The White Ceiling
A considerable stretch of time later, Minjun slowly opened his eyes. What filled his vision was a stark white ceiling, and the faint, rhythmic beeping of machines. The smell of disinfectant hung in the air. His body felt as heavy as lead; he couldn't put any strength into his arms or legs. A crushing pain still lingered in his chest.
"...Where..."
His voice came out cracked. His throat was parched dry.
He looked around. A curtain had been drawn. He was lying on a hospital bed barely wide enough for a single person, an IV drip in his arm, an ECG and a respiratory monitor arrayed beside him.
Minjun lay there dazed for a moment, then with great effort reached out and pressed the nurse call button.
"Oh my. Patient Park Minjun. You're awake?"
"W-water, please..."
"Just a moment. I'll get the doctor for you."
The hospital room door opened and nurses filed in. Confirming that Minjun had come around, they called for the doctor at once.
A short while later, a middle-aged surgeon entered carrying a chart. He looked Minjun over through his glasses, then spoke in a calm, clinical tone.
"Mr. Park Minjun. You've regained consciousness. That's fortunate."
Minjun turned his head with difficulty to look at the doctor.
"...What's... my condition?"
The doctor flipped through the chart as he answered.
"You sustained extensive full-body burns and significant internal organ trauma from electrical discharge and explosive blast pressure. All the shrapnel embedded in your skin and organs has been surgically removed."
Minjun's pupils trembled. The memory of taking the Thunder Horn Beast's strike came flooding back with brutal clarity — and with it, the crushing blast pressure when the grenade launcher exploded. His entire body had been seared by the beast's lightning, and on top of that he had been shredded by the blast and the shrapnel from the exploding launcher. He had been left a wreck.
"An ordinary human would have died on the spot, or at the very least been left with permanently irreversible disabilities. It was an extremely serious situation."
Injuries that should have killed him instantly — or left him disabled for life.
"However, as a C-Rank hunter, you possess Physical Enhancement and a regenerative healing factor. Thanks to that, you were able to avoid fatal injury, and you are still recovering gradually. Quite remarkable."
The doctor laid out Minjun's current condition in a matter-of-fact tone. Minjun kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling, turning the words over in his mind.
C-Rank... I survived because of my ability?
The power he had always felt was so pitifully weak compared to Jia's had, in the end, saved his life. Even as a C-Rank, Minjun's body possessed several times the strength and durability of an ordinary person. And while his healing factor wasn't particularly fast, it offered the hope of recovering from injuries so severe an ordinary person could never heal from them — without lasting disability.
But that fact brought him no comfort. If anything, it left a bitter taste.
After the doctor left, the nurses checked the IV and the monitors and filed out. Left alone in the silent hospital room, Minjun slowly raised his hand. It trembled faintly. He couldn't put any real strength into it.
The van's wrecked... and we lost almost all the equipment.
The scene flashed through his mind. The Thunder Horn Beast's massive horn. The blue lightning. And Jia's back as she hauled him on a cart, nearly naked.
The van he had thought of as practically their entire fortune as a couple being destroyed had been a shock. He had poured nearly all his savings into buying it when they started working together as a hunter couple.
Minjun closed his eyes amid the sense of loss, the pain throughout his body, and the haze of the painkillers the nurses had administered.
A considerable stretch of time later, the door opened again.
The one who entered the hospital room was Jia.
It had been less than an hour since Minjun had regained consciousness. Jia was dressed formally, appropriate for the solemn atmosphere of a hospital — a neat white blouse beneath a gray cardigan, and a black skirt. But even beneath that modest outfit, her voluptuous figure could not be hidden. Her breasts, well beyond an H-cup, strained against the blouse. Her slender waist and well-developed hips showed clearly through the skirt. Her long hair was tied neatly, but a faint weariness lingered on her face.
Jia sat beside the bed and looked down at Minjun. Her expression was as aloof as ever, but her gaze wavered slightly with concern for him.
"You're awake. That's a relief."
She said it as if exhaling, the tension leaving her at the sight of him conscious.
"...Jia."
Minjun forced his mouth open. His throat was hoarse; his voice barely came out.
"The van... what happened to it. The Thunder Horn Beast? The mana stones? And... are you hurt?"
Jia was silent for a moment. She turned her gaze toward the window, speaking as if to deflect.
"You don't need to worry. I took care of everything."
"Give me specifics. The van's a total loss, right? The equipment? Did you recover anything? What about the bounty?"
"Minjun-ssi."
Jia turned her head and looked him straight in the eye. Her gaze had gone strict and cold again.
"The more you worry right now, the slower you'll recover. Rest. That's what matters most."
Her voice was low and firm. The same cold, expressionless tone she used in the middle of a fight.
Minjun wanted to ask more, but his lips wouldn't open. Jia's eyes clearly carried the message: don't pry any further.
Jia set a small fruit basket on the table beside the bed. Then she gently pulled his blanket up over him.
"I talked to the doctor. He said you'll need to be hospitalized for about a month. But with your healing ability, there's nothing to worry about. So until then, don't think about anything. Just lie there."
"Th-that's..."
Minjun wanted to grab Jia's hand. But his body wouldn't obey. He could barely twitch his fingers. Jia looked down at his trembling hand hanging in the air for a moment, then gently tucked it back under the blanket. The warmth of her body through her fingertips was, for just a moment, warm.
"Don't think about anything. It's bad for your body. Right now, just think about your health."
With that, Jia opened the hospital room door and left. The sound of the door closing rang out briefly.
Minjun lay still, staring at the ceiling. Jia's retreating figure lingered before his eyes — the voluptuous curves beneath that modest outfit, and the expression that coldly suppressed her emotions.
Again... I'm the only one left in the dark.
Only the mechanical beeping of the hospital room sounded in its regular rhythm. Minjun slowly closed his eyes. His body was as heavy as lead, and so was his heart. He knew Jia was worried about him, but the frustration of knowing nothing sat heavy in his chest.
Beneath the white ceiling, Minjun drifted back to sleep.
When Minjun woke again, the room was dark. He turned his head slightly and saw that beyond the window, it was a dark night.
He suddenly noticed a small tablet terminal installed beside the bed. It seemed to have been provided so inpatients wouldn't get bored — TV, internet, that sort of thing. He wondered if he could even turn it on.
With great effort he reached out and flipped the switch. Fortunately, once it was on, voice commands were available so he wouldn't have to type on a keyboard. For Minjun, who could barely even move his fingers, it was a blessing.
Wondering if there might be news about their accident, he spoke in a low voice.
"Hunter Park Minjun..."
The screen flickered for a moment, then search results appeared.
Search: Hunter Park Minjun
No relevant results found.
There were almost no related articles. His name barely even registered in the search. Minjun swallowed, then opened his mouth again.
"Hunter Han Jia..."
This time was different. The screen instantly filled with the latest news. Article after article poured out from the top. Minjun's pupils trembled faintly. Forcing his shaking fingers to move, he began slowly reading the headline of the article at the very top.
"W-what the hell is this...?!"
A stunned groan escaped Minjun's lips. The headline alone was shocking enough — but the article did not stop there. The body was packed with photographs of Jia.
Someone had photographed her from a distance the moment she arrived in the safety of the city streets after rescuing him — nearly naked. The images captured her exactly as she had been: hauling the cart with nothing but torn scraps of cloth barely covering her chest and hips, her body soaked through with sweat. Her breasts, far beyond an H-cup, hung heavy and swaying beneath the scrap of fabric. Her slender waist, her plump, generous ass, and her taut, powerful thighs were laid bare in the sunlight. Even the back view was there — her long hair plastered to her back with sweat, a spear gripped in one hand, dragging the cart with the other.
Those photographs had already spread across the internet.
Minjun's hands shook violently. Every time he swiped the screen, similar photos and articles unspooled without end. Some articles ran close-ups of Jia's strained, exhausted face. Others had gone further — edited crops that emphasized the lines of her chest and ass.
This is... impossible.
He couldn't breathe properly. His wife's near-naked body had been laid bare before an untold number of strangers. While he had been unconscious, the image of Jia walking all the way to the city streets almost naked, dragging him behind her, had become something the entire country could see.
And the comment section was even worse. Thousands upon thousands of comments had been posted. Most of them were crude sexual remarks from men who had gotten off on the photos of Jia's naked body.
The vulgar comments unspooled endlessly down the article. It was as if he could see it — the spectacle of countless men stroking their cocks while looking at Jia's naked body.
The comment section was packed with remarks tearing Minjun himself down as well.
He kept swiping the screen with his fingers, but his eyes couldn't quite find their focus. The lust and mockery of countless men, all directed at his wife, filled the display in black text.
Minjun's lips trembled. His chest tightened; his breathing grew short. The pain that had been dulled by the painkillers now came rushing in from a different direction entirely.
Jia... reduced to this... all because she was trying to help me... to suffer this kind of humiliation.
The tablet screen's blue light faintly illuminated the dark hospital room. In that glow, Minjun stared blankly at the nude photographs of his wife and the tens of thousands of sexual comments beneath them.
Jia walked all that way to save me... and now that image has become spank material for men across the entire country.