It was a memory. Buried deep and forgotten.
“Hey.”
The girl asked, “Isn’t there anywhere you want to go?”
The boy hesitated, unable to answer right away.
“I… don’t know. I mean…” He quietly surveyed the snow-covered ruins surrounding him. “I’ve never really thought about going anywhere else.”
His vision was walled in by nothing but snow and rubble.
Though they were trapped together, the girl offered a faint smile.
“Then I’ll take you.” Her small, cold hand clasped his. “Someday, I’ll take you somewhere very, very far away.”
The boy let out a small laugh. “What kind of place is it?”
“It’s a warm place where you can eat your fill… and laugh as much as you want.”
“…”
“I promise. You trust me, right?”
The girl held out her pinky. After a moment’s hesitation, the boy extended his own.
Their two small fingers intertwined.
“It’s a promise, then.” The girl smiled in the falling snow, her face a pale white. “Let’s fly.”
Just one more time.
Let’s fly—
***
“Hah!”
Jae-hee Han’s eyes shot open.
A childhood memory, visiting him in a dream for the first time in ages… but there was no time to soak in the afterglow.
His instincts were already screaming frantic warnings.
A knife-hand plummeted toward his face.
“Wuaaah?!”
Jae-hee frantically kicked the blanket up to obscure his attacker’s vision and simultaneously rolled aside, scrambling out of range.
The blanket was torn to ribbons with a sharp rip, but Jae-hee had narrowly dodged the blow.
Using the momentum of his roll, he sprang upright and countered without thinking.
He launched a left jab shot toward his opponent’s chin—only for it to be snatched out of the air with ease.
It was only then that Jae-hee fully woke up, his eyes finally focusing on his attacker’s satisfied smile.
It was Ghost.
“Hmm, not bad. The training wasn’t a total waste,” she remarked.
“J-jeez, you scared me! What’s with the ambush first thing in the morning?”
Jae-hee clutched his hammering chest.
Ghost turned away with a nonchalant yawn. “It’s morning. That’s why I’m waking you up. Just wanted to see if you remembered what I taught you. Get up, you little calf. I made us something to eat.”
“Made something? What… holy moly!”
On the folding table beside him sat a plate of freshly made toast, fragrant steam rising from it.
After a cautious sniff, a wave of emotion washed over Jae-hee, and he clasped his hands to his chest. “Oh my god, what is all this?”
“Stale factory bread with margarine of questionable origin and some cheap, fried canned ham.”
Ghost let out a little grunt as she sat down across from him. “Hurry up and eat. Your unauthorized stay on Deck 0 ends here.”
“Hee hee. Yes, maaa’am.”
Jae-hee and Ghost sat facing each other, each munching on a piece of toast. Ghost grumbled about wanting some freshly brewed pour-over coffee, but Jae-hee was moved to tears by the cheap instant coffee mix she’d prepared for him.
If prison means eating this nice, I should’ve gotten locked up sooner.
It wasn’t an exaggeration. He was eating better now than he had before his incarceration—though, to be fair, it was all thanks to Ghost.
“I may have taught you a little something on a whim, but I can’t help you any more than this.”
After devouring her toast, Ghost licked the margarine from her fingers and jutted her chin at him. “You’ll have to handle things on Deck 1 on your own from now on.”
“Yes, maaa’am…”
“Still, if you want a piece of obvious advice? Get rid of their leaders first.”
Ghost drew a finger across her own throat. “So what if they’ve ‘taken over’ Deck 1? They’re just a bunch of riffraff who got together a few months ago. Once you take out Razor and his lieutenants, the rest of them won’t think it’s worth getting hurt just to come after you.”
“Ooh!”
“But if they still try to wreck you even after you’ve taken out the leaders… well, can’t be helped.”
“…”
The ending was a bit grim, but Jae-hee nodded earnestly. “I’ll keep that in mind, Granny!”
“Good, you do that… Now get the hell outta here!”
Despite her words, Ghost had Jae-hee run through a few more Stormroad counter-attack drills before personally escorting him to the stairwell.
Standing before the stairs, Jae-hee gave Ghost a deep bow. “Thank you so much, Granny! I’ll be sure to repay this kindness!”
“You’d better. I’ve lost track of how many debts like this have gone unpaid.”
“Don’t you worry! Just wait for the new and improved, debt-repaying Jae-hee Han!”
Just as he was about to set foot on the stairs, Jae-hee paused and looked back. “Um, Granny.”
“What.”
“Are you sure you won’t take me on as your disciple?”
“I’m sure.”
“Not even a teensy-weensy bit? Not even a little?”
“You’re awfully chatty for someone who might not make it through the day.”
Jae-hee scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. “I just thought… it would give me strength if I had a goal.”
“…”
“Like you said, I might die today… Can’t you help a poor kid out, give him a little boost?”
As Jae-hee looked up at her with wide, round eyes, Ghost let out a long sigh and gestured with her chin.
“You take down Razor, take over Deck 1, make it back alive from the next mission, and buy me a ridiculously expensive full-course meal in the Shopping Arcade…”
“And then?!”
“…Well, I’ll consider it then.”
“For real? You promised!”
Giggling happily, Jae-hee turned, took a deep breath, and shouted, “All right… see you later, then~!”
He bounded up the stairs leading to Deck 1 in a single dash.
“…”
Ghost stood with her arms crossed, silently watching the boy’s retreating figure before muttering to herself.
“In the end, it’s up to you to prove you have what it takes to survive here.”
With that, she turned and disappeared back down the corridor.
Only the thick, cloying darkness of Deck 0 remained where she had stood, pulsing faintly in the air.
***
Deck 1. Also known as the Newbie Hunting Ground.
Central Sector. Stairwell.
“Aaaammm…”
Several inmates were standing around, letting out lazy yawns.
They were members of Razor’s crew. On the off chance Jae-hee had somehow survived his trip to Deck 0, they had been posted at every stairwell leading up from it.
“I mean, just think about it logically,” one of them griped. “How the hell is some kid who fell into Deck 0 supposed to make it back alive? He’s probably been torn to shreds by those fiends by now. And we’re stuck here on pointless guard duty… Ugh, I’m so tired.”
The muscular bald man, Tat Rat, heard his underling’s complaint and just chuckled. “That’s just how much our boss loved Miss Hellth~”
“What a true romantic. Then he should’ve stood guard himself. Gone and found the body, too.”
“Why don’t you say that to his face, then?”
“Hey, I’m just saying. I’d rather not lose a finger.”
“Whatever. Let’s just tough it out for a few more days. It’s not hard, just boring.”
It was then that the inmate who had been complaining went wide-eyed. “Huh?”
“What is it?”
“Th-there he is! The newbie!”
“What?!”
Tat Rat and the others turned in shock—and sure enough, there he was.
Jae-hee, who had somehow already reached the landing, was smiling sheepishly and giving them an awkward wave.
“Hellooo…?”
Aghast, Tat Rat rubbed his eyes fiercely. “How are you not dead? This can’t be right. Why didn’t those freaks on Deck 0 eat you?”
As the other inmates froze, stunned by the unprecedented situation, Jae-hee asked cautiously, “Um… if it’s not too much trouble, could I please pass?”
“Like hell we’ll let you, punkass!”
“Get him! The boss’ll reward us for bringing him in!”
“Waaaaaagh!”
The inmates charged Jae-hee all at once. They threw punches, launched kicks, and swung blades they’d hidden in their pockets.
Jae-hee calmly observed the flurry of attacks coming at him and slowly closed his eyes.
Swoosh…!
The world slowed.
A cool wind blew from behind him, and a blue arrow shot forward. The Stormroad blazed a trail, weaving freely between his enemies, showing him the path to survival.
“Hoo.”
Taking a sharp breath, Jae-hee’s eyes flew open as he kicked off the stairs.
The world snapped back to its original speed. The Boy chased the blue trajectory that had gone before him, diving right into the thick of the crew.
And then—thwack!
He smacked the inside of Tat Rat’s arm, who was leading the charge with a knuckle-duster, sending it wide.
“Huh?” Tat Rat let out a deflated grunt as his fist flew off in a completely different direction.
Four more men lunged at him simultaneously.
But a rapid succession of sharp taps deflected them all.
Jae-hee tapped their joints and shoved at their wrists and ankles, shattering their posture and diverting their strikes before any could land.
“What the…”
“How did that happen?”
“Why did I miss?”
By the time the bewildered inmates had regained their senses, Jae-hee had already passed them and was standing in the Deck 1 corridor.
The boy shuffled his feet, a guileless look on his face. “Um, I’m scared of fighting… uh, I don’t wanna fight, I mean. Can’t we just stop here…?”
Tat Rat, who had been staring blankly, finally erupted. “What the fuck are you talking about? Oi, kill that little shit!”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The crew charged again.
Jae-hee had hoped that showing them their attacks were useless would make them stop. But that wasn’t how things worked here.
This was a prison for the Awakened, and its residents were all criminals—Villains, as they were called.
A gentle warning meant less than nothing.
“Agh, seriously…”
In this prison, only tangible might served as law.
“I’m done holding back then!”
At last, Jae-hee threw a punch.
He rode the Stormroad, dodging the charging inmates’ attacks by a hair’s breadth and landing pinpoint counters on their chins, left wide open as they struck.
Fighting with his fists, his elbows, his shoulders, his knees, his toes—his timing was so perfect that at the end of each fluid motion, it looked as though the inmates were running right up and sticking their chins out for him.
A series of cracks echoed like thunder.
The instant Jae-hee landed after tapping the final inmate’s chin with his toe, the men went down like bowling pins, their heads snapping back.
They were scattered pathetically across the corridor, every last one of them unconscious.
“…”
Tat Rat, who had been charging from the rear, froze in his tracks, stunned by the sight of his men falling.
“Hooo.”
Jae-hee steadied his breathing, then held a hand out toward Tat Rat and gave a clumsy beckoning gesture.
“N-next, come on!”
The Boy had resolved to fight for survival, his voice thick with grim determination.
“I’ll wreck every last one of y’zuh—!”
And he bit his tongue at the end.