Give with a Doe, Take with a Mal
While the laptop that had swallowed the tiger carcass clattered and racketed like factory machinery, Kang Soeun sat side by side with Im Chaeyeon on the stairs and hesitated over the box.
“Just rip it open already, will you? Why are you dragging this out forever?”
“Ah, be quiet for a second! What if something useless comes out again and Sijun Oppa thinks we’re useless?”
“What would he think? Just that this box has a few problems. It’s not our fault if the contents are junk, right?”
Chaeyeon spoke with complete nonchalance while fiddling with the disposable hand warmers they had scavenged from the department store. Soeun’s face twisted.
“Did you already know Oppa was that kind of person?”
“No? I had no idea.”
“Then how can you say that? If Oppa had been an ordinary guy without those abilities, we all would’ve died on that rooftop… So the least we can do is think about repaying the favor.”
“Favor? I’m not planning to pay him back with some random junk.”
“I said the least! The least!”
Soeun glared at Chaeyeon and tightened her grip on the box. Instead of crumpling, the wrapping paper peeled away like rubber under the unexpected resistance.
“Ah! Im Chaeyeon, this is your fault!”
“Please. You just couldn’t control your own strength.”
Chaeyeon snorted at Soeun’s protest, snatched the box from her flustered hands, and pulled out whatever was inside.
“Hand it over. What amazing treasure did you think was going to pop out that you were building all this suspense? If Oppa hadn’t said anything, I’d just be hanging out over there with—”
Chaeyeon forgot the rest of her sentence. Her eyes went round as she stared at the strange living thing now pinched between her fingers.
Wriggle— wriggle—
A caterpillar of unknown origin, colored in red, orange, and yellow as if it had been sculpted from the three primary hues of flame itself, thrashed in her grip like something on fire.
That alien existence—something that could never have been born on Earth—sent a cold shudder crawling up both girls’ spines.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“What is thiiiiis?!”
They screamed with pure instinctive revulsion, exactly the way they had the first time they ever saw a cockroach in kindergarten.
I was yawning, waiting for the meat to finish cooking, when a high-pitched scream from nearby made me flinch and look over.
There sat the two extraordinary high-school girls on the stairs, reacting exactly the way girls their age were supposed to react—as if they’d just spotted a cockroach.
…So cockroaches are scarier to them than zombies?
I really will never understand the high-school-girl mind.
I shook my head and shrugged at Yejin, who was looking at me as if to ask what their problem was. Another scream cut through the air.
“Kyaaaaak! Im Chaeyeon! You! How could you throw this at meee?!”
“You should’ve dodged! Wait—wait! Hold still a second! I’ll peel it off—what the hell?!”
I caught the look of pure horror on Chaeyeon’s face as whatever-it-was seemed to start tap-dancing on Soeun’s arm.
“Oppa! Oppa! Come here right now!”
“Come on, it’s just one bug. And if you two are freaking out like this, what about all those corpses you smashed—”
“It’s not a normal bug! Something jumped out of the box and—!”
“…What? The box?”
A cold spike of dread shot straight through my brain.
Box. Bug. Animal zombies.
An image of some deranged otherworldly horsehair worm burrowing into Soeun’s arm and hijacking her brain formed all by itself.
“I told you to pull something useful out of there—what the hell did you actually pull?!”
I shot to my feet and sprinted toward them.
“It’s not our fault… You told us to open it, so we opened it…!”
There was a tearful edge to her voice that made me raise a hand in surrender.
“Alright, calm down! Hey, Kang Soeun. Can you hear me?”
“Auuu…”
She was lying on the stairs, face twisted, clutching her arm. She barely managed an answer.
“It… hurts so much… my arm… augh!”
“The bug actually burrowed in?! What the hell did that crazy crow bitch recommend this time?!”
The thought of losing such a valuable asset for nothing made me explode. My vocal cords—already reinforced far beyond human limits—scraped the air like a beast’s low-frequency roar and shook the entire hallway.
Fine hairs stood up on Chaeyeon and Yejin’s arms. Do Wangu and Kwon Jitae, who had no idea what was happening, unconsciously tensed every muscle.
That was apparently enough to make the crow hurriedly raise the shutter it had lowered and appear on the laptop screen.
What’s—what’s going on?! Did something terrible happen?
I walked straight over, grabbed the top of the laptop like I was seizing someone by the hair, and lifted it until I was eye-to-eye with the crow.
Then I locked eyes with her and spoke with absolute sincerity.
“Explain. What the hell is that bug that jumped out of the box. If it kills Kang Soeun—”
What?! What are you talking about?! A bug?! If you summarize it like that I can’t explain anything!
“It’s not a metaphor—literally! A bug jumped out and burrowed into Kang Soeun’s arm! She’s in so much pain she doesn’t know what to do!”
…Ah. Is that all? Phew. You scared me. I nearly had a heart attack.
“…What?”
She was literally patting her chest and calming down after hearing the rest of my explanation. I was still completely lost when the crow glanced sideways, confirmed Soeun groaning nearby, then raised both hands toward me in a “calm down” gesture.
That’s not a living creature like a bug. To be precise, it’s only made to look like one.
I really aged ten years just now. Master’s voice was so murderous I came bolting out mid-supervision without even thinking! Proper quality control requires thorough inspection, you know!
Well… still, the charismatic look was nice to see.
“…Stop saying things that make no sense and explain properly. What do you mean it’s not a living creature? More importantly—is Kang Soeun okay?”
Of course! In fact, “okay” doesn’t even cover it—she basically hit the lottery. Wow. Someone obtaining a Parasite this early in the game? And from a box opening, no less.
Master, just trust me and watch for one minute. What that young lady is going through right now is the process of embodying the ability loaded into the Parasite. Pain is an unavoidable part of it.
“Still doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, but it won’t actually harm Kang Soeun—correct?”
I swear on my interdimensional career and the full length of my contract.
“…Fine. I’ll wait.”
I gestured for Chaeyeon—who was looking unusually anxious beside Soeun—to sit down as well.
“One minute. If there’s no improvement after that—”
Aigoo, you won’t even need a full minute! I’ll stake my word on it, so just close your eyes and wait!
Trust a bird AI when I have nothing else to trust? After how many times the box has already smacked me in the back of the head?
I let out a long sigh to settle myself, then scooped Soeun—who had fainted from the pain on the stairs—into a princess carry.
Until I carried her into the book café and laid her on the sofa, her body kept twitching in my arms, her face twisted with pure agony.
“Umm…”
Soeun let out a faint moan and sat up.
I had been leaning against the wall beside her. The moment she moved, I spoke.
“You okay?”
“…Sijun Oppa. What happened?”
Cold sweat from the pain still clung to her forehead and neck, but her expression now looked perfectly calm.
Looks could be deceiving. I grabbed her arm without ceremony.
“Exactly where did the bug burrow into your arm?”
“…Ah. Right. The bug.”
She frowned as the memory returned, then stared at her own arm with clear discomfort.
“So it never got removed… Well, it’s not like we can do surgery or anything.”
“Someone I asked said if you try surgery you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know either.”
After that short answer I turned her slender arm—completely mismatched with her actual strength—this way and that, searching for the mark the crow had mentioned.
And there it was, right in the center of her pale palm: a scar that had bloomed open like flower petals.
“…What is this?”
“I don’t know either.”
I gave the same answer again, then turned my head toward the crow, who was carefully watching my mood from the side, and snapped,
“Talk. What ability is it.”
Hmm… Looking at those colors that seem to embody fire itself, the answer is obvious. As far as I know, among the three types of Parasites this is the rarest… Congratula—
“Don’t give me that congratulations crap.”
She squeaked and shut her mouth at my single line. I ignored her and instead closed my own hand over Soeun’s open palm.
She was still blinking in complete confusion. I spoke to her.
“You said you like warm things, right? Kang Soeun.”
“…Y-yes?”
“You told me last time. Your body runs cold, so you hate the cold.”
“…That’s… true. But why are you—”
She kept glancing between my eyes and the hand holding hers, clearly bothered by the contact, yet she made no move to pull away.
Is this kid thinking I have ulterior motives right now?
I sighed, released her hand, and said one more thing.
“Try imagining it once. Right now, fire is burning on your palm.”
“…?”
“Not a metaphor. Not some trick. The literal meaning. Picture that image.”
“…??”
I locked eyes with her thoroughly confused gaze.
“If I tell you to imagine it, just imagine it! No talking back!”
In the end Soeun squeezed her eyes shut and poured every scrap of imagination into her tightly clenched right fist.
That imagination became will. That will became a command to the artificial lifeform from another world nested in her palm.
And the superhuman ability sleeping inside a human body answered.
Sizzle—
Heat haze began to rise as if the air itself were shimmering.
In front of Soeun—who was staring blankly at the cute little fist that had turned bright red from the sudden spike in temperature—the crow’s explanation reached my ears.
Body-temperature heating—the potential manifestation type loaded into code-name Parasite Red. In an apocalypse, especially in winter or deep forests, its utility is practically endless.
Even though Master told me not to, I simply cannot hold back the congratulations. This is the first time in recent memory someone has obtained power that enters the realm of fantasy this early.
Of course, freaks like Master are the exception.
“If I tell you to shut up, shut up.”
I silenced the crow and simply watched Soeun, who was still opening and closing her fist in a daze.
I wondered whether that wavering heat haze looked, to her eyes, exactly like something out of a dream.