Finally, last night, Cha Rui, unable to bear it any longer, dragged me out of the hospital room.
His proposal was that even if I didn’t eat, I should at least get a decent night’s sleep at home for one night.
I never mentioned my insomnia, so how did he know?
Cha Rui forcibly carried me and took me home, even though I tried to hold out in the hospital room until the end.
As a result, I was now lying in my bed in my own room.
However, one thing Cha Rui had overlooked was that I still couldn’t fall asleep.
Instead, left alone in the empty house, reckless thoughts began to creep in again.
Yes, the rooftop.
Whenever I looked up at the pure white ceiling, the image of that shabby apartment rooftop, where I had gone to end my life, flickered in my mind.
But I knew my father desperately needed me, so the thought had to remain just that—a thought.
If I could just endure a few more months, my father would wake up, and my life would return to normal.
Creak.
I shifted my gaze from the ceiling and slowly put my feet down onto the floor.
How much time had passed?
I picked up the phone from my bedside and checked the time; it was already past 9:30 AM.
I had been lying blankly in bed for nearly 12 hours.
Since time was already more delayed than expected, I quickly pulled off my shirt and moved toward the living room.
I planned to just take a quick shower and return to the hospital immediately.
I was already cutting it close to prepare the necessary items for my father that I hadn’t packed.
But as I threw my clothes on the floor and crossed the living room, my steps gradually slowed.
The view outside the window belatedly caught my eye.
The city landscape visible through the large window was entirely blanketed in pure white snow.
It had snowed heavily overnight; the roads, roofs, and even the street trees were stained white.
The air was still, and light, cotton-like snowflakes were still slowly drifting down from the sky.
Chirp.
Chirpy, who had seen enough snow even in the EX Dungeon, was glued to the window, watching outside.
Did he understand something?
Or perhaps the atmosphere of the street was just different from usual.
“December 25th.”
That was the date displayed when I checked my phone earlier.
I hadn’t paid any attention to how time was passing, so I didn’t even realize today was Christmas.
When it snows like this, they call it a White Christmas, don’t they?
Truthfully, even if I had known sooner, nothing would have changed.
For some, it might be a day they had waited for months, but I felt no excitement.
Christmas was just a busy, high-earning peak season.
Unless my father woke up miraculously, for me, it was just an ordinary day, no different from yesterday.
“I’ll be right back after a quick wash.”
I turned and was heading toward the bathroom.
I was about to toss my phone onto the sofa when a loud alert started ringing.
It was bound to be a disaster text related to a Dungeon Break, so I planned to ignore it.
According to the movie’s plot, no high-grade Dungeon Breaks were supposed to happen for the next few months.
But the message window that briefly flashed with a bright light contained completely different information.
[Seoul Metropolitan Government]
Today, at 9:44 AM, the First SS-rank Gate occurred near Hoehyeon Station in Jung-gu.
Citizens and vehicles in the area are prohibited from approaching the site. Please refrain from traveling to ensure safety.
“……SS-rank?”
My eyes, looking down at the screen, shook violently for a moment.
I closed my eyes tightly, wondering if I had mistaken it, then opened them again, but it was clearly stated as SS-rank.
The modifier ‘First’ was even attached to it.
‘How could this happen?’
As far as I knew, the time when the SS-rank Gate opened was three months from now.
I had been trying to endure and keep my mind steady until then, but an unexpected variable had arrived.
If the final episode of the movie was truly beginning, my father waking up was only a matter of time.
It merely depended on how quickly the dungeon could be cleared.
For me, who had watched the final episode with the most focus, there was no better opportunity than this.
Even if I hadn’t personally experienced it, I was the only person who knew the beginning and end of the SS-rank Dungeon.
I remembered quite a few hidden elements and was confident I could clear it quickly.
The process would be difficult, but as long as I got my hands on the final reward, the ‘Elixir,’ nothing else mattered.
‘Chirp?’
Chirpy must have found my intense focus on the phone strange, as he approached.
He quietly landed on my wrist and peered at my face.
But I had no time to worry about Chirpy fluttering in front of me; I was already carefully reviewing the movie’s content.
I was concentrating more than ever, desperate to recall even the parts I couldn’t remember.
Knock. Knock.
Just then, a knock sounded at the front door, and I blinked.
‘Come to think of it, did Cha Rui say he would come pick me up?’
Lost in thought, about 30 minutes had passed already.
I hadn’t even washed and had just been standing there blankly.
Forgetting that I needed to put clothes on, I immediately headed to the entrance and turned the doorknob.
My steps naturally quickened because I also had something to say.
If I could enlist Cha Rui first, it wouldn’t be difficult to bring the other two along.
However, the person who appeared when I opened the door was surprisingly not Cha Rui alone.
“……”
The three men, standing side-by-side at the door, stared silently at me, shirtless.
All of them had unpleasant expressions, and Woo Jaehyun even openly clicked his tongue.
“He’s too thin.”
At his whisper-like muttered comment, I reflexively looked down, and my pale body came into view.
As he said, I had definitely lost a lot of weight compared to three weeks ago.
My muscle mass had noticeably decreased as well.
But even objectively, the term ‘too thin’ didn’t fit.
My build was a bit smaller, but I wasn’t so shabby as to warrant this kind of reaction.
‘Maybe it’s different from their perspective.’
I glanced at the three men’s bodies and then awkwardly scratched my neck.
“Did you get some sleep?”
At that moment, Cha Rui broke the silence and spoke first.
He seemed to sense that my mood was somehow different compared to when I was almost unconscious.
Come to think of it, the three men had visited the hospital room every single day for three weeks without fail.
Even if I didn’t say anything or even look at them, they never skipped a day.
‘Who am I to deserve this…’
Even though there was already a fridge full of untouched food, they always brought new dishes.
They probably saw the traces of food I barely managed to eat and left behind.
I knew they had quietly used their influence behind the scenes for my father, both at the emergency room and afterward.
Even though I was a layman in this field, I couldn’t have missed the special attention the medical staff paid to him.
So, honestly, even though I hadn’t slept a wink, I couldn’t show it in front of them.
Now that I had found a solution, I didn’t want to cause them any more worry.
“Oh, um…”
I was briefly wondering how to bring up the subject when, coincidentally, each of their phones started ringing, breaking their concentration.
I instinctively knew the calls were related to the SS-rank Gate.
The guilds must have assessed the situation and were urgently sending out emergency calls to their leaders.
“What is it, how annoying. Did an S-rank mutant break out or something?”
However, the three men seemed completely unaware of what had happened.
They only wore indifferent expressions, as if annoyed by the interruption.
They must have received the disaster text just moments ago.
“Didn’t you guys see the text?”
“Text?”
Only then did they take out their phones, look down at the screen, and narrow their eyebrows.
It truly seemed like they were checking it just now, as all of them were subtly stiffening their mouths, looking speechless.
Since the SS-rank Gate was a first for the three of them too, a heavy silence hung in the doorway for a while.
At that moment, Do Soohyuk, the first to fully grasp the situation, let out a thin sigh.
I unconsciously grabbed his hand, which was about to press the call button.
I felt I had to express my intentions before the situation escalated further.
“I’m telling you now: I will follow you no matter what.”
At my unilateral declaration, the gazes of the three men instantly converged on me.
Their eyes were extremely sharp, as if to ask what kind of nonsense I was spouting.
But my gaze, meeting theirs, was by no means yielding.
This time, I didn’t just ‘want’ to follow; I had to follow, no matter what it took.
A difficult negotiation would follow, but my resolve would definitely not be broken.
*
One week after the SS-rank Gate occurred.
As expected, persuading the three men was not easy.
Far from negotiating, they didn’t even pretend to listen, no matter how much I talked next to them.
Even Woo Jaehyun would resort to feigned ignorance whenever I brought up the SS-rank Dungeon.
He would listen kindly up until that point, but the moment the word came up, he would immediately change the subject.
Honestly, I felt unfairly treated.
The frustration set in later: why should I grovel like this when I was also an S-rank, even if barely?
With the situation like this, I finally had to resort to my last option on the fourth day.
If they wouldn’t negotiate, I had no choice but to act unilaterally.
