The Price of Power
The dizzying wave of confusion and bewilderment lingered for a long time before it finally began to settle. Even then, it never fully disappeared. Given the situation unfolding right before his eyes, that was only natural.
‘I died… but I’m not dead?’
That was the only way to describe it. Below the silver text floating in front of him lay the various gold trinkets he had greedily harvested from the jewelry shop.
They were close enough to reach with a simple stretch of his hand, so Han Yujin instinctively moved to grab them. But just before his fingers made contact, he froze.
He had realized on instinct that this “harvest selection” was not free.
It seemed he had to pay some kind of price to obtain them, and the nature of that price was extremely peculiar.
Anyone who awakened an ability instinctively came to understand part of its identity and operating principles. It was like how a person naturally knows how to move their arms and legs.
If an awakened ability could not be understood or controlled at all, it would have been nothing short of a disaster.
Thanks to that, Han Yujin was able to grasp the cost of the harvest selection simply by thinking it over carefully.
‘Karma.’
Or it could be called “karma” in the Buddhist sense. It was an incredibly abstract concept, but if he had to put it simply, it was the total amount of change a being had caused in the universe—a kind of energy that allowed one to carve out their own destiny.
Therefore, selecting a harvest here was an act of using that energy in a very clear and direct way.
Han Yujin hesitated for several minutes before finally lowering his outstretched hand. Trading such an important form of energy for mere gold trinkets felt like far too great a loss.
‘I can use it more wisely.’
Better to obtain a fishing rod than a single fish. That way, he wouldn’t just fill his stomach for one day—he could eat well for a lifetime.
To do that, he needed to properly explore the identity of his newly awakened ability. He couldn’t make proper plans without understanding what he was working with.
Just as he thought it would be best to leave this place for now—
He opened his eyes and woke from the dream.
“······.”
After lying still for a moment, he reached beside his pillow, turned on his smartphone screen, and checked the time.
It looked like he had slept for about six hours. The ratio of time didn’t match his previous experience at all, yet strangely, it felt completely normal.
It was probably because he had instinctively come to understand a little more about his awakened ability.
The more he truly felt that he had awakened, the more his heart raced and his mood soared. But instead of getting wildly excited, Han Yujin remained lying down and began analyzing his ability.
He stayed perfectly still in that state of extreme focus for several hours.
Only when his stomach growled and his blood sugar dropped, leaving him feeling drained, did Han Yujin finally sit up. The time had passed midnight, and the sky outside the window was beginning to brighten faintly.
He wolfed down a quick bowl of ramen, then sat in his computer chair to review everything he had discovered so far.
The awakened ability he had painstakingly analyzed was truly special and astonishing.
It was like the dimension travel from novels. He could explore other worlds, death itself posed no real threat, and by consuming Karma he could bring the results of his explorations into reality.
Moreover, the other worlds weren’t chosen randomly—they seemed to be selected according to his own desires.
‘The reason I ended up in that post-apocalyptic Earth… must be because I wanted to make money easily and quickly.’
Right before falling asleep, he had been envious of a middle school classmate who seemed to be living a luxurious life as a hunter. Not because of the ability itself, but because that ability allowed him to earn an enormous amount of money. Social fame was just a bonus.
Indeed, that ruined world had been the perfect place to earn money easily and quickly. All he had to do was pick up ownerless valuables like gold trinkets that were scattered everywhere.
But luck and misfortune are two sides of the same coin, and opportunity always comes hand in hand with crisis.
To earn money easily and quickly, there had to be a proportional price. In this case, the price had been the risk of dying in an instant.
‘And even if that risk hadn’t existed, I would still have to pay the price of Karma when selecting the harvest.’
In short, there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Even if something looked free at first glance, a closer look would always reveal that it wasn’t.
Anyway.
The next thing he had discovered was related to time.
No matter how long he spent in another world through his ability, only the time it took to take a nap and wake up would pass here. However, the time spent in the other world would reduce his lifespan by the same amount.
‘They say time is money, so of course it wouldn’t be free.’
This was enough information for now.
It was time to think about how to use this ability to make his life both prosperous and meaningful.
‘Reporting the awakening right away feels a bit…’
The ability was so unique that explaining it would be difficult. Besides, he didn’t particularly want to explain it in detail. It felt like he would be exposing himself far too much.
If he could obtain other abilities based on this awakened one, he could report those instead and become a hunter. That seemed like a much better plan.
Han Yujin sat in his chair and pondered for a long time. He even turned on his computer and used tools like a notepad.
The more he organized his thoughts, the clearer they became, and options started to emerge.
‘They can be broadly divided into material and non-material things.’
For example.
Powerful sci-fi weapons, fantasy tools imbued with magic, or potions that could grant superpowers upon consumption would be material items.
Blueprints that would allow him to create sci-fi weapons, training methods to learn magic, or recipes for potions that could contain the power of special ingredients would be non-material.
Whether he could actually obtain such things remained to be seen…
‘But it probably isn’t completely impossible.’
In the hunters’ main duty of “rift handling,” all sorts of special objects and knowledge appeared. Most of the ideas Han Yujin had come up with were based on those.
In reality, injection-type weapons with a sci-fi feel had been discovered and caused a stir before. Objects containing power worthy of being called magic appeared quite commonly, and knowledge on how to handle or create them was discovered fairly often as well.
Whether they were useful or not was beside the point. The important thing was that they existed.
‘With my ability…’
The more he thought about it, the more Han Yujin’s mind leaned in one direction.
‘I can bring objects through harvest selection, but it costs Karma.’
Knowledge, on the other hand, did not.
Since experiencing something would become knowledge, the only cost was the lifespan equal to the time consumed.
It was truly unknown. He might even be able to learn knowledge that would allow him to awaken and cultivate abilities through his own power rather than by coincidence.
‘Even if it’s an object, as long as it’s efficient enough, it’s fine.’
What if there was a potion that, upon simple consumption, granted the power to shatter mountains and part oceans?
He would obviously have to bring it into reality even if it cost all his Karma. After all, he could always accumulate more Karma later.
It was a kind of investment. If he gained great power, he could cause even more change in the world, which would in turn return an equivalent amount of Karma.
When he thought of it that way, simply hoarding Karma started to feel foolish.
‘It would be like stuffing money in a bank account and never using it.’
He would need to think more carefully about this.
But for now, it was time to take action. Contemplation had to be based on experience. If he just stayed cooped up in his room, most of it would remain nothing but idle fantasy.
He wasn’t tired at all since he had only been awake a short while, but Han Yujin still lay down on his bed. He closed his eyes and tried to activate his ability.
It was a little difficult, yet at the same time, it didn’t feel difficult at all.
At some point—
He fell asleep in an instant, as if a button had been pressed.
It was that space again.
Darkness stretched in every direction, and before him stood doors that shifted endlessly through countless shapes. Fortunately, it wasn’t as hazy as it had been during his first visit.
“Ah, ah—”
When he tested his voice, the sound vanished as if being swallowed. He found it fascinating. The fact that it didn’t feel unpleasant at all, but rather very comfortable, made it even more so.
After exploring the mysterious place to his heart’s content, Han Yujin stood before the ever-changing door. Just as he had planned before, he focused on his desire and reached out his hand.
A cold sensation spread across his palm, followed by the familiar resonant sound.
The fixed shape of the door had a distinctly fantasy-like feel.
It was arched overall, with a metal frame and the interior filled with brilliantly colored crystals. The glossy black metal embedded in the center looked like an upside-down tree.
“······.”
Despite its gorgeous design, the more he looked at it, the more it gave him chills.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, silver text rose upward.
Understanding the meaning naturally brought surprise. The “demon” here was unlikely to be as romantic or cool as the ones usually depicted in media.
On the contrary, there was a very high chance it would show why demons were called demons, just how cruel and wicked they were, and how their followers committed atrocities without hesitation.
‘Did I wish to become strong too easily again…?’
It seemed that was the case.
Still, it felt a little wasteful to turn back now. As he had experienced before, he possessed an ability that could even nullify death. If he avoided entering just because it felt ominous, he would end up wasting five or six hours of real time for nothing.
He couldn’t let himself be scared off by something like this.
Having made up his mind, Han Yujin pushed the door open with force.
Before he could even properly take in the scenery visible beyond it, an invisible force pushed him forward several steps. As he let out a startled “Whoa—” and turned around, he saw the door closing by itself and vanishing like an illusion.
‘Once opened, there’s no turning back?’
It seemed that was the case. Since there would be no point to this ability if he didn’t explore, it wasn’t really a problem.
With that thought, he looked around.
Beneath a gloomy sky lay a somewhat quiet and desolate forest. He was standing on a bluish-gray stone-tiled road that cut through it.
Judging by the road’s condition, it seemed to be regularly maintained. Or perhaps some unknown power kept it from deteriorating over time.
‘And what’s with these clothes?’
The last thing he examined was his own appearance, which was quite exotic. Without a mirror, he couldn’t tell if his face had changed, but the clothes he wore were straight out of a medieval fantasy game adventurer’s outfit.
He was in the middle of figuring out the positions and types of pockets on the unfamiliar clothing and testing the texture of the leather boots when—
“Who the hell is this guy?”
At the sudden unfamiliar voice, he looked up in surprise. A middle-aged man he hadn’t noticed appearing was staring at him.
It was a completely foreign language, yet he understood it perfectly, as if it were Korean.
“How did you get in here?”
The middle-aged man with a fierce face asked the question, his reddish-brown eyes gleaming with interest. The black robe he wore was embroidered with gold thread in several places, making it look quite luxurious.
And he didn’t seem to actually want an answer.
“If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. Truth is, I’m not all that curious anyway.”
For a moment, an illusion of bright red worms wriggling appeared in the man’s reddish-brown eyes.
“Do you desire power?”
It was a question that felt both incredibly dangerous and seductive.
After hesitating briefly, Han Yujin recalled why he had come here and nodded. No matter what kind of power he obtained or how he obtained it, he believed his ability that could even nullify death would make it fine.
The middle-aged man grinned in satisfaction.
“You know the price, right?”
“I don’t know it well.”
“You don’t know? Yet you came here?”
The man laughed in disbelief for a moment before kindly explaining.
“It’s nothing much, so don’t worry. You just need to cut off a small piece of your soul and offer it, then sleep as a blood donor for twenty or thirty years. Once you pass the baptism, both your body and soul will become stronger, so it won’t be too inconvenient.”
“…Excuse me?”
Cut off a piece of his soul?
Sleep for twenty or thirty years?
His faith in safety began to waver.
Worrying about damage to his soul was one thing, but sleeping for twenty or thirty years would reduce his lifespan by that much.
Han Yujin’s face turned pale.