The Friend Called Nabi

I couldn't have thought of a way out even if I'd tried — thinking itself was beyond me. All that remained of my mind was a single emotion.

Fear.

That was it.

I had wrung out every last drop of reason and patience just to keep from bolting on the spot. And the last armful I had left... unfortunately had to be poured out entirely into one small child who was clinging to his sanity by a thread, just like me.

"……"

Nam Taejae.

I pulled the deathly pale boy into my arms and shielded his eyes against my chest. Slowly, the trembling began to subside.

Now, the only one who had to see it was me.

A single colossal hand came walking out from the depths of the cave. It moved with a jaunty little tap-tap-tap, like fingers playing a piano scale.

It resembled a human hand. It was black — blacker even than the darkness inside the cave.

This is insane.

My mouth had gone bone-dry.

……And as the thing closed the distance, I noticed something strange about it.

The characters covering it. Across that black hand sprawled what looked like letters written in white ink.

Dazed as I was, I found myself trying to read them. It simply felt like something I was supposed to do.

Chinese? No — the Roman alphabet?

Scripts and numbers from every country under the sun squirmed together in a tangled mass. The white characters scattered like grains of sand, then gathered again.

I sucked in a breath. Something unseen had draped itself over me, all at once.

Whoa, this is…

Words churned together in my head. And along with a pain like my skull was about to crack open, I felt my thoughts growing steadily, eerily clearer.

"……!"

Right at the moment when losing consciousness honestly sounded like a mercy—

I felt Taejae, still tucked against my chest, tug at my sleeve.

……No. Not yet.

I barely managed to grab hold of my fading mind. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. The salty tang of blood flooded my mouth.

Stay awake.

Even if dying is where this ends, I'm going down kicking.

With a hand that would not stop shaking, I fumbled for my ear. After several wild misses, my fingers finally found the familiar object just beneath my jaw.

-Ring…… ring.

"……!!"

I nearly bit my tongue in half. I let out a breath, thin as a thread.

"Haah…."

So the hypothesis I'd set up earlier really did hold water. Somehow, I had to put it to use….

And then.

A voice drifted out from deep inside the cave.

Hazy and cold. The chill of a winter night spread through the entire cave along with a thin haze of mist.

What is it saying?

A foreign language — no, languages that couldn't even pass for foreign — poured out in an incomprehensible torrent, until at last one I recognized hooked into my ear.

"One grown-up, one little one."

"…What."

The words left me on pure reflex, and the palm gave a little ripple.

As if it couldn't have been more delighted.

"……"

What? Friend?

The Status Window had lost its mind. I forced my brain to grind even harder.

R-right, the hypothesis….

At this point, I could call it confirmed. The core premise of my hypothesis had started from a single doubt about my own ability.

Was I really a Tamer?

An ability to commune with animals and, beyond that, to command them.

No — that was half right and half wrong.

Lower Open Source.

All this time, that was what I'd been using — an ability that mimicked a Tamer's. But only where animals were concerned.

So why would it be named Lower Open Source?

Translate the words directly, and they mean….

A lower-tier version of something — and nothing more than an ability code left open so that anyone may use it.

Which led me to my assumption.

If I had a true ability of my own, and this Lower Open Source was merely a bundled add-on service that came attached to the main program….

It made sense.

The order of events fit, too.

And this "open source" cannot be used unless the owner of the source permits it.

Just like borrowing free code off the internet.

That, surely, was why my ability hadn't worked against Vermon or Tairos.

In other words, my true ability was something else entirely.

The upper version of Lower Open Source.

Judging by everything that had happened so far — a Tamer's ability one step beyond mere animals.

The black hand stalked in a slow circle around us, tap, tap, tap. Every now and then it gave Kwon Haeseong or one of the children a little poke, but it didn't look like an act born of interest.

……It was almost as if it were waiting for me.

The message still hung there. I clenched my fist and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spat out a single word.

"Nabi."

……Yes, I know — slapping a cute little name on some unidentified horror probably makes me look like I've lost my mind.

For the record, I have lost my mind.

As for why "Nabi" of all things — I honestly couldn't explain it if I tried. It just came to me.

Something black, and white…. black, something.

……Four percent.

Was it possible to walk out of here alive on an affection rating like that?

I stared at the thing as it swished its fingers back and forth in my direction.

Th-think….

Time for it to show up, surely.

-Ring…… ring.

"You've got to be…!"

This time I really did bite my tongue. Because the one method I'd pinned everything on had just been locked.

A completely different outcome from Kwon Haeseong's case. The message was supposed to confirm Status Window access and command/training permissions — that was how it should have read….

I looked down, hollow-eyed, at Taejae squeezed shut in my arms.

…Bleak.

The one method I'd scraped my sanity together to attempt was off the table.

'Build a proper friendship?'

Damn it all. In a situation where I could be dead in the next five minutes?

Helplessness. Not a single thought would come.

I couldn't even muster the will to hunt for what I'd missed. Just as I began to wonder whether I should simply give up on everything and accept ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠death—

The voice came again.

"Helloo~?"

"Me... not... bad."

The clumsy Korean drifted out from deep inside the cave. Numbly, I wiped away the tears that were leaking from my eyes on pure biology.

And I asked.

"…What exactly are you?"

'What a stupid question. What am I even going to do with the answer?' — the thought arrived too late; I couldn't exactly swallow it back down.

After a short silence, the answer came again.

"Nabi. Nabi, they call me, I hear. Death is eternal rest. Rest. You... no like rest?"

"……"

Are you kidding me?

What you're talking about is rest after death! What kind of lunatic would like that?!

"…I don't like it."

Every syllable felt like it shaved a year off my lifespan.

"Ree~ally? Then, live. Live long enough, you'll wanna die. Everybody find rest."

"……!"

Was I allowed to take this as a promise to let us live?

"After rest, play with me. I'm bored."

A bucket of ice water came crashing down over my overheated head.

The long index finger extended, unhurried, and pointed at Taejae in my arms.

"Answer. Satisfied. Smile. Please."

My stomach turned over.

'Is this not just outright robbery?'

Play with me after you die. The kind of demand that would make anyone who heard it break out in hives.

And yet I found I could now manage something at least resembling a smile.

……It is saying it'll spare us. For now.

I gave a crisp nod.

"I promise… on one condition."

What could I possibly refuse, when it was offering to spare us on the spot? But still.

"Could you make that promise with me alone? This child is too young to be any fun."

I had no intention of dragging Taejae into this.

Did it even know what it was, that it felt entitled to mortgage Taejae's future beyond the grave?

'If someone has to get roped in, better it be me and me alone.'

Only someone capable of judgment should be the one to bear the consequences.

"That one will die old. So, not young."

The palm curved into a half-moon and preened.

I decided that instead of shutting my mouth and mortgaging the afterlives of us both, I would talk for my life.

"I know more things. I'm smarter, too."

"That kid smart too. Later…. Mm, anyway. Smart."

"Then I'm more fun. I can do far more. I can sing children's songs, perform stories out loud, and I even know a few genuinely funny gags."

"……"

"I'm confident I can keep you entertained every second of every day…."

God, you idiot. You call that a sales pitch?

I lifted my head with all the defiance I could scrape together.

The palm scratched its fingertips together, the way one might stroke a chin that wasn't there.

And then.

"…Mm. You are funnier. Funny."

"……!"

"Buu~ut."

A good sign. I held my breath and waited for it to finish.

"Saaaad. Can't do two. The others, sleep. So… give the others rest, okay?"

The palm had sold off its conjunctions and context somewhere along the way, but I understood it perfectly.

It could take promises from two of us — me and Taejae. But if I had my way as I'd just insisted, it couldn't.

So its thinking seemed to be: everyone except you two is unconscious anyway — wouldn't it be simple profit to just kill the sleepers and bring them to their rest…?

"Then how about this."

There was no ground left to retreat to.

My afterlife was already in hock — did it really think I couldn't sell a little harder?

I let a long, slow ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠breath out and spoke the words I'd decided on.

That's right. Let me balance this devil's ledger of yours properly.

"I'll play with you. Even after we leave this place — regularly. After death too, of course."

If circumstances spin this far off the rails, it's easy to forget for a moment, but my job was, and always had been, kindergarten teacher.

And so I caught the scent of something on this palm creature.

'This thing's mental level is exactly our kids' level.'

I started talking without so much as a lick of polish on my words.

"Waiting around until I die would take far too long, wouldn't it? Meeting me while I'm still alive would be fresher. More fun."

The thing scratched at the head it didn't have, considering.

"Besides — we're friends, aren't we?"

Friends. Of course — the Status Window had said it.

Name your friend.

Which meant that, whether I liked it or not, we were now bound together under the name of friend.

'Kids our students' age can't say no to the word friend to save their lives.'

Which meant there was every chance this thing couldn't either.

"Mmm. Friends. Good. Then, how?"

"…Ah."

It worked! It accepted!

I screamed inwardly at the thought that I might actually make it out of here alive.

Then its next words snapped me right back to attention.

'Right — how, exactly? Doesn't seem likely it'll just let us go on a verbal promise.'

And at that moment.

The arm began stretching out from deep in the cave, bit by bit, until those elongated fingers came gliding toward my face.

Paralyzed by that sheer, overwhelming scale, I stood rooted to the spot like a stone statue as—

the white fingernail of the index finger touched the plain bag slung over my shoulder. Huh? The bag?

……the puppy doll clipped to it.

"……"

I really thought I was going to die.

"Small, but satisfied. With this, can watch you anytime."

It mimed laughter with its hand, pointing at a mouth that didn't exist.

At the same time, I let out the breath I'd been holding and felt my chest finally unclench.

"Now, go. I go too."

Well, that was music to my ears.

"How are we supposed to get out…."

"Don't know? Then I send you. See you later."

With those parting words, the mist came surging in once more.

-Whoosh.

-Whoosh.

The figures lying unconscious beside us vanished one by one into the fog, gathered up by the hand.

Before I had time to panic, I scrambled upright and scanned our surroundings.

It is sending us out alive, right?

"…Ugh!"

I nearly leapt out of my skin at the sudden sensation of something gripping me all over — but my body, securely enfolded, carried me off somewhere calm and steady, without the slightest jolt.

Deep, deep into the cave. Endlessly.

And then… in the blink of an eye, we were outside the gate.

Every one of us still unconscious.

I alone kept my wits about me, feeling my way through the dark, searching for people by touch.

Four children. Two adults.

"Whew…."

Everyone seemed to be accounted for.

And beneath my hands, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the smooth, hard feel of a floor.

This was almost certainly the corridor that connected to the gate.

Right on cue, a loudspeaker crackled to life outside.

-Clunk.

-BANG!

After a short wait, I heard the groan of the massive iron door swinging open. Blinding fluorescent light came pouring into the pitch-black space.

Shielding my eyes with one hand, I looked toward the door.

And my gaze met someone's.

……!

"Excuse me, we need help—!"

Hold on.

The joy of finally seeing another human being lasted all of a second before my mouth snapped shut.

……Let me correct myself.

Not one person. Several.

They came spilling in from outside the door.

"There are people here!!"

"This is Underground Dungeon C116. Multiple civilians, apparently unconscious, collapsed in the corridor. Dungeon is in cleared status."

"…Um, Teacher? Can you hear me? What's going on?"

"…Found him. The trespassing rat."