.
I, of course, barely studied these days; however, to keep having a break while I promised to engage in studying was different from just to enjoy myself to the full. Thus, I decided to completely empty my schedules today.
‘If I read something, I can take some fresh air.’ With that thought in mind, I approached the bookshelf. Actually, I had relieved most of my stress from reading books during elementary school and middle school.
Raising myself up immediately, I walked close to the bookshelf and scanned it. Ever since entering high school, I seldom bought books, so most of them on the bookshelf were those I had gotten in the far past such as Harry Potter, Tara Duncan, a few Japanese detective novels, and American thriller and suspense novels, etc.
Quickly browsing through the titles, my hand suddenly stopped.
“Ah…” I emitted a short sigh. “This was still here. I thought I’d thrown it away…’
Murmuring that way, I took out a book from the very corner of the shelf. The pocket-sized book was way smaller than regular books but also very thick at the same time. As I opened it, a blank white space created by pressing the enter key multiple times took up almost half of the page which was turned yellow.
The book was my favorite web novel when I was in elementary school. Feeling unexpected, I skimmed through the book. ‘Ah, indeed…’ I said to myself while giggling at the familiar phrase.
‘… Has the Four Heavenly Kings, fighter rankings, and the female main character doesn’t even know that she’s pretty…”
Looking at the words in the book that once had been the things in my real life felt very enigmatic, and at the same time, I finally realized that I had been living in the world of a web novel.
I suddenly murmured, “… World of a web novel…”
Standing still for a moment, I lowered my head again and quickly flipped through the pages, then I detached my lips at the familiar words.
“Now I come to think of it, what if…” I murmured and turned on the computer immediately. I didn’t even want to waste my time on booting the computer, so I bit my lips in anxiety.
It was questionable why I had never come up with this thought until now when I went back and forth between this and that universe so many times!
“I said, ‘a world of a web novel,’ right?” I mumbled to myself while stretching out my hand to tap the desk.
Right, no matter how much the world I had lived in was a hodgepodge of all kinds of web novel cliches, it was still a web novel itself. And in this world, web novels existed in real life. In that case…
“What if the original web novel about ‘the other world’ exists in this universe?” I murmured.
Ban Yeo Ryung, Eun Jiho, Yoo Chun Young, Kwon Eun Hyung, Woo Jooin, Ban Yeo Dan, and Yi Ruda… and so many other characters… What if there was a novel that featured those characters in this universe?
The short time taking for the computer to finally boot up seemed endless. The sound of the clock ticking somewhere inside my room felt so loud. My heart pounded so noisily as if it was right beside my ears.
Watching the screen in silence while being frozen in tension, I moved the mouse right away as soon as the wallpaper appeared. The main screen of the web portal I saw every day suddenly looked like a not-to-be-opened treasure chest surrounded by multiple layers of locks.
And all the keys were in my hand right now. It was just that I didn’t use them until now. Thinking to that extent, I soon shook my head.
However, the dimension shifting I had gone through in the past all lasted only a few hours. Besides, most of them took place when I was asleep. Thus, I would have, of course, not been able to pull myself together around that time. Before I got to handle the chaotic situation, everything had already returned to usual.
‘Then wouldn’t right now be the only chance?’ Having that thought in my head, I clenched my fist. It might be the opportunity given to me after a million times, the chance to take back my right of control, and at the same time, to escape from the fear of someone leaving me and have the freedom of doing what I had longed for.
The opportunity that I had dreamed of so eagerly over the last four years was finally in front of me.
Quickly raising my head, I fastened my gaze at the search box in the middle of the main screen. After sending a piercing glance at it, I brought my fingers to the keyboard and carefully entered each word.
Even though it was wintertime, a bead of sweat seemed to have dropped on the keyboard when I pressed the enter key. My neck was actually full of cold sweat.
The screen changed, at last, and a bunch of browsed results came into view. I scrolled down the browsed results of the keyword, ‘Ban Yeo Ryung,’ with a blank look. Once I found out that there weren’t any particular things about it, a sign of relief slipped from my mouth instead of getting disappointed.
It felt like gaining a short time to get ready before entering a haunted house. Facing the solution of the mystery that made me wander around and wonder about over the last few years, somehow, frightened me a little. I was afraid that all the time I had spent agonizing seemed to return to nothing.
There were many web novels with the female main character named Ban Yeo Ryung. Even on the Q&A section on the web portal, many people answered, ‘Ban Yeo Ryung,’ when someone asked for a recommendation of the female main character’s name on the novel. Well, the last name was unique, and the first name itself sounded pretty, so there was no reason to avoid that name. I clearly understood why that name was so commonly used in web novels.
Pronouncing the names of the rest of the characters, I, however, furrowed my eyebrows. ‘Hold on, are other kids’ names less common than Ban Yeo Ryung? I, instead, think Ban Yeo Ryung sounds more unique though…’
Feeling nervous, I entered other names on the search box one after another. Soon, I exclaimed, “Ah, that was right!”
The bad hunch I had turned out to be correct. I grimaced.
Both Eun Jiho and Yoo Chun Young were popular names used not only in web novels but also in different genres such as fusion fantasy, martial arts, or even contemporary fiction. Even many people with those names actually existed in real life here.
In web novels, the name of Kwon Eun Hyung was as common as Ban Yeo Ryung. Lastly, when I browsed Woo Jooin on the search box, I touched my forehead with a look of frustration.
‘Geez, I have no interest in studying aliens at all,’ I sighed while checking out the related browsed results such as ‘mystery circles’ or ‘Bermuda triangle.’
Taking my eyes off the computer screen, I leaned myself on the back of my chair and looked up at the ceiling.
“… Was I thinking about it too easily?” I muttered to myself. When I came up with the idea of the original novel about ‘the other universe’ could exist in this world, I felt the answer was already there.
So to speak, it was like suddenly getting the answer sheets of the college admission exam as a test-taking student. Everything already seemed to become that much clarified to me.
‘But how can the whole thing go up in smoke like this?’ I mumbled to myself. Since I had a huge expectation, I felt very despondent in the end.
I lifted my hands to cover my eyes. Actually, I was a bit… no, very embarrassed.
“What have I done…” I murmured while blaming myself for doing an absurd one-man show. Just a while ago, I believed that something brilliant had flashed through my head; however, everything would end with nothing achieved if things continued this way.
Taking my hands off my eyes all of a sudden, I uttered, “No, hold on for a sec…” Blurting those words out, I turned around and glanced at the monitor again.
There were still a lot of names that I didn’t browse on the web. However, the one least common name existed which I didn’t search yet. Since it sounded not that pretty, the name didn’t seem to be used that often in web novels. Still, it wasn’t common at the same time.
I brought my hands toward the keyboard as if I had been captivated by something.
Ham Donnie.
As soon as I hit the enter key after typing in my name, I freaked out at the results appearing on the screen.
‘Ha…’ Heaving a sigh, I giggled and said, “What the… I should have done this in the beginning.”
‘I should have browsed this prior to all the other names,’ I mumbled and stared at the blog posts on the screen.
