The Quest Rewards Are Real! Chapter 2- Strange dream (2)

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“…….”

After washing up in the bathroom, I rubbed my temples looking at the black card still lying in the corner of the desk.

How am I supposed to take this?

A strange dream that forced quests like a game.

But the reward for the quest suddenly appeared in reality.

[Lowest Rewards]

When I picked up the card, golden words were engraved on the black card again and a message popped up in front of me like a hologram.

[Do you want to use a card?]

What a bizarre situation this was.

Don’t tell me… I am still dreaming?

“Well.”

Now, that was something I don’t know the answer of.

Frankly, it is best not to be entangled with it.

But why?

I had an intuition that this card wouldn’t be anything harmful to me.

It was as if waving its hand with a smile saying ‘I won’t hurt you.’

Standing still and fiddling with the card, I decided to try it.

If it were the ‘me’ from before, I would have just ignored it, but after going through so many abnormal things, I thought it was the only best thing to do rather than to judge if it was right or wrong.

Also, I was interested in situations that are far from my daily life, because the current life that I have was already difficult.

[Do you want to use the card?]

If I have already decided, all that is left is the action.

I nodded without hesitation.

“Yeah.”

[You have used your lowest reward card]

And a brilliant white light burst from the small card.

“What, what?”

The pure white light began to get smaller and soon burst like firecrackers, and the shiny light powder scattered in the air like snow.

In place of it, there appeared a piece of paper.

It fluttered and slowly fell, then i took it with my hands without any difficulty.

[You earned 10,000 won]

Holding the green bill in my hand, I blinked with a stupid look on my face.

In contrast to the unrealistic circumstances, the rewards were far too realistic.

It was a situation where I drop my shoulder.

I didn’t expect much, but I couldn’t hide my curiosity when I recalled the extravagant effect.

“Is this real money?”

***

-Would you like to deposit 10,000 won?–

That was real money.

When I deposited the 10,000 won bill into the ATM machine, I laughed in vain.

It’s good to get money, but this was also a situation that can’t be taken lightly.

It seems that what happened inside the dream led to reality.

But it happened in a very ridiculous way…….

It was a situation that destroys common sense so far.

This doesn’t change anything much.

It was only 10,000 won that I got to hold in my hands through this ridiculous miracle.

“I don’t know if I will be dreaming it again, anyway.”

It was foolish to cling to miracles with wishful observations.

Ordinary people may make a fuss saying this situation was nonsense, but I calmed down myself as fast as I could and my heart returned to its original beating.

What I have to do right now was still the same as yesterday.

Job application and interview.

[An abnormality occurred in which the moon looks crushed around Seoul this morning. Scientists say it’s a temporary phenomenon caused by atmospheric instability, so it’s not a big problem to worry about.….]

On the way home, a piece of news from the bus station’s electronic display caught my eye.

In the electronic display, the moon above the dark sky was shaking just before sunset.

“That’s amazing.”

I didn’t pay much attention to it and went my own way.

What I had to worry about right now was not the phenomenon, but the interview this afternoon.

A pub in Seocho-dong.

“Phew…”

When I sighed and hit my head on the table, my friend since high school “Kim Jung-woo” tapped me on the shoulder.

“Don’t be so nervous. I’m sure you’ll find a good job.”

He has a handsome face in a neat suit.

Jung-woo was compared to me in many ways during high school.

However, although he went to the third-rate university due to messing up the CSAT, it was still a prestigious university with a high name value, and now he is a popular employee from a Finance Company.

“I never expected Jihoon to be like this. You would never know what would happen to someone’s life.”

When they saw me looking like this, a friend named Park Woo-chan teased me.

“Hey, how can you say that when your friend is having a hard time?”

Jung-woo said in response to Woo-chan while showing his pissed-off appearance.

While, Lee Cho-hee, the only woman among the members who I sat together with, said with a sullen look.

“Honestly, isn’t he too shameful? Originally, this was a group of talented young people, but at the age of 27, he is still unemployed.”

I was at a loss at the words of Cho-hee.

Kim In-sik, a bear-sized man, frowned as if he couldn’t take her words.

“What the fck is that? Do you make friends based on their abilities?”

“Honestly, we’re not kids anymore, and now we are arguing about something obvious. Jihoon must at what level he could be fit in..”

Jung-woo works for a Finance company, Woo-chan and Cho-hee work for the Government, while In-Sik is a doctor.

Not long ago I had a business card and didn’t need to bow to them, but now I’m just unemployed.

“That’s funny and pathetic. Not too long ago, our parents used to love Jihoon.”

Cho-hee and Woo-chan looked at each other and shrugged.

This was my first cold shoulder from my friends. I usually moved forward with my life without any difficulties.

Until now… I felt that the eyes of the two becoming cold, but I didn’t know they would ignore me openly in this meeting.

Since the five of us were always together, we have never ignored each other nor fought.

As In-sik said, Cho-hee and Woo-chan were being far too mean as a friend.

“Hey In-Sik, let’s get this straight. How hard has it been for us to keep an eye to eye with him? Why do we have to look out for a friend when we should be pleasing our boss?”

“Yeah, he ignored and look down on us before. Maybe this is his karma.”

It was quite shocking to know Woo-Chan and Cho-Hee’s real thoughts.

“What do you mean? Why am I ignoring you?”

I swear I never thought of them like that.

Because even if my personality is calculative, I am not cold-blooded enough to impose strict standards on my friends.

In-sik quietly pointed at me and said to Cho-hee and Woo-chan.

“That’s what you think, I’ve never been ignored by Jihoon. And I’ve never been bothered by him.”

In response to honest their responses, Jung-woo also spoke coldly to the two.

“Did you guys think that all this time?”

The two responded, “Didn’t you know it?” but they did not change their attitude.

“Oh, shit. I feel like a total villain.”

Thanks to this, the atmosphere of the drinking party became harsher and harsher, and Cho-hee and Woo-chan stood up feeling unwelcomed.

“We’re going now. Play with your best friends.”

“Hey, this is how you’re leaving? Apologize to Jihoon first!”

“Whatever, I’ll see you later without him.”

I smiled bitterly at the back of those two heads.

***

After drinking until late at night with friends after Cho-Hee and Woo-Chan left, I threw myself into bed as soon as I got home.

The situation of being ignored by two friends was more irritating than being miserable.

This absurdity never happened to me before because I wasn’t ugly.

So I vowed to get a job that will not make others look down on me.

I will be more future-oriented than being pessimistic about the current situation.

‘I can’t sleep like this.’

I got up from my seat to wash up.

I really wanted to stay up late.

But somehow, I felt so heavy that I couldn’t move anymore.

“Ugh!”

I drank quite a bit, but I didn’t drink too much.

Moreover, I was strangely in good condition today, so I wasn’t that drunk.

Yet, my body did separately with my mind as if I had been paralyzed by a taser.

Not long after, I felt like I was being pulled down with a magnet.

And amidst the confusion, my surroundings turned dark.

The first thing I smelled in the darkness was a fresh scent full of grass.

Subsequently, the sound of the leaf clenching stimulated my hearing, and the cool wind tickled my cheeks.

Finally, my eyes opened and I could now see the view. What caught my eye as the darkness faded was the green-filled forest scenery with warm sunlight.

“…….”

Maybe it was because I was familiar with this atmosphere, I could feel that it was the same forest that appeared in my dream yesterday.

If there’s a virtual reality game, would it feel like this when one connected?

Having regained complete control of my body following my smell, hearing, touch and sight, I briefly uttered.

“Crazy.”

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