The Return
The return. A peaceful daily life. The routine of modern people, busy and consistent, as they board crowded subways and buses in the morning to head to work, only to be crushed and exhausted by the grind. The busy day eventually sinks into the night, a time for rest. On the other side of the world, the sun rises, connecting the beginning and the end. It was amidst such a peaceful daily life that a violent anomaly occurred.
"Wh-what is that?!"
"Wow, it’s beautiful."
"Are you kidding me! Do you see that, guys!? Is that for real, for real?!"
Deep, shimmering auroras appeared in long streaks, not just in the polar regions, but all over the world. Where the sun had risen, where the sun had set—it didn't matter. The auroras spread regardless. People with shallow thoughts, looking up at the night sky in South Korea, marveled and raised their phone cameras. Online communities and video platforms were instantly flooded, taking over the trending lists. Those with even a shred of perception stared at the sky in horror.
For several hours, the auroras appeared and disappeared across the globe. The internet overflowed with all sorts of conspiracy theories. During that time, the intellectuals who struggled the most and raised their voices the loudest eventually had to argue with grave expressions until they were forced to utter these words:
'It is a meteorological anomaly.'
Even after exhausting every pedantic academic basis and scientific reasoning to identify the cause, no answer could be found. It was the only thing the world's greatest minds could say. Public broadcasting channels in every country aired emergency news reports stating that a meteorological anomaly had occurred. Most people were convinced by the story that countries around the world were working closely together to find the cause.
However, a minority of people who didn't believe those words—eccentrics called [Amateur Experts]—began to spit and sputter about this unprecedented "bait," leading to a clash where mainstream academia dismissed them as spouting nonsense. Another group of people, different in nature, narrowed their eyes at the announcements and, with distrust, silently went about their own tasks and preparations. It was a massive ripple effect caused by the return of the transmigrators and the summoned who had been rolling through the otherworld.
"Gahk!?"
Crack-! Snap!
My body jolted like a spring. Before I could even regain my senses, blood sprayed from my mouth. I gritted my teeth against my body, which was trembling uncontrollably, beyond my control. I spat out the metallic-tasting blood rising up my esophagus, and as my body shook like a patient suffering from a seizure, I squeezed my eyes shut. In this urgent situation, I observed my body. I opened my eyes wide.
I was shocked that most of the energy and mana that had been overflowing in my body had vanished. At the same time, I spat out another mouthful of blood, prioritizing my head. I desperately continued to observe. Muscles, bones, senses. One by one, I observed the interior of my body and moved the tiny bit of mana left to calm it down—
"Kahk. Kuweaak!"
Blood splattered, staining the dust-covered wall. As the metallic taste surged up, I rolled my body, turning my face toward the floor, and a stream of liquid was expelled from my throat. Dark red blood brushed against the tip of my tongue as it was spat out. It was a dangerous situation by any measure, but even while vomiting violently, I kept my head cool. I abandoned the thought of holding it back and instead actively expelled it, until the vomiting, which felt like it would never end, finally came to a close.
I swished my mouth to spit out the remaining blood residue. Then, I turned my body again to look at the ceiling.
"Damn it."
Almost died the moment I returned. The low, weak words echoed through the room. Rough breathing brushed against my ears, and as my body condition 'at least' improved, I sat up.
Creak- The springs of the neglected bed screamed, but I didn't care. I stood up and looked around. I headed toward the dust-covered computer desk. I rubbed my finger across it.
"Three months...?"
I narrowed my eyes, gauging the amount of dust that had accumulated. Looking around, I moved, dragging my feet through the coldly chilled house. My body felt heavy, as if I were wearing cotton soaked with water. On top of that, it felt like I was wearing weighted bands, and I couldn't muster any strength, like a sick chicken, so I gritted my teeth.
"What is this..."
My muscles hadn't atrophied at all. I gritted my teeth at the shitty sensation, as if I'd been energy-drained, and stepped out of the bedroom. I stared for a long time at the sight of the house, where dust was scattering—a strange sensation where familiarity and unfamiliarity intersected.
"I really am back."
At the weak, strengthless words, something seemed to let go, and I slumped onto the living room sofa. The tiny bit of mana remaining told me this was reality. It told me it was neither a 'hallucination' nor anything else. Furthermore, my [Intuition], used for cross-verification, did not sound an alarm that it was dangerous—
"Wait a minute. Then why did it sound an alarm when I returned?"
I thought deeply about something I hadn't considered because I was so out of it, but as the situation continued where everything was just meaningless noise rather than certain information, I held my breath. After making the noise in my head disappear completely, I uttered a principle.
"Do what I can do right now."
The declaration, spoken by my mouth and heard by my ears, calmed my dizzy head. And while I was thinking about the sounds of electronic devices piercing my ears—sounds similar to the noise emitted by 'otherworld' mana items but with a different texture—I turned my head to look at the refrigerator.
"Ah."
One item came to mind, the only thing I remembered being inside. A beverage from a brand with a black background, stylized with green lime colors and a Taegeuk pattern. Zero sugar cola. Lime flavor. I stood up as if possessed. Dragging my body, which wouldn't move well, I opened the refrigerator door. I swallowed hard at the sight of the canned drinks lined up in two rows. It wasn't that there was no handmade cola or homemade cola. In fact, the guys in the back rooms of the magic tower could make better ones. I shook my head, remembering the colas in bottles from 'that side' that flashed through my memory. But no. I reached out and grabbed the chilled cola. Feeling the biting cold rising from my palm, I popped the lid.
Tssss-!
The sound of cold bubbles rising tickled my ears. I immediately brought it to my lips and poured it into my mouth. The moment the sensation of the cool liquid touched the tip of my tongue, the sweetness of the artificial sweetener, distinctly different from sugar, coated my tongue. Immediately after, I didn't stop pouring it in, despite my throat's protest at the carbonation that stung as it went down.
"Kuaaa-!"
I winced, and the refreshing sensation spread from my head to my toes, making me crush the empty can. The unhealthy taste was enough to make me momentarily forget my heavy body, and even brought tears to my eyes.
"Ha. I'm not even a retard..."
I shook my head, and my brain capacity, which had been allocated to 'survival' due to the sudden situation and body condition, turned its eyes elsewhere once it confirmed safety. 'How much time has passed? To get information, first I should go to the window and look at the sunlight—it's roughly daytime. Then...' All sorts of thoughts passed through. If I wanted to get information at this time, rather than going to a pub, an information guild or... wait a minute...?
"Ah... this isn't Rafdonea...?"
I shook my head at my own stupidity for a moment. Self-reproach could wait. I cleared my thoughts and moved my body. First, I headed to the bedroom to check my phone. I picked up the phone, which was neatly plugged into the charger, and frowned at the text that appeared when I turned on the screen.
[Use fingerprint or enter PIN to unlock]
"....."
'Was it supposed to be the fingerprint here? Why isn't it working? It's the right one, isn't it?' I furrowed my brow, wiped my hand on the bed sheet thinking it might be because of the blood, wiped the phone screen, and tried again, but it wouldn't unlock. I glared fiercely at the phone. If the phone had been a living creature, I would have looked at it with a gaze sharp enough to make it unlock on its own, but unfortunately, the phone was inanimate. While I was glaring at it for a long time, a memory suddenly surfaced, and I reached out into the air to take out the notebook where I had written about 'reality'...
"What?"
This time, a sensation colder than the frustration of the phone not opening brushed against my back. I closed my eyes and focused on the alteration of the [Item Box], commonly known as the inventory, where I felt nothing—not even the contents. There was nothing. The top-tier potions, weapons, food, support items—even the space had shrunk. I continued to focus. I frowned at the items I felt beyond the space, far away, not the space I could use right now. I gritted my teeth as I felt a space far away, like the sky block mode of a square block game in a hazy memory.
"Ah. Aaaaah!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs at the frustrating situation and then ruffled my hair. It was unsolvable right now. So, I pushed the priority back. I concluded that it wasn't gone, but locked, and looked at the phone again.
[Use fingerprint or enter PIN to unlock]
I racked my brain. I glared at this palm-sized machine that couldn't be unlocked with a magic scroll or opened with a lockpick. The number I... I used often was... Ah...!
"0815...!"
I breathed a sigh of relief as the phone unlocked the moment I typed it, and then, like an old man using a phone for the first time, I pressed one thing at a time and exited. The forgotten sensation came back. 'First, let's check the time. The date.'
11:25 AM / June 23rd. I couldn't confirm the year, so I continued searching. With movements 180 degrees different from before, I checked several things. The current year unit hadn't passed. The time was 3 months later. Similar to the amount of dust from earlier. Then, I checked my current funds.
00 Banking [18,325,270 Won]
"Eighteen million won?"
I continued the calculation. If I calculated various utility bills and management fees that I vaguely remembered, it was roughly correct. It was money that seemed little yet much. In my hazy memory, my assets should have been in the hundreds of millions...
"Ah, right. I went to the otherworld less than a month after buying the house, right?"
The thought that was about to become sharp at the surfacing memory subsided. Then, I recognized the leather armor wrapped around my hands and arms.
"Ah. No wonder my body felt heavy..."
I took off the armor made of drake and dragon skin and put it all in my inventory, sighed at my appearance—soaked in all kinds of bodily fluids and black and red blood like a drowned rat—and checked the bed. I shook my head at the illusion that the solid mithril sword lying on the bed was resting like a person, grabbed it with one hand, and tried to lift it—lift... lift. Heavy-
"....."
The sword, whose weight was revealed by the way it dug into the bed, wouldn't budge, and I felt dizzy. I tried with all my might to lift the mithril greatsword, which was light as down compared to the ignorantly hard atium ore, even if it was solid, but it wouldn't lift. I put my partner, which wouldn't budge, into my inventory and sighed. I grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom. The warm stream of water washed away the matted, blood-powder-caked grime here and there, making my body feel languid. I closed my eyes, organized my thoughts, and set the priority of things to do. First—
"I have to contact my family first..."
Family. My mouth shut at the awkward yet affectionate word I often attached to the colleagues I had made on that side, with whom I had built trust beyond credit. I remembered the words I often heard, that we were a family with unusual, strong family ties. I let the lump that rose in my throat, at the hazy but surely held emotions, wash away with the shower stream. I smiled at the end, at the emotion I could finally reach without needing to possess, the warmth of the family I had always formed on that side, which I had felt bitter about not being able to have.