Survival Records of 3650 Days in the Otherworld

Chapter 4: Preparing for tomorrow

"Mr. Jang, you have a total of thirteen stitches and you cannot take a shower for at least two days. Here's a prescription for three days worth of medicine. Please get it from the pharmacy and if you experience anything unusual like itchiness or see a red spot, stop consuming the medicine and come straight here. As for the cost..."

Joonbum relaxed at the voice of the nurse in front of him who explained the details of his treatment and what he needed to do to take care of the wound. He felt like he was drawing attention from the people around him with a big patch on the back of his head.

'So I am really back. But it wasn't a dream.'

He stopped by the pharmacy to purchase his prescription and went to a local hot pot place that sold cheap but tasty hot pot soup. He mindlessly gorged through his pot and then realized that it was gone. He didn't even remember receiving the order. If it was his regular self, he might have overreacted by saying stuff as if he was streaming.

But he was overwhelmed with one thought.

'Can I go back there? How did I come back? Yeah it's fortunate that I'm back, but how?'

He was still thinking about the whole thing even after he got back to his home and laid down in his room. He still couldn't comprehend anything that happened.

"Hell, it's not something I would be able to explain anyway."

He spoke to himself, but he still could not shake the thought away. He was also not sure why he was pondering about how to go back to that place.

"I went to the hill in the afternoon on the day before and woke up in the morning in the other world. And after that day passed, I came back on next morning... So maybe I can go back and forth?"

As he was thinking of way to go back, he pictured the place in his head. It was a place filled with enormous trees that were so tall and so wide that a double-digit number of grown men would be required to hug one tree. It was full of strange, adult-sized bugs and the birds were not of this world.

And wolves. The wolves were gigantic. Even the smallest one seemed to be at least fifteen feet long. It seemed like it was as big as a house. Maybe it was even taller than an elephant. Just a simple jump could be twenty feet high.

Joonbum remembered of the wolf scratching his head. The fear returned and he felt his wound pulsing with pain. Everything had happened just yesterday.

"Aw crap."

He stared at the ceiling with his racing thoughts and started falling asleep.

-Pick it up! Pick it up! Pick it up before it's too late!-

"Wha-"

-Pick it up! Pick it up! Pick it up before it's too late!-

He woke up to the sound of his phone ringing. When he realized he had been asleep, he cursed at himself.

"I slept again? When will I stop falling asleep the moment I lay down?"

He ranted as if he did not want to sleep too much, but he knew it was helpless. He was both mentally and physically exhausted by the extraordinary experience he had from the other world. Moreover, that weird swirling world shift was very tiresome, although his excitement kept him moving this time. It was similar to the feeling of tiredness one might feel after a hard workday at a postal sorting facility.

-Pick it up! Pick it up! Pick it up before it's too late!-

Joonbum checked the caller ID and angrily pressed the ignore button.