Terrible Nightmare (2)

The seasons passed and summer came with its scorching heat. In one of the extreme rooms of a hospital, a mummy lay on a bed. It was motionless, and if not for its chest, which swelled when it breathed, it would have been presumed dead.

The mummy stirred a few times and then slowly sat up. He stood there silently and said nothing. You could only tell how he was feeling by his small shoulders that were trembling.

When the nurse entered the room to change the boy's bandages, she was stunned by what she saw.

"D-Doctor!"

***

A few minutes later three people came into the room. One of them was a nurse and the others were two middle-aged men. One of the middle-aged men was stocky and fat. He was looking at the child wrapped like a mummy with a strange expression on his face.

The other was a doctor in a white uniform with a kind look.

"Soohyun-ssi can you hear me?"

He spoke gently.

The boy nodded.

"Can you say something?"

The boy paused, then said in a shaky voice:

"My mom... my dad... where are they?"

The doctor's words caught in his throat. He did not know how to answer. The child's situation was so tragic that he knew that whatever he said would only make it worse.

"You have wonderful parents, son. Without the sacrifice of your mom and dad, we couldn't have saved you."

"..."

Hearing the doctor's words, Soohyun felt like his heart would stop. He was filled with regret. His heart was filled with sorrow every time he thought about that moment. The fact that his parents sacrificed themselves without hesitation, and that they did it happily, hurt him the most.

He raised his hand and touched his bandaged eyes. He still hadn't opened his eyes, he had no idea what was going on around him.

When he made contact with his eyes, his movements froze, his small shoulders shaking as a terrible possibility occurred to him.

"Wher-Where is my eyes...?"

The doctor answered sadly.

"I'm sorry. While we could regenerate other body parts, we could not regenerate your eyes. Although modern technology has found a cure for blindness, there is nothing we can do in cases where the eyes are completely gone. Forgive me, Soohyun."

Soohyun didn't say anything. He turned his head in the direction of the voice. His eyes were closed, he would never see again for the rest of his life, but he tried to stay strong.

"I understand, doctor. It's not your fault. I should have listened to my father."

His body trembled as the horrible scene came back to his. He wanted to cry, but no tears came out of his eyes. Because he no longer had the organ called an eye. The dragon melted under his breath.

The nurse could not bear this scene any longer and left the room with tears in her eyes. After she left, the doctor took a deep breath, cleared his throat and spoke as softly as possible.

"You were in a coma for three months. During that time your body went through a recovery phase. We managed to regenerate your whole body, except your eyes, and as for your power of attorney..."

The stocky man behind the doctor stepped forward.

"My name is Park Woo-sik. Your father must have mentioned me a few times. You will stay with me until you are an adult."

"Uncle?"

"My brother and I cut ties a long time ago. So call me Mister."

"Very well, Mr. Park."

Soohyun turned his head to the doctor.

"Doctor, who was the one who stopped the monster?"

...

The door to an apartment in the center of Gangnam opened. It was a very luxurious residence. A young man with a hood on his head, a middle-aged man and two women, a teenager, entered.

"Wow, it looks like the apartments I've seen in the movies."

"This is our home now."

The young girl looked like she was in high school. Her hair was dyed, she looked around excitedly and with great enthusiasm she ran towards the oversized window. Three lifetimes of savings would not be enough to buy an apartment in the center of Gangnam.

Soohyun locked the door behind him and walked out, but his arm suddenly hit a table and knocked over a vase.

Crunch!

The sound of the vase shattering into pieces startled the young girl.

"Be careful, you scared the hell out of me."

Then she went back to inspecting the apartment. A dark blue 'L' armchair was opposite the fireplace. Huge windows showing the starry Seoul night gave the place an ethereal feel.

The young girl loved this place, had even fallen in love. Ignoring Soohyun, she threw herself on the couch and turned on the two-meter TV. It was a smart home with all kinds of technological possibilities.

Soohyun tried to find his way around with the helmet on his head, but he couldn't find his room. He thought his uncle or aunt would help him, but they had already begun to inspect the house and settle in.

He bit his lip but he knew there was nothing he could do. Fortunately, thanks to his father's friends, he had been able to transfer some of his father's inheritance into an account he had opened for himself. Otherwise, her uncle and aunt would try to hoard it too.

He wanted to kick them out of the house. He wanted to throw them out of this house that his parents had worked hard for. But he lacked the strength to do so.

"Ashborne, lock the door to the Workroom."

His father's study was filled with many valuable archives. It was also a place full of beautiful memories of him and his father. He couldn't let it be defiled.

[The Workroom is locked.]

[Please assign a password.]

Ashborne was the virtual assistant of the house. He was responsible for managing the technological gadgets in the house and taking care of Soohyun when his parents were away.

[Password successfully assigned.]

[Management rights successfully transferred.]

The sound echoing in the room made Soohyun breathe a sigh of relief. Then she began to walk around the house. The helmet on his head scanned the environment, transmitting the location of objects around him in real-time.

Although he didn't worry about what was in his way thanks to the earphones in his ears, the sensor's angle was limited to thirty degrees and one meter. So it didn't get information about things to the left and right of it.

When he got to his room, he tried to find his bed. Once he found his bed, it was very difficult to lie down properly. It was dark everywhere and he was about to lose his mind. But the image of his parents in flames kept his heart in check.

"I want to cry, but I can't even cry."

He didn't know what to do. Thoughts of suicide had crossed his mind, but they had gone as quickly as they had come.

"The last thing I saw was how they burned to ashes."

His voice became hoarse.

"Why did you leave, why did you leave me alone?"

For a few minutes, he stood blankly. It was very difficult for him to describe the feelings in his heart. There was unbearable pain. Darkness was everywhere, he couldn't even feel the light.

The Namsan Tower Tragedy.

That's what it was called three months later.

The government-run Hero Bureau had allowed a Green Dragon to kill hundreds of innocent civilians. Green Dragons were one of the most powerful races of monsters. Why hadn't anyone noticed them before they arrived at a tower in the heart of Seoul, especially at a festival site where people were gathered?

It was also a mystery why the most powerful public organization in the country, the Hero Bureau, was sending low and mid-level heroes instead of high-level heroes.

Soohyun could do nothing but think about these things in this dark world.

Choi Young-ho was the name of the hero who severely wounded the Green Dragon with a single sword strike and managed to kill him within half an hour. He was also the leader of Korea's number-one guild.

When the government failed and the guilds saved the situation, big changes took place in South Korea. Private guilds would now be hired instead of the Hero Bureau, the agency that provided public security.

They would also be granted several special privileges.

Many people had been killed or injured because of the government's slow and incompetent actions. But the newly emerging guilds had cleared the areas they were supposed to protect in a timely manner and ensured that the civilian population was not harmed.

That was why the guilds had grown in strength over the past three months.

Soohyun thought carefully. It was not hard to understand why her father was surprised. The level of protection was too low for such a big event. If there was a high-level hero in charge of guarding the place, things wouldn't have turned out like this.

His parents would not have died like this.

His life would not have been ruined.

He wouldn't have lost his sight.

Soohyun felt that something very different was going on behind the scene.