The System’s Favor

The man seemed to be checking whether the sound had reached only my ears, grinning as he tapped the needle with his finger two more times, as if telling me to listen closely.

Tap, tap.

His eyes sparkled with curiosity as he looked down at me, like he was asking whether I found it fascinating.

“At first, I didn’t care much about appearances, but people kept thinking my prosthetic arms were a weakness.
So I switched the material to make them look like real skin.”

What was he even talking about all of a sudden?

I tilted my head, unsure what kind of reaction he was expecting, and he flicked one eyebrow upward, as if mildly puzzled.

After holding my gaze for a moment, the man relaxed his expression and let out a low chuckle.

“That’s enough. Go treat Hyeon Jaeyul already.

If you leave him like that much longer, his head’s going to split open like a watermelon—crack—right down the middle.

Heads aren’t something you can swap out like this, so you’d better stitch him up before it completely splits.”

He deliberately swung his arm around with a vicious gesture, speaking in an exaggeratedly threatening way, then turned away as if he’d lost interest in me.

Turning his body, he raised his voice toward the man who was searching through the bunker with him.

“Anything useful over there?”

“Clothes and food… well, enough to get by.”

Listening to their casual exchange, I stepped toward the collapsed Hyeon Jaeyul.

‘Right. Before (my friend as of today) Hyeon Jaeyul’s head splits open, I should hurry up and stitch him.’

Maybe because of the man who joked so lightly about his prosthetic arms, the sharp tension I’d been holding toward them eased a little.

For some reason, I felt certain that these people wouldn’t harm me.

***

I’m fairly good with my hands.

…Not compared to this man, though.

“Thanks for bringing it. I’ll do the stitching.”

The blond man who took the needle after saying that moved in a way that was anything but ordinary.

The same man who had found the bunker entrance and undone the lock in an instant.

His hands, stitching torn skin without hesitation, were on par with a seasoned doctor.

I’d never actually watched a doctor perform surgery, but I was sure I could never keep up with this man’s speed.

And the stitches themselves surely wouldn’t be this neat.

While the other men wandered around the bunker to scout it out, this man alone stayed by the patient’s side, disinfecting efficiently and completing the stitches without a single tremor in just a few minutes.

Without realizing it, his practiced manner made me speak to him with unintentional politeness.

It felt like I had to be respectful when asking.

“Have you stitched people up a lot? You’re really skilled….”

“First time with a human head, but… similar things, pretty often….”

Similar things?

The man smiled and let his words trail off, clearly signaling he wouldn’t elaborate.

With blood dried on his hands, he laughed softly.

I followed with an awkward smile of my own.

‘He looks incredibly kind, but he’s the scariest one here.’

From the moment they arrived until now, he was the only one who hadn’t raised his voice even once.

“Watch over Jaeyul for a bit. I’ll go talk to the others.”

He said it in an even, unremarkable tone.

The others had at least shouted at the injured man to wake up, raising their voices in concern.

This man, despite his gentle expression, didn’t seem worried about Hyeon Jaeyul at all.

If anything, his attitude was consistently cold.

His gaze lingered on me and Jaeyul, as if simply observing.

‘Is he still on guard because he hasn’t been with us long?’

While tidying up the cloth I’d used to wipe away blood, I focused my hearing on the men’s voices.

There was a way to gather more information without looking than by looking.

For me, that was sound.

Able to hear even the rhythm of others’ breathing and the beating of their hearts, I could predict their movements more accurately through my ears than my eyes.

All while pretending not to look, not to be wary, not to pay them any attention.

They judged that I seemed interested only in treating Hyeon Jaeyul.

The three men gathered together in a corner of the bunker, far from the patient, and began whispering in serious tones.

–So what do we do now?

–What else? We stay together.

–No, I mean, that bastard Hyeon Jaeyul doesn’t remember anything.

He probably doesn’t even remember what kind of relationship he had with that woman who says she knows him. Is it really okay to leave things like this?

Oh?

They were talking about Hyeon Jaeyul.

‘Does that mean he didn’t have his memories even before the head injury?’

That works out nicely.

Now that someone else knew the bunker’s location, I had no intention of staying here long.

I planned to live with them for a while, then leave for somewhere else when I found an opening.

No matter how harmless they seemed, I didn’t want to stay cooped up in a closed bunker with unfamiliar men for too long.

Checking the slow, steady breathing of the deeply unconscious Hyeon Jaeyul, I listened in again.

–We need to keep her close for now.
We still have to question how she found the bunker and how she knew how to open the door.

–…That’s true. This isn’t an easy place to get into.

–She doesn’t seem like a bad person. Let’s not threaten her too much. I want to get along with her.

Behind the sharp voices, a smooth, easygoing tone followed.

It was the man with the prosthetic arms who’d helped me get the needle earlier.

As he spoke in a playful voice, the other two snorted and criticized him.

–You say every woman is nice. You’re obsessed with women.

–No, she really is nice. And I’m not obsessed with women. I just show courtesy to the weak.

–Then let’s hear it. What exactly makes her so nice?

They exchanged soft laughs as they talked.

As the atmosphere eased, I relaxed a little and carefully wiped the dried blood from Hyeon Jaeyul’s hair.

–When I lifted her earlier, I saw a bit under her clothes.

Her skin’s clean, and she smells nice. She’s not that skinny either, and her muscles are pretty well-defined.

Totally my type. Looks like she’s been working out hard even in a place like this. Isn’t that admirable?

The moment those words reached me, my body stiffened.

Damn it.

So lifting me earlier hadn’t been just because he had trouble handling the needle.

Smelling nice meant I had the luxury to wash.

Of course, they wouldn’t know I had a reason I could stay clean without bathing.

Not skinny meant I’d been eating well.

Well-defined muscles meant I’d been training consistently.

‘Damn it, damn it. I struggled so much to build these muscles, and this is how they trip me up?’

Just from having my waist held once, the overall state of my life had been exposed to that man.

The others must have grasped the implication of his words immediately, because they stopped joking and laughing.

A woman surviving that comfortably on her own was something to be wary of.

Their breathing changed.

From relaxed and steady, to slow and heavy with caution.

Confirming their wariness, I relaxed my shoulders.

I know nothing.

I’m just Hyeon Jaeyul’s kind acquaintance.

I repeated it to myself.

In situations like this, I was blessed with an appearance that made it seem like I’d burst into tears if touched.

All it took was biting my lips and blinking my watery eyes a few times, and people would assume I was too soft to even kill an ant.

Long, pale, wavy hair that looked almost white softened my overall impression, and my perpetually moist golden eyes made people think I was a naïve dreamer who saw the world through clean lenses.

Even I could confidently say I looked utterly vacant.

That impression had probably played a part in why he’d helped fetch the medical needle earlier.

He likely thought it’d be lucky if I didn’t burst into tears, let alone stitch someone up.

–…Let’s observe her for now, at least until Jaeyul wakes up.

The fact that she knew his name is certain.

–That’s true. We never called his name after entering the bunker, but she knew it.

She asked right away if it was Hyeon Jaeyul the moment she saw him, didn’t she?

–Yeah.

The men decided to keep me under observation for the time being.

–So what’s the plan until Jaeyul wakes up?

–We wait. Without Jaeyul, we can’t find ‘that’.

…Find ‘that’?

Listening in, I became sure.

They’d come here looking for something.

And the key to finding ‘that’ was this unconscious Hyeon Jaeyul, which was why they couldn’t act rashly.

I see.

After gathering enough information, I needed to think harder than ever.

The reason I trained my body was easy to explain.

Anyone surviving alone in a world like this would do the same.

But what bothered me was the prosthetic-armed man’s comment about my ‘clean skin and scent’.

Skin without a single scratch.

I’d deliberately wrapped myself up tightly in clothes, yet he’d still noticed.

And one more thing.

‘That soft, sweet scent that lingers even under dirty clothes.’

It wasn’t a scent maintained by simple bathing.

It was closer to a pheromone that drew others in.

The source of this cursed scent dated back to the very beginning of this disaster era.

I stayed clean and fresh no matter what.

Even if I got dirty for a moment, I’d return to a pristine state soon after.

How was that possible?

It was all thanks to that damn [System].

***

When bizarre cracks appeared all over the world and monsters poured out from them, sending the world spiraling toward sudden ruin, something alien had appeared before my eyes.

[[TIP. The player’s body is always maintained in the most optimal condition to assist gameplay.]]

A guide window straight out of a game.

That was the message the system window had displayed the very first time it appeared before me.