The Nest
The white room was utterly empty. Roughly a hundred pyeong in size, its floor, walls, and ceiling were all pure white, erasing any sense of perspective or depth. It was the phenomenon known as a whiteout. I’d heard it happened in places like Antarctica, but I’d never been there, so I couldn’t say for sure.
“This isn’t some psych ward.”
Shaking my head, I waved my hand. The scenery shifted, and the space transformed into a dense primeval forest under a steady drizzle. I disliked getting wet, so I conjured a tent, camping chairs, and a campfire. I adjusted the temperature so the fire’s warmth felt pleasant rather than stifling. I added a simple table at a comfortable height and placed a laptop on it.
This place was originally called a seonbang in the Korean temple style, but everyone just called it the Nest now. The story went that some Awakener had turned their avatar into a dragon and decorated the space like a dragon’s lair. That was how it started. Here, everything bent to an Awakener’s will. Within their own Nest, they wielded near-omnipotent authority, so Awakeners customized their spaces to match their tastes. I set mine up simply and booted up the laptop. A familiar messenger UI appeared.
This, too, was shaped by an Awakener’s will. If I wanted, I could communicate by sending messenger pigeons instead of using a laptop. I went into Settings, then Security, and checked my account status.
Call Sign: Private
Name: Private
Followers: Hidden
Following: Hidden
Online Status: Hidden
Recommend Me: Hidden
Direct Messages: Enabled
Voice Call: Enabled
Video Call: Enabled
Door Lock: Locked
Ads: Blocked
The defaults looked fine. “Let’s see.”
Friends List: None
Made sense. This was my first time logging in since regressing. Of course there were no friends.
Recently Contacted Awakeners:
Bloody Mary — Online
Shylock — Online
Iron Blood — Online
Figures. They were all Awakeners, so they were online at this hour. Because I’d set Recommend Me and Online Status to Hidden, no one else could tell I was connected. I didn’t have a call sign yet, so I picked a quick nickname: PeakSupp. Hunter Link allowed anonymous activity anyway, and you could make as many accounts as you wanted. No need to overthink a name. PeakSupp. Roughly meant “the greatest supporter of all time.” Of course, the word “supporter” made my teeth grind. I had zero intention of ever playing support again, cleaning up after others. But in my previous life, I had undeniably been the best supporter there ever was, and I still took pride in that. Enough pride to use a nickname as arrogant as PeakSupp.
Click. I selected Choi Yoo-ra’s call sign, Bloody Mary, and sent a DM.
She had a point. Logging into Hunter Link was easy, but it took at least a month to get comfortable with it.
Ding!
[Bloody Mary] has invited you to their Nest.
Do you accept?
YES / NO
An invitation. Her intent was obvious. Visiting another Awakener’s Nest without knowing what you were doing was extremely dangerous. Once again, within their own Nest, an Awakener was omnipotent. That meant they could attack another Awakener and inflict mental damage. It was common for clueless newbies to get wrecked after visiting a high-rank Awakener’s Nest. In severe cases, they ended up mentally tortured and driven insane.
Cute.
Even a larva had its limits when trying to act tough. For now, I decided to play along and pretend I didn’t know any better.
You have accepted the invitation!
Transferring to [Bloody Mary]’s Nest in 3 seconds!
Three, two, one.
Flash!
I arrived in Choi Yoo-ra’s Nest.
* * *
Choi Yoo-ra’s Nest was bleak. It looked like the inside of an abandoned building, with just a bed, table, and chairs. A large brazier made from a discarded oil drum burned scrap wood, and a faint smell of kerosene stung my nose. Overall, it felt like some hideout straight out of an American drama or movie. What caught my eye, though, were the photos plastered across one wall. Among them was a picture of a young Choi Yoo-ra in school uniform, smiling brightly while riding a motorcycle with a handsome-looking thug. There was also a photo of the Godfather with a military bayonet stabbed into it.
“What are you looking at? Think you can just snoop around someone else’s Nest?”
Choi Yoo-ra, who had been sitting at the table reading a notebook, waved her hand in annoyance and made the photos on the wall disappear.
“You invite me over and then say that? Don’t you feel any shame? I do have eyes, you know.”
“Shut up.”
Choi Yoo-ra snapped back, then stood up from the desk and pointed at the table.
“Sit.”
“Sure.”
“Beer? Whiskey?”
“I’m good.”
“Suit yourself.”
Choi Yoo-ra conjured a highball, took a sip, then pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
“Haa.”
“In front of a non-smoker, too.”
“So what? This isn’t reality anyway.”
“True.”
Choi Yoo-ra smoked in silence for a while, then stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray and cut straight to the point.
“How did you know?”
“There are ways to know everything.”
“That’s not the answer I want.”
“How do you live only hearing the answers you want?”
“If you came here to play word games, you’re going to regret it.”
Clatter!
Chains suddenly lashed out and wrapped around me.
“With one flick of my finger, you’ll be begging me to kill you. You’ll suffer unimaginable pain. And just so you know, that pain carries over to reality. Remember that.”
“Is this why you invited me to your Nest?”
“Of course.”
“Ugh.”
I sighed and waved my hand. The chains binding me vanished without a trace.
“……!”
Choi Yoo-ra’s face hardened like stone. She looked genuinely shocked. But it was still too early for that.
“How about this?”
Tap. I snapped my fingers, and a swarm of thousands of bees appeared, circling her.
Buzz! The sound of their wings was menacing.
“With one flick of my finger, you’d become a literal beehive. You’d suffer unimaginable pain and beg me to kill you. No need to mention that the pain carries over to reality, right?”
“H-how?”
She looked like she’d seen a ghost. It was only natural. The absolute law that an Awakener was omnipotent inside their Nest had just been shattered. Choi Yoo-ra only knew half the truth. While the owner ruled their Nest, that only applied to opponents of equal standing. High-rank Awakeners—rankers—could easily cause chaos inside another Awakener’s Nest. This had nothing to do with current rank or combat power, so even I, a mere 1-star Awakener, could exert my strength here.
How did I know? I’d sensed it while decorating my own Nest. In reality I was just a 1-star, but inside Hunter Link, I still possessed the presence of my past ranker days. On top of that, as a former ranker, my influence inside Hunter Link was unusually strong.
“Inviting a guest over and then pulling this? Real hospitable.”
“Th-that’s impossible.”
“It’s possible.”
Buzz. I directed a single bee to sting the back of Choi Yoo-ra’s hand.
“Ugh!”
She winced, clutching her hand with a pained expression.
“Stings, doesn’t it?”
“How did you do that? Who the hell are you? Nngh.”
Her hand had already swollen up in seconds. She gripped it tightly.
“Throbbing?”
“How did you do it?”
“Trade secret. Can’t tell you.”
I waved my hand again, dispersing the swarm and healing the sting on her hand. Pushing her any further would only cause me trouble. I might be absolute here, but in reality I was the weak one. A 1-star making an enemy of a 4-star? I could end up as a corpse somewhere without warning.
“Now that you’ve had a taste, you won’t try anything stupid again, right?”
“……”
Choi Yoo-ra said nothing. I ignored her and continued.
“Like I said, I can’t tell you where I got the information. So don’t ask anymore.”
“You call that an answer…?”
“You just need to take down the Godfather and the Incheon Union anyway, don’t you?”
Choi Yoo-ra pressed her lips into a tight line.
“I’ll help you. For now, just focus on growing quietly. Don’t go picking fights with rankers and drawing aggro.”
“What do you know?”
“Well. I may not know everything, but I think I know how your future turns out.”
In my memories, Choi Yoo-ra would eventually die fighting the Incheon Union. I didn’t know exactly how. One day she simply vanished without a trace. When she reappeared, she was a corpse hanging from Incheon Bridge.
“I’ll help you take down the Godfather and the Incheon Union. How about we work together?”
“You? With your level?”
“Level? That’s a bit harsh, but I’ll let it slide since I’m only 1-star right now.”
“At least you know your place.”
“I’ve got that much conscience. Anyway, I can’t explain the method right now. You’ll find out in time.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“If you’re not an idiot, then just wait and see.”
“Hmm.”
Choi Yoo-ra seemed to think for a moment, then spoke.
“Then what do you want? You must want something, or you wouldn’t be doing this.”
“Yeah, there is something I want.”
“What is it?”
“Carry me on a bus.”