I Can't Control It

This is the Subspace Bag I stole off that bastard Bren, isn't it? What's it doing here...?

I couldn't even control it. And if I focused, I could make the bag itself vanish and summon it right back again.

That's it! Soul Binding!!

Because it was bound to my soul, I could use the Subspace Bag on this side too. I summoned it again and rummaged through the inside. The sword I'd stashed before coming back was still sitting there, exactly where ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd left it. Taking things out and putting them in worked without a hitch.

"Then it works the other way around too, doesn't it?"

This was a massive win. A genuine game-changer, even. Not that I had any way of getting my hands on something like a gun to take back with me. Even the weapons you could buy online didn't strike me as the kind of thing that would actually help over there. A drone, though — if I brought a drone, that might be useful for scouting. Then again, I already had a growing list of things I needed to buy, and my wallet was in no condition for an impulse drone purchase.

Let's at least grab some food...

Before I'd come back, I'd asked Aria what they were eating at the Base Camp. There was a dining hall at the Gathering Hall, sure, but there was no way they could have used it — they hadn't had any Points. Luckily, the Base Camp came stocked with a basic ration of grain and salt, and according to her they'd been surviving on porridge ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠boiled from that. I'd wondered if they'd been starving the whole time, but apparently not.

Still, that's a nutritional disaster, isn't it? They're going to hemorrhage muscle.

Come to think of it, the Aria I'd reunited with today had been a lot dumber than I expected. Had a week of eating garbage fried her brain?

I hopped onto Coupang first and ordered a box of ramyeon, an assortment of retort meals, and a stack of instant rice. Then I hit the hot-deals board and bulk-ordered a mountain of luncheon meat that happened to be on sale. After that I bolted to my closet and stuffed in spare clothes, underwear, a puffer jacket for the cold, and a windbreaker.

Right... their clothes were in pretty rough shape too...

Aria and Kiki's faces from earlier that day floated up in my mind. They'd been wearing the same outfits for a week straight, and after everything that had happened today, those clothes were worn through and torn in more than a few places. Given that our bodies hadn't been restored after coming back from the last mission, I doubted the clothes would magically repair themselves either.

"Aigoo... and I'm already broke..."

I opened Coupang again. Kids' clothes for Kiki went into the cart first. Aria was the problem. What was I supposed to put her in?

Her chest wasn't that big, right? She had a slender build...

I eyeballed the sizes as best I could and tossed in a few sports bras and pairs of panties. For mobility, I added sleeveless tops and dolphin shorts. And of course, I had the good sense to pick the underwear in gray. A puffer jacket for her would have been too expensive, so she could just share mine. On top of all that, I packed the portable gas burner lying around the house, along with cookware and dishes, plus a pile of miscellaneous gear — cut-resistant gloves, an LED flashlight, that sort of thing.

That's enough for now. I need to sleep.

My whole body was throbbing thanks to that son of a bitch Eden and his vines. I showered carefully, crawled into bed, and passed out.

I spent the entire weekend buried in training, then showed up at the office in a reasonably peaceful state of mind. I was waiting for the elevator up to the seventh floor, where I worked, when—

"Manager Minwoo, hiii~"

"Oh? Morning, Assistant Manager Yuna."

Assistant Manager Lee Yuna, from the GUI team. A 28-year-old little shit, way younger than me, and lower-ranked to boot — and yet all she ever did was give me hell. The design was off by a pixel. The sizes were ever so slightly wrong. She was the type who manufactured complaints out of thin air and never stopped riding me about them. That was the Lee Yuna in my head. The complete absence of anything resembling respect for hierarchy was, frankly, infuriating as hell.

Objectively speaking, though, Assistant Manager Lee Yuna was extremely pretty. Last time, some guy she'd gone on a blind date with had even sent flowers to the office. Pretty girls really do have it easy.

"Hmm... Manager."

"What is it?"

"You've been up to something lately, haven't you?"

"......"

No way... does she know I'm a Participant?

"It's just... weird."

"W-what is...?"

Assistant Manager Yuna looked me up and down, studying my face and my body. Sweat beaded on my palms under a crushing wave of tension. Was she a Participant too? Then what was I supposed to do? Pull the sword from the Subspace Bag and jump her?

"You've gotten... kind of handsome lately, haven't you?"

"Excuse me????"

"Have you been going to a dermatologist or something? You just feel... different."

Oh, thank god. I nearly had a heart attack.

"What are you talking about. I don't do that kind of thing. I don't have the money or the time."

Ding!

The elevator arrived with a chime that sounded unnervingly like a system window opening. I flinched in spite of myself. Assistant Manager Yuna, the corner of her mouth curled up just slightly, stepped in and kept staring straight into my eyes even after the doors closed.

"Manager, you've got this idol vibe going. Planning to debut or something?"

"I'm thirty-five."

I paused, then asked her something else.

"Assistant Manager Yuna. You want something from me, don't you?"

There was no way this girl would be handing out compliments for free. People say pretty girls have nice personalities too, but she had never once been this friendly with me.

"Tsk. For someone so suspicious, why can't you be that thorough when you're implementing the designs?"

"What does that have to do with anything..."

Every chance she got, she found a way to take a shot.

"Manager, buy me a meal too."

"Where is this coming from?"

"You bought Juye a meal before, didn't you?"

I did? Oh, right. About a month ago I'd gone to a meeting with the new hire from the UX team and ended up paying for lunch. So much had happened since then that the memory had gone fuzzy.

"Whenever our team asks you to come to a company dinner, all you do is make excuses — you've got to work out, you're on a diet — so why is Juye the only one who gets a free meal?"

"That's because we went to a meeting together and lunchtime just happened to sneak up on us."

"But you didn't split it. You paid."

"Well, Juye's a new hire, and she's young, so..."

"Ah, so I'm too old for you to buy me food?"

"No... that's not what I..."

Please stop. This girl had a genuine gift for draining the life out of people.

"Anyway, buy me one too. You mess up with me all the time, Manager."

"Look, when you're working, things like that just happen..."

"They do not! You get the designs wrong every single time!! Anyway, you're buying!! Buy it!!!"

"Fine, I got it..."

"When?"

"What?"

"When are you buying. Pick a time right now."

Ah... I'm broke, what do I do? I'd blown too much money stuffing the Subspace Bag. I really needed to pinch pennies this week.

"Next week... I'll buy next week... that's when I get paid."

"Next week when?"

"......How's Wednesday?"

"Hmph. So Wednesday's your rest day from working out, I take it?"

How did she know that?

"Manager Minwoo, you're more methodical than you look. Maybe try planning a little when you implement the designs too."

"......"

"Anyway, Wednesday evening! That's a promise. You break it and I swear—"

"Yeah..."

Wait. I never said evening. Dinner menus were way more expensive than lunch. If I tried to change it now, she'd just lose it again, wouldn't she?

Ding!

The elevator stopped at the sixth floor, and Assistant Manager Yuna spun on her heel and strode out. A burst of shampoo scent bloomed in her wake, warm and sweet. From behind, her figure was every bit as impressive as her face. The slender build I liked, pale skin — and her chest was nothing to sneeze at, either.

But why did she want dinner?

Dinner meant there might be drinks involved. I didn't usually drink, but I always ended up having some when the mood called for it. We'd talk over drinks, one thing would lead to another, maybe a little skinship. Then kissing, and then...

And then we'd end up at a motel, and I'd take that girl Lee Yuna and just—

Crack... crack...

"Hhk!"

A strange sensation at my fingertips snapped me back. Yellow lightning was beginning to bloom across my hands.

What the hell?!

I shoved my hands behind my back and forced myself to calm down. The lightning faded almost as quickly as it had come. Hah... Small mercies. But the fact that my condition had gone haywire again was deeply unsettling. Lewd thoughts I wouldn't normally have, and now this yellow lightning on top of it.

Why is this happening... Get a grip...

At this rate, this son of a bitch Primordial Power was going to turn me into an actual sex criminal.

I somehow made it through the rest of the workday, finished my workout, and came home with a lot on my mind.

Hah... I almost got completely fucked earlier...

Primordial Power had leaked out again in the middle of a video call with a client. I thought I was going to pass out. They'd dumped extra development work on us — features that weren't even in the original spec — and then had the gall to insist we hit the same deadline. Naturally I'd tried to renegotiate the timeline. The client wasn't having it.

Then you do it yourself, you crazy bastard!!!!

The client's power trip sent my irritation through the roof, and Primordial Power started seeping out again — bigger this time than it had been in the elevator. I managed to tamp it down fast enough, but when the new hire sitting next to me said he'd heard something sparking somewhere, my heart dropped through the floor.

I can't keep going like this. It's wrecking my actual life.

What if someone saw this yellow lightning? I'd get snatched off the street by men in black suits and wake up in some government basement with my brain on a tray.

It said it responds to emotion and desire.

I was pretty sure a message like that had popped up when Primordial Power first awakened. So it was reasonable to assume the power leaked out whenever my emotions spiked.

I have to control my emotions and my lust...

How?

I fired up the computer, opened YouTube, and furiously searched things like "how to calm your mind" and "how to control your emotions."

Meditation, huh...

There were all kinds of methods, but the one I could actually try right now was settling the mind through meditation. And who was the jackass claiming chamomile tea would help? Did they think I was a sucker? If shoving something in your mouth actually did anything, everyone pounding protein would already be a bodybuilder. Still, just in case, I clicked through a sponsored link and ordered a box of chamomile tea bags.

After that I ran through my sword drills, unrolled a yoga mat, and sat down to meditate. I didn't forget to put on a playlist of calming music, either.

Close your eyes. Relax the body...

I did my best not to think about anything at all. As the minutes stretched, my mind did seem to settle, just a little.

I have no emotions. Joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure are all delusions. Lust, too, is meaningless.

I sat there for a long time, governing my feelings like I'd turned into the Buddha himself — and then something hummed. A low, resonant pulse.

Huh? I can feel something.

A lukewarm heat gathered deep below my navel, in my dantian. Even with my eyes closed, I could see it with perfect clarity: a mass of yellow energy, rippling in my gut. I knew it on instinct.

This is mana. I didn't think meditation would help like this...

I focused again and gave that mana the lightest touch. It hummed, then hummed again. I could feel it rotating — like tossing a stone into a still lake and watching the ripples spread. It was a strange sensation. Something I'd never felt in my entire life. I pushed a little harder.

The mana thrashed, and I felt it trying to break out of my dantian.

Crack! Crack!

"Hhk!"

The moment I felt the lightning leap out of my body, I stopped meditating at once.

So that's how it is...

I had a lead, at least, on how to control this Primordial Power. And from that day on, meditation was added to my training schedule.

After that, the pattern repeated: work like a dog at the office, sweat it out at the gym, run sword drills, and close it out with meditation. Hellishly busy days. But after several days of sticking with the meditation, there was progress. It wasn't perfect, but Primordial Power was leaking out on its own far less often. Being able to call up that yellow lightning at will was a big deal too. I felt like I'd actually be able to use this power in a fight now.

And then time passed, and that day came around again.

"Let's go!"

Flash—!

The Base Camp, one week later. The difference from last time was that the building sitting out there by itself had gotten a little bigger.

That's probably where they live, right?

Aria had said there was a place to eat and a place to sleep here, so that building was almost certainly it. I pushed open the door of the wooden structure and stepped inside.

"What the hell? Where'd they go?"

Nobody was home. I'd told them not to go out if they could help it, and here they were wandering off again. They really didn't listen for shit.

So this is the layout...

The first thing I saw was a wooden table with chairs enough for six, and a kitchen up front. A faint thread of steam was just starting to rise from a large pot of water. As for the overall condition of the place...

It was extremely grim. The facilities themselves didn't feel ancient or falling apart, but the construction was slapdash in every direction. My cheap little apartment that ran me 600,000 won a month had been heaven. I wouldn't want to live here even if they paid me.

"So this is that grain?"

I opened one of the sacks piled in the corner of the kitchen. The grain inside looked a bit like whole wheat. I leaned in for a sniff and got a blast of grassy, raw-plant stink — not a hint of anything toasty or appetizing.

How has anyone been surviving on this...

I opened the Subspace Bag, pulled out the groceries I'd brought from the real world, and stacked them neatly into the storage space. Then I tried one of the two rooms at the far end. It was a barracks, plain and simple.

"Okay, but the condition of this place..."

The layout called up old memories of a military bunkhouse. Of course, compared to this, that bunkhouse was a five-star hotel. A sour reek of mold. Bedding so damp it had gone past clammy into wet. Sleep here long enough and you'd catch the plague, no question.

"Guess I'm buying bedding next time too..."

I tossed the clothes I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bought onto one of the bunks and headed out.

What's this other room for?

I turned the handle of the remaining door.

Creeeak—

The moment it opened, a rush of cold air hit me in the face.

Splashhh!

"Hhh... cold..."

Inside a cramped bathroom, someone was pouring water over themselves in the chill.

"Uh...?"

Dark hair, soaked through, plastered to her back. A pale figure gone even paler from the cold water — and all the more dazzling for it. The naked girl trembled as she turned around.

"Kya— kyaaaaah!!! M-Minwoo...?!"

The instant I came face to face with those completely exposed, defenseless curves—