* * *
The survivors, who had been tense from the sudden presence, relaxed and welcomed us with visible relief.
They must’ve had a ton of questions, but not one of them pressed us for answers.
They simply exchanged glances, thankful that we were alive.
Judging by the food we brought, they must’ve guessed the rest.
Leaving behind the now-buzzing hideout, I stepped out onto the beach.
I plopped down onto the same sand where I’d watched the sunset yesterday and stared blankly at the dark, undulating sea.
“It feels like I’ve been here for a year.”
It had only been two days, but I felt utterly drained.
With a deep sigh of exhaustion, I pulled out a mango from my inventory pouch.
I peeled the skin with a dagger and popped a slice into my mouth—its sweetness washing away some of the fatigue.
That’s when I heard someone walking across the sand—again, someone who just couldn’t leave me alone.
“Aren’t you hungry? Want some?”
I cut a large piece of mango and held it out beside me, but got no response.
Curious, I turned my head—only to find Cha Rui standing there, not Woo Jaehyun.
“⋯⋯.”
Our eyes met.
Cha Rui frowned slightly, as if displeased.
Then, in a move that didn’t suit him at all, he pulled out a checkered handkerchief, thoroughly soaked it with water, and held it out to me.
“Wipe up. I can’t stand the sight.”
“Uh, oh⋯.”
I took it, confused. What exactly couldn’t he stand?
After a brief hesitation, I awkwardly wiped around my mouth.
Cha Rui let out a quiet sigh, took the handkerchief back, and lowered himself to sit in front of me.
When he knelt on one knee, I was too flustered to move—my eyes darting everywhere but him.
Then his rough hands began gently wiping under my eyes.
Ah… I completely forgot.
No wonder people kept avoiding looking me in the eyes.
Since it was near my eyes, I reflexively blinked a few times, then closed them altogether.
But for some reason, Cha Rui stopped moving.
His hand, which had been wiping with the cloth, came to a sudden halt.
Wait, come to think of it—I do have hands.
Overcome with embarrassment, I quickly opened my eyes and snatched the handkerchief from him.
“Ahem, I’ll do it.”
I hastily wiped under my eyes, glancing at him.
The pristine handkerchief instantly turned a dark, bloody color.
It felt like I’d just dirtied something precious—leaving me unsettled.
“I’ll wash this and give it back.”
But just as I neatly folded it and tried to tuck it into my inventory pouch, Cha Rui suddenly grabbed my wrist.
Startled, I turned to him—and saw that his eyes had gone red, as if holding back anger.
Wait, is he mad because I took his handkerchief?
“W-What’s wrong⋯?”
I stammered, lips parted slightly.
Without warning, Cha Rui yanked my arm and pulled up my sleeve.
Ugh.
The rough movement made my wounds sting.
As I suppressed a groan and looked down, I saw the inside of my arm—crusted with dried blood and looking like a complete mess.
The cuts had been so deep that some spots were still oozing.
“⋯⋯.”
Cha Rui silently stared at the markings on my arm.
Then, without a word, he pulled out a top-grade healing potion.
Wait—he’s going to use that?
I nearly blurted out how wasteful that was.
But seeing his hardened expression and reddened eyes, I held my tongue.
“Thanks.”
As my arm returned to a clean, unmarred state, I tried to break the awkward tension by asking something that had been bothering me.
“Earlier, I thought I heard something about a tracker. What was that about?”
I’d vaguely overheard the term in the pit.
A tracker had been implanted, or something.
If Woo Jaehyun had someone tailing me behind my back, I was definitely going to have words with him.
But instead of answering, Cha Rui pulled out a pocketknife.
It didn’t look like a game item—just a regular knife.
“This’ll hurt. Try to bear it.”
“Wait—”
Before I could stop him, he grabbed my wrist and sliced the back of my hand with the sharp blade.
It happened so fast I barely felt the pain.
Seriously, how many times does this make it?
Why is everyone so obsessed with cutting me open?
At least Cha Rui’s touch was gentle, so it wasn’t as painful.
But that didn’t stop the irritation from bubbling up.
I was about to snap when something odd caught my eye.
He pressed his finger against the shallow wound, and between the split flesh, a strange object emerged—a tiny bead-like thing, less than a centimeter wide, with multiple legs sprouting from it.
It didn’t wriggle like a bug—it moved more like a machine.
“What… is that?”
“A tracker.”
“What?”
I stared at the squirming thing in disbelief.
I thought it was just a metaphor.
But no—there had been an actual tracker implanted in me.
Suddenly, all the times Woo Jaehyun had shown up at the perfect moment made sense.
So did the sting I’d felt on my hand back at the hospital.
“Don’t trust that bastard too much.”
Cha Rui crushed the tracker with a flick of his thumb.
It made a disgusting, static-laced mechanical squelch as it broke apart.
Woo Jaehyun…
That bastard’s completely insane.
Speechless, I stared down at my now-clean hand.
Then, reflexively, I looked up—because I heard something in the sky.
Thup-thup-thup-thup—
Faint, but unmistakable.
“A helicopter.”
At first, I thought I was imagining things.
But a red dot blinked faintly in the pitch-black sky.
It had to be a search chopper looking for the missing plane.
The others must’ve heard it too—they came running toward the shore, waving their arms frantically.
“Over here! Over heeere!!”
“There are people here! Don’t leave!!”
“Shit, it’s getting farther away! Do something!”
A woman—who looked like a Maltese—grabbed the “Grasshopper” guy by the collar and shook him violently.
And she was right—the helicopter was slowly drifting away.
It was too dark, and a single campfire wasn’t enough to signal them.
What now?
If we missed this, who knows how long we’d be stuck in this dungeon?
Could we even get out at all?
Just as I nervously bit down on my lower lip—
Fwoosh—
Something shot out of the forest at high speed and lit up the sky like a massive firework.
For a moment, it was so bright it felt like midday.
I couldn’t see clearly through the glare, but I was sure it was Chirpy.
I’d been worried he wouldn’t make it back—but he showed up at the perfect moment.
My frozen lips finally curved into a wide smile.
“Chirpy, make it even flashier!”
As if responding to my cry, Chirpy painted the sky in dazzling, multicolored bursts—just like in the cave.
It spun wildly in the air, putting on a show that was impossible to miss.
Sure enough, the once-faint red dot grew sharper and clearer.
The helicopter had spotted us.
Everyone stared at the sky in awe, bursting into cheers as they jumped up and down in place.
Could there be a more perfect ending than this?
As the two of us clung to each other, crying, a shimmering blue gate appeared in the distance.
In front of it floated a reward item box, suspended in midair.
It was an unbelievable sight, and yet no one around paid it any attention.
No—now that I looked closer, it seemed they couldn’t even see it.
“It’s over.”
A sense of relief washed over me, tinged with a faint emptiness.
It wasn’t the ending itself that felt hollow—more like something inside me did.
I looked briefly at the child beaming brightly with a fistful of candy, then turned and began walking toward the gate.
“Hyung.”
At some point, Woo Jaehyun had appeared beside me, smiling as he caught up.
But I quickened my pace and walked ahead, my expression hardening.
I didn’t want to see his face right now.
Maybe he sensed something off—Woo Jaehyun came to a sudden stop behind me.
But I paid no attention.
Pretending not to notice, I retrieved the item box and called out to my companion, still sparkling beside me.
“Let’s go, Chirpy.”
Chirp!
At my call, the little creature zipped into my pocket in one swift motion.
Without hesitation, I stepped into the gate, ahead of the others.
A familiar wave of disorientation came over me, and then I was greeted by the familiar cityscape.
“So quiet.”
Time flowed differently in the dungeon, so it was already dawn in Seoul.
Thanks to the roadblocks from the dungeon break, the area around Cheongdam Station was eerily empty—no cars, no people.
A Seoul this quiet felt foreign to me.
Even after years of working as a deliveryman, I’d rarely seen it so still.
How strange.
EX dungeons constantly shifted their gate locations, so it wasn’t unusual for no one to be waiting on the other side.
A gate that was in Seoul could appear in Busan in the blink of an eye.
Judging by the subtle shift in the gate’s coordinates, I was lucky to have landed in the same city.
“My powers are back…”
I clenched my fist and focused on the mana flowing through me.
Just then, the other two stepped out of the gate.
“Hyung.”
“You both did great. I’ll be going ahead.”
I turned and walked away before Woo Jaehyun could say a word.
Whatever the reason, planting a tracker on someone without their knowledge had crossed a line.
Even if it was for my sake.
* * *
