Chapter 2: Nameless Observer

April 27, 2028.

As usual, I headed to the study room with my book bag in hand. Even if we lived in an era where game concepts like 'dungeons' and 'fields' were the norm and people were running wild with their new careers as 'players', it was all a world completely detached from me.

'I should just study hard.'

Earning my keep as a civil servant was perfectly fine for an incredibly ordinary person like me. And to become a civil servant, I had to study.

"Ugh, it's cold."

It was 5:20 in the morning. The early morning breeze from a spring not yet touched by summer was especially chilly today. As if they hadn't expected the cold, the people who had woken up at 5 am fastened their lapels as they strode towards their destination.

The study room was located in Jongno, about five bus stops away. Looking at the electronic display, the 702A bus was going to arrive in two minutes.

'But something feels off…'

It wasn't like I was deliberately looking at my surroundings, but something felt different from usual. If someone asked me what was wrong, I wouldn't be able to give an exact answer, but in any case, something was strangely different today.

'Come to think of it.'

The bus stop's billboard was featuring makeup being sold by 'Pink Velvet', an idol group that had enjoyed their heydays in the past.

'Did they get back together?'

I wouldn't know, since I hadn't been watching TV lately. Of all the idol groups, Pink Velvet was probably old enough to almost be considered ancients from the previous generation.

'It's been ten years, but they look exactly the same.'

Their faces were exactly the same as I remembered them being ten years ago. I had heard the expression that celebrities have 'preservative complexions' many times before, but this made me wonder if they were actually slathering preservatives all over themselves. Their faces hadn't changed even a little bit.

I rummaged through my bag.

'Where's the study sheet… Ah, here it is.'

__________

Ten years ago. Jongno. The beginning of the Cataclysm.

__________

I read through the notepad in my hand again and again. Modern history was the most important subject in the current civil servant exam, and these notes organized the approximate timeline of the 'Ten Years' History'.

The bus arrived. Its doors opened and I climbed up the stairs.

[The Tutorial began with the Primordial Fog.]

This bus was going to Jongno, the same place that was at the center of the Cataclysm ten years ago.

[Out of 150,000 people, around 145,000 died.]

While I was focusing on my notes, I started hearing murmurs.

"Huh? What's with the sudden fog?"

"What?"

"You can't see a thing out there."

My concentration broke when a bunch of people started making a fuss about something. I looked around, wondering what was going on.

'Huh?'

For a moment, I was struck speechless.

'What… is this?'

Was it fog?

'I can hardly see anything out there.'

It was the first time I had seen fog so thick in downtown Seoul. The Primordial Fog from ten years ago might have been this dense, maybe?

'The fog is too thick.'

I really couldn't see a single inch in front of me. Suddenly, I remembered the notes I just read.

__________

Ten years ago. Jongno. The beginning of the Cataclysm.

The Tutorial began with the Primordial Fog.

__________

The bus slowed down considerably since the driver couldn't see the cars a few meters ahead. The fog was so dense a traffic accident could happen at any time.

'A smell…?'

I could smell something weird. It was a bit like a sewer, or if someone let a particularly smelly one rip. It was enough to make me nauseous. I wanted to plug my nose, but endured it.

'A sewer smell?'

I looked back down at my study sheet.

__________

With a disgusting sewer smell—

__________

Beep—! Beep—!

My phone was ringing. An emergency alert had been sent. The contents were approximately:

[Seoul Jongno district. Thick fog in the area. High risk of traffic accidents.]

I couldn't peel my eyes away from the study sheet.

__________

—and the issuing of an emergency alert to the Seoul area…

__________

I instantly came to my senses. I looked at my surroundings again.

Jongno.

A rotten sewer smell.

Thick fog.

An emergency text.

It felt like I'd seen this all before. Was it from a movie? Or a novel? I was getting goosebumps on my arms. No. It wasn't from a movie or a novel. It wasn't, but this was a scene that I was definitely familiar with.

'No way.'

My body began to shiver. My thoughts were turning blank.

'No. It can't be.'

I looked back at the study sheet. At the very bottom of the notepad I was holding was information that I had organized.

__________

April 27, 2018. The Cataclysm began with the thick fog that had covered the Jongno/Gwanghwamun districts.

__________

My limbs were shaking. The other people were still saying things like "What's going on?" or "I've never seen fog like this before" in fascination. But if this was the 'Cataclysm' I knew, it was definitely not something to be sitting around being amazed about.

'This… makes no sense.'

I couldn't believe it.

'Am I dreaming?'

There was no other option than to explain it as a dream. I had no idea why the events from the first part of the 'Ten Years' History' were suddenly happening right before my eyes. It was baffling. Why? How? How come? How could any of this be explained?

'Wh-What date… What date is it?'

I needed to sort things out.

'My phone. Right, l-let's look at my phone.'

I glanced at my cell phone, hastily checking the date.

'April 27th.'

I couldn't help but be flabbergasted.

"Heuk!"

I gasped unconsciously.

'2018?'

I definitely left my house when it was 2028, and was on my way to Jongno in 2028. I definitely rode the bus. But the date on my cellphone was definitely saying that it was '2018'. Since when did it start saying that? I had no idea. At some point, the phone in my hand changed to the 'S8' phone model that I was using back in 2018. But it wasn't the time to be thinking about why this was the case.

'I'm going to go insane.'

It wasn't enough to just say that I was going to go insane. I was having one of those so-called mental breakdowns.

'I'm really ten years in the past?'

It seemed like the me of ten years ago went onto the Jongno-route bus of ten years ago. I didn't, no, couldn't, know why, but that was the conclusion I came to. It was absurd, but that was the conclusion I reached.

'This is insane…!'

My heart was pounding like crazy. Something unbelievable had happened. I was really going to lose it. I left the house like usual, and walked to the study room like usual. So how could I suddenly be ten years in the past? What kind of crazy situation was this? Faced with such an incomprehensible phenomenon, my head was pounding and throbbing.

'If I really went back in time to 2018…'

If by some chance, I was going to Jongno on April 27…

'Shit…!'

If I wasn't careful, I could die. April 27, 2018: That was the day that marked the beginning of the Cataclysm. 150,000 people died during the first week, the period called the 'Open Beta' or the 'Tutorial'. Only 5,000 survived. The survival rate was absolutely brutal.

'Proportionally, that's only 3 percent.'

97 percent died and 3 percent survived—that was the Jongno of 2018. I decided to try and calm down for now.

'If I don't get it together, I'll die.'

I couldn't die so pathetically. I decided I would think about why all of this had happened to me later. Because if this was the Jongno of 2018, there was a 97 percent chance I would die.

When I reached that point in my thoughts, an alert appeared.

[The Tutorial will soon begin.]

[Players, please prepare at your current position.]

This was pretty much a confirmation.

'Even the alert happened.'

Whatever the reason may be, I had to acknowledge that I had returned to the past. Sitting on the bus seat, I organized my thoughts. My limbs were shaking, but I tried to stay as composed as possible. I knew the future. In fact, I knew it very well, because I had been memorizing the events of the past ten years for the past three years.

'You have to calm down. Calm down, Kim Hyukjin.'

Biting my lips hard, I closed my eyes for just a moment. I had to brace myself.

As soon as the fog cleared, I would be seeing hell. I would see pools of blood and people being eaten alive by Goblins. Many people might have already died. To be honest, I was scared and afraid.

'Right. Even so, I have an advantage. I have to believe that. Shit. Shit. Shit.'

I have a huge advantage. I can do it. I can do it. I can survive. I braced myself by repeating this several times.

'For now… let's focus on surviving.'

I can do it. I can survive. If I really did return to the past, I could save my mother who we couldn't afford treatment for, and my sister wouldn't have to quit school to work at a factory to pay for my education.

My sister, who developed leukemia while working at a semiconductor factory to try and take care of me… This time, I had the chance to be the one helping her.

'I just have to do it.'

Although I only ever experienced dungeons in VR, I had read Tutorial strategy guides a thousand times over, and watched Youtube videos on the subject ten thousand times over. There were countless dungeons that emulated the Jongno of ten years ago, and strategy guides showing the contents of those dungeons were widespread all over the market.

I was one of the people memorizing all of that information by rote.

'I will definitely survive.'

I had to check to be sure, but if I had actually gone into the past, my mother would still be alive, and my sister wouldn't be working at the semiconductor factory yet. At the very least, I could undo a large number of things that had gone wrong in my life. It could be that this was an opportunity.

'I have to live.'

Still sitting, I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and organized my thoughts on the current situation.

What did I have to do to live through this? What did I have to do from here on out?

My limbs were shaking, but I made an effort to keep as calm as possible.

'I can do this.'

My will to survive was stronger than the shock I was feeling at the occurrence of this improbable situation.

'The Primordial Fog. And the 1st wave of Goblin attacks.'

How should I get through the Goblin attack? My talent diagnosis showed me that it was close to 'zero'. What could someone with as little talent to be a Player as I do to survive?

'There were definitely people without talent who lived through this before.'

How did they survive? The survival rate was 3 percent. I had to be in that 3 percent. I took another deep breath and sketched out an approximate plan of what I had to do in my head.

'The Tutorial. Since I'm inside the bus right now, a conditional safe zone will probably be announced.'

I laid out the actions I was going to take, piece by piece. I was surprised at how good my concentration was. It seemed that my desire to live was stronger than I thought. I was a lot more composed and quick to adapt than I thought I could be.

So composed that it was almost unbelievable that I was someone who had an evaluation of [No Talent].

Suddenly, another message appeared. In a very short amount of time, I had planned many things in my mind, detailing ways I could raise my survival rate by even a small amount, but I never considered the following message.

[The 'Nameless Observer' is carefully watching your actions.]

[The 'Nameless Observer' has begun to take an interest in you.]

My thoughts ground to a halt for a split second.

'The Nameless Observer…?'

A Guardian had started taking interest in me.

'But I heard that Guardians put an utmost importance on talent.'

They even had nicknames like 'talent leeches'. Didn't Guardians hunt for talented Players early on so that they could invest in them? They were known for treating talentless people as less than human. So why were they interested in me?

That wasn't the end of the incomprehensible messages.

____