Chapter 20: The God of Baekyang

“Oh my, I was truly worried. Why are you so late?”

The old man’s face, which began with complaints directed at the two, was pale as if he had been genuinely worried during the day. Yun-jo, who had insisted they return after sunset because it might be dangerous, smacked his lips in embarrassment, thinking he should have just let them go earlier.

“Please take your medicine first.”

Showing that he was especially worried Sahyeon might skip his medicine, Seo Sang-yak first brought a medicine tray from the doorway. When he lifted the cloth covering the tray, a strong smell hit Yun-jo’s nose. The herbal decoction in the bowl was still steaming.

“I had it reheated every time it cooled down. Because I didn’t know when the young master would return…”

Sahyeon took the medicine pushed toward him without a word and drank it very slowly. Yun-jo found himself staring for a moment.

Seo Sang-yak took the empty bowl and left the room. Sahyeon sat down as if tired and spoke to Yun-jo.

“You can go now.”

“I’m going.”

As Yun-jo pouted and turned around, Sahyeon added.

“You don’t need to come from tomorrow.”

Yun-jo stopped. When he turned back, Sahyeon was sitting with his back deep in the chair, one arm on the armrest, turning his head away and not looking at him.

‘What is this, am I being cut off?’

He had been aware he was an unwelcome guest from the beginning, but he didn’t expect to be told so bluntly not to come.

Yun-jo turned back to Sahyeon.

“Let me ask one thing. Why are you looking for Manra?”

“……”

No answer came. It was a silence that meant not that he didn’t know the reason or had no plan himself, but that Yun-jo didn’t need to know. Yun-jo frowned slightly and asked again.

“Then, if Manra doesn’t help you? What will you do after that?”

“……”

“Can’t you tell me that either?”

Sahyeon still didn’t look at him. The silence had the same meaning: that Yun-jo didn’t need to know.

Yun-jo looked up and stared into space. He was a little anxious, a little angry.

‘Should I just say I’m Manra?’ A sudden impulsive thought intruded.

It wasn’t impossible. After all, when he came down the mountain, people considered him Manra. After all, this was his dream, and after all, gods and Buddhas also had no substance.

He repeated ‘after all’ three times as he pondered, but Yun-jo eventually shook his head.

‘Forget it. If he says he doesn’t need it, then fine.’

He had done enough. Let’s not care anymore.

He turned and took a few steps, but something bothered him. Yun-jo stopped at the doorway and looked back again.

What bothered him was Sahyeon’s appearance. He had never seen Sahyeon sitting in such a disheveled posture before.

His gaze was fixed somewhere beyond the window, and his pale side profile had reddened eyes, looking very exhausted. Even at the mountain hideout, he hadn’t looked that tired, but now, after only a few hours, even breathing seemed difficult.

Just then, Sahyeon’s body swayed.

“Sahyeon!”

Yun-jo rushed over in surprise and caught him. Sahyeon’s body collapsed into Yun-jo’s arms like a puppet with its strings cut.

“…Get out!”

With a strength that seemed impossible from his sick body, Sahyeon pushed him away. As Yun-jo stared dumbfounded, Sahyeon gritted his teeth and said:

“Get out…!”

The shoulders he was holding shook, and painful groans escaped through gritted teeth. Sahyeon grabbed Yun-jo’s elbow; his hand was as cold as ice. Yun-jo, flustered and horrified, held him and called his name.

“Sahyeon, Sahyeon!”

“Oh my, young master!”

Seo Sang-yak rushed in. Handing Sahyeon over to Seo, who urgently reached out both hands, Yun-jo stepped back a few steps. Sahyeon panted and whispered to Seo.

“Send him out quickly.”

After saying that, Sahyeon couldn’t hold on and fainted. Supporting Sahyeon’s limp body, Seo shouted urgently.

“Please leave!”

Yun-jo stared blankly at the scene.

About thirty minutes later, Seo Sang-yak opened the door and came out of Sahyeon’s room. Yun-jo, who had been pacing the floor, quickly approached the old man.

“Haven’t you left yet?”

The old man said calmly. His tone was as composed as usual. Come to think of it, even when Sahyeon had a seizure and fainted, Seo Sang-yak had been urgent but not surprised or flustered. He was proficient, as if it had happened before.

Yun-jo was different. He couldn’t understand how someone who had been fine just a few hours ago could become that way in an instant. He had known Sahyeon’s health was poor, but he didn’t know the specifics of what was wrong or how. The impact of imagining something and seeing it in front of him was different. Yun-jo was greatly shocked.

He gestured toward Sahyeon’s room with his eyes and asked.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s because he took his medicine a bit late.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Before, he said he was fine.”

If he had known that missing the medicine time by just a little could have such a big effect, he would have brought Sahyeon back even an hour earlier. And it was Sahyeon who had stopped Yun-jo from rushing.

“He must have thought it was fine.”

“What?”

“It’s just a matter of degree; he often has pain attacks, but usually they aren’t serious enough to cause fainting like that. However, today he overexerted himself in many ways…”

“……”

Yun-jo put his hand to his mouth. After being deep in thought for a while, he asked.

“Um, can I ask you one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

It was near the time when the dream would end soon. He had taken sleeping pills and was in a deep sleep, lasting much longer than usual, but for a while now he felt signs of his body waking up. Still, he couldn’t leave and had been pacing because he wanted to ask this.

“Who exactly is Manra?”

“It’s the name of a god.”

“I know it’s the name of a god. What I want to know is what Manra does… no, what kind of god is he?”

The old man’s face showed a subtle expression at Yun-jo’s question.

“Is it hard to tell me?”

“No, I can tell you.”

Seo Sang-yak shook his head. It wasn’t difficult to tell about Manra. It was a story known to anyone born in Baekyang.

In other words, not knowing this story meant Yun-jo wasn’t born in Baekyang. Without showing it, Seo Sang-yak continued.

“Manra is the god who returned the world to humans.”

“He’s that great?”

‘It’s not even in the setting?’ Yun-jo muttered to himself.

“…Originally, Bukryeong was a land of many monsters. Even after the number of monsters decreased throughout Baekyang, the deep mountains of Bukryeong were still teeming with them. It wasn’t that long ago. It was like that just a few years ago. One day, a god appeared and killed them all. Countless monsters died and disappeared by that god’s hand, and the rest were driven far away. The monsters no longer showed themselves, and the land of Bukryeong, which they had occupied, returned to humans. People believe that he destroyed all the monsters in the world and appeared last in Bukryeong. His name is Manra.”

Yun-jo, who had thought Manla was just a local guardian deity of village shrines because the name wasn’t in the setting materials, was speechless at Manra’s greater-than-expected achievements. ‘Returned the world to humans’—it was literally that.

“Is the reason you came all the way here also to find Manra?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Seo Sang-yak stared at Yun-jo with narrow, sharp eyes as if trying to discern something for a few seconds. But soon, with a short sigh, he turned his head to look at Sahyeon’s door.

“That person’s life depends on that god.”

[Health Recovery Methods] [Therapist] [Healer] [Panacea]

Jeong Yun-jo unfolded his laptop on the desk and stared at the screen. The results of his brainstorming and searching were displayed on the screen, but unfortunately, there wasn’t much useful content among them.

Over the past few days, he joined all the user communities of Eternal Sun, both official and unofficial. And he scoured the boards looking for users or NPCs who were sick or in poor health in the game, and if so, what methods they used to recover.

The results were disappointing. After various searches, the only fact he could learn was that users don’t get sick in the first place.

If they didn’t sleep or eat and moved for a long time, their stamina decreased. But it was only to the extent that it quickly returned after logging out and logging back in, so it wasn’t a problem at all.

Of course, if they took a lot of damage, their stamina dropped proportionally, and if it dropped too much, recovery speed slowed down. In the game, that was described as ‘getting sick’.

When stamina reached zero, the game forcibly ended and they couldn’t play for a while, but they didn’t die. After enough time for stamina to recover, they could log back in and play as if nothing had happened.

If stamina dropped to a dangerous level during the game and they didn’t want to end the game immediately, or if they wanted to reconnect faster, there were two main ways to recover: just endure it, or buy stamina recovery potions.

Jeong Yun-jo first looked for whether there was an item like a panacea in the game. Like the miraculous herbs that only bloom deep in the mountains, or the mysterious elixir that extends life. In fantasy novels or movies, there was always such a thing, and someone would come back to life because of it. If such an item existed in the game’s world, he was confident he could find it.

But no matter how much he searched, there was no such item in Eternal Sun.

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