Chapter 54
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 54
There is no such thing as coincidence in this world. There are only connections wearing the mask of coincidence.
......That is what I believe.
In that sense, if I were to chew it over, today's meeting with Cheon Seo-yoon was not entirely as absurd as a bolt from the blue.
Because in the original work, the protagonist who had been frequenting the hunting grounds was Cheon Seo-yoon.
But why did it have to be now?
According to the original progression, it should have been at least a year away.......
Could this be the result of the karma I built up? Did that accelerate the timing?
If it wasn't that, then the only answer left was 4885's intervention.......
While my thoughts were tangled up in all of that, I parted ways with Viper and entered the outskirts of the hunting grounds with Cheon Seo-yoon.
"Hey, mister."
"......."
"No, I mean, bro......."
"What?"
"...It's nothing big, but can I ask you something?"
Cheon Seo-yoon, a newcomer to hunting grounds, spoke to me. She still refused to be cowed, though some of her earlier swagger had faded.
I was wearing a human-skin mask that made me look to be in my early-to-mid thirties, and by leaning on age, even that wild child couldn't easily talk back.
I stopped for a moment to signal that she could ask.
Then Cheon Seo-yoon came pattering over and held out a ring-shaped device.
"I don't really know how to use this...."
"Hm."
Since it was my first time at a hunting ground too, I was inwardly flustered, but fortunately, I knew what it was.
A reader.
A kind of recording device for receiving bounty payouts.
It was a device that automatically stored information when held against a Monster's corpse and transmitted it to the center, providing the basis for bounty payment.
As I recalled, a Grade 10 Monster was worth around 200,000 won and a Grade 9 Monster around 300,000 won. The activation method was probably.......
"Watch and follow along."
Following my memory, I slipped my right hand through the ring.
Then, with a click, the reader adjusted itself snugly around my wrist.
When a green light blinked as a sign of activation, Cheon Seo-yoon's eyes went round like a startled rabbit's.
"Hand yours over too."
While I was at it, I wiggled my fingers, intending to set up the radio as well—it had been temporarily distributed because of the Irregular.
I took Cheon Seo-yoon's radio, checked the frequency compatibility, and set the channel to 5.
It wasn't difficult, since I had handled them several times in the military.
As a test, I made an ah-ah sound into my radio, and an ah-ah sound came out of Cheon Seo-yoon's radio.
Using it wasn't really the point; I had just gotten ahead of things because she was bound to ask anyway.
"Take it."
"Whoa......."
Cheon Seo-yoon took the radio and looked it over here and there, clearly fascinated.
"You really must have a lot of experience, bro."
-You really must have a lot of experience, bro.
"This radio is a totally ancient model, so not many people know how to use it."
-This radio is a totally ancient model, so not many people know how to use it.
.......
Whether by mistake or on purpose, she was chattering away with the button held down.
"...You have to let go of the button when you talk."
"Ah, sorry. It's my first time seeing one, so I got excited......."
Cheon Seo-yoon smiled sheepishly, looking embarrassed.
But maybe it was because of that smile, which had been a while in coming?
Suddenly, Cheon Seo-yoon felt like a stranger.
Her wounds couldn't have all healed already.
Was it because she had come outside Taehak on a nice day? Or was it because I was a complete stranger, so she actually felt more at ease?
Whatever the reason, I was thinking it wasn't a bad thing when—
"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"
Cheon Seo-yoon scratched her cheek awkwardly. I suddenly felt caught off guard and raised my voice instead.
"But why am I 'bro' to you?"
"Huh?"
"We haven't even known each other long. Isn't it a bit much to be on such familiar terms?"
Meanwhile, someone else in the same department treats me with the utmost respect, like a teacher.
"Ah, that's true too. Then how about big bro—"
"Don't."
"Then old man?"
That wasn't great either, so I shook my head side to side.
Because somehow I felt a sense of obligation to look after her.
"No, then what do you want me to do? Should I just go back to calling you 'mister'?"
"......."
"Then how about ‘Limited Lifespan’?"
"Just don't call me anything."
As exhaustion suddenly washed over me, I quickly turned my back.
"Let's go together. Limited Lifespan—no, bro."
......For now, I resolved to focus only on my objective.
* * *
Mount Suri's hunting field was vast.
Under Yoo So-young's principle that bigger was always better, the originally long, gentle ridge with an elevation of 488 meters had advanced into a rugged mountain towering over 3,000 meters.
This change was not limited to Mount Suri; most of South Korea's famous mountains had undergone similar enhancements—for reference, Mount Chiak's elevation now exceeded 4,000 meters.
"Appraisal."
But with a single gesture, I crammed the bends of that rugged mountain range into my head.
It was thanks to the guide map I had made sure to grab on my way through the entrance.
Now Mount Suri felt like a neighborhood hill behind my house.
I could picture the mountain terrain clearly even with my eyes closed, with information on Monster spawning areas overlaid on top of it.
With this, all preparations were complete.
The destination was Mount Suri's hidden scenic spot—the place where a weapon capable of countering Roberto's Allure lay hidden.
"But do you actually know the way? I figured this might happen, so I printed out a map from the internet......."
I did have one nuisance tagging along and waving around a strange map, but there was no hesitation in my steps.
The path I needed to take was near the heart of Mount Suri, so hunting was unavoidable anyway.
"No, bro. I'm telling you, look at this map. Over there, there's nothing......."
"Quiet. Just follow along nicely."
"......This guy, seriously. Are you going to take responsibility if we end up wasting our time?"
"Responsibility? Taking you along is already a hassle, and now I have to shoulder that too?"
"Ha, good grief. Okay. Let's just go, then. Let's see how well you really know the place."
Cheon Seo-yoon stomped along behind me like an angry dinosaur.
I talked less and picked up speed. Soon, when we entered the first spawning area, I announced it without hesitation.
"From here, roughly a one-kilometer radius is the spawning ground of the Grade 10 Monster, Gaksi Moth."
"Oh, really? How impressive. Did you get a navigation system implanted in your head or something?"
Cheon Seo-yoon gave me a sidelong squint and twirled the sword in her hand.
.......
It was obnoxious enough to make any goodwill I might have had evaporate, but I understood.
From her perspective, all I had done was dash ahead and then stop.
But a moment later.
"Ugh, what the hell is this."
With a buzzing of wings, a moth the size of an eagle lunged at us, and the situation flipped.
"Th-that's the 200,000-won-per-head one, right? One, two, three....... How much is this in total?"
Cheon Seo-yoon's eyes flashed, and she charged at the bounty like a hawk.
To a high-level Taehak student, a Grade 10 Monster was little more than an after-meal snack, so a few flashes of her blue mana blade dispatched it easily.
This process repeated a couple more times after that.
"Getting one guess right and bragging about it like crazy....... What, more of them?"
"You know even luck has its limits at three times....... No, why are there more?"
With things going like this, Cheon Seo-yoon could no longer deny it.
"......Bro, I respect you. Now just stay still. I'll take care of catching them all myself."
After that, Cheon Seo-yoon went on about her share of the hunting and took down most of the Monsters alone.
She said that since I was handling the guiding and scouting, I should rest—which was a very convenient arrangement for me.
Thanks to that, I waited without lifting a finger and only landed the last hits.
I made sure to collect the time rewards, and I did not forget to absorb Demonic Energy while pretending to use the reader.
We hunted like that for two hours straight.
The results were quite impressive.
Fifteen Grade 10 Monsters and ten Grade 9 Monsters.
That came to 3 million won per person in bounty money, and Cheon Seo-yoon's grin stretched wider and wider.
"Heh heh, at this rate, 5,000,000 won seems totally doable, don't you think?"
"......."
But I didn't answer.
Because now it was time to set aside the hunting and focus on my original purpose.
Before I knew it, we had arrived at the destination.
I raised my head for a moment and stared at the rocky cliff zone looming like a fortress at the edge of the green plain.
.......
Then, suddenly, a thread of setting brushed through my mind, along with a swell of emotion and memory.
"On the sheer cliff between Seulgi Peak and Taeeul Peak grows a flower that resembles a star."
Speaking it aloud felt a little cringeworthy, but it was one of the few lines I remembered exactly, so I tried to give it some weight.
It was a setting Yoo So-young and I had made half by accident, but also with a fair amount of deliberation.......
"What. We're not actually going there, are we?"
But then, a sudden tug at my clothes.
My gaze followed the rough hand gripping the cloth tie, and only then did I realize how truly coincidental this situation was.
After all, I was here with someone who resembled her.......
"There's somewhere I need to stop by, so don't follow me."
"Huh? Solo action is prohibited......."
"An hour is enough. A flower I absolutely have to harvest.... Let's just say it's a kind of medicinal herb."
As a hazy sensation tickled my chest, I quickly moved past Cheon Seo-yoon.
* * *
One summer night when the tropical heat was at its worst, in some park.
To one star, memories and
To one star, love and
To one star, loneliness and
To one star, longing and
Yoo So-young, lying on the grass and murmuring a languid poem, let out a sigh.
"When you think about it, stars are pretty pitiful."
"How so?"
"Just because they sparkle, people pile wishes and all sorts of things on them.... They must get pestered every single day. They can't live out their natural lives in peace."
Was that so?
I didn't live with enough leisure to consider the plight of stars, so I just let it pass.......
"Isn't it the opposite?"
A different interpretation suddenly flashed through my mind.
"Opposite?"
"I mean, if you're floating alone, wouldn't you be lonely too?"
"So they sparkle?"
"Yeah. Whether it's wishes or complaints, they're telling people to pour out any emotion at all, because then at least they won't be bored. No? ......Guess not."
As I scratched my head, realizing it was nonsense once I'd said it aloud, Yoo So-young, with a rather serious expression, suddenly shouted.
"Hey, can I use this?"
"Use what?"
"What do you mean, what. The conversation we just had—no, the setting. A star that feeds on emotions."
At first, I had no idea what she meant.
But before long, a new manuscript came out. And in it, the story we had shared in that place, at that time, had bloomed beautifully.
[Star Flower]
[Description: A rare luminous plant that, true to its setting of inheriting a star's will, feeds on nearby mana and emotions. Well-dried petals are also used as ingredients for miraculous remedies or expensive hallucinogens.]
Of course, that was already in the past—now just a trace I remembered alone.......
"This isn't the time."
I shook off the thoughts that were only making me nostalgic and eating away at the present, and faced forward.
First, I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the sheer cliff before me—a natural fortress wall that looked to be at least a full 200 meters even at a glance.
Hoo—
Facing it in person, I realized I would have been X-ed if I had not had the Cheonjam Thread.
"How the hell would anyone climb that vertical rock face?"
As expected, there was a reason it hadn't been discovered.
Its hidden location had surely played a part, but the bigger reason was that there was no one on Mount Suri skilled enough to climb such a cliff without difficulty.
"Shall I start looking for it soon?"
I rolled up my sleeves for the climb in earnest and thought.
If I could obtain that ‘Star Flower’ today, I would be able to deal with Roberto's Allure much more easily.
His Allure originated in a person's negative memories or trauma—in their despair—so if I used the Star Flower's ‘emotion absorption,’ I should be able to break it more naturally than by any other method.