The moment I saw the word “penalty,” the nightmare of that day came rushing back.
No, it can’t be. Surely not.
The chance of getting the same penalty randomly…
I stopped my thoughts abruptly as a surge of heat rose within me.
I tried to lift my upper body, but I was too exhausted to move.
“Urgh! Gah!”
I coughed, vomiting something from deep inside, while still hunched over the desk.
A damp sensation unpleasantly touched my face, accompanied by the sharp smell of blood.
Squinting my eyes open, I was met with a world tinted red.
Damn you, system. You’re going to drain all the blood from my body. What did my hardworking red blood cells do to deserve this?
I wanted to roll on the floor in agony, but there was no one around to help, and I didn’t have the strength to do so anyway.
Unlike last time, my insides felt unsettled, and I was drained of energy, making me worry that something might be wrong.
The system didn’t even display a message assuring me there was no harm to my body this time.
‘Am I really going to die…?’
My initial intention points were still around 78 or 79. Isn’t it too harsh if the penalty is a terminal illness?
The extreme fear soaked my body in cold sweat, and my hands started to tremble.
As I was cursing the system that could turn a perfectly healthy person into someone with a terminal illness for not having a concept, the system finally displayed an explanation.
[This is a penalty of coughing up blood with no harm to the body.]
[The penalty only includes ‘coughing up blood.’ The subject’s poor health condition is due to personal neglect.]
…Well, I guess I had been skipping meals for a few days and surviving on bread and energy drinks.
[A new ‘Body Management’ category has been added to the Initial Intention points system.]
And it added a new category.
Life just got a bit tougher.
This damn system, instead of relaxing the regulations, keeps adding more.
Reaching for my phone, which was a bit out of reach, I weakly raised my hand and wrote “119” on the desk with blood.
Where the hell is Ryu Jae-hee? He said he was going to the convenience store. What, is he making the food himself in a factory? Why is he taking so long?
As my eyes started to close, I finally heard the faint sound of someone entering the passcode and the door opening.
“Hyung, I got some food… AAAAAAH!”
Something fell to the floor with a thud, and then Ryu Jae-hee’s loud scream pierced my ears.
His voice was absurdly loud, as expected of the main vocalist.
“Hyung, Eden hyung! You’re alive, right? This isn’t a murder scene, right? Hyuung, please say something, huhuhuh…”
As he shook me, sobbing, I coughed out bloody phlegm. Ryu Jae-hee pulled his hands away in shock.
What’s the point of asking if this is a murder scene while shaking a person? What if I had actually been stabbed, you idiot?
With great effort, I weakly tapped near the spot where I had written “119,” and Ryu Jae-hee, seeing it, started to whine.
“119? What’s this? I can’t decipher dying messages!”
His idiotic remark made me so mad that, either from that or the system trying to mess with me, or wanting to engrave the importance of quests into my mind, I coughed up more blood.
After coughing out the blood pooling in my mouth, I used the last bit of my strength to speak.
“Call 119, damn it…”
As I lost consciousness, I muttered curses at the system.
[Profanity detected.]
[Initial Intention -2]
As pain engulfed me, my vision also faded to black.
Damn it, if I wake up and it’s the first day of my debut again, I’ll tear this system apart.
* * *
I opened my heavy eyelids, hearing sniffling sounds.
Blinking my blurry vision, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
Turning my head slightly, I saw Ryu Jae-hee crying by my side.
Damn, I look like I’m on my deathbed. Anyone would think I was on the brink of death.
“How long has it been…?”
I asked with a cracked voice.
Surely I hadn’t been in a coma for days and missed the comeback broadcast date.
If that were the case, I’d lose 20 points in one go. Wouldn’t I be reset…?
The terrifying thoughts making my hands tremble were interrupted by Ryu Jae-hee’s response, sniffling from crying.
“It’s been five minutes since you were brought to the ER… The manager hyung is on his way, and it’s a relief you’re awake…”
Five minutes? No wonder I didn’t even have an IV in my hand.
Sighing in relief, I used the wet wipes Ryu Jae-hee handed me to scrub the dried blood off my face.
“Eden, are you okay?”
The manager hyung, who had rushed over, placed a hand on my forehead.
“Sigh, this is driving me crazy with the comeback coming up. Ha-jun’s fever also went up to 38 degrees, so I just dropped him off at the ER.”
“The ER? Is it that serious?”
“All the local clinics are closed in the evening. But haven’t you had this happen before? You said there was nothing wrong back then.”
“Yeah, that’s true…”
Holding back the urge to jump up and down, I anxiously waited for my turn.
Since I was relatively okay, I was not a priority patient in the ER.
“Excessive caffeine intake, lack of sleep, and malnutrition.”
Hearing my diagnosis, I blinked.
“Does coughing up blood come under the symptoms of excessive caffeine intake?”
“There is no instance of excessive caffeine causing bleeding…”
Except for the fatigue from lack of sleep, my health was apparently fine, so it was decided that I’d just receive IV fluids and be discharged.
At this point, I had to accept that the penalty didn’t harm my body.
But how could coughing up so much blood not affect my health…?
Transferred to a two-bed room for IV fluids, I looked at Ryu Jae-hee, who was scolding me with red-rimmed eyes from crying so much.
“You overdid it. I told you to eat properly and not just drink energy drinks…”
“You too, you were scolded for picky eating just like me. It wasn’t you who told me to stop being picky, it was Ha-jun. You should get your memory checked while you’re here. And-”
Watching the IV drip, I sighed briefly.
“I have a mountain of work to do. With the comeback coming up, I couldn’t skip practice, so I had no choice but to overdo it.”
Checking a text from the manager hyung, who had gone back to check on Gyeon Ha-jun, I found out that Gyeon Ha-jun had the flu, the flu.
This is bad. The comeback is the day after tomorrow, and now Gyeon Ha-jun has the flu.
We’ve been practicing hard, so we’re not at risk of making mistakes on stage, but performing while sick is unfair to both the fans and the sick person.
As I rubbed my aching forehead, Ryu Jae-hee, looking surprisingly moved, spoke resolutely.
“For the time being, I’ll be your servant, hyung. There’s a convenience store on the first floor. Should I get something from there?”
“No, go back to the studio and clean up the blood and get rid of the smell. And take a picture to show me that you cleaned it thoroughly. You know the passcode, right?”
It would be a disaster if Yong-cheol hyung found his studio covered in blood and freaked out.
I’m going to need to rely on that studio for a few months.
“…I’m really a servant now.”
Ryu Jae-hee scratched his head and trudged out of the room. Ten minutes later…
There was a knock on the door, and it swung open.
“Eden hyung! Are you okay? Yehyun hyung is busy taking care of Hajun hyung, so I came on behalf of everyone!”
Kim Dobin entered the hospital room, dangling a gift box of the most popular beverage set. He paused when he saw me lying in bed with an IV in my arm, still in blood-stained clothes instead of a hospital gown.
“Hyung, how much time do you have left…?”
I was too tired to get annoyed at this otaku for playing along with my supposed terminal illness, so I just responded half-heartedly.
“Until all the leaves on that tree outside fall.”
I pointed to a tree outside the open window, which, coincidentally, had only a few leaves left clinging to its branches. Just then, a gust of wind blew the last leaf off the tree.
At the same time, the last drop of IV fluid fell.
“Hyung, does this mean you’re dying…?”
“Dobin, let’s stop this at the first verse.”
“Yes!”
Nodding, Kim Dobin timidly asked,
“But hyung, are you really okay?”
“No.”
As my stomach started to churn again, I opened the beverage set Dobin had brought and grabbed an aloe drink.
“So, when are you getting discharged?”
Soon, a nurse entered the room and removed the IV needle.
After the nurse left, I changed out of my bloody clothes into the clean ones Dobin had brought and gestured for him to help me.
“Now. Pack up my clothes and the drink box. Text Jaehee to go to the dorm, not here.”
“Now? Why are you getting discharged so soon?”
“Because I’m fine.”
“But you just said you weren’t okay.”
“I have a reason to leave quickly now, don’t I?”
And that’s all because you left Gyeon Hajun with Seo Yehyun, of all people.
As I got up, Dobin muttered under his breath, looking somewhat exasperated, “Is hyung a new species or something?”
I was still suspicious that the system had planted some mysterious illness in me that caused the coughing up of blood, but there was no need to tell Dobin that, right? He might start thinking we’re in the same boat, when for me, this is real.
“This was a waste. I paid more at the convenience store.”
“Take it to Jun instead.”
I snapped at Dobin as he hesitated, closing the open box.
“We’re in a hurry, so stop dawdling! And you should have offered to take care of Hajun yourself. How could you leave him with Seo Yehyun?”
“Yehyun hyung said I shouldn’t catch anything since I’m the main dancer…”
With my face covered by a mask and hat, I went through the discharge process. Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, no one recognized me.
‘Damn, I won’t make a fuss about calling 911 again.’
Seeing the amount on the receipt, any thought of making a scene disappeared.
Standing with Kim Dobin while waiting for the manager, a status window suddenly popped up in front of me.
[Do you want to use the random ticket? Yes/No]
The random ticket I had received for clearing all the weekly quests appeared. Though I didn’t like being forced to use it now, I was confident that the system wouldn’t give me a useless item, given the circumstances. So I chose Yes without hesitation.
[You have received the item ‘Panacea Potion’!]
[Due to public scrutiny, the potion is packaged in a regular water bottle. Please understand.]
A Samdasoo water bottle rolled onto the floor. For an item, it was quite… underwhelming.
As I examined the label that read “Panacea,” I thought,
Will drinking this stop me from coughing up blood?
***
If you want to support the translation and the translator, please buy a coffee ♥︎
