# 3
003
Each grain of sand, which was less than the size of millet, was hot as if it contained lava.
I felt like my skin was burning and my pores were being burned.
-…! …!
In pain that felt like his bones and flesh were melting, Daesung had to let out a silent scream.
While receiving the heat shining from beyond the red-stained sky.
-Kirik. Keruruk.
A lizard with seven eyes crawled in front of him, who was paralyzed and lying on his side.
-Hey, crane…!
I’ve been like this for two days now, unable to eat or drink anything.
Daesung barely opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue.
Anything was fine, so I had to fill my stomach first.
However, the lizard sensed the scent and scurried away from him.
-….
Daesung’s sunken eyes became cloudy due to feeling empty.
Slur.
My eyes were about to close.
It wasn’t that I was sleepy, but I was exhausted because I lost energy.
-You shouldn’t sleep…
You know best that you will die the moment you lose consciousness.
However, it was impossible to control the eyelids that closed on their own with will alone.
For a moment, my vision goes black.
pop-!
-…!
A sound as if a landmine had exploded was heard nearby.
Daesung reflexively came to his senses.
When he opened his eyes, a huge shadow was cast over his face.
I looked up.
A creature that I couldn’t tell whether it was a centipede or an earthworm stuck out its long body.
The round mouth was filled with teeth as sharp as awls.
-Qurrrrrrrr!!
Sandworm.
A magical beast that lives beneath the wasteland and unknowingly sticks its head above the ground to ravage its prey.
The sandworm bent its large body and looked at Daeseong, its prey.
Whirling-!
Soon the guy twisted his body and lunged at him.
-Damn….
At the same time Daesung cursed in a dry tone.
The teeth of the sandworm’s mouth, as black as an abyss, crushed his body.
***
It was a dream.
“Aaaahhh-?!”
Jump up!
Daesung woke up from anesthesia and raised his upper body in a bright glow.
“Huh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh…!”
Cold sweat poured down from his face as he was out of breath, as if he was going to fall.
He blinked his eyes repeatedly as he felt the pounding pulse.
“Dream.”
I don’t know where, but it wasn’t a desert.
The sight of the sandworm’s teeth coming in front of my eyes was still vivid, but I felt relieved when I realized it was a dream.
But that feeling didn’t last long.
“….”
Daesung pursed his lips and tried to move his arms.
But he still didn’t lift a little finger.
“These bastards…”
He returned to Earth.
But after I regained consciousness, my entire body became paralyzed.
The guy called himself a ‘doctor’, and it was clearly a blackmail.
I don’t know what the situation was, but it was a very serious situation where my body couldn’t move.
If your body doesn’t move, you can’t resist.
Failure to resist meant death.
I don’t know what they were doing, but I had to force myself to get out of this situation.
“Whoosh whoosh…”
I took a deep breath to calm my startled heart.
First of all, I had to understand the situation facing my body.
“Okay…”
Life in hell was like a game.
There was a ‘system’, or ‘status window’, that was literally like a game, not in the sense of fun.
Daesung was able to grow based on the status window that displayed his current status, level, experience level, ability, etc.
The status window also displayed the ‘status abnormalities’ currently inflicted on the user.
If it’s poison, it’s poison, if it’s a burn, it’s a burn, and so on.
“Status window.”
Daesung summoned a status window.
….
But nothing appeared in the air.
“…?”
Daesung frowned at the unexpected situation.
But I understood it right away.
I keep forgetting it without realizing it, but this was Earth.
Since we returned to Earth, there was no way the hell system would apply.
‘That means the situation has gotten worse.’
Since the status window does not appear, I cannot figure out why my body is not moving.
It was a time when Daesung was shaking his head and trying to come up with a solution.
Jump, jump, jump –
“…!”
Footsteps were heard from the hallway outside the door.
Daesung came out of his thoughts and focused on the sound of footsteps.
The sound of footsteps got louder.
It means we are getting closer.
The sound stopped right in front of the door
.
At that point, Daesung was busy rolling his eyes, looking for something he could use as a weapon.
Now that things were like this, I was planning on swinging a weapon at least with my mouth.
But no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find anything that could be used as a weapon.
Unable to do anything, Daesung looked at the door with wary eyes.
At this time, the doorknob turned.
Suddenly
the door opened.
“uh…?”
The one who spoke first was the one who came in.
The person who opened the door and appeared was a woman in her mid-50s.
The woman was holding a basket full of fruit.
But the moment Daesung’s eyes met.
Tuk degurrr.
The woman helplessly dropped the basket from her hand.
“…?”
When Daesung tilts his head and follows the fruit rolling on the floor with his eyes.
“Ah ah ah ah ah!”
Suddenly, the woman covered her mouth and started crying.
Then, with shaking legs, he approached Daesung on the bed.
“Ugh…!”
Daesung was caught off guard for a moment and raised his head, venom in his eyes.
“Do not come.”
It was a cold voice like absolute zero.
“If you come, I will kill you.”
It’s worth it.
It has to be that way as a being I don’t know who approaches me.
Stop.
The woman was momentarily taken aback by Daesung’s cold tone as she sank to the bottom.
However, Chimi suppressed her tears for a moment and slowly opened her mouth.
“Daeseong.”
That moment.
Puzzle-!
“Uuuuuu…?!”
A snake-like strand of electric current passed through his brain.
“Huh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh…!”
Is it some kind of special speech?
I don’t know what it was, but the moment I heard that voice, the inside of my skull felt like it was going to tear apart.
“Great Daeseong!”
Suddenly, he was in pain with a criss-cross tendon on his temple, and the woman was startled and tried to approach him.
“Oh, I told you not to come!”
“Daeseong.”
“shut up!”
It’s not just that my head hurts.
My heart ached, as if a dagger was cutting through my heart.
Daesung was unable to come to his senses due to the intense pain he had experienced for the first time in his life.
“Daeseong….”
“Don’t call me that name…!”
“Great Daesung. “It’s me…”
Daesung screamed, twisting his neck wildly, but the woman did not stop approaching him.
“Don’t you know who I am?”
“Who are you…!”
Before I knew it, the woman was right in front of me.
The skinny woman’s body cast a thin shadow on his face.
It was a fleeting moment.
In my dream, the shiny teeth of the sandworm that was right in front of my nose passed by, leaving a remnant. The
moment
when the woman opens her arms wide.
“Mr. Baal…!”
Daesung closed his eyes tightly.
No matter how much he single-handedly defeated a demon and conquered hell.
He did not have the confidence to be calm in front of the demon of death that was approaching him while he was defenseless.
Daesung closed his eyes and prepared for the pain of his skin being crushed.
But what I feel instead of pain is.
It was warmth.
“…?”
Daesung opened his eyes in confusion.
It was cozy.
“Daeseong.”
The woman opened her arms wide and hugged his face tightly.
“I really don’t know who I am…?”
“…? …??”
Daesung’s shoulders rose and fell in confusion.
Who is it?
When that thought occurred to me.
It smelled.
It wasn’t a real smell flowing into my nasal passages.
But it was definitely a smell.
When Daesung was thinking about the meaning of smell.
“are you okay. are you okay.”
-It’s okay, it’s okay.-
The woman stroked the top of Daesung’s head with a gentle hand.
“It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt.”
-It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt.-
A hazy scene unfolded.
-Mom will scold you all.-
-So, pop.-
“Mom?”
The moment Daesung said those words.
The woman’s hand that was stroking stopped for a moment.
Just for a moment.
“huh.”
The woman spoke in a thirsty voice and stroked his head again.
“It’s mom.”
“mom.”
No matter how much time passes, even if it is a time of sura without peace and leisure.
There was one thing I promised myself I would never let go from my memory.
It was ‘family’.
However, as 20 years passed, the faces in my memory began to become blurred…
When I suddenly came to my senses, I could not think of the existence of ‘family’ or ‘parents’ anywhere in my mind.
There was a time when Daesung asked himself how he could do that, but that was how he ended up living through hell.
However, the existence of family itself did not disappear from memory.
It was just that I was sleeping in a very deep abyss.
And those sleeping smells and faces.
“mom…!”
“Yes, mom. Daeseong. “It’s mom.”
At this very moment, it has emerged after overcoming decades of time.
“Aaaah-!! Aaaah-!!”
Daesung can’t cry.
Strictly speaking, I have forgotten how to cry.
It would be nice to say that my tears were dry.
“Aaaah!!”
So I just kept crying endlessly.
Just keep going.
***
Contrary to his illusions, this was an ordinary hospital.
Since it is an ordinary hospital, of course the doctors and nurses are ordinary people.
It’s as if Daesung is just playing the drums and playing the janggu.
However, it was not unreasonable to be so mistaken.
‘Hospital… That’s right. There was a hospital on Earth.’
It’s the first time in 80 years that I’ve been in a hospital, and the concept of ‘treatment’ that I receive from others.
“….”
Daesung looked down in silence at the patient gown he was wearing.
In hell, I had to do everything on my own and carry it all alone.
Even treating injuries and preparing medicine had to be done all by myself.
There was no ‘ally’ to treat him when he was injured during the fight.
At best, it’s just a status window that restores stamina when you level up and tells you how to make potions.
A favor received from someone.
This was very unfamiliar to Daesung, who returned to Earth after 80 years.
“I heard your body has stiffened a lot.”
Daesung’s mother, Yoon Hye-jeong, said while sitting in a round chair next to the bed.
“So it will be very difficult to move for a while. “Even if I can’t do it, I have to do rehabilitation training for at least half a year.”
“huh.”
“I heard there wasn’t any fuss earlier? “I heard the doctor crunched his hand as soon as he woke up.”
“I thought you were trying to hurt me.”
“When he opened his eyes for the first time in a while, he heard some strange noise… He was the one who helped you both physically and mentally while you were lying down. When the teacher comes back later, I will definitely apologize. please.”
“huh.”
“Ugh…”
Yoon Hye-jeong sighed as if she couldn’t survive the short answer that followed.
Yoon Hye-jeong glanced at her son.
I was just staring blankly at the wall with cloudy pupils.
When I hugged him earlier and stroked his head, Daesung burst into tears so hard that the hospital had to leave.
Even though no tears were shed, it was clearly wailing.
He sobbed for over 10 minutes and then became quiet as if he had never been like that.
Even just looking at it, I could feel that I was in a very emotionally unstable state.
The doctor also informed me repeatedly, so I was mentally prepared.
But-
‘…No matter what, the kid feels a bit unfamiliar. As a biological mother, I shouldn’t think like this, but….’
The personality of her son she knew was very bright.
There were no problems in my interpersonal relationships and school life.
On the contrary, he was a son with such a good personality that even her own mother was proud to see him.
Of course, since she had been in suspended animation for several years, I did not expect her lively personality to remain the same.
Even taking that into account, the current Daesung was very unfamiliar.
Regardless of my personality, it felt like the person itself had changed.
Hyejeong felt her heart ache and bit her lip without Daesung knowing.
‘Once I’m discharged from the hospital, I need to get psychiatric treatment just in case-’
“Mom.”
“Yes? uh!”
While she was lost in her thoughts, Hyejeong suddenly heard words and her shoulders shook.
Daesung tilted his head.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Uh huh. no. nothing. “Why did you call me?”
“Tell me a story.”
“what?”
“all.”
Daesung said seriously.
“Today is what month and day, and how has Mom been doing so far? What happened to me during this time? “Everything.”
“Well… the teacher said that it would be better to talk about your current situation after you have calmed down for a day or two-” “
It’s okay. “Just do it.”
“….”
From Daesung’s perspective, there was a mountain of stories that were difficult to accept.
Hyejeong was worried that she might go into shock after hearing that.
But since he said it was okay, I decided to tell him one by one first.
to sum it up.
It is now March 17, 2028.
Daesung has been in suspended animation for 10 years.
The time he spent in hell was a whopping 80 years.
Anyway, only 10 years have passed on Earth.
“It’s been 10 years. 10 years. “After sleeping for 10 years, my son can now not sleep for a while, right?”
Hyejeong was afraid that he might be shocked, so she tried to tell him a light joke.
Even so, my heart broke as I thought about my son, who must have been shocked to hear this story.
But Daesung’s reaction was unexpected.
“I’m glad. “Only 10 years have passed.”
“Huh?”
“I was afraid of what would happen if time passed here as well as there. “It would have been terrible to come back and have no one to remember me.”
Hyejeong couldn’t understand what Daesung was muttering to himself.
“But only 10 years have passed. “I’m so glad.”
“Uh, um… I don’t know what you’re talking about, but my son said he’s lucky…”
“Please keep talking.”
As Daesung quietly urged Hyejeong to pour out the rest of the story.
As for Hyejeong herself, she just said that she was doing well.
“Everyone was doing well except you, Yonseok.”
After that, trivial stories continued for a while without stopping.
Almost 10 years’ worth.
The story continued until the twilight completely set and the night sky appeared.
“So there it is. “I’ve been practicing cream spaghetti all day long so I can make it to you when you wake up-”
Knock knock.
As the conversation continued, the door opened and a nurse came in.
“Excuse me, but the patient’s visiting hours are over, so I think you should come out now.”
“Ah yes. “Then, my son and mom, I’ll just go.”
Hyejeong stood up from the chair, waving her hand with a regretful look.
Daesung nodded slightly and spoke in a flat voice.
“Are you coming tomorrow too?”
“then. “Are you going to come every day until my son is discharged from the hospital?”
“huh.”
She smiled bitterly and walked out of the hospital room.
Even the moment I closed the door, I couldn’t take my eyes off him and kept waving.
bang.
The door closes.
Slurp –
She collapsed, leaning her back against the door.
Then he put both wrists to his temples and muttered.
“Let’s only talk about good things… Let’s only talk about good things… Let’s only talk about good things…”
The stories that lasted for over five hours were all happy ones.
….
I left out the story about taking on debt from a third-party financial institution to cover his hospital expenses.
I’ll get caught someday…
but for now-