Chapter 83
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 83
*Bzzzz. Bzzzz.*
Night on Mount Geumgang, where test-observation drones flew about in place of fireflies.
After demolishing a cup of ramyeon in one go, I sat in a camping rocking chair with a warm cup of tea.
There was something I needed to do before bed.
I wanted to upgrade the Live Watch to suit my needs, so that I could observe the overall situation.
First, I upgraded the GPS function so that the location signals of every Class A student would appear.
Five times a day, for up to one minute.
I also added a function to share vision with an observation drone at whatever timing I wanted.
Probably because I had piled on so many conditions, the SP consumption was low.
"Let's see."
I checked the GPS first.
When I activated the function, a total of fifty red dots flashed all over the place.
First, there was no one within a three-kilometer radius of me, and most were evenly spread out. But wherever you go, there are always some with exceptional survival instincts.
Some students had already formed groups.
The circles moving in clusters of two or three were proof of that.
This was a phenomenon that existed in the original work too, so it was nothing new.
The initial objective was survival, but later it developed into parties for hunting the seeded students, called "seed hunting."
Among them, the group to keep an eye on was Kang Cheol-min's faction.
A gathering place for thugs including Lee Dong-wook, it eventually grew into a massive circle of over ten people.
It flaunted enough power to threaten Baek Sa-young and Cheon Seo-yoon.
Using survival as an excuse, they targeted the protagonists' blind spots with underhanded and petty schemes.
Well, if that's an ability, it's an ability, so I had no intention of interfering.
As Xiang Yu and Liu Bang showed.
It isn't the strong who survive, but the survivors who are strong.
However.
The problem was that the red dot located not far from them was Reina.
They said person-to-person combat officially started on Day 3, but since the method of taking points was seizing Live Watches, loopholes existed.
Honestly, they could make a move on Day 1 or Day 2 as well.
They could secure a Live Watch in advance and eliminate someone immediately on Day 3.
So what would happen when the naive Reina encountered Kang Cheol-min's faction was obvious.
She'd get taken down the moment she let her guard down, like having her nose sliced off with her eyes open.
Hm.
But was it because of the energy of Sanctification lying dormant in my body?
I wanted to at least prevent her from getting scammed and eliminated as soon as she arrived at Taehak.
I also had something important to discuss if we met.
So I decided to keep an eye on her frequently.
So that if something happened, I could go help anytime as long as the distance was close.
"There's quite a lot to worry about."
I scratched my temple, then checked Joo A-rin's location.
Since there wasn't much movement, I connected the watch to a drone flying nearby as a test.
[Linking Live Watch with Drone 48 in Zone C.]
Then light extending from my wrist illuminated the air, and footage like a scene from a drama played before my eyes.
Joo A-rin had lit a campfire and was warming herself by it.
-.......
That expressionless face was tinged with a hint of sadness.
It was a face I could usually see after she had been to visit Joo Seol-hwa.
Probably the burden of the Joo family's task pressing down on her shoulders, and the grades she had to maintain even amid all that.
The responsibility toward a younger sister who looked only to her must have been weighing on her.
Normally, I would have cut off my interest, saying it was only natural because that was how the original work was.
But was it because the location had changed?
Suddenly Joo Seol-hwa and Yoo So-young overlapped, and I felt a strange sense of kinship and unfamiliar pity.
While I was thinking that, the drone's vision sharing stopped.
As expected, camping. No—a night alone deep in the mountains made a person weak.
Since I had to avoid being swayed by emotion, I shook my head hard.
"Get a grip."
To change the mood, I sprang to my feet and rummaged through the food storage.
I had finished everything I needed to do today, and this was to decide the menu for tomorrow morning.
Just then, a suitable meal kit came to hand.
"Dried pollack soup for breakfast."
The world had really become a wonderful place. All I had to do was open the package and boil it.
I'd have rice in the hot broth.
* * *
Dawn, with dew beading on green leaves.
Cheon Seo-yoon, who had slept on the bare ground in just a sleeping bag, forced her upper body upright.
"Ugh, my back."
Her condition was bad enough that groans escaped on their own.
Her whole body ached as if she'd been beaten with a hammer, and the weather was truly unfair too.
Even though it was nearly July, this damn famous mountain was as cold as winter.
"Ahh."
Cheon Seo-yoon touched her mouth, wondering if it had gone crooked, then let out a deep sigh—
Still half-buried in the sleeping bag, she looked around.
"Where the hell is this?"
But there was no way she could know.
She was already directionally challenged, and the surrounding scenery was all just identical trees and grass.
That was why they'd been given GPS in the first place, but...
"I'd have to know how to read it."
To Cheon Seo-yoon, it was just a red dot on strange stripes, so it wasn't much help.
"It'll work out somehow. In the end, I just have to beat up the Monsters, right?"
But Cheon Seo-yoon did not waver.
After clarifying the situation with astonishing simplification, she clenched her fist with a crack.
Although she had been assigned the fifth seed due to Reina's appearance.
Would she back down like this?
With renewed determination, she resolved to reclaim her unfairly lost position—third place in Class A—and packed up her sleeping bag.
*Swish swish—*
After tamping the ground flat so no trace of her stay remained, she gathered leaves and scattered them around.
They said the point battle started on Day 3, but there was no harm in being careful.
Even if it was fifth, a seed was a seed.
With bonus points attached, the likelihood of being targeted was high.
She wasn't afraid of a one-on-one, but she had no way to handle a surprise attack or a gang-up.
Especially in a situation like this, with her condition a mess and her stomach growling.
"Ah, my stomach's burning."
Cheon Seo-yoon recalled the previous day's drinking and rubbed her churning stomach.
She hadn't drunk much, but maybe because she'd drunk fast.
Today, hangover relief felt especially desperate.
If only she could eat one bowl of warm gukbap, she could wash away all the fatigue built up from yesterday and today.
"Haah."
But reality was grim.
Rustling through her backpack, Cheon Seo-yoon took out the food she had saved—a calorie bar.
She had been issued six in total and hadn't eaten a single one, saving them all, but now she really couldn't stand it anymore.
Cheon Seo-yoon snapped it in half—crack—leaving half for lunch, and carefully pushed the other half into her mouth.
*Crunch crunch.*
As expected, it tasted bad.
The dry texture wasn't great either; it tasted like chewing a lump of hardened flour.
In short, it was clearly food you ate to survive, close to flavorless.
"*Sniff sniff.*"
Suddenly, a rich dried pollack soup smell brushed the tip of her nose.
A scent with an added kick from cheongyang chili paste.
What is this?
Then suddenly the calorie bar felt like fully cooked dried pollack.
She even had the illusion that broth was seeping out the more she chewed.
"Ah."
Cheon Seo-yoon chewed the calorie bar with half-lidded eyes, then snapped back to her senses and shook her head.
"I've lost it. Totally lost it."
She had clearly gone crazy, blinded by gukbap.
Who in the world would boil dried pollack soup on Mount Geumgang?
It was definitely a kind of hallucination caused by the high concentration of mana.
Cheon Seo-yoon smacked her cheek—*smack*—and tried to regain her focus.
Confident that if nothing else, she could control her appetite.
The basics of survival were, above all, the hungry spirit.
"Where are you, you Monster bastards."
Cheon Seo-yoon twirled the Wolhwa Corps longsword with a grin and began scouring the area like she was hunting for lice.
* * *
Around the same time, Zone D.
Unlike someone else, Reina, who had enjoyed a deep sleep, greeted the refreshing morning with a stretch.
Thanks to her characteristically easygoing personality and the Dawn Society's harsh training, she was fairly seasoned in this regard.
"Good morning."
Reina sprang up, dismantled the branches she had woven into a roof for concealment, then neatly folded her sleeping bag and pushed it into a corner.
Then, to conserve drinking water, she busily moved around collecting morning dew.
In less than ten minutes, she gathered enough dew for three or four sips to quench her thirst, and gulped it down deliciously.
All of this was possible because Reina possessed the capabilities of a seasoned warrior.
But if asked whether she was perfect, that was another matter.
"Ah."
The moment Reina reached into her backpack for a quick bite, she let out a soft sigh.
She was certain she had been issued one per meal.
A total of six calorie bars, she knew, but only two came to hand.
She had gobbled down four in less than twelve hours.
Then suddenly.
The words of the instructor who had overseen her Dawn Society training came to mind.
*The Saintess is good at everything else. It's that damn appetite that's the problem.*
*Especially her obsession with flour is beyond manageable, so she really needs to give it up.*
"......."
But it was already too late.
The problem was that yesterday had been endlessly busy, and with no time to eat properly, she had been fasting.
She had meant to just have a light snack, but before she knew it, she had kept eating.
At this rate, she would have to starve starting tonight, and she had no skill in catching and butchering animals.
"I shouldn't consume any more."
She had no particular greed for grades, but that was a personal matter; outwardly, the honor of the Vatican was at stake.
She had to place at least within the top three.
Only then would the Vatican be satisfied. And only then could she stay at Taehak for a long time and observe that person.
"It was delicious."
Reina, smacking her lips in regret, exercised superhuman patience and pulled her hand out.
After packing up her sleeping bag into her backpack, she set off to find Monsters.
With the intention of buying food with points earned from Monsters, or asking someone to butcher one for her.
Before long, she sensed a suspicious presence.
Three of them.
Eastern Monsters were somewhat unfamiliar, so she didn't know their names, but based on Sanctification's unique sensitivity to Demonic Energy, she estimated they were around Grade 8.
If she had to compare, their appearance was similar to goblins.
So there was no reason to hesitate.
Reina summoned a spear of pure white light and charged.
Soon, brief dying screams rang out one after another.
After dealing with them as a light pre-breakfast warm-up, she held her Live Watch over them this way and that.
[You have slain the Grade 8 Monster, Dogaengi.]
[You are awarded 1 point.]
She roamed Mount Geumgang from when the sun rose in the east until it tilted west, then finally collapsed, clutching her hungry stomach.
Her activity level was high, but she hadn't eaten, so her head was spinning......
......Had her efforts reached the heavens?
Suddenly, she spotted smoke rising from one side of the mountain's foot.
Maybe someone was grilling meat. A scent that stimulated the salivary glands wafted faintly over.
"People......."
Reina's face lit up, and she sprinted toward it.
She felt no wariness.
That was only natural.
The Saintess of Sanctification. The youngest member of the secret society, the Dawn Society.
The confidence befitting those lofty titles was, at a glance, reasonable—she believed she could handle whoever it was.
Entering the source of the smoke, Reina soon witnessed the sight she had been longing for.
Four men were gathered around a campfire, roasting a whole wild boar.
"Pig."
Just as Reina was staring as if entranced.
"......Who. Huh?"
A male student who had been giggling near the campfire spotted Reina and his eyes went wide.
But she felt like she'd seen his face somewhere.
Who was it?
While she was retracing her memory, a man with a friendly smile approached and greeted her politely.
"Miss Reina. It's an honor to meet you. My name is Lee Dong-wook."