Because of You...
"You... because of you..." Shin Roa couldn't greet him warmly. Barely parting her lips with her body only slightly recovered, she spat out cursed words.
"You too... you'll end up like me. You'll lose someone precious."
"I asked what the situation is!"
"Can't you see?"
Tears streamed from Roa's eyes.
"The women you hung out with, the ones you handed out fever meds to... they came here. Smashed everything, burned it down, took it all... and dragged Heea away."
A lowly sense of defeat welled up in her heart. What do you think...?
The despair and sorrow when an act of goodwill backfires into the worst outcome. Roa wanted him to feel it too. She wanted him to writhe in guilt, get swept up in rage. Or drop the goody-two-shoes act and reveal his true colors.
But he did nothing.
"They haven't died yet, right? Where'd they go?"
"Still can't accept reality? They're dead. You killed them! Your stupid pride—"
He gripped Shin Roa's shoulders hard, radiating a terrifying aura like he'd kill her on the spot.
"Where'd they go."
Shin Roa flinched for a moment, then answered honestly.
"Don't know. Those women took her. And anyway, she's as good as dead."
"Why?"
"It was a body only kept alive by force..."
Shin Heea was a child who should have died. Her organs mangled in places, cursed blood flowing through her veins. But Roa was a better doctor than that. Drugs that would kill ordinary people in trace amounts—she dosed them perfectly, monitoring Heea's condition daily to keep her alive.
The recovery boost from the Hospital base attribute, the stamina from her doctor skill. It was no different from saving someone bleeding out one hole by pumping blood into another.
"If she leaves here, she dies. Even if they drag her out alive, with the hospital trashed like this, she won't last a week."
"..."
"What if she's fully cured?"
"Stupid nonsense. You'd have to take down a dungeon boss—"
"Yeah."
◈ Pulse of life. Top-grade recovery item from defeating the dungeon boss giant bug.
◈ Can create life with this alone—even revive the dead before brain decay.
A heart emerged from his bosom. The pulse of life. The top-grade recovery item only obtainable by toppling the giant bug dungeon boss. A fearsome thing said to create life on its own, revive even the fully dead if the brain hadn't rotted yet.
He had it.
...Yeah.
It was something Roa couldn't obtain no matter her efforts. To get one, countless people sacrificed, tossed into dungeons like it was natural.
Yet he brought it casually. Committing such a lavish good deed without a second thought.
That act denied her entire life. Slammed her hard-earned enlightenment into the dirt without care.
Proof you could protect others while holding onto that good heart.
...
Knife scars stabbed at her body, hammer blows throbbed in her skull, but Roa desperately kept thinking.
He could save Heea. It was practically her last chance.
"Please... save her."
Roa had to beg.
"I'll do anything. Rape me for all I care, beat me till your anger's gone. Make me a slave, I'll be one. I'm a doctor—surely useful somehow..."
Her pride meant nothing now. She knew well she had no right to beg after what she'd done to him.
But that didn't matter either.
"I beg you, please. Save Heea. I'll treat your women too. Live treating you forever. So please. Please...!"
Roa was prepared to give everything.
...Ah.
Pathetic, really. She'd lived sacrificing others, convinced goodwill for them was meaningless—now forced to rely on someone else's.
"Of course I'll save her."
But he gazed at Roa with a bright smile. As if consoling the goodwill she hadn't fully discarded wasn't something bad after all.
"Hoo."
Situation assessed. I moved Roa to a relatively safe spot, then started the pursuit right away.
Those bitches... were they that rotten inside?
Truth be told, I'd half-expected it. Or rather, sensed bad vibes. Hero days taught me to read people—their actions matched the villains I'd seen plenty.
But I couldn't just go, "You look like bad guys, so die," to folks who hadn't wronged me yet. Couldn't withhold overflowing meds from the suffering right in front of me.
Figured: don't trust 'em, use what they're good for, part ways—no issues.
Wrong call.
Much rougher than I figured.
Never thought they'd trash a perfectly fine hospital just 'cause it rubbed 'em wrong. Or go after Roa.
Water under the bridge. Can't let hindsight shake me—info I couldn't have gotten otherwise.
Similar spots ahead? I'll still help the desperate. Own the fallout.
"...Found you."
Smell. Locals weirdly nose-deaf. No scent-tracking zombies around? Or too many stink-sources to bother masking.
Skilled hunter like me? Their traces and stench are child's play.
Fire user...
Unknown perps? Tougher trail. But I'd fought alongside those women a few times. Knew their style, even if sparse. Never studied their gait? Sure, but I'd seen it.
Faint footprints, scent trails—clear as day.
Got it. Follow this.
Locked in, I bolted after 'em full tilt. Good thing—not far. My pace closes gaps quick.
The women huddled in an abandoned strip mall ruin spotted me, waved like old pals.
"Oh, out already, sir?"
"Yeah."
"Monsters go down smooth?"
"Yeah."
Short and sharp, then straight to it.
"The girl you snatched. Kid. Where?"
"Ah, after that bitch? Hold up, we'll fetch her."
Rage boiled. Part of me wanted every last one dead right there.
But talk could end it clean. Roa wasn't spotless in front of them either.
"Hey, out here! Hurry!"
"Fuck no, just getting to the fun part—why drag me? Thought we could slack off now?"
"Not the time!"
Brief chaos. I white-knuckled my wooden staff, held back—hard.
"M-Me, coming! What's the big deal... Huh?"
Heea, dragged out by the scruff in a woman's grip. Thank god, no signs she'd been touched yet.
...That kid's a real hazard waiting to blow.
Her condition screamed abnormal no matter how you sliced it.
"Now, hand over the kid. Then scram far from here. Got it?"
"Sure. But... uh, bit scary all sudden."
"What?"
"You look pissed. We hand brat over... we all get iced?"
Shook my head.
"Nah, no worries."
"...Can't buy it. Burned by types like you too often."
"What'll it take?"
One tossed me a small pill case.
"Y'know the stuff you popped at the hospital?"
"Yeah."
"Down that, we give kid. Just precautions on our end..."
I grinned, nodded.
"Smart. Easy enough."
Popped their pill. Level-up stats sealed. My level dropped back to 1.
All level-up stats sealed. Current Level: Lv.1
Origin: Ingested pill effect.
"There, swallowed? Now the kid."
They said zilch. Just maniacal cackling.
"Puhahahahaha!!!"
"No way, moron? Actually ate that shit?"
"When the bastard demanded it, thought he was nuts... but it worked?"
Nodded, took a step forward.
"Then I'm taking her?"
"Do what ya want with the shrimp... we wanna inspect your cock first?"
"...What?"
"Fuck, all us bitches here, right? Pussy on tap gets stale, yeah?"
Air turned ugly.
"Bet you hogged filthy stacks of cash solo—prime loot."
"That staff? Hidden power bullshit! Gimme!"
Not safety play lowering my level. Just cripple, then nab me.
"Ha."
Sighed. Needed a stall anyway—apology'd do.
"Hate me all you want."
Dead men walking could hear that much.