Chapter 513
Chapter 513
It was after I had gathered all the former Steer members in the dead of night and spent hours talking everything out.
"Phew."
A few hours later, while the light outside the window was still a dim, hazy gray, I climbed out of bed.
It was earlier than my usual wake-up time.
Well, to be honest, I hadn't really slept; I’d just been resting my eyes. Sleep simply wouldn't come.
My head throbbed. I couldn't tell if this was the aftereffect of shoving my head into the System or the consequence of pulling an all-nighter in a body in its thirties.
Given that Keun-dal seemed to exercise quite regularly, the odds were much higher that it was the former.
‘I need to take better care of this body, even if it isn't mine anymore.’
At least it was a day off today.
After checking Ryu Gun-woo’s physical condition, I turned to check on Keun-dal, who was sleeping on the floor.
For the record, it took a considerable amount of back-and-forth before the sleeping arrangements were settled this way.
First, I had to endure several minutes of him worrying about my mental health, followed by him shouting:
—Hyung, you should sleep on the bed! It’s your bed to begin with…!
—Fine.
—…? R-Really?
—Yeah.
It was because once this was over and we swapped bodies again, he’d be the one waking up in the bed anyway. I nodded inwardly as I looked at the guy completely sprawled out on the floor mats.
‘…Maybe now is the time.’
I closed my eyes for a moment and immediately summoned the status window to confirm if this "business" was truly finished.
Then, I called out.
‘…Lee Se-jin?’
Steer’s Bae Se-jin.
The Lee Se-jin A I had been conversing with through the pop-up windows.
“…….”
But there was no response.
Only the last pop-up I had received remained suspended in the air.
[Lee Se-jin A: Thank you.]
“…….”
He was no longer here.
That meant… one way or another, things had been settled.
The guy who said he wanted to "confirm it for himself" and would go find Bae Se-jin’s consciousness… at any rate, he was gone.
‘Right.’
I was lost in thought for a moment before laying my head back down on the bed.
There was no point in just lingering. I had finished everything I needed to do; it was time to go back.
‘Should I wrap this up quickly instead of waking him up for nothing?’
In the air, alongside the pop-up from Lee Se-jin A, the translucent status window was visible.
[Viewing Fragment Records]
At the bottom, the elapsed time was recorded.
(04:11:21 / 48:00:00)
Four hours.
It felt like a day or two had passed.
[Would you like to end the Fragment Record Viewing?]
As expected, I could terminate the viewing at any time within the limit.
‘…Yeah.’
I nodded.
And then.
[End]
My vision flickered briefly, and I felt a wave of dizziness, but I soon felt fine.
I realized I was lying on the floor with my eyes closed.
I was back in Park Moon-dae’s body.
There was no new pain.
‘Ugh.’
However, the headache—the one that felt like needles stabbing my temples—hadn't ended. It was the aftereffect of tampering with the System.
‘Is this damn pressure going to stick around?’
But seeing Keun-dal still sleeping soundly after returning to Ryu Gun-woo’s body, it seemed the sensation hadn't followed him to the other side.
‘Well, I suppose this is better.’
It was better for the consequences to be tied to the perpetrator’s mind. It would be pretty shitty to suddenly swap bodies in the middle of the night and inherit a headache as a bonus.
If it were me, I wouldn't let that slide. In that sense, the current state where I had to deal with the mess I made myself wasn't so bad.
‘It’ll probably last a few days at most.’
In Keun-dal’s case, he seemed to recover after sleeping, but I was just throbbing a bit because I couldn't sleep right now.
I stood up, pressing my temples. I planned to wait in the kitchen and have some water before the others woke up.
But the moment I opened the door and stepped out.
I saw him.
“…….”
In the early morning, close to dawn, the kitchen was still dark and silent.
There was already someone at the kitchen island.
The dark silhouette was… Bae Se-jin.
“…Hyung?”
“…….”
There was no answer. He just stood there, motionless, holding a glass of water.
I didn't rush him and waited for him to respond.
After a moment.
“…….”
He nodded and drank the water in his hand. Then he asked me,
“Are you here for water?”
“…Yes.”
At that, Bae Se-jin quietly walked to the purifier and filled another glass. It was no different from any other early morning…
‘Wait.’
…Is it really Bae Se-jin?
Watching his movements, which seemed unusually calm, the possibility suddenly occurred to me.
‘……Lee Se-jin A?’
Meanwhile, he finished with the water purifier and began walking toward me with the glass.
As he passed near the window, the faint sunlight illuminated his dark figure.
He had… a disgruntled expression.
“That… it was you, right?”
“Pardon?”
“Sending him. That…!”
It was Bae Se-jin.
He was so much like himself that I felt the tension drain out of me. And I confirmed one more thing.
I nodded.
“So you met him.”
The fact that ‘Lee Se-jin A’ had successfully communicated with him.
“Yeah.”
Bae Se-jin fell silent for a moment as if unsure what else to say, then slowly opened his mouth again.
“And… I received the memories.”
“…….”
So that’s what happened.
I nodded, and then he added calmly.
“Not all of them, though.”
Hm?
*
A few minutes ago.
Two people with the same face were facing off. The one with his hair swept back and a sharper gaze spoke firmly.
—You can’t claim ownership over time you didn't experience. Stop this.
“What have you been talking about this whole time? If that’s my past, then I’m the one who experienced it! Does forgetting it mean it never happened?”
—…!
An endless argument ensued, which could be summarized as "I left it with you" versus "It's my choice."
A tense disagreement with neither side yielding an inch was taking place within the sleeping Bae Se-jin’s subconscious. It was an internal conflict in the truest sense.
—I am a manifestation of your consciousness created from those past memories. Therefore, this is no different from you having tried to reclaim the memories, only to decide for yourself that you won't take them back.
“What are you talking about? You don't know how I’ve been living either.”
The one with more overt emotional expressions frowned. It was TeSTAR’s Bae Se-jin.
“So how can you be so sure you would have made the same judgment as me? That’s just stubbornness!”
—That’s a sophistry.
“You’re the one being sophisticated!”
Eventually, both reached a state of mental exhaustion and an implicit ceasefire.
—…….
“…….”
They looked at each other as if fed up, yet both remained steadfast.
It couldn't be helped. Even if their experiences differed, their thought processes were similar because they were the same person.
Lee Se-jin A was the first to speak.
—I understand your argument.
Years of legal battles and prison life had given him the wisdom to accept unavoidable situations and quickly devise alternative routes.
However, his goal remained unchanged.
—But the right to decide lies with me.
“…!”
He gave up on persuasion and moved straight to action.
“Wait…! Then let’s do this.”
However, Bae Se-jin’s side was slightly more unpredictable.
He had learned over the past few years that acting on his heart’s desire instead of agonizing over every detail could lead to good results.
‘If it’s like this…!’
He spoke up boldly.
“Just give me a part of it.”
—…….
“I’ll hear the details from the other members once I wake up anyway. But it’s better to hear it directly so it isn't distorted, and I can understand it for myself.”
Whether out of concern, discomfort, or intentionality, facts get distorted when they pass through someone else’s mouth.
That was something Lee Se-jin A knew all too well.
“You don't have to give me the parts you’re uncomfortable sharing.”
—…….
“But I need to receive enough so that I can judge things properly.”
So that he wouldn't misunderstand.
Lee Se-jin A silently stared at the man with the same name and face. Bae Se-jin felt a surge of tension, as if he were swallowing hard.
After a moment.
“…!”
The calm-faced Lee Se-jin A reached out his hand.
—Fine.
It was a hand offered for a shake.
Bae Se-jin cautiously reached out and took it.
And then.
[--------]
Memories came flooding into his consciousness.
His vision vanished.
‘Gasp.’
Bae Se-jin momentarily held his breath at the overwhelming pressure he was experiencing for the first time.
But the feeling of being overwhelmed was brief. Soon, his consciousness became clear amidst a sensation like being submerged in water.
The first thing he felt was… a message.
—Who is this?
It was a message he had sent to someone.
A strange figure in a black space.
Ryu Gun-woo. Which meant…….
‘…Park Moon-dae??’
[I am a member of the same group as the current you.]
Bae Se-jin realized.
What he had received wasn't Lee Se-jin A’s entire life.
He had received the memories of the short time Lee Se-jin A had spent conversing with Park Moon-dae within the System just moments ago—the very tail end of his memories!
‘…! Just this??’
Bae Se-jin was flustered at first. Immediately after, he felt a surge of indignation, thinking he’d been scammed, but he soon grasped the situation.
‘Ah.’
This was because the experiences and background knowledge that had led Lee Se-jin A to this point naturally came to mind.
He acquired the emotions and knowledge as naturally as if he had experienced them himself.
‘My god.’
It seemed it wasn't a lie that this Steer Bae Se-jin had been manifested based on his own consciousness.
And because the content was quite shocking, he understood why his past self had tried so hard not to return the memories.
It was pure kindness.
‘…Drug trafficking charges.’
The knowledge alone was appalling.
However, the memories he had just received were merely background information for reflection.
The horrific arrest, the tedious trial, and the times of suffering had already been overcome; they were refined as if passed through a filter, allowing him to understand them calmly.
Thus, Bae Se-jin slowly digested them.
He was able to accept them stoically, as if faintly recalling things that had long since passed.
But there were things he couldn't be stoic about.
—It’s been a while.
The situation where he spoke directly to the Steer members through Ryu Gun-woo’s mouth.
The real-time emotions ‘Lee Se-jin A’ felt while revealing the truth to them were as vivid as if he were experiencing them himself right now.
—I won the case.
A faint sadness, composure, relief, a clean lingering feeling.
And…… conviction.
‘I see.’
Bae Se-jin understood then.
The solidity he had seen in Lee Se-jin A—his past self—was the conviction unique to someone who had fought alone and finally achieved what they wanted.
It was strength.
And at the same time, it was shocking.
‘I… could be like this?’
Lee Se-jin A was his past self.
That meant he was someone who could endure and overcome such extreme situations without breaking.
‘…….’
In truth, Bae Se-jin thought it was a miracle that he had grown this much as a member of TeSTAR.
He believed it was only possible because he had coincidentally become a team with good people, receiving encouragement and hardening his resolve.
Because he knew his own sensitivity, he had secretly thought that if the environment had been just a little worse, he wouldn't have been able to handle it.
But that might not have been true.
‘I… could even endure the worst.’
And I could win.
It was a realization that made his head tingle.
So, when the playback of those memories ended, he found himself speaking out of a surge of emotion.
To Lee Se-jin A.
“Um….”
—…….
But no answer came.
He had already vanished. Or perhaps, he had been absorbed into him.
‘…Ah.’
He felt a bit lonely, even though he knew that person was himself.
So, even though he knew he was in his subconscious, he spoke aloud once.
“You worked hard.”
Strangely, it was a comfort.
Feeling his hazy vision gradually brighten, Bae Se-jin had a hunch.
‘I’m waking up.’
And so, he woke from the dream.
He didn't intend to recount every detail, but he thought he should at least explain how things had progressed.
*
“…That’s how it happened.”
“…….”
After finishing his story, Bae Se-jin took another gulp of water, and I nodded inwardly.
It seemed he’d had a better experience than I expected. And….
‘In the end, those two identical guys argued their heads off and agreed to only transfer enough memories to grasp the situation.’
They really were consistent—no, he was consistent. I smiled as I drank my water.
“That’s impressive.”
“Are you being sarcastic? …No, probably not.”
“Yeah.”
Bae Se-jin accepted my answer readily and plopped down into a chair.
Then he spoke with quite a bit of energy.
“Anyway… about that.”
“Yes?”
“What are you going to do about them? Especially Ryu Cheong-woo.”
“…….”
“I felt it while I was getting the memories, but earlier… he looked so exhausted.”
He added seriously.
His attitude was quite proactive.
“I think he was shouldering too much back during Steer. But he had nowhere to lean, and there was no reward.”
Right.
“The problem is that I understand why he wants to stay here…. Yeah, I see why you were agonizing over it so much.”
Bae Se-jin furrowed his brows in thought, but soon snapped his head up.
He had a fairly reliable expression on his face.
“So, I’ve been thinking about it too.”
Oh.
“Yes.”
“Listen. So……”
Bae Se-jin began to lay out his opinions seriously, and I was quite surprised.
‘This is actually good.’
His ideas were quite solid.
Moreover, as a side effect, I realized while listening to him that my head had cooled down considerably.
‘Is this what it feels like to share the burden?’
Being able to brainstorm solutions with someone who knew the whole story as an outsider was, honestly, quite a relief.
Two heads were indeed better than one.
‘Not bad.’
And so, forgetting my headache, I shared a brief conversation with Bae Se-jin.
Until the other members began to wake up, and even Keun-dal woke up, turning the morning into a chaotic mess.
“Whoa? Gun-woo… Ah, it’s Keun-dal-ssi!”
“Y-Yes! That’s right. Um, I’ll be going now….”
“Ayy, have a meal before you go! How did you end up here so early?”
“Gasp, ah, well, uh….”
…For the record, throughout the meal, Keun-dal was bounced back and forth like a ping-pong ball between Keun Se-jin and Seon A-hyun, eventually getting squeezed for every detail of the incident so far.
And that meant… the guys, having grasped the exact outline of the events, began to glare at me with wide eyes.
Specifically, at the fact that I had gone rogue with the System.
“…….”
“……."
“So… you swapped bodies and then came back?”
It was fine. I was prepared for this.
“M-Moon-dae-ya….”
“…….”
“Park Moon-dae, are you really going to be like this?”
“No.”
I wouldn't do it again.
‘Because now I know how to handle the System.’
The calculations were complete.
“Ah… Hey, this won't do! You need to sign a pledge or something….”
“I will.”
“…?!”
I willingly signed a promise to never again "use the System impulsively without consultation." The members responded with expressions that looked like they were about to burst into applause.
“Let’s have him leave a thumbprint.”
“Y-Yeah, right…!”
“…….”
Was that really necessary?
Of course, even in the midst of this, the two who weren't original members were exceptions.
The Steer guys.
‘Hmm.’
Kim Rae-bin was listening intently to Cha Yu-jin’s explanation of the situation, but Ryu Cheong-woo showed only a faint reaction, as if he hadn't decided how to respond.
His expression was still gentle, but that was all.
Normally, he would have jumped in proactively to grasp the situation and naturally blend in.
‘Hmm.’
It seemed he’d been doing some complex thinking of his own since our conversation at dawn.
I made eye contact with Bae Se-jin and gave a single nod. Then I spoke.
“Come to think of it, we have a new filming tonight.”
“Right…! That, True Competition.”
The filming for the current competition program.
I intended to make my move there.
However, once we actually arrived at the filming site, another variable appeared.
True Competition, which had adopted a survival format where the last-place participant from the previous stage was eliminated, had brought in a new participant.
“Oh my, they’re rookies.”
“Let’s do our best~”
Those guys were the first ones at the set, greeting everyone with nervous faces.
And those participants were…
“We look forward to working with you! We are the rookies from Wonder Hall, Iter!”
It was Iter.
The rookie group that had benchmarked us.