In an instant, the space behind him was torn in a straight line. In the darkness, three eyes rolled in a clockwise direction.
The team leader reached out with a surprised expression.
“Gidan!”
He instinctively tried to grab Gidan’s arm, but it was Gidan who moved faster.
“Gidan-!”
As soon as Gidan passed through the space, the scent of the sea flooded in. He blocked the team leader from entering and the door closed behind him.
Welcome, human child.
Malikian's field was a graveyard of ships.
On the land that seemed to have dried up like the sea, old and enormous ships stood here and there, some upright, others lying down.
Gidan raised his eyes.
At the center of the ship graveyard, a massive hull stood imposingly, large enough to cover a small village.
Malikian was standing on the deck of that ship.
Gidan pulled out "Biat’s Aspiration" from his inventory and gripped it.
His reason had already flown away. The overwhelming anger that felt like his eyes were burning consumed his mind.
Meanwhile, Malikian’s four hands grasped a great sword and slammed it into the ground.
Kruung-
Multiple doors appeared around Gidan, and the sword blade quickly revealed itself.
Malikian, smiling at Gidan as he avoided the attack, spoke.
It’s time to take the sword back from someone unworthy.
The detached house with a swimming pool had been my mother’s dream.
“Danna, let’s move!”
That was the reason.
The reason my father poured all his retirement money and my mother’s life insurance into buying a house with a swimming pool in a remote area of Gangneung.
It was inconvenient to commute because it was so far, and cleaning the pool was such a burden. My only son constantly complained, but my father would just laugh and say, "What’s the use of a body that’s too good to sit around?"
“Isn’t it fine? Cleaning the pool is going well, right? This was your mother’s dream, simple and pretty, isn’t it?”
But to my eyes, the swimming pool wasn’t simple or pretty.
The bright blue tiles were uneven and stuck together in a mess, and it was more like a huge eyesore that reminded me of my mother every time I looked at it.
Still, when I saw my father’s face, saying it was my mother’s dream, I would reply with, "Yeah."
“Should we clean up and play catch?”
“I don’t have the energy for that...”
“Hey, sports are all about stamina. You, who says you’re playing baseball, can’t keep up.”
“Ah... I can’t, I can’t.”
“Danna. Bases loaded, here comes a long hit! Centerfielder Gidan! If you miss it, you’re out! It’s a comeback loss!”
The ball my father threw flew toward the pool.
Gidan, who was serious about baseball, would instinctively react to such a situation, so my father would intentionally use that.
“Ah, really! A comeback loss is too much!”
As I ran toward the pool in anger, my father laughed loudly. That was the fun of it.
Our pool was that kind of place.
A place where my mother’s dream, my father’s regrets, and our memories blended together.
Until that day came.
It was the time when there was no afternoon training, and I was coming home early.
The dusk was dark and ominous. At that time, I only thought it was about to rain. So I went to find my father to gather the laundry and headed toward the pool...
Thunk.
The baseball that fell from my hand rolled into the pool, turning bright red as it touched the water.
At the end of the wave the baseball caused, ‘it’ was there.
It was the shape of a person, wearing a black hood pulled deeply over their head, but their body was larger than a bear. A monster from another world, something you would only see on YouTube.
‘It’ was gripping my father’s body tightly with its four dark hands.
It was then that I first realized what it meant to be bound by fear that paralyzes your limbs.
“Danna, Danna... Go, go... Run away. Hurry.”
My father’s face was full of fear, but he couldn’t stop worrying about me.
“Run away. Quickly.”
His voice was trembling more than ever.
I was confused and terrified. My head felt blank, and I could barely breathe as my neck seemed to tighten.
The baseball was floating on the bloodstained water.
On top of our pool.
With my father.
The baseball.
And ‘it.’
“Bottom of the 9th, two outs!”
The final, despairing cry hit my head with a thud.
“Runner on third, Gidan!”
My father’s voice gave an order.
“Steal home!”
As my stiff body gradually relaxed, I turned and began to run.
Behind me, ‘it’ seemed to laugh in a sinister way.
The misery that clung to my back was a shiver that followed.
That day, I couldn’t even bring myself to glance back, too afraid of the monster chasing me.
The son, who had only a good body, who was good at sports, who said his stamina was fine, ran away from his father.
A successful yet miserable steal of home.
Sitting in the shelter, I could only blankly stare as the Guild Master of Hyeonak Guild handled the situation alone.
After that day, I watched the videos of Jurim returning from the Great Dungeon ★ ★ every day.
My admiration grew day by day, and my disgust deepened.
It was only two months after that that my awakening occurred.
The birth of the 5th S-rank.
Korea sent both its condolences and praise, and the media covered Gidan’s awakening day after day.
It was around that time that the situation was managed and the funeral took place.
"If only the kid had awakened just a little earlier..."
At the funeral, voices that echoed his thoughts could be heard sporadically..
‘If only I had gained power a little sooner.’
Then, that day, I wouldn’t have run away like such an idiot.
For a while, I kept dreaming of throwing a baseball.
The limited imagination of a middle schooler who only knew baseball could only go that far.
Wishing that he had the courage to throw a baseball at the monster devouring his father.
In the dream, he draws the monster’s attention with the baseball and awakens as an S-rank.
And just as he somehow manages to save his father, Dan wakes up.
Even when he pulled the blanket over his head and shut his eyes again, the dream never continued. As expected, his imagination was lacking.
Honestly, the outcome after throwing the ball might not have been good. It might have been even worse.
But at least in the dream, he had the courage to fight.
After awakening, all the reckless situations he pushed himself into were nothing more than his way of reliving that day.
Every single day, he recalled it—the kind of regret that felt like his heart was being crushed—wanting to properly recreate it this time.
Just like in that dream.
"Khrrgh!"
Clang!
Gidan blocked the greatsword rushing toward his face.
As he deflected the overwhelming force to the side, Malikian sneered and twisted the trajectory of his blade again.
The pitch-black greatsword cut deep into his chest.
"Ugh!"
The sharp pain of the wound, dangerously close to his heart, snapped his eyes open. Regaining awareness, Gidan realized he was falling from the massive ship.
‘Ah.’
His vision blurred.
It was impossible, after all.
Still.
Wasn’t this enough?
He knew he couldn’t win.
And yet, charging forward wasn’t recklessness for Gidan—it was courage. It was his atonement.
Kwoooong!
As Malikian’s greatsword stabbed into the ground, dark energy spread out like withered branches, enveloping Gidan.
Before he knew it, all the rage and regret of that day were aimed entirely at himself.
More than hating the fact that he lacked the strength to fight back, what he resented most was that he couldn’t be like his father.
That he had been too weak to even have the courage to sacrifice himself.
Gidan didn’t move a finger. He closed his eyes, as if accepting everything.
His distorted reason justified his desire to crumble.
At least this time, I didn’t run away like an idiot, right?
Yeah.
So, I did well...
Yeah.
I did so well that I could even accept this kind of ending...
At that moment, petals began to scatter around him, one by one.
The petals surrounded him as if protecting him.
Senbonzakura!
The dark energy veered away from the domain of the cherry blossoms.
Gidan!
A voice broke through his thoughts, and Gidan opened his eyes.
A teddy bear fell into his arms.
‘A dream?’
The soft, plush fur brushed against him.
This feeling...
‘It’s not a dream.’
"Ugh!"
Gidan spread his arms as wide as he could and embraced the child.
Thump!

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