The borrowed hours were a currency more valuable than any System Credit, and Dae-Hyun spent them with a miser's precision. He slept, and for the first time in months, it was not a frantic escape from pain but a genuine restoration. The artificial "Stability" was a shield, and beneath it, his ravaged body clung to the respite.
He woke to the pale dawn light filtering through the reinforced windows. Another distant explosion rumbled, closer this time. He ignored it. His world had shrunk to the four walls of his room and the crimson interface hovering at the edge of his vision.
[STABILITY BUFF: 29:12:44]
The timer was a heartbeat. A countdown to the resumption of his death.
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE: 'FIELDCRAFT']
[OBJECTIVE: USE [APPRAISAL] ON 5 UNIQUE SENTIENT TARGETS (0/5).]
[REWARD: 24-HOUR 'STABILITY' BUFF. 50 SYSTEM CREDITS.]
The System was a relentless drill sergeant, pushing him deeper into this violation. Five people. He felt the bile rise in his throat. It was one thing to do it to Yuna in a moment of desperate need. To systematically use it on strangers…
But the reward was a full day. Twenty-four more hours of life. The calculus was monstrous, and the answer was inevitable.
When the morning nurse, a different one with a harried, rust-colored aura, came to check his vitals, he used [Appraisal].
[NAME: Park Ji-Won]
[SOUL STATE: Rushed. Annoyed. Distracted by Guild Recruitment Fair in the Lobby.]
[NOTES: Aura flickers with ambition. Desires to leave medical field for Hunter prestige.]
The information was flat, useless to him. But the quest counter ticked up to [1/5]. The nurse left, unaware her soul had been a stepping stone.
Guilt was a luxury for people with time.
He feigned weakness, convincing a physical therapist to help him to the hospital's common area—a place he usually avoided. It was a sad, crowded space, buzzing with the low hum of anxiety. Civilians with drab, worried auras huddled together, while a few low-rank Hunters, their souls edged with a brittle, metallic confidence, held court.
He was a ghost among them, a specter in a patient's gown. He sat by a large window overlooking the city, its skyline now punctuated by the occasional plume of smoke.
He focused.
A young mother trying to soothe a crying child. Her aura was a storm of faded pink love and sharp, jagged spikes of fear. [2/5]
An old man playing a slow, solitary game of Baduk. His soul was the deep, still green of patience, but threaded with veins of profound grief. [3/5]
A Hunter in cheap, scuffed armor boasting about a dungeon clear. His soul was a brash, loud orange, but thin, like paint over rotten wood. Underneath, Dae-Hyun's [Appraisal] detected the cold gray of cowardice. [4/5]
Each one felt like a theft. He was learning nothing of value, only confirming the vast, messy spectrum of human desperation. He was almost ready to retreat, the weight of it crushing him, when he saw the source of the commotion in the lobby.
A mountain of a man, encased in ill-fitting, thick leather armor, was waving his arms apologetically at the reception desk. He was enormous, with a broad, simple face currently scrunched in distress.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to break it! It just… looked weak!" his voice boomed, echoing through the space.
Around him, the man's soul glowed. It wasn't silver or orange or any complex color. It was a pure, steady, earthy brown. The color of unshakeable loyalty and simple, straightforward goodness. There was no complexity, no hidden fear or ambition. It was the most solid, honest aura Dae-Hyun had ever seen.
[TARGET: Kang Min-Ho]
[SOUL DESIGNATION: UNBRANDED]
[CORE AFFINITY: Protection. Honesty.]
[CURRENT SOUL STATE: Profound Embarrassment. Genuine Remorse.]
[POTENTIAL: C-Rank. SUBCLASS: [STONE-SKIN TANK] compatible.]
[NOTES: Soul possesses exceptional density and resilience. Cognitive processing is direct and literal. Aura indicates recent minor injury to pride.]
[OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: 'FIELDCRAFT' (5/5).]
[REWARD GRANTED: 24-HOUR 'STABILITY' BUFF. 50 SYSTEM CREDITS.]
The timer in his vision swelled. [53:12:44].
Relief, cold and sharp, washed over him. He had bought himself more than two days.
The mountain of a man—Kang Min-Ho—turned from the desk, his shoulders slumped in defeat. His gaze swept the common room and, for a reason Dae-Hyun would never understand, landed on him. Their eyes met.
The man's expression shifted from embarrassment to a sudden, startling clarity. He strode over, his steps heavy on the linoleum floor, and stopped in front of Dae-Hyun's chair.
He bowed deeply. "I am sorry for the disturbance, sunbae-nim!" he boomed.
Dae-Hyun could only stare. "Sunbae? I'm not a Hunter."
Kang Min-Ho straightened up, his brown aura pulsing with certainty. "You are," he said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial rumble. "I can tell. You have the eyes. The eyes of someone who sees the real fight."
A chill that had nothing to do with his illness traced Dae-Hyun's spine. The man was an idiot. A literal-minded, simple fool. And he had, with terrifying accidental insight, seen right through him.
Before Dae-Hyun could form a response, a new, urgent quest seared his vision, its text a deeper, more threatening shade of crimson.
[URGENT QUEST: 'THE TUTORIAL']
[CONTEXT: A MINOR BREACH HAS OCCURRED IN THE HOSPITAL'S SUB-BASEMENT. HUNTER RESPONSE IS 5 MINUTES OUT.]
[OBJECTIVE: NEUTRALIZE THE INVADING ENTITY. OR. SURVIVE FOR 5 MINUTES.]
[REWARD: SKILL: [SEVER - RANK F]. 72-HOUR 'STABILITY' BUFF.]
[FAILURE: DEATH.]
At the same moment, the hospital's internal sirens blared to life. A different, more primal panic erupted in the common room.
The real fight had found him.
To be continued...