Dormitory dining hall.
After finishing Day 1 training, Yeonwoo and Taeeon dragged their tired bodies into the dining hall.
“I'm a little sore.”
Even Yeonwoo, who had undergone many trainings as a national-level athlete, said he felt sore. So if the only exercise Taeeon had done his whole life was gym work, you could imagine how much worse he felt.
“Ham, you okay?”
Yeonwoo, twisting his body here and there to stretch, glanced to the side. Taeeon, who always kept perfect posture, was slumped forward with a rounded back.
“Ham, he looks like a zombie when he’s like that.”
“Haah....”
Taeeon sighed deeply as he barely lifted his plate. After more than six hours of intense weight training, his whole body seed to be screaming.
“But what about Roy?”
Even during training he kept fussing over the puppy; Yeonwoo clicked his tongue. Despite his brusque reply, Yeonwoo’s eyes quickly scanned the dining hall.
But there was no sign of Roy, nor of any of the D- and F-rank participants.
“Maybe they’re not done yet? I don’t see them.”
“Still?”
It was already well past seven. When they had arrived the C-rank participants’ als were almost finished, so they’d thought the F4 were running late. Where was the Earth team?
“Maybe they’re all finished and resting?”
“Could be...?”
Discriminating by rank felt wrong, but the Earth guild master’s team was composed of the lowest-ranked participants gathered here. That probably ant their training had been easier.
Thinking that, Roy felt relieved he’d gotten a lower rank.
“Then let’s eat quickly and go look for Roy.”
That’s what he assud, but—
“They’re gone? Why is no one here? Are they all asleep?”
“Already?”
The fourth floor was more than quiet — it was eerie. Yeonwoo and Taeeon looked around in bafflent. Ding!
The elevator doors opened and a blood-soaked Gwakhyeol crawled out.
“Guhhhh....”
“Eek! Sh— a ghost!”
Startled, Yeonwoo scread and bolted away.
The elevator floor was a sar of blood. Four people sprawled like corpses. The scene looked like a murder site; Taeeon was shocked too, but he didn’t run — because he spotted Roy crouched on the floor just behind Gwakhyeol.
“Roy!”
“Eeek!”
Taeeon stepped on top of the motionless F1 like a dead weight and jumped into the elevator. Because F1’s clothes were nearly the sa color as the floor, Taeeon hadn’t even realized he was a person.
“Gasp. Sorry. Roy, are you okay? What on earth happened?”
“Hyeoong....”
“Why are your clothes like that? Are you hurt?”
Roy’s clothes were a ss from carrying Gwakhyeol down while the latter kept coughing up blood non-stop. Unaware of that, Taeeon tried to lift Roy’s clothes to check for injuries.
“No way. I haven’t built my abs yet, you know....”
Creepy Junseo. He’d even installed a cara in the elevator.
Roy managed to stop Taeeon from lifting his shirt and preserved his modesty.
“Hyeoong....”
“Yes. Roy.”
Roy weakly waved his hand as if to motion Taeeon to co closer. When Taeeon moved in, Roy whispered a small voice into his ear.
“Ba-hap....”
“Huh? Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Wait, is training over now? What exactly did you—”
Just as Roy nodded and was about to say sothing—
“Eeek!”
F1’s scream rang out. The elevator door closed and nearly sheared off F1’s waist that was still caught in the threshold. Feeling his life threatened, F1 trembled and stretched out a hand.
“P-please... save ....”
Yeonwoo, who had been taking refuge on the stairs, ca over and pressed the open button as if nothing had happened.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and get out!”
Seeing F1 crawl forward like a turtle, Yeonwoo grabbed his arm.
“Ouch! It hurts, take it easy...!”
“Seriously, you look like you’ve just been assassinated. What on earth happened?”
Everyone looked as if they’d suffered an assassination attack; Yeonwoo couldn’t hide his horror. Gwakhyeol then fluttered his hand and signaled for soone to lower their waist. Yeonwoo obliged, lowering his body, and Gwakhyeol managed to speak with great effort.
“Baaak, cough cough!”
“Ugh! You’re insane! Spitting blood into soone’s ear, what the hell!”
Yeonwoo grabbed Gwakhyeol by the collar and shook him violently. Watching that, Roy again weakly tugged Taeeon’s sleeve and said,
“Baap....”
“Baap...?”
“My stomach is so hungry....”
They’d run like dogs to be off the mountain before dinner cutoff at eight. They’d even carried Gwakhyeol when he said he couldn’t walk anymore. But F4 had still missed the entrance cutoff by over ten minutes. They’d been mocked on the way back by Jo Yeonil, who had just barely caught the last dinner. Roy felt even more stung.
‘Is this fair...?’
He didn’t mind being exhausted, but not being fed and being pushed around like that felt too cruel. Tears of resentnt welled in his eyes. All day they’d eaten only the sandwich from the morning and the boxed lunch they’d found halfway up the mountain.
‘Since we were only going to the mid-slope anyway, we should’ve picked the low peak too.’
They hadn’t even had a chance to look for the shiny thing they’d seen in the morning. Day one had been a complete loss for Roy.
✧
So dawn of Day Two arrived.
Only yesterday he’d felt like he was going to die, but maybe awakener bodies were incredible — after a night of sleep his stamina was fully restored.
‘My body really is cost-effective.’
But they had to climb again today. The thought of going through that dreadful forced march again made him sigh.
The Earth team’s eting ti was six a.m. But Roy had woken early from hunger, and he wasn’t the only one.
“Hyung, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) why are you up so early?”
“Getting breakfast....”
“I’m hungry....”
“I’m—, cough, yo.”
Roy and F1 whispered while F2 and Gwakhyeol’s voices floated down from above.
“When do you start serving breakfast?”
“5:30, cough.”
Taeeon had given cookies last night, but that amount was woefully insufficient for people who had done an eight-hour hike. Today they vowed to eat a hearty breakfast and pack snacks to eat on the mountain. And one more thing.
“Guys. If you’re not going back to sleep, should we just have a eting?”
Roy had thought it over before bed and felt they needed to change the course. The path they took yesterday was the low-grade course but led to the highest peak. It took about twice as long as Jo Yeonil’s advanced course. They hadn’t even reached the summit and had only barely touched mid-slope — and yet they’d missed alti.
They’d dawdled at the start, sure. But for Koreans who were serious about food, yesterday’s incident left a deep trauma. That might explain why everyone’s eyes were wide awake so early. And one more: the team’s stamina was weaker than expected, especially Gwakhyeol. He insisted he was fine, but if Roy hadn’t carried him, he might have been a corpse.
“How about we change our course?”
“You an, cough, we should go to the advanced course too?”
The advanced course was steep and mostly rocky; one careless step could cause injury. Word had it Jo Yeonil’s team had quite a few injuries yesterday. Sure, Eunseong had treated them, but the psychological shock couldn’t have been helped.
“No. Would middle-grade be too hard?”
They didn’t want the advanced course. Roy only thought a mixed middle-grade course — half beginner, half advanced — might be doable.
“The beginner course is easy but takes too long.”
It takes twice as long as other courses and requires a steady pace that the current team stamina couldn’t support.
“Still, the middle course has a lot of steps, but up to the mid-slope it’s not that different from the beginner course.”
The problem was from mid-slope to the summit. Beyond the halfway point there were many rock sections, and the last third required climbing sheer rock faces.
“Can we do it?”
“If we kept trying the beginner course...”
“I’m good with it! Even if I die falling off a cliff climbing a rock wall, I’ll fulfill my father’s wish, cough cough!”
Just as he expected. But Roy wanted to finish training as soon as possible so he could use the remaining ti for himself. Above all, he wanted to put Jo Yeonil in his place.
“Are you two worried about the rock sections?”
“A little....”
“If you fall there, wouldn’t you be dead before the Earth guild master could even help?”
True... But Roy’s suggestion wasn’t thoughtless.
“Think about it. Of all the trainings, why do they make us fetch a flag? And on a rock face at that.”
“Well, Wilderness Mountain is a rocky mountain—”
“No.”
Roy shook his head slightly.
“We’ve already experienced a similar situation in prelims.”
For a mont, the three looked as if they’d been struck.
“Could it be...? Cough. So you an, if the flag is visible, we can use our abilities until we reach it?”
“Yes. That’s my thought. Will you trust just this once? I have a knack for sensing these things.”
✧
Thus F4 set off for the middle-grade course. Jo Yeonil’s side, which had reported many injuries yesterday, seed to be attempting the advanced course again. Voices warning they’d pick up the pace rang faintly over here.
“Shall we go then? Tell us if you’re in trouble.”
“Yes!”
The second showdown began. Unlike yesterday’s path that seed stroller-friendly, today the approach was a continuous series of steps from the start.
“The stairs, cough, go on forever.”
“Can ordinary people really, huff, huff, climb this? No way.”
“Is the end of this path heaven...?”
They hadn’t walked far before the team’s breathing began to grow rough. Roy was getting tired from the endless steps, too, but he couldn’t show it. In team events, montum is everything.
“We can do it! There’s definitely a way — as long as we get to where the flag is, huff, huff.”
There must be a thod.
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