FLIA 175

As soon as Yoon Seungryong arrived here, he picked some fruits and vegetables from the vegetable garden he had made. He took out an unidentified root vegetable, presumably a potato, cooked it until golden brown, and seasoned it. Next, he took out a chunk of pork and generously coated it with his own poison to tenderize it. Once it had softened, he asked Yohan to purify it once, then marinated it in a sweet sauce and steamed it thoroughly. He also grilled bananas until sweet and sliced vegetables to make a salad.

“Let’s eat!”

Mealtime is everyone’s favorite time. Having suffered so much for food, they have come to be grateful for even the most ordinary menu. Yohan reluctantly stepped away from the lamb. However, far from running away, the lamb followed him while bleating pitifully. Yohan looked back.

“Is this one hungry too? Does it want to eat some moss?”

Yohan purified a pile of moss and held it out. The lamb chewed a little, then bleated mournfully as the moss dripped out of its mouth. It seemed the purified moss didn’t suit its taste. As Yoon Seungryong watched the scene, something suddenly occurred to him.

“Oh, come to think of it, I have some reeds saved.”

Yoon Seungryong took out some reeds he had gathered in bulk from the Reed Sea to make a fruit basket someday. When he fed it to the lamb, it finally chewed happily and ate well.

The group also began their meal. The tenderized braised pork melted in the mouth. The potatoes were savory, and the grilled bananas had a unique flavor.

Yoon Seungryong was pleased seeing everyone eat so heartily. But lamb meat probably would’ve tasted very good too. Since Yang Yohan said they could only eat meat lamb if he caught another one, maybe they’d get to eat it in a few days?

After sharing sweet tropical fruit for dessert, Seo Yakrin stretched out.

“Then, shall I make a place to stay for the time being?”

A huge golden hand sprang out. First, it pressed down on the soft valley ground to solidify the foundation. It placed trees, which had been pulled from nearby and trimmed, on the ground and erected pillars. It draped a tarp like a tent and took out two mattresses to place inside. With a bonfire lit in front, it was complete.

Even after the shelter was completed, Yohan had no intention of resting immediately and was completely absorbed in doting on the fluffy lamb. Even after waking up the next day after a good night’s sleep, he made sure to feed it first thing.

While the lamb was diligently chewing on the reeds, everyone prepared the bugs that Seo Yakrin had newly brought. After the meal, there was training again. Contrary to concerns that the lamb might cause disruptions to the training, Yohan participated enthusiastically.

“Aaaargh!”

Of course, today he did nothing but run around screaming. However, being a high-level awakener, his progress was rapid; this time, he managed to swerve to the side just before colliding with a sheep charging in a straight line. By the time the training was over, he was brave enough to stab the sheep’s hindquarters with his spear. Though he did cry while being chased by the furious sheep afterwards…

“Was it hard?”

As Lee Hyunmook checked on him affectionately, Yohan sniffled and answered bravely, pretending that he had never cried before.

“I think it’s a little fun.”

The goal of this training was for Yohan to be able to handle three or four sheep at the same time. Although his companions would always be by his side, he still needed to be able to deal with enemies to some extent just in case.

The meal that evening was a cow that Seo Yakrin had flown down into the valley to catch. When she landed, her belly was a bit bulging; it looked like she had shamelessly eaten a couple of them all by herself. The youngest one was completely unaware of this, and he even worried that Yakrin’s corruption level had risen a little, so he purified her.

What a sneaky old hag…

Yoon Seungryong skillfully slaughtered the cow while inwardly cursing. After draining the blood and butchering it by cuts, he gave the particularly tough parts to Seo Yakrin, while giving most of the fatty and tender ribs, sirloin, and tenderloin to the youngest. Lee Hyunmook and Ju Hoyoung ate silently without complaint, but Seo Yakrin glared at Seungryong whenever Yohan wasn’t looking.

While he was at it, Yoon Seungryong made yukhoe (raw beef dish) by seasoning it sweetly and adding some crushed garlic. There was no need to worry about parasites. It was simple: marinate the meat in a parasite-killing poison and then purify it. He also boiled a spicy blood soup with the extracted blood and grilled tripe until crispy. He even used the bones to make bone broth, so not a single part of the cow was wasted.

As soon as Yohan fell asleep after eating his fill and playing to his heart’s content with the fluffy lamb, Yoon Seungryong grabbed Seo Yakrin by the hair and fought, all the while silently screaming.

“Does it feel good stuffing yourself alone, you old hag!”

“Are you crazy! You dumped all the tough meat on me and you’re complaining!”

“Ah! My eyes! You poked my eyes!”

“Aargh! This bastard is biting me! Let go! Won’t you let go!?”

They were silently bickering while shedding feathers and poison when a cracking sound was heard, and their bodies froze in an instant. The two rolled their eyes to look and saw Ju Hoyoung staring at them with a look of disdain.

“‘You’ll wake Yohan. Be quiet.”

Only then did the two distance themselves while glaring at each other. Yoon Seungryong, hungry from fighting, grumbled as he trudged toward the back of the valley. He planned to slaughter and eat a sheep. His whole body ached, his skin cracked and peeled because of Seo Yakrin. But this was a significant improvement. When they had lost their minds due to corruption, they genuinely wanted to kill and eat each other, so losing a limb or two was commonplace.

Yoon Seungryong bent down and stealthily dug into the ground. Perhaps because the valley was damp, he cut through the unusually soft soil like water as he entered. He quickly dragged a sheep, which had been grazing on moss far from the herd, into his cave. Inside the cave, filled with acidic liquid, he snapped the neck, tore it apart, and devoured it starting from the head.

Hmm, actually, it wasn’t as tasty as purified meat. 

His corruption level was rising…

Yoon Seungryong, who had returned after eating one sheep, crawled into the shelter. When he tried to take a spot next to Yohan, who was sleeping soundly and scattering thick particles of light all around, he saw Lee Hyunmook on the right, Seo Yakrin on the left, and Ju Hoyoung curled up at his feet.

Wait, what is that? He hogged the spot yesterday too?

Yoon Seungryong pushed Seo Yakrin away without hesitation. Seo Yakrin glared at him. It was the second round.

While they were very quietly tearing at each other’s hair and eyes, nose, and mouth, Lee Hyunmook sighed and got up.

He grabbed Seo Yakrin and Yoon Seungryong by the neck and pulled them apart. He moved Ju Hoyoung, who had been quietly curled up at Yohan’s feet, to his right and shoved Seo Yakrin and Yoon Seungryong into the empty space. Suddenly benefiting from this unexpected turn of events, Ju Hoyoung gleefully stuck close to Yohan. The two, pushed to the unfavorable spots during the fight, lay dejectedly with their backs turned to each other.

* * *

‘Seungryong-ah.’

The deputy team leader smiled with a gentle and trustworthy face.

‘I found a safe place where the corruption won’t rise. Let’s go together!’

Beyond him, a pristine area came into view. Lush green grass and colorful flowers that could not be found in the abyss, mountains of emergency rations, and clean, sturdy buildings that monsters could not penetrate… Yoon Seungryong hurriedly ran toward this place that resembled paradise.

But for some reason, once he jumped in, he found himself in an even worse living hell. His body and mind twisted in the Flood. His bones melted and his flesh hardened. His intestines spilled out and his skin shriveled inward. Horns and carapace that weren’t there before grew.

It was agonizing.

He thought he was screaming, but he was laughing… Haha! Ha!

He transformed into a shimmering heat haze and danced, but a rough hand snatched him by the nape and dragged him away. When he turned his head back, what he saw was the form of a distant, black shadow…

Yoon Seungryong suddenly opened his eyes. He woke up smacking his lips. He had finally gotten a good night’s sleep only to have his mood ruined. Nightmares were something he had in abundance in the Abyss, so they weren’t a big deal, but the fact that his sworn enemy, the deputy team leader, had appeared made him feel absolutely terrible. On the other hand, he also thought.

‘… I wonder what Lee Chanha is doing by now.’

The team leader said he was dead, but he probably wasn’t. Lee Hyunmook was someone who had painstakingly saved countless team members until now. Lee Chanha was definitely also wandering somewhere, unable to die even if he wanted to.

Yoon Seungryong rummaged through his pocket. What he pulled out was a chocolate bar that Yohan had purified and given him sometime ago. He rustled the wrapper open and put it in his mouth; it was sweet. He hated the deputy team leader. He hated, and hated again, the one who had made him fall into that terrible Flood so many times. Yet, on the other hand, his heart ached at the thought that he was the only one among the team wandering through a living hell all alone.

Sunrise Team.

He couldn’t express how glad he was to hear that name from Yohan’s lips for the first time in a very long while. It was a name that evoked a rare sense of nostalgia, reminding him that there was once a time when he shone so brightly. When forgotten memories and the human heart resurfaced, it felt as if his lost humanity was reborn. Yoon Seungryong, who had been loafing around for quite some time scratching the back of his neck, flinched. The shelter was excessively dark.

He glanced around and saw that Seo Yakrin and Ju Hoyoung had already slipped away.

Those despicable bastards! I should’ve gone out too!

As he froze and wept inwardly, the shadow filling the shelter rippled. Then it covered their savior, who alone was glowing brightly while sleeping soundly, like a blanket. A faint, eerie lullaby could be heard, barely audible. It gave him goosebumps.

The team leader didn’t dare touch Yang Yohan with even a finger for fear of waking him. Instead, he caressed him with intangible touches and breath.

Because he cherished him so excessively, Yoon Seungryong groaned and crawled out of the shelter. Being in the team leader’s shadow brought back memories as bad as the Flood. It was not for nothing that the team members avoided even stepping on the team leader’s shadow. It was not out of courtesy toward a superior. Those worthless pieces of morality and ethics were thrown away long, long ago…