FLIA 20

The area around them looked like a textbook example of a rural Korean countryside. Yohan stared hungrily at the fields filled with sluggishly squirming plants that seemed to have their own will, or were obviously toxic and grotesque, then murmured,

“If I get the chance, I’d like to try purifying those too.”

“Maybe it’s actually easier with plants than animals. Could be good practice.”

But no, that wasn’t why Yohan wanted to purify them. It wasn’t out of any practical or strategic reason. It was simply because, while roasting meat yesterday, the soul of a Korean descended from Ungnyeo¹ a bear who became a woman. In the creation myth of the Korean nation, a tiger and a bear lived together in a cave and prayed to the divine king Hwanung to be made human. Hwanung heard their prayers and gave them 20 cloves of garlic, a bundle of mugwort and ordered them to stay out of the sunlight and eat only this food for 100 days. Due to hunger, the tiger left the cave after roughly 20 days, but the bear remained inside. After 21 days, she was transformed into a woman. had stirred within him, crying out for garlic and chili peppers…

Today, they decided to venture a bit farther than before. Walking along the road like they were on a casual stroll, they passed abandoned tractors, cars, and collapsed houses. Monsters occasionally burst out from the overgrown weeds, but most ended up with an unfortunate fate at the receiving end of Lee Hyunmook’s boot.

“You know, I feel like the monsters are scared of you, Mr. Hyunmook, they don’t seem to attack you.”

“Sharp observation.”

“So they really are afraid…”

Yohan hadn’t been imagining it. The way monsters seemed to slink away whenever they spotted Lee Hyunmook was real. Feeling proud that they could sense the presence of a high-level awakeners, Yohan nodded in satisfaction and then asked,

“Then do you think they’ll run away when they see me too?”

Eyes gleaming, he looked up at Lee Hyunmook, who stared at him for a moment, then replied gently,

“Maybe. But I think it’d be best if you stayed close to me.”

Kind as it sounded, the meaning was clear: no, they wouldn’t. Yohan answered dejectedly.

“Okay…”

He was reminded once again that he wasn’t a combat-class awakener. He’d hoped that maybe, if he purified them, he could still handle danger, but now that he thought about it, purifying a monster didn’t make it a normal animal. Even that frog from yesterday had been enormous. If he purified a monster and ended up with a furious, giant bull, he’d still be in trouble.

“Wait, isn’t that a supermarket?”

Dragging his feet in disappointment, Yohan suddenly perked up and shouted. Only part of the sign remained <□◇r Mar> but the building itself was clearly a fairly large supermarket. Yohan looked at Lee Hyunmook with desperate eyes, and without a word, Lee Hyunmook stepped inside. From a distance, Yohan watched in awe as Lee Hyunmook dealt with the monsters lurking inside.

“I’ll purify them for you!”

As soon as the one-sided battle ended, Yohan ran over. Ever since awakening, he’d started to enjoy using his ability. Watching something filthy and disgusting become clean and whole again brought immense satisfaction, it was like the joy of tidying up a room.

As Yohan stood close and activated his power, shimmering light enveloped Lee Hyunmook. His eyebrows relaxed slightly as he accepted the glowing warmth that spread through him. The clinging filth on his body slowly disappeared.

“Being bathed in your ability… feels like soaking in a hot spring.”

“That’s a compliment, right?”

Lee Hyunmook gave a faint smile. With no particular reason, he lightly tapped Yohan’s cheek, making the startled young man turn his head.

“Yes, Yohan. Of course it is.”

Yohan tried to laugh it off, pretending it was nothing, but his ears began to burn. He was twenty-three already, so why did Lee Hyunmook feel so different from him? Was this the difference between someone in their twenties and someone in their thirties?

Even as a fellow adult, Lee Hyunmook still felt like the most grown-up of grown-ups. Yohan’s heart beat wildly.

‘It’s like seeing a celebrity. …Well, I guess he is like a celebrity.’

If he hadn’t fallen into the Abyss, Lee Hyunmook would still be the most famous person in Korea, even three years later. Yohan told himself that’s why his heart was racing. Riding that high, he energetically began scavenging the supermarket. Even the foul stench from every direction didn’t bother him that much anymore.

He rushed to the seasoning aisle first. Grabbing salt and sugar that hadn’t spoiled, he then examined the fermented sauces, gochujang and doenjang, with great care. His brow furrowed.

“So this is what ‘spoiled’ really means… the writing’s so weird.”

Summoning a glowing orb for light, Yohan tried reading the label on one. The description had changed, and it read:

[■Spic… Fer■ted S■ce]

Manu■actured on: 9■99, 99■

Ex■ration Date: Until ■xposure

Product Name: ■Spic… Fer■ted S■ce

Product Type: —

Volume: —

Blood Con■ent: ??%

*Ingredients and Contents: De■d (5.6%), 死 (3.2%), 死亡 (2.7%), cái, chết, toqu, θάνατος, dood, død, muerte, dauða, ความตาย… death, death, death… in every language…

“I don’t understand a single word, but this is… seriously disturbing.”

Reading the ingredient list, Yohan was reminded of the jellies he’d picked up soon after falling into the Abyss. He placed a hand over the gochujang and muttered,

“I really thought it was just some imported foreign brand…”

“It’s probably better you didn’t know. I figured you’d find out soon enough anyway.”

Yohan agreed, it was probably for the best. He’d been drinking from the skull cup of ignorance like the Buddhist monk Wonhyo²Wonhyo Daesa (원효대사), one of Korea’s most well-known Buddhist monks. Wonhyo was once on a journey to study Buddhism in Tang China. One night, he took shelter in a cave and, in the dark, found a gourd filled with what he thought was clean water. He drank it gratefully and went to sleep. The next morning, he discovered the “gourd” was actually a human skull, and what he drank was stagnant, filthy water inside it., but had he known the truth earlier, it might’ve broken him.

“So once you fall into the Abyss, eating anything normal becomes almost impossible, huh.”

“You either eat rot, eat corrupted things, or starve.”

Lee Hyunmook replied in his usual calm tone. Yohan was genuinely glad he had awakened as a healer. Being a damage dealer or whatever didn’t matter. The joy of giving Lee Hyunmook real food was immeasurable.

He had saved Yohan’s life countless times, this was the least Yohan could do.

“Alright, I’m going to open it.”

Yohan had already purified the gochujang, but it didn’t look much different, which made him nervous. Peeling back the plastic carefully, he found the volume had shrunk a little, but the paste inside was a healthy red.

He hesitantly dabbed some on his finger and tasted it, and lit up at the familiar spiciness.

“It’s gochujang! It worked!”

Delighted, Yohan began collecting all the fermented sauces he could.

Unfortunately, food that had already decayed beyond saving stayed that way.

He threw out a bread bag that contained nothing but crumbs like dust.

Just as purified monsters didn’t shrink, food that had severely rotted didn’t restore.

Still, he managed to fill two carts. The best finds: a whole sack of rice and a pile of canned kimchi. Purifying them had reduced their weight by nearly half, but still, rice and kimchi! Overjoyed, he pushed the carts back using his good arm.

Eating freshly cooked rice with kimchi, so rare it might as well have been gold, was better than any luxury meal.After the satisfying dinner, Yohan tried purifying the fridge, but all he got were jars of dust and piles of melted plastic bags. Disappointed, he heard Hyunmook speak up.

“Yohan, I’ve decided on a goal.”

“A goal?”

Closing the fridge door, Yohan looked up curiously. Since falling into the Abyss, their only goal had been survival. Now, they were finally seeking some form of stability. Lee Hyunmook gestured at Yohan’s arm.

“Once your arm’s healed, I want to go retrieve my spear.”

“Really? You know where it is?”

Yohan asked in surprise. Awakener weapons weren’t ordinary.

In high-risk rift zones, hunting monsters sometimes yielded rare materials unknown to Earth.

Support-class awakeners processed them using their abilities to make weapons or armor.

Normal weapons corroded easily in the rifts, so all awakeners aimed to use these special ones.

Lee Hyunmook’s spear had also been made that way. It was said that he and his team had hunted a Class 10 monster and used its horn to craft weapons for everyone.

“If my memory’s right, it should be somewhere not too far. And now that I’ve got you, I should stop fighting barehanded.”

“Let’s go get it then!”

Yohan was all for it.

He worried every time Lee Hyunmook went hand-to-hand with monsters, not just because of injury, but because direct contact increased the risk of corruption.

There was a reason close-combat awakeners preferred weapons with reach, like spears. Will combat styles change once more purifiers appear?

He rubbed his chest thoughtfully. At first, he hadn’t really felt it, but now he knew. He was a high-level awakener. The energy inside him felt like it was dying to flow out somewhere.

Not toward Lee Hyunmook, who was already awakened, but to someone else capable of awakening.

Yohan gave a bitter smile. There was no one else here but him and Lee Hyunmook. Unless they escaped the Abyss, he would remain the first, and last, purifier.

• 1
  a bear who became a woman. In the creation myth of the Korean nation, a tiger and a bear lived together in a cave and prayed to the divine king Hwanung to be made human. Hwanung heard their prayers and gave them 20 cloves of garlic, a bundle of mugwort and ordered them to stay out of the sunlight and eat only this food for 100 days. Due to hunger, the tiger left the cave after roughly 20 days, but the bear remained inside. After 21 days, she was transformed into a woman.
• 2
  Wonhyo Daesa (원효대사), one of Korea’s most well-known Buddhist monks. Wonhyo was once on a journey to study Buddhism in Tang China. One night, he took shelter in a cave and, in the dark, found a gourd filled with what he thought was clean water. He drank it gratefully and went to sleep. The next morning, he discovered the “gourd” was actually a human skull, and what he drank was stagnant, filthy water inside it.