Episode 59
[Back to Ji-ah’s POV]
“You have the others beside this, right, noona? ”
The moment I heard those words, it felt like my heart dropped to the floor.
How did he…?
I was sure I had picked them all up secretly without the others’ knowledge, so I had no idea how on earth he knew.
What the hell went on in this guy’s head…? Or was I really just that bad at hiding things?
Surprised for a moment, I sighed inwardly and calmed my startled heart. Alright. Forget about being caught; I had forgotten about the gem I was supposed to get in this stage. I was too focused on worrying about them. If he hadn’t brought it, I would have had to go back alone later, and the others would have definitely found it strange.
“…Yeah. Thank you.”
I clenched my fist and put my hand inside my coat, placing it in the pocket where the other gems were stored.
“Don’t mention it. Thanks to what you taught me, it was over quickly. Compared to that, this is nothing.”
“… ”
This foxy guy. He was deliberately speaking like that.
I had a lot to say but held back and didn’t open my mouth. I was afraid I might make another slip of the tongue. If it were him, he would definitely catch even the slightest slip and figure out what I meant.
“So. Why are you hurt? I even told you what to do.”
I raised my hand and wiped the blood away from his mouth. Then, I pressed my other hand firmly on his abdomen, feeling him flinch.
“You seem to have been hit pretty hard.”
“I didn’t expect it to be that intense.”
“I told you destroying the machine wouldn’t be easy.”
With my hand on his stomach, applying pressure to use my ability, I felt the blood rush to my nose. I slightly lifted my head and took out the tissue I had prepared earlier, placing it under my nose. When the tissue turned red after a short while, I took out a new one and prepared to replace it.
“Give me the tissue. I’ll hold it.”
“No, I’ll do it. I’m done with your treatment, so go away now.”
“Do you know your voice sounds cute right now?”
“Cute? What’s cute about it?”
Already annoyed by the nosebleed, hearing that annoying teasing voice and seeing him smile made me feel even worse. As I moved away from him and went to where she was, the man who had been talking to her looked at me with a surprised expression.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“It’s just a nosebleed. Nothing serious.”
“A nosebleed?”
“Did you heal him?”
“Yes. But do you really not need treatment, Unnie?”
“I’m really not hurt.”
“What do you mean ‘heal him’?”
Since he didn’t know about my ability, he didn’t understand what we were saying. But I didn’t really want to explain right now, so I just shrugged.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Uh… okay.”
“By the way, since we’ve cleaned up this place, it’s safe to stay here, but we have to abandon this place and head to the shelter anyway. It kind of feels like a waste of effort.”
“Well, it’s all right, isn’t it? We were able to meet him thanks to that, so it’s a good thing.”
“Ah, that’s right. We did, didn’t we? Then it’s definitely not a waste. But can we really go to the shelter? The path leading down is probably still blocked…”
“We’ll think about it later. You never know. It might be gone by tomorrow. You worked hard all day looking around the screening rooms, so just rest for now. We’ll talk about the shelter again tomorrow.”
“Okay, I got it. I hope the bleeding stops quickly. If you keep losing blood like this, won’t you become anemic?”
“I’m already anemic. It’s not like getting worse will kill me. If we can find some later, we should get some iron supplements though.”
Although I said it casually, I was a little worried. It could quickly become dangerous for me if I had to use my abilities to heal a major injury like last time in the red room, or if I used my abilities while in a state of significant blood loss from my own injuries.
***
I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not, but because of the side effects of using my ability, I was so tired that I slept soundly without even dreaming. However, since I couldn’t sleep in a bed, my whole body felt stiff and I had to do some stretching.
“Good morning.”
“Yeah. You’re still the same today.”
Seeing him awake again for the night watch, I felt a pang of guilt.
Come to think of it, he was the youngest here. Was I overworking him too much? Especially since he was always at the fore-front when fighting the zombies…
“Did you sleep well today?”
“I slept well.”
He was really consistent in checking if I slept well every time even though he couldn’t sleep himself.
“Do you want to sleep a little? I’ll wake you up when the others get up.”
“I’m okay.”
“Don’t say that. It’s good to sleep well when you can.”
“I’m really not tired.”
“Haah, okay. Then give me your hand.”
I firmly held his hand, hoping that it would erase any negativity and refresh his mind.
***
“Huh? Why did it disappear?”
“I don’t know, but I’m glad it’s gone though. I thought we’d be stuck here.”
She was surprised that whatever had been blocking the path down was gone without a sound. She stood frozen there, so I told her to come quickly and went down first.
“To get to the Shelter, we’ll need a car since it’s a long way to walk. Should we check the underground parking lot just in case? There might be an unlocked car with the key plugged in or something.”
My words turned out to be true. Well, not really, I already knew it would be the case. I remembered from the game that he had driven this car to the shelter.
“Who’s going to drive? I don’t have a license, so I’m out.”
“I have a license, but I’m not confident.”
“Then I’ll do it. I heard you drove us to the hospital last time. You worked hard, so I’ll do it this time. Just get some rest in the back.”
“Suit yourself.”
Once we decided who would drive like that, we got in the car. Sitting in the back seat with him, I felt a little nervous as I fastened my seatbelt. It was the same when I first got in the car he was driving— it was unsettling not knowing the driver’s skills. I didn’t think she was a reckless driver, but you never know.
‘Wait, what if she gets emotional while driving and just stomps on the gas?’
The thought made me suddenly very anxious. I even thought it would be better if he drove instead of her.
“Alright, let’s go. Should I just go straight from here?”
“Yes, just go straight.”
I turned on the navigation app on my phone, set the destination to the shelter, and passed it to the front seat. Jun-woo, sitting in the passenger seat, then guided her according to the app’s directions. I wished the car had a navigation system, but it didn’t, and there was no place to secure my phone, so he had to keep looking at the app and let her know instead.
Meanwhile, unlike the busy people in the front, I leaned back in the back seat and leisurely looked outside the window.
The next stage was an aquarium about an hour’s drive from here. If we followed the navigation as instructed, we wouldn’t even pass by the aquarium. However, a problem would arise shortly after you departed from the previous location.
The problem was that the road was blocked by cars, making it impossible to follow the navigation’s directions. So, we’d have to make a detour, but that road was also blocked, forcing us to turn back again. After repeating this several times for about an hour, we would all be exhausted. We’d end up parking near the aquarium we’d just “happen” to see and take a short break, and that’d be the start of the next stage.
It was really cruel. If it was going to end up like that anyway, they should have just led us directly to the aquarium from the start instead of making us go around in circles. I seriously didn’t understand why they bothered the players so much.
“Huh? The road ahead is blocked?”
Just as I was thinking that, I saw the road ahead completely blocked by cars.
***
“Ugh… We haven’t been in the car that long, only an hour, so why am I so tired?”
“I know, right? I’m tired too, even though I only drove for a short while.”
After getting out of the car for a moment to breathe in the fresh air, I sighed as I looked at the aquarium in front of me. I had never been to an aquarium before and had always wanted to go, but that was no longer the case. This place was meant for viewing beautiful fish, not for encountering zombie-fish. Moreover, the smell of seawater mixed with the stench of blood was wafting outside the building, so I didn’t want to go in even more.
As I frowned and looked at the place, I felt someone’s gaze. Thinking it might be the others looking at me, I looked around, but they were busy with their own tasks. Ga-eun was looking at her phone with Jun-woo, reviewing the routes they needed to take, and he was standing a little apart, staring intently at something. Curious about what he was looking at so intently, I went over and looked in the direction he was staring. My heart almost sank.
“What is that…”
“I don’t know.”
“Hey, don’t look. It looks weird. It’s creepy.”
What he was looking at was a small pond in front of the aquarium. There, something black and fluttery was rising to the surface of the water, sinking again, and then rising again. At first, I didn’t know what it was, but after a while, I realized it looked like human hair. And beneath it, a pair of eyes emitted a terrifying aura as they stared in this direction. It looked just like a water spirit, so I was horrified.
“Hurry up and look away. They say ghosts cling to those who see them. That looks exactly like a water spirit.”
I couldn’t understand why it was there. There was nothing like this in the game!
“Ah! No! Give that back to me!”
At that moment, I heard her voice crying out urgently.
“Huh? Wait a minute! Ga-eun, it’s dangerous to go alone!”
Then, seeing Jun-woo running after her in a hurry, I knew that this stage had begun and grabbed his hand that was next to mine.
This game gets worse by every stage bruh T-T
