Chapter 50: Done
Dan Woo, through Cha Hwa Rim, slowly walked through the churning, endless fog. There was still a faint pull on him, one that felt familiar, almost the same way it did with Cha Ha Rin in school and with that friend of Baek Seri’s.
But he ignored it. After all, he was the one who had just created that link. The scenario had forced him to stop it as it was coming to a conclusion, and he was forced to let Kim Jin Ha go, forgiving his transgressions. But who was she?
Sure, he had endured lifetime after lifetime of torture, leaving in different ways in different times, as his own shadow brought out his own worst self upon himself. But she didn’t feel satisfied, and what was more, his Meaning was tangled with hers, which felt odd. She didn’t want to be tangled with him in any way, while at the same time, she wanted him to redeem himself. It was a contradictory situation.
That was when the idea came to him: to use that same shadow, the one that had been punishing him, to come up with a soft soldier that would make sure, at least, that the man would keep in line and seek his own penance. At the same time, there would be a layer between her and him, using that shadow.
She decided to use her taboo tattoo ability now to create an actualized symbol that borrowed from Cha Hwa Rim’s True Name, to make a sort of double that would merge with Kim Jin Ha’s Semantic Shadow and his complete True Name. From their different ordered Meanings, it would make him subservient to that small piece of Cha Hwa Rim, creating something like a small avatar through which Kim Jin Ha would be connected to, and Cha Hwa Rim would also be connected to.
Having a medium through which Cha Hwa Rim could survey, punish, and maybe use him.
After all, Kim Jin Ha was also an actor. Maybe, if he played it right, he could use Kim Jin Ha’s roles to alleviate his timer. He hoped so.
At times, Dan Woo thought maybe he was being too much, but that feeling was quickly quenched by the overwhelming anger and hatred that emanated from Cha Hwa Rim.
Cha Hwa Rim’s vengeance is well deserved, he felt himself utter whenever that thought of forgiveness came to him.
He could only hope that the other would quickly be found. Maybe that way, the domineering feeling of rage that just wanted to be quenched could finally be washed away.
He continued walking through that expanse of fog and mist, feeling so tired and done. He barely had less than fifteen hours now before his timer needed him to feed it something. Sure, after the completion of the Story Point through the character persistence of Cha Hwa Rim, he could now earn ten seconds of time for thirty instead of his previous one, but that meant nothing when it was still counting down so quickly.
It was only delaying his inevitable end.
He had so much to think about: how to fix his timer, how to save Cha Ha Rin, how to join the Bureau of Anomaly Affairs. He just felt so tired.
Ever since he reincarnated, it had been one thing after the other.
Couldn’t he just get a chance to relax? To stop and just have some time to himself?
That was just but a dream.
If he needed to end this constant need of survival, playing out characters or fighting against erosion, he needed to find a way back to his own world.
That was the only way he could truly have time to relax.
But still, it didn’t change the overwhelming feeling of tiredness.
All he could do was continue moving through this endless mist. If only he could solve something before going to bed, but nonetheless.
He felt he had finally arrived somewhere through which he could finally be within walking distance of his house, so he turned the churning mist back into a train that had been slowly transiting through the subway. Ready to walk off, when suddenly he heard something that turned his dulled mind back to sharpness, making him go on full guard.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
It was a knock in the train.
But how?
His head whipped around to look where the knock might be coming from, but there was nothing. He couldn’t see anyone or anything.
He tried to look through his domain. His domain was barely 37% synced, but he could still see that overview. That sense of seeing everything.
But there was nothing.
Then, suddenly, the just-rematerialized cabin turned back into a mist of endless greyness, with four doors plastering themselves at the far distance.
In front of him stood one of the doors.
This time, it was the door to the south.
He looked at it, confused as to why the door had suddenly appeared in his face.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The door knocked again as the inscrutable symbols gleamed once more.
Dan Woo could see the door standing in the middle of the mist. He surrounded it, looking at its front and back. It just looked like a door that was standing in the middle of nothing, with no walls or barriers. Just a door.
He came back to the front of the door as he now contemplated if he should open it.
His eyes turned back to his time.
He barely had fifteen hours left.
What if there was something that stole his Meaning and spirituality deep inside there, causing him to lose himself to it and probably die?
No.
He couldn’t deal with it now. Only when he had accrued more time could he even consider exploring the area.
He turned back, trying to see if he could turn the endless expanse of fog and mist back into the train, when suddenly that crushing heaviness hit him, like he had just tried to move an entire train by himself.
He tried once again, but nothing was happening.
He was confused as to what was the reason why the mist wasn’t listening to him, refusing his commands, when once again—
Knock.
The door knocked again, louder this time. Louder than any previous time.
He looked at the knob.
Sighed.
Then turned it, opening the door to see what was on the other side.