Chapter 55
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 55
The 'Star Flower' colony existed somewhere in that cliff zone, like a miniature version of the Grand Canyon.
The reason I phrased it as "somewhere" was that I didn't know the exact location.
But that wasn't a problem.
I had good eyes that wouldn't miss even the faintest sign.
I strengthened my vision and swept over the entire cliff face meticulously, scanning from left to right, bottom to top.
If not this spot, then the next. If not there, then the next after that.
I kept working my way toward the center of the V-shaped canyon enclosed by cliffs, until—
From a round gap located roughly 150 meters away in distance and 200 meters up in height, I detected a strange shimmer.
The fine ripples distorting my vision gave it away as a heat haze.
One of the anomalies created when the 'Star Flower' drew in the surrounding mana.......
"There it is."
Now that I knew the exact location, there was no reason to hesitate.
I gauged the target position, then fired the Cheonjam Thread as if launching a harpoon.
Fwish—
The Cheonjam Thread shot straight out and embedded itself exactly where I'd aimed.
Like airborne troops preparing for a drop, I put my weight into it and tugged several times.
Once I confirmed it was pulled taut without wavering, I launched myself upward as if springing into the air.
As I approached the gap, I slowed and came to a stop at eye level.
Maybe thanks to the proficiency I'd built up, my movements were quite skillful.
I braced my free hand against the side, then stuck my head in.
And for a moment, I forgot how to speak.
"......."
Unlike the somewhat narrow entrance, the space widened the farther in it went.
Even so, it was only a cavity of about ten pyeong, but what filled it was hundreds of orbs of light scattered through the darkness.
Like a nebula blooming from the earth, and a miniature cosmos holding it.......
I had come face-to-face with the Star Flower colony I'd been searching for.
[Achievement-148: Fortunate Explorer]
[You are the first discoverer of the Star Flower colony.]
[As a reward, 3 days are added to your Remaining Time.]
An achievement too?
For just a moment, the system message stole my attention before I looked back.
I simply stared again, then suddenly let out a shallow sigh.
Back when the webtoon was being serialized, I thought I'd put a fair amount of care into drawing it, but seeing it in reality, it was maybe one-tenth as good.
The gap between reality and my artwork was so vast it couldn't even be compared.
The population seemed greater than in the setting, too.......
Tch.
Anyway, bitter self-awareness was remarkably effective at shattering the mood.
I squeezed my body into the narrow gap.
I crawled in on my belly until the ceiling rose high enough for me to put my feet under me.
But then.
"What's this?"
It was at that moment that I spotted a particularly vivid light.
An anomaly that hadn't been visible when I'd only stuck my head in.
At the center of the colony, like the central star of a nebula, a large, splendid flower bud rose upright, illuminating its surroundings.
Though it hadn't bloomed, it was flaunting its presence, radiating light so intense it seemed to swallow even the surrounding glow.
Was there a setting like this?
Half-doubting, I approached closer.
* * *
At the same time, Cheon Seo-yoon was pacing around the cliff area.
The objective was hunting, but with no prey, it had become meaningless wandering.
"What kind of medicinal herb would grow in a place where not even a single blade of grass sprouts?"
Cheon Seo-yoon looked at the cliff and pouted out her lips, but soon realized she was being shameless and smacked her own lips—slap.
After all, she had already achieved today's goal of 3 million won.
It was all thanks to the man she'd met for the first time but had come to call "bro."
"He really is amazing."
Cheon Seo-yoon could only marvel as she recalled the hunt.
How could he roam this vast Surisan like a neighborhood hill without a map?
He seemed to wander wherever his feet took him, yet one place was Gaksi Moth territory and the next was Jeokyeomgwi territory.
He wasn't some mountain spirit, but every single warning he gave had been right on the mark.
For Cheon Seo-yoon, a directionally challenged person who sometimes forgot the way to the dormitory, it was nothing short of incomprehensible.
"Anyway, solo hunting seems out of the question."
If she pushed her luck any further, she'd lose her way and have trouble reuniting with him.
Cheon Seo-yoon glanced around for a decent place to lie down, spotted a patch of grass, and moved toward it.
After roughly clearing a spot with her feet—swish swish—she flopped down flat on her back, using her arms as a pillow.
Then the sky, looking newly blue, filled her vision, and the buzzing of nameless insects hummed in her ears.
The breath she drew in deeply was full of a fresh green scent.
.......
In the rare moment of rest, Cheon Seo-yoon repeated to herself.
That she'd done well to come out.
School rules be damned—just getting out made her feel alive.......
Encountering a new environment and new people felt, with only a little exaggeration, like laying a fresh white sheet over a page already crammed with dense lines.
So if time allowed, she wanted to come out often.
Not alone, though. With the 'bro' she'd met today.......
It wasn't simply because of that nearly divine tracking ability.
After spending time with him, she had also come to think he was a decent person.......
He acted indifferent but was actually attentive; he was blunt, but that only made him seem more serious and steady.
Maybe experience really couldn't be ignored—he had something about him that put people at ease.
"But why is his nickname Limited Lifespan?"
When her thoughts reached that point, Cheon Seo-yoon suddenly grew curious.
Didn't "limited lifespan" refer to someone who didn't have much life left?
Then no way.......
"Nah, that's ridiculous. Why would someone about to die come out to a hunting ground?"
Cheon Seo-yoon shook her head side to side, saying there was no way, then hesitated again.
"One hour is enough. A flower I absolutely have to collect... let's just say it's a type of medicinal herb."
It was because the conversation they'd shared right before parting had felt somehow meaningful.
"Whoa."
Cheon Seo-yoon sat bolt upright and began spreading the wings of her imagination.
A chronic illness he'd suffered from since birth. The medicinal herbs used to treat it grew in none other than that cliff zone....... Frequent visits had made him so familiar with the terrain that he could navigate most of it with his eyes closed.......
"This is it. This is it......."
It was just as Cheon Seo-yoon's imagination was transforming into a pitiful reality.
A sudden chilly wind, and an unsettling energy carried on it.
"......!"
As the ominous current prickled her skin, Cheon Seo-yoon quickly got to her feet.
Rustle. Rustle-rustle.
Then, as if responding, the underbrush ahead began to shake.
"What the hell is this bastard......."
Just as Cheon Seo-yoon muttered under her breath, a powerful energy she'd never felt on Surisan surged up.
Grrrrr.
A black monster lunged at her like a bolt of lightning.
* * *
Here was the Star Flower colony.
I was in the middle of approaching the suspicious flower bud.
[The slumbering 'Greed' startles awake.]
[It warns that the flower bud is a dangerous and hideous object, and not to go near it.]
But why is this one acting up?
When the previously quiet Greed suddenly popped up and made a fuss, I paused for a moment, then started walking again.
The energy emanating from the flower bud felt somehow familiar.......
Right, Samjaegong.
It was astonishingly similar to the pure mana I'd felt when practicing Samjaegong.
['Greed' says it's a misunderstanding. It says that thing isn't pure, but a sinister and ominous energy.]
But if evil calls evil evil, doesn't that make it good?
['Greed' says that's going too far.......]
"Stay still. Stop making a racket."
[Dejected]
I approached with my right hand lightly clenched.
I stopped at a reachable distance, extended my left hand, and activated Simple Appraisal.
[A flower bud containing the ?? of a star.]
[Grade: ???]
[Description: The placenta of a ?? containing a star's essence. It can bloom by absorbing a specific person's ?? and ??.]
But the description window had question marks for the key information.
[More mana is required to obtain additional information.]
[Would you like to appraise it?]
After some thought, I declined.
I didn't know how much mana it would require, and knowing more right now wouldn't change anything.
I was going to take it anyway.
"Should I snap it off?"
That was actually the bigger question.
The light pouring out was so sacred that I felt unnecessarily guilty.
But there was no other real option, so I put it into action.
Snap—
Fortunately, it broke off easily with a little force. So easily that saying it came along on its own wouldn't be an exaggeration.
I carefully wrapped the fist-sized flower bud and placed it in the subspace pouch.
Now that I'd secured an unexpected gain, it was time to focus on the objective.
"Let's see."
I moved through the waves of light, examining the ground.
It was to secure seeds, which were easier to store and use than the flowers, and perhaps because there were so many, I found them easily.
I held the subspace pouch wide open and frantically scooped up the seeds.
Since the petals could also be used as an expensive treatment when specially processed, this was all money, extra lifelines.......
"Hm?"
Then, at one point, something suddenly felt off.
I was pretty sure I was the first discoverer of the Star Flower colony.
In a spot just out of my line of sight, near a recessed corner, I discovered suspicious traces.
Signs as if some blind beast had come in and rolled around, trampling and chewing things here and there.
"What's this?"
My suspicion flared like a fire doused with oil, then died away just as quickly.
Krrrzzzt. Krrzt.
Just then, the radio at my waist crackled harshly.
...you right now...where...? If you're near the cliff...run away... Here...an Irreg...lar, damn it.
Distance chopped Cheon Seo-yoon's voice into fragments, but I only needed one word to understand the situation: Irregular.
Faced with a variable that hadn't existed in the original and a situation I couldn't understand, I glared at the empty air.
Then, as if it had been waiting, the view ahead began to distort.
[In the original, despite its unique setting, the Star Flower had little significance.]
[To compensate, the scale of the Star Flower colony was expanded, and a Star ?? was added to elevate its value.]
[However, to prevent it from being obtained too easily this early, an opposing element was added within the bounds of plausibility: an Irregular.]
[Inter Quest]
[Objective: Defeat Goeogong, a Grade 6 Monster that consumed a Star Flower and happened to become an Irregular.]
[Reward: 5 days added to Remaining Time, 15 SP]
[Grade 6 Monster: Goeogong] [Irregular]
[Attribute: Wood (88%)]
[Authority: Fecundity]
[Traits: A centipede-type Monster. When combat begins, it hatches the eggs in its belly and spews out dozens of young centipedes. The young are expendable, non-reproductive individuals whose sole instinct is to self-destruct.]
No wonder.
I'd wondered what an Irregular was doing on Surisan. And the idea that eating a Star Flower made it an Irregular was ridiculous too.......
But was this the limit of what plausibility allowed for a D-rank setting?
At least the opponent was only a Grade 6 Irregular.
That much should be manageable with just me and Cheon Seo-yoon.
"Time to head out."
I grabbed a few more of the remaining seeds, then drove the Cheonjam Thread into the colony entrance. And without hesitation, I leaped.
Fwish—
As if rappelling, I descended to the ground in an instant with my body bent into an L-shape.
And I ran.
Toward the battlefield where Cheon Seo-yoon and the Irregular would be locked in combat.
When I heightened my senses, fortunately I could feel mana waves from not far away.
I approached to a suitable distance and raised my visual acuity to the maximum.
Then a giant centipede nearly two meters long came clearly into view, along with Cheon Seo-yoon fighting it.
Blue sword trajectories and black pincer-leg arcs tangled together, dizzying the eyes.
If I had to judge, Cheon Seo-yoon was at a disadvantage.
Crunch.
Goeogong alone was already a handful, and when the young centipedes bursting from its chest kept rushing Cheon Seo-yoon, her movements gradually began to tangle.
"That won't do."
The main episode wasn't far off, and if she got injured, it could become troublesome, so I decided to step in before it was too late.
The moment I finished assessing the situation, I activated Manifestation, summoned the First Sword, and bound it with Cheonjam Thread.
The distance was about 150 meters, and the target was the egg sac, which was as good as Goeogong's weak point.
There were no obstructing elements along the trajectory, so it seemed likely to succeed without issue, but.......
There was just one regrettable thing.
Attribute.
Goeogong was a single-attribute Monster with Wood at 88%, so if I could imbue the First Sword with Fire, I could deal even more damage.
"Is there no way?"
I thought for a moment.
Even though I could handle all the basic attributes, it was an ability limited to Sorcery, so directly infusing a weapon was impossible.......
"Ah."
The answer was unexpectedly close.
Once I judged it was worth trying, I hurled the sword without delay.
The Chungyongwi Warrior's Dagger, launched with only a single breath and a single step of a running start, cut across the air.
.......
At the same time, Enhancement began.
[Would you like to temporarily imbue Yeon Gaesomun's First Sword with a Fire attribute?]
[Required SP: 3]
When I accepted without hesitation, red paint seeped into the formless trajectory stretching outward.