In the Name of God - vanish into fiction

“Everyone, did you clear your schedules for tomorrow?!”

“Of course we did!”

Four men barged into our room along with Park Junggeon.

To be precise, the five dormitory seniors who helped me move today invaded the place with both hands full of alcohol.

Honestly, I don’t particularly like drinking, but I couldn’t exactly turn them away after receiving their help. Besides, they mentioned it was some kind of dormitory custom.

The seniors stacked boxes of canned beer and soju, practically singing as they asked if there were any snacks. Their logic was that since they bought the booze, we were responsible for the food.

Fortunately, I had a good snack on hand.

“Oh, beef jerky is great! Wow, you really know your stuff, don’t you?”

I had bought a massive amount of beef jerky with the money I’d saved up before moving, so I filled a large plate and served it. The salty, seasoned jerky was the perfect accompaniment for everyone.

However, by the time we reached the third plate, everyone looked tired of it.

“You guys… you look so refined, so why is beef jerky the only thing to eat in this house…”

I didn’t know about looking refined, but beef jerky is expensive, man.

“If you’re tired of jerky, should I bring out some energy bars? Most of them are original flavor, but I have some cheese flavored ones I got as a bonus.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s really fine.”

Park Junggeon turned serious and looked at me with pity for some reason. He even mimicked wiping away tears, wondering how hard I must have grown up to eat those things like they were meals. I had nothing to say in return, since I actually had been eating them as actual meals.

I tilted the beer can in my hand and stared intently at Park Junggeon as he chewed on the jerky.

‘I wondered if he would be arrogant since he’s a Rank 4 awakened, but seeing him like this, he’s just a friendly neighborhood guy.’

The awakened ranks in this world consist of nine levels in total.

These are further divided into high, middle, and low ranks.

Lee Sunho’s and my rank, Rank 7, could be considered the threshold of the middle ranks, which span up to Rank 5.

Perhaps because of this, an immense wall existed between Rank 5, the middle rank, and Rank 4, the high rank.

It goes without saying, but that wall was built on sheer skill. There are anecdotes that even dozens of top tier Rank 5s could not defeat a single Rank 4, meaning those in the high ranks were each incredibly powerful individuals.

‘And even within those high ranks, the skill gap between each level is enormous.’

Thinking about it that way, I realized that while Park Junggeon was impressive, Seong Do-wan, who was Rank 3, was also quite a formidable person. Though he was Rank 3, people said his skills were such that it wouldn’t be strange if he reached Rank 2 at any moment.

A thought occurred to me again.

If Seong Do-wan were the type of guy who viewed his brother as baggage and liked to dump him anywhere, the day I acted out might have been the last time I ever saw the sunlight.

I shuddered at the thought that I couldn’t have put up a single bit of resistance with a body like this.

“Are you cold?”

It was a very brief, split second tremor, but Lee Sunho, who was sitting next to me, didn’t miss it.

“Should I bring you a blanket?”

“No, I’m fine.”

I do get cold easily, but this house was always warm enough that I didn’t even need to adjust the heater. Right now, because of the alcohol, I was almost on the verge of feeling a bit hot.

Having finished my beer, I set the empty can down under the table. This was already my fourth empty can.

‘This body handles alcohol better than I thought.’

I tried to recall how much Seong Do-yoon could drink.

I searched through my memories.

The last time Seong Do-yoon drank was the night he escaped from that multi level marketing company.

I have a memory of him returning home and pouring an entire 2L plastic bottle of beer down his throat. Even after drinking that, his face only got a bit red, and he fell asleep with a clear head.

I thought this was a weak body that would faint after one can, but it seems he can handle beer reasonably well.

‘Come to think of it, I have no memory of him drinking soju.’

That wasn’t just true for this body, but for my original self as well. I had tried wine, hard liquor, and other distilled spirits, but I had never actually tried soju.

‘In terms of alcohol content, soju is weak, so I shouldn’t have to worry much, but…’

I originally didn’t get drunk easily. Before I became terminally ill, my nerves were always on edge, and I had received special training to not let intoxication sway me. After becoming terminally ill, I obviously couldn’t touch a drop of alcohol.

The problem is that this body is not my body which is strong against alcohol.

I can attempt to control my senses, but pure physical limits aren’t something I can just endure through. Muscle mass, body fat percentage, liver function… Those things cannot be entirely covered by willpower alone.