Chapter 252

Everyone except Do-Jin and Anne vanished. The moment Sion separated her workshop into an independent dimension and seized control of the space, she swept all the annoying extras away without hesitation.

From Do-Jin’s perspective, those old mages blinded by curiosity had definitely been a pain in the ass. Even so, seeing them sit there in miserable worry, waiting only for their Tower Master and getting kicked out the second she returned made him feel a little bad.

“Sion, you really are something else...”

Anne, who was no longer human and had become an Ego Spear, sounded just as fed up. She shook her blade side to side, clearly exhausted by Sion’s complete lack of humanity.

“You said you even took in a disciple, so I thought maybe you had softened a little...”

“Hmph. Even if they worried, confirming I returned safely should have been enough. The more urgent matter is this one.” Sion pointed at Do-Jin.

“Me?”

“Yes. You need fixing, do you not?”

She flicked a finger, and Do-Jin’s body lifted helplessly before shooting across the room.

“Ugh!”

He flew straight into a massive glass chamber filled to the brim with a green liquid.

Do-Jin instinctively held his breath, but Sion spoke calmly, “Don’t worry. It is a special solution, so breathing will not be an issue. I created it to keep experimental organisms alive for long periods, and it greatly enhances recovery as well.”

She began casting spells in rapid succession while explaining, “Regenians already possess a structure similar to spirits. They don’t wield Spirit Power, but their bodies are composed of mana. You, in particular, are closer to pure mana than most, so your recovery speed will be exceptional.”

Wanting to say something himself, Do-Jin pounded on the transparent glass wall, but Sion ignored him completely.

“This is far better than restoring you through Divine Power. Not only will it return you to your original state, it will reinforce your circuits and make them stronger and more resilient. Other mages would pay a fortune for a secret enhancement spell like this.”

He had clearly failed to grasp his master’s grand intentions. Do-Jin gave up resisting and let the buoyancy of the liquid hold him afloat.

I kind of want to ask how long this is going to take.

He was wondering why he could breathe but not speak when something suddenly dropped from above and covered his mouth. Startled, he realized it was a mask attached to a hose.

“Mmph! Mmph!” Do-Jin writhed in distress.

“It’s good for you.”

A disgusting, bitter liquid forced its way into him. Thankfully, the suffering didn’t last long. Some kind of anesthetic kicked in halfway through, and he stopped feeling whatever the hell was being pumped into him.

Fuck me...

Left hanging there like a lab rat exhausted from too many tests, Do-Jin finally gave up and decided to check the pile of delayed messages instead.

A whole stack of notifications from Theresa and Tanto flooded into view. The earliest messages were the ones sent when they first realized something was wrong and freaked out. The next batch was full of worried check-ins, then came updates saying they were busy sealing Rifts themselves, and the most recent ones all said the same thing: he needed to contact them the second he got back.

Yeah, judging by how completely over the top those last messages were, things must have gone absolutely insane. Then again, if the notifications he saw earlier had popped up as full-blown world messages, that kind of chaos made perfect sense.

The outside world must be losing its shit right now.

Do-Jin found himself wondering how everything had unfolded after he disappeared. He had rushed out a post before leaving, but he had no idea how much impact it actually had. He also wanted to know how badly Lostania had been hit in the process.

It looks like I will be stuck like this for a while anyway, so I might as well do some digging.

When it came to LOST news, Lotranet was always the place to be. Feeling the heavy, lazy warmth of his body slowly recovering, Do-Jin logged on.

Wait, what the hell.

He froze in place. The place was a full-on madhouse, way beyond anything he had imagined.

└ Footage of our party taking down a Rift Boss. Preserving this shit for humanity’s legacy.

└ Every single one of us was a hero on that day.

└ Day 1,101 praying for Do-Jin’s return.

└ World messages dropped ages ago and we still have no news. Rael has definitely kidnapped Do-Jin. Anyone wanna protest in front of Rael HQ? I am absolutely not going though.

└ From now on, whenever events like this pop up, I am dropping everything and joining.

└ Do-Jin, you asshole. You were doing something this fun all by yourself. I am still so hyped I have not slept for two damn days.

└ What do we do now? What do we do now? What do we do now? What the fuck do we do now?

└ Holy shit, I am going through Catastrophe withdrawal. Give us another disaster already. We will handle it.

People had completely lost their minds. After being crushed under Catastrophes with brutal difficulty, the users had experienced that insane high of seeing the world messages drop and every looming disaster suddenly pull back at the last second. The sheer rush of that moment had hit them like a drug, and now the entire player base looked collectively unhinged.

Wait... This many people actually banded together to fight the Rifts?

He had expected some level of participation after posting his message, but he never imagined regular players, streamers, and massive guilds would all throw themselves into it together.

If everyone really stood up and protected the world side by side, then yeah... I get why they feel like this.

Even Do-Jin, who was only seeing it afterward, felt his chest tighten with a strange swell of emotion. Anyone who had actually lived through that moment must have felt proud as hell.

Do-Jin opened his own channel next, and what he saw made the corner of his mouth curl upward.

Oh man... this side is a fucking disaster too.

└ Do-Jin, please upload a video soon. I am dying to know what the hell happened.

└ BRO, I really fought believing in you, and you didn’t betray that trust. I actually cried when the world message popped up.

└ This time we protected it together too, right? Come back already.

└ Hey, mister channel owner. How about you hand over that video while we are still asking nicely? We actually have a damn good reason to demand footage this time.

└ Thank you for showing us that this game is not just about grinding levels and stacking specs.

└ When the Rift shit first started, I was pissed as hell. Now I cannot wait for the next event because of you. I hope it is even harder, so let us push through it together again.

Everyone sounded genuinely happy. They felt proud that they had contributed, even a little, to protecting this world. Had Do-Jin ever seen a scene like this in his previous life? No, not even once.

Back then, whenever a catastrophe hit, everyone just cursed out M?bius, screamed for compensation, and hid information from each other whenever there was an event worth farming. People clawed at each other for even a tiny advantage.

What unfolded before him now felt like an entirely different world and this change existed because of him. After returning to the past, the path Do-Jin had shown people through his own actions had left a mark. He had overcome enormous trials, proved that people could win by standing and fighting together, and shown that enduring the worst could make someone stronger than anyone else.

The image he had built sent ripples through the hearts of countless LOST players, and those ripples piled up until moments like this became possible. Do-Jin hadn’t just changed the fate of the game world itself but had changed the people living inside it too.

***

Do-Jin decided to handle everything that needed dealing with first while he waited for the reward calculations and endured Sion’s trademark treatment. He left his avatar floating inside the glass chamber full of reagents and returned to reality.

The first thing he did was calm down the people who were worried about him, starting with Chun Ji-Hyun. She had clearly been holding herself back because of how serious the situation had been, but the way he had been grinding nonstop in the game was the kind of pattern that wrecked one’s health, and she seemed genuinely concerned because of it.

“I will keep it under five hours a day for the next two weeks.”

“What? Really?”

“Yup. I swear.”

The solution was simple. When someone worried because he lived like a capsule-bound game addict who never came out, promising to cut back on playtime worked better than anything else.

Next came his party members. With them, all he needed to say was that he had returned safely and that he would send a video explaining everything that happened. After that, he immediately called Oh Young-Sik, the head of the content team.

“Hello, Team Leader. I have a video that I really want edited as soon as possible.”

Oh Young-Sik practically jumped at the words. The content team had already been waiting for the moment Do-Jin stepped out of his capsule. After all, everyone expected something insane the second the guy who had flipped the entire LOST scene upside down came back.

—Do not worry about a thing. We prepared this one even more carefully than the last, and we even hired extra staff dedicated just to your channel. We are going to make it feel bigger than a damn movie!

He sounded pumped before even seeing the raw footage. Do-Jin felt grateful for the passion Oh Young-Sik showed toward the videos, but he still spoke carefully. “Team Leader, I am really sorry, but could you focus on editing only the combat scenes as quickly as possible this time? I want to show it to people sooner rather than later.”

He felt thankful toward everyone who had read his post, stood with him, and fought against the Catastrophe together, as well as the fans who believed in him and kept waiting for his return. That was why he wanted to show it quickly, both to the people who were excited and the ones who had been worried sick.

If they try to polish it too much, this shit is going to drag on forever.

—Hmm... I have not even watched the raw footage yet, but just hearing what went down, this sounds like something huge. Would it not be better to hype people up and drop a polished version later? If you just don’t want to deal with the headache, we can handle all that on our side...

“No, it is not that. I really just want to show it to the fans as soon as possible. I mean it. I want them to see it right away.”

—Haa. Yeah, okay, I get it. I was already kind of bummed last time when you only wanted to upload the combat footage, but if that is what you want, Do-Jin... Wait, if speed is the goal, why don’t we put up the fight scenes first like a breaking-news clip, then use the same material to make a full cinematic version later?

“Uh... yeah. That’ll work.”

—Alright, perfect. Then we drop a teaser before everyone loses it out of curiosity, and after that we hit them with something that feels bigger than a damn movie.

Oh Young-Sik sounded fired up all over again. Do-Jin laughed softly and thanked him, telling him he always appreciated the work.

—Heh. We are the ones who should be thankful. Editing is just editing. Guys like us keep going because people actually enjoy what we make. That is the whole point. Honestly, we are lucky to have a creator handing us material like this. You do not find that every day.

“I am getting embarrassed now, so I am going to hang up before this turns into a whole speech. Take care of yourself and don’t wreck your health over this, okay.”

Do-Jin ended the call while Oh Young-Sik was still laughing. He let out a short breath and rubbed his face.

Oh my god... There’s just too much to do.

He wondered if his character would be fully recovered the next time he logged in. The reward calculations kept nagging at the back of his mind too. At this rate, he honestly felt like he might drop dead if he kept pushing.

Screw all that. I need to rest for real.