Say You Want to Live (2)
A few minutes earlier, at Fairy Corporation.
Ram was screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Help me! Sagosul!”
Sam joined in from beside him.
“Dasukete!”
Then the real Sagosul appeared, and the orc finally died by his hand.
Chaaak!
“!?”
“······!”
They had asked for help, but the sight of the battle against Kerak left both fairies with their jaws hanging open.
“He even awakened Kerak, and he was level 30······.”
Ram muttered in a daze. Sam added,
“That guy······ he knows the orcs’ combat tendencies inside and out.”
Orcs were vulnerable to ambushes but strong in prolonged duels. Techniques with high lethality in short bursts were their weakness. Massive fireballs or tidal waves of magic were meaningless against them.
‘Of course he knows them well.’
He had played the hero seven times already. Even if he were given the same power as Kang Hae-il, the way he wielded it would be on an entirely different level.
This guy was a complete monster. Trying to clear him might actually be impossible.
“Not yet······.”
Ram clenched his teeth.
Impossible?
There was no such thing. It was only impossible for now.
Hadn’t they already taken down Pam, who had been riding high on success?
Who would have guessed he would be the first fairy to use Storyboard 3.0? Who would have guessed he would receive support from headquarters?
Life was full of unknowns.
“Kang Hae-il······ We need to get something out of Yu Jihun here. Guide him quickly.”
“Yes!”
Clink!
With a small amount of coins, they nudged Kang Hae-il’s subconscious. It wasn’t anything grand. Just making him briefly think, “Is Yu Jihun’s party safe?” would be enough.
Julian, who had no blood or tears, would never accept such a subconscious suggestion no matter how many coins they poured in, but Kang Hae-il was the type to entertain that thought easily.
“How much time until Yu Jihun’s threat is realized?”
“Soon, very soon! He’s approaching!”
“Turn Kang Hae-il’s head! Turn it!”
Kang Hae-il remained silent. He was simply searching for someone with all his might.
‘Where the hell did that porter go?’
He was only looking for the porter.
“No, Hae-il! The porter isn’t what matters right now!”
After the Gangnam Station Gate incident was resolved.
Ambulances were parked all around the area.
“Are you all right?”
“Ugh······ Ah, no······.”
“Damn it······.”
“Kgh······.”
Paramedics were treating the wounded. Among them were actual doctors and rescue workers, but many Awakened with healing skills had also been deployed.
“Someone heal over here too!”
Wooong!
With them around, even severed limbs could regrow for the Awakened. Yu Jihun stared blankly at his own arm regenerating.
“Hah······ Hah······.”
He was panting, his complexion pale. Was it the aftereffects of battle? No. Something else weighed on him far more heavily.
‘Damn it······ Because of my choice······.’
It was responsibility. Every one of his comrades lying beside him had lost a limb or been badly injured. Had they all ended up like this because they followed the wrong leader?
‘How many died?’
The ones lying here were the relatively fortunate ones. There were comrades who had lost their lives entirely. Five had died, and five more had suffered severe injuries.
‘The orcs were much stronger than I thought.’
Crunch—
Yu Jihun ground his teeth in rage toward the monsters. Then a certain someone came to mind.
‘The guy who said he could handle the orcs.’
The mage who had joined the party not long ago. Wasn’t he the root cause of this disaster?
Just then—
Thud—
Footsteps approached. Yu Jihun’s eyes widened.
“You······.”
It was him. The mage in a black hood, staring at his surroundings with a dry, expressionless face. Even now, with most of his comrades lying injured and missing body parts, the mage’s face remained unchanged. He looked as calm as if he were out for a stroll. That calmness only fueled Yu Jihun’s fury.
“You son of a bitch! Where the hell were you!?”
The mage had claimed he could handle the orcs, yet he had vanished the moment the fight started. With his supposedly outstanding magic skills, he had quickly earned everyone’s trust within the party.
“Calm down! You shouldn’t get up.”
The paramedic healer tried to stop him, but Yu Jihun couldn’t hold back. Whose fault was it that they were in this state!?
“You······.”
Veins bulged at Yu Jihun’s temples as he shouted in outrage.
“What made you think we could fight them!? Was there even one thing you said that turned out to be true!?”
Thud—
In an instant, Yu Jihun leapt up and grabbed the mage by the collar.
“Hey! Patient!”
The healer beside him tried to intervene, but it was too late. Yu Jihun was already drawing up his mana.
“I trusted you too much just because your skills were decent.”
He intended to judge his own mistake with his own hands.
“Answer me! Go Jin-seok. What the hell made you spout all that bullshit!?”
A mage was at a disadvantage when an enemy got close. They had almost no means of self-defense. Even with one arm unusable, if Yu Jihun willed it, he could turn Go Jin-seok into a block of ice right here.
Yet Go Jin-seok’s face remained eerily calm.
“I didn’t say anything wrong. We could have handled them just fine.”
He didn’t even back down.
“What······? You can still say that after seeing what happened to my party? If it weren’t for that crazy bastard Sagosul or whatever, we’d all be dead!”
Crackle!
Yu Jihun summoned a sword with his mana. Only then did a crack appear on Go Jin-seok’s glass-like face. But it wasn’t despair or fear. It was mockery.
Pfft.
“Ah. Yu Jihun-ssi. You really don’t understand, do you?”
Go Jin-seok answered in a completely different tone.
“······Who are you?”
When asked for his identity, Go Jin-seok replied with something else entirely.
“Didn’t you say it yourself? That it was ‘something you couldn’t win against even if you died’?”
“Who the hell are you?”
The mana sword crept closer to Go Jin-seok.
“And didn’t I reply that it wasn’t something you couldn’t win against even if you died?”
“You······ Who the fuck are you!?”
Crackle!
The blue mana surged violently, the sword trembling as if it would strike Go Jin-seok down at any moment. But Go Jin-seok answered,
“If you die, you can win.”
Wooong!
The magic circle Go Jin-seok had prepared in advance glowed red from all directions and burst into flames. It was a magic unlike any he had ever seen before. An ominous energy radiated from it.
Go Jin-seok spread his arms wide as if moved by that very ominousness and shouted,
“If you die and become an offering to the Great One! You could have won! Even if a greater trial comes! With Him, you can win!”
“You die instead!”
Boom!
Yu Jihun’s sword charged straight at Go Jin-seok, but—
“!?”
Red chains shot up from the ground and bound the sword. The chains began restraining not only Yu Jihun but everyone nearby.
“As long as you’re inside this magic circle’s domain, you cannot harm me!”
“You······ What the hell is your identity?”
“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t be able to reach the truth—”
Just as Go Jin-seok was about to ramble on, someone cut him off.
“What do you think? Just some black mage group chat loser.”
A man walked casually through the red magic circle’s domain as if it were nothing. Red chains whipped around in a frenzy, yet none of them struck him.
“Y-You······ The porter······?”
Yu Jihun muttered in a daze. The man was the porter, Moon Junil. He had come in his porter form, not as Sagosul.
‘Hoo.’
Junil took a deep breath inwardly.
‘This better work.’
At first, he had planned to deal with Yu Jihun. After all, the man seemed likely to threaten Kang Hae-il’s position beside him. But later, his thoughts changed. Simply getting rid of him wasn’t a good move.
‘Even if I remove him, it’ll just create another side effect.’
Because of the nature of storyboards, major events would happen no matter how much Junil interfered. Trying to block the flow would only make it gush out stronger, like water under pressure.
The same applied to stories. You couldn’t just block them. You had to guide the current.
‘Make Yu Jihun an ally, but keep him under my control.’
Currently, with just Kang Hae-il and Moon Junil, Kang Hae-il trusted Junil quite a bit. But with three people, the dynamics would shift. Yu Jihun would see the porter as nothing but F-rank trash, which would cause problems in every decision.
So Junil appeared exactly as the porter. Right in the middle of this red magic circle where everyone was becoming offerings.
“Who are you?”
Go Jin-seok asked, puzzled by the presence the chains refused to attack.
“Me? Just a porter.”
“You’re not an Awakened.”
The chains tracked mana to attack. Ordinary paramedics and officials who weren’t Awakened were all running for their lives, but the chains weren’t chasing them.
“I am an Awakened.”
“······You’re lying.”
Go Jin-seok didn’t believe him.
“Then you must become an offering as well.”
He believed the ritual the “Great One” had taught him couldn’t possibly fail.
Pfft.
Junil sneered.
“Why? Is that what your group chat told you?”
“Everyone with mana inside here must become an offering!”
Go Jin-seok shouted, eyes wide.
“Why are you yelling at me when it’s not even possible?”
“It must be because you’re not an Awakened!”
“That’s right?”
“Then show us your rank!”
Ding~
Junil displayed his rank.
[F]
“!”
Go Jin-seok’s eyes widened in surprise at first, then he burst into laughter.
“U-Uwahaha! F-rank!? An Awakened who’s F-rank!? Ah, I remember now. You were the one riding the police motorcycle earlier······ That person, right?”
“What can you possibly do by coming here?”
Go Jin-seok pointed his long finger at Yu Jihun and his comrades. Rumble······! They were being slowly sucked into the magic circle.
“Can you stop them from becoming offerings?”
“Huh?”
Junil tilted his head.
“Why should I stop it? They looked down on me for being F-rank too. Just let them die.”
“You bastard! Then why the hell did you come!? Call your real body, Kang Hae-il! Fuck!”
Yu Jihun shouted in fury.
“Hey. Yu Jihun-ssi.”
Junil shifted his gaze and spoke. A sharp sensation.
‘······Huh?’
At that moment, Yu Jihun felt something. A strange pressure.
‘That can’t be. He’s just F-rank.’
It couldn’t be. This guy was the weakest, trash, a useless Awakened. The kind of worthless people Yu Jihun hated most. Society’s vermin.
“You never valued F-ranks. Therefore, die.”
Damn it. What the hell was he saying?
Yu Jihun’s Constellations were furious at Junil’s attitude. But Yu Jihun couldn’t see their messages anyway. What he saw were his fallen comrades. They had become cripples because of his words, and now they were about to be offered as sacrifices. Even the healers who had only come to treat them were caught.
‘Because of me······.’
It all felt like his fault. Junil spoke once more.
“Say you want to live. Yu Jihun. Then I’ll save you.”
Wasn’t this just a rotten lifeline? What could an F-rank possibly do? But······
“I······ want to live.”
Yu Jihun squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed the rotten rope.
“What? I can’t hear you.”
“Fuck! I want to live! I want to live! We can’t all die here like this!! Please, save everyone!!!”
Grin.
A wicked smile crossed Junil’s lips.
“Then say you’ll never look down on F-ranks again.”
“?”
Junil had a favorite saying of Julian’s.
‘The first time is hard, but the second is easy.’
It was a thought worthy of a seven-time hero.