The news article's subject was very simple. The Closure of Jamsil Gate, which had left the world in an uproar, had been due to a novice named 'L' rather than the Council.
"…Ha!" Cha Ye-Eun exclaimed, massaging her aching temple with her index finger. She silently put a cigarette in her mouth and lit it up.
Phew―!
After letting out a puff of cigarette smoke, she felt a lot better. She hoped her worries would dissipate just as the smoke had.
"Smoking indoors is prohibited, you know?" Jin Seok-Tae remarked.
"Read the room before I slap your mouth," Ye-Eun snapped without looking at Seok-Tae.
"I'm sorry," Seok-Tae said, shutting his mouth when he realized that his superior would actually bite his head off if he kept messing with her.
After a long pause, Ye-Eun asked, "Do you have any idea who leaked this story?"
"It seems that one of the survivors is close to some reporters," Seok-Tae answered.
"I told you to stop them from making contact with the outside for a while," Ye-Eun said.
"You know it's not as easy as it sounds," Seok-Tae replied.
"This is driving me nuts," Ye-Eun complained, her face contorting into a frown.
The article had made several conjectures about unsolved questions regarding the Jamsil Gate. However, the conjectures presented by the author were mostly true. Such an article did Ye-Eun no favors, as she was still investigating the incident in secret.
"The press thankfully considers this to be a tabloid article, so they aren't paying much attention. That's understandable. Who would believe that a novice appeared out of nowhere, closed a two-star Dungeon alone, and disappeared without a trace?" Seok-Tae remarked.
With a serious expression, Ye-Eun nodded. Seok-Tae was right. In fact, she had been very shocked when she first heard the story from the survivors. She had briefly thought they had experienced a mass hallucination.
At that moment, however, a man named Park Hae-Seong had stepped up and testified after revealing his military rank of second lieutenant. When Ye-Eun heard his testimony in detail, goosebumps had spread all across her body.
In the end, a confidential document with the codename 'Tyrant' had been created based on the survivors' interviews. That very document was the one Ye-Eun was busy compiling.
"The news will spread in no time, though, won't it?" Ye-Eun groaned, covering her eyes with a hand.
"There are so many rats," Seok-Tae said bitterly with a nod.
It would take a while for the public to find out the truth, but the large Clans were another story. They had many connections inside the Council.
"I have to find and contact this person before they do," Ye-Eun said, looking at a photograph on her desk. It depicted a frowning man with a headset on his head.
The 'Tyrant', Lee Chang-Sun—he was a famous professional gamer who had become a despondent alcoholic after his team was made to disband. However, several days in the Jamsil Break's Unpredictable Gate had turned him into a totally different man.
There were many unanswered questions about him. How could he have changed so much the moment he Awakened? How could he have acted so bravely in front of monsters even though he was a civilian? And… How could he have finished the Tutorial?
To be honest, Ye-Eun was seriously considering the possibility that Chang-Sun was a demon. If not, she had to contact him before the large Clans could.
'The problem is that I can't find where on Earth he disappeared to,' Ye-Eun thought, staring at the ceiling.
She had searched the area surrounding where the survivors had appeared all night, but not a single hair on Chang-Sun's head had turned up. She had combed through all the footage from the CCTVs in the area, but she had gotten nothing. It had gotten to a point where she wondered whether Chang-Sun had literally evaporated.
"You're right. Isn't he like a ghost? Should we change the code name to 'Ghost,' not 'Tyrant'?" Seok-Tae remarked.
"Don't be silly," Ye-Eun said with a snort.
Tsss!
The cigarette had already burned down to its filter, so Ye-Eun dropped it into her cup, having no plans to finish drinking her coffee. She looked at her monitor, intending to get back to work.
At that moment…
Bang!
An investigator flung open Ye-Eun's office door and burst inside, yelling, "I found him!"
Ye-Eun and Seok-Tae both looked at the investigator simultaneously. They did not need to ask who had been found. After all, there was only one person they were looking for.
Where had Lee Chang-Sun been all this time? Was he somewhere related to his identity? A list of Chang-Sun's possible locations flashed through Ye-Eun's mind—a black market, a Clan's headquarters, or a Dungeon.
That had to be why she was feeling tense.
"So where is he?" Ye-Eun asked as she put on her jacket.
"He is at home!" the investigator reported.
"…What did you say?" Ye-Eun froze upon hearing the investigator's unexpected answer, thinking she had misheard it.
"He is at… home," the investigator timidly repeated.
"…"
"…"
The investigator's answer was still the same, leaving Ye-Eun and Seok-Tae so baffled that they stood silently in place for a long time.
* * *
Beep!
"…I'm home," Chang-Sun called out after opening the automatic lock on the door, before cautiously opening it and heading inside.
When he first returned to Earth, he had been worried that he would be unable to go back home, as he could not remember his address or his apartment unit's number. However, his body had begun to move automatically, bringing him onto a blue bus headed for Jamsil. His hand had even keyed in the passcode of the automatic lock on its own.
The inside of his home did not feel as foreign as he had thought it would.
"Did you have a good day?" Chang-Sun's mother gently asked.
She seemed to have been cooking. Until she came out to greet Chang-Sun, he had heard her chopping something on a cutting board. Off to one side, a pot of doenjang-jjigae[1] was boiling on the stove.
'How should I answer her?' Chang-Sun pondered the simple question for a while. Would it be appropriate to run toward his mother and say he missed her? Or would it be better to answer as calmly as possible?
After thinking it through, Chang-Sun answered simply, "…Yes, I had a good day."
"Did you eat?" Chang-Sun's mother asked with a smile.
"Not yet," Chang-Sun replied.
"Is that so? Then I'll cook you breakfast in no time, so please rest for a moment," Chang-Sun's mother said.
Chang-Sun had finally met his mother for the first time in hundreds of years. She looked older than Chang-Sun remembered, but she was still beautiful. She had even worked as an actress when she was young. When Chang-Sun's school held open classes for parents[2], Chang-Sun's friends had used to envy Chang-Sun for having a beautiful mother. The young Chang-Sun had used that as a pretext to act pompously in those days.
However, it seemed that even his mother was not immune to time, and her face was more wrinkled than before. Her worry for her son had produced those wrinkles.
Chang-Sun was unused to seeing wrinkles on his mother's face, but he could clearly tell how relieved she was. He thought bitterly 'Of course she would feel that way…'
For several years, Chang-Sun had been her wayward son. On top of that, Chang-Sun had to have been sleeping outside for several days. The neighbors had been making noise due to the opening of the Jamsil Gate. Thus, Chang-Sun's mother must have been worried sick about him.
Nevertheless, Chang-Sun's mother did not ask him anything. She did not even scold him. As if nothing had happened, she just asked whether Chang-Sun was hungry. That was how much she trusted her youngest son.
Chang-Sun could only nod silently in response.
"…I'm home," he eventually said quietly.
Chang-Sun was merely repeating the words he had said before, but unbeknownst to anyone, it carried a completely different meaning the second time around.
* * *
"…"
"…"
"…"
Perhaps because Chang-Sun had met his gentle mother first, it took him a while to realize how cold the rest of his family was toward him.
The entire family, including Chang-Sun, had begun eating breakfast. Although Chang-Sun had been missing for several days, no one asked him about where he had been or what he had been doing. They all quietly emptied their rice bowls and the accompanying banchan[3].
'Yeah, this is why I tried to stay away from home,' Chang-Sun thought as he awkwardly shoved a spoonful of rice into his mouth.
His father's family ran a big business, big enough to be called semi-chaebol[4]. His father was the youngest son, who had gone to a medical school and inherited a large hospital without any issues. On the other hand, his mother came from a famous family of scholars. Several well-known legal professionals and diplomats came from that side of the family.
Chang-Sun's family was a typical upper-class family, just like the ones often seen in TV dramas. Due to his family background, Chang-Sun had been treated like a freak for choosing a different path.
His brother had gone to medical school, just like their father. Meanwhile, his sister had studied music abroad in the Netherlands, and had even won a few awards in music competitions. However, Chang-Sun was very different from both his brother and sister. He had been unusually obsessed with games because of his strong desire to win, and tried to forge his own path in life.
'I remembered my family too fondly… Right, this is why I had no lingering feelings for them.'
At this point in his past, he had become completely dejected after being half-forced to retire. Afterward, his family had begun to look at him disapprovingly.
Still, one of their family members has just returned home after several days, looking worse for wear. How could no one worry about me?' Chang-Sun thought in disbelief.
He suddenly wondered whether it was worth going through so much just to return to such a cold family. However, the next thought that came to mind was that his old self had truly been trash, the primary source of discord within his family.
"I will be going," Chang-Sun's brother said as he put down his spoon.
"I will be going too," Chang-Sun's sister said after drinking some water.
After emptying their rice bowls to a certain extent, they took their jackets and stood up. However, they did not look in Chang-Sun's direction even once.
"Are you going to be late again today?" Chang-Sun's mother asked worriedly.
"There is a surgery scheduled in the evening, so I think I will be a little late," Chang-Sun's brother said with a shrug.
"I will be traveling out of Seoul to give a lecture, so I cannot say for sure. Just have dinner without me," Chang-Sun's sister added.
"Is that so?" Chang-Sun's mother said as she saw the two out to the front door. When they climbed into the elevator, she sighed lightly. As all her children had become adults, it was very difficult to have dinner together.
'I'm a total stranger here,' Chang-Sun could not help but think bitterly. He could clearly sense his mother's anxiety. To him, he felt as if his family had become total strangers.
Thud!
Chang-Sun's father had been eating slowly, but he abruptly dropped his spoon onto the table. For the first time, he looked at Chang-Sun and said angrily, "You said nothing until the end of the meal. You could have at least apologized. We have all been distraught for the past few days because of you."
"H-Honey," Chang-Sun's mother began, trying to stop his father.
"You stop right there. He is always like this because you keep coddling him," Chang-Sun's father interrupted his nervous mother, making her sit down. His wrinkled face, which Chang-Sun could see past his glasses, was full of anger.
Chang-Sun felt as if he had been hit with a blunt weapon in the back of the head. Only after he had heard his father's words did he realize that he had made a mistake. The entire time, he had been waiting for his family to say they were worried about him. He had never thought of giving them an explanation first.
Chang-Sun had kept some distance from his family just because he felt awkward. However, it had made his father—no, his family—angry.
"Do you know that your mother fainted when that Jamsil Gate thing opened up? Someone from the Council even came here saying you might have gotten entangled in the Gate. It was a big mess!" Chang-Sun's father shouted angrily at him.
"…"
"We were worried because no matter how many times we called, you never answered. We thought you might have been in an emergency room, so your brother called every hospital in Seoul. Your sister did not even get to go on her business trip abroad because she was helping your mother search various places to find you," Chang-Sun's father continued to yell, but Chang-Sun could say nothing in response.
He continued, "Yes, you finally returned home after several days, looking like a beggar. And yet, you just began eating without giving us any explanation? How could you even think about eating right now? Are you even human? An animal would be more decent than you!"
Thump!
His father sprang out of his seat, yelling, "If you are going to keep living this way, I will just get you a house, so go live alone! Stop making your mother and siblings worry!"
"…"
"Chang-Sun, say something. Your father worried a lot about you. And honey, you should stop too. He's just sorry, that's all," Chang-Sun's mother said, trying to mediate the conflict. However, Chang-Sun remained frozen, unable to say anything.
Seemingly unwilling to listen to his youngest son's belated excuses, Chang-Sun's father picked up his briefcase and stormed out of the house. Chang-Sun could hear his mother hurriedly following his father to the front door.
"…"
Chang-Sun covered his face with one hand, feeling as if his limbs had turned to jelly. He finally realized how much he had hurt his family in his past… The price of his selfishness was too great.
His relationship with his family was like a tangled knot, complicated almost beyond comprehension. Chang-Sun was unsure as to how he could even
"We were worried because no matter how many times we called, you never answered. We thought you might have been in an emergency room, so your brother called every hospital in Seoul. Your sister did not even get to go on her business trip abroad because she was helping your mother search various places to find you," Chang-Sun's father continued to yell, but Chang-Sun could say nothing in response.
He continued, "Yes, you finally returned home after several days, looking like a beggar. And yet, you just began eating without giving us any explanation? How could you even think about eating right now? Are you even human? An animal would be more decent than you!"
Thump!
His father sprang out of his seat, yelling, "If you are going to keep living this way, I will just get you a house, so go live alone! Stop making your mother and siblings worry!"
"…"
"Chang-Sun, say something. Your father worried a lot about you. And honey, you should stop too. He's just sorry, that's all," Chang-Sun's mother said, trying to mediate the conflict. However, Chang-Sun remained frozen, unable to say anything.
Seemingly unwilling to listen to his youngest son's belated excuses, Chang-Sun's father picked up his briefcase and stormed out of the house. Chang-Sun could hear his mother hurriedly following his father to the front door.
"…"
Chang-Sun covered his face with one hand, feeling as if his limbs had turned to jelly. He finally realized how much he had hurt his family in his past… The price of his selfishness was too great.
His relationship with his family was like a tangled knot, complicated almost beyond comprehension. Chang-Sun was unsure as to how he could even begin untangling it.