FLIA 50

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King of the Wild

Whooosh… As clear water poured out, leaves in vibrant, multicolored hues rustled and swayed. Yohan beamed proudly after watering until the can was empty. Then he scattered the organic matter he’d brought along, finely chopped remains of monsters that had been purified and butchered.

“Grow nice and strong.”

The leaves and vines wriggled in unison, eagerly devouring what Yohan tossed to them. It was the kind of scene that would’ve horrified him before, but now he calmly trimmed the overgrown stems and leaves with ease.

The spot he was watering now was a field of vegetables, onions, scallions, perilla leaves, lettuce, and the like. At first, he’d tried growing purified plants, but they inevitably rotted and died, unable to withstand the toxic soil. The yield had been pitiful. So now he grew them in their contaminated state, harvesting as needed. The downside was that the onions and scallions frequently clambered over the fence to try to eat each other, and he had to break up their fights.

After finishing the watering, Yohan scattered a faint concentration of purification light like pesticide. Without occasional purifying like this, the plants mutated too grotesquely, and the danger level of the garden would spike. Once all his tasks were done, he turned, and saw Ju Hoyoung approaching with a cheerful spring in his step, carrying a basket full of squirming fruit.

“Hyung! I finished harvesting!”

“Great job, Hoyoung-ah.”

Yohan welcomed him with a smile and peered into the basket, inside, a few of the bizarrely-shaped harvests were shrieking and trying to escape. But Hoyoung expertly smacked them back down with a quick flick. Once Yohan purified them, they finally settled into vaguely normal shapes. Scanning over a massive banana, a pineapple with a shell tougher than steel, and some unidentified tropical fruits, Yohan’s face lit up.

“Ooh, mango! I haven’t had this in forever.”

The fruit field was far more dangerous than the vegetable garden, so Yohan wasn’t allowed to approach it alone. He’d seen more than one monster keel over and turn into fertilizer while trying to grab a fruit.

Even now, Lee Hyunmook was roasting a fruit tree with electricity, reducing it to char. Whenever a plant grew especially aggressively, he’d fry it on the spot, perhaps that was why the plants visibly quivered and curled up whenever he showed up.

“Yohan-ah, it’s safe to come closer now.”

When Hyunmook gestured, Yohan, who had been lingering nearby, hurried over. Hyunmook handed him something, which Yohan immediately purified as he accepted it. It was an unusually large and glossy cherry.

“Cherry tree was acting up today.”

The smile on Hyunmook’s face as he spoke was so handsome that Yohan found himself momentarily mesmerized. Snapping back to his senses, he echoed the comment enthusiastically.

“Maybe because it’s such a strong tree, the cherry’s huge. Almost the size of an egg.”

The three of them returned to their shelter with the abundant harvest. After Ju Hoyoung had joined the group, they’d moved to a newer, more comfortable building. The place they’d stayed before had felt like a cheap guesthouse, this one resembled a well-maintained inn. For four people, it was more than spacious.

Outside the entrance, Yoon Seungryong was squatting with a bad attitude and yawning. When he saw the three of them, he jumped up. He’d been bored guarding the place and now welcomed Yohan and the food.

“How’s the rice paddy doing?”

“Seems like it’s growing well! Came up fast, too.”

“Guess even hell has its perks. Who knew farming could be this easy?”

Whistling, Seungryong took the food and went inside. Of course, “easy” was only true because they were awakeners. A normal person would’ve had to risk their life dozens of times just to water, fertilize, and harvest a single crop.

As Yohan followed him in, he glanced up at the crimson-black sky. It had already been several months since they’d fallen into the Abyss. Would the day ever come when they could leave this place? With a small sigh, he recalled something Ju Hoyoung had told him a few months ago.

***

“To me, this place feels like one giant stomach.”

That was how Ju Hoyoung had begun the conversation, strangely, when he talked about the method of escape he claimed to have seen with his own eyes.

“Before I settled in the Japan zone, I moved around a lot, different regions, all over. But no matter where I went, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being digested inside some massive stomach.”

A giant stomach… The metaphor sent a chill down Yohan’s spine. It was unsettling, but disturbingly easy to understand.

“The more contaminated we get, the more we’re being broken down. I think the Flood is like a powerful stomach acid. Every time it passes through, the place gets more horrific. After a few waves of it, there’s nothing left that even resembles what was there before. Eventually, it all melts down into a mess and disappears completely.”

Ju Hoyoung speculated that the places where the Flood had passed multiple times, turning everything into mush, eventually vanished into wastelands. He went on.

“And what happens when you overeat, beyond what a stomach can handle?”

With his pale, gaunt face twisted, Hoyoung mimed gagging and throwing up. Hyunmook, who had been silently listening, frowned.

“You’re saying… it throws it back up?”

“Exactly! I saw it myself once. Might’ve been fifty years ago…?”

Hoyoung trailed off after a glance at Yohan, who blinked in confusion. He then corrected himself.

“…Or maybe five months ago. Time here feels like it moves so damn slowly. Anyway, I was keeping watch to see if there was anything salvageable when a new zone appeared, and then it disappeared again. Outward. Like it bounced back into our original world.”

For a fleeting moment, a faint and nearly extinguished hope flickered across Hoyoung’s face, only to vanish again just as quickly.

“It reappeared some time later, but… if I’d been in that new zone when it vanished, I might have made it out.”

As Yohan listened, the idea sounded strangely convincing, his heart thudded with excitement. But Yoon Seungryong, in contrast, shrugged with skepticism.

“Sounds like a really slim chance.”

“Yeah. Usually, you only realize a new zone’s appeared after some time’s passed. You’d need luck. Plus, it’s not like new zones pop up often. Especially since Yohan just arrived, if the Abyss has only recently devoured something, it probably won’t regurgitate again anytime soon.”

Even as they listened, neither Lee Hyunmook nor Seungryong showed the slightest reaction. Their eyes were weighed down by despair long past its expiration date. Faced with that, Yohan, who’d been getting caught up in the excitement, calmed back down.

“Then… just how low are the odds?”

“Probably worse than winning the lottery. You don’t know where a new zone might show up, and even if it does, there’s no guarantee it’ll spit someone out again like Hoyoung saw.”

Hyunmook shot a glance toward Ju Hoyoung, as if to say, “Just look, he’s still here, isn’t he?” Only then did Yohan begin to truly let go of the idea. If someone as sharp and quick as Hoyoung hadn’t managed it, surely he’d already tried every trick there was. And yet, he was still trapped here. Even so, Yohan chose to keep a sliver of hope alive. Otherwise, he’d fall too deep into despair…

“Here you go, Yohan. Eat up.”

“Thank you.”

Seungryong’s voice pulled him from his thoughts, and Yohan accepted the bowl with a grateful smile. Inside were perfectly roasted potatoes, grilled meat, and a heap of assorted fruit. Since they were conserving canned goods and sauces as much as possible, their meals had grown increasingly healthy and primitive. As the group’s cook, Seungryong sighed.

“If only we could get our hands on some chili seeds.”

“Right? You can’t tell what anything is until you purify it, and half the time it’s a bust.”

Yohan responded with a note of regret. They’d been trying to gather as many varieties of fruit and vegetable seeds as they could, but chili peppers remained stubbornly elusive. Something that looked like a chili would turn out to be cucumber, eggplant, or loofah after purification. He couldn’t help but wish they’d secured some while still in the Korean zone. It was a shame, half of their gochujang was already gone.

“We found some beans this time, though. Might try making doenjang or soy sauce. If I shape it like a meju block (fermented brick made from soybeans), maybe something’ll work eventually.”

They chatted as they ate, it was a peaceful moment. With his nose buried in his console, barely touching his food, Hoyoung felt like the youngest sibling. Hyunmook, silently eating, had the air of an eldest brother. With four people around, things had grown lively and pleasantly chaotic.

As he ate, Yohan glanced sideways at Hyunmook. Truthfully, it wasn’t just the dwindling stock of condiments that he found frustrating. It had already been months since he’d arrived here, and his relationship with Hyunmook hadn’t progressed at all. Not for lack of trying, but it was difficult. There’s just never any time to be alone with him.

They’d each been assigned private rooms after moving to this new shelter, but it didn’t matter. The three others, all still partially corrupted, clung to Yohan at every chance. The way they hovered around him made them look like cold people crowding around a fire, and how could he possibly tell them to stay in their own rooms?Lately, Yohan had begun to feel his own limits.

‘Even though I purify them daily, just being here means they’re still slowly deteriorating.’

Total recovery was impossible in this place. Yohan’s purification had to be constant, only then could the others remain sane. And since his purification was strongest while he slept, they all ended up squeezed together in the largest room every night.

With no chance of ever being alone with Hyunmook, Yohan was gradually resigning himself to it.