Chapter 2 Part 2: First Day

Early dawn. I glanced at Haran as she yawned and stretched, getting up.

“Hwaaaahm…”

“Did you sleep well?”

“You’re up early.”

“I don’t sleep much to begin with.”

The bright neon signs that illuminated the dawn like midday had disappeared, and the sun peeked out as if to replace them.

How long had it been since I had looked up at the sky in a place like this?

I was absentmindedly lost in sentiment, gazing at the night view all day long.

“The night is truly beautiful here. Maybe it’s because of the lights.”

Which night view wasn’t? But the night view I saw today was particularly special and beautiful.

Was it because it was the first night view I had seen in my hometown after returning after decades, or was it because of the unique scenery that was different from the night views I usually saw?

I don’t really know what the answer is.

It had been quite a while since I had indulged in such useless sentiments.

Back in those days when I had to do anything to survive in the city, even indulging in these sentiments was a luxury.

“Today, you’re taking me to that Awakened Association, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Then let’s go without delay.”

“Pardon? Aren’t you going to eat?”

Eat?

I blankly repeated the word.

I didn’t know how long it had been since someone had offered me a meal.

The guys who lived in the city knew that I didn’t need to eat anything.

They would tell me to eat fuel rods instead of eating a meal, but no one would offer me a meal like this.

“…Don’t you want to?”

“No, no. Let’s eat.”

Haran’s words that she would prepare it quickly were not a lie, and she came out of the kitchen with something in less than ten minutes.

On the table were a simple fried egg and some grilled spam.

As I stared blankly at the table, was she ashamed of her poverty?

Haran blushed and apologized to me.

“I-I’m sorry. It’s too simple, right?”

“Ah, it’s not that. It’s just been so long.”

“…It’s been a long time?”

“I used to eat it often. Eggs and spam.”

In that trash-like city, there were hardly any opportunities to taste these things.

Most of them were artificially produced synthetic meat or scraps of grass.

It was rare to be able to eat animal byproducts like this.

…Although it’s true that I don’t need to eat anything, I still need to replenish energy.

I decided to express my gratitude willingly.

“Thank you. I’ll enjoy the meal.”

“Ah, it’ll be hot…”

Waang.

I put a few pieces of freshly grilled spam into my mouth.

At the same time, an intense salty taste and a meat scent that couldn’t be called luxurious even as a compliment swept through my taste sensors.

‘…Salty.’

“Of course it is. If you eat only spam like that…”

In the entertainment I saw in the past, it was said that eating food with old memories like this was delicious.

The writers who wrote such things were definitely either brain damaged or had their tongues torn out.

Delicious, my foot. It’s just damn salty.

…Well, the taste was just okay, but it wasn’t bad.

It felt like reminiscing about old memories.

As I put the last of my fried egg in my mouth and stared at Haran, Haran quickly finished her share as if she felt some kind of pressure.

“T-then, shall we go! To the Awakened Association!”

“Okay.”

As if to announce that the incident from the previous night was not a dream, the front door was crumpled.

Haran contorted her face at the sight, but when I looked at her, she smiled brightly as if it was nothing.

…Even this appearance was refreshing.

If this had happened in Neo City, everyone would have made a fuss demanding compensation for the repair costs no matter what.

Despite the direct damage to herself, she didn’t argue with me, but instead left the house to help me, which was incredibly refreshing.

“What kind of place is the Awakened Association?”

“Um… It’s a public institution. After the gate incident, some people gained special abilities. It’s a place to manage those people.”

“Is that so?”

“They mainly classify the grade according to the output of the ability, or classify what kind of ability it is. Returnees also all get checked at the Awakened Association.”

“I roughly understand.”

A small number of people have gained some kind of special power, and the state has set up an organization to monitor them in order to keep them in check.

Maybe they’ll also give requests to those awakened guys, right?

Places where capable people gather usually do that.

‘And the association also issues requests when gates or related accidents occur.’

“I knew it.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

People are the same everywhere.

Even if it’s a different world, does that mean that people’s thoughts don’t change easily?

Although I had returned, I felt like I could easily adapt to my old hometown, which had completely changed from before.

How many minutes had passed as I followed her through the unfamiliar streets?

In front of a large building whose size could be roughly guessed even from afar, she stopped.

“Is this it?”

“Yes, that’s right. The Awakened Association.”

“It’s quite big.”

“It’s a place where many people gather. …Then, shall we go in?”

“Sure.”

Her assessment that many people gathered was not exaggerated at all.

Inside the large building, many people were gathered separately doing their own work, but it seemed that there was no unity at all.

Unlike me, who was curious about those people and looked around, Haran, as if she was already familiar with it, moved her feet and approached a person who seemed to be a receptionist.

“Hello. I’m here to register a new person.”

“Is that so? Then the documents over here…”

“No, it’s not me, it’s this person. She’s a returnee.”

“…A returnee?”

“Yes.”

Buzzing.

As the story of the returnee came out, people started looking this way.

I feel like a monkey in a zoo.

“Excuse me, what’s your name…?”

“Ella.”

“

We don’t have such a person in our database. Excuse me, if it’s the name you used in another world, Ella… I’m sorry.
Can you tell us the name you originally used?”

The name I originally used.

It had already been more than decades since then, so I might not have remembered it, but this body had uselessly good memory, so I could still remember it clearly.

“Lee Soo-hyun. I was a college student back then.”

“Just a moment. …Huh?”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“No, well… According to the data, there is one college student named Lee Soo-hyun who disappeared during the gate incident in that age group…”

The receptionist looked back and forth between the computer and my face as if she couldn’t believe it.

And, she asked me in a trembling voice.

“P-possibly… a male…?”

“I was.”

“What? I, was I a man?!”

“You’re a woman. At least now.”

“…?…?!”

“Why are you so surprised? Isn’t this a trivial matter?”

Can’t people change their bodies?

Of course, considering that most people follow the gender they were born with, it was a bit unusual that I had become a woman.

But in the city I lived in, people who had changed their gender weren’t even considered unique.

Only a few crazy people were trying to survive as they were born there.

Most people wanted to change their bodies no matter what, and among them were guys who gave up their appearance for performance, and just plain crazy weirdos.

The story of a crazy guy with a bomb in his head was famous.

I don’t know what he’s doing now. If he gets shot in the head, he’ll just explode, but is he still alive?

Ah, come to think of it, there was also a guy who carved out his heart and decorated it with tempered glass to show the public that there were still people in the city with beating hearts.

That guy died when the glass protecting his heart shattered during a firefight, and his heart was stabbed by glass shards.

He was a real madman.

Compared to those guys, I was just an ordinary person.

All my limbs are intact, and my appearance is no different from that of a person.

“I, is that so. Anyway, your identity has been confirmed. …Shall I re-register your identity under the name Ella?”

“Yeah. Do that for me. I’m more used to this body now.”

“I was so surprised. I’ve heard that some returnees have physical changes, but I never thought I’d actually see it…”

“Is that so?”

To be honest, I wasn’t aware that this wasn’t Neo City. Seeing the two people’s reactions, I was finally able to realize that this was my hometown.

In the city, this level of peculiarity was just brushed off as ‘okay’.

“Ah, do you have any family?”

‘…I’m sorry. They don’t exist in the data.”

“Ah, it’s okay. I didn’t expect it anyway.”

I knew it, they’re dead.

I thought so.

There’s no way they could have survived in that place.

I was just lucky enough to go to another world and survive.

“Oo…”

“Why are you so depressed? Don’t worry too much. It’s hard to live in this world if you care so much about a few people dying.”

I haven’t fully grasped how my hometown has changed yet, but I could easily guess that it wasn’t in good shape.

At least in Seoul when I lived, there were no guys who openly claimed to be criminal organizations roaming around, even in the middle of the night.

…It was a little strange that there was a guy who cared about people like this, even though he lived in such a shantytown.