Read Novel Full Chapter 327: Epilogue 0.
Chapter 327: Epilogue 0.
An unnamed café in some alleyway.
A small shop that sold coffee and bread, without even a proper signboard.
At the counter, a young female owner was wiping down a coffee cup. Classical music flowed from the speakers, and matching the melody, high school girls were chatting in soft voices.
“So, you know...”
“Wait, really?”
Bright laughter bloomed on the still-young faces of the girls.
This kind of place didn’t have many regulars. It was too small, and most average folks preferred well-known franchise chains. Even if someone came every day, it’d be just one or two people. Of course, she was among those few regulars.
“Noona.”
“Huh?”
“Are you even listening?”
She had been spaced out and turned her gaze forward.
Sitting outside the table was a young man, still looking more like a boy than an adult.
It was her cousin, Jin-ho. He had just graduated from high school and been admitted to a prestigious university—one whose name everyone would recognize—with top grades.
“What were you saying again?”
“I’m going nuts. You’re zoning out again.”
Jin-ho sighed, then opened his mouth.
“Auntie says to go on a blind date. A blind date.”
“A blind date?”
“That plastic surgeon guy or whatever last time—why did you turn him down? Didn’t like his face?”
“It’s not like that...”
“Before that, you turned down a judge. And before that, a corporate employee, a lawyer, a pro athlete. You’ve just been turning them down one after another. Auntie’s getting more wrinkles by the day.”
“......”
“Noona, you don’t want to get married, do you?”
She said nothing.
“If you don’t, then just say you don’t. That you’re not interested.”
“It’s not that I’m not thinking about it.”
“Then is there someone you’ve got your eye on?”
“Not really.”
“So you’re thinking about it, but there’s no one you’ve set your sights on. What, do you need a chaebol prince or something?”
“That’s not it either.”
Jin-ho furrowed his brow.
Then he asked in a low voice.
“Don’t tell me... you’re still hung up on that game?”
“......”
“It shut down a year ago, you know? In a year, like a hundred new games have come out.”
A hundred, a thousand new games might come out, but there’s nothing like that game.
She murmured inside her heart.
“This is insane.”
“Sorry.”
“Do what you want. I can’t force you to do something you hate.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ve got tutoring work. I’m heading out.”
Jin-ho left the café.
He seemed busy, what with his tutoring side job.
She was alone again.
‘What a good time in life.’
She looked over at the lively high school girls chattering away.
She had once been like that too. It had felt like the world was her stage. That illusion crumbled the moment she became an adult and reality hit.
‘Childish delusion.’
She muttered in her heart.
What should she call what she experienced in that game a year ago?
It had already been a year since the game Pick Me Up! was forgotten. The seasons had turned four times, she had gotten promoted at work, and ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) her mother’s white hairs had increased.
“......”
Han Israt.
The man was a character in a game.
If she hadn’t made a mistake, he would have died meaninglessly, caught in a fusion accident. But because of her mistake, he didn’t die and continued the fight in his own way.
When things weren’t going well, she used to think about that game she played.
Some called it a dead game, others spat on it as trash, but to her, it was an experience more valuable than any journey.
They had felt alive.
They fought enemies to survive, grieved over the death of comrades, and moved forward even in the face of trials.
But no one believed her. Of course not. Who would believe that characters in a game had actually lived and moved? She’d be lucky not to be treated like a lunatic.
She opened her phone’s photo album.
Screenshots of Han’s exploits were neatly arranged.
Han dangling from a sword plunged into a massive statue. Han escaping from an exploding corridor. Han mourning the death of a comrade. Han training hard. Every photo came with her own attached notes.
‘Am I an idiot?’
Even after a year, she couldn’t forget.
And likely, she never would—not even until the day she died.
‘It’s just a game.’
The graphics weren’t even fancy.
The combat wasn’t particularly fun.
The real-world monetization was outrageous, and in the latter half of the service, frequent crashes made it barely playable. Her account had even been suspended on false charges of using macros she never touched.
And yet, she couldn’t forget.
Over the past year, she had tried out every mobile game she could find.
But that feeling she had when playing Pick Me Up!—she never felt it again.
That sense of actually communicating with someone from another world.
She reached into her coat for the envelope.
That distinct texture of paper on her fingertips.
Inside the envelope was the property transfer contract handed to her by a lawyer one year ago.
She still hadn’t opened it.
Because one day, she would have to return it to its rightful owner.
‘Another day’s ending.’
She looked out the store window.
The once-quiet alley was now filled with people coming and going.
It was already the hour when office workers got off work. There weren’t many customers in the café, but the noise of the passersby outside filled the inside.
Screeeeech!
Amid that, an unnatural noise entered her ears.
“What the hell’s that psycho!”
“Uwaaaaagh!”
“Shit, who the hell drives a damn car down a back alley?!”
Thud. Clatter. Boom.
The sound of something violently colliding.
The chattering schoolgirls stopped talking.
“What was that?”
“Something must’ve happened.”
Just as the girl in glasses got up from her seat—
“Kyaaaaah!”
CRASH!
A black sports car shattered the café’s front window and burst inside.
Splinters of broken tables and chairs flew through the air. The fine china cups on the shelf shattered to pieces. The open-top sports car, which had plowed through everything in its path, only came to a stop in the center of the café.
She quietly stood up from her seat.
The sports car had stopped right in front of her.
The car’s black exterior was scratched all over.
The man in the driver’s seat lowered his sunglasses slightly below his nose.
“Not at home or the office, huh? So you were loafing around in a place like this.”
“Wh... who are you?”
“Just get in.”
The door lifted upward, and the man placed her in the passenger seat.
“Uh, is this like, a movie shoot?”
“He kinda looks like an actor...”
“A criminal?”
The high school girls huddled in the corner, whispering.
Only the owner stared blankly at her wrecked café.
“Sorry about that. Been a while since I drove. Just charge it to this card.”
The man placed a golden card on the table.
Screeeeech! The sports car spun sideways with both passengers inside.
The car made a small S-turn, then with a thunderous roar, launched out of the alley.
Perhaps everyone had already evacuated, because the back alley was completely empty.
<Mr. Loki.>
A woman’s voice came from the navigation system on the dashboard.
<This is a no-vehicle zone. Did you not realize?>
“They all look the same. I drive forward and people move out of the way.”
<They're not moving. They’re fleeing.>
“Same thing, Yurnet.”
The man grinned and stepped on the accelerator.
VROOOM! The speeding sports car surged onto the main road.
“This is our first time meeting like this.”
The man said while turning the wheel.
“Why weren’t you answering your phone? Not at work either. Shouldn’t you be on the clock?”
She pulled out her smartphone.
A glance at the incoming calls showed unfamiliar numbers.
“Well... I took the afternoon off...”
“You don’t seem sick. Bet you just ditched out of annoyance. If you don’t wanna get fired, get it together.”
The rushing wind slapped her face.
It didn’t feel real. A man had suddenly driven a car into the café, kidnapped her, and now was speeding toward some unknown place.
“Or just quit. You can loaf around like a pig if you want. As long as you’re spending the money I gave you.”
Screech!
At an intersection, the sports car veered sharply to the right.
The light was red.
<I’ve detected multiple patrol cars approaching from 100 meters.>
“Why are they chasing us?”
<Because the moment you arrived, you rammed the police station.>
“Did I do that?”
Then, with a hint of irritation, the man muttered.
“I was gonna head somewhere with no people anyway.”
“W-wait.”
WEEEOOOOO!
The sirens of the police cars wailed.
Finally, her senses came back.
She and the mysterious man were driving the wrong way down a four-lane road.
“Who are you?!”
“Han Israt.”
The man finally spoke.
“H-Han Israt...?”
No way.
Her jaw dropped open.
He did look like the hero she once knew.
The black hair, the confident eyes. Even his signature expression.
But Han Israt was a character from a game.
‘No way... could it really be...’
The man shifted gears as he spoke.
“I wasn’t planning to come, but watching how you were living changed my mind. I never thought you’d be such a dumbass that you couldn’t even use what was handed to you.”
Screeeeech!
The sports car, halfway off the road, grazed a street tree.
Broken wood fragments flew into the seats.
<At this rate, they will catch up.>
“So is the drive over?”
<If you use your power, we can escape.>
“I don’t intend to throw around my power lightly.”
The car suddenly turned and backed into a narrow alleyway.
Before it could crash into the alley’s dead end, the car came to a complete stop.
“...Seems like.”
The man smiled and said,
“If we’re going to talk, we’ll need to go somewhere safe.”
“......”
“The choice is yours. If you want to scream that some lunatic kidnapped you and run for it, that’s fine too.”
He got out of the driver’s seat and stepped away from the car.
She remained seated in the passenger seat.
Thoughts and imaginations swirled chaotically through her mind.
Han Israt.
She looked up at the man.
He was exactly how she had imagined Han would be.
Except, instead of leather armor, he now wore a top-tier tailored suit.
“A dream...”
“It’s real.”
The man declared with certainty.
Then, in a soft voice, he said,
“It’s been a while, Amkena.”
“...Han.”
“I’ve come to return the favor.”
The man pulled something from inside his coat and tossed it to her.
She caught it reflexively.
A small figurine in the shape of a warhorse.
Only then did she know for sure.
“......”
She moved from the passenger seat into the driver’s seat.
The man, watching her, took the passenger seat in turn.
<We apologize, Master Amkena.>
A fluent Korean voice flowed from the car’s navigation system.
She placed her hands on the steering wheel.
“Let’s get going, then.”
The man adjusted his sunglasses.
Just before pressing the accelerator, she remembered that she didn’t have a driver’s license...
VRROOOOM!
But that didn’t matter at all.