Facilities designed for the disabled were commonly found around me.

The most common for those with visual impairments might be the braille blocks embedded in the sidewalks.

Or for those with difficulty walking, there are inclined paths instead of stairs, and so on…

In society’s view, the disabled are typically those who need assistance.

They are presumed to need help because they can’t perform what would be natural for a person without any shortcomings.

And by definition… No, in actuality, I am now a disabled person.

Not to mention, one whose three of the five senses have failed, and as a mute who cannot speak. Even as a superhuman who has awakened mana, due to the curse of a short life, my body is weak…

For such a person like me, finding the gate terminal that connects to Shio-ram was an immense hardship.

I can’t see, so how could I possibly know where that place is?

I know that Shio-ram was established on an artificial island in the North Pacific, but obviously, swimming there was out of the question.

Typically, I might think of airplanes first if I were going overseas, but in this world with gate terminals, it’s the gates that come to mind before airplanes.

Gate. It does not refer to a door or an entryway but rather that familiar cliché found in web novels.

It’s that ridiculous setup, if thought of in reality, where spaces are connected and one can pass through, but… it exists here, so what can I do?

My current goal is the gate terminal, a crucial national facility connected to gates from all over the world.

It’s the very facility that gets hit by terrorism day after day in the progression of the main story. It makes sense since blocking it can stop the reinforcement troops arriving almost instantaneously, making it a top target for terror.

Nevertheless, I was in a predicament, as I knew what the gate terminal was for but had no idea where it was located.

How am I supposed to find it blindfolded? Moreover, even if I wanted to ask someone for help, I had no voice to speak.

To begin with, there weren’t any people I could ask for help. I couldn’t simply grab a passerby and ask for directions.

Fortunately, there was a way.

[Please move 71 meters to your left.]
[Stop. Please wait by the traffic light on your right.]

A steady signal that became my relentless guide, leading me to my destination.

Its identity was the smartwatch strapped to my wrist.

Sent to me along with the notification from Shio-ram, in the package from this world imbued with magic engineering technologies.

Even though downgraded versions are quite common among civilians, the superhuman-grade smartwatch is of a different caliber.

With impressive durability to survive the back-and-forth struggle with all kinds of monsters and equipped with hundreds of functions in preparation for activities in dungeons and other isolated places.

[The destination, Seoul Gate Terminal, is 250 meters ahead.]

It was also equipped with a hologram function, but sadly, I could only discern the contours with my current spatial perception…

If it weren’t for the bone conduction voice function, perhaps I wouldn’t have been able to operate it properly.

After almost an hour of trial and error following the voice guidance, it had been almost four hours since I had left my home guided by the properly working smartwatch.

Though called a world within the game, the place was still referred to as ‘Earth’.

There was still the United States, South Korea, Japan, China… was gone. North Korea too had fallen.

Numerous other nations had either sustained their existences or fallen by the wayside into the annals of history.

What was the setting again? Abilities, mana, dungeons, and towers appeared almost 200 years ago.

Back then, the world was almost identical to the ordinary Earth I knew.

But from one day about two hundred years ago, people manifested abilities and mana, and dungeons and towers appeared from which monsters poured out.

Fast forward two hundred years to the present.

A world where fantasy and modernity are mixed.

South Korea was one of the countries that had managed to survive.

Of course, in reality, it’s only the shell of South Korea, the insides dominated by the superhuman forces.

Politics and the like were first swept clean by hordes of monsters, and after that, they were secondarily purged by superhuman powers.

Most nations followed a similar sequence.

‘I’m almost there.’

After one subway ride and switching buses three times, I finally arrived near the gate terminal following a twenty-minute walk.

The place where my home was situated was considered countryside, so it took a while to reach the city where the gate terminal was located.

Fortunately, there was a small amount of cash prepared at home to deal with financial matters.

It was ridiculous to have tens of thousands in cash without having a mobile phone.

And thus arrived at the gate terminal, I was at a loss for words.

‘I can’t see anything…’

Although I managed to restore the range of my spatial perception to about 20 meters in diameter, I could not change the type of vision I had.

As a result, the world was predominantly black and green.

What stressed me out further were the stares and whispers fixating on me in real-time.

A heightened sense of awareness caught the subtle gazes.

I sometimes felt the illusion of being watched, but now it was too varied and accurate to dismiss as mere fancy.

And my hearing also became ridiculously keen, picking up the murmuring voices.

The gaze of seeing something novel. The muttering voices wondering if I’m blind. Pitying looks…

‘Ugh…’

With my socially awkward personality, I’m extremely uncomfortable with all this attention.

Previously, I would have simply ignored it or felt uneasy, but now irritation is bubbling up.

To put it mildly, it’s extremely annoying.

‘What should I do…’

I’ve entered the large building. But now, I have no idea what to do.

The process from the game? It’s simplified, so I don’t know about the procedures.

As I was contemplating what to do next, turning my head this way and that…

“Hello? Do you need any help?”

“?”

Someone approached me swiftly and struck up a conversation. Instinctive analysis was performed. Judging by the internal mana, the person was not an ordinary human but a superhuman.

The person who spoke to me… judging by the curves that could not belong to a man, it had to be a woman.

After a brief thought, I tapped my smartwatch to display subtitles through a hologram.

The second essential function on my smartwatch.

Though I couldn’t see the hologram, others naturally could.

Using the smartwatch to display a hologram enabled me to communicate to some extent.

[Are you staff?]

My bone-conduction voice function ensured that I knew what I had typed out.

“Oh no, I saw your cadet uniform and wondered if you might need help. I am also a cadet and was waiting for the gate.”

Startled by her reply, I examined my spatial perception once more.

I hadn’t realized because she wasn’t wearing the cadet uniform but was instead in casual clothes.

Superhumans typically possess a large quantity of mana within them. Ordinary humans also possess mana, but it’s negligible by comparison.

Hence, distinguishing between a superhuman and an ordinary person was easy.

‘Mm.’

Having assistance would be good, of course. I was just about to ask nearby staff about the procedure.

[Wouldn’t I be bothering you?]

“Psh. It’s not like I’m helping you with something big.”

After I momentarily hesitated but accepted the help, the woman smiled broadly and clapped her hands enthusiastically, then carefully took hold of my sleeve and led me to the desk to assist with the basic procedures.

“…Please present your identification.”

[Yes.]

“…Identity confirmed. Please move to the gate queuing area.”

Upon showing my Shio-ram admission notice from the smartwatch, the staff quickly finished the procedure.

It was that time of year for new Shio-ram students to start their terms, so I overheard others using the gate as well.

“Ah, my name is Elia Slade. I’m new to Shio-ram this year too. Just call me Elia.”

[My name is Lee Ha-Yul. I’m also just starting at Shio-ram.]

After the procedure was over, we sat down somewhere not far from the gate, as it would have been awkward to remain standing during the spare time before the gate’s activation, sharing our stories.

‘…Smaller than I thought.’

I felt it when we stood side by side earlier, and even now as we sit across a table from each other.

Back in the original world, I never realized it because I hardly ever went out.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m quite short. Our eyes meet nearly at the same level when standing side by side.

I am a man, I have no pride that says I need to be taller than a woman, but being visibly shorter makes me unconsciously feel a bit small.

“I grew up listening to my parents saying that every cloud has a silver lining. When I was young, I didn’t think much about it, but now it really sticks with me─”

Her name was Elia, and she had an infectious way of speaking that seemed to bounce with enthusiasm.

Her unique ability was in the healing category, and she had a young sister who, perhaps due to her taciturn nature, had no friends, which was a concern. Having often heard proverbs since childhood, they had now stuck with her… Even such trivial information was acquired.

In short, she was talkative.

I, who was naturally reticent, now couldn’t even speak properly.

As a result, all I could do was to nod in agreement where appropriate or diligently tap my fingers to bring up holograms.

While I was listening intently to the endless onslaught of conversation and responding, I realized that there was a peculiar absence of talk about vision, about the eyes.

The fact that she had helped me when I was just pondering what to do, and even initiated conversation to keep me from getting bored, all without mentioning anything related to eyes, showed her delicate consideration.

‘Intriguing.’

At the same time, I was feeling a real-time surprise inside.

Elia Slade. As the name suggests, she’s not Korean. Even if it’s just her name, she could be Korean, but at least the language she’s currently speaking isn’t Korean.

Yet, communication is not a problem. Moreover, detailed aspects like intonation and proverbs were also being directly processed by my brain.

‘Tower of Growth…’

One of the pillars that holds up the world.

After the old network powered by electricity collapsed due to magical waves, the Tower of Growth built a new internet through magic, and unified the languages of the world with its setting.

“Ms. Slade, Mr. Lee Ha-Yul, please approach the gate.”

As I hurriedly responded and pondered about the Tower, time seemed to fly by.

Together with Elia, I walked toward the gate, following the direction of a staff member.

‘I wonder if it looks the same?’

In the game, there was a description of an Arc de Triomphe-like large structure with a swirling blue vortex in its midst.

Step by step, I approached the edge of my spatial perception, until I ‘touched’ the gate.

Touched?

‘What’s this?’

There’s a cut in space. Or, maybe not.

I could sense a different landscape beyond the gate.

‘Is this what’s detected beyond the gate?’

Although I could only see green outlines, it was definitely a different space than the terminal.

Is that Shio-ram?

“Ha-Yul?”

But what caught my attention was not what lay beyond the gate.

Between Shio-ram and this terminal was a void in the middle. The moment I noticed it, a sense of imminent danger overwhelmed me.

I shouldn’t look at that. It felt as if I would make eye contact with something menacing.

I shouldn’t go there. As I approach, I might be crushed without leaving any trace behind.

It was like being a mere ant, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the universe.

A premonitory chill ran down my neck at an instinctual level of warning.

My current spatial perception had many functions stripped away in a cost-cutting process.

If.

Had I seen that void with a complete spatial perception, I had the intuition that it wouldn’t have ended well.

[Yes.]

Even as I responded to Elia’s concerned inquiry, I minimized my spatial perception and threw myself into the gate.

My legs, stiff as statues, struggled to move.

‘Why is there such an abundance of death flags, dammit.’

On my first day of transference, I almost fried my brain, I woke up from fainting to almost starve, and now this—almost having my brain explode again at witnessing something.

Three near-death experiences in ten days. If there is a God, He must surely despise me.

If there is indeed a God, who else would throw me into this world?

As I plunged into the sea, waves of sensation engulfed me. Before I could even take a full breath, I arrived at the Shio-ram Gate Terminal.

Stepping out hurriedly, a refreshing breeze cooled my body. My chest, which had been stifling, felt somewhat more open.

“Are you alright? You suddenly looked…”

[I am fine.]

“You’re sweating profusely right now.”

‘Sweating?’

As I wiped my face, cold sweat smeared my hand. That was when I realized my face was drenched in sweat.

[I just got a bit tense.]

“Perhaps you should see the infirmary…”

[I really am alright.]

Dodging Elia’s hand as she tried to wipe my forehead with her handkerchief, I shook my head.

Despite my assurances, Elia’s concern did not wane. After repeated assurances that I was indeed alright, and expressing my gratitude for her guidance, she finally nodded.

[Thank you very much for the guidance.]

At last, Elia showed the kindness of escorting me right to the door of my dormitory building.

There really are such good people in the world—such was the touch of gratitude I felt.

Surprisingly, the dormitory was a skyscraper. At a glance, a cluster of eight buildings arranged in a 2×4 format each appeared to easily exceed tens of stories in height.

There were also parks, walking paths, and lake facilities scattered about. Even from this view alone, it was markedly better than my previous home.

As I bowed my head in gratitude, Elia hesitated for a moment before extending her arm with the smartwatch on it.

“…Would it be okay to exchange contact information? It’d be nice to keep in touch since we’ll be attending together.”

[I would like that.]

[Contact ‘Elia Slade’ has been saved.]

As our synchronized smartwatches touched, a clear notification confirmed the contact was saved.

After exchanging contact details, she turned to leave, insisting that if anything came up, I must ask for help.

I could feel her worrisome gaze lingering to the very end.

She seems too kind-hearted. I worry whether she’ll be taken advantage of in the future.

Watching Elia disappear beyond the range of my spatial perception with concern, I entered the dormitory.

[Student Lee Ha-Yul verified.]

Enrolling in the dormitory was swiftly completed thanks to the automated system.

A touch of the smartwatch near the doorknob automatically unlocked the door. As I entered, the lights on the ceiling automatically turned on.

‘…Warm.’

The cold sweat from just seeing the void left me feeling sticky. I needed to take a shower and headed into the shower room after casually dropping my bags and taking off my shoes at the entrance.

I haven’t even begun, yet I’m already exhausted.

I began to worry about tomorrow.

‘Ah, it’s cold! Argh, geez… Yikes!’

Due to not distinguishing the taps, I ended up fetching ice for a cold compress.

It seems I was doomed to experience the ‘Curse of Silence’ again today.