EST Ch 4

“Let’s agree to disagree. Based on our experience in the main building, we think it’s safer to stay together. If you change your mind while exploring the main building, feel free to join us.”

Gijun let out a brief chuckle at the condescending tone. Especially the implication that they hadn’t experienced the main building, which was amusing. Of everyone, Hae Gijun had the most experience in the main building.

But Nam Hyungwook wasn’t entirely wrong. Being alone didn’t mean avoiding all monsters, and students unfamiliar with monster tactics might be safer in a group. The problem was the student council wasn’t the right group.

Not wanting to prolong the conflict, Gijun decided to part ways amicably.

As they separated, the students glanced at Baek Sunwoo with regret. They felt safer if he joined them, but now they were disappointed. Gijun pulled Baek Sunwoo back, and Sunwoo stifled a laugh.

Then Gijun spotted a familiar face.

“Bye, Gijun… Stay safe until we meet again.”

Though he set a death flag, it was Kim Juwan, the class 2 president. His calm and gentle nature made him well-liked by his classmates, who were behind him, the friends Ahn Youngah had greeted.

Hae Gijun wasn’t particularly close to his classmates, but he didn’t want to see them hurt. Though Baek Sunwoo became his top priority due to repeated loops, he still extended small kindnesses.

Specifically, too many student deaths unsettled Baek Sunwoo.

Gijun grabbed the class president and whispered.

“You’re heading to the west gate, right?”

“Huh? Yeah, the east is clear, but we found nothing.”

“Then don’t open the storage next to the west gate restroom. If something jumps out, try not to scream.”

“…What? Why?”

“No time to explain. Just remember. If it’s dangerous, step back.”

The class president looked confused, but there was no time for an explanation. Gijun quickly warned about other monsters. The president thanked him, bewildered.

Watching the retreating class president, Gijun turned away. With a somber gaze down the corridor, Ahn Youngah quietly asked.

“Gijun, I get not wanting to join the crowd, but couldn’t we have teamed up with some? The student council has high SPIs and could be useful…”

“No. More variables make it harder. And they’re already centered around the student council, so we can’t separate them.”

And I don’t want to. Gijun left the thought unspoken.

Ahn Youngah still seemed regretful, glancing towards the direction the others had gone.

“You didn’t mention the monster summoner or machine, so I stayed quiet… but wouldn’t sharing the plan and searching together be faster?”

“Acting in a group attracts attention from them. It’s also easier to get killed.”

“You’re so…”

Her fragmented words conveyed strong emotions, but Gijun ignored them. Saying it was easier to get killed was no exaggeration. With such fragile company, how could he take big risks? It was out of the question.

As Ahn Youngah fell silent, Lee Donghun asked.

“Aren’t we looking for the teachers?”

The other kids mentioned it. All Shin Hae High teachers were ability users with at least one encounter with monsters. They’d handle it better than students and might know about the summoning situation.

Ahn Youngah clapped and agreed eagerly.

“Yeah, shouldn’t we find the teachers?”

“The kids said when the weirdo was giving his speech in the auditorium, others took the teachers out. So they might be trapped somewhere.”

Lee Donghun informed Ahn Youngah, glancing at Gijun.

In a crisis, seeking teachers’ help was natural and wise for students. But Gijun wasn’t an ideal student anymore. Memories surfaced, and he closed his eyes tightly before asking quietly.

“How much can you trust the teachers?”

His soft voice brought silence. It carried the heavy, somber feeling of impending rain.

Lee Donghun blinked slowly, then barely asked.

“Are you saying the teachers might be in cahoots with them?”

“…I don’t know yet. I’m just saying we should be cautious.”

Hae Gijun evaded the question slightly. He felt their suspicious gazes but didn’t say more.

He couldn’t reveal all the information yet.

Gijun knew that Park Inhoo was with them and had a peculiar suspicion from his experience moving with the teachers. He wondered if Park Inhoo was the only one among the teachers working with them. Could someone who had been at the school for less than a year cause such chaos?

But he wasn’t sure about anyone other than Park Inhoo. He couldn’t reveal this to the kids yet. If they acted suspiciously when meeting Park Inhoo, they might face the same fate as before.

After several loops, Gijun realized that pretending to know nothing in front of Park Inhoo prevented him from being openly hostile. Park Inhoo was also looking for the ‘prophesied one.’

So, he didn’t share this information with the kids searching for the teachers. In their current situation, adding suspicion would only make things awkward. With the confusion from the monster attacks, this information could wait.

Gijun now avoided bold challenges.

“Anyway, let’s go the way they came. That means there shouldn’t be monsters.”

Lee Donghun and Ahn Youngah nodded, looking uneasy. They seemed distressed by the terrified reactions of their friends and the situation of suspecting the teachers, but they tried to remain calm.

Gijun was relieved that their mental fortitude wasn’t weak. As he watched their backs, he glanced at Baek Sunwoo. He stood as always, ready to follow when Gijun moved.

Gijun watched him and asked.

“Why don’t you ask anything?”

“About what?”

“Why I didn’t tell them about Park Inhoo.”

“Oh…”

Before arriving at the training center, Baek Sunwoo had also noticed Park Inhoo’s odd behavior. He was the most wary of Park Inhoo. Yet, he didn’t question why Gijun didn’t share that information. With his kind nature, he would have likely expressed concerns.

Baek Sunwoo smiled gently.

“They said the most important thing in team operations is trust.”

“Trust?”

“Yeah. So I trust you have a plan.”

“How can you trust me so much?”

“I’ve seen more of you than you think.”

Gijun chuckled. Though he had been with Baek Sunwoo often, he thought he had no special bond with him before coming to the training center.

Just someone from the same class in the first year, now in a different class in the second year. Not quite a ‘friend,’ but someone he had to call ‘a former classmate.’ As far as he remembered, they hadn’t talked much.

Yet, Baek Sunwoo showed such trust… How could someone so trusting, kind, and gentle survive in this harsh world?

“…”

Is that why he kept dying?

Gijun had an epiphany and felt distressed briefly. He chuckled and shook his head. Determined to keep this innocent, puppy-like person alive, he continued walking.

Their shadows grew longer behind them.

* * *

Hae Gijun’s goal and instructions were simple.

Find anything ‘suspicious.’

It might be a tool related to the monsters, so they searched carefully. They opened drawers, checked the ceiling, and even peeked into ventilation ducts.

The training center was vast, and searching one room took a lot of time. They couldn’t access locked areas but spent considerable time exploring open places like the dining hall and small auditorium.

Gijun looked for the control room with the main building CCTV but couldn’t find it. He also couldn’t find where to use the card key obtained in the annex. There wasn’t even a machine to swipe the card.

Whether they hadn’t found it yet or it was deliberately hidden was unclear.

In finding directions, they occasionally relied on Ahn Youngah’s luck. This piqued Lee Donghun’s interest, and he started asking questions while searching locations. Did she feel drawn to any spot? Did she sense anything special?

Overwhelmed by the barrage of questions, Ahn Youngah let out a silent scream.

“Aren’t we relying too much on intuition?”

“We can’t rely on skill.”

“That’s true, but…!”

Ahn Youngah sighed at Gijun’s matter-of-fact response. Baek Sunwoo’s domination ability was useless in this simple search, and there wasn’t anyone in their group skilled enough to resolve the current problem. Also, Shin Hae High was a gathering of students with low SPI.

Lee Donghun chuckled and added a comment.

“Your intuition is your skill.”

“I’m realizing in real-time how poor my skill is…”

Ahn Youngah muttered wearily.

Trying to focus, she closed her eyes tightly but found it difficult. She had never relied on luck for significant decisions, and distrust grew within her.

This made Ahn Youngah increasingly anxious. While Gijun didn’t rely on her luck for finding objects, she herself wanted to discover something quickly. She also wanted to escape this dreadful place as soon as possible.

Impatience and anxiety quickly wear people out.

Eventually, Ahn Youngah stopped abruptly and sighed.

“The range of what’s suspicious is too broad.”

“Could something we’ve overlooked actually be suspicious? Maybe disguised and hidden…”

Lee Donghun quickly added his thoughts. He had been considering it but couldn’t find the right moment to speak.

Baek Sunwoo also seemed to remember something and sighed.

“There are artifacts that hinder perception, making it hard to identify objects in front of you. They’re rare, though…”

“Oh. Given this unusual situation, they might have such artifacts prepared.”

Encouraged by Baek Sunwoo’s agreement, Lee Donghun’s voice grew louder.

Gijun understood their confusion but couldn’t provide a clear direction. He hadn’t expected to find anything suspicious in one day. While he wasn’t anxious, the others seemed far from calm.

After some thought, Gijun asked Baek Sunwoo.

“If the artifact is working, how do we break it?”

“Once you find it… If you touch it and ‘recognize’ it, the illusion blurs. For example, if you thought it was a flat wall but felt something sticking out, the illusion weakens. It might only flicker briefly, but recognizing the change means you’ve found it.”

“Do we have to break it?”

“Not necessarily. Breaking it might alert the enemy. Creating a crack should make it easier to exploit, I think.”

Baek Sunwoo answered uncertainly, but his response was clear.

Ahn Youngah muttered, pale-faced.

“Assuming there’s an illusion artifact, we’ll have to feel our way around…”

Lee Donghun’s expression darkened. His suggestion had made the task more challenging.

Ahn Youngah’s expression became complex as she glanced outside. She seemed to wonder if joining the student council group would have been better. Gijun noticed her confusion but said nothing.

The search continued.

Aside from an encounter with a monster’s silhouette that left them breathless, the search proceeded without major incidents.

But what they hadn’t considered… was the early fall sunset. In the mountains, darkness came even sooner.

Shadows swallowed the training center like a maw. At the sudden onset of night, there was a brief commotion.

“Why won’t the lights turn on…?”

“The switches aren’t working.”

The building was without power.

Both Ahn Youngah and Lee Donghun looked around in confusion. As the sun set, the entire building’s lights suddenly went out and did not come back on. Baek Sunwoo, seemingly having anticipated this, calmly surveyed the space.

The only person who remained completely unfazed was Hae Gijun.

They had often felt an inexplicable sense of otherness from his excessive calmness, but this time they understood the reason. Ahn Youngah sighed softly.

“Breaking news. Hae Gijun’s ability gets a sudden reevaluation…”

“Wow, it’s night vision.”

“Additional breaking news. Shockingly, Lee Donghun’s ability is now the most useless…”

“Stop pretending to be a reporter.”

Despite Lee Donghun’s dismayed reaction, Ahn Youngah pretended to hold a microphone and interview him, clearly intrigued. Gijun wondered if they really had just met today.

The ability to see well in the dark.

When they first heard about Hae Gijun’s ability, both had given him looks that said, “How perfectly suited for Shin Hae High…” They thought it was as hard to recognize as luck-based abilities. One might just think he had good night vision.

They had worried about how his ability would be useful in a training center teeming with monsters, but now they realized its importance in a building without lights.

In the situation where he could finally shine, Gijun spoke calmly.

“Let’s find a place to stay before it gets darker.”

“Huh? Not continuing the search?”

“How do you plan to search in the dark?”

“You could guide us? We have phone flashlights…”

Gijun shook his head at Ahn Youngah’s suggestion. While the phones were not getting a signal, they were still useful. With no way to charge their batteries due to the building’s power being cut off, they needed to conserve battery for when they really needed the flashlight.

“Even I have my limits. You could bump into something or drop something and become endangered.”

“Wow. You care about us?”

“…?”

Gijun tilted his head at Ahn Youngah’s admiration.

“No, I mean the noise could attract monsters.”

“Oh, I see.”

His typical response added credibility. If he had just said it out of concern, they might have suspected Gijun had changed.

Baek Sunwoo also seemed to agree, adding a comment.

“Monsters become more aggressive in the dark, so it’s better to prepare a safe space in advance.”

“Won’t the monsters attack that space?”

“As long as we don’t make noise, they shouldn’t.”

“Then we can just hide in the room the whole time!”

“Well…”

Hae Gijun trailed off with a peculiar expression. Sometimes he would glance sideways like this, making it seem like they understood his unsaid words. His look implied he wouldn’t stop them if they wanted to hide, but it wasn’t the best idea.

Ahn Youngah and Lee Donghun eventually nodded in resignation. They had never seriously considered hiding in a room all night.

The plan wasn’t to end today’s search here. They intended to secure a resting space and then continue searching with flashlights. They would at least explore the vicinity of their lodging, even if they couldn’t cover as much ground as in the daylight.

Ahn Youngah and Lee Donghun replied in agreement and moved. Their voices carried sighs.

“I thought we could get out today, but it feels less likely now…”

“Yeah. Thinking about finding lodging makes it seem like we’ll be here a long time…”

“Don’t jinx it.”

“This isn’t jinxing. If we suddenly leave, then I’ll have something to tell you.”

“What are you even saying?”

Lee Donghun reacted in bewilderment as Ahn Youngah giggled. Though their conversation seemed playful, their faces revealed a faint anxiety.

The fear of potentially spending a night in this place.

Hae Gijun had already spent several days here. Though it was the same day repeated, adding up the time, it would easily amount to half a month.

Moreover, Gijun had become accustomed to spending more than a day on the school trip after repeating it several times. Though it was the first time he hadn’t encountered many monsters, he thought today’s situation was good. If they found a proper place to stay, they might get through the day without anyone getting hurt.

Around that time, Lee Donghun sighed briefly.

“But we don’t have the keys to our lodgings.”

“Right. The class president has the keys. We should have gotten them when we met earlier.”

“Would they have given them to us if we asked…?”

“If we said we needed something from the room, they might have.”

“Hmm, true. So, do we need to find the class presidents now? Hae Gijun, what do we do?”

Gijun shrugged at the question.

“We don’t necessarily need to find our designated lodgings. We don’t have a way to find them anyway. If we run into someone by chance, we can get the keys. Otherwise, we’ll have to hide in a storage room or something.”

In fact, Gijun had rarely rested properly in the lodgings during his repeated days. Though the class presidents had the keys, they often lost them in the chaos. Everyone thought of the lodgings too late, and by the time they tried to return at night, monsters were already there, making it difficult to enter.

Night was a challenging time to move.

Hae Gijun paused to scan the corridor. As darkness settled, a chill filled the quiet space.

An autumn night. The building in the mountains had a unique, lonely coldness. Despite the hundreds of students inside.

“……”

An eerily quiet space.

The building was so large that it was natural not to hear each other after scattering. But even so, the silence felt strange to Gijun. Though Lee Donghun and Ahn Youngah were chatting ahead, their voices seemed distant.

Though he had experienced this time repeatedly, something felt different.

The dim sky gradually turned monochrome without showing a hint of warm sunset. The darkening sky seemed to lower the space’s saturation.

As the lengthening shadows finally consumed the corridor.

Gijun suddenly shouted.

“Everyone, duck!”

— Whoosh! 

At the same time, a fierce wind slashed above them. The air vibrated with the remnants of a savage attack.

Startled by Gijun’s shout or instinctively, everyone ducked and then slowly straightened up.

“Ugh…!”

Seeing what appeared, Ahn Youngah almost screamed but managed to cover her mouth. Making loud noises would only excite the monster.

A monster had appeared before them.

It had been hiding in the darkness, waiting for them to let their guard down before attacking. If Gijun hadn’t noticed the monster and warned them, someone would have been on the floor.

Lee Donghun sighed softly. Though it was too dark to see immediately, once he recognized it as a monster, its form became clear.

A pitch-black body as if sculpted from darkness. A body much larger than an adult, sharp claws. And… five gracefully waving tails. A sight he could never forget.

“The monster from the auditorium…”

Lee Donghun’s voice trembled. The memory seemed to resurface, and he barely breathed, crushed by fear.

The monster’s darkly glowing red eyes looked like clotted blood.

But the monster’s gaze was on Hae Gijun, not Lee Donghun. Its fangs, extending to its jaw, moved menacingly as it opened and closed its mouth. Seeing the saliva dripping from the tips, Gijun chuckled briefly.

It had marked him as prey for dousing it with water in the auditorium. The monster might have moved from the annex to here, searching for him.

Baek Sunwoo seemed to understand this and stepped forward.

“Gijun, I’ll use my domination ability to hold it off. You run with the others. I’ll follow…”

“Every word you say is a danger flag. Be careful with your words. They’re all ominous.”

“…Okay?”

At Gijun’s exasperated words, Baek Sunwoo was taken aback. The content of the words was surprising, but what astonished him more was Gijun’s calm reaction in this situation.

The same was true for the others. Ahn Youngah and Lee Donghun, faces tense, asked him.

“What do we do now…?”

“We’re going to hunt that thing.”

“We are?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have too much faith in our group?”

“Enough talk, come here.”

As Gijun pulled out the gun from his waist with a click, they quickly approached, startled. The gun was aimed at the monster.

“I didn’t think I’d have to use a bullet like this…”

Gijun muttered, sounding regretful, but then pulled the trigger without hesitation.

— Sizzle! 

The blue mana shot out quickly, but the monster dodged even faster. It was neither tired nor injured, so missing was expected. This shot was merely to buy time.

Moreover, Gijun had aimed at the ground. The mana stayed on the floor, sparking, and the monster hesitated to cross it. It was a temporary barrier.

The monster lowered its body, entering a defensive stance, its eyes fierce as it gauged the threat.

Meanwhile, Gijun quickly gave instructions.

“Ahn Youngah. There’s a restroom ahead, check if there’s a hose. If there is, connect it to the faucet and bring it out. If not, fill a bucket with water and bring it.”

“O-okay.”

“When I give the signal, splash it.”

“What signal?”

“You’ll know. Lee Donghun, you still have the rope from earlier, right?”

They had collected potentially useful items while searching the training center for hours. While the others had hoped to keep avoiding monsters, Gijun knew that was impossible.

Eventually, they would face monsters, and hunting them was necessary to advance.

“Tie the monster’s leg, tail, or anything with the rope.”

“Won’t it burn…?”

“It’s sturdy, so it won’t burn immediately. We just need to buy a little time.”

“What do you plan to do in that time?”

“We have a gun, so we’ll use it. No point in saving it.”

Gijun spoke calmly. Though it was his first time fighting the auditorium monster directly, he had already figured out its attack patterns.

And he had the luck of acquiring a mana gun, which he planned to use immediately. He had six bullets left. Holding back and risking Baek Sunwoo getting hurt would be a disaster. Tools can be replaced, but if Baek Sunwoo dies, it’s back to square one.

“Gijun, wouldn’t it be better for me to restrain the monster?”

“No, you…”

He barely stopped himself from telling him to hide. Biting his lower lip briefly, he spoke as if spitting out the words, full of reluctance.

“You and Lee Donghun restrain the monster.”

“…What about you?”

“I’ll distract it, and when you restrain it, I’ll shoot.”

“What? No, I’ll dominate it. That’s simpler. You might get hurt, so why…”

“Hey.”

Gijun’s voice cut him off sharply. With irritation in his eyes, he looked directly at Baek Sunwoo.

“Don’t act tough.”

“…Huh?”

“I know you can’t dominate it in one go. It’s not a human. You’re only in your first year of training. It takes at least two years of training to be deployed in the field. And the monster needs to be tired for domination to work. Until it gets tired, what are you going to do? Just roll around in front of it?”

“……”

“I know exactly what you’re planning, so don’t try to execute it in front of me.”

The chilling warning was quite stern.

Hae Gijun had seen how Baek Sunwoo hunted monsters so far. Even with his high SPI, he couldn’t dominate a monster in one go. He could only fully subdue it after it was injured.

But Baek Sunwoo always hid that fact and stepped forward. Because everyone was scared, he thought he shouldn’t show any weakness.

So he only managed to subdue the monster after clashing with it, and by then, he always got injured.

“And if your domination ability excites it and it attacks at full strength, that’ll be an even bigger problem. Right now, it’s focused on me, so we can use that to our advantage.”

Monsters assess their opponent’s combat ability and threat level when attacked. Before the monster’s wariness escalated due to Baek Sunwoo, Gijun needed to exploit the current distraction.

Looking straight at Baek Sunwoo, Gijun said,

“I’ll handle it.”

Baek Sunwoo seemed to want to say more, but there was no time for debate. By now, the mana residue on the floor had completely vanished, and the monster was ready to attack.

Gijun stepped forward.

He put the gun back in his rear pocket and pulled out a baton from his coat. It was a tool he had luckily found while searching the small auditorium. With a flick of his wrist, the baton extended.

“……”

Facing the monster, Gijun took a deep breath.

He rarely took the lead in hunting monsters. While he often distracted or delayed them, his ability wasn’t suited for direct combat. But he decided he couldn’t leave everything to Baek Sunwoo anymore.

He was tired of the situation repeating every time Baek Sunwoo died.

Tired of the guilt he felt watching him die.

Though he wasn’t confident, Baek Sunwoo always stepped up. Now it was his turn. After a short exhale, Gijun sprinted towards the monster.

— Clang!

He struck the wall beside him as he ran, drawing the monster’s attention solely to him. The monster leaped at him.

Lowering his body, left foot forward, and right foot back in a deep lunge.

Gijun rolled right as the monster lunged left. He narrowly avoided being bitten by staying low.

But Gijun kept running, glancing back occasionally to anticipate the monster’s attacks and dodge them.

The path to the restroom cleared as the monster chased Hae Gijun. Ahn Youngah, with a tense expression, ran to the restroom, while Lee Donghun gripped the rope and muttered. Seeing Hae Gijun leading the monster away seemed surreal.

“Can we really do this…?”

“We have to.”

Baek Sunwoo’s voice was firm, even sharp. Lee Donghun glanced at him in surprise.

His demeanor seemed different from when he was with Hae Gijun. Was it because of the hunting situation? The warmth that usually filled his eyes was gone.

Feeling disoriented, Lee Donghun blinked and finally nodded. Hae Gijun’s calm demeanor made him believe they might actually succeed.

Lee Donghun sprinted. As a physical ability user, he ran at a speed hard to track.

“Ahhh!”

Though he inadvertently shouted, briefly drawing the monster’s attention, Gijun managed to keep it focused. Tapping the wall to make noise, the monster continued chasing him.

Lee Donghun and Baek Sunwoo threw the rope. They aimed to lasso the monster’s body or tail, but it wasn’t easy. Having fallen for this trick once in the auditorium, the monster moved more erratically.

This made it harder for Gijun to evade, but he gritted his teeth and kept moving.

“Grr…”

The monster was getting annoyed. Its prey kept running away, and those behind tried to restrain it. It was clearly frustrated.