Prologue - Prophetic Dream
“Ah, no!”
He woke up screaming in shock.
Gaon raised only his upper body and looked around, his eyes shaking as if unable to believe what they saw.
The familiar sight of the room came faintly into view.
It was a small room with a desk, a small wardrobe, and a bed—a place very familiar to Gaon.
“Did I come back?”
No. This wasn’t regression.
“A dream?”
The LCD screen of his watchcom showing December 4th, and his own senses, told him he had dreamed—an extremely vivid dream at that.
“Hoooo!”
Thank goodness!
Gaon shook his head roughly as if trying to shake off the dream, but it remained lodged firmly in his mind as if branded there.
“Why the hell did I have a dream like this?”
Well, if he thought about it, he had gone to bed hoping, in his frustration that the future was completely invisible despite having been in university for almost two years now, that he might have a prophetic dream.
But the dream’s contents had been too vivid and too miserable.
“I must never live like that!”
He had shouted like that without even realizing it.
Fortunately, the rooms on both sides were empty. Both had prickly personalities, but since they had finished their final exams early and gone home, he didn’t receive any complaints, unlike usual.
Judging by the darkness outside the window, it would still be some time before morning, but Gaon dusted himself off and got up.
However, his clothes and even his blanket were soaked through. A sour sweat smell pierced his nose.
*No wonder I broke out in a cold sweat.*
It had been too terrible a dream from his perspective.
After washing up roughly in the shared bathroom and changing into new clothes, Gaon went outside and headed to the nearby convenience store.
Only after downing a drink in one gulp while facing the cold wind did he come to his senses somewhat.
*It’s a dream, so why does it all come back so vividly?*
It wasn’t that he didn’t usually dream, but when he woke up, he forgot most of the content.
But this dream was completely different. Despite being a long dream spanning a year’s time, the moment he thought about it, he could recall even the minute details.
*Does that mean it’s not just a dream?*
Gaon stood in the cold wind for a moment and recalled the contents of his dream, rewinding time like winding a clock spring backwards.
*Ah!*
Come to think of it, the events experienced in the dream had started from today.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it was.
*So if my grades come out this morning and I meet Jangho and the guys at the capsule room and hang out, then get invited to a club in the evening, it means the dream I had is highly likely to be a prophetic dream rather than a simple one.*
“You trash!”
He was angry. He was angry at Jangho, the source of all this misfortune, but more than anything, he couldn’t stand how pathetic he himself was.
Gaon’s face twisted severely.
*Was I really living like such a fool?*
Gaon wanted to claim otherwise, but thinking about the two-plus years he had spent since entering university, he couldn’t be certain it wasn’t true.
Moreover, it was true that Jangho had gradually revealed his true colors since becoming a second-year, raising Gaon’s stress level considerably lately.
For now, he had to check whether the dream he had was indeed a prophetic dream.
If the dream wasn’t an ordinary dream but a prophetic dream, he had to live anew.
*I have to change, from head to toe!*
Only then could he succeed in Another Mundus, a new field of opportunity for those who had nothing.
If not, his life would be filled with miserable events forever.
As Gaon waited for morning, his eyes gleamed an icy blue.
Verification (1)
Gaon returned to the one-room. Having barely collected himself, as he washed in the shared bathroom, dead skin came off too, perhaps because he had sweat so much during the dream.
*How is there so much dead skin?*
Come to think of it, the smell was quite terrible too.
After entering university, Gaon had barely exercised. Besides, he wasn’t the type to sweat a lot even when he moved. Naturally, his sweat smell wasn’t particularly strong either.
But now, blackened dead skin soaked in cold sweat was peeling away the moment he pressed with his finger, emitting a stench as if his nose would rot.
*Is this because I only showered every day? Or did the nightmare make me sweat so much that accumulated waste came out with it?*
It was likely the latter. Well, he had only been showering without properly scrubbing his dead skin for a while, so it might have been natural.
In the end, only after spending three to four times as long in the bathroom as usual could he finish his shower feeling refreshed.
Looking in the mirror, Gaon somehow felt his body had changed a little.
First, his stomach was noticeably sucked in. Was it his imagination, or had the potbelly that had naturally formed from eating instant food and drinking almost every day for two years since entering university significantly decreased?
Moreover, he had a mild turtle neck symptom, but now his spine felt straightened to the point where he could barely notice it.
*I should scrub away dead skin occasionally.*
He felt he understood why Westerners went crazy about scrubbing dead skin when they came to Korea.
Thanks to the physical change, his mood, which had sunk because of the nightmare, seemed to improve a little.
*I can verify today whether the dream is prophetic.*
If the nightmare was indeed a prophetic dream, the subject grades would be posted today. They graded immediately after the exam and posted them right away.
Despite his hunger, Gaon changed clothes and immediately headed to the nearby capsule room.
*Damn it!*
Accessing the school homepage through a remaining PC on one side of the capsule room, Gaon’s face changed strangely. His face contorted, the corners of his mouth twitching.
As expected, his grades were a mess. His GPA and course credits were exactly as he remembered. No Fs, but a feast of Cs and Ds.
*I knew my grades wouldn’t be good, but to think they’d be identical to the dream.*
Even the course grades in his memory were identical. It was the result of his timid personality that couldn’t refuse others and his tendency to get swept along, chasing after drinking gatherings almost every day.
That said, he couldn’t conclude the nightmare was a prophetic dream. He had expected his grades to turn out like this too.
“Huu!”
A deep sigh escaped unconsciously. The major subjects that were supposedly difficult were only 5 credits, and the rest were all electives, yet they were all Cs and Ds, so his GPA was bound to hit rock bottom.
Then, a hand tapped Gaon’s shoulder.
He turned around to see Jangho, the class president and the apparent leader of the group that included him in others’ eyes. Jangho had a look of pity on his face as if he had peeked at the monitor, then quickly erased it and smiled faintly.
A chill ran down his spine. Jangho, who was busy hanging out with people every night, appearing at the capsule room at such an early hour was extremely unusual, telling him that the dream he had was highly likely to be a prophetic dream.
In the prophetic dream, he had overslept today, and he had heard the others had already checked their grades at a PC room in the morning.
“You came to check your grades too?”
Hearing the guy’s words dripping with sarcasm, Gaon was so filled with anger and humiliation toward Jangho that he forgot everything related to the prophetic dream, but he forced himself to endure and closed the open window.
“Did they come out well?”
This bastard!
He had clearly seen and was pretending he hadn’t. And with a twisted mouth and eyes of contempt or disregard.
At Jangho’s hypocritical act of behaving as if he hadn’t seen, as if he were being considerate, Gaon’s eyebrows twitched.
*Why didn’t I know all this time?*
No. He had known Jangho was this kind of guy at some point but had deliberately ignored it for fear of being ostracized from the group.
This guy had always been like this. He acted as if he was being considerate to the person concerned, but he actually treated them with a duplicitous attitude, raising his voice to make them look pathetic in front of others.
But Gaon’s face twisted even more because instead of getting angry momentarily, he had tried to lower his head as if he had committed some crime.
*You fool!*
His anger at himself was brief, and uncontrollable rage toward Jangho welled up.
Even seeing just this far, the nightmare was definitely a prophetic dream.
Then it was certain that being scammed by Jangho in the nightmare, his parents eventually divorcing because of his foolish conduct, and starting Another Mundus late but living like an NPC while avoiding other players were all events that would happen in the future.
When Gaon glared at him, Jangho shouted abruptly.
“Hey! You bastard, I didn’t see anything!”
Seeing Jangho raise his voice even though he had obviously peeked, Gaon’s gaze grew ferocious.
The usual timid him would have apologized or left his seat, uncomfortable with others’ attention focused on him.
But the current Gaon was different. He kept glaring at Jangho with cold eyes.
The guy seemed flustered by Gaon’s behavior, unable to meet his eyes straight and licked his lips with his tongue. It was a habit when he was nervous.
“W-what are you going to do glaring like that? That’s why you should have studied.”
That was all he could say, with a face openly sneering.
*He was always this kind of guy!*
When they first met at orientation, he had seemed so kind and caring that the timid Gaon had been very grateful to him. So he had willingly followed wherever Jangho led.
In his first year, besides enjoying gossiping and acting like a street boss, he hadn’t shown any particular flaws. But when he became a second-year and put on the class president hat, his attitude gradually changed.
The biggest change was treating his friends as his subordinates. And he maintained a level that was ambiguous to protest in front of others.
When they were alone, he didn’t hide his dismissive attitude, and in front of others, he masterfully delivered backhanded remarks to intimidate them.
*The world really is unfair.*
For the past two years, they had both neglected their studies while indulging in alcohol and entertainment, yet Jangho, the second-year class president, had a GPA over 4.0.
*Though that’s all thanks to his networking.*
If it were the result of truly studying hard, he would have had no choice but to acknowledge it.
But in Jangho’s case, thanks to his innate affinity and lavish spending, he was recognized by seniors and even professors. And thanks to that, he received good grades through proper connections and the “test banks” he received along with them.
Gaon had definitely invested time, allowance, and even money earned from part-time jobs in building relationships, but the result was a bust. He was merely one of Jangho’s crew.
Unable to endure Gaon’s cold gaze, the guy cursed under his breath and headed to another seat.
Turning his gaze to follow him, the other friends were looking back and forth between him and Jangho with surprised faces. His attitude, which had been so obedient to Jangho to the point of being called a yes-man, must have seemed strange.