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"Are you awake now?"

After hearing that familiar voice, Jin-Woo quickly opened his eyes. He saw a white ceiling, and the smell of disinfectant stung his nose. Although the sensation of the hard bed kissing his back was different, he could easily tell just where he was.

This was a hospital.

But, didn't he definitely feel the sensation of his heart shattering when the ice-cold dagger stabbed into his chest?

'Even then.... I'm still alive?'

Jin-Woo raised his upper torso up.

He immediately spotted two men standing near his bed, making anxious faces as if they had been waiting for him to regain his consciousness for a long time. One of them was someone Jin-Woo knew very well.

"Association President Woo Jin-Cheol! The Sovereigns..... No, what happened to those monsters? How am I still alive?"

Woo Jin-Cheol shared confused looks with the fellow agent of the Monitoring Division next to him, took his sunglasses off before addressing Jin-Woo.

"There are three things I must tell you."

He pulled a chair close to the bed and settled down. The junior agent quickly stepped behind him.

"Firstly, I'm not the Association President, but the Chief of the Monitoring Division. Secondly, we are here to ask you about the animated stone statues. And finally...."

A powerful glare oozed out from Woo Jin-Cheol's scrutinising eyes.

"....How do you know about me? Have we met before, somewhere?"

"H-hold on, wait! You said something about animated stone statues?!"

"After we received the report from the survivors and arrived on site with the White Tiger Guild, it was already...."

"No, no. Hang on. That's not it...."

Jin-Woo quickly cut Woo Jin-Cheol off and shook his head in dumbfoundedness. Several emotions, impossible to describe in words, rushed in.

Could it be....?

Jin-Woo raised his head and stared at the ceiling.

He was thinking that it was an oddly familiar sight ever since he opened his eyes, but he really was back here.

'Makes sense why it's so familiar....'

He spent almost two weeks in this place, after all. This was the VIP patient room provided by the Hunter's Association.

He was back in the hospital room where he opened his eyes for the first time after barely managing to survive the dual dungeon incident. Thinking back to what Woo Jin-Cheol said just now, it didn't seem like the location wasn't the only thing here that was the same.

'But... how can such a thing even be possible?'

Jin-Woo remained utterly confused and dazed, leading Woo Jin-Cheol to cautiously ask him.

"....Are you feeling alright?"

Jin-Woo's head dropped lower and he massaged his temples as a migraine gradually crept in. He didn't forget to wave around his hand as a gesture to tell the others to not to worry about him.

"I.... Can I be left alone to organise my thoughts? Please hurry up with measuring my magical energy so we can end this quickly."

Woo Jin-Cheol stared dazedly at Jin-Woo with an expression that roughly said, "How did you know that we have been suspecting you going through a Re-Awakening?" before he quickly shook his head as if to get rid of all the distracting thoughts.