CH 3

Regression (1)

Ye-Hyeon opened his eyes in a very familiar place.

A narrow low ceiling Yellow mold marks that have not disappeared no matter how many times I erase them.

The sight of dancing dust was a scene in the room that welcomed Ye-Hyeon’s day every morning.

In contrast to the bright sunlight from the palm-sized window, the narrow room was dim.

Ye-Hyeon blinked his eyelid blankly.

“I felt drowsy and hazy. I felt like I slept well after a long time.”

Ye-Hyeon, who was looking up at the ceiling, belatedly felt a sense of alienation and jumped up.

“…home?” a low, locked voice rang in a deafening tone.

I couldn’t recognize at once how this was happening.

“I almost died in the boss room”

Ye-Hyeon, who was looking back on his memory, shrugged his shoulders without realizing it.

The slow attack of the boss revived the terrible fear just by recalling it.

Ye-Hyeon trembled with a painful sound.

The pain as if the bones of his whole body were crumbling, and the reluctance to die and escape remained clear.

However, the limbs exposed under the short sleeves and shorts were smooth without a scratch.

No matter how advanced the treatment was, if it was a major injury, it would leave a scar.

The gap between the last memory of the death that was just around the corner and the extremely peaceful landscape in front of me was so great that the sense of reality disappeared.

My head was pounding with a distant sense of separation.

Ye-Hyeon opened a small window by his bedside and stuck his head out.

There was a blue sky between the old and shabby buildings.

The super-large gate, which covered all over Seoul, centered on Sungnyemun Gate, did not show even a shadow.

“What the hell happened?”

Ye-Hyeon muttered and felt all over his body, half out of his mind.

The senses were a little dull, but they were all normal.

“Why am I alive? Did the guild that arrived later clear it? However, even if someone came, it seemed impossible to hold out for a minute, let alone to finish it against an unknown boss.All I could guess was the system window where “loading” was completed.It was when I was carefully trying to open the status window.”

The tightly closed door burst open.

Looking back reflexively, Ye-Hyeon froze as if he were facing a ghost.

“Ye-Hyeon?”

A person who tied up her hair barely touching her shoulder and dressed neatly in old-fashioned clothes stood leaning against the door.

It was Ye-Hyeon’s older sister, Choi Si-Hyun.

My sister walked into the room, examining my complexion.

It couldn’t have happened unless Ye-Hyeon wasn’t crazy.

“Are you really noona?”

Ye-Hyeon rubbed his eyes with a puzzled expression.

It was harder to believe than when I came back alive.

“Then do you think I’m your fake Noona?”

Noona asked back as if she was dumbfounded. Ye-Hyeon’s nose ached at her sister’s clear voice after such a long time.

It has already been more than a year since his sister, who had been suffering for no reason, lost consciousness and collapsed.

My sister was like a vegetable and lived only by relying on an oxygen respirator.

“Ye-Hyeon, I’m fine, so don’t cry.”

It was the last sound I barely heard when I held my ears close.

His sister was only worried about Ye-Hyeon until the end.

“Is this heaven?”

Ye-Hyeon had no choice but to ask even though he knew it was stupid.

“I can’t believe I can see my healthy sister again.”

It was good to say that she was almost dead.

“Are you still half asleep?”

His sister sat on the bed and closed her eyes and laughed.

Only then did Ye-Hyeon realize how much he missed his sister’s bright smile.

“You look best when you smile. It’s pretty,”

Ye-Hyeon murmured unclearly.

12 years after my parents died.

My sister, who was just bright, suffered so much that there was a gaunt and pitiful atmosphere.

Still, in Ye-Hyeon’s eyes:“My sister was still the prettiest in the world.”

“What are you saying? You’ve been saying weird things. Are you sick? Is it that hard to prepare for the interview?”

Although they were on good terms compared to other siblings, neither Ye-Hyeon nor his sister were good at expressing themselves.

His sister jokingly replied to her brother’s unfamiliar compliments.

Ye-Hyeon couldn’t look away from her sister.

I was afraid that if I turned my head for a moment, my sister would disappear like a bubble.

His sister was the only family member that he had.

After my sister collapsed, I lived without knowing that I was lonely because I was tired of surviving day by day, but when I faced my sister and talked to her, I was filled with complicated emotions.

“I mean it. Nothing would happen even if I flatter you.”

His sister poked his head with her hand.

“Ugh!”

Ye-Hyeon grabbed his head and stiffened.

The tingling pain brought Ye-Hyeon, who seemed to be wandering in a dream, to reality at once.

“It’s good to prepare hard, but don’t go to bed too late. Make sure to eat on time. As I said yesterday, I’ll probably be back in a couple of weeks. I will contact you when I arrive in Busan.”

I was even glad to hear such tiresome nagging.

Ye-Hyeon, who was listening to her sister with a nod, opened his eyes wide at the word that suddenly popped out.

“Busan? You’re going to Busan?”It was only one time that noona went on a business trip to Busan.

Three years ago, my sister was 30 years old.

I remembered clearly because I met Kim Jin-Sung, who almost became my brother-in-law, no, brother-in-law in Busan.

“You heard me, didn’t you? Well, I knew it. Call me right away if anything happened.”

My sister took some 10,000 won bills out of her pocket and held them in my hand.

“You really thought nothing was coming out!”

Ye-Hyeon bit his lower lip without her knowing.

My sister’s hand, which was so pretty that I heard that she could be a hand model, was now bumpy and full of wounds.

“Oh, it’s already this time. I’ve got to get going.”

“Wait, sister. Don’t go. Don’t go without me…”

“At this rate, I would be late. See you in a week.”

Ye-Hyeon tried to grab her in a hurry, but his noona dragged a small bag and disappeared like the wind.

Ye-Hyeon, who followed her to the front door, looked at the place where her sister left him like an abandoned dog.

Suddenly, I saw a rustic calendar hanging on the front door. At the top of the calendar that my sister receives from the factory at the end of every year, the year was written large enough to be seen at a glance from a distance.

“Exactly three years ago, …S-status window.”

Ye-Hyeon muttered in a trembling voice.

<Status Window>

Name: Choi Ye-Hyeon

Age: 24

Level: 1

Job: Dating Sim Player (L)

Title: Job Seeker (F)

Vitality: 100/100

Mana: 100/100

Skill: Inventory (L) (Locked), Collection (C) (Locked), Slaughter (D) (Locked)

Status: Normal 24 years old.

The age in the status window was also reduced by three years.

“No way…”

Ye-Hyeon slumped on the floor.

A word came to mind in a his head.

It was nonsense.

None of the hunters who used abilities, had ever had skills about time travel.

“However, if I didn’t return, I could not explain the change in the status window of my healthy sister.”

Ye-Hyeon thought it was hard to believe, but didn’t want to deny it.

If a miracle happened just before his death and he really went back three years…

“There’s nothing I can do…”

After a moment of hope, a distant despair came.

Ye-Hyeon buried his distorted face in his hands.

The future will repeat itself as scheduled.

Ye-Hyeon knew too well how cruel the world was, to have naive expectations that a super-large gate might not appear this time.

In order to survive, it meant that the boss, who was more like a huge natural disaster than a monster, had to be killed only three years later.

“How can I stop it? I’m already out of breath.”

The fear that had been instill by the powerful force was deeply imprinted on Ye-Hyeon’s mind.

It remains to be seen that it was impossible for me to directly kill the boss without any plausible combat skills. However, it was not that I was familiar with useful information or rare items to take advantage of the benefits of regression. Furthermore, after entering the boss room portal, I couldn’t even remember the shape, let alone the status window of the boss, because my memory was cut off because of the shock.

It was highly likely that he went down even before opening the status window. If I had known the boss’s attributes and skills, I could have leaked information little by little to induce preparation!

Ye-Hyeon bowed his head again.

“What should I do with inventory and a few life skills? Why me?”

A strong sense of helplessness that he had never experienced before weighed down on Ye-Hyeon’s shoulders.

“I had a strong desire to run away.”

Ye-Hyeon chewed his lower lip well.

However, it was not possible to leave the super-large gate, which would cause a large explosion

Ye-Hyeon frowned and look through his memory.

The gate has 10 round jewels at the top, and the lights go out one by one over time. If the inner dungeon is not cleared until the last gem is extinguished, the gate explodes. About a year or two ago, there was a time when the African Union failed to clear a large gate in time in a chaotic civil war. Until then, it was unprecedented because the probability of large gates occurring was extremely low.

He almost bowed.

There was nothing I didn’t try because I was afraid I might have hidden abilities! I was particularly resentfu when I saw it and I look at it until I got sick of it.

Ye-Hyeon clenched his teeth.

Misfortunes always come out of the blue. It didn’t suit me to stay still just because I couldn’t see the answer. I’m going to have to at least struggle!

Ye-Hyeon shook off on his seat and woke up, reflecting on the promise he had made over and over again.

First, I’m going to do an aptitude test! There are quite a few awakening subsidies, so if I cover my living expenses and pay off some of your debts, I will be able to take a breather.

When he tried to close the status window, he suddenly caught an unfamiliar word.

“A Dating Sim Player?”

The job that used to be a simple “player” was changed into a “Dating Sim Player.”