The Hero Returns

It felt like time had come to a standstill.

However, time probably hasn't stopped flowing for real. Other than Su-hyeun feeling like his heart had tumbled to the pit of his stomach and his chest clogged up until he found it hard to breathe.

"A dream?" Su-hyeun thought.

Yun Hui-yeon dreamed about Kim Sung-in?

The previous version of him, Kim Sung-in, was wiped clean from existence itself. At least, that was what Su-hyeun believed.

Never mind Dong-ha University, even when he went to see Yun Hui-yeon at her house, she didn't recognize Kim Sung-in's existence. Most likely, it was the fault of reincarnation activating erroneously.

That was why Su-hyeun chose not to think about Yun Hui-yeon anymore.

He thought that since she no longer knew who he was, he shouldn't butt into her life anymore.

But now...

"It seems that I said something I shouldn't have. It's just a dream, after all. It's just that..."

Su-hyeun, trying his best to maintain his composure, hurriedly waved his hand, "N'”no, it's fine."

"You said you'd like to help with my research, yes? There are a few things I need to prepare beforehand. Do you mind waiting for me for the time being?"

"No, I don't mind."

Su-hyeun reached out toward the still-steaming teacup. Meanwhile, Yun Hui-yeon got up and exited the lab.

Now left all alone in her lab, he wordlessly drank the tea. He figured that the reason why Yun Hui-yeon left the lab was probably that she found it too difficult to hide her expression anymore.

"What happened?"

What an innocent-sounding voice that was and bad timing, too.

Su-hyeun briefly wondered if he should ignore it, but he replied in his mind after a soft sigh.

"It looks like she remembers me."

"You?"

"The me before the regression, I mean."

He thought such a thing was impossible.

Not just in the citizen residence register, but not a single person remembered Kim Sung-in. That was the situation, so naturally, he believed that Yun Hui-yeon would not remember Kim Sung-in.

Also, in truth, she didn't remember Kim Sung-in until the day Su-hyeun showed up in front of her doorstep.

"It doesn't sound like she can remember it clearly, though."

The recollections of one's memories through their dreams wasn't a particularly strange phenomenon, though. Now and then, you would find people claiming to have experienced their past lives through dreams, after all.

However, Su-hyeun never believed in such a thing until he went through the process of regressing to the past.

Yun Hui-yeon didn't return for a long while.

And maybe about 30 minutes later...

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting."

Yun Hui-yeon came back to the lab with a noticeably better complexion than before.

Su-hyeun got up, said it was fine, and then followed her out of the lab. She guided him to her car. They were headed to her personal laboratory, not the one provided by the university.

"She's still the same," he silently observed.

Su-hyeun scanned the piles of research documents stacked inside her car.

Most of the research data were about the dungeons and awakeners. They were things like the biological changes within the awakener's body, research into the monsters that showed up often from the dungeon, their patterns, the most efficient ways to raid them, and so on.

Yun Hui-yeon researched everything related to dungeons and awakeners. Su-hyeun recalled that she was pretty renowned throughout the world in this particular field.

Indeed, she was an elite.

And like her son, Su-hyeun had to be the same.

That was how he grew up.

* * *

The old Korean adage said that a legless horse could travel a thousand leagues.

A pun on the Korean word for a "horse" that sounded the same as "speaking" meant that rumors tend to travel quicker than an actual horse. It had its origins in the olden days when horses were the fastest means of travel. The expression embellished how fast words could spread around.

However, that adage was definitely applicable in this day and age. Compared to the speed of information these days, horses were too slow.

The rumor spread halfway across the planet in no time at all. According to the somewhat exaggerated talk, Professor Yun Hui-yeon was forming a research team with Kim Su-hyeun.

"Sorry about this, big bro," Su-hyeun replied apologetically when Lee Ju-ho called him on the phone.

The sudden news caused the many members of the Paragon Guild's research team to call their guild master, and Su-hyeun felt he was somewhat responsible for that.

"Dude, I've constantly been rejecting any requests for joint research up until now, but for you to go ahead and do this... Haaaah. What should I say now while saying no to them?"

While the actual running of the Paragon Guild mainly was left to Lee Ju-ho, if the matter at hand was big enough, Gordon Rohan would also participate, and a couple more office workers would be brought in. However, the truth was, Lee Ju-ho was the heart of the operation.

Unsurprisingly, some of the most renowned researchers in the world had reached out to the Paragon Guild in the past. They requested to know if the guild was interested in joint research with them.

Since Su-hyeun was never interested in such a topic, he always said no early on in his career. It was the same for Hak-joon as he, too, was solely focused on climbing the Tower. As for Thomas, his personality wasn't suited for research, while Gordon Rohan had his research department.

In the end, Lee Ju-ho was left with no choice but to keep rejecting all the requests due to these reasons.

"Just how far did the rumor spread, big bro?"

"Come on, man. Don't you know that they even took a photo of you having lunch in Dong-ha's cafeteria? The university knows that the rumor of their professor working together with you would greatly benefit them. So yeah, obviously, they would actively spread the rumor."

Su-hyeun honestly didn't think that far ahead.

The fault lay with him thinking only about establishing a potential connection with Yun Hui-yeon.

"Things have gotten rather annoying, haven't they?"

"This is no longer on the level of annoying, though. Besides all that. Why did you even go there? Were you interested in Professor Yun Hui-yeon's research? Is there something notable with it?"

"I thought there's nothing here, but I was wrong."

"Eh? What?"

"I must hang up now. It's time to go inside, you see."

"Hey, hold on for a sec. You need to tell me what's going on so I can'”"

Beep'”

Su-hyeun quickly ended the call.

Although it felt like he had dumped some annoying burden on Lee Ju-ho's shoulders, he was more concerned with Yun Hui-yeon at the moment.

"It's already midnight."

Su-hyeun helped with the research in Yun Hui-yeon's private lab.

He didn't hold back on his advice regarding the patterns of monsters emerging from the dungeons. He even told her the process of a dungeon's materialization and the structure of the "portals" connecting to different dimensions.

He even spoke about the differences in the dungeon's colors and the monsters showing up accordingly to match the color.

Su-hyeun spent the rest of the day helping out with Yun Hui-yeon's research.

He only remembered her after Brahma asked him to meet the people he was close to. Still, through this meeting, he realized belatedly how amazing Yun Hui-yeon was.

"This is amazing, ma'am. What you have here almost matches what I know or is even more systematic in some cases."

"I'm greatly relieved to hear you say that. It seems that it was not a waste of my time, after all."

This was Su-hyeun's first time checking out her research in greater detail.

It might have been the work of his mother, someone who should've been the closest person to him, but Su-hyeun never really paid attention to her work until now.

"Now that I think about it, today is also our first time chatting for this long, isn't it?" he inwardly processed.

It had always been difficult.

The person called his mother always stood at a distance from him. She was a stiff, unforgiving person. Even during mealtime, they would exchange a few words briefly to catch up, but that was about it. Even those chats involved the matters of his studies or other business-like affairs.

"Sung-in, you're the hope of this world."

"You know, don't you? The hero. The one who saves the world. You must become someone like that."

She was that figure that always went the extra mile to turn Su-hyeun'”Kim Sung-in'”into an even more "perfect" being. It almost felt like she was a projection of himself. To him, Yun Hui-yeon really seemed like a person with zero shortcomings.

The hours ticked by rather quickly. It was three in the morning.

Yun Hui-yeon gasped in surprise after noticing the time, "Looks like I've made you stay until unreasonably late, Mister Su-hyeun."

"It's alright, ma'am. It's not like I have anything special to do tomorrow, after all. Besides all that, don't you have lectures to attend tomorrow?"

"I was planning to stay up through the night, you see."

"Even so, you should get some rest. I'll wake you up in 30 minutes or so."

For a while now, her eyes had been faltering noticeably as if she would fall asleep at any second. The dark circles below her eyes had gotten even more prominent despite her make-up.

"I'”I'm alright, so we'”" Yun Hui-yeon apologetically waved her hand while saying she was fine, but she suddenly closed her eyes.

She slumped halfway on her chair and fell asleep. Su-hyeun brought over a blanket from nearby and covered her back with it. It was indeed late in the night, but Su-hyeun was the real cause for her sudden slumber.

"I need to confirm the truth, after all."

What was about to happen wasn't for the sake of showing Brahma. He needed to confirm just what kind of dream she was having.

[Insight]

Su-hyeun's vision slipped into Yun Hui-yeon's dreamscape.

* * *

Currently, inside a brightly lit spacious living room, a much-younger Yun Hui-yeon was carrying a baby in her arms.

Su-hyeun recalled seeing the face of that baby in her arms in an old photo.

"So I used to look like that, huh?"

Indeed, that baby was Sung-in.

Su-hyeun observed Yun Hui-yeon's expression.

What he saw surprised him.

"I didn't know she could make expressions like that."

Yun Hui-yeon was lovingly staring at the baby Sung-in. She then began making funny faces to make her child laugh. Sung-in started to giggle at her facial expressions.

She might have been his mother, but Su-hyeun didn't know much about the range of Yun Hui-yeon's expressions.

She always maintained a strict and uncaring face. She didn't seem to experience too many changes to her emotional state. All she talked about were straight-arrow, "righteous" things that you might find inside the pages of a dictionary.

As such, many things could be learned from her. However, never mind any personal stories, but they rarely shared laughter or chatted about mundane stuff.

Su-hyeun shifted his head to look elsewhere. That was where he found the current Yun Hui-yeon, the older self, observing her younger self with a tender expression on her face.

"Has she been seeing this scene until now?"

He was certain that the same scene happened in the past. This was most likely how Sung-in was brought up, after all.

The time flow in Yun Hui-yeon's dream was faster than in reality. Yun Hui-yeon was now somewhat older, while Sung-in had enrolled in an elementary school.

Sung-in was currently kneeling on the floor.

Yun Hui-yeon was standing before him, arms across her chest and her face visibly fuming. This was the Yun Hui-yeon Su-hyeun remembered.

"Did you miss the supplemental school today?"

"I'”I'm sorry..."

"Your tutor called me on the phone. I shall teach you the lessons you missed out on today, but you must never miss the supplemental school ever again. The English school is more important than the others, so you must..."

Her nagging continued for a long while.

What a familiar scene this was.

"And such a scene gradually became even more familiar, didn't it?"

There was his school, then supplemental schools, then another one, and then another school.

Such a lifestyle continued until high school. Su-hyeun accepted such a life as if it was all normal.

And it was due to Yun Hui-yeon's influence.

"Seeing how I still ended up in Dong-ha after going through all this, I guess I just wasn't smart enough, huh?"

The viewpoint continued to shift.

Sung-in grew up and began attending the university. Dungeons manifested, and a few years later, he became an awakener.

His career path changed, and as an awakener, Sung-in displayed his true worth. He stopped outbreaks several times, and people began calling him "hero."

Yun Hui-yeon was incredibly proud of her son's achievements.

"This is weird."

At this point, Su-hyeun began sensing the vague strangeness of this dream.

"This isn't mother's memory."

From a certain point on, the dream no longer involved Yun Hui-yeon.

The person on display was Sung-in. The life he had lived, and even the moment of his death, were shown.

"And now..."

There was Sung-in, sitting on top of a mountain of monster corpses.

"Let's go and die."

Sung-in approached Fafnir's army right afterward.

That was the battle in the already-destroyed world, fought by himself alone. It was a battle that no one else would have witnessed'”a battle that only Su-hyeun would've known about.

Yet such a thing was being replayed inside Yun Hui-yeon's dream.

"I knew it; these are all my memories."

How come his memories were being shown inside Yun Hui-yeon's dream?

With this, it was no longer possible to say that she still held onto some faint recollection of memories from before his regression. Memories that she should not know no matter what somehow found their way into her head.

Sung-in's memories continued to repeat themselves inside Yun Hui-yeon's dream. She had to stand back one step away and watch, or become the dream's Yun Hui-yeon and continue to swim inside the dreamscape.

"Damn it."

It became harder to watch.

Crack, craaack'”

Cracks suddenly began forming all over Yun Hui-yeon's dreamscape. Her dream couldn't continue and came to a stop.

Shatter'”!

A broken fragment of the dream fell into Su-hyeun's open palm. As he suspected, this dream wasn't natural.

Somebody, or something, had artificially created this dream.

"I don't know who did this," Su-hyeun crushed the fragment while growling menacingly. "But once I find you...."