16
"Huu."
The moment the front door closed, strength drained from my entire body as if a tightly wound screw had come loose. An exhaustion I hadn't felt in a very long time.
"He really can't stand seeing me use it twice."
Baek Woojin, who had haphazardly plopped down in the entryway, untied his tightly laced boots, tossed them carelessly into a corner, and stood up. He then stripped off his coat and the rest of his clothes, which were filthy with all sorts of grime splattered from running around the swamp, and shoved them into a corner as well.
"Ah."
Baek Woojin, who had been roughly stuffing his clothes into the laundry bag and was about to request room service, slipped his hand back into the bag and pulled out a business card from his coat's inner pocket.
It was the card handed to him by the bespectacled civil servant who had brought him here when they parted ways.
"Heo Sangmin, Assistant Manager."
Not knowing how the civil servant hierarchy worked at all, he simply accepted the information written on the card at face value and, leaving the card on the table, made his way to the bathroom.
"Haa~"
As streams of water, slightly hotter than his body temperature, thoroughly soaked him from head to toe and flowed downward, he could feel languidity creeping into the empty spaces between his muscles as they relaxed along with his tension.
"Awakened people are sturdy, I'll give them that."
His shoulder and wrist, which he had twisted while falling from the Elder Tree's head, had fully recovered by the time he arrived in the car after drinking one of the potions Heo Sangmin had given him.
It was an effect that made him fully understand why large guilds never cared about cost-effectiveness when it came to potions.
"Should I have at least brought some mana potions?"
His body was fine, but the area around his solar plexus still felt hollow. The recovery speed of the mana he had poured out to pierce a hole through the Elder Tree's brow was slow enough to make him wonder if this was really okay.
'Then again, mages wouldn't dangle mana potions from their belts for no reason.'
Left alone, mana would naturally replenish itself, so he set that aside for now and, moving his increasingly languid body just enough to wash himself, stepped back out.
'Food, my ass.'
They say people lose their appetite when they're too exhausted, and that was exactly how he felt right now.
"Still, I should do what I need to do before sleeping."
Baek Woojin, who had been lying in bed wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, came back down, grabbed the smartphone he had left on the table alongside the business card, and connected it to the charger plugged into the headboard.
Light filled the dark screen, and quite a number of messages had piled up during that brief shower. Most of them were from Jang Hyena.
[ Little Pig: Bring carbonated water when you come ㄱㅅ ]
And below Jang Hyena's message, there was one from Baek Ayeon with a solitary +1 floating next to it.
"Good grief."
It was a message that made him genuinely wonder if she knew when he was coming home. But it seemed he couldn't help the corners of his lips twitching upward slightly.
Before the regression, she was just an ordinary younger sister three years his junior, but now, after regressing, it felt like having a much younger sister born very late in life, so everything Baek Ayeon did just seemed cute.
After sending appropriate replies to the two, Baek Woojin, with a final message saying he was tired and going to sleep, lay comfortably in bed and closed his eyes.
The noise decreasing one by one.
Like that, reducing the sounds reaching his ears, Baek Woojin steadied his mind to focus on each and every sensation.
'I still don't understand what "senses expanding" exactly means.'
At first, he thought it had a positive effect on the five senses, like vision and hearing. However, after the dizziness that came when the leaf seeped in disappeared, his thoughts inevitably changed.
The leaf he had chewed thoroughly and swallowed had long been absorbed, and dizziness had even accompanied the process, but once the dizziness actually faded, he didn't feel much different from usual.
It wasn't like distances he couldn't normally see well had suddenly become clear. Nor did putting strain on his eyes cause any particular change. If it had been that kind of thing, he wouldn't have even tried to investigate further in the first place.
Vrrrm.
"Ssip..."
Woken by the sound coming from beside his head, Baek Woojin, who had accidentally fallen asleep, stirred. Given the events of today, not only was he physically exhausted but also quite mentally drained, so the sleep demon descending was inevitable.
"I told you not to send replies..."
Reaching his hand naturally above his head to check who it was, Baek Woojin grabbed his smartphone.
"Just as I thought."
[ Baby Pig: So how did the interview go? ]
[ Baby Pig: Mrs. Jang is asking when you're coming home. ]
[ Baby Pig: You read it, why aren't you replying? ]
Whatever she was doing to only reply now, his sister always had impeccable timing.
[ Me: Going to sleep. No replies. ]
That was the end of the conversation.
Baek Woojin turned off his smartphone and placed it back where it had been. There was a brief disturbance, but because he was so mentally exhausted, the sleep demon quickly overtook him again.
Just like that, right before falling asleep.
Realizing something, Baek Woojin suddenly bolted upright. Then he repeatedly closed his eyes for a long while before opening them and looking behind him, or closing his eyes again and looking down at the floor after opening them—repeating such actions several times.
"Crazy."
Letting out a short exclamation of awe, Baek Woojin felt all his sleepiness vanish from the sudden rush of dopamine.
The expansion of his senses meant exactly that—literally.
The curtains covering the window and all the lights were off, leaving the room completely dark. Yet, even in the pitch darkness without a sliver of light, Baek Woojin could clearly perceive his surroundings.
The shape of the bed, the position of the pillow he had been resting on until just a moment ago, the location of the table and some furniture placed around the bed, and even their forms.
All of it was vividly drawn in his mind as shapes formed by pure white dots and lines on a black canvas.
He had heard a sound from beside his head, but naturally couldn't remember the exact location of his smartphone. Yet with a single reach of his hand, he had precisely grabbed it.
It was partly because he was half-asleep, and it wasn't that strange an occurrence, so he was late in realizing it, but this was by no means a coincidence.
"How fascinating."
The sensation of being able to clearly feel his surroundings even with his eyes closed was a very unfamiliar yet refreshing feeling. However, if there was one disappointment, it was that the range was quite ambiguous.
Approximately ten steps.
That was the range within which his expanded senses could perceive the surroundings.
A range that could definitely be called narrow if one called it narrow. Yet it was also clearly insufficient to be called broad.
'It doesn't seem like it'll help in actual combat right away.'
Ten steps was a distance that could be sufficiently confirmed with the naked eye. Of course, the field of vision seen with the eyes had clear limitations, and the new field of vision obtained through expanded senses had no blind spots, so their purposes were fundamentally different, making comparison meaningless.
"...Let's just sleep for now."
Baek Woojin lay back down on the bed and calmly closed his eyes.
Vrrrm.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of his heartbeat and the sounds of the refrigerator and other electronic devices in the room.
"Ha."
Letting out a short breath, Baek Woojin sat up once again.
Perhaps because he had perceived it almost by chance, the newly acquired vision stubbornly refused to turn off.
**
"Ughhh, haa..."
He had slept, but he didn't feel refreshed at all. To force a comparison, it felt like sleeping with both eyes wide open and then waking up. Of course, having never actually slept with his eyes open, he wasn't sure if that was an accurate comparison... but anyway, that's how it felt.
"How annoying."
Was it just his imagination that he felt even more tired than before lying in bed yesterday, all because he hadn't slept properly?
...No way.
Resolved to just get his re-examination over with quickly and come back to lie in bed again, Baek Woojin got out of bed and began preparing to go out.
He had washed before sleeping, so he skipped the shower.
Opening the front door, he quickly retrieved the clothes he had sent for room service from the luxurious laundry bag placed beside it and changed in a flash.
"Must be because I tossed and turned."
His hair was a complete mess, but he solved this too by pulling a hat down low.
In just 5 minutes, he finished all his preparations. Baek Woojin grabbed his smartphone, wallet, and the business card he had placed on the table, left his accommodation, and boarded a bus heading to the Awakener Association's Busan branch.
"Ah, right."
It was only when they were nearing his stop that Baek Woojin remembered he still hadn't turned his smartphone back on.
After getting off the bus, Baek Woojin briefly admired the imposing building of the Busan branch, where it wasn't hard to guess that an amount of tax money comparable to the association headquarters in Yeouido had been spent, then called the number written on the business card.
-Hunter Baek Woojin?
"Yes. You told me to contact you."
-Thank you so much for remembering. But, if you don't mind me asking, could you let me know your current location?
At the noticeably cautious voice coming through the receiver, Baek Woojin tilted his head while moving inside and replied.
"I'm in front of the main entrance."
-Ri... ght now?
"Yes. Right now. I want to finish this quickly and go back to rest. Is there a problem?"
-Ha, haha! What problem? No. None. Yes. There isn't... but.
It was a statement where anyone could tell there was a problem.
-Is your condition alright? Since you're getting examined anyway, wouldn't it be better to do it in your best condition?
"I'm hanging up."
-Wait! It wasn't... a joke, but window 3! If you register at window 3, we'll process it quickly!
"Window 3. Understood. I'm at the entrance, so I'll hang up now."
After ending the call, Baek Woojin put his smartphone in his pocket and entered the building. And immediately felt the commotion.
'Someone must have come.'
Not only the staff but also other Hunters who seemed to be there for business were gathered in small groups, murmuring among themselves. This kind of atmosphere was a scene commonly seen when a famous person visited.
'Has nothing to do with me, though.'
All he needed was to finish the examination quickly and go back, so Baek Woojin showed no interest whatsoever in who the famous visitor was and walked straight to window 3.
"Hunter Baek Woojin?"
"Yes."
The receptionist, a woman with gentle eyes, quickly typed on her keyboard, checking something.
"I'll guide you straight to the examination room."
The receptionist skipped even the minimum procedure of verifying his ID and led Baek Woojin directly to the examination room. However, for some reason, the route was quite different from what he had expected.
[ Authorized Personnel Only. ]
The receptionist opened the door with her ID card, let Baek Woojin in first, and then followed behind. After walking for a short while, following the receptionist who took the lead again.
Baek Woojin could tell exactly what this passage was for.
'Taxes melting away, I see.'
This passage was a kind of VIP route—in other words, a passage created for those who needed to be treated as important in many ways.
"Please wait here for just a moment. We need to make some adjustments."
"Okay."
The passage was spacious, and there were large doors sporadically attached to the left wall. It seemed there were separate examination rooms beyond those doors exclusively for VIPs.
'What an experience.'
Sitting quietly on the plush sofa, waiting for the receptionist to call him, one of the doors not too far away opened, and a girl walked out with long, strikingly red hair that naturally drew his gaze.
Her breathing seemed a bit rough. And the faint flush rising on her pale skin, along with a few strands of hair clinging damply to her cheeks and nape, indicated that she had just finished a practical test.
"Who is that?"
He must have stared too openly since it was a face he recognized.
"Baek Woojin."
"Baek Woojin? That's a name I've never heard before."
Well, of course it would be the first time hearing it.
Even before the regression, he had only just learned today that such secretive places existed within the association or its branches.
"A chaebol?"
He was lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but his life was quite far removed from chaebols.
"But you──"
"I'm sorry for making you wait so long."
The receptionist, who had gone inside to make adjustments, opened the door and came out, stepping aside as if to block the space between Baek Woojin and the girl, and flashed a bright smile at him.
It was a silent request for him to quickly go inside.
It seemed that in his rush to get things done quickly, some things had gotten out of sync.
'It should be fine.'
Her gaze toward him was a bit bothersome, but knowing that there was nothing to gain from conversing, he quietly followed the receptionist and stepped into the examination room.