Episode 337
“Ugh…”
This may be random, but I felt dirty every time I had a lucid dream.
“It’s hard to make a living.”
I often click my tongue when I see people saying they want to have a lucid dream. Isn’t it possible to say that because you don’t know how crazy tired you feel when you wake up after not being able to sleep deeply and waking up from a dream? Jaeheon Lee personally did not like the act of dreaming.
The place where he is sitting is none other than a garden with no one around.
“Fuck.”
Now he was lucid dreaming again.
“When will this end?”
It was fine when I was in reality, but after returning to the other world, I kept having these lucid dreams. Unfortunately, it seems that the quick-witted Azalea had already caught it, but that didn’t mean she could tell anyone about it.
‘What kind of help can you get from informing people?’
Unless there was a situation where he absolutely had to tell, he wouldn’t have opened his mouth first.
In the first place, the dream was entirely Lee Jae-heon’s responsibility. If I tried to tell this to the young chicks who were already in tatters, it was obvious that they would only blame themselves and say, ‘I can’t believe I can’t solve the manager’s problem.’ Even so, Bisilji couldn’t give the survivors one more thing to worry about.
‘…Oh, I think Ha Seong-yoon was sleeping nearby. So, since the chances of getting caught are high anyway, should we pretend to be weaker? In a way, these lucid dreams may make the survivors’ actions more efficient…’
Moreover, these lucid dreams did not just cause discomfort.
“Where should I move?”
In his lucid dream, the environment of the other world was created as is.
It was so vivid that, except for the fact that there were no other monsters in sight except the final boss, it could almost be said to be a side world before going to sleep. I don’t know how I dream like this, but there was no more efficient way for me to understand my surroundings on my own.
If he had to look around when he was awake, there would be people who would try to stop him like Woo Woo-young before. This was the perfect condition for Lee Jae-heon, who did not want to carry around the burden of being a chick.
‘If it were normal, he would have just died…’
After entering the secret world for the second time, when he dreamed about the author who created this world, Jaeheon Lee’s body was wandering somewhere in the mountains behind him, even though he was clearly asleep. The sleepwalking-like behavior that was clearly revealed made the chicks anxious, and Lee Jae-heon, who was burdened by it, repeatedly died from oxygen deficiency while he was dreaming.
But now there was no time to fool around like that. In any case, this dream was also one of the means that Jaeheon Lee could utilize, so he had to finish the plan quickly before more time passed and the survivors became entrenched in this situation.
“…There’s no way the keyring monster is the final boss, right?”
Lee Jae-heon left the garden, muttering absurd hopes.
‘I’m worried that my body will move randomly like last time, but I checked that yesterday, so it’ll be fine. I was worried that my body would move randomly
like it did when I dreamed about my wife, but I had already confirmed that my body did not move last night. I thought maybe the last time I had a dream about my wife was an exceptional situation.
Lee Jae-heon, who promised himself that he would not scratch his neck while he was sleeping like he did in the park, took strides forward. The place he was heading to was none other than the mountain behind him.
“It has been implemented up to this point.”
I also felt this in the park, but this lucid dream was exactly the same as the other world, except there were no monsters or people. If it weren’t for the strange sense of unreality and haziness, Lee Jae-heon would have even forgotten that he had fallen asleep.
Lee Jae-heon gently touched the wounds that the plaster monsters had inflicted on the trees in the mountain behind.
“…As expected, there are no other monsters in sight.”
He wanted to check how the keyring monster worked, but perhaps because the keyring monster was not the final boss, it did not materialize in his lucid dream. It was a pity for Lee Jae-heon, who knew that this was not just a dream, but something that made it connected to the outside of the dream.
‘In the past, I felt comfortable because the green algae monster seemed to be talked about both in dreams and outside of dreams.’
It may have been Jaeheon Lee’s own illusion, but the green algae monster in the park seemed to remember what had happened in Jaeheon Lee’s lucid dream. Likewise, if the Keyring Monster had been implemented in his lucid dream, he would have been able to know how he uses his speech ability and under what conditions he is stimulated.
“If this happens, the only way to confirm it is in reality.”
I don’t know the exact abilities of the key ring monster, so I couldn’t just attack it without knowing the exact abilities of the fire monster. Although the table of contents was roughly drawn up, this operation required delicate control from Lee Jae-heon himself. Jaeheon Lee wanted to know more about the monster that would play the villain.
“…Then this is it for now.”
He wiped the corners of his mouth and carefully scanned the traces of plaster monsters left in every corner of the mountain behind him.
“Hmm…”
Lee Jae-heon checked them with a snort and was able to get a rough idea of the appearance of the plaster monsters that shook this mountain. I had already guessed to some extent from the description given by Park Da-hoon, but apart from that, the definition given by Jae-heon Lee himself had no choice but to be more firm.
“Are they defective?”
The trails were really varied. Traces of the body being dragged, traces of a hand with a missing leg or tilted balance, traces of the same entity hitting the tree dozens of times, perhaps due to lack of visibility, etc. There were so many traces that they could not be defined as one, but if there was one thing they had in common, it was that there was a defect in at least one place.
Park Da-hoon, who was the only one in the last episode to witness the plaster monsters that shook the mountain behind him with his own eyes, said that they were probably the mannequin monsters that existed the last time he visited Unhak High School. I don’t know how he ended up walking around outside the school like this, but…
“…”
Lee Jae-heon left the mountain behind, passed in front of Eonhak High School, and walked around the shopping district.
‘If we keep going like this and find one more monster to escape, it’ll be good for us.’
The trace he was looking for right now was a vague entity that may or may not really exist, but even if no results were obtained, there was still something to be gained. Considering that the only green algae monster appeared in my lucid dream the last time I stayed at the park, this means that the monster that appears in my dream is either the final boss with a high probability or a type of monster that can be linked and communicated with reality.
If you were to blindly explore the surroundings like this and find even one monster, it would be beneficial even if you didn’t find one. Wouldn’t it be possible to check whether there are more final bosses nearby?
“…oh.”
In this way, Jaeheon Lee was able to obtain meaningful results.
“I couldn’t find the final boss, but it’s good as is.”
Traces of plaster monsters were found in the shopping mall.
There were traces of extremely distressed monsters, similar to those that Lee Jae-heon had just seen on the mountain behind them, spread throughout the shopping mall. Lee Jae-heon walked around some more, remembering in his head where this trace was.
“….”
And the conclusion was this.
“…It seems like they come out of the school and die at random times…”
I don’t know what process these monsters go through, but the so-called defective products go on a rampage for a while towards random destinations at random times. Like mayflies, they die alone. Da-hoon Park says it turned into powder and scattered away, but I’m not sure about that.
In this case, it seemed like it had something to do with the broken plaster statues that blew off Kang Min-ah’s wrists that we saw inside Unhak High School in the last episode.
“Are these body parts of the monsters that came out of the school like this?”
It occurred to me that the guy who left his head inside the school might be walking around outside the school without his hands, and the guy who left his head without his hands. I still don’t know what process went through to cause this strange phenomenon to occur.
“If this is the case, you might need to be a little more careful.”
After looking around, it seemed like this phenomenon occurred periodically after a certain period of time. The period seemed quite long, but even so, the places where the monsters would rampage were too random.
‘If a monster comes near the apartment while I’m working, there might be some trouble…’
Lee Jae-heon, who had thought about that, blinked.
“…is not it? Well, there’s a high probability that it will take place inside the apartment… so there’s no way you’ll be able to get inside there. “If you don’t plan to expand beyond the apartment, you might not need to worry too much.”
Lee Jae-heon, who had figured it out, moved from the shopping center to the front of the school again.
“I’d like to go in there sometime.”
Lee Jae-heon himself was tired and had never entered a dungeon itself while in a lucid dream, so he didn’t try it, but as the situation progressed, he wanted to explore the inside of Unhak High School.
That is, if only the final boss is reflected in one’s dream…
‘If only one monster is identified inside Eonhak High School, it means that it is the final boss.’
The problem was that if the rules of the other world were reflected in lucid dreams, Lee Jae-heon himself would suffer great losses.
“How long will it take for me to explore that large school by myself?”
According to the rules, students could not move freely at Unhak High School unless there was a team member waiting for them. Even the time I could go outside of school was limited, so I couldn’t explore Unhak High School in a lucid dream without any preparation.
‘I’ll have to come back later when I’ve laid enough groundwork.’
After completing the most basic information collection, Lee Jae-heon returned to the garden.
“…Where was my seat….”
I spent too much time in a lucid dream trying to find out if there was someone who could be a variable.
Now it was time to wake up.
* * *
“Mr. Lee Jae-heon.”
“….”
“…Go ahead.”
When Lee Jae-heon saw Ha Seong-yoon’s face looking down at him, he couldn’t hold it in for a moment and burst out laughing.
Fuck, I finally got caught.
“You’re angry.”
“I guess so.”
“I’m big… what did you say I did?”
“The way you smile makes me think you know.”
“Ha….”
Lee Jae-heon sighed with laughter and touched Ha Seong-yoon’s hand that was covering his neck.
“Oh my, did it hurt?”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, teacher.”
Ha Seong-yoon wiped the nervous smile from his face and removed his hand from Lee Jae-heon’s neck. Lee Jae-heon, who slowly raised his upper body, could see that Ha Seong-yoon’s hand had turned red. However, since Jae-heon Lee also had a conscience and did not react at all, he decided to make an apologetic expression.
Lee Jae-heon muttered with a mixture of regret and embarrassment.
“I didn’t know it would happen again…”
It was a complete lie.
‘How could you not know that this was the method of suicide you chose because you knew it would happen like this?’
Ha Seong-yoon, who did not know Lee Jae-heon’s true intentions, sighed deeply and said.
“I’m asking again, what do you think is causing this? “Even my crazy friend doesn’t do this.”
“I guess it means I have more experience in the behind-the-scenes world than him.”
“I’m going crazy and jumping around because I can’t analyze the hidden world scientifically or mathematically like modern medicine.”
Ha Seong-yoon slowly drew a smile on his lips.
“I think about this every time, but… this is no place for a doctor.”
“….”
“Isn’t that so? “Because there is nothing I know and nothing I can do.”
“Ha Seong-yoon.”
“You must have had trouble sleeping, so get some rest.”
With those words, Ha Seong-yoon rolled over on his side and went to sleep. The breathing was regular, but the intermittent movement of the eyeballs above the eyelids made it seem like the doctor had fallen asleep quickly.
Lee Jae-heon, who saw him coming out towards the bonfire rather than the makeshift building, opened his mouth.
“…Okay, I need to rest.”
I need to get back to reality quickly.
(Continued in the next part)
