[Quest: Hide the Monster.]
[Time Remaining: 28 Minutes.]
"Heavy..."
My lungs felt like they were filled with crushed glass. Rainwater mixed with sweat, stinging my eyes.
Yoon JieMi was not a man. He was a boulder wrapped in tactical gear.
"How... how much muscle did I write onto you?" I gritted out, heaving his arm over my shoulder again. "I should have made you a mage. A skinny, malnourished mage."
We were moving, but barely.
I was dragging an 85-kilogram unconscious S-Rank Awakener through a back alley in Mapo-gu.
Wee-woo-wee-woo!
The sirens were getting closer. Blue and red lights flashed against the wet brick walls like a strobe light in a horror movie.
I pressed us into the shadows of a dumpster.
A drone whizzed overhead, its red scanner beam sweeping the street we had just crossed.
[White Tiger Scout Drone (C-Rank)]
[Detection Radius: 50 meters]
I held my breath. JieMi's head lolled against my neck. He was burning up. His skin, usually cold, was now radiating heat like a furnace.
Mana Overload.
The drawback of his shadow ability. If he didn't discharge the excess energy, his blood would literally boil.
"We need to go," I whispered.
But I couldn't carry him. My F-Rank stamina bar was flashing red.
[Stamina: 5/100]
"Think, Han Seo-Yeon. Think."
I couldn't buy a strength potion. I was broke.
But I was in Lee Yuna's body.
Lee Yuna. F-Rank Porter.
Porters were the mules of the Awakener world. They carried loot, equipment, and sometimes... wounded teammates.
"Status Window!"
[Name: Lee Yuna]
[Class: Porter (F-Rank)]
[Active Skills: None]
[Passive Skills: 'Beast of Burden' (Lv. 3)]
"You count as luggage, right?" I looked at the unconscious killer on my shoulder. "Please count as luggage."
I gritted my teeth and hoisted him up.
Ding!
[Passive Skill 'Beast of Burden' Activated!]
[Load Detected: 'Dangerous Male Lead'.]
Strength flooded my trembling legs. It wasn't S-Rank power, but it was enough to stop my knees from buckling.
"Okay. Let's go."
I didn't head for the main roads. I navigated the city using the map in my head.
I knew that the CCTV on the corner of 4th Street had been broken for three months (a plot point in Chapter 15 used by a villain).
I knew that the construction site two blocks away had a hole in the fence.
I moved like a ghost, dragging the most wanted man in Korea through the blind spots of the city I created.
[Time Remaining: 02 Minutes.]
We arrived.
It wasn't a safe house. It wasn't a luxury hotel.
It was a semi-basement apartment in a crumbling red-brick building.
Lee Yuna's home.
I fumbled with the keypad, my fingers slippery with rain and blood.
Beep-beep-beep-click.
I kicked the door open and practically threw us inside.
Thud.
We collapsed onto the linoleum floor in a tangle of wet limbs. I kicked the door shut with my heel and locked all three deadbolts.
"Safe," I gasped, rolling onto my back. "We're safe."
I stared up at the moldy ceiling. The room smelled of instant ramen and damp concrete. It was tiny—maybe ten square meters. A bed, a kitchenette, and a bathroom the size of a closet.
And now, occupying 80% of the floor space, was Yoon JieMi.
I sat up, wiping the hair from my face.
"Okay. First aid."
I crawled over to him.
The lights were off, but the streetlamps outside filtered through the small, ground-level window, casting long bars of light across his face.
He looked terrible.
His complexion was gray. Black veins were crawling up his neck, pulsing in time with his erratic heartbeat.
"So hot," I murmured, touching his forehead. It was scorching.
I needed to cool him down.
I grabbed the hem of his tactical vest. "Sorry about this. I'm not trying to take advantage of you."
I unclipped the heavy Kevlar. Click. Click.
I peeled off the velcro straps.
Underneath, he was wearing a black compression shirt that was soaked through with sweat and blood.
I hesitated, then pulled that up too.
My breath hitched.
I had written descriptions of his body. 'Sculpted like a statue,' 'Lean muscle honed by survival.'
But seeing it in 4K resolution was different.
He was perfect. Every muscle was defined, stark against his pale skin.
But the perfection was marred by scars.
Burn marks. Slash wounds. Bite marks from monsters.
Almost resembling a roadmap of twenty versions of torture.
And on his chest, right over his heart, the black veins were thickest. They were writhing under his skin like worms.
"Ugh..."
JieMi let out a pained groan. His brow furrowed, his teeth clenching.
The shadows in the corner of the room flared.
They sensed his distress.
Tendrils of darkness crept across the floor, aiming for me.
"No, no," I raised my hands. "I'm helping. See? Helping."
The shadows didn't care. They were instinctive defense mechanisms. One lashed out, wrapping around my ankle.
Sizzle.
"Ah!"
It burned like dry ice.
[System Warning!]
[Target is entering 'Mana Deviation'.]
[His Shadow Energy is rejecting his body.]
[If not stabilized within 10 minutes, the Target will explode. (Estimated Blast Radius: 5km)]
"Explode?!" I shrieked. "This is a residential area!"
[Quest Generated: Emergency Stabilization.]
[Method: The Target needs an 'Anchor' to ground his erratic mana.]
[Recommended Action: High-level potion... (Not available)]
[Recommended Action: Healer class skill... (Not available)]
[Recommended Action: Direct Mana Transfer via Skin Contact.]
"Skin contact?"
I looked at the writhing black veins on his chest.
"If I touch that, won't I die?"
[Host has 'Author's Privileges'. You are compatible with his mana because you created it.]
[Touch the Core (Heart) and absorb the excess energy.]
I swallowed hard.
Absorb the energy of a catastrophic S-Rank monster? Me? An F-Rank?
"If I die, I'm going to haunt you, System."
I took a deep breath.
The shadows were hissing now, coiling around the bedposts, cracking the cheap wood.
I straddled his waist.
There was no other way to get leverage.
I sat on his hips, ignoring how intimate it felt. He was burning hot even through his pants.
I placed both hands on his bare chest, right over the pulsing black mass.
"Wake up, JieMi," I whispered. "Don't die on me."
Zzzzt!
The moment my skin touched his, a shockwave blasted through the room.
The lightbulb overhead shattered. Pop!
Darkness swallowed us.
"Ack!"
It felt like I had stuck my fingers into a socket.
His mana was violent. It was screaming. It was a chaotic storm of rage and sorrow.
Why? Why does it hurt? Why did you leave me? Why do I have to kill?
Emotions that weren't mine flooded my brain.
I gritted my teeth, enduring the onslaught.
"I'm sorry," I gasped, tears leaking from my eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
I pushed my mana—my tiny, pathetic F-Rank mana—into him.
It wasn't much. It was a drop of water in a forest fire.
But it was familiar.
To him, my mana felt like the 'Voice' from the void.
The Creator.
Slowly, the black veins began to recede.
The burning heat under my palms cooled.
The shadows in the room stopped thrashing and settled down, purring like tamed cats.
I slumped forward, exhausted.
My forehead rested against his chest.
"It worked..." I panted.
Suddenly.
A hand shot up.
It grabbed the back of my neck. Hard.
I froze.
"Got you."
The voice was rough, gravelly, and terrifyingly awake.
I lifted my head slowly.
In the darkness, two crimson eyes were glowing. They were staring right at me.
Yoon JieMi was awake.
And I was sitting on top of him, half-naked, with my hands on his chest.
"Dove," he whispered.
But the tone wasn't playful like before. It was dazed. Heavy.
He looked at me with a mix of hunger and confusion.
"You feel..."
He pulled my face down closer to his.
"...like the Void."
[System Alert!]
[Target is currently in a state of 'Mana Drunkenness'.]
[He does not recognize you as a person. He recognizes you as a 'Mana Potion'.]
"Wait, JieMi—"
He didn't wait.
He flipped us over.
In a blur of motion, my back hit the linoleum floor.
He was on top of me now, pinning my wrists above my head with one hand.
He buried his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply.
"More," he growled against my skin, his teeth grazing my pulse point. "Give me more."
[System Warning: Chastity Crisis!]
[The Patient is trying to consume the Host!]
"QQ!" I screamed. "You said 'Rehabilitation', not 'Reproduction'!"
[Chapter 3 - End]