Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Second Life

I instinctively realized this was an opportunity that would never come again.

‘I’m going to become the greatest lucky man since the dawn of history?’

A light excitement washed over me.

“Is this so-called luck something like winning the lottery jackpot just by buying a ticket, getting a perfect score on exams just by filling them in, or getting hit by a money windfall while walking down the street? Something like that?”

[Hahaha, as you live, you might occasionally get such windfalls. But you can’t live hoping for that every single time. The life of the human world is not like that.]

That’s why I’m asking.

[When you received heavenly punishment, everything you tried was repeatedly obstructed, wasn’t it? But this time, it will be the opposite.]

Oh!

[Good connections will gather, large and small opportunities will arise from them, and if luck follows at the right moment, life will become quite enjoyable. That is precisely Great Fortune.]

King Yama smiled gently.

[So be sure to form connections carefully. The fortune of the human world originally derives from connections.]

“I will keep that in mind.”

I bowed at the waist.

It was a lesson to be engraved in my bones.

I truly had wretched luck with people.

[How do you wish to live your next life?]

I want to enjoy the things I couldn’t enjoy in my previous life.

A life in the light, living upright with my three-character name before others.

A healthy body that doesn’t receive blatant contempt and disgust because of visible scars.

A harmonious family that receives plenty of parental love from childhood and then lives sweetly with a wife and children after growing up.

It would be even better if I were born with a golden spoon in my mouth.

[What kind of blessings do you desire?]

King Yama said confidently.

[Wealth and honor, fame, outstanding talent, handsome appearance, a beautiful woman, precious children, health and a long life. Choose whichever you like.]

“Thank you.”

I conveyed my gratitude with my entire body.

I decided not to mention the heavenly punishment I had unjustly received and the hardships I had endured because of it.

‘For someone in a weak position to try to argue right and wrong is itself recklessness. Claims are made not when there is justification, but when one has the ability to handle the other party. Right now, I am in a position where I must hope for leniency.’

King Yama is the absolute superior who unilaterally decides my fate.

“Please choose whatever King Yama thinks is good. I will believe and follow.”

[Hmm, when it comes to the blessings of the next life, everyone usually rushes in with their eyes turned upside down. Are you really okay with me choosing?]

“Of course. You’ll surely choose well.”

[Hahaha, wise. Good. Very good!]

King Yama slapped the table and declared refreshingly.

[I promised to take responsibility in my name. I will grant you all the blessings I mentioned earlier! Of course, all of them at the highest grade.]

It was literally a windfall.

If I had chosen myself, I would have had to give up a few, but I ended up obtaining all Five Blessings.

“Thank you.”

[Hmm, but why that expression? What is weighing on your mind?]

I hesitated for a moment before opening my mouth.

“It may be presumptuous, but it is because I still have lingering attachments from my previous life.”

[Lingering attachments. Is it the adopted son’s side, or the parents’ side?]

“Both.”

They say there are three deep connections that even heaven cannot sever.

People called them the bonds of heaven.

The connections with parents, spouses, and children.

Since I had no connection with a spouse among them, I had no choice but to place my lingering attachments on the remaining two.

“Could I meet my deceased parents? If not in the underworld, there is no other way to meet them.”

My mother passed away when I was seven years old, and I only knew that my father used the surname Cha, having never met him even once in my life.

In that way, my parents became the lifelong longing and resentment of my life.

[Hmm.]

But for some reason, King Yama was wearing a troubled expression.

“I beg of you.”

Thud.

I knelt.

“Please generously show leniency for the sake of a pitiful soul. I seek mercy.”

If this was not enough, I was even willing to perform the five-point prostration.

I didn’t want to lose the chance to meet precious people by unnecessarily putting up my pride.

That was something only a worthless man would do.

I am someone who would do anything if only I could meet my parents again, for the sake of my son’s happiness.

“If I must pay a price, I will pay it. Is it still impossible even then?”

Snap.

King Yama snapped his fingers.

Then the time of the deceased stopped.

*

King Yama spoke to the underworld messenger who had brought Cha Jeong-hyeok.

[Messenger.]

[Yes, Your Majesty.]

[That fellow looks to me like a highest-grade jewel that would be difficult to appear again in the human world.]

The underworld messenger suddenly raised his head.

‘For Your Majesty to praise a mere human soul so highly!’

It was the first time in thirty thousand years of being a messenger.

The underworld messenger looked at Cha Jeong-hyeok again with widened eyes.

[Your Majesty, is this sincere?]

[Of course.]

King Yama said.

[You know about the heavenly punishment imposed on traitors who sell out the country, don’t you?]

[Yes, they must suffer the most terrible punishment, one of the rarest even in the underworld, in the human world.]

[All kinds of disabilities and diseases, betrayal and fraud, groundless criticism and humiliation. On top of that, poverty and misfortune.]

In short, they must experience a living hell.

[The ends of those who received heavenly punishment are generally similar. Not only do they torment themselves and those around them, but they also commit all sorts of sins again, using their fate as an excuse. In a word, beyond redemption.]

[That is correct.]

[But that fellow is different. It is said that it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven after death than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Yet that fellow overcame even heavenly punishment and cut his own ticket to heaven.]

Life is originally reaping what one sows.

[The only wealth permitted to him was black money, and every connection he formed was a bad one. His talent is truly remarkable.]

King Yama rested his chin on his interlocked hands.

His gaze toward Cha Jeong-hyeok was intense.

[It would be too wasteful to erase all his memories like this. Wouldn’t he just become raw ore again?]

[Your Majesty, the memories of humans who reincarnate must absolutely be erased. That is the law of the underworld!]

The underworld messenger cried out in alarm.

[You must not! Would you commit a great sin over a small curiosity?!]

[Great sin? You must be referring to the matter of you incorrectly classifying a hero who saved the country as a traitor who sold it out and processing him that way.]

[Ugh······.]

[Shouldn’t you take responsibility and properly resolve it?]

The underworld messenger tightly closed his mouth and lowered his head deeply.

[Fortunately, there is a good method to resolve this matter.]

King Yama snapped his fingers.

Snap.

Once again, the time of the deceased began to flow.

*

King Yama nodded.

[Good. I will grant your wish. I will allow you to meet your parents.]

“Truly?”

[I will also continue the connection with your adopted son. This time, as your biological son.]

“Thank you!”

My heart felt like it would burst with joy.

To be able to see my deceased mother after a full 45 years!

To be able to meet the father I had only imagined!

To be able to meet my son again!

I was simply overwhelmed with emotion.

Snap.

King Yama snapped his fingers.

Then a golden light burst forth from my body.

[In addition, in the name of me, Yama, I gift you special eyes. I hope you will use them usefully.]

Special eyes?

[One more thing. It seems you didn’t know, but in fact, you were a third-generation chaebol. You simply couldn’t enjoy it because you received heavenly punishment.]

“What?”

[Ask your mother directly. Who your father is.]

Wait a moment!

[This time, go find your maternal family as well.]

Wait a minute!

[Then, second life, live happily and let’s meet again in a hundred years.]

Whoosh!

As King Yama flicked his sleeve, a fierce wind fluttered.

I was helplessly swept into the whirlwind.

The underworld messenger who had brought me also screamed and was sucked in spinning together.

[That is your guardian deity. A bonus.]

That was my last memory of the underworld.

*

“Gasp!”

The breath that had been tightly blocked burst out.

I sat up abruptly.

Cold sweat was drenching me.

My body shivered in the cold air outside the blanket.

“Ugh! My head!”

I clutched my head at the terrible headache.

The 52 years of memories I had seen in a flash when I died poured in like a waterfall.

Even the flyers, newspapers, TV, and book phrases I had only roughly glanced at while living seemed to be forcibly engraved in my mind.

The incoming information was so vast that my vision spun and my insides felt like they were turning over.

“Gasp, gasp, gasp······!”

Everything was excessively vivid.

My mind was also a complete mess.

With the end of King Yama’s words, the terrible headache ended.

‘I thought I had lost both parents early and had no relatives, but I’m a third-generation chaebol? And I even had a maternal family? Why did Mother never say a single word about that to me······.’

A small laugh escaped.

‘There must have been the circumstances of adults.’

In any case, the fact was that after Mother passed away, no one came looking for me.

I couldn’t even enter an orphanage and suffered all kinds of hardships.

A back-alley life lonelier and more cruel than imagination began.

‘When I meet Mother, I must ask. How all this came to be. Where is she?’

I looked around searching for Mother.

In the dim moonlight shining through the window, the room was lit in a pale blue.

Floral wallpaper and aluminum sash, yellow cheap flooring and a colorful tiger blanket, a vinyl wardrobe and a folding iron dining table.

Even the light switch hanging from the fluorescent light string.

“Uh······?”

The moment I realized where this was, goosebumps ran down my spine.

‘This is the shanty house in Guro-dong where I lived with Mother when I was little, isn’t it?’

It was exactly as in my memories.

However, this place should have long disappeared after being forcibly demolished right after Mother passed away.

When my gaze reached the daily calendar hanging on the wall, I froze for a moment.

“······!”

A day I could never forget in my life.

On this day when I was seven years old, I lost Mother.

‘Could it be that the second life is not reincarnation but regression? Then right now, I’m meeting Mother not in the underworld but in this world······.’

I immediately lifted the blanket.

“Mom!”

Mother was sleeping curled up like a shrimp, lightly snoring.

Along with the longed-for scent of Mother, her warm body temperature was felt.