041 – Inoi and the Small Stationery Store #5
Is this how it feels to have a set that remembers the past?
We went through several trials and errors to relive events from ten years ago.
The weather was one where the sun was setting low in the sky.
On this spring day of the new semester.
“Was I on the left? Were you on the left?”
“I was on the left. I remember standing right here. Your hair was so thick back then.”
“You jerk!”
People reminisced about long-forgotten memories.
Going through those trials and errors, it felt like we were truly returning to the past, and I felt like I was going back to the seventeen-year-old me instead of being twenty-seven.
“It’s awkward holding hands like this.”
Sisters Lee Sun-A and Lee Jin-A.
The two resembling sisters were holding hands, but Lee Jin-A’s left hand felt empty. The lady would have held Lee Jin-A’s left hand—
I couldn’t decide whether it was better to fill that space with a stand-in or leave it empty.
“Okay, anyway, we start now. Cue—.”
I shouted like a film director.
Then, the townspeople began to move shyly like recreation actors, and naturally, it was awkward, causing one or two to burst out laughing or creak like a machine that needed oil.
To state the result, it was, of course, a failure.
No rifts appeared.
To be honest, there were a lot of variables.
Recreating the exact same situation as back then was nearly impossible.
However, with what little money we had, this was all we could do, and after several tries, we did manage to act vibrantly like we did back then.
Yet no matter how many times we repeated it, the rift did not open.
“……”
At first, there were faces full of hope, but now it was clear that fatigue and disappointment were starting to spread.
Lee Jin-A and Lee Sun-A were no exception.
Older sister Lee Sun-A was smoking with a weary expression, and Lee Jin-A was squatting on the pavement step with a frown.
The situation was becoming exhausting in many ways.
Then Inoi spoke.
“Everyone, let’s do our best…! I, Inoi, also want to meet the Nymph sisters quickly…! I want to get involved in this re-creation too…!”
Inoi wanting to get involved in the re-creation?
There was no Inoi ten years ago.
However, after numerous failures, we were a bit weary and felt a sense of wanting to “try something new.”
Swoosh.
Finally, Inoi took the place of the absent lady.
Inoi, Lee Jin-A, and Lee Sun-A.
With the three of us holding hands, the image was very strange.
However, Inoi seemed to be in a good mood.
“I, Inoi, holding hands with someone else reminds me of walking in the forest with my sisters back in the day…! We held hands, found wild strawberries, and frantically ran to pick them…only to turn around and find I was alone…!”
Inoi picking wild strawberries.
Somehow, it felt quite vivid.
Inoi continued to speak.
“And so I wandered alone, feeling lonely until I discovered something strange…! Now, Inoi knows that it was a rift, but I didn’t know back then… I fell into that rift…!”
I see.
I had a sense of understanding how Inoi ended up falling into the rift.
So, Inoi, who had emerged from that weird rift, met me while shivering in the cold winter, rummaging through the trash.
“And so, I, Inoi, know better than anyone else how much I want to meet someone again…! I really hope today goes well…!”
Could Inoi’s feelings be conveyed well?
The attitudes of the tired people seemed to have ignited a little spark.
Soon, the stationery store owner also spoke.
“Well, since we are all gathered here, let’s give it a shot before it gets dark! If it doesn’t work today, we can gather again next time. If our story spreads widely, maybe corporations will support us!”
It was a form of constructive and practical motivation.
With that feeling, we began our last re-creation before the sun set.
Everyone was eager to return home, moving in and out in front of the stationery store.
At that moment, the world seemed peaceful.
The drowsy sunset lazily shone over the street.
A world so peaceful that it was boring, devoid of demons, rifts, or nymphs.
But somehow, I instinctively felt that something “extraordinary” would happen, just like now.
Ossaaak—
“Watch out!”
Yes.
At that moment, I instinctively blurted that out.
Snap—
It was right then, a strange spark erupted in the street, which had shown no change despite our attempts.
Although others may not have realized, I knew the warning signs.
“It’s an anomalous rift…! Everyone, be careful…! As promised, we need to keep as much distance as possible…! Move away…!”
Wham, crack, crash—
It sounded like a watermelon splitting open.
It also sounded like a thick and aged tree splitting apart.
Turning my head, I saw the space above Inoi’s head twisting oddly.
A rift appeared above Inoi’s head.
Thinking back, I believe I remember a rift appearing from the body of some woman back then, too.
“Yikes…! I, Inoi, feel like something is pulling me in…!”
The person-sized rift had suddenly formed.
Inoi began to be sucked into it wildly.
And both Lee Jin-A, holding Inoi’s hand, and Lee Sun-A, holding Lee Jin-A’s hand, were also being pulled in by that intense force.
“It’s different from back then…! No way—! I’m not letting go…! It’s different from back then…!”
Lee Jin-A unleashed her Awakened’s extraordinary strength, pulling Inoi back.
Then, hugging Inoi, she distanced herself from the rift like a rugby player, dragging the others along with her.
I was also different this time.
According to the sudden response rules of the emerging anomaly, I hugged the nearby people and quickly evacuated.
Crack!
Finally, with a sound like a frozen iceberg shattering, the rift stabilized.
The instability that pulled people in was only at the stage of its birth.
A stabilized rift existed there without pulling in people.
“Did that really just happen?”
“What happened?”
“It’s just like back then!”
People panicked.
It was exactly the same as before.
Of course, there were differences.
“Kkungkkungi, Ahn Ahn. Are you ready?”
—Kkungkkungi…!
—Zzzi…
I was different.
Back then, I stepped into the rift without knowing anything, but now, even as a perennial D-rank, I was a ten-year veteran Awakened.
The twenty-seven-year-old me would certainly be better at various things than the seventeen-year-old me.
“It might vanish quickly. We enter without procedures.”
I approached the rift with Kkungkkungi and Ahn Ahn on my left and right shoulders. Seeing me, Lee Jin-A, who had been evacuating people, said.
“Isn’t that too dangerous? We don’t know what’s inside.”
“Whether this rift is the same as the one back then or what might be lurking inside is uncertain. But rifts have always been my thing.”
Unlike the days when I had to enter the rift relying only on bullets without decent magical gear, I was now like a fully armed tank.
Soon, Lee Jin-A stepped forward.
“I want to go too.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s our mother. I should be the one to do it, really.”
Lee Jin-A seemed resolute.
However, the owner of the moving company, watching from a distance, seemed greatly alarmed.
“Jin-A!”
Lee Jin-A halted abruptly.
The owner added quickly.
“Isn’t that too dangerous? It’s too risky! If you go into the rift and can’t come back, I won’t be able to handle it! You have little experience with rifts!”
“Dad. It’s okay. I’ve actually been lying to you all along. I’ve gone into rifts quite a bit, and I’ve done more dangerous stuff than you think.”
“……”
The owner looked like he had received a big shock.
Swoosh—
Soon, without giving me a chance to stop her, Lee Jin-A entered the rift.
Generation M Hunters truly fear nothing.
By the way, Generation M refers to the generation of magically awakened beings.
Anyway.
“Owner, I will definitely bring everyone back this time.”
I promised the people.
At that moment, Inoi came trotting toward me.
“I, Inoi, will also enter…! Perhaps the Nymph sisters might be there…! I might find a way back to my hometown…!”
Indeed—
Inoi seemed to have made up her mind.
Was it now just me left who needed to solidify my resolve?
Huh—
Though I had gone in and out of this rift several times already, I felt a sense of returning to those times and steadied my mind.
Letting my guard down was not an option.
I had to return to being Haildo, the rift explorer known as humanity’s hope, not just the perennial D-rank Hunter I had been.
Smack—
I slapped my cheeks hard with my palms to gather my focus and began to chant my incantation.
“Then, codename Second. Entering the anomalous rift that appeared at 5:32 PM in front of the best stationery store.”
Zoom—
I felt the sensation of my body twisting in a flash.
# # #
“It’s cold.”
That was the first sensation I felt.
The bone-chilling cold enveloped my body.
When I came to my senses, I was thrown into a space ravaged by a brutal snowstorm.
—Creeeak…!
Kkungkkungi seemed to dislike this cold, wrapping its body around my neck. Perhaps because Kkungkkungi was curled up like a scarf, I felt a little better against the chill.
“Yikes…! This is unbearably cold…! I, Inoi, think I entered the wrong place…! I want to get out quickly…! The Nymph sisters shouldn’t be in a place this cold…!”
I had once climbed a snowy mountain in winter to smash a rift near the demilitarized zone in Gangwon Province, and it was just as cold as it was back then.
The perceived temperature felt like minus 30 to 40 degrees.
The cold was clearly torturous for Inoi.
“I, Inoi, was born in the summer when the scorching sun blazed down like honey-colored hair…! I am weak against this nymph-hating cold…!”
The enthusiasm Inoi had just a moment ago had completely vanished. Seeing Inoi wanting to get outside, I had to say something regrettable.
“If this place is like the rift in my memory, the exit will be in a different location from the entrance. We need to go a bit further to find the exit.”
And we couldn’t go directly to the exit.
This was a place from the past that we had returned to.
“I need to find the lady.”
I had to find the lady who might be here somewhere.
Fortunately, the world had changed a lot in the meantime.
Swoosh—
I pulled out a flare-like device from my waist and twisted it.
Whoosh—
The flare emitted a dazzling light and warmth.
“Ah, it’s warm like a campfire…!”
“Right? It’s a flare made of birchwood obtained from the rift. It not only shines brightly but also emits warmth to maintain body temperature. Ten years have passed. The world has prepared for rifts.”
So, where was Jin-A?
As I turned my head, I saw a figure in the distance.
It was Lee Jin-A.
“Hey, what are you doing moving around so recklessly?”
“I was trying to find Mom. There was no one around. It’s just all snow-covered ice. It seems similar to back then. The same place, but I can’t see Mom.”
It seemed she could not contain her boiling emotions and had explored the area.
“But still, moving around without a plan is reckless! This is why girls should have undergone basic training in Nonsan. People need to make plans and move efficiently. Just like this—.”
Swoosh—
I took out a radar from my waist.
A bioresponse detector.
It was something I couldn’t have imagined ten years ago.
Although it was an old military model I bought for ten million won five years ago, it was sturdy enough to function well in such extreme environments.
The newer models are precise but break down quickly in these extreme conditions.
“I wish we had something like this back then.”
Tap—
When I turned on the device, the radar screen lit up.
Beep, beep—
The radar began to pick up bio-signals, including ours.
It detects the “magical wave” emitted by living creatures and displays them as dots.
“Here, the five dots mean us. Kkungkkungi, Ahn Ahn, Inoi, me, and you, Jin-A.”
The five dots near the center represented us.
Then—
“What are those many dots nearby?”
The radar searched a radius of 50 meters around us.
Beep, beep—
Seeing over thirty dots present, I felt a slight chill run down my spine. Jin-A said, “Isn’t the radar broken? There’s no one but us here.”
If I hadn’t had the experience from ten years ago, I might have thought so too.
But now, I understood what that meant.
“The radar shows the radius of 50 meters on the X and Y axes. The Z axis is the same. Underground and above ground, 50 meters. Since there’s nothing above ground—.”
Swoosh—
I knelt down and brushed away the snow covering the ground with my palm.
Then, I could see something peculiar frozen beneath the blue-tinted surface below.
“What is this?”
Crackle, sizzle, crackle, sizzle—
I began using my flares more to melt the surrounding snow and examine the floor.
As the snow melted around a radius of about 20 meters, I had no choice but to revise my previous thoughts.
“This rift wasn’t just a simple one in a severely cold environment. This is, like the fixed rift in Sejong, a rift containing an artificial structure…”
There was a thick ice wall beneath my feet, and even further down, a massive structure was frozen solid.
Its enormous size was overwhelming enough to send chills down my spine.
“Something is alive beneath us.”
“Ah…! I, Inoi, recognize this place…!”
