Becoming a Kim Warrior -1-
Become a warrior
Squeak!
The sound of the road scraping.
Flash!
A rapidly growing light.
And shock.
A tremendous force enveloped my entire body.
A scream erupted from the pain that tore through my body.
“Eww!”
As I sat up, the middle-aged man sitting on the bed opposite me looked at me blankly.
“What? Did you have a nightmare?”
“Uh······Where is this?”
“Where? It’s a hospital.”
hospital?
What is this?
As I looked around, the hospital room I had only seen on TV came into view.
White walls, white ceiling, plain storage cabinets.
And the patient beds are also properly placed.
“uh?”
I too was lying on the patient’s bed, wrapped in bandages.
I was wondering why and tried to raise my arms, but I groaned.
That’s why a sharp pain came up as soon as I tried to move.
“Why am I here?”
When I asked the man across from me, he clicked his tongue.
“Don’t you remember? You were in a car accident.”
“Is it a traffic accident?”
“I don’t know the details either. I just heard it when the doctors were making rounds. Can you call a nurse?”
“Yes, please.”
“Hey! Look! Here comes the warrior!”
A young nurse came in and smiled happily.
“Mr. Kim Jeon-sa! You’re awake!”
“Uh······ Are you talking about that?”
“Yes! Just a moment. I’ll go get the attending physician.”
weird.
Why do you call me Kim Jeon Sa?
As I looked around, my eyes happened to fall on the back of the bed.
I saw a name tag for the patient.
[M/22]
[Kim Jeon Sa]
[Concussion, contusion of anterior chest wall]
Kim Jeon Sa?
Why is your name like that?
That’s not my name.
Just a moment of doubt.
A doctor in a gown came in and held up a flashlight.
“Your pupillary reflexes are good······What is your name?”
“What’s your name? My name is Junsu Kim.”
“Have you changed your name? The registration number is listed as Kim Jeon-sa.”
“Yes, that’s right, Mr. Kim. The police confirmed it.”
What the hell are you talking about?
As I questioned myself, the nurse pointed to a mini closet next to the bed.
An old wallet happened to be lying in an empty space in the closet.
When I opened it, I found several bills from King Sejong, a credit card, and a resident registration card.
When I check my resident registration card, my head starts to spin.
[Kim Jeon Sa]
Because the three letters of the name were clearly engraved.
also.
The photo on my resident registration card looked so familiar.
It was the same Kim Jeon Sa I was seeing on my smartphone screen.
He doesn’t have a scar on his left cheek and he looks a little younger than usual, but he’s still that Kim warrior!
The doctor nodded.
“You are Kim Jeon-sa. Do you know what day and month it is today?”
“It’s May 1st.”
“this.”
The doctor looked away as if in embarrassment.
An electronic calendar hanging on the wall.
The words May 30th were flashing.
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“Do you know where this is?”
“It’s a hospital.”
“Who is the president of our country now?”
You ask all sorts of questions.
I answered obediently, even though I thought it was strange.
“This is Yoon Joo-yeol.”
“Hmm······ It’s the first time I’ve heard that name.”
After asking a few more random questions, the doctor shook his head.
“It seems like short-term amnesia. It’s a good thing he ended up like this after being hit head-on by a dump truck. There was no internal bleeding or fractures.”
“A dump truck?”
“Yes. Don’t you remember?”
Frowned.
A certain scene comes to mind as if floating.
Squeak, the sound of the road being scraped.
A flash of light, approaching.
And shock!
“Eww!”
The doctor sighed briefly as I wrapped my head.
“First, you will need to be hospitalized for a long time and undergo a detailed examination. You will also need an MRI and a magic fluoroscopy. There is a lot to do.”
“Magic······What?”
“Let’s start with the formal application. It says there is no guardian?”
“Yes. I called all the contacts saved on my smartphone, but they all declined to answer.”
“Please stop by the general affairs department first.”
The doctor left as if he had done everything he had to do.
The nurse bowed to Kim and grabbed his arm.
“Can you get up?”
“Ugh, yes. You can get up.”
“But it’s fortunate. Several people were involved in the accident together, but the others all died instantly.”
“Oh, you’re dead?”
“Yes. The accident was so big······ Mr. Kim, would you please come this way? There’s a temporary personnel department at the station.”
When I take a step, my body feels like it’s going to break apart.
I moved my legs forcefully.
The nurses’ station is only about ten meters ahead.
Just walking that little bit made me sweat like rain.
The nurse who had been supporting me went into another room, and the administrative staff member sitting at the station looked at me with a blank expression.
“How did you come here?”
“I heard you were hospitalized because of a traffic accident, so they told me to register first.”
“Ah. I guess you haven’t registered yet. What’s your name?”
“Kim Jun······ I’m Warrior Kim.”
“Can you give me your ID as well?”
A quick-witted nurse put the wallet in the patient’s gown.
As I took my resident registration card out of my wallet, the person in charge of the accounting department started typing on the keyboard.
“You were admitted to the hospital three days ago? The emergency room fee, hospitalization fee, CT and X-ray scan fee, injection medication, and food fee are all 22,370,569 won.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
What did you just say?
22 million won?
Are you kidding me?
I was hospitalized for three days and I got paid 2,200! How can that be possible!
This isn’t America!
“Your share of the cost is 2,200?”
“It says I don’t have insurance. If I don’t have insurance, I have to pay the full cost myself.”
“Why don’t you have insurance?”
“It’s not there? It doesn’t show up on the computer.”
“What about National Health Insurance?”
“National Health Insurance? What is that?”
For a moment, my breath was taken away.
The nurses working next to me also looked at me like I was a strange person.
The person in charge of the general affairs department said, snapping his fingers.
“Don’t you have any insurance like Corps Insurance, Tower Insurance, or Church Insurance? Shinwha Life Insurance or Geumoh Life Insurance are also good options.”
“no······”
It’s not that it doesn’t exist, it’s just that it’s a name I’ve never heard of before.
Legion? Tower? Cult?
What is that all about?
‘ah!’
For a moment, his face distorted.
There was a passage like this in the Arcane Seoul settings.
The four forces that rule Seoul and the Republic of Korea.
Legion, conglomerate, magic tower, sect.
The names of the insurance policies that the accounting clerk just mentioned match these.
Shinwha and Geumoni were also among the five major conglomerates in Arcane Seoul.
The person in charge of the general affairs department stared at me and said.
“It seems like you don’t have insurance. How will you pay?”
“······Can I use the card?”
“Of course. How many installments would you like me to give you?”
“How many months is the interest-free period?”
“Huh? Interest-free? Where in the world can you find interest-free installments?”
I felt breathless again.
No interest-free installments?
A possibility slowly creeps up my spine.
I tried to ignore reality and took out my credit card.
“Please pay in 12 installments.”
“If it’s 12 months, 49% will be applied, so it’s 33,332,147 won, and you have to pay 2,777,678 won every month.”
“Is the interest that high?”
“What’s so expensive about 49%? We’re a hospital, so we charge less. Haven’t you ever bought a TV or a refrigerator? Companies charge up to 70%.”
Isn’t there something like a legal limit?
The world is spinning round and round.
It seems like the world I once knew has run away far away.
As soon as I finished paying, the cashier waved my credit card around.
“I have an additional hospitalization order and a test order. What should I do? If you are going to be hospitalized more, you have to pay in advance.”
“Uh, how much?”
“Since I got an MRI, psychoanalysis, and even a magic clairvoyance test, the examination fee alone is a little over 30 million won. If you’re hospitalized for a month, it’ll probably be over 170 million won, but I’ll give you a 10% discount so it’ll be 160 million won.”
160 million for one month of hospitalization.
That sounds crazy.
“Okay······”
“Then please be discharged.”
“Discharged? Now?”
“Will you be hospitalized for another day? The hospitalization fee is······”
“Oh, I’m going to be discharged! I’m going to be discharged!”
My whole body hurts.
I don’t even understand the situation.
Even though I was shivering, I confirmed one thing.
“I’m a victim of a traffic accident. Don’t I get any compensation? From the perpetrator.”
“That guy is dead too.”
“Huh?”
“It would be nice to have insurance, but who drives a truck these days and has insurance? He didn’t have insurance, the perpetrator is dead, and his family members have all given up the inheritance, so there’s no way out.”
“Nothing comes out of the country?”
“No.”
A single word of slander.
Common sense is rejected in real time.
There is no national health insurance, truck drivers are uninsured, and there is no support for hospital bills?
I had nothing more to say.
I packed my bags and left the hospital.
Fortunately, there was a place to go.
The address recorded on the resident registration card is a goshiwon in Sillim-dong.
Kikkigik!
The sound of metal ripping as you open the goshiwon door.
It was originally older and more shabby than the goshiwons of the world.
The communal kitchen was cramped and the musty smell of urine irritated my nose.
But as soon as I entered the one-pyeong room that was my home, my heart sank.
“It’s narrow.”
The goshiwon I originally lived in was 2 pyeong (approximately 6.5 sq ft).
2 pyeong to 1 pyeong.
That little difference makes my heart ache even more.
The mold on the wall and the rotten mini desk are all the same.
Even though it’s a cheap goshiwon, isn’t it too much?
At the very least, you should paint it and replace the furniture!
Boom, bang, bang!
Just as I was thinking about protesting, someone knocked harshly on the door.
“Student! Warrior student! Are you inside?”
“Oh, yes. I have. Just a moment.”
As I opened the door, a woman who looked like a bulldog suddenly poked her head in.
“Student! When are you going to pay this month’s rent? It’s already two months behind! Do you know that if you’re three months behind, you’ll be subject to forced eviction?”
“Ah······ Is there no deposit left?”
“I forgot all about it! Anyway, when are you going to give it to me? Aren’t you working? And what’s with your clothes? What’s with the bandage on your face?”
“I was in a car accident.”
“Traffic accident?”
The woman who had been pushing me fiercely flinched in surprise.
“I guess the accident was pretty big?”
“Yes. There are dead people.”
“What······ is the compensation?”
“I didn’t receive it. The perpetrator was uninsured.”
“Oh no. So you were in the hospital all this time?”
“Yes. Fortunately, there were no injuries.”
“Thank goodness, thank goodness.”
Is it because you knew there was an accident?
The lady’s attitude has noticeably softened.
“Is there anything wrong? Is everyone healthy?”
“Yes. That’s fortunate.”
“Yes. Young people’s bodies are their assets, so they shouldn’t get sick. If they were hospitalized, the hospital bills would have been quite high. Do students who are fighting in the war have insurance? If they don’t have insurance, the hospital bills are really burdensome.”
Contrary to first impressions, he seems to be a person with some empathy.
As expected, you shouldn’t judge a person by their face.
“How could I have insurance? I just got told that I would have to stay in the hospital for another month.”
“No. Then what should I do? If the doctor tells me to be admitted, I should be admitted. Why can’t I just come out because I don’t have money?”
“What can I do? There’s no way to make money.”
“That’s right······”
The woman rolls her eyes around.
As if thinking deeply about something.
“Shall I introduce you to a hospital I know?”
“Introduction?”
“Yes! He’s not a licensed doctor, but he’s the best. We, the natives of Sillim-dong, all go to him. Last time, I introduced him to Mr. Lee in room 207 and cured his liver cirrhosis!”
“You won’t be receiving any medical expenses.”
“That’s right. The cost of treatment is the problem. But it’s still much cheaper than a regular hospital! Almost a third? I’m telling you it’s only about that much.”
Even if it’s a third, it’s a lot. The amount paid today is 3,300, so a third is more than 10 million won.
The lady was licking her lips like a snake.
“You know what the best part is?”
“What is it?”
“That teacher doesn’t always accept money as treatment fees.”
“Then what should I take it as?”
“Well? There are several. The best one is, uh······ the prosthetic material.”
“Body material?”
ingredient?
Is there anything I have that could be used as an ingredient?
I haven’t checked the account, but it’s obvious that it’s empty.
The woman beat her chest as if she was frustrated.
“You really don’t know? Or are you just pretending not to know? I’m talking about human organs. Human organs!”
“Huh? Long-term? Are you kidding?”
“The student warrior has nothing but his young body. He’s behind on his rent and has a lot of debt for hospital bills. Are you going to keep living like this? Or you’ll really go to hell, hell! People should know how scary debt is! It would be better to take off one of your corneas, no, one of your eyes, and give it to him to get treatment and pay off all his debts. You’d also have to pay off your rent for a year in advance! Do you know how good artificial eyes are these days? It’s not just magic eyes, you can buy optical eyes without any problems! I heard that some people intentionally take off their own eyes to put in artificial eyes!”
“oh my god.”
I opened my mouth wide.
Oh my god!
No matter how good the money is, are you asking me to sell my cornea and my eyes?
Is the doctor who introduced this an unlicensed quack?
I got goosebumps.
“Get out!”
“Hey, where are you touching?”
“I’ll pay you all the rent next month, so you can leave!”
“Really? You said you’d pay the rent? I’m recording it right now!”
“I told you! Go!”
“Just don’t pay your rent. I’ll really enforce it. You know how harsh the court enforcers’ hands are, students. If you don’t want to be dragged off for forced labor, sell your kidney instead of your eyes to make money!”
“I told you to go!”
bang!
The door just closed.
I could hear people cursing outside the door.
These days, people don’t know manners, and they ignore good suggestions made after thinking about them. That’s ridiculous.
After a while, it starts to move away while making a thumping noise.
My body lost all strength, so I leaned against the wall and barely managed to sit down.
“f*ck.”
This is f*cking bullshit.
This world, which I only knew through its settings and graphics, was much more absurd than I thought.
[God is dead.]
[Nothing has changed.]
[Worship gold and believe in magic science,]
[Humanity has enslaved itself.]
The narration that appears when you first launch Arcane Seoul.
I never thought I would experience the narration that I had just roughly heard and skipped over so passionately.
Insert a prosthesis?
If it’s so good, then do it yourself!
“Phew.”
Okay, let’s admit it now.
A bleak corner of the room without even a small mirror.
Switch your smartphone’s camera to the front camera.
I lean against the mini desk and reflect my face like a mirror.
A face wrapped tightly in bandages, with only the eyes, nose, and mouth visible.
“Hoooo.”
Remove the bandage.
Once, twice, three times······
The layers of white bandages are removed, revealing a pale, wet face.
Ordinary appearance.
There is just one noticeable scar.
Left cheek.
A long, ugly wound that has not yet healed.
It looks familiar.
Even though it was a little young, it was the same face I saw every day on my smartphone.
He was a natural N-class and basic character, a warrior who accompanied the player from the beginning of the tutorial.
“Hahaha, hahahaha.”
Instead of coming out, there’s only laughter.
It feels like reality is a knife stabbing my heart.
Who would have imagined?
I was feeling good after pulling out the Cheonma and falling asleep, but I never thought I’d turn into a tutorial character in a game.
“f*ck.”
When I realized the reality, I felt a fierce sense of crisis.
Arcane Seoul is already in a terrible state.
But from what I know, there will be episodes like the resurrection of the ancient gods, nuclear war, and dimensional cracks sooner or later.
If you sit still and lose your mind, you will die.
Even if you don’t have money, you die. Even if you don’t have power, you die. Even if you don’t have luck, you die!
I don’t know how things work out, but at least I can’t just die.
Even an earthworm will squirm if you step on it.
I stared at my face on the smartphone screen with bloodshot eyes.
“Kim Jeon Sa.”
And 10,000 hours on Arcane Seoul.
That was the only thing I could believe in.
