As the vision turned white, the body was soon transported to a space that seemed to be surrounded by pure white walls. With a table placed, it was a place that seemed strangely like a temple and a mental hospital.
A window popped up indicating the transfer to the Room of Rewards was complete, and the movement restriction was lifted. Sa-yoon turned around and quickly checked on Geon-joo first.
“Tsk.”
Seeing him sitting and holding his right leg, he couldn’t help but click his tongue. Blood was gushing from his thigh. It was good that he had cut off the Unknown’s wrist just before the gate closed, but there was no way to prevent the creature’s scythe from striking Geon-joo’s leg as its wrist fell off.
If the Unknown’s wrist hadn’t been cut off, Geon-joo’s head would have been pierced, so looking at it positively, it was fortunate. However, for Sa-yoon, who had intended to protect him without a single injury, his pride was distorted.
That error offspring bastard, more cowardly than humans.
Sa-yoon, who had sharply criticized the Unknown’s rampage in his mind, looked at the wound with somewhat subdued eyes and sighed.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. But Guild Leader, your shoulder looks worse.”
Geon-joo spoke, glancing at the shoulder where blood was flowing despite the hemostasis due to his violent movement.
It was a foolish attitude.
“What do you mean okay when you’re even sweating cold sweat?”
Although he was accustomed to pain through all sorts of torture, Geon-joo had been an ordinary person until a few weeks ago. There was no way he was used to the pain of being struck by a scythe.
“Move your hand.”
“……”
“I said move your hand so I can treat you.”
Sa-yoon, who had grabbed the hand of Geon-joo, who was tearing his clothes and performing hemostasis on his own, knelt down on one knee and took out a recovery potion from his inventory.
“Stop tearing your clothes for hemostasis every time and at least carry bandages. Your shirt is in tatters.”
After a brief reprimand, he bit the lid with his mouth and opened the potion. When he poured the red liquid on the wound where blood was gushing out, the gruesome injury healed quickly and cleanly. It was a potion that was worth a high price.
Sa-yoon, who had healed the wound by consuming half a bottle, closed the lid and handed the remaining bottle to Geon-joo.
“What is this?”
“Can’t you tell by looking? It’s a potion, so keep the rest and use it when you get injured.”
“What about your shoulder?”
“It’s a waste to use a potion on this.”
For this level of injury, he could just return to the guild and call a healer. He had stopped the bleeding, and if he hurried, it wasn’t a dangerous condition that required using a consumable item. Sa-yoon, who had gotten up to head to the white table to check the rewards, was stopped abruptly.
Grab.
Unexpectedly, his wrist was grabbed. With a force that pulled him downward, his shoulder felt sore.
“Ah, come down a bit.”
Since it was a force he could resist as much as he wanted, he deliberately resisted and stood up, but Geon-joo, who grabbed Sa-yoon’s wrist a few more times and pulled him towards him, narrowed his brows and expressed his dissatisfaction.
“Aren’t you going to check the rewards?”
“Is that important right now?”
“Then.”
“…Ha.”
He let out a deep sigh that seemed to come from his lower abdomen. His half-closed eyes looked at his pathetically. After giving up his shoulder and saving him from the Unknown, his insolence had reached the sky.
“Just come down and see.”
Just as he was about to say why he was looking at his with such eyes and if he didn’t remember that he had saved him, Geon-joo spoke first. Sa-yoon, who had been looking at the table, raised his uninjured hand and ruffled his hair once. Time was money, and Sa-yoon, who had encountered the Unknown, was in a hurry. Every minute and second was precious.
“What is it?”
“Just stay there.”
When he reluctantly crouched down, Geon-joo untied the piece of cloth wrapped around his shoulder with one hand and took the potion with the other, biting off the lid with his mouth just as Sa-yoon had done. Watching to see what he was doing, Sa-yoon reacted belatedly.
“Hey, you can’t be…!”
Splash.
Before he could stop him, Geon-joo poured the remaining potion on Sa-yoon’s shoulder.
An S-grade potion, a bottle of Elaim’s Essence, was consumed in an instant. Sa-yoon wanted to faint.
One bottle cost at least 30 billion. It was an item that might appear once if you attacked Elaim’s Nest, an S-grade gate, a hundred times. Where was there a bastard who would use it on a mere shoulder injury?
“Why did you do this…!”
There were no more than a thousand available items worldwide, and 30% of them were in the Night Rats Guild. Still, it was one of the rare potions, less than 400 bottles, and it was absurdly outrageous that he had used it so carelessly.
When he shouted, feeling like he had wasted half of the highest-grade potion, Geon-joo narrowed his brows in an act of the pot calling the kettle black.
“Why are you getting angry?”
“Do you know how much this is worth, and you used it here?”
“Then why did you use it on me?”
“Are you and I the same?”
“Then are we different?”
“We are different!”
Sa-yoon retorted right away and met eyes with Geon-joo, who was openly dumbfounded, then inhaled. After taking a deep breath, he calmed his excitement. Geon-joo’s expression was unusual, and if he cursed as he felt, it seemed like he would start distancing himself psychologically.
He inhaled deeply until the refreshing air reached his lungs, then exhaled slowly. Sa-yoon stroked his shoulder, which had been cleanly healed by the effect of the essence, and opened his mouth.
“Listen well, pretty boy. You, a B-grade, can die from excessive bleeding from that level of injury, but I, an S-grade, won’t die easily unless my neck is cut off or something. Do you understand?”
“I guess you don’t feel pain if you don’t die.”
“If I were to suffer and die from such pain, I would have died long ago.”
In fact, if you think about it, Sa-yoon had already died many times. He was living his life through hundreds of resurrections, but ignoring that fact, Sa-yoon looked at Geon-joo with eyes asking if he was going to be stubborn even now, and he fidgeted his hands for a moment, seeming to be in confusion.
“…You gave it to me to use anyway.”
“Yes, I gave it to you to use, not for me.”
He had given it to him to save it and use it in dangerous situations, but if he had known he would use it like this, he wouldn’t have given it to him.
Thinking about it again, it was a futile consumption, so he stared at the potion bottle he had snatched from Geon-joo with despondent eyes. Not a single drop of the red liquid remained, showing how efficiently he had used it.
It was a regrettable situation. Sa-yoon, who swallowed a groan, was about to advise him once more.
“If it’s something you gave me, it doesn’t matter where I use it. Is this something to curse about?”
Geon-joo, who had been quietly listening, retorted in a voice mixed with dissatisfaction.
“This is the first time I’ve been cursed at for doing a good deed. I was trying to repay the debt in my own way, but what should I think if you react like this, Guild Leader? Then don’t give me such an expensive potion in the first place. Or at least explain it before giving it to me. Is it that hard to say thank you or well done?”
“That’s why I gave it to you to use, not for me….”
“Then you want me to just leave the person who got injured trying to protect me bleeding profusely? You might be able to do that, Guild Leader, but I’m a person with a proper sense of morality, so it’s difficult for me. Who do you think I am, a son of a bitch…?”
Then are you saying I’m a son of a bitch?
Geon-joo’s mouth was getting more and more foul. Sa-yoon swallowed his absurdity while looking at Geon-joo, who seemed to be talking without even breathing. It was clear that the situation had turned around when he was the one getting angry.
It would have been better if he had acted sneakily, saying he owed a debt. Why was he acting like a wronged and foolish bear cub instead of pretending to be a fox like usual, making it impossible for him to properly refute?
Suddenly, a song about a fox pretending to be a bear that wasn’t a fox seemed to flash through his mind.
The atmosphere became awkward. Amidst the pressure pressing on his shoulders, Sa-yoon mulled over Geon-joo’s words. Although he had been surprised and said something in the moment, it wasn’t something to get so angry about as he had said. What’s the big deal about wasting 30 billion? It was a waste, but it was incomparable to the Resistance.
If he dragged it out any longer, he would completely sulk, so even if he didn’t feel like it, he had to go along with his pretty boy’s childish whining.
“Sor….”
“You really have a talent for making people upset.”
However, Geon-joo didn’t give him a chance. Just when he thought it had settled, he poured out his dissatisfaction like a waterfall as if he had just been taking time to organize his words. He raised his black eyes. It was a gaze filled with venom.
This seems to have gone wrong somehow.
The result he had hoped for was to safely escape from the Unknown with Geon-joo, have him revere his after seeing his skills, and leave the gate in harmony after experiencing a life-threatening escape.
But this situation only seemed to have instilled more venom in Geon-joo.
Sa-yoon, flustered, said that wasn’t the case, but Geon-joo’s momentum didn’t subside. Seeing that a problem would arise if he just opened his mouth, he remained silent, and a heavy silence flowed. After a long time passed, the system, unable to wait any longer, displayed a notification window.
Ding!
<You have stayed in the Room of Rewards for too long. If you do not receive the rewards within the time limit, you will be expelled.>
– Time remaining: 10 minutes
The window appeared simultaneously in front of Sa-yoon and Geon-joo. Only then did Sa-yoon realize that he had to somehow resolve this atmosphere and check the rewards, so after much deliberation, he opened his mouth.
“So why are you saying you’re wronged? What’s the reason for acting like this?”
He knew that a lack of communication bred misunderstanding and dissatisfaction. When he graciously asked the reason, Geon-joo, who heard the question, let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re asking me the reason for acting like this?”
His tone as he asked back was chilling.
Did I step on another landmine?
Sa-yoon sincerely wondered what he should say. Swallowing his frustration and absurdity inwardly, Geon-joo, who had let out a sigh-like breath, stood up from his seat.
“Hyung, you really….”
You have a talent for making people upset.
With narrowed eyes, he took back the empty potion bottle Sa-yoon had barely gone to and moved his steps to the table. Judging from the sound of footsteps echoing in the space, his mood was definitely twisted properly.