Hidden Item #019
Even if I got any closer to the truth here, the only thing waiting for me was the terrifying realization that I was dealing with a regressor. The logical holes were glaringly obvious, but I ignored them completely and pretended to understand like nothing more than an ordinary middle schooler.
“Um, actually that was half bullshit.”
Maybe even she felt a twinge of conscience, because she scrapped part of her claim and added an explanation to make it more convincing.
“I heard a rumor that some good stuff was hidden here. So while I was trapped anyway, I figured I’d come down and look for it.”
“……You mean to steal it?”
“It’s not really stealing. More like relocating ownerless property into my bag? Just think of it that way.”
I’m pretty sure that’s still stealing, though…
After giving such a plausible explanation, Cheon Mari had somehow managed to follow it up with something completely insane.
“It’s 99.9% legal, so you don’t have to worry.”
Right. Of course. There were a mountain of things I wanted to say, but given the situation, I swallowed them all.
Cheon Mari gave a faint cat-like smile, clearly pleased that her argument had landed. She placed a hand on my shoulder, leaned in close, and spoke in a low voice.
“By the way, Sian. Why were you down here in the first place?”
“……It’s kind of a long story. You sure you want to hear it?”
“We’ve got time anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”
Well, that made things easier for me. I went ahead and explained everything I’d been through, leaving nothing out.
“……And that’s how it ended up like this.”
Unlike her version, I’d told the story without exaggeration or omission, sticking strictly to the facts. Maybe that was why her expression had grown so grim. It was the same face she’d made when we went to see that one movie with a Rotten Tomatoes score in the single digits. Even this weird girl could tell how bad my situation was.
“Uh…… so let me get this straight. The girl who lived next door, the one you cherished, the one who always taught you and kept you at the top of the class—your childhood friend. Everything started when she suddenly began attending a hunter academy, got mixed up with the wrong crowd there, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The academy was run by some Korean gang. Your friend ended up joining them. Eventually she turned into this swag-dripping, drug-popping, hot-pink-haired delinquent thug with a serious attitude problem.”
“Huh?”
“You hated watching her destroy herself, so you gave her some heartfelt advice. The problem was that she wasn’t in her right mind anymore, and in the end the gun was pointed at you. She blasted you with magic, turned the whole school into a warzone with all that wild spell-slinging.”
“Uhh……?”
“But whether it was because of the sweet-smelling drugs or because she never had a healthy mind like this lady to begin with, that wasn’t enough for her. Tragically, she decided to go full concrete-shoe mode. She dragged her whole pink-haired delinquent gang onto a bridge for a final showdown. But those idiots were such brain-dead morons that even a guy with trash-tier magic like you wiped the floor with them. She only managed to win by binding you with magic.”
“……?”
“Then, while she was high as a kite trying to kill you, an earthquake hit. You survived by falling underground instead. You still managed to stay alive by some miracle and began your desperate struggle for survival. You starred in a few hours of straight-up horror movie and torture porn. Just when it looked like you were headed for a bad ending, this lady went ‘Ta-da!’ and fixed everything. That’s the story, right?”
“???”
It was accurate, but something about it felt… off. Maybe eating too much American media had warped her thinking.
Cheon Mari patted my shoulder a few times.
“Anyway, where’d you put that dagger?”
“The dagger? Here.”
I pulled it out right away and showed her. Several teeth were missing, so it wasn’t in perfect condition, but there wasn’t much blood on it, so it could still be called clean.
Cheon Mari swept her hair back once and asked with a strange look.
“Did you use that dagger when you fought the academy thugs?”
“No? How could I use a dagger on people? Of course I didn’t. I didn’t want to get arrested.”
She looked genuinely shocked. I couldn’t understand what was so wrong about not using a bladed weapon on another human being.
“Are you stupid? The moment they dragged their whole gang over, they were clearly there to kill you. You should’ve just gutted that bitch. The court would’ve shown leniency in a situation like that.”
“Look, who could’ve predicted I’d end up in that kind of situation?”
“Still! You’re telling me you didn’t stab a single one of them? Those academy friends of yours—what were they called, the Fuck-Month or Shit-Month crew? You said they brought weapons too. At the very least you should’ve shoved it up their asses.”
“Up their……? This crazy bitch. Fucking hell, the thing attached to a person’s ass isn’t meant for sticking knives into.”
“They do it in porn all the time? Biologically it’s one hundred percent possible, Sian. So why didn’t you……”
Biological possibility my ass. That wasn’t the kind of thing you just did on a whim. A man has to have some dignity. Even if it wasn’t exactly torture, I didn’t want to kill someone by trampling on their humanity.
“Aigo, our Sian has the talent to become a first-rate hunter, but he’s so pure he can’t even stab someone in the ass… what are we going to do with him……”
“Please, just stop talking nonsense.”
A woman who went crazy from doing drugs. A woman who went crazy without doing any drugs. I wasn’t sure which was worse—being comforted by the latter version of her. Life really was impossible to understand.
Even so, we kept walking. I clutched my chest and my torn arm the entire time. I’d started to doubt whether this underground section of the ruin even existed, but at some point the darkness changed. For the first time, I sensed the existence of an actual floor beneath us.
“Whoa…… it’s insanely deep.”
“It was built as a bunker to hide from dragons in the first place. It had to be deep and wide.”
“So…… wait a second. The earthquake is still going. If the ruin collapses, won’t we be trapped underground with no way out?”
“Probably, yeah?”
“Probably? Don’t tell me you knew that and still came down here……”
“I told you earlier. This is a bunker. Even if it collapses, only part of it will cave in. Rescue teams will arrive quickly.”
“Quickly?”
“Yeah. We’d just have to hold out for about a week.”
What the hell was she talking about? How was a week “quickly”? Did she not know the 3-3-3 rule? Even if we could survive without oxygen for a while, what was the plan for water and food?
“That’s why I packed so much into this big bag. Just in case, I brought twenty days’ worth. Looks like it was a good call.”
The regressor had come thoroughly prepared. Her voice was filled with confidence and certainty. She had even dragged an acquaintance into a dangerous place without hesitation. What did that mean?
It meant we were going to be trapped in this ruin for several days.
“Ah, no way!”
KU-RUUUUNG—!!!
An even stronger earthquake struck. This time it felt like the ruin itself was destabilizing, separate from the gate. Naturally, debris began falling from the hollow center where the top and bottom opened up. My face went pale at the sight of all hope vanishing.
“What are you doing? Let’s go!”
Cheon Mari grabbed my wrist and started running. It was my injured arm, so I couldn’t help letting out a half-groan. After racing down several floors, we reached a storage room tucked in the corner. But it wasn’t an ordinary dusty warehouse.
It was filled with all sorts of expensive-looking artifacts. The storage room itself was well-maintained too, so it seemed like we could stay here for a while without any problems. It looked like a place where they displayed the good stuff but kept the unnecessary items or replicas stored away.
It was definitely the kind of warehouse that would catch a regressor’s eye.
I clutched my chest and collapsed onto the floor.
“Rest here. I’ll go look for something.”
Cheon Mari wandered among the artifacts and pulled out a small box from the corner. It didn’t look like it would contain anything impressive, and when she took out the contents, they really seemed completely ordinary.
“It’s a doll.”
“It is a doll. But not an ordinary one.”
A wooden doll like that wasn’t ordinary? Was it some ancient SSS-rank baby doll or something? My questions kept piling up.
Cheon Mari ripped off one of the wooden doll’s panels with her bare hands. It was brutal. Merciless. If a real baby had seen that, it would have fainted on the spot. But since I wasn’t a baby, I kept watching her bizarre behavior.
And then my eyes widened.
“Ta-da! It was hidden like this~”
“How did you…… even know about that?”
“I told you. I heard rumors about this, so I came fully prepared this time.”
I stared at the items in front of me—two bottles of rainbow-colored liquid—and couldn’t hide my shock.
It’s the legendary mana growth elixir!
An ultra-rare item that had appeared in the game as well. Its drop rate was so low that you’d never see it without cheats. The miraculous item that dramatically increased your mana and magic growth rate the moment you consumed it. Two whole bottles of it had been sleeping here.
No wonder Cheon Mari’s mana had seemed abnormally strong during the hidden boss fight. She must have picked these up here and grown from them.
“Oh, you don’t know what this is, do you?”
It was better to say I didn’t. If I admitted I knew, I’d just end up as another sacrifice for the regressor. I tried to nod.
But my body wouldn’t move properly.
“Ugh? Hnnngh—!”
Suddenly the pain in my chest spiked so sharply it paralyzed my entire body. My vision in one eye deteriorated rapidly. The feeling of suffocation forced me to brace myself against the floor.
“Hey? Sian? Are you okay?”
Cheon Mari’s voice. Unfortunately I couldn’t even answer.
I barely managed to roll my eyes and look at my wrist.
Life Force:1/5
Shield:0/0
Just one. It had already dropped by one.
What the hell was happening inside my body?
I tried to endure, feeding on hatred and rage, but my body trembled violently as if it had reached its limit. Everything was slipping away. Even my own body was trying to abandon me.
I couldn’t let that happen. Just a little longer. Just a little more. Not yet.
“Cough!”
Blood poured from my mouth as if to deny my will. Only then did I realize it.
A curse. This was unmistakably a curse.
“Lim… Lim Ha… na… cough!”
When? How?
All kinds of emotions swirled together, but that was the end of it. Everything collapsed.
“Lim Hana, you fucking bitch……”
The words came out like a dying gasp. The last thing I saw before my eyes closed was Cheon Mari rushing toward me in a panic.