Vigilance

I was the one who entered this bunker first, and I was the one who obediently handed over the medical supplies.

I hadn’t harmed anyone and had behaved quietly, yet the sheer unfairness of being treated like this kept circling in my head.

But even when my hands weren’t bound, I’d been the weaker party to them, and now I was in an even more powerless position.

Lashing out in anger was not a rational solution at all.

I disguised my shoulders trembling with rage as fear and asked,

“Wh-why did you tie me up?”

I already knew they were looking for ‘something’, having secretly overheard their conversation.

So was tying me up meant to force a discussion about that ‘something’?

In truth, there wasn’t even a hint of lust in their eyes.

I knew I didn’t need to worry about that kind of thing, but I still opened my mouth, trembling.

A man had bound a fragile woman like me. Given that, there was only one attitude I could take.

“I-if you’re going to do something bad to me, I-I’d rather die….”

Of course, I had no intention of dying quietly. If it came to that, I’d take at least one of their throats with me.

Unaware of my thoughts, the men reacted strongly.

“Huh? No, we’re not doing anything like that.”

“Yeah, if you say it like that, of course she’d believe it. In a situation like this.”

“Ah, f*ck. I told you we shouldn’t tie her up! What’s so dangerous about someone that small that you had to bind her?”

Jeong Iheon softened his voice first, Won-gyeong’s mockery followed, and Ju Noeul’s shout came right after.

Ju Noeul roughly raked his fingers through his pale blond hair and strode toward me.

When I flinched and curled in on myself, he bit back a curse and moved behind me instead.

“Just untie her and talk. You know resisting won’t get her anywhere.”

“Hmm, should we?”

“Don’t pretend to think it over. You really sound like a bastard.”

“Thanks for the kind words. You’re always so gentle.”

“f*ck off. You’re copying what I said last time, aren’t you? That wasn’t even directed at you, you bastard.”

Ju Noeul ground his teeth as he untied the cloth around my wrists.

I froze, holding my breath, tense at the proximity of a man’s body.

Compared to this, Hyeon Jaeyul had been far too easy to deal with.

With someone this big this close, the difference was overwhelming, and my body instinctively shrank back.

It was even worse when that person was someone who spoke in curses as easily as breathing.

Ju Noeul must have sensed it too, because he shut his mouth and focused on his hands.

As he straightened up after freeing my wrists, our eyes met briefly.

His purple eyes, unlike his rough tone, were oddly soft.

He parted his lips as our gazes met.

“Uh….”

Then he clamped his mouth shut without saying anything.

I brought my freed wrists forward.

Ju Noeul glanced at the reddened marks and let out an irritated sigh.

He flung the cloth that had bound me to the floor and returned to the others.

Jeong Iheon still wore that irritatingly playful smile, and Won-gyeong’s eyes remained flat and emotionless.

The most violent one was clearly Ju Noeul, yet strangely enough, he was the least threatening among them.

When I dipped my head slightly toward Ju Noeul in thanks, he pressed his lips together, looking like he had a lot to say.

In other words, he looked apologetic.

My wrists had been bound, but fortunately, this didn’t seem like an especially dangerous situation.

“We tied you up to make the conversation easier. It takes too long to get information through pointless back-and-forth.”

Jeong Iheon’s way of handling things seemed to rely on coercion and force.

Ju Noeul frowned repeatedly, clearly displeased with that approach.

“So, there’s something I want to ask. You’ll answer, right?”

“…Jaeyul never intended to hide anything from his companions.”

“You’ve hidden plenty.”

Jeong Iheon widened his eyes theatrically, feigning surprise.

It was a nasty way of talking. Probing people, coaxing them into revealing more than they meant to.

As he slowly approached me, he spoke leisurely.

“First of all, how long you stayed here was a lie….”

‘Yeah, I figured you’d catch that, damn it.’

I stiffened, my shoulders trembling like someone who’d been hit where it hurt.

I knew it already, but pretending not to had made me seem more harmless.

I was putting on such an obvious display of nonthreatening behavior, yet they were still wary.

That made them the strange ones.

Normally, acting like this would make people lower their guard.

And when they did, I’d use that moment to put distance between myself and danger.

That had always been my way of surviving.

“You were startled at the sight of blood, but you didn’t even blink while stitching the wound.”

Just look at my face.

Do I look like someone who’d be fine seeing blood?

I look like I couldn’t even kill an ant. What’s so strange about that?

When it came to stitching up a split head, Won-gyeong’s skill had been so uncanny I had no choice but to watch.

I’d never seen hands like that before.

“And then….”

Jeong Iheon bent his knees and lowered himself to meet my eye level.

His bright blue eyes skimmed over me lightly.

After examining me from head to toe, he smiled with his eyes folded so deeply they nearly disappeared.

“With a face like that, there’s no way you could’ve survived without a single injury. But your body doesn’t have a scratch on it.”

Still smiling, he continued,

“Your face and your body… they’re too perfect. Unnaturally so.”

Being told I was pretty was nothing new, but I hugged myself with both arms, acting frightened.

At that, Jeong Iheon’s expression suddenly turned cold.

The smile he hadn’t dropped once froze over, as if coated in ice.

Only then did I realize that his relatively slender build, constant smile, and the peculiarity of his prosthetic arm had been lowering my guard against him.

His cold fingers touched my chin.

The sensation was firm and chilly, not quite human, and my body didn’t just stiffen in pretense this time.

It truly froze.

“Doya. You’re an ability user.”

This time, it felt like I’d had a bucket of cold water dumped over my head.

…What?

Me?

What is that supposed to be? What’s an ‘ability user’?

Waiting for his next words like a death sentence, I stared at the man who was confidently saying something straight out of a fantasy novel.

An ‘ability user’.

Even in an age where monsters ran rampant, the term felt oddly foreign.

From Jeong Iheon’s tone, an ‘ability user’ sounded like someone who possessed power beyond human limits.

If such people existed, wouldn’t the monsters have been dealt with already?
Wouldn’t a new era have begun?

Facing monsters had always been the job of ordinary people.

Transcendent beings swooping in to defeat monsters in one fell swoop only existed in imagination.

If people like that really existed, why hadn’t they saved the weak until now?

I drooped my brows as I looked at Jeong Iheon, who was seriously spouting nonsense.

‘He’s probably insane. Handsome, but still pitiful.’

I turned my gaze to Won-gyeong and Ju Noeul behind him, hoping they’d correct him.

But their expressions were just as rigid as Jeong Iheon’s.

So they all thought the same thing.

They really were lunatics.

I should’ve run the moment these people stepped into the bunker.

‘I never should’ve engaged with them!’

As I screamed internally, something translucent drifted into view.

[TIP! Your relationship with the target is currently favorable. It is recommended that you maintain the current state.]

…Ah.

Could it be that?

I blinked at the suddenly appearing system.

I didn’t even process its message.

I was too busy staring in shock at the strange phenomenon floating before my eyes.

I really did have something abnormal.

Something that could justify calling me an ‘ability user’.

[Scenario ‘2. Vigilance’]

[Game progress has been updated!]

I looked at Jeong Iheon with eyes full of distrust and wariness.

The system window announcing the new chapter opened, but as usual, I ignored it.

There was no way they could know I was interacting with something as unreal as a system.

At most, they’d notice me staring into empty space now and then.

That alone couldn’t tell them anything.

So first things first, I had to hide the fact that I could see the system.

When I said nothing and just stared at them like they were insane, Won-gyeong, who’d been standing quietly in the back, spoke up.

“She really looks like she doesn’t know anything.”

Jeong Iheon stared at me intently and said,

“You know your expression’s so obvious it actually makes you suspicious?”

He moved his stiff prosthetic hand and poked my cheek lightly as he continued,

“Well… you really don’t seem to know.”

After looking around at them and sensing no immediate intent to harm, I calmly asked,

“What did you mean just now?”

“Do you know there’s an organization made up of ability users?”

What even is that?

[You have acquired information related to ‘Companions’!]

Ah, right.

When the system was about to let me leave, it did mention gathering companions.

With the system’s information and Jeong Iheon’s words combined, what they were saying started to make a little sense.

When I shook my head, Jeong Iheon straightened up and held out his hand to me.

I stared at his prosthetic arm for a moment before taking it and standing up.

He brushed at my collar theatrically and explained in a friendly tone,

“It’s not that strange not to know about ability users. They’re very closed off, and some people, like you, don’t even realize they have abilities.”

“…I’m normal.”

“Doubt it.”

Jeong Iheon denied it with a faint smile.