As soon as he was freed from Gamja’s grasp, Lee Hayul rushed over to his older brother and dropped to his knees with a loud thud! — so hard it seemed his knees might break.
“Hyung! Hyung, are you okay? Hyung, open your eyes!”
Though his breathing had evened out and his condition had clearly improved, there was not the slightest movement from him.
Normally, one would at least expect an eyelid to twitch reflexively, but he didn’t respond at all — as if he were in a coma.
Ugh…
“Hy-hyung…”
“Lee Hayul. Calm down. It looks like he’s stable now.”
To anyone else, he simply looked like he was peacefully asleep, but Hayul was anxious. Kang Dohee patted his back mechanically as he sobbed and asked,
“Ms. Bi-young, is there somewhere we could lay him down?”
It was essentially a straightforward request to let them put him to bed, but Ju Bi-young didn’t seem to mind and nodded.
“Gamja, can you take him to the room and lay him down?”
“Groaaaan.”
Cradling Lee Haje like a precious princess, Gamja waddled into the room.
Inside, Gwak Hongbun, having seemingly overheard the conversation, was just finishing laying out the bedding.
After gently placing Lee Haje onto the thick blanket and even tucking him in, Gamja promptly walked back out.
While Hayul stayed by his brother’s side, sniffling quietly, Kang Dohee took the opportunity to give Ju Bi-young a subtle once-over — within the bounds of courtesy.
Reading the look in her eyes, Ju Bi-young offered a faint, ambiguous smile and sat down in a single-person sofa chair.
“I was in a rush and just jumped into things, didn’t mean to startle you. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. Thank you for helping us. Though, I am curious how you knew what my brother was carrying.”
Kang Dohee, likely assuming Ju Bi-young was just an ordinary civilian, asked in the most polite and gentle tone she could manage. Ju Bi-young just shrugged and replied,
“Barami told me. That there was a potion among your brother’s belongings that could be used right away.”
“Barami?”
“Oh, Barami… Well, you probably can’t see it, but Barami is sitting right on your shoulder, Dohee. It’s about this big — smaller than the palm of my hand.
Hmm, how should I explain Barami? I guess you could call it a fairy with the essence of wind.”
“……”
Dohee glanced at her own shoulder but couldn’t sense anything. The same was true for her brother, Dojin.
The siblings sat on the opposite sofa, clearly indicating they wanted more of an explanation without saying it outright. Ju Bi-young, sounding like she was introducing a beloved pet, continued in a calm tone.
“I’m the only one who can see and sense Barami. You can think of it like a family ability passed down through generations. I’ve been able to see it since before the world became like this.”
“Is it… like a spiritual possession or something?”
“Haha, no, no. It’s nothing like the spiritual possession shamans experience. Barami isn’t a god, just a being born from nature.
But it’s a wonderful companion — it sees, hears, and feels things others can’t. Thanks to that, I can even communicate with animals.”
“…….”
It was hard to believe, but not impossible either.
After all, this was a world where gates had opened, other dimensions had been accessed, and monsters in human skin roamed.
Compared to all that, meeting someone who could see fairies or spirits and talk to animals wasn’t all that shocking anymore.
“By the way, it was Barami who said it would be okay to let you in the house. Barami can sense people with corrupted hearts.”
“What do you mean by ‘corrupted hearts’?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. People who’ve given up on being human. That’s probably the easiest way to understand it.”
“…….”
Hearing her words, Dohee thought back to the monsters they’d encountered in the forest.
But what Bi-young described were humans — intact in appearance, yet rotten and decayed on the inside.
“Not people who’ve completely transformed into something else, but those who look just like us on the outside, yet are completely ruined on the inside.”
“Ah, I see. Understood.”
There had been plenty of people like that where they came from too. And in this world, there were bound to be even more.
Kang Dohee decided it was time to exchange information with this woman.
And if she allowed it, she would also propose that they stay here and help out in exchange for shelter — a subtle offer of their labor.
They didn’t have much, but when it came to physical work, they were confident.
Fortunately, Ju Bi-young readily welcomed the group. She didn’t turn down the offer of help either.
“That’s a relief. I’ve been putting off a lot of things since I injured my leg. There are so many parts of the house that need fixing.”
“Leave it to us. But first, we’d like to hear more about the situation here. We still don’t fully understand what’s going on. We’re…”
Dohee paused mid-sentence.
Another dimension? A different world? A parallel universe? What was the right way to say this?
As she hesitated, Ju Bi-young glanced toward her shoulder and smiled softly before giving a knowing nod.
“You’ve come from a far, far away place, haven’t you.”
“……”
“That’s right. Still, I’m glad. You probably didn’t know anything about this place, yet you made it here safely.”
“It’s not like we didn’t get any help along the way.”
Since the other side had revealed her ability, Dohee briefly explained their own “status screen.”
She didn’t know exactly what it was, but it gave them quests like a game, rewarding them for success.
She summarized how they ended up here, the things they had encountered outside — even the not-quite-human entities they’d fought and killed.
Ju Bi-young, who had been listening with a serious expression the entire time, nodded thoughtfully.
“Barami calls what you encountered, Ms. Dohee, a spider.”
“It did move in a way similar to a spider.”
The grotesque figure that moved on all fours, stomach up, with its arms and legs scraping along the ground. The image of its eyes—either melted away or simply missing—remained vividly in her mind.
“Those spiders, along with other monsters, started appearing around three years ago.”
Even though they hadn’t seen much of civilization, considering the state of buildings and roads, it hadn’t been as long as they initially thought.
They had assumed it had been at least five or six years since the world had fallen into this state.
“We don’t know where they came from or how it started. But most of the first creatures to appear in this region were wearing military uniforms, so there were rumors—like maybe they were soldiers who died in military experiments, or that they got infected while fighting the monsters when they first emerged… But now, who even knows if anyone left alive knows the truth.”
“Is it contagious?”
“Some are, some aren’t. The ones you saw—the ones we call spiders—are contagious. When they bite you, your skin starts rotting, or your joints twist in unnatural ways. You start acting strangely… and then you eventually turn into one of them.”
“How long does it take for someone to fully transform?”
“Usually two days. Three, max. From what I’ve seen, no one has lasted longer than four.”
“…….”
That was… a small relief. At least people didn’t transform the moment they were bitten.
“There are also others. Smarter, faster ones than the spiders. They’re more like the zombies you see in movies. But unlike the spiders, these ones don’t seem to infect people often.”
“Why is that?”
“They move in packs and devour everything in their path. There’s nothing left of the people they attack—nothing left that could turn.
A few people did manage to escape, but even they ended up turning within two or three days.”
“……”
Dohee and Dojin both frowned. The image of those movie-like zombie hordes was too vivid—especially the thought of being eaten whole.
Ju Bi-young continued calmly, listing the types of monsters she had encountered.
The spider-like ones that walked on their backs.
The zombie hordes that devoured everything in sight.
And then, strange beasts that looked like someone had sewn together parts of different animals—boar-like upper bodies with dog or wolf-like lower halves.
“The beast-types… they’re not just random mutations, are they?”
“No. I don’t know how they came to be, but they’re far beyond any natural mutation. Those poor animals… If they were just ordinary wild beasts, I could connect with them and lead them elsewhere.
But once they’re contaminated like that, they don’t understand anything. When we meet—it’s always a fight to the death.”
“Can you get infected by one of the beast-types if they bite you?”
“No. I’ve been bitten before, but I didn’t get infected.”
Ju Bi-young went on to explain that most beast-types were mammals, and she hadn’t seen any bird-like creatures yet.
If even flying enemies had turned hostile, things would have been far worse—but that, at least, was a small mercy. Still, their momentary relief didn’t last long.
“There’s one more monster. If you ever see it—you run. No matter what.”
“People used to call it the Collector Bug.”
“I already hate it just from the name.”
That wasn’t a joke—it was sincere. Ju Bi-young nodded in agreement and continued in a slightly deflated voice.
“The Collector Bug extends these long tendrils from its mouth. It captures people. Collects them.”
“…You mean like storing them as food?”
For the first time during her explanations, Ju Bi-young glanced toward another room—the one Gwak Hongbun had gone into. Even though the door was closed, she lowered her voice even more.
“Partially, yes… but also no. That bug… sometimes it eats them, but sometimes it decorates itself with their bodies…”
The siblings grimaced in unison. Decorating itself with humans? It was hard to even picture what that meant—but it clearly wasn’t some small bug, if it could do that.
“Is that thing the most dangerous creature around here?”
“Yes. It is. But it’s never come this close in daylight. It usually stays hidden deep in the mountains. It seems to target people trying to cross over them.
Though that’s just a guess. It also seems to hate light—because it won’t come out of dense woods during the day, and I’ve only ever seen it at night.”
Ju Bi-young spoke a little hesitantly, saying this wasn’t confirmed information. But she kept glancing toward the room her grandmother had gone into.
From her behavior alone, Dohee could guess the truth.
Someone who had once been close to Ju Bi-young and Gwak Hongbun… must now be one of the bodies “decorating” that creature.
“How big is it?”
“About the size of a village bus. Its body is covered in long spines, and on each spine… it hangs its ‘trophies’—the ones it’s hunted.
When it moves through the forest, it stretches its body long and thin like a snake.”
“…….”
“It has four tendrils from its mouth. When it’s in its snake-like form, it’s slower. But if you encounter it at night, be careful.
In its full form, it moves fast—fast enough that even running at full speed, it’s hard to escape.”
“Do you know how good its senses are—its sight, hearing?”
“Its hearing doesn’t seem very good, but its eyesight might be excellent. Though, I can’t say for sure. I’ve never had the chance to face it properly—I always ran.”
Dohee didn’t need to ask why she was sharing so much detail about that specific bug-like monster. It wasn’t hard to figure out.
Her brother, Dojin, sat quietly beside her, hard to read—but she knew him. He was quick to pick up on things. He was thinking the same thing she was.
As Ju Bi-young hesitated, lips slightly parted as if searching for the right words, Dohee leaned in and asked softly, giving her space.
“You’re planning to hunt that thing, aren’t you? And you want us to help.”