Chapter 38
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 038
Chapter Title: Police Hospital (2)
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A hospital room filled with injured patients occupying all six beds.
A massive man, easily over 190 cm tall, sat on a small round chair, tending to a woman.
She lay half-propped up on the bed with her left leg in a cast, which filled the man with worry.
“Oppa, I’m fine, so go back and rest. You just got off guard duty.”
“...”
“The hospital director said there’s no major issue. I’m telling you to go rest.”
“I’m fine.”
Lee Se-young, whose sharp, striking features made her more handsome than beautiful, was concerned for her bear-like boyfriend.
No matter how many times she said she was okay, he wouldn’t listen. Except when he was on duty or fending off raids, he always stayed by her side.
Even during mealtimes, he’d bring her food and eat with her. Despite her limp, when she tried to get up to use the bathroom, he’d carry her there. And even though he must have been exhausted from duty, he always dozed off on the fold-out bed beside her.
If anything, it bordered on obsessive overprotection.
Of course, if her injuries had left her completely immobile, that level of care would make sense—but they hadn’t.
So Lee Se-young decided to take a tough stance and spoke in a slightly sharper tone.
“Oppa—no, Kim Gun-ho. Don’t I need some time to myself? Please, just go?”
“...”
At her words, the bear-like man, Kim Gun-ho, twitched his thick eyebrows, stood up, and drew the room’s curtain.
Then he placed his chair outside it and sat with his back to her.
“Whew, that stubborn mule...”
Lee Se-young shook her head at the silhouette of his broad back.
He was always like that. No matter how harshly she spoke, Kim Gun-ho never left her side.
“It’s my fault I got hurt—I was careless. It’s not your fault, Oppa. And plenty of people get injured fighting the Apostles. Why are you making such a fuss?”
“If I were stronger, you’d be fine.”
“You’re not superhuman, Oppa. How could you watch just me in that chaos? And this is a light injury anyway. Thanks to your skill, I’ll heal fast.”
“...”
As Kim Gun-ho responded to her complaints with silence again, she let out a deep sigh.
“With you always here, the other patients in the room feel uncomfortable. You don’t want to bother them, right? So go already.”
“...”
When she coaxed him gently, the massive silhouette shuffled to the farthest corner of the room.
Like a child playing hide-and-seek, thinking if they couldn’t see themselves, no one else could either.
“Whew, that big bear...”
Truth be told, Lee Se-young knew why Kim Gun-ho was so obsessively protective of her.
That was why she couldn’t even get mad at the guy and just suffered in silence like this...
But she couldn’t let him keep acting this way forever.
Just as Se-young was pondering how to send the man away,
“As expected, I knew you’d be here.”
A voice came from outside the room, and soon a middle-aged man walked toward Lee Se-young’s bed.
Recognizing the figure, she sat up and pulled back the curtain.
“Huh? Geun-jae Uncle. Hello.”
Pulling back the curtain revealed Lee Geun-jae, the head of the hospital’s guard post.
He greeted her with a pleased expression.
“Oh! Se-young, feeling any better?”
“Yeah, it’s not a big injury anyway. What brings you here? Is Oppa’s shift already starting?”
“No, Old Man Kim is looking for Gun-ho.”
“Grandpa Kim?”
Kim Hak-beom, the de facto leader here, rarely sought out others unless it involved survival-critical matters. His summons meant something was up—a problem or a task.
Unable to ignore a call from Kim Hak-beom, Kim Gun-ho rose from the corner and approached Lee Geun-jae.
His sullen expression demanded to know the reason, radiating his intent not to budge for anything trivial.
“Well... Someone from Songpa Police Station came looking, asking for someone who worked at Garak Fire Station. Name was... ‘Team Leader Jung Jin-ho’? Something like that. I don’t know the details, but since Gun-ho came from there—”
“Who’s that.”
Before Lee Geun-jae could finish, Kim Gun-ho stepped closer and cut him off.
His expression carried deep emotions unlike the gentle bear from before—as if recalling some incident.
“Oppa, calm down.”
“Who’s that.”
Even at Lee Se-young’s words, Kim Gun-ho’s face remained grave. Cowed by his pressing question, Lee Geun-jae shrank back and mumbled softly.
“...I don’t know that much. But Se-young, why’s this guy acting up? He’s scary.”
“Let’s go.”
Kim Gun-ho, who hadn’t strayed a step from Lee Se-young’s bed, spat out the words curtly and left the room immediately.
* * *
Kim Hak-beom offered water in paper cups, saying he had nothing better, and sat on the reception sofa.
“Sit down, everyone. Geun-jae went to fetch him, so he’ll be here soon.”
Hospital Director Lee Jong-seok sat at his desk handling work. Once he realized it didn’t concern him, he completely ignored Min-jun’s group.
Kim Hak-beom seemed unfazed by the director’s behavior, as if it were routine, and Min-jun and the others followed suit, taking seats.
Then Hak-beom fixed his gaze on Min-jun and spoke.
“You... judging by your gear, have you surpassed Silver rank?”
Min-jun paused at Kim Hak-beom’s words.
‘He properly understands the System.’
Everyone he’d met so far had been too busy surviving to reach this level of insight.
Even Dong-gil, So-hee, and Kang Sang-cheol had only thought about hunting monsters to raise stats. They hadn’t even known why to increase rank until he explained.
If he hadn’t encountered a Star Lord and forcibly ranked up—or received his terminal diagnosis and automatically advanced to Silver on Doomsday...
‘Yeah, if I hadn’t been terminal, I wouldn’t have known either.’
In that moment, a scene flashed through Min-jun’s mind.
- Haha! Of course! How could I not get back in shape with a life reclaimed like this!
The conversation between Kang Sang-cheol and Kim Hak-beom when they greeted each other.
Min-jun stared steadily at Kim Hak-beom.
“Were you a terminal patient, by any chance?”
“I was the type who couldn’t live without smokes.”
“I see. But from your outfit, it looks like you’re still Silver rank—”
The only rank-up method he knew was acquiring ‘Minimum Qualification.’
Normal people could go from Bronze to Silver that way, and terminal patients like him, who started at Silver, could easily reach Gold.
By that logic, the old man before him should be Gold by now.
Assuming he’d fought fiercely to defend this place.
‘Then the hospital must have quite a few like me... Ah.’
As Min-jun reconsidered his assumption, Kim Hak-beom replied softly.
“What do you think the ‘stat level’ of someone who’d accepted their death date would be on that day?”
“...My thinking was shallow. I apologize.”
“No need to apologize. I’m just grateful to be alive. My friends all passed on.”
Hearing that, Min-jun realized how lucky he’d been.
How many terminal patients could have faced Doomsday in perfect health like him?
Probably none others in this district.
What he’d once cursed as the world’s worst luck had turned into a blessing in disguise. Amid life’s mysteries, Min-jun recalled the savior from his dream and offered silent thanks once more.
“Still, the main quest is almost done. Stats are all met; I just need to rack up 5,000 hours.”
Kim Hak-beom smiled and showed his wrist, where a black tattoo read 2,751.
“By the way, do you all have a place to stay? Ah, you came from Songpa Station, so maybe with them?”
“No. We just helped out due to connections; we’re not settled anywhere.”
“Then how about staying at our police hospital? As you see, we have a generator for power, and living conditions aren’t bad. Spiders do swarm regularly... but with power like yours, blocking them would be much easier.”
“...I truly appreciate the offer, but I’m sorry—I have somewhere to go, so it won’t work.”
Min-jun politely declined Kim Hak-beom’s proposal.
Truth be told, he’d considered picking a base and settling down.
But each time, the Sacrifice Mark on his hand caught his eye.
Apostles were drawn to wherever he was.
That fact alone meant he couldn’t stay with anyone.
‘Someday, I’ll have to part ways with So-hee too.’
No, the sooner, the better for her.
Solving the Sacrifice Mark would require dangerous paths he had to tread alone.
Lost in thought, Min-jun snapped out as Kim Hak-beom continued.
“I see, everyone has their circumstances. Anyway, the Garak firefighter’s son, right? So you were heading to Garak Market?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
As Min-jun and So-hee nodded, Hak-beom shook his head and spoke.
“Hm, sorry to bring bad news, but you can’t go there anymore.”
““...What?””
“More precisely, you can’t come back if you enter. Sang-cheol probably doesn’t know either. It happened after that chaos.”
What followed from Kim Hak-beom was this:
One week after Doomsday, the spiders wove webs, steadily expanding their territory until they’d devoured the entire block facing Garak Market.
“They took the south to World Cup Town Apartments, north to Solis City Apartments, and east right up to our police hospital. People have been dragged in there, but none have come out alive—”
As Kim Hak-beom spoke, a ‘clack’ sounded, and a hulking man entered. Kim Hak-beom glanced at him and continued.
“Except that friend Gun-ho. He’s the only one who escaped that demon realm unscathed.”
Min-jun and So-hee turned to look at the giant man.
He had moth-like eyebrows, a low nose, thick lips, and massively broad shoulders.
“Introduce yourself. This is Kim Gun-ho, the survivor from Garak Fire Station you were looking for.”