'… So, this.'
I came to my senses in the practice room of the agency of Cheongryeo, who looked to be around 20 years old.
It was a crazy situation.
I turned my head. Only then did my eyes meet mine in the huge full-length mirror that took up the entire wall.
"… … !"
"You look like your old self. Right?"
Right.
The person reflected in the full-length mirror was Ryu Gunwoo. My original body. However, I was not a person in my late 20s who was tired of public notice.
I looked like I had just graduated from high school, and I looked like I was the same age as Cheongryeo.
I swallowed and moved my hand. The young Ryu Gunwoo in the mirror followed along.
'… Ryu Gunwoo.'
But somewhere… I looked a bit different.
Things like the areas around the eyes, the atmosphere, and the shape of my face.
"It seems like Park Moondae's appearance still remains. It's like a mix? Haha, that's unique."
I got goosebumps.
'No, fuck, let's not come to conclusions.'
Maybe it was because of my expression.
At this time, I wasn't looking very good due to college entrance exams and life problems, but the guy in the mirror looked like he had managed it quite well.
'…'
How?
"The starting point is different this time. Well, my age is different."
I turned my head. Before I knew it, Cheongryeo found his smartphone and checked the date and situation.
I put my hand in my sweatpants pocket. I could feel my own smartphone.
"Your age is different?"
"That's right. My original restart was always at 18 years old. But I'm 20 now, so the date was changed to a few years later… Hmm, that doesn't seem right. Is it because we restarted together?"
I took out my smartphone from my pocket and checked the date on the lock screen.
[201X/01/08]
"… !"
Certainly, the date was strange.
If I was about 20 now, it should be a few years ago.
In the first place, Ryu Gunwoo was supposed to be older than Cheongryeo, but now we seem to be almost the same age.
'Neither this nor that makes sense.'
Only then did my head become clear. The path was clear.
Wasn't it different from a 'daydream'?
"This is like a daydream."
"What?"
"I can't be sure, but I experienced something similar."
I briefly described a daydream I had while in a coma after a car accident. Cheongryeo listened without much change in expression.
"… And I don't fit the age range or year. I also don't have the right appearance or the right place to come to my senses."
I came to a conclusion.
"So, I think this is not actually the past, but an incoherent dream."
"Ah."
Cheongryeo laughed heartily.
"Are you sure I should believe that?"
"…"
I clenched my hands.
"Then is there a better guess than that in the current situation?"
"The surreal situation of returning to the past has already occurred before to the both of us, but since other elements are contradictory, you think it's just a dream? Isn't this an overly random judgment?"
"…"
"Of course, you have to think of it as reality and act accordingly, hoobaenim. No, hmm… Should I call you Gunwoo hyung?"
"Stop."
This guy was going too far.
But after taking a deep breath, I regained my composure.
Because nothing was wrong.
"First… You're right. We have to respond realistically."
"Yes."
It was stupid to view a situation the way I wanted to believe it. It was reasonable to assume the worst and act accordingly.
And one more thing.
'This bastard… He has good eyes.'
This may have happened because he voluntarily followed along, but he got caught up in this crazy thing anyway… We were in a state where it looked like we regressed.
I didn't know if he was excited or if he wanted to kill someone.
'I need to come to my senses.'
I didn't know what kind of unexpected action might occur. I closed my mouth.
And… I needed to determine the cause.
'Where did the error come from?'
I looked back at the situation on the plane at that time.
The status windows with errors popped up all around us like crazy, and that guy…
-Hmm… I can see it.
"… !"
I also saw the status window in Cheongryeo!
I got a gut feeling that felt like I was getting hit on the head.
'No way.'
This bastard… Could it be that the system went into this guy and activated the deactivated status abnormality again?
This guy's condition was abnormal.
Returning to the starting point infinitely.
[Correction (Disabled)]
: Let's try again
-If you fail, go back to the beginning.
As I had already seen in Seon Ahyeon's case, there was a possibility that inactive status conditions could be activated again.
'Even if the system didn't go into him directly, it became a catalyst of sorts.'
I immediately checked Cheongryeo's condition.
'Status window.'
No, I was trying to check.
However… The window did not open.
Chichichik!
Instead, something like a strange glitch appeared and then disappeared.
One meaning was clear.
'… Keundal.'
It meant that he was in a state where he could not appear in the status window.
I clenched my fists.
'Fuck.'
It seemed like things really failed, but it was unclear where it started.
It was then.
A cautious voice was heard from behind.
"Hey, hyung."
Before I knew it, a tall guy was poking his head out of the open practice room door.
It was a familiar face.
"Oh, um, hello… !"
A VTIC member, Shin-Oh.
Of course, he looked much younger than in reality. The guy opened his mouth again with a somewhat nervous expression.
"The director called me, but he sent me away because we hadn't gathered yet…"
"Really? Wait a moment."
Cheongryeo gently accepted his words and then spoke to me.
"Shall we go?"
"… Yes."
First, I needed to see what the situation was like. Cheongryeo and I followed Shin-Oh.
Walking down the hallway of an unfamiliar agency.
The place we arrived was the office.
And the manager, who looked like a hard worker, gathered a bunch of young guys and lined them up.
They were probably all trainees.
'About 20 people.'
Considering the size of this company, it certainly didn't seem like the entire number of people were there.
"I've been paying special attention to you, so I'm calling you just to encourage you. Okay?"
"Yes!"
Among those called in, I saw a few familiar faces. A few faces would debut at small and medium-sized agencies in a few years.
And I could also see the faces of VTIC members I knew.
'First of all, the guy who called us, Shin-Oh. Next… Are they casting?'
No matter how I looked at it, they were both standing far behind in line, as if they were not part of the debut group.
It was obvious.
'Cheongryeo has been thinned out.'
Chaeyul, who was not here, seemed to have even been picked up separately.
I once again realized that the guy next to me was someone who had experience combining reality through various attempts.
In the meantime, the director was picking each person out one by one and giving encouragement and questions.
"Shin Jaehyun, you take care of the kids."
"Yes."
Shin Jaehyun, the guy who hadn't yet been given the stage name Cheongryeo, nodded to the director's words with a casual expression.
… How many times has this guy experienced this moment?
It was then.
"And Ryu Gunwoo."
"… ! Yes."
Why was he suddenly calling me?
The guy who seemed to be the manager twitched his fingers and opened his mouth.
"Gunwoo is also a good age and has a good academic background, so you have merit. Don't worry about unnecessary things and practice harder."
"… … Yes."
Ryu Gunwoo was getting advice on his debut from LeTi, but he was met with all kinds of bullshit situations.
'Hmm.'
I checked the attitudes and expressions of the people around me and where I stood.
Those who were forced to smile… I was in the 1st row next to Cheongryeo.
And if I combined the words of the director…
'I'm in the first team.'
I guess I was LeTi's trainee here. Who would also be in the debut group.
Anyway, the manager said a few words that seemed to be appropriate and dismissed the trainees.
"Jaehyun hyung, do you want to stay and practice?"
"Well, I'll see."
"Yes."
After seeing the debut group trainees disappearing across the hallway, I frowned.
'It looked like the director was exploring something.'
For now, I set these priorities aside because this wasn't a conspiracy about the head of the company.
'I have to get out of this dream right now.'
As soon as possible.
I had no idea how time passed in reality or whatever the hell was going on.
'Start with a hint.'
I decided to check my position here.
'I should check on my phone.'
Because there would be a bunch of personal information.
As I walked down the hallway, I took out my old smartphone and touched the screen…
"…"
I didn't know the lock pattern.
I tried a few times, but they all failed. And I didn't know what great thing I'd done… So, I had to take a detour.
"Shin Jaehyun."
"Hmm?"
"Do you have any records of conversations with Ryu Gunwoo on your smartphone?"
If I thought about the situation where we practiced together earlier and stretched out, it meant that we were familiar with each other.
"There was. Here."
As expected.
I looked at the smartphone screen that Cheongryeo obediently held out.
[LeTi 16th Shin Jaehyun: Please tell me the address of where hyung moved ^^]
[You already know, don't you?]
(TN: In case it wasn't made clear, in this timeline, Gunwoo isn't exactly the same age as Cheongryeo, hence why Gunwoo is his hyung.)
… Why bother sending a reply with the address written down there?
'Was he crazy?'
The sound of Cheongryeo snickering was heard.
"Well, I guess we were close. It's convenient."
"Oh, I guess you asked because you didn't know the lock pattern of your phone. It's a rhombus. It was during this time that the company used the same smartphone patterns for all the trainees for management reasons."
It meant I had to work with crazy people with no privacy.
It made sense. Things were a mess.
• * *
"Hoo."
11 o'clock at night.
As indicated in Cheongryeo's message, I was moving to a new place.
As for my phone? Surprisingly, the diamond pattern meant for company use also failed, so I just left it as is, just in case.
-Really? It seems like Ryu Gunwoo has only recently joined the company.
'Damn it.'
The reasoning ended there. I guess I'd have to take it to the service center tomorrow and have it resolved. I suppressed a sigh and took a step forward.
Cheongryeo first agreed to return to his home.
-Let's talk again after we each understand the situation.
-Okay.
It was a reasonable decision.
The problem was that the building I arrived at looked better than I expected.
'It's an officetel.'
What kind of money did I use in order to buy this?
I walked forward, looking at the building that seemed to be quite out of balance just from the outside.
Just looking at this, it was not reality but a dream.
Tiriririk.
And fortunately, I was able to get through the building's entrance using the card key sticker attached to my smartphone.
I was planning on going back to the company's practice room if I had to, so this was a good thing.
'Then it could also be the front door of the house.'
I went up, unlocked the door, then reached out and pulled the door handle.
The door opened softly.
However, there was a light on in the house when there was obviously no one there.
But then I heard a voice.
"Hyung, are you back?"
"… !"
"You practiced for a long time today."
Wearing comfortable clothes, sitting on the living room sofa…
It was Ryu Chungwoo.
Like me, he looked about 20 years old.
'What's this?'
"Hyung?"
Ryu Gunwoo here… He was living alone with his relative Ryu Chungwoo.
"Hyung, have you ever heard of this cultural subject?"
"… I heard the professor doesn't give good grades."
"Hmm, I see."
I didn't know what I was doing now. I moved my eyes, reflexively evaluating the 3-credit liberal arts skills shown by 20-year-old Ryu Chungwoo.
And I saw it.
The cabinet in the living room was a useless gift given at the college entrance ceremony… Teddy bears were on display.
Two of them.
'I'm going crazy.'
It was completely confirmed.
It was clear that Ryu Chungwoo here had entered the same university as me.
Even those two teddy bears looked identical.
'It means that we entered school in the same year.'
So why did that guy call me hyung? There was no way I would have bothered to retake the exam to go to the same university as when I was on active duty.
"…"
Let's ask in a natural, persuasive way.
"Why do you keep using the honorific when we're the same age?"
Even in the worst case, I could excuse myself by saying I drank alcohol.
"Ah, um, I thought you were my hyung when I was young… So it's already stuck in my mouth. It's really not uncomfortable, so don't worry."
Ryu Chungwoo smiled slightly awkwardly. Is that so? The settings were so meticulous and unnecessary.
I suppressed my silence and reflexively thought of a valid question.
'… What about archery?'
At that age, he would definitely still be doing archery, so thinking about it, it was strange that he entered college now.
However, I was about to do something suspicious by asking the relative who lived with me about it, I saw something.
A blue and transparent line suddenly appeared.
"…"
At first, I thought it was a hallucination. But as if it was trying to climb up… A long line was drawn in the air, and it eventually became a square.
And the letters that floated on the surface between the lines…
[[email protected]&!5 Hyung!]
Status window. Keundal.
"… !"
I got up from my seat. And then I immediately went into the bathroom and closed the door.
Thud.
'What's your condition?'
[I don't know either. It felt like it was working, but I avoided it. I'm okay now.]
Letters popped out sparsely, as if barely squeezing through a narrow gap.
He didn't seem okay. But the texts didn't stop.
[And the status window #[email protected]^]
A pop-up appeared with a crackle.
A familiar phrase.
[Enjoy your]
Yes.
This was a sentence that started with the words I saw in my other daydream. I clenched my fists.
… It was a hasty feeling.
This was because the endings of the sentences were different.
[Enjoy your reality :D]
Not a dream, but reality.
'Reality.'
My brain felt cold as if it had been doused with cold water.
The pop-up shook again.
[I didn't write this, hyung. I'll try my best. I'll reboot first. [email protected]^]
What?
"Wait a minute, you're in danger…"
Before I could tell him to wait, the status window disappeared.
'Damn it!'
Why were these bastards so disobedient? I pounded my fist on the bathroom wall nervously.
It was then.
Lights exploded like neon signs.
[START / Registration complete!]
Player: Ryu Gunwoo (Park Moondae)
As if my vision became brighter, prisms and light entered the hologram.
The shine flashed like a firecracker, and a new window was created.
[Quest has arrived!]
Companions that can be awakened: ?
Required reputation: 1000 experience
Small text appeared in Keundal's pop-up window.
[This… ]
It was a new, game system.