Memorize - Episode 36
36 To the Hollow Plane!
The transfer was nothing special. Having experienced it hundreds of times before, it just felt like "Oh, this again." After completing the transfer to the "Inn of Beginnings," I came out to the second-floor corridor and heard commotion from downstairs. Now was the time to wait for guidance from the users who had entered the Hollow Plane ahead of us. Usually, everyone tends to stay quiet due to tension until they arrive, so this commotion was unexpected.
When all the new users finish their settings and transfers, the transfer barrier surrounding the inn is lifted. And as soon as the barrier is lifted, existing users come in through the door to guide the new users. In the past, I strongly disliked the existing users who took on the guiding role.
Their attitude is quite arrogant. To draw an analogy, it's like a private who's been in the army for a while looking down on a newly transferred recruit. Of course, they too were survivors who lived through the previous Trial of Passage and had been in the same position as new users. I acknowledge that they worked hard to survive afterward.
Listening to their (those in the guiding role) words is ridiculous. They say that after adapting to the Hollow Plane to some extent, when they see new users, they feel smug thinking, "I was like that too." For reference, I remember the user who told me this died three months later.
Anyway, although I didn't like it, there wasn't much I could do about it now. Listening to their explanations and quietly entering the user academy was currently the best course of action.
Since we're on the topic, let me explain a bit more about the user academy. I think it's truly an innovative method. Whoever suggested its establishment must be quite clever. Unlike the haphazard approach of the past, since the academy's establishment, the number of new users dying foolishly in the early stages has significantly decreased.
In any case, reuniting with the kids and exchanging greetings was one thing, but I was pondering what to say. While thinking about various things, I walked along the second-floor corridor and soon reached the end. Just as I thought I only needed to open the door in front of me...
"Shit!"
I had wanted to meet the kids first and clear up any misunderstandings, even if I had to lie, but I had to stop my hand that was about to push the door. Voices I clearly remembered hearing near the first-floor stairs were coming through the gap in the door. And in succession.
"Don't bark as you please, you son of a bitch!"
"This bitch is still making a fuss even after being told? I clearly saw it with my own two eyes!"
"Your eyes must be fucked up! How dare you run your mouth!"
"You crazy bitch. Did only I see it? Didn't I? Borim said she saw it too! Huh? She said she saw the crossbow broken in half!"
Hearing the name Borim, I could roughly guess the owners of the voices spewing coarse curses. The troublemaker(?) Park Dong-geol. I didn't expect him to survive and enter the Hollow Plane. Honestly, after parting ways with them, I had cut off almost all interest, and my true feelings were to not care whether they lived or died. Anyway, I decided to think in the most positive direction possible. Remembering how annoyingly he acted in the beginning, I thought there might be a chance to deal with him directly when the time comes.
I could immediately recognize the other high-pitched voice. Seeing Yoo-jung clash with Park Dong-geol anytime, anywhere made me think they must have quite a bad relationship. I clicked my tongue and quietly opened the door.
"Shut...!?"
As the creaking sound of the door opening was heard, numerous people came into view. Yoo-jung, who was about to say "Shut up," stopped speaking and raised her head when she heard the door opening. I smiled awkwardly at her.
As expected, it seems I was the last to be transferred among all the users. The moment I stepped outside, I could see an enormous amount of attention focusing on me. Roughly counting, there were over forty people, and the inn was bustling with survivors. In the past, it was barely over twenty people. Apart from the high level of users, it seemed that dealing with the boss monster on the 6th day had some influence. Does this mean that according to the original course, more than half of the people here would have died on the last day?
I greeted them lightly as I descended the stairs one step at a time.
"You're all alive. I'm glad you're safe."
Of course we're alive. We sent you off (to the warp gate) with such care(?). Despite giving what I thought was a fairly neutral greeting, there was no reaction. Just as I was starting to feel awkward, Yoo-jung staggered towards me.
"Oppa...?"
"Yeah."
She raised her arms and placed her hands on my face, gently touching my cheeks. Her eyes and lips were trembling, showing how surprised and emotional she was. It wasn't just Yoo-jung. The hope they had held onto like a thread had become reality and appeared before their eyes. Even Woo Jeongmin, who seemed to have guessed the situation with Ahn Hyun's group, was staring at my face with disbelieving eyes.
Yoo-jung continued with a choked voice.
"Oppa... Is it really you, Su-hyun oppa? Not someone else?"
"Do I look like a doppelganger to you? Ah, ouch. Don't pull so hard. It hurts."
"Congratulations on your survival. I didn't even think you could be alive... Impressive."
As I barely managed to remove Yoo-jung's hands that kept touching my cheeks, a husky voice was heard from the side. When I turned my head, I saw, as expected, the surviving Woo Jeongmin and his group. Woo Jeongmin seemed to want to say something more, but I shook my head slightly. He seemed to understand my signal as his mouth, which was about to open, closed again. Behind him, I briefly made eye contact with Won Hye-su, who was looking at me with a surprised face, but she answered by turning her head away sharply.
Ahn Hyun was looking at me with a face full of joy, Yoo-jung with a face half happy and half sad, and Sol with a tearful face. Ahn Hyun's group and I just stared at each other for a while. They kept moving their lips as if they wanted to say something, but it seemed words weren't coming out as they wished.
Cases where you want to speak but can't. That didn't really matter, but I wanted to quickly escape this attention. It was already quite burdensome, and if Sol were to burst into tears in a place with so many people gathered, I thought it would be really embarrassing.
While comforting Sol, who looked like she might start crying at any moment, I deliberately moved to a corner. And in the meantime, Park Dong-geol, who was thoroughly alienated, looked at us sitting at the table and then left for the opposite side, grumbling and taking Lee Bo-rim with him.
Eventually, as some time passed and people's gazes significantly decreased, the kids seemed to have composed themselves to some extent. If there was one thing that bothered me, it was Ahn Sol, who had sat right next to me and had been clutching my collar tightly since earlier.
When I sent a pleading look to Ahn Hyun for help, the guy smiled awkwardly and opened his mouth.
"Hyung. I still can't believe it. It's like seeing an immortal."
"Haha. Immortal is a bit much. I was just lucky, that's all."
At my words, Ahn Hyun shook his head. No, more than that, do something about this. She's not a one or two-year-old baby, why has she been clutching my collar tightly since earlier? Ahn Sol, either knowing or not knowing my feelings, responded to my words with a trembling voice.
"No. I feel like I'm seeing a miracle right now. While waiting at the bottom of the stairs, I kept thinking maybe... but every time, oppa..."
As she spoke, her grip on my clothes tightened. Seeing Ahn Sol unable to finish her sentence and starting to cry again, I felt at a loss. But knowing that I had to lie from now on, I inwardly smiled bitterly.
"Anyway, I'm glad to see you all alive again."
"If you were alive, you should have come earlier! Always making people worry... No, I'm sorry oppa. It's not like you wanted to do that..."
Watching Yoo-jung show nagging, apology, and tears in order, I tilted my head. I didn't know the kids were thinking of me this much, but on the other hand, I felt proud. Yoo-jung wiped the tear marks from her eyes with her fist and continued speaking.
"Oppa. Tell us. That bastard earlier said that the crossbow you were using was found broken in half near the warp gate. You weren't there. The monster wasn't there either."
Ahem. Has it come to this? I thought it was fortunate that I had burned the boss monster's corpse in preparation for this moment. However, not thoroughly disposing of the crossbow was my oversight. I wanted to gloss over it somehow, but I felt a cold gaze. The owner of that gaze was Kim Han-byeol. I had a feeling that if I vaguely passed over this now, there might be some problem with her later.
Kim Han-byeol hadn't said a single word since I came to the inn. Except for when she first saw me, her face had hardly changed. I turned my head and stared into her eyes for a moment. And the moment I read the emotion in her eyes, I felt a bit complicated, even if just a little.
Overall, it felt like relief, but I could detect a faint mix of distrust and suspicion in her gaze. Han-byeol was clearly not an ordinary person. In some ways, she seemed to have a personality quite similar to mine. She always leaves room for reason to intervene, not being swayed by the situations or emotions surrounding her. While I might never fully grasp her essence, what was certain was that she had planted a seed of doubt about me.
The inn was neither as noisy as it was initially, nor was it completely silent. The voices of surviving groups whispering could be heard simultaneously. I inwardly sighed. I felt like I had been sighing a lot lately. In the end, I decided to say I couldn't remember much rather than fabricating an awkward story.
"Yeah, that's right. I was trying to dodge the monster's attack... but it seemed to target the crossbow from the start. It split in half immediately. It was really bleak at that moment. Haha."
"Is your left arm okay?"
Kim Han-byeol immediately spoke up at my words. While it sounded like she was worried on the surface, to my ears it sounded like, "Wasn't the crossbow attached to your left arm?" I smacked my lips and immediately answered.
"It attacked with its tail. I raised my left arm without thinking, and it seems the tail just grazed the crossbow."
"...Then what did you do next?"
"Well, honestly, I'm not sure. Should I say I can't remember? At that time, I really thought I was going to die, so I couldn't think of anything. I think the monster was stomping around wildly, and I was rolling on the ground like crazy..."
I started explaining in a quiet voice, greatly modifying the experience I actually had and speaking in a roundabout way. In conclusion, everyone nodded as I said that I ran with all my might, taking advantage of the thick dust, and rolled towards the lowlands of the forest. Of course, except for Kim Han-byeol. Anyone who had faced the boss monster head-on for more than 3 minutes would quickly realize that my current words were full of lies and loopholes.
Kim Han-byeol seemed to be lost in thought and didn't ask any more questions. It seemed she was keeping quiet due to not having experienced that situation herself and because the atmosphere was mainly focused on celebrating my survival. However, her suspicious gaze still didn't seem to have disappeared. I decided to refrain from speaking further at this point. After all, my roundabout way of speaking was aimed at buying time.
By now, the barrier outside the window had considerably thinned.