The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 62: Return [2]

Various colors of mana flew through the sky like fireworks, as heroes of all sorts of ranks came together, wielding swords and axes to tear apart the serpents attacking their dimension.

Gazing at heroes fighting off the wave of serpents, Sooyung took a deep breath from behind the backline of archers and looked through the portal.

She could feel it: the slight tinge of desire that didn’t belong to her infiltrated her head as she looked through the silver arc spewing out serpents.

"..."

She didn’t expect it to be...so easy.

She could only infiltrate the dreams of those whose mana she could see and feel...did that mean a Dreg Demon was on the other side of the Gate, pouring their mana through it?

"..."

It was her fault it had come to this...she should have noticed that portal before.

She should have been the one to enter and close it... instead, the responsibility had been placed on two of her own students.

Or perhaps...even before that.

She should have trained Ash better...so that he could have beaten that black-haired boy and never been eliminated in the first place.

This was what she deserved...she had to do this.

As she closed her eyes, she saw it: an ordinary amber-brown door with a golden doorknob.

If she opened that door...she would likely enter someone in the Dreg Realm’s subconscious.

There would be no return.

As she reached for the doorknob....

"HELP!"

A desperate yet familiar scream echoed through her head, prompting her to lose focus as her eyelids instantly opened.

There...standing right in front of the now-disappearing gate were two figures, one atop the other.

A boy with black hair, blood leaking from his mouth and scars all across his stomach, carried a brown-haired girl, her eyes closed and face covered in purple veins, on his back.

Although the crowd of heroes didn’t pay much attention to the two figures, perhaps assuming them to be mundane humans caught up in the Gate Crash, Sooyung immediately broke into a sprint toward them.

In the next moment...the boy’s legs gave out as the two figures free-fell toward the ground in unison.

...

...

...

"ah..."

Waking up to the familiar pure-white ceiling, I couldn’t help but be reminded of when I had fractured my arm back on Earth and gone through surgery.

Unfortunately, though, unlike back on Earth, when I glanced around, there was nobody around me.

Just me and my bed in the empty room.

Though...the room was massive, with all kinds of fancy machinery and expensive medicine lying around me.

Natural light flooded in through the open window behind my bed, a soft breeze rustling my hair and cooling my face.

I instinctively attempted to move my left arm to check my smartwatch...but unsurprisingly, my body didn’t budge an inch.

A multitude of tubes ran through my body, connected to some sort of medical machine beside my bed, and three screens that displayed my vitals simultaneously buzzed with some notification beside me.

Managing to tilt my head off the pillow and to the left, I gazed out the window, admiring the lush green grass, the colorful trees...and that light blue sky.

It was oddly...peaceful.

I deserved as much, didn’t I?

Pulling up the hospital gown that I was wearing with my lip, I glanced at my bare stomach, now only seeing a slight indent from where Carissa’s arrow had hit me.

Everything else looked good as new.

Even the calluses on my hand from my sword-wielding had vanished completely, making it seem as if I was some wealthy young master who had never done any work in his life.

My healing ability... really was something else.

I didn’t know whether to call it a boon or a curse.

Enjoying the moment of respite from pain, I felt my lips curve upward as I continued watching the hospital garden outside my window.

Four days in that virtual reality world...straight to two in the Dreg Realm.

Not a single break from pain or action in between.

Perhaps, in the past I might have wanted to go immediately train, but at this moment...I just wanted to rest for a bit.

The garden outside my window rivaled football fields back on Earth in size, with various playground structures and trees, covered in autumn-brown leaves, spread across it.

At that moment, the door to my room suddenly tilted open, a single female doctor entering the room.

Approaching my bed, the doctor raised her palms, which were shining a light-green, and casually asked.

"Does anything hurt?"

As I shook my head, the doctor placed her glowing green hands above my stomach for a moment before nodding her head.

"Your internal injuries seem to be healed... How fast? Does your gift provide you with some healing powers?"

As I nodded my head, the doctor wrote something down before continuing.

"Please...in the future, do refrain from using so much mana in such a short period of time. If not for the healing, it was likely your mana veins would have burst forever."

Watching her continue to check my vital monitors, I hesitated for a moment before asking.

"Is there...food?"

Pressing the red button beside my bed, she nodded her head and said.

"It’ll be here in a moment."

Glancing back down at my hands, I attempted to clench my fists...and my fingers nudged just a bit, though returning to numbness in the end.

"It’ll be at least a few hours before you can move around again. I’ll check back on you then."

"If you feel any pain or need anything, please just press those buttons beside you. Blue for doctor and Red for room service."

With those words, the doctor nodded her head at me and left the room.

A few moments later, a tray of food arrived, full of all sorts of different delicacies, but...there was a problem.

The person...pushing the tray into my room.

With those all-too-familiar ice-blue eyes and black hair, a figure who barely fit through the doorway pushed the cart of food toward my bed.