Episode 22
“… ”
I thought I would sleep soundly in a cozy and comfortable bed for the first time in a while free from the worry of being chased by zombies. However, my dreams were restless, and I woke up early. I couldn’t believe I was being chased by zombies even in my dreams… I truly felt sorry for my situation.
“Ha…”
I sighed quietly and soon shook off my thoughts, cautiously lifting my head. There, I saw his face, deeply asleep. I was startled and tried to move away, but I couldn’t because of his arm around my waist. I was sure I had turned my back to him when I fell asleep, so why was I hugging him now?
I tried to escape his embrace carefully, but he didn’t even budge. It was impossible for me to get out by myself.
I had no choice but to wake him up to get out of this situation. But… was he having a nightmare? He didn’t look so good… When I looked more closely, I noticed his condition—he was groaning in cold sweat.
“Hey, Lee Do-yoon, wake up.”
I called him and shook him several times, but he showed no sign of waking up. I clicked my tongue inwardly at how deeply he’d seem to have fallen asleep. Soon, I gave up on waking him and struggled once more to get out by myself, but suddenly, he tightened his arm and pulled me in tightly.
“Noona… don’t go… don’t… go.”
“Hey, you’re not sleeping, are you? Let go of this. How long are you going to be like this?”
Thinking he was awake, I hit him on the chest and tried to push him away. However, he just kept mumbling not to go without opening his eyes, making me think he was sleep-talking.
Oh, what kind of dream was he having to even talk in his sleep?
“Do-yoon, Do-yoon. LEE DO-YOON!”
Ugh, he just won’t wake up.
In the end, I gave up on waking him or getting away. At first, being like this was not bad because it was warm, but now I was frustrated because I felt a bit uncomfortable. So what should I do? He won’t let go. Sighing, I resigned myself to his embrace once more and hugged him. At some point, I fell asleep again grumbling inwardly that I would hit him on the back when he woke up.
***
“Did you have a nightmare?”
I asked him, loosening up my body that’d become stiff from sleeping too long. He, who had just woken up and looked dazed, hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“…Why do you ask?”
“You didn’t look so good, and you wouldn’t wake up when I called you, so I thought you might be having a nightmare.”
“I just had a rather unpleasant dream.”
An unpleasant dream?
Then I remembered that in the game, every time he slept, he would have nightmares that would drain his mental strength. But except for today, he didn’t seem to be having nightmares when I watched him sleep…
“Do you have them often?”
“Not often… but I do have them once in a while.”
“I see.”
Since there was nothing I could do about it anyway, I decided to move on for now.
“By the way, how do you feel now?”
It was a bit of an insensitive question to ask someone who had just had a nightmare, but it couldn’t be helped for the sake of our future schedule. He tilted his head, as if thinking about the meaning behind my words.
“You haven’t tried using the ability you got then, right?”
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot for a moment.”
“I was thinking of trying it out, but there’s a… side effect, I guess you could say. There’s a bit of an issue, so I wanted you to use it while I am monitoring your condition.”
“A side effect?”
“Well… wasn’t it mentioned in the description or something?”
“I don’t think there was something like that written separately.”
Was it not mentioned from the start? I didn’t remember how it was in the game…
All I remembered was that the mental strength gauge would decrease every time the ability was used, and I’d see the character talking to himself occasionally. Oh, this is why I mustn’t use that ability too much.
“Then let’s move past that. Do you want to try using the ability?”
“…Even if you tell me to try it, I don’t know what to do.”
“Well… was that not explained either?”
“Um… maybe not?”
“Then what exactly was explained about the skill?”
What was this? Wasn’t it supposed to be usable right after obtaining the skill?
From the moment you get it, a separate skill button appears, and when you press it, the protagonist uses it accordingly.
“It was just briefly written. Something about being able to manipulate darkness…”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t hide my bewildered expression and kept blinking as I looked at him.
Really, that was it? There was no mistake, that was just it? This was too insincere…!
To be honest, if I didn’t know anything and only heard his words just now, it would be easy for me to misunderstand that he had middle-school syndrome* 1[Chūnibyō (中二病) is a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. It translates to “middle-school syndrome].
“Hmm… then…”
How do I explain this?
“Have you ever seen someone use magic in comics or movies?”
“I have.”
“How about trying it out like that?”
No, I would need to have done something like that before to be able to explain how to do it.
“For example, when someone manipulates fire or water, they create it out of air, right? So, you should have a thought on what to create with something, no?”
Let’s think about it… I remembered using shadows a lot in games. That was because it consumed less energy. Creating darkness itself and using it sharply drained your energy, on the other hand.
“Why don’t you try using your shadow?”
“Shadow?”
“Creating something out of air is like creating something from nothing, so it’s going to be hard. You should practice with what’s already there first.”
I got up from my seat while saying that and stood with my back to the light. A shadow then appeared in front of me.
“How about trying to move this shadow? You can gather it to make something else.”
“Hmm…”
He seemed to be troubled as he looked at my shadow. After a few minutes, my shadow suddenly began to wriggle and then gathered into a round shape. I looked at him in awe at the sight. He didn’t seem uncomfortable or in pain yet.
“How do you feel now? Does your head hurt or anything?”
“It doesn’t hurt, per say. I feel.. I’m not sure.”
“Let’s keep going. Now that you’ve moved the shadow, let’s make it three-dimensional.”
“Three-dimensional…”
“Right now, it’s just flat, so try to pull it apart a bit and make it three-dimensional.”
It sounded like a difficult request even to me, so I expected it to take longer this time. I tried to think of something else and wait patiently for him. But then…
“Huh?”
“Do I do it like this?”
He casually lifted the shadow from the floor, creating a round sphere, then changed its shape again to make a penguin. A penguin? I tilted my head at the sight of the penguin with its round body, stubby wings and legs, and a small beak. Why a penguin all of a sudden?
Soon, the penguin waddled around a bit before suddenly running towards me. Then it climbed onto the top of my foot, flapping its short arms and rubbing its body against my leg. It was crazily cute. I crouched down and stroked the penguin’s head. The touch was hard to describe in words. Since it was made of shadow, it was only natural that it couldn’t replicate the real texture of a penguin.
“Why did you suddenly make a penguin of all things?”
“I just tried making something simple. You just need to attach arms, legs, and a beak to a round body for it.”
“That’s true.”
It was certainly made simply, making it feel more like a penguin character than a real penguin.
But if he was going for something simple, wouldn’t a smaller bird be better than a penguin?
“It’s simpler than I thought. It’s convenient because it changes as soon as I think about it.”
He said so, and then he made a rabbit and made it hop around.
“That’s great. How’s the control?”
“It’s not bad.”
“You can always control it, but if it gets tiring, you can also command it to move on its own, right?”
There was no need to worry. He was learning so quickly.
“But how are you feeling? Doesn’t your head hurt? Or like, do you feel unwell…”
“Hmm… My head does hurt a little.”
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like his mental energy was drained too much.
“You can get rid of that now. Good job. In the future, when fighting monsters, using something like this will be convenient.”
Thinking about it, wouldn’t this be possible? For example, when we encounter a monster, he could create an exact copy using its shadow and have it fight a mirror battle while we sit back and watch while sipping honey.
Indeed, just imagining it made me feel good. If we could clear stages like this, it was clear that reaching stage 10 would be a breeze. With such pleasant thoughts in mind, I watched the bird flying around the room. Despite telling him to get rid of it, he’d created a bird with his shadow. For some reason, his face looked a little excited.
“Do you like animals?”
“Huh? Ah…. I do like them.”
I asked that because he kept making them, and his eyes sank as if he were lost in thought for a moment. Well, I liked animals too.
‘Huh? Was that why?’
In the game, he used to use up his mental energy creating small animals and carrying them around, even when not in combat. I thought it was because he was lonely, but was it just because he liked them? That was probably it. If I was asked to create something in this situation though, I was more likely to make a weapon to protect myself or a replica of the countless zombies I’d seen than animals.
“Anyway, since the reason we’re here is food, shall we go and scavenge for some?”
With that conclusion, I was ready to move to fulfill the purpose of our visit here. The thought of using this ability to thoroughly loot the food from the mart and make those guys eat dust was too exhilarating.
“Scavenge for food?”
“Yes! We’ll loot it clean. I’m going to turn everything upside down.”
Just imagining it made me feel full, and I smiled with satisfaction as I went over the plan in my head once more.
“Do you know you’re making a really wicked expression right now?”
Startled by his words, I changed my expression. Did I really look that way?
Feeling somehow embarrassed for showing him such a side of me, I adjusted my expression and urged him on.
“Ahem… Anyway, let’s get ready to go.”
I put on the coat I had left aside and roughly combed my hair with my hands to tidy it up. Although we were going for food, there was someone we had to meet before that.
“Is my hair okay? I can’t tell because there’s no mirror.”
“It’s fine.”
“Really? That’s a relief. Anyway, given the situation, they probably won’t be in the best state either….”
First impressions were important in every encounter.
“What…?”
“You come here too.”
He didn’t understand what I was saying, so I pulled him over, his head tilted, and fixed his messy hair. He seemed startled by my sudden approach and stepped back, but soon calmed down. After tidying him up, I thought this was good enough and headed towards the door.
“Alright, let’s go.”
I led him away, thinking of her, who was here somewhere here, drowning in grief and suffering.
Thanks for the update ❤️