Chapter 2: [Chapter 2] Return (1)
It was a day unlike any other. I won an important tournament a few days ago, but nothing much has changed.
After the interview, I came home, drank a lot and fell asleep.
But when I opened my eyes, everything had changed.
I couldn't come to my senses for a while at the change that I couldn't understand with common sense. Sang-hyeok, who had barely come to his senses, looked in the mirror and checked himself.
"No, that's nonsense..."
When Sang-hyeok checked his reflection in the mirror, he knew even more that this ridiculous change was not a lie, but a fact.
Standing in the mirror was 18-year-old Lee Sang-hyeok, who is still living in an orphanage, instead of Lee Sang-hyeok, a seasoned coach who put his team to the top at the age of 36.
'No matter how you think about it, this makes no sense, right?'
Of course, it wasn't like a dream. No matter how many times I checked, everything was a vivid reality. No matter how desperately they wanted to return, no one thought they would actually return to the past.
Sanghyuk was the same. It was just his vain delusion. But that delusion became a reality. Of course, Sanghyuk couldn't help but be confused by this situation.
"Whoa, let's calm down and figure out the exact situation."
Sang-hyeok had not been able to adapt to this absurd change for five hours after waking up at dawn. But he couldn't stay like this forever.
Since he was a very cool-headed person to the point of being called Ice Man in his previous life, he calmed down his surprised heart and began to accurately grasp the current situation.
'What is certain is that I either returned to the past or experienced my future vividly in advance through a very long dream.'
Both were absurd assumptions, but now they had no choice but to make absurd assumptions.
'If I had to pick one that was more likely, it would have been a return to the past, right? Whatever it is, the important thing is that the future may turn out the way I know it. If that's the case, then I'll have another chance to live the way I wanted so much.'
I was so embarrassed, but when I thought about it, something felt very strange.
'Did God give me a chance because I really wanted it so badly?'
No matter how you think about it, this supernatural phenomenon lacks an explanation in the usual way. That's why I dragged the god who normally denied the existence itself and forcibly understood it.
"If you can not avoid it, you might as well try and enjoy it."
Sanghyuk muttered his motto and looked in the mirror. This motto was a phrase he accidentally came across when his life was going downhill. Of course, at this point, it has become a matter of the future, but anyway, Sang-hyuk now is a 36-year-old man with an 18-year-old body, so his thoughts were very different.
An unbelievable thing happened, but I couldn't stay still saying I couldn't believe it. Now that time regression, which can be called the extreme of illogicality, has already occurred, there is no choice but to admit everything.
It took several days for Sang-hyeok to admit everything and accept reality as it is. He was able to confirm that this was not like a dream while meeting people around him or schoolmates he could not remember well, and through that, he was able to have confidence that he had returned to the past.
Honestly, it wasn't easy to accept this ridiculous situation, but I was able to sort things out faster than I thought because I was 36-year-old Lee Sang-hyeok, not 18-year-old Lee Sang-hyeok.
After acknowledging everything, I slowly began to see my surroundings. First of all, Sang-hyeok knew that it was 2026, that is, when she was 18 years old (second year of high school). The date stamped on the old cell phone was exactly December 22, 2026.
'Just before the winter vacation of my senior year of high school begins, the event that will change my life will happen exactly 11 months later.'
Eleven months later, the incident that plunged his life into abyss occurred, and Sang-hyeok struggled in the abyss for another five years after that.
It was a little strange to think of what would happen in the future as if it were a memory of the past, but anyway, if the future went the way he knew it, it was going to be that way.
Of course, Sanghyuk had no intention of repeating the same mistake.
'I don't have as much time as I thought. If you want to live this life once again without regrets... you have to change a lot of things.'
The nursery school basically had to leave the nursery school if you did not go to university after the age of 19. Sang-hyeok could only stay at the nursery school until February 2028, exactly.
Unsurprisingly, Sang-hyeok, who could not go to college, had no choice but to find another alternative, and as a result, he had no choice but to make that choice in his previous life.
As a result, it was the worst choice, but at the time I thought it was the best.
'You can't just count on the small amount of settlement money. There's no way the rotten bastards who sold us off to those scum don't even give us the settlement money. I must find a way to live on my own.'
Sang-hyeok had already climbed from the bottom with his bare hands once, so this situation seemed insignificant.
In particular, one of the most important facts at this moment was that Sang-hyeok was in a very good condition.
"The talent I have. With that, I can achieve what I really want!"
Talent not taken away by scumbags. That still remained with Sang-hyeok, and with that, he was confident in everything.
In fact, even after losing it, it was Sang-hyeok who crawled up from the bottom. That's why he nodded his head with a confident expression.
* * * *
I couldn't remember much, but it didn't bother me too much. Originally, the personality itself was quiet, and because it had a 36-year-old wit that children of its age would never have, it was possible to blend in without standing out moderately.
Sang-hyeok, who adapted to the reality within a few days, began to design the future in earnest.
I wasn't sure if the future information he knew was 100% accurate, but after looking at it for several days, the flow of the future he knew and the reality were almost the same.
It would be foolish not to use the information you know in a situation like this.
'First of all, the first thing I need is... after all, money, right?'
For Sang-hyeok, who will be thrown out of the world in a year from now, money has no choice but to be very important.
'Then what can I do to make money?'
Realistically, Sang-hyeok, who was only a sophomore in high school, had very limited ways to earn money. All he did was earn too little money through part-time jobs that even worked like slaves.
"I can never earn the level of money I want with a part-time job. Then in the end... Is making money from DN (Dream Network) the answer?"
DN was a huge world created in 2020 with the rapid development of so-called VR (Virtual Reality) technology.
Like the Internet in the past, DN developed at a rapid pace and has now been recognized as another world that exists in the world, absorbing almost all areas occupied by the Internet.
'Is there still a little more than a year left before EL (Eternal Light), which is called the DN revolution, will be released?'
Released in March 2028, EL became the world's best VR game within four months of its release. And for over 15 years since then, he hasn't come down from the top spot.
"Until EL comes out, we need to create a foundation to focus on EL."
Since Sang-hyeok had only one body anyway, returning to the past didn't mean he could do anything special.
In particular, Sang-hyeok knew all too well what special talent he had. So he intended to use that talent to become the best of the best.
"What was the best VR game out there at this point?"
From the day he returned to the past, Sang-hyeok had been writing down important events and information from the past on the notepad of his cell phone as he remembered them.
Looking through the notepad, Sang-hyeok found the name 'Sword & Magic' and soon remembered that the game was the biggest hit in DN before EL was released.
"that's right. This game has been popular for a while."
Sanghyeok didn't have much experience, but he had been doing sleeves (Sword & Magic) for about six months.
'It's an experience I had to force because I didn't want to get hit, but at least it'll help a bit now.'
Sang-hyeok became so angry that his body trembled when he remembered the memory of that time, but he felt that the experience of that time could help him now.
'It's fortunate that capsule-type VR devices aren't out yet.'
The capsule type VR device was a hit with EL. To be precise, in order to enjoy EL properly, a capsule-type VR device was unconditionally required.
The sleeve was a game that could be enjoyed enough even with a headset-type VR device, and this headset-type VR device could be obtained for about 400,000 won if used cheaply.
"The problem must be that I don't have 400,000 won right now."
To make money with DN, you must have a VR device. That meant that at least the money to buy the VR device had to be saved by working part-time at a convenience store.
* * * *
Doing a part-time job that an 18-year-old can do with a 36-year-old spirit was harder than I thought. The part-time job that Sang-hyeok chose was the convenience store part-time job, which was the most easygoing and he usually did it often.
However, it was not something that would change anyway, and right now, making the minimum amount of money was the priority, so I had no choice but to endure it.
Sang-hyeok, who earned 600,000 won by working part-time at a convenience store for a month, immediately bought a usable used headset type VR device.
Since Sang-hyeok had expert-level knowledge about VR devices, the scammers residing on second-hand sales sites did not dare to use their tricks.
Unfortunately, it was unreasonable to run this VR device in a nursery school. For various reasons, the nursery school had no choice but to keep the fact that they bought the VR device a secret.
Sang-hyeok had no choice but to play games secretly, so he talked to the owner of a shabby VR room near the nursery school and paid 100,000 won for one side to play games in one corner of the VR room for two months.
Considering that the monthly flat rate for this shabby VR room was 150,000 won, it seemed a bit expensive, but now it was more important to start playing the game as soon as possible.
I was already thinking of dropping out of school, so I was thinking of attending just enough to not be contacted by the nursery school. It was a high school where a lot of troubled kids attended anyway, so it wouldn't be a big problem if you showed your face at least once every few days.
Sang-hyeok took the first step of a newly acquired opportunity in the corner of such a shabby VR room.
The dizziness felt when accessing DN through a VR device gave many people a hard time. This was improved a lot later with the development of technology and the appearance of capsule-type VR devices, but it was not completely eliminated.
But at least Sanghyuk didn't feel this peculiar dizziness at all. It wasn't because he was already used to VR in his previous life.
Sanghyuk's outstanding talent. He didn't feel dizzy at all thanks to that very talent.
With the development of virtual reality technology and the emergence of a true virtual world called DN, a new type of talent that did not exist before has received great attention.
The ability to react and move faster than anyone else in virtual reality, not reality, as well as the ability to see things that others cannot see.
In reality, these people usually became professional sports players, but in DN, they became professional gamers for granted.
Anyway, this ability was called VRA (Virtual Reality Ability).
Of course, the measurement of VRA was made within DN, but the vast majority of ordinary people had 100 to 150 VRA.
And people with poor adaptability to virtual reality came out with 70 to 100 VRA, and conversely, those with good adaptability came out around 200 or so.
The average VRA value of the special people, commonly called VR pro gamers, was 250.
250 VRA was almost the same as having the athletic ability of professional sports players in reality.
Naturally, Sang-hyeok also had a VRA value that was far from normal. According to his memory, the highest VRA score he recorded before he was destroyed was 350.
A staggering figure that overwhelms even pro gamers... It's not accurate, but I've heard that his VRA numbers are almost world records.
Of course, exactly 4 years after taking that figure, he became completely disabled and recorded a ridiculous figure of VRA 40, but anyway, the current Sanghyeok had a tremendous level of VRA.
"Within the next half year... I will earn enough money to leave the nursery school and become independent!"
Before accessing the DN, Sanghyuk muttered as if making a promise to himself. He was thinking of becoming independent by earning money through 'Sword & Magic'.
It was not so easy to make money through a sleeve where almost all the honeydew was already sucked. However, Sang-hyeok believed that with some information he knew and his special talent, he could definitely achieve what he wanted.
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