Chapter 36
It was mana. There was no mistaking it—Yu Hyunjae had used mana. I gasped, my finger jabbing toward him. He stared at his own hand, just as stunned. Before either of us could say another word, the monsters surged forward again. I swung at them, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.
Fortunately, the situation was quickly brought under control by the professional hunters who arrived on the scene. They systematically eliminated the monsters pouring out of the Gate and secured the area. I pressed a hand to my wound, staunching the bleeding as a paramedic applied first aid. Behind me, Yu Hyunjae stood with an anxious expression.
“You used mana just now, too,” I said bluntly.
Yu Hyunjae nodded.
“Haven’t you used it since then?”
This time, he shook his head. So he must have instinctively tapped into it during the mock battle and kept training afterward.
“Then why are you so surprised?”
“Because it’s my first time using it in a real fight…”
“Hey, who do you think hasn’t been a first-timer in real combat?”
“You almost got hurt.”
“Who did?”
“You.”
I let out an exasperated sigh and glared at him. What was with these guilty remarks? Our relationship was stuck in that awkward in-between—neither here nor there.
“You’re really something else.”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind.”
I sighed, looking down at my bandaged stomach. This damn stomach of mine had been through hell in every life. I got up from the cot and started walking slowly. The pain wasn’t too bad.
“You should go to the hospital right away.”
“I’m fine.”
Ignoring the paramedic’s suggestion, I gestured to Yu Hyunjae—a silent signal to go home. He followed obediently. An odd tension hung between us. I cleared my throat awkwardly and glanced back at him.
That’s when my eyes locked onto a man standing right in front of the Gate. He was likely one of the professional hunters sent to handle the situation. Just as I was about to look away, the man curled his lips slightly—just enough for me to notice.
“What…”
His expression struck me as particularly unpleasant. As I tried to walk past him, he suddenly yanked me toward him. My body lurched uncontrollably. It happened in a split second, but it felt like an eternity. The Gate loomed right in front of me. Before anyone could grab my arm, my body was sucked into the pitch-black abyss.
A brief wave of dizziness washed over me as I was spat out into some unknown space. I slowly got up and looked around. The landscape was desolate—barren, like a desert. All I could see were scattered pebbles and swirling dust. This place was eerily similar to the one I had stood alone in as Yu Dohyun in a dream from some other life.
Fear crept in. I turned around, knowing no one would be there. Yu Hyunjae, who had been standing right behind me just moments ago, was nowhere to be seen. It was obvious, yet I kept scanning the empty air for him. Realizing how futile this was, I snapped back to my senses. An exit would form in as little as an hour or as long as a week. What were the odds of surviving until then? What if I encountered a monster with nothing to defend myself?
“…System.”
I called out to the system in the void, clutching at the last straw. As usual, the system had never listened to me the first time.
“Hey, System.”
<State your purpose.>
It was a surprisingly human-like response. Just seeing those words floating in the empty air brought a strange sense of relief. How ridiculous.
“How am I supposed to handle this unexpected situation?”
Was the question too difficult?
“This isn’t going according to the novel you wrote.”
<Function unavailable.>
“What do you mean ‘unavailable’? Seriously.”
I grumbled but quickly regrouped. Right now, the only thing I could rely on, even if it was just a speck of dust, was the system’s functions.
“Can I survive here?”
<Unknown function.>
“Do I have to die again?”
<Would you like to save? Y/N>
“I said no. Are you crazy? Save here?”
A brief silence followed. The system left the save prompt hanging without any further action. I shouldn’t have expected anything from it—it had never given me anything useful. All it did was guide me toward those damn routes that dried up people’s blood and nag me about saving.
The system’s text, which had been still, began to change.
<Special Space Entry! : Would you like to recall a saved memory? Y/N>
I stared at this new but subtly different question. Recall a saved memory? What memory? I hesitated, unable to answer rashly. The system’s text grew bolder, as if demanding I choose the predetermined answer. I furrowed my brows.
That’s when I saw it. Far off on the desert’s horizon, someone was walking toward me. I instinctively took a step back. In a Gate, there was no way anything other than monsters—or me—could exist. The system had long since vanished. I crouched, ready to bolt if necessary. A trickle of lukewarm sweat ran down my spine. Fortunately—or unfortunately—there was only one figure.
The tiny shape grew larger and clearer as it approached. It wasn’t one of the monsters I’d seen in the auditorium or in my dreams as Yu Dohyun. Surprisingly, it was a person. I was so shocked by this unexpected presence that I couldn’t even breathe.
The man—because it was a man—ignored me completely. He stood stiffly at a distance, as if paying respects to someone invisible.
“Hey, you.”
I forced out a voice that barely reached him. He still didn’t seem to hear me.
“Could you look over here for a second?”
“It’s an order.”
The man suddenly spoke to the empty air. His voice carried a hint of arrogance, different from before.
“I’m only doing this because I was ordered to.”
He pulled a gun from his pocket. Not an ordinary gun—it was a hunter’s gun that fired mana-infused bullets. He aimed the barrel diagonally at the empty ground.
“…Why ask if you already know?”
The man sneered. He seemed to be listening intently to the voice of his invisible opponent. The whole scene felt like a well-rehearsed one-man play.
“Team Leader Kim. No matter how much you plead, it’s useless.”
The man pointed the gun wildly, as if he were insane, repeatedly aiming and lowering it while muttering.
“Ah, right. You said you’ve been married for five years, didn’t you? Must be a good time in your marriage.”
The man laughed.
“I’ve never been married, so I wouldn’t know, but watching you, Team Leader Kim, I’ve thought once or twice that it might not be so bad.”
His hand was drenched in sweat, despite his attempt to appear composed. This invisible confrontation must have been an enormous drain on his stamina. I stood frozen, watching his meticulously controlled actions.
“I doubt you called me here just to talk about life.”
The man’s expression grew subtle, almost as if his resolve was wavering. It seemed he had been hired to kill this invisible “Team Leader Kim,” who was already half-resigned to his fate.
“Your son…”
The man listened with an expression of utter disinterest.
“He must be five years old now, right? I heard he’s the same age as Director Yu’s second son.”
I frowned. The details the man mentioned matched Yu Chanhee’s backstory.
For about ten minutes, the man said nothing. Then, slowly, the gun barrel fixed firmly on a point. Bang! A spark flashed from the muzzle. He must have successfully shot his target. The man nudged the empty air with his foot, checking for signs of life.
I realized that the “memory” the system had mentioned was this. It was strange. I had experienced events as Yu Dohyun in dreams, but I had never witnessed a perfect stranger’s memory so vividly. And I had no idea why the system had shown me this.
The man didn’t disappear even after fulfilling his role in the memory. He crouched there, staring at the spot where the body was presumably lying.
“A son…”
Only then did he lift his head and look in my direction. Not at me—just at the empty space where I stood. It was the first time I could see his face clearly.
“Kim…”
He had a young face, but it was etched with unhidden ambition. I recognized him. The man who had suddenly rushed in and stabbed me in the stomach with a strange metal object. The man who had sat in the driver’s seat and casually run over a child with his car. The man who had approached me with a kind face and taught me how to use mana.
“Guhyeon…”
Kim Guhyeon dropped the gun on the ground and kicked it away. Since Gates were usually one-time use, the gun—and the invisible corpse—would likely be erased forever once he left. I didn’t know if this memory was real or not, but the fact that Kim Guhyeon had been involved in another murder—one unrelated to me or Yu Hyunjae—was chilling. And the fact that I, even indirectly, had surfaced in the aftermath of that murder was unsettling. If the system’s purpose was solely to inflict meaningless suffering on me, it was doing a fantastic job.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
But this bizarre resurrection of memory was only just beginning.
