He sighed and looked up at the sky. "When is this gonna end?"
Si Hon stood there, chest still shaking from the mountain climb and the run that came before it, wheezing out a dry laugh that had no humor left init. "Haha... I'm probably gonna die?"
He squinted up at the pale, ghostly light bleeding through the clouds. "Lord!!! Anyone! My system! Grant me power!!!"
Well, too bad nothing happened. The snow and the trees looked exactly the same as they had at night, except now everything sat washed in that pale, foglike glow, like someone had swapped the sky out for gauze.
Behind him, one of the MUNCHES chuckled— a weird, rumbling, almost amused little snicker. "Heehee… normal… here… day…"
Si Hon turned slowly. "Normal? THIS is normal? Aigo… of course it is."
Another one let out a rattling laugh, breath fogging thick in the air, and the world didn't get brighter so much as it just became barely visible— a morning that still felt like night wearing a costume.
Si Hon blinked. "Oh. Great. To think this is normal. I guess I'll add that to my list."
Then one of the MUNCHES reached out, massive rocky fingers closing gently around the little girl's wrist.
It didn't yank her.
It just lifted her, like a plush toy off a shelf, and she dangled there completely expressionless, feet swaying slightly in the cold.
Si Hon's eye twitched, and he let out a shaky, humorless laugh. "Haha… hey— wait, wait. No… okay you big stone-toothed motherfuckers, listen. You can… you can like, punch me, throw me, turn me into whatever, but PUT. HER. DOWN."
The MUNCHES all paused at once, giant heads turning slow, staring at him.
One leaned forward, breath steaming. "What… human want…?"
Si Hon threw his hands up. "What do I want?! Bro! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
The MUNCHES exchanged looks between themselves, a few tapping their bats absently, one scratching its chin with a claw like it was trying to remember what wanting even felt like.
Then, all together, a low, echoing, almost childlike laugh rolled out of them.
"We bored," the closest one said, grinning wide with teeth like cracked stone. "We want… play."
The freezing air went quiet.
Si Hon blinked once, twice. "Play."
The girl still dangled from the monster's hand like a keychain looked at Si Hon disappointedly for no reason.
He exhaled slow. "Okay. Okay, cool. Play. You want to play. Of course you do. Can I— can I get context? Rules? A tutorial?"
The MUNCHES just stared.
One tapped its bat once— THUD —another tilted its head, and then the one holding the girl lifted her a little higher, showing her off like a prize. "Hm… this little… one… good toy."
Si Hon's whole body flinched. "Hahahaha… no. No dude… no one is playing with that kid ok?"
They all leaned in closer at once. "Human play too…?"
Si Hon swallowed hard. "I ALREADY TOLD YOU I WOULD!!!"
The ground shifted, not from wind or movement, but from presence— like reality itself had gone quiet, holding its breath for whatever horror was about to step onto the stage.
The MUNCH holding the girl adjusted its grip, dangling her like a stuffed toy while the others circled around Si Hon, bats dragging deep trenches through the snow, heavy footsteps making the ground tremble slow and rhythmic, almost playful in a way that made it worse.
***
Minutes pass.
The gray-white morning light offered no warmth, no comfort— just enough visibility for Si Hon to fully regret being conscious.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, Lord. System. Or anyone whoever. This is the part where a miracle happens, right?"
And that's when he heard it— a sound completely out of place in this frozen hell. Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
Footsteps, but not careful, not cautious— stumbling, dragging, sloppy.
Si Hon turned, squinting through the fog, and a silhouette staggered over the ridge, swaying side to side like a drunk spirit that had gotten lost on the way to the afterlife and given up asking for directions.
Black hair, long and messy, stuck to its cheeks with something that might've been sweat, might've been tears, might've been straight alcohol.
Si Hon looked closely. (A girl?)
She wore a bandaged chest, wrapping loose and haphazard around her torso, bare arms marked with old scars, loose hakama pants dragging trails through the snow, and a single katana strapped carelessly to her hip, the scabbard cracked, one binding string hanging loose and forgotten.
Her feet were bare in the snow, and she showed zero reaction to the cold whatsoever.
She tilted her head up, eyes half-lidded and glassy, cheeks flushed bright pink. "H-Heyyy… hiiii… lil' trees… stop spinning…"
Then she hiccuped.
Si Hon stared at her like she'd fallen out of a completely different novel. "Yo… ay Ma'am— hey! YOU!
Samurai-looking lady!"
She turned toward his voice, blinking slow.
"Yes!!! You. Help. Help please."
The woman smiled weakly, lifting one hand in a lazy wave.
Then she fell— face-first, straight into the snow.
PLOP.
No reaction, no twitch, just dead weight collapsing where she stood.
"ಠ_ಠ… I expected something…."
Behind him the MUNCHES burst into laughter, that horrible, vibrating, cracked-rock laughter echoing out like a dozen bears choking on gravel.
"Heeheehee… human funny…"
"Hahaha… good sound… fwump…"
Si Hon ignored all of it and dashed across the snow toward the collapsed woman, reaching for her katana and yanking at the scabbard.
It didn't budge an inch.
He grunted, pulling harder, but the blade felt welded straight into the mountain itself.
He gave up almost immediately, raising both hands in surrender. "Nope. Nah, nevermind. That thing's staying there respectfully, ma'am, your sword weighs insanely heavy!"
He turned back around and froze.
A MUNCHE was holding the little girl gently, squeezing her cheeks between two giant rocky fingers— squish, squish —like she was a stress ball passed around a break room.
She dangled there, perfectly expressionless, murmuring only, "S-summoner… command me…"
Si Hon slapped both hands to his head and started screaming internally.
Then one of the MUNCHES stepped forward, bat lowering, knees bending into a batter's stance, and this time it wasn't playing— it was going for a full swing straight at the [little girl's head,] snow crunching hard as it charged forward, bat dragging a long furrow through the ground behind it.
WHOOSH.
And right as that monstrous bat was about to connect— pause.
Everything froze. Mid-motion.
Snow hung suspended in the air like glitter caught in glass.
The wind froze mid-whistle.
Even the MUNCHE mid-swing hung frozen with its bat inches from the girl's face, cracked stone teeth locked in a wide, hungry grin.
Si Hon stared around, chest heaving. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me… didn't this happen like… yesterday too?"
He looked around then made a plan immediately.
He turned toward the unconscious samurai woman, and her katana— the one that had felt impossibly heavy just seconds ago was lifted weightless in this frozen moment.
He squinted at it. "Oh…?"
He didn't waste time questioning it, he grabbed the blade and sprinted toward the girl, or trying to— his movements dragged through the frozen air like he was running through thick syrup instead of snow.
He cursed under his breath the entire way. "Great… cool… I love this. I LOVE this! Everything's FROZEN but I'm slowed down. Amazing! ಠ益ಠ"
He finally reached her, still dangling by the cheek from those giant stone fingers, motionless, expressionless.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled— nothing. Pulled harder, still nothing. "…Oh, come on!"
He stopped, adjusted, carefully peeled the stone finger away from her cheek, and instead of pulling wrapped both arms fully around her tiny body and held her tight against his chest.
And at that exact moment, time resumed.
WFWOOOSH.
The full force of the MUNCHE bat swept through the space where the girl's head had been a second earlier and slammed straight into Si Hon's back instead.
CRACK.
Air ripped out of his lungs in one violent burst, his vision exploding white at the edges, something inside him snapping— ribs, spine, pride, maybe all three at once, everything breaking together.
He hit the snow face-first, blood spraying dark across the white ground.
"H-HUMAN… FAST? NO! TELEPORT… AGAIN…" one MUNCHE whispered, genuinely confused.
"CHEAT… KILL HIM…" another snarled, already raising its bat for a second swing.
Si Hon tried to breathe.
Nothing came.
His fingers twitched weakly, and then he felt small hands press against his face— cold, shaking.
He cracked one eye open.
The girl. The summoned child. The emotionless being who'd spent the whole day granting wishes that's not even accurate with a blank stare.
Wasn't blank anymore.
Her eyes were wide, lips trembling, and she hugged him back hard, tiny fists clenching into his jacket, and in a soft, breaking whisper meant only for him, she said, "So you're the one?"
The world shimmered.
The cold dissolved into static, like a television losing its signal.
Everything flickered.
And then—
***
Si Hon woke up in pitch black. The kind you get wearing sunglasses at midnight for no reason.
He looked around, then sucked in a sharp breath.
"Night already?" he muttered, voice hoarse, ribs aching like they were being held together purely on hope and duct tape.
Inside the tent, the warmth wasn't from any kindness— just the System obeying his Safe Zone boundary like it always did.
Outside the blizzard screaming. Inside, everything sat still.
Si Hon rubbed his face, and then heard a rustle.
He froze.
Slowly, very slowly, he lifted the blanket— at first he didn't see anything… till his eyes adjusted to the darkness and saw something.
…
…
ಠ_ಠ…
A little girl, snuggled against his chest, sleeping soundly, small hands curled lightly into his shirt, breathing soft and steady, warm.
Si Hon stared at her for a long moment.
A long minutes pass.
"Shit." He finally understood.
The world rewound… Si Hon remembered being at the mountains and suddenly he's back here???
And somehow, through all of that, she'd ended up right back at his side.
He blinked hard, and that's when he noticed something else pressing against his leg under the blanket.
He reached down slowly.
Steel— cold, smooth, heavy.
He pulled it up and found a katana, the drunk samurai's katana, gripped in his hand. "Oh… that's, wow… this is BS."
He stared at the blade.
It reflected nothing back at him— not light, not shadow, just endless black swallowing the tent's dim glow whole.
He groaned and flopped back into the blanket. "Okay… okay… once there's at least light…" his voice cracked slightly, "then I guess I'll actually make a campfire first."
DING.
「HAHAHAHA. NO YOU WON'T. YOU WILL PROBABLY LIE…. DOWN… AGAIN…?」
Si Hon glared at the glowing text. "Wow, hi, you're laughing?"
「Yes… wait…」
"Yea." He sighed, dragged himself upright, crawled toward the tent flap and cracked it open.
Cold air spilled in. "Yep, I'm not dreaming."
The blizzard still roared, but something else, something much closer, sat again dead silent.
He narrowed his eyes and peeked out.
The Safe Zone's red circle glowed faintly beneath the snow, and pressed right up against the barrier, silhouettes— dozens of them, tall and broad.
And yep.
The MUNCHES, staring at the tent, breath fogging the darkness, eyes glowing faint blue in the dark.
"Hahaha… yea," Si Hon whispered, and pulled one arm out of the tent just far enough to flip them off. "Fuck you all there. •́ ‿ ,•̀"
Then the system flickered violently.
"..."
DING, DRRRRRRRRT, glitching hard, and a window exploded into view mid-panic.
「WHAT THE FUCK?! NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT. WHY ARE YOU IN THE TENT AGAIN?!?」
Si Hon blinked. "Figure it out."
More windows spammed one after another, frantic.
「IMPOSSIBLE. THE TIMELINE IS WRONG. THE MOUNTAIN CLOCK IS WRONG. WHY IS IT NIGHT AGAIN. Aren't you doing a 50/50 in the mountain.」
The text froze mid-sentence, then slowly scrolled onward.
「… … … Is that... the CHILD next to you?」
Si Hon looked down at the girl snuggling deeper against him. "Yea?"
The System froze completely, and then— 「THE TIME IN SNOWFALL MOUNTAIN REWOUND.」
Si Hon stared blankly. "Cool. I know and I wanna sleep." He flopped back into the blanket.
The little girl shifted against him, and then— purr. Soft. Warm.
Vibrating gently against his chest, unmistakably a cat's sound coming from a girl who's an hour ago hadn't shown a single flicker of feeling.
Si Hon blinked up at the tent ceiling. "Haha."
He hesitated, then slowly raised a hand and patted her head. "Thank you I guess."
She purred louder.
The System popped up again, practically vibrating with its own alarm.
「OH. OH NO. SHE'S… SHE GOT EMOTIONS NOW!!! AND THAT GIRL USED HER REWIND TIME… ON YOU… WOAH!!! ヽ(｡◕o◕｡)ﾉ.」
Si Hon stared. A long pause. "Yeah. That sounds like criticism. And yea, Time froze…"
Another pause.
The System's text trembled visibly on the window.
「Cool… wait what? She only rewind it.」
Si Hon's eyes slowly widened.
「SHE CANNOT FREEZE TIME. SHE CAN ONLY REWIND IT.」
Silence.
The wind outside stopped for a moment, like even the storm needed a second to process that.
The tent creaked softly, the girl nuzzling deeper against his chest, purring faint and steady.
Si Hon swallowed. "Oh wait. Then was that you?"
「No… I can only stop time if I were by your side. I was doing something that time, so it wasn't me.」
"Cool," he muttered, already flopping back down into the blanket, one hand still resting on the girl's head as his eyes slid shut.
***
[Midnight.]
"Summoner."
He cracked one eye open. "Yeah?"
The girl didn't look up from where she'd buried her face against his chest, voice muffled and small. "I did not know I could feel afraid."
Si Hon went still for a second, processing that. "Yeah?"
"I did not know I could feel afraid of losing something," she corrected, quieter still. "It was unpleasant."
"This feels awkward…," he said finally, patting her head again, gentler this time. "Well, losing someone feels bad. It usually is."
"Will it happen again?"
"Probably."
"…I do not think I want that."
"Yeah," Si Hon murmured, eyes sliding shut again. "Nobody does, kid. Welcome to having a heart."
She didn't say anything else after that, just settled closer, purring soft and uneven like she hadn't quite figured out the rhythm of it yet.
****
{THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN.}
Somewhere further off, buried in the snow where he'd left her, the drunk samurai woman finally stirred, groaning against the cold, one hand patting blindly at her hip for a sword that was no longer there.
"Where's my— hey. HEY. Where'd my sword go."
She sat up fast, hair sticking to her face, glaring accusingly at the empty scabbard like it had betrayed her.
"Someone's gonna DIE for this," she slurred, already stumbling to her feet, swaying hard against the wind. "As soon as I figure out— which way is up again!"
"Holy fuck... Why am I sleeping in he snow anyways..." She said confused.
Then a paused. "Wait, wasn't there someone in here getting harrased by those Gray Furred Monkeys? Why isn't there no blood?"
She tapped her chin. "Weird... Don't tell me the guy took my precious katana and fend them off..."
...
....
...
"Nevermind, wouldn't work since there's not one blood or smell here."
She stretched. "Aigoooo!!!! I'm craving—"
Thud.