Episode 8
Chapter 3: Adaptation (2)
That day, Yeonghun walked around the neighborhood for about an hour before returning home. His condition was still poor, so he couldn't overexert himself.
He finished up with bare-hand calisthenics, then sat in front of the computer to search for information. The internet still made absolutely no sense to him.
And he ordered a few pieces of exercise equipment online.
At one point, he broke into a cold sweat because he couldn't figure out his card password, but he let out a sigh of relief when he used the same number he had ten years ago.
And so, the second day since arriving in this world passed.
And on Monday, Yeonghun woke up and moved quickly. He had to work out before going to work.
Fortunately, the pain had subsided considerably. At this rate, he felt he would recover fully before long.
Yeonghun washed up and went outside.
The crisp dawn air welcomed Yeonghun. He started running a bit faster than yesterday.
He did his best to overwork his body and engage his mind to keep stray thoughts at bay.
Knowing that he was in a rather anxious state, Yeonghun devoted his entire mind to his rehabilitation and to adapting to this world.
***
A short while later, as Yeonghun headed toward the playground, he saw Deongchi standing ahead in a ready stance. It seemed he had cleared away all the rocks around the area. The ground was clean.
Deongchi shouted when he saw Yeonghun.
“If you're a man, let's fight properly this time!”
Yeonghun agreed with Deongchi's sentiment. With his sturdy build, Deongchi made for an excellent sparring partner.
Yeonghun slowed his running pace and slowly approached him.
Seeing Yeonghun approaching him, Deongchi tensed up even more and solidified his stance.
As Yeonghun drew closer to Deongchi, the movement of his legs gradually changed. It was his own combat footwork, honed over ten years.
Having realized the need for systematic movement while fighting monsters, it was a footwork created by gathering other ability users and soldiers after analyzing the movements of boxing and various martial arts.
But everyone who had worked on it with him back then was dead, leaving Yeonghun as the only person who still used this footwork.
Yeonghun shook off his idle thoughts and focused on his legs.
Fortunately, his legs began to move as he willed them.
He was still moving them consciously, but at this rate, it seemed they would soon move naturally without conscious effort.
Seeing Yeonghun move as if riding some kind of rhythm, Deongchi heightened his guard.
His opponent was displaying movements similar to boxing footwork. It looked somewhat different, but it was a movement that seemed highly refined.
Just as he had expected, Yeonghun was a formidable fighter.
He didn't know why Yeonghun had acted like an idiot at first, but there was no way someone giving off such an aura could be ordinary.
Seeing Yeonghun already before his eyes, Deongchi calmly threw a punch to probe him.
If he committed to a big attack, he might collapse instantly just like before.
But Deongchi's fists couldn't touch Yeonghun.
Yeonghun slowly felt his senses coming alive.
Watching his opponent's posture and muscle movements, he sharpened his senses and reflexively dodged along the diagonal. It was the basic form of movement honed through all his battles until now.
As the war dragged on and his experience grew, he had eventually become capable of reflexive movements beyond this, but Yeonghun's fighting style originated from here.
A fist passed by Yeonghun's face.
Perhaps his movement was a little slow, so his face was slightly grazed by the fist, but Yeonghun's expression didn't change.
Yeonghun moved right into Deongchi's embrace. Surprised, Deongchi swung his other fist toward Yeonghun's side.
Yeonghun stepped back once more, and the fist passed in front of him.
He could have easily thrown a punch at Deongchi's body, but he calmly pulled his body back. And he stepped into his footwork again.
Deongchi swung his fists at Yeonghun several times, but Yeonghun's uncanny footwork let all of Deongchi's attacks flow past him.
As they spent time like that, Yeonghun felt Deongchi grow short of breath and start panting, so he immediately closed the distance to Deongchi's body. Then he opened his hand and struck Deongchi's neck with a knifehand strike.
“Keok!”
Deongchi abruptly choked and crashed heavily to the ground.
Without even looking at the fallen Deongchi, Yeonghun checked his own body. He seemed sufficiently warmed up.
Leaving the collapsed Deongchi behind, Yeonghun started running.
***
Yeonghun went straight to work after exercising. There had been twists and turns on the way to the company, but thanks to leaving early, he didn't arrive late.
“What kind of company is a playground! Take off that cap right now!”
When Yeonghun entered the office, the Department Head, who had been reading the morning newspaper inside, raised his voice upon seeing him.
Yeonghun had worn a cap because of the bandage wrapped around his head, but the Department Head scolded him with a voice brimming with the satisfaction of finally having caught him red-handed.
At the Department Head's shout, Manager Jeong, who had arrived first, frowned upon seeing Yeonghun. He too looked like he agreed with the Department Head.
Without a word, Yeonghun took off his cap.
The bandage wrapped around his head was revealed. The Department Head, who had been blankly staring at Yeonghun's head for a moment, furrowed his brows deeply.
“Sheesh! If you're hurt, you should say you're hurt! Why are you making a person look bad!”
He burst out in anger again, folded his newspaper, held it in his hand, and walked out of the office. Apparently, he was embarrassed.
Manager Jeong was worried about Yeonghun's injury.
“What on earth, where did you get hurt like that?”
“I took a bit of a tumble while exercising.”
Worried things would become complicated, Yeonghun gave the most convenient excuse.
Manager Jeong tilted his head upon seeing that Yeonghun's face was also bruised blue, but he believed Yeonghun's words.
Then again, perhaps Manager Jeong was only pretending to believe him because he didn't want things to become bothersome as well.
“Don't you need to be hospitalized?”
“It's fine. It's just bruising, so I wrapped it in a bandage. It's nothing serious.”
An ordinary person would have been hospitalized several times over by now, but from Yeonghun's perspective, it wasn't a serious injury.
And so, the injury was more or less brushed aside, and the workday began.
Manager Bak, who came in late, was making calls to suppliers with a fresh expression, perhaps because it was the weekend and he had rested without any business drinking. Chief Gim, with the deadline approaching, was frantically busy trying to settle the accounts.
Yeonghun was looking at the computer with a serious expression.
For him, the real difficulties were beginning.
He had experienced the work here through the dimensional connector, but passively observing and doing it himself were entirely different matters.
Yeonghun furrowed his brows and slowly proceeded with the work. Fortunately, the task wasn't difficult enough to make him give up.
It was fortunate that the office was quiet so he could focus on his work.
He was carefully attending to his clerical duties, had finished eating with the others, and had briefly gone to the restroom before heading back to the office.
As Yeonghun walked outside the office building, the voices of employees from the office beyond the wall reached his ears.
It seemed the sound was leaking through a small window in the office.
“I was terrified to death today.”
It was Chief Gim's voice.
“Chief Gim, you too? Same here. Deputy Gang was incredibly fierce this morning, right? The Department Head even read the room and fled outside.”
“Enough. He seems to be in a bad mood because he's injured. Just prepare for the afternoon's work.”
Manager Jeong cut off Manager Bak and Chief Gim.
Yeonghun overheard the conversation beyond the wall and let out a bitter smile.
He had been quite careful, but it seemed his killing intent still showed.
The bodies of strike-team members who had fought for nine years seemed to naturally exude something like killing intent.
So it seemed people facing them instinctively recoiled and kept their distance.
He had thought it might be fine because his body was different, but it seemed to make little difference.
Now that it was certain his soul was an existence from another world, Yeonghun couldn't help but feel bitter once more.
But to make a living in this world as well, he had to stick to this company as much as possible.
Until he found out what he could do with the skills he had acquired from the world he used to live in, this company was his only means of livelihood.
Having confirmed at the bank ATM before his meal that his account balance was an amount he could barely last a few months on if he quit, he had to try even harder now.
‘In the end, I'm no different from the original Yeonghun.’
Submerged in bitter feelings, Yeonghun shook off his dark thoughts and entered the office.
And he immediately went back out with Manager Jeong to make a delivery.
Outside the office, Manager Jeong and Yeonghun saw the President's car entering the parking lot.
The President's car stopped in the parking lot before Yeonghun and Manager Jeong's eyes, and the President and his eldest daughter, Huisu, got out.
Unlike last time, both of their expressions weren't bad. Come to think of it, the eldest daughter had occasionally come to the company to get allowance money; today seemed to be one of those days.
As soon as Huisu got out of the car, she looked straight toward the office and made eye contact with Yeonghun, who was standing in front of it.
Startled, Huisu flinched and turned her head, then walked toward the President's office ahead of the President himself.
The President followed after her in bewilderment.
“Wait, why did she get surprised seeing Deputy Kang?”
Seeing Huisu's reaction, Manager Jeong looked puzzled and asked Yeonghun.
Yeonghun shook his head and walked toward the forklift.
There was no need to concern himself with unimportant matters. Fortunately, he had driven one a few times even in the army, so there was no problem operating it.
A short while later, after Yeonghun and Manager Jeong had loaded everything, when Manager Jeong had gone into the office to get the delivery slip, Huisu quietly came out of the President's office and approached Yeonghun.
Yeonghun looked plainly at Huisu, who was approaching him.
Because Yeonghun was looking at her so indifferently, Huisu's face flushed slightly, but she held it in and stood before Yeonghun.
“Thank you for Saturday. Thanks to you, Huiyeong came home too.”
She expressed her gratitude to Yeonghun.
Yeonghun tilted his head. She seemed a bit different from the image he had seen through the dimensional connector. But he accepted her greeting calmly.
“Yes.”
At Yeonghun's short reply, Huisu looked at him with a blank face. It seemed to be a completely unexpected answer.
Just then, Manager Jeong came outside, and Huisu quickly scurried back into the President's office.
Manager Jeong harbored suspicions about seeing the President's daughter and Yeonghun together, but finding it difficult to say anything, he departed with Yeonghun in the truck for the company they were delivering to.
And that evening, Yeonghun told the Department Head that he couldn't work overtime.
“If you're in pain, it can't be helped. Go on home.”
Yeonghun had meant to say he would continue to refrain from overtime, but the Department Head took it as him leaving early because of his injury.
Yeonghun decided to talk to him again when he was fully healed and headed straight home.
Yeonghun was not in a situation where he could be tied to the company working overtime. With so much to do, he had to make the best use of his time.
He returned home and devoted his time to exercise and gathering information.
And the next morning during exercise, Deongchi was nowhere to be seen at the playground. Perhaps losing to him in a proper fight had hurt his pride.
Yeonghun clicked his tongue.
Unexpectedly, he seemed to have a tender heart ill-fitting for his physique. Yeonghun shrugged his shoulders and started running. His pace was a little faster.
And so the days passed. Yeonghun gradually grew accustomed to the office and this world. But the office staff still hadn't grown accustomed to Yeonghun's killing intent.
And the President's daughter came to the office every day and stole glances at Yeonghun.
Time passed, and by Friday evening, the bandage on Yeonghun's head was gone.
Yeonghun checked his face and upper body in the bathroom mirror. The bruises had almost disappeared, and he had lost a lot of fat.
He felt he could see a glimpse of his face from the other world. Yeonghun was grateful to his body for keeping up so well. It seemed he would be able to return his body to normal before long.
And that night, Yeonghun fell asleep early. Having used his muscles for several days, getting plenty of rest was important too.
And that night, as Yeonghun slept, beautiful auroras filled the night skies all over the world.