Chapter 185 (1/2)
Chapter 185 – The Chosen Ones (10)
‘Du du dudu, du du dudu’
He could hear the sound of subway in the distance. Soon he was able to see a 17 m^2 apartment with worn out wallpaper pasted over moldy walls. Anyone who saw such a place would not have a positive reaction, but for Sungjin who was looking into the future shouted internally
‘Yes! I’m alive!’
This was a rooftop apartment in the middle of Seoul Jung-ju district (1). It was the place Sungjin had lived before being dragged off to the raids. Him being here means that the final 256 hunters had successfully completed the last Raid.
‘So it’s finally over!’
Sungjin cheered internally. Finally, the death game of carnage and mayhem was finally over.
‘But… where is… me?”
Sungjin searched for his future self. The room was too dark and the lights were off.
‘Am I… sleeping already?’
But then,
‘Zzzzt’
A cell phone ringing could be heard. Above the worn out bed, which took up a third of the room, a cell phone lit up. His self was lying in bed looking at the cell phone. Sungjin wanted to shout at himself
‘Great work Sungjin. You have become the savior of mankind.’
But it was then
“Ha…”
His future self let out a long sigh. Sungjin was surprised
‘Hmm?’
He came back from a successful raid, so why was he sighing? Something wasn’t right. Sungjin peeked a look at the old cellphone his future self was holding. There was a text message open.
‘Hey, rooftop young man. I’m sorry to say that if you don’t pay your rent by this month then it really can’t be helped. I’ll wait just one more week. I hope that you’ll be able to pay during that time. Either that or move out.’
The future Sungjin read that and let out another long sigh.
“Haa…”
He threw his phone on the pillow. And then he stood up with great difficulty to grab his crutches. It was then that the Sungjin from the past saw the cast around his right leg.
‘Oh… right. It was like that’
Back in reality, Sungjin was barely meeting rent from month to month with a part time job. But not too long ago when he was running a delivery on his motorcycle, he hurt his leg in a hit-and-run accident. And for that reason, he was unable to do his part time job and had been laying in bed ever since. His entire savings went into paying for his medical fees and he was terminated from his part time job. That’s how rent begun to stack up. His legs were healed at the time he was summoned so he had forgotten about it.
‘…if I go back… I will come back to this kind of environment…’
Sungjin thought to himself while staring at tomorrow’s Sungjin.
‘But… did people all lose memory of the raids…?’
It was a topic of interest for previous life’s final 10 members, or with the Chosen Ones.
‘We’ll become heroes of humanity once the raids are over.’
‘It wouldn’t be strange if we become superstars with companies begging us to appear in their commercials.’
‘Once the raids are over, we will become rich. Unimaginably so.
It might be to a point where we no longer need money in our lives.’
It was a beautiful dream. The Hunters shared stories like these to help cope with the terror of the raids. Sungjin was always off to the side during one of these discussions, but that didn’t mean he had no expectations. He had grown up in such a deprived environment that, more than becoming a hero or super rich, his simply thought that his living circumstance will improve. But from what he saw, he comes back to life being worried about paying rent. It was very different from what he had imagined.
‘…So… I’m going back…to exactly where I started…’
It made sense. Becoming ‘Savior of mankind’ as the Hunters imagined was only going to come true if ‘The whole of mankind returned to Earth with their memories intact’. If the Operator erased everyone’s memories before returning them to Earth, there was no savior, nor hero or whatever.
‘Haa….’
Seeing himself in 24 hours later made Sungjin sigh, much like his future self had done. The future self waddled over with the crutch and opened the door of the fridge as tall as himself. The only edible thing in there was Banana Milk (3). He took it out of the fridge, opened the lid, and drank it all. Sungjin who was drinking the milk looked filled with worry. And Sungjin who was watching wasn’t exactly all that happy.
‘…It’s not that I wanted acknowledgement or something but…’
The thought of going back now and having to immediately worry about rent was horrifying.
‘Hell after hell…’
He then remembered Igor’s words.
‘This place is similar to reality’
Thinking of such thoughts was making him depressed. Sungjin, as of now, carried four different swords and clad his entire body with legendary gear, but back in reality, he was wearing an old white shirt and sweatpants.
‘Master Hunter Kei’
‘Kei nim’
‘Kei sensei’
He was treated like a hero here, but if he were to go back then he returns to life of being unemployed and in poverty. Sungjin thought to himself while looking at his future self.
‘…Wait a moment… what about me… do I go back without my memory as well?’
There were many terrible memories within the raid, but there were lots of good memories as well. He just didn’t want to go through it all again, but there were experiences from going through the Raid that he didn’t want to lose.
‘But… if that’s what the Operator does… then I guess that’s that…’
When Sungjin was thinking of that, the future self hobbled over towards the desk and opened a drawer. There, Sungjin’s eyes grew wide. Between books, scissors, batteries and other miscellaneous items was a small cube given by a Dragon.
‘That…?’
The future Sungjin had no items from the raid with the exception of the cube. The future Sungjin picked it up and rubbed it as he said,
“Archae’ard…”
That was the name of the dragon that had given him the cube. He had memory of the raids; he did not lose his memory of the past. The future Sungjin opened the lid to the cube. But there was nothing in there. The future Sungjin on seeing it sighed deeper than before.
“Haaa…”
‘Is Keeping tradition.’
‘Tradition?’