Chapter 181
Chapter 181: Trauma (2)
When Yoo Ji-han got up after bumping into the wall.
Like Kim Si-hu, he found himself in a completely different space, not the distorted one.
‘Familiar equipment.’
Yoo Ji-han inspected his gear.
The items meticulously crafted by Nam Ho-yeol were nowhere to be found.
Instead, the equipment supplied to him by Keroes was draped over him.
‘There used to be a hole around here.’
Due to the guild’s insufficient budget, he had bought second-hand armor with a hole in it and had it patched up to fit his body.
‘This is a tacky sword.’
What he thought was made in a prestigious workshop turned out to be a mass-produced item with a brand slapped on it.
Compared to the other party members who were always receiving new gear, his equipment felt quite pathetic.
Yet, it was decent enough to use, and since he had handled it for a long time, he felt a hint of nostalgia.
‘I can guess roughly when this is.’
Checking the date on his mobile phone, Yoo Ji-han let out a short sigh.
This was back when he belonged to Kim Hyun-tae’s Party.
It was the time just after the party had reached Rank 2.
‘The Sylph isn’t responding.’
The Sylph, who was always by his side, did not answer his call.
If it had been summoned back to the spirit world due to their contract, he would have known it already.
Since that wasn’t the case, there must be another reason.
As Yoo Ji-han surveyed his surroundings, he arrived at one conclusion.
“It’s an illusion.”
The illusion magic, a specialty of people from another world.
This time, it wasn’t just deceiving the senses of sight or sound.
It seemed to be showing him illusions based on memories from the past.
It felt similar to when the Sylph used magic stones to show someone else’s memories.
The astonishing part was that
all sensations, including touch, sound, and smell, felt vividly real in this illusion!
Even the minor warmth of the battery could be felt when he held his mobile phone.
He was simply in awe that the people from another world had created such magic, even if they were enemies.
‘I’m worried about the others.’
Yoo Ji-han was not the only one affected by this magic.
The storm of magical power that burst forth from the magic stone swept away everything around.
His companions nearby were likely experiencing similar phenomena.
They needed to break this illusion and escape as soon as possible.
Knock knock.
Yoo Ji-han looked at the door from where he heard a knocking sound.
His current location was Keroes’s meeting room.
It was the space where Kim Hyun-tae’s party members gathered for meetings before heading out on missions.
‘If I’m the next person coming in…’
The door swung open with the sound of a handle turning, and a young woman entered.
It was Lee Mi-a, the hero of Kim Hyun-tae’s party and Yoo Ji-han’s former companion.
‘She looks younger.’
Mi-a’s face appeared a bit younger than when Yoo Ji-han last saw her.
Her cheeks seemed a little chubbier.
He remembered that during this time, she had been eating more than usual.
Crunch! Crunch!
Holding potato chips in her hand, she approached and sat down next to Yoo Ji-han.
Every time they had a meeting, the spot next to him was always reserved for her.
“Want some?”
“……I’m good.”
Yoo Ji-han naturally declined the chips Mi-a offered.
Then suddenly, a thought struck him.
‘What if I made a different choice this time?’
He was sure he had experienced something like this in the past.
But if he made a choice completely different from the past, what kind of results would that choice yield?
Curious about this, he looked at Mi-a and said,
“No, give me one.”
“Here.”
Yoo Ji-han took a chip from Mi-a and ate it.
It was salty and crispy.
The outcome was different from when he used to refuse snacks.
“…….”
But nothing particularly changed.
While he reminisced about the rather bland outcome, others entered the meeting room.
The mage Lim Si-yeon and the tanker Hwang Joon-ho.
Unlike Mi-a, whom he had encountered once after leaving Keroes,
these old companions had no further connection with him since then.
Bang!
The final person to enter slammed the door, a figure shouldering a large sword.
It was the party leader, Kim Hyun-tae.
As he walked toward the sofa, the smell of alcohol wafted around.
Lim Si-yeon wrinkled her nose and said,
“Kim Hyun-tae! Did you drink again since morning?”
“Does it smell a lot?”
“Yeah.”
With a hero’s body that didn’t easily get drunk, Kim Hyun-tae enjoyed drinking spirits over 80 degrees.
It was common for him to drink on the morning of the mission, not just the night before.
“The guild master said to avoid drinking before heading to the field.”
“The guild master won’t say anything to me anyway. Maybe to him, but not to me.”
With a clear smirk on his lips, Kim Hyun-tae shot a glance at Yoo Ji-han.
Yoo Ji-han quietly observed Kim Hyun-tae.
Feeling a bit unsatisfied, Kim Hyun-tae spoke up.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me those looks.”
Kim Hyun-tae seamlessly took the most prominent seat in the meeting room.
The seat was originally reserved for the guild master, but no one seemed to care too much.
It was a time overflowing with confidence after the party had successfully leveled up to Rank 2.
The guild master, Park Joong-seob, had already been catering to Kim Hyun-tae’s every need even before this time.
“I’ll start the briefing.”
The staff member who entered the meeting room announced the party’s schedule for the day.
From 10 AM to 3 PM, they would participate in an MA.
After that, a simple interview and photo session were planned.
“You need to excuse yourself around 2:40, Ji-han.”
Yoo Ji-han’s identity, known only to a select few in the guild,
meant he quietly nodded at the instruction to leave before the hunt concluded.
It was something he was quite accustomed to.
An unreasonable treatment of not being fully respected as a member of the organization.
When he was just starting out in society, he had felt displeased about such treatment.
‘But I endured it.’
However, Yoo Ji-han held on.
He thought there would be a day when he could shine.
If he was dull, then it was a foolish choice.
‘I’m no different from a flea.’
In the past, an entomologist in the U.S. had conducted an experiment with fleas.
Though small, about 2–4 mm in length, fleas could jump up to 18 cm vertically.
He trapped them in a small glass cup.
The fleas repeatedly bumped their bodies against the lid of the cup.
And after some time, even when the lid was removed, the fleas could only jump as high as the cup’s height.
They learned that if they went higher than a certain height, they would feel pain.
‘It’s the same.’
Yoo Ji-han compared himself to those fleas from the past.
Perhaps through years of such treatment, he had learned to accept this.
It was natural for him to be treated this way in the organization.
*
After the morning meeting.
Yoo Ji-han put on a mask that concealed his face and got into a vehicle heading to the MA.
A small economy car driven by a Keroes employee.
It was a vehicle following the large van carrying the Kim Hyun-tae party.
When interest in the party peaked, they often moved in this manner.
‘Let’s just observe for now.’
Yoo Ji-han decided to watch the situation unfold.
He could have stirred things up this time by acting completely differently.
But since it felt like he was in an exquisitely perfect illusion, just like riding a time machine back to the past, he wanted to see what would happen next with his own eyes.
“U-uh, we’re setting off.”
The driver started the engine with exaggerated nervousness.
He looked like a rookie employee who had just joined the guild.
Yoo Ji-han asked him,
“What’s your name?”
“Me? My name is #[emailprotected]#”
“……?!”
When Yoo Ji-han asked the driver’s name, he responded in gibberish no one could understand.
Startled, Yoo Ji-han turned to look at him, but
the driver continued with a tense expression, focused on driving.
‘Is it that I can’t manifest information I don’t remember?’
Yoo Ji-han had no recollection of the employee’s name.
When he tried to ask about his age or background, the driver continued to answer in incomprehensible sounds.
It seemed that information completely absent from his memory didn’t appear in the illusion either.
“We’ve arrived.”
After arriving at the factory complex announced for the MA,
Yoo Ji-han entered through the entrance a little later than Kim Hyun-tae’s party.
Since he had taken on the role of their porter, there would be no entry record left.
“Why are you so late?”
“I came as fast as I could.”
“Making excuses….”
Ignoring Kim Hyun-tae’s scolding,
he proceeded to hunt monsters in the MA with the party members.
The enemy that appeared was the Rank 2 monster, the Blood Snake.
A vampire snake that sucked human blood with its teeth protruding all over its body.
A monster so hideous that even IUPC could hardly defend it.
Regarded as a disgustingly repulsive monster, they would get a ranking boost just for their appearance.
Rustle!
Yoo Ji-han immediately sliced the first appearing Blood Snake in half.
It was so grotesque that his body moved on its own.
Having struck at its weak spot, the tail, the Blood Snake died on the spot.
At this, Kim Hyun-tae’s eyes widened in surprise as he exclaimed,
“Hey, Yoo Ji-han! Are you insane?”
“……Ah.”
“Are you out of your mind right now?”
Yoo Ji-han realized his mistake.
He had become so accustomed to his activities in Sweet Fun that he had forgotten the past.
“Stop messing around and just support like usual!”
His role in Kim Hyun-tae’s party was purely that of a supporter.
It was against Kim Hyun-tae’s wishes for a supporter like him to be the front line attacking enemies.
Even if he could take down opponents easily.
Thus, Yoo Ji-han stepped back and moved to help the party members instead.
‘Lim Si-yeon is still the same.’
He blocked the monsters charging at the mage Lim Si-yeon.
He kept watch until her safety was reasonably assured.
While her attacks were decent enough, her tendency to be vulnerable in self-defense required regular management.
‘There are gaps here as well.’
Yoo Ji-han tied up the enemies that Hwang Joon-ho had missed to keep them stationary.
He then slowly passed them over to him when he had a moment to spare.
He was fulfilling the role of a sub-tanker beside Hwang Joon-ho, whose vision was somewhat limited.
‘He’s at it again.’
Kim Hyun-tae was boldly attacking the enemies.
At this moment, he had to cover for Kim Hyun-tae above all else.
Yet taking down monsters was generally not permitted.
A supporter was only meant to inflict wounds on monsters.
The final blow must always be dealt by Kim Hyun-tae.
‘This is inefficient even now.’
Yoo Ji-han clicked his tongue.
If he participated in the battle as a dealer rather than a supporter,
the party’s firepower would be several times stronger than it was now.
Excluding Mi-a, who could handle herself well, several drawbacks were evident.
“Phew…!”
After a round of battle concluded,
Yoo Ji-han took a clean towel from his bag and wiped the blood-soaked face of Mi-a.
At that moment, Kim Hyun-tae approached Yoo Ji-han.
He looked furious.
“Yoo Ji-han! Can’t you do anything right? Why are you so useless today?”
“Just look at all the blood splattered on my staff! Yoo Ji-han, this is all your fault!”
“You just sidestepped and left everyone hanging? Can a supporter do that?”
“Such a useless porter.”
Except for Mi-a, who remained silent, all the party members began criticizing Yoo Ji-han.
Mixed in with harsh insults, the level of blame only rose higher.
Did he receive such open criticism even back then? He began to wonder.
Amidst this…….
Yoo Ji-han slowly opened his mouth.
“Hyun-tae.”
“What!”
“And you guys.”
“……?”
With a bright smile on his lips, Yoo Ji-han raised his middle finger toward Kim Hyun-tae.
“Fuck all of you, you assholes.”
