Four Seconds to Live

“You probably don’t want this either, but I don’t have a choice.”

He trapped Doya’s slender body beneath his own, bracing one knee and leaning over her.

Careful not to let his weight touch her injured areas, Won-gyeong bent down, looked at the blood coating his hands, and rolled up the sleeve of his left arm.

He pulled the short knife he always carried from his chest and, without hesitation, sliced a long cut into his left arm.

There was already so much of Doya’s blood that his own wound didn’t need to be large.

But if that were the case, the initiative of the spell would rest entirely with him.

The amount of blood used in the ritual determined the weight of emotion.

Unlike the curse they had just suffered, this spell was not a short-term, crude one.

Repeating that fact to himself, Won-gyeong lifted Doya’s unmoving top and began drawing a complex formation over her exposed skin.

He carefully moved his fingers across her narrow abdomen.

It was a relief that Doya’s body was in a state where it felt nothing.

The formation being drawn on pale skin was the kind that caused pain to anyone without immunity to spells.

The larger the area, the less pain it caused, but given Doya’s condition, this was the largest size he could draw quickly.

After confirming that the formation on Doya was complete, Won-gyeong drew the same pattern on his own left palm.

Then he murmured short words under his breath.

The blood-drawn formations began to glow and burn into the skin.

They were fusing completely with the body.

The red glow slowly faded.

On Doya’s stomach, only a faint mark remained.

A mark that would fade even further with time.

The formation on Won-gyeong’s palm, drawn on a smaller area, left a darker trace than hers.

Now only the final step remained.

Once that was done, their souls would be tightly bound.

There was no time to hesitate.

Won-gyeong bit his own tongue first, drawing blood, then grabbed Doya’s chin.

As her jaw parted naturally under his thumb, he lowered his head and pushed between her lips.

He entwined his tongue with her unmoving one, biting inside her mouth to draw blood and complete the spell—

When the door burst open with a loud sound, followed by something heavy hitting the floor.

If a monster had entered, there was no time to delay.

Just as Won-gyeong steeled himself to take responsibility for everything—

“…Ugh.”

A pained moan slipped from between Doya’s lips.

Her ability had stopped working.

At the sound of her voice, Won-gyeong hurriedly pulled his body back.

Doya opened her eyes as she groaned in pain.

They were eyes soaked with agony, golden irises trembling with it.

Seeing that she was conscious, Won-gyeong spoke quickly to keep her awake.

“Doya, keep your eyes open. Don’t close them.”

“Ah… it hu—.”

She let out a small, pitiful groan.

As if she didn’t know how to cry out loudly, she bit her lip hard and endured the pain.

Won-gyeong slipped his fingers between her lips to stop her from injuring them further, then checked whether any new wounds had appeared.

Her arm was broken.

Her leg was nearly severed.

They were injuries so severe that full recovery would be impossible without an ability user’s healing.

“I’ve finished emergency treatment. We’re leaving right away, so just a little longer….

Don’t lose consciousness. Keep your eyes open, okay?”

“Not me… the door… front….”

Won-gyeong spoke as he lifted Doya into his arms.

Hearing the urgency in his voice, Doya furrowed her brow, eyes slick with cold sweat, and murmured weakly.

‘The door?’

He had heard a noise earlier but hadn’t thought it was a monster.

Carrying Doya, Won-gyeong stepped outside.

Each movement made her groan in his arms.

Apologizing over and over, even though he’d done nothing wrong, he hurried to the door she’d mentioned.

“…A child?”

“Save… them… please….”

Won-gyeong found a child collapsed by the door, dressed in rags.

After finishing her plea to save the child, Doya finally lost consciousness.

There was no time to question what had happened or where the child had come from.

Holding Doya in one arm, Won-gyeong hoisted the child up under his other arm.

In truth, he already knew the identity of the ‘queen bee’ here.

He had known from the moment they entered.

The pale-faced man who had guided them.

The administrator.

Kill him.

That would be enough.

***

‘It hurts….’

That was the only thought that surfaced.

Escaping with the child hadn’t gone smoothly.

A monster had bitten my leg in the end, but there was no wound, so I couldn’t tell how bad it was.

At one point, while pulling out the dagger, the monster shook my leg so hard that the dagger fell onto my shoulder.

I felt no pain at all.

After stabbing the monster in the eye and barely escaping, I climbed the floors, marveling at my completely uninjured leg.

I managed to get past the staff, but the administrator I encountered afterward was the real problem.

As I tried to avoid him, I stopped short when a message appeared on the situation terminal.

[Administrator – Upper-Grade Entity]

[Upper-grade entities possess special abilities.

The ‘Administrator’’s special ability is ‘Consciousness Transfer’.]

‘So the administrator really was the queen bee.’

Stopping even briefly had been a mistake.

The child let out a faint groan, and the administrator’s head snapped toward me.

[TIP! Danger!

You must deal with the administrator before they summon other entities.

If the administrator summons normal entities, survival probability drops below 3%.]

[Time until normal entity summon: 180 seconds]

What was I supposed to do with no weapon?

The dagger I’d received as a reward had already been used and disappeared.

I had no choice but to fight barehanded.

I quickly untied the clothing binding the child to me, sat them against the wall, and ran at the administrator.

As soon as I charged, he transformed into the four-footed monster I’d heard earlier.

It still retained traces of a human upper body, making it grotesque.

[Time until normal entity summon: 124 seconds]

Watching the time tick down, I moved.

Killing it with punches was impossible.

No matter how enhanced my strength was, I couldn’t deliver a lethal blow that way.

As I ran, I kept thinking.

Just like Won-gyeong had said, the entity didn’t seem to have much combat ability.

Even as I charged, it only twisted its body sluggishly.

‘It has a neck….’

The four-legged monster looked like a centaur from myth.

A monstrous lower body with an upper body still imitating a human shape.

I could probably climb onto its back and choke it.

Probably—or not.

Either way, I had to try.

Circling behind it, I jumped up, straddled its back, and hooked my left arm around its neck.

With my right hand, I yanked down hard on my left arm, tightening the choke.

Judging by the way it thrashed and struggled, the force was working.

[Time until normal entity summon: 21 seconds]

‘Please, hurry up and die or pass out already!’

I clung to its back, choking it with everything I had, watching the numbers drop.

[Time until normal entity summon: 4 seconds]

[First Rift Monster Defeated!]

[Reward: 1 ‘Universal Healing Potion’ has been granted.]

[Upper-grade entity defeated. Normal entity summon has been nullified.]

I defeated the administrator with just four seconds left.

The system flooded my vision with celebratory messages and rewards, but I was utterly exhausted.

‘No injuries, but I’m exhausted. So exhausted.’

I picked the child up again and trudged forward.

There was no need to avoid the remaining normal entities anymore.

With the administrator—their brain—gone, the monsters had stopped functioning like machines with their power cut.

When I got back to the room and met Won-gyeong, I’d tell him I’d dealt with the administrator.

It might also be a good idea to talk through exactly what my ability was.

If I didn’t understand it properly, I could keep getting dragged into other people’s dreams like this.

That part I could tolerate.

What bothered me was how the system kept setting objectives afterward.

It prodded at guilt, forcing me into action whether I wanted to or not.

I kept adjusting the child slipping down my back as I walked.

The child groaned occasionally, but aside from being weak, they didn’t seem injured.

‘It’s hard to tell their age since they’re so thin, but at this height… maybe around twelve?’

Thinking that, I used the card I’d taken from the administrator’s clothes in the elevator.

If I hadn’t dealt with him, I would’ve had to climb all the way to the top floor on foot.

I wasn’t sure whether that was fortunate or not.

I won, so was it a good thing?

Tilting my head once, I stared blankly at the numbers climbing rapidly.

“Save… me….”

“Yeah. You’re alive.”

The child muttered again.

I bounced them gently like soothing a small kid.

“Alive….”

“Yeah. You’re alive.”

“You saved… me….”

“That’s right. It’s all okay now.”

The child still didn’t seem to fully understand what they were saying.

‘They probably won’t even remember that I saved them.’

Given their state, probably not.

But whether they remembered or not didn’t really matter.

Honestly, it was easier for me if they didn’t.