# Chapter 76
Huh? Did he just grill beef jerky for me?
Lee Hwan stared at Taesung’s expression with a blank face before slowly pulling it toward himself. In the past, he had casually asked Taesung to heat up food for him, but he never thought that would still be possible after his regression.
“Ninety minutes of progress, thirty minutes of rest. Since we don’t know when we can get out of here, preserving our energy is the priority.”
“That seems rather inefficient.”
“Not something you should say while you’re shaking like that.”
His hands were trembling finely without him realizing. Lee Hwan clenched his fist tightly to stop the trembling and took another sip of the warm water. Unlike just before when the beef jerky he’d torn and put in his mouth felt like a stone, now it chewed softly between his teeth.
Feeling awkward eating alone, he gestured with his eyes at what he was eating, but Taesung’s eyebrows rose once as if to say ‘you eat it.’
Well, this guy wouldn’t eat mid-journey unless it was a long expedition or battle lasting more than six hours. Frequent breaks only slowed down the gate clearing speed, so that was the right approach.
And Lee Hwan had certainly been the same before his regression.
‘…My energy consumption rate is definitely faster than before.’
He had eaten heartily before his regression too, but at least then his energy didn’t melt away like this. After hard labor, eating his fill was enough.
Even when he couldn’t eat on time after monster waves, he would eat as much as possible whenever he had the chance, but it wasn’t particularly difficult to endure without food for long periods.
But after his regression, Lee Hwan felt like a car with terrible fuel efficiency. The only difference between then and now was just the number of skills, so what could be the problem?
‘Gravity…?’
It seemed unlikely that the gravity skill was the issue, as Taesung, who had two skills, didn’t appear to feel particularly hungry. Besides, Lee Hwan had eaten like a bear even before obtaining the skill stone.
Then, there was only one change before and after the regression.
‘Speaking of suspicious things, nothing compares to this.’
Could it be that his already poor fuel efficiency had become garbage-level because of the regression skill?
Lost in thought while chewing, the palm-sized beef jerky quickly disappeared into his stomach. Lee Hwan watched Taesung recording their current estimated position and direction on the electronic map, while he continued to dissolve and swallow dry biscuits with his saliva.
‘Come to think of it, the regression skill… I still don’t know the penalty.’
At first, he thought Taesung’s lost memories were due to the penalty. Then, after learning that was a condition of the regression, he completely forgot about the penalty itself while living in such a chaotic state.
Even B-rank Spatial Control put so much strain on his body, so there was no way an EX-rank time ability would lend its power without a cost.
Tossing the remaining piece of biscuit into his mouth, he glanced at his hand and noticed the tips of his nails were slightly broken. He had desperately flailed around when falling, but did Awakened persons’ nails normally break this easily?
‘Do I need protein… no, calcium? Anchovies?’
Suddenly, a chill ran down his neck and the cold penetrated to his bones, making him realize something. Come to think of it, fingernails weren’t important right now. The only thing to worry about was safely escaping from this place. One needed to be alive for fingernails or toenails to matter at all.
Hopefully they could get out without incident. If there had been a major accident here before his regression, it couldn’t have been so quietly covered up. Praying that both that guy and himself could leave the gate without any problems, Lee Hwan hugged the warm water bottle to his chest.
* * *
It was after they had walked with frozen legs, taken two more rest periods, and continued walking. Lee Hwan, who had been walking for quite some time, stopped in place with a stiff face.
At the entrance to a narrow passage, the bumpy shape of the ice looked very familiar.
“Wait…”
Lee Hwan glanced at Taesung walking ahead and pulled out his bag with his reddened hand. What came out was a signal receiver about half the size of a cigarette pack. After examining the screen, he gritted his teeth with a serious expression.
When the footsteps behind him stopped, Taesung turned around. Lee Hwan showed him the blinking receiver.
“What is it?”
“We’ve been walking for over four hours of pure travel time… but the signal is still being received.”
And that in this winding, cave-type gate. Immediately understanding what this meant, Taesung walked briskly toward Lee Hwan.
Lee Hwan was always someone who created a way out. While there wasn’t a fork in the path below, the longer they traveled, the more likely the path would appear like a maze to cold and tired eyes.
So, in preparation for a situation where the path might be blocked and they’d need to turn back, he had attached a signal transmitter to the wall at the place where they’d first fallen.
It was a simple, unsophisticated device made from monster byproducts, without any delicate functions, designed solely to send and receive signals. Thanks to that, it didn’t break down often even when used in gates… which meant this signal was definitely coming from that initial spot.
“We just passed an ice formation shaped like a person with an open mouth, and now there’s one here shaped like a dragon’s head without horns. If I’m not mistaken, if we keep walking, before our next rest, we’ll come across an ice formation shaped like a big-horned yellow beetle.”
“Open-mouthed… what?”
While one might not be able to memorize the entire path they’d walked, specific landmarks could be remembered. Taesung was about to criticize Lee Hwan’s method of memorization but instead furrowed his brow again and took the receiver. The red circle in the center of the screen was faintly rippling. It was an indication that it was receiving a signal from somewhere.
“With this model, the maximum wavelength…”
“Is four kilometers. Despite some time wasted climbing and slipping, isn’t the distance traveled too short for how long we’ve been walking?”
Taesung was silent for a while. Instead, he moved around directly, checking within a radius of about ten meters, and then returned with his hair noticeably disheveled as if he’d been pulling at it.
“Haah… It seems we’ve gone in a circle from some point… and returned to near our starting point.”
It was the moment when hours of futile effort were declared. Lee Hwan rubbed his cold cheeks with his hands and sighed deeply along with Taesung. Going back through the hole they fell through was impossible. Continuing to walk through the open passage had failed. What options were left?
“Are there any other paths?”
“There was a crevice blocked by ice somewhere in the middle… but it doesn’t seem right to go back there right now.”
Taesung looked Lee Hwan up and down and declared decisively. Well, even now, he needed Taesung’s help whenever he drank water. Seeing the water bottle constantly freezing, an ordinary person would have ended up in the same state long ago.
“Let’s go to the starting point and rest for about three hours before continuing.”
Though they say he doesn’t feel the cold, he looked quite exhausted too. Even without serious injury, he was someone who had hit his head and lost consciousness once.
“Sure.”
After briefly responding, Lee Hwan walked with him in silence again. Was it because of disappointment? The cold air made his chest ache, making the return journey feel even harder. His breath still came out like smoke in the cold air, and ice kept forming on his eyelashes.
How long had he been walking with hunched shoulders, thinking only of a way out? Taesung, who had been walking ahead, gradually fell behind, and suddenly a warm draft of air flowed over his shoulders.
Surprised, he turned his head to find Taesung changing direction and moving away again. On his shoulders lay Taesung’s jacket, warm with accumulated body heat.
‘…’
For a moment, he felt his ears burning hot. Though the jacket touched his shoulders, heat rose as if someone had set fire to his face, which had been growing cold. It was so awkward because this person who usually wasn’t like this had suddenly become kind.
This must just be a gesture of goodwill given that they were stranded together. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Lee Hwan felt a tension that made his limbs stiffen.
Meanwhile, Taesung had lengthened his stride and walked further ahead. His broad back was tightly wrapped in a black suit. No matter how much heat he could generate, wouldn’t he be cold with just that thin, breathable combat suit on?
Lee Hwan hesitated, holding the jacket, before speaking.
“This is… fine, but you should just use it.”
He wanted to respond to his kindness, and also felt that he couldn’t let him be cold.
“…You seem to have no awareness that you’re being a hindrance.”
However, with that sharply thrown rebuke, his wildly beating heart froze as if it were a lie. The excited feelings from just moments ago instantly sank, replaced by faint embarrassment.
It was true. Considering how he’d barely been able to walk with Taesung’s help since the accident, the comment hit so accurately that his solar plexus ached. Lee Hwan rubbed his still-hot ears with his cold hands to cool them and muttered dejectedly.
“Yes, well… that’s true.”
Perhaps because he didn’t snap back as usual, the footsteps ahead paused momentarily, but Lee Hwan felt even that was a hindrance and kept his mouth firmly shut.
Suddenly, he felt anger rising. Not at Taesung, but at himself. No matter how strained their relationship had become, he hated this situation where he was a stumbling block due to his own inadequacy. He always wanted to look good in front of him, not be a burden clinging to his pant leg.
That’s why in the past, Lee Hwan had worked harder and grown faster. He trained longer than others. Even on weekends when everyone was playing and drinking to unwind, he memorized monster information and gate characteristics until his head hurt.
When he started going into gates with just the two of them, it felt like he was being rewarded for all that hard work. He had been genuinely proud to be in step with Taesung, who had always seemed so distant.
That was also why he had taken some time to train after his regression. He didn’t want to appear inferior. He simply wanted to stand side by side with him.
‘Damn it…’
But in the end, the difference in their abilities was widening again. Lee Hwan, who had been staring at Taesung walking ahead, lowered his head dejectedly.
