The Survivors
Team Leader An Sora.
She was two years senior to me at the company, and among the managers assigned to F-rank teams, she was the most seasoned of the lot.
Back when I was still just a team assistant, I'd gone on a single expedition with her. Everything about her had been polished and effortless. Watching her handle those worthless Awoken—talentless little shits with tempers from hell—like a kindergarten teacher herding toddlers had left a genuine impression on me.
We'd gotten closer after that. Sometimes we'd share soju and she'd give me relationship advice. Mostly me asking questions, her answering them.
Not that following her advice had ever been easy. Which is how my love life ended up looking the way it does.
"Senior. I'm so glad you're all right."
Her signature glasses were nowhere to be found, but thankfully she didn't seem injured anywhere. I wanted to ask her right then what the hell had happened inside the dungeon—but the moment I saw her face, I shut my mouth.
First priority was getting her settled. Then I still had to find the rest of our people. For that, I asked just one thing first.
"Is everyone from our company safe?"
She didn't answer.
Special transport machines and people were still pouring out through the Gate, so I only got a response after I'd stepped aside to make room for them.
"I'm sorry."
That was all she kept saying. I'm sorry.
Stabilizing her came first. Mental trauma wasn't something Hilo could fix, so I urgently called for medical staff. She needed a hospital, and fast.
Chaos kept erupting everywhere around us. Gate Management Office officials scrambled to tally the damage. And then, as if someone had summoned them, the victims' families started flooding in—turning the whole area into pure pandemonium.
Looking back, the eerie quiet of the day before almost felt stranger.
For what must have been dozens of minutes, a suffocating tension hung over everything. Every company needed to confirm whether their staff and Awoken were alive or dead. Our company and Shinbaram's side, unlike Diamond Guild, also had to account for the equipment transport contractors who'd joined the expedition. The contractors had people on-site too, of course—but the situation was far too dire for anyone to waste time drawing neat little lines of responsibility.
Eventually, time passed, and the whole place went dead silent—as if the earlier uproar had never happened at all.
It wasn't quiet just because the survivors had already been shipped off to hospitals.
"We will now make the announcement!"
The numbers of survivors, wounded, and dead. The government briefing on the damage assessment had begun.
The silence shattered under the relentless pop of camera flashes.
The official government summary went like this:
Eleven Awoken dead. Fourteen Non-Awoken dead.
Casualties on that scale, for an incident in an E-rank dungeon or lower, were historic by any measure. And among the survivors, more deaths could still be added at any moment. One of Diamond Guild's Awoken, in particular, was critically wounded—from the circumstances, almost certainly Lee Daeman's little sister. I found myself silently praying she wouldn't die.
Our company's An Sora and Kim Miyeon had made it out alive, thank god, but both clearly needed time to stabilize. The first time I saw them, they were coated head to toe in that familiar slime, pollen, and blood. It was a nightmare. For ordinary people to still be breathing when Awoken were dropping left and right was a miracle in itself. I could imagine exactly how hard they'd fought to stay alive.
I'd been there myself, after all.
The situation more or less wrapped up, and it was late Saturday night before I finally got to head home. After absorbing the news of so many deaths—and even catching glimpses of some of the bodies—I was wound so tight I could snap. I hadn't even managed a single word to Yoo Dajeong before we parted ways. That said everything.
I wasn't sure I'd sleep at all tonight.
And fuck me.
I still had to go to work tomorrow.
The company was in full emergency mode.
I dragged my exhausted body back to the apartment and found someone crouched in front of my door, waiting.
Whoever it was, I prayed they had nothing to do with me. I didn't even have a religion, but I begged the sky anyway as I approached.
Then I got close enough to see who it was, and—oh, for fuck's sake.
Of all people, it was Kim Isol sitting there.
Heaven, gods, the whole damn pantheon could go screw themselves.
She seemed to have dozed off, crouched down and silent as a corpse. In my current frayed state, the last thing I wanted was to deal with this girl on top of everything else. So I planned to open the door very, very carefully—except of course it was never going to be that easy.
Kim Isol twitched the second she sensed something, then lifted her head and glared straight at me.
The dark circles under her eyes were so black they looked like someone had drawn them on as a joke. How long had she gone without sleep?
"Haa..."
The moment our eyes met, I couldn't hold back the sigh that slipped out. Still, treating her roughly would only backfire, so I opened my mouth as gently as I could manage. If she still started shit after I'd gone this far, then I'd really lose it.
"Ms. Kim Isol. Why are you sleeping out here? How did you even find my place?"
"......"
"Say something. You were clearly waiting for me. Why? The company meeting is Monday. It's Saturday night."
"Why... did you leave my messages on read."
She sounded like a poison dart frog trying to talk. Her throat was so dry I could practically picture the sandpaper lining it—how long had it been since she'd last spoken?
"You got my number from the company, right? Then didn't you hear the news? About the Hwaseong Gate incident?"
"I know. But why did you leave my messages on read."
Her voice was low and flat, completely different from usual. The Kim Isol I knew only ever yelled and wore that arrogant look on her face. This version of her was utterly desiccated. Not just her voice—her eyes, her lips, her whole body, her entire bearing. She looked ready to crumble into dust at a touch.
"People died. Awoken and civilians both... Our company lost three Awoken and one transport contractor. You think I had time to sit around glued to my phone?"
"You weren't even part of the rescue."
"I was out of my mind. And I don't check chat messages much to begin with. What about you, Isol? What happened? Why do you look like this?"
"......"
God. Pretending not to know when I absolutely did was harder than I'd expected. Especially when I was the one who'd done this to her.
I turned the problem over in my head—what the hell was I supposed to do with this girl—and came up empty. I'd already burned through today's entire brain ration back in Suwon.
I'd planned to torment her a little longer, but looking at that half-dead face, I almost felt sorry for her. The fact that I was even thinking that meant the exhaustion was clearly frying something upstairs.
Then again, it wasn't like she was the only Awoken with a shit personality.
"I'm genuinely exhausted. I have to go to work tomorrow, so I'm heading inside. Please go home."
I decided to just ignore her.
I'd briefly considered restoring her mana if she got on her knees and begged—but the risk was way too high. Revealing my ability to Kim Isol, of all people, someone I trusted about as far as I could throw a brick? Absolutely not.
"Wait. I have something to say..."
"Fine. Then say it."
The moment I pushed her to hurry up, Kim Isol started glancing around in every direction. She spotted the CCTV camera, then:
"Not here."
"Why? Because of the CCTV?"
She nodded.
I wanted her gone yesterday, but if I just walked inside and shut the door, she didn't look like she'd quietly leave. Having her still crouched out here when I left for work in the morning would be a problem—and there was zero chance she'd sit quietly outside my door while I was inside. She'd raise absolute hell.
So I had no choice. I led Kim Isol into the apartment.
Normally, a beauty of her caliber would have been more than welcome in my place. But right now, there wasn't a shred of sex appeal left on her.
No—what the hell was I even thinking. I wasn't about to sleep with Kim Isol. Feeling any attraction just because I'd once watched her piss was humiliating even to myself.
"What did you need to tell me that was important enough to dodge the CCTV?"
"I'm thirsty."
Ugh. Unbelievable.
I grabbed a 1.5-liter bottle of water and set the whole thing in front of her—no glass. The second she saw it, Kim Isol cracked the cap and started drinking. She downed more than half of that massive bottle in one go. How long had she gone without water? It was almost impressive that her tiny frame showed no sign of where all that liquid had gone.
Water spilled messily around her mouth and ran down her throat. A droplet caught on her collarbone, spun once, and disappeared into her T-shirt. She scratched at her chest with one hand, as if it tickled.
"Pwah."
I stared at her drinking like I was trying to burn a hole through her. She must have felt it, because she glared at me and snapped:
"What are you staring at? Never seen someone drink water before!?"
Yeah. That personality hadn't gone anywhere.
"All right. Say what you came to say."
"You. After we split up that day—did anything change with your body?"
"What kind of change?"
"...Something serious happened to me."
She still hadn't figured out that I was the one who'd done it to her? Just how dense was she?
I'd expected her to show up at my place screaming that the missing mana was my fault and try to kill me. This reaction was almost disappointing.
"What kind of serious problem?"
"This is top secret. You tell anyone and I'll kill you. Got it?"
I barely managed to keep my expression neutral and nodded. I'd play dumb and see where this went.
"I... something's wrong with my body. I can't feel mana anymore. I can't use any of my Awoken powers."
"What are you talking about? Since when?"
"Since I met you in the underground parking garage."
Met me, my ass. She'd dragged me there by force.
Awoken really did seem to have some special DNA that only remembered whatever made them look good.
"And?"
"What?"
"So what exactly do you want me to do about it?"
"......"
Kim Isol clamped her mouth shut and started glaring at me hard. Was she pissed I wasn't sympathizing with her situation? Those already cold eyes sharpened even further, like she wanted to eat me alive.
But I wasn't scared of her in the slightest anymore. Even Min Hyeokju—the Academy elite—had ended up the way he did because of me. What was a bottom-feeder who'd already lost her mana going to do?
She finally opened her mouth again.
"I think it has something to do with you. Ever since you... held my... hand, it's been like this."
"Sorry? Your hand? Oh, that? That was just because you said you wanted to come to my place, so I took your hand to go together."
"I—when did I ever..."
"You forgot? You said you wanted to watch me pee."
"Sh-shut up! There's no way I'd want to watch something like that!"
For the first time since she'd shown up looking completely broken down, Kim Isol's face shifted into something else. A faint flush.
I'd noticed it before—this girl had a massive ego, but she also got embarrassed ridiculously easily. And somehow, that felt very Kim Isol.
The version of her I'd seen at the front door earlier had been so completely different from usual that it hadn't felt like her at all.
"Just because your mana feels off doesn't mean you get to blame me. But if you're really that convinced—want me to hold your hand again?"
"Wh... what?"
"You said things went wrong after you held my hand. Who knows? Maybe holding it again will put everything back."
Kim Isol whipped her head away, desperately dodging my stare. Her face had gone bright red, like she was completely drunk. This girl was a virgin. One hundred percent.