Episode 2
Nam Gyuil, lying in a four-person hospital ward bed, blinked his eyes repeatedly.
The pure white ceiling of the hospital room came into view.
A doctor entered through the door, examined Nam Gyuil's condition, and asked a question.
"Are you conscious?"
"Yes."
Perhaps because he had just regained consciousness, his vision was slightly blurry.
The doctor's face appeared split into two, then three, but as time passed, the focus gradually sharpened.
"Patient, can you see my hand? How many fingers am I holding up right now?"
"Three."
The doctor let out a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, your consciousness has returned properly."
"Yes."
"Your injuries are severe, so moving will be difficult. Focus on recovery for at least one month."
The doctor earnestly told him to press the nurse call button if anything happened and left the room.
Turning his head to look around, he saw critically ill patients lying unconscious in their beds.
Apparently, this room was reserved only for unconscious people.
Soon after, Nam Gyuil's family arrived at the hospital.
"Hyung!!"
"Oh my, Gyuil! What in the world happened?"
His parents and younger brother teared up in front of him.
Nam Gyuil had been perfectly fine until yesterday, so seeing him hospitalized made their hearts collapse with grief.
"My son is going to die like this."
"Hyung, are you okay?! Do you recognize me? It's Seonu."
His mother grabbed Nam Gyuil's hand and cried.
His younger brother lowered his head and swept back his bangs in frustration.
His father couldn't speak due to grief.
Nam Gyuil looked at his brother and deliberately raised his voice to pretend he was fine.
"Hey, your hyung is fine. Still too lively to die."
The atmosphere suggested words telling them not to worry wouldn't work, so he threw in an unnecessary joke.
He said that, but as expected, various parts of his body ached.
His brother was dumbfounded.
"Seriously, you want to crack jokes in that condition? You almost died, hyung."
"The doctor said I just need to focus on resting for a month. It's not like I'm crippled, so don't make a fuss."
Nam Gyuil said that.
His brother bit his lower lip, then soon raised his voice.
"Hyung, let's just stay hospitalized for four months straight. Then you can fulfill your entire mandatory service period and get discharged."
"Seonu."
"What?"
"The law changed. Your mandatory service period increases while you're hospitalized."
The Hunter Bureau had extended the service period for various reasons to keep national hunters tied down as long as possible.
Naturally, this caused enormous discontent.
In response, the Hunter Bureau quelled the discontent by granting the benefit of recognizing items or monster corpse byproducts obtained from Gates as personal property.
In the end, the service period continued to increase during hospitalization.
Nam Gyuil put on a blank expression.
On the other hand, his brother flushed red and cursed in anger.
"Damn it, even in the regular army, hospitalization counts as service time. Why don't national hunters even get that!!"
His brother's fist trembled.
Nam Gyuil waved his hand for his brother to come closer.
The doctor had said moving would be difficult, but perhaps thanks to having visited the Akashic Records, his recovery was strangely fast.
If he had been any other Awakened, he wouldn't have been able to move a finger.
Of course, every time he did something, it hurt and he could barely move, but even this much was a blessing.
His brother approached Nam Gyuil.
"What?"
"I have something to tell you quietly."
His brother brought his ear close to Nam Gyuil's mouth.
Nam Gyuil whispered softly.
"Go buy what I tell you from now on."
"...What?"
"Ginseng, garan, mandra, pomegranate."
"??"
His brother stared blankly at his older brother.
It was a reaction asking why he needed such things.
"Hurry up and go buy them!"
When pressed loudly, his brother quickly left the hospital room.
The items Nam Gyuil had asked him to bring were ingredients needed to prepare an elixir.
Knowledge obtained from the Akashic Records.
He intended to use it to make an elixir.
Ginseng and pomegranate were originally earth ingredients, but garan and mandra were not.
In the early days of the Gate catastrophe, humanity had struggled with a food shortage.
There was a time when monsters raided farms, making it difficult for farmers to even plant rice seedlings.
A botany scholar who had agonized over how to solve this researched plants obtained from Gates and discovered that humans could consume garan and mandra.
These two had high carbohydrate content and could be eaten after just one month of cultivation.
Thanks to this, humanity somehow avoided the food crisis.
Nam Gyuil recalled the knowledge he had seen in the Akashic Records.
'The only thing I can make in my current situation is a low-grade elixir. It's weak, but it has healing effects and even helps the mana inside my body grow, so it's perfect for me.'
Of course, it didn't end with just consuming it.
He had to guide the elixir to exert its effects through mana cultivation.
'There are mana cultivation training methods on Earth too, but... I didn't know until before entering the Akashic Records. That Earth's mana cultivation method is wrong.'
Besides that, Earth had failed in various fields.
Once, world-class scientists had challenged elixir creation, but all failed.
'Well, the low-grade elixir I'm trying to make only works at first; its effects diminish more and more over time.'
He planned to make and consume a high-grade elixir later.
Of course, to manufacture that, he would need a pile of powerful monsters' inner cores.
'I'll think about this later.'
Right now, the urgent priority was to make a low-grade elixir and recover quickly.
Nam Gyuil looked out the window.
Even now, many national hunters would be rolling around with monsters in cesspool-like Gates.
'Unfortunately, there will probably be casualties too.'
However, he couldn't recklessly share the Akashic Records' knowledge.
The world had become chaotic with the appearance of Gates, but even amidst this, there were many who committed evil acts to line their own pockets.
He had to be careful.
If knowledge fell into the hands of evil people, it could worsen the situation instead.
'After becoming strong enough...'
He needed to reach a level where he could handle whatever anyone did before he could share the knowledge without any problems.
Besides, not all Awakened belonged to the Hunter Bureau or guilds.
'There are criminals too.'
People who escaped because they hated mandatory service.
People who became criminals out of anger toward the state after being discharged.
Well, he could understand their feelings.
But the fact that they were dangerous remained unchanged.
In the worst case, he could be kidnapped by criminals, and those guys could monopolize dimensional knowledge.
'So let's move with the goal of getting stronger myself first.'
Nam Gyuil set his first goal.
Soon after, his brother returned with the low-grade elixir ingredients.
"Hyung. I got them."
Nam Gyuil looked at his brother.
"You, don't tell anyone I asked you to buy these."
"Why?"
"There's a reason."
"Okay."
His brother nodded.
Fearing the knowledge of the Akashic Records would be leaked, Nam Gyuil kept the low-grade elixir ingredients secret.
His brother would unconditionally follow his words, so he wouldn't blab.
When he was fourteen, monsters had attacked the neighborhood, and since their parents were at work, only he and his brother were home.
At that time, thinking that running with young legs would get him caught quickly, he chose to hide secretly instead of running like others.
Thanks to that, he was safely rescued and survived.
Though those who gave up hiding and ran became corpses.
Since then, his brother had unconditionally followed him.
He would keep his promise this time too.
Nam Gyuil looked at his brother and continued their interrupted conversation.
"I want to be alone, so take Mom and Dad for a short walk or something."
"What? Why?"
"Just do as I say when I tell you!"
"...Okay."
His brother looked at Nam Gyuil with worried eyes.
Thinking that Nam Gyuil probably wanted to hide his pain to avoid worrying their parents, his brother decided to give him some alone time.
So his brother took the family and briefly left the hospital room.
Nam Gyuil surveyed his surroundings.
Though there were only unconscious patients around, just in case someone saw, he drew the curtain attached to the hospital bed.
'This way, I won't be caught, right?'
Nam Gyuil turned his head to the left.
On the shelf beside the bed, there was an electric kettle and paper cups.
'Shall I prepare the elixir now?'
Nam Gyuil put the low-grade elixir ingredients into the electric kettle according to the mixing ratio.
Then he poured water.
Click.
When he turned on the electric kettle, the elixir ingredients boiled with a bubbling sound.
Ssssh.
Finally, he poured the completed elixir into a paper cup.
A bright red liquid.
A sour smell wafted strongly.
Nam Gyuil blew on it and slowly swallowed the elixir.
The taste was better than expected.
It was like drinking thick ginseng tea, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Then he took a deep breath.
"Huuup."
To maximize the elixir's effect, he began mana cultivation.
Not using the messed-up Earth method, but Arnia's correct method.
After the Gate catastrophe, mana had spread through the atmosphere.
He absorbed this mana through breathing.
Earth's mana cultivation was limited to stimulating the muscles throughout the body with absorbed mana.
You could think of it as light muscle training done through breathing.
But Arnia's method was different.
It was a dimension higher than Earth.
It held the mana absorbed through breathing within the heart.
For this method to work, a certain amount of mana had to be supplied at once.
Earth's mana had only just begun accumulating in the atmosphere, so the amount that could be absorbed was small.
The situation was not favorable for cultivating mana using Arnia's method.
Nam Gyuil solved this problem with the low-grade elixir.
Thump, thump, thump.
A pounding heartbeat.
As mana concentrated and accumulated in one place, his heart was stimulated intensely.
It felt as if a vortex had formed in his chest.
He felt a torrent.
The mana absorbed into his body gradually increased in purity.
"Huuup."
He breathed in again.
His pounding heart gradually quieted.
Heat surged up instantly.
Cold sweat broke out and his five senses became sharp.
Trickle.
Sweat flowing down from his forehead gathered at his jawline.
Soon, the heat slowly subsided.
His body drenched in sweat felt slightly cold.
Nam Gyuil clenched and unclenched his hand.
Then he rolled his shoulders around to check his condition.
'It doesn't hurt.'
The body that had ached with even slight movement had improved somewhat.
'Especially, the mana inside my body has grown stronger.'
High-purity mana emanating from his heart traveled throughout his entire body.
He could feel he had become much stronger than before.
His wounds seemed to have healed considerably too.
'At this rate, I won't need a month—I can recover enough in a week.'
'Alright. I'll steadily consume the low-grade elixir for a week and focus on recovery.'
The corner of Nam Gyuil's lips rose slightly.
***
A week passed.
The doctor examined the examination chart and Nam Gyuil's physical condition with an expression of disbelief.
"Hoho."
An empty breath escaped the doctor's mouth.
Nam Gyuil's condition at the time of hospitalization had been extremely serious.
There were at least three sites of injury from stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.
Continuous visible bleeding from the stab wounds and acute hemorrhage observed in blood tests.
Consciousness had deteriorated into a comatose state.
He had needed to lie down doing nothing for at least a month.
"This is a miracle."
Since there was a possibility he might need to be hospitalized for over two months if recovery was slow, the word "miracle" came from the doctor's mouth.
Thanks to the elixir and mana cultivation, Nam Gyuil was completely cured in just a week.
Of course, no one knew this fact.
"You may be discharged tomorrow. You've been through a lot."
"Yes, thank you."
The doctor who issued a full recovery diagnosis decided he would discharge him tomorrow.
Nam Gyuil nodded.
As the doctor left and Nam Gyuil was left alone in the room, he lay in bed looking out the window.
'Now, what knowledge should I use to grow stronger?'
While calmly organizing his thoughts, someone knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
His teammates from the same team came to visit him.
"Gyuil-hyung, are you okay?"
"We heard you regained consciousness; how is your body?"
Nam Gyuil slowly turned his head to look at the visiting teammates.
National hunters were conscripted after finishing their military service, so they all held the unified rank of sergeant.
They were only promoted to staff sergeant upon discharge, so during their service period, they addressed each other as hyung and dongsaeng.
Of course, though their ranks were the same, as the most senior member, Nam Gyuil was the team leader who led the team.
The visiting teammates asked questions.
"Gyuil-hyung. What did the doctor say?"
"He says I'll be discharged tomorrow. By the way, what did you bring as a get-well gift?"
"We bought some apples."
"Hey, if it's a get-well gift, you should've brought at least a melon."
"Just get out of that sickbed. We'll buy you as many as you want."
Nam Gyuil chewed on an apple cut with a fruit knife and looked around.
"By the way, where's Dong Seoni?? I got hospitalized, so why didn't that bastard come? I got hurt saving that guy."
The teammates' expressions darkened instantly.
A heavy sorrow was felt from their shadowed faces.
"Hey, what is it?"
When Nam Gyuil asked again, sensing the strange atmosphere, they all fidgeted.
Then one of them barely managed to deliver the news.
"Gyuil-hyung. Dong Seoni died."
At the shocking news, Nam Gyuil's body stiffened.
The teammates opened their mouths one by one.
"We went to his funeral yesterday."
"While you were hospitalized, he went to a Gate in Gyeonggi-do... and that's what happened."
"The new recruits drafted to other teams this time were all crippled and medically discharged. On our side, a new replacement for Dong Seoni is supposedly coming urgently this evening."
Nam Gyuil's brows trembled.
The news that rookie national hunters had been crippled was shocking too, but the death of his junior, Dong Seoni, hit him even harder.
'So he died too.'
Nam Gyuil slowly closed his eyes.
He and Dong Seoni had been close enough to smoke cigarettes together and exchange silly jokes.
He was someone Nam Gyuil had thought would survive a long time, maybe even make it through discharge alive.
'Dong Seoni, who am I supposed to smoke with now that you've gone like that.'
His heavy heart left him speechless.
"Gyuil-hyung. You have to make it through discharge alive."
"You're the strongest among us, hyung."
The visiting teammates finished with this and that, left words telling him to survive and get discharged, then left.
Now there was no one by Nam Gyuil's side.
A quiet silence hung around him.
Having lost his appetite completely, he placed the apple he was eating on the shelf.
A sigh escaped.
'I need to get stronger faster.'
Nam Gyuil's eyes, resting his chin on his hand, were filled with resolve.
'I'll make sure no more deaths occur in Team 01 where I am.'