Free Web NovelAnd then the next day, Yoon Seungryong came back looking even more ragged, casting a cold, drained glance at the two of them as he muttered,
“Why do I feel like I’m the only one pointlessly running myself into the ground?”
Yohan, who had been smashing ice for drinking water and, in the process, shaping the chunks into something like a snow-ice person, guiltily set down the wooden stick he’d been holding to use as a nose. Hyunmook took the stick, jabbed it into the snow-ice person, and ignored Seungryong entirely. Covered head to toe in grime, Seungryong groaned.
“Team leader, are you really not going to help me out here?”
“Then who’s going to protect Yohan?”
“Well... I mean, that’s true...”
Grudgingly agreeing, Seungryong trudged off again. And the day after that, when he found the two of them enjoying a footbath with grilled sparrow skewers and shaved ice at their side, Seungryong exploded.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Move over!”
Whatever battle he’d fought with Joo Hoyoung had left him completely wrecked. Shoving himself between the two, he let Yohan purify away the mud and bodily fluids smeared all over him. Then, tearing savagely into a skewer of sparrow meat, he shot Hyunmook a venomous glare.
“So while I was busting my ass, you were here soaking your feet with Yohan? When did you even set this up?”
“We had plenty of water left after collecting drinking water...”
Yohan awkwardly explained as he passed Seungryong a bowl of shaved ice. Hoyoung had turned so many parts of the city into ice and frozen patches that the supply was more than enough to last for a whole year. They’d decided to indulge in a bit of luxury. freewebnøvel.com
It hadn’t been hard to prepare: dig a hole, set a marble tub in the ground, pour in hot water, and lay down something to sit on nearby. Seungryong grumbled that he could enjoy this sort of thing just fine too, but Hyunmook ignored him completely.
“Well... it is nice and warm.”
After days of hardship, Seungryong’s face softened as he dipped his feet in the hot water. It looked like he’d all but given up on catching Hoyoung. On their way out after enjoying the open-air footbath, Yohan’s eyes went wide.
“Oh no, the snowman!”
The snow-ice person they’d left intact before the bath was smashed to pieces. It had to be Hoyoung’s doing, and Yohan sadly picked up the wooden nose. Watching his disappointed face, Hyunmook said,
“Then why don’t we go catch Hoyoung now?”
“...Tell me I’m not hearing that I just lost out to a snowman.”
Seungryong muttered bitterly—when he’d begged for help, Hyunmook hadn’t even listened, but now that Yohan’s snowman was broken, they were going after Hoyoung.
* * *
Since they couldn’t catch him by chasing anyway, Hyunmook suggested they just go to Hoyoung’s base. Seungryong’s face twisted.
“If you knew where his base was, what was all my suffering for?”
“Maybe you just went through a lot of trouble for absolutely nothing?”
Hyunmook’s tone was kind and gentle, which only made the vein on Seungryong’s forehead bulge. Still, he just let out a deep sigh. Hoyoung wouldn’t come near Hyunmook out of fear, and Yohan stuck close to Hyunmook, so in the end, Seungryong was the only one who’d been taking a beating. Yohan, feeling guilty, just focused on purifying him whenever he returned.
“So where is his base?”
“I don’t know.”
Before Seungryong could finally snap at the half-hearted answer, Hyunmook calmly added,
“But you’ll know it when you see it.”
And sure enough, he was right. With their gear in hand, they searched areas with ice-covered streets, and eventually came across a bizarre, grotesque structure. As Hyunmook had said, it was impossible to miss.
“...Is this... an amusement park?”
Around a central building were structures vaguely resembling rides—but they were far from normal.
The first thing that caught the eye was something like a roller coaster, made from rails taken from who knows where, linked together and leading all the way to the building’s roof. Perched at the top, ready to plunge down the slope, were several shopping carts. Dangerous and insane as it was, the “roller coaster” was actually the most normal-looking thing there.
Elsewhere, there was a makeshift zoo—cages displaying monsters, most of them dried out and dead. What looked like a carousel was tied to leashed monsters, creaking and screeching irregularly as it turned. There were cable cars strung together from wires and steel frames, a rooftop swing you’d risk your life to ride, and even a snack stand—except instead of food, it displayed unidentifiable, repulsive organic matter.
While they were taking in the grotesque scene Hoyoung had apparently spent years assembling, Hyunmook suddenly drew his ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) spear and swung it. Kang! A sharp sound rang out as an arrow that had flown silently toward them clattered to the ground.
“Ahh!”
Yohan jumped and looked around wildly, unable to tell where it had come from. Hoyoung was nowhere to be seen. Staying close to Hyunmook, Yohan realized belatedly that Hoyoung, unlike Hyunmook or Seungryong, used a bow as his weapon—and that meant far superior range.
“Looks like Hoyoung’s giving us a warm welcome.”
Seungryong, who had built up a deep grudge after days of being on the receiving end, grinned and strode forward.
—Geeeeet ouuuuut!
Hoyoung’s enraged roar echoed as a rain of arrows poured from the sky. It was an unbelievable volume for just one attacker. When Yohan saw the clumps of sticky black filth smeared on the arrowheads, he finally understood why Seungryong always came back in such a wreck.
“Coward! This crap isn’t going to do a damn thing!”
Deflecting arrows, Seungryong charged forward. As Hoyoung, enraged that someone had entered his territory, focused all his attacks on Seungryong, Yohan advanced toward the building under Hyunmook’s protection. Only then did Hoyoung fire at the two of them—but it did nothing. Just as Seungryong had said, they couldn’t attack Hoyoung from here, but Hoyoung couldn’t touch them either.
“Yes! We’re in!”
Gasping out the breath he’d been holding, Yohan ran into the building. Hyunmook’s spearwork, deflecting each arrow with acrobatic precision, had been mesmerizing. Seungryong followed, yanking two arrows from his shoulder and back and tossing them aside before glancing around.
“Damn... This lunatic’s been living like this all along, huh?”
Yohan flinched as his light swept over the interior—dozens of eerie eyes stared back at him. He froze, stumbling back until his head bumped into a solid chest, and Hyunmook’s arms wrapped gently around his shoulders and chest.
“Look closely, Yohan. They’re just statues.”
“S-Statues?”
Forcing himself to take another look, Yohan saw they weren’t alive after all. Roughly human-shaped, but twisted and deformed into grotesque forms from contamination. Relieved, he still frowned.
“They’re not statues... What’s the word? Mannequins? No, not that... Something from anime...”
Seungryong strolled over and flicked a finger at one of the small human-shaped figures crouched on a shelf.
“Figures?”
“Ah! Right, figures!”
“Hoyoung used to be obsessed with these. At least he didn’t have perverted tastes back then—guess he picked up new ones here.”
Yohan flinched again. It felt like the figures’ eyes were following him. When he looked closely at one nearby, its rolling eyeball met his gaze, and he yelped.
“Ah! It’s moving!”
“Oh yeah, it is. There’s something inside. Looks like he carved out just the eye section on purpose.”
When Seungryong snapped one open, a slug-like creature with an oversized eye crawled out. Watching it made Yohan feel like he might faint. Shivering, ready to burrow into Hyunmook’s side, he was gently patted on the back.
“You scare easily, Yohan.”
Hyunmook’s voice sounded almost pleased. Yohan hesitated—he didn’t want to look like a coward, but he did like being close. After a brief debate, he decided to use the fear as an excuse to stick to Hyunmook’s side as much as he wanted.
Not that it was entirely an excuse—the whole time, he’d been feeling the prickling weight of Hoyoung’s gaze, coming from somewhere among the “figures.”
Hoyoung had filled the building with them, along with rusting, broken-down game machines, toys, and junk. It looked like he’d scoured every building in the city to gather them all. The sight left Yohan with a faint pang of pity, like the time he’d seen Seungryong buried in a deep pit, starving, and drinking foul swamp water.
“So we’ve found his base—now what?”
Examining a figure frozen in a scream, Seungryong spoke—then Yohan thought he could hear grinding teeth. No, not his imagination—he was hearing it. He hunched his shoulders, glancing around.
“I think Hoyoung’s corruption has manifested as an obsession with these things.”
Hyunmook said it as he flicked his fingers. Pzzzt! With a crackle of sparks, Hoyoung’s terrifying, creepy collection was destroyed in an instant. A chilling scream echoed—Hoyoung, finally forced from hiding, had appeared.
