*Screeching Sounds*

*Crash Effect*

*White Light!*

* * *

* * *

* Sizzling *

* Indistinct Screams *

* Sizzling *

* * *

Then his next life began.

There was nothing in between, no meeting god, no tallying of his sins or good deeds. One second, he was crushed by a 7-ton truck, and the next, he was in indescribable agony!

Simply trying to breathe was an ordeal! It was as if his lungs were on fire. And when he finally took in a desperate breath, the stench, nearly overwhelmed him!

All his senses were crying in pain. He couldn’t even open his eyes, the world felt upside down, and thundering sounds of strange creatures were all around! And worse yet, all of that accompanied an unbearable amount of pain! He simply couldn’t have imagined that a human could suffer such anguish! His butt was hurting so much, he passed out right there!

“… congratulations, it’s a boy!”

“…”

“…”

“…Cha Kwan…”

* * *

After an unknown amount of time, Cha Kwan regained consciousness, albeit barely. Still, he couldn’t open his eyes, nor could he control his limbs. As far as he could tell, he was wrapped with something soft. He was comfortable and warm, and presumably safe. At least for now.

Unfortunately, the situation suddenly turned dire, as Cha Kwan felt that he was being stabbed in his stomach! His consciousness blurred from the intense pain once again.

“… dear, I think he’s hungry…”

* * *

Days, weeks, months, years… Cha Kwan had no idea how much time had passed. Suddenly, he was staring at the most stunning creature!

A white-winged… butterfly! A butterfly!

How could such a beautiful and mesmerizing sight exist in reality?!

Cha Kwan looked around for his parents. Someone had to see this!

Unfortunately…. He was actually holding something, and in a moment of clumsiness, the soft, fluffy, white, sweet thing he was holding… fell to the ground!

As he witnessed this moment of unfathomable sadness, something broke inside of him.

“…Honey! Oh dear, what happened? Did you drop it? Don’t worry… Mommy is here…”

* * *

Over the next few years of this newfound life, the passage of time became less hazy, though still remained inconsistent. Just like his body.

*sniff*

*sniff*

In the middle of the night, Cha Kwan was staring at his handiwork in disbelief. Though his emotions and thoughts were becoming clearer as time went by, some situations could still muddle his mind. Like this one.

Tears started trickling down as Cha Kwan furiously tried to control his mood. Unfortunately, it seemed as if his body thought wetting the bed wasn’t humiliation enough!

‘God, I hate being a 4-year-old so f*cking much…’

After that thought, a child-minded Cha Kwan started running towards his mother with tears.

* * *

Sometime later…

A child’s brain seemed to work differently. Especially when there was something sweet on the line. And some sweets were more dangerous than others…

‘Ugh, no more ice cream. I seriously can’t…’

Cha Kwan slowly recovered from the feeling of dullness. Over time, he had become an astute observer of his state of mind, all thanks to having nothing better to do as a small child.

‘…Where am I?...’

The last thing he remembered before gorging himself with caramel flavored ice-cream, was his father mentioning… something…?

In any case, he seemed to be sitting on an old-timey couch in front of a holographic television. He was probably safe.

‘This TV seems bigger, but ours has more vibrant colors…’

Cha Kwan inspected the foreign living room with interest. Most of their neighbors’ tastes didn’t differ much from his parent's. This sparsely decorated place though, seemed different, despite the overall shape and size being similar.

The walls, the hardwood floor, the coffee table, everything was white. The couch, despite looking as if it was made of white stone, was exceptionally soft to the touch. Cha Kwan’s adult-mode thinking guessed that it was some sort of advanced artificial leather, or some other futuristic fabric. There were a couple of interesting textile inventions in their home as well, though not as liberally used as this one.

The most out-of-place object was the exceptionally worn-out blade, casually placed on the windowsill. It really looked like the blade had seen some ferocious battles!

‘… Ah… The owner must be a man of culture as well…’

In his previous life, Cha Kwan too, considered owning a replica sword. It was unfortunate he didn’t get to follow up on that. But he couldn’t complain. Because being reincarnated into the future, beat any of his unfulfilled wishes!

Cheon Ma - The Hero of Murim cartoon show playing in the background stopped, and the TV automatically switched channels.

“HNN?”

From the scrolling text, it was obvious that this was a news channel. And it was in English!

-Governor of New Iowa, Ethan Sharp, in a joint statement with the association of the NAC said that the drinking water shortage caused by the flash flood of…-

Cha Kwan had already lost interest! Though hearing English after all this time was nostalgic, politics tired out his tiny brain quickly. Just like the Korean politics that he often overheard on TV.

“Wait, New Iowa? What’s with the New?”

-Breaking News. The word is just in that a class D dungeon break has occurred in Bamberg Germany. We are connecting live to the Bavarian Minister-President’s emergency conference.-

‘… I thought this was news? Is this a TV show?’

It was then, he saw the news network’s logo. HNN. Of course! This was probably some sort of satirical news, and since Cha Kwan had no knowledge of world politics, all of the jokes were probably going over his head.

Though he couldn’t read Korean, yet, he could still read English very well. And a name in the scrolling text caught his attention.

“Ranker Cheon Ma is waiting on standby? Cheon Ma?! Pffft! Hahahahaha…“

Was it intentional?

Cha Kwan giggled while looking at his Cheon Ma t-shirt. By his reckoning, this cartoon character was pretty famous in Korea. From children's storybooks to blockbuster movies, the name was everywhere. Even his next-door friend Ma Yong had dozens of Cheon Ma figurines!

He gave the writers a thumbs-up for including a Korean character in an English show.

-…was the Bavarian Minister-President Marc Schulberg’s statement. The dungeon break is believed to be D-class in nature. We have also received news that the gate was reserved by the French Hunters Association for the training of the new F-Class hunters. We are connecting to Mike, reporting from outside the French Embassy in Munich. Mike…-

‘… Wow, they are ultra-deadpan huh…’

Cha Kwan did not pay any more attention to the TV, and jumped down the couch to wander around. He was full of energy and instinctively needed some way to get rid of it.

“Looks like my boy is up on his feet already.” His father Cha Kang-Dae entered the living room with Uncle Min Hyun-Ki.

- SAA cadets started their annual dungeon raids… -

* * *

9 days later.

As Cha Kwan became more lucid with each passing second, he noticed the kindergarten teacher was animatedly telling a story.

‘… I seriously need to lay off the sugar…’

“…housands of monsters appeared all over the world!”

Children collectively gasped. Though he didn’t want to admit, Cha Kwan liked this story. Especially the next part.

“Monsters swept through the world! No one could stop them! Combined might of the human armies wasn’t enough! It was then…” The teacher dramatically bowed her head. “Cheon Ma appeared!”

‘My man!’

Cha Kwan’s body joined the others and excitedly clapped. This was a reflex that he had stopped being bothered by some time ago. A child’s body would do child-like things. There was no stopping it.

‘It’s kind of f*cked up that they’re telling children such a gruesome story though. I thought kids this age couldn’t differentiate between real and fantasy… Whatever…’

“…left and right, people of Earth started awakening to mysterious powers!”

‘They’re even setting up the continuation of the franchise… Capitalism is still alive and well seventy years into the future…’

“Maybe one day you will awaken to mysterious powers too!” Upon hearing his teacher’s ‘encouragement’ Cha Kwan resisted the urge to facepalm. Why did this teacher always had to give these kids false hope? Weren’t they going to get sued by parents if they kept this up?

A few hours later, Cha Kwan’s mother, Shin Soo-Yun picked him up from kindergarten, right as the teacher was about to pop up the animated movie of Cheon Ma.

“Did you have fun?” Shin Soo-Yun smiled and took Cha Kwan’s hand.

“Yes! Teacher told Cheon Ma’s origin story!”

“Oh. I see… Origin story…” While they were walking, Shin Soo-Yun frowned. Just for a moment. Cha Kwan was too distracted to notice it.

Mother and son bought groceries as usual before heading home. Somehow, they ended up talking about the differences between batter-based deserts after seeing a market food stall.

“Waffles, mom. Crrispy ones!” Cha Kwan was too absorbed in the idea of a crispy waffle to notice the subtle vibrations. Shin Soo-Yun though, stopped and started observing the surroundings, then fished out her mobile phone from her bag in a hurry.

“Mom?” Once he noticed what his mother was doing, Cha Kwan also started looking around. A moment later he heard his mother’s slightly off-tone voice.

“Dear, let’s go back to Uncle Hyun-Ki’s shop. Hurry.”

Cha Kwan matched his mother’s quickened pace and asked doubtfully at the same time. “Weren’t we just there?” At that moment he was wondering if they forgot something at their uncle’s fish shop.

**BREAK ALERT**

**BREAK ALERT**

Shin Soo-Yun dropped the groceries and grabbed Cha Kwan. “Hold on to me.”

At some level, all humans are experts at reading faces and moods. They might not even know it, but they will feel it.

When Cha Kwan looked at his mother’s subtly stiff face, her decisiveness, her explosive strength as she ran while carrying him… His body’s instincts started kicking in. Fear, started to erode the floodgates of his mind.

**BREAK ALERT**

Though Cha Kwan did not notice, there was no mass panic. People were running everywhere, but everyone looked like they had a purpose. No children were alone crying. No one was screaming in fear.

**BREAK ALERT**

Mother and son arrived at Min Hyun-Ki’s fish shop, but the shutters were locked and closed. Shin Soo-Yun gently put Cha Kwan down. Even though she was nearly out of breath, she tried to talk with the calmest voice possible. “Hang on, I just need the key, it’s in my bag. Hold on to me.”

Scared stiff, Cha Kwan nodded. All he could do was stare at the bag as his mother rummaged through it.

He could feel it, slowly, but surely, his thoughts were getting blurred. And this time it was intense. Never before he had felt so much fear, so what would happen to him now was a mystery.

**BREAK IN PROGRESS**

**ALL CITIZENS MUST GET TO SHELTER**

**THIS IS NOT A DRILL**

**BREAK IN PROGRESS**

The sirens were so loud, he couldn’t even hear his mother’s voice. Tears started trickling down Cha Kwan’s cheeks. Just before he lost his lucidity, he saw his mother holding a keycard.

* * *

8 hours later…

‘… What’s going on?’

The first thing Cha Kwan noticed was the overwhelming stench of fish.

“Kwan? Are you awake? Thank the heavens…”

Hearing his mother’s voice immediately allowed his body to relax. “Mom?”

“It’s fine. We are in Uncle Hyun-Ki’s shop. We’re safe… except for the fish smell…” Shin Soo-Yun’s warm smile wiped away all of Cha Kwan’s fears. Suddenly, everything was alright. There was nothing to be afraid of!

Shin Soo-Yun put some more layers on Cha Kwan. “The dungeon break was far away, and no one got hurt. Uncle Hyun-Ki rushed over and defended the gate by himself.

You remember what to do when you hear a break alert, right?”

“Yes…” Cha Kwan frowned. Of course he remembered the first song taught to him by his parents! Could he even forget the damn thing even if he tried? From cartoons to frickin’ TV shows, that nursery rhyme was everywhere! “To shelter, or to schools, hospitals, police or fire station-…”

It was at this point, the reality had come crashing down on Cha Kwan.

‘Hold up. Wait…’

Shin Soo-Yun couldn’t see her son’s expression due to the many layers of blankets and the dim interior. “That’s right. If you think you won’t make it to a shelter, always come to Uncle Hyun-Ki’s fish shop. Understand?”

“…Y-Yes…” His mother hugged him tightly and breathed a sigh of relief.

Everything seemed so… unreal. Cha Kwan’s brain immediately continued processing.

This was a dungeon break? An actual dungeon break? Like in the web novels?! Like in the Legend of the Saint TV show that he watched every Friday?!

‘…No… No… This is not happening… This is not happening…’

Cha Kwan tightly shut his eyes.

‘I never saw magic, or monsters, or dungeon gates! All of that was just movies, cartoons… or commercials…’

Surely, this had to be a bad dream…

‘They never taught us anything like this in school…’

Suddenly, Cha Kwan was reminded of many rhymes and songs about big bad monsters, and dungeon breaks.

‘…No, wait, those were just from kids' shows… Like… Cheon Ma…’

Could it be that… Cheon Ma… was real? Cha Kwan refused the possibility at once. He might as well believe that Santa Claus was real! Though he was a 4-year-old, he still had 27 years’ worth of knowledge from his previous life!

But… Unfortunately, or fortunately… Today, the reality was laid bare.

What was the chance of this being an elaborate hidden camera prank?

First of all, his parents would never agree to such nonsense.

Secondly, how could any TV show could get a permit for this?! The entire city would’ve heard those sirens! Everyone he saw started running all at once! Which TV station would be able to afford to pay that many people!?

And then, Cha Kwan started remembering all those conversations where the content was slightly off. Kindergarten teacher asking kids if they wanted to become hunters. An old lady scolding her granddaughter because being a porter for hunters was back-breaking work. Random people on the street talking about fantasy monsters. High-school customers in their noodle shop swearing they entered a gate…

Cha Kwan always thought they were just people being enthusiastic about fantasy novels/shows/games. He was a person of science! How could he believe in the existence of fantastical elements?!

‘Then again… I died… and reincarnated…

F*ck, everything makes so much sense now…’

“Oh my, honey, are you cold? Your face is all red… And you’re burning up!”

Cha Kwan didn’t have the heart to answer his mother. Soon his eyes started to glaze over, and he fell asleep.