Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All around me was darkness, and I felt nothing and heard nothing.

So this must be what death is like.

I knew I had a physical body, but I could not move my arms, legs, or head. And even if I did, what would have been the point, seeing that I would not have achieved anything by doing so.

But still, this is not how I wanted my afterlife to go.

I think about the family I left behind: my siblings, friends, and boyfriend. My whole life just went in a flash. If only I had believed in a god or something, then maybe I wouldn’t be stuck in this eternal emptiness.

Please, give me one more chance to make my life right. I’m begging you.

A flash, and suddenly, I can feel everything. There’s a light scorching my eyes and warmth too hot to feel remotely comfortable. I know there’s a screeching noise, but what is it from? I realize it’s my voice screaming. The pressure is immense.

“Do you want to play a game?” A stoic voice calls out while I try to cover my eyes from going blind.

“What is this, Saw? What choice do I have?” I yell back, voice hoarse from the screaming. The voice remains silent for a few more minutes and repeatedly calls out the same line; it must only recognize two verbal commands.

“Yes!” I shout, hoping that agreeing will lead to some comfort from this feeling, and I would be correct, the blinding light gone, now a dull shimmer. The warmth feels more like a secure blanket than a blazing fire.

“Player has agreed to join the game.” As I lower my arms from my face, a screen appears before me. It has a place to put my name, and I can choose my gender and age, as well as a customization screen.

This feels almost like I’m being pulled into a full-on video game; what the hell?

I stared at the name area and debated whether to keep my original name or choose something else. Ultimately, I decided on something I like: Eris Bates. With my name out of the way, I followed suit by picking female and then 24.

Now, about the customization screen. I’ll go with 165 cm, black curly hair with face-shaping bangs. So cute! Then let’s give me dark brown eyes and an average body - no, wait. Hot as fuck body because who knows where I’m going. That’s about it for customization; they don’t give me much.
Once I clicked done, another screen popped up, taking me aback.

Choose your class. What is this, dungeons and dragons? The options are Cleric, Fighter, Knight, Mage, and Healer. What should I pick? I have always liked being a sorcerer in DnD, so maybe I’ll pick a mage.

I decided to pick mage and selected the option on the screen, which brought me to—great—another screen.

How many options are there in here? Okay, choose your subclass. There’s Draconic, Elemental, Godly, and…. Oh, death.

With that, I chose my subclass, Death. The screen hummed in response, and I expected a standard explanation for the subclass, but nothing came after—just the low humming.

And that’s when the world went dark once more, but this time, when I became conscious again, I felt the same pain all over my body, this time though, from landing on a trashcan.

Because whatever this thing was literally dropped me from the sky. Thanks, dude.

Alright, what now? I should probably figure out where I am. I've read a couple of fanfictions like this way back when, about getting dropped in some random universe; I'm just happy it's not Attack on Titan. After groaning for a few minutes, I get off the trashcan and check my black hoodie for anything that could help me. It’s not like a game would drop me here with nothing in my pocket, right? Digging through my clothes seemed like the right move, but unfortunately, nothing was there. But there could be a bag or anything around where I fell.

Turning back to the trashcan, I moved some trashbags over that toppled when I fell on the dumpster, and boom! There was a gray backpack. Unzipping the backpack, I found a wallet with my… I’m South Korean??? Man, I should have chosen a better name. Along with the ID were a debit card, two credit cards, some membership IDs, and some sort of Hunter ID. In the backpack itself was a key to what looked like a house, a Samsung phone, a laptop, a spare change of clothes, a bank check with almost nothing in it - maybe enough for a month of living.

If I want to live comfortably in this world, I need to find a job soon.

After being in the alleyway for so long, it was starting to get cramped, so dusting off my clothes, I took my first step into the new world I would call my home and instantly bumped into someone.

“Oh, Shit! I’m so sorry! I did not see you at all, haha!” I said, stepping back and looking to see who I bumped into. Although I wish I hadn’t.

“Yeah, no problem.” It’s Sung Jin-woo… From Solo Leveling???? Of all the fucked dimensions to spit me out, you put me in this one! I didn’t even finish the manwha yet!

I must have been looking at him crazy because his eyebrow cocked at the sight of me frozen in place staring at him. Oh dear, he’s fucking hot but resist! This man is not someone to be around!!

Clearing my throat (and my thoughts), I muster the most nervous giggle of my life, waving my hand nonchalantly back and forth.

“Ah, it’s no biggie! I wasn’t watching where I was going oh em gee silly me gotta get going byeeeee!” And with that, I sped off down the street, not even caring which way I was going because all I really needed to do was get the fuck out of there.

He probably thought I was crazy as shit. I think to myself while opening my bag and digging in. I found the key to the home that was given to me and read the address on the tag attached. The problem is I have never lived in South Korea in my life, and I don’t know how anything here works.

Maybe I should ask someone to help me, but I don’t really know the characters that well, and I could be asking a psychopath back to my house.

Looking at the key, I dug into the backpack again to check the phone; the time read 15:00, so I assumed it was around 3:00 PM. There was no lock on the phone, so I’ll be sure to add one later. Clicking through the apps, I finally found the GPS app and entered the address, sighing in relief.

Thank god for modern technology!

Walking through South Korea, I finally figured I was in Seoul; it felt like a dream. I have always wanted to visit here but never found the time or money to make the trip; instead, I chose to vacation somewhere close to my home in the United States. Sure, I traveled well, but South Korea is on another level of traveling. The whole city seemed to be alive and urban, and on my walk, I even caught a gate or two, which confirmed my being in Solo Leveling. The walk wasn’t too long, only about 30 minutes, giving me time to digest my surroundings.

When the GPS finally dinged the last of its instructions, I began to really note the environment around me, taking in my neighborhood. Something felt oddly familiar about this area, but I couldn’t put my mind to it.

“Oh. We meet again.” NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Chapter Text

Please, I just wanted to scrape by this life normally. Man, he is super hot up close, though. Am I burning again, or what? I hope he can’t tell. Or read minds. Is that a power of his?? Maybe if I pretend I have earbuds in.

“I hope this isn’t an attempt of you stalking me.” He continues, and I start humming a random song, pretending I can’t hear him. I can hear rustling behind me and nearly shriek in fright when his hands brush against my hair to reveal my ears; in fact, I do not have any earbuds in them.

“Who are you? What game are you trying to play? I won’t ask another time.” He leans in and speaks softly right next to my ear, and I almost feel the same way I felt when that bright light flashed at me in space or whatever that world was called. Moving away from him, I hold up my key and dangle it in my face. “I live somewhere around here and just trying to find my apartment. Do you mind?”

Hell yeah, girl, that was too badass. Just stop quaking in your boots, and you’ll really convince him.

His left eyebrow lifts when he scans the tag on the keyring and nods, leaning back to his full height before pointing to an apartment off in the distance. “Coincidence, you live right next to me.” I promise you I’m going to kill whoever set this up.

“Oh, cool! I’ll just… be going then!” I respond, waving him off and dashing to the door; you would have thought I was on fire the way I moved. Using the key, I unlocked the door, kicked off my shoes, and dove straight for the couch in the living room.

Jeez, what a nightmare. But I have some important business to tend to. I wonder if there’s a notebook around here.

Digging around the apartment led me to find a blank notebook and a pen, where I returned to my spot on the couch and opened the notebook.

I need to keep a timeline of everything I know has happened and will happen, and check them off to keep track of where I am. This should be easy since I was in the middle of reading this until I got sucked up, but I wasn’t that far in - I’d say maybe chapter 100 max. Alright….

Scribbling everything I knew in the notebook left me satisfied that I wouldn’t forget anything just in case, and the notebook could always be hidden in a safe spot. The biggest problem would be determining my current position in the timeline.

If I’m at the beginning, I should be fine, but he already looks like he has changed, so that’s impossible. I could also be farther than I read or somewhere after he got his shadow army, and in that case, I’m fucked since he could follow my movements. I just hope I can find out soon. Now, about these powers.

“Open main screen.” And on command, that blue screen from before popped up, giving off the familiar low mechanical hum. The main screen showed me four options: Spells and Abilities, Inventory, Quests, and Store. There was also a vertical side screen that showed my statistics, which were all typical: at 0. It also showed my experience points, level, health, fatigue, and mana bar.

This is similar to the system Jinwoo uses, but we can’t have had the same people give it to us, right?

Going into Spells and Abilities, it looked like a typical upgrade tree, except the upgrades were all greyed out with a lock and a level number over them. I need to reach that level to unlock the abilities and upgrades. The abilities seemed divided into power, spells, and subclass abilities.

I’m curious about the subclass abilities and what my subclass can do, but it’s greyed out until I can gain more points to divvy into here. I didn’t see an area where I could add points to my statistic, so instead of being able to divert all my points into power or wherever I want them like Jinwoo has, I’m gonna have to assume it goes the traditional route of buffing up status as I level up.

Sighing, I scroll through the menu some more and land on quests, where I see one pending quest open. Clicking on the quest, I read over what it says.

“New Beginnings: Complete one dungeon. Gain 100 exp.” Oh cool. I gotta go into those terrible fucking dungeons. But the reward would level me up from 1 to 2 and unlock the first round of skills and abilities on the skill tree so that it might be worth the shot.

“Where can I find a dungeon, and how would I complete it? I have no money or tools to kill. But maybe I can tag along and just complete the dungeon, and it will allow me to pass the quest.” It seems the only plausible way.

Shutting the notebook, I wrote the timeline in, sat up on the couch, and rechecked the time. It’s now 18:00, and I’m getting hungry. After hiding the notebook, I scrolled through my phone, looking for restaurants around the area, and settled on fried chicken and beer. Opening the restaurant app, I placed the order and lounged around, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the delivery driver to drop the chicken off.

Jesus, it’s been like an hour. Where is this guy?

Just as I was about to call the restaurant, there was a knock on my front door. I set my phone down, got up from the couch, and reached for the door, twisting it open as I answered it.
Oldest trope in the book, and I fell for it: hook, line, and sinker.

“Your food was delivered to my door. It looks like since we’re immediate neighbors, the driver got it mixed up. Here,” Jin-woo says, shoving the chicken into my hands; I clumsily grab the chicken and beer and stare in shock at him.

“Dude, what the fuck.” I huffed out, finally having a good hold of the food in my arms.

Jin-Woo didn’t flinch and just shrugged, leaning on the doorframe, “Seems like coincidence after coincedence don’t you think.” Jesus, who does this dude think he is? He isn’t THAT special. Okay, he is, but ugh.

“Listen, just because we bumped into each other doesn’t mean anything. I mean, people who live in the same neighborhoods bump into each other all the time; that’s how a local neighborhood works.” I explain, moving back into my apartment and grabbing the door. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some chicken and beer I would love to eat.” I slowly tried to close the door on him, but the muscle freak did not move an inch, nor did the door.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. How about we start fresh? My name is Sung Jin-woo. I’m 25 and live next door to you with my sister. What’s your name?” He asks, and I sigh, realizing he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I leave the door open and move even further to the apartment, where the living room is, with him trailing behind. I catch him surveying the apartment.

Setting my chicken and beer out on the table, I hand him a can, and he takes it, cracking the top open. “My name is Eris Bates. I’m 24, and I just moved to the neighborhood today. My family got me this apartment. This is my first time in Korea, and I’m here just to… travel and work.” I introduce myself, opening my can of beer. Sitting on the chair opposite him, I grab a piece of chicken and start munching on it to starve off some awkward tension.

“What type of work are you in?” He questions, and I think about the question for a second, asking myself the same thing.

Finally, I came up with an answer, “I’m an E-level hunter, but it’s only a part-time gig since I’m pretty weak. I like to find work wherever it finds me.” I recall my hunter license showing an E rank. At first, I didn’t put the hunter license together, but now that I have seen him, everything makes more sense. He nods at my answer, and I’m presuming he waits for me to ask a question, like 21 questions or something.

“What… do you do for work, Mr. Sung?” I might as well ask him the same questions and learn as much as I can from the guy himself, so I don’t accidentally say something and make myself look more like a stalker than I already do.

“I’m also a hunter, E-Rank. And it’s just Jin-woo.” Aha! So he hasn’t been identified as the 10th S-Rank Hunter yet, which narrows the timeline down a little bit, but not by much.

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll work together at a gate somewhere! I’m actually relatively new to this, so I hope you can teach me the ropes!” I respond, giving him a little smile and sipping on my beer. The atmosphere feels so thick, as if we’re both dancing around the real answers we want and fully aware that the other person is playing the game. I hope he thinks I’m a secretive person and not another player in the system.

“I’m going to a gate tomorrow. We need one more member. Would you like to tag along?”

I feel the beer coming back up.

“You want to go together tomorrow? I didn’t think you’d extend that so soon! I’m telling you, I’m like - fragile. I’ll get in the way!” My words spill from my mouth fast and nervously, throwing my hands in the air as I explain this. He smirks briefly and shakes his head, interrupting my nervous ramble.

“They call me the weakest hunter; if it’s safe for me, it’ll be safe for you. I promise.” He absolutely wants to see if I am that weak or someone he should be wary of. I don’t blame him; many coincidences are happening here. None of which I agree with. But this could be my chance to upgrade and show him I’m not a threat.

“Why would I feel safe about you being the second weakest hunter behind me? That sounds like a bad time for both of us.....Fine, I’ll go with you tomorrow if you’re sure about me tagging along. But I’m telling you! I’m bringing a kitchen knife with me; I really have nothing.” His small grin widens a little at my statement, but I can only stare at him as he rises from the couch and moves to the door to let himself out.

“A kitchen knife will be okay. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 7:00 AM.” And with that, Sung Jin-woo, the man I actively tried to avoid for my first day, left my apartment and fucked up my first day here.

Thanks, Sung Jin-Woo. Thanks, God.

Shuffling into bed finally gave me time to think about everything that happened on my first day and the predicament I put myself in. Staring up at the ceiling, I couldn’t help but think about the people I left behind in my world and how I may never see them again. Angry and upset, I curled into a ball, hot tears streaking down my cheeks as I cursed myself and whatever put me here over and over again.

Well, at least it’s better than an eternity alone.

The next day couldn’t have come slow enough, and by the time I knew it, after my morning coffee and a breakfast bar, Sung Jin-woo was knocking on my door at 7:00 AM sharp, just like he said he would.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, smiling nervously when I looked up at the looming man. “Good morning, Mr. Jin-woo. How did you sleep?” I asked him, closing the door behind me and locking it with the key. Jin-woo motioned me towards a car with a familiar driver, and I inwardly grinned; I love this character.

“It was fine. I just slept. And you?” he asks, walking towards the car; I adjust the backpack on my shoulder and sigh.

“Nervous.” The car door slid open, and a face popped from the driver’s seat.

“Hey Hyung, who’s this? My name is Yoo Jinho, nice to meet you!” Jinho enthusiastically calls out, and I send a bright smile his way, introducing myself back to him.

“Oh, so you’re younger than me! You can call me Oppa!” I catch the blush over his cheeks as he says that and giggle. This guy is too cute.

“Okay, Oppa! I’ll do that!” I laughed, and suddenly, I heard the car horn go off.

“You made our driver pass out. Good going.” Jin-woo points out, and I rush over to Jinho in response.

“Hey Jinho, Jinho! Speak to me, man, wake up. I cannot be a murderer on my second day in Korea!” Shaking his shoulders, trying to get him to wake up, comically, there was a gush of red blood under his nose, which I never thought I’d see happen in real life. After shaking Jinho for a second, the boy finally woke up with a sheepish grin, like he didn’t just give me a heart attack.

“Maybe we should hold off on saying Oppa for now.”

The car door slides shut, and everyone is in their respective places before Jinho sets off and navigates through the city jungle, Seoul. While driving, he tells us about the gate we’re going to today. I tried to pay attention, but the city caught my attention more than his lecture did, and ultimately, by the time we arrived at the gate, I had learned nothing about what was happening inside.

“So everyone is here. Why did you want us all to go inside this time? I thought you didn’t want them inside the gate?” Jinho whispers to Jin-woo, and I note that little comment to write in the notebook later.

They’re still raiding the 19 dungeons, so we’re not far in the manwha yet. Good. I need to catch up to Jinwoo fast if I want to hide anything from him.

“We’re E-Ranks, after all. We need the help.” With that, all the Hunters fell in line to enter the gates; Jin-Woo, Jinho, and I were last in line.

“Hey! Pretty lady, why don’t you leave those two lower ranks and come stay by my side? I can protect you better,” a hunter jeered out. The hunter looked like any regular background character in a manwha: brown hair, some weird silver knight armor, and a sword in hand. The dude had no distinguishable features at all.

I narrowed my eyes at him but chose to ignore his taunts. It was useless to make enemies this early, even if it was some creep.

As we finally stepped through the gate, I couldn’t help but be star-struck. I thought I was prepared for seeing magic in real life, but it is something else entirely when you witness it firsthand. Stepping through the gate, it took everything in me not to gawk like a toddler at every detail inside our cave.

It smelled moist, and the air was thick, brimming with magic energy. It was honestly dark save for a few glittering stones here and there, but one of the C-rank mages lit up the cave with their fire and made the place more visible.

There are different entrances to the cave, so that means the team will split up?

“Okay, guys. It looks like there are a couple of different ways we can do this. We can go one by one as a team through each cavern, or we can split up into teams and check. Group vote?” the chosen leader, a guy named Kim Do-Yun, asked. He wasn’t very memorable either, wearing nothing but plain clothes and handling a short sword. The guy had brown hair and brown eyes and was taller than everyone else, but other than that, really nothing was going for him.

The group around us raised their hands for whatever option they wanted, and it was 3 to 12, with most of the group wanting to split up. Jinho, Jinwoo, and I split into one team, took a cave entrance, and walked down silently.

“So you’re an E-Rank Hunter like Jin-Woo? Don’t worry, Ms. Bates, I’ll protect you both!” Jinho assuredly proclaimed, and I laughed, holding up the kitchen knife I had brought from home with me.

“Please, by all means I think we need all the help we can get!” Jinho puffed up his chest, and I could catch Jinwoo rolling his eyes. The guy never smiled seriously.

As we walked deeper into the cave, the more ominous it became. I knew from reading the manhwa that something usually pops up by now, but we've spent 30 minutes in the cave so far without an attack. It was making me nervous.

Anything with Jinwoo is bound to wind up a bad day.

A creaking noise snapped me out of my thoughts and brought me back to the present; Jinwoo and Jinho were already on edge and, thus, made me on edge, too. As we paused our footsteps to listen better, the creaking got louder and closer to us.

“What could that possibly be?” I whispered to Jinwoo, and he shrugged, looking ahead at the dark nothingness before us. It looked like he was trying to sense what it was, and I won’t interrupt that if it’ll save me.

Suddenly, Jinwoo’s eyes widened, and he reached past me to push Jinho out of the way with a shout, “They’re coming from the sides of the caves, get to the middle!” Jinho and Jinwoo staggered away from the walls just in time, and a green hand reached out of the wall to grab at nothing.

“What could that be?! I’ve never seen something come out of a wall before!” Jinho fearfully says, and Jinwoo cuts the arm that was previously next to us. As Jinwoo and Jinho are busy with the hand, I feel something grab me by my backpack, and I scream.

Man fuck this.

Chapter Text

By the time I wake up from the sheer fright of being dragged through a wall, I notice that I’m no longer in the small corridors of the dark cave with Jinho and Jinwoo.

This cave part looks much bigger, with bags of food and suppliers stashed around the area. I tried moving my arms, but it was no use, and looking down, I could see that my arms and legs were tied, along with my backpack ripped open and scavenged through by my side, but just out of reach. Scooting down the wall, I tried to grab the shoulder strap of my backpack with my foot when I heard a low grumbling and retracted my foot, looking up.

And straight into two dark eyes.

“You, human. You smell different. Why?” the beast groaned, pushing his nose towards me and taking a very non-consensual whiff of me. I scooched as far back up the wall as possible to escape the dude’s nose.

“Probably because I’m the only one here who doesn’t smell like an unwashed ass. I can give you my shower routine if you want.” The beast grumbled in response, taking me by the leg and lifting me eye to eye. I could feel all the blood rushing to my head and yelped, trying not to look at how far off my head was from the ground.

“No time for jokes. Tell me.” The beast spat, and a whiff of his breath almost made me throw up. His mouth was lined with teeth, and inside it, you could see bits of leftover mystery meat from last night’s dinner. I hope it wasn’t human.

The beast looked almost like an orc, with the green skin, but it was much leaner than a usual orc that’s drawn, and maybe a bit smaller too. There were no eye sockets, just black holes, and gold jewelry was donned all around the monster.
Poor guy, he was also bald. Bet he gets no bitches.

“I’m just a human with really good-smelling perfume. Honest.” I cry out, squirming in his grip to try to be let go so at least some of my brain cells can get some oxygen after being upside down for so long. The thing shook me again, and I almost went flying into the wall, a couple of tears escaping.

“Okay! Drop me DOWN!” I yelled, and soon, the monster gave me just that, free-falling from his hands onto the ground. I slammed onto the concrete and moaned, holding on to the side of my stomach and curling up while the monster hovered over me, black eyesockets trained on my crunched body.

“Eat. Find out.” The monster breathlessly muttered, moving over to grab his axe. I scrambled from the floor, grabbed the knife next to the backpack, and ran to get away from the monster. But it was no use when he grabbed my right arm and slammed me back into the wall. Using the kitchen knife, I got one shallow strike when my vision started blurring and black spots forming, though I swear I spotted distant figures.

[Quest Complete! New Beginnings]
[Side Quest Complete! First Strike]
[Bonus Quest Complete! Clear the dungeon]
[0 Kills, 1 Assist]

Those are some tragic numbers.

Before I even opened my eyes, I heard the sound of rhythmic beeping, then the sounds of people talking, and once I finally cracked a peek, it was all white.

“You’re awake! I’m so sorry I didn’t protect you like I said I would! Please forgive me!” Jinho starts, bowing repeatedly next to me while Jin-woo walks up to my other side. “I'm glad you’re awake. I'm sorry about the mess I put you in. I should have been more careful.” I lay a hand on Jinho's mid-bow to stop him and shake my head softly, smiling at them.

“No need to apologize. I knew what I was getting into going in, and besides Jin-woo, you’re the same level as me, it could have happen to either of us right?” I ponder, and Jin-woo nods, sitting back in the corner hospital chair while Jinho sits beside me.

“We’re just glad you didn’t die! That was the first time I ever saw a hand go through the wall! Turns out the cave was an illusion set by some Dark Orc Mage! It seemed solid to us in certain areas but there was nothing there! That’s how they magically appeared.” He explains, fiddling with his hoodie before pulling something out.

“Here’s your cut. You helped a ton, and we need to say thank you.” I pushed his hand with the check away and turned towards the white wall, embarrassed. “For what? I just got myself kidnapped.”

“We wouldn’t have figured it out if it wasn’t for you. You should take the money. You deserve it.” Jin-woo speaks up, and I swear the hardest blush creeps up my face as I hide under the sheets.

“Well I feel much better so will they be able to discharge me? How long have I been here?”

“Give or take a couple hours, let me grab the nurse so they can do one more check!” Jinho responds, rushing out of the room to grab someone. There’s an awkward pause before I turn to Jin-woo again.

“Thanks for saving me, I know you guys didn’t have to as low-rank hunters, but you did anyways.”
“I brought you into that mess, I bring you out. It was only natural I’d try and protect you.”

Oh god my pussy is THROBBING.

An even deeper blush rose across my skin, and I thanked the heavens I chose myself as a slight tanner girl. While I was trying to control my vagina - I mean, emotions, Jinho came back with a nurse, and she looked me over before discharging me. I shoved the boys out so I could get dressed, and then I finally opened the door to see them outside.

“Alright guys, we ready to go?”

“After you Ms. Bates, I’ll drop you and Hyung off and then go home!”

“Sounds like a plan Oppa, thanks.”

When I finally got in front of my apartment, I waved to Jinho as he drove away and faced Jin-Woo as he held out his phone expectantly. To that, I tilted my head.

“Let me have your phone number. We E-Ranks need to stick together.” Blushing furiously for the umpteenth time at his words today, I fumbled in my pockets, looking for my phone before pulling it out. I held it next to his as they dinged, confirming the exchange of contacts.

“I’ll text you!” As he walked to his apartment, I called out to him, and he raised his hand in response. Smiling to myself, I opened my apartment and sat on the couch, opening the main statistics screen for myself.

Alright, let’s see what I have.

It looks like I collected enough points to move on to level 2, and my HP and Mana levels increased with that. Clicking into the Skill Tree, I was met with various options.

Level 2:
Choose 1 to boost: Strength +5, Agility +5, Intelligence +5, Perception +5,
5 Points to spend across Skill Tree

Level 2 Power and Agility Options,
(Cost to unlock: 1 point) Dash Lvl 1: Allows the user to dash quickly
(Cost to unlock: 1 point) Double Damage: Doubles the damage the user deals by hand-to-hand combat
(Cost to unlock 1 point) Precision Evade: Allows the user to evade attacks quickly

Level 2 Spells options:
(Cost to unlock 1 point) Shadow Bolt: This spell conjures a bolt of pure darkness that seeks out and engulfs the target in a swirling vortex of shadows, draining their life force for 2 minutes. It may only be cast once per day.
(Cost to unlock 1 point) Eruption: Causes the ground to erupt with dark energy spikes, impaling and shredding anything unfortunate enough to be caught in the area of effect.

Level 2 Subclass Abilities:
(Cost to unlock: 1 point) Dark Advantage Lvl. 1: When cast, the user is 50% less noticeable at nighttime or in shadows. Sunrays or Fire can expose the user.
(Cost to unlock: 1 point) To the Grave Lvl. 1: The user can speak with the dead
(Cost to unlock: 1 point) Coffin: When cast, the user brings forth a coffin-like shield that protects the user for 1 minute. It can only be cast once per day.

So I can pick a stat to boost and points to spend… Where should I put the points? If I don’t spend them on certain items, can I go back and unlock them, or are they closed out forever? Those quest completions gave me one skill point each, too, for a total of 8. I’ll just have to take a chance and choose the abilities I think are best. Do I want a more combat build or a spells build? The spells right now don’t seem very helpful during combat.

“Okay, I want to boost my agility stat and unlock the following: Dark Advantage, To the Grave, Shadow Bolt, Dash, Coffin, Eruption, Precision Evade, and Double Damage.” The menu hummed in response, and black goo seeped from the edges of the screen, crawling across the floor before levitating and forming into a black sphere.

[Power Upgrades Confirmed, please take]

What do I do with this?

I grabbed the sphere from midair with my right hand, and immediately, the sphere crawled and splashed over my skin, burning into my flesh. A shout escapes me before covering my mouth with my other hand to avoid anyone hearing me. The burning felt like someone was taking a cow prod to my arm, but 100,000 times worse, and I fell to the floor, holding myself while the pain subsided. The menu dinged three times as a black tattoo showed on my skin. It’s marking winding up my arm delicately like a snake coiling its prey. I opened my shirt to see where the tattoo ended, and it stopped just at my collarbone with the face of a snake lashing out.

Just as I was inspecting the tattoo, it faded away. The menu was still on and humming quietly against the stale silence of the apartment.

“Menu, open quests please.”

[Timed Quest: First Kill: Kill your first enemy. (3 Days)]

Jeez.
[Timed Quest: Shadows of the Abyss - The Pact of the Unseen: Make your first pact with a familiar from the dark realm. (7 Days)]

How do I even begin to figure that quest out?

I close the menu and sigh, running my hand over my right arm, trying to retrace the tattoo from memory. I wonder if the tattoo shows up when I use my powers. Will it always burn like that when I upgrade?

Just as I was about to shower after the day’s events, I heard a notification from my phone, and I stretched my joints, popping a few while reaching for my phone on the wooden coffee table.

Jin-woo:
[I thought you were going to text me. What happened?]
[I also heard shouting.]

Me:
[It was no biggie! I slipped and almost fell, so I screamed, lol.]
[Why were you worried for me?]

Jin-woo:
[Just making sure. ]
[I know you just got back from a traumatizing event, but if you want to hit up another
gate, we’re going to one on Sunday.]
[Let me know so I can tell Jinho.]

Me:
[The day after tomorrow?]
[Idk, I just almost died. I wonder how fast I can recover from that, haha.]
[I’ll let you know tomorrow evening!]

I walked over to the shower and sat in the bath, thinking about the quest I would have to finish in 3 days and then one in a week. With no clue how to tackle either quest, I would have to enter a dungeon soon, possibly by myself, to try and make the first one. And I wouldn’t even know where to look for a familiar for the second one. So annoying!

“Menu open, please,” I say out loud, and like clockwork, the menu opens.

“Can you give me a hint on how to find a familiar, or at least the background?” The menu hums for a second, and then a screen shows a bestiary with profiles next to them.
“A shadow cat? That sounds cool; please open that beast and tell me more.” The menu brought up a black cat with even blacker eyes, its fur curling up and around it like smoke.

[Shadow cats vary in size but only come in shades of black or grey. They are chaotic dark beings contained in a stable form, but can transform back to their original shadows at will.]

Oh, that’s cool, but there is not much information on them. I guess to get more, I would have to encounter one.

“Where can I find a shadow cat?”

[Shadow cats do not reside in a specific area, but you can commonly find them slinking through the night from 03:06:00 a.m:00 AM] I look at the clock, and it’s only midnight.

So that settles it; I’ll set the alarm and look for these cats around 3.

3rd Person POV - Jin-woo centric

When Eris’ alarm buzz2:50 a.m.0 a.m., she smashed her hand on her cell phone, wondering why she had wanted to try this mess in the first place.

Getting dressed in a dark grey hoodie and black sweatpants, she grabbed a black baseball cap and looped her hair through the back hole to make a ponytail, adjusting the cap so it sat lower on her face. She pulled the grey hood over the cap and grabbed her keys and phone before walking out the door, oblivious that Jin-woo was hiding up top, sitting on the roof.

The guy tilted his head and watched as she cursed and muttered aloud, “Here, kitty kitty, let’s make a pact so I don’t die in this cursed place.”

“What is she doing?” he asked himself while tailing her from the rooftops, curious to know what had her out so late. He thought this would also be a good time for a reconnaissance mission on her.

After following her for a few minutes and listening to her pss pss at the neighborhood stray cats, he figured whatever she was doing was probably nothing of use to him until he heard her gasp and fall back, knocking herself into a light pole.

“Oh…. bigger kitty than I thought but we can make this work, right?” What is she looking at?

Eris reached out into the air, her hand shaking before it was apparent that it made contact with something as she started to pet it.

“You’re not so bad. Do you want a home with me? So we’re both not lonely…” Eris sat there momentarily, petting whatever she made contact with as she sat down. The ground next to her whooshed as the invisible being sat as well.

“What’s your name, kitty?” Eris asked, continuing to pet before she screeched and scooted back, holding her hand over her heart.

“You can talk?!? You didn’t want to say anything before I looked like an idiot here!” For a minute, Jin-woo genuinely thought he should take the girl to the hospital, and she had schizophrenia, but that vanished as Eris continued to talk out loud. It was apparent that something was there, but he couldn't see it even with his advanced perception.

And that worried him.

So he stayed for the rest of the conversation, trying to understand what was happening before him.

“I just got dropped here, dude. I don’t even know. Did you come from another realm or something? Like a void?”

“Worth a shot. I used to have a family, too, but who knows what happened to me before or what they think. I guess we’re the same in that sense.”

“Yes, I believe so. I’m not strong now, but I promise I’ll do better!”

So she’s leveling up just him? Are there others like them? For now, he shouldn’t say anything and keep her close, keeping tabs on what she’s doing to get more information before he makes a decision. This could be a good moment to learn more about the system.

As Jin-woo finished figuring out what to do, Eris stood up from the ground and brushed herself off. .

“Yeah, I trust you. I’ll get on.” Eris says that as she climbs on, she hovers a foot off the ground before being lifted even higher and disappearing.

—---------------------
1st Person POV

I whooped as Nergal led me through the dark realm, speeding past buildings and streets at a speed I didn’t even know imaginable. Finding a shadow cat familiar was apparently on pure luck because, as Nergal puts it, “Shadow cats do not leave the dark realm much; you would have had a better time familiarizing yourself with a demon. ” But he didn’t seem mean at all, and we each have our reasons for sticking together; I’m just glad to have a true friend in this place.

I learned so much from Nergal and our conversation, and although he almost killed me when I snickered at his name, I found that he makes a great conversational partner. Nergal is around 500 years old, which is considered young for an adult. He is the last of his family’s lineage and has been roaming around, partly bored, looking for adventure. He cusses a lot, too. The shadow realm is perilous if you are not strong yourself. And that I should not go in alone. There’s plenty more I learned about shadow cats, but I’m sure the bestiary has all the info updated in there.

“Having fun there?” Nergal asks, and I cling onto his fur, nuzzling into his neck and yelling back, “So much! Let’s head that way!” Nergal grunted and changed directions toward the apartment, going up the side of a building and hopping from the top until we landed in front of the apartment. He skids to stop right before the entrance, and now that I’m at full height in the building, I can see Jin-woo on the rooftop and curse to myself.

Was he here when I left my apartment building? Did he see me or follow me? I’ll have to pretend nothing happened until he says something.

“Nergal,” I start, and the shadow cat rotates his neck a full 180 degrees to look at me.

Ugh, creepy man.

“That man cannot know anything about us. Is there a way for us to phase inside the apartment using the dark realm?” Nergel nods, and I sigh in relief. “There is a way, as long as you are still on my back, we can interact with items in the dark realm, but you lose that privilege once you leave my familiar effect area and only when I’m in my shadow cat or original form. I cannot access the dark realm as a normal cat.”

“Then, can you change your size to something smaller?” Nergal shakes his head, and I frown at his answer. I cannot do that; for an unpacked being, you must continuously touch me for the buff to work. We can make a pact now if you want.”

“Alright, let’s fucking do it.” Nergel purrs softly as I scratch his neck.

Nergal begins to speak in some death language, the words shaking the ground beneath us, the trees swaying to his words. The cracks glow black, and dark matter seeps up and around us.

“Your turn,” Nergal says, waiting for me to finish. I close my eyes and try to feel out what seems natural.

“Grahmok nezzoth, Nergel, ashhon vek nezzoth velk. Vak nok'rahth velk zorag nok'rahth. Velk gralmok nok'shul.” The words flowed out of me so naturally that I thought I had already said them many times before.

The ground beneath us roars, and the red is glaringly bright now as some of Nergal’s black matter rises, and my right arm sears in pain. I looked down and saw the tattoo before Nergal’s black goo covered the arm, and I hunched over Nergal’s back, writhing in pain.

And just like that, it was over; Nergal and I’s pack was finished and finalized.

“I live to serve you, Master, shall we go inside?”

“Yeah, Nergel, I’m beat.”

Chapter Text

The sunlight seeped through the window blinds, and I groaned, turning over to try to hide from the sun's rays. A howl brought me straight awake, and I looked over to Nergel, whom I accidentally rolled over.

“Sorry, Nergel!” Nergel rolled his eyes and found his place somewhere in the corner of the bed, making himself comfortable again. I yawned and got out of bed, checking my phone for notifications. When I saw none, I moved to the kitchen to make tea and breakfast. I grabbed a tea packet from the cupboard and heard a knock at my door. Nergal pounces from the bedroom to sit on the ledge by the door and glare at the door.

“Master, someone is here.” I reach the door and put Nergal in, turning the knob at the same time.

“Thanks, Nergal. I hope I got it.” The door finally swings wide, and Jin-woo stands at the other side, leaning against the frame in his typical nonchalant fashion.

“What brings you here, Jin-woo…?” I trail off, genuinely wondering what he could be here about, but sweating at the thought that he must have seen yesterday. Jin-woo’s eyes catch Nergal and narrow slightly before meeting mine again; in the back somewhere, I hear Nergal hissing.

“New pet? When’d you get him?” He asked, and somehow, I knew he had seen deep inside. I must be more careful, especially with his shadow guards coming into the picture soon.

“Yeah! I found him last night on my walk.” While technically not the whole truth, it isn’t a lie either.

“What’s his name?” “Nergal.” “.....Did you say Nergal?” “Don’t judge me. It’s the only name he answers to. I think he’s badass.” I swear, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Nergal puff his chest out.

“Well, I just wanted to check on you again before heading out for the day. I’m glad you found a companion and are doing better. If you have time, Jin-ho wants to grab kbbq the three of us later today.” He offers, and I salivate at the thought of meat.

“Yeah, I’m down! Just text me a time.” Jin-woo smiles slightly. “I’ll just pick you up. We’re neighbors, after all.” That felt like a low-key threat, but it was okay. Jin-woo walks out after giving Nergal one more side-eye, and I finally shut the door behind him, turning to my black cat.

“He definitely knows something is up. He must have come down here to see you. We need to be more careful. Hopefully, he thinks I was picking up a random stray last night and not some dark presence.” Nergal stretches and hops off the ledge before me, growing double his size and looking almost like a sleek panther, baring his fangs and narrowing his eyes.
“He can try and threaten my Master but I won’t fucking allow it.”

“Thanks, Nergal, but I’m going to be honest: Man would squash us like a bug in our state. We need to get stronger.” Thinking about the dungeon quest, with Nergal by my side, it might go easier, and I could get it done before asking to go to a dungeon tomorrow and gain more experience.

Getting dressed in comfortable shorts for the warm weather and a T-shirt, I carry my grey backpack on my shoulders and go over to Nergal in the living room, scratching his back.

“Open menu.” The menu on the command opens like clockwork.

Jin-woo’s power systems work where he has dungeons separate from the typical gates. Maybe I have that, too?

“Are there any gates specifically for me only that I can access to get better?” The menu slides over to the Quests page, and a second page I have never seen before opens; it looks like a map of Seoul with white dots all over it. Level numbers are following the white dots, so I’m guessing those are active gates and the minimum level required to access them.

Clicking through the map, I found a gate with a level 2 beside it, located right by Yongsan. Perfect, not too far.

“Alright, Nergal, can you take me here?” I ask the cat, pointing towards the map. Nergal grunts and moves toward the door. “Of course, ready whenever you are.”

Opening the door for Nergal, I check myself for everything I would need: my typical backpack, house keys, wallet, and food packed just in case. Perfect.

Nergal hops from step to step until he swiftly lands on the ground, his paws making little noise when he touches down. Once all four legs are on the ground, he flops his belly to the floor, waiting for me to hop on. Following him down the stairs, I pause for a second, looking around at the front of the apartment building.

“Nergal, won’t everyone see us if I try to get on you?” Before I finished my sentence, the streets and sky had shades of monochrome grey around me, signifying I was in the dark realm. “

This is so useful; I know why they wanted me to get a familiar so quickly now.

As soon as I hopped on Nergal, he grew to his most enormous size, taking off immediately toward the level 2 gate. With how fast he traversed through the quiet streets, I had to bury my face to keep the wind off me and hold on as tightly as possible. Within minutes, Nergal skids to a stop and drops lower so I can get off.

“Thanks, Nergal.” I pet his back, and he purrs at the touch, grumbling something along the lines of “fuck that’s good” and other random shit. “Time to go in, Nergal. You ready?”

“I eat this shit in my sleep, Master.” “Weird way of saying we got this, but I mean let’s do this!”

I look over at the black and grey gate before us, pulsing energy that occasionally sparks off on its edges. The gate looked the same size as a regular gate, standing at just about 7ft tall, but instead of blue or red, it was replaced with swirling colors of black. I go in first, putting one foot inside, and the rest of my body follows through. Nergal is close to my backside, stepping quickly through the gate. When we get in, the environment is almost the same as my first dungeon: a cave with little to no light inside and multiple tunnels leading to who knows where. I decided to take my chances with the right-most furthest tunnel first and walk in that direction when Nergal paused, hair bristling. “Master, something big is down that way. Are you sure you want to take that tunnel first?” “Can you only sense the boss, or do you sense any smaller beings?” “There’s something smaller in the third tunnel from left; let’s start there.”

Choosing to go down the tunnel Nergal chose, we could hear running towards our direction and a wolf's howl. Nergal stands at attention, and I call one of my spells, eruption, in my hand and at the ready to cast. The wolves are just in the line of sight, and I turn to Nergal, grinning.

“Alright, Nergal, let’s get to work.”

[Quest Complete! Kill Your First Enemy]
[Side Quest Complete! Using Your First Spell]
[Bonus Quest Complete! Clear the dungeon]
[Bonus Quest Complete! Kill the Boss]
[30 Kills, 13 Assists]

Lvl. 3 Upgrades Available
Lvl. 4 Upgrades Available
Lvl. 5 Upgrades Available, Skill Tree Updates Available

After a shower, I sat down to review the completion bonuses I got while Nergal slept soundly in his human cat form, his tail lazily swishing left to right and back again.

From the Lvl 3 and 4 upgrades, the player screen allowed me to boost +10 to any two areas I put into Strength and Intelligence. Finally, the level five upgrades and skill tree opened up.

Level 5:
Choose 1 to boost: Strength +5, Agility +5, Intelligence +5, Perception +5,
5 Points to spend across Skill Tree

Level 5 Power and Agility Options,
(Cost to unlock: 2 points) Retribution Lvl 1: Allows the user to reflect 10% of damage when blocking.
(Cost to unlock: 2 points) Double Damage Weaponry: Doubles the damage the user deals by weapon combat

Level 5 Spells options:
(Cost to unlock: 3 points) Light Mana Restoration: The user gains 20% of the total mana back when cast. It can only be cast once per day.
(Cost to unlock: 3 points) Light Health Restoration: When cast, the user gains back 20% of their total health. It can only be cast once per day.

Level 5 Subclass Abilities:
(Cost to unlock: 2 points) To the Grave Lvl. 2: The user can speak with the dead (twice daily) and revive one dead person daily for five minutes.
(Cost to unlock: 2 points) Coffin Lvl 2.: When cast, the user brings forth a coffin-like shield that protects the user for 3 minutes. It can only be cast once per day.

Okay… I have a total of 13 points to spend on upgrades from the level upgrades and the quest completion bonuses; what should I get?

“Alright, menu, I want to unlock To the Grave level 2, Coffin level 2, Light Mana, and Light Health Restoration…Hmmmm, I only have 3 points left, and both Retribution and Double damage weaponry are good options, but I think the weaponry would be more helpful in the long run for right now until I can go back and unlock it.” The screen beeped, and my upgrades were highlighted, the familiar black sludge oozing from the sides to form the black sphere floating in front of me.

“Why do the upgrades have to hurt so much?” I ask no one while my tattoo sears over my skin, lighting my senses on fire. When I flop on the floor to get some cooling relief, I feel Nergal rubbing against me to comfort me and smile. “At least I have you, Nergal.”

Looking at the time, I see it’s around 16:00, and I remember Jin-woo saying something about picking me up at 19:00 to meet Jinho. That's enough time for a nap and a shower. Picking up Nergal, I head to the bed and lazily drop on top of it, throwing Nergal onto the bed in the process. Nergal grunts, and I open the blankets to snuggle under them. Falling asleep fast.

I wish I could have stayed like that all night, but alas, my alarm went off, and it was time to get in the shower and get dressed. Leaving Nergal under the covers, I went into the shower and turned the water on hot and full blast.

As soon as I finished getting dressed in a long-sleeved black body suit and mom jeans—this place sure knows my clothing style—I moved to put on my shoes when I heard the doorbell ring.

“It’s open! Come in!” I called out, and Jin-woo opened the door and waited in the doorway. He wore a grey t-shirt, his signature black hoodie, and dark denim jeans.

I would do unspeakable things to this man. I’m 100% sure it’s big.

When my shoes are on, I grab my black mini purse with my wallet and house keys and meet him at the doorway. I lock the door behind me while we look at each other at the front.

“So… Jin-woo, how was your day?” I ask, moving my eyes away from his stare and descending the stairs to begin our walk to the kbbq place.

“It was okay; I did some dungeon diving. Did you get enough rest today?”

“Yeah, I did; my side doesn’t hurt anymore, so I’m sure I could join you guys tomorrow if you have me. I don’t know how useful I’ll be, though.” Jin-woo chuckles, and we turn the corner, a KBBQ place in sight.

“I’m sure this time won’t be a problem. I’ve been practicing.” And I laugh at his statement; what an underhanded joke. “Well, I hope it’s enough to let two E-Ranks survive a dungeon.” The door swishes open, and the smell of the meat makes my stomach rumble. I don’t remember eating anything today except breakfast, which was early in the morning. I guess my hunger is catching up to me. Jinho sits in a stall in the corner, waving us down eagerly.

“Hey Jin-woo, Hey Eris! How was your day?” Jinho asks when we reach the stall, and the conversation flows naturally. Jinho and I talk about random video games while Jin-woo cooks the meat for us.

“Yeah and then he totally takes his sword and shoves it into the boulder, slamming on the sword to get the rock to break so a new path can open-” While Jinho is in his world, going about a movie I haven’t watched yet but absolutely need to, Jin-woo places some bulgogi on my plate, I smile at him and thank him while taking my chopsticks in my hand, ready to munch down on the meat. Halfway to my mouth, I look over and see Jin-woo staring intently.

“What? Is there something on my face?” I tilt my head, and he nods. “You’ve got rice on the side of your mouth.”

Kill me. So embarrassing!!

Using a napkin to wipe my mouth, I turn abashedly away from Jin-woo, furiously scrubbing my face with the napkin. I was just so hungry I didn’t even care what I looked like.

The rest of the dinner went great, with Jin-woo chiming in once or twice about his thoughts on something or to place more meat on our plates. Jinho bought a couple of bottles of soju for the table, and by the time we were done, I lay my head back and closed my eyes while Jinho drunkenly rambled on to Jin-woo.

Feeling the earth move below me, I opened one eye and then the other, realizing I was someone’s back. “If I’m getting kidnapped, I have nothing to my name except a cat and five dollars in my bank account.” The words slurred out of me as the soju still affected me.

The person I was on came to a stop, and I felt their shoulders move up and down in a laugh, prompting me to hit their back. “What’s so funny, Mr. Kidnapper? I’ll have you know I just made friends with two weirdos, and they would totally come for you.”

“I’m a weirdo now?” The back responded, and I rested my cheek on their shoulder blade, too tired to care where we were going. “Jin-woo? Or Jinho oppa? I can’t see your face.”

“Jin-woo.” “Oh yeah, that guy is definitely weird. But so am I, so we’re like the weird brigade or something.” The back-and-forth swaying of being on Jin-woo’s back was putting me back to sleep, and I yawned.

“Eris, who are you?”

“Don’t you know asking a lady introspective questions while they’re drunk is a total breach of consent? It’s ruuuuddeee!”

“Alright, I won’t ask you any more questions. For now.” "For someone who tries to act super mean, you're actually a nice guy. I like it when you're nice, Oppa." My eyes slowly closed again, and I snuggled into the black hoodie, feeling the soft fabric against my cheek. If I had stayed awake long enough, I would have seen Jin-woo's ears get red or his response after.

Jin-woo arrived at the apartment building and stopped in front of Eris’ apartment, lightly shaking his shoulders so she would wake up and open her door. “ Hey, we’re here. Time to wake up, Eris.” But Eris did not move an inch, staying knocked out on his back. Jin-woo grumbled something under his breath, trying to figure out how to use one hand to grab her purse while not dropping the sleeping girl. After a few minutes of trying to grab her purse, failing, and almost dropping Eris a couple of times, Jin-woo sighs and gives up. He took both of them to his apartment door.

“I hope Jin-ah isn’t awake to see this; she’ll never let this go.” The door opens into a dark apartment, and Jin-woo’s shoulders relax in relief. He makes sure to be silent when he moves towards his bedroom. Making it inside, he shuts the door with his foot and drops Eris onto his bed. Eris hums lightly and grabs the blankets, pulling the covers over herself. Jin-woo can feel his eyes rolling at the girl, but fixes the blanket so it covers her fully.

Sitting at the computer desk, he checks his player screen, makes updates, and looks in the store for anything he wants. Closing the screen after he’s finished, he looks over to Eris, who is still passed out and snoring under his covers, curled up on her side, facing the wall. She huffs and changes position so her face is turned towards Jin-woo.

“I don’t know what you were doing that night, and I still don’t trust all the coincidences happening. But it was my fault I brought you into that dungeon, claiming you would be safe, and landed you in the hospital. So for now, I’ll protect you.” He softly says, leaning back in his chair; his eyes flicker from soft to hard in a flash, adding one more sentence into the universe.

“But if you are somehow a danger to Jin-ah or Mom - I’ll kill you.” As he says this, shadows around him form, showing three of his shadow army knights.

"I want you three to watch her closely. If anything happens to where she's in danger, protect her, but if she seems suspicious, I want you to come straight to me."

Chapter Text

The sun rays that dance from my window curtains in the morning and the scent of Nergal did not happen this day; instead, something worse. As soon as I opened my eyes, I found myself covered in a blanket that was not mine, in a room that was definitely not mine, and the soft snores of someone else in the room. My arm tattoos’ ink blots slowly rose to the surface, the more I felt anxious, ready to cast a spell any second. Just as I was about to use Eruption, I located the source of the snores.

I fell for it again! I've read enough fan fiction to recognize this as the classic alcohol trope. Fuck! I hope I didn’t say anything embarrassing!

My tattoo faded, and I lay silent and still for a few minutes, hoping my stirring didn’t wake the soon-to-be shadow monarch. When I heard no movement from the ground, I peeked over the bed to look at him. Jin-woo seemed to have laid a mat down on the ground, covered with a blanket that seemed to be too small in size, feet poking out of the tail end of the black material. His dark hair was flung all over the place, and his eyes were squeezed shut, soft snores rising from his chest. He looked the most peaceful I’ve ever seen in the manwha, unconscious and worry-free about his fate. It's not like he knows any way to worry about it. That’s my job, spending agonizing hours piling over the supposed end of the world I got half-spoiled with a while ago while browsing on Reddit.

Now, how to get out of here

Crawling out under the blankets, I place my first foot tentatively on the floor, pausing when the wood creaks slightly under my heel. I looked to Jin-woo to see if he had woken up, but the boy barely stirred, his second foot. Soon, I was standing up, the blanket folded into a square, and I grabbed my purse from the end of the bed. My shoes come next, slinking out of the room, holding my breath the whole time. Just as I close the door to his room, I hear a squeal and turn around.

“Woah, who are you?? Did my brother actually get laid? Is he not walking you out? What a dickhead. Jin-woo! Jin-” In half a second, I’m over by Jin-ah, placing my hand over her mouth and begging her to be quiet with my other hand. “Shhhhh, please, girl-to-girl, this is soo embarrassing enough! We didn’t sleep together. I’m your next-door neighbor, and we went out for drinks!” Hurriedly explaining the situation, I could feel Jin-ah’s smile under my hand as she pushed my hand away, waving her own excitedly. “Ohhhhh, well, girls' code is law, so I won’t wake him up and embarrass you any further, haha! You said you were our neighbor; what’s your name?” Tiptoeing together past Jin-woo’s room, we walked towards their living room, and I finally took in the apartment I usually only saw through a computer screen.

Their apartment was clean, and nothing stood out: plain beige couches and a brown wooden coffee table. Pictures of the Sung family were scattered around, including some of Jin-ah and Jin-woo, the siblings and their mom, and some of the whole family before their dad disappeared through the gate. Jin-ah’s school backpack lay haphazardly thrown over the couch, and someone’s hoodie was forgotten on the floor. Just a typical apartment.

Jin-ah beelined for the adjacent kitchen, and through the half wall, I could see her opening the fridge to grab two juice boxes, one orange and one peach. When she made her way back to me, she shoved both of them out front, weighing them up and down. “Take your pick! It's the least we can do as a host.” Thanking her, I grabbed the orange-flavored juice box and picked the side open, taking a sip while she opened her own.

“So, your name is Eris, and you’re the same age as my brother. So cool! I always wanted someone older who wasn’t my dumbass brother to talk to! Can I call you unnie?” Jin-ah leans forward eyes glowing, feeling too bad to say no I nodded my head and she softly squealed, kicking her legs.

“What year of high school are you in Jin-ah?” I question her, trying to keep the conversation off me for a change. “Oh, I’m in my junior year of high school. I’m studying hard to get into medical school.” I remember the manwha saying that, but I never got far enough to know if she ever did.

“That’s so cool! It must be hard studying all the time, though.” I trail off, thinking about the times I would skip specific assignments or delay my homework when I got too lazy. I wish I had tried harder during my college years. Jin-ah shakes her head and takes another sip out of the juice box before answering, “No, not at all! It just takes a little more extra effort, but nothing too crazy. Did you go to college, unnie?”

“Oh yeah! I went to college in the states before I came here, it was a no-name school for a degree I never even used once. Nothing fun. Medical school sounds a lot cooler than what I tried for.” Just like that, Jin-ah and I settled into a casual conversation, talking about makeup, boys, and whatever came into our minds at the moment. I honestly thought the conversation would be more straining, but talking to her seemed to go more easily than her meaner counterpart. I must have sat on the couch with Jin-ah for around 45 minutes before I thought about Nergal being at the house alone.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry to cut this short, Jin-ah, but I forgot about my cat at the house; give me your number, and we’ll go for coffee or something!” Truth be told, I wanted to avoid everything about this family and keep it to myself, but it seems nothing I do will keep them from me, and the system I’m playing with is forcing us together. So, my next best game plan is to seem as least threatening and unassuming as possible to Jin-woo and his family before I end up back in the void.

“Oh yeah, for sure! Here’s my number!” Our phones beep when we stick them together, and I’m out the door, waving bye to Jin-ah, grabbing my key out of my pocket, sticking it into the lock, and opening the door. Nergal sits in the entryway and narrows his green eyes on me, tail swishing fervently.

A couple of things. Don’t freak out hearing my voice. We can do this as Master and Familiar. Also, don’t run off without telling me you’re not spending the night. It was cold under the covers, and I had no anchovy treats for the night. Never again. Secondly, I didn’t know we were having guests over.

Freaking out on the inside but trying to play it cool, I drop my keys onto the key ring and take my shoes off, pretending like my cat wasn’t just in my head right now.

Yes, I’m going to freak out. Why didn’t you tell me this before? Secondly, I thought you felt emasculated when I gave you those treats. Said it put you and those pesky human felines on the same level, and you were above that. Third, what do you mean by guests?

I thought you knew about them, Master? Your “friend” attached shadows to watch over you. In my current power level, I'm not sure I’ll be able to shake his shadows if we choose to enter the dark realm, and they will expose us. I cannot tell who exactly they are either, but I can see them swirling under you.

Ugh, Jin-woo, you’re making everything so complicated.

Picking up Nergal, I moved to the bedroom where I could crash and think about the implications of what the shadows meant. The timeline was moving quicker than I thought since Jin-woo already has his shadow army, most likely just the knights for now, and he either already sees me as a threat or is looking out for my well-being after the dungeon incident. I’m hoping for the latter.

Attaching those shadows to me is a death sentence, Sung Jin-woo. This means if I get a timed quest, I would have to figure out how to complete it while avoiding Jin-woo’s eyes and ears. And if I don’t complete the quest out of fear of what he may think, I could potentially be risking myself to the system, but if I do end up doing a timed quest, I’m opening myself up to whatever Jin-woo has planned. Neither seems great to me. I feel like I’m playing a hazardous game with no plan on how to beat it, or even survive, for that matter. I swear I’m starting to get grey hairs.

Nergal jumps when I grab my pillow and scream into it, letting out all my frustrations on the worst-case scenario. I would have hoped to get a little stronger before Jin-woo got his shadow knights to avoid this, but I was too busy goofing off!

Grabbing my phone, I held it before me and pretended to be using it. I willed the player screen to turn on, using my hands to scroll through it. Luckily, there were no timed quests for now, so that problem could be laid to rest until something popped up. As I closed the screen, my phone dinged, indicating I got a text message, so I brought up the app to see who it was.

Speak of the devil. And he will appear.

Too busy with the shadow knights riding my ass, I had forgotten that Jin-woo invited me out to clear a gate with him and Jin-ho today, and to be honest, I didn’t think they would still want to go out after last night.

Oh, my god. Last night! I didn’t have time this morning to fully process what happened, but now that I’m at home, I realize I can’t remember a thing that happened last night. I just know that Jin-ho and I were wasted. And then I ended up at Jin-woo’s apartment! Please tell me I didn’t say anything too embarrassing.

Groaning, I tossed my phone off the bed and onto the ground, not wanting to deal with that embarrassment for now. He’ll understand why I’m not responding, thinking it’s a hangover or something. Another muffled ding went off from the ground. I covered my ears with my pillow, ignoring reality (or fiction, who knows what’s going on right now) and pretending I was a little butterfly in a beautiful garden and not where I currently am.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

“Okay! Okay! I hear you, dang!” Yelling to no one in particular, reaching for my phone, and finally grabbing it, I grumble when I open the messages, seeing Jin-woo’s contact name at the top of all the buzzing.

Jin-woo
[We’re going to the gate today. Did you want to come?]
[Hey, are you awake? Are you feeling okay from last night?]
[You and Jin-ho drank a lot. Did you want me to bring you something?
[What did you and Jin-ah talk about before you left? She won’t tell me.]

My hands clumsily slid across the screen while replying to him, tongue slightly poking out while I responded to each of his messages individually. As much as I didn’t want to go to the gate with him and Jin-ho today, it’s the only way for me to get stronger and, ironically, stay under the radar.

Me
[Hey! Sorry, I just woke up again.]
[Uhm, sure, let me get myself ready. I have a slight headache, but I think I’ll be fine if I don’t have to move too much. What time do we need to be there?]
[Jin-ah gave me a juice box, and I ate a breakfast bar when I got home, so I’m good, thanks!]
[Why do you want to know :P]
[She told me the most embarrassing stories about you when you were a kid!]

Barely hitting send on the last message, another ding popped from my phone with Jin-ah’s number attached, so I swiped over to see what she had sent me.

Jin-ah
[Why’d you tell him I said embarrassing things? I’m getting my ass kicked!]
[What happened to girls’ code, huh?? TT-TT]

I laughed out loud, apologizing to the poor girl and texting back and forth while getting dressed. Since I was joining the boys in a dungeon, I decided to wear black compression shorts, another grey baseball cap with my hair looped through the back like last time, and a white t-shirt.

Petting Nergal one last time while he napped, I moved towards the door and opened it to see Jin-woo looking off into space.

I wonder if he’s looking at his player screen… Can I get the jump on him?

I try to creep up behind him as silently as possible and, just as I’m right behind, touch his back and shout.

I honestly don’t know who was more scared then. Well, for me, it was more scaraousal (?), but for him, definitely a littlespookyk. His head snapped back, and the same blue piercing eyes you see in the manwha directed at his enemies stared straight at me before he sighed, muscles relaxing.

“Jeez, you almost scared me.” He laughs, patting me on the shoulder. Meanwhile, I’m open-mouthed, almost at death’s door, drained of life; I don’t know any other way of saying terrified, but you think of them, and that was me. I couldn’t tell if I needed to change pants because I pissed myself or was dripping. I don’t ever want him to look at me like that again, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it one more time.

And somehow, I can’t help but feel that was a warning on my entire being to not act out of place.

The walk to the gate was refreshing; the spring air made everything smell fresh and new, and the warm weather didn’t make you shiver anymore when you walked more than five minutes. The gate wasn’t far from our apartment, so Jin-ho met us there.

However, the spring air didn’t seem like enough for Jin-ho and me, who started feeling the consequences of our actions almost as soon as we joined up.

“I’m gonna puke, Hyung.” Jin-ho moans, hunching over the city trashcan and green in the face. Seeing Jin-ho like that made my stomach queasy, and I couldn’t say I didn’t have a headache from last night, either. “If he pukes, I pukes, I’m not kidding. Oh man, scratch that, move over Jin-ho.” I sway like a cartoon character floating in the wind, ready to buckle under my weight.

Jin-woo sighs (it’s his first language before Korean) and pinches his nose before holding me up and looking over to Jin-ho. “I literally just asked you if you wanted me to grab you something.” I groan out a tiny protest while holding onto his shoulders, “I didn’t know it would hit me like this!”

I thought I was you. But our abilities are so different, I’m not even in the same league.

“Okay, well, you two sit on the park bench, and I’ll grab you water and ibuprofen. Is that okay?” He’s taken aback when Jin-ho and I hit the floor, bowing in front of him before the other hunters look over at our antics.

“Oh, great one! We owe you our lives! Hail Jin-woo!” Jin-woo’s face turns red at the attention, and he walks away as quickly as he can, the tips of his ears smoking. “I don’t even know why I’m trying with you two. Stay here!” I look over at Jin-ho, who’s returned to his original position and emptied his morning breakfast into the can. I can feel my stomach toss at the sight, so I place myself on the furthest bench possible from him and wait for Jin-woo to return.

Tilting my head back. I observe the blue sky and think about everything that happened so far, even though it’s only been a few days. If I could tell my past self, I would be stuck in Solo Leveling. She would fangirl and daydream about her life here on the spot, thinking of all the ways she would work the cliches in her favor.

Now I’m just trying to survive.

I knew I wouldn’t be a Mary Sue when I arrived. I knew it would be challenging, but no one told me how hard it would be or what rules I had to follow. If I really wanted to, I could tell him I’m actually another player or from another world, tell him everything. And who knows where that would get me. Every mistake I make is not forgiven, and every victory is supplemented with another challenge.

How will I ever get through this

A water bottle interrupts my view of the sky, and my eyes follow the hand that’s holding it up to the arm and then to the face; Jin-woo is back already.

“Did you give Jin-ho water and ibuprofen yet? I think he’s over there somewhere?” Jin-woo looks off toward Jin-ho, still over the same can he was earlier. “He’ll be fine until I get there.”

“Are you sure? I think his armor made him top heavy and now’s he’s in the trashcan.”

“Fuck. Jin-ho hold on!”

I could hear Jin-woo’s footsteps retreating when I closed my eyes, and then Jin-woo conversed with the hunters milling around the gate. I forgot that was a thing we were doing before my stomach decided to give up on me. Trying to listen in, all I could hear was, “Gate will be here tomorrow,” “You’ll get your pay,” and some other things, assuming we weren’t going. I let the ibuprofen and water do their work when Jin-ho came to sit beside me. I know it was Jin-ho because he was still moaning when he got to my bench.

“Oppa, you’re great, but please. Either die or shut up.” Jin-ho cries next to me about me not loving him and what if he actually dies. I lay my head on his shoulder to get him to shut up, and it seems to work mostly; Jin-ho quiets down, and we spend it in silence. There was a whooshing sound, and finally, I opened my eyes to see Jin-woo leave the gate alone.

“Where are the other hunters?” I stand up and question when he comes to meet us; Jin-ho looks up from the bench and just watches us from his spot.

“Ah, they already cleared the dungeon and left; I just cleaned house by grabbing some things they forgot in there; I’ll split it with you guys if you want.” It’s not in my best interest to question his terrible lie, so I smile and shake my hand, refusing the crystals he brought out of the dungeon.

“No thanks! We didn’t do any of the work, right Jin-ho?” Jin-ho nods numbly from his seat, too busy caring about his stomach to hear me fully. It's not like he needs the money. He’s rich. “That’s true, you keep them.” Jin-ho agrees that maybe we should drop him off. .

“Hey, Jin-woo, I’m feeling much better, only with a headache, but I think we should drop Jin-ho Oppa off at his parents' house.” Jin-woo looks over at me and then down at his phone, hitting some numbers and bringing it to his ear. “Yeah, can you pick me up at the Mapo district? Thanks.”

In no time, the taxi is here, and Jin-ho is off to his house, thanking Jin-woo from the open window of the taxi until it’s out of view. It leaves just me and Jin-woo.

“Shall we get going home?” I ask him, and we start back down the path to our apartments, making light talk along the way. When I talk about how Jin-ah and I are going for coffee on the weekend, I notice I’m falling forward. Before I can even catch myself, I’m pulled back into someone’s arms. The hoodie fabric feels nice, but it’s nothing compared to the muscles that flex underneath; I can already tell there’s heat rushing to my head, and my face is probably red.

“You should be more careful.” Jin-woo chastises me, letting me out of his arms but not his grip; he still has a hold of my arm and is checking me over. “It’s like not I hit the dirt or anything! I’m fine! Promise!” I can barely manage to sputter a sentence out; I've been too heated from now on. He lets go of my arm and continues walking, talking like nothing happened. It takes a couple of large strides to catch up to him, but we find a nice pace and continue towards home.

Once we get to the apartment doors, I stick my key in the lock and open the door, ready to go inside. When Jin-woo brushes past me to get to his door, his arm touches my back in the process. It wouldn’t have been much of a problem with all the contact we’ve had in the past 24 hours, but the following words are what have me scurrying into my apartment.

“I couldn't help but notice how comfortable you seemed with calling him 'Oppa.’ And yet we spend more time together.”

Chapter Text

What did that man mean by that?

The hot water rolls off my body while I stay seated in the tub, barely able to move since I got home. The first thing I did was toss Nergal an anchovy snack so I could beeline to the bathroom and relieve that moment in my head play-by-play. I wasn’t sure if my body was warm due to Jin-woo's sentence or the water's heat, but it made me dizzy.

This is utterly absurd, Eris; you can’t allow yourself to be so affected by any man that merely UTTERS a word to you.

Back from destroying his enemies (anchovy snack), Nergal sat at the bathroom doorway, tilting his head at the sad sight of his Master before him.

Master, the guy looks like a twink. This can’t be who you’re obsessed with.

Nergal, you got it wrong. He WAS a twink; now he’s hotter than I imagined, and I can’t tell if he’s flirting or being nice to me!

Nergal’s tail swishes, and he hops onto the toilet seat, stretching his front paws out before making himself comfortable.

If he liked you, he wouldn’t have attached those spies to your shadow. I don’t know how humans court each other, but my species usually doesn’t treat our mate like the enemy.

My head hits the tub’s edge, and I curl in on myself, groaning. Fuck, the cat’s got me there.> I can hear Nergal snickering somewhere in the back, and I cup my hands, flicking some of the water toward the mangy asshole. I know it works because he hisses at me and bounds away, calling out after.

I’ll remember this when I throw up next time. Sleep with two eyes open.

But just as Nergal left the bathroom, a second thought left me even more embarrassed than thinking about Jin-woo.

Oh Jesus, there are shadow knights here looking at me.

So…. Does that mean that Jin-woo can see me, too?

Not being able to take the destination that train of thought leads me down, I jump up and grab the white fluffy towel next to me, eyeing my own shadow while moving from the tub to the bedroom. I wonder who he has watched me? Probably no one important like Igris… Does he have Tank yet?

<>Once I’m dressed, I grab my phone and sit on the couch, lazily pretending I’m texting while I open the player screen; the player screen opens, so I go and routinely check my timed quests, praying there isn’t anything I need to do yet.

[Timed Quest: Clear a level 20 dungeon (1 week)]

Be serious. It took me almost a week to reach level 5.

My head hurts for a different reason now. But I assume it’s the system trying to hurry me up and at least try to catch up to Jin-woo. Fat chance. There’s no way I’ll be able to shake these shadows and complete this quest anytime soon unless I complete regular dungeons and see what powers the upper levels offer me. Texting for real this time, I bring up Jin-woo’s name and ask him about going to a dungeon tomorrow with him. Even if he does most of the work, I can reap the rewards of tagging along.

Jin-Woo
[I thought you’d be sick of going to dungeons with Jin-ho and me after everything.]
[I’m glad you still want to come; I’m down if you are.]

Nergal might have a point: keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but I can’t help the small giggle that bursts through when I see his nonchalant texts. Remembering how goofy he was pre-double dungeon and knowing who he is now is just comical. In the manwha, the boy couldn’t get two words out without stuttering. Yet I had to come just when he got upgraded to the confidence package. Kind of wish I was there to see him scrawny, though I would hate to find myself in that dungeon with the rest of the unfortunate. No thanks.

Another ding, and I’m pulled out of my mind, looking down at my phone; it’s Jin-ah this time, trying to plan a time for our coffee date I had promised when we first met. She must want to know more about the neighbor who slept in her brother’s bed. Who wouldn’t? Even if it was friendly help from Jin-woo, most girls see these things totally differently.

Jin-ah and I discussed the coffee date details, deciding that Saturday would be a good day for us to meet. She knew of a cute coffee shop a bus ride away from the apartments. And since we live nearby, she could just take me. As lovely as the plans sound, it makes me a little sad that the first girlfriend I made here was a next-door high schooler.

I think I need to go out more

Jin-woo’s name pops up occasionally between Jin-ah and my conversation. I navigate easily between the two siblings, watching TV and texting them both well into the night; by the time I even checked my cell’s clock system, it was already 22:00. Bidding both of them goodnight, I trudge into bed and lie next to Nergal. I wonder what the day will bring me tomorrow before I go to bed, but I don’t get too far into my daydreams as a familiar machine hums and snaps open my eyes. I didn’t open the player screen, so why did it open by itself? The screen shines brightly in the dark room, instilling fear in me as soon as my eyes finish the last words displayed on the screen.

[Timed Quest: Clear a Dungeon (3 Hours)]

I’ve been texting Jin-woo all night; this man couldn’t have been doing dungeons simultaneously! Why does this system want me to catch up to him so badly?!

I don’t know what the penalty zone would conjure up for me, and I don’t know if I want to find out. But it might be a good time now to see, so I don’t get spooked in the future. I keep my head on the pillow, trying to keep my eyes closed, but the screen is burned into my retinas until I re-read the timed quest repeatedly. I can feel my eyes itching at the gnawing; I never liked leaving things unfinished.

When I fly out of bed, Nergal wakes up from the shaking as I start dressing in plain workout clothes and grab a cap from the top of my dresser. My backpack lies at the front door, so I hastily grab it and walk out, beckoning Nergal so he follows. I have zero inclination to find out what’s in my penalty zone. When we’re down the stairs, Nergal looks at me one last time, and I nod, unsure of myself but not deterred. Jin-woo can’t run my life like this.

I mean, he can, but not like this!

Nergal kneels into his usual position, ready for me to hop on and give him directions. I wish Jin-woo had never put those shadows on me because I would love to just go on a run with Nergal and feel the air, not just for these dumbass dungeon crawls. The shadow cat expertly hops through the dark realm, and when we’re close to the dark gate, he divebombs from the top of the building we’re on, landing mere inches from our destination. The gate’s energy crackles in my face when I look at it, so I scrunch my nose at the sparks.

This time, the gate is not a cave like the others I’ve been inside; inside, we find ourselves in a maze. The hedges are bare and twisted, so dense there’s no light coming through, and you could almost mistake the thimble branches for a thick wall. The world was cloudy and damp, and whenever you opened your mouth, you could feel like you were swallowing something thick.

Nergal had transformed to his panther size to fit in the narrow maze. He does not want to lose some of the height he claims makes him feel all-mighty. The shadow familiar pushed on before me, delicately walking on the dead grass and sniffing around the air.

“Can you smell anything?” He shakes his head, and we continue down the entrance. At the end of the straightaway, we decide to take a left, then a right, then another left. It almost felt eerie how still everything was. By our tenth turn, it was starting to get slightly frightening.

Not seeing anything almost made me lose my guard, so when the first monster popped up, it slightly startled me. It looked like an amalgamation of the branches from the maze hedge, twisted to form a resemblance to a human being. There was no defining face or features on the monster. Just twisted branches. Nergal jumped forward, landing on the branched monster’s chest, the head swallowed by Nergal’s mouth when he went in for a bite. The rest of the body falls lifelessly to the floor, and Nergal spits out the head to land next to the pile of branches. Though the monster fell, it wasn’t over, as five more of the same monsters appeared from the next corner of the maze, grumbling toward Nergal and me.

“Nergal, hang back. Eruption.” The ground shakes, and the dirt path beneath us opens up, shadows racing straight up from the ground before solidifying into spikes. The shadows pierce relentlessly and mindlessly at the branch monsters. The spikes reach higher into the air, separating the limbs from the monsters and whisking them away as they grow taller. The new spells from the last upgrade have worked well to my advantage.

Pushing through the maze, Mazere tree branch monsters sprouted from the ground or tumbled from the corners, from one to hundreds. Nergal and I pushed them down only to have more crawl out. I could Eruption any time I want, but even with the mana restoration spell, we’d never catch up to getting rid of the shithead tree branches.

“Master, we’re surrounded and the mazeMazetoo small to fit all of us in here. I think it’s time you hop on and see this place from above.” Nergal’s suggestion makes sense, and to be fair, it was something we could have done in the first place. As soon as Nergal turns big, though, it’s like something shocks him, and he falls back to the ground with a yelp. I scream his name, thrashing through the branch monsters surrounding us to get to my familiar. Nergal’s in his human cat physique, twitching on the ground. Yanking him from his spot, I dodge the monsters and take off, casting one more Eruption. Eruption takes out quite a bit - but not enough.

“Nergal, hold on, buddy. What happened?” Knowing Nergal just got shocked out of nowhere is not reassuring, and the monsters have been raining down nonstop. This was not a good situation to be in. Dodging another monster, I duck and make a sharp right, coming to even more dead hedges.

Fuck! Where does this place even lead to?

Another left. A right. Straight. Left. The branches whizz past me as I push myself to my limit, trying to run from the monsters, but they keep closing in on all sides. Another right, and I’ve made my first dead end for the night. Nergal’s eyes are clasped shut, and his labored breathing isn’t sparking confidence that he’ll be able to fight anytime soon. Fifteen monsters ahead surround me and close us in. It’s silent; these monsters don’t make a sound save for twigs snapping and screeching, the sound of their bodies morphing as they move.

I had been hoping to save my Mana for something more important, but we’ll die if I don’t use this soon.

My hair wisps around me when I cast Shadow Bolt as my shadow grows. Then, it speeds past me at a lightning pace, engulfing the area in black. There’s no movement from the monsters anymore, so I take a breath and walk towards where they used to stand, the shadow moving with me. The monsters lay listlessly on the ground.

I can use this to my advantage!

The shadows follow me. When I make a turn and see more monsters, they’re already chasing them and erasing them of whatever form of life they carried, moving on to the next bunch of monsters and leaving nothing in their wake. I let the shadow do its thing while walking, and finally, we make it to what seems to be the middle of the maze, leading to a cavern below. When the shadow dissipates, I don’t hesitate to take Nergal and me down the steps and away from the MazeMaze’s location. The cavern is cooler than the cold outside, and the walls are damp with dew. A breeze comes in from the cavern towards my face, which lets me know there’s at least some form of opening on the other side.

I open the player screen to check my Mana and health. The screen lights up the dark cavern and displays my stats in front of me while I walk.

[HP: 1,500/2,000 | MP: 30/2,000]

Great, my Mana has been run through. If I use the light mana restoration, I’ll only regain an additional 20% of my total Mana back, and I’m not sure that’s enough to do anything worthy. I might have to ration the Eruption until I can find somewhere to replenish. I don’t like the look of this cave, though, so it might be worth it.

I was right. Casting Light Mana Restoration only gave me an additional 400, which wasn’t the worst. But it wasn’t great either. Each Eruption has at least 70MP, and I estimate I'll have about five chances to cast an eruption. I can’t even use a one-time spell because those cost 500MP. The dagger strapped to my side weighed heavier than usual, and I sighed; I hate the idea of using my hands for actual combat and prefer to rely on the spells given to me, but if it’s the only way to get Nergal and me out of this fucking dungeon, then so be it.

The adrenaline rush is a bitch, because when the cavern is quiet, and I finally come down from the high of running away, my legs ache like never before. Honestly, I’ve never exercised this much before, and trying to keep up with the system's demands is exhausting. Maybe I should follow Jin-woo on his workout days.

The small cavern tunnel finally opens up, and the two of us arrive at the epicenter; light streams from the top, where it looks like a massive hole carved from the inside out, allowing the dead vines and plants to hang from, aside from the water dripping from the stalactites down to the floor.

“I wonder what carved that hole. Man, I hope that’s not what we fight.” Nergal doesn’t move, but I know he agrees. I’ll give him all the anchovy snacks he desires when we get home. I don’t dare move to the middle of the open arena (?) in fear it will trigger a boss fight, so I stick to the walls, crouched and hidden, while scooting to the other side to see if I missed a smaller opening or anything. Alas, I found nothing else when I circled back to the original tunnel that led me here. Setting Nergal down by the entrance, I take out my dagger and curse that I didn’t choose double-damage weaponry.

The moment my left foot hit the middle of the cavern, on cue, a shadow fell over the opening, darkening the cave for a second. I roll out of the middle, and my back meets the wall. I stare up in horror as the Boss lands. He’s folded over, but his muscles grow when he straightens his back. The thing is massive, his body taking up most of the space inside the cavern; there’s no way to dodge him here. He’s twisted, like a compilation of those branch monsters from the maze, Mazecibly stuffed inside one body. The monsters inside him are almost bursting at invisible seams, ready to pop at any moment. Like the monsters outside, this Boss had a rough outline, just a glimpse of what a human would look like. Instead, he wore a thorny crown, most likely made from his “subjects.” It made no noise, just creaked and groaned when he moved.

Creepy son of a bitch. I need to be careful.

When its head tilted toward my direction, I took it as a signal to start moving. I ran, trailing the side wall while the monster tried to tilt its head to follow me. Just when his head couldn’t turn anymore, and his body started twisting instead, I jumped, soaring in the air until we were eye to… Well… nothing. The knife in my arm poised and then flew swiftly, hitting a bundle of branches. The creature’s head didn’t budge an inch, and his hands grabbed me while I dodged, tumbling back to the ground. His hands followed, and we danced like that. I dodged his hands, all the while tucking under my feet, jumping back up, and hitting another bundle of nerves. I could feel my fatigue catching up, and I still had no clue what to do for this Boss. It was obvious the knife wouldn’t work, Boss> Boss

The wind knocked me out once he finally caught up to my movements, slamming me into the wall encircling us. All I could do was heave when his hand pulled back, trying to reclaim the air that left as soon as I hit the rock. I had to keep moving, trying to figure out what would work.

Trees burn with fire, but I don’t have any fire spells. What spell would work? Eruption?

Eruption! The monster stopped moving, spikes pushing through to try and reach the top. Good. But not good enough, as the thing ripped the shadows away from him, head still trained on me, running around the arena like an idiot.

What if I overwhelm it?

”Eruption!” Another wave of spikes and the beast is the least deterred, stopped for a while, yes, but not dead in the slightest. I’ve used up two eruptions and only had enough Mana for five. The monster seemed to have shaken the spikes and locked in on me; as it reached out one of its hands, spiky branches flew out and spiraled toward me. Is it copying my moves?

A branch strikes me in the shoulder, and another two skim my sides. The pain is terrible, and I wonder how most anime characters can stand to get hurt like this for the sake of adventures. The thing brings his other arm up, so I brace myself, ready for round two of the spike attacks. They come, but I’m getting slower; this time, four or five branches skim me while another one inserts itself straight into my left thigh. I have to break the branch off to keep it from burying into me; whatever these things are, they are all individually alive, coming together to make more miniature monsters, and then the big Boss. I slid Boss under the Boss’s leg, Boss’s n, I Boss up on his backside and see a mangled ball of branches, all moving but covering some spot as opposed to the other branches that intermingle and change positions constantly. That has to be something important.

” Eruption," I call. The shadows spike up from the ground, encasing him. Again, the Boss distrBoss himself by freeing himself frBosshe branches, and I cast another.

Before he can even begin to knock off some of the spikes attached to him, I make the final push, using the last of my energy to jump on him again. Sticking my hand over the area, I saw the ball of branches; I cast the spell one last time.

”Eruption!”

The shadows spike up from my hand this time and straight down to where I saw the ball. The branches clatter as the monster crumbles. I must catch myself before I lose my footing, ending up right by Nergal sleeping. There’s nothing but a pile of sticks when the thing falls, and when I walk up to see if I can collect rewards like Jin-woo does, there are a couple of things waiting for me.

[Quest Complete! Clear a Dungeon]
[Bonus Completion! Kill the Boss]
[SkiBossollected! Sticks and Stones: When cast, the user can combine nearby items to create one footsoldier for 8 hours.]
[Lvl. 6 Upgrades Available]
[Lvl. 7 Upgrades Available]
[Lvl. 8 Upgrades Available]
[HP and Mana Restored]

My leveling up is going slower than Jin-woo’s did when he first got his system. I can’t complain; the spells are a little more badass, even early on. So, I can’t wait to see what else I get.

Although my HP and Mana were restored as an upgrade bonus, I was dead tired. Scooping up Nergal, I cracked a small smile when I saw him nuzzle up to me, indicating that he was feeling much better. A portal opened up over the bones of the Boss, and Boss branches snapped under my weight. I reached through the portal, landing on the other side somewhere near Hong-dae Street, judging by the loud music and boisterous laughing despite it being the middle of the night. My feet met the end of the sidewalk, and I sat there, waiting for a taxi, watching myself in a nearby puddle; my hair was a mess, and my clothes were ripped. Even with the restorations, my clothes were bloody and caked with mud from divebombing to the ground so many times, dodging the Boss. Boss Boss>

That Boss wasn’t that strong. I guess this is a product of my laziness.

My reflection becomes distorted when a taxi pulls up, the window rolling down as the driver asks me where I’m going. I tell him my apartment address, and he nods, telling me to get in. After all of this, I just want a hot shower. When I finally get home, I drop Nergal off on the bed, checking once more if he’s okay, and when I get a kitty version of a thumbs up, I toss his anchovy snacks over so he can enjoy himself after the day he had.

The shower did not help at all.

Chapter Text

As if God hated me more, the next day came around. I had to face the music and see if Jin-woo would put a flag on the play for my late transgressions or if I was left alone on my leash for now. Considering the knights didn’t even help me while I was struggling for my life, it makes me think he may not care about me as much as I initially thought. No biggie, it was better for me to crash my party than have someone else do it.

Dressed for the day, this time it’s me meeting Jin-woo, talking to Jin-ah just before she leaves for school. She animatedly tells me about something, but my thoughts are so scrambled that I just nod. Jin-ah grins and slaps me on the arm before she leaves, calling out, “See you tonight at six!” I probably just agreed to push up the coffee date… but I can’t remember. I may have to cancel those plans depending on how this goes. Jin-woo comes out of his room, and I can feel the tips of my ears redden again. I am thinking about last night and also about the fact that he’s still in a towel. He looks over at me, probably thinking I am Jin-ah, because the moment our eyes meet, he’s startled.

“Ack! What are you doing here? I would’ve come to get you!” It’s my turn to get the jump on him, so I move closer; he’s too busy fixing his towel to see me in front of him. “Aw, is Jin-woo startled?? I didn’t know someone with so much ‘confidence’ could fold so easily.” I put air tags around confidence with my fingers; Jin-woo rolls his eyes and backs up, a dark red tinting his cheeks. I got him.

“Please, I could hear your bones cracking a mile away. How often do you stretch?” he retorted, returning to his bedroom to get dressed. He comes out in black joggers and a dark blue shirt, and I’m, unfortunately, practically drooling. There’s a black trench coat hoodie on the couch, and he reaches for it, tugging it on gracefully. He walks over to me and stays silent for a second before re-acknowledging my existence.

I can feel his breath fan over my face; it’s minty. We lock eyes briefly before all I can bear to do is stare at the floor. “I thought we went over calling me Jin-woo.” There’s no way. “Jin-woo I-” Before I can get my words together, he’s out the front door, waiting for me to catch up. If I hadn’t been so focused on the floor patterns, I would’ve seen his face entirely red and equally embarrassed at the scenario as I was. This boy is mean, he’s confident, he’s an asshole most of the time, but honestly, thinking about who Sung Jin-woo was before I met him, before the double dungeon, makes my heart bloom. I wish I could have influenced him before his change, but for now, this is who I’ll work with.

By the time we were out the door and on our way, neither of us had spoken a word, either trying to enjoy the silence before we reached Jin-ho or trying to calm ourselves down after a weird morning. I don’t remember Jin-woo being like this in the manwha, but I never finished it. True, I knew he would eventually become a shadow monarch, but who knows after that?

Maybe Jin-woo can hear my thoughts, or he’s thinking the same thing because he clears his throat to focus my attention on him. When it works, he’s just about to say what’s on his mind when Jin-ho bounces between us; the boy is never without energy.
“Hyung! Eris!” You’re here early! I was just putting together the group for us to go inside. Since we’re all here, should we just go in now?” His words come at me fast, and catching up takes me a second. I look over to Jin-woo for the final confirmation. “Sure, let’s go in,” Jin-woo says, starting for the C rank gate. Judging by how the dungeon went last night, I’m sure Jin-woo knows about it and is just waiting to kill me when it’s convenient. But man, is he taking his time.

Into the gate the group of us, trailing behind the other C Rank adventurers like last time. I recall that in the manhwa, it was just he and Jin-ho who entered the gates, but now they’re bringing others inside. I guess not to reveal Jin-woo’s identity while still letting me tag along? So that must mean they’re either picking up extra gates or only inviting me out occasionally, which, with how frequently I tag along, is ridiculous just thinking about the gates they’ve completed in so little time.

Thank Jin-woo’s abilities, I guess.

The gate is the same as every other. We enter and arrive at—you guessed it—another cavern. These gates start to make you sick of caves. The cave looked like any other ordinary cave conjured from the gate: dark, wet, and creepy.

The other C-Rank adventurers split from the three of us, and we continued down a passageway until we ran into the end and circled back, checking up on the other hunters in the other tunnels. While we walked, the three of us talked about random things on our minds, landing on an argument about which guild would win if it were an all-out brawl.

“You can’t be serious Eris! The Hunters Guild is the coolest! Choi Jong-In is the strongest hunter right now!” Jin-ho argues, and I place a finger on my chin, tilting my head to make it look like I’m thinking. “Okay yeah he’s strong and hot but he looks like he’s full of himself. I’d go with the White Tiger Guild, their guild master is hot and humble.” Jin-ho scoffs, facepalming at my declaration. “You can’t choose guilds based on their attractiveness.” “Isn’t that what Hunters do? Go into a guild they like? I’m doing the same just with their actual attractiveness.”

Jin-woo stays silent during this conversation, though I imagine he wants to boast that he’s stronger, but can’t since I don’t know yet.

As we go in deeper, we run into a group of hobgoblins. Knowing Jin-woo can’t do anything with me there, I turn around, pretending something dropped from my sack. “Damn, I think I dropped the dagger I just bought! Where is it?” Complaining and looking around, the air whooshes around me. Jin-woo catches on to make his move while my back is turned, and when I face forward again, dagger in hand, the goblins are gone.

“No way. How are they gone? Did they leave?” Jin-ho nervously chuckles, pushing me by my shoulders past where the goblins once stood, but not responding to my question; Jin-woo follows along. The cave eventually opens up a little after some more walking, but it isn’t a lot. Laughter follows around us when a bigger version of the goblin comes out, stomping his feet and pointing his sword at us. The hobgoblin is green like all goblins, but adorned with jewels and better clothing than the others we ran into earlier. This must be the boss.

He comes in fast, and all three of us dodge out of the way. The hobgoblin chooses to follow me instead, and I’m stuck running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying not to show my powers and get away from the hobgoblin. One dodge, and he catches up in time, striking his sword at me. I duck in the nick of time, but he clips a bit of my hair, and a scowl appears on my face.

Fuck it. You cut my hair, I’ll cut your head off.

Before I can even make good on my promise, Jin-woo pushes off the ground, Jin-ho right behind him. The hobgoblin king makes another attempt at killing me, going for my shoulder, and he nicks me, a shallow cut, tearing into my t-shirt. Just as the hobgoblin is ready to go in again, something large emerges from the ground, clashing with the hobgoblin first.

You couldn’t have done this yesterday?

It looks like the shadow knights have come out, which means Jin-woo is willing to accept the risk of me knowing about his powers. I feel this is also part of the underlying message.

Maybe he was waiting for me to reveal my powers. Or maybe this is a way for him to extend a peace offering and get me to confess. Either way, it saved my ass.

The hobgoblin and the shadow knight fight pound-for-pound, dodging and striking each other with movements that make me feel lazy in comparison. Jin-woo and I trade places as he follows his knight into battle, dagger in the arm, when he jumps up and makes the final blow. The hobgoblin dissipates, and all that’s left are the rewards.

[Completion Bonus! Clear a Dungeon]
[Completion Bonus! Kill the Dungeon Boss]
[0 Kills, 7 Assists]

The bonus for clearing this dungeon wasn’t much for me since I didn’t do anything, but I’m glad they gave me a bonus for the dungeon boss even though I didn’t do anything but dodge.

When Jin-woo returns to Jin-ho and me, there is a heavy tension. Time to put on a show. “So I guess I’ll start, what the fuck!” I begin, pointing over at the shadow knight next to me; the knight sweats and scoots away closer to Jin-woo. “Secondly, you’re telling me the first dungeon we cleared, I wouldn’t have had to get pulled away with the orc like that? You could have just did your little trick!” It’s Jin-woo to sweatdrop while Jin-ho comes to his defense, “We didn’t know who you were at the time! Sorry Eris.”

“Fine. I can’t blame you. But you’re telling me everything, aren’t you supposed to be E-Rank? Why are you suddenly all-powerful?” I approach the shadow knight, examining him up and down. It’s so hard not to fangirl when you’ve only seen these things on paper and in anime - but here I am, in front of a magical shadow knight. I beckon the shadow knight closer with my hand, and he bends down to reach my face while I touch his helmet. It’s hard, and I try to grab at the shadows that curl up his armor, but they disperse as my hand goes through it.

“Woah.” Jin-woo coughs, bringing my attention over, and the shadow knight is gone just like that. “I don’t think my knights would be happy with you sexually harassing them.” He jokes, and I fluster, “I’m not sexually harassing them! I was just seeing if he was hard or soft - oh. Forget what I said just now.”

“You can’t tell anyone about Hyung, though please! We’re trying to keep a secret for as long as possible.” Jin-ho insists, looking at me with puppy eyes. I pat his shoulder, reassuring him that it’s our secret, but I’m not sure I need Jin-ho to convince me since Jin-woo could easily expose mine to anyone. You keep my secret, I’ll keep yours sort of thing.

It’s time to make our exit, and we do, stepping out of the portal to find the other C-Rank adventurers discussing who killed the boss and what an easy job this was.

“Do you guys have any more gates planned today?” I ask, and Jin-ho nods, bringing me a paper. It looks like the boys have at least three other gates planned for the day.

Man, it’s going to be a long day.

I'm already over it by the time we’re down with the gates. No human being should do that many in one day. Okay, yeah, Jin-woo blasted through all of them with no problem now that he doesn’t have to worry about me being in the dark - but really, I still have to walk and dodge creatures until Jin-woo can put them to rest. And that’s tiring enough, even with my increased stamina. My stomach is growling, and I want another hot shower, so I trudge behind Jin-woo, grumbling the entire time while focusing on a rock I’ve been kicking.

Jin-woo looks back over his shoulder and raises an eyebrow at me, stopping so I can catch up. “Are you okay?” “No. I’m hungry and tired and disappointed with myself for only being able to dodge. I just bought this dagger too!” I know I shouldn’t be complaining, but, underneath this all, I don’t even want to be doing dungeon crawls in the first place. I could’ve been happy, never Jin-woo at all, and lived my life. Or better yet, getting sent back to my own. But here I am, stuck in this bullshit situation, forced to crawl in the dirt.

Jin-woo grabs my hand and pulls me with him, and this is the first time we’ve ever touched each other like this. His hand is enormous, completely clasping around mine and encasing it while he pulls, and soft too, like he never did a day’s dirty work. It must be the system that heals him or his callouses when he rejuvenates himself. At the moment, I interlace our fingers, allowing myself to go where he goes.

Let me at least enjoy him until that girl comes into the picture

When we finally arrive in front of a generic convenience store, it’s my turn to start raising eyebrows. Sure, I said I was hungry, but I wasn’t expecting him to take me to a mart. The doorbell rings as we go inside, and I spot exactly what I want in the second aisle, beelining for it. I forget that our hands are still locked together, and Jin-woo trips after me, following me down the aisle. Ramyun It’s an entire aisle of different ramyun, and my stomach growls even more at the thought; I don’t know if Jin-woo can see me drooling, but I’m way more focused on the packages offered in front of me. I let go of Jin-woo's hand to search for a flavor I wanted, scanning the aisle until I found a spicy seafood flavor and snatched it, showing Jin-woo. Jin-woo laughs and picks his packet, something milder and chicken-flavored. “I thought you’d be someone who likes spicy!” I grabbed two hard-boiled eggs for us and took them to the register. “I do most of the time, but I like to change it up a little.” That’s an understatement.

Once the cashier rings up the ramyun and the eggs, I reach for my wallet to pay, feeling like I should at least say thanks to the guy who did all the work and had to hear me complain on the way home - but the cashier hands us the receipt. I tilt my head, looking over at Jin-woo, who’s putting his wallet away. “No fair! I was gonna pay!”

Sitting at one of the tables, waiting for our Ramyun to cook, we settle into a casual conversation. I ask Jin-woo more about his abilities, and he answers to the best of his ability, occasionally pulling a hat trick to show off. The streets are empty now that it’s dusk, and there’s no one around but him and me, so it’s easier for him to get away with the little things. Once the ramyun is cooked, I don’t notice Jin-woo’s existence, chowing down on the spicy noodles before me. I take a break and catch my breath, smiling at Jin-woo while he eats his ramyun.

“This was such a good idea! I love ramyun.” Jin-woo cracks a smile behind the noodles he’s shoving. He finishes his bite, drinks the rest of the liquid left, and tosses the cup in the trash next to us. That was weirdly fast.

“I’ve always been a fast eater.” He says, and it’s quiet again. The only sound is me chewing on my ramyun.

The thing about Jin-woo is that he’s nice, but sometimes these awkward silences kill me. I have no clue what to say to him with Jin-ho not around to facilitate a conversation, and there’s only so much you can talk about when you’ve seen the person 100 times in one week. So we leave the quiet as it is, deciding that we’ll enjoy this small moment together without having to say anything. It’s silent up until I finish my cup, and he asks if I’m ready to go, and we continue the tradition, making our way back home, listening to our thoughts while we make the last push for the house.
Before I knew it, I was in front of my apartment door, and Jin-ho was at his, but it wasn’t him who opened the door. Instead, Jin-ah is swinging the door wide and smiling at me.

Ah shit, I forgot we were going out.

“Did you still want to go out tonight? You guys came back a little late, but the cafe doesn’t close until much later!” She questions me, inching closer to my side. “No, it’s totally cool. We'll go tonight! I can take a shower really quick and be right out!” I answer, hurriedly going inside and feeding Nergal, jumping into the shower. In 30 minutes, I’m dressed and back in the Sung siblings’ apartment, waiting for Jin-ah to leave her room and meet me. Jin-woo is out of his shower too, this time fully dressed, and sits on the couch scrolling through the TV. The news is about some random Hunter achieving some random medal, and he clicks another hunter program; wow, is this man obsessed?

Jin-ah finally appears, and we wave goodbye to Jin-woo, who waves back, sending us off with another remote click. That kid may have ADHD or something.

It’s weird being with Jin-woo’s sister. We had conversations in the past, but I’ve never gone out alone with her. She starts about the recent makeup her friends wanted to try, and my ears twitch, chiming in about the product when I tried it on at the store the other day. It’s back and forth like this until we reach the cafe after a short taxi ride, since I didn’t feel like taking the bus. The cafe is cute; the inside is a muted brown, and there are white tables in small booths and a couple of bookshelves with different genres and authors on sale. Pothos plants hang from the ceiling, dangling down and reaching for the tops of our heads.

We both go to the counter and grab two iced coffees: a mocha and caramel mix for me and a double caramel for Jin-ah. We catch a booth in the corner, and the drinks come out quickly. They were so good, too. It was hard trying to pay attention to what Jin-ah was talking about while not taking sips of coffee the entire time.

“So what do you think of my brother?” I choke on my iced coffee and look up, startled but not surprised that she would ask such a question.

“I mean, your brother is a nice person! We met while I was looking for my apartment, and we go hunting together. I like hanging out with your brother.” Knowing the shadow knights are listening to our conversation and not wanting to reveal my massive crush in general, I try to talk in a lighthearted manner.

“That’s all?” Jin-ah pouts, moving her straw around in her drink, “Are you sure you don’t have a crush on him or something? That would be more interesting.”

“You wish girl, haha, anyways, do you have any crushes at school right now?” Sorry to the poor guy, she says next, because Jin-woo is fiercely protective of his sister; who knows what he’d do to the guy when he finds him. “Hmmm, there’s this guy named Jeom Joon. He’s super cute and is also applying for medical school. His dad is a hunter like Jin-woo.” She answers, sorry, Joon, you almost had a chance.

“Oh, is he cute, cute? Or just, ‘he’s in the same field as me and I want to marry rich’ cute.” Jin-ah squeals and hits my shoulder from across the table; we laugh when she tries to clarify that he is regular cute, but marrying rich is a bonus.

“Try and snag a picture next time. I want to see if he’s actually cute.” Even though she’s almost eight years younger than I am, it feels like I’m just talking to one of my friends at home. There wasn’t much of her up until where I left off, but I wished they had included her more. The girl is great.

The next hour flies by, and soon, we’re both barely able to keep our eyes open, agreeing it is time to head back. Once we get outside, I start to get a bad feeling as the air stills around us. Even though it’s after dark, we’re still on a pretty busy street, so people should be walking around. I turn around towards the cafe, and it’s greyed out. Jin-ah gasps, so I swivel to see what she’s talking about. The entire area around us is monochrome grey, but there’s no way I can do this on my own without Nergal, so someone else pulled Jin-ah and me into the realm.

“Jin-ah, I don’t know what’s happening, but it will be okay. I think I know a way out of this.” I try to reassure her, but my words come out shaky. Jin-woo’s shadow knights have to be around here somewhere, right? Little did I know, they were already broken by this monster, and no way to call new knights into the dark realm without it tagging our shadows. Jin-woo may not even notice because he wasn’t paying attention to his mana reserves then and didn’t recall them.

“I knew we’d meet one day, and lo! We are meeting!” A voice booms from above us. I lunge into Jin-ah, knocking her out of the way as something slams into our original spots. I’m having deja vu.

The dust from the ground being forced apart makes whoever is the cause of this unseen, but also to our advantage. Grabbing Jin-ah’s hand, we dash into an alleyway, slinking into the darkness as best as possible before the dust settles. In a hushed tone, I activate Dark Advantage, hoping it will conceal at least some of our presence from the culprit.

“Awww, why ya gotta go run off little girl? We’re just getting started!” The voice is husky and belongs to someone in their middle ages who sounds like they smoke a pack every five minutes. It sounds dangerous.

“Jin-ah, I need you to be as quiet as you can, okay? If we stick to the shadows, we can make it home.” It’s not an order, but she slaps her hand over her mouth as soon as I say it, letting me go to give a thumbs-up. We’re past the alleyway and into the next street, running for the next one. Just as we’re close enough to the alleyway, Jin-ah is yanked back by her hair, screaming.

“Let her go!” The dagger I carry always comes out, and I dive for it, slashing at his hand. The grip on Jin-ah’s hand is loosened enough for me to yank her away. She screamed when a couple of pieces of her hair stayed clasped within the man’s grip. “Fuck you asshole!” She yells, whipping up a middle finger when we’re dashing down another alley, desperate to escape.

“Jin-ah, keep running towards the house and knock on the door. Talk to the person named Nergal on the other side. He’ll help you.” It isn’t a suggestion this time, and she’s returning to the house while I turn around, needing to face whatever is chasing us down.

“Okay, dickhead! I’m here!” My voice echoes through the alleyway and bounces, reaching the guy stalking his way towards me. I run down the same way Jin-ah’s gone, but make a right instead of a left to get him away from Jin-ah and the apartments. Jin-woo is gonna kill me.

The guy is nowhere to be found, so I prepare myself by hiding in a building corner, trying to use my dark advantage to get the jump on this guy.

“Nice try, sweetheart, neat trick tho. Where’d ya learn that?” His voice is right behind mine, foot on my back. I’m kicked and sent flying across the street into the glass window in the building across from us. It doesn’t break, but I can see it cracking. My shoulder feels numb; I must have broken it.

The guy is coming closer, and I scoot away from him, trying to get back on my feet. I can finally get a good look at him, and I was right. He’s burly, like a bodybuilder who never stops building. He wears a dark black t-shirt and khaki pants that are three sizes too small (still can’t see his bulge compensating much?). His hair is a black, unruly mess, stopping just above his shoulders. His eyes are blown, like he’s been taking something. I’m knocked down again, flat on my stomach, with his foot right on my broken shoulder. All I can do is scream.

I thought I was the only one?

“I thought you would be more fun than this.”

“Who are you?” My voice is hoarse. He’s laughing, squishing his foot further into my spine, ripping another scream out of me. “I don’t give my name out to bugs. Do you name a bug before you kill it?” So he’s killed more of us before. “Please,” I’m begging. I complained earlier, but life was just starting to get better again. I’m grabbed by my hair like Jin-ah, and he’s dragging me back to the cracked window I fell into earlier.

”Coffin!” Wood forms beneath, and the man laughs louder, moving out of the way as it wraps around me protectively. I have 3 minutes with this spell and can only use it once a day. I can’t stay in here forever.

Racking my brain for a counter on this guy is ineffective, and instead, I have to put my attention elsewhere, healing myself with light health, gaining back only a little.

[HP: 1,700/3,500 | MP: 2,500/3,000]

This guy is a monster; he wiped more than half of my health by just kicking me!

The timer on the coffin dings, and the wood breaks away. I don’t even have time to cast Eruption when a fist makes contact with my face, and my nose crunches under the immense pressure.

“Eruption!” It’s garbled through the blood. Nevertheless, the spikes rise, impaling him and giving me a chance to crawl away. There’s blood seeping from the areas he’s been hit with, and he groans… in ecstasy?

“THIS! This is what I’m talking about! You’ve upgraded bitch! From bug to a dog!” What little white was left in his eyes was replaced by only black. I cast eruption again, and he dodges, zeroing in on my head. I yelp as he grabs me by the hair again and smashes me through the glass window. The glass shatters and breaks off, some shards landing around us, some digging themselves into my face, some cutting my mouth as they slide through the back of my throat. All I can see is red. My head reels back and is pushed onto the edge where there’s a glass sticking up, up, and through the bottom of my chin to the top of my mouth. I can feel the bile coming up.

Please… I don’t want to die like this!

My player screen glows next to me, and I can see the words on the screen through one eye.

[Go crazy! Go crazy! Go crazy! Go crazy!]

I’ll lose it!

3rd Person POV

Jin-ah huffs, making it to Eris’ apartment door, slamming on it multiple times, and calling out Nergal’s name. Whoever this guy is, Jin-ah prays he’ll save Eris from whatever is happening. She wonders where this Nergal guy has been the entire time and why Eris hasn’t introduced them, but when a cat phases through the solid door, she doesn’t think anything of it. There’s been crazier things happening for her to care for, right?

Nergal looks up at the human shouting his name and cocks his head, hopping up on the apartment ledge to get a face-to-face view of the stranger. His heart is racing; nothing good happens in the dark realm, and if this human is barging down his Master’s door with blood covering their frightened face, with no Master in tow, something must be wrong.

“A cat? Nergal?” Jin-ah asks the cat, bewildered, and he responds, “Yes, where is my Master?” Jin-ah’s eyes glance over somewhere beyond the apartment and come back to meet Nergal’s again. She's freaked out over the talking cat, but what else is new at this point? “I don’t know; she told me to run home and get you and that you would know what to do.”

I do, Nergal thinks, transforming into his most significant self and staring down Jin-ah; their eyes meet each other one last time before Jin-ah feels sleepy. She falls forward, and Nergal catches her by sticking his paw out and gently laying her in front of Jin-woo’s door.
“Sorry, little one, you’ll feel better when you wake up. And not remember a thing.” Nergal apologizes to Jin-ah, rings the doorbell to the apartment, and speeds out to wherever he can sniff out his Master. But the scent of her blood is so thick he worries he may not be able to find her in time.

Meanwhile, Jin-woo answers the door, expecting Jin-ah and Eris on the other side; when he sees Jin-ah unconscious and a smear of blood on her face, he freezes, eyes glowering.

Where the fuck is Eris? He thought the girl, and he had a mutual understanding, and he liked her, but what was his sister doing here like this?

Eris’s apartment door breaks open under his shoulder. Some of his shadows scout out the place, but the apartment is empty. He calls his shadow knights, who were supposed to be shadowing the two girls; they come up and bow at his feet.

“What the hell happened?”

I’m not myself.

Whatever I am, it’s not me. It’s like I’m having an out-of-body experience, watching who was supposed to me laugh maniacally while fighting the man head-on. He breaks my arm, and it snaps clean, but I’m not deterred, closing the gap between us. The dagger drops from my mouth to my hand and stabs the man, dodging his hand when he tries to grab me, and comes in for another strike. He ducks and side-sweeps my legs under me with a swift kick, bringing his hands together to slam his fists into me. Another sickening sweet crack, and something inside me broke again.

Suddenly, I’m being pulled towards my body. Like a wounded animal about to die, I’m howling, clawing into the ground to avoid going back into that body. No avail, and I prepare for the pain, but there’s nothing. Just voices around.

Go crazy! Go crazy! Go crazy! Go crazy!

I can feel my mouth split from the smile I’m giving; the way the beast and I fight is like a dance - I hum, flinging the dagger at his face and swooshing under, catching him off guard to land an eruption at his abdomen. Blood pours from his mouth, and we start dancing again.

I’m losing my mind!

While I dodged another kick, the man grabbed my broken arm, swinging me into the cement wall next to us; it was nothing to me. It’s adrenaline!! My back bounces off the cement wall from the force he swung at me, and I use the moment to come in, landing another eruption on his face. It’s his turn to yell in pain, and he gives me time to grab the dagger lying next to us and pay back what’s due. I swing up from my crouched position and jab the dagger through his chin, but it’s not a clean shove, and it sticks haphazardly, and the tip of the knife juts out from the front of his nose.

My hand flies to ram the hilt deeper into his chin when some large cat comes out of nowhere. The cat uses my shirt as an anchor for his teeth to grab and make a quick escape.

“Who are you?” I ask, head at an unnatural angle, trying to gauge whatever the fuck this is.

“Master, please hold on.” The guy I was fighting behind us shouted something, and I giggled, swinging my legs in the air.

“It’s not over bitch!”

Chapter Text

“You fucking cat! Let me go!”

“Master, please-” “I’m NOT your master kitty!”

This cat has been calling me master for the past three minutes we’ve been walking - well - I’m still dangling by my shirt! And the cat’s the one walking!

“We’re almost there.” I never expected a cat to talk before! I should ask more about him when he drops me. We’re at some dull, ugly apartment building, and I huff when he lets me go!

I wanna kill this cat.

My poor dagger’s stuck in that bastard’s chin right now. But thinking about it makes me drop to the floor laughing. Deserved!

This stupid fucking cat.

“Eruption.” The spikes lean out from my shadow, nabbing the cat when he was too busy with his thoughts. The cat howls in pain at one of the shadows piercing through it and backs away, transforming into a smaller kitty!

“Do you think being small helps?! I don’t know, let’s find out! Let’s play! Eruption!” Another spike through the same paw, and my mouth drools! I caught him again! Same paw, too!

When I come in to grab him by the scruff, the cat flees somewhere up the stairs and through a door!

“Kitty~! Come out! I won’t hurt you again! PrOmisE!” Maybe the cat doesn’t believe me; I shouldn’t have tried to enunciate that promise so hard!

Step by step by step by step by step by step by step by ten steps more, and I’m at the top of the stairs, following in the direction of the cat! The door swings open, and there’s a man in front of me. His blue eyes were trained on my body!

“Eris.” He calls out, but I look around, trying to find the girl he’s calling for.

“Who the fuck is Eris? Give me that damn cat that just ran in here.” His body blocks the door where the cat lies on the couch, staring at me!

“Eris.” He says again. Does he think by magic I’m going to know what he’s talking about? My eyes narrow at this idiot. He’s pissing me off more than the cat did! “She’s not in her right mind Jin-woo. I don’t when she’ll come back but please. Help her. She saved Jin-ah.” The cat is talking again, and my head starts hurting; it’s getting too noisy. “All of these names!! But no one is saying is anything!” I’m crouched again, going for his legs, but he jumps and grabs my arm!
When he realizes he can see bone, his hand snaps back in shock, but this is a perfect time for me to get a hit. There’s a stick on the ground, so I nab it, sticking it through his foot. “Fuck!” He yells and brings his foot back when I tackle him. I’m on top, hair fanning his face, noses touching!

“You gotta be quicker than fuckbo- ah!” A pair of hands yanks me off of him and holds me in place. Thrashing around doesn’t help when the things beside me keep a firm grip. The tears streak down my face! I try to thrash more, but another set of hands brings me to the ground, holding my legs. “Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!” “Hold her as still as you can, her wounds.” The black-haired boy commands and walks up to me, so my eyes meet from my position on the ground.

“Eris. Come back to us.”

Jin-woo’s heart clenches at listening to Eris’ screams from the floor. He had his knights move her to her apartment out of Jin-ah’s sight, but luckily, the cat said it was only a bit of hair the man ripped from her hair. But knowing that this happened because of Eris makes him angry. How can he trust this girl when even going out for a coffee date with his only sister ends up like this? He can’t have this again. And what if he wasn’t home? Where was this talking cat going to bring her then? Around Jin-ah? His mom?

Deep down, he just hopes Eris comes back. He misses her. Regardless, Jin-ah is safe; the cat and Eris worked hard to protect her, just as they have before. The blood seeps into the carpet under Eris, and Jin-woo can’t breathe. Eris is riddled with wounds everywhere, and a particularly nasty one under her chin that’s been bleeding continuously. He probably would run out of fingers if he counted the number of bones she broke. He pulled a health potion from his inventory and tried to give it to her, but she refused, even with the knights holding him down. She likes the feeling. She had said.

Eris had gone silent, still, not moving an inch under the knights who worriedly looked over her. Jin-woo moved closer to check on her, still wary, but Eris’s eyes were half-lidded, looking up in tears. “Jin-woo?” It’s meek, but Eris asks for Jin-woo this time instead of the monster earlier. Jin-woo pushes aside the shadow knights to bend down, offering the health potion again. “Here, don’t talk just drink this.” Eris tries to sit up to drink the potion Jin-woo handed to her, but she crumples back onto the ground, sobbing. Jin-woo can’t describe the pitted feeling in his stomach, but it feels terrible and angry, as if he might go mad himself. He tilts the potion a little lower so she can drink. It restores her to her regular self, but Eris still lacks energy. She wants to tell Jin-woo sorry, what’s happening, and everything about her, but she just can’t bring herself to explain. Every time she tries to speak, it just ends in more crying. Jin-woo picks her up, Nergal limping behind with his wrapped paw, but one of the shadow knights picks him up and follows the duo with the rest of the knights.
“Jin-ah?” Eris asks, and Jin-woo explains that Jin-ah is safe and that Igris protects her. Jin-woo tells her that thanks to her sacrifice, Jin-ah made it home relatively unscathed. That Nergal somehow distorted her memories, so she’ll bounce back when she wakes up. He places Eris on the bed and tries to move out of the way so the knight can place Nergal on the bed, but he’s caught by Eris’ hand holding onto his sleeve.

“Wait.. don’t go, please.” He should deem this girl dangerous; he should kill her and go back to his apartment. But he can’t, and he still needs to thank Eris for saving Jin-ah, so he slides under the covers next to her, ordering the knights to keep watch over his sister for now. Nergal looks at the man, and Jin-woo swears he can see inside him. He’ll have to ask Eris for the details about him later.

He knows he shouldn’t wrap his arm around her. But he does.

He knows he shouldn’t press his forehead to hers. But he does.

My head is pounding. Like when you drink too much the night before, and you can’t remember anything, just thoughts of Oh I’ll never do this again, and who decided this was a good idea

The funny thing is, I don’t remember drinking at all. I remember being with Jin-ah and- oh my god.

Jin-ah. My upper body shoots up, and somewhere, Nergal yowls in fright; the poor cat has been through enough with me. Speaking of, “Nergal, what’s wrong with your paw?” I ask, examining the bandaged area, when he limped cautiously towards me. “Master, we need to talk,” Nergal starts, but is interrupted when the door creaks and Jin-woo walks in.

What is Jin-woo doing in my house?

“Oh, you’re up,” he begins, his eyes darting to Nergal as he leaps towards him and makes his way in front of Jin-woo, who then picks him up. What the hell is going on here?

“I want to thank you for saving Jin-ah. But it looks like we’re overdue for a reintroduction.”

Chapter Text

Picking my jaw from the floor had never been harder. I had just woken up, and suddenly, the life I had made for myself seemed gone in a flash when Nergal, the traitor, purred into Jin-woo’s hands, nudging his fingers to scratch behind his ears. To add salt to the wound, he completely ignored me when I called the cat over to me.

Fuck you too then

“A reintroduction?” The best I can do is feign ignorance, but honestly, to me, who’s still in the complete fucking dark about everything that’s going on currently, it wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Jin-woo’s eyes lifted from the content Nergal to meet mine, and it felt like the room could go cold at any minute.

“Jin-ah came home last night terrified and somehow your cat started talking and giving out directions. Half an hour later when he came back with you. You were someone else. Care to explain?” No. I can’t explain because I have no clue what you’re saying!!!

“Can anyone please, and I’ll stress this again, please elaborate on what you’re talking about! I went out for coffee with Jin-ah, and we came home!” My hands are thrown up in the air, my voice rising higher by the end to convey my frustrations. Making eye contact with Nergal, I glare and point an accusing finger at him, “Nergal, tell me what’s going on right now. Why did you talk to him? What is he talking about?” But Nergal stays put in Jin-woo’s hands, “Master, I think it’s best if you and Jin-woo talk this one out. It’s for the best.”

“I can’t talk about something when I have no clue what’s going on. This is like the fifth time I’ve said that.” I reiterated to them, and Jin-woo moved Nergal to the couch, slumping down and beckoning me to sit. I sit on the empty chair beside him and wait for someone to explain this mess.

This is it. I’m gonna die.

“I don’t know what you want me to explain, Eris, because I don’t know what’s going on either,” Jin-woo starts. His eyes connect with mine, steel blue, cold, before returning to their usual calm demeanor. He continues, “But you weren’t yourself last night; maybe someone took over your body, or maybe it was you but some crazy version. All I know is you were a danger to yourself and others. And we need to know if it will continue to be like that. Can I trust you not to turn and kill my sister or me, Nergal, or even yourself?”

“What do you mean by crazy?” Jin-woo sighs in frustration, his right hand briefly leaving behind Nergal so he can rest his head on it. “I don’t know Eris! I’m in the dark. Please stop asking me questions I can’t answer. If anything, you need to explain your powers, or even how you ended up here.” Does he know I’m not originally from this world? Is he asking how I got to Korea?

I take a minute to think about my answer, trying to calculate the best way to leave in the dark as much as possible while still giving him the answers he needs. But leaving him in the dark could also spell trouble further on and end up in a situation just like this or worse. However, who knows what he’ll do if I tell him about who I am?

Okay, I know what to do

“My family really did buy this apartment for me and I really did move to Korea from America. But when I came here I woke up one day and there was a screen in front of me-” “A screen? What did it say?” Jin-woo interrupts, leaning forward while I ignore him and continue talking, “It gave me a list of objectives, like finding Nergal or completing dungeons, and that’s it. Nothing so far has been out of the ordinary except that.”

Jin-woo hasn’t told Jin-ho or me about the screen, so maybe I can play this to my advantage.

“You wanted to know about the screen, right? It allows me to upgrade my abilities and punishes me when I don’t complete certain quests on time.”

If I keep Jin-woo busy on the fact that I have a screen like him, it might keep him off my tail about… well, everything else about me that doesn’t add up when you start thinking about it.

“What do you mean punishes you when you don’t complete quests on time? How often do you complete these quests?” He’s asking if I do daily quests like him, and I might as well try to act as similar to him as possible. “Yeah! I have to do them daily or they send me somewhere. Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out this whole thing myself so I might not be the best person to ask, even though I’m the only person I know of who has this currently,” C’mon, Jin-woo, take the bait and confess. It would make my life a lot easier if you did.

“That’s interesting.” Okay? But he continues, pushing further to try and rile an answer out of me, “So what about… last night? You really don’t know what happened?” He reiterates, his eyes narrowing on me for what felt like the umpteenth time. “I can’t tell you I even know what you’re talking about because I have no clue what happened. I honestly thought I went out for coffee with Jin-ah and came home. Like I said before, if someone could explain what happened, maybe I could piece something together.” My voice is raspy, desperate; what has gotten these two in the mood like this? First, Jin-woo interrogated me, and then Nergal completely ignored me; what could I have done?

“Last night, I don’t know how to explain it myself,” Jin-woo runs his hands through his hair; for the first time since I got here, he looks completely helpless. “You went crazy. Nergal says there was a man that you were fighting, and some sort of power or something awakened inside of you, but when he brought you home, you were trying to kill him. And then me.”

No fucking way
My eyes immediately snap to Nergal’s, “Did I try to hurt you?”

“Master…” He doesn’t have to finish his sentence for a choked sob to already let out from my lungs, and I can’t believe I would try to hurt him. I open my arms, and he bounds out of Jin-woo to meet me, snuggling into me while I whisper sorries and I love you repeatedly, stroking his back.

“So you really don’t remember any of that?” Jin-woo asks a third time, and I shake my head. “No, none of it.” It’s the truth.

“How were you able to restrain me?” As much as I want to know more about yesterday, I know I won’t get my answers from Jin-woo himself. He’s entirely in the dark about my situation (although he may think he has some inkling). So now it’s my turn to ask Jin-woo questions. He’s been keeping his secrets close to his chest, but expecting me to spill all of mine. But I know a way to get him.

Jin-woo shrugs, stretching proudly, “Nergal and I figured something out.” But I counter quickly, “For an E-Rank, you’re awfully strong. There’s something more you’re not telling Jin-ho and I.”

Gotcha.

Either we settle this now, or he kills me.

Just before Jin-woo can answer me, his phone rings, and he chooses to pick it up, holding his finger up to me to hold on while he takes the call. Whoever he’s talking with on the line sounds serious, and Jin-woo looks over to me before exiting, rushing a silent goodbye and nearly escaping my interrogation for him.

Damn it!

I had nothing else planned for the day except overthinking and profusely apologizing to Nergal through anchovy treats, so I tossed Nergal treat after treat. Taking a hot shower didn’t help me, and when I tried to get into bed to take a “forget about it” nap, all I could do was toss and turn, thinking about yesterday. Nergal was just as in the dark as I was, but offered slightly better help than Jin-woo by describing the man who attacked Jin-ah and me.

That man could also travel between his shadow realm, like Nergal and I, and it was easy for him to track me down. Can I do the same? Do I know? Does it come with upgrading my abilities?

Who is he? What does he want?

The only way to know is to complete more dungeons and ask the guy himself.

Chapter Text

You know when you're waiting for a text message, so you try to keep yourself busy?

You do everything you can to ignore your phone. You take the obligatory nap, scroll through TikTok (at least back when I was at least in my own world), watch TV, take a walk, invite friends over—anything to get rid of that anxious feeling.

That's how I've been feeling all day, except it's just me waiting for Jin-woo to text me or knock on my door to come to kill me

And I probably shouldn't feel like this. We just had this whole conversation where I lied straight to his face to save my ass - which I think worked. But who knows how long that lie will keep me safe.

Wait, why am I so scared of him? I'm literally a being from another planet. They wouldn't just drop me here without a way to defend myself. I'm sitting here moping around when I could be completing dungeons and getting stronger, instead, I'm hiding out in my room with Nergal, terrified of a 2D drawing.

Throwing the green duvet off of me, I signal Nergal to come with me, gathering my usual backpack and things we take on a dungeon before opening up my screen.

"Hey Nergal, there's a dungeon not too far from here and we barely hit the minimum level. Wanna try?" Just as I ask him to complete the dungeon with me, he hops back onto the bed, holding up his wounded paw and looking over to the pack of dried anchovies I've been tossing him occasionally all day.

Okay, now he's mooching this off, but I feel so bad about what happened I'll give him one more treat.

The last anchovy flies and bounces off of Nergal's nose. When I turn my back out of the corner of my eye, I can see him muttering out some cuss words while chasing after the tiny fish- letting me know he healed a while ago but was just too lazy to do anything other than eat anchovy snacks and lounge around all day.

I guess all cats are the same.

Now that Nergal decided he wanted to stay back and relax, it was up to me to walk to the dungeon entrance. Without Nergal's help, getting to the entrance took almost five times as long. I thought since it was relatively nearby, I could just walk, but man, this is too much.

Breathing heavily, I stare up at the dungeon gate before me, the sparkle of black and white popping off here and there, confirming it was the gate I needed. Besides the dungeon gate itself, something else also caught my eye.

The strawberry cake tasted sweet and overloaded my senses, so I washed it with the iced coffee I bought from the cafe next to the dungeon.

It doesn't make sense to complete a dungeon without Nergal anyway... right?

Trying to convince myself that skipping out on the dungeon and hitting the cafe next to it was the right idea, but I felt a nagging voice in my head tell me this wasn't the way to get stronger so I could defend myself.

Fine! I'll go! Once I finish my iced coffee and cake, I'll go to the dungeon.

While the strawberry cake and iced coffee were delicious (I'll have to bring Jin-ah here for a coffee date soon), it also felt like I was eating my last meal before a death sentence. If there's anything I hate doing most in this world, it's fighting and moving my body.

The dungeon gate loomed ominously behind the cafe windows, beckoning me to enter. It felt like something straight out of a horror movie, if we were being honest. But I guess it had to be done.

Thinking about the last time I went into one of those, a chill went down my spine, and I tossed the empty utensils into the bin and walked out the front doors. I guess it's time. Without Nergal, it felt much more lonely; I wonder if this is how Jin-woo felt with his first dungeons.

One foot into the dungeon is so much more different than the one I was in last time. Instead of the creepy white fog settling over a maze, this time, I found myself in a hot and humid jungle-like dungeon; every breath felt like I was swimming in an ocean and inhaling while going under. The leaves around me were massive, much bigger than a typical jungle plant. Some plants I recognized as elephant ears sprawled and towered over smaller ferns, and brightly colored flowers danced among the green, enticing equally as giant insects to help them fertilize.

Speaking of insects, one of the bugs resting on the flowers noticed me and made a beeline for my face. I cast eruption, and the winged creature fell to the ground a couple of feet from me. Closing that gap to take a closer inspection of the bug, all I could tell was that it looked like.... an overgrown mosquito. Its face was that of a mosquito, and the wings, but the body of a grasshopper.

That's grotesque.

Passing by the mutant grasshopper/mosquito thing, I trudged on in no direction, trying to find some way to the boss. My feet sank into the wet dirt and mud climbed around my ankles, making it harder when more bugs came from the ground and above. Dodging in a place like this took 10x the effort it would have in the maze, but at least there's more space, and I'm not being chased by many monsters again.

"Okay, so where is the boss?" As if someone heard my question, the next fern I pushed out of the way gave me a view of a river. The river looked calm, but make no mistake—it was quite large. Several wooden huts on poles were clustered here and there over the water, resembling a mini village.

I wonder what lives here?

It didn't take me long to get an answer; one of the doors to the huts opened and out stepped an.... ant-like creature. It had the same mutilated look as the mosquito but with different body parts. Nestled on top of the ant's body was another mosquito head. It seems like all creatures here have that in common - the mosquito head. I could almost equate them to the same creatures from HunterxHunter but half as cool-looking and twice as naked.

The theme here could be that maybe mosquitos evolved to be even worse beings than they already are. That wouldn't surprise me at all. Judging by how things have been going so far, I can assume that the boss of this dungeon is also... ugh, mosquito-y.

Creeping behind the bushes, I focused on the monster in front of me, who was now just patrolling around and sniffing the air.

If they can smell me, I'm doomed to take this the sneaky way.

But it seemed that although the monster sniffed the air, it never looked at my air once as I trailed slowly behind it. It used its massive wings to fly from the huts to the bank of the river, walking along the sand. It could be a perfect time to take the bug down, but I also didn't want to cause a scene around a congregation of them, seeing as I can't tell how many there are in those wooden huts.

By the time I maneuvered behind another tree, I had decided.

Guess it's time to rack up some skill points

Whipping out of the bushes, the ant-mosquito creature whipped its head around and lunged straight at me without hesitation, forcing me to duck under its arm and hit an eruption on one of its lower segments. The part where my hand connected blasted away from its body, leaving a hole in its abdomen. In turn, the creature roared, bringing down its face and using the proboscis to stab at my shoulder. Unfortunately, its mouth was too quick and barely sliced, leaving a thin slice from the front of my shoulder to the back.

But the slice wasn't the problem.

Once it got a taste of my blood, the part of the abdomen I blew away looked like it was repairing itself, little by little. It was almost back to brand new from that small amount of blood. And I'm supposed to fight off a whole hoard of these things somewhere.

The creature came in one more time to try and stab me, but this time, I ducked out of the way completely. I moved under the monster once more, this time trying to cast an eruption on one of its arms. This fight felt like a game of tag, with me running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

There!

As soon as the creature reared back for another stab, I took my chances at closing the distance and cast an eruption right in the middle of the torso; the shadows spiked from my hands, cutting the creature in half.

This one was so much harder than the grasshopper!

I took a couple of steps towards the monster in front of cut in two and crouched over it, inspecting it closer. I never saw these in the regular manwha, but then again, I never saw those stick monsters I had to fight. So it could mean that while Jin-woo has the advantage of at least knowing what kinds of monsters he fights, I'm constantly on the defensive trying to figure out what the fuck I'm looking at next, great.

A ringtone startled me out of my thoughts, and I fell backward into some of the blood that had seeped out from the body, groaning at the sticky substance that now slung to my clothes.

"Great!" I whisper-shouted to no one, still surprised that none of the other creatures had come in to investigate the roar yet. I pulled out my phone from my backpack to answer it.

I didn't know my phone would work across 'dimensions.' Nice to know.

Sung Jin-woo's name flashed across the screen, and my heart leaped out of my chest completely to lay in the grave I made for it. Taking some breaths and steadying myself, I swiped my thumb over the phone and raised it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Eris, where are you? I knocked on your door, but only Nergal answered." I can feel a headache as Nergal and Jin-woo are becoming fast friends. Nergal is supposed to be on my side! What happened to making fun of him and calling him twink?

"Well, first of all, Nergal shouldn't be answering the door for anyone, even if it's just you. And secondly, I'm in a stupid dungeon." Brushing myself off and using a leaf to try and get some of the blood off, I walked away from the body further down the river bank with my back to the huts - still keeping one eye out.

"A dungeon? Where? I thought you only did them with Jin-ho and I." Oh-ho, someone sounds jealous.

"Do you not remember that whole conversation we had about the blue screen of death and punishments if I don't do something? Well, I'm doing something."

"Is there a way for me to come in there? I want to see it for myself." Is this man crazy???

"I don't know if the dungeons will open for you—" I was immediately interrupted by my shadow forming into one of the soldiers, Igris.

I knew the shadows were on me, but Igris?? Also, the fact that he was able to crossover is troublesome news for later.

"You pinned one of your shadows to me??" My words screech over the phone, and I hear Jin-woo sigh, "I told you I would watch you. And now that we know Igris successfully came with you let me join." "How am I supposed to do that Jin-woo? I don't remember where the gate is." "Igris does." And just like that, Igris bows and flashes from my sight; a second later, there's a familiar man in front of me. Nonchalant like this won't blow the roof off my cover.

It would've been so much easier if he just stopped being so fucking nosey! He doesn't know these creatures; what lie do I have to concoct this time...

"So? Should we get started."

I’m so fucked.

Chapter Text

"Why?" This is the first thing Jin-woo hears out of my mouth when he finally meets my side. His response is a slight grin and a shrug, "Why not?"

Why do you make my life harder than it needs to be, Sung Jin-woo.

"Why? Because I may not get the dungeon points, I must stay out of the penalty zone with you here." There's no penalty zone for me, at least. I've been lucky not to find out what it is, but Jin-woo doesn't know that.

"I'll stay back and observe then." My eyebrows meet each other in a frown, huffing and crossing my arms over my chest. "I'm really not in the mood to play these games, for your information." His grin widens just slightly more, surveying the jungle-like area around us. "Who says I'm playing a game? I'm just here to help however I can." Your version of helping is fucking me over.

We walk through the jungle in tandem, pushing past large grass and continuing the argument about whether he should leave. Igris sighed as he followed us both, the poor shadow.

"Let's ask the audience Jin-woo, audience, raise your hand if you want him here." Of course, the only person to raise their hand was Jin-woo, and Igris let out a fake cough when Jin-woo swiveled his head to his companion, urging him to raise his hand as well. "Two against one time to go home. Thanks for sticking by my side, Igris." Jin-woo sighed and raised his other hand, both up in defeat. "Fine, if you want me to go-" He starts, but a deafening roar north of us interrupts him as the trees and brush move around us. Just as quick as it began, though, it ended, leaving me huddled up next to Igris. "On second thought," I start pushing Igris towards the sound, "How about you stay?" The same stupid shit-eating grin never left Jin-woo's face as he agreed, moving past Igris and me to lead the way. Igris starts to follow Jin-woo but stops and looks at me when I grab his hand. "I'm not scared or anything by the way; this is so you don't get lost." Igris nods, and I'm glad we leave it at that when we start to follow Jin-woo.

Just as we cross a small creek, a tiny winged creature whizzes past Jin-woo's head and aims straight for me. I would have defended myself using Eruption, but Igris swiped the creature out of the sky without letting go of my hand. As if it was worse enough to have a crush on the main character, now I think his shadows are hot, too.

"Thanks Igris." I send a small smile towards the stoic shadow, and his helmet shakes as he nods; when we look down, I notice the same weird grasshopper ant from earlier. Jesus, is there no end to those things?

"It seemed to go straight for you." Jin-woo muses, and I laugh unenthusiastically, "Well yeah, it's my dungeon after all." "You don't seem too keen to be here though." Touché, you got me there.

"I'm never keen enough to go to a dungeon, especially without Nergal. But if I don't want to end up in the penalty zone, I'm forced to." My words hiss out when a branch Jin-woo held for himself flies back and smacks me in the face, causing him to chuckle while I continue on my tirade. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't even be a hunter. I'd be a cute barista working at some random cafe making adorable cakes and pastries." Jin-woo's laugh is sharp when he immediately counters, "And look what happened the last time you were in a cafe." My dreams shatter. "That was not my fault!" "Sorta kind of was when he was looking for specifically you." I get it. I accidentally put his sister in danger, but hey, I did my best to protect her, and it worked out. Doesn't that count for something?

"Yeah, well, that's problem number two." Thinking about the disaster I can't even remember makes me cranky. But I needed to figure out who that guy was, what he wanted from me, and how he found me.

What if he was also sent here by the same people, and this is some crazy Future Diaries bullshit?

"-to Eris?" Jin-woo's fingers snap in front of me; I blink, focusing on his thumb and middle finger, clicking in front of me.

"Oh, sorry, what did you say?" "I was asking what you usually do when you get into these dungeons. So far, it's been quiet, save for the mysterious flying thing and the roar." Jin-woo's right; usually, it's more action-packed than this.

"To be honest, every dungeon I've done through the 'shadow' gate or whatever has been a total mystery to me." In other words, everything I've done so far has been so far off the mark, according to this manwha.

"Let's just keep going north." The only thing I agreed with Jin-woo on today.

"Go north, he says!" My tone becomes harsh and mocking as I dodge another flying chimera. Six more pop out of nowhere, and I'm forced to use Eruption in front of me, with Igris behind me, dealing with his own swarm.

"You agreed!" Jin-woo shoots back, moving his head ever so slightly so the chimera misses his head. What's with this theme of hordes of monsters attacking me in these dungeons?

"Aren't you powerful or something!" This man has shadows at his beck and call, yet we're here dodging insects like idiots.

"You told me to stay out of it earlier, remember?"
"And I remember telling you that you could stay in it, remember?"

Jin-woo sucks in air through his teeth, and an inner voice tells me to duck; right as I crouch down, there's a whoosh in the air, and the buzzing around us stills.

Jaw agape, I rise from my crouched position while holding a stick and tossing it in Jin-woo's direction. "That's all it took? Are you kidding me?!" Jin-woo turns his shoulder so the stick flies past him and hits a tree instead.

Stupid bastard and his stupid face and his stupid powers and his stupid attitude.

"I'm not sure I'm very confident in your abilities if you can't handle a swarm of bugs, but let's hope I change my mind when we reach whoever's making that noise." Another stick flies past Jin-woo's head as he finishes his taunt. The two of us continue bickering, killing minor bugs, moving through this never-ending forest, and bickering again.

I don't think I've ever had this much one-on-one with Jin-woo before.

It's funny. We've been through a lot in the past couple of weeks, and now we're finally starting to open up to each other. I was more surprised by how relaxed he was when I told him about my blue screen. Granted, I exaggerated a bit, but still.

Would it be in my favor to tell him everything?

Finally, the brush gives way to another clearing; no lakes or houses exist this time. The trees around the circular clearing looked burnt, and significant claw marks scratched the grass, leaving muddy marks everywhere.

I gave a low whistle while looking around, taking in the surroundings. Jin-woo's shoulder brushes up against mine when he takes one step out into the clearing to get a better look at himself, Igris behind him. Finally, I take my turn, following Jin-woo and Igris out to the clearing, where we meet in the middle pretty soon.

"You know, the last time, the boss came through the ceiling-ah!" Every time I try to make a joke about life, life makes a joke out of me. I feel weightless as the ground underneath gives way, and though I can't hear Jin-woo over the rumbling of the ground falling apart, I can make out his words.

'Hold on to me!' Don't have to tell me twice.

Jin-woo's outstretched hand meets my own, and he pulls me in closer to him; my nose is squished up against his chest, and I can smell the smoky cologne he wears - fuck boy - it's thick, and I think every time I inhale I'm getting drowsy from the smell. This is what Cha Hae-in liked? Girl.

Eyes closed, I can't tell if we've landed until Jin-woo pats my back, and I step away from him, clearing my throat to cover the awkwardness. "So, that was fun." And yet again, like clockwork, life likes to stick it up my ass when a bout of fire whizzes right past me. "Okay! I'll stop making jokes!"

Jin-woo jumps back, and Igris grabs my shirt by the collar, pulling me in the direction Jin-woo is going. I'm starting to feel like a child.

In front of me, I can see the boss clearly, and I'll admit, it takes a lot of my mental strength not to throw up. God, I hate bugs.

It's straight out of a horror book: a centipede body with a humanoid top, the body having too many legs, its face riddled with too many eyes, and its jaw hanging way too low. Black and red stripes line up to make a zigzag pattern, and the black antennas on its head move back and forth, scanning for something—probably us, his hands twitching with anticipation.

"I've never seen this monster before," Jin-woo muses, expertly dodging the wave of fire that is hitting us.

These dungeons must love enclosed places because this one feels like the other dungeon with the stick man. Another fireball was in Igris's and my direction, and we dodged again. When my feet land on the floor, I see Jin-woo and Igris running up the beast in tandem, looking like a well-oiled machine.

This may go quicker than I thought.

Igris uses his sword first to slash at the centipede, but the monster buries itself into the ground, the hole it made closing up behind him before Igris' sword can make the hit; Jin-woo steps back, and it's quiet while we wait for the centipede to resurface.

Or not.

A couple of pebbles next to me shake, and that's my signal that the centipede will resurface, most presumably around me. I'm proven correct when the ground bursts to my right, and I hear the familiar screech from last time, almost making me deaf. Jin-woo and Igris start to make their way over to me, but my hair rises around me when I decide it's my turn to help out.

"Shadow Bolt."

My shadow springs up from the ground beneath me and expands into an amalgamation of shadows, rapidly buzzing. It looked like a ball of total darkness when it flew towards the centipede, catching it by the tail(?) and surrounding the creature in quick succession. Using Shadow Bolt takes a good chunk out of my mana, but by god, does it get the job done,

All you could hear for the next two minutes was the breathing of the two bodies, the black ball hovering menacingly between us.

"You could have started with that." I scoff at Jin-woo, folding my arms for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. "Well sorry, I wanted to conserve my energy. I'm out for the day pretty much using that move." If I had anything to go off, my residual mana count [Mana: 2,200/3,500 Health: 3,000/3,500]

Only 2,200 left; I can try another big stunt or reserve my mana.\

The last minute ticks down, and although I prayed that Shadow Bolt would have taken the creature down, judging by the even louder screech it gave when escaping the black form, it gave me the more unfortunate answer.

"How much health does this thing have?" I yell as I move out of the way of the creature, who is currently focused on getting his revenge on me. "Not much left, here, move." Jin-woo's words are steady as he jumps between the centipede and me, whipping out a dagger and stabbing the thing. Igris joins with his sword, slashing at the centipede's legs until finally it stops scurrying around.

Quest Complete!
[Quest Complete! Clear a dungeon!]
[Bonus Quest Complete! Kill the Boss]
[10 Kills, 40 Assists]

The centipede's body lies lifelessly, and Jin-woo tries to do his dumb shadow thing, but to no avail. Maybe because this dungeon is different from the dungeons he's used to.

"Fuck." The black-haired idiot rises from his crouched position after failing to pull the shadow and rummages through whatever the corpse gave out, handing me a stinger. "Apparently, he was poisonous; here's something useful." I shake my head and push his hand back towards his body. "I don't need that kind of stuff, but thanks for offering." The portal crackles and shrieks, telling us that our time in the dungeon must end soon.

Jin-woo looks over to me when I clear my throat to get his attention, his blue eyes focusing on my brown ones. "I just... wanted to thank you and Igris for coming. Even though it was unwanted initially, you made this go a lot faster than it usually does, Jin-woo." I can feel the heat radiating off my cheeks, and I curse myself for it, but Jin-woo's small smile makes me forget about the blushing and focus on the pounding in my chest. Jesus, who asked this man to be this hot?

"Oppa." Jin-woo says, and I tilt my head as he takes his first step into the gate. Igris is still by my side, waiting for me to enter first. "Huh?" His small smile turns into a smirk when he hears my confusion. He continues talking and disappears to the other side. "You forgot to start calling me Oppa."

My heart stopped beating fast, and my face deadpanned at the thought of calling Jin-woo Oppa.

That's just gross.

I follow Jin-woo out into the streetlight. It's dark, and the light shines on both of us while we stare at each other. "In your dreams." Jin-woo huffs a small laugh, "Not what you said when you were drunk." And here comes that blush again.

Hitting Jin-woo's shoulder didn't deter him from letting out a few more laughs at my expense, and our footsteps echoed towards our apartments.

If only I had been paying more attention.

Getting home and popping into the shower felt great; snuggling up with Nergal to watch some dumb Korean reality TV show was better.

"She could totally do better." Nergal remarks, chewing on an anchovy stick I gave him while I munch on popcorn, the girl on the screen is currently chasing after some no-good guy.

"Mmm, you're right, like he's not even hot." Mouth full of popcorn, Nergal and I continue commenting on the show. "I think Jin-woo is better looking than any of the men on this screen." Kernels fly out of my mouth when I choke on Nergal's words, looking over at him incredulously. "Nergal. We need to have a talk on how close you and Jin-woo are getting. You're supposed to be my familiar." Whining to Nergal only gets me a side eye, so I sigh and drop the complaints for now, choosing to shut the TV off instead and snuggle up with the black cat. Just as my eyes finally closed, a ding from my phone made me unhappily open them up again to see Jin-woo's text.

We just saw each other; what could he possibly need from me now?

Jin-woo
[Thanks for letting me tag along. Today was fun.]

That's why he texted at almost 1 AM?

Me
[Let's do it again sometime :)]
Jin-woo
[Hopefully soon.]

What's up with Jin-woo? He's been acting weird lately. I can't help but smile softly at the text, telling him good night and finally snuggling under the covers.

I wonder if he'll stay this nice in the future?

Perched on the rooftop as he usually does, Jin-woo contemplates the day he had, not tired even though he had just completed the dungeon with Eris. From his new view, he could almost look into Eris' window and see her in bed with Nergal, but that's not on his attention right now. The phone in his hand chimes, and his eyes meet the screen, glowing as they read Eris's last text message. He was bored and hoped she would keep texting him, but it was 1 in the morning, and he couldn't ask for much more than a good night.

He thinks back to the weeks since Eris arrived. Eris hasn't proven to be a threat so far; in fact, he could almost call her meek—like an ugly kitten soaked in the rain that you want to take in. But that day when she nearly lost her mind is still vividly etched in his memory. He'll deal with that later, though something else seems to be having his hair on edge, goosebumps riddling his skin.

Something's here, and he's not too happy it's in his neighborhood.

Chapter Text

Hi my lovely Readers!

I apologize this is not the chapter you’ve been waiting for. But I just wanted to give an update that she will be regularly updated starting next month. I’m thinking, hopefully, weekly.

Getting a new job is hard T-T been very busy.

Please lookout for a chapter in the next upcoming weeks!

Chapter Text

It’s unbearably hot.

Nergel sleeps across from me at the foot of the bed, curled against a spare pillow I left for him to rest on his head. My feet slide against my duvet, and I huff, throwing the duvet off myself and getting up to walk into the kitchen.

All I can think about is how out of hand everything has gotten. My original plan to keep Jin-woo in the dark has gone to shit. And whatever the fuck had happened with Jin-ah, and I went to the coffee shop was no good either.

Everything is falling apart so rapidly. I knew some plot twist was coming, but they could have given me some time.

Water fills my cup as my eyes dart over to the microwave’s clock - 01:00. It’s not like I have anywhere to be tomorrow, but I’d instead not make a habit of waking up in the middle of the night.

Since I don’t think I’ll be going to bed soon, I might as well figure out where I am in the series.

The notebook I hid falls onto the coffee table with a ‘thump,’ I open the pages, recalling the events of the day before and trying hard to remember what happens next.

To be honest, I’ve lost track of everything. But one thing I can base my timeline on is that he has Igris. This means we’re at least past season 1 of the anime, roughly translated to chapter 50 or so in the manhwa.

What’s the series next most significant plot point? The Red Gate?

By the time I’ve documented all I can in the journal and made a note to buy one more, it’s 05:00, and my eyes feel heavy. It wouldn’t hurt to go back to bed.

Rising, my arms go up and above my head in a big stretch before I move to hide the notebook back in its respective place. Sleepy thoughts of faraway dreams creep up from the dark when the doorbell pulls me out of sleep’s siren song.

Goddammit.

I don’t bother checking the peephole when I slam the door open - the offender sloped against my doorway like he always does, as if I’m holding him up. A scowl settles on my face when I meet his surprised face.

“What? You knocked?” “I didn’t expect you to open the door that fast.”

I shrug and yawn, “I was already up. What’s up?” Jin-woo leans in a bit so we’re face-to-face. “I need a favor.” I can feel his breath across my face when he speaks. “A favor?” I’m curious about what he would need this early in the morning.

“Can I spend the day with you?”

“What.”

I rationally try to imagine why this man would want to spend the day with me, but only the worst-case scenarios come to mind.

Is he trying to trick me into letting my guard down? Does he think he’ll be able to learn more about my system? About Nergal? Maybe he didn’t believe me and is trying to catch me off my guard-

“Earth to Eris.” My eyes refocus on the fingers snapping in front of me, and my stupid ass nods without even thinking about it. Jin-woo takes that as a yes because he slips past me and saunters into the living room, plopping himself onto the couch.

“What'd ya have planned for today?” He asks, and I notice that his head is down, focused on his fumbling around each other. A slight smirk rises on the corner of my lips, and I follow him to the adjacent couch, jumping into the seat.

“You’re the one who barged into my house - why are you asking me? Also, don’t you have important business to take care of? You usually do.” His face heats to 100 degrees into an infernal red, and he coughs.

“Jin-ah kicked me out for…. ahem… girl business? Plus, she’s having some of her friends over, so I’d rather not be a part of that. And so, today, I have nothing better to do. I was going to train, but none of the gates looked interesting.”

Girl business? What could Jin-ah possibly do that makes her brother look like a middle school boy and get him kicked out for the day?

….Did he walk in on her during her period?

I try to stifle a laugh at the thought of big bad Jin-woo stuttering over his words while his sister beats the brake lights off of him until he just leaves the house - but unfortunately, the gag landed him here, so it was only so funny until it wasn’t.

“Well, I’m not doing much; I was actually going to finish Shangri-La Frontier! The main fight of the season is about to happen, and I need to see how it turns out.” Nergal and I have been watching this show they have in this world, and it’s been like crack for us. There's no way we would miss the biggest fight of the season on our off day.

Jin-woo’s ears perk up at the name, “Shangri-La?” I lean in, eyes wide, “You’ve heard of it? Omg who’s your favorite character?” “Never watched it.”

“Why are you the most boring person on the planet?” Jin-woo’s shoulders deflate, and my stomach knots up at the action.

That was weird.

“You’ll just have to pick up the fight with us. Luckily for you the show is easy to pick up on! Come on!” I grab him and drag him to the queen bed, pointing towards a small spot next to Nergal.

“Can you call Igris? He would be upset if he missed the fight.” When I step away from Jin-woo, my fingers lock up.

What the hell?

I’m suddenly hyper-aware that in my effort to be nice to Jin-woo after the mean comment, I grabbed and interlocked our hands. If I weren’t about to faint, I would savor how his hands swallowed mine with no problem - disappearing behind his fingers.

When I try to pull away from him, he tightens his grip and tugs his arm - the world spins for a second, and I’m staring at steely grey eyes and a raised eyebrow. “Igris has been watching this with you?” I puff air into Jin-woo’s face; his hair moves, and he lets go to rub at his skin.

“Of course, since you keep sending him here nearly daily to watch over me like some criminal. Igris watches TV with us, forcing me to work out sometimes. I force Igris to wear clothes I think would look cute, and Nergal likes him a lot.” His scowl deepens, but Igris is there in a flash, arms open for the incoming furball missile coming straight for him.

“Since it’s still bum fuck morning, do you want any breakfast?” He shoots down my offer, but it doesn’t stop me from making something for him anyway while I make breakfast. Five minutes later, two plates of pancakes, eggs, and bacon were on a tray, shoved unceremoniously in front of three figures on a queen bed.

I need to get a bigger bed.

Jin-woo may have claimed that he didn’t want breakfast, but how he’s digging into his food now makes me think he was just being nice. I almost think he doesn’t even know Igris and me exist, and he’s in his world. While Jin-woo makes out with his pancakes, I play the episode, and Sunraku, Arthur, and Oicazzo are just beginning their fight with Wezaemon.

Igris stiffens up next to me a little - maybe a little intimidated by Wezaemon- and I pat his shoulder armor to comfort him.

“You’ll always be the cooler one, Igris. You could totally beat him.” I didn’t think a piece of armor could puff his chest, but lo and behold, Igris is haughtily basking in the praise.

The first phase goes by, and Kirin, Wezaemon’s horse, shows up. While Sunraku is fighting, Wezaemon, Arthur, and Oicazzo handle Kirin, and it’s a mess.

For some reason, I feel like this is how most of our missions end.

By the time we get to the third phase, Sunraku and Wezaemon are both at the peak of their fighting. Igris and Nergal are sucked in; it’s what we’ve been waiting for half a season, but not only that, noticing that Jin-woo hasn’t said anything in a while, I turn my head over to him to gauge his reaction to the show.

His eyes are practically sparkling. This dude loves fighting, huh.

I open my mouth to go and say something but find it against my better judgment not to interrupt whatever bro moment Jin-woo is having with the TV; just as Sunraku throws another life revival ball up in the air as Wezaemon slashes him is when I decide I don’t know how to keep my mouth shut for long.

“So, it looks like you’re also in love with the show.” Jin-woo finally remembers that other people are in the room when his head tilts ever so slightly to me - a show that he heard me, but is not entirely focused on the conversation I’m trying to start with him.

“I mean, it is a pretty good fight. It reminds me of Igris and I, but also so different.”

I snorted, “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that they’re both robots, and you both are, for some reason, overpowered beings with too much of an ego?” This time, it’s Jin-woo’s turn to respond snarkily when he pushes my head into Igris’ shoulder, causing a loud thump and a whine to escape my throat. “Hey! Watch who you’re pushing!”

“Look who’s talking, you’ve all bark no bite lately. How many times have I bailed you out of a situation?”

Many, but I’d never admit that until I’m in my grave.

“Sorry I’ve got a bad memory. I don’t remember.” The too-sweet tone in my voice elicits an eye roll from Jin-woo, who, like anyone with a brain, can detect the lie hidden under it. His hands fly up to count the times he’s saved me.

“The first time we went into a dungeon together, I remember you passing out in an ogre’s hand.” One finger. “Then we have the hobgoblin and then your dungeon.” Two more fingers. His voice lowers when the fourth finger rises, “And when you… Changed.” You could jump in the Antarctic right now and still wouldn’t reach the same level of chill I felt come over me when he brought up that situation. I know he may not currently do anything to me about it - but at some point, it will bubble over, and whoever I was fighting will also show up again.

And who knows what will happen then? But for now, most of my fears have proved to be nothing more than overthinking. Let’s hope this ends up the same.

To ease the tension from Jin-woo’s last words, I sit up, facing away from the TV and towards Jin-woo to gain some height and smack his hand out of the air, then raise my hands in defiance. “Okay well what about when I saved you from impending doom that one time.” Jin-woo’s eyebrows raise, and he laughs, eyes moving back to the fight that Sunraku and Wezaemon are using both of their techniques at the same time. At this moment, he doesn’t look like that asshole S-Rank Hunter Shadow Monarch Hero Protagonist of a hit manhwa Jin-woo that I’ve been cautiously (or not so cautiously in some cases) trying to avoid. But an actual friend, like I belong in this world.

I miss my family and friends. This is nice, but I’d rather be home.

Ah, fuck it.

“Jin-woo?” When I call out his name, I receive an annoyed hum, but I scowl and brush it off. It’s hard enough trying to get the next part out.

“Thank you for saving me all those times. I know I’ve been a hassle on top of the responsibilities you already have, but it’s nice to know I have you and Jin-ah when there’s no one else.”

His head turns away like he’s actively ignoring me, and my scowl deepens, “Fine asshole, I was trying to be all sentimental but you had to ruin-” My sentence is cut short when Igris shuffles on his side of the bed, which accidentally pushes me forward towards Jin-woo. Half of my body falls onto Jin-woo’s chest, and my hands meet something rock hard.

Great! As if this couldn’t get more embarrassing!

Heart beating a mile a minute, I try not to think about how insane his chest feels under my hands. When I finally gather the courage to peek under my hair, I see I’m not the only one who’s gone beet red from embarrassment. It’s a scramble to untangle myself from Jin-woo as fast as possible while looking nonchalant, but I fear the damage has already been done.

I settle back into my original spot and shoot Igris a glare, who shares a look with Nergal before returning his attention to the TV.

Rude?

“For the record, you’ve also done your fair share for Jin-ah and I, in your own… unique way. I appreciate the company you give Jin-ah. And… to me. It’s nice to have friends.” Of course, this asshole would say it after something like that happened, he just liked seeing me riled up.

I give him a soft smile and return my attention to the anime playing on the screen, never noticing how Jin-woo’s eyes glow once my concentration has left him.

The episodes fly by as Jin-woo, Igris, Nergal, and I stay glued to the bed - save for the occasional snack grabbing. By the time we catch up to the latest episode of the second season, it’s 17:00, and my stomach is growling, hungry for more than just fruit or popcorn.

“Jin-woo, are you hungry?” My foot nudges him to get his attention. “Yeah, what were you thinking?”

I’ll say his favorite words, so maybe he’ll buy dinner.

“Chicken and beer?” Add some puppy dog eyes for extra pizazz. As I figured, Jin-woo agreed without any hesitation but added a suggestion. “Why don’t we leave the house and get it, we’ve been in here all day, and I want to stretch my legs.” I don’t try to show it, but a slight frown settles on my face as I don’t particularly feel like leaving the house today.

Well, if he’s paying, I’ll make the walk.

“Fine, but since we’ve been inside all day, I need to change at least quickly.” I clamber over Jin-woo’s legs to get to my bathroom and walk-in closet, shutting the door behind me to freshen up and change from my pajamas to jean shorts and a grey t-shirt. Jin-woo is up and stretching his legs when I'm out of the bathroom. His abs peek out of his black shirt when he yawns, and suddenly, I feel like the biggest pervert in the world, trying not to look like I’m ogling when he passes me, ruffling my head as he moves into the space I just left.

I don’t know whether to stay away from this man or jump his bones. This is terrible.

As the day approaches, my face heats up as I think about the fact that I let this man sit in my bed with me for almost twelve hours, watching a show with me, our bodies touching and falling on him. I thank him for saving me, remembering every awkward moment in between.

It takes me mentally hyping myself to keep myself from screaming.

Jin-woo is out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom, so we leave Igris and Nergal to their devices and head out of the apartment. We stopped by the Sung apartment to check on Jin-ah and her friends.

After saying goodbye to the girls, we headed slowly and comfortably toward the chicken restaurant. On the way there, we talked about anything and everything that came to mind.

“You know, today has been really great! I thought it would just be Igris, Nergal and I but having you around is actually fun! I’ll allow you to join our group.” Jin-woo laughs and responds, “Well, now I know where Igris has been getting off to. Also, Igris is under my command, what do you mean - joining your group? If anything, you three are bound to me the way I save your asses.”
I roll my eyes at his sentence. This man is constantly bringing up saving us.

“When did you save Igris? If anything, isn’t he the one saving you?” I’m met with a shrug, “I like to think Igris would have rotted where he stood if it wasn’t for me picking him up.” Wow, there’s that ego again.

As we reach the front of the restaurant, I beam, spinning to Jin-woo and pointing to the sign. “Well, we’re here! Shall we eat?” He doesn’t need to be asked twice, though, as he’s already holding the door open for me to walk through, and I take up the offer, sliding into a seat while he orders our usual. The food is here faster than I blink, and my stomach gurgles - making me embarrassed.

Guess big back habits don’t die even if you do.

Jin-woo must have heard it because he stuck a fry in my mouth.

“Here, eat up.” I don’t hesitate to take the fry, my stomach acting over my brain. When the fry dissolved in a vat of stomach acid, I realized my lips touched his fingers, but he was already shoving a second fry into my mouth. Feeling slightly hot from the first time, I grab the fry with my hand and start eating on my own. “Jeez, was my stomach that loud?” His mouth curls up into a soft smirk, and he takes a bite of the spicy chicken before him. “It was noticeable.”

I shoot Jin-woo a dirty glare and take a bite of my chicken, savoring the flavors before washing it with a beer and soju mix. The rest of the meal passes, and Jin-woo orders something for the girls. While we wait on the bench, I twist my head to get a good look at him under the light.

Since I’d known him, he has sported a scowl that’s always there, no matter what. Even when he honestly laughed, it always felt a little hollow, calculated, cold.

Today was the first time I saw him serene, or at least a glimpse of what people close to him see, not the tough exterior he’s been forced to put on since becoming an S-Rank Hunter.

In the manwha, the personality shift between before and after the double dungeon was massive; I don’t doubt that somewhere in there is his old self.

“Today has been nice huh,” I comment, breaking the silence between us.

“It has.”

We’re walking back home in no time, and soon, we return to our apartments. When Jin-woo unlocks his apartment door, the girls are giggling over some boy at school they found cute and taking some online quizzes. I remember those years.

It’s late in the evening, but Jin-woo doesn’t look like he wants to stay in the apartment building when he drops the chicken down, and Jin-ah practically begs if the girls can sleep over, all 5 of them.

“Where will they sleep?” Jin-woo asks, eyes looking over to the school girls who also couldn’t get enough of ‘Jin-ah’s hot brother.’ I don’t blame them—Jin-ah pouts, placing her hand on her hips.

“Two of them can stay in your room, duh, and then we have futons, and Hannie will sleep with me. Problem solved.” I saw Jin-woo open his mouth to start a fight, but it died when Jin-ah shot him in the glare and beat him to it. “Remember this morning-”

Cue now, where Jin-woo is over at my apartment again. Igris and Nergal were still in the same spot, watching some Korean romance show that was on.

They’re both just a pair of cats.

I let Jin-woo crash back onto the bed with Igris and Nergal, opting to take a shower before the day was done. The hot water splashes over me, and I can feel any tension in my muscles gone; the effects of drinking earlier and the shower heat making me feel faint, so I quickly go through my routine so that Jin-woo can get his turn next.

Feeling fresh in a new set of pajamas, I lay out what Jin-woo would need for his shower and open the door, the steam following me out. “Shower’s all yours Jin-woo!”

“Thanks.” He slips behind the bathroom door and does his thing while I get comfortable in bed, shooing Igris and Nergal to move a little down the bed while I get comfy.

“Say, Igris, what do you think your life was like before you started serving Jin-woo?” Igris tilts his head slightly to the side and then refocuses his attention on petting Nergal.

“Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t remember.”

I resigned to watching whatever they were watching before we came home, and Jin-woo came out of the bathroom. His hair was still wet and sticking to his face. Igris disappears with a poof, scaring Nergal and me when Jin-woo stands there awkwardly.

“So…” He starts, but I save his dignity by finishing his sentence for him. “I was thinking we watch something else before we go to bed. I’m not that tired. If you’re up for it?”

“Sure.” He settles back into his spot before we go out to eat, this time with much more room since Igris has returned to his shadow or wherever he comes from. I scroll through SoftRoll for some other mindless anime we could put on, and eventually, we settle on To Your Eternity while Jin-woo brings the rest of the beer he had bought to drink in his room, but ended up here.

What was meant to be a mindless anime turned into me sobbing into my covers while Jin-woo pats my back to comfort me.

“His owner died looking for his family, and oh my god.” Who made this show?

“At least his memory lives on with the orb guy.” That’s not comforting, Jin-woo.

“I wa-nt… ugh… him ali-ve.” I try to hiccup through my tears. The beer seems to be getting to me; I’m being handed another by Jin-woo, who has popped his third since we arrived.

He doesn’t look drunk at all.

Oh, right, I forgot the system did that. I wonder why he’s handing me another one - maybe he thinks my system works like his. Why doesn’t he ask outright?

I thought we were bonding today. He always has some ulterior motive. It pisses me off to no end. We're back to square one again.

My suspicions are confirmed when Jin-woo asks his next question.

“Eris, are you drunk? Does your system not filter out substances?” I shake my head, the world feeling slightly dizzy around me - I was never good with alcohol.

“No, does yours?” He nods, taking another swig of his beer before crushing the can effortlessly and grabbing another.

“Don’t you think getting a girl drunk in her bed looks messy? If you wanted more information about my system, you could have asked me. I thought our day was going so well.” I slurred out the last word, startling Jin-woo as he realized the situation.

“That’s not what I- fuck.” Jin-woo? Cussing?

That’s kinda hot.

I'm pissed to all hell he pulled this stunt, but I'm too tired to even think about it right now.

That's a sober me problem.

If I were in a better sense and not sipping on my third beer of the night, coupled with the soju shots from earlier, I would have kept my mouth shut. But I don’t know better sober, so why would I listen to reason?

“You should cuss more often. Hic! It’s hot.” His face lights up like a tomato, and in the next two seconds, I’m patting his back as he chokes out his beer, coughing and clearing his throat.

“Are you okay?” Jin-woo’s eyes glow a soft blue when they meet mine, and go steel hard - a shudder goes down my spine. I’ve only seen that look a few times, and it’s never been good.

“Are you okay?” He throws it back at me, and I ponder it. He is still smacking his back while he coughs out the rest of the cheap beer from the convenience store.

“I mean, yeah? I was just saying if you’re ever going to pick up a girl you should totally cuss. Have you never had a girlfriend or flirted with anyone before? Jesus, will I have to be your sidekick?” I’d rather be the one getting chased, but I could settle for best friend.

Jin-woo seems to have gotten himself together, and we resume the show, but being up since 05:00 and all the alcohol is finally overriding my systems. My eyes are closing on their own accord, totally forgetting one significant fact.

I never told Jin-woo where to sleep.

Chapter Text

I never could stay still while I slept.

Maybe that’s why I’m in an all-too-familiar position again.

Keeping my eyes shut, I let out a small huff, turned over, and snuggled into the pillow I usually keep horizontally for this purpose. My head was too cloudy to realize that I was holding another living being, also sound asleep. I buried myself in the warmth and drifted back into the darkness.

Hold on? The warmth?

My eyes don’t stay closed this time, snapping open to meet Jin-woo’s face, which is uncomfortably close to mine. Every time he takes a breath, his chest rises, and I rise with it, coming in even closer.

I’m trying not to think of you being any more attractive than you already are. But these compromising positions are telling me otherwise.

Besides, you’ll be with Cha Hae-In soon, and I’ll be wrapped up in my problems.

I set my hand down to push myself off of him but met with resistance. With his eyes still closed, Jin-woo clasped his hand over my mind to pull me back down to his chest, wrapping his arms around me.

Is he still sleeping? Maybe I’ll try one more time.

I wait for a couple of seconds, listening to Jin-woo’s heartbeat in the process. The more I think about it, the weirder it becomes; I’m lying on someone I read in manwha or watched in an anime. And now he’s a person in front of me with a heartbeat, with real dreams, powers, and emotions.

It really fucks with you the more I think about it.

The second attempt goes better than the last, as I can wiggle out from underneath his arms and push myself up again. I’m finally out of his hold and on my way to the joint bathroom when I hear his voice, rough from the morning drowsiness, call out behind me, “This is the second time you’ve run out on me.”

The second time?

Oh, the KBBQ with Jinho.

“I just thought you were a weird sleeper. Also who said you could sleep in my bed last night?” Jin-woo shrugs, rolling over on his side to hide from the light seeping in from the window. His compression shirt leaves nothing to the imagination when his muscles expand and contract with the shift.

“Well, I didn’t receive any answer from you last night when I tried asking you. And your bed seemed more comfortable than sleeping on the floor.” What a gentleman.

“And who put me in that position to be unable to answer you?” He’s facing away from me, but the way his body stills at my words tells me he still feels terrible.

“I’m sorry for getting you that level. I’ll just ask you outright next time.” Twisting a strand of hair between my fingers, I wait a few seconds before responding.

“My system is weird. It works on a leveling system, and I’m currently level 8. It sounds low, but it looks like it’s hard to level up than most video games I’ve played. I can get drunk and don’t have daily tasks or anything, but I do have these quests or missions I have to go on. I’ve never failed to see what happens if I don’t complete it.” Giving Jin-woo time to process the information I gave him, I go into the bathroom and do my usual morning routine.

By the time I’m back out of the room and ready to ask him questions about his system, he’s already gone. Sitting on the nightstand, my phone lights up with a text message.

Sung Jin-Woo
[I had some things I needed to take care of. We’ll talk later.]
[Thanks for letting me spend the day/night with you.]

Gone with the wind, as always.

Another ding brings me out of my thoughts.

Unkown Number
[Hey dog.]
[I’m sure you have some questions that need answerin.]
[It seems we’re chasing after the same thing.]
[Why don’t you meet me at the cafe where we first met.]

Who the fuck is this?

Is this the guy I fought when Jin-ah and I went to the cafe?

He was close to killing me, and now he wants to talk to me? Does he think I’m stupid?

...What if this is my chance to get some answers, at least the ones this guy may know? What are we chasing after? Who is he? Did he come from another dimension? Why did he try to fight me and now wants to talk? Does he know who’s behind all this? What type of powers did the system give him? What if his system is different from mine?

So many questions started forming in my head that my head started hurting, and it didn’t help that the alcohol from yesterday was not helping.

I guess that’s that. I’m going to see this man.

Me
[When?]

Unkown Number
[You got anything better to do rn?]

Me
[On my way.]
In record time, I exchanged my pajamas for exercise shorts and a shirt—in case I needed to move quickly—and exited the door. The walk to the cafe felt tortuous, and I couldn’t help but let my mind run rampant with scenarios that ended well, badly, terrible, and everything in between.

When I reached the cafe doors, my head throbbed from overthinking, but I couldn’t mend the headache when a familiar figure sat hunched in one of the cafe chairs.

Imagine the most oversized, idiotic image of a bodybuilder sitting in a tiny chair, sipping daintily from a porcelain coffee cup.

Now imagine this dude beating the shit out of me.

He notices me staring and waves me over. I want to turn and run, but I’m already here. And we’re in a crowded space, not down an alleyway at nighttime. I should be safer, at least.

“Took your time getting here, dog.” His voice seems different than last; it is calmer, but his attitude is still there.

“I don’t think you can blame her, considering you went around the city fighting everything you could get your filthy hands on.” My head whips to the side, seeing another man take the seat across from the bodybuilder dude. He’s taller and scrawnier than the bodybuilder, but by no means does it look like he can’t hold his own. Dark brown hair messily swept over his face to the side, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in ages or gone outside, judging by the dark circles under his brown eyes and pale skin. He’s dressed in a pair of slacks and a dress shirt, his glasses slipping over the edge of his nose - the complete opposite of the bodybuilder and I’s exercise clothes.

“And… who are you?” All the questions I had for the bodybuilder are immediately silenced when this man shows up - another wheel in the cog of ‘what the fuck is even going on.’

The lanky one sets a coffee cup before the last empty chair and sits down, introducing himself.

“Kim Daeshim. The burly one over there is Harada Yuichi.” So he’s Japanese. Did the system drop him off in Japan, and he made his way here, or did he just want to pick some weird name like me?

Did they even come the same way I did? Am I an anomaly?

I sit down on the chair wearily, eyeing the two men back and forth. It’s an uncomfortable silence before I forget I haven’t introduced myself, and maybe they’re waiting for me to say something.

“My name is... Eris Bates.” “Oh, so American? What brought you here?”

So they didn’t come through here the same way.

“Yeah, I uhm. Left America to work in Korea but it’s been going left.” That’s one way to put it.

Yuichi leans his head back, a deep rumble of a laugh exiting his lips. “You can say that again! Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anyone else like us, would you? Do they like fighting?”

I doubt anyone would want to fight you, even if I did know someone else.

“Sorry, no.” Yuichi huffs, his massive shoulders moving up and down. I don’t think I can get used to him. Daeshim, on the other hand, doesn’t look phased at all by the psychopath sitting in front of him.

Maybe Daeshim is crazier than Yuichi? Please tell me I didn’t fuck myself in the ass by coming here.

“It looks like it’s just the three of us, then. Ms. Bates, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you about your history. We’d also be happy to share our experiences with you."

This guy is too formal for my tastes. He has a hidden agenda.

“Well, what would you like to know?” Daeshim smiles and immediately starts interrogating me.

“Do you remember how you got your powers?” Do they remember? How am I supposed to answer this?

“Not really. But if it comes back to me, I’ll let you know. Do you two remember?” “Unfortunately, no.”

Yuichi interrupts his thoughts, “I just remember waking up with a system—" But the look Daeshim gives him instantly silences him. I see what game we’re playing here. This is going to be a gamble, considering what I already know from the fight with Yuichi.

“Well, yes, I woke up with the system- as Yuichi mentioned- and the daily quests - and the black and white gates. What made you come to Seoul, Yuichi?”

I’ll need to give a little to take a little, but any information from these two would be its weight in gold if it means one step closer to figuring out what’s happening.

Daeshim speaks on behalf of both of them, “It wasn’t just Yuichi. I’m originally from Australia. The system told us to.”

What? Why would the system tell them to come to Seoul? To find me? Is there something else they need to be looking for? What should I be looking for? Jin-woo?

Daeshim can tell that my head is churning over the information because he clears his throat, snapping me out of my thoughts. “We don’t know why the system called us here. But it seems you might have some ideas.”

I shake my head, “Unfortunately, no. But what I am thinking about is the fact that I came here for an entirely different purpose: to find a corporate job (that’s a lie), but I ended up in this situation. Then we have someone from Australia. (Surprised Daeshim even gave up that information) and the last person from Japan. What makes these three random people who are not from Korea, all of a sudden have a system, see gates that weren’t originally there, with powers they didn’t originally have, come to Seoul specifically?”

“Truthfully? I don’t give a fuck about this nonsense; I just like to fight. The system is a gift for someone like me.” Daeshim and I sigh at Yuichi’s antics as if we didn’t already know this. I turn to Daeshim, who’s elegantly cutting into his fruit tart. “Did he try to fight against you too?”

Daeshim rolls his eyes, “The brute tried to fight me, but he was just coming into his powers then - ran himself ragged, trying to get at me.”

“Well, he almost killed me.” Daeshim’s eyebrows rise curiously, “Well, I’m glad you’re not dead Ms. Bates.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

The rest of the time with Daeshim and Yuichi goes smoothly. The conversation shifts from our powers to our identities, exploring our past lives in hometowns, Yuichi’s passion for fighting, Daeshim’s love of computers and science, and my love of reading. By the time the conversation slowed, it was well into the evening, and it was time for us to move our separate ways.

Yuichi had already left, wanting to get to the gym before the day ended, but Daeshim waited at the cafe entrance while I stacked my plates in the bin. The reflection of his phone glared from his eyeglasses.

He seems nice enough, but there still feels something very off about him.

When our eyes meet as I near him, I give him the best smile I can muster as the warm air hits us on the way out, both of us standing awkwardly, trying to figure out what to say.

“Uhm, thanks for inviting me to coffee today, you and Yuichi. Even though Yuichi very nearly ended my life two weeks back, it was nice to meet you both officially.” Daeshim scowled, shaking his head at the thought of the idiotic giant.

“Please, don’t think too hard about that dumbass. He’d fight god if it meant getting a good workout in.” Trust me, I believe it. Probably could win, too.

Another second of silence passes, and Daeshim breaks it: “It’s pretty late at night. If we can help it, we wouldn’t want you getting caught up in another Yuichi incident. Would you mind letting me walk you home?” As terrifying as another Yuichi popping out of the alleyway sounds, I decline him. “Thank you, Daeshim, but my apartment is right around the corner, so I should be fine this time. Really though, thank you.” Plus, I’d rather not have you know where my house is.

“You sure?” I nod again; Daeshim’s brows furrow, but he shrugs, “Your call. Listen, Yuichi and I are considering doing a gate soon; you should join. It might be in both our interests to go together.”

Before I could answer, another voice called behind us, “Eris, I didn’t know you had other friends!” Daeshim and I’s heads turn to the source of the voice, Jinho.

Not only Jinho but Jin-woo right behind him; for some reason, he doesn’t look happy. At all.

Did something go wrong for him today?

Daeshim leans close enough to where only I can hear him and asks, “System users or just friends? Were you lying earlier?”

Fuck. It’s not like Jin-woo and Daeshim would outright ask each other about their systems, especially knowing their types. But if those two ever found out about the other, I’m in for a world of hell. Not to mention, what if Jin-ah remembered Yurichi if she had ever seen him? Or just Yuichi’s loud ass in general? Was this a good idea?

I would have to take the chances.

I lean back and, in a low voice, answer Daeshim, “No, just us. The one on the left is my neighbor, and the other is our friend.” Daeshim nods and moves back to create some distance between us when Jin-ho bounces up to me, squishing me in a hug.

“Hi Jiho! I haven’t seen you in a while! How have you been?” Jinho laughs, letting me go and standing back with Jin-woo.

“I know! I’ve been busy with- uhm, stuff! But we were coming in to get Jin-woo’s sister a treat on the way home.” I giggle at Jinho’s attempt to hide whatever they were doing for the day and hold up my bag of pastries.

“You came too late; I already picked up Jin-ah’s favorites.”

“Well then, I see no reason why we’re still here. Let’s go Jinho.” Jin-woo’s voice was strained, clipped, snatching the pastries from my hand, “I’ll let Ji-ah know you got these for her. See you later.” Before I could even ask to tag along with them, Jin-woo was dragging Jin-ho along with him halfway down the street.

Next to me, Daeshim lets out a laugh. “What a jealous asshole.”

I turn over to him in confusion, cocking my head. “What are you talking about?” Shaking his head, he turns to leave, waving his arm behind his head to signal goodbye.

“Ask your neighbor.”

Chapter Text

The wind cuts a little sharper when I step away from the café, the air buzzing with an unease I can’t quite place.

Jealous? Jin-woo? No, he doesn’t get jealous. He calculates, observes, and maybe even protects, but what about jealousy? That implies something more… human.

I walk home in silence, letting the noise of the city dull my thoughts. Seoul hums in its usual rhythm: distant car horns, the sharp click of heels on concrete, snippets of conversations in Korean and English. But my head? Static. All I can focus on is Jin-woo’s clenched jaw, the way he avoided looking at me, and Daeshim’s parting words ringing in my ears.

"Ask your neighbor."

By the time I get to my apartment, my shoulders feel heavy. I drop the pastry bag on the kitchen counter, pull off my shoes, and flop onto the couch. Igris and Nergal glance up from their spot on the floor. Neither moves. Useless cats.

I’ll deal with Jin-woo later.

I open my system menu, hoping for a distraction. Something new. A hint. A breadcrumb.

Instead, a new tab I’ve never seen before pulses softly in the corner:

[THREADS: 3 ACTIVE CONNECTIONS]

My finger hovers for a second before I tap it.

ACTIVE THREADS

Harada Yuichi - Power-Driven Anomaly

Kim Daeshim - Analytical Anomaly

Sung Jin-Woo - Host World Variable

My stomach knots. Threads? Connections? This system is tracking who I meet—who I interact with. And Jin-woo’s not just a regular entry. He’s labeled a “Host World Variable.”

The hell does that mean?

I slam the tab shut, flinging the menu closed before pacing the living room. The walls suddenly feel too thin, like they’re pressing in. This is the first time the system has commented on someone in this way. What makes Jin-woo a variable? Is it because this is his world? Is it warning me, or pushing me toward him?

My phone buzzes.

Sung Jin-Woo [Open your door.]

I jump.

There’s only a second’s delay before I do as told.

Jin-woo stands there, still in the same outfit from earlier, eyes half-shadowed by his bangs..

“I shouldn’t have taken off from you like that,” he says quietly. “Sorry.”

I blink. “You came all the way back just for that?”

“No,” he admits. “I came to talk.”

I step aside. He walks in, familiar and foreign all at once, and places the pastry box gently on the table. For a moment, neither of us speaks. Then he turns to face me, arms crossed like he’s bracing himself.

“I didn’t know those guys at the café were system users,” he starts.

I stiffen. “They’re not. Just... people I’ve run into.”

“Don’t lie to me, Eris.” His voice is low, not angry, just serious. “That guy, the big one. I saw him fight a high-tier construct with his bare hands. That’s not normal. Neither is the fact that you’re still alive after a close encounter with him.”

I frown. “So you were watching?”

“Not intentionally.” He looks away. “I was… nearby. I saw you go in. I stayed long enough to make sure you were safe.”

“And that justifies storming out with my pastries? You had Jin-ho sitting out there with you.”

That gets a crack of a smirk. He sits down on the couch, running a hand through his hair. “Okay, I deserved that. And no, I left shortly after you guys started really talking, I met Jin-ho after.”

A pause. Then he adds, “I didn’t like seeing you with them.”

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you,” I say before I can stop myself.

His head snaps up to look at me, and the intensity in his gaze is something I haven’t seen since the last dungeon.

“That’s not it,” he says firmly. “I just… I don’t trust them. I trust you.”

I sit down slowly, unsure how to respond.

This isn’t the Jin-woo I know. Not the cold, calculating S-rank Hunter. Not the King of Shadows. This is… a person. And maybe that’s scarier than anything else I’ve faced so far.

“Then trust me when I say I’m trying to figure things out,” I say. “And I need space to do it. You don’t need to protect me all the time.”

“I know,” he says after a long moment. He leans in to where we're almost touching noses. “But I want to.”

And that… that leaves me speechless.

My phone buzzes again.

I ignore it.

Jin-woo leans back, but his intensity is still there, looming, and looks at me like he wants to say something else - needs to. But instead, he says, “I think we should keep an eye on your new friends. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Me too.”

Outside, thunder rumbles low in the distance. A storm’s rolling in.

I think it’s time I start preparing for it.

“Jin-woo,” I say quietly, eyes locked on my phone still lit with the system notification, “do you ever feel like the system’s watching you?”

He doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he leans back against the couch, eyes fixed on the ceiling like it might hold the truth neither of us can reach.

“It is,” he finally replies. “Always has been.”

I swallow hard, suddenly aware of how alone we are in this room, and how not alone I feel.

“You said you trust me.” My voice wavers more than I like. “But you don’t trust them. Is it just the power, or is it something else?”

He sits up a little straighter, and for a moment, that unreadable look crosses his face, the one the system called volatile. “You’re not just some anomaly that stumbled in here, Eris. You’re something the system is watching very closely. That makes you important… and dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” I repeat, heat prickling at the back of my neck. “To who?”

He doesn’t answer that either.

I suddenly remember what Daeshim said, Ask your neighbor.

So I ask.

“What do you think about when you think of me?”

Not quite what Daeshim meant, but an important question nonetheless.

The silence stretches too long. Jin-woo finally stands, crossing the room to where the pastry box still sits unopened. He sets his hand on it, but doesn’t touch the contents.

“I think you're a great person, always willing to help even when you don't want to, or scared. I think you're complicated. However, what I think doesn't translate to my system. My system doesn’t say anything,” he says softly, almost like he regrets it. “That’s the problem.”

“What?”

I'm choosing to ignore the rest of his sentence, focusing on his system's limit on who I am instead. I'll save the other information for a conversation later.

And truly, I don't have the capacity to think about it.

“It logs everyone. Ranks them. Labels them.” His jaw tightens. “But not you. It’s like you exist outside of the parameters. You’re not just another Hunter or a civilian. You’re not in it at all. Which makes no sense.”

The room feels colder somehow.

“So I’m a blank slate?”

“No.” He turns back to face me. “You’re a ghost.”

That word hangs there—ghost. A specter. A question the system hasn’t answered.

Suddenly, the apartment feels like the wrong place to be. It’s too quiet. Too still. The air is too thick with all the unsaid things between us.

I stand.

“I need some air.”

“I’ll come with you—”

“No,” I say more firmly than I intend. “Just… give me a minute.”

Jin-woo steps back, and I grab my hoodie from the hook by the door before slipping out into the hallway. It smells faintly of floor cleaner and incense. The usual hum of the building is still there, but muted. It’s late.

The elevator dings open. I don’t go inside.

Instead, I turn and head for the stairwell, letting my feet lead me up until I’m pushing open the rooftop door.

The city is a spread of twinkling lights beneath a low gray sky. The storm hasn’t broken yet, but I can feel it pushing against the clouds—coiling, waiting. The wind tousles my hair as I walk to the edge, gripping the rusted metal railing. From up here, Seoul looks like a circuit board, electric and alive and unfathomably huge.

And somewhere out there are two people with systems like mine, possibly more.

Somewhere out there is a reason we were brought here.

The door creaks behind me.

“I said I needed a minute.”

“You took five.” Jin-woo’s voice is quieter now, less like a hunter and more like a person again. “Besides, I figured it’s safer not to let you brood alone on rooftops. The concrete always looks soft from up here.”

I huff out a tired laugh. “Don’t tempt me.”

He walks up beside me, not touching, but close enough to share warmth.

“Do you want to hear what my system did say?” he asks.

I glance at him. “Thought you said it didn’t say anything.”

“Not about you. But about this week.” He pulls up something in the air that only he can see. His eyes scan the translucent blue screen before continuing. “It said a fracture’s coming. Not just a Gate. A tear. Something unnatural.”

I look at him slowly. “And you think it has to do with… us?”

“I think it is us.”

A long silence passes between us, filled only by the wind and distant thunder.

Eventually, I ask, “If a fracture’s coming… what do we do?”

Jin-woo finally turns to me entirely.

“We do what we always do.”

“Which is?”

“We survive.”

It’s not the answer I wanted, but it’s the one I expected.

As we start heading back downstairs, I pull up the THREADS tab again, hoping it might show me more now, an update, maybe a hint.

But this time, something new is glowing.

[New Quest: The Fracture Approaches]

Objective: Investigate the anomaly marked "THREAD: Host World Variable"

Time Limit: 72 hours

Reward: +1 Level, Skill Unlock, ???

Failure: ???

My steps falter as I stare at the screen.

Jin-woo notices. “What is it?”

I swallow and turn to face him, shaking slightly at the notification but refusing to tell the whole truth.

He can’t protect me if he’s the problem.

“It’s just… another system prompt,” I lie, letting my screen fade before he can see the fine print. “Probably nothing serious.”

He doesn’t question it, at least, not out loud. But his eyes linger on me a second too long. He knows something’s off.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jin-woo has a habit of spending the night nowadays.

To be honest, it’s nice to have someone other than Nigel and Igris around.

Though the bed tends to get a bit cramped.

We’re back in the apartment. The atmosphere’s quieter now, with only the sound of the wind brushing against the windows and Nigel’s tail flicking against the floor as he lounges lazily by the heater.

Igris materializes briefly near the window, watching the street below like a loyal sentry. Then, without a word, vanishes into the shadow. He’s been more active lately, too—sensing something approaching before the rest of us can see it.

I pull on a hoodie and rub my temple, feeling the beginnings of a headache forming behind my eyes. The weight of the new quest clings to me like wet clothing, suffocating and cold.

Jin-woo’s already claiming his usual side of the bed. No questions asked. He no longer needs an invitation. He just… belongs, somehow.

“You okay?” he asks again as I sit on the edge of the mattress.

I nod. Lie. “Yeah. Just tired.”

That much is true.

I slip under the blanket, careful to leave a sliver of space between us. But somehow, over the course of a few minutes, the gap closes again. His shoulder brushes mine, and neither of us moves away.

I don't know when this started—this quiet comfort between us. But it’s become its own language. A routine. And for all the fear humming beneath my skin, for all the questions I still don’t have answers to, this is the one place I don’t feel like I’m drowning.

Still, the weight of the quest doesn’t leave me.

[THREAD: Host World Variable]

Why now? Why me? And what the hell does it mean?

I wake up to the feeling of Jin-woo sitting upright beside me. Not with a start, not panicked, just… tense.

“You were talking in your sleep,” he says softly.

My heart jumps. “What did I say?”

He hesitates. “Something about threads. And fractures.”

Shit.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asks, this time without the usual teasing edge. His hand brushes my arm. Steady. Warm. A tether.

“I think… my system is changing again.”

That part isn’t a lie.

Jin-woo’s brows furrow, and for the first time, he looks concerned. Not just about me—but about what it means.

“You’re not like the others,” he mutters.

“What others?”

His gaze sharpens. “Yuichi. Daeshim. Even the regular Hunters. You don’t follow the rules.”

“Maybe the rules were never made for me.”

Silence settles between us again, thicker now. He’s thinking it, even if he doesn’t say it. If the system’s laws do not bind me, then what am I?

And worse: What happens when those rules break completely?

By morning, we're back to normal. Coffee. Muted news in the background. Nergal is trying to knock over the milk carton. But I can feel it simmering under the surface, the unspoken tension.

Jin-woo leaves before noon, saying he has a meeting with the Association. I don’t ask what it’s about. I don’t want to know.

Once the door closes behind him, I exhale, finally alone. I pull up the system again.

[Quest: The Fracture Approaches]

Objective: Investigate the anomaly marked "THREAD: Host World Variable" Time Left: 69h 48m Reward: +1 Level, Skill Unlock, ??? Failure: ???

I select the THREAD tab. The connections are glowing faintly—each person I’ve interacted with is now labeled with clearer color coding.

[Jin-woo: Red thread: volatile / dependent / ???] [Yuichi: Orange thread: unpredictable / high threat / unstable alliance] [Daeshim: Blue thread: cooperative / observer / calculated intent] [Jin-ah: Yellow thread: protected / non-active user] [Nigel: Gray thread: bonded / non-human / awareness increasing] [Igris: Shadow thread: bound / former loyalty active]

Something new flashes at the bottom.

[???: THREAD UNLOCKED – UNKNOWN ENTITY INBOUND]

System Note: You are not alone. Others are watching.

My blood runs cold.

The sky’s getting darker again. Rain taps against the window.

The next 72 hours are going to change everything.

I can feel it.

And this time, I don’t think anyone—not Jin-woo, not Daeshim, not even me—is going to come out the same.