[You’ve made it this far (^0^)b. As a Returnee who hasn’t given up hope that there are still survivors, you deserve a reward, don’t you?]
[Bonus Quest]
[Find the survivors in the Manastone Exchange (4/29)]
[Reward upon completion: Fragment of Longing]
“Ah! There’s a protective magic circle active over there!”
Lee Sarang shouted excitedly and rushed ahead. Seeing her bolt forward just because she spotted an active magic circle made it clear how inexperienced she still was as a Hunter.
Kim Sibaek frowned at the sudden appearance of the new quest window but quickly scanned the area. There were no traces of monsters nearby.
…Twenty-nine survivors in this building alone?
If everyone was safe, that was good news. But considering the Giantvine’s nature of indiscriminately absorbing anything it touched, that number felt excessive. It wasn’t entirely impossible if they’d quickly and calmly evacuated to a safe spot… but still.
A seed sprouted in a place where demonic energy had been purified. Survivors who somehow defied the very behavior patterns of monsters. Not a single corpse.
It was a far more troubling situation than the vague reward of a “Fragment of Longing.” Even the quest’s wording felt oddly unsettling.
Find the survivors?
Swallowing his uneasy thoughts, Kim Sibaek made his way toward the protective magic circle.
The people rescued from the circle, which was set up in the corner of the cafeteria, were four cooks. No one was seriously hurt, and no one had died.
“We’re all the cooks here. The nutritionist wasn’t around when the monsters appeared… I hope she managed to evacuate safely.”
“I saw her name on the evacuation list!”
“Really? Oh, thank goodness.”
At Lee Sarang’s cheerful reassurance, the cooks each let out a visible sigh of relief.
“Could you tell us exactly what happened?”
After waiting for them to calm down, Hwang Suho posed the question. Beside him, Kim Sibaek carefully studied the survivors. Even with a protective magic circle, how could unawakened civilians remain completely unharmed?
Their testimony only deepened his suspicions.
“Well… I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but honestly, it was only chaotic at the start. That plant… the stem? Or was it the root?”
“The Giantvine!”
“Ah, right. I always get those monster names mixed up… Anyway, it burst through the floor and ceiling, made a huge mess at first, but after that? It was really slow.”
“My daughter bought me a protective magitech device, and I thought about using it, but people said the magic circle was sturdier… So I figured it’d be safer to stick together with the other ladies.”
“We grabbed each other’s hands and sprinted to the cafeteria. The lights were still on back then.”
As their story continued, puzzled expressions started appearing on the other Hunters’ faces.
“You’re saying the Giantvine was slow?”
“It barely moved at all. If it hadn’t burst out like that at first, I would’ve thought it was just some weird overgrown plant.”
The Hunters exchanged uneasy glances, recalling how the Giantvine’s tentacles could pierce through bodies in an instant, coil around its prey, poison them, and absorb them whole. It didn’t make sense. The Giantvine couldn’t detect light, but it could sense movement and vibrations in the air—yet it had let regular civilians run past it unharmed?
The Giantvine’s spores do cause mild hallucinations, but… could they really be misremembering everything because of that? Damn it, I left the toxin analysis device outside thinking we wouldn’t need it.
Lee Sarang rubbed her temples. A shared hallucination among all four was one possibility, but the fact that not one of them had even a scratch still didn’t add up.
Hoping to get insight from the experienced S-rank, she looked around for Kim Sibaek—only to find him already standing in front of the cooks.
“May I touch your foreheads to check for any poisoning from the Giantvine’s toxins?”
“P-Poison? Oh, yes! Please do!”
“Pardon me.”
Kim Sibaek closed his eyes and lightly placed his hand on each of their foreheads, one after another. The Hunters watching widened their eyes in surprise.
“They’re neither poisoned nor hallucinating.”
“You can detect toxins?”
“More or less.”
Strictly speaking, he was using Divine Power to determine whether any conflicting demonic energy had entered their bodies. Ignoring the Hunters’ murmurs, Kim Sibaek turned to Lee Sarang.
“I doubt we’ll get any answers right now. Since they seem fine, shall we move on?”
“Ah, yes! We still have more areas to search.”
Given the Giantvine’s abnormal behavior, there might still be more survivors. The Hunters put their doubts on hold and continued searching.
[Bonus Quest]
[Find the survivors in the Manastone Exchange (7/29)]
[Reward upon completion: Fragment of Longing]
The system window counted the survivors Tae Woon and Seo Gaeun had found as well. Kim Sibaek and Lee Sarang had found one person in the Information Management Office, while Tae Woon and Seo Gaeun discovered two hiding inside a luxury car—sturdy enough to hold off the monsters’ attacks.
The survivors’ testimonies were all the same.
“Y-Yes… We used the Giantvine’s slow reaction to hide inside the car. Guildmaster Tae Woon split the vehicle in half to get us out afterward, but…”
“And?”
“…N-No. Thank you for saving us…”
The CEO of a small company, who had visited the Manastone Exchange alongside one of its staff, broke out in a cold sweat at Tae Woon’s chilly voice. The car doors had warped under the monster’s pressure. Without breaking the vehicle open, there was no way they could have escaped.
Lee Sarang murmured quietly under her breath.
“…I’m getting a vibe. Something’s off.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, you heard that?”
Kim Sibaek glanced down, thinking she might have noticed something important, but Lee Sarang scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Rising up slightly on her toes, she whispered conspiratorially.
“Those two… They’re having an affair. I’m sure of it.”
“…Ah.”
“Think about it. They’re way too familiar for just a boss and employee, but they’re definitely not married. Only the boss is wearing a wedding ring. I’ve got a radar for this stuff. Back at the guild, I was always the first to catch on when coworkers were secretly dating behind everyone’s backs.”
She was still whispering when Tae Woon approached. Remembering the sex-flirting incident from earlier, Lee Sarang’s face paled. She quickly slipped away before things got awkward.
Kim Sibaek, watching Tae Woon casually intimidate even teenage girls with nothing but his presence, quietly activated his mental ‘minor shield for underage protection.’
[Death and Beauty blinks with round, wide eyes. She’s certain she looks at least a hundred years younger.]
“…Alright. I’ll keep my mouth shut until we’re out of here.”
“So, any new leads?”
“Just the same story from every survivor. What about you?”
When Kim Sibaek told him about the newly triggered quest, Tae Woon seemed more interested in the reward than the survivors themselves.
“Fragment of Longing? What do you think that is?”
“Whatever it is, judging by the name, I doubt it’ll be anything useful for stopping the end of the world.”
“You really don’t trust the system, do you?”
“You wouldn’t either if you’d lived through it yourself.”
After all, if you don’t expect anything, you don’t get disappointed. Tae Woon stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Since it says ‘longing’… Your goal is to return, right? Could it have something to do with Mak Slechth?”
“Hard to say.”
Of course, it would be a lie to say he didn’t miss Mak Slechth. But it wasn’t something important enough to earn as a quest reward—not under these circumstances.
“Sure, I miss it. But it’s a place I’ll return to someday. Just because I’m separated from it right now doesn’t mean I need some reward tied to it. If we’re getting rewards, I’d rather have something useful for the situation we’re facing right now.”
“…”
“But that’s just my perspective.”
He shrugged lightly, as if to say, there’s no point arguing with the system anyway. Tae Woon, who had been silently watching, let out a faint smile.
“You’ve got a tough heart, but you’re surprisingly cold-headed too. Honestly, it’s a very practical way of thinking.”
“Growing up in an orphanage and barely scraping by at a dirt-poor company will do that to you.”
The mention of the dirt-poor company—in other words, the obscure Cult that Biendeoé had recruited him into—made Biendeoé flinch slightly.
Seizing that moment, Tae Woon leaned in close to Kim Sibaek. His breath grazed Kim Sibaek’s earlobe, the whisper that followed was low, intimate, and thick with dangerous charm.
