Chapter 1
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 001
Chapter Title: Two Worlds
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Being unable to sleep is a terrible thing.
Kim Woojin first truly realized that during his time serving in the army. Back in his early days as a stiff, green private, there was always one person brought up whenever he took over guard duty.
"Any special notes... nothing much, but Sergeant Choi seemed restless again tonight, unable to sleep."
Sergeant Choi.
He couldn't quite remember his name clearly anymore. The sergeant, who had been nearing the end of his service at the time, was discharged soon after and left the unit. Kim Woojin had only seen him for about two weeks.
The reason Woojin remembered Sergeant Choi even a little was because of the man's unfortunate chronic condition.
Sergeant Choi had a ruptured herniated disc, and whenever it flared up, he was wracked with excruciating pain. Even in the dead of night when everyone else was asleep, he wandered the shadowy hallways alone, unable to find rest.
His bloodshot eyes heavy with fatigue, his staggering footsteps. Every time Woojin saw Sergeant Choi looking like some kind of wraith, he steeled his resolve. I have to be careful not to end up like that...
'...That was how many years ago?'
Kim Woojin mentally counted the years on an internal calendar.
Doing the math roughly, it had been about fourteen years. Woojin was now thirty-five. He'd enlisted right after finishing his first year of university.
Fourteen years was no small amount of time. Most of his army memories had faded. So why was he thinking of Sergeant Choi now?
The reason was simple. The man staring back at him in the mirror looked eerily like the sergeant he'd seen back then.
These days, Kim Woojin couldn't fall asleep easily.
'...It's been twelve years now, hasn't it.'
He counted the years in his chest once more.
Twelve years ago, Kim Woojin had started suffering from insomnia. It wasn't because some part of his body hurt, like with Sergeant Choi.
He had strange dreams every time he tried to sleep.
Dreams so vivid they were hard to distinguish from reality. Run a long distance, and he'd be out of breath, his legs aching. Trip by mistake, and he'd feel a dizzying jolt of pain.
They were so lifelike that he questioned if they could even be called dreams. The problem was that these dreams were infuriating nightmares.
A forest lined with black trees.
The flowing river was thick and slimy, like pus oozing from a rotten wound. The creatures gathered to drink from it... every one of them was a grotesque monster.
In this dream world, Kim Woojin's role was that of prey. He ran endlessly, fleeing from the starving monsters. But Woojin's stamina was finite; he couldn't run forever.
In the end, all he faced was a monster's gaping maw full of teeth.
Kwajik!
He got eaten. Then he woke from the nightmare. He repeated this process every time he fell asleep.
Dying every night took a brutal toll on Woojin's mind. Sleep deprivation made even normal daily life impossible. It was an endless vicious cycle.
To escape this, Woojin visited several psychiatrists and begged for treatment. He even consulted a few shamans reputed to be skilled.
"This is a symptom I've never seen before."
But everyone just shook their heads. It was practically a death sentence.
Kim Woojin fell into despair.
Why is this happening only to me? He wanted answers, but there were none. All he could do was become monster fodder night after night...
...It was during this bleak existence that something changed.
'What is this?'
One day, Woojin suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.
As usual, he fled from the monsters in his dream. But for some reason, they seemed to give up the hunt midway; looking around, he saw no pursuers.
'No way... did I lose them?'
No matter how unskilled a person was, repeating something over and over led to mastery.
After hundreds, thousands of rounds of deadly tag, Kim Woojin had learned the knack of evading the monsters' eyes.
From then on, this dream world started to look a little different.
'It's not completely hopeless after all.'
Even a hellish place had its own rules. Woojin began learning the knowledge needed for survival.
Dangerous creatures to avoid on sight, ones he could handle, things safe to eat and those that weren't, ways to find water...
There was no need to fear failure. In the dream, he could die and come back as many times as needed.
'...To last longer, I should pick up some survival skills.'
Real-world skills worked in the dream world too. So when awake, he scoured the internet for survival knowledge—bushcraft, the art of thriving in the wild.
He went further, learning martial arts, swordsmanship, archery, martial techniques, and trap-making in his spare time. He was tired of just running from monsters every time.
'I can't just keep taking it lying down.'
If he was going to die, at least landing one good stab on those bastards would be satisfying. Fueled by that resolve, Woojin mastered various skills and tested them in the dream.
And so, twelve years passed.
These days, Kim Woojin still couldn't fall asleep easily. Fighting the dream monsters head-on would be suicidal.
But now, he was no longer prey—he was the hunter. Falling asleep was still a struggle, but at least he no longer felt that old pathetic helplessness.
...The problem was that he was becoming so immersed in the dream world that he was losing touch with reality.
'I look like a total bum.'
While brushing his teeth, Woojin suddenly scrutinized his reflection intently.
His unwashed hair was a tangled mess, and stroking his jaw snagged his fingers on rough stubble. His bloodshot eyes from shallow sleep were the cherry on top.
He'd neglected his self-care far too much. It felt almost disrespectful to Sergeant Choi to see him like this.
'I can't keep living like this.'
He'd been scraping by with manual labor at factories all this time.
No real career to speak of. If he just kept aging like this, reality would turn as grim as the dream world.
Still, years of grueling work had let him save a decent amount. Maybe use that for a fresh start?
'Open a chicken joint? Or a pool hall? But if I try something and fail, I might blow all my savings...'
Forgetting to finish brushing, Woojin stood there with the toothbrush in his mouth, lost in thought. Planning a business wasn't easy, naturally. He pondered for a bit but came up empty.
Then his gaze drifted back to the mirror. His jaw, covered in dark stubble, looked filthier than ever.
'...First things first, shave.'
Don't overthink the hard stuff—tackle the easy, doable things one by one.
After finishing his brushing, Woojin shaved off the beard with quick strokes. As the foam rinsed away, black stubble peeled off like grime. A quick face wash, and his face looked noticeably cleaner.
'Heh, now I look human again.'
Kim Woojin smiled satisfactorily at his reflection. But the smile didn't last.
Jururuk—
Suddenly, bright red blood poured from his nose.
Startled, Woojin pinched his nostrils shut. The blood gushed endlessly, like a faucet left on. The tissue he crammed in soaked through instantly.
'Why the hell is this happening?'
Unexplained bleeding. Woojin pressed hard on the bridge of his nose to staunch it. But the nosebleed showed no sign of stopping.
His head spun. Woojin staggered out of the bathroom. Every time he steadied himself against the wall, he left bloody handprints.
Thud!
His body tilted like a rotting log. Woojin hit the floor cheek-first, gasping for breath. Even then, the blood kept flowing without end.
'...Damn... I'm gonna die like this.'
Death by massive blood loss from a nosebleed. A cause of death he'd never even encountered in the dream world.
Facing death right there, Woojin felt strangely calm. Was it because he'd died so many times in nightmares that he was numb? Or was the suddenness making it feel unreal?
Either way, Kim Woojin wasn't particularly afraid of the situation. Just a little regretful.
'In the end, I didn't accomplish a damn thing...'
Drowsiness crashed over him like a wave. With his unquenched thirst as the finale, Woojin blacked out completely.