Mental Caretaker In An Apolcalypse Game

Episode 42

“Lee Do-yoon….”

I called his name while looking at the firmly closed door with a sense of emptiness. But there was no reply. The door closing coldly as if it had been waiting for him to say he would become a sacrifice himself, and the pure white wall slowly turning blood-red. When all of this came into my mind at once, my brain froze as if it had gone into overload.

I stopped thinking and was staring blankly at the door when I suddenly felt a chill down my back. That chill soon climbed up my neck, making the hairs on the back of my head stand on end.

I was alone. Alone in this abnormal space….

When his presence, which had been with me until just a moment ago, disappeared, the space left was too large. A sacrifice? Offering? It wasn’t like I didn’t completely understand what those words meant. On top of that, the white wallpaper being dyed red. It was like they were telling me openly.

“Hey…. Open this door! Open it right now!!”

I forced my stiff body to move and tried to open the door with it. But the handle wouldn’t budge.

The door remained stubbornly resilient even as I pounded on the door with all my might in an attempt to break it down. Meanwhile, the blood-red color was devouring all the surrounding walls and even spreading to the door.

As I stumbled back from the door at the sight, I realized how quiet it had become around me after my shouting stopped. The sudden silence brought another wave of fear, and only when my arms wrapped around myself did I realize I was trembling. I tried to steady my trembling hand with the other, but nothing changed. Wrapping my arms around myself as if to protect myself made the trembling even more noticeable.

“…Don’t kid me. Open this door right now. I don’t care about any grand purpose, and I don’t want to sacrifice anything. So… open the door.”

I kept repeating ‘Open the door’. I tried to put out the immense fear and calm down as best as I could, but it wasn’t easy. The fact that I was alone in this eerily silent space was too terrifying.

Thinking about the reddening door in front of me and the person beyond it made my fear grew even more intense. Moreover, I remembered the woman lying in a pool of blood not far from here. Why was this white space turning red? We were three when we entered, but it felt as if only one would leave. This place devoured everyone who came in.

‘No, don’t think like that. You’re not dead yet. You’re not dead.’

I shook my head violently, trying to rid my mind of the negative thoughts. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I had been left alone.

“Huh…?”

Then I felt something strange under my feet. When I opened my closed eyes and carefully looked down, I saw a red liquid pooling at my feet, soaking the bottom of my shoes. I followed its trail to see where the liquid was coming from and how it had gotten to my feet, and eventually my eyes reached the reddened door once more. A red liquid was flowing out from underneath it. The moment I realized what it meant, something appeared in front of me.

 

 

「Congratulations. You have discovered the Hidden Piece!」

「Would you like to check the skill?」

「Yes/No」

 

 

Hidden Piece?

I was momentarily confused about why this screen had popped up here, but then I understood what this room was and what the words written on the paper I had just seen meant.

What the hell was this? There was never supposed to be a Hidden Piece here. In the first place, the game only had one hidden piece.

‘Who said they needed something like this? Take it away. Just take it and open this door right now!’

I wanted to scream in anger, but I knew it wouldn’t change anything. Whether I liked it or not, I had passed the test, and the Hidden Piece was given to me as a reward. It was infuriating to see them take something of mine so casually and throw me a Hidden Piece I hadn’t asked for as a consolation prize. I gritted my teeth and glared at the screen in front of me with resentment for a long while before finally opening my mouth.

“Yes.”

I despised it. I despised it, but I had no choice. I suppressed my anger, thinking I might as well see what great thing they came up with to offer after devouring the protagonist.

 

「You have discovered a healing skill.」

「Would you like to acquire this skill?」

 

‘Ha, so after killing someone, you’re giving me the ability to heal now? How fucking messed-up.’

I clenched my fist, trying to hold back the curses that were about to burst out. If I could, I would have punched the face of the person who created this Hidden Piece in such a way.

“It’s like they’re giving medicine after causing the disease….”

Nevertheless, I had no choice but to accept the skill obediently. I checked the description of the skill.

 

「You can heal other people’s wounds.」

 

A single line of a shabby description appeared before my eyes. I suddenly remembered asking him what was written in the skill description. Had his answer been something like ‘You can handle darkness’? The description was equally lacking in sincerity this time as well.

How consistent it was — a bitter laugh escaped me. Just then, the door, which had been firmly locked until a moment ago, slowly opened. My whole body tensed up, and only my eyes, which were staring at the door, shook violently. The thought of wanting to enter immediately after the door opened lasted only a moment; my body didn’t move readily. I was afraid. I was afraid of what scene awaited me beyond that door.

“…!”

But I had to go in. Because of me. Because he did it for me, I couldn’t just leave it be. And if, just if, by any chance, he was still alive, couldn’t I save him with this ability? A faint hope arose within me. I did not know how exactly this ability was, but I couldn’t shake off the thought that this ability, no matter how great it might be, could somehow keep him alive if he was still breathing.

“Huh…”

I slowly raised my hand to grab the doorknob after exhaling a small breath and releasing the stiffness of my body. Then, I pushed the half-open door further to enter.

“…!”

I’d taken only one step inside, but a foul smell of blood assaulted my nostrils, and I instinctively raised my hand to cover my nose and mouth. But that was only for a moment. When I realized that all this blood was because of him, a chill ran down my spine. How much blood had he lost… I couldn’t bear to lower my gaze. Everything around me was already a painfully bright shade of red, and below…

Still, I had to look. Avoiding it wouldn’t solve the problem. Eventually, I forced my gaze downward and collapsed. He was lying there, covered in wounds and blood, as if he had been attacked by something. No part of his body was severely damaged or missing, but there were numerous small wounds. And the amount of blood he had vomited was so much that it had pooled on the floor. His appearance was as if someone had deliberately drained his blood to kill him slowly.

With my teeth clenched, I slowly approached him, trying to suppress the urge to gag from the smell of blood. With each step I took, the sound of squelching as I stepped into the puddle of blood came and sent shivers down my spine, and I trembled uncontrollably. At first, I thought the whiteness all around me would drive me to the brink of madness, but now it was the deep red color that was shaking my sanity.

I knelt beside him and reached out as cautiously as possible, holding back all my emotions and impulses as best as I could. However, I felt nothing when I placed my hand near his nostrils. I thought his breathing might be too weak, so I tried to check his pulse, but I didn’t know exactly where to press and felt lost.

The only thing I could feel was that his body was growing cold. I knew what this meant, but I didn’t want to accept it. I wanted to believe that he was just cold because he had lost so much blood, and that was why he looked pale.

“…”

I bit my lip, trying to hold back the heat in my eyes and the blurring of my vision, and I leaned in as close as possible to hear his breathing. As I held my breath and focused on him in the slow-passing time for a minute or two, I could finally hear his faint breaths, and I felt relieved.

However, I couldn’t completely relax. His breaths were so fragile that they seemed like they could stop at any moment. If he stayed like this, he would surely die. So, I had to use my newly acquired ability to heal him immediately.

“But… how do I use it?”

I wanted to use the skill immediately, but I hesitated because I didn’t know how. Should I just touch him, or should I place my hand on his wounds? Shaking my head to clear the complex thoughts, I first grabbed his hand. His hand was so cold and stiff that it didn’t feel like it belonged to a living person, and I shuddered, but I gritted my teeth and endured it. I silently told myself that I would use the skill.

“…!”

However, nothing changed even as time passed. Thinking that this wasn’t the way, I stopped and instead tried to pour my strength into him with the sincere desire to heal him. At that moment, I felt something leaving my body. Just as I was about to rejoice, thinking it had worked, my vision blurred, my stomach churned, and my body swayed.

‘Is this the price for using the skill…?’

Surprised by the unexpected situation, I quickly regained my composure and continued to pour my strength into him. Then, the wounds on his body began to slowly close. Eventually, color returned to his pale face, and his hand grew warmer. I was completely relieved and happy to see all his wounds finally disappear. But then…

“…Huh?”

I felt something dripping from my nose. For a moment, I thought it was a runny nose because I might’ve caught a cold. But when it dripped past my lips and hung from my chin, I realized something was wrong. Looking down, I saw that my white coat, which had been covered in dried, blackened bloodstains, now had a distinct red dot. As the sound of dripping continued, the dots increased, and I finally realized that my nose was bleeding. I hurriedly raised my hand to stop the bleeding.

“Why do I suddenly have a nosebleed…? Cough! Gasp…”

Unable to continue speaking due to the blood gushing from my throat after the nosebleed, I could only make a bewildered, choked sound, and soon realized the true side effect of the skill. Until the nosebleed, I could still control my body, but after spitting out a mouthful of blood, it felt like something had snapped, and my strength left me, my vision blurring. In the end, I collapsed on the cold floor, continuously spitting out blood, and lost consciousness.

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is the gray text better or just bold like before? wanted to maintain the game like feeling