At Yonghoon’s shout, the thugs gathered at the playground flinched.
There was a murderous intent in his voice that they couldn’t quite understand.
‘Enemies, five men, three women, one civilian woman.’
Yonghoon rolled his eyes around to count the number of thugs.
They didn’t seem to have any combat experience, so he wasn’t too worried, but his body wasn’t in normal condition either, so it didn’t look like it would be an easy win.
The thugs looked at one another, unsure of what to do.
It seemed they couldn’t keep up with how quickly the situation was changing.
Heesu, standing beside Yonghoon, was staring at him with wide eyes. Even then, she was holding onto her younger sister’s arm.
When the thugs didn’t move, Yonghoon stepped forward once more.
The blood flowing from Yonghoon’s head was now running down his cheek and under his neck.
Yonghoon decided to end this quickly. The longer it dragged on, the worse it would be for him.
“Damn it, look at him getting cocky just ’cause he landed a lucky hit. I’m gonna take him down and be the boss. What kind of boss gets knocked out with one punch anyway?”
One of them stepped forward. He was a tall, skinny young man with a gloomy face, and he held a baseball bat in his hand.
As he stepped forward, he shouted at the other thugs.
“Hey, what are you doing? We gotta jump him together! Move it!”
At his words, the other men began to move. He seemed to be the second-in-command among the thugs.
But Yonghoon had no intention of standing still and letting himself get surrounded. He charged at the man with the baseball bat shouting in front of him.
Startled by Yonghoon rushing at him, the man swung the bat, but Yonghoon suddenly stopped his charge, and the bat whooshed past just in front of his nose.
As the bat passed by, Yonghoon moved forward again and reached the man.
The man tried to pull his swung bat back, but once it had been swung, the momentum made it hard to stop.
Yonghoon’s fist slammed into the man’s side, and the man doubled over, gasping for breath.
Yonghoon brought his knee up into the man’s lowered face. The man bounced upward and then collapsed backward. He had gone down in just two hits.
The baseball bat rolled away from his hand. Yonghoon picked it up. Then, out of habit, he struck down with it on the man’s lower abdomen.
“Guh!”
That was the finisher.
It didn’t feel the same as using a sword, but since he wasn’t a corrupted human, it seemed best to end it like this.
The man who had been struck in the gut with the bat was foaming at the mouth and had passed out. He would probably suffer for quite a while.
Yonghoon swung the baseball bat a few times and looked around at the remaining people.
Everyone avoided meeting Yonghoon’s gaze. Seeing that, Yonghoon gave up on taking down the rest.
He didn’t know exactly what was going on, and there was no need to escalate things.
Yonghoon tossed the bat onto the unconscious man and left the playground. Behind him, people stood blinking in disbelief.
Heesu stared after the retreating Yonghoon, dumbfounded.
She had no idea what had just happened.
He looked like he was badly hurt, but he walked away so calmly that she didn’t know what to say.
But this was the chance. Heesu pulled her sister along and slipped through the thugs. Fortunately, Heeyoung followed without resistance.
The other thugs didn’t have the energy to care that Heesu and Heeyoung had disappeared. Their boss and second-in-command had both been knocked out. A spring breeze passed through the dumbfounded thugs.
Yonghoon walked home, puzzled by the convenience store clerk avoiding eye contact.
His body was in bad shape and he was bleeding, so he figured he should get treated and rest.
He cleared his mind of other thoughts and headed home. Thankfully, he had walked this path dozens of times via the Dimensional Connector, so finding the house wasn’t a problem.
In the end, Yonghoon was able to enter the house safely. The first thing he did was look for the first-aid kit.
He remembered buying one two years ago. He had been working a desk job at the company and got injured while learning to operate a device, so he had bought it then.
He found the first-aid kit under the desk and brought it into the bathroom.
Then he took off his blood-soaked shirt and turned on the sink. He lifted his head and looked into the mirror.
In the mirror stood a large man with a gentle face, covered in blood. He was big, but his soft flesh was stained red in various places.
Yonghoon stared blankly at the man in the mirror. It was the face he had always spied on through the Dimensional Connector.
He looked at the mirror for a moment, then shook his head.
When something didn’t make sense, he had to take care of what needed to be done first.
He washed his body and began treating his wounds. He checked the medicines in the first-aid kit, applied them to the wounds on his head and body, placed gauze on his head, and wrapped it with a bandage.
Fortunately, the head wound wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. It looked like he wouldn’t need stitches.
After finishing the treatment, Yonghoon checked his physical condition again.
The medicine seemed decent, so it probably wouldn’t take long for him to recover.
In hindsight, going to a hospital might have been better, but he was still confused and simply acted out of habit.
He stepped out of the bathroom, tossed the first-aid kit aside, and sat on the bed. Then he looked around the room.
A studio with a small kitchen attached, and a tiny bathroom next to it. That was the layout of this place. The room had a bed, a wardrobe, a desk with a computer, and a bookshelf.
Suddenly, a wave of loneliness hit him.
It finally sank in that he was alone in a strange world. Sunhee’s face floated into his mind.
A sharp pain pierced his chest, as if a nail had been driven into it. He clenched his fist until it bled.
He couldn’t let himself be consumed by loneliness.
He forced himself up from the bed and went to the desk to turn on the computer.
It looked far more modern than the last computer he had used, and the monitor was much bigger.
His world had been in decline for the past eight years, except for weapons of war. Even things called computers had mostly disappeared years ago.
But since he had seen them used through the Dimensional Connector, using it wasn’t a big issue.
It just felt awkward that the world he had seen like a dream was now his reality.
First, he connected to the internet and searched for news.
Information came first. He needed to gather intel to decide how to move forward.
No, he kept moving out of habit, trying to shake off the anxiety of being alone in a strange world.
The news was all ordinary stuff.
Conflicts in parts of the world, celebrity dating rumors, talk of a bad economy, IT companies going bankrupt, and some defense company growing rapidly.
Yonghoon stared blankly at the news.
There was nothing about monsters or awakened individuals. It was a peaceful, normal world, just like his own had been ten years ago.
He closed the internet window and looked at the monitor.
A drawing program was open on the screen. Without thinking, he clicked the icon.
A canvas window popped up on the screen.
Yonghoon quietly stared at the monitor, then gave a bitter smile and turned off the computer. It had already been eight years since he last drew.
These days, he occasionally carved things, but it was just a way to pass the time.
In fact, the Yonghoon who had lived in this world might have lived more diligently than he had.
In any case, the current him was just a worn-out soldier who had fought monsters for nine years. Or maybe just the soul of a soldier.
Yonghoon lay back on the bed and fell into thought.
He recalled the last memory before he had come to his senses in this body. The muzzle of a gun spitting fire right in front of him.
He must have been shot and killed.
But when he opened his eyes, he was in the other world he had seen through the Dimensional Connector. And he had become this world’s Yonghoon.
“Maybe I died and came to the afterlife, or maybe I really am this world’s Yonghoon and my memories are wrong, or maybe my soul entered this world’s Yonghoon.”
Yonghoon considered other possibilities, but nothing else came to mind.
He was simply too exhausted from the battles, the injuries, and the death.
He reviewed the three possibilities he had come up with.
The conclusion was clear. Whatever the case, he was now Major Kang Yonghoon.
He tried to confirm his identity and think further, but he was too tired. Sleep slowly overtook him.
Sunhee’s face flashed through his mind once more.
A faint light began to seep through the window of the semi-basement room.
Yonghoon’s eyes snapped open.
The unfamiliar layout of the room made him sit up immediately, and he grimaced from the pain all over his body. The pain reminded him of what had happened yesterday.
He sat on the bed and looked around the room. In the still-dark room, the digital clock on the desk told the time.
5 a.m.
It seemed he had slept for over 18 hours.
It had been about that long since he had taken over this body. But the original owner of this body was nowhere to be found.
It was as if he had always been the true owner-there was no trace of this world’s Yonghoon’s mind or soul anywhere in the body or consciousness.
“Did he die?”
It was possible that his mind had collapsed when he was ejected from the Dimensional Connector.
But it was also possible that his consciousness was still sleeping deep inside, or maybe he had pushed out the original owner and taken over.
Lying down, Yonghoon tried to feel for the Dimensional Power that once moved deep within his body. But he felt nothing.
As expected, he had become an ordinary person.
He got up and began to move his body little by little.
His body felt much better than yesterday. Even the head wound didn’t seem to have gotten worse.
Grrr~
As he was stretching out, a signal of hunger came from his stomach.
Well, it made sense-he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday.
Yonghoon gave a bitter smile. Even in a strange world, a person still had to live.
He slapped his cheeks with both hands and went to wash his face.
First, he figured he should go outside, get something to eat, and exercise. Thankfully, it was Sunday, so he would have plenty of time to move around.
Yonghoon decided to focus on living for now. And then, he would tackle things one by one.
For some unknown reason, he had survived again, so until he met her again, he would have to live his best.
By the time Yonghoon finished his breakfast with some ramen at home and stepped outside, it was almost 7 a.m.
Wearing workout clothes and a beanie over the bandages on his head, he stepped into the alley, greeted only by the warm morning sunlight.
There usually weren’t people around, but this alley was especially empty on a Sunday morning.
Well, he had been sleeping when he peeked through the Dimensional Connector too, so he wasn’t one to talk.
As Yonghoon walked along the quiet alley and passed by the playground where he had fought yesterday, he frowned at the man who blocked his path.
“Let’s go again! I only lost yesterday because I got distracted, but someone like you is no match for me!”
It was the leader of the thugs who had been knocked out by Yonghoon’s single punch yesterday. Seemed he was here for revenge.
Yonghoon looked around.
Yesterday, he had been too out of it and in pain to check his surroundings. From what he had experienced through the Dimensional Connector, this world was covered in CCTV, so he needed to confirm.
He figured this was a place where thugs gathered, so it was likely a blind spot for CCTV.
And it looked like he was right. There were no cameras in sight around here.
“Hmph! Running won’t help! If you flee, I’ll be waiting tomorrow too. You’ll get caught eventually.”
Yonghoon gave a bitter smile at his words.
The guy must have misunderstood Yonghoon’s glance around. Judging by what he said, he seemed like a very simple-minded person.
Then Yonghoon lowered his body and dashed forward.
Seeing that, the big guy crouched down as well. His eyes burned with determination not to lose this time.
Yonghoon lowered his stance even more and reached down to grab a large rock rolling on the ground.
And he hurled it at the big guy!
Startled by the rock flying toward his face, the big guy shielded himself with both arms, and the rock struck his arm.
“Agh!”
Enraged by the pain in his arm and the sudden attack, the big guy lowered his arms-and Yonghoon was right in front of him.
Without stopping, Yonghoon punched the big guy’s face as he dropped his guard.
Wham!
The punch landed squarely on his face, powered by Yonghoon’s momentum and weight, and toppled the big guy. Once again, luck wasn’t on his side-Yonghoon’s punch knocked him out cold, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Yonghoon raised his leg toward the unconscious thug. He was ready to finish it.
But after a moment of thought, he lowered the leg he had lifted to stomp the thug’s face. He had changed his mind.
The big guy was perfect as a training partner.
He seemed stubborn too, so instead of injuring him, it would be better to let him keep coming back.
Leaving the big guy lying on the ground, Yonghoon began jogging slowly down the road.