“Ugh.”
My head hurt. Not just a normal headache—it felt like it was about to shatter.
My chest ached a little too, and my mind was foggy.
‘What? Did I pass out or something?’
I was still dazed, but the splitting headache that felt like it was pushing against my eyeballs forced me to open my eyes.
The first thing I did as soon as I regained consciousness was look for my younger sibling—and I let out a sigh of relief.
‘Is this why my heart hurts…’
Even though my body was pinned down, making it a little hard to breathe, I was okay. The important thing was that Hayul was breathing properly.
After confirming my sibling’s steady breathing, I refrained from moving recklessly and instead just rolled my eyes around to observe my surroundings.
The first thing that caught my attention was the sky—it was high and blood-red.
I didn’t know if it was just sunset or if the sky was always like that, but it was as red as blood.
‘Status window.’
A bluish status window hesitantly appeared in front of me.
Why was it showing up so timidly?
Checking its contents, I saw that the blurred-out sections were still the same, but a new entry had been added to the quest section.
‘Find a shelter.’
The rewards were still not visible.
‘Where even is this place? Judging by how I got sucked in, it seems like some kind of gate or something. Is there a map or any information? Status window? Current location? Location info? Info? Map? Coordinates?’
Having read a lot thanks to my profession, I started throwing out whatever came to mind.
The status window seemed to hesitate, almost as if it was shrinking away.
‘If you’re going to give me information, do it properly. I won’t ask you to show the censored parts right now, so at least give me a map.’
I had no idea if the status window could actually understand me, but since it was appearing before me, something had to be showing it to me.
And whatever that “something” was, it was likely an entity capable of language.
In many clichés, gods, transcendent beings, or celestial figures issue quests and rewards through status windows.
‘This thing seems kind of clueless, so I don’t have much faith in it.’
Rather than relying on the status window, I decided to wake up my sibling first.
Just then, the window suddenly disappeared, replacing itself with an icon resembling a rolled-up scroll.
“Hmm.”
It looked hastily put together, but I decided to check it out anyway.
As expected, a somewhat crude, semi-transparent map unfolded before me.
I carefully sat up, and as I did, Hayul slid down, resting on my thigh.
I let my sibling continue sleeping while I examined the map.
At the center, two small white dots—presumably us—blinked close together.
There were roughly drawn house and building icons in the distance. Nearby, there were tree and waterway symbols, suggesting that civilization existed here.
A short distance away, two slowly moving blue dots caught my eye. Further out, more scattered blue and black dots were spread across the map.
But then I noticed something.
A swarm of black dots was clustered in the bottom-right corner of the map, moving in like a flood of game pieces being poured out.
There were also a few scattered black dots in other locations, but nowhere near as many as that one concentrated mass.
‘Are the black dots beasts or monsters?’
Maybe it was because of that sinister black sphere I encountered earlier, but the black dots didn’t seem friendly at all.
At that moment, the swarm of black dots collided with several blue dots.
Just as I suspected, the blue dots began fleeing in the opposite direction.
But they didn’t get far.
The black dots quickly overwhelmed them, and the blue dots vanished from the map.
“……”
Damn it.
Even though I was just watching dots disappear from a map, my stomach churned.
A sickening, gut-wrenching feeling began creeping in, threatening to spiral into horrifying thoughts.
I forced myself to ignore those rising fears and pushed the map to the side of my vision before gently shaking Hayul’s shoulder.
“Hayul.”
As I softly called their name and continued shaking them, Hayul’s face scrunched up slightly.
I made sure to wake my sibling carefully so they wouldn’t be startled. Fortunately, before long, Hayul opened their eyes.
“Where is this…?”
“Shh.”
I stood up first and offered Hayul a hand.
“Can you stand? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Uh, yeah… I think I’m okay. But where are we?”
“I don’t know either. Let’s find a safe place first.”
“Okay…”
Hayul answered softly, anxiety written all over their face as they nervously scanned our surroundings.
They clearly wanted to ask where we were and what had happened, but I had no answers for them right now.
There was only one thing I could do at this moment—find a safe place for us to hide.
Looking around, I picked up a thick and sturdy fallen branch from the ground.
Its broken-off end was sharp and solid—it could be used as a makeshift weapon if necessary.
With something in hand, I checked the map again.
The two blue dots that had been nearby were now heading straight toward us.
If they were people, that would be great. But I had to consider the possibility that they weren’t.
‘We need to move.’
I started walking in the direction of the nearest house. It was just a crude icon on the map, but it was the best lead I had.
Meanwhile, the two blue dots continued approaching at a steady pace.
Judging by their speed, they seemed human.
Hopefully, they really were people.
Because if they weren’t… I had no idea what I’d do.
“Hyung, there’s a road over there.”
“Yeah… it really is a road.”
As we walked through the dense trees, we stumbled upon a path.
It was exactly where the map had shown a winding line.
A paved road.
Despite being swallowed by some weird sphere, here we were, standing in a forest with an asphalt road—one that looked exactly like those on Earth.
It wasn’t just that.
On one side of the road, there were also two cars. Covered in dust, dry branches, and withered leaves, they looked like they had been abandoned for a long time.
‘What the hell is this?’
I couldn’t make sense of this situation at all. Normally, when someone gets sucked into a gate, they either end up in another world or in a place where they have to fight monsters.
But here… it was just eerily silent, like a lifeless Earth.
‘I don’t know what those black dots on the map are, but…’
The black dots were scattered at a distance, while two blue dots were steadily approaching us.
Were we making too much noise even though we were moving as quietly as possible?
No, that wasn’t it. There was no way they could hear us from this distance.
‘If they’re human, that is.’
There was a chance that the two blue dots, heading toward us at a steady pace, weren’t human.
I briefly considered staying put to confirm what they were, but with my little brother here, it wasn’t worth taking the risk.
Gripping a broken-off, sharp-ended stick, I kept checking the map while walking alongside my brother.
Thanks to the continuous downhill path, a small building finally came into view.
Honestly, the sight of a lone building in the middle of a desolate forest path seemed incredibly suspicious.
If this were a typical B-grade American horror movie, I’d be yelling at the protagonists, asking why on earth they would ever go inside.
But…
‘There’s nowhere else to take cover.’
According to the map, the closest building was this one. There were a few more houses further away, but they were too far.
And worse, that area had a lot of ominous black dots.
“Hayul, do you see that building? Let’s go inside and rest for a bit. It’s getting darker.”
“Mm.”
Hayul still didn’t say much. Not because he was mature, but because he was extremely tense.
The eerie forest, the absence of people, and the blood-red sky all contributed to his anxiety.
But more than anything, it was the way we had ended up here that scared him the most.
One moment, we were swallowed by some mysterious sphere. The next, we were thrown into what seemed like a ruined civilization.
It was terrifying.
I tried to stay composed, running through all sorts of scenarios in my head, but honestly, my hands were trembling in fear.
‘If I ever get back… I should stop telling authors to make weak protagonists miraculously strong right away just for reader satisfaction.’
If they were already a hunter or someone with abilities, sure, but expecting a regular civilian like me to thrive in a disaster from the start? That was ridiculous.
‘Wait… why am I thinking about work if I go back?’
Wow. What a model corporate slave mentality.
But I knew exactly why my mind kept wandering to these irrelevant thoughts.
The two blue dots were getting closer.
I was so tense that I needed to distract myself with anything remotely familiar. It was a defense mechanism against the overwhelming pressure.
And now, they had entered the same path as us. They were near the abandoned cars we had passed earlier.
From there, it was a straight downhill walk.
Which meant they’d see us soon.
I quickened my pace. Hayul matched my steps, walking faster.
A quick glance at the map showed the two blue dots had reached the end of the uphill path.
Damn it.
They could probably see us now.
Whether I liked it or not, the moment of truth was approaching.
“Hoo…”
I took a deep breath, gripped the stick tighter, and turned my head.
At the top of the hill, I could make out two human-like silhouettes.
“Oh? Hyung, wait a second.”
Hayul, who had also turned to look, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
It was already getting dark, and there weren’t any streetlights, so I couldn’t see clearly. But Hayul seemed to recognize them.
“They’re wearing our school uniform.”
“Really? I can’t see that well…”
“You have bad eyesight. But yeah, one of them is definitely from our school. Hyung, should we wait for them?”
“…Yeah. Let’s do that.”
There were plenty of fallen trees around.
We sat on one, watching as the two figures steadily approached.
It didn’t take long before they came into full view—a boy in our school uniform and a woman.
I still couldn’t make out their faces clearly, but Hayul, with his sharp young eyes, seemed to recognize them. He suddenly shot up and started waving his hand enthusiastically.
I finally got a good look at them as they drew closer.
The woman looked to be around my age—no, wait, I was 20 now. She seemed to be in her mid-to-late twenties.
And the boy…
‘Damn. He’s good-looking.’
Huh? Now that I saw him up close, he was seriously handsome.
Like one of those male protagonists on the cover of a web novel. The kind who’d grow up to be a Duke from the North or something.
He had one of those faces that practically screamed “main character.”
No. I needed to stop thinking of everything in terms of novels.
I understood that my mind was jumping around because I was nervous, but this wasn’t the time.
So, I slightly bowed my head and greeted the woman first before turning my gaze to the boy.
At that moment, my usually shy little brother, Hayul, took a step forward and spoke up.
“Dojin-ah, are you okay?”
Oh? They knew each other?
But the boy’s response was… unexpected.
“Are you serious? Do I look okay to you?”
Huh.
Well, would you look at this guy?
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