By Zephyria And the next day, Yoon Seung-ryong, who returned even more tattered, stared at the two people with cold, dead eyes and muttered.
“Why do I feel like I’m the only one going through pointless, wasted effort?”
Yohan, who was breaking the ice to get drinking water and using the opportunity to gather ice into a lump to make something resembling a snow-ice person, cautiously lowered the piece of wood he had been holding to use as a nose, glancing at them. Lee Hyun-muk ignored him, taking the piece of wood and jamming it into the snow-ice person. The utterly grimy Yoon Seung-ryong lamented.
“Team leader, you really have no intention of helping me?”
“Then who will protect Yohan?”
“That, that’s true…”
Yoon Seung-ryong, acknowledging this, trudged off somewhere again. And the next day, Yoon Seung-ryong, who found the two of them leisurely enjoying a foot bath with sparrow skewers and ice shaved ice beside them, exploded.
“Seriously, this is too much?! Get out of the way!”
Yoon Seung-ryong, completely disheveled from whatever battle he had fought with Joo Ho-young, wedged himself between the two. Yohan, looking apologetic, cleaned Yoon Seung-ryong’s body, which was covered in dirty mud and bodily fluid. While chewing on a sparrow skewer like a wild animal, Yoon Seung-ryong glared fiercely at Lee Hyun-muk.
“So while I was suffering, the Team leader was enjoying a nice foot bath with Yohan? When did you even make this?”
“We had plenty of water left after getting drinking water…”
Yohan said sheepishly, handing a bowl of shaved ice to Yoon Seung-ryong. Joo Ho-young had created ice sheets and ice blocks all over the city, and the amount was so substantial that it would be more than enough to last a year. So they decided to indulge in a little… luxury.
Preparation wasn’t difficult either. They found a marble bathtub, buried it in the ground, poured in hot water, placed a suitable mat nearby, and sat down. Yoon Seung-ryong grumbled incessantly, saying he could enjoy this too, but Lee Hyun-muk didn’t pay him any mind.
“Ah, it is warm.”
Yoon Seung-ryong’s face melted as he soaked his feet in the hot water after days of hardship. He seemed to have completely given up on catching Joo Ho-young. As they emerged after thoroughly enjoying the outdoor foot bath, Yohan’s eyes widened.
“Ah, the snowman!”
The snow-ice person, which had been intact before they enjoyed the foot bath, had been mercilessly smashed. It was clearly Joo Ho-young’s doing, so Yohan picked up the wooden nose with regret. Lee Hyun-muk, watching his disappointed expression, said.
“Then shall we go catch Ho-young?”
“…Just in case, am I being sidelined for a snowman right now?”
Yoon Seung-ryong muttered in disbelief, seeing them set off to catch Joo Ho-young for the reason that the snowman Yohan made was broken, when he hadn’t even been acknowledged when he begged for help.
Since he’s too fast to catch anyway, let’s go to Joo Ho-young’s base. Yoon Seung-ryong’s face contorted as if he had eaten something unpleasant upon hearing Lee Hyun-muk’s suggestion.
“If you knew his base, then what was all my suffering for?”
“Perhaps it was pointless, useless suffering?”
Lee Hyun-muk said in a gentle voice, causing a vein to throb on Yoon Seung-ryong’s forehead. However, he only let out a deep sigh. Joo Ho-young was too afraid of Lee Hyun-muk to approach him, and Yohan stuck close to Lee Hyun-muk, so in the end, only Yoon Seung-ryong was truly victimized. Yohan, filled with guilt, merely focused on purification.
“So, where is his base?”
“I don’t know that either.”
To the perfunctory answer, Lee Hyun-muk said calmly, just before Yoon Seung-ryong could commit an act of insubordination.
“But once we see it, we’ll know.”
And indeed, it was as he said. Packing their belongings, they searched for Joo Ho-young’s base, moving around areas covered with ice paths. And they discovered a truly strange and bizarre structure. As Lee Hyun-muk had said, it was impossible to miss.
“Is this… an amusement park?”
Around a central building, structures that vaguely resembled amusement park rides were arranged. However, they were by no means ordinary rides.
The first thing that caught their eye was a structure resembling a roller coaster, made by connecting rails salvaged from somewhere. Several shopping carts used in supermarkets were placed on the rails, which led up to the building’s rooftop, designed to plummet downwards along the slope. This dangerous and dizzying roller coaster was actually the most normal-looking item.
Elsewhere, monsters were displayed in cages like a zoo, most of them withered and dead. A carousel-like device was connected to a leashed monster, rotating with a hideous screeching sound. There were also cable cars made by weaving wires and steel frames to attach carts, rooftop swings that required risking one’s life, and even snack stalls. Of course, instead of snacks, grotesque, unidentifiable organic matter hung there.
As they surveyed the bizarre scene that Joo Ho-young had painstakingly decorated over many years, Lee Hyun-muk instantly drew his spear and swung it. Kaang! With a sharp sound, an arrow flying silently was driven into the ground.
“Aargh!”
Yohan jumped back belatedly, looking around. He couldn’t figure out where the arrow had come from. Joo Ho-young’s figure was nowhere in sight. Yohan pressed close to Lee Hyun-muk, scanning their surroundings. Only then did he recall that, unlike Lee Hyun-muk or Yoon Seung-ryong, Joo Ho-young used a bow as his weapon. And bows had an overwhelmingly long range.
“Ho-young is giving us a warm welcome?”
Yoon Seung-ryong, harboring deep resentment from being tormented by Joo Ho-young for the past few days, grinned and strode forward.
—Get ouuuut!
Joo Ho-young’s enraged monstrous roars echoed, and a rain of arrows poured down from the sky. It was an onslaught of arrows that was impossible to believe came from a single person. Seeing the clumps of black filth clinging stickily to the arrowheads, Yohan finally understood why Yoon Seung-ryong had returned in such a sorry state.
“You coward! Attacks like these can’t do anything!”
Yoon Seung-ryong batted away the arrows and charged forward. While Joo Ho-young, having a fit because someone had entered his territory, focused his attacks on Yoon Seung-ryong, Yohan approached the building under Lee Hyun-muk’s protection. Only then did Joo Ho-young attack the two of them as well, but it was useless. As Yoon Seung-ryong said, they couldn’t attack Joo Ho-young, but Joo Ho-young also couldn’t do anything to them.
“Wow! We’re in!”
Yohan, who had quickly dashed into the building, exhaled the breath he had been holding. He watched in admiration as Lee Hyun-muk’s spear technique, deflecting each arrow one by one, was almost acrobatic. Yoon Seung-ryong followed them into the building. He casually pulled out two arrows stuck in his shoulders and back, threw them aside, and looked around inside.
“Geez, what a lunatic. He must have been living like this all this time.”
Yohan, his light illuminating the interior of the building, flinched. Dozens of pairs of eerie eyes were staring at him. Startled, he stepped back, only to bump his head against a solid chest. Lee Hyun-muk gently embraced Yohan’s shoulders and chest.
“Look closely, Yohan. These are just like statues.”
“S-statues?”
At Lee Hyun-muk’s words, Yohan regained his composure and looked again. They weren’t alive. They were roughly human-shaped, but distorted and mutated by Corruption, making them look horrific. Yohan sighed in relief and frowned.
“They’re not statues, they’re… what was it called? That… they have a specific name, don’t they? Mannequins? No, that’s not it. It’s related to that… comic…”
Yoon Seung-ryong casually poked the small human-shaped figures lurking on the shelves with his fingertips.
“Figurines?”
“Ah! Right, figurines!”
“Ho-young has always been crazy about these things. He didn’t used to like perverted stuff, though. Did he develop a new taste here?”
Just then, Yohan flinched again. Strangely, the figurines’ eyes seemed to follow him. He peered closely at a nearby figurine, and his gaze met rolling eyeballs, making him jump.
“Ack! They’re actually moving!”
“Uh, yeah. There’s something inside them. They seem to have deliberately carved out just the eye parts.”
Yoon Seung-ryong picked up a figurine and broke it. A slug-like creature with particularly prominent eyes crawled out. Seeing it, Yohan felt like he was going to faint. Yohan trembled, trying to burrow into his side, so Lee Hyun-muk patted his back.
“Yohan is quite timid.”
His voice sounded strangely pleased. Yohan pondered for a moment. He didn’t want to appear cowardly to Lee Hyun-muk, but at the same time, he liked being close to him. After a brief hesitation, he decided to use the scary things as an excuse to thoroughly explore Lee Hyun-muk’s side.
In truth, he was genuinely scared. He had been feeling the sting of gazes, which he felt belonged to Joo Ho-young rather than the figurines, for a while now….
Joo Ho-young had filled the building’s interior with all sorts of figurines. In addition, there were rusty, old Game Consoles, various toys, and junk. Looking at the scene, which seemed to have gathered every toy from every building in this city, Yohan felt a sense of bitterness. It was a similar pity he felt when he saw Yoon Seung-ryong digging deep into a hole, suffering from extreme hunger, and drinking that dirty, foul-smelling swamp water.
“So, finding the base is good, but what do we do now?”
Yoon Seung-ryong said, holding up a figurine with a screaming face and examining it, when he heard a grinding sound from somewhere. No, it wasn’t his imagination; he could really hear it. Yohan hunched his shoulders and looked around.
“I think Ho-young’s Negative Reinforcement manifested as an obsession with these items.”
Lee Hyun-muk said, flicking his fingers. Sparkle!* With a loud crackle of sparks, Joo Ho-young’s terrifying and sinister collection was instantly shattered. Immediately, a chilling wail erupted. Joo Ho-young, who had been hiding, appeared.