The Golden Pile on the 2nd Basement Level (2)
Suddenly, screams erupted from outside the cafe.
“Fire! There’s a fire over there!”
“Kyaaak! This is terrible! What are we going to do!”
“Hey! Hey! There’s a person! Someone’s on the top floor!”
It was clearly an extremely dangerous situation.
But the problem ran even deeper.
“Oh my, there’s a baby too! Look, that woman has an infant strapped to her chest! Ugh, how awful!”
“Isn’t there anything we can do? Oh dear, oh dear.”
“Shit, I reported it ages ago. Where the hell is the fire truck?”
That was when Han Yejin spoke.
“Oppa, I’m sorry. I… I’ll be right back.”
She bolted out of the cafe and sprinted toward the apartment building.
Damn it.
I quickly settled the bill and chased after her.
By the time I reached the apartment, hundreds of people had already gathered, all wearing expressions of helpless dread.
Han Yejin didn’t hesitate for a second. She grabbed the veranda railing and began climbing.
I moved directly beneath her.
“Yejin, what exactly are you planning to do?”
“I’m going up to save that woman.”
“You don’t even have any safety gear… Isn’t this too dangerous?”
“Even so… I can’t just walk away after seeing that.”
“Even if you reach her, how will you get her down? It looks like it’ll be too much for you.”
“I’ll have her climb onto my back, then head for the roof. It’s only one floor from the twentieth to the roof, so it should be possible.”
Even as she answered, Han Yejin kept climbing steadily upward.
Only then did the onlookers notice her. They burst into applause and began cheering her on.
“Waaaah! Amazing! You can do it, miss!”
“That young lady is so brave!”
“But she doesn’t even have a rope… What if she falls too?”
She was right.
What Han Yejin was attempting was extremely perilous.
Free climbing.
Scaling a sheer wall with nothing but your bare hands and feet.
Even highly experienced climbers sometimes lost their lives to a single mistake in free soloing.
Moreover…
Today was the worst possible weather for it.
Whoooosh~
A powerful gust howled between the buildings.
Nevertheless, Han Yejin fought through the wind, passing the fifth floor and reaching the sixth. Her pace, however, seemed too slow to save the woman in time.
“Aaaah! My arms have no strength left~~ And it’s so hot~~ Please hurry~~”
Damn it.
I broke into a sprint, stepped on the first-floor safety railing, and launched myself upward. In the next motion I grabbed the second-floor railing and pulled myself up.
Han Yejin, who had glanced down at the crowd’s cheers, spotted me clinging to the apartment wall and shouted.
“O-oppa! What are you doing! Get down right now! This isn’t something you can do after only a month of training!”
Without answering, I stepped on the second-floor railing, jumped, and seized the next one. In just two or three seconds I had already reached the third floor.
“Whoa! There’s another one climbing!”
“He’s insane! Is that even possible?”
“Holy crap, he’s fast.”
“He must be a hunter!”
I repeated the same fluid motions, switching hands each time. Before long I had overtaken Han Yejin, who was already near the seventh floor.
She stared at me with a stunned expression.
I didn’t have the luxury of slowing down to enjoy her reaction.
“Aaaaah~ Ugh… I can’t hold on any longer~~”
The mother had reached her limit and was on the verge of losing her grip.
I climbed even faster.
Tenth floor… eleventh… twelfth…
Of course I was afraid.
In the hunter world, stamina referred to endurance. It was a different concept from the “HP” stat in games. Life force existed as its own separate value.
Which meant that no matter how much of a hunter I was, or how much I had raised my stamina…
If I fell from a high-rise apartment, my skull would crack and every bone in my body would shatter.
Still…
I had to do it.
I had no desire to become a hero.
But…
At that moment the woman spoke in a trembling voice. It sounded as if she had already given up on everything.
“My child… ugh. I’ll throw my baby down. Please catch her~ I’m finished~~”
“Don’t give up! Hold on for five more seconds! I’m almost there!”
“I can’t~~ It’s too hot~~ Ah! Aaaah! Nooo!”
The woman could hold on no longer.
Her arms, hooked over the veranda railing, finally gave out.
Whoosh~
She plummeted with terrifying speed, baby still clutched to her chest.
Potential energy.
Gravitational acceleration.
This was impossible! I should give up!
No!
I can do this!
To hell with physics, you bastard!
I scraped together every ounce of strength in my body, focusing it into my right hand gripping the railing and both legs braced inside the bars. At the same time I thrust out my left arm and caught the falling woman with ferocious force.
Thud.
My left arm whipped downward.
My waist bent backward as if it would snap.
“Gaaaah~”
Yet I endured with pure core strength and pulled her into my embrace.
The tremendous impact traveled through my left arm, elbow, waist, and pelvis all the way into my legs and right hand.
Miraculously, I had managed to disperse the entire force of her fall across my body.
“Ugh…”
Did I do it?
Crack.
My body held, but the safety railing did not.
The cement anchoring the bolts crumbled, and one side of the railing began to tilt.
Clang.
Creak.
I immediately released my right hand and dropped straight down. Then I grabbed the railing of the floor below with one hand using every bit of strength I had.
Thump.
All while still holding the woman and her baby with my other arm.
Whoosh.
The broken railing barely missed us as it tumbled into the flowerbed below.
Crash.
I pulled both feet up onto the new railing and braced myself.
“Haa… haaa!”
I had miraculously caught a woman falling from the twentieth floor while hanging from the fifteenth.
I didn’t even have time to check my status window before looking at the mother in my arms.
She had fainted from the shock, but she was still breathing.
The baby strapped to her chest was crying at the top of its lungs, yet it didn’t appear to be seriously injured.
“Waaaaah!”
“He’s crazy! Kyaaak! That guy is so cool!”
“He’s definitely a hunter. At least C-class!”
“Insane! How strong do you have to be to pull that off?”
“Hey! Did you get it on video? Did you?”
At that moment a siren blared, drowning out the crowd’s shouts and hammering against the apartment walls.
A moment later the aerial ladder truck arrived and raised its ladder. Escorted by firefighters, the three of us—the mother, the baby, and I—were able to descend to the boarding platform.
Rattle, rattle, rattle.
While the ladder lowered, the firefighter immediately checked the mother’s breathing. Fortunately she soon coughed and regained consciousness.
As the ladder truck neared the ground, thunderous applause and cheers erupted from beyond the fire control line. Dozens of people were holding up phones, filming and snapping pictures.
I could already see several local YouTubers rushing to the scene.
Shit.
Time to make a quick exit…
Wait.
Didn’t raising my charm require stepping into the spotlight?
I hesitated for a brief second but ultimately decided against it.
Drawing too much attention would only restrict my movements in and out of the tower’s basement.
I swiftly pulled up my hood, and the instant the platform was three or four meters above ground I leaped to the opposite side of the crowd. Then I sprinted like a madman around the corner of the apartment building.
Right then a crazy YouTuber thrust a camera in my face.
“Ah! Hero sir, could you give us one—”
In my haste I shoved him aside. Because I failed to control my strength, he landed hard on his backside.
“Ah, sorry!”
I ran for a long time, shaking off everyone, before I realized I had forgotten something.
Crap! Han Yejin!
On the bus ride home,
I anxiously scrolled through the breaking news on my phone.
The fire had been extinguished without further casualties, and both the mother and baby who had nearly fallen to their deaths had been transported to the emergency room with no life-threatening injuries.
After that, the news exploded with reports about the “mysterious hero who scaled the burning apartment to save the falling mother and child,” nicknamed ‘Apaiderman.’
Soon Han Yejin appeared on screen.
The caption read “Han Yejin, Climbing Instructor.”
“You were the first person on scene to begin climbing the apartment wall in order to rescue them, correct?”
“Yes. But then that person suddenly appeared and…”
“Are you acquainted with this ‘Apaiderman’?”
“…No. We’re complete strangers.”
Huh?
She’s got good sense.
“Witnesses say the two of you exchanged words while passing each other on the building. Is that true?”
“What the hero said to me was…”
Han Yejin paused, her face turning slightly red.
“…It wasn’t anything special. He simply told me it was dangerous and to come down… then he overtook me, climbed up, and saved the woman and her baby.”
“In any case, you also did something incredible, Instructor.”
“Not at all. I didn’t do anything. It’s just… I feel like that hero saved me as well, so if I ever get the chance to meet him, I’d really like to buy him a meal.”
That was the end of Han Yejin’s segment.
She really was a likable woman.
Her sense of justice, her willingness to risk herself to help others in need, stood out.
And her quick thinking in keeping quiet about me was excellent too!
The moment I got home I asked Hwang Eunpa.
“Did you talk to Han Yejin by any chance?”
“I just got off the phone with her. Why?”
“What did she say about me?”
“She said you parted ways normally. But you didn’t even ask her out afterward?”
“No other stories?”
“Nope.”
She really does have principles.
I hadn’t told Eunpa that I’d saved those people either.
“Give me her number.”
“Why don’t you ask her yourself? What’s with asking me at home like this?”
“Just… give it to me.”
The next day was Sunday.
Han Yejin and I met again.
Since her studio apartment wasn’t far from our house, we chose a famous local tonkatsu restaurant as our meeting spot.
After greeting each other warmly and sitting down, I got straight to the point.
“I’m really sorry about yesterday. I felt awkward standing in front of all those people, so I left without even saying hello properly.”
“Haha, it’s fine. I probably would have done the same if I were surrounded like that.”
“And thank you for not mentioning the incident during the broadcast interview or to my sister Eunpa.”
“Of course. Eunpa still thinks you’re just a first-floor Tower Scavenger… If I told her you’re actually a superhuman, it would be a huge spoiler.”
“Haha. I’m not quite a superhuman. I just hide it a little because Eunpa worries about me so much.”
Once again an awkward silence settled between us.
“By the way… what’s your dream?”
Even I thought the question sounded pathetic the moment it left my mouth.
Man, I really am hopeless at romance.
Surprisingly, she answered brightly.
“My dream is… to open a research institute that specializes in the Rot Virus. I have a few ideas. Of course, since I’m not a specialist, I’ll have to hire actual researchers.”
“Ideas?”
“I was infected with the Rot Virus but miraculously recovered. It’s an extremely rare case worldwide. Why do you think that is?”
“Maybe you had a natural genetic immunity?”
“…My father, mother, older brother, and younger siblings all got infected. So I started wondering whether a certain unusual event I experienced right after infection might have helped cure me.”
“What event?”
“Right after I was infected, I was bitten by a centipede.”
“…So the centipede venom might be able to suppress the Rot Virus?”
“Yes. But there’s still no solid evidence. The academic world is skeptical too. That’s why… I decided to try it myself.”
I felt her attempt was reckless. Such massive research couldn’t possibly be funded by money earned from working as a climbing instructor.
That was when she said something unexpected.
“My dream is too big, right? I think so too. But the truth is… I have one thing I can count on.”
“What is it?”
“The belt my father used to wear when he was a hunter. If I sell what’s inside it, I should have enough money to establish a lab.”
“What’s inside?”
“One kilogram of liquid Adamantium.”
Adamantium.
The ultimate metal that would never break under any circumstances.
“They say one kilogram alone trades for more than twelve billion won.”
“Whoa! That’s incredible.”
“…Yeah. The problem is that my father lost his mind to the Rot disease, so we have no idea where the belt is. If I could just find out its location…”
Huh?
If I earned the Nobel Prize: Rot Virus degree and cured her father’s illness…
Wouldn’t I naturally learn the belt’s location?
Even after leaving the tonkatsu restaurant we strolled around the neighborhood, chatting about all sorts of things.
Although she had suffered the terrible misfortune of losing her entire family at a young age and becoming disabled herself, she was always bright, energetic, and full of hope.
“I should get going now. I’ll be late for my part-time job.”
“Hang in there, Yejin. I’ll always be cheering for you.”
She turned to leave but paused, as if something still bothered her.
“This is unfair… so I have to say it.”
“What?”
“Last night… so many people contacted me. They said they’d pay a huge sum if I revealed your identity…”
“Who?”
“Mostly YouTubers. But one person was really serious. His name was Jang Hancheol. He said if I told him your identity, he’d give me five million won as a reward.”
“Who is he?”
“He’s… the husband of the mother and child you saved yesterday. Apparently he’s the CEO of some pharmaceutical company.”
“And?”
“I insisted I didn’t know anything. So… you should be really grateful to me.”
After hearing all that, I felt terribly sorry toward her.
She had joked about it, but with a family suffering from illness to support, she was in desperate need of money.
Desperate enough to work part-time even on Sunday…
“Well, I’m off!”
She turned away again.
Her back looked so pitiful.
Without thinking I called out behind her.
“Yejin! If the chance ever comes, I’d really like to help with that research institute you want to build.”
I ran in front of her.
“Actually, I’ve been researching the Rot Virus little by little for a while now. It’s still in the early stages, but… I’m confident I can find a solution. So your family can regain their health, and you can return to your original healthy appearance… I’m serious about this!”
The words poured out from the bottom of my heart. Only after I finished speaking did I realize I was holding her hand.
I quickly tried to let go.
Instead, she gripped my hand tightly.
“Thank you, Oppa. Just hearing you say that gives me real hope.”
Charm has increased by 1.
Charm has reached 10.
The power of the banner Rotten Legion is now active.
You can now recruit 7 Rot soldiers.
Please proceed to the vicinity of the Rotters you wish to recruit as soldiers.