BJ Archmage

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

.

Jung Hyun-woo wasn’t the type that liked to study.

The only reason he, who was annoyed just by hearing analysis, calculation, and statistics, got familiar with it was because he became a Korean professional baseball player.

“The speed of the ball is 15 km/h at most. You’re not the type to throw over 100 balls and from what I’ve seen, your body can very well crumble if you exert it too much. The only talent you have is control over the ball. If you want to survive in the professional world you need to use your head well.”

He learned the way to survive in the professional world from the coach he met at his debut and learnt to enjoy playing with numbers from then on.

He analyzed batters and started a battle of probability after turning all their actions into numeric values.

Of course, the result wasn’t entirely good, but playing with numbers wasn’t bad either

.

‘If only my shoulder didn’t pop back then.’

Before he could even play with numbers properly, his shoulder began dysfunctioning.

‘More importantly, why am I suddenly thinking about such things. Ah, there’s a truck coming at me right now. Is this that thing that comes before dying? Where memories flash by like traffic? No, but what’s the probability that a person dies in a car accident from being crashed into by an unmanned self driving car?’

The fact that he was thinking about probabilities while in a desperate situation where a truck was coming at him at high speed after losing balance on the road was

‘Completely messed up.’

Going further, he was able to remember the fact that the average number of people dying due to a self driving car in one year was less than the number of people that got first place in lotteries.

‘Make me win the lottery instead.’

It was only up to that.

Screeech!

The truck crashed into Jung Hyun-woo and his accident ended at that moment.

A tremendous explosion rang out.

Afterwards, the surroundings were covered in thick dust.

It was as if time and space had stopped.

“Hah.”

Jung Hyun-woo scoffed a short breath.

“Did, did I survive?”

With those words, once Jung Hyun-woo turned his sight to the side, he could see that the huge truck had passed by him and hit a pole.

Had the truck not turned the steering wheel a bit more, the scene would have been way more gruesome.

After having narrowingly escaped death, Jung Hyun-woo finally spat out his feelings.

“Fuck!”

It was swearing that couldn’t be rougher, but reasonable nonetheless.

Wouldn’t it be weird to say something good when he almost died in a nonsensical way?

“Fuck! Ahhh, ahhh!”

He didn’t stop swearing as the words came out of his mouth in an explosive manner, as his mind was trying to calm itself down.

“Ahhh, fuck!”

He forgot the falling rain and wiped the sweat on his head after taking his hat off.

“Haha, ahaha!”

Then came laughter, and with that that together a smile of madness.

Jung Hyun-woo unconsciously collapsed on the ground.

After doing so, he gained some time to think and soon remembered the conversation he had with Lee Hyuk-joo.

The conversation about the game fantasy novel the main character regressed after getting hit by a truck.

“Wow, I almost got regressed.”

As he remembered the conversation back then, a laugh that thought it was absurd came out.

A smile slowly appeared on Jung Hyun-woo’s face.

‘Ah, I wonder if I’ll get compensation money from this? I wonder how much would it be?’

It was a smile of happiness at the thought that he might get compensation for this accident.

‘I think it will be more than I think……’

As he was filled with such thoughts, Jung Hyun-woo collapsed just like that.

The cause was electrocution.

4.

There was no one that liked hospitals, and Jung Hyun-woo was no exception.

Actually, he hated hospitals.

After his shoulder got messed up during his professional baseball period, he almost began living in there, which made him hate them even more.

After that, because his brother and his wife got into an accident, hospitals were hell to Jung Hyun-woo.

A place he didn’t want to go even if he died.

“Urg……”

That was why, the moment Jung Hyun-woo opened his eyes, he was able to tell it was a hospital.

‘Hos, hospital? Why?’

Of course, he didn’t know how he ended up in a hospital.

His head was hurting to the point of breaking and his memory was in a chaotic state.

“Urg……”

More than anything, his body, his senses were weird.

‘What, what is it?”

It was as if time had become slower, like looking at the world through a slowed down video.

At the strange sensation he felt for the first time, Jung Hyun-woo started feeling unknown confusion and fear.

“Young man, you’re awake.”

A deep voice made him return to normal.

“Hah!”

Jung Hyun-woo who threw out a sound like that of his breath exploding raised his body.

He could then see an old man.

He seemed to be about 60 years old, and the hair that was cleanly brushed back as well as the thick rimmed glasses made him look like a professor.

This was a hospital so he should be a doctor.

That was why Jung Hyun-woo didn’t doubt a bit as he asked a question.

“How many days was I asleep for? What’s the date today?”

At his question, the old man answered with a stiff expression.

“It’s March 9th of 204.”

“Yes?”

At that moment, Jung Hyun-woo’s expression became blank.

After understanding the situation, Jung Hyun-woo’s expression changed to astonishment and spoke.

“Wa, wait a minute. It’s 204 right now? Not 208?”

The old man nodded once after closing his eyes instead of answering.

At that figure, Jung Hyun-woo’s eyes started trembling.

‘Did, did I really return to the past?’

Returning to the past.

Was a situation that could only be seen in novels happening to him right now?

‘Wa, wait. Then what should I do? What should I do first?’

At the nonsensical situation, Jung Hyun-woo was obviously in a state of panic.

Badump badump badump!

Even during all this, his heart that felt instinctively that a golden chance arrived started beating strongly as it got excited.

“Patient Yang Hyun-soo!”

The voice of a nurse organized Jung Hyun-woo’s chaos.

“How many times have we said that you can’t just talk to patients as you want!”

At the nurse’s sharp voice, Jung Hyun-woo tilted his head.

‘Patient?’

With those words, Jung Hyun-woo inspected not the old man’s face but his clothes.

He was only then able to see that the clothes the old man was wearing was none other than neat and tidy patient clothes.

At that moment, a robot came between the old man and Jung Hyun-woo.

The robot that looked like a monitor was placed on top of a trash can, on the monitor of that robot was a man wearing a doctor gown.

- Patient Jung Hyun-woo, you have gotten up.

It was the moment the real doctor appeared.

5.

On the way home after leaving the hospital, Jung Hyun-woo’s expression was extremely bad.

“God damn alzheimer old man.”

A monologue that I would have spoken inside of my head normally, but Jung Hyun-woo said it to himself like a wild animal growling.

The proof that he wasn’t feeling good in various ways.

‘What’s up with my luck?’

It couldn’t be helped.

‘A truck came at me.’

He experienced an accident of almost crashing with a truck.

‘The moment I thought I survived I got electrocuted.’

After that, he unluckily got electrocuted and had to go to a hospital.

‘On top of that, a crazy old man with alzheimer.’

It didn’t stop there and even got one upped by an alzheimer patient.

‘I already don’t have much money……’

On top of that, he paid the hospital money himself.

Thanks to that, his bank account was now a four digit number.

After recalling the events that happened in the course of half a day, Jung Hyun-woo grit his teeth.

‘Look forward to how much compensation money I’m going to rip off of you people.’

He would make them pay for this fury in any method possible!

The place Jung Hyun-woo stopped his steps after walking while resolving to do so was in the middle of a building forest.

A place where buildings rose high up in the sky with glass windows densely filling the building walls, the buildings were so densely packed that it would be difficult for light to shine on the buildings.

It was the neighbourhood Jung Hyun-woo lived in.

‘Damned place.’

Of course, it was a place that deserved to be called a farm rather than a housing area.

A farm used to store humans using cheap rent as the pretext.

It was the rock bottom that was allowed in Korean society for those that didn’t have anything.

‘I will get out of here somehow.’

It was a place Jung Hyun-woo had to leave even a day faster as well as the reason Jung Hyun-woo was struggling so much.

After resolving once more, Jung Hyun-woo passed the front gate and stood in front of apartment 21.

He then took the elevator and stood in front an endless row of doors.

Room 201.

After confirming that number, Jung Hyun-woo held the doorknob tightly.

[It is not a registered body code.]

A message could immediately be heard.

“Hm?”

Surprised, Jung Hyun-woo looked at his palm and checked the room number again.

‘What, what is this bullsh*t? It’s my house though?’

After confirming the situation once more, Jung Hyun-woo put his hand on it again.

[It is not a registered body code.]

The same message could be heard.

Jung Hyun-woo raised his head at that moment.

‘Did I come to the wrong building?’

He thought about his surrounding situation in his head on his way here.

In his head, he had passed the exact same figured buildings.

It was a place where it wouldn’t be weird even if one got lost.

Creek!

At that moment, the door opened from the inside.

“Uncle!”

After that, a cute short haired little girl around 7 greeted Jung Hyun-woo while shouting cheerfully.

Jung Hyun-woo finally made a smile.

“Oh, were you doing well Hye-lin?”

“Yeah!”

Jung Hye-lin.

Jung Hyun-woo’s one and only niece.

“What about dad?”

“I’m here.”

Behind that niece, was one of two only blood relative, his brother Jung Tae-woo.

Looks similar to Jung Hyun-woo but he was a man that looked much more handsome than Jung Hyun-woo.

A severe difference that would make one shake their heads at Jung Hyun-woo if they were put next to each other.

However, that fact wouldn’t enter one’s eye.

There was only one thing that one could see, the fact that Jung Tae-woo was in a wheelchair.

“I heard you went to the hospital? Did something happen?”

At Jung Tae-woo’s words full of worry, Jung Hyun-woo replied indifferently.

“How bad could the illness of a game maniac be? It’s nothing much.”

“Are you hurt somewhere?”

Jung Hyun-woo shook his head several times at Jung Tae-woo’s continuous words.

“I’m telling you, it’s nothing much. If I really had a problem I would have been hospitalized, not

coming here completely fine.”

Jung Hyun-woo who said so remembered the tragedy that occurred a certain day 4 years ago.

His brother who had become the family head at the age of 14 just because of the reason that he was 5 years older after their parents passed away in an accident, after going through various hardships, his brother had finally found hope but he had to go through another large loss.

‘There’s no need to say it separately.’

Jung Hyun-woo who remembered that tragedy didn’t feel the need to recite the day he went through.

He didn’t add another page to his brother’s head that was already full of bad memories.

“More importantly, it seems that body code cognition device is broken?”

Jung Hyun-woo changed the topic naturally.

Jung Tae-woo stared at his younger brother carefully and then answered.

“It’s broken? Does it not work?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s no way it would be so though?”

There was certainty in Jung Tae-woo’s voice.

He had been a good programmer formerly which is the reason why he could have such certainty.

Jung Hyun-woo laughed at Jung Tae-woo’s certainty.

“Why can’t it be? A machine can break.”

“The algorithm used in this neighbourhood’s security system is the same algorithm used in the Gate Capsule. Maybe it would make sense if the machine itself broke but the chance of a body code not working is only one in a million.”

It didn’t work twice in that specific probability of one in a million though? Was what Jung Hyun-woo was going to say but his faced stiffened.

“Wait.”

“Why?”

“So you’re saying that the security system of our house’s front entrance is used in the gate capsule as well?”

Gate Capsule.

The virtual reality connection device for God Wars.

Body code is used for such a Gate Capsule.

“That’s right.”

Of course, it meant that it wouldn’t be possible to connect to one’s character if the body code was different.

That fact didn’t change once until now.

That was the reason.

“Hy, hyeong, wait. Wait a minute. I’m going to a nearby capsule room for a bit.”

Jung Hyun-woo had an incredibly bad premonition.

And that premonition soon turned into reality.