ROYGBIV
Time passed, and they still hadn't reached a conclusion. That was what happened when everyone lived on a different worldline. Even Miyeok-i, currently wrapped around my wrist, could be a completely different organism that merely happened to look the same. The reverse was just as possible — something that looked nothing alike could be the same creature entirely.
The gallery's knowledge was vast. Truly vast. Vast enough to cross dimensions, worldlines, and civilizations. So vast, in fact, that it was useless.
"Not a single bit of this is helpful."
"The last one was helpful." Harin leaned against me from the side.
"Which."
"They said it's cute."
"How does that help us survive."
"It makes you feel better."
I opened my mouth to argue and closed it again. Miyeok-i seemed to agree with that last opinion. Up on my wrist, its body bounced and swayed, wriggling with unmistakable delight. If it had a tail, it would have been wagging.
"Look at that. You've got a fan."
The wriggling grew a little bigger.
"Even if that fan married a rock."
The movement stopped dead. The body coiled around my wrist went completely still. It was sulking.
"Still. They've got an eye for quality."
It started moving again, wriggling, bouncing, dancing in place.
"Even if they're in a love-triangle with a boulder and two-timing it with a slab of granite."
It froze again. For something with no face, it had an alarming range of emotional expression. That was probably enough teasing, though. I wasn't quite ready to die yet.
I carefully lifted the hand Miyeok-i had wrapped itself around and brought it up to my shoulder. This was something I had always wanted to try, just once. Before the world ended, I used to daydream that if I ever became a chart-topping novelist raking in a fortune every month, I would keep a bird and let it sit on my shoulder while I worked. In interviews, when they asked how I usually wrote, I would say, I start the morning with a light run, enjoy a cup of coffee and some quiet reflection, and then, once my friend Sebastian settles on my shoulder, we begin the day's writing together.
The world had ended before the dream could come true.
I half expected it to clamp down and refuse to let go of my wrist, but it slid off without a fuss. Miyeok-i settled onto my shoulder and spread itself flat. Nothing about it looked like an attack. It hadn't attacked me when I stared at it with hungry eyes, or when I picked it up with chopsticks, or even when I sprinkled salt on it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was the one with the rap sheet.
"...Sorry."
A tip of its body tapped my skin. Forgiven, apparently. Or it was filing the incident away for later, for when it got hungry.
"Don't even think about selling it," Harin said, smiling.
"I'm not."
In point of fact, the trade requests were pouring in. Notification windows kept blotting out one corner of my vision.
Twice the advance.
I stared at the trade window. One hundred and fifty Coins. Converted into emergency rations, that was nearly half a year of food. Converted into pistols, that was three more guns — the power to put twelve holes in a wall, all of it sitting right there in my hands.
I looked down at Miyeok-i. Miyeok-i seemed to look up at me. It didn't have eyes, but that was how it felt.
"...I'm not selling."
The body on my shoulder gave a little shiver. It felt like being interrogated. I rejected every last trade request. The number 150 vanished, and it felt like a corner of my chest had been torn out along with it.
Did these people not know you were supposed to ask three times? The decent thing was to try once more even after a rejection.
"You turned it down...? Did you eat something weird?"
"It saved my life."
"It's 150 Coins. That's half a year's food!"
"...Is it? First I'm hearing of it."
"That's four pistols! You could punch ten holes in a wall!"
"You don't put a price on a life debt. And for the record, it's twelve holes, not ten."
I was only a little sorry. Let's not lie. It hurt. It hurt a lot. It hurt like hell. The finger that had stabbed the reject button — the one I'd been hiding behind my back — was still trembling.
No. Get a grip, Kang Doyun. I still couldn't sell Miyeok-i.
I looked at it. We had been living together this whole time. We had slept in the same room and used the same pot. More precisely, I had used the pot, and Miyeok-i had lived in it. And more than any of that — without Miyeok-i, I would be dead. A person ought to know gratitude. I refused to become a beast.
That was when Miyeok-i's body began to swell.
"What's going on?"
The center of that dark blue-green body bulged upward. A low gurgle rolled out of it, so vivid I could hear it from inside the stomach sitting on my shoulder. The sound was somehow familiar. Miyeok-i's body heaved.
"It's not gonna explode, is it?" Harin took a step back. I didn't even have time to feel betrayed.
Ptooey.
A black lump dropped into my palm. I blinked. Miyeok-i flattened out again, as if nothing had happened.
"Did it just spit that up?"
"Looks like it."
My palm was full of a gelatinous green slime, and something inside it was glittering. A crystal about the size of my thumb. It wasn't completely black. When I held it to the light, a faint red glow pulsed within, brightening and dimming as slowly as a heartbeat. The surface was hard as stone.
I had never seen anything like this from the four-armed one. When that thing died, the floor had been nothing but blood and scraps of flesh. Which meant this had been inside the body Miyeok-i swallowed whole.
I took a photo and posted it to the gallery.
This time, the answers all pointed the same way.
I ignored that last one. More importantly—
"A magic core?"
I tried the words out loud. It was a familiar term for someone who had been preparing to write web novels. A name I had seen countless times in fiction and games. The thing that dropped when you killed a monster.
"Can I sell this?"
I opened the shop's buyback function and registered the crystal. A moment later, the appraisal came back.
"Two!?"
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Two. My brain started running the numbers. Two emergency rations. Eaten sparingly, that could stretch a week.
"This was inside the four-armed one, right?"
"Probably."
"Then."
I put the pieces together. Hunt a monster like Palsigi, and you got a magic core. Sell the magic core, and you earned Coins. Spend the Coins on food and weapons. Use the food and weapons to kill stronger monsters. Earn even more Coins. For the first time, I could see a proper growth path. Alone, it would have been impossible. With Miyeok-i, it was a different story.
"Miyeok-i."
It wriggled.
"Want to eat more monsters?"
As if answering me, the flattened body plumped back to its usual shape. One tentacle pointed at the front door. No hesitation at all.
"Eager, aren't you."
"Must be hungry."
I strapped a kitchen knife to my waist and grabbed the empty pistol too. Useless, but I had paid good money for it. Once I was ready, I stood in front of the door.
Hoo—
A door I hadn't opened in three months. I had no idea what was waiting on the other side. Zombies, or mutants. Or something stronger than Palsigi, crouched out there in the dark. I took hold of the doorknob. Cold metal pressed into my palm. My hand was sweating.
"Scared?" Harin asked.
"No."
"Your hands are shaking."
"The door's just heavy."
"You haven't even opened it yet."
I could tell she was trying to bleed the tension out of me. Miyeok-i had settled fully onto my shoulder, determined not to be left behind. A thin strand tapped my cheek, once, then again, as if to shore up my courage.
"I know."
I drew a deep breath. I had no idea how the other side of a door I had kept shut for three months might have changed. The last time I had been outside, I had been scavenging for food and gotten chased by zombies on the way back in.
I looked around the room. This was the house that had carried me through the end of the world, and I owed it. Traces of that life were everywhere — the ramen stain on the floor, the mood lamp I had bought one night just to set a vibe, even the game console I had splurged on when I started university. Harin clenched both fists.
"Let's go."
I opened the door.
Far off in the darkness, dozens of eyes gleamed.
Click.
I locked the door again. I checked the deadbolt to make sure it had actually caught. A deep silence settled over the room. On my shoulder, Miyeok-i lifted a thin strand and tapped my cheek, gently.