Flower of Snow (8)
Seo Ji-hyuk.
Lee Jun-ho knew him. He knew him all too well. Because he was Seo Ji-woo's older brother. Because he was the man who would often visit their school to cheer her on.
"Are you Jun-ho? You look like a celebrity."
He was a man who looked good in a military uniform. A cool, admirable adult.
Back then, Jun-ho had been a short middle schooler, while Ji-hyuk was an adult standing at an unimaginable height. His sturdy build and military uniform made him seem more like a true adult than anyone else.
More of an adult, even, than his own parents.
"I hear you're close with Ji-woo. She's a bit clumsy, so please bear with her even if she gets frustrating sometimes."
Pat, pat. The hand resting on his head had been massive.
In Lee Jun-ho's eyes, Seo Ji-hyuk was the strongest person in the world.
And then, one day, that man suddenly died.
Killed in action.
That was his cause of death.
The funeral home was packed with people in military uniforms. Stars gleamed on their shoulders. Several members of the National Assembly sent wreaths. Reporters showed up to take photos. Once the funeral procession concluded, Seo Ji-hyuk's coffin was buried in the National Cemetery.
It was a death in the line of duty.
Everyone called it a glorious death, whispering about the hundreds of millions of won in compensation, but Seo Ji-woo didn't seem to care about any of it. Within her small frame, only sorrow and hatred clung tightly together, leaving no room for anything else.
Because Seo Ji-woo and Seo Ji-hyuk had been each other's only family.
"...Hey, what are you doing?"
Seo Ji-woo snapped Lee Jun-ho out of his thoughts. She had already conjured some ice. Jun-ho quickly tore the dog tags away and shoved them into his pocket.
He couldn't let Ji-woo see this. Jun-ho still remembered her wailing like a wounded beast on that fateful day.
"Move aside."
"Oh, right."
Seo Ji-woo applied the ice to Seol Ha-woon's upper body. The overloaded circuit was in his left chest. Tangled mana was glowing with a brilliant blue light.
It was dangerously close to his heart.
"Lee Jun-ho. Pierce him here."
Seo Ji-woo pointed to the exact spot. Lee Jun-ho raised his sword and made an incision, carving out a portion of his chest as if sculpting. He couldn't afford to hesitate and make a shallow cut out of fear. It had to go deep enough to almost graze the heart... Thrust!
Blood gushed out. The fluid was a deep, dark blue, looking almost like alien blood.
It was the correct emergency treatment.
"...There, that did it."
Seol Ha-woon slowly began to stabilize. His circuit's recovery rate was remarkable. He was certainly an extraordinary individual when it came to mana. Jun-ho had already realized this when Ha-woon endured the Refinement.
"Whew."
Seo Ji-woo wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Lee Jun-ho stood up.
"...I'm really leaving now."
"Ugh, you stubborn bastard..."
Seo Ji-woo muttered something under her breath, but it didn't register. His mind was in a daze, entirely focused on the dog tags resting in his pocket.
Lee Jun-ho opened the door. A gust of blizzard swept inside, dampening his hair.
"Hey!"
Belatedly, Seo Ji-woo grabbed Lee Jun-ho's wrist.
"Take this with you."
It was a chunk of meat tied to a string.
"I didn't hunt it myself, but I'm sure he would have given it to you anyway."
A fairly large cut of venison thigh.
"...Right. Thanks."
Lee Jun-ho picked up the meat and walked away.
He had his own shelter. It was incomparably shabby compared to this cabin, but it would be enough to keep him warm.
Whoosh—
When I opened my eyes to the howling of the blizzard, Seo Ji-woo was sleeping in the corner, using her wolf familiar as a pillow.
I sat up. My chest stung. There was a wound there. It seemed they had performed some kind of treatment while I was asleep.
"...?"
Suddenly, a strange sense of emptiness washed over me. I tilted my head. I patted my chest, my collarbone, further down, searching my entire body.
It wasn't there.
My dog tags.
Did I drop them during the fight? My mind instantly went blank.
"Dammit—"
Fuck.
"Mmmgh."
Of all times, Seo Ji-woo chose this moment to wake up and roll over. She looked at me with half-open eyes and smirked.
"Oh, you're awake?"
My mind was reeling, but I didn't let it show. I desperately retraced my memories.
There was no way the dog tags had fallen off during the battle.
Dog tags are sturdier than they look. There was no way the chain would snap before my clothes tore. Yet my clothes were perfectly intact.
Which meant someone had taken them while I was asleep.
It wasn't Seo Ji-woo. If she had found them, the atmosphere wouldn't be this peaceful.
It was Lee Jun-ho.
Yawn. Seo Ji-woo stretched and asked,
"How's your body feeling?"
"...Fine."
"That's a relief."
I sat on the edge of the bed.
"...Oh, right. That deer you buried in the ground? I went and retrieved it. With his help."
Seo Ji-woo proudly boasted as she stroked the wolf's back.
"And open the fridge!"
She pointed toward the refrigerator. I did as she said.
An entire large deer was stuffed inside.
"I hunted another one with him~ I didn't know how to butcher it, so I just left the carcass as is."
I glanced at Seo Ji-woo.
"If you had enough time to go hunting, I must have been asleep for quite a while."
"Yeah. About ten hours?"
Ten hours.
First, let's think rationally.
If I had accidentally dropped the dog tags, no matter what desperate measures I took, I would never find them. They would have been buried under the blizzard for ten hours.
For now, I could only pray that Lee Jun-ho had them.
Seol Ha-woon has defeated a hostile Labyrinthin for the first time.
🎁 Acquired: B-Class Random Box!
A night of raging blizzards. I checked the MoMo system. The bonus for defeating a Labyrinthin had been credited.
In other words, according to MoMo, this survival labyrinth was being treated as an actual, real labyrinth.
"This is seriously delicious. How are you so good at cooking?"
Seo Ji-woo marveled as she ate the venison. *Crunch, crunch.* The wolf beside her was gnawing on the bones.
"I brought MSG."
MSG is incredibly cost-effective in survival missions like this. It doesn't take up much space, yet it guarantees flavor.
"Phew..."
Having finished her meal, Seo Ji-woo patted her stomach.
"What do we do now?"
I sat in silence.
Whoosh—
The howling of the blizzard was spectacular. It sounded like an echo bouncing around inside a cave, or perhaps the roar of a bear.
"There's nothing much we can do from here on out."
98 hours remained. We were slowly entering the endurance phase.
I pulled out the animal pelts I had gathered.
"Hang these on the walls."
"On the walls?"
"Yeah. To block the wind."
"But it's not getting in right now anyway."
"Make it tighter. Leave no gaps."
I gripped my hand axe. I planned to go outside and chop some firewood. The weather was brutal, but I didn't have the luxury of waiting for it to clear up.
We were going to need a lot more firewood from now on.
As I'd said before, the final boss of this survival labyrinth was nature itself.
Zzz...
Im Hae-jun was still fast asleep. It was, quite literally, hibernation. That didn't mean he hadn't moved at all during these fifteen days, though.
He had hunted. One deer, two foxes, and twelve rabbits. Exactly enough to get by.
Zzz...
Thanks to Im Hae-jun's unique hibernation method, his calories were perfectly preserved. His underground burrow was now equipped with a system of frozen animal pelts that completely blocked out drafts. He had even constructed a fairly sophisticated ventilation shaft.
Zzz...
In other words, Im Hae-jun was sleeping with meticulous calculation.
"...Ugh."
When a sudden wave of cold forced his eyes half-open, he sluggishly sat up to turn up the heat of his lantern. He poured pre-prepared animal fat into the fuel tank and cast the spell Heat Dissipation. He used a mana crystal—a trophy from the escort labyrinth—as a catalyst.
Archers were positioned halfway between spellcasters and warriors. Thus, Im Hae-jun also knew how to cast basic Standard Spells.
"Phew..."
Deep underground, now significantly warmer, Im Hae-jun pulled his rabbit-fur blanket over himself and lay back down. The fine soil felt as soft and cozy as a bed.
The outside temperature began to plummet rapidly. Frost was starting to form even on the inside. We took turns managing the fireplace.
"Keep it burning. Separate the wet wood from the dry, and keep maintaining the spell."
"Got it," Seo Ji-woo said, using her magic to squeeze the moisture out of the damp firewood.
"In a labyrinth like this, the other contestants must have given up by now, right?"
"No. There are probably more survivors left than you think."
The survival labyrinth was difficult, of course, but it wasn't entirely impossible to clear.
Somewhere in this snowy wasteland, there would be caves, or ruins even better than my cabin. Digging a burrow wasn't a bad idea either, since the freezing cold couldn't penetrate deep underground.
"Here! I've completely dried out this batch," Seo Ji-woo grinned, pointing to the bone-dry firewood.
We had enough firewood.
Actually, gathering any more firewood would be impossible now. With the blizzard and gale-force winds raging simultaneously, any tree or branch would be swept away the moment it was cut.
"Let's eat, then."
"Oh, yeah!"
I tossed some meat into the fireplace.
Our living space inside had shrunk to a mere 1.5 meters in front of the fireplace. It was a relief that I had built the toilet right next to it.
At least we wouldn't freeze to death while relieving ourselves.
18 hours remained. The blizzard hadn't stopped for a single second since yesterday. The cabin was still warm, but we had to remain constantly vigilant against any external threats.
And then...
Knock, knock—
Someone knocked on the door. Seo Ji-woo, who had been half-asleep, flinched in surprise. I approached the door.
I waited in silence, but there was no reply.
"..."
Let's think.
If it were a Labyrinthin, they wouldn't bother knocking.
Even if it were a fellow explorer, it was strange. Having discovered a cabin in the middle of this blizzard, they weren't calling out for help, nor were they trying to force the door open. The single knock from a moment ago was all there was.
Someone with immense pride.
There was only one person it could be.
I grabbed the doorknob.
"Are you really going to open it? You don't even know who it is."
Seo Ji-woo grabbed my wrist, looking at me with worried eyes.
"Because I think I know who it is."
I opened the door. There stood a figure, already turning to leave.
Trudging back the way he came was Lee Jun-ho.
"Huh? Lee Jun-ho!"
Seo Ji-woo called out to him first. Lee Jun-ho paused. He glanced back, showing his profile.
I spoke to him.
"Come inside."
Perhaps this, too, was a butterfly effect.
Lee Jun-ho should have easily endured this survival labyrinth on his own. But because of me, a Labyrinthin had appeared, dragging him into a fight that wasted his time and stamina, leaving him unable to properly prepare for survival.
"Let's get some food in you."
I had a certain level of responsibility to help him.
The number of guests had grown to two. Our food supplies were nearly depleted, but if we rationed them carefully, we could hold out for twelve hours. However, there was something else on my mind that concerned me far more than food.
Crackle, crackle.
The fireplace crackled. It was night, and Seo Ji-woo had fallen asleep. The cabin was filled with silence.
I stared at Lee Jun-ho's face, illuminated by the firelight, and asked,
"...It was you, wasn't it?"
If Lee Jun-ho had taken them, he would understand what I meant.
"..."
He nodded silently.
Thank goodness.
I swallowed a sigh of relief.
With Seo Ji-woo here, it wasn't safe to take them back now, and I didn't want the cameras catching it either. I would get them back once this labyrinth was over.
*Yawn*
With the tension leaving my body, drowsiness washed over me.
Lee Jun-ho spoke.
"Get some sleep. I'll keep watch over the fireplace."
Nodding, I closed my eyes while leaning back in my chair.
Roar— Roaaar—
With exactly 300 minutes remaining, it was no longer just a blizzard—it was a full-blown typhoon. It was a miracle the roof was still intact.
I really did build a sturdy house.
"What do we do? We're out of firewood," Seo Ji-woo pointed to the empty woodbox.
"I'll go chop some outside."
I stopped Lee Jun-ho before he could do anything crazy.
"The moment you open that door, the entire house will blow away."
It was simple science.
In an enclosed space, the structure of the house acts as a shield, creating a pressure differential between the inside and outside. The interior maintains a stable, low-pressure state.
However, if you open the door, this pressure difference instantly vanishes. As the violent wind rushes inside, the air pressure equalizes in a split second. The sudden pressure shift, combined with the sheer force of the wind, will either blow the entire house away or tear it to shreds.
"Then what do we do? The fire is dying out," Lee Jun-ho asked.
"We use this."
I picked up a chair and shoved it into the dying fireplace. The wood caught fire instantly, blazing up.
The backrest had been quite comfortable. It was a bit of a shame.
Creeeeak—
The sound of the blizzard was terrifying. It was a roaring din, like the hands of a giant tearing the sky apart.
"Everyone, dismantle all the furniture."
The solid wood table, the kitchen cupboards, the bed frame, and even the refrigerator. We broke down every single piece of furniture into firewood-sized chunks.