Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 677
Chapter 677: Dream (4)
What happened afterward was simple.
Team Leader Kang gave me time to talk with my mother, and my mother spent that long while begging me for forgiveness.
She talked about the reason she abandoned me, explaining how weak she’d been. She said she never should have left me that day, all the while looking at me with deep-seated regret.
And I just listened to it all without paying her much attention.
I’m starting to get an angle on this.
My attention was instead directed toward running simulations in my head, finding holes in my plan and just completely scraping the hopeless parts to create new ones. I spent the time we were given observing my surroundings and thinking of a way out.
Someone knocked on the door and entered the investigation room where my mother and I were speaking.
“Hello, Mr. Hansu Lee.”
Who was this guy? He didn’t look like an officer.
“I’m sorry, but could you leave us for a moment, miss?”
“Oh, of course…”
My mother left the room, and the new guy sat across from me. He was holding a thick folder in his hand.
“I’ve heard everything, from the questioning to the incident you caused before all that. There were quite a few interesting nuggets in there, and I hope we can talk a bit more about them.”
The man wearing glasses didn’t even introduce himself and spoke with a gentle expression and voice. Only then did I realize what this was.
Psychiatric evaluation.
This guy was here to check on my mental state. And depending on the results…
I’ll be moved to a mental hospital without being able to do a thing about it.
I quickly planned out the paths I would take going forward. Was going to the mental hospital part of the tutorial?
…No way.
My experience as a gamer told me otherwise. If I compared my current situation to a game, there was a good chance that I would be given a game over as soon as I was moved there. A bad ending, of sorts. Maybe I would be trapped in the hospital forever, being forced to take medicines.
I turned off my barbarian mode and turned on my gentleman Hansu Lee mode. “Yes. You can ask me anything.”
“Thank you. You are very kind, unlike what I’ve heard.”
“This is how I usually am.”
With the tone of the conversation settled, Glasses began to officially kick off his questions.
“I heard that you were dragged into the game. Is this true?”
“No. I lied.”
“Then where were you while you were missing?”
“I don’t remember, but it was someplace really dark. I was stuck there for so long, but the ones who kidnapped me took me back to my home. That’s why that incident happened as well. I thought the ones who kidnapped me had returned.”
“Hmm… Do you know why they kidnapped you?”
“No. I was just kidnapped and dumped in a room somewhere. Do you know that movie? The one with the guy who eats dumplings for years… Yeah, it was just like that movie. They just imprisoned me and didn’t do anything else.”
“Then why didn’t you answer truthfully during the questioning before?”
“The ones who kidnapped me threatened me. That if I talked about them, they would come and retaliate… I was afraid of that.”
Although it was a story I had made up on the spot, it seemed plausible enough.
“Then can you even tell me about them? You said you were threatened.”
“That’s true…” I trailed off, thinking. “But you looked kind and trustworthy, doctor… I-I decided to have some courage.”
As I acted like a confused young man, Glasses looked at me for a second before slowly nodding. “I looked like a kind and trustworthy authority figure… I understand. We can end our talk here for today.”
…Am I screwed?
The saying “If it can go wrong, will go wrong” applied once again.
Glasses left after the evaluation, and since visiting hours were over, my mother waited outside. I ended up being stuck in a holding cell and spending the night there.
“Mr. Hansu Lee. Please come out.”
In the afternoon of the next day, I was released from the cell and moved outside.
“Team Leader Kang, where am I being taken now?”
“… You’ll know when you get there.”
Damn it, I failed.
If I’d known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have talked about the game.
I kept my mouth shut and stared at the ground. Team Leader Kang seemed to find it meaningless to hide the information and tried to console me.
“Still, if you behave well there, your sentence may be lightened. Attempted murder and aggravated assault… Normally, you wouldn’t be able to avoid a prison sentence, even with this as your first offense. Just think of it as taking a long rest for your exhausted mind…”
Shut up. Don’t feed me that crap.
“I’ll visit you often, and your mother will visit as well to help you out…”
Team Leader Kang’s voice began to fade as I turned my attention away. The special transport vehicle was parked right outside the station, along with multiple people wearing uniforms standing beside it.
“He’s a five-star high-risk patient. Never irritate him, and be careful during the transport process,” Glasses sternly warned the people with uniforms.
What do you mean, five-star…? Is this the Adventurer’s Guild or something?
Though I let my sigh escape, I took in my surroundings.
After heeding the warning of Glasses, the people wearing the uniforms were preparing something that looked like a straitjacket inside the vehicle.
When they’re ready, they’ll probably take the handcuffs off me and move me away.
That only meant I needed to move even faster this time, however.
Although my handcuffs would be taken off of me soon as per protocol, these guys weren’t born yesterday. They would know that was the riskiest moment and proceed with even more care.
Now.
I turned around and looked at Team Leader Kang.
“Mr. Lee? Do you have something you want to say…?”
“Well… Thank you for treating me so nicely.”
“No, I just did my job. It’s nothing to be thanked for.”
“Just your job…”
My heart felt a little lighter at that. Just as Team Leader Kang was doing what he had to do, I was only doing the same.
Crunch!
I used Headbutt, which I used quite often during my time as a novice barbarian.
“Ack!”
“Gagh!”
I pushed the stumbling Team Leader Kang onto the ground and reached for his belt that I had cased before.
“Why isn’t it here?” I muttered.
What the hell? This wasn’t a part of my plan?
I was genuinely surprised as I took a look around. “Uh…”
“Ugh…”
“T-Team Leader Kang!”
“You son of a bitch! Again?!”
Team Leader Kang clutched his bruised nose as he waved away his colleagues. “It’s fine! Stop!”
“B-but…!”
“I told you to stop!” He propped himself up using his free hand, then stood. “I thought you might do this, so I asked another officer to hold onto my keys, Mr. Lee.”
Ah… I see.
“I don’t resent you, Mr. Lee. You are sick. If you listen to those doctors and eat your ‘medicine’ properly, you’ll get healthy soon enough.”
I was doomed.
***
Everything was just white and more white. The stench of medicine filled the air.
“Aaaack! Aaaack! Aaaack!”
Today as well, the screams of the patient in the next room were my lullaby as I lay down and stared outside the window made from specially produced glass.
“Hehe…”
Languish wasn’t a strong enough word to explain how slow I felt in the afternoon.
A young man whose muscles filled out his nurse’s uniform stood in front of me with a chart in hand. He was accompanying a nurse I hadn’t seen before, who seemed to be a new hire.
“This patient is that patient I told you about before, Hansu Lee. What did I say you should look out for when you interact with this patient?”
“That I should never talk to him about personal matters!”
“I know you are from a different hospital, but you need to be especially careful about this patient. Just as Professor Park said, he is a patient who can act, lie, and deceive others as easily as he breathes.”
“R-really?”
“That’s right! He’s only calm now because he’s medicated, but he’s a patient who will use any opportunity to think of a way to escape. He considers reality to be a game. If he got his hands a knife, he’d probably cackle as he tried to stab us, saying he defeated an enemy.”
“Yes, I… I understand!”
“This is serious! From what I heard, he assaulted three police officers while being captured, and he choked one to death.”
“Ah… I did hear about that. He even caused a commotion when he left the station. I also heard that he severely injured many nurses…”
“Still, this is for the best. Thanks to all that, we can give him stronger medication. And look how calm he is now.”
“Right. He didn’t even look at us once during this entire conversation.”
That’s because you won’t say anything if I’m looking.
Even conversations like this were information.
I dragged out a yawn. I was so tired. That was enough for today, so I should sleep.
But… How many days has it been?
I didn’t know the specifics, but resting was a part of the battle. I accepted the wave of drowsiness that struck my brain.
Stay focused.
No matter who said what, this was inside the dream. I was still enduring that trial, and I needed a way to overcome it.
“Mr. Hansu Lee. It’s time for your medication. Open your mouth!”
“Ah…” Gulp!
“…Ah, you’re just acting like you’re swallowing again. Nurse Kim! Bring that over here! I’ll need to force-feed him today as well. And tie up his arms and legs for an hour so he can’t throw it up!”
Perhaps because of the anti-psychotics that I was given every day, I slept when I got sleepy and was hazy when I awoke. Also at some point, I stopped getting free time to take walks, so I just spent the whole day lying on my bed.
In all that time, I couldn’t help but question whether this was really a dream. My mother would come to me with tears in her eyes whenever they allowed visitors.
My memories and experiences from living in Rafdonia… Everything was telling me that I was in a dream, but just one thing was making me feel very confused.
Just why…?
Why was no one trying to kill me?
***
Dying from making a mistake.
Dying from poor luck.
Dying because you didn’t know that last little crucial detail.
That damned world was filled with all sorts of BS reasons to die.
Dungeon and Stone.
If my body was still in that world and I was just dreaming right now, I just couldn’t explain it.
How was I still alive? Why, even after so many days had passed, was no one trying to kill me?
Even the officer whom I struck on the head, or Team Leader Kang who I nearly killed by choking him. Why was everyone such a pacifist?
It’s as if I had really come to the real modern world. No, it’s as if…I really have lost my mind.
Even though I reined in those thoughts as they came, the doubts wouldn’t stop popping into my mind. Maybe I was having these thoughts just because of the medicine. But still, just like what the doctors, the nurses, the officers, and my mother said…
“Is there something wrong with my head?”
If I took a second to take the possibility seriously, it wasn’t completely nonsensical. In fact, there was a non-zero chance this was all real.
My childhood was so bleak that “stress” and “trauma” didn’t even begin to cover what I endured. I had played games as a way to escape reality. Among them, I played Dungeon and Stone the most, to the point of obsession. I had separated from Hyeonbyeol while I was still playing that game.
With all those compounding factors, it wasn’t too unbelievable to say that I could have succumbed to delusion. No, actually, that version of events would make far more sense to any regular person off the street, psychologist or not.
“Then…everything that happened there…” I mumbled. “Did I really just hallucinate them all…?”
“Everyone, block your ears! Mr. Lee is trying something again!”
“Yes! He’ll definitely try to act normal and get us to lower our guards!”
I ignored the reaction of the hospital staff near me.
No, there’s no way.
I shook my head and held onto my weakening resolve. I hadn’t returned to the real world. This was still inside the dream. As soon as I accepted this place as reality, that would be my true “game over.”
I needed proof to strengthen my resolve once more. I needed to create a foundation so sturdy that it would never collapse again.
“A letter… Please deliver a letter for me.”
“A letter? To your mother?”
“No… To someone overseas. I don’t care if you open the letter and check the contents, so please just send it on an international carrier.”
“The address is… Canada? Is this perhaps that ‘Canadian friend’ you talked about before?”
“Yes. Please send it to him.”
“…I understand. It will be delivered.”
Perhaps he concluded that after reading the letter, indulging me would be helpful for my recovery. The doctor assigned to me accepted my request without fuss, and I received an answer in about two weeks.
I don’t know how I should start this. Hello, Hansu.
After reading your letter, I was honestly amazed. At first, I thought my friends were playing a prank on me… But if the explanation the doctor sent me with the letter is true, then I knew I needed to reply, so I am writing this letter to you.
Maybe your doctor won’t like this. To be honest, I did wonder if what you said was true or not for a moment. I mean, it doesn’t make sense, right? I also played Dungeon and Stone, and I was active on the community boards as well, so you could’ve figured out my name and address after looking through the internet.
But the fact that I had my first kiss at seventeen, that it was with my girlfriend’s best friend. And even the fact that I dreamed of becoming a veterinarian after the puppy I was raising died when I was young.
I’ve never told anyone any of that, ever. Not on the internet, of course, but not even to my closest friends.
The reply from the Canadian friend became the ultimate proof that I was still in a dream.
I mean, think about it. If everything I experienced until now was a hallucination, then how could this supposed Canadian friend exist beyond the pond, and how could I know everything about him?
A rush of air escaped me. Yeah, there wasn’t anything wrong with my head. I just needed to stay focused and figure out a way out.
Resolved, I read through the rest of the letter.
Still, even though I’m convinced you believe it, I sincerely hope what you told me isn’t true. If it is, then I am already dead in that world, and I am now just a fake, recreated for some unknown purpose… Isn’t that a sad thing? I have a loving family here, and a loving partner as well.
I don’t know how you’ll feel reading this, but this world, it’s real to me. Whether you can believe that is up to you.
Oh, and if you ever need anyone to talk to, you can send me more letters in the future. You might be on the other side of the ocean and someone whose face I don’t know yet, but I feel like we can become good friends.
p.s. They’ve told me about your childhood. I think you’re a very strong person. I truly believe that you will win in the end, and I’ll cheer for your recovery.
After reading the entire letter, I let out a deep sigh. It made me feel all sorts of conflicted.