Episode 22
“Why are you crying? Why are you crying all of a sudden?”
“…I file a complaint….”
“No, why? no.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”
“No, why…”
What the fuck, why are you doing this?
Lee Jae-heon felt a slight panic at the protagonist suddenly shedding tears.
I was so embarrassed that all I could say out of my mouth was ‘no’ and I was out of breath at the sight of the main character’s weakness, which I had never imagined.
‘This is crazy, why are you crying?’
Were my words that touching?
It’s not? No matter how much I thought about it, it wasn’t that bad, right? I think it was just a matter of suturing a moderate mental breakdown, but was my judgment wrong?
Lee Jae-heon, whose judgment deteriorated after entering the secret world, reached a point where he could no longer trust his own judgment.
He swallowed a sigh, unable to hide his embarrassment, which was rare.
“I’m going crazy. Why are you crying?”
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry. “I was wrong…”
“Do you know that I feel even more sorry for doing this now?”
And what Lee Jae-heon missed was that he died right in front of Deputy Jeong In-ho’s eyes before returning.
“I’m sorry….”
No matter how disgusting it was, Jeong In-ho was a bright yellow chick, just like Lee Jae-heon said.
The death of his child, which should have been buried deep in his mind during the weekend’s car accident, was abolished by Lee Jae-heon’s intervention, and Jung In-ho’s trauma was only half of a happy ending.
Moreover, the death of Chief Kang Min-ah, which he should have experienced right in front of his eyes, became something that never happened as Lee Jae-heon saved him.
If she had died as in the novel, In-ho Jeong would have suffered the trauma of someone else’s death, but he would have had colleagues to share it with.
This means that the surviving employees, Kwon Yeon-hee, intern Noh Yeon-seok, and their hated boss, Manager Lee Jae-heon, must have shared this.
But Lee Jae-heon’s death could not be like that.
Jung In-ho sees the corpses of Director Kang and intern Noh Yeon-seok as compensation for losing his mind after being possessed by the other side of the world, and Director Lee Jae-heon, who shares his resentment, dies horribly while trying to protect them.
The anger and sadness that had no place to go would turn towards themselves, and that was not something that Jeong In-ho, who was managed by Lee Jae-heon, could handle.
It would have been easier if someone had died in a car accident on the weekend or by a monster at work.
Due to Lee Jae-heon’s wrong judgment, who never placed a high value on his own life, Jeong In-ho, who witnessed his long and terrible death before his eyes, suffered a mental blow.
It’s because of me.
“I’m sorry….”
“Huh, no. “Why are you doing that?”
“I’m really sorry.”
He died because of me.
“I’m sorry…”
And then I still blamed this person.
Self-blame, which he would not have had to experience originally, took its toll on Jeong In-ho due to Lee Jae-heon’s intervention.
* * *
Lee Jae-heon, who was none other than Lee Jae-heon, was taken aback by the unprecedented situation in which the main character cried. Jung In-ho quickly regained his cool, as he was not the type of person who called him disgusting for no reason.
Of course, I felt disgusted by that once again, but in any case, it was a good thing for Lee Jae-heon, who was not in an easy situation.
Jaeheon Lee still felt like he was hearing the sound of ‘I’m sorry’ in his ears, but he tried to swallow his fatigue as he remembered the green algae monster somewhere nearby.
“…Have you come to your senses?”
“Yes, I’m sorry…”
“Let’s stop talking about that anyway…”
Lee Jae-heon, who had a rough idea of what he was sorry for, sighed.
“It seems like something is moving around. “Do you have any guesses?”
Maybe it was a bit of a shock that I died.
Remembering that, Jaeheon Lee slowly blinked his eyes.
Although they keep forgetting about it, the value of life is precious to these people.
Even if it was an old manager who I wanted to pat on the back, I thought he might have felt some guilt because he died right in front of his nose.
Because the main character was also a chick in his own way.
Of course, Lee Jae-heon’s judgment was slightly different from the truth, but Assistant Manager Jeong In-ho, who did not know Lee Jae-heon’s thoughts, nodded calmly.
“We had a similar situation while picking up firewood. “A vine is approaching like this…”
“Can you hear something moving?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Jaeheon Lee took advantage of the moment of silence to listen.
Rustle.
“….”
It was the sound of something dull walking from a bit far away.
‘It’s a green algae monster.’
Of course, he already knew the identity.
For some reason, it must have been a green algae monster that did not come early like the situation before returning, and as proof of that, there were already six vines that the two of them had smashed to pieces.
Considering that the opponents at the beginning of the park episode were small-sized monsters that enjoyed the darkness, it was unfair, but it was something that Jae-heon Lee could not help with, as he had already shed a lot of blood from the company.
Since he had to die once before returning, he was allowed to settle down near the lake, but there was nothing worse for Lee Jae-heon, who was now in a position where he could not even die.
The green algae monster is slow but persistent. I remember that the vine-like tentacles that it spit out were not very strong, but the ones with teeth were quite strong.
Of course, it was impossible to rush in with bare body.
It even lit itself on fire and self-destructed, so to deal with it, we had to wrap something heavy around its body and drop it into a lake. If you do that, even if you can’t kill it completely, you can make it incapacitated.
‘I heard it was done that way only in novels…’
Lee Jae-heon swiped his hand as if covering his mouth.
The method used in the novel could only be tried near the end of the park episode. You need to prepare something that is heavy and can wrap around your body.
In fact, as of now, there were no weapons that could be used against the green algae monster.
If I hit him with my bare body, I’d end up like Lee Jae-heon before he came back, wrapped in vines. It was extremely dark and I wanted to find a new weapon right now.
Of course, a metal monkey spanner or Lee Jae-heon’s pipe would have been quite effective, but since there were only two, it was difficult to protect the rest of the party.
The most plausible way is to throw bait…
‘That’s probably what the main character did as soon as he returned. Throwing bait.’
Among the monsters crawling on the floor of the park, there was one that had bodily fluids similar to human blood.
The main character in the novel realized that he smelled blood from a monster that resembled a caterpillar, so he collected it and threw it aside to use it as bait.
This is probably how the returned protagonist twisted the green algae monster’s movements.
The monsters were just as disgusting as real-life caterpillars, but had no aggression and little movement, so you could find them by just tearing open the rotten tree.
The group in the beginning, who had no food, used these caterpillars for their meals.
Seeing that it didn’t die after eating it, I thought it could be used as a source of protein when needed.
Of course, Jaeheon Lee had a different ‘bait’ in mind than the one the protagonist came up with, but unfortunately he couldn’t use that method right now.
Because there are no materials.
“It seems like there is a rather large monster. Do you know anything about it?”
“…no.”
“Okay then.”
Lee Jae-heon just ignored the main character, whose face clearly said, ‘I know something.’
Perhaps the reason he said the exact opposite while showing off like that is because there is no way to take responsibility for what he said.
Regardless of how you know, the bait-spreading method you used to pick up wood can no longer be used.
That is to say, monsters were one entity, so their number was set, and they did not come back to life right away like the monsters in the game.
‘Of course, it will reappear as it becomes new….’
That will take more than a week, at least a month.
There probably wasn’t enough time at the time of the regression, so the protagonist must have been anxious.
I don’t know how he knew the information about the blood-tasting larvae, but judging from the time the green algae monster was caught, he must have picked it up at random, so it was almost impossible to find a new larvae in this area. It’s not like you can just tear down a tree.
Still, when I see him not even managing his facial expressions like that, I feel like he wants Lee Jae-heon to ask, but there’s no way around it.
He knew that time was running out not only for me but also for the protagonist in front of him.
However, it is unfair to be caught and killed by that bastard again, and even if he returns, there is a high probability that the same situation will repeat itself….
“….”
Bait.
I also had to use bait.
“…Let’s go back first.”
“Of course, it would be dangerous to stay away for too long.”
“Yes, it’s dangerous.”
Lee Jae-heon thought as he obediently moved his feet and pretended to return to his group.
‘Right now, we can’t handle the green algae monster.’
I don’t know how much the main character knows, but the green algae monster was the final boss of the park episode.
How can we handle such a guy without any special weapons or traps?
However, the only possibility is to use some kind of bait.
The green algae monster is nocturnal, so when the sun begins to shine, it will return to the lake and sleep under the green algae-covered water.
Until then, use bait to survive and as soon as morning comes, find a decent weapon. All you have to do is find a way to kill it.
Of course, it would be difficult to find a way to do this in less than 24 hours, so you would have to find new bait when the sun rises. But first, I needed bait to last me through this evening.
A bait that smells like blood enough to attract a green algae monster…
“….”
Is it here?
Lee Jae-heon looked at the creeping vines hiding in the dark.
Unlike previous monsters that looked like ordinary vines, this one was full of small teeth.
Lee Jae-heon had a memory of being pierced in the neck by that thing.
The vine with teeth did not break easily even if it was struck several times with a part of the green algae monster’s body.
“…Assistant Manager Jeong.”
Jaeheon
Lee deliberately brushed past the vine and opened his mouth.
“yes?”
“I’m just saying this just in case.”
A monster that had found its prey dug its teeth into his ankle in the darkness.
The process was so quiet that no one except Lee Jae-heon, the person involved, could notice it, and even the main character right in front of him did not notice it.
However, he just made eye contact with Lee Jae-heon with a dark gaze as if he felt something.
“You know that without us, there’s no one to protect those people, right?”
The bandage that had been treated with simple burns did not work properly and tore off, falling to the floor with a very small, faint sound. The teeth that had dug in between them had already half wrapped around my calf.
Only then did the protagonist find the toothy vine under the darkness.
“…Boss?”
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Wait a minute, what?”
Twisting.
The vine that had tasted blood completely wrapped around his leg and tightened.
It was similar to the sensation of a large hand grasping a doll’s leg, and Jaeheon Lee, who was perceived as prey, felt the vine being pulled taut.
It was very clear what the current situation meant.
Jaeheon Lee said with the most calm expression he could muster.
“Don’t follow me.”
With those words, he was dragged away by the vines.
