By the time we arrived in Seoul, it was already past noon.
Seoul was still bustling.
There had been a war, but thanks to the Allied Forces' rapid advance, Seoul had barely been hit by North Korean artillery shells and missiles.
The streets didn't look much different from before the war.
But Jeong Il-su seemed to feel differently than I did.
"Now that the war is over, the economy should be recovering."
He clicked his tongue as he looked at the bustling streets, but I couldn't understand what he meant.
After the car entered Seoul, I called my older brother.
I had no choice but to go to my brother's house.
He answered the phone immediately, took half a day off, and rushed home.
"Yo."
I was sitting on a bench near the apartment entrance, and when I saw his car pull in, I waved.
My brother sighed when he saw me.
Maybe because we were the only two siblings, he seemed worried.
He parked his car in the surface lot and walked to the entrance.
I carefully examined my approaching brother.
From outward appearances, and even checking with my senses, he seemed fine.
A man of average build who resembled me, one hundred and seventy-five centimeters tall. My brother, Hyeon Myeong-su, was an ordinary office worker at an IT company.
My brother also looked me up and down before shaking his head.
"Let's go inside first."
"Sure."
I had no intention of talking here either.
Jeong Il-su dropped me off here, saying he had business to attend to, and drove away.
Just because he had left didn't mean my guards—or rather, my watchers—had disappeared.
I could still feel gazes watching me.
They were the same gazes I'd felt even when Jeong Il-su was with me. They carried no killing intent, and Jeong Il-su had been aware of them too.
Perhaps because of what had happened on the way, Jeong Il-su hadn't told me that there were people watching me.
When we entered through the first-floor door of the apartment, my brother looked toward where he sensed movement and tilted his head.
"That's strange... Are they different people?"
At my brother's words, my elated mood at meeting family subsided.
[It seems it wasn't nothing after all.]
Even without Sof's words, it seemed there was something I needed to check first.
We took the elevator up to the eighth floor.
My brother lived on the eighth floor of an apartment building completed twenty years ago. It was an ordinary two-bedroom apartment of about twenty pyeong.
Inside, a desolate living room greeted us.
"Every time I see it, this house is so dreary."
"There's no reason to keep anything stocked when you're not here. It's just a place where I sleep anyway."
I took off my backpack, propped my spear against the wall, and sat on the sofa.
My brother also sat on the sofa, then looked at the wall where I'd leaned the spear and tilted his head.
"It looks like something's pressing against the wall."
Hearing that, Sof cast a spell again.
Rustle.
The slightly dented wallpaper returned to its original state.
When he saw that, my brother frowned and turned his head toward me.
"You're in civilian clothes, and seeing that you're in Seoul, have you been discharged now?"
As always, he got straight to the point.
"Hmm... I suppose so?"
I had no choice but to give a vague answer.
"What do you mean, 'I suppose so'?"
I hadn't received a discharge certificate or an official release notice, but I had indeed been discharged.
"I was discharged."
At my words, my brother nodded.
"You worked hard. Then get some rest. You can look for a job slowly later."
For us brothers, who had come up to Seoul leaving our farmer father behind, jobs had always been a crucial issue.
After my brother found employment, things had stabilized to some extent, but not wanting to rely on his help, I had enlisted right away.
Even now, I hated asking for handouts, and my brother knew my personality well.
That was why he'd brought up the topic of work.
However, my brother didn't know my current situation.
"I already found a job."
"What? Wait... Don't tell me it's a military-related job?"
With just one sentence from me, my brother deduced the nature of the job.
My brother had always been smart. Unlike me, he was good with numbers, and the company he worked for was in that field.
"It's not unrelated to the military... I'm working with the US government."
At my words, my brother asked with a serious expression.
"A US government job related to the military? Is it something you can explain to me?"
"It's classified."
At my words, my brother looked into the air and said,
"It's classified and a US government job related to the military... Was all the commotion around me lately because of you, not my own problem?"
It was the same thing I'd heard before entering the house.
But wait, he thought it was because of him?
[It seems your brother is anything but ordinary either.]
I heard Sof click his tongue.
I was curious what kind of work he was doing to make such a misunderstanding, but now wasn't the time to ask.
"What do you mean by commotion?"
"There were people watching me. There were those requesting my information at the company. A few days ago, I even received a scouting offer from a big American company."
The other things were expected. But the last one was unexpected.
"A scouting offer?"
"I'd have to go to America, so I was planning to refuse. The company and salary were quite good, though. But was this another problematic offer?"
At my brother's words, I shook my head.
"Ah, that should be fine. I'm not certain, but it seems someone I know made the introduction."
I thought I knew who had introduced him.
I'd have to check, but it seemed Magreta had connected them.
She must have been trying to protect my family.
"A scouting introduction to an American company... Now I'm even more curious about what kind of work you've ended up doing."
"The time will come for me to explain. More importantly, think about the scouting offer again. You said it's good, right? I won't be in Korea much, either. There's no need for you to stay in Korea because of me."
It wasn't that I'd be going abroad just because I wouldn't be in Korea, but there was no need for him to be tied down to me anymore.
"Is that so? Then I'll think about it some more. But you said you found a job. What are you doing here this time?"
"A short vacation. I'll rest up for two days, meet a client in Seoul, and then go back."
My brother nodded at my words.
"Really? Then rest up first. Delivery is better than going out to eat, right?"
"Of course."
With that, the conversation between family members meeting for the first time in a while came to an end.
Now it was time to enjoy the conveniences of civilization.
I ordered a ton of delivery food.
Though it tasted better than before, delivery food made by experts couldn't compare to the food I'd eaten on that planet.
After an impressive dinner, I went to my room and turned on the PC.
[So this is the Internet. A sea of information shared by the entire planet... I'm concerned about information pollution, but this seems better than our planet.]
The wizard looked at the Internet, neither moved nor fascinated.
However, contrary to his words, he became completely absorbed in the Internet.
He even cast magic on the mouse while exploring it.
While he was looking through the Internet, I sent my regards to my father living in the countryside and then went straight to bed.
Fortunately, I didn't dream while sleeping.
That night.
[It's time.]
I opened my eyes at Sof's voice.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a PC glowing alone in the dark room.
My spear hung on the chair in front of the desk, and on the desk, the mouse was moving by itself.
It was an unrealistic, bizarre sight.
But I had grown used to such sights.
I quickly came to my senses and rose from the bed.
I was already dressed in clothes for going out.
Black athletic wear. Good clothes for a night walk.
I grabbed the spear hanging on the chair and slung the backpack hanging on the wall over my shoulders.
My preparations were complete.
I slightly opened the window.
The van I'd seen during the day was parked outside the apartment's outer wall.
They were the guard-and-surveillance personnel left behind by America—no, by Jeong Il-su.
"The others are still here, too."
A sedan was parked in an alley a short distance from the van.
It looked like an ordinarily parked car, but when I sharpened my senses, I could immediately feel the gaze.
"I didn't know they'd stand watch this late... Is their alert heightened because a comrade went missing?"
It was unexpected, but it wasn't a problem.
The ones I'd be dealing with tonight weren't small fry like them.
I quietly slipped out the window.
While hanging from the windowsill, I quietly closed the window and looked around.
The city night with scattered lights was incredibly quiet.
If there had been a blackout like at the beginning of the war, it would have been darker, but even now, it wasn't difficult to move stealthily.
Right now, even though I was hanging from the wall of an eighth-floor building, I didn't feel scared.
If this had been before going to that planet, I wouldn't have even thought of climbing out the window...
It seemed what had changed wasn't just my body.
I used the ledges of each floor's windows to climb up.
The rooftop on the thirteenth floor was soon within reach.
After arriving on the rooftop, I checked my destination.
I'd heard it was the richest neighborhood in Korea, but perhaps because it was night, I couldn't tell.
But I knew the direction.
Four kilometers south, toward the Han River.
Thinking in terms of the distances I'd traveled on that planet, it wasn't far at all.
As I began to loosen up, Sof spoke.
[Looking at you and the other Earthlings, I thought Korea was an extremely dangerous place. But it's more peaceful than I expected.]
At Sof's words, I looked around.
There were no traces of war anywhere.
But I couldn't agree with his words.
"No. It's no different. It's just invisible to ordinary people's eyes."
[That is what peace means.]
We disagreed on such things every time, but there was one thing we agreed on.
That to survive, we had to eliminate our enemies.
[Though it seems you and I define 'enemy' a bit differently.]
Sof picked another fight, but it was time to move.
[Sof.]
At my words, Sof stopped saying anything else.
Instead, he cast a spell on me.
[Physical Enhancement.]
The moment Sof cast the spell, I could feel my stamina surging.
My blood circulated faster, and my muscles tightened.
Even my breathing was different from before.
The next apartment building that had seemed far away now looked like it was right in front of me.
"Let's go."
I started running across the apartment rooftop.
Thud-thud-thud.
My speed gradually increased.
The next building wasn't close.
It was a distance no human could reach no matter how far they jumped.
But I was different.
A strengthened body, dark energy flowing through me, and Sof's magic on top of that.
I ran to the edge of the rooftop and hurled my body with all my might.
Fwoosh!
At that moment, the world record for the long jump was broken.
**
It wasn't just the long jump record that was broken.
The triple jump record, the high jump, and various running records as well.
Until I arrived at my destination in Hannam-dong, I broke countless track and field records.
Unfortunately, there was no one around who knew me.
If someone who knew me had been there, it would have been troublesome.
I'd deliberately leaped across rooftops to avoid CCTV; it would have been a disaster if anyone had seen.
Upon arriving in Hannam-dong, I climbed to the top of a traffic light to check my destination.
Tonight's walk destination was a large mansion in Hannam-dong.
That majestic-looking mansion was the home of a famous chaebol.
An emerging chaebol that started in construction and grew rapidly through collusion with the previous administration.
Only one room in the mansion where that chaebol's chairman lived was lit.
Thanks to my improved eyesight, I could examine the lit room even from here.
Inside the room visible through the window were two people.
One was the chaebol chairman I'd seen in newspapers and broadcasts, and the other was someone I knew.
"Captain Jo is an honest man."
[There aren't many who can lie in front of you.]
Captain Jo, who had attacked me, told me many things.
The most important among them was whose orders he had received,
and he gave an answer that was unexpected yet understandable.
That answer was inside that room.
The person in that room was none other than General Park of Baekdusan Base, who had supposedly been relieved of his position not long ago.