What should I do now?

I felt a little lost as I read through the scenario window, while glancing at Jung Youngho and the boy touring the streets with little care in the world.

[Main Scenario: Find the Disaster]

Difficulty: A

Description: The final disaster, 'Boy summoned to Another world' has awakened from their slumber in a weakened state in the Washington DC dome. If you don't find them in the next 48 hours, they will regain their full strength.

Time limit: 48 hours

Rewards: 40 000 coins

Failure: ---

+

[Time left: 45 hours]

Earlier, Jung Youngho had entered a store and picked out some fresh clothes for the little boy to wear, casting aside the old, tattered ones, as well as grabbed a first-aid kit to treat his wounds.

I also had picked some new clothes to wear after all the stunts that my past clothes had to go through, but that wasn't the point.

The main point was, the boy was suspicious, just like Selena had said.

Apparently, the boy had amnesia, no longer holding any memory of what he had been doing before he woke up in that alley, covered in wounds until Jung Youngho found him. He didn't know anything. Not his name, age, where he came from, the dokkaebi, or the scenarios.

As a result, Jung Youngho gained some renewed hope.

Looking away from Jung Youngho and the boy, I sighed and looked skyward, feeling tired about the whole affair.

After the whole interaction with Selena, all the adrenaline faded away, leaving me with a dark pit at the bottom of my stomach, and feeling drained. I was sure I still handled the situation badly, and was not looking forward to any further interaction.

I just want to read my favourite novels and ignore everything.

But the pressing crisis would not leave me alone.

It was at that moment that I heard someone's stomach growl.

"Ahjussi, I'm hungry," The boy, who Jung Youngho named Eun HaNa, whined.

"Okay then, let's go eat! And then ahjussi will show you a very interesting magic trick, yeah?" Jung Youngho grinned.

His treatment of the boy and his treatment of me was heaven and earth. Sometimes, I found myself thinking that Jung Youngho must be possessed by something to become this different.

He wasn't like this even when I saw his trauma in the [Phantom Prison].

Did he get hit really hard in the head when I didn't notice? I considered this seriously for a moment.

"Hey, what are you doing just standing there?" Jung Youngho turned around and found me absentmindedly standing in place, lost in thought.

"Oh. I'm coming." Reflexively answering, I shuffled my feet and followed them into a convenience store.

The interior was dark due to the power going out, but at least the natural light was sufficient enough for us to see in the dim setting. Again, the situation felt surreal to me.

To think we would be in a store like this at the end of the world, when the lights used to be on, when customers would occasionally enter and buy things, where the cashier would stand and scan items, and when the radio would blast some songs.

"Good thing not all the snacks were taken! It's strange to see them written in English, though." Jung Youngho grabbed a few bags of chips, juice, and candy bars and led the boy back outside.

I followed them outside, not having enough appetite to eat anything.

"Want a bar?" Jung Youngho extended his hand, shaking a granola bar in-front of me with his other arm full of confiscated snacks from the convenience store.

"No, I'm good-" I waved my hand, attempting to refuse, but Jung Youngho merely cocked a brow at my actions.

If I refuse to take it, would that be rude of me? Should I eat it so he doesn't worry about it?

"Take it."

"...Okay." With Jung Youngho's insistence, I accepted the granola bar he passed to me. On autopilot, I peeled open the granola bar and bit into it.

Snacking on the bar, the three of us made our way to a bench on a park somewhere and started to eat.

It was there that I watched Jung Youngho perform a very familiar magic trick.

"You see this coin?" Taking a coin from his pocket that he got when I hadn't been paying attention, he placed it on his palm and showed it to the boy.

The boy nodded their head, eyes still glued to the coin.

"Now, I'm going to make it disappear. Watch." Closing his palm, Jung Youngho shook his head, and when he reopened it, lo and behold, the coin was gone.

Eun HaNa looked from the palm up to Jung Youngho with his mouth open, as if that would remanifest the coin.

"Where did you hide it, ahjussi?"

"What do you mean 'hide it' little guy? It disappeared."

Eun HaNa frowned, grabbing Jung Youngho's larger hand and flipping it, but could not find where the coin ended up, no matter what.

"Wow. So then it really disappeared."

Jung Youngho's eyes twinkled at the boy's familiar reaction. However, his performance wasn't done.

"And now, I'm going to make it reappear." Giving Eun HaNa a wink, Jung Youngho reached behind the boy's ear.

From there, he pulled out the lost coin and showed it right in-front of the boy's face. With a pair of awed eyes, the boy touched the coin with his hands and took it from Jung Youngho.

Sparkles lit up in Eun HaNa's eyes as he exclaimed, "That's awesome! It's real magic, ahjussi!"

"That's right, kiddo. That's why they call me the Legendary Magic King." Jung Youngho said this in the most boisterous voice, but his eyes were soft and gentle toward Eun HaNa.

"So you're famous?"

"Of course I am! Now, drink your juice and eat your food." Jung Youngho chuckled, patting the boy's back as he placed a juice box into the boy's hand.

"Wait, one last question!" Eun HaNa protested.

"Yeah?"

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

Jung Youngho shook his head, lazily closing his eyes, "If I teach you, it'll lose the magic."

"But why? Why would it lose its magic?" Eun HaNa pursued, his innocent eyes filled with questioning.

"Alright, that's it. Zpp. Maybe after you finish eating I will give you a hint?" Jung Youngho mimed with his hand, zipping his mouth shut.

Therefore, with renewed gusto, the boy began to sip his juice aggressively and guzzle down the granola bar Jung Youngho had opened for him.

"Slow now buddy, you'll choke."

Jung Youngho was actually quite good with kids. I watched the relaxing scene with a smile, glad to take my mind off from things.

Unfortunately for Eun HaNa, he never managed to ask that question of Jung Youngho, having succumbed to his sleepiness after eating.

Currently, his head was on Jung Youngho's thigh as Jung Youngho soothingly stroked his head.

With a solemn expression on his face, Jung Youngho whispered a promise to himself.

"I won't let you die this time. Never."

I glanced at the timer of the scenario.

[Time left: 40 hours.]

"Jung Youngho, are you thinking that it is him?" I was referring to the boy who had been in Jung Youngho's trauma.

"I can't be mistaken."

Toward his words, I couldn't find anything else to say. "...Oh, I see."

"How about you sleep too? I'll stand guard."

I stared at Jung Youngho, but it didn't appear to unnerve him.

"It's late." That's all he said, looking out at the dark sky.

To be honest, I was feeling mentally exhausted, the current events flying around me in a blur, so after another moment of thought, I decided to take him up on his offer.

"Make sure to wake me up later..." Yawning, I closed my tired eyes and was swiftly dragged into the realm of sleep.

In my muddled consciousness, I felt a warm blanket being draped over me, and then silence.

When I awoke again, it was to the strong exposure to the rays of light. Half-asleep, I rotated my head slowly around to find the scene of the man sitting down with the boy's head on his lap no longer.

"Jung Youngho?" I croaked through my parched lips. However, there was no reply.

Somehow, I accepted the situation.

They're gone.

['Sorrowful Heart of Silver' is glad to see that you are awake.]

[The constellation, 'Secretive Plotter', wonders about your competence.]

I softly inhaled and exhaled, rubbing my eyes and blinking them open and closed as I adjusted to the new day. As I stood up, the blanket over me slipped down, and I folded it neatly before leaving it on the bench.

Even after sleeping for a while, my mind still felt muddled.

[Time left: 31 hours left.]

Wow. I slept for a total of nine hours. How tired was I?

Well, that wasn't the most important part.

I lost them.

It looked like I couldn't keep the promise to Selena if I didn't find them.

Stretching my stiff limbs and sore neck from sleeping in an upright position for the whole night, I quickly ascended a building by leaping onto the window sills, trying to look for any people in the periphery.

In the back of my mind, I hoped that it was just a misunderstanding of mine, and Jung Youngho and Eun HaNa were still close by, planning to wake me up at some point.

[You have activated the skill, 'Dynamic Vision lv. 5']

However, no matter how carefully I scoured the streets with my improved eyesight from investing into my [physique] stat and skills, I could not find the familiar figures of the two.

Therefore, I decided to approach it from a different angle.

[Jung Youngho, are you there?] I sent out a message through my privilege as a station owner, despite not knowing why it still worked.

However, even after I waited for a few moments, there was no reply from the other end.

Let's just give up.

Sighing, I rubbed my tired and crusty eyes from having just woken up, until I heard a volley of shrieks coming from over the distance.

What's going on?

I hesitated. There was still a small smidgeon of hope in my heart that Jung Youngho and Eun HaNa would return if I waited, and I also wasn't sure if I should get myself involved with what was happening away from me.

However, after taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I solidified a decision in my heart.

Opening my eyes, I finally left the area of the park behind, rushing towards the screams I was hearing in the distance, nary a hint of hesitation left in my heart.

"Hold on for a little more, guys!" A familiar voice entered my ears.

Just as I was trying to figure out why I found the voice familiar, the face of the man popped up in my vision.

It was Thomas, who had learned a skill to commune with spirits from Ruler Nania.

But what were the purpose of the shrieks and sounds of clashing that rang into my ears? Quickly, I looked around, leaping into a building from a broken corner, attempting to hide myself as I looked out from the windows of what I found to be a hotel lobby.

My breath hitched in my throat as I caught sight of Thomas's and his team's adversaries.

The plume of violet and dark energy emanating from their skin confirmed their identities. Facing Thomas and his team was a group of undead. Worse yet, each of the undead was at least 7th grade, with quite a few in the 6th grade.

However, that could not be possible.

Unless, they had completed their incubation.

In all angles, that couldn't be a good sign.

"D*mn it, he found out...!" The cryptic words of Thomas snapped me out of my reeling mind as he summoned earth pikes from the ground and cutting slashes of winds.

No, it should belong to the spirits that Thomas was communing with, the ones that I couldn't see with my naked eye.

Quickly, I retrieved my dagger that I had obtained from the five-person dungeon, 'Dongui Bogam' in the Seoul National Museum from my bag. The dagger gleamed a beautiful dark blue.

I sucked in a breath and tensed my muscles, dagger at the ready.

Then, I burst out of the unbroken window, the glass shards bursting out in all directions and pelting the undead.

"Who are-!" Cries of alarm rose up at my sudden entrance, but I didn't pay attention to them.

[Skill, 'Dispel Evil lv. 2' is activated.]

-Ding!-

[Skill, 'Dispel Evil lv. 2' has leveled up to 'Dispel Evil lv. 3'!]

[Skill, 'Enhanced Reflexes lv. 4' has been activated.]

In a haphazard manner, I cut down the 7th grade undead, who had been unable to react to my agility.

At this point, the grade 6 undead had noticed me.

There are four grade 6 undead? I mused to myself.

Within my dynamic vision, I was able to see the fallen members of Thomas's team, who remained a measly number of four, blood and corpses strewn across the ground. More people I hadn't known had died in a corner of this world.

If I had appeared a little sooner, or immediately took action, perhaps more would have survived.

But I don't have the right to think this way.

[Skill, 'Avatar lv. MAX' has been activated.]

[Warning, the scenario is questioning the fairness of your skill.]

[You have summoned 3 avatars.]

3 should be enough, I hope.

-Clang!- The hardened nails of the grade 6 undead I focused on emitted an ear-piercing screech against the dagger as they managed to block my blows.

My strength was not enough to get through their guard. As I read the intention of the undead to slash out at me, I ducked low and swerved around their body.

Unable to keep up with the changes, the undead growled and swung around, but their reaction was already delayed.

My wrist rotated dexterously as I switched my grip with the dagger, and I rapidly pierced forward, stabbing straight through their head with urgency.

C'mon! I have to be faster! Anxiety coated my strike.

They stopped mid-swing, the claw clipping a few strands of my hand, and the sharp intent of their nails dangerously sliced a cut on my neck, before they slumped to the ground and dispersed into clumps of mist.

The equipment made a large difference, but my heart continued to beat loudly as I covered my bleeding neck.

"Watch out!" The shout of Thomas screamed out.

[Skill, 'Enhanced Reflexes lv. 4' is strongly activated!]

-WHOOSH!-

Slamming out against the ground with my toes, I narrowly avoided the swing of another grade 6 undead, the wind generated from their strike buffeting my clothes.

My avatar quickly leapt onto the grade 6, attempting to lock it in place.

With a roar, the grade 6 attempted to shake them off, but I did not miss this chance.

With [Dispel evil] coating the blade, I gritted my teeth and lopped off the head of the grade 6 undead. Before hitting ground, the body of the grade 6 undead faded as mist.

Nodding toward my avatar, we rejoined with the other avatars I made, and eventually were able to dispose of the last two grade 6 undead.

I'm tired. Panting, my adrenaline faded from my body as the danger passed.

My right arm and leg throbbed with pain, new wound additions.

Turning around at the equally ruffled and tired figures of Thomas and his other three surviving team members who were weeping over the figures of the dead, I wanted to speak up, but remained silent.

In the end, Thomas's unseen spirit tossed a fireball that consumed the figures of the dead, and the flames slowly licked across the skin of the corpses, until they became a charred figure not resembling that of the original form.

A single poke would leave them flaking, until they would disperse across the wind.

It was done this way so that no new undead would be spawned.

Leaving the mourning to them, I suppressed the feelings in my heart and made my voice known.

"Hey."

Their gazes shifted from the burnt corpses to me.

"Wh-"

[Someone has discovered the 'Final Disaster' and cleared the scenario!]

[Due to your little contributions, you have obtained 5 000 coins out of 40 000 coins.]

[Ding! The main scenario has been updated.]

[Main Scenario #5: Subjugate the Final Disaster.]

Category: Main

Difficulty: A~S

Description: The final disaster, 'Boy summoned to another world', has been discovered in the Washington DC dome before the time limit had run out. Therefore, the final disaster is in a weakened state. Kill the final disaster before the time limit runs out and they regain their full strength, and clear the 5th main scenario!

Time limit: --

Reward: 100 000 coins, ???

Failure: Death to all in the Washington DC dome.

*note: The final disaster will grow in strength when night falls. It is advised to kill them before then.

+

[Time before the final disaster regains their full strength: 30 hours.]

I watched in horror as window after window popped up in-front of me. The questions I had wanted to ask Thomas died in my mouth.

"What?"

"Who found them?"

"What's going on?"

Speculation rumbled across the small group behind me, at the moment, their shock overcoming their fear and grief.

Just as they asked these questions, a wave of deathly energy passed through the area. Our eyes all gathered toward the source over the distance, our limbs feeling like they had fallen into the arctic sea.

Goosebumps rose from my skin from the energy that I was feeling, and my stomach flickered with fear and dread. A terrible thought was forming in my mind, and I hoped it was not the case

A/N: Time to speed up the plot!