A Ship Built for the Sea
At the same time, lightning began to strike from the heavens, and a torrential downpour ensued. Terrified beasts fled in all directions, shrieking in fear. Cheongo also hid inside a nearby hollow in a tree, trembling uncontrollably.
How much time had passed? A few beasts, having either forgotten or overcome their fear, approached the flesh and blood of the Seonin. The moment they cautiously devoured it, most of them exploded and died, just like the wolf had.
Only a precious few spared themselves from such a miserable end, but they all went mad and mutated into grotesque forms. To borrow Cheongo's phrasing, they had become monsters.
These mutated beasts were incredibly powerful, but they were also vicious. They slaughtered other beasts for no reason at all. Consequently, dozens, even hundreds of beasts that would normally never cross paths banded together for sheer survival.
In the end, the vicious monsters were hunted down. Once the hunt was over, the surviving beasts devoured the slain monsters. This time, none of them exploded.
However, they all went mad, or at the very least, became extremely violent. They met the exact same end as the monsters they had hunted and consumed. And so, the cycle repeated itself. Again and again.
It had originally been a struggle for survival. But at some point, it degenerated into a desperate scramble for power. Everyone had realized that the madness left behind by the Seonin's remains had diluted enough to be somewhat manageable.
Beasts were not known for their patience to begin with. Once greed eclipsed their fear, they lost all reason. Cheongo, not daring to join the frenzied slaughter, simply watched from a distance. It wasn't so much that the bird was waiting for an opportunity, but rather that it was held back by a lingering, faint hope. Cheongo's explanation differed slightly, but that was how Jekyeong understood it.
Greed isn't exclusive to humans, after all.
In any case, Cheongo's lingering hope and patience were eventually rewarded. One day, a beast that Cheongo had been keeping an eye on hid itself after tearing its enemies to pieces, leaving it covered in wounds. Though it successfully evaded its pursuers, it had no idea a small bird was watching from afar.
The beast attempted to nurse its wounds in a secluded spot, but it had underestimated the depth of its injuries. Ultimately, in the very place it had crawled to heal, it coughed up blood and died. Its blood splashed into a nearby puddle, and that small puddle soon expanded into a small pond.
Watching this from afar, Cheongo's heart pounded. The bird wanted to fly down immediately, feast on the beast's carcass, and drink the pond's water. Yet, fear stayed its wings. What if there's someone else nearby? I'm so small—what if my body explodes, or what if I go mad? One "what if" led to another.
While Cheongo hesitated, the once-colorless pond gradually turned crimson. And then, out of nowhere, a frog appeared. As if possessed, the frog hopped toward the pond. Only then did Cheongo flap its wings in regret, but it was already too late.
The frog approaching the pond was clearly no ordinary amphibian. At the very least, it was not an opponent a tiny bird whose only talent was flying could hope to handle. Ultimately, Cheongo gave up and watched with a burning stomach as the frog reached the edge of the pond.
To be precise, it stopped right in front of it. It leaned its body forward as if desperate to jump in, yet it did not take another step. Even Cheongo could sense the fear and hesitation in its halting movements.
A moment later, the blood-red pond began to bubble and boil, its color slowly fading. Then, a tiny lotus bud rose from the boiling depths. The moment the lotus appeared, neither the frog standing by the edge nor Cheongo watching from afar could tear their eyes away. They instinctively knew that this object would bring them immense benefit.
Cheongo waited with bloodshot eyes, hoping against hope that the frog would give up or perhaps leave due to some urgent matter. But cruelly, the frog remained as still as a stone statue. It neither entered the pond nor left. It was waiting. Waiting for the lotus to fully bloom.
Hearing up to this point, Jekyeong suddenly recalled a detail he had overlooked.
“Wait a minute. When was that? When you couldn't take it anymore and left.”
“Huh? I don't know.”
Jekyeong felt a sudden tightness in his chest. It had been roughly two months since he first met Cheongo, which meant it had been at least two months. It could easily have been much longer.
“By now, that frog must have swallowed the lotus whole and drunk the entire pond dry.”
When a disappointed Jekyeong spoke grumpily, Cheongo shrieked in protest, insisting that couldn't be the case.
“The lotus hasn't bloomed yet! I go and check on it every single day!”
Every day? Jekyeong straightened his posture. His dampened enthusiasm instantly flared back to life. He had assumed Cheongo's frequent disappearances were just the bird going off to sleep in some safe place, but it turned out it had been keeping watch over the lotus. But wait, it had been at least two months, and it still hadn't fully bloomed? Was that normal?
No, stop. Once again, he was trying to understand this world through the common sense of his past life. When would he finally rid himself of this stubborn habit?
“And that frog is still guarding the place?”
“Yep.”
“How does it eat and sleep?”
“It does everything right there. There are fish inside the pond.”
So, what was once a mere puddle had become a pond, and it even had fish living in it now? Truly bizarre. He just hoped there wasn't some other monster lurking in there besides the fish.
What should I do? In truth, his mind was already made up. He was merely double-checking his thoughts. Was this truly the right move? Was he making a mistake? This was undeniably a perilous venture. There was no guarantee that the treasure chest at the end of this adventure would hold a worthy reward. On the other hand, the danger—though its scale was unknown—was absolutely guaranteed. If he were his past self, he would never have taken such a risk.
Slither— Jekyeong shifted his stiff body. As he did, his eyes caught the massive shadow cast beneath the tree. If he hadn't known it was his own, he would have mistaken it for some terrifying monster.
“That frog... is it strong?”
“I don't know. Probably... really strong.”
“Is that so?”
To be honest, he had hoped for an answer like, "No," or "Not compared to you." Well, that was fine. Jekyeong suddenly recalled a quote he had found profound in his past life. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” Was that how it went?
Unless he intended to stay buried deep inland for the rest of his life, now that he had reached the place where the sea breeze blew, he had no choice but to board the ship and set sail. When he thought about it, this wasn't much different from what he had been doing all along. It was all for survival. He filled his belly to survive, and he strove to grow stronger to survive. Framing it that way eased his mind. The tension remained, but the anxiety vanished, replaced instead by a surging drive.
“Lead the way.”
“Huh?”
“Don't play dumb. I know you're clever. You let that slip on purpose, hoping to use me.”
Having hunted and spent time together for over two months, Jekyeong had a decent grasp of Cheongo's character. The bird was like a coin. On one side was innocence; on the other, a sharp cunning. Two seemingly incompatible traits coexisted within this tiny creature.
“I didn't have any bad intentions!”
“Don't make excuses. I don't think it's bad. It's only natural. There's no need to make a fuss about it now; isn't this what we've been doing all along anyway?”
“Huh?”
“Think about it. This is just another hunt. The prey is just a little more dangerous, that's all.”
Cheongo hesitated before asking, “Then... then what about the lotus?”
“We'll just divide it fairly.”
“But there's only one!”
“It must have multiple petals.”
It was as if a literal exclamation mark had popped up over Cheongo's head. The light returned to its anxiously wavering eyes.
“Okay! Okay! Are we going now? Are we going right now?”
“Calm down.”
Jekyeong calmed the bird, whose excitement had suddenly exploded. Though he felt the same urge, he remained rational. He had just completed his shedding. Even if his body felt overflowing with power, he was definitely not in peak condition.
“You visited yesterday too, right?”
“Yep.”
“How was it? Did it look like the lotus was about to bloom immediately?”
Cheongo nodded vigorously, then paused to think before shaking its head.
“I don't know. But I'm anxious...”
“Don't be impatient. Rushing things only ruins them.”
He was speaking to Cheongo, but it was also a reminder to himself.
Mmm.
Waking up after a deep sleep, he could feel a distinct improvement in his physical condition. Immediately after completing his shedding, he had felt as though his entire body was overflowing with power. But thinking back after a good rest, that had likely been a temporary state of hyper-arousal—a body exhausted and wounded, yet artificially pumped with energy. Had he exerted himself in that state, his body would have started breaking down before long, or perhaps even worse complications would have arisen.
Now, however, after a solid rest, his condition was nothing short of perfect. He had never felt this good since being reborn into this world.
“Jekyeong! Jekyeong!”
Cheongo flew down toward him as if it had been waiting for this exact moment.