Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Phew… first, let’s calm down.

For now, I patted my chest and tried to soothe the shock I had received from seeing the system window.

[Pingkkyu Gyongdyu] was the nickname I had used when I played the game.

I admit it myself.

It was not a nickname I could proudly say out loud anywhere.

But online, everyone has one or two pieces of dark history, don’t they?

For me, that nickname was simply my dark history.

The problem was that I never imagined it would be displayed without changing a single character.

Still, there was no need to worry too much.

The only one who knew I had cleared the dungeon was the wolf-girl who had been there with me.

‘Pingkkyu Gyongdyu? Hahaha…. W… Well, systems can occasionally have errors too. Of course, I’ve never heard of such a case… Anyway, I’ll keep this a secret! I promise!’

For now, she had promised.

She had even hooked her pinky on it.

Of course, since it was only a verbal promise, I had no way of knowing how long it would last.

Let’s bury this matter deep in my heart.

It was an optimistic thought to the end, but even if I were found out, all I had to do was deny it strongly.

Anyway, putting that aside for a moment.

HONK, HONK—!

When I opened the eyelids I had briefly closed, countless cars and a forest of towering buildings entered my view.

‘Phew… At least the setting of Again Origin is modern.’

What would I have done if it had been set in the Middle Ages or a fantasy world?

I would not even have been able to enjoy the fruits of modern science.

I hated the thought of living hot in summer and cold in winter.

By the way, where am I?

That question was solved quickly.

By looking around at the nearby signs, I could guess my current location.

“Changwon?”

Even in the game, once a dungeon was cleared, the user was summoned to the place where the dungeon had broken out.

Did that mean the dungeon had erupted in Changwon?

Well… there had been plenty of twists and turns, but now I just needed to go home…. Huh?

Hold on.

Did I even have a home…?

Anxiety suddenly rushed over me.

I had fallen into the game overnight, so there was no way my home would exist in this world.

Still, wouldn’t the original owner of this body have a home?

It was already infuriating enough that I had been dropped right into the middle of a game. Becoming homeless immediately afterward was something I absolutely could not accept.

“No way… no way….”

Biting my nails, I searched through my pockets.

What I felt in my hand were a few coins and some scrap of paper whose identity I could not figure out at all.

Fortunately, amid the misfortune, when I searched my pants as well, my hand found an ID card.

[Porter Sung Ha-jin, affiliated with Eunhye Co., Ltd.]

[Address: Seoul, Gangseo-gu….. Rental Dormitory]

As far as I knew, Changwon was right next to Busan.

And Seoul and Busan were almost on opposite ends of South Korea.

Ah… how am I supposed to get home?

***

“I quit! I’m better off handing in my resignation. Do you think this makes any sense, common-sense-wise?!”

The woman shouted, her yell close to a scream.

On her desk, along with all sorts of documents stacked like an acrobatic act that seemed about to touch the ceiling, there was a large sign.

[Republic of Korea Crisis Response Committee – Tower Disaster Response Department]

“Haa, Team Leader, this is already the third night of overtime. I went through every resident registration record in South Korea, but there is no name Pingkkyu Gyongdyu. To begin with, the upper brass are crazy for thinking such a ridiculous name could even exist….”

Han-sol, a civil servant in the Tower Disaster Response Department, let out a sigh as if the ground were collapsing beneath her.

As if to support her lament, empty coffee cans and finished energy drinks were rolling around under the desk.

Just like Han-sol, Kang Han-seok was staring hard enough to bore through his monitor when he spoke.

“I can hear you cursing.”

“I just said it because I’m frustrated. Team Leader, do you think this makes any sense? Common-sense-wise, do you think the surname Ping exists in our country?”

Han-sol slammed her fist down on the desk and shouted.

It was a situation unimaginable in mainstream government departments, where a vertical atmosphere was originally the norm.

However, the Tower Disaster Response Department was a special recruitment unit, different from ordinary civil servants.

Therefore, compared to other job groups, the atmosphere was relatively open.

“Why are you making such a fuss? Maybe he’s Korean Chinese.”

“Yes? Korean Chinese, sir? Why are you suddenly talking about Korean Chinese?”

“Well, there’s one in China, isn’t there? Xi Jinping.”

“Was the Ping in Xi Jinping his surname? That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

“How would I know? I don’t know either. I just said it. I’m only saying it could be possible.”

Rustle— Kang Han-seok flipped through documents and replied indifferently.

“Haa… forget it. I’ll try searching myself. I’m the idiot for expecting anything from you, Team Leader.”

The Tower Disaster Response Department.

The two of them were civil servants in a government department that handled administration related to the Tower.

Twenty years had passed since Towers appeared on Earth.

One day, Towers reminiscent of skyscrapers had risen tall in each nation.

Powerful nations, including the United States of America, Russia, China, and others, had sent in armies to uncover the true nature of the Towers and had even gone so far as to use nuclear weapons, but they failed to obtain any significant results.

No force of arms could bring down a Tower.

However, there was an exception.

The so-called Chosen.

A term referring to those qualified to enter the Tower.

The Chosen were the one and only group capable of building military power through the Tower and transporting items in and out.

That was precisely why the state had to control them all the more.

When an individual’s military power escaped the bounds of the law, society collapsed.

The Tower Disaster Response Department was a special division made to manage the Chosen.

Wait, then did that mean the existence of the Tower was beneficial?

If a nation endured a little risk, it could mass-produce military power comparable to an army and develop resources that did not exist on Earth.

It was a question anyone who heard about the Tower would reasonably have.

However, the existence of the Tower was not as romantic as it seemed in movies or comics.

The Tower caused disasters.

The so-called Synchronization.

If the Tower was not climbed for a certain amount of time, monsters would appear under its influence, and reality would transform like the Tower.

That was called a Dungeon.

“This time it was Changwon, but didn’t Dungeons occur in Cheonan, Gimhae, and Incheon last week too?”

“Stop it. Our country is still decent compared to the rest. Bhutan was destroyed long ago, and Kyrgyzstan and Iran are in states of anarchy. Tch, what is the world coming to….”

Gulp— Kang Han-seok downed a canned drink in one go, then crushed it in one hand.

“Anyway, that’s why the upper brass are making a fuss. Outstanding talent is national military power.”

“Still, I can only think they’re overreacting. Our country already has Kwon Hyeok-jin, a Seven Star, so why is everyone making such a fuss? If the United States is a nuclear-armed nation, isn’t our country a Kwon Hyeok-jin-possessing nation?”

Seven Star.

It was a title used to refer to heroes active on the front lines of the Tower.

From early on, the United States of America, which possessed overwhelming military strength and the largest number of Chosen, had two, while the Seven Stars with South Korean nationality numbered three.

One of them was Kwon Hyeok-jin.

“Kwon Hyeok-jin, my ass… How old is that news? That bastard’s been dead for ages.”

“….Pardon?”

“Kwon Hyeok-jin was in this subjugation too. Though he died.”

At his remark, Han-sol went deathly pale and shot up from her desk.

“Holy shit, why are you only telling me that now?! Y… You’re joking, right? Kwon Hyeok-jin, of all people… died?”

“I told you. Huh? Come to think of it, weren’t you in the briefing room yesterday?”

“Weren’t you the one who told me that if I had time to do anything else, I should find Pingkkyu Gyongdyu instead?! With everything this busy, where would I have found the time…?!”

“No matter what happens. We have to recruit Pingkkyu… tch, anyway, that bastard into our department. This time, we can’t let the Guild bastards snatch him away.”

Kang Han-seok continued, his face stiffening.

“He cleared a Dungeon even Kwon Hyeok-jin could not resolve. I don’t know why someone with that level of skill has hidden his identity until now, but at minimum, he has strength comparable to a Seven Star. If we want to make him our ally, we have to find him first.”

It was only natural.

Unfortunately, this matter had become a massive issue.

That was why they had to prepare all the more.

Because this was an incident that countries overseas, not just domestic forces, would drool over.

It would be a grave mistake to think their competitors were limited to domestic Guilds.

Worry deepened across Kang Han-seok’s face.

‘If he’s that skilled, things like honor, wealth, and power… those trifles won’t even satisfy him.’

If this incident could be solved simply with a blank check, he would not be worrying like this.

***

[Debtor Name: Sung Ha-jin]

[Outstanding Loan Principal and Interest: 554,847,000]

What am I looking at right now?

How many digits are there?

“Haa….”

After many twists and turns, I had somehow succeeded in crossing the country penniless, but what I encountered at my lodging was the worst possible situation.

The instant I turned on the phone hidden deep inside the desk, it kept ringing without pause. 

Bzz, bzz.

This was what I found after checking the identity of the notifications.

For the sake of my mental health, it would have been better not to open them at all.

What was even more absurd than that was

the fact that Sung Ha-jin’s contact list, meaning the original owner of my body’s contact list, was blank.

For some reason, it did not even have his parents’ phone numbers.

No, let me correct that.

The moment I turned on the phone, countless finance companies welcomed me, so I suppose he had no need for friends.

The more I thought about it, the more wronged I felt.

No, I didn’t even borrow this, but I have to pay it back?

Even if I generously ignored the smaller digits, it was still 500 million.

It was an enormous sum of money I had never touched in my life.

This is driving me insane.

It was already unfair that I was terminally cursed, but I became a debtor owing hundreds of millions overnight too?

“Just where did he use all this money?”

It was in the hundreds of millions.

I needed to check.

Just where had this loan money been spent?

It was in the middle of that.

Tap!

A piece of paper fell from a gap in the phone case.

A layout of the room was drawn on the crumpled paper, but something about it was strange.

“Huh?”

The layout and the actual structure of the room I could see with my eyes were different.

More precisely,

‘Doesn’t the wardrobe stick out more?’

I had not noticed because I had not been paying attention, but the wardrobe protruded from the wall.

At a glance, it was abnormal.

When I pulled the wardrobe away, what came out of the empty space was a fairly unexpected item.

“They’re wands?”

How many are there?

Even at a rough glance, there was no small number of them.

The loan money I had seen earlier, it seemed, had been taken out to buy these.

A wand was an item that allowed even someone who was not a mage to use stored magic.

Even in the game, they had to be purchased by paying a considerable amount of currency.

That was why porters who went in and out of Dungeons usually prepared them for self-defense.

Because they were expensive, they bought about two or so.

But even considering that, there were too many.

What was even more puzzling was that all the wands stored behind the wardrobe had no stored magic.

As if they were telling me to use them however I wanted.

No, there is no way that is true.

‘I was thinking too sensitively.’

If I had to weigh it, this was a gain.

They were items I needed anyway.

Thanks to this, I had saved myself the trouble of spending time to obtain them.

Five hundred million.

It was certainly a considerable amount.

But if I could just climb the Tower, paying it back would be quick.

As starting capital, this was a bargain.

Huh? Hold on.

“…Can I enter the Tower?”

A question suddenly occurred to me.

Only the Chosen could enter the Tower.

That was why in the game, all users were assumed to be Chosen as a prerequisite.

But porters were different.

Unlike the Tower, Dungeons could be entered even without qualification, so ordinary people who had not been chosen could earn money as porters.

But if my identity was that of a porter….

‘Does that mean I can’t enter the Tower?’

They threw me into this damn game and then left me helpless like that?

No way…?

A chill ran down my spine.

If I went skydiving without a parachute, maybe this would be what it felt like.

“I enter the Tower… Tower start! Game start! Play!”

I was not young either.

I was in my thirties, an age where I could be called mister anywhere.

I said it out loud while enduring my own embarrassment, but nothing unusual happened.

Crazy.

Did those operator bastards block me from entering the Tower?

This was driving me insane.

Maybe because this was Developer Mode, one step above Extreme, it was far more outrageous.

To begin with, if I could not enter the Tower, clearing it was impossible.

At this rate, I would have no choice but to watch the world fall without even seeing the Tower.

No, would dying from the terminal trait be faster before that?

The instant I squeezed my eyes shut in dizziness, Ding!

A system window appeared along with an alarm sound.

[Dungeon MVP rewards have been calculated.]

Huh?

Come to think of it, I still hadn’t received the MVP reward.

I had completely forgotten because I had no room to pay attention to it.

I did not expect much.

After all, it was only a Dungeon, not the Tower.

Even if something usable appeared, how good could it possibly be….

[Chosen qualification granted as reward.]

[You have become one of the Chosen. You may climb the Tower.]

Something I had never expected appeared!

And it was exactly what I needed most right now.

At the same time, countless system windows and alarm sounds struck my eardrums.

As if they had been waiting for this very moment.

[Messenger function activated.]

[Message received from the Republic of Korea Crisis Response Committee.]

[Message received from Myth Guild….]

[Message received from Murim Public Enemy Guild….]

…………

……

…

..

[A total of 82 messages received.]

Before I even had time to grasp the situation, a random thought suddenly occurred to me.

Surely this isn’t debt collection again, right?