Chapter 2 – Why Are You Here?

“Hey you crazy bastard! Keep your eyes open!”

It was a Korean word I hadn’t heard in a long time. As long as Korean isn’t the official language of heaven, I knew where this place was. A familiar alleyway, a yellow street lamp, and a black car with the lights on. It was a scene no different from the one before waking up in another world.

As soon as I died, I returned to the present.

While I was still distracted by the feeling of being in a dream, I heard the sound of a car door opening and closing. It was the driver who got off.

“What, are you hurt?”

It was the tone I was worried about, despite the swearing just before. To be precise, I’d be worried about my medical bills.

I got up from my seat because I couldn’t sit here for a while. I got up on the concrete floor and turned the soil on my buttocks and hands. Meanwhile, the driver glanced over my shoulder and said.

“Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

It was difficult to see because of the light from the car’s headlights, but he had a furrowed brow. Then he touched my shoulder and body and said a word.

“You are not hurt. This bastard, motherfucking.”

Even then, I looked around, not coming to my senses.

Familiar alleys I’ve walked since elementary school, orange streetlights and gray concrete walls that I haven’t seen in a long time.

It was a scenery that could never be seen in the kingdom of Creiden in another world.

“Hey, take it.”

The driver held out something in his hand. When I received it, it was two 50,000 won bills.

“Go to the hospital with it, and if it’s not enough, call me. Do you have a cell phone?”

Hearing that, I touched the pocket of my pants. There was something hard and flat, so when I took it out, it was my smartphone. When the phone recognizes the fingerprint and turns on the screen, the current time and today’s date appear in the background of the food photo.

“Give me.”

I forcibly took the phone from my hand and started typing something. Not long after, he heard a ringing on his cell phone. The man took out his phone and hung up on him, then handed it back to me.

“We exchanged contact information with this, so if you report it as a hit-and-run, we will sue. See that black box over there?”

A small red LED light was shining on the windshield of the car he pointed to. It didn’t come together well because it was night, but that was like the light coming out of a black box.

“It was all recorded with that one, and they gave me a number. If you report it, you will be sued for innocence, so I know that… However”

He stopped talking and started slapping me on the cheek. It was a weak force, as if to wake up rather than hit it because it hurts.

“Are you okay? Hey, calm down.”

“Ah yes. Yes I’m okay.”

I shook my head and came to my senses. It was the shock of being in another world, but he didn’t think I was going crazy because I was almost hit by a car.

“This bastard doesn’t seem to be okay.”

The man took out his wallet and took out another 50,000 won bill and handed it to me.

“Ruler.”

“Oh, thank you.”

He bowed his head and took the money with both hands.

“Yeah, this baby, now I’m back. Are you not hurt?”

“Uh… I don’t think there is.”

“It’s not like it doesn’t exist, is it really there?”

“No, no.”

“Yeah, I’m busy, so I’m going. If you get tested later and don’t have enough money, contact me more.”

With that said, the driver got back in the car and left. I looked at the back of the car and looked around. No matter how you look at it, it was the scenery before I went to another world. I picked up my phone and checked the time and date again. It’s not exact, but it seemed like the same day before I got hit by a car after falling in love and today when I came back.

I never thought of going to this world as a dream. The training that allows you to focus on battle even if your limbs are blown off several times, the moment when you lift the bride’s veil even though it was an arranged marriage, and the stories you shared with the demon king right before you die. I remembered this clearly.

Let’s stop here to figure out the situation.

I put the money I received in my pocket and walked towards my room. I didn’t want to wander off the road and get hit by a car again and go back to another world.

After walking for about 10 minutes, I arrived at a villa with a self-contained room. I went inside and took the elevator. After pressing the floor where my room was located, I stared at the mirror attached to the elevator until I arrived.
In the mirror, I looked pathetic. Dirty hair that looks like it hasn’t been washed properly, rough skin that doesn’t have skin troubles like acne, a curved back from living indoors for a long time, and features like a cucumber that will be highly disliked. That’s why the thought of not having my first love taken away by another man came naturally.

The elevator arrived before I knew it, and I got off and went into my room.

The university was close to my house, but it was a room that my parents got me on the condition that I get good grades. As with any college student’s room, it was so small that two-thirds of it was filled with just one bed. It was a room I got to make lots of friends when I went to college and hopefully hang out with Yuri. It was a dream that was gone now.

Anyway, as soon as I took off my shoes, I immediately went into the bathroom next to the front door. I took off my top and looked at myself in the mirror like I did when I got into the elevator.

I knew the face from seeing it earlier, but the upper body was more miserable than when I saw the face. His skinny body had protruding ribs, and he had an ugly body with flab. I had never exercised before going to another world, so I thought the lower body would be no different.

If I hadn’t been to another world, I would have thought I was a normal body. But when I saw my body trained to the point of vomiting blood there, all I could think of was ugly. Besides, since I lost the body I had worked so hard for after I died, I felt a tremendous sense of loss.

I exaggerated a little and touched the chest with only bones and skin. Even though the demon king’s demonic sword pierced this place a little while ago, there were no wounds or scars. It felt like normal skin to the touch.

Once again, I wondered if I was really dreaming. The only proof that I had been to another world was my memory. Not only the armor and equipment he had worn in his previous life, but even his muscles and scars were all gone.

But I wondered what that had to do with it. Anyway, what happened there was in the past, and there was a future that I had to go to a lecture tomorrow.

No, it was rather good.

While living as a warrior, not a single day was easy. I was excited only in the beginning, but the more I went on, the more I thought I wanted to die. I was afraid to wake up tomorrow morning because of the non-stop training, and I was afraid of my close comrades dying during the war. Furthermore, in the war to defeat the demon king, everyone depended on me, and there was no one I could rely on. Until I died, there was only one person who looked at me as Kang Ji-heon, not as a warrior.

But as we return to the present day, those days are over. Now I can live a normal life, make friends, and have a girlfriend. Even though the first love ended painfully.

When she thought of the scene where Yuri kissed Gwadae, her heart ached. But she wasn’t sore as she was when she witnessed the spectacle. She just did it, she only thought to do it. Apparently, a lot of time had passed and the wounds of her first love had healed a lot. Or maybe she didn’t know that her feelings for her had cooled.

Anyway, I’m back to normal. When I lived as a warrior, I was able to live a normal life that I so hoped for. I promised myself that I would spend this opportunity that I might lose without regret.

With all her heart, I went into the lecture room. There were about 10 minutes left until the lecture started, so there were plenty of seats in the classroom. Other classmates occupied the back part, which was good for distraction, but I sat in the front seat a little to spend a fulfilling college life.

“Jiheon!”

I heard my name and turned around. Yuri was smiling at me and waving her hand. I could see a gwadae sitting in the seat next to him. Seeing that other classmates sat around them, it seemed that they were proudly announcing that they were dating.

I waved her hand lightly at the glass and looked back at her.

Even after several years, her first love seemed to be her first love, and seeing it in person, unlike when she recalled yesterday, her heart ached. My mind was confused, as if I was having a bad dream.

To erase this feeling, I took out my phone and turned on the screen. Rather than opening the app and doing anything, I manipulated the background screen and moved the icons around.

Yesterday, when I picked up my phone to call my parents for the first time in years (actually, it was just one day), I realized how wonderful touch is. Before I left, it just felt natural. But when I touched it after a long time, it was no different from magic. It was like seeing real magic for the first time. I only touched the smooth glass window, but it was amazing to see the paintings inside it move around.

I’ve been doing it for hours and I’m still doing it because it’s fun, but someone taps me on the shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

When she raised her head, she saw Yuri. Yuri was dressed in a pink sweater and jeans, and she had the freshman look she saw on the Internet. She asked, with her hair dyed brown to her shoulders.

“What’re you doing?”

I was taken aback. As far as I can remember, it was always me who spoke. It had been a long time since Yuri had talked to me like this since middle school.

“Uh, huh?”

“No, what are you doing?”

Yuri looked at my phone screen. She seemed to see nothing turned on.

“I thought you were playing a game, but are you not doing anything?”

“No, I was just watching.”

“Because it looks delicious?”

It seems that I thought so because my phone wallpaper had food appearing randomly.

“This looks delicious, doesn’t it?”

“Ha, what is it? Then go eat But will you come to us? Let’s talk and play until the lecture starts.”

She referred to the university classmates she met for a week as ‘us’ rather than me, whom I had been with since elementary school. Thinking of that, Yuri looked at the place where she was sitting.

Now Yu-ri’s boyfriend, Gwa-dae, looked at me laughing with his friends. On his face, which looked like a celebrity who had been advertising for the smallest cafe in the world for years, I read rejection. It could be read from the male and female classmates around him.

If it was before I went to this world, I might have gone just because I was with Yuri. I said with a smile.

“No, that’s okay.”

“Uh?”

“It’s okay, you guys play with each other.”

“Oh, really?”

Yuri, embarrassed by my refusal, asked again.

“Are you really not going? It’s really fun over there.”

“Because it’s okay. I don’t think it’s a good fit for me and them.”

She had been a warrior for several years and had learned something similar to contemplation by going to various parties. It was not precisely the face, but the way to read the atmosphere flowing from that person. Moreover, she had not learned it voluntarily, but had been semi-forced.

Anyway, reading the atmosphere flowing from them now, I knew very well what would happen to me. In the early days when he joined their group, he was treated well, but as time passed, he would become an errand boy or a tease.

Come to think of it, that hype has a similar atmosphere to that marquis. Because of his handsome appearance, he gained popularity at the banquet hall because of his bravery, but when it came to war with the demons, he jumped to the rear saying that support was the most important thing. However, because the position of a person who worked well in the rear was taken away, support was rather disrupted, and people who did not have to die because of him starved to death.

The war must be over now, but I don’t know how. I don’t think he will be executed because he seems to have a back.

When I refused, Yuri asked again.

“Are you really not going? They said that Hajun and Hajun wanted to play together.”

He must have told me to bring him because he looked like an easy-going kid. By the way, the hype name was Hajun.

Of course he didn’t say this.

“I’ll just be here looking at my phone.”

“Let’s just go together, okay?”

“No. I am comfortable alone.”

“You could become a badass then.”

As she said that, Yuri’s expression as she looked at me showed a feeling of concern. However, I thought that it would be better to be a friendly person who is comfortable even if lonely than an in-law who catches and plays with easygoing people.

“It’s okay, I just want to be nice.”

“Oh really. If you still want to play with me, tell me? Understand? I’ll wait.”

Yuri left after saying these words. I watched until she went back to her side asking if it was Ha Joon or not, then looked down at her phone again.

It was the first love that had already left anyway. She had liked her for 7 years, but seeing that she didn’t respond, there was no possibility at all. The subordinates she met in this world were like that. If her unrequited love goes beyond a year, it’s not love, it’s obsession. Like I said, I didn’t even know I was obsessed with Yuri.

But what was his name? Was it Larry? No, he died on the first day of the war. Who was he

As she thought about this and that, she operated the phone screen again. As she passed the time moving the icons around, she heard the classroom door open. Then she and her classmates stopped talking, so she raised her head, thinking it was the professor. But a completely different person was standing in front of the classroom door.

Her silver hair extended to her back, and a confident smile hung over her neat, Western features. Her beautiful face was a waste of her, and she was wearing a blue sweatpants, looking straight at me and asked.

“Did you have a good dream last night, Jiheon?”

Even though she had only seen her once last week and had been in this world for years, she remembered her vividly.

Her name was Baek So-hee. She was, as her tone suggests, a poor human who came to her middle two a little late and pretty strong. Because of her pretty looks, it seemed that she would be popular with men, but since she has this kind of personality, no one approached her.

I awkwardly replied to her.

“Yes?”

Baek So-hee was the person who gave me a strong shock at the drinking party after O.T. Looks are good looks, but it was because while Yuri was away for a while, he came up to me and started screaming in English. Even then, he unilaterally talked about his dreams.

She walked towards me, frowning her fine brow.

“Hmm, is it still? Jim couldn’t have felt wrong.”

“Hey, what… “

“You don’t remember Jim?”

“Last week, I saw it at O.T.”

“I am not talking about that time. Last life, past life.”

I didn’t know what bullshit you were talking about.

She crossed her arms as if contemplating and tilted her head. It was a move that would have appeared in a drama if he had kept his mind straight while wearing a tracksuit. Then I asked her with a bright smile on her face.

“Ah! If you hear this, you might know!”

“What is it?”

The senior said with a more confident expression than when he first entered this classroom.

“Jim is having a very nice dream right now.”

Nice dream. I’ve heard this word somewhere before.

“You may have just woken up from your dream.”

It’s a good dream… Nice dream…

I thought I would remember, but I didn’t.

She said, putting her hand on her chest in frustration.

“I mean the burden! Siegfried!”

“!”

Siegfried was the name I used when I was a hero in another world. The moment I noticed that, I remembered where I had heard the word ‘good dream’.

“The Demon King you killed! Odine Sophia Leviathan! Don’t you remember?”

She was the demon king I killed.