After going through their skills, and brainstormed what the next steps are. The two are in the dining area with pencils and a large notebook. Keido read it all over, just to make sure they both knew what to do.
"So first… We need to find and make an alliance with Kimsung, then we have to decide whether we're staying here in Korea, or traveling to one of the countries that won't be hit as hard by the First Disaster, right?"
Heidi nods in agreement. The first part of their plan would be the most difficult, since neither they nor the novel specified anything more about Kimsung's location, other than mentioning a few times he's from the Eunpyeong district, which was also where they were, and that he could also see the stadium from where he lived. It at least cut down the possible locations in the district he could be, but Eunpyeong had a population of nearly five hundred thousand residents, and they had to find a single one of those residents.
Unless they found him by dumb luck, or he just so happened to be their neighbor, it would only add more stress to their already tight schedule before the First Disaster hit.
"It'll be hard to find him, and no thanks to the author, we only know that he can see the stadium from his home. That could be a whole third of Eunpyeong district!"
She says in frustration and sits down in a chair. Keido remains standing, still thinking to himself about the odds of actually finding Kimsung before it is too late. In just a month, humanity was going to lose several million to monsters from all over mythology, and it would only get worse by the year. Every year on the same day, until either the disasters or humanity have been eliminated, monsters will constantly come out from gateways and humans will be forced to face them, or go extinct.
Suddenly, a knock on the door is heard. The siblings look at the door, confused. Heidi is the first to speak, a bit nervous about who could be knocking.
"Keido… did the guy you were put with invite any friends over? I already checked my phone, so I know none of this girl's friends are coming…"
Keido takes out his phone and opens it up to his messages app, scrolling through his chats and checking notifications. Once done, he shakes his head. Heidi's concern grows after his confirmation, so she asks the obvious question.
" So who is that out there?"
Another knock is heard on the door, this time, with a voice behind it.
"******? Are you and your sister okay there?"
The voice asks. Keido slowly approaches the door and opens it, and true to his luck, another ridiculous thing happens.
'Heidi was just joking before… but what the actual fuck is this damn luck?'
He asks himself, because standing in front of him is a tall, muscular man with black short hair, a white tee, and black sweatpants, with some sandals. The same man the two were previously talking about before, the Hero of TTD, Kang Kimsung. Earlier, Kimsung had been woken up by loud screaming coming next door, so being a good neighbor, he decided to check it out.
Getting out of bed and getting dressed in a lazy outfit, he walked out of his apartment and down to his neighbor's door, a pair of siblings he had a good relationship because of how close they were in age. He didn't know why he was checking this out, since he didn't have long to prepare for the First Disaster, but he did, out of an old habit.
This was currently his 117th reset, but even then, old habits, even before the disasters struck, were hard to break. When he opened the door, he saw his neighbor looking at him in shock and awe, for some reason. He didn't know why, because he'd always had a casual relationship with ******, so he didn't know why he was acting like this.
'Or maybe it's because my job used to be at night, so he only saw me during the afternoons. I guess it must be a surprise to him that I woke up early for once.'
"Hey, ******, I know that I woke up early, but it shouldn't be that much of a surprise, you jerk. By the way, I heard some screaming coming from here. Are you and your sister ok here?"
He asked, but didn't expect his neighbor to pull him by the arm into his apartment. Such a thing had never happened before, so he was caught off guard, despite having over a hundred resets' worth of fighting experience. Not that he was at the physical capabilities he was used to. He'd have to fix that as soon as he could control his mana again.
"Hey, whoa, ******! What was that for?"
He asks once inside, and Keido closes the door, turning to face him.
"Alright, Kimsung, I'm not going to sugarcoat what I'm about to say, ok?"
He says, walking to the dining room, signaling for Kimsung to follow.
"Your neighbors… Are gone. My sister and I took their bodies after we were transmigrated here, ok?"
He says in a calm tone, but in reality, in his mind, this was one of the riskiest things he could ever do in this world, and that was telling someone that there's a real multiverse. Kimsung's eyebrow raises, a bit confused by what Keido said.
"Sorry, transmigrated? As in, being put into a new place? Like from novels? Are you okay, ******? You sure you haven't watched too much-"
Kimsung isn't allowed to finish his sentence, as Keido cuts him off, both he and Heidi having expected such a reaction, if not worse than this one.
"Kimsung, I mean it. Your skill is called [Salmon's Life], and it lets you return to the past once you die, and I'm guessing this isn't your first reset either."
He says in a serious tone, not wanting to beat around the bush when it came to such an important matter, especially since they had so little time to prepare. He didn't know that Kimsung knew who the people he and Heidi had taken were, so he was a bit surprised, but it worked out even better, because now they had the most important part of their initial plan. Kimsung's expression goes from confusion to thinly veiled hostility at the reveal of his skill's name, something that shouldn't have happened yet.
"How do you know that? Who are you people?"
He asks in a serious tone, prepared to fight whatever monster it was that took his friends' bodies and was currently using them as disguises. Keido notices Kimsung's subtle actions, and for some reason, can vividly sense his hostility towards them.
'Shit, that came out wrong. I need to rephrase that.'
"Kimsung, let me explain, ok? We don't need to fight. We're both human, not some soul-stealing monsters. The First disaster doesn't even happen for another month, ok? We just want to work with you, got that?"
He says in a calm voice, raising his hands. Kimsung looks at him for a little bit before sitting down at the table, appearing to be ready to talk things out with words, rather than his fists. He'd probably get arrested, which wasn't something he could afford to suffer. He decided to calm down, taking a deep breath and thinking through his next words.
"Who… Are you?"
He asks, calmly, used to losing people. He had to be, or else the deaths of his friends, his allies, his lover would have broken him down so many times ago. Keido speaks up in a calm voice, attempting to explain their special situation.
"We… Died. But we were put into these bodies upon death, and given systems that told us to save the world with your help. I don't know how or why this happened, but I want to survive this as much as the next guy and hopefully make it to the end of the disasters."
He pauses, blinking, before continuing.
"I know this might be a shock, since nothing like this has ever happened before. You're a character from a popular novel called TTD, the main character. You're meant to save the world and beat the ten disasters like in the novel, so we want to help you out, ok? I know that you're confused, but we can tell you whatever you want to know, as long as it's not too important."
He says, letting out a sigh of relief that he managed to say the right words. The only thing important right now was whether Kimsung would accept their offer, and they could start planning where to go.