Chapter 203

Meanwhile, Ju Ian was staring at the system window that had appeared before his eyes.

With that system window, he had returned to the very start of Memory – So Yeri.

But then, another person suddenly appeared right in front of him.

“!”

The man who froze and turned to look at Ju Ian was none other than Shin Jae-heon.

“Huh?”

Ju Ian closely examined the flustered Shin Jae-heon who had let out a startled sound.

Having just seen the past version of Shin Jae-heon, he could clearly distinguish this one.

The man before him was the current Shin Jae-heon.

“Why is this hospital…?”

Shin Jae-heon was looking around the hospital room with a bewildered expression.

“Come this way for now.”

Ju Ian beckoned to him.

Having a conversation in the middle of the hospital room would only draw attention.

Shin Jae-heon checked his outfit. A hoodie and black pants—nothing conspicuous.

Confirming that, he followed Ju Ian.

“Who are you here to visit?”

He naturally replied to the passing nurse’s question.

“Ah, I got the floor wrong.”

Posing as a guardian, he smoothly passed by the nurse.

And Ju Ian led him to the emergency stairs.

Due to the hospital’s many patients with limited mobility, the stairwell area was deserted.

Only after confirming no one was around did Ju Ian speak.

“This is Hunter So Yeri’s memory.”

“Ah.”

Shin Jae-heon nodded slightly.

But if this was Hunter So Yeri’s memory, where had the past Hunter So Yeri gone?

Before he could even think that, Ju Ian continued.

“But we failed once.”

Failed and reset to the beginning?

Shin Jae-heon, eyes wide, turned to Ju Ian.

“How did that happen?”

“Well…”

Ju Ian explained what had happened in the dungeon.

What he had done to receive the failure judgment and return here.

Listening, Shin Jae-heon scratched the back of his head.

“Seems like you did everything right?”

Why did it fail? What wasn’t satisfactory?

“Let’s just watch for now.”

Either way, standing around here wouldn’t reveal the answer.

Shin Jae-heon opened the emergency stair door and asked.

“So where did Hunter So Yeri go?”

At that, Ju Ian fell silent for a moment. Then he answered.

“…You’ll see if you watch.”

“?”

Shin Jae-heon raised an eyebrow.

Why not just tell him? Was it hard to explain in words?

What on earth?

For now, Shin Jae-heon returned to the original hospital room with Ju Ian.

“Oh.”

And he soon realized the room was overly familiar.

“I was hospitalized here too.”

This exact room?

He looked at Ju Ian, who didn’t seem surprised. Shin Jae-heon quickly caught on.

“Does my hospitalization appear in this memory?”

“Yes.”

Ju Ian nodded.

“Then the timeline is clear…”

Right before the gate incident. Shin Jae-heon glanced back into the room.

[Lee Jin-ah]

As expected. The person on the bed opposite.

It’s been a while, sis.

Time passed quickly.

The past Shin Jae-heon and Shin Yuri were hospitalized in the bed in front of Lee Jin-ah, just as he remembered, and then discharged.

And then.

When that news broke.

Shin Jae-heon, hood pulled low, was moving around pretending to be someone else’s guardian.

In the process, he spotted Lee Jin-ah’s expression.

“Ah…”

She looked heartbroken.

When he was in front of her, she would just furrow her brows as if telling him to get lost quickly, but now she couldn’t tear her eyes from the news, her eyes red.

She looked like she might cry.

“…What do I do, I’m so sorry.”

He even heard her mutter that.

Shin Jae-heon scratched his cheek.

No, she didn’t create the gate herself, so why feel sorry?

People get sensitive when they’re sick.

Just like he had in the past, the current him didn’t pay it much mind.

…No, he had no particular thoughts.

Until the hospital turned into a gate and the Lee Jin-ah before his eyes awakened as a hunter.

And in the gate-ified hospital, the only hunter was Lee Jin-ah.

“Huh?”

Shin Jae-heon widened his eyes.

That mark was definitely the support class mark.

S-rank… support?

And awakenings weren’t common at this time either…

“…”

Shin Jae-heon paused, then glanced at Lee Jin-ah as she pulled the bedsheet back over her head.

“I’m seeing things.”

Her grumbling voice was a far cry from the ever-cheerful Hunter So Yeri.

But Shin Jae-heon couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.

He recalled what he knew about So Yeri.

Of course, he knew more than enough, but specifically, things about her past.

She rarely spoke of her past, so there wasn’t much to recall.

[Origin: Unknown]

And he remembered that she was the only hunter in Korea with an unknown origin.

True to the nation’s obsession with resident registration, people wondered where So Yeri had popped from, but no one could figure out her hometown.

Her language and habits were purely Korean, yet her place of origin remained a mystery.

The only rumor was that her speech suggested she was a Seoul native.

But.

Her awakening time was definitely… around now.

Shin Jae-heon pressed his lips into a thin line.

‘I’m very interested in those two people.’

‘Why?’

‘Because in the hunter world where life and death hang in the balance, it’s not an easy combination to choose.’

He recalled So Yeri, who had appeared before him once.

Her golden eyes had sparkled as she said that.

Was it really just interest, or…?

Shin Jae-heon thought of Lee Jin-ah tearing up over the Eunryeong High Gate news.

Then he closed his eyes.

…It was you.

‘I’ve owed them quite a bit.’

So that’s why she said that.

There was no need to keep it in her heart like that.

Shin Jae-heon gave a bitter smile.

The system window still showed ‘Lee Jin-ah’, not ‘So Yeri’.

The system couldn’t be fooled.

So how did she become ‘So Yeri’?

He tilted his head.

The gate that Lee Jin-ah entered wasn’t a high rank, so clearing it wasn’t difficult.

“Hmm.”

Of course, there was a problem.

Shin Jae-heon said while looking at the healer’s status window.

Her skill window was full of healing and support skills.

But what was this blank space at the end of the skill window?

A glitch?

As he pondered, Ju Ian spoke in a troubled voice.

“…I’m not yet familiar with support skills, so I don’t think I’ll be of much help.”

Yet he was skillfully using Ice Prison (S).

“If you just change your mindset a little, you could be an excellent dealer.”

Shin Jae-heon said, looking at the monsters Ju Ian had half-wiped out in the hospital.

“Is that so?”

Ju Ian replied with a gentle smile.

Shin Jae-heon watched, noting that whenever a monster appeared, Ju Ian would just whack it with a pole.

He had no intention of using his skills.

This couldn’t go any higher.

—Thwack!

Of course, even for a healer with low strength stats, she had prior training in swinging, so the monsters collapsed in one hit.

—Kraaa!

Even the charging trolley that roared as it lunged fell silent after one strike from her pole.

“The boss monster…”

In the very last room they entered, there was a massive…

…syringe.

Shin Jae-heon eyed the enormous needle that could suck in a person’s arm, then swung his pole with all his might.

—Krunch!

The syringe needle bent, emitting an ominous sound.

Seizing the staggering moment, Shin Jae-heon kicked the center of the syringe.

—Boom!

It flew like a bullet into the wall and shattered.

This was before Lee Jin-ah had even reached this floor.

“Oh.”

With me and Hunter Ju Ian here, that means over there it’s Shin Yuri or Hunter So Yeri.

…My memory?

What did they see? He couldn’t recall anything even thinking about it.

Shin Jae-heon only fully learned Lee Jin-ah’s secret after she exited the gate.

—Flash!

Enveloped in dazzling light, Lee Jin-ah transformed into a form familiar to Shin Jae-heon.

He saw the familiar red hair and golden eyes.

Shin Jae-heon looked down at her from afar.

“…So your appearance changed on the way out.”

He and Ju Ian were on the rooftop of a nearby building overlooking the hospital.

Ju Ian nodded.

“Yes.”

“There must have been… a reason.”

Shin Jae-heon narrowed his eyes.

He wasn’t without guesses. After spending so much time together.

But it was hard to understand.

Was there a need to change her appearance too?

No, precisely, Hunter So Yeri hadn’t deliberately used a skill to change her looks.

It was a desperate, earnest wish that manifested as a skill, altering her form automatically.

And since it didn’t appear on the status window and hadn’t disappeared despite multiple buff nullifications, it was likely a high-rank passive skill.

She had desperately wanted to become a new person.

To discard the name Lee Jin-ah and become So Yeri.

—Pat pat!

And that her from the past was hovering around the past Shin Jae-heon and Shin Yuri.

‘Someone already took care of it?’

‘What?’

Remembering the someone who always appeared whenever he and Shin Yuri were in trouble to help, Shin Jae-heon could only watch bitterly.

He was starting to understand why she acted that way.

Even up to then, the past So Yeri never revealed herself directly to the past Shin Jae-heon and Shin Yuri.

“Who the heck is it?”

Even when Shin Yuri, curious, searched everywhere, she wasn’t caught.

“!”

Of course she wouldn’t be found.

Shin Jae-heon, who had been tailing the past So Yeri, let out a hollow chuckle.

When Shin Yuri’s pursuit(?) put her at risk of discovery, Hunter So Yeri vanished underground.

It seemed to be the ‘Underground Exploration (B)’ skill.

“There was a presence nearby. Or was there not?”

Only after the past Shin Yuri, tilting her head, disappeared did So Yeri emerge.

Shin Jae-heon, who had been watching, stood from his hiding spot.

Ju Ian, who had been quietly observing So Yeri alongside him, turned his gaze to him.

Shin Jae-heon spoke.

“I think I know why it failed.”

Ju Ian tilted his head slightly.

Shin Jae-heon explained his plan to him.

“…!”

Ju Ian froze upon hearing it.

“That seems dangerous.”

But Shin Jae-heon shrugged.

“There’s no other way. Besides.”

He pointed below.

At his past self rampaging around with Shin Yuri.

“I just need to avoid running into my past self.”

It was worth trying.