Snow Flower (3)
Whoosh!
On the screen, a flying lasso caught the beast's neck. This time, it was a definitive success.
Seo Ji-woo immediately yanked the lasso. The beast was dragged toward her as if it were flying through the air.
...Whew.
She had barely managed to secure some food. She let out a sigh of relief, but her expression quickly stiffened.
It's... a young one.
Looking closely, the deer's body was far too small. Its eyes were also incredibly clear.
It was just a baby.
Seo Ji-woo hesitated, debating whether she should kill it or not.
Her hesitation didn't last long.
If it had been even slightly more mature, she would have eaten it, but this one was too young. Even if she ate it, it wouldn't fill her stomach.
...Tsk.
Seo Ji-woo released the lasso.
Go on. Go bring your parents back...
Watching the released fawn trot away, she sat down on a tree stump. She pulled out her portable burner and pot, scooping up some snow. Once the water melted and boiled, she poured it into her combat rations.
Whoosh.
The blizzard began to rage once more.
Ah, damn it.
Seo Ji-woo moved between the trees. She connected her mana threads from trunk to trunk, constructing a makeshift tent. Using a spell formula, she amplified the flame of her mini burner to generate warmth.
She muttered to herself as she shoveled down the remaining rations.
I wonder if this will be enough...
"Tell me about it~"
The PD in charge of Seo Ji-woo stretched.
Seo Ji-woo was certainly a kind-hearted person, enough to feel compassion even for a wild beast.
This could be good or bad for her public image. After all, there was no rule saying an explorer had to be completely cold-blooded. Everyone needed a bit of warmth in their heart.
Ooh!
"...?"
But then, a noise resembling a cheer echoed from somewhere. It was coming from Kim A-rang's desk.
"What's going on?"
Idle curiosity piqued his interest. Had a fight broken out or something?
The PD glanced back at Seo Ji-woo on his screen.
She was still eating, so nothing major would happen for a while.
He quietly slipped out of his seat.
A pure white expanse where the blizzard raged. Lee Jun-ho was trudging through the snowfield, carrying a wolf on his back—one he had hunted after a day-long pursuit.
...
Suddenly, Lee Jun-ho stopped. He spotted a silhouette in the distance. Was it a Labyrinthin? He tensed for a moment, but upon recognizing the face, a smile spread across his lips.
It was Kang Hyun.
...Did you hunt too?
Two deer hung over Kang Hyun's shoulders. Kang Hyun nodded and tried to walk past, but Lee Jun-ho called out.
Want to move together?
Kang Hyun came to a sudden halt.
Honestly, two is better than one, right?
Lee Jun-ho smiled.
Cooperation. He was proposing a team-up, but the atmosphere between them was strangely frozen.
Cold.
The way they looked at each other.
Were they on guard, or were they sizing each other up?
"No one knows."
Just as PD Im Hyeong-uk was seriously engrossed in the scene featuring the two top candidates...
Whoaaa.
A loud cheer erupted from nearby.
"...What's that?"
Im Hyeong-uk craned his neck like a giraffe. A sizable crowd of PDs and writers had gathered around Kim A-rang's desk.
"What are they looking at?"
A pang of jealousy hit him, especially since it was Kim A-rang. He was curious, but he didn't feel the need to move.
After all, he had Kang Hyun and Lee Jun-ho on his screen.
Clearing his throat, Im Hyeong-uk marvelled out loud on purpose.
"Wow~ Kang Hyun and Lee Jun-ho just ran into each other~"
Listen to me, everyone. This is way more interesting.
Shhk, shhk. The saw blade smoothly sliced through the wood. It cut cleanly, like slicing through a radish. It was a task that brought a strange sense of satisfaction.
After running a grinder over the surface a few times, the rough log transformed into a long, straight piece of lumber. The tactile feedback was satisfying, and the angles were absolutely perfect.
Seol Ha-woon assembled the walls of the cabin using the lumber. The joints didn't deviate by even a millimeter. The logs fit together so snugly they looked as if they were glued.
Without a single error, it was deeply satisfying to watch. It brought a sense of peace to the mind.
...Whoaaa.
The sudden collective gasp made Kim A-rang flinch. She turned around.
"W-what are you all doing here?"
Before she knew it, writers and PDs were crowding behind her. It wasn't just one or two; there had to be more than fifteen.
"Just watching. My assigned explorer is asleep right now. But seriously, was Seol Ha-woon a carpenter instead of a soldier?"
"Right? Why is this so relaxing to watch? Wow, look at how perfectly that fits."
"Hey, go back to your desks. You never know when something might happen to your explorers—"
Kim A-rang tried to shoo them away, but then—Thack!
At the sound, she snapped her gaze back to Seol Ha-woon's screen.
"Whoaaa."
This time, Seol Ha-woon chopped down a tree. Using a hand axe that wasn't even that large, he felled a trunk as thick as a bodybuilder's torso in just three swings.
"Wait, is he a Warrior? How is he doing that?"
Hearing the assistant PDs and writers whisper, Kim A-rang's lips twitched. For some reason, a strange sense of pride welled up inside her.
"Wow~ Kang Hyun and Lee Jun-ho just met~"
Im Hyeong-uk's voice grew louder from across the room.
"Kang Hyun and Lee Jun-ho meeting up. This is insane. How did these two cross paths?"
Letting his voice drift in one ear and out the other, Kim A-rang pointed at Seol Ha-woon's axe.
"Look. Everyone, do you see the flat of that axe?"
On the blade of the axe Seol Ha-woon was swinging, a squiggly spell formula was engraved.
"Yeah, I see it."
"It's incredibly vivid, right? That vividness represents the quality of the spell formula."
Spellcasters' formulas had grades. Even for basic spells—like those that granted sharpness or durability—there was a vast difference in class.
In that regard, Seol Ha-woon was an exceptionally high-quality Spellcaster. Even if his speed was a bit—no, a lot—slower due to his leg.
"True. There's a reason PD Kim has her eyes on him. Where do you think he'll rank in the first tally? Top 10?"
At the writer's question, Kim A-rang raised an eyebrow.
"That's for the viewers to decide."
As a PD, she shouldn't overstep her bounds or overthink it. A director's job was to satisfy the viewers' needs, not to force them down a certain path.
"Lee Jun-ho offered to team up with Kang Hyun, but Kang Hyun rejected him~ Wow~"
Im Hyeong-uk's play-by-play commentary continued relentlessly.
"Alright, everyone, go back to work."
Kim A-rang waved her hands at the PDs and writers, but none of them budged.
It was because the cabin was nearing completion.
"Done."
The cabin was complete. It took forty hours—specifically, thirty-nine hours, fifty-four minutes, and twenty-three seconds. Of course, the actual labor time was less than half of that.
Since my stamina was absolute garbage, my rest periods had been much longer.
I took a couple of steps back to admire the cabin. A log house sitting squarely in the middle of a dense forest.
"...Not bad."
At least, that was how it looked to me. From the exterior to the finishing touches, it was practically flawless. In the first place, once I used spell formulas to amplify the sharpness and durability of my tools, it wasn't even a fair contest.
There was a reason a Spellcaster was considered essential for labyrinth raids.
I stepped inside the cabin.
The interior was empty, but I set up the desk I had salvaged from the ruins. I placed my burner on top and brewed some tea.
"A fireplace would fit perfectly right there."
I eyed the spot for the fireplace. I had carefully planned its location during the design phase, knowing this labyrinth would only grow colder as time went on.
That was the main reason I had set up camp in the middle of a coniferous forest. A dense forest offered far better protection against the cold than open plains.
"I'll probably need some furniture too..."
There was plenty of lumber left over from building the cabin.
I could easily craft a bed frame, chairs, and other basics, but bedding like blankets required materials. Which meant I needed to go hunting.
"Well then."
Time to get moving. I tucked my food-filled suitcase into a corner of the cabin and set up a trap at the entrance just in case of any thieves.
"Let's go."
After downing the hot tea, I opened the door.
Hunting... honestly, I was confident.
Back in the day, it was as easy as taking a stroll.
With eyes that could peer into the distance and ears that could detect the faintest whisper, he possessed the ability to move without a sound and the means to snuff out a life from afar in an instant.
Though slow, he moved with meticulous precision. Even when the howling blizzard restricted his vision, he did not hesitate or fear. He simply pressed forward, leaning on his cane.
...
Suddenly, he stopped. He extended a finger, aiming at something.
Pfft—
A silent shot. He fired mana toward an unseen target, and the sound of a collapsing body echoed through the snow.
Limping over, he picked up a fox.
His haul after four hours: two foxes, four rabbits, and a deer. In just four hours, he had hunted down enough food to last most participants two full days.
"...Interesting."
Seol Ha-woon. Every action of his became even more extraordinary when observed. He had an innate quality that made him captivating to watch.
Though his movements were as covert and calculated as a secret agent's, they were agonizingly slow. Yet, there was a strange, rugged charm to how he limped along, achieving his goals with absolute precision and certainty.
"He really is a unique character, just like PD Kim said."
Right on cue, Yoon Sa-hyeok appeared. It was time for his break—exactly ten minutes out of every hour.
Kim A-rang shrugged.
"I told you, 'unique' doesn't even begin to cover it."
"Though his mobility is utterly hopeless."
"The fact that he shows this much potential despite that is what makes him so incredible. Seol Ha-woon's thoughts and decisions are lightning-fast. He always chooses the optimal path."
While Seol Ha-woon's body was slow, his decision-making speed was vastly superior to any other explorer. No, perhaps it was no longer a matter of conscious decision-making for him. Perhaps the experiences he had accumulated while walking through past battlefields moved his body instinctively, like a sort of sixth sense.
Yoon Sa-hyeok smiled as he watched Seol Ha-woon on the screen.
"Then keep painting his picture. He's starting to pique my interest too."
Pique my interest.
To Kim A-rang's ears, it was the ultimate compliment.
I dressed the hunted game. First, I separated the meat from the organs, then gathered the hides.
It was a hassle since this wasn't an arcade-style labyrinth.
In arcade labyrinths, defeating monsters automatically broke them down into miscellaneous loot, straight into your inventory.
Anyway.
Returning to the cabin, I set about building a refrigerator.
I simply constructed a box the size of a refrigerator and applied specific spell formulas to it, designating the bottom shelf for chilling and the top shelf for freezing.
In an extreme cold environment like this, a spell formula that harnessed the ambient temperature was practically permanent.
Sizzle—
I grilled some venison to feed myself. My appetite had increased significantly, likely because the blizzard was accelerating my calorie consumption.
After eating, I focused on the most crucial task: building the fireplace.
The frame of my fireplace was made of wood. Building a fireplace out of wood was scientifically insane, but as a Spellcaster, I could make it work.
All I had to do was imbue the wood with a Heat Resistance cognitive image. Thus, mana was now engraved into the fireplace, bound by a spell formula woven as tightly as possible.
"...This should work, right?"
Granted, as a Spellcaster of only three months, I couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. If I messed up, the entire cabin would go up in flames.
I loaded the fireplace with the firewood I had chopped earlier.
Scritch!
I struck a match, tossed it inside, and fed the flame with my mana.
Whoosh—
Heat flared from within the fireplace. The interior of the cabin quickly grew cozy and warm. The wooden fireplace itself showed no signs of catching fire.
Thank goodness.
"Hmm~"
I looked around with satisfaction.
I had spent two days to build a sanctuary where I could survive the remaining thirteen.
"Nice."
I lay down on the bed. A makeshift mattress crafted from animal fur. It wasn't plush, but compared to the freezing outdoors, it was a five-star hotel.
Time to get some sleep. I'd done enough to earn a rest.
I quietly closed my eyes.