Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Awakening After Five Years
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By the way, Su-hyeok had encountered yokai before. In the first place, some of the items used in the ritual to bring him back to Earth had belonged to yokai or demon beasts.
Of course, the vast majority of such beings had been sent straight to King Yama on an express bus, just like the ghosts.
'Divine beast? Magical beast?'
Of course not. The semi-transparent window before his eyes couldn't be classified as a 'living creature' no matter how you looked at it. He was simply lost in all sorts of delirious thoughts due to his muddled mind.
'Formation? Illusion spell? Curse?'
The next thought seemed somewhat plausible.
'Am I being toyed with by that Black Mountain Man bastard right now? Did I fall for some formation and mistakenly think I'd returned home, celebrating alone while that Black Mountain Man fucker laughs at the pathetic sight?'
Once he got out, he'd twist the wrists that cast the illusion spell and bind them tight with rope, not untying them for three days and nights.
He thought that far, but soon Su-hyeok shook his head.
As mentioned before, he was the top martial artist of the Illusion Continent, capable of overwhelming countless bizarre and illusory phenomena with a single martial art. There was no way Black Mountain Man could wield an illusion spell capable of fooling him to this degree. The same went for formations or curses. He was even more confident in these, as they primarily affected the mind rather than the body.
"Haa..."
Su-hyeok lay back down for the time being.
He needed to sort out his thoughts.
First, he checked the name tag by the bedside.
Yang Su-hyeok.
'That's my name.'
No room for doubt.
The landscape was utterly unlike the Illusion Continent and could only be Earth, complete with Hangul letters symbolizing Korea.
There was much more he wanted to verify, but he still couldn't fully sit up.
At best, he could raise his upper body like doing a sit-up on the bed.
'I'll know by morning, I suppose.'
It was still night.
No one was around, and the hospital room was quiet.
He considered calling a nurse as he'd first thought, but in his current muddled state of mind, talking might only make things worse. Su-hyeok, who had grown through all sorts of hardships on the Illusion Continent, now possessed a strong wariness that hadn't existed back on Earth.
'First, sort out my thoughts.'
And recover his wrecked body as much as possible overnight.
The Nature Primordial Art was perfect for this.
After the first Minor Circulation, it could be circulated without much focus.
The semi-transparent window flickering before his eyes was annoying, but he could consciously ignore it well enough.
No, it was simple—just close his eyes.
'Damn, it's still visible.'
Su-hyeok let out an inward chuckle at the semi-transparent window, clear even beneath his closed eyelids.
[Semi-transparent window] 'Honestly, I wish it'd just disappear.'
It was the moment that lament escaped him.
The semi-transparent window floating before his eyes vanished without a trace.
"Huh?"
Surprised, Su-hyeok voiced his doubt and opened his eyes wide.
It was the darkness of night.
The eerie semi-transparent window that had flickered there was gone.
'Force Status?'
⚙ FORCE STATUS ⚙ [Window open] It was the instant the thought crossed his mind.
The semi-transparent window reappeared before his eyes.
"Indeed..."
He had grasped a new principle.
Grinning at the unexpected discovery, Su-hyeok waved his hand.
'Disappear?'
The "Force Status" flickering before him vanished.
He'd gone through needless hardship over something trivial.
That didn't change his initial goal, however.
'Wait until morning for now.'
He closed his eyes and circulated the Nature Primordial Art.
Beyond that, he needed to ponder why this bizarre phenomenon was occurring.
Time flew by.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Su-hyeok continued operating the Nature Primordial Art until early morning, mulling over his incomprehensible current situation.
And he realized one fact.
'IV drip—what is this? It's like a mid-grade elixir!'
Wondering why the Nature Primordial Art was proving unusually effective, he focused his awareness and felt the energy amplifying from the IV flowing through the needle in his arm. The moment he realized this, he concentrated the Nature Primordial Art on the IV's flow on a hunch, yielding an even more astonishing effect.
With the stable Nature Primordial Art—which aided physical growth but had little effect on radical qi cultivation—he accumulated inner energy equivalent to half the tip of a pinky nail in one go.
Don't underestimate it.
Even half a pinky nail tip's worth was inner energy.
By Illusion Continent standards, it was about half a year's accumulation.
Gaining this much from a single night of circulation was truly remarkable.
What was even more impressive was obtaining it from a plain IV drip.
'If I use this well, I might recover my qi quite quickly?'
It was just a hypothesis for now, but if modern medicine aided martial arts cultivation, Su-hyeok could swiftly catch up to his achievements from the Illusion Continent.
'Just thinking about it feels great.'
He was reveling in the thought alone when...
The hospital room door opened.
The presence was faint.
'Three?'
Su-hyeok, who had assumed doctors and nurses would arrive together for early morning rounds, couldn't hide his surprise.
'Even a three-person hospital would be considered decent, but...'
This was one of Seoul's top five university hospitals.
They wouldn't skimp on patient care.
Come to think of it, there was more than one oddity.
'Why isn't anyone else awake?'
It was morning, with the sun already up.
Even lazy patients or those short on sleep should be up and about by now. Not even one going to the bathroom midway.
Rather than dwell further, Su-hyeok decided to confirm with his own eyes.
There were limits to sensing presences alone, with his qi sense not fully awakened.
The first thing he saw was busy nurses checking patients' conditions and changing incontinence pads, moving with practiced efficiency.
It looked orderly and familiar.
"Somehow, this feels off..."
It was the moment Su-hyeok unwittingly muttered to himself.
A middle-aged nurse checking another patient directly across suddenly startled and looked his way.
Their eyes met, and thinking it a good opportunity, Su-hyeok slightly raised his hand.
"Ah, excuse me..."
Before he could finish.
"Patient Yang Su-hyeok—you're awake!"
"What?!"
At the fairly loud voice, the heads of the other two nurses tending patients whipped around simultaneously.
Their eyes were filled with shock, just like hers.
"I'll call the doctor!"
"My goodness!"
The orderly nurses fell into brief panic before bustling about again.
The nurse whose eyes had met Su-hyeok's first rushed out of the room, while one of the remaining nurses approached him and pried open his pupils. His eyes stung a bit.
The nurse's face drawing too close was burdensome, so Su-hyeok carefully tilted his head back to create distance.
"Hm... Mr. Yang Su-hyeok?"
The somewhat flustered nurse asked.
"Yes."
"Are you alright?"
"Yes. I feel perfectly fine."
He'd been briefly startled by the nurses' reactions and the weird things appearing before his eyes, but overall, his body felt much better than when he'd first woken.
"My goodness. Your consciousness is fully back."
Was that such a surprising thing?
If it was, how long had he been out?
Sudden worry flooded him.
"Excuse me, Nurse Sis. Sorry, but could I ask one question?"
"Yes. Go ahead."
"What year is it now?"
As if fully understanding his line of thinking, the nurse nodded and replied.
"Ah, it's 2028. It's been five years since you lost consciousness, Mr. Yang."
"Ah... That damn Black Mountain Man bastard."
The instant he heard the year, Su-hyeok's mind reeled. It was far too different from his original plan.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. Don't worry about it."
Su-hyeok shook his hand dismissively, a deep sigh pouring from his lips.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After the sigh, Su-hyeok abruptly fell silent.
More precisely, his mind was too tangled for words to come easily.
"Mr. Yang Su-hyeok?"
The nurse kept calling out worriedly, but he still didn't respond.
She worried he might have lost consciousness again, but his slightly dazed, trembling pupils clearly indicated he was still aware.
"Mr. Yang Su-hyeok?"
The doctor who rushed in breathlessly said the same.
With no reply, the doctor's brow furrowed deeply.
"Is he really conscious?"
The nurse, who had been observing Su-hyeok closely, nodded vigorously.
"Yes. He was just talking to me. And his eyes are open like that..."
To the flustered nurse, the doctor—who had approached right in front of Su-hyeok—asked once more.
"Mr. Yang Su-hyeok, can you hear me?"
"We've contacted your family.
They're on their way to the hospital soon."
Family.
That word snapped Su-hyeok's mind back to attention.
Five unexpected years had passed.
Surely there had been changes in his family too.
'Black Mountain Man bastard—didn't he say he'd return all the time I lost intact?'
It was a complete lie.
Five years was no short gap.
Moreover, it meant Black Mountain Man's bold claim had failed.
If things had gone wrong, the spell itself could have backfired—he'd nearly died.
'My mistake for trusting that liar.'
One of Black Mountain Man's nicknames as the Illusion Continent's top sorcerer was "Beolgu"—meaning "lie," from his penchant for pranks and exaggerations. His skills were real, so Su-hyeok had trusted him, but in hindsight, it had been a dangerous gamble.
'If I could return to the Illusion Continent, I'd wring that bastard's neck.'
What meaning was there in that?
He was already back on Earth.
He had no desire to go back to the Illusion Continent. Venting at someone in another world would only hurt himself.
"Whew..."
In the end, a deep sigh escaped him, drawing a glint of light to the doctor's eyes.
"Mr. Yang Su-hyeok."
"When did they say they'd arrive?"
"They just left."
The doctor replied with a bright smile.
It was a short exchange, but Su-hyeok's regained consciousness was clear.
His physical condition didn't look bad either.
"Let's do a quick checkup first. Most victims who lost consciousness after the Portal Impact complain of pain upon waking."
"Portal Impact?"
The doctor nodded as if fully accepting Su-hyeok's confusion.
"It's the event where gates to other dimensions opened on Earth.
The world is very different from the one you remember, Mr. Yang. We'll talk about that later."
He'd half-expected it after seeing the bizarre semi-transparent window last night, but the world had changed.
Just what form it had taken, he couldn't guess.
'Gates to other dimensions? And there are many patients like me who lost and regained consciousness? Did they all return from other continents too?'
And now the world was accustomed to dimension travel?
Then what did that make Su-hyeok, who had come from the Illusion Continent?
Questions piled up, but Su-hyeok didn't voice them first.
"Yes."
He simply nodded briefly in response.