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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 478
“Mr. Hyun-seo, you look to be in a good mood today.”
‘Had I been smiling without realizing it? The counselor’s eyes were on .’
“Sothing good happened?”
“Oh, yes. Well… it’s nothing specific. Lately I just feel like everything’s turning out right.”
“Hah. That’s the first ti I’ve seen you like this.”
I scratched my cheek instead of answering.
Because it’s true.
Before I fell into the coma, my life had been a wreck.
College was aningless—I had no friends, no one to contact. I spent entire days barricaded in my room, lost in full-imrsion VR gas.
Even when circumstances forced to step outside, there was no joy. No goals. No desires. Unhappiness was inevitable.
But everything had changed. Completely.
“By the way, how are things with that club you ntioned joining?”
“Really well. Everyone’s been kind, helping adjust. I’ve been working hard to learn.”
Right before returning to school, I joined a club. That was thanks to my neighbor, Yoo Si-hyun—the one who’d invited out for a al.
That day over lunch, we talked and discovered that we not only attended the sa university, but also shared a passion: films.
She was already active in a campus film club. Listening to her talk about it, I’d been intrigued… and ended up joining.
It was the first club I’d ever been part of in my life.
“I hadn’t realized you were interested in movies. Perhaps your mother’s influence?”
“Actually, I’ve never discussed that with my mother. If anything, my father was the one most interested.”
My mother was an actress—famous enough that nearly anyone would recognize her na. But in our ho, she never spoke about acting or her roles.
My love for classic horror and sci-fi films ca entirely from my father.
“Why not use this chance to talk about it with her?”
“I don’t know. She’s never shown any interest before. I doubt it would be any different now.”
“But you didn’t expect yourself to change, did you? I’m sure she’d understand.”
To imagine discussing hobbies with my mother once, that idea would’ve sounded absurd. Now, though, sohow it felt possible.
“If there’s sothing you want, give it a try. Don’t be afraid of how it might turn out.”
It was the sort of vague advice that usually sounded empty, but for so reason… it struck ho.
Everything really was going well lately. Every wish I’d made was being granted, as though so god had decided to humor .
Of course, that was impossible.
Maybe the truth was simpler, just as he said: the real problem was always my outlook. Always seeing the worst, always giving up before I even started.
At least now, things were finally improving.
Thanks to counseling, I was healing.
“Well, let’s wrap up here. Do you have any questions before we end?”
“Yes. About the dication—how long will I need to keep taking it?”
The thought had struck suddenly as I was about to stand.
“It’s been a long ti since I last had a hallucination. Wouldn’t it be fine to stop by now?”
“Ah… I see what you an.”
The counsellor shook his head with a troubled look.
“It’s not that simple. Even if the symptoms improve, stopping abruptly is dangerous. If they relapse, treatnt becos even harder.”
“I see.”
“Besides, the dication also contains ingredients for anxiety relief. If we want to address not only the hallucinations but your anxiety itself, you’ll need to continue.”
It was a fair point. I did feel calr every ti I took the pills.
“So don’t skip your doses. Understood?”
“Yes.”
So far, everything my counselor had suggested had proven right. I collected my prescription quietly and returned ho.
‘Looks like I’ve got a little ti to spare.’
On days I had scheduled dical checkups, I always left the rest of my afternoon free. Until the club seminar that evening, I had nothing to do.
Sitting idly at my desk, I caught sight of the VR headset lying nearby—the one I hadn’t touched since waking from the coma.
Funny. Back then, I wore it more often than I took it off.
I used to all but live inside Space Survival. Sleep was the only ti I logged out.
I picked up the headgear-shaped device.
Maybe I should try logging in again, see what’s changed.
I slipped it on. With a startup chi, the familiar interface flickered into view. I selected Space Survival from the nu.
But instead of the sweeping orchestral the and main-title screen, a simple text box greeted .
‘…Service terminated?’
So the ga had actually died in the ti I’d been gone.
It wasn’t too surprising. Space Survival had been a clunky, outdated ss from the start, riddled with absurd chanics. With so many competitors, survival was unlikely.
‘Co to think of it, didn’t they announce a sequel?’
I even rembered getting an email about participating in the closed beta.
In fact… hadn’t I accepted? The mory was hazy, but I recalled launching the ga after that acceptance—
‘Wait… what was that?’
A strange mory surfaced, then evaporated. Sothing crucial. Sothing I absolutely should not forget.
‘What was I just rembering?’
I tried to grasp it again, but it slipped away like the fragnts of a dream upon waking. Only the feeling remained—that I had once received an enormously important invitation.
I yanked off the headset and dug through my old emails. Nothing. Whatever I thought I rembered simply wasn’t there.
‘Was it all in my head?’
There wasn’t a single trace. Nothing but a faint afterimage in my mind, and the emotion it had left behind—disquiet. A wordless warning, as if so primal instinct urged : don’t forget.
I tore through the online forums, every community I could find. No ntion, no record of a closed beta, no discussion of that email.
‘But I’m sure it was real. Sowhere… it has to be.’
I plunged deeper into the search, scrolling, clicking, racing from site to site—when suddenly, there was a knock at my door.
It was Si-hyun.
“Huh?”
Dang. A glance at my phone made jolt upright. The ti had flown, far more than I realized. A ssage from her already waited: Let’s head to the seminar together.
Frantically, I got ready and opened the door. She stood there, neatly dressed, polished—
“Hyun-seo oppa, are you alright? Why didn’t you answer ?”
“Oh—sorry. I was busy with sothing and missed it.”
“Today was your hospital visit, wasn’t it? Is it… your health?”
“No, it’s fine. Let’s just go.”
We stepped out together.
“You know, usually this is the kind of thing guys are supposed to say to girls.”
“You told yourself—our film club doesn’t see gender, only cinephiles.”
“That’s not how the phrase is supposed to work.”
“You had worried for nothing.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Anyway. Are you free this weekend?”
“This weekend? I’ll probably just stay ho.”
“Then let’s go shopping for clothes together. It’s autumn soon.”
“…Clothes? With ?”
“Mm-hm.”
“To be honest, I really don’t know much about that stuff.”
“Relax. I’ll handle it. Think of it as your junior carefully picking outfits for her respected senior.”
“Uh… alright then.”
Before I could think it through, I’d agreed. Her lips curved in a small, pleased smile.
‘Shopping. Together. For clothes? Why…?’
Was it just because we were neighbors? Was this normal? I’d been so isolated from people, I didn’t even know anymore.
‘She can’t an it like… a date, right?’
I liked her, sure. But that didn’t an she felt the sa. Maybe she really just wanted company while she picked out outfits.
‘Except… couldn’t she go with her other friends for that? Why ?’
My head churned with endless theories until I was dizzy.
So dizzy that everything strange about what had happened at ho—the mory, the missing email, that visceral warning—slipped from my mind completely.
***
I opened my eyes, and there was nothing but blackness.
A space filled only with darkness. The instant I saw it, I knew: I was dreaming.
As if to prove that fact, the black expanse shifted. It rippled like the trembling surface of so fathomless lake.
And then—sothing subrged within that gloom rose to the surface.
A colossal head erged, crowned with horns and shelled in heavy plates of chitin. Its monstrous features looked like sothing out of a nightmare.
But I felt no fear. Only a deep sense of familiarity. Because I knew what it was.
The Amorph.
In Space Survival, it was the creature I loved most. That monster lifted its gaze, vast eyes the size of a human head fixing directly on .
That gaze stirred déjà vu. Sohow, I had stood in this place before.
Without thinking, I reached out my hand. I knew—if this were like before—the Amorph would lower its head into my palm.
But this ti, it didn’t move. Instead, it bared its teeth and growled, as though protesting.
A protest? The thought unsettled .
No one cherished the Amorph more than I had. No one. That’s why only I had raised one all the way to Ascension.
And yet—to feel resentnt aid at , its dearest companion… impossible.
As if sensing those thoughts, the beast opened its jaws in a silent roar.
But it wasn’t anger. It wasn’t hostility. It was a warning. A desperate wake up.
And then I saw it.
Beneath the Amorph’s looming head, another figure swam up from the gloom.
A small, pink jellyfish-like being. One I knew well.
It called out frantically—
｢Big One!｣
“Urk?!”
Agony tore out of the dream.
I shot upright, clutching my skull. An extre headache crushed down as though trying to force into forgetting what I had just seen.
Yet even through the pain, a single thought burned in my mind.
“Why…?”
‘Why am I only realizing this now?’
All this ti, in this very room, a presence had been crying out for .
The pink, many-eyed creature I had dismissed, feared, and rejected.
It was never a hallucination.
No. It was my first companion in Space Survival.
My precious family.
“…Number 26!”
The mont I whispered its na, the darkness claid , and consciousness fled.
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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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