Sangah gasps in shock as the man wearing the black coat let go of Dokja and let him fall into the Monster's mouth, waiting to devour him.
"Hyung!!"
Gilyoung cries out as Dokja fell into the Monster's mouth and it closed, with no way of him getting out anytime soon.
"Don't get too attached, kid. You'll never know when they'll leave you." Byeol said calmly.
Byeol grabbed gilyoung's hand and walked slowly. "Stay calm. We won't know what will happen." Gilyoung slightly relaxed, still looking back.
Yiseol smiles and reaches for gilyoung. "Let me carry him." She places her hands under his shoulders and lifts him up.
Gilyoung soon fell asleep, under the influence of Yiseol patting his back.
Byeol reached for her hand that wasn't busy holding gilyoung. "Unnie, where should we go next?" She asks, because she has a gut feeling that Yiseol knows something.
"Just follow me." Yiseol says as she leads the way, taking the role of leader.
────୨ৎ──── 𐔌՞. .՞𐦯 ────୨ৎ────
Timeskip; 4 days later
Byeol was sleeping on Yiseol's shoulders when she heard noises and a familiar ahjussi's name.
She yawns and stretches a bit. "Unnie," she said in a sleepy voice. "Did you know he was going to survive?" Byeol continues and finally opens her eyes.
Yiseol smiles knowingly. "That's for me to know." She chuckles and pats byeol back to sleep.
Gilyoung rushed over to Dokja and immediately hugged him tight. Sangah also went over to Dokja and began fussing over him.
"Dokja-ssi! I'm so sorry I left you behind!" She apologizes and Dokja smiles while ruffling gilyoung's hair.
"How are you? Who's been taking care of gilyoung-ah?" Dokja asks and sangah points to Yiseol, who had 2 children sleeping on each side of her shoulders.
She was playing a game on her phone, occasionally putting them back to sleep if they ever wake up.
—1ST/3RD PERSON, JUNG YISEOL—
'wow, this game is actually fun.' Yiseol thoughts as she immerses herself in playing the game and not paying attention.
However, she pauses for a moment and looks up, observing everything that's happening around her.
Ah! This must be the part where Reader-nim meets that ugly blonde bitch.
Anyways, just a few days after meeting them and I already love these kids. They're adorable and I would absolutely love to pinch their round cheeks!
"Dokja-ssi." She mutters to herself, the name feeling a bit foreign to her. Also, Sword-nim was recently saved by reader-nim.
She glanced to the side and Sword-nim is still passed out. Sword-nim is very beautiful with her hair down.
I continue to play games on my phone, not really caring about anything going on.
A few minutes later, the problem was at least halfway resolved. I reach out to one of the bags and grabbed 3 snacks.
"Dokja-ssi." I say, grabbing his attention. Already holding out my index finger. He nods and we traded.
I gently shook the kids that were sleeping on each side of my shoulder. Byeol was the first to stir awake.
— 3RD PERSON, YOO BYEOL —
She opens her eyes lazily and glances at Yiseol. "What is it?" She asks in a sleepy voice.
Yiseol smiles and hands her a box chocolate. "Eat now, or you won't get to eat later." She scolds her softly.
Byeol nods and opens the package. It's a snack she's familiar with, byeol realizes. She took one of the sticks and ate it, piece by piece.
"It's pocky, right?" She asks with her mouth full. Yiseol sighs and nods. "You shouldn't be talking with food in your mouth!" She scolds.
Mm, this is really delicious, and it's strawberry flavoured too. Byeol happily hums as she continues to eat the strawberry-covered sticks.
Taehyun finally opens his eyes and immediately yawned. His eyes landed on the food and rushed to take it.
"Ah~ I'm so hungry!" He complains, opening the package. Taehyun gobbles it up quickly and asks for more. Yiseol points to Dokja as if saying 'go get it yourself.'
Taehyun looks to where Yiseol is pointing and skips over to Dokja. They had a small conversation, before Taehyun finally ended it, leaving with a bag of chips.
"Byeol-ah, Noona! Let's share this together!" Taehyun exclaimed as he eagerly opens the bag of chips. Yiseol chuckles and takes some of it.
Byeol refuses and went back to sleep. Yiseol noticed that she went back to sleep a lot of times, unlike Taehyun.
A dokkaebi appears just right after byeol fell asleep. It literally scared the incarnations just by appearing.
[H-hello, h-how have you been? Dying of boredom?] It basically stuttered like it had anxiety. The dokkaebi explains that the dokkaebi who was in charge of the channel was being disciplined and that it will be the temporary dokkaebi for now.
[How is it that you all look peaceful?] It sweats then it snapped it's paws.
[An additional penalty has been added to the scenario]
[Foods may no longer be stockpiled]
[All foods will be removed]
The 'ding!' of the notification sounded.
The food quite literally ascended and disappeared in just a gesture of the dokkaebi's paws.
[An additional penalty has been added to the scenario]
[The category, survival fee, has been added
────୨ৎ──── 𐔌՞. .՞𐦯 ────୨ৎ────
Yiseol saw that the survival fee has been added and lifted the sleeping girl. "Let's go Taehyun." She says as she walks over to the group.
Taehyun immediately sits up and follows her. They weren't that far, considering the group was near a railway.
"Dokja-ssi." Yiseol calls out. Beating hyunsung by a second, as he also calls out for Dokja.
"What do we do now? Should we join the search party too?" Hyunsung panicked as he rambled to dokja.
"No. We won't go aboveground, that place is a death trap." Dokja replies swiftly. Hyunsung immediately protests but dokja is quicker to interrupt.
Dokja looks at the railway, and so does the group. Hyunsung seems to realize what he means and panics again.
"Wait. Dokja-ssi, don't tell me..?"
"That's right. We're going Monster hunting."
Ah this damn idiot. He's gonna get us killed one day. Yiseol sweats.
------ timeskip! ------
Somehow, hyunsung & heewon were bickering like children.
"You guys are forgetting something. A few days ago, the world we lived in changed completely. Saying that women and children are weak is prejudice. Anyone can become strong if they raise their stats."
Dokja sighed like an annoyed mom. He was right though, saying that is basically prejudice.
"Unnie. How do I..ahmm...see my skills?" Byeol tugged at Yiseol's shirt and asked. Yiseol smiles and said, "good question. Just say attributes window in your mind."
Byeol made an 'o' shaped mouth. Then, she said it and a screen displaying her skills showed up.
[Attributes Window]
Name: Yoo Byeol
Age: 8
Sponsor: Seer Of Chronos
Exclusive attributes: Astromancer
Exclusive Skills: Psychokinesis Lv.1, Star Creation Lv.1, Invocate Lv.1, Somnokinesis Lv.1
Stigma: Dreamfield Lv.1
That's...a lot of skills, right? But what is Somnokinesis and Psychokinesis?? Byeol was really confused.
"So, did you see it?" Yiseol asked, and byeol nodded. "Unnie, I want to ask..what is Somnokinesis?" Byeol's face was one of genuine confusion.
"Somnokinesis, huh? Somnokinesis is the psychic ability to manipulate sleep and dreams, allowing the user to induce sleep or manipulate dreams." Yiseol patiently explained to her.
Byeol's mouth turned into the shape of an 'O' and she understood. "Interesting.." She was amazed.
Anyways, they had been conversing for a while. Byeol looked up and Gilyoung was showing his skills. He was kneeling down with his hands on the ground, a string of green-ish light appeared in a line, then they saw a big coming from that line.
"My attribute is [Bug Collector], I can have simple conversations with insects." Gilyoung explained, then said that there's nothing up ahead for another 100 steps.
The bug crawled away and Gilyoung stood up. Dokja patted his head while he was patting off the dust in his hands.
Sangah flashed the flashlight, then someone touched something that caused a screen to pop up.
[A sub scenario has arrived]
[Sub scenario — hunting for food]
Category: Sub
Difficulty: E
Clear conditions: Hunt and cook a monster that you can consume as food.
Time limit: none
Rewards: 500 coins
Penalty: ???
It's a monster, damn is that thing hideous. Even if we cooked it, it'd look like it'll be inedible.
"Who could've done this?" Heewon asked. Probably that other ahjussi who was strangling this ahjussi from 4 days ago on that bridge.
Dokja kneeled down on the ground, then asked heewon. "You said you're good at kendo, right?" To which she replied with, "I'm not exactly 'good'.." while scratching her head and smiling sheepishly.
[Constellation 'Seer of Chronos' asks why you aren't saying anything]
"I just like to be quiet." Byeol replies, also this is the second time she's interacted with her sponsor.
[Constellation 'Seer Of Chronos' says they can buy you a weapon from the dokkaebi shop]
"If you're offering, sure." She shrugs, then a dagger appeared in her hands. Yiseol noticed it and smiled, "your sponsor bought you something this early?" And byeol nodded.
"I should ask my sponsor too." Yiseol said jokingly, but the next second a weapon appeared in her hands as well. "...I was just joking but okay." Yiseol sweats.
Dokja notices they've already got weapons except for Taehyun. "You guys already got weapons? Lucky!!" Taehyun complained.
"Maybe you can ask your sponsor too." Yiseol says, but Dokja was already handing over one of the handmade weapon he and heewon made.
"It's alright. I've got this!" Taehyun held it up proudly, then swung it around. It was sort of heavy but he can hold it.
[You successfully obtained a weapon using your intellect]
Everyone except byeol and Yiseol got the notification. "All of you still have some coins left, right?" Dokja asked and we all nodded.
"Invest all the coins you have into strength, stamina and agility. Only leaving behind enough coins to pay for the survival fee."
"This may sounds cruel, but I don't expect all of you to stay alive. Still, try to keep yourselves alive."
Got it. Byeol did as he said and gestured Yiseol to let her down as monsters started coming towards them.
[Sub scenario - hunting for food has begun]