“……”
I had no answer.
“With this level of damage…”
Seo Yungyeom couldn’t finish. He swallowed.
“…Even walking must have been difficult.”
The moment I heard those words, I thought of the Pain Suppression I’d received as a clear reward. While the pain had been masked, it seemed my body had deteriorated far beyond what I’d imagined.
“No. I’m fine.”
I said it quickly. The words came out faster than I expected. I felt like I had to say something before the mood sank any further.
At that, Seo Yungyeom lifted his head.
Tears that had gathered in his clear, sky-blue eyes spilled over. Large and distinct, like drops of rain falling outside.
Seeing that, I was even more thrown off. I hadn’t expected to witness two S-ranks crying in a single day. But the jarring moments didn’t end there.
Bang. The door swung open roughly and a man strode in. His chest heaved — he hadn’t caught his breath at all. Like Park Taehan barging into the hospital without a thought, this man too wore the face of someone who had come running without regard for the situation.
The man who always kept himself in a crisp suit even mid-combat. The last of the three S-ranks. It was Yu Segwon.
“Sensei!”
His short shout rang through the room.
A rumpled shirt, a loosened tie, silver hair bearing the marks of being pushed back by hand several times over. Not a trace of his usual composed appearance remained. If not for that striking face of his, he would have been nearly unrecognizable as Yu Segwon — he was that much of a mess.
I reflexively shot a glare at Park Taehan.
“You… how far did you go with the messages.”
Park Taehan didn’t answer. Without so much as glancing my way, he walked straight toward the still-crying Seo Yungyeom. He grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, hard.
“You can fix it, right?!”
Park Taehan’s voice jumped an entire octave.
“You’re an S-rank!”
The air in the room shook all at once. Tears, ragged breathing, suppressed fury — all of it tangled together, and it became the kind of moment where no one could stay composed any longer.
And then.
All quests have been cleared!
All quests have been cle— cle— cl——————
A massive ringing swallowed me whole.
I still haven’t forgotten the moment I woke up in Cha Inhu’s body.
It’s a memory from twelve years ago now, yet the landscape I first took in that day is still vivid. This wasn’t the kind of shock that fades with time. A worn-down room. Sleeping pill packets scattered across the floor and a single suicide note placed with unusual neatness.
And above it all, a quest window filling my entire field of vision.
Main Quest
Save the world and complete the novel ‘□□□□□□□□’.
Reward: Revival in the original world
“……”
At first I thought it was a dream.
But soon, the headache that comes with medication side effects pressed down on my temples. My head pounded like it was splitting open, and my stomach lurched. That pain proved, with horrifying clarity, that none of this was a dream.
And then the notification that followed.
Would you like to view the character description?
I stared at the window blankly for a while, then raised a trembling hand and swiped across the screen. My fingertips were cold.
The text that appeared immediately after was crueler than anything in the room around me.
Cha Inhu (22 years old)
Decided to walk the path of an Awakened in order to save his ailing mother, but was deceived by an illegal broker and instead incurred a debt of 500 million won.
Mother passed away.
Awakened rank: C.
Currently unaffiliated with any guild.
Attempted suicide out of despair, but failed.
The word “failed” caught my eye in particular.
Right. The life of the web novel character “Cha Inhu” was one failure after another. The path he chose to protect his sick mother. His life after awakening. And in the very end, even his attempt to put an end to everything — all of it remained as failures.
And yet the quest demanded that this body save the world. It came right out and threatened me — do it, or you’ll never return to your original body and your original world. Who in the world could ever forget a day like that.
In that haze, a voice came calling for me urgently.
“Cha Inhu! Are you okay?!”
“Seo Yungyeom. Sensei’s awake!”
Only then did the ringing in my ears gradually settle. I couldn’t even remember when I’d lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes, I was lying not in a chair but on a bed.
My vision slowly returned.
Park Taehan and Yu Segwon stood on either side of me, and a little ways off, Seo Yungyeom was rushing over. All three of them looking down at me wore different expressions. Worry. Anxiety. And poorly concealed unease.
But I couldn’t focus on any of it.
My gaze was drawn — naturally, no. Forcibly — somewhere else.
The novel ‘□□□□□□□□□’ has been completed.
A side story has begun.
“Ugh—!”
I tried to cry out. But the sound caught in my throat and never made it out — instead, a mass of blood came up.
“Cough—!”
Blood poured out with the cough. Red drops fell, one by one, onto the white sheets.
“Move!!”
Seo Yungyeom shoved Park Taehan aside and pressed right up next to me. Close enough that I could feel his breath. Without hesitation he gathered his mana and activated his skill.
That warm mana from earlier — the kind that had moved through my body slowly, deliberately — spread through me once more. The energy starting from his fingertips traveled through my veins and pushed its way deep inside.
But there was no change.
It was because I hadn’t been able to feel pain to begin with. If it didn’t hurt, there was no way to tell if anything was getting better. My body stayed the same, its condition simply revealing itself quietly.
“Inhu! Stay with me!”
Seo Yungyeom’s voice came urgent and sharp.
I was already fully conscious. Which made sense — because this godforsaken quest window had come back to find me.
Side Quest
Cure the illness and complete the novel ‘ㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁ’.
Reward: Life in the current world
I let my shoulders rise and glared at the system window floating before me. The edges of my vision trembled slightly.
With every breath, something rattled around inside my chest. If not for the Pain Suppression, even the small sharp sound of this notification alone would have split my skull open. Not because of actual pain, but because of the sound scraping against my nerves.
“This— cough, cough—!”
Again, the cough came before the words. My body folded forward as all the air left in my lungs came pouring out at once. A curse clawed its way to the tip of my tongue, but that too was swallowed up and scattered by the coughing.
Fuck. In the end, I just chewed it down in silence.
It was the moment I thought it was finally over.
Ding. Another notification chimed.
The side quest is optional.
The moment I read that sentence, every bit of strength left in my body drained out at once.
My shoulders went slack and a long breath leaked out of me. I stopped holding on and simply fell forward onto the bed. The mattress gave with a dull give, catching me. The sensation of crumpled sheets pressed against my arm and cheek.
Only then did the sounds around me flood in all at once.
“Inhu—!”
“Hey, are you okay?!”
“Wait, check the mana flow again!”
Urgent footsteps moved back and forth, and then the vibration of someone bracing against the edge of the bed came through. Hands caught my shoulders; the sound of someone catching their breath came from close behind me. The room erupted into noise in an instant.
But I just lay there face-down and buried myself in the sheets.
I didn’t have the capacity to take in any of that noise right now. That single phrase — optional — had already used up every bit of strength I had left. I lost consciousness again.
When Cha Inhu finally passed out, the three of them called for the doctor who was stationed at the Hunter Association.
As a healer, Seo Yungyeom had neither the authority to administer injections nor the right to prescribe medication. He had never felt the limits of what he could do as keenly as he did now.
The doctor was practically dragged into the room. Once he grasped the situation, his expression went to one of shock and he moved immediately. He pulled out fresh sheets and covered Cha Inhu’s body, then with practiced hands connected an IV drip with a pain-relieving effect. Liquid fell slowly through the clear tubing.
Cha Inhu’s face was pale. He was still breathing, but the breaths were so shallow they looked as if they could stop at any moment.
The doctor checked on him in silence for a while. He measured the pulse, checked the pupils, adjusted the drip rate. And at last let out a deep sigh.
“Hunter-onset multiple organ failure syndrome, you said?”
No one could say how many times that name had been spoken today.
The one who gave a nod in response was Yu Segwon, who was managing to hold onto some semblance of composure.
It was an irony that the person who had learned of Cha Inhu’s illness last was accepting the situation most calmly. But no one had the room to dwell on that.
“As you are no doubt aware… that illness is incurable. There is currently no known method of treatment.”
“…What about management rather than cure.”
After a brief silence, Yu Segwon spoke. His voice was low, but it carried a weight — one that refused to let the end be spoken of so easily.
“As you know, Seo Yungyeom here is an S-rank healer. If he uses his skill to heal the deteriorating organs and maintain their condition… wouldn’t keeping him alive longer be possible?”
“……”
“Or… what about organ transplants?”
Yu Segwon continued. As if trying to pull in every possibility available, pushing toward increasingly improbable ground.
“If we replace the organs that have already weakened with healthy ones…”
The doctor remained silent.
