I’m flying through the sky. Spreading enormous wings, I slice through the wind.
Far below, a steep and towering gorge. Shaped like a gourd bottle, humans gathered there. Numbering several hundred at least.
A man standing at the center shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Don’t fight for Taiyuan Jin Family!”
The ground shook. Trees trembled and mountain birds took flight.
Glancing back, I saw an enormous dust cloud sweeping through the gorge, approaching rapidly.
“Fight for yourselves! Fight for your loved ones and blood relatives who will be trampled by the enemy!”
Drawing his sword, he roared.
“Face them as true martial artists! As will I!”
Hundreds of weapons were drawn in unison. The man strode forward to take the vanguard. As the dust cloud crossing the gorge dispersed, countless humans appeared.
“WAAAAAH!”
“Sweep away those Taiyuan Jin Family bastards!”
Suddenly the man looked up. Spotting me, he grinned.
“Good feeling.”
The moment I saw his face, strength drained from my wings. I plummeted into the depths of consciousness.
“Pufu, pufu, pufu!”
Desperately flapping my wings—no, arms—I realized.
It was a dream.
Thank god. Thought I was going to die.
Only after catching my breath did I take in the room’s situation.
-Breaking news. A new gate has appeared at Hapjeong Station Exit 3. Magical energy measurements confirm it as a C-rank gate…
A small TV on the desk showing the news anchor. And…
“What was that just now?”
There was Jin-ho. Holding a pot lid in one hand and chopsticks in the other, he stared at me with an incredulous expression.
“Some kind of performance art?”
“Shut up. Had a dream.”
“Swimming dream?”
“Falling dream.”
“Lucky you. You’ll grow taller.”
He tossed out the soulless comment while naturally slurping up noodles. For a moment I wondered if this was really my room.
“This is my room, right?”
“Should be.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Like this is the first time?”
Makes sense? For a moment I almost got convinced.
“At least turn off the TV. People are trying to sleep.”
“Some inconsiderate bastard even hit my throat. While people were trying to sleep.”
That guy’s got a killer way with words, as always.
“If you’ve got nothing to say, just eat your ramyeon. I made five servings thinking you might wake up.”
Look at that foresight. Taking the chopsticks, I was overcome with emotion.
This isn’t just any ramyeon. It’s ramyeon after a month. The appetizing smell, perfectly cooked noodles, and soup made spicy with fresh chopped green chilies.
This is insane, fucking insane.
Slurrrp.
When I came to my senses, it was all over. Jin-ho blankly watched me as I licked the pot clean.
“Thought you were filming a commercial. Is this your first time eating ramyeon in your life?”
“First time eating it since coming back.”
“That again?”
“Try eating only Chinese food for a month then have ramyeon. Better than Michelin.”
“Stop it. It’s not funny anymore.”
That expression, that tone. He’s fed up. But this time I’ve got something to back me up.
“Read this and we’ll talk again.”
“What’s this?”
“What else? Product manual.”
“…Don’t tell me.”
“Yeah, found it in that capsule. Read it.”
“Who puts something like this in a piece of junk over 20 years old they’re throwing away?”
Jin-ho tilted his head before starting to read the manual. Within seconds, he looked up.
“This is a printing error. The manufacturing date says January 1st, 2020.”
I thought the same thing at first.
At first.
“That might not be a printing error.”
“Huh?”
“No, let’s skip that part since it’s just speculation. What about the rest? The model name and manufacturer listed there—ever heard of them?”
This guy can’t resist anything electronic, especially capsules.
They say he’s a well-known user on related sites whose name alone commands recognition, even running an IT specialty blog.
But his immediate answer shattered my expectations.
“Nope.”
Well, makes sense since it didn’t show up in internet searches. But still can’t help feeling a bit disappointed.
“You don’t know at all? You’re totally into this stuff.”
“Am I? But I don’t know this one.”
Jin-ho scratched his head.
“Illegally modified capsule? Or custom? Honestly, never seen a design like this.”
Gets more depressing the more I hear.
“Sure, let’s set aside the design. But I know every model from the first to the latest. Every single product released domestically.”
“And?”
“This model name. Manufacturer. Completely new to me.”
“Could be a foreign manufacturer?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, you idiot, you dimwit.”
Jin-ho held out the manual with an exasperated face.
“Read the first line.”
“Product Manual?”
“Yeah. It’s in Korean, Korean!”
“Ah.”
“Whether H-Soft is domestic or foreign, if they make their manual in Korean, I would know them. There aren’t thousands or even hundreds of capsule manufacturers in the industry.”
Feel like a complete idiot. What do I know about capsules anyway?
Then Jin-ho spoke:
“Wait a minute.”
Seems he’s searching something as he taps on his smartphone screen. But the result was predictable.
“Shit, only porn sites come up.”
Oh, that one’s pretty good.
“Not even a ghost company. Why is nothing coming up?”
“Read the back pages too.”
You’ll really feel haunted after reading the last page. Jin-ho turned the pages with a serious face.
Once. Then once more.
“Mind-blowing, right?”
“Yeah. Mind-blowing.”
His voice was empty.
“Mind-blowing that you’re telling me to look at blank pages.”
“Huh?”
“Was wondering why such a sloppy manual. No component descriptions, no operating instructions, and what little there is about model name, manufacturer, and date is all over the place.”
“No, blank? What are you talking about!”
“Well well, look at this liberal arts major acting all innocent.”
I hurriedly snatched back the manual and read it. The same content I saw before sleeping was there. Cautions on the second page.
Key features on the last page.
“You can’t see this?”
“Stop it. This is getting scary.”
That expression. That tone. He’s serious. These letters I can see are invisible to Jin-ho.
No, maybe…
Only I can see this content.
I remained frozen like that for a while.
Pssshhh-
I stumbled out of the capsule on shaky legs. With its glossy exterior looking like a giant egg, this is the latest model capsule released last month.
“Oh, you’re out already. Did you try the game I recommended?”
I answered the capsule room owner at the counter in a half-dazed state.
“Yes.”
The virtual reality game he recommended was a mega-hit with ten million concurrent users. He said it had over 70% market share with its amazing graphics and outstanding freedom.
“The graphics are insane, right?”
Game login. Seeing the graphics, I wondered if I was crazy.
This is supposed to be the most successful virtual reality game?
Sure, the graphics are good. But that’s where it ends.
The NPCs’ appearances and movements, dialogue patterns, and the five senses I feel through my character. All unnatural. It’s a “game” but never feels like “reality.”
“Do you have any wuxia-themed games?”
“Ah, you’re into wuxia? There are quite a few. What’s the title you’re looking for?”
“Murim.”
“Murim Online?”
“No. It’s an open-world style game. Single player.”
“There’s a wuxia game like that?”
Well, that settles it. No need to hear more.
The owner called out as I staggered toward the door.
“Come again!”
Never. Not ever again.
Hope Goshiwon.
Sitting under the old, rusted sign, I took out my smartphone. The other party picked up almost before the ring tone started.
Click.
-Yeah, what?
My one and only nemesis—no, sister Hayeon. The moment I heard her characteristically rude voice, my throat tightened.
-Hello?
“…Yeah.”
-Why’d you call?
“Just. Wanted to hear your voice.”
For a moment, a deathly silence fell.
-Hanging up.
“No, wait. Just wait!”
-Three seconds. Get to the point.
Damn girl…
Right, this is Hayeon alright. Thanks to her, my briefly moistened tear ducts dried up like the sand near the pyramids.
“What’s Mom doing?”
-Went out saying she had some errands. Call her if you’re curious.
I deliberately didn’t. I’m getting choked up just hearing this brat’s voice—if I heard Mom’s, I’d probably bawl like a baby.
I quickly changed the subject.
“What about you?”
-What would a high school senior with 120 days till college entrance exams be doing? Studying of course.
Snappier tone than usual. Seems the exam stress is getting to her.
“Studies going well?”
-Bombed the July mock test.
Failed condition management and got even easy questions wrong. Ugh, gets more annoying the more I think about it.
“It’s okay. Just do well on the real thing. How many did you get wrong?”
-Two.
“That’s still top grade. What about other subjects?”
-Two total across all subjects.
“Huh?”
-One in Korean History. One in Math.
“…Two questions total across ALL subjects? Seriously?”
-Of course that’s what I meant.
Smart little…
I knew she was good at studying but this level… Thinking back to my own school grades, seems genetic lottery is really a thing.
“Pretty good at studying, huh?”
-From your perspective, isn’t this amazing?
“Wh-what nonsense! I studied quite well too! You just don’t remember because you were in elementary school…”
-Found your report card during spring cleaning last week. So many 7th grades it looked like a jackpot slot machine.
“Need allowance? How much are cosmetics these days?”
-How pitiful. Really.
Cruel girl…
The call continued for over 10 minutes.
I was mostly listening. Hayeon’s voice as she chatted about studying, school, and boys she was interested in had grown much brighter than at first.
Suddenly I was overcome with a strange feeling.
I really did come back.
Was I dreaming, or lost in delusion?
Barely a day had passed in reality, yet inexplicable mysteries had occurred.
But I decided not to try understanding anymore.
Because I’m back in reality now.
And because I have to live in reality.
My family is here, and I am here.
That’s enough. I just had a very strange dream for a moment. The kind of dream that will naturally fade with time.
-So then I…
Listening to my chattering sister’s voice, I got up from my seat.
Time to leave the old, rusted sign behind and return to my room.
Ding. Diiiing.
Seong Jin-ho opened his bleary eyes. The smartphone by his pillow was ringing. Six AM. The signal to start another day.
“Oh god, I’m dying.”
Five years since leaving home. The moldy smell that hit his nose every morning had become quite familiar. With half-closed eyes, Seong Jin-ho stuffed cigarettes and a lighter in his pocket and left his room.
Nothing better than a smoke to wake up.
As he dragged his slippers up to the roof and put a cigarette to his lips…
Thud.
“Huh?”
What’s that sound? With that question, he leaned over the railing and spotted a piece of metal placed in front of the recycling area.
And a well-built young man staring at it blankly.
“Hey! Jin Tae-kyung!”
Jin Tae-kyung looked up at Seong Jin-ho’s shout.
“What?”
“You throwing that away?”
The metal object was the junk capsule they’d picked up yesterday. Seems he was trying to throw it away after playing around with it unsuccessfully.
Though he was pretty serious about it… well, must’ve been nonsense.
Seong Jin-ho smirked.
“Why throw it away? Not going back to Murim?”
“You believed that?”
Jin Tae-kyung smiled back. But to Seong Jin-ho, who had watched him for a long time, it seemed somehow forced.
What’s this?
Strange feeling. Jin Tae-kyung waved to the suspicious Seong Jin-ho and started down the hill.
“Where you going, man! Aren’t we having breakfast together later?”
“Gotta work!”
Jin Tae-kyung left without looking back. Seong Jin-ho took a drag of his half-burnt cigarette.
“Kid’s working hard…”
Soon Jin Tae-kyung disappeared from view. It was then that Seong Jin-ho, about to stub out his cigarette in a flowerpot and leave, noticed the junk capsule.
Said the manufacturer was H-Soft?
Probably just a cheap trick, but wouldn’t hurt to look into it.