# 4
Meet Me in the Underworld 3
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"Ugh, my head."
When he came to his senses, the sun was setting.
It was his first time greeting evening in this place. Gang Chan-ho, his face heavily furrowed from the headache, looked around.
Just as if people who had gone to work were all returning home, he saw countless people who had been logging during the day gathering in the open ground.
"This is my first time feeling pain."
He knew that this was the world of the dead, and that pain itself no longer existed here.
It was a place without hunger or thirst, yet strangely, his head throbbed. Was it proof that he hadn't died yet?
'Should I be happy about this...?'
But that wasn't the problem he needed to think about right now. Gang Chan-ho knew his current condition was not normal. And he knew since when.
'The handshake.'
When he had shaken hands with the self from another world, something happened. He remembered that when their hands touched, surprise had welled up in the eyes of the other him who was facing him.
That was the last thing.
The Gang Chan-ho from another world, who had been shaking his hand while wearing leather garments, disappeared from that spot. As if he had never existed from the beginning.
Gang Chan-ho, who had been awkwardly extending one hand into empty air, soon fainted from an intense headache and had now woken up.
'My head feels like it's going to split.'
In truth, the Gang Chan-ho from another world hadn't simply disappeared. He had seeped into the current him, as if 'absorbed.'
Thus, an entire life from another world had been added whole, so memories and experiences that didn't match were mixing haphazardly, nearly making him sick.
In fact, the bandaged body inside the hospital gown he was wearing was twitching all over, its muscles convulsing.
It was as if the process of mixing the two Gang Chan-hos from two worlds was still ongoing.
He could accept the body, but the problem was his head. His brain, now burdened with a suddenly doubled life, was protesting with high fever and headache.
"Is it because of the headache?"
At that moment, Gang Chan-ho muttered quietly.
Was it because the sun was setting?
Or was it because his head hurt?
His two arms and body beneath his eyes had momentarily appeared close to black-and-white before returning to normal.
'For now, let's lie down. I can't stay like this.'
He even thought that if he could just bounce away from here, if his surroundings were completely dark, the headache might be somewhat lessened.
But that wasn't something he could do at will. Gang Chan-ho gave up trying to get up and lay down right where he was.
"Hoo."
Before he knew it, the sun had set. Looking up at the sky, countless stars were shining. They were different from the constellations in his memory, and there wasn't anything that could be called a moon.
*Wooooom—*
*Rumble—*
Just then, the ground trembled faintly, and a strange sound came from afar. Curiosity arose, but the headache was greater. His body, already lying down, was too heavy to raise again. Seeing those coming and going around him not particularly agitated, it didn't seem like a big deal, so he just closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
'Can you even sleep after you die?'
It was something he had never thought about.
No, now wasn't the time for such thoughts.
Gang Chan-ho took a deep breath quietly. Still, in his head, memories he had personally experienced and memories he hadn't were mixing haphazardly, causing considerable pain.
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"Ugh... *cough, cough*!"
Had he really fallen asleep?
As he was roughly coming to his senses and raising his body, Gang Chan-ho suddenly felt his throat block up tight and coughed. It wasn't a simple cough. Something had been stuck in his throat, and with the cough, it flew out. Only then did his airway clear. Looking down, it was a dark red, clotted mass of blood.
"......."
Gang Chan-ho stroked and rubbed his own throat, scrunching his face. It had been a long time since he had coughed up blood. There hadn't been anything particularly wrong with his body, but since childhood, when tired or stressed, he would spit up clotted blood like this upon waking.
'I didn't know I'd still be like this after dying. No, I didn't die.'
But whether he had died or not wasn't the problem right now. Gang Chan-ho felt something strange about his current field of vision. The headache and dizziness were no longer present, yet strangely, surrounding objects appeared double. No, rather than seeing double, it was more like seeing two places at once....
"What the—!"
As he tried to look around like that, something right beside him entered each of his independently moving fields of vision, and he startled and fell over.
"What?"
What he saw was another self lying fallen similarly on the opposite side, wearing the exact same expression.
'Hasn't he left yet? No... that's not leather clothing.'
Following his first thought, he felt something strange. The other self he was seeing now wasn't the one from another world, but exactly like his current self. Wearing a hospital gown, heavily bandaged inside... a man around mid-170s in height, with looks objectively slightly below average.
"......."
It was as if he was looking in a mirror, but there was a bigger problem. A light headache started again. He could tell that the two fields of vision he was currently seeing were directly connected to two physical bodies.
'What the hell happened?'
Gang Chan-ho, looking at that body through this body's eyes and this body through that body's eyes, slowly tried raising a hand while watching each body contained in each field of vision. Then, the two twin-like men facing each other in awkward sitting postures raised their right hands identically and stopped. Then one lowered his hand while the other raised it higher instead.
'It's hard to adapt, but that side is also my body. No, is it this side? Which one is real?'
He didn't really know what had happened, but he could at least find a difference between the two. One of him had a dull, black-and-white-like color, while the other was in color like before.
Then was the colored body the real one?
After struggling to adapt to the two bodies for a while, he could reach a conclusion: both were real.
"What should I call this?"
"Who knows. Dual core?"
"This isn't the time for jokes."
"Sorry."
Though it looked like an ordinary conversation, it was actually a situation of talking to himself through the mouths of one side and the other.
Why had such a situation occurred?
Gang Chan-ho searched his memories.
'It was definitely after the handshake.'
Something had happened when he joined hands with the self from another world. He was only thinking about it now, but he had probably become one with that side. The memories accumulated in that world, up until just before death, still remained in his head. They were simply organized as if sorted into separate folders. It was also amazing that he could browse his memories that way.
'It's already absurd that I'm in the underworld without dying.'
If he focused a little, he could recall memories from quite long ago relatively clearly. Had his brain become twice as good after merging with the self from another world? No, it wasn't bodies that had merged, but souls.
'I don't even know what souls or bodies are in this situation.'
He put aside the countless speculations and worries that caused headaches for the moment. He judged that understanding his current state was the priority.
'One ego, two bodies.'
Someone hearing this might be envious. If this place weren't the underworld, he thought he would be extremely happy too. If this had happened in reality before going to the army... he could have sent one to the army and had the other do something else.
'Unfortunately.'
He was a reservist. And a fresh reservist who had been discharged not long ago, at that.
'It was an amazing place that gave both fulfillment and regret.'
In fact, being an orphan, he hadn't needed to go on active duty. But for various reasons, he had volunteered and gone.
"Ah."
Come to think of it, as most vague memories had become clear, memories of the accident that he hadn't remembered until now had also returned considerably.
'So it really was a traffic accident.'
He remembered. He had saved someone and gotten into an accident in their place. To be exact, a friend had something come up, so he covered for him and got into an accident.
'Rather than being a victim... I was meddling.'
It was working as a parking attendant at some large hotel. He had worked for daily wages a few times before, so there was no problem going in as a replacement for his friend. The only problem was that the accident happened that day. A woman's short scream as she was getting out of the car was the beginning.
'Was it sudden acceleration? There was definitely something wrong with the car.'
The memory of the most critical moment was still uncertain. What he somewhat remembered was that after pulling the female driver out, he had jumped inside trying to somehow stop it, and the car crashed into somewhere. Since he hadn't properly gotten in, he couldn't expect to wear a seatbelt. So of course he ended up like this.
Should he count himself lucky he didn't die instantly?
Gang Chan-ho felt much relieved now that the circumstances of how he ended up here, or at least how he got into the accident, were clear.
'That aside.'
Even knowing the reason, he couldn't get out of here. As he fixed one gaze on the gradually brightening sky, he turned the other body's gaze toward the surrounding forest.
'If I adapt, this could be quite convenient.'
As if he had eyes on the back of his head, he felt he could look in different directions or do things hard to do alone. The problem was wondering what kind of work he could do here... since he wasn't dead, he probably couldn't even browse the shop.
"No, that's not right."
The black-and-white him opened his mouth and spoke. Judging by the color, this body seemed to be in a dead state. If so....
Gang Chan-ho searched his memories. Among the experiences the other world self had accumulated, there were parts about what he had experienced here. The black-and-white him raised one hand. Floating above the back of his hand was a three-digit number.
[857]
Merit score. Some called it "points" in English. It could be obtained by working during one's lifetime or here. When alive, doing good deeds raised the score, while evil deeds lowered it. The accumulated score was said to improve the starting conditions in the next life.
'If I can see the score, doesn't that mean I can use the shop too?'
Gang Chan-ho guessed so, and then felt puzzled that his score was slightly higher than what he remembered. Originally it should have been slightly over 500, but it was slightly less than double that.
'They merged.'
Roughly calculating, the original him probably had around 300 points. He couldn't see it directly, but they had probably merged to become the current number. Then he could understand why his life had been the way it was. Around 300 points was almost rock bottom.
'Just how did I live my previous life to...'
Should he take comfort in it not being minus?
Then, the merit score floating above the black-and-white body's palm changed.
[757]
"Huh?"
Suddenly 100 points were slashed away, and something scattered into the air. Wondering what was happening, he looked around and saw faintly something seeming to escape from others' bodies as well. Their expressions were similarly surprised, or bitterly grumbling. Some grabbed axes or saws and headed for the forest.
'Ah.'
Only then did a story from his memories surface. If one stayed here without reincarnating, points were deducted at regular intervals—probably deducted all at once every morning.
'Does that mean... I can only stay here for about a week longer?'
Though he hadn't died yet, he couldn't guess what would happen if he kept staying here. In the end, like others, he needed to do logging work here to replenish his score. But not right now. Adapting to two bodies wasn't easy right now. He planned to move once he could properly control them. Wouldn't it take at least a day or two?
Having steeled his mind, Gang Chan-ho slowly tried wiggling his fingers.
'This is only the beginning.'
He still didn't really know what kind of place this was. What he didn't know far outweighed what he knew. Moreover, what about the memories the other world's Gang Chan-ho had? It was an absurd world beyond imagination. To the point that he felt this place might be more related to that side than the world he originally lived in, he even sensed some slight similarities.
Too many things had suddenly crashed over him like waves. Was it a good thing or not?
Gang Chan-ho clenched and unclenched his fist, nodding.
'At least, I should be able to gain as much benefit as having gained one more body.'
He could work twice as much. He might be able to do things twice as hard. He had always been short on money no matter how much he worked, even cutting into sleep time, so he cautiously wished this situation would continue even in the original world. If it really turned out that way, he felt he could live better than before.