Debuting by Riding the Returnee’s Bus – Chapter 157

Author: LyraDhani

“Who are you?”

“…….”

After a long, tense silence, he finally spoke.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

His voice finally reached me.

“Shut up and answer the question.”

“Huh?”

“Where is Kim Haejun?”

“What are you even talking about? I am Haejun hyung.”

“…….”

‘You’re Kim Haejun?’

“…….”

‘No. You’re… you’re not Kim Haejun.’

“…….”

‘You are absolutely not the Kim Haejun I know.’

I could swear it on everything Lee Unha had. The person in front of me was not Kim Haejun. It was something wearing his skin.

I could tell just by his expression. An unfamiliar sense of wrongness clung to the one wearing Kim Haejun’s face. His tone and gestures might be similar in a broad sense, but this version of him was fundamentally different from the one I knew.

The moment I took a step backward, he immediately mirrored me and stepped forward. I watched as he cautiously opened his mouth again.

“You’re joking, right?”

‘Joking? Do I look like I’m joking?’

Perhaps because he wasn’t used to wearing a mask, his voice felt a bit stiff. To put it bluntly, his acting was terrible. His voice wavered at the end. The gaze scrutinizing me wavered as well. To top it off, I could see his face twitch slightly.

“Unha?”

‘This son of a bitch….’

I realized immediately that I had gotten too agitated. I recognized that my current behavior wasn’t like the usual Lee Unha. Pressuring an unidentifiable entity without knowing the context was practically a suicidal move.

‘Have I… gotten too used to Earth? Have I started thinking this place… this life… is completely safe?’

If he truly wasn’t the real Kim Haejun, the question I just threw at him would likely become a major problem. No, it would definitely be a problem. There was no way someone wearing Kim Haejun’s skin would just let me go when I clearly suspected his identity.

It was only natural for my hand to move toward my phone. After taking measures so that I could call Joo Wooyoung at any moment, I had to decide what stance to take in this conversation.

‘Should I pretend it was just a joke?’

“…….”

‘Or… should I just run?’

“…….”

‘No. I can’t… I can’t do that.’

It wasn’t just because I had gotten used to Earth or felt safe that I had questioned him. Right now, Lee Unha was angry. I was so filled with rage that even I found it hard to stay calm.

I didn’t understand why I was this worked up, but….

‘No, there’s nothing to understand.’

The answer was already there.

“…….”

Right now, Lee Unha was worried about Kim Haejun. Perhaps more than my own safety, I was worried about Haejun’s whereabouts—whether he was dead or alive.

‘What on earth happened?’

Even though my breathing had become ragged, countless possibilities flashed through my mind.

‘Did an evil spirit take over his body? Did he become susceptible to possession because of his previous contact with JH?’

“…….”

‘Or a Doppelganger? Are there monsters on Earth?’

“…….”

‘Or… did someone kill him and cast Polymorph?’

“…….”

‘Could it be…’

“…….”

‘A dark mage? Is it that crazy dark mage…?’

I couldn’t feel any traces of dark magic, but there was a high probability that my level was simply too low to notice.

There were countless other possibilities as well. Among the monsters in the other world, there were countless species capable of mimicry.

And if I also considered the possibility that someone from another world—like Jegal Hwi—had crossed over, then the possibilities became endless. I suspected Jegal Hwi had come from a Murim world, but I couldn’t be certain that such a world didn’t have its own monsters or necromancy. Even in the wuxia novels Baek Suhyeon recommended, didn’t things like soul-shifting techniques or formations exist? There were many novels with worlds where evil spells to snatch another’s body existed.

‘Is this guy… on Jegal Hwi’s side? Is that why his roommate Joo Wooyoung didn’t notice?’

The fact that I couldn’t sense any mana made me suspect this guest might have come from Jegal Hwi’s side rather than mine. Even that crimson glow, which had vanished without a trace, hadn’t contained any mana. The fact that I could see it with my own eyes made me wonder if it operated through some similar mechanism, but that was as far as my knowledge went.

In my current state, I couldn’t identify what it was. And I certainly couldn’t identify what was currently pretending to be Kim Haejun.

‘Should I call Joo Wooyoung right now?’

“…….”

‘No. It might be better to just scream.’

“…….”

The dormitory was only about 20 meters away. If I screamed here, there was a chance that not only Joo Wooyoung but Jegal Hwi would come down too. That wouldn’t be bad. I couldn’t accurately gauge the combat power of the thing in front of me.

I couldn’t imagine Joo Wooyoung losing, but since anything could happen, Jegal Hwi’s intervention might help. The two of them clearly respected each other’s strength, which meant there was a good chance Jegal Hwi possessed combat ability on par with Joo Wooyoung.

I was hiding my phone behind my back and taking a breath to shout.

It was then. The Kim Haejun standing before me slowly raised a hand and scratched his head. That chilling gaze from before was gone. Instead, a look of slight bewilderment clouded his face. It was the expression of someone who hadn’t expected things to unfold like this.

He even let out a short sigh. After agonizing over how to start or how to phrase it, the guy raised both hands as if to show he had no intention of causing harm and spoke.

“…….”

What came out of his mouth was the last thing I had expected.

“I am also Kim Haejun.”

“What…?”

“I said… I am also Kim Haejun.”

Even his manner of speech had changed.

‘What kind of bullshit is that?’

“…….”

“I thought I might be caught eventually… but I’m surprised you noticed even faster than I expected. Were you assuming that I had hijacked Kim Haejun’s body or that I was just an impostor?”

“…….”

“On one hand, I feel relieved, and on the other, I feel glad. I still hadn’t completely trusted you. At the very least, I’m glad to confirm that you genuinely care about Kim Haejun.”

“…….”

“You still seem unconvinced, so let me make this clear: I have no intention of harming you. More precisely, I have no intention of harming the people of this world. And even if I wanted to, I don’t believe it would be possible under the current circumstances.”

“…….”

“First, you should consider whether it’s even possible for me to hijack Kim Haejun’s body. You should know better than anyone that it’s no easy task. Think more rationally. Do you think I could pierce through the people in that dorm, enter, and make contact with Kim Haejun?”

“…….”

‘Does he know?’

“…….”

‘He knows about… Joo Wooyoung and Jegal Hwi?’

My already complicated mind became even more of a mess.

“What are you?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I am Kim Haejun.”

“That’s not what I’m asking. You know exactly what I mean.”

“I am another Kim Haejun, and…”

“What?”

“No, maybe it’s better to put it this way: I am a Kim Haejun from a world different from this one.”

‘What kind of nonsense is this guy spouting?’

That was what I would have thought.

‘Have you been watching too many fantasy novels or anime?’

That was what I would have thought.

…If I weren’t a returnee myself.

‘What is this? Seriously… what is happening right now? More importantly… is this guy actually telling the truth?’

My brain struggled to process the flood of information that defied all common sense.

“What does that mean?”

“I intend to explain everything without leaving anything out.”

‘Then explain what you mean.’

“Like I said, I am a Kim Haejun from somewhere else. I don’t know if I should call it a parallel world or an entirely different world, but personally, I’ve judged it to be a parallel world. Otherwise, there’s no way I would have entered Kim Haejun’s body… Let me start by introducing my identity.”

“…….”

“I am an S-class Hunter belonging to the Hunter Association, officially codenamed <Wizard>.”

‘So what the hell is that supposed to mean? What’s a Hunter?’

“A ‘Hunter’ is a collective term for those who raid ‘Towers,’ and it’s also a term for ability users who utilize an energy called ‘Material’.”

‘Material? Is it like mana or internal energy?’

“Explaining my world in detail would take too much time, so I’ll keep it simple. In my world, things called ‘Towers’ exist. There are 64 Towers rising across the entire Earth, and the goal of Hunters is to clear them. The Hunter Association has been at war with the Towers for a long time, starting long before I was even born. That history is one of struggle, anger, and sorrow—it was the history of Earth itself for me.”

“…….”

“Countless people died, and countless were swallowed by the Towers… but only now, after a long time, has humanity—the Hunters—won the war against the Towers. Or rather, they should have won.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Right before the conquest of the final Tower… when I opened my eyes…”

“You ended up here?”

“To be precise, I found myself existing within the body of the Kim Haejun of this world.”

“…….”

“I want to make one thing clear…”

“…….”

“I have absolutely no intention of stealing the body of this dimension’s Kim Haejun. My goal is to return to where I originally belong.”

What on earth was he saying right now? We were clearly talking about the next full album just a while ago….

I couldn’t even grasp the situation.

“If that is impossible, I consider coexisting with him my top priority.”

“…….”