The arrow fired by Chae Saebyeok pierced straight through the head of the wolf lunging at the student.
Kyeng—!
That became the signal for us to launch into battle.
“Over here!”
“Thank you.”
I kicked one of the swords toward Joo Yeonwoo, then swung the Energy Ball I had prepared in advance.
The sphere exploded with a deafening boom and slammed into a wolf.
Kyuk—!
The wolf that was hit flew through the air and tumbled across the ground.
Seeing that, the remaining wolves faltered.
In that moment, Yeonwoo dashed past the girl and cut through several wolves in a single motion.
Gyaaaang—!
That was enough. The wolves lost their will to fight and scattered in all directions.
A few that tried to flee were shot down by Saebyeok’s arrows.
“Are you okay?”
I had already pulled the student deeper into the base.
She looked like a high schooler—gym pants, school uniform shirt, both smeared with dirt and crushed leaves like she’d been rolling on the ground.
“Th-thank you… Really, thank you so much…”
She bowed over and over, wiping away the tears clinging to her eyes.
We told her she was safe now, but she kept trembling until she realized it was just us here.
Only then did her shoulders slowly relax.
We led her to the center of the base, and she collapsed there, finally seeming able to breathe.
“Did you wake up here out of nowhere too?”
“Yes… I was on my way to school with my friends and then…”
Listening to her trembling voice, it became clear she was another person dragged here without warning.
“Your friends? They’re not near here?”
“…We got separated.”
“How?”
Her face crumpled, and tears spilled out again.
Then she suddenly broke, everything she’d been holding in bursting free.
“S-so… we were all together at first, and then… we met other people. Adults… They were adults…”
“Other people?”
“Yes. And… and there were monsters… weird trees and… what do you call them… Sk… skull…”
Monsters? Weird trees?
Her words made the names from the point table flash through my mind—
Phantom Wolves, Skull Trees, and all the other bizarre things listed there.
“What about the monsters?”
“The leader… he tamed a monster, and he made that monster fight other monsters…”
He tamed one?
A skill, maybe?
“And then?”
“Everyone started calling him ‘cult leader,’ and… I shouldn’t have followed them… I really shouldn’t have…”
She stopped, as if the memory itself was squeezing her throat.
Her expression twisted—fear, regret, and grief all tangled together.
“I really… shouldn’t have followed them…”
She curled up and cried silently, tears dripping off her chin.
We looked at one another, unsure what to do.
Then Joo Yeonwoo spoke.
“Judging from what you said, they’re a very dangerous group. And close. Within a day’s distance at most.”
His cold, emotionless voice felt like a blade.
He stared at the girl without a hint of sympathy.
“We need information. Tell us the details.”
There was something disturbingly mechanical about him.
That strange discomfort I’d felt before crept back.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling it—the girl immediately began hiccuping in fear.
Saebyeok sighed quietly and stepped in.
“Stop. You’re scaring her.”
“Yeah. She’s probably traumatized—go easy.”
Yeonwoo turned to look at me.
Our eyes met.
The cold, numb aura vanished so quickly I wondered if I’d imagined it.
With a calm expression, he simply nodded and stepped back.
“Sorry. We’re all… a bit on edge after getting thrown into a strange place.”
The girl hiccupped as she glanced nervously between us.
She looked so pitiful that I gently patted her back to calm her down.
Slowly, she began to settle.
After a moment of swallowing her emotions, she seemed to gather her thoughts and cautiously asked:
“Then… you’re not planning on… going with those people… right?”
“I’m not even religious. Saebyeok, you planning on founding a new cult?”
“Nope. I hate cults.”
At our answers, some of the tension drained from her shoulders.
She must have had a lot she wanted to ask, because the questions began spilling out.
“Um… how did you all end up here?”
“Pretty similar to you. We were just driving somewhere, and when we opened our eyes—bam, here.”
“Then what about those superpowers?”
“Superpowers?”
“Oh… do you mean the skills?”
When we said that, she blinked.
“Skills…?”
It was obvious she didn’t know anything.
This was going to take a while.
“Can you see your status window?”
“Yes. Is this thing at the bottom the skill?”
“Yeah.”
Her name was Ji Dohwa.
After showing her how to open her status window, we found out she had the skills Map Making and Pathfinding.
Then we explained everything—the base, the point system, the shop.
“…I see…”
She seemed to realize just how much she’d been missing and bit her lip.
“…I’m such an idiot. I didn’t know anything…”
She gave a bitter, self-mocking smile.
But really—who would think to yell “status window!” in this situation unless they were some game-addicted lunatic?
Most people would be too busy not dying.
Believing the window was real, assuming others had one too, telling someone else to shout the same thing—
it wasn’t exactly an obvious chain of logic.
Insane, in hindsight.
“We only figured it out because we got lucky. Who would’ve guessed something like this existed?”
At least she looked far less terrified now.
Just then, Joo Yeonwoo—who’d been quiet the whole time—called out,
“Let’s eat.”
He’d stepped away earlier, saying he should stay out of the conversation, and prepared the meal.
Not that there was much to prepare—just heating up the bread and rice balls we’d bought.
“Thank you.”
He handed one to Ji Dohwa as well. Even though she still seemed tense, she bowed politely.
I took a bite of bread.
Dry. Flavorless. Completely plain. Not even a hint of seasoning.
Seasoning…
Right—Yeonwoo had bought salt first thing earlier.
Why?
“Dohwa, your skill was Map Making, right?”
“Yes. And finding the route to the destination.”
She seemed to be testing her abilities with Chae Saebyeok as we ate.
“Do you think you could make one for us? A map would make things way easier.”
“Um… I can, but… I’m not sure how useful it’ll be. One moment.”
Ji Dohwa hesitated, then traced a square in the air with her fingertip.
Soon after, she began drawing something in empty space—
and a floating map window, made of the same translucent material as the status window, appeared in midair.
We all let out sounds of admiration—
followed immediately by disappointment.
“There are blank areas.”
“Yes. It only maps places I’ve actually been near.”
It seemed she had come from another base, because her map showed this base and another one further away.
The paths she’d taken were messy, like she’d been wandering in confusion.
Especially the route between the bases—it wasn’t a straight line, but shaped like an L.
The long leg was the distance from where she’d started to the far base,
and the short leg from the starting point to here.
“When I went that direction, it took me nearly the whole day… This place is much closer.”
“All day? That must’ve been rough. Did you start walking in the morning?”
“Yes. From morning to night, nonstop.”
She grumbled that she would’ve come here instead if she’d known.
Something snagged faintly inside me—like a thorn catching on fabric.
Pretending everything was normal, I asked casually:
“You’ve never been here with those people, right?”
“Eh? N-No, of course not… This is my first time seeing this place.”
She gave a shy, relieved smile.
Chae Saebyeok smiled back and asked,
“You must’ve had a hard time. Did you get proper sleep last night? You wouldn’t have had anyone to stand watch.”
“Oh… I was only alone starting this morning. Last night was fine.”
“…So you split up this morning. Something must’ve happened.”
“Yes…”
Ji Dohwa’s shoulders drooped, like she’d just remembered her missing friend.
But instead of comforting her, all of us fell silent.
There was a contradiction.
Saebyeok and I exchanged looks, quietly debating what to do—
when the one poking at the campfire, Joo Yeonwoo, suddenly spoke.
“That’s strange.”
“W-What is?” she asked nervously.
“The timeline doesn’t match.”
He didn’t even look at her—just stated it flatly, like he was commenting on the weather.
“The time we’ve experienced here is: yesterday… and then up to around midday today.
We all arrived when the sun rose. So—24 hours, plus, let’s say, six more hours to account for possible time differences.”
Crackle, crackle.
The fire popped softly—yet the air grew heavy.
“You said you arrived here in the morning.
You walked all day to reach that other base.
Then you slept there at night.
And this morning, you ended up alone and said you had never been to this base.”
“…”
Ji Dohwa froze.
Yeonwoo continued without the slightest hesitation.
“If all that is true, it should take you more than a full day to get from there to here.
But clearly, nowhere near that much time has passed.”
He paused.
“There’s only one conclusion.”
“Th-That… that’s…”
“Interference by a skill or another abnormal phenomenon—
or you are lying.”
