Oh, The Misery //Solo Leveling// Sung Jin Woo x Antares

11: I am a Blue Mist

He was like a ghost, appearing everywhere around him. There would be times when Jin-Woo would search for him. There would be other times when he would just appear. It didn't matter how, he was just always there. Quiet and hidden among the rest, but watching around like a hawk. The condor in the high planes. Sometimes the sun would shine at his figure as through it belonged to him. The rays lined up with the red hair perfectly. And like a quiet shadow, Jin-Woo could help but follow it. 

But he had to draw away at some point. 

In the night, Jin-Woo looked around at the anonymous forums he had posted. At first he wondered if this would leave marks that could get him angry with the S rank, but at the same time he also had, well, all kinds of doubts about his origins. Even before meeting the S rank, even before waking up. The System hovering over him, the dungeon that lets you level up. Sung Jin-Woo never got to be alive if he wasn't at least cautious of the deals he was making. So at the very least he could slowly grab some information from the outside and piece by piece, unite it all together without the need for the answer to reveal itself. As long as he knew all the threads, he should be fine getting the answer. 

But…

Magic beasts that appear from gates. No one knows where the gates come from but it isn't from here. 'A rip or hole through spacetime, like a wormhole that sticks right through us' some websites say. 'Magic beasts that contain an inner intelligence capable of deciphering even the most basic of puzzles and some using advanced magic-infused technology to attack us.' Others say while describing no origin or capable translation over the species' language whatsoever. 

The world feels like a room with too many doors but not a single entrance. He starts to look around in earnest towards the information that scatters around him but the answers exist in every possible dimension except his. 

A hopeless thought of never reaching the end. Jin-Woo's mind goes back to the time he could remember watching his mother fall to an endless sleep. The doctors scattering around with papers, trying to infuse her with magic until she woke up. He could still remember the nurse trying to explain all that he could to him, Jin-Ah grabbing as much information on the internet as she could to understand the slumbering disease. Meanwhile he fell like a cracked shell, empty of usefulness, a blind person hoping to reach a destination. No matter how much he tried to learn, there was nothing to help him.

The chair at her bedside must be cold by now, it's been almost a month since he had visited her. Jin-Woo looked at the window outside, the moon still pointing back at him as he charged his phone by the desktop and opened the covers. There would be another time he could find the answer. 

For now he just wanted to sleep. 

The bed feels cold today for some reason. 

___________________________

"What about gates?" 

Kang-Dae lowered his sight from a nearby candy store, his eyes always seemed to gaze down at him with such precision that the first few times it happened, Jin-Woo felt chills run down his body. Even now he almost couldn't lock his eyes with the man. 

"What about them?" 

"Do you know where they come from?" 

Kang-Dae stared down at him for another long second before talking. "A foreign source." 

"The kiszts?" Jin-Woo fell into a flustered panic as soon as he saw the Hunter's expression morph into utter bafflement. Between his teeth he kept muttering. "I mean, there was this sound you made when you were describing some things… it sounded like a… a kitszs…and there was another… like a — never mind." By this point it was already hard enough for him to keep up the conversation without feeling ashamed. It wasn't a new language that he didn't understand, it was just the system that blurred his voice entirely.