The monster lunging at us with its mouth wide open looked like it was moving in slow motion.
But in stark contrast to its sluggish movement, Kang Do-jin and I reacted quite swiftly.
Do-jin, who had been standing completely still until the monster got close, quickly swung the stick in his hand and slammed it down hard on the creature’s head.
“Krriiirik!?”
The stick pierced straight through the monster’s head and stuck into the ground, making it thrash its limbs wildly in agony.
Without even thinking, I also brought my stick down on the monster’s head.
I could feel, vividly with both hands, the sensation of the stick sinking into that thing.
“Kiiit! Krrr…!”
Do-jin yanked the stick out with one motion, then slammed it down again on the monster.
Thud—Thud—Thud-Thud!
“Kieeek! KIEEEEEK!”
Each time Do-jin hit it, the creature’s limbs flailed harder.
With each impact, the body of the thing jolted, and the stick I had embedded in it shook as well.
It was a gruesome, stomach-churning sight.
Fortunately, the horror didn’t last long.
After Do-jin repeated the attack five or six times, the monster finally stopped screaming or moving, and went limp.
“Haa… haaah…”
“…….”
My entire body was trembling.
I was still gripping the stick stuck in the monster’s head, and my shaking was so bad I could hear creaking sounds from the ground beneath my feet.
“Hhh… mmph, mmph…”
I couldn’t even pull the stick out. I just let go and stepped back a few steps, tugging on Do-jin’s clothes.
Do-jin, calmly following my retreat, flicked the goo off his stick and then made the weapon disappear with a showy motion, as if to say, “Look what I did.”
Hhh. Mmph.
God. I’m losing it.
There was so much I had to process right now, but my mind had gone completely blank.
Honestly, I just really wanted to throw up.
“If you’re gonna puke, better do it out here before we go back in. Hyung.”
“…..”
Oh.
Good idea.
Bleeergh.
★★★
Inside the quiet container…Do-jin stayed silent.
“…….”
And Do-hee… she wasn’t even looking at her own brother. She was watching me.
“……..”
As for me…
“…….”
I was still shaking, holding a peacefully sleeping Ha-yul in my arms.
Sniff…
Damn it.
Yeah. I won’t deny it — I was crying like a mess.
I threw up on an empty stomach, and the stomach acid burned my throat and even came out my nose a bit, making it sting.
My eyes teared up from the pain — a perfectly natural reaction. Not the real issue here though.
Floating in the air between me and the Kang siblings, as if dividing us, was a translucent status window.
I looked at it again.
[Monster Defeated!]
You and your companion have successfully defeated a monster (Unfused Agu/F)!
Please claim your reward!
Rewards are distributed based on your contribution.
Contribution: Kang Do-jin 64%, You 36%
Reward: 3 stat points / 100 gold
“Hah… haha…”
Mom…
I think I really did get possessed into a game…
But that’s weird.
I’ve never played a game like this before.
All the games I’ve ever played were things like Animal Pong Pong or Chocolate Crush Saga.
So how the hell did I end up in something like this?
Or maybe… it’s not a game, but a story that just runs like a game.
If it’s the latter, that’s a whole different problem.
It’s not like game-possession stories are rare.
As I sat there, feeling the urge to rip all my hair out, I suddenly heard Do-jin’s calm voice:
“Hyung. Let’s do the reward allocation first. Put one point into agility, one into strength, and save the last one.”
“……”
Right.
Time to postpone the mental breakdown — first, let’s talk.
I gently laid down Ha-yul, who was still fast asleep, and stood up slowly…
But my arms were trembling so badly that I nearly collapsed again.
Compared to cool and composed Do-jin, I looked pathetic, but it couldn’t be helped.
I was scared, damn it! Ugh!
If I were a character in a novel right now, readers would probably be laughing at me.
But to those people, I’d like to say:
Think about it.
There are people who scream and run away just from seeing a cockroach or a silverfish no bigger than a thumb.
People who get all jittery and can’t even kill them.
What if the cockroach flew at you?
What if the silverfish jumped at your face?
Of course you’d freak out and run.
But me?
I saw something that used to be human, with silverfish-like long limbs, crawling right in front of my eyes.
And I even had to smash its head in…
Urp.
“Sssht. Calm down. If you’re gonna throw up, go outside.”
“Uh-huhh, huuuhh…”
Do-hee stayed cool and composed the entire time.
Come to think of it, she didn’t even try to stop her brother when he ran off alone.
Actually, I think she tried to stop me when I chased after him, though I didn’t see too clearly…
“Haa… A-anyway… for now…”
In the end, I couldn’t even sit up properly.
I crawled over to the wall near the two of them and sat with my back pressed to it.
My body was still trembling uncontrollably.
It wasn’t something I could stop at will — I just pressed my back to the wall and accepted that I looked like a mess.
Fine. Let it shake.
Shaking or not, exchanging information came first.
“Hhh… hhuhh… You two… said you didn’t even see any… like… animals earlier… right?
Did you know what that thing was?”
I remembered how the two of them had acted so calmly earlier, saying they hadn’t seen anything before we encountered that thing. But now that I think about it, they were way too composed for such an unsettling situation.
At the time, I was just happy to meet survivors—especially one who was a friend of my sister—so I didn’t notice how strange it was. But now I realized just how unusually unfazed they’d been.
I looked back and forth between the two of them, asking for an explanation.
The one to speak first was Kang Do-jin.
“Well. I didn’t say anything at first because I thought you wouldn’t believe me, but it’s true that I didn’t see any animals.”
“Th-Then… then you did see that thing?”
“Yes. Three of them.”
Three?!
My jaw dropped. Did they actually take down all three?
“So… you and your sister took them out?”
“Yes. She killed two, and I killed one. And then, like in a game or something, a system window popped up. I figured there was a difference in experience gain, so we agreed that I’d take care of the third one.”
“………”
As Kang Do-jin talked, I listened intently, not interrupting.
He said they’d found themselves in a forest, and before they could even grasp what was happening, two monsters suddenly appeared from the bushes. Each of them instinctively took on one and managed to kill them.
Then another monster attacked, which Kang Do-hee took down on her own—and just hearing that sent a chill down my spine.
‘Scary sister indeed.’
Yeah. I have to admit, she’s the dominant one.
Anyway, after they defeated the monsters, a status window appeared and gave them rewards.
Since Do-jin had played a lot of different games before, he prioritized collecting useful rewards and used his stat points wisely.
After receiving their rewards and moving a bit further, a map suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was crude but still useful enough that they could identify the black dots as monsters. Then they noticed two blue dots.
Those two blue dots were me and Ha-yul.
“No wonder you guys came right for us. You saw us as soon as the map appeared. Still, you could’ve at least warned me that things like that were roaming around. I nearly died because I had no idea. And you, Kang Do-jin…!”
“Yes?”
Saying that reminded me of something I’d forgotten—this guy went off on his own earlier! I couldn’t just let that slide. This had to be addressed.
“You can’t just run off alone like that! That’s dangerous!”
“Ah…”
“‘Ah’ isn’t good enough! Sure, you got experience and stat points and whatever, but still! From now on, don’t go off on your own! We need to talk it over and handle things together! Got it?”
“…….”
Do-jin blinked a few times and then replied with an unenthusiastic, “Yeah, sure. Okay.”
He didn’t seem entirely convinced, but I’d said what I needed to say. Next…
“And you too, noona!”
“…Me?”
Kang Do-hee’s eyes narrowed, and I found myself speaking in a slightly softer tone.
“He’s your little brother. No matter how capable you both are, how could you just let him go off on his own? He’s still just a high school junior!”
“…….”
Her expression turned unreadable. At best, it looked like she was silently asking, So what are you trying to say? More honestly, her face said, And what exactly do you expect me to do about it?
She looked a little annoyed, maybe even frustrated, but she didn’t seem interested in explaining herself.
I hadn’t meant to be confrontational, but still—this wasn’t okay!
“He’s still just a kid.”
“True. But Do-jin isn’t exactly a typical kid. I figured he could handle it, so I let him go.”
“I… I get that, but even so, if anything else happens, it’s best if you and I talk things over and handle it together.”
“……”
Kang Do-hee gave my still-trembling body a quick glance, then gave a calm nod.
“Sure. Let’s coordinate.”
“Yes. Definitely. And if the kids want to run off, we should stop them. I mean, we’re the adults here.”
I let out a deep sigh. I felt like I’d said everything I needed to, and I was about to suggest we talk about what to do next—when something still bugged me.
No matter how much she trusted her brother, sending him off alone? Even if they’d already defeated two monsters before coming here? Something didn’t add up.
“…….”
I looked back and forth between Kang Do-hee and Do-jin again. This time, they didn’t avoid my gaze.
“So… is there anything else you haven’t told me?”
“…….”
“I don’t want to hear later that you ‘just didn’t think to say it.’ If there’s anything useful to share, say it now. We need to help each other.”
At my words, Do-hee’s eyes subtly shifted toward Do-jin.
Do-jin, meanwhile, kept his eyes locked on me, wearing a blank expression that was hard to read. But there was something deep and cautious in his gaze.
I’d noticed it earlier too—Kang Do-jin didn’t seem like a typical high schooler, not even close. Not in how he looked, but in the aura he gave off. There was just something… off. Something hard to put into words.
‘Am I overthinking it because I’ve read too many isekai stories?’
Still… he’s acting like a seasoned returnee or multi-run protagonist.
Maybe I was being too paranoid. Maybe it was just a weird coincidence. But still—how many people could stay that calm after facing monsters like that, even if they’d done it once already?
If it were me, I’d just grab Ha-yul and run if another showed up.
I waited for them to say something, but neither spoke. Eventually, I opened my mouth again.
“Honestly… no matter how confident you were, I don’t understand how you could send your brother out alone.”
“…….”
“Sure, he’s in his second year of high school. Maybe you can chalk it up to reckless youth or whatever.”
I emphasized high school junior deliberately. Do-jin’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
“Exactly. Do-jin is just a kid. Only seventeen. Even if he did rush out recklessly, shouldn’t you stop him? Isn’t it normal to hold back a kid who tries to act on his own?”
“…….”
“Adults are supposed to protect children. And honestly, you don’t strike me as someone who’d forget that. So… do you have some other reason for trusting him so much?”
As I asked, Do-hee’s expression gradually blanked out.
She’d already been pretty expressionless, but now her face was like a mask—cold enough to make me feel like she could kill me with a look.
Hic.
“…….”
I’d been holding my breath without realizing it, and it made me hiccup.
Ugh, embarrassing.
Still, my dignity could wait. Right now, answers were more important.
Maybe she was too stunned by my hiccup, or maybe she decided I wasn’t worth arguing with—but Do-hee sighed deeply, all the tension draining from her shoulders.
“…Yeah. I get it. I know it’s hard to understand all this with a normal mindset.”
“…….”
“But honestly, even if I tried to explain, I’m not sure you’d believe it. Still… if I had to say what I can tell you right now, we…”
Cough!
“!”
Do-hee was calmly continuing her explanation when suddenly she choked, as if she’d bitten her tongue.
She opened her mouth like she wanted to keep talking, but no sound came out. Her expression twisted in frustration, and she clicked her tongue and shook her head.
‘Ah… I know what this is.’
Some kind of restriction. A curse, a vow, a magical gag order—whatever the name, it was definitely a penalty of some sort.