HACKED 42

After a brief blankness, my vision returned.

At a point a few dozen meters away from where I was, right where the battle was in full swing. A giant, heteromorphic monster, large enough to be clearly seen even from a distance, was letting out a shriek.

The monster’s body… I don’t know if I should call that a ‘body,’ but anyway, it was covered in severe injuries all over. The mass, which looked like it was made from dozens of humans clumped together, was tattered here and there. Some parts had even fallen off and were rolling around on the floor.

It was the joint work of San Gun and the Gumiho. They exerted themselves despite being injured. It wasn’t just a matter of exertion. They suppressed the monster and the <Nameless Star> hiding behind it with brute force and gained the upper hand. This truly is the difference in level between a 4-star and a 5-star.

However, that wasn’t the important point. The space behind the monster was shimmering. Like a TV in the middle of a screen adjustment… the air was distorted, and colorful glitches popped out. It was a phenomenon I had never seen before.

“Dimensional Rift…”

The moment I saw that sight, I intuitively understood what ‘Dimensional Rift’ meant. Literally, the dimension was being distorted, crumpled, and twisted.

“Stay back. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t look like going near it will be good.”

Hwarang’s arm suddenly blocked my front. He regained his calm demeanor as if he had never knocked me down and climbed on top of me.

Because he was blocking me with his back turned, I could see nothing but the back of his black head from my field of vision. Watching that, an unknown anger welled up within me.

“You sure snap back to your senses quickly. Why don’t you just sleep until tomorrow?”

“Ah, in a serious situation, really. Come on.”

Hwarang glanced at me once and then expressed his annoyance as much as possible. Mm, this rude way of speaking. It’s the usual Hwarang. This Boss felt relieved.

In the meantime, the rift unfolding behind the monster grew larger by the moment. It felt as if the door of a tightly closed safe was being forced open as the entire safe was crushed by very strong pressure. I unknowingly lost my gaze to that opened gap.

Static noise that sizzled and boiled. Colors and forms that changed by the second. I somehow felt dizzy, like when staring intently at a complex Magic Eye for a long time.

All senses drifted away. The pain that had persistently tormented me, the smell of blood floating in the air, and the stench emitted by the monster. Through the gap in the space I thought was just a pitch-black void, another scenery was overlaid like a hologram.

The sight of a familiar room was reflected. A cramped studio apartment where the only furniture-like furniture was a single bed in one corner and a desk in the opposite corner. On a prefabricated desk too small to even place a single desktop, audio equipment like a low-end model audio interface and a master keyboard were shoved in with cables wound around them.

On the bed, on top of a thin, heavily crumpled blanket, a smartphone is seen thrown carelessly. A charger cable was connected to the smartphone like a long tail. And on the screen.

[NO LIFER]

[GAME START]

A room where everything is sunken in gloom. Only the game start screen appearing on the smartphone’s liquid crystal shines brilliantly.

The scenery changed. An office showing clear signs of aging. Above partitions that aren’t very high, the crowns of people’s heads are peeked out. The sound of typing on keyboards is heard intermittently. Like a hallucination, the smell of stale cigarettes lingers at the tip of my nose.

‘You idiot. Illegal or whatever, just do as you’re told! Plagiarism? So what if it’s plagiarism. These days, you don’t even get sued for this much. What are you, Mozart? Beethoven? Did you come to the company to do noble art? Just because people call you composer, composer, do you think you’ve actually become an artist?’

Thwack! A file folder that hit my head and flew off fell onto the office floor. In an instant, the sound of keyboards stopped abruptly. I could feel everyone holding their breath and paying attention to this side while pretending not to.

‘You are, huh? Just a MIDI-making machine. If I tell you to copy someone else’s song, copy it, and if I tell you to steal it, steal it. That’s why I pay you a monthly salary. Did an orphan brat who even dropped out of school never learn the basics of social life…?’

My vision dropped sharply as the floor became closer. My hand picked up the file folder. A feeling as if it’s me but not me. It’s exactly like watching a first-person game’s flashback cutscene.

‘…I am sorry.’

And the scenery changed once again….

A room slightly wider than the studio apartment I saw first. But being wide doesn’t necessarily mean comfort. In a space of about 16 square meters, bunk beds and several cheap desks are packed tightly. To people who don’t know, they might think, ‘Is this a school dormitory with really bad facilities?’

But I know where that place is. It’s a place familiar to a disgusting degree. Bunk beds so low and cramped that one can’t even sit up straight, an interior that is strangely dark even when the fluorescent lights are on, and even achromatic curtains that make one wonder when they were last washed.

‘Myeong hyung, …here… right? No more… beggar?’

‘…do it. When I turn 18… I receive it. …it is. And…. …wait just a little bit.’

Compared to earlier, the sound quality was markedly worse. Through the sizzling static noise, the voices were heard broken and sparse. It was like an old junk radio where the frequency keeps cutting in and out. Does this flashback cutscene’s image and sound quality get worse the further back in time it goes?

‘…you know… hyung.’

However, the words to follow next… I still remember them clearly even now, nearly 10 years later.

‘I like you.’

“…Ah.”

For a very brief moment, everything stopped. My breathing, my blinking, maybe even my heartbeat.

And in the very next moment, my hands began to shake like crazy. The shaking soon spread to my arms, my upper body, and my whole body. My molars chattered.

“Ah… ah.”

Get a grip. I shouldn’t be doing this now. That isn’t real anyway.

My head thinks so… but my body wouldn’t listen. I rather wanted to close my eyes to block out my senses. But my eyes remained wide open.

Hwarang turning to look at me was caught in the corner of my vision. But my gaze was nailed to one spot and wouldn’t budge.

“Why… that… …look. …Mister!”

He grabbed me firmly and shouted something. But that shout did not reach me as language. It only scattered as meaningless humming.

Did Hwarang’s shout reach far away, for the person right in front of the rift turned around. It was San Gun. His bright yellow pupils met mine head-on.

“…”

But there was nothing I could do. I only shook my whole body violently like someone who had been struck by lightning.

San Gun gritted his teeth firmly. And he turned around staggeringly. The sight of him swinging his sword with a swish to shake off the blood on the blade was etched into my retina.

The sword tip, which accurately aimed at the target, flew in. The body of the monster as big as a house was cut long. The creature thrashed about while letting out a shriek. The decayed human bodies sprouting here and there also wriggled together in accordance with that movement.

The blade, which seemed like it would cut the monster in two with a single blow, was suddenly blocked the moment it touched the rift unfolding behind the monster. As if it had hit an invisible wall.

But San Gun did not stop. Far from withdrawing the blocked blade, he applied even more force. Even as the monster made its final struggle, spitting out venom and brandishing its numerous limbs, he held on until the end. From him, something beyond mere fighting spirit and competitive streak—even a certain hatred—was felt.

And finally….

“Kieeeeek!”

With an ear-piercing scream, the monster split right in half. From the cut surface, disgusting-colored body fluids burst out with a glug-glug. The creature rapidly reduced in volume like a burst water balloon, then collapsed on the spot like a husk.

Something remained in that spot. It wasn’t accurate because the distance was far, but it looked like a small metal lump. Probably less than 10cm at most.

The rift that had appeared in the air also vanished in an instant as if the TV power had been snapped off. The <Nameless Star>, who must have been controlling the monster from behind, was nowhere to be seen, having escaped at some point. In the place where the rift had disappeared, only the desolate scenery of the half-destroyed corridor was spread out.

[‘<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s Pantheon’ has been annihilated.]

[‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Transplant Research Building Area C-113’ has been annihilated.]

[<IsItPresbyopiaCrap> has declared defeat.]

[<UserMyeong808> has become the final winner.]

Congratulations. You have survived the ‘Dimensional Merger’!

[‘<IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s Pantheon’ and ‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Transplant Research Building Area C-113’ are subordinated to ‘<UserMyeong808>’s Pantheon’.]

[Expanding ‘Dimensional Boundary’…]

[Totaling resources…]

[Loot found!]

[You have acquired an item.]

Key Fragment to the Door to Reality (1) ― Can only be used when all fragments are collected, and upon use immediately 64+M7JWE6rCA6rOgIOyLtuyWtD8=