Lead the Way
The Human-Faced Snake felt it the instant she laid eyes on him — every dormant, razor-honed sense snapping awake. The stench of blood stabbed at her nostrils, rolling off him in waves so thick that every survivor she had ever slaughtered seemed like nothing at all.
This was no ordinary smell.
It was the smell of death itself, walking.
In the eyes staring back at her yawned an abyss whose depths she could not fathom. At a glance he looked like an ordinary human. The Human-Faced Snake knew better.
That thing was an existence of an entirely different order.
She swallowed hard and eased her body backward. She had never encountered this being before, and yet the blood in her veins seemed already branded with terror of Han Mir. Her entire body convulsed with fear, as if some instinct she had been born with were screaming through every cell: no matter what she tried, this was a catastrophe beyond her power to survive.
Han Mir's gaze tracked her movement.
"Stop."
That single word sent a chill through her as if her blood had frozen solid. The Human-Faced Snake halted at once.
"Hmm. I get the picture."
Han Mir grinned and crooked a finger, telling her to come down.
She hesitated. Flee with everything she had, or obey?
She was still calculating which gave her better odds of survival when a killing intent crawled up her spine and stood every hair on end. Han Mir had tilted his head, just slightly, and was watching her with eyes gone mad.
Certain that hesitation meant death, she dropped from the ceiling at once and beamed.
"Kyaaah! Wh-what is that?!"
"Whoa, a snake!"
"Mmph mmph mmph!!!"
The others shrieked and scrambled behind Han Mir. The Human-Faced Snake bobbed her head again and again, bowing to show she meant no harm whatsoever.
"Wh-what's going on? Is it... greeting us?"
"Good heavens. A monster that's friendly to humans."
"Eek! It's so cute!"
Han Areum, who didn't have so much as a speck of fear in her, grabbed the Human-Faced Snake's tangled hair and tugged at it like a toy. Surprise and curiosity flickered in the others' eyes, but unlike Han Areum they kept their distance, watching from well back.
"Don't worry. She doesn't bite."
Absolute humiliation. In this place she had hunted survivors at a leisurely pace, never killing them outright — she had wrung them dry with bone-deep terror first. The shame and degradation prickled across her skin, but none of that mattered now.
Obey. Completely. Unconditionally. Anything less is a dog's death.
"Heh. Didn't think any of you were still alive."
Han Mir flicked her cheek as he spoke. The Human-Faced Snake forced a smile and submitted to his touch, careful not to offend him in the slightest. Every time the boy's fingers met her skin, her scales rasped together with a dry, scraping sound.
"Choosing to submit instead of running was a very smart call. If you'd tried to bolt, I'd have stomped that long body of yours flat, burst your guts, and wrung you out like a rag."
"!!!!"
The image of her own entrails rupturing, the fluids leaking from her genitals and anus, drained every last drop of color from her face.
Han Mir smiled sweetly and stroked her forehead.
"Hey. Lower that head of yours."
"K-kii..."
She flattened herself to the ground without protest and bowed her head. Han Mir climbed onto her long serpentine body and waved the others over.
"Everyone, climb on."
"E-excuse me? On... on that?"
"I-isn't that dangerous?"
Even if the monster was friendly, Kim Min-jeong and Lee Ji-han couldn't help but hesitate.
"Want me to leave you behind?"
"N-no!"
"I'll get on right now!"
At Han Mir's words the two of them scrambled over like dogs greeting their owner home from a walk. Kim Min-jeong settled in behind him, hesitated a moment, then gingerly pinched the hem of his shirt between thumb and forefinger. Do Gwang-sik gathered up Han Areum and Kang Hyeon-su — who was still pretending to be unconscious — and soon the entire group was aboard.
Han Mir gave her body a light kick with his heel. She was still planted face-down, unmoving.
"What are you doing? Get moving."
"Kii...?"
The Human-Faced Snake lifted her face cautiously. A question mark might as well have been painted across it. Han Mir's brow furrowed.
"Hah. Do I have to spell everything out? Find the exit. Unless you want to die."
"Kiiik!!!"
She nodded so hard her head nearly came off and launched forward, pouring on every ounce of speed she had, sliding across the ground like a train at full throttle.
"Kyaah! T-too fast!"
Kim Min-jeong couldn't handle the speed. She threw her arms around Han Mir from behind and hung on for dear life. The boy glanced at her, then yanked the Human-Faced Snake's hair.
"Hey, hey. Slow down."
"K-kii."
She eased off at once. After dealing with nothing but monsters that picked fights for no reason, Han Mir found himself smiling at how obedient this one was. He almost wanted to take her back to the real world and keep her as his personal set of wheels.
The Human-Faced Snake, on the other hand, looked one breath away from bursting into tears.
How did I end up as a vehicle for humans?
She wished, and wished again, that this game would just end already.
Thanks to a guide who actually knew the way, they made progress even as the space around them kept shifting. But just as Bunny had said, the place seemed to stretch on without end, and Han Mir was starting to feel the fatigue.
"Hey, how much longer till we—"
"Kiiik!!"
The Human-Faced Snake slammed to a stop so hard everyone lurched forward, faces smacking into the backs in front of them.
"Why'd you stop all of a sudden?"
Han Mir lifted his head and looked ahead. A black shadow stood there, radiating an ominous presence.
No. That wasn't a shadow.
It was a grotesque face, so thoroughly blackened it could be mistaken for one — as if someone had drawn only the outline of a face on a sheet of black paper. The sight sent a chill down the spine.
"Wh-what is that."
Kim Min-jeong trembled, clutching Han Mir's shoulder. The others behind her felt a flicker of curiosity about whatever was blocking their path, but they judged they couldn't handle the disaster that curiosity might invite, and kept their heads down.
"What is it, what is it! I wanna see too!"
"Mmph mmph!"
Han Areum tried to scramble down off the Human-Faced Snake's back, but Do Gwang-sik hurriedly blocked her. He didn't know what that thing was, but if it was the kind of monster that could leave grown adults traumatized, it would do far worse to a child.
Han Mir rapped the crown of her head.
"Don't tell me you stopped because you can't beat that thing."
"K-kiiik..."
She nodded, slowly. She was not the only creature inhabiting this vast space. The place was large enough to teem with all manner of bizarre monsters, many of which even she did not know.
But the thing in front of her was an old acquaintance.
The first time they had met, it had attacked her without warning or reason. She had taken a grievous wound in that fight and barely escaped with her life. She had felt the gap in power down to her bones, and ever since she had gone out of her way to avoid it.
She had been so careful. And now here it was. Fixated on reaching the exit because of the other monster riding on her back, she had let her guard down — a fatal mistake.
"Kiiiiiiiik."
The black shape let out a sound like the screaming hinges of an old door. It had been roughly the Human-Faced Snake's size, but now it swelled, ballooning until it nearly scraped the ceiling.
She twisted, ready to flee — but Han Mir pinned her head down.
"This is the way we need to go, right? Too much of a hassle to detour. I'm borrowing a scale."
He tore one of her snow-white scales free. Fist-sized and pure white, it caught the light with a luminous sheen and reflected a face as clearly as a mirror.
"Kiiiiik—!"
The black shape yawned its mouth wide, loosing that grating noise as it lunged—
Whoosh—!
A sudden gale ripped through the air, and the black shape's face vanished. The Human-Faced Snake stared blankly ahead. The enormous shadow that had loomed over her, large enough to swallow her whole, was gone. Where the face had been, a massive hole now gaped, as if someone had punched a void through a sheet of black paper.
Having lost its core, the rest of its body could no longer hold together. It pattered down like rain and soaked the floor.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go."
The Human-Faced Snake made a decision.
I will never, ever pick a fight with Han Mir.
The path to the exit was anything but smooth. As the space shifted and they drew closer, monsters of every kind came pouring out in waves. Each time, another of the Human-Faced Snake's scales was torn free, and the problem was solved.
Some among those monsters, like her, had the sense to recognize Han Mir's power. The moment they laid eyes on him they slammed their heads to the ground just as she had, begging for their lives. The generous boy accepted them all with an open heart.
Kim Min-jeong swallowed hard and looked back.
A procession of monsters now stretched alongside them. A one-eyed giant. A creature shaped like a flower crab. A zebra with the heads of a lion and a tiger. A colossal lizard. Countless Anomalies marched at their flanks like a retinue of bodyguards.
At last, with the Human-Faced Snake at the head and the monsters guiding the way, they reached the exit. Han Mir hopped down and surveyed the creatures he had gathered.
"Well. This is where we part ways. I've already killed off all the aggressive ones around here, so you lot play nice with each other."
The Anomalies nodded vigorously. Han Mir watched them, then folded his arms, his face twisting as he sank into thought.
"Hmm. What to do. Once I leave, if more people get pulled into this game, you'll kill them, won't you? Yeah, no. I'm gonna have to kill you."
The monsters' faces went deathly pale at this bombshell. Having just watched Han Mir erase the aggressive Anomalies in an instant, they dropped to their knees in tears, slamming their heads to the floor, begging for their lives.
A few of them twisted their bodies into heart shapes, desperate to prove they would never harm a human. Another produced an enormous head of broccoli from who-knows-where, crunched into it with gusto, and shot him a thumbs-up.
Han Mir pondered.
Do I let them live? Or not?