Chapter Text
The next morning his professors wanted to know where he had been along with his few friends. Byung-Gyu lied through his teeth about visiting his mother in Busan and tried his best to not feel like a terrible person for doing so. No one questioned him. Accepted what he told them at face value and moved on.
An energy drink that tasted too much like fake oranges had been his breakfast that morning and when lunch rolled around, he only grabbed a different drink. Something with overpowering flavor and that was sticky on the tongue. The opposite of those mana potions that had permanently killed his appetite it seemed. Or maybe dying had done that. Byung-Gyu wouldn’t know nor did he have a way to get an answer. All he had was a painfully slow heart and drifting shadows when he spent too much time in the shade of tree or building.
He was in the middle of doing homework when an unknown call came. For a long moment he debated on ignoring it before he picked up the phone to accept it.
[New Quest!]
[Investigation: Find the cause of the flying ants.]
Byung-Gyu stared at the screen while listening to someone from the Japanese Hunter’s Association give a speech about needing his help with a time sensitive matter. There was no denying the quest. With a heavy, internal, sigh he accepted the invitation to Japan. He was far from a scientist so he wasn’t sure why they wanted his help with dissecting and studying a dead ant from Jeju Island. Unless they simply wanted someone around that had been there and wasn’t doing anything worthwhile in their eyes with their time.
[Companion ---> Player: got a new quest. I’ll be in Japan for a while.]
The message was sent as he started drafting up emails for his professors about missing more time and needing another grace period. A few details were provided about it being hunter business related that would normally get anyone off his back. It was an excuse he had used once or twice in the last year to get away with missing events or deadlines due to his own inability to take care of himself.
[Player ---> Companion: ok, be careful :)]
[Companion ---> Player: you too :3]
The message took so much out of him to send. Byung-Gyu swiped away the screens with a drop of his head into his hands. Unfocused eyes were on the floor between his knees. Part of him was protesting against going so far from Hunter Sung while the rest of him was damn near relieved to have some space. He liked the man well enough but being this mixed in with his shadows was blurring a line.
It was something he shoved so far back into his mind that it was swallowed up with the other things he kept back there. He needed to pack and confirm his flight that the JHA had set up for him.
His assumption of the JHA just wanting someone that had been to Jeju Island had been correct. This wasn’t about the evolving ants, it was about strategy to help Korea raid the island for a fourth time. Byung-Gyu put a hard stop on any suggestion of him joining. He was retired. Jeju Island was the last place that he wanted to go.
And he could see the way the hunters were judging him on his abstaining from the raid. They were ignored as he gave over all he could stand to remember about the last three raids on that cursed island. Then he booked it home. Thanked them for their hospitality and ditched the country as soon as he was able. Buried himself in his school work the moment he was back home and didn’t even notice that the Investigate quest hadn’t been cleared.
Not until he was sitting across from Yoon-Ho having dinner and a drink. It blinked to life in white and green across his vision the moment his best friend mentioned the newest island raid. Byung-Gyu felt his slow heart sink in his aching chest. The mockery of the system made him want to cry. He just wanted to get his teaching license and become a history professor, was that too much to ask of the universe?
“You alright?” Yoon-Ho asked, concerned eyes looking at him over a shot glass partially lifted.
“Yeah…” Byung-Gyu set aside what he had been about to eat. He wasn’t hungry anymore or, at least, he wasn’t in the mood to pretend to be. Dark brows drew together with a frown at him. “You know how Jeju is…”
“I do.” The soft agreement came with a pointed nudge of Yoon-Ho’s unoccupied hand at his uneaten food. “At least finish that for me, yeah?”
Byung-Gyu knew what he was doing. Yoon-Ho was better at showing he cared through actions than words and had often used food to express that. After meeting the man’s family, he understood it. That was a very food oriented family, everything important happened in the kitchen and over a meal. Love was shown through the stomach for the Baek family.
“I physically can’t,” Byung-Gyu sighed with a deliberate look away from the worry flaring in orange eyes. “I think I might have caught something while in Japan.” It was a lie and one that his best friend could smell through.
“Byung-Gyu-”
“I’ll think about Jeju, okay?” He cut off Yoon-Ho while getting to his feet. Those worried eyes followed him. “Just, uh, text me later, yeah?”
“Yeah, alright.”
The ache in his chest as he left his best friend behind had little to do with the scar this time. He hated making Yoon-Ho upset. That man carried enough on his shoulders without adding his baggage to it. He knew his best friend would rather know everything that’s bothering him than for him to bottle it up like he usually did but he couldn’t burden him with this. Jeju Island was one thing, they had both gone through that. Everything to do with the system, the shadows, the dying, that was his to carry. No matter how heavy it got.
The return home put him down in front of his homework and schoolwork that he had to catch up on. Despite telling Yoon-Ho to text him, Byung-Gyu didn’t answer it. His phone was left in the bedroom so he wouldn’t be bothered and so he could bury himself in something he actually liked. In research and writing papers and studying.
It was all a distraction, though. To keep his mind away from Jeju Island and the quest that told him he had to be there. He knew it was planned for the day after tomorrow but he was far from prepared.
To his dismay, it was part of that unease that had him calling Ju-Hee in the middle of the night. Sitting in the center of his bed with his knees pulled up to his chest so he could rest his chin on them, single arm wrapped around them. All of the lights were on. Curtains drawn over the large windows and the bed sheets still messy from when he woke up. His clothes were scattered across the floor and his closet door was open to reveal a hot mess of partially hung up shirts. The sight of it all made him unreasonably tired.
“Byung-Gyu? Are you alright?” His cousin’s worried voice the moment she picked up the phone was more a relief than it should have been. “Are you in the hospital again?”
“No, I’m alright.” Byung-Gyu stared at the dark space in his closet.
“Did something happen?”
“They’re doing another Jeju raid.”
The words were off his tongue before his brain fully computed what he wanted to say. Ju-Hee’s silence on the phone was telling. “Did they request that you be there?” She asked, voice tense.
“No,” he replied, “but I’m going.” His fingers curled into his pajama pants to stop the trembling.
“You don’t have to,” Ju-Hee said softly. “There’s no obligation.”
“I have to be there.” Byung-Gyu ignored the screen mocking him and tucked his legs in closer. “I just…I don’t think I’m gonna get my teaching license this year.”
Not just with Jeju’s next raid coming to mess with his head, the system was bound and determined to get him killed. To keep him dead despite the ‘Revival’ skill. There wasn’t going to be any time to go back to school. Nor was he certain if he was going to have the mental clarity to do the work necessary. Maybe ever after the system and Shadows were done with him. It was terrifying to realize. That his dream was crumbling to dust in his hands.
Ju-Hee sat on the phone with him most of the night and into the dawn. He felt bad about disturbing her sleep but she told him that it was fine, that she would rather he call than sit alone like he used to do. But once the call was over Byung-Gyu continued to sit. Alone and in the silence without a thought to shower and get ready for class.
An entire day was spent sitting and waiting and finding his resolve. Because that very next morning, Byung-Gyu met with the other S-Ranks at the helicopter pad on the military base that would take them to Jeju Island. To the nightmare that he couldn’t seem to wake up from.
It wasn’t even his normal armor that he wore. Dark green and hooded instead of his teal and black set that had been ruined in the Demon Castle. He picked at the edges of his spellbook and tried his best to keep up appearances with the hunters the entire chopper ride. Yoon-Ho sat at his side for a little while before getting distracted by the ocean out the windows like he had the last three raids but there were flying ants to add to it now. It was actually rather nice to know that his best friend was still the same man he had always been. Easily distracted when he was anxious but a solid presence when it was necessary.
There was a dip of his free hand into the system to pull out his mace the moment they stepped into the caves of the ant hill. Tae-Gyu gave him a curious look at the move but didn’t question the obvious spatial magic. It wasn’t something he could do normally. Not without the system.
Byung-Gyu let his spellbook flip through pages as he casted buffs and necessary spells. The comforting weight of the mace in his hand had lessened since Hunter Sung had used it to murder people but there was still enough to keep his hands steady. All of the demon blood had been cleaned off when put in his inventory so he didn’t have to worry about anyone asking about it. About what he could have been doing.
When they finally reached the ant queen, he was quick to make sure the A-Rank being a cameraman stayed by his side. Any closer and he was liable to get killed. Byung-Gyu let his mana cast a temporary shield on the man just in case before he focused entirely on the other S-Ranks. He could not lose someone this time.
And when the queen fell dead, tears filled his eyes. This nightmare was finally over. His mace disappeared back to his inventory along with his spellbook so he could grab Yoon-Ho in a hug. Buried his face in the man’s fur covered chest and did his best to regain his composure. Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders in return and there was even a delicate place of someone else’s hand on his back. It was Tae-Gyu without a doubt. Someone that had probably lost more than they had considering both he and Yoon-Ho left the Reaper Guild after Eunseok’s death.
The relief on their victory was shattered almost instantly. Byung-Gyu wiped a wrist over his eyes when he pulled back from Yoon-Ho and went to say something to Tae-Gyu when the system pinged with a notification. He barely glanced at the warning when his heart froze in his chest at the suffocating mana coming towards them.
In an instant he camouflaged himself with his spellbook out to hide and heal without that new beast noticing him. This was more dangerous than the ant queen. The blaring red name over the walking black ant told him everything he needed to know. His only hope of survival was in hiding.
His feet remained rooted in place to keep the spell active even as he used his mana to buff and heal as much as he could. It was turned on Ma and Tae-Gyu at the moment after what the ant did to them with a steady drain of his mana bar. Byung-Gyu tried to ignore the steadily rising fatigue as he poured more into healing the other hunters. Gritted his teeth against the fear threatening to drown him and kept an ear out on the ant that had disappeared from view.
The ripping pain of something being shoved through his back had his spellbook falling from his hand. Dark eyes looked down at the appendage piercing him dead center on the scar. Numb terror had Byung-Gyu raising his eyes to where Yoon-Ho was staring in horror at him. It was one word of his lips with blood. Run.