Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Special Benefit
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‘I’ve gotten younger...? Is this the special benefit that goddess was talking about?’
If receiving ten extra years of lifespan counted as a benefit, then sure, you could call it that…
But it still felt a bit—no, a lot—lacking.
‘After all that hell I went through, this is it? No, this is actually a net loss of a year.’
Woojin scowled.
“Hyung, you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit disoriented for a second…”
He felt anemic, too—his body clearly wasn’t in normal shape.
Well, after lying abandoned for a year, it’d be weirder if it was normal.
If only he had a Status Window, he could check exactly how bad off he was.
The moment that word crossed his mind—
Enhancement Lv. 1 (Skills in locked state. Unlock upon level up.)
Locked Skills: Imbue Lv. 1, Inheritance Lv. 1, Breakthrough Lv. 1
Woojin jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the Another Real World Status Window.
‘What the hell? Why’s this here? And… I’ve got more skills? This is huge!’
But he quickly remembered this was reality.
“……”
An Enhancer?
Fine, whatever. The problem was what he could enhance.
In Another Real World, Woojin’s skill only worked on items classified as ‘equipment’—weapons, armor, accessories.
‘This is like pie in the sky…’
What if he’d gotten a healing skill or attack ability he could use without items? Wouldn’t that have been something?
It was a shame.
Sangjin watched Woojin’s expressions shift wildly, his face full of worry.
“……Hyung, this isn’t good. Let’s go to the hospital first. You’re not normal right now.”
Seeing his brother’s concern, Woojin figured he might as well get checked out since things had come to this.
Then a sudden thought hit him.
‘Oh… wait, do we even have money for the hospital…?’
As if.
“Sangjin, I think I’m okay. Let’s just head home.”
“What are you talking about, hyung? You look awful! Of course we’re going to the hospital!”
“Dude… I was out for a year. You think our situation improved any? Forget the hospital. Good food and rest will fix me up. I know my own body. I’m fine.”
“Is it because of the hospital bill?”
“Yeah. If we had hospital money, we’d eat something tasty instead.”
But Sangjin’s next words were shocking.
“Hyung, don’t worry about the hospital bills. The game company’s covering everything.”
“What?”
This wasn’t some barbaric medieval fantasy world.
This was the real world, with laws and systems in place.
“R-Really? Yeah! That makes sense. I was about to go hunt those bastards down myself!”
“Yeah, I looked into it. They’re compensating coma victims—excluding hospital costs—with ten million won per month. So don’t worry about money. Hospital first.”
“Th-Then… a h-hundred-twenty million?”
For Woojin, it was an unimaginable fortune.
Even in the game world, he’d suffered endlessly from lack of money.
Back then, he’d endured solely on the thought of returning home.
But something felt off.
Per month?
“Hey, Sangjin, per month? Someone came back after just a month?”
“A month? People have woken up after a week. Everyone else came back, but you wouldn’t… Do you know how anxious I was?”
Woojin sensed something was wrong.
“Uh… did the people who came back say anything weird?”
“Yeah, they said they got dragged into the game world and came back when they died.”
“!!!”
Woojin felt a massive wave of emptiness at Sangjin’s words.
‘Ha…? Fuck, what? You could come back by dying?’
Korean Hospital Comprehensive Health Check Center.
One of the hospitals operating a special clinic for those who fell into comas due to Another Real World.
‘They must’ve made a filthy amount of money.’
As Woojin thought that, a young doctor delivered his diagnosis.
“You’ve been motionless in that capsule for so long that your muscles have severely atrophied. Start with light walking exercises and rehab therapy, and you should return to normal life without issues.”
“So no major problems with my body?”
“Yes. We’ll need periodic checkups, but based on my assessment, you’re clear. It’s impressive—your body’s this weakened, yet your vitals are near normal human levels. Almost like an Awakener.”
“Awakener?”
The doctor seemed to realize his slip and explained.
“Oh, right, you’ve been out for a year, so you wouldn’t know. About a year ago, superpowered individuals called Awakeners started appearing worldwide. People with physical abilities and superpowers far beyond normal humans. You could look it up online if you’re curious.”
Woojin wondered if the doctor was messing with him and asked again.
“Superpowers? You’re saying people like that started showing up?”
“Yes. Here’s your prescription—pick it up at the counter. Avoid overexerting yourself. Next checkup’s in a month. Shall I schedule it?”
What a coincidence.
‘Superpowered people appeared right when I got sucked into the game world?’
“Mr. Kim Woojin?”
Snapping out of it, Woojin replied.
“Ah, yes. Please do.”
Exiting the exam room, Sangjin was waiting.
“Hyung, how’d it go? All good?”
The only blood relative who worried about him without reason.
He’d punched Woojin right away upon his return, but Woojin knew better than anyone it came from joy.
Woojin placed a hand on his spitting image of a brother’s shoulder.
“Good food and rest, and I’ll be fine, you punk. Let’s go.”
Only then did Sangjin relax.
“That’s why you shouldn’t play crap like that. Turns people’s lives upside down, you damn hyung.”
“You little shit? Hey, you were the one begging to play it, not me!”
“Ha… still, I’m really glad… Ha… I was so scared…”
Sangjin’s sudden words filled Woojin with mixed feelings.
How must his barely twenty-year-old brother have felt back then?
If it had been the other way around, Woojin might’ve stormed the game company with a bomb.
“Anyway, looks like we’re coming into some cash. Wanna hit a samgyeopsal joint on the way home?”
At the mention of samgyeopsal, Sangjin swallowed hard.
With their tight finances and Woojin’s coma on top, he hadn’t eaten out once in the past year.
“S-Samgyeopsal? Can you drink, hyung?”
“Just one shot. Doc said eat well and rest—that counts as eating well with some pork belly, right? Let’s go!”
Woojin and Sangjin took public transport to a pricey honeycomb samgyeopsal spot near home—not their usual cheap daepae place.
“H-Hyung, isn’t this kinda expensive? The daepae place is fine.”
Woojin pitied how Sangjin trembled at this.
“Why’re you shaking over this? Just eat. We’ll be coming to places like this a lot from now on.”
It might seem pathetic over pork belly, but that’s how harsh their lives had been.
‘Back home, and money’s the issue again… 120 million… Big money, but I can’t settle for this.’
Pay off debts with 120 million, use the rest as seed money to make more.
That was Woojin’s plan.
“Hyung, we’ve only got 700,000 won in the bank now… After rent this month, 200,000 left.”
Woojin yelled at his worried brother.
“Argh! You talk too damn much! Sit down, punk! Hyung’ll make the money!”
Woojin plopped at the nearest table, raising his hand high.
“Auntie, honeycomb samgyeopsal for five, soju, a beer each! Oh, and a cola too!”
.
.
.
Sizzle sizzle—
Tsss—
The meat cooked on the round cast-iron grill.
Next to the samgyeopsal, kimchi, bean sprouts, and mushrooms sizzled in pork fat.
Woojin’s heart pounded at the sight of real samgyeopsal after ten years.
And that smell… It was torture on his patience.
‘Smells killer… Q-Quick, I wanna eat! When’s it done?’
“Hey, Sangjin, isn’t it all cooked!?”
“Ah, properly cooked pork or you’re screwed. Your body’s not normal—gonna eat it just ‘cause the color changed?”
“Ha, you’re such a nag.”
“Then eat it raw and drop dead.”
While waiting, Woojin popped the tab on the cola the auntie brought and poured it into a cup.
Shwaaaaa—
The fizzy carbonation bubbled crisply, and Woojin decided cola would be his first real-world food in ages.
‘Couldn’t find this even in death over there.’
Another Real World was medieval bordering on early modern.
Beer and hard liquor existed, but no cola.
Woojin grabbed the cup and downed it in one go.
Gulp gulp gulp—!
“Kruuuuaaaah!!!”
The sharp carbonation drew a groan from him.
Sangjin stared in disbelief.
“Thought you were shooting a cola ad. Why the overreaction over one soda?”
Overwhelmed by the cola bliss, Woojin shivered, pitying Sangjin for not getting it.
“Punk, you don’t know how good this is. Seriously, they gotta sell cola in heaven too.”
“What’s that about?”
The brothers caught up over samgyeopsal and soju shots after so long apart.
Woojin told Sangjin everything honestly, but Sangjin couldn’t believe it.
“Ha? That make any sense? Not just a coma—you spent ten years in another world? But only a year passed here?”
Woojin stuffed a big ssam in his mouth.
“Munch munch, how horth I thuffered in that hell, you athk?”
“Eww, don’t talk with your mouth full. It’s spraying!”
The restaurant bustled at dinnertime, but no one paid them mind. Still, Sangjin whispered.
“Hyung, so the Status Window? You can see that stuff? Does that make you an Awakener?”
Woojin countered instead.
“Oh yeah! Right, that! Awakener? What the hell’s that?”
Sangjin explained: superpowered people appearing around when Woojin fell into his coma.
Gates sometimes opened, spawning game-like monsters, and Awakeners hunted them professionally.
“What? Gates? That crap exists too?”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t know. World’s getting chaotic. News says gates are more frequent—nobody knows what’s next.”
Woojin didn’t like it.
“Ha… annoying. Barely back, and Earth’s like this? It won’t turn into a game world, right?”
Sangjin downed a shot and replied.
“Doubt it… Anyway, your power’s called Enhancement? Like item enhancement in games?”
Woojin shrugged it off.
“Yeah, that one. The +1, +2 stuff. Weird power—if combat guys hadn’t babied me, I could’ve come home sooner. Why force me to see the ending?”
“Your fate, hyung. Can you do it now?”
“Nah, only weapons, armor, accessories…”
Mid-sentence, Woojin spotted something odd in his skill list.
In the game, his skills were split: Weapon Enhancement, Armor Enhancement, Accessory Enhancement.
Now they’d merged into one skill.
A hypothesis flashed in Woojin’s mind.
‘Wait…? Don’t tell me?’