Light Novel: Volume 1 Episode 1
Manhwa: Chapter 1
He opened his eyes.
All he could see was pitch blackness.
A deep darkness, so intense he couldn’t distinguish any shapes, was spread before him like a curtain.
“……”
He thought there was something wrong with his eyes, so he blinked.
But no matter how many times he closed and opened his eyes, all he could see was the same intense darkness.
A deep, inky blackness had consumed him.
A perfect darkness with not a speck of light.
And he was in the midst of it.
He tried to move his hands and feet, but he couldn’t. His limbs felt as though they were tightly bound by chains.
There was no strength in his hands or feet.
His whole body felt weak.
The only thing he could move was his eyelids. No other part of his body seemed to have any strength at all.
‘It’s not my eyes that are the problem.’
Although he couldn’t be sure because he couldn’t even recognize his own hands and feet right now, he instinctively realized that there was nothing wrong with his eyes.
If he had gone blind, he would have felt some pain or discomfort. But there was nothing off about his senses.
This meant it wasn’t him that was the issue, but the space he was lying in was abnormally dark.
A space so deep and dark that not a single point of light penetrated.
‘Am I underground?’
He thought it might be.
But he hadn’t heard of any man-made structure that could block out light so perfectly.
If so, it was likely that the room he was lying in was either underground, where no light could reach, or a perfectly enclosed area.
‘Why is this happening?’
He slowly tried to recall his memories.
About himself.
And, how he ended up in this situation.
His head throbbed as he tried to remember.
It felt as if his brain had turned to mush, and he couldn’t think.
It was painful.
Tears streamed down from his eyes.
It felt as if someone had stuck a finger into his brain and was stirring it around.
He forced himself not to scream.
Even though it was painful, he didn’t stop thinking, and slowly, his memories started to return.
‘My name is Pyo-wol. I’m fourteen.’
An orphan without parents, a wanderer traveling aimlessly around the world.
No lineage, no home.
Pyo-wol furrowed his brow.
Pain washed over him like a tidal wave once more. Even so, he continued to think.
As a result, he was able to recall perfectly who he was.
Now it was time to deduce why he was here.
‘That man…’
Pyo-wol remembered a man lingering in his last memory.
A middle-aged man with sharp eyes that do not seem to match with his plain face.
The man whom he had encountered by chance while begging had said,
―You look useful.
That was Pyo-wol’s last memory.
After those words, he blacked out and woke up in this darkness.
The man must have had something to do with him being abandoned right now in a space where there was no light.
Pyo-wol didn’t know the man’s name or his identity.
He also didn’t know why the man had imprisoned him here.
There was no grudge between them.
No one would hold a grudge so deep that a wandering, vagabond orphan would do something like this to someone.
‘There must be a reason.’
If the man wanted to kill him, he would have done so already.
So, the man must have some need or purpose for keeping him alive and locked up.
His head ached like it was going to crack.
It had taken a tremendous amount of mental energy just to reason this far with his abnormal body.
Pyo-wol closed his eyes.
Whether he opened his eyes or not, the world remained dark.
He wondered what was point of closing his eyes.
Still, closing his eyes was less painful than keeping them open.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
The line between blacking out and staying awake was blurred.
His mind was a mess.
Still, he tried his best to clear his mind, and after a few moments, his thoughts became clearer.
“Hoo!”
Pyo-wol exhaled deeply, surprising even himself.
Last time he came to his senses, he couldn’t even breathe deeply. All he could do was to take shallow breaths, never daring to draw such a deep breath.
Being able to breathe deeply was sign that his body was somehow returning to normal.
It might be his own delusion, but he decided to think positively.
It was painful, tormenting even, to be alone in the dark without a single light.
The darkness made one think of many things.
Thoughts came in like a tidal wave, taking over the mind and body, and the overflowing thoughts were enough to drive a person insane.
Moreover, Pyo-wol couldn’t move his body.
The isolation, as if he was alone in primeval darkness, gnawed away at his sanity bit by bit.
If he allowed time to pass unchecked like this, he would surely go mad with thoughts.
Therefore, Pyo-wol struggled to think positively and keep a clear mind.
‘My name is Pyo-wol, I’m fourteen. My father’s name is Pyo Inhak, my mother’s name is Lee Seonhong.’
Amidst the torrent of thoughts, he tried hard to focus only on his identity.
The only way he could keep his sanity amidst the tsunami of thoughts was to solidify his identity.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
It could have been just an hour, or it could have been days.
In such deep darkness, discerning the passage of time was impossible.
Furthermore, Pyo-wol’s entire body was paralyzed.
Most of his bodily functions had come to a complete halt.
He could barely keep himself alive, but most of his functions had stopped.
So, he couldn’t even feel hunger.
It felt as if he was dying while still alive.
It was the most terrifying moment of his life.
To overcome his fear, Pyo-wol incessantly murmured to himself.
“My name is Pyo-wol…”
Time flowed in this manner.
* * *
His fingers twitched slightly.
It was proof that his strength was returning.
Though he had no mirror or light to see his reflection, Pyo-wol believed he had an ecstatic expression on his face.
Sensations were returning to his entire body bit by bit.
Strength came back to his fingertips, and his sense of smell was revived.
The damp smell in the air confirmed his suspicions that he was underground.
But, the fact that he was underground wasn’t the most important thing to him. What mattered most to him was that the sensations throughout his body were returning.
His fingers twitched, his toes felt cold.
He felt alive, and he was grateful.
He never imagined that he would be one day feel grateful for feeling such minor sensations, but just realizing that he was alive made him breathe a little easier.
He tried hard to maintain his identity, but Pyo-wol was on the verge of going insane. A little more time, and he surely would have gone mad. Perhaps he was already mad and didn’t realize it.
Pyo-wol thought it didn’t matter anyway.
For now, he was just happy that he could feel his hands and feet again.
With a little more effort, he would be able to move his arms and legs.
But there was one downside.
As the sensations returned to his body, his organs also regained their function.
With the revival of his organs, he felt extreme hunger.
It felt as if someone was wringing his stomach like laundry, causing him excruciating pain.
His mouth was so dry that he could smell his own bad breath.
Only then did Pyo-wol realize he was dying.
Being trapped here without food, he was starving to death.
If he didn’t eat anything for a few more days, he would surely die.
There were only two options left for him.
Die insane or die of hunger.
A bitter expression twisted Pyo-wol’s lips.
Deep down, anger rose towards the man who had imprisoned him here.
The anger quickly turned into murderous intent.
‘What have I done wrong?’
It was a question he had asked himself dozens of times. But no matter how much he pondered, he couldn’t find any fault in himself.
He hadn’t even begged that man.
He was merely passing by.
And yet, that man had captured him and put him in this hellhole.
Respect for humans, courtesy towards oneself– none of it existed here.
Even if he was a seemingly insignificant existence, he shouldn’t be treated worse than an insect.
At least if he’s considered human.
It was clear that the man didn’t think of him as a human. That’s why he had been thrown into this hell.
‘Why?’
He wondered why he was trapped here when he had done nothing wrong.
If he hadn’t done anything wrong, there was no reason for him to be imprisoned here.
Still, if he was trapped here, it was clear that the man had a specific purpose.
Pyo-wol pondered on what the man’s purpose was.
But he knew nothing about him.
If he had some information about the man, he might have been able to guess, but he had no information at all.
Pyo-wol bit his lip.
He could feel the flesh tearing away and blood trickling down.
Even though he was in such a mess, his blood still felt warm.
That fact comforted him.
It made him feel like he was still human.
* * *
His fingers moved.
It wasn’t just a slight twitch, he could move them as he pleased now.
The sensation in his feet had also returned significantly.
He could even now slowly rotate his ankles.
The persistent hunger hadn’t changed. It was still excruciating, but he did not give in to despair.
Even though he felt like he was going to die of hunger, the fact that he could move his hands and feet gave him hope.
Pyo-wol held onto the thread of hope as tightly as he could.
What he needed now, more than anything, was the faint hope of survival.
He knew that if he let go of that thread of hope, he would fall into an abyss from which he could never climb back up. So, he clung to hope relentlessly.
One good thing was that with the severe hunger, all his senses had become heightened.
His nose picked up various scents that he would never smell under normal circumstances.
The smell of moisture in the air, and even the dampness rising from the floor.
His ears, too, were wide open.
His senses had become so acute that he could hear the faint sound of water trickling along the wall.
What he needed most for his survival right now was a sip of water.
If he could drink just one sip of water, he felt like he could sell his soul to the devil.
“Ugh!”
A ragged breath escaped his dry lips.
His mouth was as parched as the cracked mud in a dried-up rice paddy, and his upper and lower lips were stuck together. In such state, the rough breaths felt as painful as tearing flesh.
The more he applied pressure to his abdomen, the rougher his breathing became, tormenting Pyo-wol. But he didn’t stop exerting pressure on his abdomen.
He no longer wanted to feel hungry.
He didn’t want to suffer from thirst anymore.
So, he forced his body to twist by exerting pressure on his abdomen.
He made an effort to transfer the strength generated in his abdomen to his arms and legs.
He hadn’t moved for a long time that his whole body had become as dry as firewood.
If he had more time, he would have carefully studied how to revive his muscles, but unfortunately, he didn’t have much time left.
If he waited like this indefinitely, he would run out of breath before long.
He had to move before that happened.
“Keuh!”
A groan like an animal’s cry echoed in the darkness.
Pyo-wol gave it his all.
Whether his efforts paid off or not, his body trembled slightly.
As the tremors grew, reaching its peak, Pyo-wol finally unleashed all the strength he had gathered so far.
“Heugh!”
With a scream, Pyo-wol’s body flipped over.
He could feel the sensation of his chin and forehead against the ground.
He shuddered at the eerily cold and damp sensation, but that didn’t last long, as he began to crawl desperately toward the sound of running water.
Like a snake wriggling, he moved forward little by little.
Sssk! Tssk!
His chin scraped against the floor, and blood started to flow, but Pyo-wol didn’t stop moving.
An unimaginable amount of time passed. Finally, he reached the wall that had blocked his way.
Blood gushed from his forehead as his forehead slammed against the wall, but Pyo-wol didn’t even feel the pain.
He stuck out his tongue.
His tongue touched the wall.
He felt a refreshing sensation on his tongue.
It was water.
Pyo-wol eagerly licked the trickling water.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
In the darkness, only the sound of him drinking water echoed.
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