Episode 103. Homecoming (1)

It was an ordinary day.

Not particularly cold nor hot, nor was it raining or windy.

A simple day, neither special nor depressing.

The broken sky was now a familiar sight, as was news of death on the TV and internet. Listening to reports on Monsters and Rifts was no different from hearing reports on natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes.

“Whew.”

The man wasn’t special. Most people living in the current world were like him. They became indifferent to death, and the terrifying Monsters and horrible Rifts that were once called the Worst Disaster no longer had any great impact.

Years and years of Monster invasions were enough to make people indifferent, and the world had adapted to the changes.

“Excuse me, can I ask you a question?”

So this person who appeared out of nowhere seemed strange to the man.

“What’s wrong with the sky? Why is it cracked like a broken window? And who are the people wandering around wearing clothes you’d see in a game?”

“.....”

“This is Seoul, Korea, right? Five years.. only five years should have passed. What on earth happened...”

He was asking questions that were common knowledge. After calmly listening to him, the man sighed.

“I’m busy on my way to work. Ask someone else.”

There were people like him. Those who couldn’t adapt to the broken world, or people who half-lost their minds after experiencing severe trauma.

People like that weren’t rare. People around him occasionally acted that way as well. A kind-hearted person would have gone out of their way to help, but unfortunately, the man was not a very considerate person. He was merely annoyed by this poor, mentally unstable person.

“It’ll be just a minute. If you could just answer my questions...”

“I really don’t have the time.”

Thump, thump.

He walked past as he thought, ‘Soon, his guardian will show up and take him away.’ He was, in fact, in a hurry. He had to walk nonstop from now on to make it on time. The man quit thinking and hurried along.

“Hey.. no, wait....!”

He could hear a voice calling him from the back. The man took his earphones out of his pocket, put them in, and continued walking. He hated being involved in stuff like this. He expected a Hunter on patrol or a nice person to show up soon.

And that would have happened if the man he passed by was simply a mentally ill person.

“Hey, it’s just answering a few questions–!”

Well, it wasn’t the man’s fault.

No one could have thought that this person grabbing a passerby and asking common knowledge questions that even children knew was not a mental patient, but actually, someone who had returned after spending years isolated in a ‘completely different world’.

“Argh!”

The man was walking away when his body suddenly rose into the air. Suddenly floating in the air, he struggled in astonishment. But he couldn’t get away. The invisible and intangible power lifted him higher and higher in the air.

“You don’t have the time, so I’ll ask you again quickly. That won’t be difficult, will it?”

The person who the man had heartlessly passed by was looking up at him with emotionless eyes.

“What happened to the world?”

* * *

“Whew.”

After collapsing from the fight with Kim Young-hwan, I slept for a long time and finally woke up. He had already left, leaving behind a memo.

-I hope we can fight again next time.

It was a simple sentence, but the memo had many implications. I grinned and stretched my stiff body. Crack. I could hear my tight muscles loosen up all over my body.

[With a little more training, your Mugong will reach a substantial level. Train hard.]

“Yes, yes.”

I made the bed, casually replying to the Traveler. I glanced out the window to see that it was dark outside. How many hours did I sleep? I scratched my head and picked up my cell phone.

– 97 missed calls.

“What?”

Did something happen while I was sleeping? I wondered as I went out to the living room.

“You’re awake.”

“What is this..?”

And I could see a bunch of people in the living room. To be exact, I could see the members of the Jeong Si-woo Division.

“Why are you all here? Did you have a party without me knowing?”

“No, we were worried. We couldn’t get in touch with you.”

“But why did you all come?”

As usual, Han Yeon-soo ran up to me first, and Seong Hyun-woo and Yoo Ji-yeon stood behind her. Kim Seung-hyun and Zhang Wei seem to have gotten bigger than before. And Lee Jin-woo, who just joined the team. Every single one of them had come.

“Si-woo, you really don’t know anything about what happened?”

“....?”

Yoo Ji-yeon, who heard me, carefully asked. I felt frustrated. How would I know when I’ve been sleeping for hours?

“I don’t know. What’s going on?”

What kind of incident had caused these high-end forces to gather in my living room? Everyone looked troubled upon hearing what I said.

“..Oh, no. The person who should be the first to figure out the situation doesn’t know anything.”

“Stop saying stuff like that and just explain.”

“..It would be better if you see for yourself instead of hearing an explanation.”

Rather than answering my curt question, Zhang Wei picked up the remote on the couch and turned on the TV.

– A strange phenomena has occurred in many parts of the world today.

Strange footage appeared on the TV screen along with a news anchor’s voice. It was a poor quality video. In the video, there was a person who kept asking questions to people on the street. Most of them ignored his questions and walked by. The fast-forwarded video continued as such for about 3 minutes.

“I think I’ve seen this before.”

Meanwhile, the man who kept asking for directions shouted. Simultaneously, the windows in a nearby coffee shop building and the tires of cars driving along the road exploded. People grabbed their heads and fell to the ground or screamed in pain. The video stopped there.

– People asking common knowledge questions and seem to have lost their memories have appeared in countries such as China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, starting with Seoul, South Korea.

– Some of those who received satisfactory answers nodded and disappeared, some rushed away without asking questions, and others were more like ‘villains’, looking confused and slaughtering people as soon as they appeared.

After the video stopped, the news broadcast displayed a few photographs on the screen.

-Analysis of CCTV footage showed that they were people who went missing in the past ‘Giant Rift Incident’.

– Numerous Analysts and Rift Phenomenon Analysts classify the situation as a type of ‘Dimensional Distortion Phenomenon’ similar to ‘Rifts’ and..

“..Oh no.”

And it wasn’t until I heard that word that I remembered completely. Damn it. Why is this happening already? It’s supposed to happen at least a few years later. Did I take care of Seol A-rin too quickly? Or did something happen to the flow of events?

Countless thoughts swirled in my head.

“We were worried because nobody heard from you in this situation. We thought something had also happened to you.”

“It wasn’t on the news, but I heard that those people are as strong as 1st class Hunters or even stronger. I don’t know what they experienced when they went missing during the Rift Incident.. But I don’t think this is a situation that will be solved soon.”

Yeah, it’s not going to be solved soon. This situation shook my mentality to pieces before I fought the Great Overlord, and it was penultimate in being the most chaotic and disastrous Disaster of the Five Disasters.

“Hunter Jeong Si-woo, you’re also a Phenomenon Analyst, aren’t you? Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

Zhang Wei asked me, looking serious. The others also looked at me. After all, I was both a Hunter and one of the world’s most recognized Analysts.

“Any idea? Sure.”

I said with a deep sigh.

“We’re fu-”

Unlike earlier events, this is not the kind of incident that can be prevented without much damage.

Yes.

Any other Disaster would have been okay.

But the Fourth Disaster, -The Returnees-, wasn’t a small-scale event that I could completely stop on my own.

“Well, it’s going to be difficult to ask for help so early.. But should I?”

An individual who had died for nothing in my previous life.

We were in deep trouble, unless another -Disaster-, who was not lesser in scale, helped us.

* * *

“Huh...”

A white bed, a white wall, and a clear window that was the only way to see the outdoors. Seol A-rin looked up at the sky and touched the window.

“The sky is.. so strange these days.” historical

“Is there something in my eyes?” Seol A-rin rubbed her eyes. But the sight she saw was no different. It was the same blue and beautiful sky that Seol A-rin remembered, but fine cracks had appeared in it, unlike before; like glass that would break with the slightest tap.

“Did I sleep too long? Oh.. I must have slept too late talking with mom yesterday. Heh heh.”

Seol A-rin smiled stupidly, hugging a soft pillow. After Seong Hyeon-woo had messed with her brain and damaged her memories, Seol A-rin was drifting inside in an endless dream. It was a dream so happy that she never wanted to wake up from it.

She could feel the smoothness of the window on the tip of her finger. Like a child, she breathed on the window and erased the fog over and over. While she was playing, she saw something strange.

“....!”

She couldn’t hear clearly, but she could tell that someone was shouting. It was a big man who was nearly two meters tall—a man in funny clothes.

“.. He’s.. asking.. a few questions-!!”

She heard him faintly. He must be angry that the other guy didn’t answer his question. But he really shouldn’t shout like that.

Seol A-rin clicked her tongue.

‘Should I call the police? Hmm.. But I don’t have a cell phone.’

She scratched her head.

‘I don’t know, someone will report it.’ Seol A-rin lost interest and was about to turn away. But then..

“Huh?”

A man flew into the wall on the other side like a metal pulled to a magnet. Blood spattered, and people screamed.

‘What happened?’ Seol A-rin tilted her head. ‘Were they filming a movie? It looked very real for a movie.’

Then Seol A-rin frowned, looking below the window.

“Oh, that’s not good.”

The large man grabbed a middle-aged woman’s neck. She was holding her child’s hand. Her face turned red. The child sobbed, and the man was still shouting.

Seol A-rin nervously tapped her bed. It looked really dangerous. She might die like that.

That moment, a memory that was asleep in Seol A-rin’s mind floated to the surface, breaking through the memory block that Sung Hyun-woo had put in place.

Seol A-rin forced up the dormant memory. There was no need to touch her murderous past, her sad memories, and her trauma. She just remembered how to use something. A child and a mother. So that a tragedy would not happen to them.

Squuuish.

Her fingers pressed hard against the window. At the same time, something transparent assembled itself behind her. Old weapons that weren’t even used in the military anymore. The product of technological advances that used to be called modern firearms.

Seol A-rin’s finger pointed directly at the man’s head. She acted before the poor middle-aged woman died.

The thing created behind Seol A-rin fired, and light filled the room. Broken fragments of the window were scattered all over the place.

And.

A single, loud gunshot rang through the area.