Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World

“Damn it! This is unfair! It’s so unfair! Grrrr!”

 

Him, of all people.

 

To think that he would lose to an F-rank.

 

Lying on his side, clutching his swollen belly filled with shadows, Go Youngwoo gritted his teeth in frustration. The bed sheets were already a mess from his thrashing about.

 

Lying on the bed, he replayed the events that had occurred in the arena.

 

‘Not even an A-rank, but to lose control of my ability in front of an F-rank…! Has this ever happened to me before?’

 

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand what had occurred. He didn’t want to acknowledge it either.

 

Not only did he get toyed with by an F-rank, but his ability also refused to obey him today of all days.

 

Could it be that the F-rank used some strange power? No, that couldn’t be. After all, he was just an F-rank. There was no way an F-rank could control his shadow, which was an A-rank ability.

 

Well, that bastard was… pretty good at dodging.

 

Come to think of it, his expression was rather composed too.

 

No, no. Stop overthinking it.

 

It must have just been bad luck today. Damn it. If this had to happen, it should have been in some neighborhood brawl. To think that he’d suffer such humiliation in front of other A-ranks.

 

“Gah.”

 

His stomach hurt more, and the shadow showed no signs of coming out.

 

– This is the first time we’ve encountered a case like this. …Hmm, going to the hospital won’t help either. You’ll have to wait for it to come out naturally.

 

Even the healing-type hero said that, so what else could he do? Go Youngwoo had no choice but to lie in bed, groaning in pain until the shadow came out of his body.

 

Every time his stomach throbbed in pain, his anger towards that guy only grew. That tone of voice mocking him, that expression, those eyes. He couldn’t forget any of it.

 

Once this treatment was over and his shadow regained its senses, the first thing he’d do was find that Hwashin or whatever his name was and finish him off…

 

Huft.

 

Swoosh.

 

“Found you.”

 

“…What?”

 

…You found me?

 

At the sound of the curtain being drawn back, he turned his head to see Yoo Hwasin waving at him with a bright face.

 

“Hello.”

 

Oh, uh. Yeah. Hello.

 

– No, that’s not it!

 

As Go Youngwoo tried to jump up, Hwashin pressed his forehead with a finger. Though he shouldn’t have been able to, the strength in that slender finger was so strong that he obediently lay back down.

 

“Patients should lie down.”

 

Hwashin closed the curtain again and walked inside. With a gentle smile and a radiant face, he spoke.

 

“Besides, if I hit you, you’ll end up lying down again anyway, so there’s no need to get up, right?”

 

….?

 

“Ah, yes. It might hurt a bit when I hit you.”

 

What?

 

Why was this guy talking about hitting someone like a nurse saying, “It’ll sting a little~” before giving an injection?

 

Hwashin leisurely pulled out a folding chair from under the bed and sat down. His long legs folded in that narrow space.

 

“Now, let me explain.”

 

Yoo Hwashin pointed at Go Youngwoo’s large belly. Go Youngwoo also looked at his own belly before coming to his senses and looking back at Hwasin.

 

“Your shadow has gone inside your body.”

 

The calm explanation continued.

 

“Since I tangled up something inside that shouldn’t be tangled, it won’t naturally be expelled or anything like that. To remove something like that, someone needs to give a huge impact from the outside. But that’s also very complicated. It’s not just about hitting with force.”

 

The more Go Youngwoo heard this gentle and kind tone explaining things that were anything but, the more confused he became.

 

‘What’s with this guy, explaining one by one the reasons why he’s going to hit me.’

 

Unlike Go Youngwoo who seemed perplexed, Hwashin continued his explanation leisurely with legs crossed.

 

“So, I’m going to punch Goyoung hard in the stomach, about three times. Well, two would have been fine, but it’s because you said something like that. Well, this is also karma, right? Anyway, when I hit you, your shadow will be expelled, and I’ll feel good because I’m hitting you too. Wow, killing two birds with one stone. No, I’m going to hit you and erase your memory with it, so it’s killing three birds with one stone.”

 

Hwashin tilted his head, his fingers moving back and forth.

 

Should it be two birds? Three birds?

 

His casual question added to the absurdity.

 

Also, he was still getting his name wrong.

 

Besides, two birds with one stone? Three birds?

 

Was it the right expression to use in this situation? At least, Go Youngwoo himself had never used it that way.

 

“Hey, you, my name is Go Young—”

 

“Alright, let’s get started.”

 

Listen to me for once!

 

Before he could even grasp the situation, Hwashin stood up from his seat. He rotated his fist, twisting his wrist.

 

Go Youngwoo was surprised, but he wasn’t too worried. If Hwashin was an F-rank, his physical strength rank shouldn’t be that high either. Go Youngwoo’s physical strength was B-rank, so it shouldn’t hurt much.

 

But why did he feel so worried?

 

His instincts were telling him. Dodge it. He’d die if he got hit by that fist. But he couldn’t move. The shadow filling his stomach was weighing him down with an inexplicable weight.

 

“It’ll be over in no time.”

 

What on earth was this F-rank? No, what was this guy’s true identity in the first place? How could there be someone like this? Where did that relaxed attitude come from?

 

“What the hell are you–”

 

Bam.

 

Before Go Youngwoo could finish his sentence, his vision went dark.

 

Where Hwashin’s fist had landed, a deep dent appeared. Go Youngwoo, losing consciousness, coughed violently. Between his sputtering coughs, a part of the black, sticky shadow began to ooze out.

 

“Ah, it got on me.”

 

***

 

– You’re a mage, but you’re good at fighting too?

 

“Huh? Are mages supposed to be bad at fighting?”

 

– It’s not that, it’s just… You look physically weak. You act like you’d hate moving around.

 

Even Dragon had often asked him this question. Why was he so strong despite his frail appearance?

 

Originally, Elric’s body wasn’t particularly muscular either. So when he directly fought off monsters that came up from the village, he often heard similar comments.

 

Questions like ‘You’re a mage but you’re good at fighting? And strong too?’.

 

To put it simply, it was all manipulation.

 

How could he go around boasting about being the best mage of the era if he couldn’t even use this level of magic?

 

At that time, Hwashin explained to Dragon like this:

 

“I cast a spell on my body. Just for this moment, to amplify the impact by twofold, dozens of times, or even thousands of times. Of course, there’s a limit, right? I can only use as much as is allowed. The way to find out the limit is simple. You try it until you almost die. Experiment on your body until you almost die, then fix it and experiment again.”

 

Perhaps because he was reminiscing about the past, a subtle smile played on Hwashin’s face in the infirmary.

 

Hwashin looked at Go Youngwoo, who was trembling in front of him. The coughing had stopped. Unlike the sunken center of his belly, the lower part was bulging more than before. The signal would come soon.

 

Wiping his shadow-stained fingers on the bedsheet, Hwashin brought his lips close to Go Youngwoo’s ear. He whispered softly.

 

“Forget everything about me. From the start of the first match to just before you lost consciousness in the infirmary. Just vaguely remember that you lost badly to me.”

 

Round, blue lights leaked out and burst above the fallen man’s forehead. Rotating his stiff wrist, Hwasin turned his steps towards the arena.

 

“It hurts, it hurts.”

 

It was the first time he had properly hit someone with this body, so he needed to get used to it. Even his knuckles on the back of his hand were throbbing.

 

Still, this should get better after hitting a few more times.

 

When he arrived at the arena, unlike when he left, there was a chaotic atmosphere from the entrance.

 

Huh? Had the second round already started?

 

Looking around, Hwashin returned inside and asked Mueum, who was preparing to go somewhere.

 

“Is something going on?”

 

“A gate emergence warning just popped up.”

 

Gate appearances were a routine for heroes. So there was no reason for the atmosphere to be so tense. At this point, gates were still relatively stabilized. The closer to the apocalypse, the more the atmosphere would change rapidly.

 

“It seems too tense for just that.”

 

“It wouldn’t be a problem if it was just one gate, but several appeared at once. For the first time, three appeared simultaneously. Among them, one is A-rank, and one is S-rank, so it’s bound to be an emergency… Well, it’s still just a prediction for now.”

 

Hwashin’s eyebrows went up.

 

Three at once.

 

‘…That shouldn’t be possible.’

 

Hwashin recalled <YHH> in his memory. In the first place, the content of this period appeared briefly as a past episode, so there wasn’t much use in trying to recall it.

 

But one thing was certain, there were never three gates emerging at once at this time. If there were, it would have been given more importance.

 

Moreover, gates starting to appear in the middle of the city was something that happened much later.

 

In the original story, the ‘Hongdae Gate Incident’ where Yoo Hwashin died was the first major gate incident in the city with the highest number of casualties after the appearance of awakened individuals.

 

That was why it became a big controversy and led to the creation of the SH unit.

 

“So even you can be surprised, huh? F-ranks didn’t get an alert?”

 

Mueum waved the work phone provided by the government.

 

—-

 

Gate Safety Management Department (Hero Association) Hero Management Division Notification to all B-rank to S-rank.

 

▶ Incident number unknown, warning for three gate appearances confirmed.

 

Please move quickly to the locations of the incident as soon as possible.

 

〇 Expected locations: Mapo-gu, Seocho-gu, Seongbuk-gu …[View detailed information]

 

〇 Expected ranks: S-rank (Seocho), A-rank (Seongbuk), C-rank (Mapo)

 

〇 Due to this unexpected emergency, the SH unit selection competition is temporarily suspended.

 

※ All heroes currently at the arena, please inform the staff of your destination before heading there.

 

—-

 

Mueum put the phone back in his pocket and continued in a calm tone.

 

“The match is suspended. Going to the gates is the priority now. I’m heading to the S-rank gate in Gangnam. Jian noona will be going there too.”

 

After a brief silence, Mueum spoke first.

 

“Well, I guess we’ll part ways here. If we can see each other again, let’s meet, hyung. And, if you can’t make it to the SH unit, don’t be too sad about it. Okay?”

 

“Yeah, alright. Sure.”

 

Mueum bowed his head and turned away without hesitation. He stumbled once as he turned, which was so cute that it made Hwashin smile.

 

Before long, Hwashin was left alone in the large arena. All the S-rank and A-rank heroes had headed to the gates.

 

Checking his work phone, he still hadn’t received any alerts as an F-rank. It seemed that high-level gate alerts were only sent to higher ranks.

 

“Hmm.”

 

Hwashin stretched his arms upward. He clasped his hands together and shook them side to side, sat down and stood up repeatedly, as if warming up for a deployment.

 

“Hmm, so now… where should I go?”

 

Hwashin grinned. He was contemplating where to go among the three paths.

 

Even though there was no way an F-rank would go to the gates.