The forest was an unknown forest, and the air had a density he had never breathed before.
A hologram floated before the boy's eyes.
A System UI of the same kind, Dong Bongsu already knew.
[Loading of the new map is complete.]
"...."
The boy took a step forward.
He did not stop his feet, but began to walk along the path that ran through the forest.
One step, two steps.
With each continuing step, the forest changed.
The trees changed, and the angle of the light changed.
As if a film was cutting and splicing, there were black gaps between scenes, but his feet did not stop, and each time he crossed a gap, the boy's height had changed.
His shoulders gradually broadened, the baby fat left his face, and his stride also lengthened.
The forest became a mountain path, the mountain path became a field, and the field again became a river.
The rising and setting of the sun overlapped rapidly.
Then, at some point, the tip of his nose tingled.
The smell of grass mixed with the unfamiliar night air, the kind one could only smell on a road with no one else around.
It was a sense that was not his own, so he could neither filter it out nor get used to it.
Kim Rae-won's sense of smell simply lingered at the tip of Dong Bongsu's nose.
It was the same for all his other five senses.
He could not sympathize with them, but they were engraved like a seal upon Dong Bongsu's consciousness as Kim Rae-won's own.
And beyond the five senses, a strange sensation.
No, should I call it an emotion?
'Is this what loneliness is?'
He did not know for sure.
He had never felt it in his entire life.
What was tied to this smell for the boy named Kim Rae-won?
Emotion, feeling, whatever it was, he could only surmise that it was something like that.
But beneath the loneliness, there was something deeper.
The center of his chest was pulled.
His body was being drawn somewhere, but he did not know the direction.
The desire to return.
The reason this boy walked was not for wandering.
It was to find a home.
It was to find the way back.
Longing.
It was a feeling Dong Bongsu did not have.
He could not process it.
He didn't know where to classify it or how to digest it.
It just remained, pooled in his chest.
His walking feet quickened.
Kim Rae-won, who had already become an adult, was charging towards someone.
A sword was in the man's hand, blood splattered, and the villagers wept.
He saved them.
He turned away.
He walked again.
The same scene, with subtly different faces, overlapped and rushed in.
The saved village was devoured, torn apart, and violated by another bastard...
Was that all?
A man whose life was saved turned around and did the same thing.
Each time, the man saved, turned away, and walked forward again.
No matter how many heroic deeds Kim Rae-won performed system-wise, the evil nature of people did not improve.
Yet, his feet did not stop.
That was what lay at the foundation of the human being named Kim Rae-won.
Then, those feet finally stopped.
For the first time.
It was a wide training ground.
The data was incomplete here and there, with blurry parts or sections filled with numbers, but it was clearly a practice area for martial artists.
From all sides, martial artists holding swords were looking up at one place.
Standing in the middle was a man in a school uniform.
His shoulders had broadened, and he had grown taller, but his clothes were still a navy blazer.
Bloodstains were soaked into it in places.
His skin was pressed down.
It was the weight of their gazes.
The eyes pouring from all directions pressed down on his shoulders, but within them was not just hostility.
A fair amount of awe was mixed in as well.
It was an unfamiliar sensation.
For Dong Bongsu, it was quite a familiar feeling, but for Kim Rae-won, this weight seemed to be a first.
Seeing as a part of his chest sank heavily.
'So this is the Orthodox Assembly Gathering.'
He already knew that name from the surface data of the archive.
A Murim martial arts tournament held irregularly by the Ten Great Sects of the Orthodox Faction.
It was there that this man first earned a title.
An alien power that did not belong to any martial arts system of the Orthodox Faction.
The awe and caution contained in the character 'Monster'.
Across the training ground, two others with an aura of a similar texture to his own were standing.
Their faces were not visible.
However, a gut feeling that they were of the same kind rushed in through Kim Rae-won's senses, and Dong Bongsu experienced it as it was.
The feeling that he might not be alone.
The two who had been standing across from him came to his side.
The color of the panorama changed.
It was the clearest segment so far.
Among the surface layers with only 12% damage, the light was exceptionally bright.
The most intact fragment remaining from the entire 21 years.
There were three sets of footsteps.
They were walking side by side.
Their strides were different, and their weights were different, but their speed was the same.
A gait that wasn't being matched, but was already in sync.
The area around his shoulder grew warm.
There was no one next to him, yet his body temperature rose.
Kim Rae-won's memory was fully conveying the physical sensation.
The temperature of the air changing just by having someone next to him.
The density of emotion, completely different from when he walked alone.
One set of footsteps was heavy and leisurely.
"This is a good day for a walk."
It was a meaningless comment.
Talk about the weather.
Those words were the clearest sound remaining in this panorama.
The fact that the brightest fragment from the entire 21 years was talk about the weather.
The name Ha Gyeong-un was in the surface data.
So was the name Yeop Bihwa.
'Are these the ones called the Three Monsters, including Kim Rae-won?'
The three of them were walking side by side.
There were no special scenes other than walking.
They weren't fighting, nor were they accomplishing anything.
They were just three people standing on the same path.
Dong Bongsu did not react.
He simply experienced the influx of sensations.
But he could clearly tell that this segment was different from the others.
What rushed in was not a coolness or a tingling.
It was not the longing that pulled at his insides either.
It was warmth.
There was no need to classify what it was.
It was enough to recognize that the area around his left shoulder was warm, and that this warmth was not his own.
The warmth in that area cooled down.
The footsteps beside him grew distant one by one.
Three became two, and two became one.
The color began to drain from the panorama...
He was alone again.
The cycle of being doubted or betrayed, even when he performed righteous deeds, returned.
It was the same pattern as before, but the quality was different.
It wasn't powerlessness but resignation, and within that resignation was mixed a resolve.
He knew that he couldn't get stronger through the system.
That there were no other Karma Root Tribe members, no matter how much he searched.
What remained after accepting the fact that he was alone.
Still, he had to go on.
He had to break through the Floating Island, even if it was alone.
A bitter taste spread in his mouth.
Dong Bongsu's tongue was experiencing what Kim Rae-won must have felt.
But his feet did not stop.
They were the same feet as before, but their texture was different.
At first, they were feet searching for a path, then they were feet jumping in to save others, then they stopped once at the training ground, then they walked side by side as three, and now, they were feet that walked even without a path.
His chest was pulled again.
That sensation, which had first rushed in during the time he only walked alone, came for a second time.
It had grown deeper.
It was something Dong Bongsu didn't have, so he still couldn't process or digest it.
It just continued to pool more and more.
His pace was quickening.
Scenes brushed past, overlapping like thin sheets of paper.
Then, the interface reacted.
Kim Rae-won was using something.
A scene of him using a skill.
Light stretched from his hand, but the scene itself was broken, so he couldn't see what skill it was.
[Previous User Skill Record Detected — Restoration Impossible]
The skill name was partially broken, the letters smudged.
He tried to read it, but it couldn't be restored.
『███'s ██ (Hero's █████)』
He could tell the first word was 'Hero' by looking at the English part.
The latter part was black as if painted over with ink.
The scene was fragmented.
The before and after of the skill's use were missing, and only a piece from the middle remained.
Kim Rae-won was kneeling.
It seemed to be right after a battle.
His clothes were torn and soaked with blood, but his posture was not that of a fighter.
Both knees on the ground, head slightly bowed, two hands clasped over his chest.
'A prayer...?'
Light formed over his hands.
It was a light of the same family as the Faith Arrow, but its form was completely different.
It didn't shoot out like an arrow.
It bloomed from his chest, enveloped Kim Rae-won, and within it, a light returned as if in response.
A structure of giving and receiving.
The texture of the light changed.
Kim Rae-won's lips were moving.
He was speaking.
The sound wasn't restored, so he couldn't hear what was said, but the shape of his mouth was clearly a conversation.
Not a monologue, but speaking to someone.
And in front of him.
The last remaining fragment just before the scene tore apart.
There was a form within the light.
The face was broken and couldn't be seen.
But he could make out the posture.
It was leaning slightly toward Kim Rae-won.
The posture of a person listening.
Dong Bongsu's consciousness stopped.
He tried to ponder the meaning of this memory, but the scene shattered into pieces.
[Previous User Skill Data — Damage Rate 89%]
[Restorable Information: Classification [Advanced][Non-Combat][Faith Type] / Unlock Condition — ███]
Only the classification remained.
Advanced.
Non-combat.
Faith type.
He was just able to read a part of it by momentarily piecing together the already shattered fragments of text.: When the hero genuinely ████, the goddess's ██ will—
Although most of the information was broken and shattered, making it unknowable, Dong Bongsu was certain by instinct.
That he had to remember this information.
While he was planting this part into his consciousness.
Kim Rae-won's steps blurred.
His feet became invisible.
The panorama cracked to the point where he couldn't tell if he was walking or standing.
[Warning: Data integrity below the middle layer not guaranteed]
The clear footsteps, the talk of weather, the warmth in his chest—all of it receded beyond the cracked glass.
The panorama of memory shattered.
Before he knew it, darkness became the default.
How much time had passed like that?
If he were to calculate backward based on Kim Rae-won's senses, he estimated that about 3 to 4 years had passed.
Something collided with him in the darkness.
A wind brushing his left cheek.
The kind left behind after a blade passes.
Followed by an impact on his right shoulder.
The sensation of being pushed by someone.
A shout pouring from behind his back.
It wasn't a language.
A fragment of a syllable cut off before he could even understand its meaning.
The ground split beneath his feet, the sky overturned, and the smell of blood pierced his nose before vanishing.
Immediately after, he was running on sand.
No, he was falling from a cliff.
No, was he underwater?
Fragments rushed in.
Without order, without context.
It was the deep layer of the archive.
A world with a damage rate of 81%.
Instead of much remaining, what did remain poured in from all directions at once, unorganized.
If he tried to grasp it, it shattered.
The moment he reached out his hand, it scattered like shards of glass, and only darkness remained in the place where it had scattered.
Dong Bongsu did not try to grasp it.
He left it as it brushed past.
Each time they collided and passed by, Kim Rae-won's senses briefly flared and disappeared.
Fear, anger, relief, emptiness, caution, pain.
He could name the emotions, but he couldn't know from what situations they arose.
Because the context was broken.
Only effects without causes brushed past his consciousness.
In the midst of that, one thing caught.
It lasted a little longer than the other fragments.
An image remained for a few seconds before completely shattering.
It was night.
Kim Rae-won was sprawled on the ground.
His breathing was ragged as if it would stop, and one of his arms was bent.
The aura of those standing before him was different from that of Murim.
The texture of qi was based on a Spiritual Root.
'It's a Cultivator.'
The sensation rushing from the back of the man crushed beneath that aura was frustration.
He had heard that he could ascend if he became stronger.
That he could reach the Upper Realm if he built up his realm like the Cultivators.
But those very Cultivators were stepping on him.
Those who knew the way back were stepping on the one who wanted to go back....He was still having such a vain delusion.
Something heavy settled inside Dong Bongsu's ribs and then disappeared.
It was an incomprehensible sensation.
If you are stepped on, you get up.
If you are strong, you won't be stepped on.
That is all.
But the dregs of the feeling that this was not all for Kim Rae-won overflowed.
And how could he know that there would be a way to return to Earth even if he went to the Upper Realm?
Dong Bongsu let it flow by without classifying it.
The fragment shattered.
Darkness.
A color brushed by.
It was a mountain summit.
Kim Rae-won was looking up at the sky.
The sky was different from usual.
The color of the light was vastly different.
Through the clouds, something... seemed to be visible...
It was cut off.
Only the recognition of 'strange' brushed past.
He couldn't even distinguish whether it was Kim Rae-won's or Dong Bongsu's own.
The fragment was too short.
In the place where nothing remained, a voice was heard.
It was a woman's voice.
Low and firm.
A voice that wasn't devoid of emotion, but one that suppressed it.
"You can't go up."
The area below his solar plexus was pressed down.
A force pulling down the body that was trying to ascend.
It wasn't weight, but will.
The owner of this voice was blocking him with all her might.
Yet, he went up.
Kim Rae-won broke through this refusal and went to the Boundary Realm.
Leaving the voice that pressed on his chest behind him.
Because he had to go back.
Because he had to go home.
Futile longing had won over reason and the affection he had built up in this place.
The thing that had been pooled in Dong Bongsu's chest moved for a third time.
That sensation, accumulated without being processed since the surface layer.
He still couldn't classify it.
But this time, it was a little clearer.
Darkness again.
Now he could be sure.
That Kim Rae-won's memories and recollections were mixed up in chaos without any chronological order, floating in this abyss.
A more intact piece floated up from among the fragments.
Unlike the other fragments, it endured without shattering.
Kim Rae-won was walking.
It was a mountain path.
Around the middle of the mountain, the aura changed.
The smell of something old.
A mix of moss, ink, and paper.
Before the building came into view, the aura reached him first.
Something closer to a mass of energy than a building occupied the mountainside.
He was in front of a door.
Dialogue was heard through the broken image.
Cut off and smudged.
"...Karma Root... I heard there are records..."
"Qualification..."
"Just to check..."
"...You cannot."
Kim Rae-won's voice and someone else's voice intersected.
A conversation with missing letters and cut-off syllables.
Nevertheless, he could read the meaning.
The records of the Karma Root Tribe are inside here.
I want to see them.
But I don't have the qualification.
The door did not open.
Kim Rae-won turned away.
In his departing back was the feeling of 'next time'.
A firm will to come again next time.
The next time did not come.
Dong Bongsu watched the turning back until the end.
Kim Rae-won was searching for the answer to his own identity.
And he had approached a place where the answer might have been.
Almost to the door.
But he could not open it.
[Unexplored Point — Partial Coordinate Restoration]
The interface reacted.
Dong Bongsu read the coordinates.
A part of it was broken, but it was at a level where he could get a general direction.
'I'll remember this place too.'
The fragment disappeared.
Nothing more floated up.
Not even a fragment that could shatter remained.
The darkness became complete.
It was a different quality from the darkness until now.
If before it was a darkness where the light had gone out, now it was a darkness where light had never existed.
It was the very bottom, the foundation of the abyss of Kim Rae-won's memory.
There was no sensation beneath his feet.
He couldn't even tell if he was standing or floating.
There was only the feeling that if he went down one more step from here, he would not be able to come back up.
The bottom of consciousness.
The bottom of memory.
Below that is not memory but oblivion, and below oblivion is Nothingness.
If he fell in, he might not be able to wake up.
Dong Bongsu stopped.
The memory data restoration was more or less finished.
Now he just had to go up.
If he pulled his consciousness up to the surface layer and opened his eyes, the darkness of the room would greet him gladly.
He was about to return like that.
But.
Something was standing in the darkness.
It was a woman with her back turned.
Blonde hair flowed long down her back.
Her clothes were not of the Jianghu.
A form unlike any attire of this Murim, as if taken directly from a medieval European sacred painting.
The appearance of a goddess in a cleric's robes.
A fragment of memory that he should not be able to encounter in this Murim was standing here.
"...."
Dong Bongsu stopped.
The woman did not turn around.
Only her back was visible.
Through the blonde hair that poured down as if to pierce the floor beautifully, her shoulders were slender, and her posture was calm.
Dong Bongsu did not approach and just stood still watching.
At the edge of his vision, the afterglow of the interface floated.
Murim Online and What is Hero, an afterimage of the two systems' interfaces overlapped, faintly flickering.
The color of that afterglow changed subtly.
From white, just a little, towards a warmer tone.
The moment he perceived that, the woman's voice was heard.
"You are... quite different from that child."
The voice was not heard by his ears.
It was something that directly created ripples on the surface of Dong Bongsu's consciousness.
A sound wave that was familiar yet unfamiliar.
The woman still had not turned around.
But soon, Dong Bongsu's consciousness began to rise again.
It was not slow.
His consciousness soared as if his feet had bounced off the bottom.
The darkness of the abyss fell away beneath his feet, and the blonde figure standing within it grew distant.
Quickly.
Too quickly.
Broken fragments brushed past as he ascended.
The mountain path, the cliff, the sand, the smell of blood, the syllable fragments of a shout.
All the debris of the deep layer scraped past both sides of his consciousness like glass powder.
The pressure was changing.
The inside of his ears rang.
The physics of being pushed up from a deep place to a shallow one seemed to apply to memory as well.
He broke through the middle layer.
The path where the three walked side by side, the talk of weather, the warmth around his shoulder—all brushed past at once and disappeared.
The gazes of the training ground, the bloodstained navy blazer, the feet that saved, turned away, and walked again.
Everything sank below and grew distant.
The surface layer grew closer.
The light began to return.
Through that light, he raised his head and looked down.
The woman was still visible.
Her blonde hair remained like a single streak of light in the darkness, but even that was fading.
Soon it became a dot, and even that dot was swallowed by the darkness.