Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 676
Chapter 676: Dream (3)
As I returned to consciousness, I peaked my eyes open into narrow slits and I compiled the visual information with the sounds I was hearing.
“…Right? I’m pretty sure he matches the description.”
First, I could tell that my wrists were bound by handcuffs that were latched to something.
Clang!
Second, I was inside a moving van.
“No, but if he really is that guy, what could’ve happened to him? It’s one thing for someone who’s been missing for over a year to suddenly appear at his home… But I never heard anything about him being so aggressive…”
Hmm, so that was the setting they went with?
I did wonder why the difficulty was so high for something that should’ve essentially been a tutorial section of the game. Five, healthy grown men had known the password to my apartment, entered my room, and they even had a taser gun.
Yeah. If you don’t even give me a sword while giving the ranged mob a taser, you just want me to get defeated in the first place.
From what I could gather, getting defeated and captured at the starting point of this quest was a scripted event. The true quest would probably be what came after.
“Everyone stop! Once we get to the office and have his fingerprints scanned, then we’ll really see if this guy is that Hansu Lee or not.”
I smothered a sigh. Still, it was a relief. At least I was alive.
“Team Leader Kang? This guy is smiling.”
“What?! He’s awake?”
As soon as the man next to me realized I was awake, the person who was apparently Team Leader Kang sitting in the front passenger seat looked back in shock.
What the? I couldn’t kill this guy either? Did I let go of him too early?
Well, with only three people in this car, the other two had been probably transferred to a hospital for treatment.
“Hansu Lee! Stay still! I don’t care what you experienced. If you cause a scene here, no matter what your mother says, we’ll have no choice but to throw the book at you!”
It seemed that the team leader was worried I would cause a commotion in the car.
What, do I look that cornered to you?
“Understood,” I said, using my most polite voice to convey that I wouldn’t cause any more trouble for him. “Sorry, I will stay still.”
That only seemed to baffle him more.
“What’s with this bastard…? Why is he so calm now?”
I mean, I was being CCd right now. It might have been different if I had the body of a warrior with the strength to instantly break free from these handcuffs, but as ordinary Hansu Lee, such a simple binding rendered me powerless.
This might be an escape mission. Some dreams have you kill all the monsters in your way, and others require you to find a way out.
Rather than attempt a reckless breakout, I decided to take my time and gather as much information as I could. Who knew? Maybe this was considered part of the tutorial too.
“Gentlemen, I just wasn’t thinking straight back then. I was surprised because people I didn’t know suddenly tried to enter my home through the front door… I truly apologize for what happened.”
I abandoned the barbarian way of thinking and afforded them an upstanding, proper apology befitting the modern man.
But what was this?
Team Leader Kang’s face didn’t brighten but darkened instead. “Cut the bull.”
Huh. Someone apologized to him, yet he was calling BS.
Yeah, I should’ve definitely killed this guy back—
“You were smiling.”
Hmm? “That was never the case, sir.”
The team leader snorted. “Looks like we got a real—” He drew a looping circle by the crown of his head like screws coming loose. “Hey, what did this bastard call us back then?”
“He called us Goblin Officers.”
Ah, that…
“Haha, I misspoke in the heat of the moment,” I said, trying to laugh it off. “How about we all take a moment to calm down? Could you explain to me what is—”
“Just shut up and stay still you bastard!” Team Leader Kang cut me off with a shout. “I’m just barely holding myself back here!”
Eugh, stop spitting everywhere.
I genuinely didn’t understand why he was overreacting like that, but I knew enough to recognize that it wouldn’t be good to agitate him any further.
I kept my mouth shut and sunk into my thoughts once more.
After a while, the van pulled into a neighborhood police station, and the door beside me slid open. The blinding sun warmed my skin. The natural air had a hint of fresh flowers.
“Get out.”
Oh, I finally had an opportunity to escape—
“Don’t even think about pulling anything funny. Or do you want to taste the lightning again?”
Man…
Yeah, well… I need to get out of these cuffs first. I can start looking for an opening after. Let’s hold back for now.
After giving up on an escape for now, I followed the team leader into the police station, held on either side by one of his men. Inside, I was taken into an elevator up to the investigation room.
One, two, three, four, five, six…
The entire building was brimming with Goblin Officers, and this floor was no exception.
When was the tutorial going to end? There was no telling.
Under the orders of Team Leader Kang, my fingerprints were scanned, and I was put into a holding cell. Not long after, I was called back out for an interrogation.
“I’ve contacted your family, and they’ll be arriving soon. Ah, and I guess you didn’t hear us because you were unconscious back then, so I will say this now. Mr. Hansu Lee, you have the right to remain silent…”
Unlike before, the team leader’s tone was polite. After he finished reading me my Miranda rights, he started asking me questions.
“Name, Hansu Lee. Age, thirty. Went missing more than a year ago, last known location was his apartment. Tell me this first. Why were you back at your home today?”
“I opened my eyes, and that’s where I was.”
It was an honest answer devoid of any exaggeration, in true barbarian fashion. However, it seemed my unintentionally “barbaric” answer ticked off another person in the room.
The mob sitting next to him raised his hand in anger. “Excuse me? Team Leader Kang is your senior by many years! Show him some respect!”
“Stop, investigator Park! He’s just been found after being missing for over a year! We don’t know what he’s been through yet. Let him be for now.”
“But Team Leader! Jihoon was taken to the emergency room because of him! The emergency room!”
There was a beat of silence. “It’s fine. Step outside if you’re just going to keep interrupting the investigation, you punk!” Team Leader Kang snapped in rebuke.
Mob A huffed in irritation as he sat back down.
“I apologize for the commotion, Mr. Lee. Let’s proceed with the questions. We have a lot of things we want to ask you. Of course, you may choose to remain silent, but I hope you won’t.”
“Yes, please do not worry. I will cooperate with the investigation to the best of my abilities.”
“No, I’m being very serious here. Officers of our good nation were hurt. One nearly died from his injuries. You should know that if we don’t resolve this here, you’ll be in big trouble. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” I answered, only half paying attention.
Team Leader Kang let out a deep sigh before proceeding with the questions, and I answered him truthfully. The problem was that the other person didn’t believe my story.
“So… While you were playing this game, Dungeon and Stone, you suddenly woke up inside the world of the game?”
“That’s right.”
“And the way you talk is something you learned because you had to live as a race called the ‘barbarians’ over in that world. And now, you fell asleep while exploring an area called the Dreaming Waterfalls, and this is the world inside that dream?”
“Oh, you got it.” I nodded at his concise summary.
“Wow…” I heard someone exclaim from the side. “This guy’s out of his mind…”
“Isn’t this something like schizophrenia?”
“It seems like it.”
I was a little saddened being written off when I was telling them the truth, but it wasn’t exactly a negative thing either. If I appeared to be ill, my opponents would underestimate me. After all, everyone here was an enemy.
I grabbed the pen in front of me and fiddled with it, clicking the tip in and out.
This looks…
Quite sharp.
If I hit a vital spot like the eyes, they would be incapacitated and take permanent damage.
Anyway, I’ve figured out how to undo the cuffs on me too.
Even while being questioned, I didn’t stop observing my surroundings and discovered a method of freeing myself from the cuffs. It was something I came up with after watching them undo the cuffs on someone else who was being questioned in the room next door.
The hip.
Each officer had a key on their belt. If I could overpower Team Leader Kang, I could take his cuff key and break out of my CC.
“Team Leader… Before we even question him, shouldn’t we get a mental eval first?”
“I’ll do what I need to, so you go do your job. You seriously got that much time on your hands?”
I told him the truth throughout the interrogation and Team Leader Kang unexpectedly took me seriously and entertained my story.
“Are you hungry?” he asked eventually. “Let’s go ahead and eat. Do you like jajangmyeon or jjamppong?”
“Jajang. Oh, and soda. A soda as well.”
“…Sure.”
As I slurped up the noodles Team Leader Kang got for me, I finally sensed something was off for the first time.
“Kaaah…”
Why did this feel so real?
“What’s with that expression? You were enjoying it.”
“Well…” I hesitated. “Something felt off.”
“What do you mean? It looks fine.”
“I’ve eaten things in my dreams before, but I couldn’t taste anything back then.”
When he heard my answer, Team Leader Kang wordlessly eyed me with an inscrutable look on his face before he dusted off his lap and stood.
“We can leave our questions there. If you’ve finished eating, pass the bowl over here. You’ll have someone to meet soon.”
“By someone to meet…”
“Who else would it be? Mr. Lee, your… Ah, she’s here. Miss, this way! This way!”
Team Leader Kang straightened and waved at someone behind me, prompting me to also stand and turn around.
“Hansu…”
That long skirt she always liked wearing.
Those worn-out and bleached sneakers.
That bucket hat she always wore to cover her coarse hair.
And beneath its brim, the I’d longed to see yet simultaneously never wanted to see again.
My mother covered her mouth against a sob as she collapsed.
“Pfft…”
I could only laugh in response. Thanks to her, I was now certain I was inside a dream.
“Pfft! Bahaha!”
But I still felt like crap.
***
A small, studio-sized dorm room whose name I didn’t even remember was where my mother always returned home late from work. I wasn’t old enough or mature enough to understand her well then.
My mother, who always blamed me for everything.
My mother, who cried while lamenting giving birth to me.
Still, I loved my mother. I begged her to always be with me. And just once, my mother accepted my childish whining.
Just that one day, we were together.
My mother read me a storybook that I liked, and when I got hungry, she cooked cup ramen for me. In that cold room, we hugged each other beneath the blankets and ate snacks.
I told her that I wished every day was like that day. She told me the same.
The next day, my mother took me to an amusement park.
That was the last day.
She disappeared from where she’d been standing in front of the carousel, and only when the amusement park was closing was I picked up by the workers of the park.
I could barely remember what happened after.
Many different adults came to see me, and I moved around so much that I slept in a different place every night.
Child abandonment and abuse.
Denial of custody.
The adults would slink away and use difficult words when they thought I couldn’t hear, and at that moment, somehow, I knew the truth.
I would never see her again.
I get it now. Even her hatred.
Of course, I now understood what she had been feeling.
A sick child. Someone who ate away at the minds of his parents. And that wasn’t all.
I was a cursed existence who always brought about misfortune wherever I went.
Hansu Lee.
That was who I was.
So maybe it was only natural in the end.
My mother was only a few years older than my current age. She needed something to hate just as much as the next miserable person. The desire to throw everything away, to run away and never look back must have tempted her with every passing moment.
What happened years later was still unrelated to current events.
“Eiyaaah! Don’t come near me! Don’t ever! Please disappear from my life!”
Once I became an adult, I went to look for her. My mother screamed those words at me, and I never looked for her again. This was why Hyeonbyeol’s news of my mother caught me by surprise.
“She talked about the inheritance for a while…then she asked the police if there was a way to report a death before the missing person report expires…”
So, she was still greedy for some money after hearing the news? Or did she hope that confirmation of my disappearance from the world would be confirmed even a day earlier?
Only the woman before me now would know what she was truly thinking.
However, one thing was clear.
“Ahh… Hansu… S-sorry, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
She wasn’t the type of person who would come to me in tears after all this time.
Thanks to her, I was even more convinced that I was inside the dream world.
“I-I had something I wished to tell you if I saw you again. I know that I don’t have the right to ask this, but…can you forgive me…? This wicked mother of yours…?”
At the sight of my sobbing mother, I made my decision.
Maybe…I can use this?
Not a bad idea, really. I approached my mother and reached out my hand, suppressing the emotions that were surging up from within me.
“I… I forgive you.”
“R-really…?”
“Yes… That’s what you taught me, Mother…”
Like a priest forgiving the sins of another, I reached out and grabbed her hand with mine.
Hansu Lee’s hands were pretty small.
After rubbing the back of her hand for a long moment, I slowly turned my head and looked at Team Leader Kang.
“Officer… Could you take these handcuffs off me for a moment?”
“No.”
“Argh.”
Well, that didn’t work.