Episode 30
If you look at a novel or movie, such a character always appears.
‘A character who awakens the protagonist through death.’
The level of awakening of the protagonist varies depending on how good or pitiful this character is.
The kinder the character is, the more cowardly he is, the more pitiful and tearful his death becomes. A character like this also appeared in this 19+ survivor novel that Jaeheon Lee read.
The name is Kim Yeon-woo. His occupation is a police officer and his rank is constable. While chasing criminals in the area with a detective, he got caught up in the underworld. He is a heavy smoker, so he always carries a lighter with him, so he survives for quite a long time in the park. That’s because it’s literally ‘quite good’.
she is a good person Although he was not a hero like those in other myths, when he was in school, if someone was beaten in a secluded area, he would secretly report it to the teacher. It is said that the reason he became a police officer was because he was worried about people who were suffering secretly in a quiet place.
Of course, these were not the words of the woman herself, but the words of a detective who was consumed by the underworld along with her. When I receive that kind of positive evaluation, I feel very embarrassed, even though I pretend not to.
The protagonist described her as being like a candle. Because the description was so delicate and affectionate, many readers judged this to be love and thought that Police Officer Kim would become the protagonist’s lover.
Why isn’t there a small area of romance in many fantasy novels?
‘The main character’s mentality must have already gone bad. Ah, I thought that we would be healed and our relationship would develop like this….’
He died.
‘He died very miserably.’
The park episode is very early in the novel. Since they didn’t want to think that there would be a love line among the people at the company, which is a nuisance, readers also thought that Police Officer Kim would be a perfect fit to support the main character.
And then I got hit in the back of the head. Police Officer Kim, who was a coward and lacked faith but had ultimate goodness, was killed by someone who was not even a monster, and as a result, about 70% of the protagonist’s mental strength was lost. At least that’s what Lee Jae-heon, a reader of the novel, thought.
Of course, since I have a party to protect, I will make my judgment calmly, but judgment and mental ability are separate issues. Although they can influence each other, they are not the same being, and even if their judgment is fine, their mentality can go as far as it goes. It may not have been love, but at least the person who tried to be his spiritual support was killed by the same person.
Due to this incident, the protagonist completely abandons trust in humans in the park episode.
I had already been traumatized by the good and evil of humans due to a car accident over the weekend, but seeing what little hope I had left disappear like that made me feel more disgusted than traumatized.
‘Maybe that’s why most of the group were weak.’
A brother and sister who met for the first time at the park. Next, an old man met and talked to new survivors. And lastly, the flower shop owner who was accepted into the group because he was useful.
In President Yoon’s case, it was for efficiency reasons, so in reality, the only people he accepted were minors and the elderly.
Although he abandoned his trust in humans, he tried to protect the goodness of that individual. For Jeong In-ho, who has a very shallow obsession with lines, that would have been the minimum rule and a shield that would have made him stand on his own two feet and walk. That was how it was supposed to be described in the novel. He protected himself by keeping good.
However, Police Officer Kim left such a deep impression on the protagonist that he was recalled in the latter half of the story.
To be precise, it is a trauma and a subject with no humanity left, and I think that the actions to protect the weak came to some extent from this trauma. Jaeheon Lee judged this to be a kind of awakening.
Of course, that is not a healthy awakening at all.
‘You can grow fast, but your mentality goes away even faster.’
Lee Jae-heon was an old man and a villain, but he knew what was right and what was wrong.
Just as if you blame the academy for raising your kids’ grades, they will become crooked or burn out, and if you make them wake up a little early and be nervous, you will only lose their precious mental strength.
He wanted the protagonist to awaken in a healthy way. Lee Jae-heon himself may not feel any problems, perhaps because he has lived in the same world since birth, but he does not have the common sense of today.
Originally, the labor force had to maintain physical strength in order to get a job. Just like money disappearing just by breathing, mental strength is the same, so Jaeheon Lee tried to preserve and grow the mental strength of his group as much as possible.
So the place I ran to relentlessly was the place where the sacrificial character that awakened the protagonist was located.
‘You won’t leave me behind.’
Considering Deputy Chung’s mental health, Lee Jae-heon should not have died.
However, Lee Jae-heon, whose stamina was worn out and had dug into his inner core, needed help, and yet there was no one who could help him. Even if you meet another person by chance, would you want to help someone when it is difficult to save your own life? That couldn’t be possible.
So Jaeheon Lee came to see Police Officer Kim. Of course, since this is information in a novel, Police Officer Kim may not know this and may feel wary at the sight of him covered in blood, so Jae-Heon Lee personally gave up one of his legs to the monster to save Police Officer Kim first.
“….”
Actually, it was a bit ambiguous to say that I saved it.
‘Because that’s what caused it to happen in the first place.’
When the green algae monster enters a certain range, it narrows its siege.
He predicted that if he went further in, the toothed vine would send out its tentacles to snatch its prey and catch Lee Jae-heon himself, who smelled the most like blood. Just like that, my legs, which were already very tattered, were caught.
But is there another prey in front of the dying prey?
‘I have to catch this.’
Policeman Kim suffered a minor injury while helping the main character, an old woman, and despite that, he ran into Jae-heon Lee while patrolling around the area out of habit. Of course, since she would have smelled blood, she thought the green algae monster would recognize them as prey and another tooth vine would head towards her.
So, in this case, what about the person named Lee Jae-heon seen in the eyes of Police Officer Kim?
‘Even in dire situations, you will be seen as someone who tries to save others first.’
Lee Jae-heon’s entire body was in tatters.
Actually, I was so dazed that I couldn’t remember much, but I think I fell a few times while running and the teeth of the vines grazed all over my body without me realizing it. What is certain is that it did not look like a living person.
Even though such a person was already in a very bad condition, he saved others before pulling his own leg out from the vine’s teeth. Lee Jae-heon tore down the vine after rescuing Police Officer Kim, so it was clear how she would view me.
He provided help to Constable Kim and she must have recognized it.
Moreover, since he didn’t hide his dazed mind on purpose, they would have judged him to be insane.
‘Then it’s even more touching.’
This is because a person who is not in his right mind abandoned himself to save someone else in the first place.
Of course, Jaeheon Lee was sane.
I was traumatized, perhaps because it had been a long time since my life was threatened, but it was not severe, and although I had no idea how serious the trauma was, I still had the ability to judge it to that extent. So, isn’t it true that he came to see Police Officer Kim while recalling the description in the novel?
In conclusion, Lee Jae-heon’s judgment was correct. As he expected, police officer Kim picked up Lee Jae-heon from his first encounter and treated him, allowing him to wake up with his limbs intact.
The problem was that my second impression, which was closer to my first impression, was a bit ruined.
“Suddenly… while I was sleeping… he started strangling me like that.”
“….”
“Wrist and ah. I’m really sorry for the bruises on your arms and wrists. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even control it. “I pressed the wound with my shoe…”
“No, I’m sorry for scaring you.”
Rarely, it was sincere.
Lee Jae-heon muttered to himself as he touched his wrist, which was numb from being stepped on by the heel of his shoe.
‘… Who wouldn’t be surprised if the baby they saved alive decides to hunt them down?’
In fact, it was even more surprising that the wound had only opened to this extent. If something like that had happened right in front of Lee Jae-heon’s eyes, I would have saved him or grabbed him by the collar first. Who the bastard dares to favor.
But to be honest, Jaeheon Lee himself had a lot to say. That’s because it wasn’t that rare for someone to commit suicide in order to wake up from a dream.
Of course, it could have been just his opinion, but above all, there had never been a case where someone would make such a fuss in real life about committing suicide in a dream.
In the first place, he is a person who goes through several tests to distinguish between dreams and reality. I recognized each sensation or situation I felt right now and convinced myself, ‘Oh, this is a dream.’ In the process, the degree of strangulation was not uncommon. However, there has never been a case where an action taken in a dream manifested itself in reality.
As I recall again and again, Lee Jae-heon was not a person who wanted to commit suicide; rather, he was a person full of dreams of survival and wealth. The reason I strangled myself was simply to wake up from a dream, not because I wanted to die or because I was under excessive stress.
The problem was that no matter how I expressed all of this, it sounded like I was mentally ill. If it had been the world of our past lives, we would still have been able to understand each other.
Lee Jae-heon touched his wrist, which was dripping with blood, and stuttered.
“I’m not really like that.”
“…yes.”
“It’s not just a dream. As I was trying to wake up. No, that….”
“….”
“I really didn’t mean to surprise you… I’m sorry.”
How can I have nothing to say?
Jaeheon Lee felt a strange sense of déjà vu. It was the embarrassment I felt when the protagonist left us alone before returning, and the perpetrator and victim were reversed.
The very statement that he committed suicide in order to wake up from a dream was highly misleading. That said, the occasional lucid dream I had was the realm of my past life, and as I had experienced with my whole body up until now, there was a big difference in common sense between my past life and my current life.
Lee Jae-heon instinctively felt that the situation was not much different now.
Yes, he’s already mentally ill, but he has to at least make it seem like he knows he’s crazy.
Lee Jae-heon realized that rather than someone who does something crazy and then calmly asks, ‘Why is this?’, a person who makes excuses by saying, ‘But I couldn’t help it…!’ seems closer to normal. He really tried to reflect the common sense of today’s life.
However, the latter did not mean that he looked like a normal person.
Lee Jae-heon wanted to somehow justify his actions, but he couldn’t figure out the cause of this situation, and he even acted as if he was used to this type of behavior, so he had nothing to say.
As he washed his face dry, he cursed under his breath.
‘If I hadn’t asked that question as soon as I woke up from the dream, I would have been better off than I am now…’
Just now, Jaeheon Lee asked police officer Kim, ‘Did I strangle him?’ to understand the situation. The question was only to confirm the connection between the dream and reality, but when police officer Kim, a third party unaware of the circumstances, saw it, it would not have been true.
A half-corpse that I had managed to keep alive suddenly strangled me while I was sleeping, and while I was doing my best to stop it, the guy who had just woken up and had no idea what was going on asked me with half-confidence. How much like a depressed person or suicidal person did he look like? Anyone who looks at it seems like, ‘This happens often, so I figured out the situation quickly.’
However, Jaeheon Lee was not a psychopath who would harm himself if it was not necessary. The first time I self-harmed was to check my previous life’s abilities, but this time it was a real mistake. In the first place, even Lee Jae-heon himself had no idea how this happened.
If I had known this would happen, would I have tried to die in my dream? No, of course, there was nothing I could do since I didn’t know how to wake up any other way…
“…”
Lee Jae-heon, who thought for a moment, admitted that the current situation was out of his hands.
‘Let’s give up.’
Anyway, even the main character, Assistant Manager Jeong, was already labeled as a mentally ill person, and after one drip, the doctor recognized him as a patient who could not be saved. He wouldn’t have forgotten that he behaved like a suicidal person to test his abilities before returning.
But now that I’m mistaken for a habitual self-harm offender, it doesn’t get any worse or any better. He was a person who was very good at distinguishing between what couldn’t be fixed no matter how hard he tried and what could be fixed.
Jaeheon Lee decided to do what he could.
“I’m late to say hello, but my name is Lee Jae-heon.”
“Ah ah… yes, I am Yeonwoo Kim.”
“It may have been sudden, but thank you for your help.”
He bowed his head slightly in greeting, and Police Officer Kim also calmed down his expression and obediently accepted the thanks. He realized that Jaeheon Lee had no desire to talk about this topic anymore.
“I am truly grateful. “Didn’t you save me from almost being killed by that green monster…?”
“I’m glad it helped.”
I should be thankful, then someone saved me.
Although he thought so in his heart, Jaeheon Lee tried to react as humble and neat as possible. It was a struggle to somehow fix the image that had leaked out.
‘I can’t be mistaken for a psychopath who can’t communicate.’
Not all psychopaths are the same crazy people.
Lee Jae-heon thought to himself that he was quite reasonably crazy, but that was a judgment he made because he gained common sense in this life, and in his past life, this was normal. Of course, I heard that it was a bit harsh, but there was no problem in my daily life.
That means that there is no problem in living in this life as long as you are careful, but that was overlooked thanks to the other side of the world that disturbed my mentality. He was already an existing member of the group and was the new police officer Kim, and he would not be considered sane.
But even if he gave up on that point, Lee Jae-heon still had room to repair his image.
‘I did what I had to do even if it didn’t seem too extreme.’
In my past life, not only did I meet a lot of crazy people because of my job, but I also experienced a lot of mentally ill people who couldn’t communicate properly.
To be honest, talking to those bastards is annoying and frustrating in itself, and just looking at what they do makes me sigh. Of course, Lee Jae-heon himself wasn’t that crazy, but if you look at it according to common sense, it was all there.
Since it was already difficult to look sane, I had to at least look like a harmless crazy person. It would be better if it seemed like there were no problems at all in everyday life.
Although it is a bit funny to see his honed acting skills shine in a place like this, Lee Jae-heon created an image that would make him look like a mature member of society as much as possible.
“But… how did you get hurt like that?”
“….”
“Oh, I’m sorry if this is an rude question.”
As expected, the police were police and she asked about the situation of Lee Jae-heon, who appears to be a victim. I felt a little relieved because the way they came to the other world and did their job despite encountering monsters was just like what I saw in the novel.
Lee Jae-heon decided to salvage the image that had been ruined anyway, so he used the facial expression he usually used in his past life. This is what it looks like when you call Assistant Manager Jeong ‘Mr. Jeong In-ho’.
‘If we do this, there will be at least some unity.’
“… It’s nothing to be rude. “I don’t know if you saw it at the time, but you were being chased by the green monster that Yeonwoo mentioned.”
“Oh yes, I saw it. It was covered in something like green algae…”
“I’m calling it a green algae monster for convenience, but it wasn’t easy for me to run away because I had been injured while encountering other monsters before.”
Lee Jae-heon unfolded the scenario he had been thinking about while running to meet Police Officer Kim.
Although Police Officer Kim still had little practical experience, he was a police officer and had an excellent ability to understand cases. Although she is not comparable to the main character, receiving unnecessary suspicion from her as a sacrificial character was something that Lee Jae-heon would not like to do.
‘Apart from that, I have to buy favors.’
Jaeheon Lee told the story he had prepared and glanced around discreetly.
Although it was dark like a cave, this was not a cave. A dome where thick and thin trees are intertwined like mangroves, and if you look closely, you can see plausible patterns and rules.
This was a pavilion that had been distorted due to fading. A rest area installed in the park.
Lee Jae-heon, who had studied the map of the park before being eaten by the underworld, knew the location of this pavilion. Of course, there were a lot of changes due to the influence of Lee Mye-hwa, but the basic location was similar, and this is where Police Officer Kim and other main characters in the novel were located.
Even while running away from the green algae monster, he came to this pavilion while looking at the surrounding structures.
“…Is there anyone else with you?”
“Oh, there was. “One of them was away for a moment, and the other one… I don’t know.”
“It’s probably something that can’t be helped, given the circumstances.”
One person who left his seat is probably the main character, an old man, and the other person is probably the detective who entered the underworld with Police Officer Kim.
For your information, the reason Lee Jae-heon tried to buy Police Officer Kim’s favor was because of Detective Lee.
Since it’s only been a day since it fell into the secret world, it seems like there’s no one there, but since the detective led the survivors, this place has become a base.
And that detective was a very bad asshole.
‘In my mind and body.’
More precisely, it was bad for my survival and prosperity.
When considering whether the detective himself is good or evil, he is better than anyone else. He has an outstanding sense of duty as a detective and tries to take responsibility for the safety of ordinary citizens. If a superior is corrupt, he can pretend not to know and then stab him from behind and send him into the abyss.
“That Mr. Lee Jae-heon…?”
“I also have company.”
The only problem is that the detective had the instinct to recognize criminals.
“We broke up for a while because the monster caught us by our ankles.”
Of course, it is a hunch without any basis, and it is not possible to present that hunch in court.
However, the detective was a talented person who arrested numerous criminals with one amazing intuition, and although he did not blindly trust that intuition, he also had the flexibility to utilize it 100%.
Thanks to this, Jaeheon Lee was going to follow that intuition. With a very high probability.
“But it will be okay. “They are smart people, so they will be there when we return.”
“…Jae-heon Lee is protecting those people. He’s not in good shape either…” “It’s only
natural that the most sane person takes responsibility for the sane ones.”
He said with a faint smile.
“So there won’t be any problem.”
