastard… did the system enter him and reactivate a deactivated status effect?
His status effect.
Returning to the starting point infinitely.
[Correction (Deactivated)]
: Let’s try again.
—Upon failure, return to the beginning.
As already confirmed in Seon A-hyun’s case, a deactivated status effect had the potential to be reactivated.
‘Even if the system didn't enter him directly, if it acted as a sort of catalyst….’
I immediately tried to check Cheong-ryeo’s status.
‘Status Window.’
Or rather, I tried to check.
But… no window appeared.
Zzzzt!
Instead, a strange glitch-like effect flickered and then vanished.
The meaning was clear.
‘…Keun-dal.’
It meant he was in a state where he couldn't manifest as a status window.
I clenched my teeth.
‘Fuck.’
It felt like everything had gone completely south, but I had no idea where the failure had started.
It was then.
A cautious voice came from behind us.
“Um, excuse me, Hyungs.”
A lanky fellow poked his head through the practice room door, which had opened at some point.
It was a familiar face.
“Ah, um, hello…!”
It was Shin-o, a member of VTIC.
Of course, he looked much younger than he did in reality. He spoke again with a somewhat nervous expression.
“The Section Chief called for you, but since you hadn't gathered yet, he sent me….”
“Really? Just a moment.”
Cheong-ryeo responded smoothly to him, then turned to me.
“Shall we go?”
“…Yeah.”
For now, I’d follow the flow. Cheong-ryeo and I followed Shin-o.
We walked through the corridors of an unfamiliar agency.
The place we arrived at was an office.
A man who looked like a debt collector—the Section Chief—had gathered a bunch of young kids and lined them up tightly.
They were probably all trainees.
‘About twenty of them?’
Considering the size of this company, this clearly wasn't the entire roster.
“I’ve been keeping a special eye on you all, so I called you here to give you some encouragement. Got it?”
“Yes!”
I saw a few familiar faces among those who had been called. Faces of people who would debut in small-to-medium agencies a few years later.
And I also saw the faces of VTIC members I knew.
‘First, the guy who called us, Shin-o. Next to him… is that Ju-dan?’
No matter how I looked at it, both of them were standing far back in the line, as if they weren't in the debut group.
It was obvious.
‘Cheong-ryeo weeded them out.’
It seemed he had even personally scouted Chae-yul, who wasn't here.
I realized once again that the guy next to me was an experienced veteran who had tried to piece reality together through various attempts.
Meanwhile, the Section Chief was picking out trainees one by one, offering encouragement and asking questions as if testing them.
“Shin Jae-hyun, you make sure to take good care of the kids.”
“Yes.”
Shin Jae-hyun, who had not yet received the stage name Cheong-ryeo, nodded at the Section Chief’s words with a perfectly ordinary, plain face.
…Just how many times had this guy experienced this moment?
It was then.
“And Ryu Gun-woo.”
“…! Yes.”
Why was he calling me all of a sudden?
The man called the Section Chief wagged his finger as he spoke.
“Gun-woo, you’re at a good age and your academic background is a plus. Don’t worry about useless things and just practice harder.”
“……Yes.”
To think Ryu Gun-woo would be receiving debut advice at LeTi; I was encountering all sorts of nonsense.
‘Hmm.’
I checked the attitudes and expressions of the guys around me, as well as my own position.
The guys forcing smiles, the front row next to Cheong-ryeo.
And combining that with the Section Chief’s words….
‘I’m in the first string.’
It seemed that the "me" here was a trainee at LeTi. And in the debut group, at that.
Anyway, the Section Chief said a few more words that sounded like he was testing the waters before dismissing the trainees.
“Jae-hyun Hyung, are you staying behind to practice?”
“Hmm, I’ll see.”
“Got it.”
I watched the debut group trainees disappear down the hallway and narrowed my eyes.
‘The Section Chief seemed like he was scouting for something.’
For now, the schemes of a mere agency Section Chief weren't the priority, so I set that aside.
‘I need to get out of this dream immediately.’
As quickly as possible.
I had no way of knowing how much time was passing in reality or what kind of chaos had broken out.
‘Hints first.’
I decided to check my status here.
‘For this, I have to start with the smartphone.’
It was a treasure trove of personal information.
As I walked down the hallway, I pulled out the vintage smartphone and tried to operate the screen….
“…….”
I didn't know the lock pattern, fuck.
I tried a few times, but I was locked out. I didn't know if I'd set up something elaborate… but if so, I just had to bypass it.
“Shin Jae-hyun.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you have any chat history with Ryu Gun-woo on your phone?”
Considering the situation where we seemed to have just finished practicing together, we must be acquainted.
“We do. Here.”
As expected.
I looked at the smartphone screen Cheong-ryeo readily handed over.
[LeTi 16th Gen Shin Jae-hyun: Hyung, please tell me the address of the place you moved to ^^]
[Why do you want to know]
…And yet, why the hell did I send a reply with the address right below that?
‘Was I crazy?’
I heard Cheong-ryeo snickering.
“Hmm, I guess we were close. It’s a convenient setup.”
“Ah, you asked because you didn't know the lock pattern. It’s a rhombus. Around this time, the company usually unifies the patterns of the debut group’s smartphones for management purposes.”
It meant I had ended up working with crazy bastards who had zero concept of privacy.
Things were going just great. It was a total mess.
“Whew.”
11:00 PM.
I was currently heading to the place identified as Ryu Gun-woo’s studio apartment in Cheong-ryeo’s messages.
What about the phone lock? Surprisingly, even the rhombus pattern—the "company use" one—failed, so I just left it alone for now, just in case.
—Is that so? I guess Ryu Gun-woo hasn't been with the company for very long.
‘Dammit.’
That was as far as my deduction went. I’d have to take it to a service center tomorrow to get it unlocked. I held back a sigh as I walked.
Cheong-ryeo and I had agreed to return to our respective homes for the time being.
—Let’s talk again after we’ve each assessed our situations.
—Sure.
It was a rational decision.
The problem was… the studio apartment building I arrived at looked much nicer than I expected.
‘It’s an officetel.’
Where did I get the money for this?
Looking at the building, which seemed to have quite a large square footage even from the outside, I walked forward with a bitter taste in my mouth.
This alone was proof that this was a dream, not reality.
Beep-beep-beep-beep
And fortunately, the card key sticker attached to the smartphone worked on the building’s main entrance.
I had been prepared to head back to the company practice room if necessary, so this was a relief.
‘Then it should work for the front door, too.’
I found the unit number, went up, and unlocked the door in the same way. I reached out and pulled the handle.
The door opened smoothly.
However, the lights were on in the house that should have been empty.
And then, I heard a voice.
“Hyung, you’re back?”
“…!”
“You practiced late today.”
Sitting on the living room sofa in comfortable clothes was…
Ryu Cheong-woo.
Looking to be about twenty, just like me.
‘What is this?’
“Hyung?”
The Ryu Gun-woo here… was living with his cousin, Ryu Cheong-woo.
“Hyung, have you taken this elective before?”
“…I heard the professor doesn't give good grades.”
“Hmm, I see.”
I didn't know what I was doing. I reflexively evaluated the three-credit elective the twenty-year-old Ryu Cheong-woo was showing me while my mind raced.
And then I saw it.
On the living room shelf, those useless teddy bears they give out at university entrance ceremonies were on display.
Two of them.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
It was completely confirmed.
The Ryu Cheong-woo here had clearly entered the same university as me.
Even those two teddy bears looked identical.
‘Which means we entered in the same year.’
But why was this guy calling me "Hyung"? There was no way I would have retaken the exam just to go to the same university I attended in my original life.
“…….”
I asked naturally, as if nagging him.
“Why do you keep using formal speech when we’re the same age?”
In the worst-case scenario, I could just excuse it by saying I’d been drinking.
“Ah, well, I told you, I thought you were older when we were kids… it’s already stuck. It’s really not uncomfortable, so don’t worry.”
Ryu Cheong-woo gave a slightly awkward smile. Is that so? The setting is unnecessarily detailed.
I suppressed a groan and reflexively thought of a valid question.
‘…What about archery?’
At that age, he should definitely still be doing archery. Come to think of it, it was also strange that he had entered a regular university.
But just as I was about to do something suspicious like asking my roommate-cousin about that, I saw it.
A blue, transparent line that suddenly appeared.
“…….”
At first, I thought it was a hallucination. But as if forcing its way up… a line was drawn long in the air, finally forming a rectangle.
And then, letters appeared on the surface created between the lines.
[[email protected]&!5 Hyung!]
The status window. Keun-dal.
“…!”
I stood up. Then I immediately went into the bathroom and closed the door.
Thud.
‘What state are you in?’
[I’m not sure either I felt like I was being consumed but I escaped I’m okay now]
The characters popped out sporadically, as if barely squeezing through a narrow gap.
He didn't look okay. But the characters didn't stop.
[And the status window #[email protected]^ is there]
A pop-up appeared with a flicker.
A familiar phrase.
[Enjoy your]
Right.
It was the sentence that started with those words I had seen in the Daydream. I clenched my fist.
…It was a premature emotion.
Because the end of the sentence was different.
[Enjoy your reality :D]
Not dream, but reality.
‘Reality.’
My brain cooled as if I’d been doused with cold water.
The pop-up shook again.
[I didn't write this Hyung I’ll try to do something about this for now rebooting[email protected]^]
What?
“Wait, you might be in dang…….”
Before I could even tell him to wait because it might be dangerous, the status window vanished.
‘Dammit!’
Why the hell don’t these guys ever listen? I frustratedly punched the bathroom wall.
It was then.
A light burst like a neon sign.
[START / Registration Complete!]
Player: Ryu Gun-woo (Park Moon-dae)
As if my vision was brightening, prisms and light entered the hologram.
With a flash of luster like fireworks, a new window was generated.
[A quest has arrived!]
Awakenable Colleague: ?
Required Fame Exp: 1000 Exp
Small letters rose up in Keun-dal’s pop-up window.
[This is…]
It was a new game system.