Flower of Snow (4)
A timer displayed like a broadcast subtitle. A blizzard blankets over it. Through the blinding white squall where she cannot see an inch ahead, Seo Ji-woo staggers forward.
Slung across her back is a single wolf. It is her most precious source of food right now, caught with the absolute last of her strength.
Yet, she seems to have neither the time nor the stamina to dress her prey.
“Haa, haa...”
Seo Ji-woo repeatedly exhales ragged breaths. Frosty plumes of condensation escape her freezing lungs.
For nearly a week, the only food she has consumed consists of the rations from the pouch Seol Ha-woon gave her, a few lucky rabbits she managed to catch, and some cracker-like snacks scavenged from the ruins.
Blizzard conditions are accelerating caloric depletion.
“...Ah.”
At some point, Seo Ji-woo came to a halt. A sharp pang from her stomach reverberated through her entire body. It felt as if her very cells were screaming. Telling her she had reached her limit. That she couldn't move another step.
She tried to force herself forward, only to lose her footing. The pristine white snow swallowed her whole.
“......”
She quietly closed her eyes.
Whoooooosh—
The merciless blizzard howled on. Buried under the harsh elements of nature, her consciousness slowly began to freeze over...
"She's a goner."
The PD in charge of Seo Ji-woo let out a bitter sigh.
As expected, the **Survival Labyrinth** was brutal. It was a high-difficulty labyrinth to begin with, and holding out for 200 hours was more than enough to place her in the middle tier. After all, thirty explorers had already been eliminated within the first 100 hours.
"...Huh?"
Just then, mana flared from Seo Ji-woo's Skull Earring. The joints of the wolf, which had undoubtedly drawn its last breath, twisted with a grotesque crack. Creeeeak! It pushed itself up onto all fours.
The wolf had been resurrected.
Glancing down at Seo Ji-woo, the wolf began to trot away. It headed toward a place in the distance where a faint warmth wavered—where the scent of food drifted.
After walking for about ten minutes, keenly tracking the scent despite the interfering blizzard, the wolf finally found someone.
A man with a thick parka hood pulled over his head. He looked down at the wolf. The wolf whimpered cutely and scratched at his calf.
As if begging him to follow.
"Who is that?"
The impatient PD quickly adjusted the camera angle to check his face.
"Oh!"
He covered his mouth before he could stop himself.
“...What do you want?”
At his question, the wolf moved. The man followed. The wolf kept looking back, guiding him forward.
The wolf and the man.
The two arrived before a small mound of snow. Only Seo Ji-woo's gloved hand peeked out from beneath the drift.
“Grrr.”
The wolf gestured toward Seo Ji-woo.
It had brought Seol Ha-woon straight to her.
Bubble, bubble. Bubble, bubble.
The sound of something boiling reached her ears.
Sniff, sniff. Sniff, sniff.
A delicious aroma tickled her nose.
Growl!
A pain so sharp it felt like her stomach was tearing open surged through her.
"Gah!"
Seo Ji-woo gasped, her eyes snapping open.
"You're awake."
"Whoa!"
Startled by the unfamiliar voice, she quickly spun her head around.
"Why are you..."
Seol Ha-woon was sitting on a chair, casually stirring a pot of soup. Seo Ji-woo blinked blankly before finally taking in her surroundings.
I'm lying in a bed inside a cabin. It's incredibly warm and cozy, and Seol Ha-woon is casually cooking precious food.
"Ah! Was I force-recalled?!"
No deaths ever occurred in the Labyrinth Exploration series. Not a single one. If an explorer's vital signs deteriorated to a critically dangerous level where they could no longer continue, they would be automatically force-recalled.
"Force-recalled, my foot. Can't you see the timer?"
"...Huh?"
Seo Ji-woo belatedly checked the timer.
161 : 21 : 15
161 : 21 : 14
161 : 21 : 13
The numbers were ticking down. It meant she was still inside the labyrinth.
Just then, Seol Ha-woon poured a delicious-looking liquid into a large bowl.
Gulp. She swallowed hard, purely on instinct.
"Eat."
Seol Ha-woon handed her the soup. Seo Ji-woo nearly fainted from the aroma. She didn't even care to understand what was going on.
She buried her face in the bowl like a dog and devoured it. She licked it clean, leaving not a single drop.
"...Ah. I feel alive."
Only after her stomach was somewhat full did curiosity finally kick in. Seo Ji-woo brushed back her hair, stealing glances at Seol Ha-woon.
"I'm really grateful, but... can I ask why you saved me?"
Seol Ha-woon gestured toward a corner. A wolf was standing near the door.
"Whoa, startled me! What is that?!" Seo Ji-woo shivered.
"Are you keeping a pet wolf?"
Seol Ha-woon's brow furrowed in disbelief.
"...It's yours."
"Mine? Why would that be...?"
Seo Ji-woo looked closely at the wolf. There was a small hole in its neck. It was the mark of her spell, which had pierced it cleanly to put it down painlessly.
"Your earring." Seol Ha-woon pointed at her Skull Earring.
"It turned the dead wolf into a familiar. You shouldn't wear things if you don't even know what they do."
Seo Ji-woo's expression turned complicated. She blinked at the soundly sleeping wolf.
"...I caught it to eat it, but it ended up saving my life?"
Seo Ji-woo sat up in bed.
"But wow, there was a clean place like this? You got really lucky." She looked around the interior with envy.
"If I had found a place like this from the start, I wouldn't have suffered so much. I only saw completely demolished ruins." Seo Ji-woo assumed this cabin was just one of the rare ruins scattered across the snowfield.
"I built it."
"...Huh?"
"I built it. I didn't find it."
Seo Ji-woo let out a dry laugh. "Ha! Stop lying~"
Seol Ha-woon stopped mid-pour as he was scooping another bowl of soup. Seo Ji-woo quickly changed her tune.
"...No, no, I mean, you built it incredibly well! Seriously, you could sell this house. Absolutely. Totally."
Seol Ha-woon filled the bowl with soup again and handed it over.
"Thanks." This time, she picked up a spoon and ate like a civilized human.
Seol Ha-woon swept his gaze over her. "Your clothes are completely ruined. What a waste of a purchase."
"...My clothes?" Seo Ji-woo examined her outfit. It was a total disaster. Naturally, her luxury top and pants were shredded, and the scraps of cloth she had haphazardly layered over them hung like rags.
"Ah~ but this was definitely worth the money." Seo Ji-woo lifted her Hermenean bag with a finger. Inside were only three peanuts.
"Well... I survived thanks to you. Twice, even."
Seol Ha-woon shrugged. Seo Ji-woo scooped up some soup and pointed at the wolf.
"But shouldn't we feed him too?"
"He's a dead familiar anyway. He'll get along fine without food."
"...Really? Still." She placed the remaining third of her soup in front of the wolf. "I survived because of him, after all."
"He won't eat it anyway. He probably doesn't even have digestive organs."
Seo Ji-woo gently stroked the wolf's head. At that, the wolf opened its eyes. Sniff, sniff. It caught the scent and began lapping up the soup.
"He's eating just fine, though?" It even licked the bowl clean with gusto.
"...Ahem." Seol Ha-woon cleared his throat. "It's probably because you didn't dress the carcass. The digestive tract and other organs—"
"So~ how should I express my gratitude?" Seo Ji-woo rubbed her hands together and grinned. She looked like a groveling goblin.
Seol Ha-woon pointed at the cabin door. "No need for gratitude. You can leave now."
"......"
His dismissal was incredibly cold.
Seo Ji-woo subtly glued her rear to the floor. "Um... can't we cooperate? Like, team play?"
"Why should I? I already have a shelter."
She rolled her eyes, then raised a finger with a snap. "On—on the contrary, that's exactly why you need me. I've been thinking."
Seol Ha-woon handed her another bowl of soup. Accepting it, Seo Ji-woo continued, "I've been starving, right? When people lose their minds from hunger, they don't care about future relationships or whether they're filming a show."
She was right. Human appetite was stronger than one could imagine. This was especially true for modern people who had never experienced true starvation.
"And do you know something? It's constantly getting colder here. The difference between the first day and yesterday is like night and day. People might try to raid you, so we should defend this place together. Plus, who knows? A Labyrinthin might show up."
A Labyrinthin referred to human-like entities that appeared in labyrinths. Though they looked almost identical to humans, they were byproducts of the labyrinth and were fundamentally off in some way.
"What do you say? Spellcaster party, let's go?" Seo Ji-woo clasped her hands together as if praying. Seol Ha-woon clicked his tongue.
"Your fuel efficiency is way too garbage for that."
"...Excuse me? No, I'll eat less, I promise. As little as possible. I can literally just eat your leftovers. I don't even have to eat this, either." Seo Ji-woo slowly set the soup down. While she had devoured three bowls, Seol Ha-woon was only now picking up his first.
Read the room, Ji-woo. At least match his eating pace.
"...Deal?" Seo Ji-woo, having stopped eating, nudged him with her eyes. Seol Ha-woon watched her in silence.
"I'll be your guardian knight. If things go south, you can abandon me immediately. I'll sacrifice myself."
"Before you talk about being a guardian knight, fix your tone. Do you know how much older I am?"
"It's only a six-year difference."
"How is that 'only'? Did we meet on a construction site?"
"......"
Seo Ji-woo pouted and muttered, "If I use honorifics... will you let me be your guardian knight?"
I opened the cabin's freezer. Seo Ji-woo peeked inside from beside me.
"Whoa. Meat, glorious meat."
The food I had brought from the department store was already entirely consumed, leaving only the meat from my hunts.
It looked relatively full, but assuming I had another mouth to feed, it would last five days at most. I needed to hunt at least three or four more beasts.
Oh, and I decided to cooperate with Seo Ji-woo.
Seo Ji-woo had probably spoken without much thought, but the truth was, I had actually spotted a real Labyrinthin before running into her.
It wore clothes, but its form was hard to make out—a hazy, ghost-like existence.
Since Labyrinthins were byproducts of the labyrinth, nearly ninety-nine percent of them were hostile. Being a byproduct of the labyrinth meant they would vanish along with it once it collapsed.
"You've hunted quite a lot, haha. The only thing I caught in two hundred hours was that guy." Seo Ji-woo tried to flatter me, pointing at the wolf. She must have taken a liking to it, as she was keeping the familiar active.
"It's not that much. I need to hunt at least three more adults to be in the safe zone."
I needed hides, and I needed more fat. It was all for insulation. On the final day, the outside temperature would plummet to minus ninety degrees Celsius. The final boss of this Survival Labyrinth was nature itself—the cold.
"Ah, is that so? Then let's hunt together."
"If we run short, can we eat that wolf too?" I pointed at her wolf.
"......"
Seo Ji-woo's face froze.
"Just kidding."
"Ah~ hahaha. What a joke. Haha." Smack! Seo Ji-woo slapped my back. My expression turned serious. She immediately bowed. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
In any case.
Something was definitely strange.
First the Orc Shaman in the cargo labyrinth, and now the Labyrinthin in this Survival Labyrinth. Situations I had never seen in the original broadcast before my regression kept cropping up.
If a variable like me was causing changes in this program...
Well, I'd just have to deal with it as best as I could.
I boiled the kettle. I put instant coffee into two cups and poured the hot water.
"You even brought coffee? You're amazing." I set one cup in front of the chattering Seo Ji-woo and placed the other in front of myself.
"Thank you!" Seo Ji-woo held the cup tightly, a look of pure ecstasy on her face. I listened to the sounds outside the cabin.
We sat in silence for a moment.
Whoooooosh—
A harsh resonance. Outside, a biting wind seemed to howl, but the air inside was warm and peaceful.
Slurp. Seo Ji-woo drinking her coffee as if she were eating noodles was a bit off-putting, but...
Still, she was a celebrity. Being with her would help secure some screen time from here on out. I had wasted so much time building this cabin that I doubted I'd even get five minutes on air.
Who would want to watch a former soldier build a cabin? I'd be lucky if my scenes weren't completely edited out.
That was one of the reasons I had agreed to take her in.
I sipped my coffee and checked the timer.
Eight days had passed so far, with a little over six days remaining.
"Since it's the eighth day... today must be that day."
"That day?" Seo Ji-woo asked, her eyes wide. I gave a brief reply.
"The premiere."
Seo Ji-woo, who seemed to be calculating the dates in her head, suddenly slapped the table. "...Ah! You're right! Today is our premiere!"