Chapter 19

Chapter 19. Sharing

The Swordsmanship Preservation Association.

The Magic Preservation Association.

Together, they were commonly called the Sword-Magic Preservation Association, a Mystery that appeared all across Korea.

Their defining feature was that they were friendly toward humans.

And helpful.

[Found some swordsmanship by Googling and sold it to the Swordsmanship Association. Bought myself a freaking badass sword lol]

[(Photo of an awesome-looking sword)

How good is it?]

└Why does that sword actually look so damn good? lol

└But what are you even gonna do with a sword?

└Use it for cosplay or something lol

└Legendary sword <<<< gun

└Clicking your finger on a gun is way more threatening than swinging a sword ten times lol

└But civilians can't get guns, so selling swordsmanship to get a sword doesn't sound that bad.

└Why can't you get a gun? Just raid a military base.

└LMAO a military base. That's comedy gold.

└Anyone can talk big lol

└Ah yes, I'll just walk into a military base with my bare hands and steal a gun~~

[Sword-Magic Preservation Association <- Why are these guys so nice? Are they really a Mystery?]

[I accidentally got lost and thought I was seriously going to die, but these guys asked if I knew any swordsmanship.

So I Googled something on the spot and taught it to them.

Then they escorted me all the way home so the zombies wouldn't bite me...

Absolute gods.]

└For real. Maybe Mysteries aren't all bad.

└A world with Mysteries might actually not be so bad after all?

└No;;; Haven't you seen the news? Busan is a complete mess because of a Mystery.

└I live in Seoul, so I'm good.

└What a freaking demon.

└I wanna meet these guys too. I can Google stuff. I have a phone...

└(While scratching his belly at home)

└LOL if you wanna meet them, get out of your house first.

[Ah, I wanna learn magic so damn badly. Is there anything I can sell?]

[If you wanna learn swordsmanship from the Swordsmanship Preservation Association guys, you just have to sell them some other swordsmanship.

But with the Magic Preservation Association, you have to sell them magic.

So to learn magic, you already need to know magic to sell them.

There's literally no answer;;

Does anyone know if they'll accept something other than magic?]

└They teach you magic if you give them money.

└For real? Should I go to the bank right now?

└You really believed that? LMAO

└Damn, you're innocent lol

└Excuse me, but could you perhaps be my loan guarantor?

└Have you heard of the Way?

└So to learn magic, we need to know magic, but we can't learn magic because we don't know magic lol

└What a complete mess lol

└There's just no answer. Guess we should give up on magic.

└Are you gay? You're giving up on magic?

└I'd sell the deed to my house if it meant I could learn magic. Seriously.

└You think the Magic Preservation Association would even accept your house deed?

If this world were a game, the Sword-Magic Preservation Association would probably be classified as merchants.

They were Mysteries that accepted swordsmanship or magic and gave appropriate help in return.

In other words, they were merchants who traded in swordsmanship and magic instead of money.

That was also why they had caught my interest.

High-quality swordsmanship and magic.

Things that ordinary people would have an extremely hard time obtaining.

But I could produce them as easily as if I were running a factory.

By using the Regression-Possession-Reincarnation Gallery.

There was no need to even mention the quality.

The quantity was ridiculous too.

Even if I filtered the gallery to show only popular posts, there were easily dozens of pages.

I couldn't even imagine how much I could gain by selling just one of them.

Magic created by a Great Mage who had transcended all realms and become something close to a god.

Swordsmanship belonging to an absolute master who had passed beyond the Absolute Realm and entered the Realm of Harmony, capable of influencing the world with a single slash.

What value would the associations place on those?

What kind of reward would they give me?

Just thinking about it made me want to rush outside immediately and search for the Sword-Magic Preservation Association.

Of course, that was only what my heart wanted.

“I should keep resting for a while.”

I had spent an entire month repeatedly crossing the line between life and death inside the Backrooms.

The fatigue built up in both my body and mind was almost dizzying.

For at least a week, I intended to focus entirely on recovering.

By doing things like browsing the galleries.

Though it wasn't as if browsing galleries after the apocalypse was completely pointless.

The Regression-Possession-Reincarnation Gallery had always been useful to me, while the internet galleries were currently overflowing with discussions about the apocalypse.

These days, even the smallest posts contained information that couldn't simply be ignored.

An activity that allowed me to rest and gather information at the same time.

That was gallery browsing.

[Rate my house]

[Rate the house of this shut-in gallery user.

(Photo of a rocket launcher sitting in the corner)

(Photo of an overwhelming amount of food)

(Photo of sniper rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, and other weapons placed on a table)

(Photo of diamonds and gems the size of a person's face scattered across the floor)

How good is it?]

└???? What the hell? Is this real?

└WTF, this doesn't even look Photoshopped or edited. What is this?

└It's obviously fake. Can't believe you guys are falling for it.

└For real lol. Zoom in and you can't even see the serial numbers on the guns. They're obviously edited.

└And there's no way a diamond could be that freaking huge lol. If something like that had been discovered, it would've been all over the news already.

└If you're gonna fake something, at least put some effort into it lol. This is just ridiculous.

└Only people who never served in the military would fall for this lol

└Nah, even they wouldn't fall for this. Only idiots would lol

└But couldn't it actually be real...? We live in a world with Mysteries now.

└Hey, can you be my guarantor? Haha.

└I'm sick right now. Could you send me some money?

└Could you lend me your personal seal? Ahahaha, it's nothing weird. I just need a stamp, that's all lol

└LMAOOOO

I smiled as I watched the post burst into flames.

I hadn't realized it before, but apparently I liked this sort of thing.

Getting attention.

I had the Regression-Possession-Reincarnation Gallery floating in the air and the internet gallery open on my phone.

Browsing both at once was surprisingly relaxing.

Lee Yeonhee was sitting beside me, quietly watching me as I browsed.

She finally spoke just as I was about to stop.

“Um, Yuhyeon Oppa.”

“Yeah?”

She shifted her body closer to me.

After thinking for a moment, she carefully continued.

“This might be a sensitive question...”

“Yes.”

“Do you... happen to see something like a status window? Like in a game?”

A status window?

Out of nowhere?

I thought about her strange and sudden question for a moment before realizing why she had asked.

It was probably because she had seen me operating the Regression-Possession-Reincarnation Gallery.

I had already confirmed that other people couldn't see the gallery.

So whenever I used it, everyone else just saw a crazy person waving his hands around in empty air.

Apparently, to her, it looked as though I was controlling a status window.

There was no way she thought I was mentally unstable or hallucinating after spending an entire month together with me.

While I was thinking about that, Lee Yeonhee suddenly clapped her hands and came to her own conclusion.

“I knew it...! You really can see a status window! I figured you had something special. I just didn't expect it to be a status window!”

“...No. I don't have a status window, unfortunately.”

“Oh, really?”

Considering how full of Mysteries this world was, it honestly wouldn't be strange if status windows existed.

There was probably someone out there who possessed one, just as Lee Yeonhee possessed divine power.

But at least, that person wasn't me.

At my denial, she casually nodded.

Then her eyes quietly began to shine.

“Still, I'm sure you have something... It must be really important, so you're keeping it secret!”

“It's not really a secret.”

“It's okay. I've known you were hiding something ever since we first met, Oppa! Just look at how many Mysteries you have.”

Reincarnation.

The Regression-Possession-Reincarnation Gallery.

Curtain.

Confirmation Bias.

The Book That Records Mysteries.

Tag: Medieval.

How to Spend the Most Perfect Day.

The Infinite Bag I had obtained from the Backrooms.

And even the License to Kill, which I hadn't used yet.

I possessed nine Mysteries in total.

Lee Yeonhee had noticed around five of them, but even that was an absurdly large number.

In the first place, merely possessing a single Mystery was already an extraordinary thing for a human.

And yet I possessed seven Mysteries.

It wasn't strange for her to think there had to be something extraordinary about me.

Although Lee Yeonhee seemed to have gotten the wrong idea, the gallery wasn't really something I needed to keep secret from her.

I had openly used it inside the Backrooms without even trying to hide it.

There was no way she hadn't noticed.

I might as well tell her now.

“Lee Yeonhee, actually, I...”

“Ah! I know! Are you a regressor? And that thing you were controlling earlier is some kind of regression privilege?”

“No. That's not it.”

“Then are you possessing someone's body? Maybe the kind where you share the body with the original personality? Were you waving your hands in the air because you were communicating through messages with another personality inside your body?”

Her words shot into my ears like a machine gun.

Was she always like this?

Even after living together for an entire month, I had never known she had this side to her.

It had been the same with Confirmation Bias.

And now this.

Maybe escaping from the dangerous Backrooms had finally allowed her to relax enough for her real personality to come out.

I slowly shook my head, signaling for her to calm down, and answered.

“It's none of those things. What it is... Hmm. You know what a gallery is, right?”

“Like an internet community?”

“Yes. That kind of gallery. I can see one of those. Its name is the Regression-Possession-Reincarnation Gallery.”

“Regression-Possession-Reincarnation!”

“Yes. Regression, possession, and reincarnation. It's a gallery that people who have experienced one of those things can join. And I...”

Come to think of it, explaining the gallery meant I would also have to mention my reincarnation.

In a way, reincarnation was one of the most important pieces of information that made me who I was.

But even so, I didn't feel like hiding it.

The people I trusted most right now were Lee Yeonhee and Lucy, the Book That Records Mysteries.

I trusted them far more than the parents I had lost contact with when I was ten years old.

If I couldn't tell information like this to them...

Then who could I tell?

“I... was reincarnated.”