Chapter 73 - Always will be!
A raid was all well and good, but what the group needed most at that moment was rest.
After a series of relentless battles, their exhaustion had reached its peak.
They looked like soccer players collapsing in place at the final whistle after an intense 90-minute match.
Ideally, they would've just let go, abandoned all thoughts, and fallen into a deep sleep.
But there was too much to do.
Wounds needed tending, stomachs had to be filled, and the situation had to be assessed.
And so, Maximo rummaged through his bag.
Ointments, pills, injectables—one after another, he pulled out whatever he had and handed them out to everyone.
"This isn't free. I'm charging you all later."
With each item he passed out, he added that line, his tone making it impossible to tell if he was joking or serious.
Jin thought to himself:
A stingy Doraemon… with a bowl haircut.
With the treatment done, the group began to eat.
Energy bars, jerky, nuts—
They shoved high-calorie food into their mouths, but their movements and expressions were mechanical.
It was obvious they were forcing themselves to eat.
It couldn't be helped.
Exhaustion naturally killed one's appetite.
Not just the appetite—stress ruined digestion, too.
Eating just made them feel bloated and sluggish.
But what choice did they have?
If they wanted to fight, they had to eat.
Of course, there were always exceptions.
Unlike the others, who were forcing food down, Jin's appetite was still going strong despite his fatigue.
Even after finishing his portion, he wasn't satisfied.
He racked up quite a tab with Maximo, stocking up on more rations.
"Koreans run on rice."
Muttering to himself, he opened a can.
But in reality, that saying was only half true.
Yes, Koreans were a people so devoted to rice that greetings often involved meals—"Have you eaten?" or "Let's have a meal together next time."
But even they weren't the type to keep eating while burning up with a fever.
That kind of insanity was unique to Jin.
"Hoo…"
After demolishing seven packs of rations, Jin leaned against the wall, patting his stomach.
An old man stared at him intently.
"Got something to say?"
Jin turned his head to ask.
The stare was too blatant to ignore.
The reply that came back—
"It infuriates me that I have to ally myself with a thief like you."
What the hell?
Picking a fight out of nowhere?
Jin frowned and let out a snort.
"You're in no position to talk. Didn't you commit crimes and hide out here? Maybe you should've lived an honest life."
The old man's eyebrow twitched.
His right eye was completely blind, and his left was half gone, yet it still managed to hold a blurry rage.
"This is my kingdom."
"More like illegally occupied land."
"Insolent wretch…!"
The old man's hands came together as if about to clap.
The group, remembering the explosive power that sound could bring, flinched and tensed for battle.
But Jin, looking weary, spoke first.
"Let's not waste energy. We need each other right now."
"······"
The old man's face twisted.
But in the end, he let his arms fall.
Then, rising to his feet, he turned away.
"I'll return later."
With that, he strode out of the cave.
As the old man moved away, the floating light in the air flickered out, swallowed by darkness.
Maximo clicked on a portable light and adjusted the brightness.
Then, he let out a long-held breath.
"…Thought we were gonna fight again."
Muttering to himself, he turned to Jin.
"Hey. What if he snaps one day?"
"He won't. Like Jin said, he still needs us."
At some point, Natasha had rejoined them and chimed in.
"Thirty years buried in a hole… who knows how much his sense of reality has crumbled?"
As she trailed off, a mercenary, who had been watching in silence, hesitantly spoke.
"Do… do you think there are more survivors?"
"No idea. But I hope they aren't like you, idiot."
"······"
Watching the mercenary clam up, Maximo snickered.
"Anyway, let's get some rest. No telling when that crazy old man will be back, but until then, we should recover.
First, let's decide the watch shifts."
And so, the group settled their turns with rock-paper-scissors.
Jin was third.
Cold sweat trickled down.
A foul sensation stirred inside his body.
Blood, singing of endless thirst and eternal night, surged through 6,000 kilometers of veins.
Millions of red blood cells drifted in the crimson current—
Concave discs, indented at the center.
Then, suddenly, the indentations split open.
They twisted into grins.
From within, razor-sharp fangs emerged, and hundreds of thousands of crimson faces cried out at once.
[Accept it!]
"Ugh!"
Jin's eyes shot open.
Someone was shaking his shoulder.
Was it already his turn?
His mind, sluggish as if drunk, struggled to function as he forced himself upright, leaning against the wall.
"…Good work. Get some sleep now."
Licking his parched lips, Jin spoke, but the other person simply stared at him in silence.
Did his hoarse voice give him away?
Jin, who had been trying his best not to show any signs of weakness, cleared his throat and spoke again.
"Jaeraedo."
At that, the silhouette sitting across from him subtly moved closer to the light.
The shadows gradually lifted.
Jin's brow furrowed.
"You…"
"Hyung, are you feeling okay?"
That familiar face.
The one who kept insisting that Project Neo was so much fun.
The one who pestered him endlessly to try it just once.
Jin had called him a lunatic far more often than his actual name.
A junior from university.
An acquaintance.
And now—
"Project Neo is fun, right?"
He asked with a bright smile, the same shameless grin as always.
"I told you, didn't I? It's complicated at first, but once you get used to it, there's no better game. So, how's the Vagabond build? Pretty awesome, right? Even people with trash-tier skills can make it to mid-game without much trouble."
"Bullshit…"
Jin let out a dry chuckle.
His head throbbed.
The headache was getting worse, so much so that the ringing in his ears was seeping into his thoughts.
"You should've told me to start with a noble house or a corporation. And picked a different trait, too. Unrivaled Talent? Now that I think about it, that one seemed really good. What was it called again? Innate Genius…?"
"Come on, let's not dwell on the past."
His junior laughed.
Jin chuckled too.
And with that, the torn-mouthed blood cells cackled in unison.
"Focus on the present. If you keep looking back, all you'll find is regret."
"Try living like me and see if you don't have regrets."
"Tsk."
His junior scratched the back of his head as if troubled.
That was the same expression he'd made when Jin once said, You wouldn't understand, you never served in the military.
And later, when Jin congratulated him on finishing his service, what had he said?
It was nothing special.
Jin's eyes blinked wistfully as he recalled the past.
Then, with a familiar, easygoing smile, his junior spoke again.
"Well, then, this is a great opportunity. Why not just be reborn entirely?"
"What?"
"Wait a second."
He reached into his coat and pulled out something rectangular, offering it like a business card.
[Do you accept the True Blood?]
"You saw how crazy a vampire's regeneration is, right? Constantly replenishing HP with blood mist and bats—it's such a pain to deal with."
"…"
"There's a saying, you know. Instead of wasting time fixing weaknesses, it's better to maximize your strengths. And from what I see, that's exactly what you should do. The Irregular's healing with Vampire Blood? How can you resist?"
His words poured out, chattering away.
Just like back then.
When he had first recommended Project Neo.
When Jin had shown indifference to the unfamiliar genre, only for him to start listing every possible advantage.
And what had happened to Jin after listening back then?
Jin let out a weary laugh.
Then came the voice.
"Just accept it, yeah?"
Jin slowly lifted his head and answered.
"…Fuck off."
And then he saw it—
A red, oval-shaped mouth stretched wide, its torn corners reaching all the way to the ears.
It spoke.
[Ac cept it.]
At the same time, someone shook his shoulder, snapping him awake.
"...Jin? Jin, are you okay?"
A voice tinged with worry.
A hand on his forehead, feeling colder than it should.
"You've got a bad fever. No, you need to rest more."
As Natasha carefully stepped back, Jin, who had already started sitting up, spoke.
"I'm fine."
"People who are fine don't feel like they're burning up."
"It's nothing. Haven't you seen me recover from a gut wound before?"
"Still—"
"Just sleep. Don't wake the others."
Jin forcibly took over the night watch and folded his arms in silence.
Before him, numbers ticked away.
[Remaining Time: 19:15:22]
Old man Damir returned to the cavern just as Jin, having completed his shift, was waking the others.
"You've had plenty of rest."
And with that, an unlikely journey against a shared enemy began.
Their goal was to search for survivors.
In truth, it wasn't a plan with high odds of success.
The sarcophagus had opened fifteen days ago.
The tunnels had been swallowed by an eerie darkness ten days ago.
How many could have survived for so long?
But on the other hand, if they did find someone, they were bound to be a great asset.
Anyone who had managed to stay alive in this hellhole was likely highly skilled.
Of course, there was always the chance they had gone insane—like that mercenary over there.
But that was a problem to deal with after finding them.
And so, under the self-proclaimed king—more commonly called a madman—the survivors began their search for other survivors.
Meanwhile, Jin's condition continued to deteriorate.
"Hyung."
That bastard kept appearing, slipping out of the darkness.
The way he alone retained his human colors in the pitch-black surroundings was unsettling enough.
But worse was how he always made sure to show Jin the remaining time.
"Fifteen hours left."
Hallucinations and voices gnaw away at the mind.
If ignoring them was enough to make them disappear, schizophrenia wouldn't exist.
"Ugh. What a stench. Must've been dead for days. Looking at how the corpses around are charred black, it seems there was a pyrokinetic… Looks like he put up a bit of a fight, but too bad for him."
"Come to think of it, didn't you like Human Torch? Why didn't you go for a Psyker build? Well, I guess Rotating Lightning suits you better anyway."
Jin ignored him.
If he responded, it would never end.
Besides, he never knew when that smiling face would suddenly twist into something completely different.
And so, after a long silence—
"Oh, a survivor! A chameleon beastkin, huh? Disgusting. Looks like they were using camouflage to hide. Still, that's much better than those idiots who can do nothing but flick their long tongues around."
"And we've got eleven hours left."
A chameleon beastkin, who had been camouflaged in a corner of the stone wall, cautiously joined them.
He introduced himself, but Jin couldn't quite remember his name.
What he did retain, however, was that the guy was a Level 4 solo.
And that he was the sole survivor of his team.
During a brief moment of rest—
As Jin stared blankly into the darkness, something wearing his younger brother's face casually plopped down beside him.
Just that alone was enough to bring a strong whiff of blood to his nose.
A scent of death, layered and accumulated over centuries.
"Bro, just accept it already. It's better for everyone that way. If you keep being stubborn and die like this, what's left for you? At least you'd win a Darwin Award."
Jin didn't answer and simply got to his feet.
After that, he rejoined the group and spent time chatting idly.
Maximo had passionately explained something about an artifact he was searching for.
But the moment Jin turned away, the details slipped from his mind.
What was it again?
What was he even talking about?
In the end, unable to recall it, they resumed their search.
They advanced through a long passageway where trains once ran.
And before long, they discovered another survivor.
While he was being chased.
They rushed to save him, only to find out he was a member of Underheart.
For the first time, the old man, who had maintained a grim expression all this time, cracked a smile.
"Damn moles. Acting like they've got such strong bonds. Like it matters when they're just a bunch of criminals. Oh, hey, bro, you probably can't hear me well, right? He's a swordsman. Apparently, he's the best when it comes to melee weapons in Underheart."
Jin couldn't deny it—he really was being treated like a deaf man.
The clearer his brother's face became, the hazier the rest of his vision grew.
The more distinct that voice was, the more muffled and distant the other sounds felt, like they were echoing from underwater.
"By the way, eight hours left."
The group pressed on.
After cycles of resting and searching, they found two more survivors—one was a mercenary who had modified his entire body with implants, the other a mage from Underheart.
Surprisingly, despite being enemies, the two had been relying on each other to survive in this darkness.
The red-haired head beside him explained this.
At some point, it had stopped looking like his brother altogether.
"Three hours."
At last, they began their approach toward the underground ruins.
Their ranks had grown by four.
Now, having repeatedly driven back the hordes of approaching corpses, confidence was beginning to build among them.
"Guhk!"
A sudden scream tore through the air.
The Underheart mage, his chest impaled, dangled helplessly in midair.
Crunch!
The vampire crushed the mage's heart in its grip and then violently swung its arm aside.
"…So, you were all gathered here. Good."
The creature's pale face turned toward the group, and everyone readied themselves for battle.
Everyone except Jin.
He was looking at something else.
A being that seemed to be shaped from congealed blood.
The very source of power known as True Blood opened its torn mouth.
[Accept me. With your potential, you could surpass the glory of a thousand years past.]
[Time is running out.]
As that voice rang out, blood droplets began bubbling up from the ground.
At the same time, torrents of blood cascaded from the ceiling like waterfalls, dyeing the world red and severing Jin's senses from reality.
All that remained was the thick scent of blood stabbing at his nostrils and the overwhelming dread of the crimson sea before him.
At its center, the blood-soaked entity slowly spread its arms.
[Choose me.]
At that moment, an explosive surge of lightning erupted from Jin's body.
The intensity was enough to momentarily illuminate their surroundings.
His ash-gray eyes lifted, crackling with electricity.
With a burst of consecutive sonic booms, Jin closed the distance to the bloody monster.
And then, pouring out all the frustration he had held back until now, he swung his fist with everything he had.
BOOOOM!
With the roar of violent thunder and the shockwave of expanding air, Jin let out a ferocious snarl, his fist still buried in his opponent's skull.
"I am Jin! I always have been, I always will be! Got that, you hemoglobin bastard?!"