# Chapter 40
Falling from a high place hurts more
Instead of going home, Lee Hwan wandered aimlessly around the building, turning over the information about the gravity skill stone in his mind.
Since Taesung had repeatedly mentioned it, Lee Hwan couldn’t help but know about that incident. A strange feeling. It was as if Taesung’s scent brushed against his nose.
The gravity skill stone had been discovered in a rather ridiculous way. It was inside Gate A-08, in a hidden room that hadn’t been discovered until then. But unlike the regression skill stone that Kang Dongha had found, this one didn’t suddenly have its entrance open one day; it had remained closed until certain conditions were met.
‘Why would the condition be that extreme…?’
Gate A-08 was the type where difficulty increased sharply in the middle section. Naturally, all tricks and discoveries started around that area. According to records until then, there was nothing near the entrance.
But one day, when the youngest member of the attack team entered the gate and was anxiously looking for their shoes, a gap appeared in a previously blocked wall near the entrance, opening a room where the skill stone was placed.
‘…’
Prayer. As absurd as it seemed, that was the method to obtain the gravity skill stone.
So Lee Hwan didn’t need to clear that treacherous gate alone. There was no need to beat up monsters either.
Although he’d have to awkwardly call upon a deity he didn’t believe in after entering the gate, it wasn’t a particularly dangerous schedule.
Kang Dongha would think he’d be fighting battles for a while before coming out, but…
‘I’ll just eat the skill stone, test it a bit, and leave.’
Lee Hwan unconsciously looked at his wrist. When he tapped it, the screen appeared. It seemed he had left it as it was after receiving the contact earlier; the phone number he had memorized without realizing was still displayed.
Lee Hwan turned his gaze away with a regretful expression. Each of these small droplets soaked him as he grew weary. He still felt thirsty, but enough to endure. However, as the legs that had been holding up kept crumbling, his heart wasn’t feeling great in the face of his dulling determination.
Still, Lee Hwan continued to move forward little by little. Starting as a penniless unregistered Awakened, he had somehow managed to reach the gravity skill stone.
‘After building up my strength, next is the research wing.’
A place that still seemed unsuitable for investigating alone. But if he obtained gravity and his power increased, there was no reason he couldn’t sneak in for a look.
Moreover, by now he was beginning to know some of the gates that would newly appear. If he could preempt those, he wouldn’t need to rely on Kang Dongha’s cards anymore.
After this week, he would be stronger. Lee Hwan dismissed his frequent anxieties with that one thought as he gazed at the fading sky.
* * *
Over the past few weeks, field schedules had suddenly piled up, increasing the paperwork that needed to be written and checked. Lee Hwan had already finished his share long ago, but typically everyone else started their work just in time for the deadline.
Naturally, Lee Hwan took on a few miscellaneous tasks, helping the senior staff. Perhaps because of this, the office atmosphere grew increasingly amicable.
“Mr. Lee Hwan, you’ve been mumbling a lot these days.”
They were now friendly enough to ask about his well-being without clicking their tongues at his eccentricities.
“I’m running vlog simulations.”
“Ah, I see.”
Lee Hwan naturally smiled back at the response, which was accompanied by a smirk and a pretense of not having really heard.
Since the day he received the schedule for Gate A-08, Lee Hwan had been diligently reciting prayers every night.
Being non-religious from the start, Lee Hwan knew nothing about religion. So he thought prayer just meant saying whatever nonsense like “Our System who art in heaven, please give lots of gold and silver treasures, get rid of monsters…” but…
Each religion had prayer texts. And they were extremely lengthy, with multiple versions.
‘I just sought a god. Any god…’
That’s what the excerpt from the records said. No matter how distracted one might be, why would they specifically look for just any god? Thanks to this, Lee Hwan had to look into all the major religions in South Korea.
In truth, memorizing wasn’t such a great hardship. He was the kind of person who had previously memorized entire textbooks and could recite monster-related information flawlessly. His memory had been honed to the point of being ingrained in his head from excessive memorization, but the problem lay elsewhere.
‘Perhaps… the prayer needs to be sincere?’
After that thought occurred to him, Lee Hwan found himself putting on tearful prayer shows every night, gathering nonexistent faith.
‘Fighting would be easier than this, seriously…’
With this much devotion, even if the discoverer had prayed to a different god, any deity should have the courtesy to open the hidden room.
Well, even though he occasionally had minor worries, he was basically happy. Although he was hiding his identity, he had grown closer to Taesung, and the skill stone was right within reach. All he had to do was call upon the gods he had memorized at random and worry about how to use gravity.
Of course, when he heard that he couldn’t officially secure entry to the gate due to Taesung’s interference, his heart skipped a beat for various reasons. However, as soon as he heard from Kang Dongha that the entry time had only become flexible and there was no problem, the corners of his mouth rose sharply.
From then on, even Kang Dongha, whose face he had loathed seeing, seemed somewhat tolerable. Come to think of it, the guy was rich and reasonably good-looking in his own way; if he just kept his mouth shut, there wouldn’t be many business-related irritations.
Moreover, yesterday, unusually, the guy had brought daquoise from a famous bakery as a gift instead of useless masks or strange suits.
He seemed to be in a particularly good mood, so Lee Hwan briefly set aside his suspicions and was pleased with the somewhat-human development shown by that incomplete person.
Going through the trouble of securing someone else’s gate entry, then giving food and sharing in the joy—doesn’t that seem quite normal?
Of course, all positive evaluations ended right there, and he didn’t utter any flattery out loud, but it was a moment when Lee Hwan internally praised Kang Dongha again in his own way.
♪♬♩♪-.
That’s when it happened. A familiar ringtone sounded. Lee Hwan checked his phone and shook his head.
It seemed that even as a chaebol, Kang Dongha couldn’t be a gentleman. Seeing Kang Dongha’s name clearly displayed, Lee Hwan shook his head wearily before answering the call.
—I have an errand for you to do.
He had been somewhat glad until just now, but the words that sounded more like a notification than a request grated on his eardrums. Lee Hwan unconsciously muttered a curse before realizing he was still standing in the office and looked around.
He promptly lowered the call volume and went out the door with his lips tightly sealed.
“What’s so important that you’re contacting me separately?”
—Nothing major, just want to give you some equipment before you go to the gate. While picking that up, could you make a delivery on the way? I’m out on field work today.
It was a request that he wasn’t sure whether to find touching or annoying. Taking Lee Hwan’s silence as agreement, Kang Dongha continued.
—Have you been to Building C? Go to the third floor there, say I sent you, and they’ll give you various things. Could you take the items I prepared there to the laboratory on the second floor of Building D?
Since Kang Dongha had been doing some nice things lately, and it wasn’t a particularly difficult task, Lee Hwan readily agreed.
“Alright. Should I stop by around 6:30?”
—Do as you please. You can come later and hang out when I get back too.
At that nonsensical statement, Lee Hwan snorted. The call ended with the sound of a tongue click, as if he had expected that reaction.
Having never visited the research facility itself even before the regression, Lee Hwan was busy looking around quietly at Building C too. The people in Building C, never having seen Lee Hwan before, flinched whenever they encountered his fully covered face.
The items received under the VIP’s name were durable and sturdy boots and a lightweight vest with bulletproof and knife-proof functions. The small knife he received as a service didn’t even leave a mark when swung with all his might against the building wall.
This kid, he does look after his partner after all. With a willing heart, Lee Hwan gathered the equipment and then left with the document envelope he had been given.
Outside the building, the sky had a faint reddish tint. Lee Hwan had a habit of gauging the flow of seasons by the twilight. The brighter the sky at the same time, the more warmth rushed into the air.
Though still cool, summer was approaching soon. It was spring, the season of growth, when he had regressed. The idle thought occurred to him that if he continued living absentmindedly like this, perhaps the four years until his first awakening would fly by before he knew it.
But soon he arrived at Research Building D. Lee Hwan was reminded once more that he hadn’t been given the time to wait peacefully until four years later.
The second floor of Building D looked like an ordinary research facility. There was absolutely no sign of things exploding or catching fire as seen in comics or movies. However, the main research area operated with security cards, so he had to relay the message to the separate security guard at the front.
‘This is really like a horror game.’
Despite the bright and well-lit atmosphere, Lee Hwan couldn’t help thinking that. In games, when wandering around research facilities or hospital wards, you always had to find a security card somewhere to open doors. Just like now.
“Come in.”
A researcher with a slightly hunched posture, looking as though they had spent their life just studying, welcomed Lee Hwan. More precisely, welcomed what Lee Hwan was holding.
But wait, come in? Wasn’t he just supposed to deliver the items and leave? At the invitation to enter, Lee Hwan awkwardly followed behind.
