The Incredible Ability That Came to Me
Even riding the subway, Seong-min felt a quiet swell of pride.
With a packed lunch in hand, he told himself he would work even harder today.
He got off at his stop, climbed the stairs, and checked his phone for directions — it looked like about a ten-minute walk from here.
"Alright. Let's go."
When the light changed, Seong-min stepped into the crosswalk.
"Huh?"
His head turned to the side —
and in that instant, a horn blared. BAAAAANG!
A car slammed on its brakes and struck him.
It happened in a single heartbeat.
A brutal impact slammed into his right leg, and Seong-min was thrown clear. He tumbled across the pavement, rolling hard, and the last thing he saw before consciousness fled was the driver's door swinging open and someone rushing out.
How much time had passed?
When Seong-min came to, he knew at once that he was in a hospital.
Beside him stood a familiar face — Auntie Hye-suk, watching him with deep worry etched into her features.
"Seong-min…!"
She called his name the moment she saw him awake, her voice thick with concern.
He tried to move, but pain lanced through his leg and pinned him in place. Looking down, he found it wrapped in bandages.
"What… what happened to me?"
"It was a traffic accident."
And just like that, Seong-min understood why he was lying here.
Right. He had been on his way to work, determined to give the day everything he had. The light had turned green. He had stepped into the crosswalk. A car had come barreling in and hit him. He had been thrown. He had blacked out.
"Thankfully, the surgery went well. The other party is covering the hospital bills, so don't worry about that…"
After hearing the full story from Auntie Hye-suk and being told to rest, Seong-min lay back down with a hollow, devastated feeling in his chest.
A traffic accident.
A fractured leg that needed surgery.
A reality he had never once imagined.
The operation itself had gone smoothly. The driver who caused the crash came in person to apologize, accepted full liability, and settled everything with the insurance company. At least the medical costs were nothing to fear.
And yet Seong-min's heart remained utterly bleak.
A week later he was discharged and able to return home — but for the time being, he would have to live on crutches. Climbing up to the rooftop room in that condition was nearly impossible, so Auntie Hye-suk let him stay in the first-floor guest room. Team Leader Jeong and the rest of the construction crew came by the hospital to visit, but it was Auntie Hye-suk's constant care at his side that truly carried him through.
"I'm sorry. Because of me…"
Seong-min sat up in bed and apologized as she brought in a meal she had prepared.
"Don't be silly… First you need to get your strength back. And… don't worry about the rent. Right now, just focus on getting better…"
Without Auntie Hye-suk, Seong-min truly would have been lost.
He ate the egg porridge she had made with genuine appetite, then lay back down again. For a while, this would be his life — hobbling around on crutches, recovering.
What the hell is this…
His only crime had been trying to live hard and honestly. The driver hadn't hit him on purpose, and the man had taken responsibility. But because of this leg, Seong-min was trapped indoors for the foreseeable future — no social life, no way to earn a living.
Worse still was the news that even after the bone healed, he would need rehabilitation. And no one could guarantee a full recovery.
That was what left him so desolate.
All Seong-min had was his body. That body was how he put food on the table. And now look at him. He might spend the rest of his life limping on that right leg.
It was crushing. Heartbreaking.
Auntie Hye-suk did everything she could to ease his mind, but day after day Seong-min's spirits only sank further. A high school graduate with no special qualifications, the only work he could do was part-time gigs and hard physical labor. Even that was out of reach now.
It was miserable beyond words. He might carry the aftereffects for the rest of his life. He felt terrible for Auntie Hye-suk. And when he thought about the days ahead, he wanted to die.
Over the course of a full month, Seong-min's leg slowly mended — but his heart only grew sicker.
Then, the night before his hospital appointment, he went to bed once more with that same heavy, gray feeling. He couldn't keep leaning on Auntie Hye-suk forever. But he had no other options. All he could do was hope that tomorrow's visit wouldn't bring the worst possible news.
With that thought, he drifted off.
"Hah—!"
His eyes snapped open. Even with morning sunlight pouring through the window, Seong-min jolted awake in pure shock.
What… the hell was that?
He looked around the room, thoroughly disoriented — because of the dream he had just had.
A mysterious old man, chuckling with a deep, rolling laugh. Heh heh heh.
He had sat there drinking, watching Seong-min, and spoken words Seong-min could not understand.
Leaving the murmuring old man behind, Seong-min had opened his eyes — and found himself here, in the present.
The words rang through the mind of the still-bewildered Seong-min.
Status Window?
He didn't understand any of it — but he did as he was told, silently calling the words in his mind.
Name: Lee Seong-min
Age: 24
Education: Hancheon High School Graduate
Level: 1
Stat Points: 0
Appearance: 10
Vigor: 10
Martial Power: 10
Physicality: 10
W-what is this?
Seong-min stared in total shock at the translucent, game-like window floating before his eyes. Why was something like this hanging in midair? He had no idea what any of it meant. Amid the confusion, something else caught his attention — a small, glittering icon off to the side.
And what's that?
It looked like a box of some kind, but he had no clue what to do with it. Then something clicked in his mind, and he pictured himself clicking it the way the thought suggested.
Whoosh.
In an instant, the window before him changed.
Escape — 0 charges
(1 charge acquired per 10 Stat Points)
Enables escape from any situation, no matter how dire.
Then he noticed something else beside it.
"Tele…portation?"
To his astonishment, the skill next to it was labeled Teleportation.
Teleportation — 0 charges
(1 charge acquired per 10 Stat Points)
Enables instantaneous travel to any desired location.
Seong-min sat there, utterly flummoxed by everything spread out before him. What was happening right now? What on earth was going on with him? He couldn't tell. He couldn't even tell if this was a dream or reality.
The voice rang through his head once more. Startled, he looked around the room. No one. Of course there was no one. Who else would be here?
"Who the hell are you? How is a voice ringing inside my head?!"
He shouted, spinning to search every corner of the room.
At that moment the door opened and Hye-suk stepped in.
"Seong-min, what's going on?"
"Huh? Oh — no, it's nothing… I just had a dream…"
"I see… You gave me a fright, yelling like that all of a sudden. You know today's the day they take the cast off at the hospital, right?"
"Yes, I know."
"We don't know what the results will be yet, but let's go get you checked out first."
"Yes, Auntie."
Once Hye-suk left and he was alone again, Seong-min stared at the space in front of him.
So only I can see this?
The translucent window floating before his eyes seemed invisible to anyone but him.
Seong-min grabbed his crutches, made his way out to the living room, and headed for the kitchen. The table was set with a healthy spread — vegetables, bean-sprout soup, and even some bulgogi, a well-balanced meal of protein and greens.
"They said I'll need rehab… I'm worried."
"Nothing's certain yet… If the bone has set well, you might even walk without the crutches. So try not to worry too much."
Seong-min knew perfectly well that Auntie Hye-suk was saying it to calm him down. He also knew how hard that was to believe. They had told him about rehabilitation — about the possibility of limping for the rest of his life.
Still, he ate breakfast before heading to the hospital. Afterward he washed up as best he could and got ready to go out. Hye-suk climbed up to the rooftop room to fetch a change of clothes for him. He managed to get dressed, then hobbled out the front door on his crutches, across the courtyard, and toward the street — and as he did, he tilted his head with a puzzled frown.
"What is it?"
Hye-suk, about to get into the car, looked at him curiously.
"Oh — nothing."
Seong-min gave an awkward smile and headed for the back seat.
What was that?
His gaze dropped to his injured leg.
"Incredible!"
After the examination at the hospital, after every last bandage had been removed, the attending physician looked at the results and let out a genuine exclamation of wonder.
"The bone has fused perfectly. And the ligaments, the knee — everything has healed completely!"
"Is that really true?"
Hye-suk stared in astonishment.
"Yes! Looking at the condition, it's healed cleanly all the way through — just like a perfectly healthy leg!"
The news was so extraordinary that Hye-suk's mouth hung open.
"Why don't you try standing up?"
Sitting on the exam table and listening, Seong-min understood exactly what the doctor meant. He nodded, planted his crutches, and rose to his feet.
"Now set those crutches down and try walking forward."
"Excuse me?"
He looked puzzled for a moment — then remembered the strange sensation he'd felt just before getting into the car, and swallowed hard.
Seong-min set the crutches aside. Tense, he took one step forward.
"Ah—"
Hye-suk gasped.
Seong-min had moved cleanly, without so much as a wobble.
"Ohhh…"
The doctor murmured in amazement.
Seong-min planted his left foot. That one had never been hurt. Then he stepped forward on the right.
It doesn't hurt.
There was no pain at all.