Healing in the Country Side with a Baby Dragon - CHAPTER 1 (Prologue -The First Day in the Country Side)
.jpeg)
To Baek Jin-sol—that's me—it was shocking news to receive at thirty-one years old.
Yet, the shock of feeling like I’d been hit in the head only lasted for a moment. My very first thought, as I watched the doctor spout this nonsense, was simple:
‘I guess I can finally get some rest now.’
Maybe it was relief. Maybe it was resignation.
If anyone else had heard me, they would have pointed fingers and called me crazy. But honestly, I was just so tired.
When I was five years old, I lost my parents to a monster that emerged from a gate. Overnight, the difficulty level of my life spiked from 'Normal' to 'Hell Mode.' Still, I held on for dear life, desperately struggling to survive.
Ten years, twenty years... and now, twenty-six years had passed. Once life's difficulty level goes up, lowering it is no easy feat.
Whenever I lay down in my attic room on dark, starless nights, the walls closing in on all sides made it hard to breathe. There were countless times when I wanted to run away, but what choice did I have? I was alive, so I had to keep living.
But now, instead of a chip, a magic stone was embedded in my brain.
What a stroke of luck. It was enough to make me laugh out loud.
“So, if a magic stone takes root in my brain, how do you remove it?"
"Since it’s in your brain, doing anything about it is going to be incredibly difficult,” the doctor said, flatly conveying the facts.
“Is this a common case?” I asked.
“This is my first time seeing it. Usually, magic stones settle in other parts of the body. I've never seen one lodge itself in the brain.”
“It can’t be removed, right?”
“We can try, but there’s a high risk of side effects. However, if the patient wishes—”
The doctor’s eyes flashed as he stared at my head. It seemed that when faced with a difficult medical anomaly, his competitive spirit flared up. He looked as though he was already plotting how to saw open my skull.
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of becoming a lab rat.
“Is there any way to get better without surgery?”
“Oh, well, I’ve heard that in cases of Awakening, there is an extremely rare chance it might disappear.”
Brain surgery or Awakening. Either way, there wasn't much hope. If I were actually that lucky, my life wouldn’t have been stuck in Hell Mode in the first place. At this point, I didn’t even have the energy to complain.
“Let’s prepare for surgery,” the doctor urged.
“No, thank you. I'm fine.”
“But once a magic stone settles in the brain, there's no telling what kind of abnormal phenomena it might cause.”
“Are you saying I’m living with a bomb in my head that could detonate at any moment?”
“Yes, exactly.”
At his words, the corners of my mouth involuntarily twitched upward. Living with a bomb in my head.
“Well, at least it's exciting.”
It was thrilling, even.
The doctor dropped his jaw, staring at me as if wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Whatever. I stood up from my seat and confidently marched out of the examination room.
Once outside, I checked my smartphone. It was flooded with missed calls and a mountain of unread messages. As expected of a black company, the work inquiries never stopped, even on my days off.
Stepping through the narrow hospital hallway, I made a decision.
‘Let’s quit.’
I decided to use this brain chip—or rather, this brain stone—as the perfect excuse to break free from the shackles and restraints of society.
Finally, I was free.
A few months later, deep in a mountain village in Gangwon-do.
I drove my one-ton truck along the national highway before veering onto a narrow, quiet road. Driving with a view of the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other instantly refreshed my mind.
How long had I been driving?
“There it is.”
A small village with houses clustered together came into view along a road with virtually no traffic. In the distance, an orange roof peeked out. This would be my home from now on.
I parked the truck and stepped out.
“Hhmmm—”
I took a deep breath of the fresh country air.
“Ah, wait, it smells like crap.”
The heavy scent of fertilizer made me realize a bountiful harvest was underway. Pinching my stinging nose for a moment, I looked around.
“The scenery is nice, though.”
This time, I took in my surroundings with my eyes instead of my nose. A towering mountain stood behind me, a vast sea stretched out in front, and an old-fashioned house sat exquisitely positioned right between them. The surrounding stone wall was charming, and there was a fairly large open yard nearby.
“Whew. Is this the final destination of my life?”
This was my last home, bought by pouring in every single penny I had originally saved for a wedding. I planned to enjoy a peaceful, healing life here—tending to a garden and fishing in the sea. I wanted to forget about the ticking time bomb in my head for a while. After all, I had thrown off the world's shackles to find true happiness.
First things first: unloading my luggage. Since I had been living in a tiny single room, I didn’t have much stuff, so the job was finished in no time.
Thinking about it now, it was ridiculous.
‘Wow, it’s the exact same amount of money, but look at the difference.’
In Seoul, that money could barely buy a cramped studio apartment. In Gangwon-do, it bought a small house with its own plot of land. I realized once again just how insane real estate prices had become. Well, it didn’t matter to me anymore.
I sat down on the porch floor to cool off.
Bzzzzt—
“Ugh?!”
Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced my skull.
Huh? This can't be happening. On my very first day in the countryside, while trying to enjoy a peaceful life, this happens?
As expected, Hell Mode life never just lets you go.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me...”
I gritted my teeth against the agonizing pain tearing through my brain.
Should I call an ambulance? What was I supposed to do in this situation? I grabbed my smartphone to dial for help, but it slipped from my grip and clattered to the floor. The pressure in my head tightened further and further. If this kept up—
“Huh? Wait, it stopped?”
My head, which had been throbbing so violently I thought I would pass out, suddenly felt completely fine.
I collapsed backward onto the yard, blinking away the tears that had welled up from the pain. My first day in the countryside had almost become my last. I didn’t know whether to be thankful that the episode had passed or depressed that it might happen again, so I just let out a hollow laugh.
Why did the sky have to look so beautiful at a time like this?
“Sigh... Still, it’s nice to look at.”
I was muttering to myself, staring upward, when I noticed something strange. The sky was distorting, rippling like waves.
What? Why isn't it clearing up? Is this an aftereffect?
And then.
“Uh...?”
Something began to fall from the warped sky. What the hell was that? A shooting star? In broad daylight?
Worse, it was plummeting straight toward me.
“Huh? Wait, wait, wait!”
The unidentified object rocketed through the sky, closing the distance to my yard at terrifying speed. Just as I scrambled to my feet to run away—
BOOM!
It crashed into my garden with a deafening explosion. The impact shook the earth, sending me rolling across the ground, completely showered in flying dirt.
“Cough, cough! What the actual fuck?!”
Targeting my head with a magic stone wasn't enough, so now the universe was throwing a meteorite at me? Talk about a total lack of conscience! Even for Hell Mode, this was a foul!
I was about to unleash a torrent of furious curses when a thought struck me.
‘Wait... meteorites? Aren’t meteorites worth a fortune?’
An article I read a while ago flashed through my mind—a story about a guy whose life was completely turned around after a meteorite landed in his yard.
Could it be? Was this a jackpot ticket handed down by the heavens as a reward for surviving Hell Mode?
I hastily crawled over to inspect the crash site. Inside a shallow crater sat a smooth, metallic silver sphere.
“A meteorite!”
It had a sleek, luxurious surface that practically screamed high value. Given that it was roughly the size of my torso, it had to be worth at least several hundred million won.
With a pounding heart, I approached my golden ticket to early retirement and placed my hands on it.
Crack—
The meteorite began to split.
Huh? Do meteorites split open?
Spiderweb cracks rapidly spread across the entire surface. As a gap widened, a pair of glowing eyes flashed from within.
My entire body froze solid.
What if this wasn't a meteorite, but a monster egg?
My excitement instantly vanished. We lived in a world where gates opened and monsters ran rampant; just because something fell from the sky didn't mean it was space gold.
Yep, classic Hell Mode.
Resigned to my fate, I waited to see what kind of horror would pop out.
“Puu!”
With a cute chirp, a tiny creature hatched from the shell.
It was covered in flawless, platinum scales, with two small horns on its forehead that sparkled like cut diamonds. It had adorable wings and stubby little limbs. Its two eyes were incredibly clear, reflecting the sky and the sea.
Brrrr—
The creature shook its body, shedding the remnants of its shell, and looked up at me.
“Kyu-kyu!”
It let out a bright, happy laugh.
Without warning, the little guy waddled over and wrapped its limbs around my leg. Captivated by its sparkling eyes, I reached out and instinctively stroked its head.
[You have been chosen by a Great Being.]
[The SSS-Class Dimensional Dragon has selected you as its father.]
“Uh... what?”
“Kyu-kyu!”
And that was how, on my very first day of retirement in the countryside, I became the father of an SSS-class dragon.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment