Chapter 3: [TS] I only level up alone -Episode 2

[My Liege?]

“…”

[My Liege!]

“…! Beru?”

[The cosmic space will open soon.]

“Ah… Right. My apologies. It seems I was momentarily lost in thought.”

[Not at all.]

Soon after, the cosmic space fully opened, and the blue mist took on the form of a giant.

Jinwoo spoke.

“Come.”

The giant, shrouded in blue mist, roared.

Kuaaaaaaaah-!

“All shadows, stand by.”

Woooooooh… Huh-?

[My Liege…?]

After dismissing all the shadow soldiers, Jinwoo instantly moved behind the blue giant.

Moving behind the blue giant, Jinwoo, who was about to use the ‘Demon King’s Daggers’ to sever the giant’s neck, suddenly had a strong feeling that he needed to infuse the daggers with shadows.

Without time to ponder why he felt this way, he infused the daggers with shadows and swung them towards the neck.

*Schwing.*

The dagger severed the blue giant’s neck with an eerie sound.

After beheading the giant and returning to his shadow soldiers, Jinwoo fell into thought.

[As expected, My Liege! I apologize for daring to doubt your intentions.]

Wooooaaaaaaah-!

Beru approached and apologized to me, and the shadow soldiers cheered.

But I couldn’t be happy.

‘What is this…? What is this unsettling feeling…’

****

After the battle, Jinwoo rode Kaisel back home.

As he entered the house, his wife greeted him and embraced him.

“Honey!”

“Haha. I told you I’d be back soon.”

Jinwoo, embracing his wife, pulled her closer, saying he had kept his promise.

“You’ve never broken a promise, have you?”

“That’s right. Where’s Suho?”

“He’s sleeping in his room.”

“I see.”

“It’s getting late, should we go to bed too?”

“Yes. Let’s go to bed.”

Saying so, he lifted his wife in a ‘princess carry’ and headed to the bedroom.

“Kyaa! Honey!”

“Hahahaha!”

Entering the bedroom, Jinwoo gently laid his wife on the bed and lay down beside her.

“Good night, Honey.”

“You too, dear. Sleep well.”

Jinwoo felt an unsettling sensation until he fell asleep.

‘Just sleep. What could possibly happen?’

With that lingering uneasy thought, Jinwoo finally fell asleep.

****

The next day.

Jinwoo woke from his sleep, opened his eyes, and tried to get up.

But.

What he saw wasn’t the ceiling of his home, but a familiar, pure white ceiling.

‘What is this? Where am I?’

He had been staring at the ceiling for a while when a memory suddenly surfaced.

‘Ah, this is that place.’

It was the ceiling he had often seen when he got injured and went to the hospital during his E-rank Hunter days.

‘I’ve lived long enough to have a dream like this. It was so long ago, I’d forgotten about it.’

It was so long ago that his memories were not just hazy, but completely faded.

Yet, returning to this place, even in a dream, brought back vivid memories of that time.

‘Back then, I never imagined things would turn out like this…’

In those days, Jinwoo lived each day busily.

‘Is this what they call a lucid dream? My senses are alive. How strange.’

The stinging smell of disinfectant in his nose and the hard feel of the bed against his back.

Jinwoo was surprised by the sensations that were no different from reality.

‘But how long will this dream last?’

After a long time, with no sign of waking from the dream, he slowly began to get bored.

‘Do lucid dreams usually last this long?’

Jinwoo decided this wouldn’t do and sat up in bed.

Sitting on the bed, he raised his arm to pinch his cheek and tried everything to wake up from the dream, but it simply wouldn’t end.

“Ugh.”

He had pinched his cheek so hard that a cry escaped him, more a groan than a scream.

“I pinched it too hard… huh?”

It was definitely his own voice, but for a moment, he thought he had heard someone else’s.

It was different.

The voice.

“What on earth happened to…”

It wasn’t his usual voice.

Not his own voice.

A different voice.

It was…

“A woman’s voice…?”

It was a voice that anyone would identify as female.

“This isn’t a dream… Is it an illusion? Have I fallen victim to an illusion?”

If it wasn’t a dream, the only other possibility was an illusion.

Who would dare cast an illusion on him?

An enemy?

There shouldn’t be any enemies left who could cast such an illusion.

An ally?

Certainly not an ally.

Then who on earth was it?

It was impossible that he had cast such an illusion on himself.

“The real world… What happened to the real world? What happened to the real world?”

If it was true that he had fallen victim to an illusion, then the real world couldn’t possibly be fine.

“Destruction…? Why? Because I couldn’t stop it…?”

How powerful must an enemy be to do this to him?!

“Ha, haha.”

All he had wanted was to live a peaceful life.

How did it end up like this?

He had believed he could protect it.

He had believed that.

That belief shattered in an instant.

He resented himself for not being able to stop it.

He raged at himself for not being able to stop it.

He blamed himself for not being able to stop it.

As Jinwoo resented, raged, and blamed himself, tears finally began to stream from his eyes.

Forgetting that tears were even flowing from his eyes, he wept even more, beginning to sob.

Just then.

The hospital room door opened, and a nurse entered, exclaiming.

“Kyaa! Patient! What’s wrong?!”

Jinwoo, who had been sobbing for a long time, then fainted.