Chapter 5
He hated the thought of that enough to keep his mouth shut. The safest conclusion, he decided, was to act as if none of it had ever happened.
“Still… this is something else.”
There was one more absurd detail. It had to do with time.
He had clearly spent a full day in that place. He’d had a vague sense that time was moving a little faster there, but when he compared it to time on this side, “a little faster” didn’t begin to cover it. A whole day over there had amounted to roughly ten minutes here.
He hadn’t noticed at first. It only clicked after he’d finished his bath and sat down in front of the TV. He had stepped into the portal the previous evening around seven. When he came back, it was about ten past seven. For a moment he’d wondered if a full day had slipped by—then the news told him otherwise. One day in that world was barely ten minutes in this one.
The gap was staggering. Ten minutes here meant a full day there. An hour here was roughly six days there. A single day on this side stretched into a hundred and forty-four days on the other. It was an enormous difference—something he’d only ever heard about in the context of outer space. The thought occurred to him that the place might be a planet somewhere out among the stars, which would explain why time flowed so completely differently. He was curious how it worked, but he had no desire to go back. Adventure and exploration sounded appealing in theory; in practice, he didn’t want them. Spending a whole night fighting for his life had cured him of that urge for the moment.
Han Yaseong lay on his bed, pulled the blanket close, and drifted off in its warmth.
Months passed, and that brought him to the present.
He stood in the attic, staring at the portal, hesitating. Maybe he shouldn’t go. He might end up suffering all over again. Staying put was easier on the body, at least. His mind might grow restless, but nothing here was going to put him through physical hell.
He wrestled with it for a long while, then shook his head, gathered his gear in both hands, and climbed into the attic. There was nothing for him to do here anyway. He could stay a few days and come back. He’d packed enough food to treat it like a camping trip in the mountains.
Drawing a sharp breath, Han Yaseong threw himself into the portal.
Thud!
“Ow…”
The transfer itself was fine. The problem was that he always arrived face-first. Wincing at the ache in his knees, he lifted his head and found the same forest he remembered—except it was winter now. Everything lay buried under a blanket of white snow.
“So it’s winter here…”
He got to his feet and looked around. The cold wasn’t as bad as he’d expected—maybe four or five degrees below freezing. This time he’d come prepared. Freezing to death wasn’t on the agenda.
Still carrying his packs, he made his way toward the old hollow among the roots. After clearing the snow and ducking inside, he found it cool and still. The space looked much the same, though something about it felt aged. Faint traces of his previous stay lingered, and he could still make out the buried remains of the fire pit he’d covered with earth. A few months on his end would have been decades here. The fact that nothing major had changed suggested nothing else had come through in the meantime.
“Missed you.”
He smiled and greeted the root hollow. The camping trip started now. He spread a blanket in one corner, unpacked the pot, the burner, the food, and set everything in order. This was his base now. It deserved to be kept neat. He gathered the old, burned-out firewood, dumped it outside, and brought in a fresh supply. With a lighter and some fuel on hand, getting a fire going was almost effortless—nothing like last time. Once the flames were steady, he stepped back outside.
“Is this place empty of living things?”
He’d seen the occasional nameless insect, but never a bird or a wild animal. No humans, no aliens either—yet the shattered pillars made it hard to believe nothing intelligent had ever lived here. They were the remains of architecture, after all. Judging by how long they had lain ruined, he had a feeling there might have been a war. If natural disaster had been responsible, the surrounding forest would hardly have survived intact. Someone had deliberately wrecked the structure around those pillars. From the look of what was left, a temple of some kind might once have stood there. Now only the roots of the columns remained.
Night fell quickly. Han Yaseong boiled a little water and ate a cup of instant noodles. There was a certain charm to it—this was camping in the purest sense. No people, no noise. Perfect for settling in. He’d worn a wristwatch to track the time, but it had stopped, so he was left guessing by feel. Roughly three or four hours had passed since his arrival. Back home, that meant a minute or two. A full week here would barely register as an hour on the other side. The time gap was truly severe.
Night had come; tomorrow he would explore the surroundings. His chest tightened with excitement. The thought of actually going on the kind of expedition he’d only ever dreamed about left him tense and thrilled at once. It almost felt as if his life were about to change. Hoping for plenty of interesting discoveries, Han Yaseong closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
The next morning, after a solid breakfast, he set out to wander. Fortunately, there were no dangerous wild animals. Nothing among the plants looked threatening either. Deeper into the forest, small creatures like squirrels appeared and simply stared at him, blank-faced. They had never seen a human before, or else they had no instinct to run. A few even came closer, tilting their heads as if he were the curiosity. The sight drew a laugh out of him. This was a peaceful place. Forest everywhere he looked, and only small herbivores in sight. He was grateful for the absence of predators.
He kept roaming through the woods, picking the occasional tree fruit. Afraid of poison, he didn’t eat any—he just stuffed them into his pockets—but watching the little animals harvest and devour them made him think they might be edible after all. By midday he headed back to his shelter. While the noodle water boiled, it occurred to him that this place didn’t feel like some utterly alien planet. The ecology was almost identical to Earth’s. The trees, the forest, the small animals—they differed only in small details. Nothing so strange that a person would get confused. It looked livable enough for a human being. Still, caution was wise. Go deep enough into the forest and something like a tiger or a wolf might be waiting. That risk kept him from pushing too far inward. He stuck to the near woods, gathering flowers and fruit as he went.
A week passed that way.
“Haaah…”
Han Yaseong woke, stepped out to the entrance, and stretched hard. The air here was astonishingly fresh. Every breath felt as if it were making him healthier. Live only here, and he might reach a hundred without a day of sickness. It was a world apart from the air of downtown Seoul. After a week in this place his appetite had improved, and so had everything else. It was as if his body were being purified. Even a serious illness, he thought, might clear up just from living here. That was how good the place was for a person.
“You guys again, huh?”
He smiled down at the ground. The little squirrel-like animals had gathered, tilting their heads at him. After he’d fed them a few times on his walks, they had started coming on their own. He ducked back inside, broke off a chocolate bar, and brought it out. The moment they saw it in his hand they darted forward. Completely hooked on the sweetness, they leapt and scrambled around him, frantic. Laughing, he broke the bar into pieces and handed them out. The animals snatched them up in a blink and scattered in every direction.
“Careful, you lot. You don’t want diabetes…”
A flicker of worry crossed his mind—maybe starting them on sweets had been a bad idea. Sugar tasted good, but it wasn’t kind to the body.
He collected his wash kit and headed into the forest. A small stream ran through one corner of the woods, water so clean he drank from it and washed in it. Smaller animals came there too, to drink or rinse their wounds. At the stream he filled a cup and drank first.
“Ahhh…”
The water was incredible—beyond anything words could capture. The instant it hit his stomach, a low gurgle answered. He hurried into the trees, dropped his pants, and a moment later relief came in full. Drinking that water emptied him completely, right down to whatever had been stuck for years. The only downside was the smell. When he finished, he scooped earth over it. Sick people, he thought, would do well living here. At the same time, another thought settled in: he must never tell anyone about this place. Develop it under the banner of “pioneering,” and it would be ruined. If the government found out, they would strip it for resources and poison it without a second thought. So he would tell no one. He wanted this world left exactly as it was.
He brushed his teeth, washed his face, and returned to the shelter. Today was the day he went home. After roughly a week, his food was nearly gone and he was out of clean underwear. It had only been a week, but he had packed more living into it than he ever did at home. Camping like this once or twice a month would be fine. Still, a little greed was hard to kill. What lay beyond that vast forest? People? Aliens? Predators? The questions piled up. He was curious—but leaving the forest was still too much. One real beast would be enough to kill him. To go beyond, he needed to prepare properly. Once he got home, he planned to find a combat gym of some kind. He meant to learn how to handle a blade as well. Only when he could protect himself would he think about stepping past the trees.