Lee Gilyoung pointed to the sky.
From a distance, a meteor shower seemed to be falling. The meteor shower was originally the forerunner of the main scenario. However, the number of meteor showers was more than before.
Jung Heewon admired it.
"Pretty…"
Lee Gilyoung gathered his small hands together and muttered something.
Staring at the sky, Lee Jihye was silent for a while.
Maybe she was also praying.
Somehow, she also looked a little sad.
After a while, Lee Gilyoung opened his eyes and looked up at Kim Dokja.
"Hyung isn't making a wish?"
The reader looked down at Lee Gilyoung and replied.
"I have made a wish."
"What is it?"
"Gilyoung, you shouldn't ask that," Jung Heewon scolded him.
As others talked next to her, Lee Jihye continued to remain silent.
'A wish…'
Naturally, she thought of her friend in the first scenario.
Then, after her wish was done, another person came to mind…
"Did you make a wish?"
A voice interrupted her reminiscence. Turning her head toward him, Van was also looking at the sky.
After a few moments, she turned forward once more and asked, "Do you think… like you and Master, can I also forge my own path?"
Van considered the question. It was too vague to convey a proper answer.
However, taking into account the circumstances and Lee Jihye's personality, Van pierced through the essence of the matter.
"Is there something you want to do?"
The student stood next to the mage.
"There's someone who helped me," she confessed.
「"Are you alright?"」
During the first scenario, when she was at her lowest after killing her friend, the presence of another person had felt comforting.
「"I am a new professor here. My name is Evan Vylun."」
Someone who found her when she desperately needed help. A weak professor who pushed her forward, preventing her from thinking about anything else when she still felt the shock of losing her friend.
「"I was looking for survivors in the building. There are monsters outside, so it would be better for people to gather to increase our chances of survival in case we have to fight them."」
In a way, this brief moment of respite for her mind had let her come to terms with the situation more easily. Had he not entered that classroom, she may have continued to stare at her friend's corpse while crying for a long time until the scenario pushed her to leave.
"In that movie earlier, when I wasn't feeling well on the ship, it reminded me of it."
As she felt the despair of losing her friend all over again, that professor's face had also come back to mind.
Or maybe it was because of the mage next to her who started being seasick.
「"You're so… weak…"」
The two moments had overlapped.
「"…You're very weak, sir."」
Van and Evan were similar in that they overpowered their opponents with magic. They also had very low strength and stamina. But their faces looked different.
"In particular, you remind me of him, Van. Even your names sound the same."
Van and Evan. It wasn't obvious at first, but she could see some common points. The mage reminded her a little of that professor.
Even though they hadn't known each other for long, he had left a big impression on her.
If she had not left him alone that day, would she regret it less?
She should have insisted that they go to the underground station together.
She regretted it.
If he hadn't survived, would it be her fault for going ahead without him?
"I…"
Van listened to her words in silence, not commenting.
He hadn't thought that she would still remember Evan.
If he had known that the student would be so affected by his decision to switch identities, would he have made a different choice that day? Would he have parted ways differently so that she wouldn't be worried about his life and death and could move on?
However, what was done was done.
Should he make Lee Jihye meet Evan Vylun again later?
"…I hope that man is still alive somewhere."
Lee Jihye's wish flew with the wind, unaware that the person in question was standing next to her.
Then, they had to go down.
"Van-ssi?!" Jung Heewon exclaimed.
Van had decided to jump off the building, saying it would be faster.
…Their tendency to jump off high places instead of taking the stairs like normal people was especially similar.
***
[Main Scenario #3 – Emergency Defense has ended.]
[You have obtained 1,000 coins as compensation.]
Seeing the message, Gehrman's body completely lost strength and he fell to the ground, losing consciousness.
He had managed to hold on until the end.
Everyone in the room held their breaths.
The monsters had inexplicably stiffened before lunging at each other, their skulls shattering under the impact, and moved like puppets controlled by strings. The cracking sounds that resounded along with the smell of blood filling the room were nauseating.
Meanwhile, moving in ways that seemed impossible, the man barely avoided the attacks. Along with an incredibly high agility, what was more surprising was his terrifyingly good intuition, letting him detect danger no matter the attack.
Not only were his skills strange and his stats far higher than anyone else in this station, what was really outstanding was his mental strength.
For a few hours, they had witnessed the man who seemed like he would fall at any moment persist and defy the odds.
"…We're alive," said someone.
Then, people slowly started to regain their senses.
Yoo Sangah, who had been maintaining the survivors in the air with threads, slowly let them down among the innumerable corpses of monsters.
Some covered their mouths in disgust, some rushed toward the dead, and others stood still.
Yoo Sangah wiped her sweat and sighed. Her face was pale due to keeping her skill activated for so long. But although it had consumed a lot of stamina, she knew it was nothing compared to what Gehrman was doing and had persisted.
Stepping onto torn monster corpses, someone approached the unconscious Gehrman and reached toward him.
Yoo Sangah had an ominous premonition and stopped them.
"What are you doing?!"
Killing intent.
What she had felt was killing intent.
The person in question looked at her.
"W-with this, we all saw how much of a monster he was."
Others paid attention to the two's conversation. Some nodded in agreement.
"If we fight him, we will have zero chance of winning. So now that he is so vulnerable is our only chance to kill him."
Yoo Sangah was revolted. With her high sense of justice, she didn't understand why they would make such a choice.
"But why? He did all this to protect you, so why would you kill him?!"
Shouldn't you thank him instead?
The other person retorted, "But what about later? Today, he protected us, but when he changes his mind, we will all die."
「The memory of Gehrman's smile as he crushed the monsters was spine-chilling.」
What if the people on the other end of his attacks weren't beasts but them instead?
Yoo Sangah's eyes widened.
How could people even think that way?
"A-and, think about it."
Looking around, instead of supporting their savior, she saw others siding with that person. Even the few who did disagree remained silent.
Their faces were filled with greed.
"He must have a lot of coins, right? How much coins could we earn if we-"
"Enough."
Stepping in front of Gehrman, Yoo Sangah stared at the others with resolute eyes.
"Anyone who tries to touch him will have to go through me first."
Under her cold gaze, some shrank. The atmosphere surrounding her seemed completely different from before. However, a few continued to stand their ground and prepared to attack.
At that moment.
"…What's happening here?"
A voice resounded.
Yoo Sangah turned her head in that direction.
Meanwhile, Kim Dokja—who had just come back with the others—stared at the scene in astonishment.
He didn't expect that, instead of seeing Gong Pildu who finished fighting, he would find the second floor broken, with dead monsters littering the floor below. Moreover, instead of everyone surviving, some humans' dead bodies could be seen.
As for the monsters, although most were torn and crushed until they were unrecognizable, some relatively intact ones showed that higher species had also shown up—not only ground rats.
Stepping closer, Kim Dokja saw Gehrman Sparrow collapsed on the floor behind Yoo Sangah, his clothes bloody and torn.
…What had happened?
Kim Dokja met Yoo Sangah's gaze. However, the woman only smiled sadly.
"It's fine, Dokja-ssi couldn't have known."
Kim Dokja couldn't answer.
It was true that he hadn't known this would happen.
But he was supposed to be a 'prophet'. Someone who had read Ways of Survival until the end.
The only person who knew the end of the world.
Yet, something that hadn't happened in Ways of Survival occurred again.
「The world was deviating from the original more and more.」
Since there were no stairs, Kim Dokja jumped down, unfazed by the gruesome sights around him. Due to his high stats, he landed safely. The other party members followed after him.
Actually, this wasn't the first time a variable he hadn't read about had appeared.
First Gehrman, then Van, the people he had saved in the first scenario, Shin Yoosoung who had been brought here, as well as the people who called themselves 'prophets' that they had overheard in the Theater Dungeon…
Yet, with so many variables, he had somehow thought the scenarios would still be the same.
It was his mistake.
…He should have been more prepared.
"I will explain everything."
Yoo Sangah looked back at Gehrman lying on the floor. Looking closer, Kim Dokja could see that he was injured in many places. If they left him here, he would probably die by himself.
If only he wasn't trying to get the King of No Killing trait, Kim Dokja could finish him himself. However, he would have to hold back for today.
Now that Gehrman Sparrow wasn't awake and glaring at him, he almost seemed harmless. But a corner of Kim Dokja's mind felt as if the madman would open his eyes and stare at him at any moment…
Gehrman was in an even worse condition than the currently unconscious Yoo Joonghyuk that Lee Jihye was carrying.
How did that intimidating guy end up in this state?
[The constellation, 'Demon-like Judge of Fire', tells you not to be too worried.]
[The constellation, 'Demon-like Judge of Fire', giggles.]
[A constellation who likes to change genders stares at the love triangle with a meaningful face.]
[A constellation who loves to change genders appreciates the sight of incarnation 'Kim Dokja' looking at his love interest's sleeping face.]
…The constellations seemed to have a strange misunderstanding.
"But first, does Dokja-ssi have a first-aid kit?"