Return
Taeyong had been kind. Kind enough, at the very end, that when I stepped out the door he told one of his burly men to stick someone on me as a guide.
So this was why people went on about blood ties, regional ties, and school ties.
"The area around the plaza where you were first summoned has the best security. That's also why the rent is high."
The one assigned to show me around was Jane—the same woman who had greeted me at the start.
"The shops are concentrated over here as well. Restaurants, places that sell daily necessities—the quality is better on this side."
"Which means the prices are higher."
"Yes."
Jane's explanations stayed short and dry.
"You can see the roads running out from the plaza, can't you?"
Four streets branched from the round plaza in the shape of a cross.
"There's a sign at the head of each one. They're simply numbered one through four. We call them Avenue 1, Avenue 2... that sort of thing."
It was orderly enough that, at a glance, it almost looked like a planned city.
"For anything like decent security... Avenue 1 and Avenue 2 are your better bets."
"And a little more expensive."
"Yes. Well. If you're confident in a fight, Avenues 3 and 4 are fine too, but if not, I'd recommend 1 or 2."
I didn't even know my skill yet.
"And I'd recommend changing your clothes. Now."
My clothes? What was wrong with—
I caught on before I could ask. Everyone around us was staring at me, the freshly arrived newbie. Some of it was simple curiosity, but a few of those gazes carried a naked killing intent, and under the first truly murderous look I had ever felt, the hair on my arms stood up before I knew it.
"Okay."
When I answered quietly, Jane led me to a clothing shop tucked into the corner of an alley.
"Ugh."
The moment I stepped inside, a foul smell I had never encountered stabbed at my nose.
"New, huh."
"Yes."
"Leather. Always smells like this."
The shopkeeper ran a casual eye over what I was wearing, then pulled something from a corner and tossed it out in front of me.
"Light. Made a while ago."
Was that his way of saying it smelled less?
"Fifteen Silver."
What he had set out was a vest that looked somehow slapped together, and pants sewn from rough cloth. Was this even cloth?
"Lots of people wear these day to day."
"Ah."
I looked at Jane. She nodded. Everything the shopkeeper had said was true.
Even so I hesitated, and the owner spoke again.
"Clothes like the ones that woman's got on run past two Gold. Anything woven from Arachne thread costs even more. And this stuff only came down to this price a few years back, you know."
Jane nodded again. In the end, I was in no position to do anything but buy it and put it on.
"Change over there."
There wasn't so much as a thin curtain where he pointed. I steadied my breath for a moment, then changed in silence.
"I can buy what you were wearing, too. Can't give you much for it."
"No, thank you."
I didn't bother asking what I might get. I still had no idea how long I could stand to wear that leather.
"Money."
I counted out fifteen Silver and handed it to the taciturn shopkeeper.
"Let's find you a room as well. Put the clothes in here for now."
Jane quickened her pace, as if she wanted the errand finished and herself gone. Down to nothing but a leather vest and rough cloth pants against my bare skin, I walked like a man who had forgotten how.
"They'll soften once you've worn them a while."
"...Right."
I felt strangely naked.
"Give the clothes to me. I'll bring them along with the basket you left at the guild, and the rest of your things."
Blunt, and yet carefully considerate—the sort of offer that shut down every chance someone might set their sights on what I was carrying.
"Do you have a room?"
"Sure do. Got one."
A low building, not far from the clothing shop, and every bit as slapdash as my new vest. The owner led Jane inside with practiced ease, and I followed.
"This is it."
Up a staircase as rickety as the building itself, all the way to the third floor, a single door waited. The place was small enough that each floor held only two rooms. When the door opened, a musty reek poured out.
"Fellow who lived here last went keck! right in this room."
The tone was light. The gesture was not. He moved as if an invisible rope had just yanked his neck.
"Yes, well."
Jane answered as if it were nothing at all. I was just starting to wonder whether I was supposed to act unbothered, too.
"Well, he held out a good while, though. Three months, was it?"
"About that."
Three months. A stretch of time someone else must have endured in sheer misery, tossed out as lightly as small talk.
"One Gold."
A room without a window. The only thing in it was a roughly knocked-together wooden plank.
"There's even a bed."
"Oh, well then!"
The owner added, proud of himself, that it was new.
One Gold... was that cheap? I stole a glance at Jane.
"Market rate."
"Oh, well then! Security's decent here, and as for my mouth, I—"
Zzzip. He mimed fastening a zipper. His lips, he meant, were sealed.
"Yes, well."
Was that why Jane had brought me here? Because she knew he wouldn't breathe a word to anyone that a newbie was staying in this room?
"Yes. Then I'll take this one..."
"Smart choice. Anything you're curious about, come downstairs and ask. I'm always on the first floor."
He took my one Gold and beamed.
One Gold and fifteen Silver already. The money was disappearing faster than I had thought. I had been told a decent meal ran one Silver a plate... there had to be cheaper food somewhere. There had to be.
"Then I wish you good fortune."
"Thank you for your help."
With another short yes, well, Jane stepped out of the building. There wasn't even a window, so I had no way to confirm she was actually gone.
"Hah."
I felt hollow. The place was still far too strange for me to work the stiffness out of my body. Out on the street those stares had followed me, and I had even met eyes gone bloodshot, as if someone wanted to take me apart piece by piece.
I managed to plant myself on the slapdash plank—the bed. Once I was sitting, my back followed of its own accord, and I was lying down.
Knock, knock.
My eyes flew open at the sound. I must have drifted off.
Right. I'd been on the night shift.
Wait... a knock?
"Who is it?"
"It's Jane. I'll leave your things outside the door."
She had already brought the luggage she had promised. I opened the door quickly enough, but Jane was gone. The convenience-store basket sat there with my belongings inside.
I should change.
It was far too soon to be getting used to everyday clothes like these. I changed back into exactly what I had been wearing when I arrived, put the convenience-store vest on again, and tucked the coin pouch carefully inside it.
Just in case.
A thief could always break in. Back in comfortable clothes, my head finally started to work. I had been dragged into the Tower, and the money I had left was...
"Oh. Right."
I still hadn't checked my skill.
I had only thought that I wanted to see it, and blue letters rose before my eyes.
The information was far simpler than I had expected. And then there was Return. No description. Not exactly friendly.
I stared at the unhelpful skill window and sank into thought. Could it send me back to a Safety Zone? Or to the plaza?
"Hah... I want to go home."
The words slipped out of me before I knew it.
"...Yes?"
Flash—!
A blaze of light swallowed me whole.
"...Huh."
When I opened my eyes, a familiar space was there to greet me. My cramped little studio, all of a hundred and forty square feet. Not a slapdash plank, but my mattress—the one I had bought for a hundred thousand won, a fortune as far as I was concerned.
"H-huh?"
I opened the skill window again.
"Huh...?"
So Return meant... returning home?
Which part of this was the dream? The part where I had gone to the Tower? Or, if not that, the part where I had come back to the real world?
I went to the mirror by the entryway and checked myself. The front of my convenience-store vest was bulging. I reached up and felt around, and my fingers met a clinking weight. The coin pouch.
Ding—! Ding—! Ding—! Ding—!
The phone I had been gripping out of habit erupted with notifications.
Missed calls and messages from the manager. Judging by what they said, the text I had sent never reached him.
Messages left as if he couldn't believe it. He must have known I wouldn't be able to read them, and sent them anyway, on the off chance.
"Ah."
If he had watched the CCTV, he had also seen me walk out with merchandise I never paid for. For a moment I thought I ought to go settle up right then—and then I stopped. I had only used this skill once. Which meant I couldn't waste a moment I might never get back.
I've still got wages he hasn't paid me.
Far more than the cost of what I'd taken. Once I confirmed I could come back, I could square it properly.
I glanced at the skill window. Three minutes had already slipped by. I went through the apartment with a calm I didn't feel, searching for anything I could carry off at once.
Ramen. Ramen, and a power bank.
I grabbed the things that had already been selling for steep prices. All I had at home, though, was two packs of ramen and a single power bank. There was less worth taking than I had thought.
Skill window.
I checked the time remaining about as often as my panic demanded. Twenty-four minutes left.
That's enough.
I put the power bank and both packs of ramen into a backpack and headed for the convenience store near my place.
"Welcome—"
I blew past the greeting I would normally have returned and started dropping things into a basket as fast as my hands would move.
Enough. This is enough.
It was a mercy that my account still held enough for ramen and a power bank.
Skill window.
Fifteen minutes. Still enough time.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Standing at the register, I found myself tapping my foot, stomach drawn tight. That wasn't how you scanned a barcode. That was the wrong side.
I wanted to snatch the scanner out of sheer frustration, but I looked at the time I had left and forced myself still.
"Bag—"
"No."
The instant the last barcode went through, I shoved everything into the backpack I had left open and finished paying.
"Have a good—"
Ding-a-ling!
I was out of the store in a streak before the part-timer could finish the sentence.
Ah. Sorry.
We were in the same boat, but my condition was the more serious one just now.
Beep, beep, beep, beep—I punched in the door code and stepped inside.
Skill window.
Eight minutes left.
"Hah... hah..."
Since when had a run to the convenience store been enough to leave me winded? Thanks to all that rushing, I still had time to spare.
"Should I grab the blanket?"
No. No, that was wrong. What if I ended up back in the plaza? Or would the plaza be better? Nyx was there, at least... No. No, definitely not. Then they'd find out I had Return...
My head was a knot of every worry at once.
Forget it.
From the moment I had packed the backpack, all of this worrying had already been pointless.
I still don't know. Not really.
For now, I would have to be satisfied with this.
Yeah. This much is...
All that worrying had my stomach churning. To think I was going back there. Ah, please, don't let it happen. Let me live as an ordinary nobody. Just Park Minsu...
Three... two... one...
Flash—!
© Grand Jackpot #1qxce
Author's Note
Thank you.