#180
There was a bustling noise.
The sound was faint at first, as if coming through a transparent membrane, then gradually became clearer.
“Hunter Lee Seong-a…! Support team! Hunter Lee Seong-a is here, please bring a stretcher!”
Lee Han-sol’s consciousness fully returned when he clearly heard someone shouting.
It’s noisy. What is this? Who’s running around like this? Where am I?
The sound of something collapsing, mechanical noises, voices searching for stretchers and emergency medicine everywhere. And the sound of wind. Recognizing these with a foggy mind as if shrouded in smoke, Han-sol slowly opened his eyes. A vast expanse of blue appeared. What is that? Why am I seeing that? Han-sol thought, slowly blinking his unfocused eyes. He could see a helicopter appearing like an insect at the edge of his vision.
‘Ah, the sky.’
The blue was the clear sky without a single cloud. Han-sol finally realized it.
‘But why can I see the sky?’
I was in the gate, so why suddenly the sky…
He stops his thoughts there. With an empty mind like an idiot, he slowly raises his upper body. With every movement, cold, rattling, heavy objects weighed down his body, hindering him. They were stones. Not pebbles, nor boulders, but broken rock fragments. Eerie gray, damp to the touch. Han-sol had seen massive walls of this color many times. The huge rock walls that formed the dungeon inside the gate. If you broke them, they would look exactly like this. But Han-sol wasn’t thinking. He didn’t recognize any of it—that it was stone, that it was dark gray. He was just moving mechanically like a robot in default mode.
“Who authorized the crane to enter? We haven’t even found half the raid roster yet!”
“We need to remove the debris first…!”
“Hunter Choi Tae-hyuk, confirmed here…! Any discomfort when moving? You need to tell us if there’s any discomfort…!”
“Hunter, don’t push from inside! If you push from inside, it might collapse, so please wait a moment…!”
Han-sol’s vision was dizzy as he sat still. The surroundings were filled with broken rocks and twisted metal fragments, as if a huge tunnel had collapsed. In the distance, researchers in white coats were running around with serious faces, and field support team members in yellow uniforms along with numerous people were precariously crossing over piles of stones. It was chaos.
‘This is strange… I was definitely in the gate…’
I was in the gate with Baek-woo… With Yi-dam… According to the plan, the gate core… The gate core…
“…No way.”
Han-sol blankly denied it. That can’t be possible. Think again. Slowly, get your mind straight and think carefully again.
The raid started, and as destruction was about to engulf me, Baek-woo appeared and saved me. He didn’t turn away. So I didn’t die but lived, and Yi-dam disappeared. We chased after Yi-dam, and there was the gate core, and I killed Yi-dam, I tried to kill him, no, again.
Destruction appeared and Baek-woo saved me and so I felt like crying but desperately held it in I couldn’t believe I could go beyond that area of the dungeon because I was alive and the fact that Baek-woo made me feel that way seemed like a dream and Baek-woo you and I being together is changing everything for me look this must have been our destiny all along everything until now was fake it was hard because it was all fake mixed up by the system at its whim that’s why we suffered we’re supposed to be together but we couldn’t be but now everything is fine because we’re together like this so nothing will interfere with us we’ll be happy now I wanted to confess that but I desperately held it in. I thought, not yet. And Yi-dam disappeared and we chased after him and there was the gate core… That can’t be right, again.
Baek-woo saved me, and I wanted to say I love you, I wanted to say I imagined you saving me here every day. I wanted to kiss you, and it actually felt so dreamlike, like I was in a fantasy. I wanted to say I love you. I wanted to say I love you I wanted to say I love you but I desperately held back and then I saw the gate core and the gate core was white like I’d never seen before. No, that’s not right. Please, again.
Again…
“Please…”
Han-sol sat weakly, thinking of the red alert window that said “System Down.” And he thought of the gate crumbling down with a rumble. No, Baek-woo might be crushed to death. With that thought, he tried to crawl toward Baek-woo, but he already saw him lying limp next to Yi-dam as if dead. A red face stained with blood, a red alert window announcing Yi-dam’s successful death, Baek-woo’s red face wet with blood, a red alert window announcing Yi-dam’s death. Baek-woo’s red face. Yi-dam is dead, and the red of Baek-woo who tried to kill Yi-dam instead of Han-sol despite Han-sol being unable to kill him.
…Baek-woo?
Han-sol could no longer crawl. Like an insect sensing danger, he just stood still, blankly staring at that face. Baek-woo wasn’t moving. Han-sol couldn’t approach. Because Baek-woo wasn’t moving. If he approached, he felt he would discover a terrifying truth. The very frightening… fact… that Baek-woo… no longer moves…
And then his consciousness stopped. Just before collapsing, his final thought was: Die buried like this. Don’t survive by any chance, let your head be crushed by falling rocks and die. Don’t survive at all. Please, I beg you.
There’s no meaning alone.
But Han-sol is alive now. He exists in this moment that he has never experienced before. Yi-dam is dead, the gate collapsed as if announcing the end of the system, and this isn’t the bed in the old apartment where Han-sol would wake up after dying and regressing. The regression didn’t happen.
There is no regression. No more going back.
Everything is over.
“No way.”
Baek-woo isn’t dead. It was Yi-dam who died, Baek-woo just, just bled as if he was going to die. It was just that kind of penalty.
The moment that thought occurred, the helplessness that had been sitting in a fog until just now instantly vanished. Han-sol frantically looked around and began to clear away the dust and debris.
“Baek-woo.”
Covered in dirt and dust, he crawled around wildly as if he hadn’t been in a daze just moments ago.
“Ki Baek-woo!”
He digs through the debris, unaware that his nails are breaking. Unaware that fragments of the collapsed gate’s rocks were cutting his skin like knives, he circles and circles the place where Baek-woo had been before he lost consciousness.
“Baek-woo, hey, Baek-woo, answer me!”
He calls that name with all his might, forcing his voice through his vocal cords constricted with fear. No answer comes back. No! No, I said no…! No! I can’t be alone. It’s meaningless, alone I, I…!
This isn’t what I wanted…
Han-sol moved stones like a madman, and moved more. Someone might have been calling him, but he couldn’t hear. Move stones, find Baek-woo. Move stones, save the living Baek-woo. This time, I’ll save Baek-woo. He was focused solely on that thought.
Baek-woo, wait just a little. It’s stifling, isn’t it? I’ll clear all of this away for you. Just hang in there a bit. Remember what we agreed to do if we got lost? We agreed you’d stay right where you are and not go anywhere. That if you wait just a little, hyung will definitely come looking for you, right?
So now too, if you just wait a little… I will, Baek-woo, I will…
“Baek-woo.”
A space created by large broken rock fragments pressed together. Between those gaps, familiar hair was visible. It’s Baek-woo. Han-sol couldn’t fail to recognize it. “Baek-woo, answer me, Baek-woo, Ki Baek-woo.” He kept muttering as he frantically removed the pile of stones.
“Ah…”
Baek-woo was revealed. Disheveled hair, his back view lying face down as if dead, just like Han-sol had seen before he collapsed. Jung Yi-dam, who should have been beside him, was nowhere to be seen, as if he had disappeared along with the system, but Han-sol wasn’t aware of this. It was irrelevant to him, and all his focus was on Baek-woo.
“Baek-woo…”
“……”
“Baek-woo, please get up, Baek-woo…”
Han-sol pulled Baek-woo up with trembling hands. He carefully laid him on his back. The too-blue sky, the brightly shining sunlight. The warm, bright sunlight that Baek-woo loved.
Like when they would lie down together doing photosynthesis when sunlight entered their home, Baek-woo is lying under the sunshine. His eyes comfortably closed. If not for his pale complexion stained with blood… Han-sol might have mistaken this place for home.
“Baek-woo, please…”
He barely managed to place his stiff index finger under Baek-woo’s nose. It seemed like no breath could be felt. Han-sol trembled all over as if he were alone in the dead of winter. Staggering on his knees, he now placed his ear against Baek-woo’s chest. The sound that used to erase all thoughts when heard, that was like a sedative—thump-thump—couldn’t be heard.
“……”
Even placing his other ear against it, he couldn’t hear it.
It can’t be heard.
I can’t hear anything.
Han-sol sat up with awkward movements, as if his soul had left him. All the sounds in the world disappeared in an instant. In reality, he couldn’t hear anything. Piiiiiiing. Only a sharp ringing pierced his eardrums, tearing through his brain, squeezing and numbing it.
What should I do?
Now I… what should I do?
“Hunter Lee…!”
“……”
“Hunter Lee Han-sol…!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
