Have I ever said the name of my skill out loud?
No. I hadn’t.
A faint sense of wrongness pricked at my nerves.
How did he know it if I never told him?
Does he have an ability similar to my Analysis Eye?
“How shall we handle the night watches?”
Well… we had known each other for less than a day.
It wouldn’t be strange if he didn’t share all of his abilities.
But the idea that he might know all of ours without us knowing his…
felt unsettling.
“I’ll do the first shift! Noeul, you take the second!”
“Then I’ll be last.”
“But how are we supposed to tell time? You’re not going to just stay awake ‘a little bit’ and then wake me early, are you?”
“…You caught me?”
“…You little—”
So the night watch order became:
Chae Saebyeok → Me → Joo Yeonwoo.
With each shift lasting until the person used up their bundle of firewood.
“Take care of your shift!”
“You don’t need to worry.”
When it became his turn, I planned to pretend I couldn’t sleep and stay awake.
I wasn’t stupid enough to fully sleep around someone I’d just met—
especially someone who might, for all I knew, be some kind of thrill-killer who enjoyed isolating people before murdering them.
Saebyeok probably thought the same thing.
He’d shoved me into the second shift on purpose.
“I’m sleeping.”
I lay down, hoping nothing would happen.
Maybe from exhaustion, I fell asleep almost instantly.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when something bright slipped through my eyelids.
“Mmm…”
I opened my eyes to warm, dazzling sunlight streaming through leaves.
Sunlight?
Had the sun… already risen?
Hold on—
the sun rose?
What?
Startled, I shot upright.
Already awake, Yeonwoo greeted me calmly.
“Ah, you’re up. Good morning.”
“Good mor—wait, not good morning! Why didn’t you wake me? I was second!”
My voice clearly meant: Did you take my shift?
He nodded.
“I woke up in the middle, so I switched earlier. After that, I couldn’t sleep. And you looked very tired, so I let you rest.”
“Still! Yeonwoo, you were tired too! You should have woken me!”
He blinked in surprise, then gave a gentle smile.
“It’s alright. I have plenty of stamina.”
“…Ugh…”
Well, nothing to do about it now.
I warned him firmly not to do that again.
He nodded obediently…
But I didn’t fully believe him.
“Yaaawn… huh? You two are already up? I’m the last one?”
“Yeah. Let’s go as soon as you’re ready.”
Once Saebyeok rose and we packed up, we headed toward our next destination.
…Am I being too paranoid?
The fact that Yeonwoo didn’t do anything during his solo watch…
lowered my guard a little.
Hmm.
No.
Get it together.
In a situation like this, you can never be too careful.
“Huh? Maybe I’m sleepy…”
“What is it?”
“No, I thought that tree moved.”
While I was stuck in my thoughts, Saebyeok and Yeonwoo chatted casually.
It sounded more like Saebyeok just needed to talk to stay awake.
Even though he slept a little, he looked as tired as someone who stayed up all night.
Is it because everything is unfamiliar?
Just then, Yeonwoo—walking ahead—stopped.
“We’re here. This way.”
When I looked where he pointed, the scenery changed completely.
A field of blooming flowers stretched out before us, colorful and bright.
At the center stood a massive tree—so enormous that even ten adults holding hands wouldn’t wrap around its trunk.
The entire field formed a perfect circle, flowers radiating outward as if deliberately arranged.
“I didn’t expect a tree this huge.”
“Maybe it’s because of the flowers? It looks insanely pretty.”
Stepping inside, the air felt wide, open, and strangely peaceful.
“The box is in the center. Let’s go.”
Amid the vibrant flowers, a large red wooden box stood out clearly.
It was huge—impossible to miss.
We walked toward the giant tree, scanning the surroundings carefully.
Then—
“Hm? Writing?”
“Yeah. Definitely not Korean… someone carved it. But who?”
Once we got close enough, carved characters became visible.
“…Is someone else nearby?”
“No. I didn’t see anyone.”
“The being that brought us here probably carved it.”
The characters were nothing like Korean, or any writing I knew—
yet strangely, I could read them.
“‘Base 7’… That’s weird. Why can I read this?”
“Right? It’s not just me? You guys can read it too?”
Saebyeok spoke quickly.
So we weren’t the only ones who could read the strange script.
“Probably another special phenomenon, like the status window. Let’s read the whole thing.”
We agreed and began reading carefully.
Meanwhile, the one who suggested it—Joo Yeonwoo—skimmed the whole thing in a single glance.
He reads absurdly fast.
I watched him walk toward the supply box, then focused on the writing again.
It was basically a set of rules:
[Base 7]
[Let’s gather points and pass the test (2/7)]
Points can be earned through activities on Floor 1.
Points can be used at bases to purchase a pass to Floor 2.
Points can be checked at bases, and converted into items.
This must relate to the points I saw with Analysis Eye.
“So basically… we’re supposed to gather points?”
“Yeah. There’s a point chart below too.”
I looked at the table.
[Point Acquisition Table]
(Subject to change depending on timing)
Tag acquisition: 100
First to open a supply box: 10
Kill a Phantom Wolf: 10
Kill a Skull Tree: 10
…
…
Kill a human: 50
I checked their point totals again.
Joo Yeonwoo: 120
Chae Saebyeok: 30
Saebyeok opened a supply box once, and Yeonwoo slaughtered beasts nonstop, so the totals made sense.
…As for me, I had zero.
I hadn’t done anything.
“The point table is fine, but where do we exchange points? It doesn’t say.”
“You can use the supply box here.”
Yeonwoo suddenly appeared beside me, answering calmly.
He held a plastic container filled with white powder.
Salt?
“This whole field is a base. If you intend to check, exchange, or purchase, you can see your points and buy items. The items appear through that supply box.”
“You had enough points to buy something?”
“Yes. It seems the beasts we defeated were listed in the point table. Thanks to that, I bought a few necessities.”
“It must be the Phantom Wolves. Their name is the only one that matches what we fought…”
I opened the point shop just by thinking about it.
[Point Shop]
[My Points: 0]
Items must be collected from the nearby supply box.
Yep. Zero.
As expected.
I browsed the list.
[Item List]
Floor 2 Movement Ticket: 100 points
500ml bottled water: 1 point
Rice ball: 1 point
Barley bread: 1 point
…
…
Salt 100g: 30 points
Stimulant Powder 100g: 30 points
Wait.
I froze.
Movement ticket: 100 points.
“Yeonwoo.”
“Yes?”
“…Joo Yeonwoo, couldn’t you have bought a movement ticket?”
He could go to the second floor immediately.
Actually—
my Analysis Eye said:
[Joo Yeonwoo – 100 points]
Meaning he could go right now.
“You have enough points.”
Our eyes met.
Silence.
His unreadable black eyes held mine briefly before he smiled gently.
“No. At the moment, it’s not possible.”
He lifted the white powder—
salt.
So he had spent 30 points.
120 → 90
But he opened the first supply box too.
+10 points.
Meaning…
He had exactly 100.
Analysis Eye wasn’t wrong.
So why not go?
What is he planning?
My thoughts tangled until—
“More precisely,” he added calmly,
“I should say I don’t have the amount of points that I want. I wish to move together with you, Noeul.”
He said something completely ridiculous.
“…With us?”
“Yes. We don’t know what might happen.”
“Well… going to the second floor doesn’t guarantee they’ll send us home anyway,” Saebyeok offered.
Yeonwoo nodded.
“Indeed. That’s why I think it’s best to secure allies now. I’m not sure how the ticket works… but if we use it together, maybe we’ll appear in similar places.”
“And even if not, having predetermined allies is always helpful.”
“Yes. With unknown life-threatening dangers ahead, I want allies I can rely on.”
He meant allies he could trust with his life.
Did he seriously think we fit that role?
At that moment, Saebyeok finally dropped his casual tone.
“A good ally is great. But I’ve done a lot of team-based stuff, and let me tell you—having an ally worse than an enemy, or a teammate you can’t trust? That’s worse than being alone.”
“I don’t think I’d be an ally worse than an enemy,” Yeonwoo said calmly.
“Well… sure. But we’ve known you for a single day.”
Until now, Saebyeok had tried to keep things light—
but this time, there was no smile at all.
“Let’s be blunt.”
He reached out naturally, grabbed my arm, and pulled me behind him.
Then he faced Yeonwoo directly, expression cold.
“You trust us?
Because we don’t trust you yet.”
