By Zephyria Even though his tone wasn’t at all demanding, Yohan’s timid heart shrank. He hunched his shoulders, bit his lip, and slowly threw off his top. Last time, even when Yohan cried and screamed, Lee Hyun-muk didn’t hold back at all when treating the wound on his leg. The terrifying thought of him doing the same with the Contamination Symptoms on his back made tears well up already.
Sobbing, Yohan, now in his underwear after taking off his bottoms, curled up. The Abyss was rather chilly, and he was shivering from the cold when Lee Hyun-muk approached. As they got close enough to feel each other’s breath, the tense Yohan gulped.
The first thing Lee Hyun-muk checked was his crown. He shone a flashlight, meticulously tracing his fingertips over his scalp and rummaging through his hair, examining it persistently. Yohan was very concerned about his hair, which he hadn’t washed since falling into the Abyss. Fortunately, his scalp seemed to be fine.
Next, he examined his ear canals in detail. His hot, rough, and firm fingertips fiddled with his earlobe, sending a shiver down Yohan’s spine, making him shrink further. Even in his terrified state, he felt a strange, indescribable sensation….
Lee Hyun-muk examined Yohan’s body from head to toe until his face was completely flushed red. As if that wasn’t enough, he suddenly pulled off Yohan’s underwear, making Yohan yelp.
“Why, why, why!”
Suddenly exposed in front of him, Yohan quickly pulled his underwear back up. He bit his lip and glanced back, but Lee Hyun-muk seemed to have seen everything he wanted to. Yet, his face was serious, his brow furrowed. He muttered.
“Why are there no symptoms.”
“Isn’t it good if there aren’t any?”
Fumbling, Yohan almost tripped as he grabbed his pants. Lee Hyun-muk caught his shoulder and helped him stand straight before he could hit his head. Then, he handed Yohan his top and spoke in a tone of continued bewilderment.
“By this point, something is bound to be wrong. But you’re… excessively fine.”
Lee Hyun-muk’s pronunciation of ‘But you’re excessively fine’ was so slow and deliberate that it felt threatening. It made Yohan feel as though Lee Hyun-muk wished he would become corrupted, causing him to shrink back. Feeling wronged, Yohan replied, his voice trembling.
“It’s good if I’m fine….”
“Perhaps the symptoms have appeared internally. Of course, even in that case, they usually manifest externally.”
Yohan knew this well. The ‘National Response Manual for Rift Disasters’ distributed by the government detailed such cases. The symptoms of Corruption included not only the bizarre swelling of body parts like the abdomen or veins but also paralysis, personality changes, and amnesia. Yet, none of these applied to Yohan at the moment.
“My insides seem fine too! So you don’t need to check my insides!”
Yohan quickly put on his top and retreated to a corner, wrapping his arms around himself. Lee Hyun-muk stared at him, then spoke, shaking the scalpel and disinfectant in his hand.
“Yohan, no matter what, I’m not so mad that I’d cut open a living person to check for symptoms. Most people would die if you cut their belly or head open….”
“Please don’t say such obvious, terrifying things… And please put that down….”
Only after the scalpel and disinfectant were back in the backpack could Yohan relax a little. He sat as far away from Lee Hyun-muk as possible, creating a distance that mirrored the one in his heart. His wide eyes, looking utterly terrified and trembling like a frightened puppy, made Lee Hyun-muk deliberately relax his posture. As intended, Yohan, who had unconsciously let his guard down a bit, spoke.
“But Lee Hyun-muk, you don’t seem to have any Contamination Symptoms… Your hair is a bit… white, though.”
In his opinion, the white hair wasn’t due to Corruption but seemed to be from stress, no matter how he looked at it. His handsome face made even the white hair look good. Hearing Yohan, Lee Hyun-muk chuckled.
“On the outside, yes.”
Meaning, on the inside, it was quite the opposite. Yohan examined Lee Hyun-muk intently, but there was truly nothing strange or peculiar about him. Even his muscular forearms, visible outside his black short-sleeved shirt, looked perfectly normal.
‘Is it possible to look this normal even with severe Corruption? Is it because he’s a High-level Awakener?’
He was curious but didn’t voice it. Instead, Yohan stood up. He stretched his body and lightly stomped his feet, then nodded. He felt ready to move around now.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to search around here. I’ve only found food; there are so many other things we lack.”
He had raided a clothing store nearby to use padding as a makeshift bed, but it was definitely uncomfortable. Yohan intended to find a mattress, something a household would surely have. As Yohan slung his backpack on, Lee Hyun-muk silently followed him.
Today’s haul was quite good. Yohan managed to find emergency food kits and a mattress from a house that the refugees hadn’t been able to carry. Lee Hyun-muk, being sane, could even be asked to help carry the heavy mattress. Lee Hyun-muk lifted the mattress as if it were made of cardboard.
While he was at it, Yohan went to look for another convenience store to find more food. Lee Hyun-muk suddenly looked up at the sky and muttered.
“The weather’s strangely bad today.”
Yohan, already feeling uneasy recalling the recent Madman version of Lee Hyun-muk’s nonsensical remarks about the weather, asked.
“Are there typhoons or monsoons here or something?”
“I didn’t mean it in that sense. I mean the aura feels unpleasant. Surprisingly, this wretched place seems to have feelings.”
Lee Hyun-muk spoke of the Abyss as if it were alive. Yohan decided to dismiss his words as a joke. If Lee Hyun-muk’s words were true, how terrifying would that be? It absolutely had to be a joke.
“Then should we stop and go back?”
His question was met with a strange reply.
“…Haha, a person.”
Yohan turned around and let out a sigh without realizing it. Lee Hyun-muk, who had been perfectly fine just moments ago, had instantly turned into a Madman. His lips curled into a grin, and his eyes glowed with a terrifying red light. Avoiding eye contact, Yohan said dejectedly.
“I’m not a person, I’m Yohan. Yang Yohan.”
Naturally, correcting his title yielded no response. He trudged back to their shelter with a heavy heart.
“So sleepy….”
Yohan mumbled blankly. Then, he glanced at Lee Hyun-muk. He could acutely feel that the previous Madman version of Lee Hyun-muk wasn’t even close to being as crazy as he had been for the past two days.
“Right, right, right, the moon is rising, the moon is rising. An eyeball. Moon, it is. Eyeball. It’s looking at me! No, no. It’s looking this way… You, yes, you.”
Lee Hyun-muk muttered terrifying words rapidly, swaying his body left and right. His eyes, particularly the red ones, gleamed with Madness. Fearing he might draw the other’s attention, Yohan held his breath and huddled on the mattress. Why was he suddenly acting like this? Or had he always been like this, and was just quiet recently?
Surprisingly, even his current state was relatively calm compared to yesterday. Yesterday, he had heard a crunching sound and, jolting awake, saw Lee Hyun-muk chewing on the lid of a canned food Yohan had discarded. Blood, dark red, was streaming from his mouth, and Yohan had been horrified. He had managed to coax it out of him, only to throw the can lid far away, and he had cried so much.
Fortunately, as an Awakened, his recovery was fast, and the bleeding stopped quickly. High-level Awakeners typically had such remarkable regenerative abilities that flesh or limbs torn off would reattach instantly. That was thanks to it. However, afterward, he had repeatedly banged his head against the wall, muttering horrific nonsense, ensuring Yohan couldn’t sleep. The strange noises from outside made it impossible to sleep.
“A personnn….”
“Aah!”
Yohan, shuddering at the memory of yesterday’s horrific self-harm, screamed and jumped up. Without him realizing when, Lee Hyun-muk was right beside him. Utterly terrified, Yohan shifted his body as far to the side as possible. Then, Lee Hyun-muk pulled him back and firmly wedged him against his side.
“Hic, hic, …hic!”
Yohan, starting to hiccup, trembled and lowered his head. Still, hoping he might return to his senses, he said in a desperate voice.
“I, sob*, am not a person, I’m Yang Yohan.”
“Yang….”
For the first time, the Madman mumbled his surname, and Yohan involuntarily lifted his head. Would he return to his senses? But that hope was soon dashed.
“Yang-ah.”
“…Yes?”
“Yang-ah.”
Lee Hyun-muk, who had been so mature when sane, grinned and called Yohan ‘Yang-ah, Yang-ah.’ He couldn’t believe it, but then he asked.
“You’re a sheep, why aren’t you crying?”
“I, I’m not a sheep, I’m Yang Yohan….”
“You’re a sheep, why aren’t you crying? Aren’t you crying? Aren’t you crying? Aren’t you crying? Aren’t you crying?”
Repeating the same words expressionlessly like a broken tape recorder was more terrifying than any horror game. Finally, Yohan cried.
“Meeeh. Meeeh….”
His voice trembled with fear, sounding surprisingly pathetic, like a sheep’s bleat. Seemingly satisfied, Lee Hyun-muk stretched his lips into a wide smile and pulled Yohan into his embrace.
“My Lamb.”
Yohan couldn’t tell if his designation being changed from person to sheep was an upgrade or a downgrade…. However, Lee Hyun-muk’s lips pressed too close to his neck bothered him greatly, in many ways. Trembling, Yohan reluctantly bleated ‘Meeeh,’ his cry rising sharply.
“Meeeek! Wh-what are you doing!”