The Timeless Limit
The sudden death sentence landed like a slap to the face, and the plain smoothie went straight down Jin Serin’s throat with a hard gulp.
“Eek! Puh-hup!?”
Jin Serin shot a fountain of white smoothie across the table. The entire café floor turned pale from the splash.
“Cough! Cough!”
Kang Seojun slid the box of tissues across to her.
“…Are you all right? Here, take some.”
“U… yeah… just a second… cough!”
Jin Serin covered her mouth with one hand, grabbed the tissues, and the half-swallowed smoothie still dripped from the corners of her lips.
Her nose burned from the liquid that had backed up, so tears welled up on their own. She turned her head, quickly wiped her face, and cleared the last of the liquid with a few hard coughs.
“Hmph! Hmph!”
She took two deep breaths until her shoulders stopped shaking, then asked the question that had been burning in her throat.
“Am I… really going to die?”
“Yes. If things stay the way they are, it will be within a few years.”
Even in the original Grand Hunter Academy, Jin Serin would never have awakened properly unless the player kept her managed. In the end she had refused to accept her fate, never grown at all, and slowly lost everything she possessed as the game’s later stages approached. The ending had been cruel.
“Wh-what… do you mean…?”
Jin Serin’s face went blank with shock. Her eyes were wide, unable to believe it for a single second.
It was completely understandable. In the famous five stages of accepting death, denial was always the first reaction when the truth hit you. Adding more impossible-sounding details would only make it feel even less believable to her. But how she chose to accept it was entirely her own decision.
Kang Seojun simply answered the question he had already known she would ask.
“You’ll have nightmares, too. Hands glowing.”
“Th-that… how…?”
“That’s a prophecy dream. You die there.”
“Hmph! Hhuuuum…!”
Her mouth hung open in disbelief before she lowered her head and fell into thought.
An absurd story had come out of nowhere. She had come looking for a way to live and instead received a death sentence on the spot. It was absurd. Yet she didn’t doubt him for a second.
Over the past two years, countless specialists had passed through her life while trying to fix her growth stagnation. None of them had found the cause. She had been told it wasn’t a curse, wasn’t someone’s malice, and wasn’t a simple limit. Still, nothing had worked.
He had solved the impossible mystery in just a few days, as if it were nothing. She had been the one to approach him first; doubting him now made no sense at all.
Accurate diagnosis. Perfect solution. Everything resolved.
This man was clearly an expert. When an expert says “you die,” it had to be the truth. And that was exactly what hurt.
He knew her private nightmares. She had thought they came only from the fear of stagnation, but now she realized they were connected to something far larger. And they were prophecy dreams.
Believing him meant accepting that the nightmares were coming for her. That was not an easy decision.
That was why she asked, hoping against hope that her faith was wrong, hoping just a little for even a single crack in his certainty so she could doubt him.
“How did you know that…?”
Kang Seojun answered immediately.
“Maybe it’s better to talk about the future instead.”
A suspiciously vague reply that hid his real background. But it wasn’t a lie. The conversation had only two possible directions: reject everything and leave right now, or listen to his diagnosis and figure out what to do next.
If she had to choose, the second option was the more rational one. Hearing his words was at least worth a listen, even if she didn’t believe them.
But Jin Serin was afraid. Listening to him felt like facing an unavoidable fate she couldn’t handle.
Sister…
Jin Serin suddenly missed Seo Eunha’s presence so badly it ached.
“Sigh…”
Kang Seojun sighed silently. “You don’t have to look so serious. I only said ‘if things stay the way they are.’”
“Even if you say that…”
“A crystal is all you need. Use it the same way you do now to grow stronger.”
“That… h-hic…”
Jin Serin’s voice cracked with tears.
She had been terrified he would say something like that. Of course, thanks to him she had finally found a path forward. But the method he offered felt completely unrealistic to her.
Finding the dungeon that produced the crystal was hard enough. Surviving the Demon Buddha dungeon and barely gaining +1 strength had been a joke compared to what she needed. Her current average stat was only C-rank. To reach the level required to survive the nightmare, she would have to throw her most important people into danger and pay an impossible price. Nothing about it felt controllable.
“Ugh. Your face is really down.”
Kang Seojun had read her thoughts. He pulled out a hidden card he had prepared in advance.
“I’m not giving you a death sentence. Here, take this first.”
Thud!
He placed two items on the table. Jin Serin’s eyes grew round.
Kang Seojun had laid down two Purified Soul Fragments.
“T-this…! You had more?!”
“Not easy to obtain, but not impossible either. No need to look so gloomy.”
Jin Serin stared at the crystal, lips trembling.
“H-how many do you have!? I want to buy! Every single one that appears, if possible!”
Kang Seojun scratched the back of his neck. “You’re asking too casually. I don’t even know what I’m charging.”
“Ah!”
Even if the shop price was high, he could still negotiate. After all, he wanted her to grow stronger too.
“H-how much… would it be…?”
Jin Serin asked in a voice that was slowly sinking.
“Hmm. Can I even assign a monetary value to something like this?”
“H-hic…”
Jin Serin sniffled, clearly getting mocked now.
Kang Seojun slid the two crystals toward her.
“Just take them.”
“Eh? Eh? Really…?”
Jin Serin stared between the crystal and him in confusion. Healing potions and artifacts were expensive, especially when usable items were limited like hers. For him to give them away so freely…
“That’s not fair…”
Her eyes filled with worry. Kang Seojun shook his head.
“Of course there is a price.”
“W-what exactly…?”
More valuable than money or items: a strong bond formed from goodwill. For a crystal, that was perfect. The stronger the bond, the bigger the long-term return.
“Let’s be best friends.”
“…Yes?”
“This is friendship money…”
“A-ah, no! Don’t joke!”
Jin Serin sighed.
“That’s not a price… right?”
“I’m serious.”
“…Exactly what does ‘best friends’ mean?”
Kang Seojun’s expression suddenly hardened. Of all the questions, why that one?
He fell silent for a moment. What exactly was a best friend?
Trustworthy ally? A firm partnership? Someone you could rely on?
In his previous life, he had never had a single friend. Nothing felt right. Thinking about it only made the concept feel more like a maze.
Yet there was a clear answer.
“People who look after each other earnestly.”
That was not the correct definition of best friends. Looking after someone could mean a lover, a family member, or a teammate. It didn’t matter to him. What he needed were allies who had goodwill toward him. That level of connection was enough.
“People who look after each other earnestly…”
An ambiguous price with no clear demands. The standard for “looking after” was entirely subjective. If she wanted, she could claim it was free.
Jin Serin stared at the crystal in her hands.
“…Is this really okay?”
Anyone would feel a little embarrassed if asked twice.
“If you don’t want it, say so.”
“N-no! I don’t hate it… I-I accept!”
Kang Seojun nodded.
“Then from now on, we’ll use casual speech when we meet.”
The first meeting had been a transaction, so they had used polite language. But soon they would be attending the academy together for years. Continuing to be formal with each other would feel awkward.
“N-next time… we’ll use casual speech! And…!”
Jin Serin continued in a squeaky voice.
“I-I’ll work hard!”
Work hard on what? The meaning was unclear, but Kang Seojun smiled with satisfaction and nodded.
“Then the deal is sealed.”
The Grand Hunter Academy was full of playable characters, but Jin Serin was among the stronger ones. If the player didn’t neglect her, she could awaken properly and fight anywhere. With that, Kang Seojun had gained a powerful ally for the coming world-ending disaster.
Obtaining a friend to spend his second-life happy days with was just the bonus.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
That night, the moment Jin Serin got home she searched the dictionary for the meaning of “look after.”
In the English dictionary, the root word was “take care of.”
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Take care of [verb]
1. Find and provide for something necessary, or check that nothing is missed.
2. Receive or store carefully without waste.
3. Appropriate something as one’s own.
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Jin Serin propped her chin on her hands and reviewed each meaning. Her gaze lingered longest on the third one.
“Appropriate something as one’s own…”
She closed the dictionary without realizing it.
The “look after” Kang Seojun meant was clearly the first meaning. Taking care of each other’s needs.
But at that moment she had no idea that one day the thing she would cherish most was none of those.
It would be the third.
And that she would gain countless rivals.