Chapter 123
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Chapter 123 Following Silver Earthworm into the room, I began to examine it methodically. Cans were stacked upon the shelves—fruit preserves, corn, tuna, and ham, all neatly arranged. I reached for them eagerly, my spirits lifting. My stomach growled loudly. Days of fasting had left me ravenous. I nearly wept with emotion, but first I checked the expiration dates on the cans.
"Wait, what's the point of checking expiration dates? I don't even know how much time has passed."
Yet considering the last day I'd been in Korea, most of these cans still had more than three years remaining. Whether coincidence or fate, they seemed to have arrived on the Island around the same time I did. In the original story, Yuanna didn't even know how to open canned goods, so she must have gone hungry. Whoever had organized this room clearly didn't know how to open them either.
"What's in the Bunker?"
"Supplies and essentials...?"
"Are they still edible? Wouldn't they have spoiled?"
"They should be fine. I don't need food, so I just left them."
No, wait. Now that I thought back, Jenath definitely knew there were supplies in the Bunker. If Anata could read Korean, she might have recognized the text on the cans and understood they were essentials. Regardless, my hunger was overwhelming, so I decided to eat. As I opened the cans and ate ravenously, tears suddenly streamed down my face. 'I wish I could share this with Enoch and Kaiden.' I wanted to taste the other cans, but I restrained myself. It would be better to share the rest with Enoch and Kaiden. I pulled a small backpack from the supplies on the shelf and began filling it with cans. I packed tissues, mouthwash, and candles, along with what appeared to be a utility knife. I looked around for anything else worth taking, but unfortunately found nothing more. I would have loved to find another pile of grenades like the ones I'd discovered before. As I surveyed the room slowly, my gaze settled on a neat bed tucked in one corner. 'I want to lie down.' I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept in a proper bed. Come to think of it, Jenath's Cabin had beds too. The beds on the Third Floor were neatly made, yet I'd been forced to sleep on the first floor.
"Wait, Jenath slept in a hammock anyway."
That damn bastard. I ground my teeth thinking of Jenath, then set my backpack down and carefully sat on the bed. Just for a moment, I told myself. Just a moment. There were no blankets, but the mattress was wonderfully soft. This is quality. I sat on the bed, gazing at the closed door. 'Wait, did I close the door?' I couldn't remember, but I must have. I was so focused on eating that I probably forgot. With that thought, I stretched out my legs and lay back, wanting to compare it to the mattress at my old home. Silver Earthworm crawled up from the floor onto the bed, coiled herself near my head, and yawned. She must have been exhausted too. Watching her drowsy eyes close, I felt sleep wash over me as well, and I drifted off into darkness. * * * For the first time in ages, I slept peacefully and deeply on a soft bed. Perhaps because of this, I dreamed vaguely of my days as Jin-ju Lee—a time when I was invisible, when I drifted apart from society itself. My presence among people had always been faint, as though I were abandoned in this vast world. So I even tried working as a scout instructor, optimized for group living, but it was the same. No one ever truly saw me or remembered me.
"Jin-ju Lee? Ah... Jin-ju Lee, you were in our department, weren't you?"
Even at the camping company where I'd struggled to find employment, I was treated as though I didn't exist. It was no different when I took on major projects. I'd always wondered about it. Why couldn't I fit in like everyone else? It felt as though I didn't belong to this world at all. Then one day, I happened to find a novel on the street called "Something More Important Than Survival."
I had an intuition that something in it resonated with my very essence. There was this strange, inexplicable pull to it. The day I picked up that novel from the street was nothing special. Yet that book I found on such an ordinary day was extraordinarily special. On the paving stone where the book lay, there were mysterious patterns drawn, and a bluish light was emanating from them. The problematic book was placed right on top of that spot. 'That's right. Now I remember.' It was such an unforgettable phenomenon—how could I have completely forgotten about it? The light emanating from the ground disappeared the moment I picked up the book. As if it had been waiting for that very instant. That's how I came to read a novel on the street out of nowhere. In that moment, I was so desperate to know what the book contained that I couldn't help but read it right then and there. And absurdly enough, while I was reading, a falling sign hit my head and I died screaming. I have no idea where that book went after that. I don't know where it came from either. Thinking about it now, that was definitely a magic circle. 'A magic circle...?!' My eyes snapped open at the thought that suddenly struck me. And my gaze met with a pair of crimson eyes right in front of my face. A woman with pure white silver hair and eyes as red as blood was leaning her face close to mine, staring at me.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
I bolted upright from the bed and stumbled backward. Silver Earthworm, who had been sleeping at my pillow, jolted awake and spun around in place. I sat on the bed, pressed my back against the wall, and scanned my surroundings. But the woman I had just seen vanished like a mirage.
"What was that?"
With a bewildered expression, I got down from the bed and searched the room, but there was no one there. Then I noticed the door was open. 'Did I sleep with the door open?' No. The door was definitely closed before I went to sleep. Chills ran down my spine as I stared at the open door, frozen in place. 'Come to think of it, that woman from just now had silver hair and crimson eyes.' By appearance, she matched someone from the Rohade Family. And if she was a woman, there was a possibility she was Anata, whom Kaiden had seen at Jenath's Cabin. 'Wait, no. No, that can't be right. According to Kaiden, Anata was sealed alive in Jenath's Cabin. There's no way she could appear here...' I held my head and pondered this strange phenomenon. Now that I think about it, when I was at Jenath's Cabin, I saw a ghost just like this. Didn't someone in black robes lead me to Jenath's room? Even when I was dragged out of Jenath's Cabin by a Monster, I saw a mysterious shadow through the window of the "Room of Rest."
From that "Room of Rest" where Anata is sealed. Could it be...? Could Anata, while sealed, be separating her body and soul, sending her spirit to other locations? If she were trying to convey some message to someone while avoiding Jenath's notice, it would certainly be plausible. However, since she's been sealed in the Room of Rest and has become something akin to a guardian deity, such a thing might be possible within the domain of Jenath's Cabin, but this place was very far away from the Cabin. Ssshhhhh— At the sound Silver Earthworm made, I suddenly looked down at my feet. Silver Earthworm glanced up at me from below, then crawled toward the slightly open door. She looked back at me, then gazed at the open door again. It seemed like she was telling me to go out and look.
"Alright, let's go check it out. First, let me gather my things."
I slung my crossbag over my shoulder and shouldered the pack containing essentials and canned goods, then left the room with Silver Earthworm. Going up to the upper floor seemed pointless, so I decided to explore the lower level again—the one I hadn't dared venture into yesterday out of fear.
"But has it really been two days since I came to this Bunker?"
Without a window to see the sky, my sense of time had completely dissolved. I couldn't tell if a day or two days had passed. 'Are Enoch and Kaiden searching for me?' Perhaps they'd made a few halfhearted attempts before giving up. After all, they had no reason to risk danger searching for me anymore. Kaiden had grasped the method of controlling his magical power, so he could regulate his emotions on his own, and Enoch could now perfectly suppress his rampage. So the two men no longer needed me.
"That's a bit disappointing."
My chest felt a slight ache, but I pushed the feeling aside and descended the stairs. I passed through the area where the skeletons had broken through the wall, leaving their marks behind, and continued downward. Torches continued to burn along the stone walls. I discovered the word "Alea" carved into various spots on the stone surface. Since "Alea" had been inscribed everywhere Jenath's hand had touched until now, it seemed certain that this Bunker was created by him. Soon the stairs ended, and I stood on a flat floor. The lowest level was dark without torches. I pulled a candle and lighter from my pack, then lit the candle's wick. At the end of the rectangular space, like a room, there were two doors. The right door bore the word "Return," while the left door was inscribed with a magical circle. I took a few steps forward to get closer to the doors. Suddenly, light seeped from beneath my feet. A magical circle was carved in the center of the rectangular space, and I was now standing on it. A book I hadn't noticed before lay at my feet.
"What? This is...."
The novel "More Important Than Survival."
I picked up the book. My memory was hazy, but the worn, thick volume resembled the one I'd read long ago. In that moment, the pages fluttered and light burst forth—an intense, brilliant light so bright it was difficult to open my eyes. After a long while, the light faded and my vision returned completely. I was in a different place. More precisely, the location was the same, but it felt as though I existed in a different time period. The two doors and the magical circle drawn on the floor were identical. Torches burned on the walls, and before my eyes, two women crouched on the magical circle. A woman with silver hair and crimson eyes, and Yuanna with her reddish-brown bob cut. Wait, Yuanna?
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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