“80% discount?”
Park Shinui looked at the owner, doubting his own ears. There was no discount notice anywhere, yet 80%? If that was true, he’d be getting all 7 volumes for the price of just one.
“If you’re giving me a discount… of course I have to buy them all.”
“That’s a good decision.”
As soon as Park Shinui’s answer fell, the bookstore owner began packing the books in an orderly fashion. He felt a moment of dissonance at the owner’s particularly joyful appearance, but soon shook his head to dismiss the stray thoughts. Anyway, since they’re closing down, they probably just want to dispose of them quickly.
It wasn’t like they were forcing him to take them, and he was coming in on his own feet to buy them cheap. It didn’t matter whether the owner was happy or not.
“Please note that this book is a special discount item, so returns or refunds are absolutely impossible.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“And… a side story will be released in a month, so if you leave your address, I’ll send it to you.”
“A side story?”
“Yes, the side story is an appendix attached to the main story, so you don’t need to pay for it separately. However…”
The owner paused meaningfully before continuing.
“The 80% discount on the main story only applies if you agree to receive the side story.”
“…The discount only applies if I receive the side story?”
“Yes.”
It was an unwavering, firm voice. The attitude that seemed to say ‘what’s the problem when I’m giving you an extra book for free’ felt rather strange instead.
“…”
“Ah, and our bookstore is closing completely tomorrow. Please keep that in mind as well.”
Everything was incomprehensible by common sense. Both the fact that he had to receive the side story to get the discount, and that this wide bookstore with nothing organized would close tomorrow made no sense. Even if they worked through the night, it seems physically impossible.
Park Shinui hesitated for a moment. An unfamiliar bookstore, an unfamiliar owner. No matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t a situation trustworthy enough to readily give out his address. However, the weight of the book in his fingertips held him back. He wanted to read this book. Right now, within tonight.
“I’ll write down my address.”
In the end, Park Shinui wrote his address on paper and handed it over. The uncomfortable feeling remained, but he couldn’t let this windfall slip away over just an address. The moment he held the heavy bag of books to his chest, a dazed happiness quietly filled a corner of his heart.
Returning home, Park Shinui simply took care of dinner and finished all his overdue assignments. Finally, a complete rest time arrived. Before going to bed, he leaned against the bed headboard and opened the book he bought at the bookstore. The stiff yet cool paper scent characteristic of new books spread faintly throughout the small studio apartment.
300 years ago, one day. A gate to another world that didn’t exist in this world opened. The ancients called it a ‘passage,’ and some called it ‘the entrance to hell.’
The content was intense from the start. The sentences struck his heart much more heavily than when he skimmed through them at the bookstore. The description was so vivid it felt like screams could be heard beyond the printed words. Park Shinui unconsciously held his breath and turned to the next page.
The protagonist of the novel, Kang Taejun. The sentences describing him were all splendid yet lonely, as if proving this man was the protagonist of a typical fantasy story. The strongest ability user with overwhelming charisma. A proud beast who would yield his side to no one.
Park Shinui gradually fell deeply into the content as if becoming part of that world. The fatigue from the grueling convenience store part-time job and tutoring job, the pressure of the assignment due tomorrow, and the endless loneliness digging into his bones all gradually receded beyond the letters. Only the imaginary world left clear afterimages on his retinas, rippling.
One page, then another. Only the sound of paper passing through his fingertips filled the silence in the room. As Kang Taejun’s cold loneliness embedded between the sentences pierced his heart numbingly as if it were his own, the hand that had been turning pages while unable to overcome his heavily descending eyelids stopped powerlessly.
Then at some point, the letters began to blur hazily. With Kang Taejun’s name flickering on his retinas, Park Shinui slowly sank into deep sleep.
Swoooosh!
Feeling a wind strong enough to make his hair flutter, Park Shinui stared blankly ahead for a while. And he rubbed his eyes several times as if unable to believe the unfamiliar scene unfolding before him.
‘Where is this?’
The suddenly appearing buildings, streets, everything was scenery he was seeing for the first time. He was certain he had fallen asleep while reading, but he couldn’t understand at all why he was standing in this place.
Crunch— Crunch. Then, a terrible chewing sound that scraped his eardrums was heard. Park Shinui rubbed his goosebump-covered arms and turned his head. And there he discovered a monstrous creature the size of a house roughly biting and tearing into something.
‘What is that?’
Its appearance resembled a giant ant, but its size was absurd. The tips of its segmented legs gleamed sharply like spear blades, and every time it moved its jaw, concrete fragments were crushed helplessly.
The ant, larger than an elephant, was absorbed in its meal while firmly gripping something with its long antennae. The smoke and dust blown by the wind obstructed his view, so he couldn’t yet discern exactly what the creature was tearing apart. However, instinct was warning him. That was absolutely not a creature that should be in a zoo.
‘What on earth is this whole situation…?’
That was the very moment.
Swoosh—! Along with a piercing sound cutting through the air, a human shadow flew through the void. A man wearing a cold mask lightly landed on top of the giant ant’s head as if ignoring gravity and raised one hand. Just as a faint light rippled from his fingertips, it condensed in an instant and a black, sharp blade formed in the air.
Park Shinui stared piercingly at that surreal scene, even forgetting to breathe.
‘…Is this a movie shoot?’
Before the question could even be fully formed, the man’s hand lightly sliced through the air.
Thwack!
The next moment, the ant’s giant head was severed and fell rolling to the ground.
Park Shinui froze in that spot. The slaughter that occurred before his eyes was so vivid he wanted to scream, but his vocal cords dried up and couldn’t emit any sound.
‘What is this… Why isn’t my voice coming out? What the hell was that just now?’
“Esper Kang Taejun-nim, over here!”
“I’ll be right there.”
As if responding to a shout heard from afar, the man who had severed the monster’s head with a single gesture lightly stepped on the ground from the air once more. He approached the monster without hesitation and twisted open its tightly closed jaw with tremendous force. Then he carefully pulled out something lodged deep inside its maw.
Thud.
A heavy lump of meat fell to the ground. The man removed his outer garment without a hint of disturbance and covered it.
The fishy scent of blood that stung his nose only then penetrated Park Shinui’s senses. No, in fact, even without the smell, the shape alone was enough to know.
What the ant had been holding was a person. An intact human body that had warm blood flowing and had been conversing with someone just minutes ago.
Not a movie, not special effects, but an actual person’s…
“U… Urgh!”
Before he could even scream, the sensation of his stomach turning came first. Park Shinui instinctively pressed his hands on the ground and poured out dry heaves. His breath was cut off, and his mind went blank. What happened before his eyes was so horrific he couldn’t bear it at all.
“Urk, urgh… Cough, cough…!”
Park Shinui, who raised his body with violent coughing, ran toward the bathroom with staggering steps. Even after clutching the toilet and vomiting everything inside, the nausea didn’t stop. After enduring in that spot for a while, he barely raised his body and headed to the sink. His throat burned where stomach acid had risen. Yet his mind held only one thought.
‘What did I just see?’
The scene was so vivid it was branded on his retinas like a mark and wouldn’t easily disappear. The crushed flesh, the dark red blood spurting out, and that giant monster’s head rolling on the ground.
“Haa, haa…”
Park Shinui wiped his face with wet hands and straightened his blurred vision. Only after roughly washing his face with cold water did the surrounding scenery begin to appear.
Before his eyes, there were no unfamiliar streets, no giant ant, no cold man who had wielded a sword. A small TV and old computer, a disheveled blanket kicked at his feet, and half-read books. Everything was no different from usual, his terribly familiar and shabby studio apartment.
“…What.”
Park Shinui slowly shook his head with a blank expression.
“…Was it a dream?”
Yet it was strange. What kind of dream could be this vivid and realistic? As if he had actually seen, heard, and felt it right before his eyes.
After standing clutching the sink for a while and barely regaining his energy, Park Shinui shuffled back to bed. On top of the blanket lay the book he had been reading until just before falling asleep, spread open defenseless.
“…”
Park Shinui closed the open pages with a strange feeling and rolled his body into the blanket.
3 AM. Quite a few marks had passed since the last time he checked. Thinking back quietly, the passage he read before falling asleep also featured an ant-shaped monster like the one he just saw in his dream.
“…No way, come on.”
Park Shinui shook his head as if denying it. However, the afterimage burned into his mind was too persistent.
“…Really?”
Then did that mean the man who created a blade from his fingertips was the novel’s protagonist, Kang Taejun?
