Chapter 28

Chapter 28

It was a call from Mom.

I briefly wondered whether I should answer or not.

My mom was the kind of person who worried about everything.

She worried that the Earth might suddenly end one day, worried that the floor might collapse, and whenever someone in the family went out, she worried that they might get into an accident....

She must have heard the news, right?

There was no way she hadn't.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be calling me at this hour.

After thinking for a moment, I answered the phone.

I carefully brought it to my ear.

"Hey, Mom."

I thought I was fine now, but my voice still trembled slightly.

[Jia! Where are you?! You're okay, right?! Why didn't you answer your phone....]

Mom's tense voice burst out rapidly, filled with all the worry she must have felt while I wasn't answering.

She called me before....

I had been too distracted to check.

"Sorry. I was sleeping, so I didn't notice."

[...What about Jihoon? Is he with you?]

"Yeah. Oppa is probably in his room. Want me to put him on?"

[No. Nothing happened, right?]

Nothing happened....

A lot happened.

A ridiculous amount.

"Yeah. Nothing happened. I wasn't feeling well, so I came home early, and Oppa said his lecture ended early too. We fell asleep as soon as we got home, so I only just answered."

The sloppy lie, which could probably be exposed almost immediately, came out surprisingly smoothly.

[Really? I see.... That's good. Mom is taking a half-day off today and coming home, so don't go anywhere. Just wait there.]

"Okay...."

The call ended there.

She really shouldn't take a half-day off....

When I was young, Dad left home, so Mom had raised Oppa and me by herself.

She hadn't had any proper qualifications or a stable job, so most of the work she did to earn money was hard physical labor.

After suffering through all kinds of things, she had finally been lucky enough to get hired by a company.

What if taking a half-day makes the company dislike her...?

Because I knew about Mom's situation, I had never really acted spoiled.

But just this once, I wanted to see Mom like a little kid.

Well, they won't fire her just because of this, right?

I pushed away the bitter thought and fiddled with my phone.

Naturally, the number one trending search was about the 'Black Dome' phenomenon that had appeared all over the world.

Since the first incident in Korea had happened at Songpa University, I expected it to be a huge topic.

But surprisingly, Songpa University was barely holding around sixth place in the trending searches.

It happened in Busan too.

An article said that a Black Dome had appeared during the filming of a drama, trapping several famous celebrities who had been filming together.

With something that huge happening, it made sense that the Songpa University incident would be pushed aside.

Until just a little while ago, this had been something happening directly to me.

Now I was lying in my room, reading about it through my phone.

It didn't feel real.

Like someone who had just walked out of a movie theater after watching a film, I felt myself becoming distant from everything I had experienced.

Because the place where I was lying right now was nothing more than my ordinary everyday life.

I was reading internet articles with tired eyes when,

Bzzzt.

My phone vibrated briefly.

[University Lee Dohyun] You worked hard today.

Come to think of it, we had exchanged numbers before going home.

I hadn't expected him to contact me first though....

Maybe this is actually good timing.

I immediately started tapping out a reply with my thumb.

[Me] You too.

[Me] More importantly, you picked up a pouch from Arachne earlier, right?

[University Lee Dohyun] Ah.

[University Lee Dohyun] Yeah!

[University Lee Dohyun] Do you need it?

[University Lee Dohyun] Want me to give it to you?

What did he mean, give it to me?

He didn't even know what was inside....

[Me] What's inside?

[University Lee Dohyun] One sec.

[University Lee Dohyun] A few Elixirs.

[University Lee Dohyun] One earring.

[University Lee Dohyun] And one red dagger.

Bingo.

That red dagger was exactly what I had been looking for.

It didn't seem like anything special in the beginning, but once the story entered the middle and later stages, it would become an insanely overpowered item.

I had been worried that it might not appear because the flow of events had changed, but fortunately, that part seemed to have stayed the same.

Still, I had no use for it.

Rather than me, a healer, using it, the dagger would be far more useful for Lee Dohyun as the protagonist.

So I'd feel pretty bad taking it from him like some thug.

Instead of asking more about the red dagger, I changed the subject.

[Me] What does the earring do?

[University Lee Dohyun] Wait wait.

[University Lee Dohyun] It says it increases mana recovery speed by 50%.

[University Lee Dohyun] It'd be perfect for you.

It was obvious, but items that increased stats by a percentage were much rarer than items that simply added a fixed amount.

Of course, for someone whose base stats weren't very high, a fixed increase could be better.

But the stronger an Awakener became, the more useful percentage-based items were.

And 50 percent was quite high.

That's ridiculously overpowered.

[Me] You're going to give that to me?

[University Lee Dohyun] Of course.

[University Lee Dohyun] We only defeated Arachne because of you.

Was that really because of me...?

I felt like all I had done was support everyone from the back.

The ones who had actually risked their lives fighting were the others.

Including Lee Dohyun.

Still, I really wanted that item.

Earlier, because I had completely exhausted my mana, Oppa had nearly died.

Even putting that aside, I would need something like this to adapt to the world that was about to change.

While I thought about it, several more messages arrived from Lee Dohyun.

[University Lee Dohyun] Or do you want this red dagger too?

[University Lee Dohyun] It has a blood-sucking ability, so the more you attack, the stronger it gets.

...What was a healer like me supposed to do with that?

But why is he trying to give me everything?

Sure, I had helped them fight.

But the ones who had actually put their lives on the line were the others.

Lee Dohyun included.

It doesn't look like he's plotting anything though....

If that red dagger didn't affect the future story, I probably would have asked for it too.

But the last bit of conscience I had stopped me.

You need to grow stronger with that and save the world later!

Obviously, I couldn't say that.

So I gave him a simple reply.

[Me] I'm a healer, so I don't need the dagger.

[Me] But I'll take the earring.

[University Lee Dohyun] Really?

[University Lee Dohyun] Then I'll give it to you next time we meet!

[Me] Thx thx.

After sending that, I put my phone down.

The small worry I had felt over whether the dagger might not exist gradually disappeared.

Maybe because the tension had finally left me, my eyes slowly began to close.

Right then, my phone started vibrating again.

Maybe because the vibration wasn't very strong, or maybe because my anxiety had disappeared, I didn't check it.

I simply fell asleep.

Bzzzzzt.

[University Lee Dohyun] ...But, you know 1

Bzzzzzt.

[University Lee Dohyun] You looked kind of cool earlier 1

..A dream?

I dreamed about something from a long time ago.

The setting was back when I was in middle school.

Just like any other day, I went to school and sat down in my classroom.

But that day, a transfer student came.

The seat next to mine happened to be empty, so we became seatmates.

At the teacher's request, I briefly showed the student around the school.

As thanks, my new seatmate gave me a book.

And that book....

Why did I forget about this?

I shot upright in bed.

I definitely didn't remember throwing it away.

It should still be somewhere in the house, right?

My legs started moving as soon as the thought came to me.

Just like any other household, we had a place where we stored things we didn't use.

I stopped in front of a stack of boxes piled in the corner of the veranda.

Maybe because no one had touched them in years, the outside of the boxes was covered in dust.

Why are there so many of these...?

I was like this too, but Mom was also the type who hated throwing things away.

Because of that, I didn't have to worry much about whether she had thrown the book away.

But the thought of opening and searching through all these boxes still made me feel exhausted.

At least there was one good thing.

Thanks to the Awakener buff, my stamina had increased.

When I lifted one of the boxes, dust scattered through the air.

Even while coughing, I didn't stop digging through them.

Cough, cough.

The fewer boxes remained, the more anxious I became.

I didn't just have some random dream, did I?

Half worried and half impatient, I dug through the final box.

Then my expression finally brightened.

"Found it!"

After all that effort, I finally found an old book at the very bottom of the last box.

Overwhelmed with relief, I reached for it.

What could possibly be written inside?

I swallowed hard, then ran straight back to my room.

With the serious attitude of someone studying for an exam, I began reading the book page by page.

Several hours passed.

At last, the moment I turned the final page, all the strength left my hand.

The book fell to the floor.

Thud.

...What is this?

Something unbelievable was written in the book.

As I had already said before, the story centered around the protagonist, 'Lee Dohyun.'

He was an Awakener who grew overwhelmingly powerful in the suddenly changed world....

No.

A Hunter.

He had trustworthy companions.

According to the book, those companions were Oppa and Han Siwoo.

The two of them didn't have much importance at the beginning.

But later, after a certain incident, they began growing at an explosive rate.

And that incident was....

My death.

Not even some simple accidental death.

I was an unfortunate supporting character who died while saving the main characters.

Apparently, my sacrifice caused a change in their hearts.

After that, they began growing at a rate unlike anything before, and eventually reached a level close to Lee Dohyun, the protagonist.

If you grew that strong, couldn't you just live happily afterward?

Han Siwoo, who had lived like a model student until then, eventually turned the entire world against himself and joined forces with an outside power.

And the reason for that was me too.

Seriously.

If you're going to kill me once, just leave me dead.

Why keep using my death over and over again?

Anyway, the most important fact was that I would die two years after Awakening as an Awakener, or Hunter.

...Whoever wrote this, come out right now.

Sure, no one knows when they'll die.

But this was still ridiculous.

If the book was correct, even more changes would happen to the world from now on.

Everything I had experienced so far was nothing more than the beginning.

I glared at the book lying carelessly on the floor.

Will everything really happen exactly the way this book says?