The Baseline
The treatment was simple enough. Na Sehee would draw my blood, then use it to simultaneously stanch the wound and transfuse it.
Crackle—crack—crack—
"...Whoa."
Ever since Na Sehee had revealed herself, Chaeyeon had been pointedly looking anywhere but at her, her expression thoroughly unimpressed — yet even she couldn't help but marvel at the magic show Sehee was putting on with my blood.
Simply nicking my finger and drawing the blood wasn't particularly remarkable, and rolling it around this way and that was whatever. But watching that clumped sphere of blood spin in midair, scattering crimson crystals in every direction — even I had to admit that was something else.
"It's taking rather a while," Sehee murmured.
"The blood is quite special, after all. Its condition is... particular."
"Is neutralization even possible in the first place?" I asked.
"Of course it is."
Then Sehee blew a soft breath onto the sphere, and a strange coldness rode that current through the air. Moisture in the atmosphere froze solid, sketching ghostly patterns across empty space. Sehee turned to the crow.
"You knew about this condition of his, Sijun's?"
"Of course I knew. I would have explained it quite happily if anyone had bothered to ask. But whether from indifference or sheer laziness, nobody ever did."
"....."
I stood there looking vaguely awkward, then stepped closer to examine the sphere. Sure enough, the red crystals had stopped forming. It looked safe enough to inject into Yoo Jeong-hwan — or rather, to transfuse.
I glanced over at Jeong-ah. Her face was pale, her eyes trembling. She looked thoroughly terrified.
"I-is this really going to be okay? It looks incredibly dangerous..."
"Come on. He's not going to die. Look at me — I'm perfectly fine, aren't I?"
She shot me a sidelong glance, then looked back at the sphere and muttered under her breath.
"...How can a person's blood even do that?"
And then, at last, she nodded.
"All right. This life was extended by you in the first place, Sijun. I'll leave it entirely in your hands."
Her voice had settled into something calm and composed, as though she'd found her center. I rather liked that.
Now that was real talent.
A full day passed.
"Ugh..."
Jeong-hwan groaned from the infirmary bed, then snapped his eyes open. The last thing he remembered was a fist flying at his face — he bolted upright to dodge it, only for searing pain to lance through his side and fold him double with a strangled cry.
"Wh-what the hell?"
He groaned and reached for the wound, then recoiled in horror at the blood coating his hand. After that he shut his mouth and focused on taking stock of the situation.
In the bed right beside him, his older sister was sleeping soundly. He checked her over — unlike him, she didn't seem to have any serious injuries.
...I was sure I was a dead man.
How am I even alive?
He checked his side again. There was plenty of half-dried blood, but the wound itself had almost stopped bleeding. Some skilled doctor must have operated on me, he thought — except there wasn't a single suture mark to be found.
The gaping wound wasn't bleeding for one reason only: a crust of clotted blood was holding it shut. Could a injury this severe even be stanchable with a scab alone? He decided not to dwell on it. Whatever the explanation, the important thing was that he'd survived.
If he'd died, his sister would have been left alone — and the thought of that was so unbearable he might well have stuck around as a ghost just to keep an eye on her.
He was watching Jeong-ah sleep when she seemed to sense his gaze. She stirred, cracked her eyes open, and lifted her head.
"...You're awake."
"Yeah. You feeling okay?"
He was the one who'd been stabbed, and the first thing out of his mouth upon waking was asking after her. She couldn't help but laugh.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
"As you can see. It hurts a bit, but as long as I can move, I'm fine."
"...You can move just fine?"
Even as Jeong-ah voiced her skepticism, he demonstrated by shifting this way and that — only for another wave of pain to crash over him, doubling him over with a yelp.
She sighed at the sight, got out of bed, glanced once out the window, and said,
"Stop overdoing it and stay lying down. I'm going to go let them know you're up."
"Huh? Let who know?"
"The owner of this nest."
With that, Jeong-ah went over and pressed the boiler button on the wall. Only then did Jeong-hwan realize the room was warm. His eyes went wide as he stared up at the ceiling.
Click—
Jeong-ah flipped on the light, and the murky pre-dawn darkness beyond the window stood out all the more starkly.
"...There's electricity? How?"
Even if he asked, his sister had no answer to give. She shook her head in lieu of a reply and headed for the door. Jeong-hwan couldn't help himself — he got up and followed her.
Injured or not, there was no way he was letting his sister wander around an unfamiliar place alone.
"Agh!"
"...I told you to stay in bed."
His side throbbed viciously, but Jeong-hwan gritted his teeth and kept after her all the same.
Jeong-ah came down to the first floor looking for him, but he wasn't there.
"He just went upstairs a moment ago," Ye-jin said.
"Upstairs?"
"Yes. The resources he'd stockpiled on the rooftop ran out, so he said he was going to pile up a fresh batch."
"Resources...?"
Ye-jin hesitated for a beat, then lowered her voice.
"Dead bodies."
"...Ah."
Jeong-ah was startled for a second, then accepted it. In a world this thoroughly ruined, using corpses as resources hardly ranked as strange.
What truly astonished her wasn't the nature of the resources — it was the school itself. Electricity running. Water flowing. She'd thought those two things alone were more than enough to be shocked by.
"...You even have internet access?"
"Huh? No! No, no. This isn't the internet, it's..."
Ye-jin hurriedly denied it, then tried to explain, got stuck, and closed her mouth. The crow stepped in on her behalf, pointing at an icon at the top of the laptop screen.
"Internet? Please. This isn't some crude network connection — this is a comprehensive dimensional welfare portal."
"And the difference is?"
"Hmm. The biggest difference would have to be the meaning and the sheer nobility of it, wouldn't you say?"
Jeong-ah couldn't make heads or tails of that, but she decided to let it go. That wasn't what mattered.
"...You can purchase whatever supplies you need directly. Unbelievable."
"I'd love to show you the whole process myself, but I don't think I can until Oppa gives permission..."
"Why would you need the Master's permission? I'm the one who operates and supervises this portal."
Ye-jin let the crow's words sail right past her and offered an awkward smile. From that alone, Jeong-ah got a decent read on the group's atmosphere.
...Everyone seems to have a smile ready, and nobody looks like they're afraid of Sijun. The younger kids seem a little scared of him, maybe, but that's about it.
Without any coercion at all, his mere presence was enough to hold the group together.
Jeong-ah had always assumed that if the world ever collapsed, it would fill up with the kind of men who treated women like property and lived only for their own desires. This was nothing like that.
"Seriously! Why does everyone keep ignoring me?! The Master is just the Master, okay? Strictly speaking, this portal is mine—"
"Yeah, yeah. Nobody said otherwise."
A voice drifted down from the staircase in the hallway.
"Oppa! Welcome back!"
"Mm."
He answered Ye-jin's greeting, then looked at Jeong-ah — and his eyes met Jeong-hwan's beside her.
Those eyes were unsettling no matter how many times you saw them. Jeong-hwan flinched, then bowed at a full ninety degrees and offered his thanks.
"Thank you for saving my life, Sijun. My sister told me everything."
"Sure. And congratulations to you as well — on successfully extending your lifespan in this dreamless, hopeless world."
"....."
That cynical mouth of his hasn't changed one bit, Jeong-hwan thought. But what was he supposed to do about it? The man had already been the one holding all the cards — and now he was the absolute authority.
For a pair of siblings with nowhere else to go, whatever the master of this school said was something they had no choice but to follow.
Jeong-hwan swallowed dryly and waited for Sijun's mouth to open.
Haaah... *yawn.*
I'd been up since the crack of dawn, but I didn't feel tired in the slightest. The yawn was just habit, probably.
I wiped the bloodstains off my hands with the snow on the windowsill and addressed Jeong-ah and Jeong-hwan.
"First things first — I'll take care of both of your injuries as thoroughly as I can. We can settle the debt for that later, once you're in better shape."
"...Understood. Thank you."
Jeong-ah bowed her head, and Jeong-hwan scrambled to follow suit.
"We'll be having breakfast shortly, so hang in there a little longer."
I turned to Ye-jin.
"Show me what items are available for purchase."
"Yes! Right away!"
Then I looked up the staircase — and spotted the three hopeless brothers trudging down with hollow, exhausted faces.
"What? Where's everyone else?"
"...The girls said they had something to discuss with that drop-dead gorgeous gho— I mean, that young lady..."
Sandwiched between Hyeonmin and Jonghun, who were still fighting off the queasiness of handling corpses, Haejun hastily corrected himself and pointed down one end of the second-floor hallway.
What are those girls scheming now?
I headed back up the stairs, half-expecting to find Chaeyeon's deadpan face lit up with twin flames of rage, the two of them locked in a hair-pulling brawl. I opened the door —
And found something entirely unexpected.