Chapter 503: What He Wants (1) |
“I honestly don’t know if this will work. It’ll be easier if he’s an ordinary human, but the human whose dream you’re trying to enter is on the same level as me, so it’ll be difficult to enter his dream. Even if you manage to enter his dream, there’s a high chance that you’ll be pushed out immediately. It can also be dangerous. In real-world time, it’ll be one hour, and in dream-world time, it’ll be the whole day,” Lonovera explained.
“Are you saying that one hour in the real world equals one day in the dream world?” I asked.
“That depends on the adjustments, but… the max time I can give you is about three days. I don’t have anything else to caution you about, but I can’t guarantee anything, so I’m embarrassed for not telling you this confidently. Of course, based on that human’s condition, it should be possible, but the mind of a high-ranked human isn’t easy to penetrate…” she replied.
“I think it’s worth a try. He looks even more confused than I thought,” I said.
“I think it’s going to be difficult,” she remarked.
“Let’s try it, anyway.”
I could still remember what Lonovera said worriedly about how it wouldn’t work. I assumed that Lonovera had overestimated Kim Hyun-Sung’s mental state, but I didn’t expect that I would be able to enter his dream this easily.
His consciousness opened like an automatic door to me, and it didn’t reject my intrusion.
Actually, it felt like his mind was urging me to enter.
‘I’m not sure if I should consider this a good thing.’
It was nice that I managed to enter, but this meant that Kim Hyun-Sung was simply that unstable. I looked around, and the scenery made me worried. Kim Hyun-Sung’s consciousness was like a wasteland enveloped in darkness.
The darkness in his consciousness was darker than Belial’s darkness, and my heart cracked when I saw him cowering in a space like this.
He started crying the moment he saw me, and it was absurd, but the Kim Hyun-Sung in front of me wasn’t the Kim Hyun-Sung I knew.
He was in the worst-case scenario, but he still looked handsome, which annoyed me.
Of course, I was happy to see him. He definitely felt the same because he was staring at me in disbelief—no, I actually couldn’t describe his expression.
‘Did he come back to his senses?’
Perhaps because I was in his consciousness, but it felt like he had come to his senses faster than I expected. His heroines had failed, so I thought I would fail as well, but it seemed that it wasn’t the case.
Of course, it wasn’t really strange. After all, I was the reason behind all this, so it wasn’t weird that he started coming back to his senses the moment he saw me standing in front of him.
I thought this was going to get a lot easier because I had one hour in the real world and three days in this world, which should be enough time to take care of our lovely regressor’s mental health.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said.
“Ah…” Kim Hyun-Sung rubbed his eyes.
“It’s been a long time.” I continued.
“Ah… Uh… Heuk…”
‘Does he have aphasia? What’s wrong with him?’
“Ha. haha...” I laughed.
“Ah… Euk… Kgh…”
He looked as if he wanted to say something, but his emotions were overwhelming him because he couldn’t speak properly. I felt embarrassed while he was trying his best to suppress his moaning and groaning.
“...”
He looked sad but happy at the same time. I was looking forward to a touching moment. I was hoping he would come and hug me tightly, like what Park Deok-Gu would have done if he were in Kim Hyun-Sung’s shoes.
However, Kim Hyun-Sung looked as if he was trying to suppress himself.
He could have turned away because he was embarrassed to show his tears, but it was really Kim Hyun-Sung-esque for him to stare at me intently as if he was afraid that I would run away.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“...”
‘I shouldn’t leave him until he calms down.’
He couldn’t talk because his emotions had overwhelmed him.
‘I’m thankful because you’re always thinking about me. Man, why didn’t you say anything? I had no idea that you were thinking about me that much...’
“Are you feeling better?” I asked.
“...”
I couldn’t say that he had calmed down, but he looked better than before. When I took a step forward and cautiously reached out with my hand, I saw him crying once again.
He was flustered, but after collecting himself, he grabbed my hand and stood up.
“I’m… I’m sorry…” Kim Hyun-Sung mumbled.
‘Man, don’t cry again.’
“I-I’m… sorry,” he stuttered.
‘You’re not a crybaby.’
“You don’t have to apologize like that since it wasn’t your fault,” I told him.
“B-But… but…” he said.
“Let’s go for now since we can’t stay in this place,” I suggested.
He looked puzzled.
‘Let’s hurry and get out of here. You need to break out of your shell.’
However, it seemed ineffective, so I had to think about a few things.
What was the right thing to do here?
‘What should I do?’
I wasn’t sure if I should urge him to move, ask him what he was doing, or comfort him. If those wouldn’t work, then was I supposed to yell and ask him to save me?
I had no choice but to be cautious since his mental health was at its lowest.
If the reason why he was avoiding the situation was that he was afraid of fighting, then urging him to move would affect him negatively. If he was scared that something bad would happen to me, then screaming for help could affect him negatively as well.
It would be even more dangerous if he thought that I could die because of his mistake.
Kim Hyun-Sung had come to his senses for a second, but he was extremely unstable to the point that a single trigger could easily make him lose his mind again.
In addition, he was crying too much for me to fix him up with a few knuckle sandwiches.
‘I do have a lot of time.’
I didn’t think that it would be bad to observe him for a few hours. I wasn’t sure if he was aware of my complicated feelings, but he was looking around with a faint smile.
He was confused about where he was right now, and it seemed that he had no idea what he was looking at.
“This place… I see. So that’s what happened,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
‘What do you mean?’
I was confused, but I quickly knew what he was talking about.
‘This guy, he can’t tell the difference...’
He couldn’t distinguish between the reality and the world in his consciousness.
“It’s all over. All of it…” he continued.
He thought that everything had ended while he was in dreamland. I was confused about how a person could think that way, but I quickly understood after looking around for a bit.
We were in a ruined city enveloped in darkness.
I wasn’t sure, but I assumed we were in…
“Lindel…” I said.
“Yes, I think it’s Lindel. In the end… this time as well… M-More importantly, what happened to you, Mr. Ki-Young? How… did you regain consciousness? The demons, no—in the end, they…” he trailed off.
“...”
“I see. It’s all over. Asking these kinds of questions…”
“...”
‘Shit, what should I tell him?’
The answer here was to remain silent. I wanted to say something, but I started having complicated thoughts when I saw the ruined city.
This was what our past life looked like, and this was what the continent looked like after it was destroyed. This was a memory of Kim Hyun-Sung’s past life that his consciousness had created. I saw this place through Kasugano Yuno, but it had been a while since I saw this place.
I had no idea how Kim Hyun-Sung survived Lindel’s destruction and what happened that traumatized him.
Anyway, I found him pitiful.
The fact that he could still see this sight in his unconscious meant that he still couldn’t move on from what had happened in his past life, even though the world in his past life had already been destroyed.
‘He’s really making me worried.’
More cracks appeared in my heart when I saw that he seemed comfortable in his place.
Of course, he wasn’t happy, but he looked as if he was no longer carrying a heavy burden on his shoulder.
“I’m not sure if there are items that are still intact, but let’s go in for now,” he suggested.
“...”
‘The Blue Guild’s Guild House.’
It was an unfamiliar sight. Everything was destroyed, so I couldn’t really make out what I was looking at. There was a portrait of someone unfamiliar to me, and I also saw items that I had never seen before.
Kim Hyun-Sung looked like he still had no idea what was going on.
He entered the kitchen, seemingly excited.
When he emerged, he was carrying a few items with him.
“There are still items that are intact, so we got lucky,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
“That’s…”
“I’m not sure if you’ll like this. There isn’t much left, but we might find more items if we go to the Red Mercenary Guild or to the Black Swan Guild. Since it’s late, let’s sleep here and start moving tomorrow,” he suggested.
“Is there a place to lie down here?” I asked.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Ki-Young,” he said.
‘Hyun-Sungemong, it’s nice to see you again.’
He went somewhere and brought out a bed. He had to be really strong, even in his consciousness, because I saw him carrying an entire massive mattress by himself.
He punched the mattress, creating a cloud of dust that made him cough repeatedly. The sight looked pretty cute to me, and he looked surprised as well. He probably didn’t think that the dust on the mattress would land on his face.
Thanks to his efforts, the ruined guild house became a decent place to stay. We couldn’t use a cleaning spell since magic didn’t exist here anymore, but we managed to clean up by moving here and there. I got the feeling that our living conditions were improving little by little with every movement. I thought we could live here for a few days.
There was canned food on the table and an intact bottle of cheap wine.
He sat next to me like a kid, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw him pouring wine for me. Of course, it wasn’t because I was having fun. It was simply because his actions looked unnatural.
“Did you think of something funny?” Kim Hyun-Sung asked.
“No, it’s not that… The situation is just a bit funny. You seem really relaxed despite the current situation…” I replied.
“There probably aren’t any survivors here. Even if we explore, I’m sure we won’t find anyone,” he said.
“I see…”
‘There’s no way that he hasn’t noticed yet.’
It would have been different if it were someone else, but this was Kim Hyun-Sung we were talking about. I was sure that he had long noticed that this place was constructed based on the details that he could still remember from his past life.
In other words, this guild house was in his past life.
There were picture frames depicting the images of people who were unfamiliar to me, and the interior was a bit different. There were many unfamiliar items, and I was sure that Kim Hyun-Sung definitely knew those items.
The building was in ruins, but it wouldn’t make sense that Kim Hyun-Sung still hadn’t noticed the difference.
‘He knows...’
This guy was already aware that he wasn’t in the real world.
‘You have no intention of getting out of here.’
“And that is why he has been denying it,” I said.
Kim Hyun-Sung was smiling at me innocently.
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