Surviving Among the Letters

My conversation with Director Messier unexpectedly brought me significant insight.

At least, he didn’t seem like someone who would lie with both sides of his mouth. So, his words about sparing me if I awakened my powers didn’t seem like a lie.

Yeah. Powers.

In the original story, the origin of psychic powers was never revealed.

No.

I have some guesses about the origin.

The Iris Crystal.

The source of all the evils in this story.

The Iris Crystal, which was stored in the Mage Tower, was split into six pieces during the war, and this opened the gates to this world.

Magic, as well as martial arts, developed to harness the power of the Iris Crystal, and psychic abilities also emerged at that time.

So, it’s clear that the origin of psychic abilities is related to the Iris Crystal shards.

The issue, however, is how these abilities are awakened.

Anyway, that’s why it’s nearly impossible for me to awaken true psychic powers right now.

I need to awaken something that’s close to psychic abilities.

And the answer to this lies with the characters in the story.

“Byun Yakmuwin. Liang Shaodin.”

I muttered his name, letting it sink in.

Born into a prestigious family, he was sickly as a child and couldn’t even receive training.

He didn’t even receive his family’s teachings and lived isolated in his room.

But he stood up on his own.

‘Though he was confined to a small room, his mind wandered the universe, gaining enlightenment without help.’

As expressed in the story, he gained enlightenment on his own and finally reached the state of mastering void-like martial arts.

Then, he sacrificed his life to stop an S-rank gate that appeared in China, becoming a national hero.

Liang Shaodin’s life story isn’t what’s important here. The part I need to focus on is one thing.

The fact that he gained enlightenment.

Achieving mastery over the void without any training?

Isn’t this just psychic ability in another form?

So, what I need to pursue is enlightenment.

Gain enlightenment and awaken powers.

That’s the only way I can survive.

◆◇◆◇◆

I was about to return to my room from the Director’s office, but I encountered a major problem.

I didn’t have the bracelet that opens the door.

“Sigh… I just need to remove the translation function, but why did they take everything off…?”

Even though the room is right in front of me, I can’t open the door.

How sad is this?

I think the Director probably planned to give me a new bracelet.

But since I left the office after our conversation, he didn’t have time to attach it.

Or… maybe he just forgot?

While I scratched my head in front of the door…

I heard a sound from the room next door as the door opened.

Then, Remy peeked out and looked at me.

“…”

“…”

I made eye contact with her.

Then, Remy gathered the courage to speak.

“Um… so… you’re okay, right? You’re not hurt, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Um… I wasn’t worried, just… when I heard you were taken by the Director, I just… didn’t want anything bad to happen, so yeah… that’s all.”

Remy rambled nervously.

“…”

I didn’t say anything, and eventually, Remy couldn’t hold it anymore.

“Ughhh! Blanco! I’m sorryyyyyy! Uuugh hehhehehe!”

Remy ran up to me and threw herself into my arms, crying.

“If I hadn’t told you to go out earlier… you wouldn’t have been taken by the Director! Uuugh, I’m so sorryyyyy!”

“It’s okay. I’m not hurt.”

“Heheheh! Really? You’re really not hurt? You’re fine? Oh, thank goodness!”

It seemed Remy was really worried about me.

She probably thought it was her fault because she ignored my need for help, which led the Director to take me away.

She must have felt guilty, thinking it was because of her that the Director came after me.

“Hehehhe!”

“Calm down, Remy. It’s okay, so stop!”

“Sniff… hic… yeah… hic!”

It seemed like it would take a while for her to calm down.

◆◇◆◇◆

“So, why were you standing in front of the door?”

Finally calmed down, I entered Remy’s room with her.

Remy asked me why I had been standing in front of the door.

To answer her, I raised my left arm and showed her.

“…The bracelet?”

“The Director took it.”

“Huh??? Then how will we talk? You won’t understand the researchers, right? And how will you open the door?”

“I don’t know.”

Honestly, understanding the conversation isn’t a huge problem.

I understand Korean, after all.

The biggest problem is that I can’t get into the room.

“Um… Should I go back to the Director’s office?”

“I don’t want to. I’m never going back there again.”

“Um… then let’s sleep in my room for now. You’ll do that, right?”

I thought she had given up on that idea after I said no on the first day, but it seems she had been thinking about it all along.

She went straight for it the moment the opportunity came.

“Sigh… Okay, let’s sleep together.”

“Yay! Hehe. I can’t sleep alone.”

Can’t sleep alone…?

But then, what about the way she didn’t wake up during the ‘Good morning ding ding ding’ sound?

It’s the greatest mystery I’ve come across, but I never asked her about it.

If she really can’t sleep properly, how deeply does she fall into sleep?

If that’s the case, it must be a sickness…

Anyway, there was still some time left until dinner, so I decided to play with Remy.

This felt like the most exhausting time of the day.

How energetic she is.

◆◇◆◇◆

After dinner, we get free time.

Well, to be precise, all the time without experiments is free time.

And since there’s still plenty of time before the 10 PM bedtime, we needed something to pass the time.

What we needed for that was a board game.

“Wonka!”

“Why is it already Wonka?”

“I cleared it all with the King earlier~”

I wonder what’s left in the deck…?

Spades? Diamonds?

Since I just played a diamond, is it a diamond?

Then…

I carefully laid down the 3 of Hearts, but Remy’s lips curled into a wide grin.

“Bam-bara-bam bam bam bam-bara-bam~”

Remy turned her last card over and held it tightly…

And the card was none other than… the Color Joker.

“Ah, no! I’m done!”

“Heheh, three wins in a row~ Three wins in a row~”

The researcher had clearly told us to ask for anything we wanted on the first day.

I asked for electronics, but it was obviously rejected, so I had no choice but to resort to analog games.

And the only options available were board games.

Since there are only two of us, it’s limited to two-player games, but that was enough to enjoy.

However…

Isn’t Remy’s win rate a little too high?

I think Remy wins about 70% of the time.

At this rate, even rock-paper-scissors would likely favor her.

“Okay. Let’s go to the next round. We’ll keep going until I win.”

“Okay, okay. I’m the type to accept defeat graciously.”

Just as we were about to start the next round, an announcement echoed from somewhere.

In Korean.

[There’s a gift left in the room. Go check it out?]

The translation function only works for those wearing the bracelet.

So, announcements like this are not subject to translation.

This means the announcement was meant only for those who can understand Korean.

And that would be me.

“What did that announcement just say? It sounded like a foreign language. It was all squelchy.”

“It was Korean.”

“Whoa. I always hear translations, so hearing it live is kind of cool!”

“I’m going to go check the room for a bit.”

“Huh? You can’t open the door without the bracelet?”

“Not now.”

I got up from the floor and left Remy’s room, heading next door.

The announcement said there was a gift, so they must have left the door open…

“Couldn’t they at least handle their tasks properly… Sigh…”

The Director must be having a headache.

Having subordinates who can’t even do their job properly…

It would be nice to give a hint by looking at the nearby CCTV, but it’s so small I have no idea where it is, so I just glanced around, glaring at everything in my sight.

Then, unexpectedly, the door opened without me doing anything.

Looks like I’ve learned enough to notice things like this.

And on my bed, there was a bracelet and a letter.

The bracelet must be the one with the translation function removed.

Curious about the letter, I opened it first.

[It’s from the Director. I forgot to give you the bracelet with the translation function removed. This happened because you made the questions so interesting. Hmm… Does this sound like an excuse? Anyway, look forward to it.]

So he really forgot.

If he was going to do it, he should have given it to me from the beginning.

What’s the point of giving it to me now?

I crumpled the letter into a ball and threw it into the trash.

Then, I put the bracelet on, and, curious, Remy came into my room.

“What’s this? Is it a new bracelet?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. I couldn’t imagine how hard it was to translate everything into Spanish while we were eating earlier!”

Even though I could understand all the Korean, I couldn’t exactly tell Remy that it was unnecessary.

I had a hard time pretending I didn’t understand Korean just to help her out.

Anyway, now I wouldn’t have to sleep with Remy in the same room anymore, right…?

Suddenly, I glanced at Remy, and she was staring at me with big, hopeful eyes.

“You’re going to sleep with me, right?”

“…Well… that is…”

“You’re going to sleep with me, right?”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll sleep with you. Yeah, yeah, alright.”

If I said no now, I’m sure she’d be even more upset than before.

So, I’ll just do it out of consideration.

And if what she said about not being able to sleep alone was true, I guess I should be a little apologetic.

Anyway, now I could start thinking about how to awaken my abilities in my room.

Since martial arts are the base, I’ll have to think about something like the “Guyeol” or even something like “Juhwaipma”…

Martial arts originated from Chinese martial arts, but it also includes other types of martial arts.

A representative example would be the American Night Sky Knights.

They’re a well-known group of heroes in America, sharpening swords, and

There was no mention of “Juhwaipma” in this story, though.

“Sigh…”

I guess I’ll just try anything that comes to mind.

If it were easy, I wouldn’t have made it this far.

And getting enlightenment isn’t something easy either.

In the end, it’s just one mountain after another.