Yohan suddenly realized and let out a small, “Ah!” When Hyunmook had co to save him earlier, he had been so overwheld with joy that without thinking, he had called out, Hyunmook hyung.
Before Yohan could say anything more, Lee Hyunmook swept him up into his arms and stood. Yohan was about to protest and ask to be put down, but instead he clung tightly to Hyunmook’s neck. After the terrifying loneliness of the past few days, he never wanted to be apart from him again. And after all, they were still inside the black mountain.
“Well then, since Yohan also says he wants to leave, shall we go out?”
Hyunmook’s blatant favoritism left Yohan embarrassed, but Seungryong and Hoyoung didn’t seem to care at all. With a light jump, Hyunmook sprang up through the hole he had made, clearing several ters in a single bound. # Nоvеlight # The others followed just as easily. Though Yohan was a high-tier Awakener himself, watching them move so effortlessly always made him doubt whether he could ever match them.
From Hyunmook’s back, Yohan saw the hole behind them seal up smoothly, as if the mountain were healing itself. Or was it simply his imagination that Hyunmook’s movents, holding him close, seed unusually careful—like soone guarding a precious treasure?
Still... what is all this...
Yohan’s eyes widened in shock. Before him stretched a long corridor—not just any corridor, but one pitch-dark and coated thickly in ice. Summoning light, Yohan asked,
“How did you dig all this?”
Without drills or shovels, even Awakeners shouldn’t have been able to burrow this deep bare-handed. More than that, it didn’t look like sothing made by human hands at all. The tunnel was gouged out in long gnaws, like sothing massive had chewed its way through. A centipede rather than a worm...
“At first, I just dug, but you know how the black mountain can move, right? It kept restoring itself, so it was a pain. The Team Leader scouted, I dug the tunnel, and Hoyoung froze it in place.”
At Seungryong’s words, Yohan’s eyes welled with tears again. Days of isolation had made him far more emotional than usual.
“You all went through so much because of . I’m really, really grateful...”
“To save our cute Yohan? I’d do anything. Co on, let’s get out of here and eat a proper al.”
Seungryong ruffled Yohan’s hair roughly, then added a bombshell:
“Except... Hoyoung’s reaching his limit. He won’t be able to hold this tunnel much longer.”
“What?”
The mont Yohan’s frightened protest left his lips, flakes of ice powder began sprinkling down. At once, the three of them bolted forward, and Yohan’s scream echoed faintly down the hastily made ice tunnel.
They nearly didn’t make it, but after frantic struggle the four finally escaped the black mountain. Past the reeking heaps of dead, rotting monstrous birds, they pushed on until they reached a stretch untouched by the mountain’s influence. Only then did they stop.
“Heavens... the sky...”
It was blood-red, but it was still the sky. Yohan, overco, wept as he gazed upward. But then he tilted his head.
“Wait... doesn’t the sky look a little brighter than before?”
The sky, usually a deep, ominous crimson darker than twilight, seed ever so slightly lighter now. Not brighter, exactly—but as though so of the filth had been shaved away. Unable to na the feeling, Yohan frowned. Seungryong glanced up and tilted his head.
“Really? I don’t see it.”
“Maybe... maybe just a little bit brighter, like Yohan hyung says?”
Yohan turned to Hyunmook, who smiled at him with fondness.
“If you say it’s brighter, then it is.”
As though he’d believe Yohan even if he swore beans were red beans. Looking up again, the sky seed the sa as ever. Embarrassed, Yohan dropped his gaze. He must have imagined it after too much ti in the black mountain. Either way, now was the ti to savor their escape.
* * *
When Yohan purified the contaminated at that had sprouted eyes and limbs, Seungryong swiftly laid out a full spread. The main dish, astonishingly, was pork belly. Unlike in the Japanese zone, this place was teeming with “animals” wandering the wild.
A monstrous black pig—boar or otherwise, nearly the size of a small hill—was slaughtered in monts and thrown onto the grill. Seungryong even pulled out ssamjang and gochujang he had saved, along with leafy vegetables he had sohow managed to carry out while fleeing the Japanese zone.
Hoyoung, who had never eaten pork belly in the Abyss before, stared with eyes wide as saucers, fixated on the at sizzling golden-brown, drooling uncontrollably. Yohan too swallowed hard and sat beside him.
They must all have been starving. Over twenty kilos of at vanished almost instantly, chopsticks never pausing. Even when Yohan was stuffed and panting, the other three kept eating.
“Where does it all go?”
Suspicious, Yohan lifted the hem of Hoyoung’s clothes. He had clearly eaten a mountain of at, but his stomach didn’t look swollen at all. Hyunmook gently poked Hoyoung’s flat belly while Seungryong popped a slice of fruit into Yohan’s mouth. Hoyoung shrugged.
“My digestion’s just really fast, hyung.”
...Could digestion alone explain that? Yohan was doubtful, but his attention was diverted when Seungryong pulled sothing from his pocket-space.
“Yohan, look at this.”
“Seungryong hyung...!”
Overco with joy, Yohan covered his mouth. From his storage, Seungryong pulled out wriggling seeds and saplings, each thrashing like captives, their leaves and stems struggling as if alive.
“Once we settle sowhere, we can farm again!”
“T-that’s amazing... I’m so glad...”
Tears shimred in Yohan’s eyes as he stroked the struggling seeds that even tried to bite him. He had thought he’d never eat perilla leaves, garlic, apples, or bananas again. Smiling, Hyunmook popped another fruit piece into his mouth. Seungryong shoved the squealing seeds and saplings back into storage, grumbling:
“Barely escaped Bumram, and the next thing we ran into was Seo Yakrin, that old fossil. Thought we’d lost Yohan forever that ti.”
The fruit Yohan had been chewing stuck in his throat. Forcing it down, he asked in a trembling voice:
“Wait... you t Seo Yakrin? Where?”
A horrifying image of the colossal bird flashed in his mind. No... surely not that enormous monstrosity? But Hoyoung confird his fear.
“You know, that huge bird in the sky? Yohan hyung saw it too, right?”
At those words, Yohan squeezed his eyes shut. The thought of confronting Seo Yakrin filled him with dread—it would be on a completely different scale of difficulty than facing Seungryong or Hoyoung.
“T-that enormous bird... was Seo Yakrin?”
“Yeah. Freakishly huge, isn’t he? Fits an old fossil perfectly.”
Seungryong’s voice carried a trace of bitterness. Then he muttered:
“Do we really have to bring that old man back too, Team Leader?”
“You and Hoyoung are here. Yakrin will be too.”
Hyunmook’s calm answer silenced Seungryong’s grumbling. His authority towered over them like a mountain. Or maybe... they were deeply afraid of him. Yohan recalled Seungryong’s words—that the Team Leader, who had entered and survived Bumram multiple tis, was terrifying. Even amid delicious food, a bitter taste lingered on Yohan’s tongue.
After eating, they set out to secure shelter. Staying close by Hyunmook’s side, Yohan glanced around. Enough ti had passed since leaving the black mountain for him to finally take in their new surroundings.
Unlike the ruined cities, swamps, or jungles, here stretched a vast plain. Faded grasses swayed waist-high, rolling like waves in the wind. At first glance, the scene almost seed beautiful.
But there were no buildings, only scattered grotesque, twisted old trees. Emaciated flocks of skeletal birds perched above, their ash-colored eyes scanning every direction with unsettling intensity.
Swish... The mont the grass shifted, the birds swooped down, jabbing spear-like beaks like harpoons. Sotis they carried prey back, other tis they themselves were devoured by unidentifiable predators lurking below. Watching the grasses stained red with blood, Yohan whispered with a shiver:
“This place... feels really dangerous.”
“This? Hah. Nothing. Like a picnic. Maybe like a beach compared to worse places.”
With a casual air, Seungryong plunged his spear into the ground and lifted it back up, skewering a long, writhing snake-like creature. Whistling, he tossed it into his pocket-space.
“Nice. Snake at.”
The flock and strange presences stalked them doggedly, but none dared approach easily. Yohan was deeply grateful for Hyunmook’s steady presence at his back. After nearly being buried alive in the black mountain, they all carried a sharper sense of vigilance. Though outwardly calm, their eyes scanned their surroundings with razor’s edge focus.
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