Chapter 32

The next day, I was able to be discharged from the hospital without any issues. Thanks to the measures Baeksan had taken, my body was in good shape aside from some muscle soreness, and there was no reason to stay in the hospital any longer.

The hospital bills had all been paid in advance by Seo-ho. A small token of gratitude for protecting Si-ho, apparently. I hadn’t done much, but refusing too vehemently would’ve been rude, so I accepted the favor graciously. After all, Ha Seo-ho, the S-class Hunter known as Seollsan Iri, probably wasn’t short on cash.

Returning home felt like coming back after an eternity. Between the deserted island and the hospital, it had been a long time since I’d been here.

“Ah, this familiar smell.”

“Is now really the time to talk about smells? It’s not a pigsty.”

“I left in a hurry and didn’t have time to clean.”

Ignoring Baeksan, who was acting like a ghost and recoiling in disgust, I started cleaning. It was true, though—his comment about it being a pigsty wasn’t entirely off the mark.

“By the way, when are we starting that training you mentioned?”

As I cleaned, I glanced up at Baeksan. I decided to trust him for now. He was invisible to Ayu and others, and his explanation fit my situation too well.

According to him, I was somehow at the center of the Returners. It didn’t feel real, but if it was true, I needed to prepare. The thought of dying in that state was unbearable.

I needed some means to protect myself. Then, a question popped into my head.

“Baeksan, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Can I really get stronger? I’m not a Hunter or a Returner.”

Of course, I’m just an ordinary person. A regular human who’d drop dead if a Returner so much as flicked their finger. The idea of me undergoing training to become strong enough to survive against Returners or Hunters felt absurd.

Hearing my question, Baeksan laughed as if he’d read my mind, then looked at me and asked, “Did you forget that those Returners were once ordinary humans too?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Exactly. Of course, most of those caught in Dimensional Movement died without achieving anything.”

The phenomenon of Dimensional Movement has been occurring for centuries. Even now, the government is trying to distinguish between disappearances caused by Dimensional Movement and regular disappearances. Only less than 5% of those caught in it manage to return. Returners are always a minority, and as a result, they’ve faced discrimination and neglect.

“It’s a miracle that any Returners come back at all from that barren land. The Tower of Apocalypse has some influence on that.”

“There’s something like that?”

“I can’t pinpoint it, but it increases the chances of a miracle. Returners would’ve experienced that feeling at least once.”

Since I’m not a Returner, I wouldn’t know. But Baeksan continued, “And you’ve just encountered that miracle.”

With that, he gave me a confident smile. “With me, the strongest Returner, by your side, do you really think you won’t get stronger?”

“Ohh.”

“Put some emotion into your admiration.”

“Ohh!”

I clapped along, and he laughed heartily before calming down. “Enough excitement. As I said yesterday, getting stronger is about survival, but also about finding your sister.”

The prophecy distorted by the Tower of Apocalypse. I didn’t know what the prophecy said, but the expression on my sister’s face as she left was clearly because of me.

So, I wanted to find her. To tell her the prophecy was wrong. That it’s okay to come back. That I’m glad she’s back.

That’s why I started studying Returners.

“I was just curious. Even if I train, I can’t imagine myself getting stronger.”

“Hmm, you don’t seem to realize something.”

As I clenched and unclenched my fist, Baeksan stroked his chin and said, “By the way, your body is stronger than you think.”

“Huh?”

What kind of nonsense is that?

Seeing my confused expression, Baeksan floated down in front of me. “When I entered your body, I burned through as many of the barriers as I could. If you learn to control Aura, you’ll be able to crush most things with sheer firepower.”

“Ugh.”

I knew Baeksan had entered my body to save me, but I didn’t expect he’d done something like that. It also explained why my glasses suddenly became unnecessary.

“You messed with my body without permission? That’s harassment.”

“Stop talking nonsense. You’d be dead otherwise, idiot.”

I understood that I’d almost died, but I still looked at my hand with a strange expression. Just control Aura, huh?

……So, how do I do that?

I had no clue, but I decided to leave that part to Baeksan. After all, I had no choice but to trust him completely.

“Training won’t disrupt your daily life. You’ve got four years until you’re thirty, and that’s enough time to build the strength to survive. I actually want you to maintain your routine.”

“So, I can keep playing games and going to work?”

“Yeah, I don’t want the future to change too much. It’s better to maintain what you can.”

It made sense. If he wanted to leverage his status as a Returner, that was the way to go.

“But you’ll sleep less.”

“That’s not maintaining my routine.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure your body can go a week without sleep.”

He’s turning me into some kind of weapon.

“Anyway, your daily life won’t change much. All I want from you is to get strong enough to survive. I’m not asking you to prevent the apocalypse. That’s for the me of this world to handle.”

He looked indifferent, as if he didn’t expect much from me. I agreed with that. Even with a Returner like him, how could I, an ordinary person, stop an apocalypse that even the powerful Returners couldn’t prevent?

So, focusing on survival, as Baeksan said, was the right approach. That’s why he didn’t want the future to change too much due to my involvement.

“That’s a relief. So, let’s do this training or whatever.”

Feeling reassured by Baeksan’s consideration, I sat down in front of my VR game console for the first time in a while. Since I had the day off work due to the accident, I planned to catch up on some in-game tasks.

But then I wondered what would happen to Baeksan when I logged into the game. Would he follow me into the game? Or just watch me play from the side?

Curious about living with a Returner, I decided to log into Road of Academy to find out.

“Wait a second.”

Just then, Baeksan suddenly spoke to me. Was he going to tell me to skip the game and start training now?

As I was about to grumble about the Returner’s indecisiveness, I stopped when I saw his expression. He wasn’t looking at me but was staring intently at my game console.

“……Hmm.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, must be my imagination.”

He looked slightly uneasy but soon shrugged it off.

“Go ahead.”

He sat on my bed, waving his hands as if to say, “Go on, I’ll be here.” What was he planning to do while I was in the game?

I didn’t know, but I decided to log in first. I had weekly and daily quests to clear.

—

While Ha-chan was in the game, Baeksan stared at the VR console with a thoughtful expression.

The moment Ha-chan touched the console to log in, Baeksan had caught a glimpse of something. It lingered in his mind.

‘Come to think of it, why were so many Returners drawn to him?’

Baeksan knew Ha-chan’s personality well. Before the regression, he too had been entangled with Ha-chan and had seen countless Returners helped by him.

The number of Returners that came to mind wasn’t small.

It later became a situation where Returners called other Returners, but the beginning had been strange.

‘That’s right, his involvement with Returners started with the game.’

Baeksan frowned as he recalled Cheonma whining about how much fun it was to play games with Ha-chan back then. The point when Baeksan met Ha-chan was two years later, when Ha-chan was twenty-eight.

By then, Ha-chan had stopped playing games and was active as a member of the World Returner Association.

And one year later.

**Kang Ha-chan died saving me.**

“Baeksan, why are you crying? I’m fine, man.”

Baeksan’s teeth clenched. The long-buried memory resurfaced, and he slowly wiped his face.

That’s all in the past now. Don’t dwell on it.

He had come to repay that debt.

Ha-chan’s unconditional acts of salvation were nothing short of madness.

‘And it’s gotten worse than I remember.’

Baeksan knew he was partly responsible. The trauma he had planted in Ha-chan as a child had been redirected to his sister.

‘Originally, it should’ve been him.’

The trauma that made saving others his life’s goal should’ve been his, but this time it wasn’t.

From that point on, many things must have changed.

‘Damn it, what if it gets even worse?’

To reiterate, his salvation is madness. An obsessive madness born from trauma.

A savior lunatic who throws away his own life and body.

Baeksan had no idea how much of a headache this would be as he turned his gaze back to the game console.

Right now, his primary concern was the mystery of the Returners Ha-chan had met through the game.

‘There’s definitely some interference here.’

Something even he, a Returner, couldn’t comprehend.

Recalling the memory of watching the world crumble, he turned his gaze to the window.

The countless Returners and Hunters strangely drawn to Kang Ha-chan.

Was it really a coincidence?

If not, who, where, and for what purpose had done this to him?

He didn’t know.

The damn world had collapsed before he could figure it out, and Kang Ha-chan had died in his place.

Without finding any answers, the world had ended.

Yet, annoyingly, the Tower of Apocalypse still stood today, just as it had on the day of the apocalypse.