My vision was dyed a bright red as if paint had been dripped onto my pupils, and the intense glare that pierced my brain as if a flash grenade had exploded was excruciatingly painful.
Ah, my optic nerves feel like they're burning. Until my vision gradually cleared, I couldn't bring myself to move, so I just lay there in that prone position, waiting for my vision to clear, and shouted.
“Hamin-ah! Hamin-ah!! Are you okay!!?”
This moment of feeling with my body why a flash grenade is a weapon was torture, so I slowly opened my eyes, rubbing my tears with my forearms. The pain in my body from rolling around on the floor had subsided somewhat.
Because I was rolling around on the floor, I could only look up at my surroundings from a field of vision that was more than half as low as usual.
“…. What, what is this?”
I had a feeling that things were going to get weird from the moment something happened, but what awaited me was a sight even more unfamiliar than I had expected.
There was a red circle with a radius of about 2 meters around Ha Min. The red area extended right up to my feet, so if he hadn't pushed me hard, I would have definitely been inside the circle as well.
In the middle of that red area, Ha Min was lying there, tied up tightly with a rope like a fishing line. Surely, it couldn't be wrong.
I was shaking with shock as if I had been hit in the head, assuming only the worst case scenario. The moment I took a step toward him,
“Don’t come!”
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't lost consciousness, so he raised his head and shouted at me. Only after hearing that shout did my tense body begin to relax little by little. It was only for a moment that I was able to let out the breath I had been holding.
“Whew… Are you okay? Is this a trap those guys set up earlier?”
“I guess… it looks like they’re trying to tie us up here.”
As the tension eased, I began to have some time to look around. There was an ominous glow on the ground, a line that looked like it would cause trouble if I fell over it.
There were tall pillars as thick as my forearm erected in four places on the east, west, south, and north of the circle, and in the middle of them, Ha-min was lying, tied up with a fishing line.
It feels like Ha Min is being offered up as a sacrifice, so it's not a good sight.
Well, usually in fantasy, these pillars are used as a medium to create something like a magic circle, right?
“If I break this, won’t this trap disappear?”
When I put my palm against the pillar, it felt as cold as touching a marble floor in winter. Simply touching it didn't pose any particular threat.
I looked around to see if there was anything I could use, because if I tried to break it with my bare hands, it would definitely be my bones that would break instead of the pillar.
“Oh, just a moment!”
As I turned my head here and there, what caught my eye was none other than the red fire extinguisher placed near the fire hydrant. It’s the one placed in every public place!
Eureka! Thinking that I could break something like this in no time if I swung it, I ran over to the fire extinguisher and quickly picked it up. It was heavier than I thought, but it wasn't so heavy that I couldn't lift it and swing it.
“Let’s go! Chaebonggu Smash!”
He held the top of the red fire extinguisher tightly and ran to break one of the pillars.
Turn your running energy into power! Yay! Let's go!
'bang!'
The pillar shattered with the sound of breaking stones. At the same time, my eyes lit up as I saw the red-black line that had been glowing on the floor dim slightly.
The cliché is the answer. I guess I just have to break this pillar.
“Brother, you’re smart.”
“It’s about this much!”
Riding this momentum, I ran hard and swung the fire extinguisher to break the pillar next to me. The sound of stones being dug out from the quarry could be heard cheerfully.
Plus, I had received more than half of Ha Min's help getting here, so I was a little happy that I could finally be of help, and I really hit the stone pillar with all my might.
“Du~ul! Se~et!”
The exit is right in front of us,
“Last!”
Let’s go out together quickly!
“Brother. Over there….”
“Huh?”
I was lightly jumping in place, thinking that I had destroyed the last pillar and was done, when Ha-min called out to me in a small voice, as if he was in trouble.
I put the fire extinguisher I was holding down on the ground and looked back, and the pillar that I thought was completely broken was standing again, intact.
When I saw that sight, my face turned pale.
“What, what is this?”
“By the time my brother was running to destroy the third pillar, the first one had been completely restored.”
As if that were true, the last piece of the pillar that had just been broken floated into the air. An unrealistic scene of the broken pieces gradually being put back together and being restored to their original form came into view.
The stone pillar is restored, my heart is broken, and it's hopeless.
“…. To remove this trap, I think it would be right to destroy the pillars as you said. The problem is that before the pillars can be restored, all four of them have to be destroyed almost simultaneously.”
Ha Min, who had been lying down tied up, sat up and looked at the pillars as he spoke.
“…. This won’t work. Hyung, you go up first.”
"what!?"
“Since the trap has been triggered, I don’t know what’s going on. It would be better for me to get out quickly, even if I’m not caught in the trap.”
When I heard the calm voice telling me to leave him behind, my thoughts stopped and the fear that had been building up in my head started pounding hard in my heart again.
You want me to go alone and leave Ha-min behind?
‘Why, are you leaving that kid alone again?’
…. who is this?
It seemed as if someone's voice was coming into my brain.
In a place like this, which is like enemy territory?
Leave Ha Min alone,
how?
“I, I’ll try a little harder. Then I might be able to break them all before they regenerate.”
“Brother, this is not the time to be stubborn.”
‘Okay, run away. Then that kid will miss you guys and be alone for the rest of his life.’
Who ran away?
‘Coward. You should run away. That kid is strong, unlike you. Unlike others, it’s okay to leave him alone.’
I couldn't go alone anymore because I was so upset by the auditory hallucinations that I kept hearing, so I picked up the fire extinguisher again.
The tone of voice seemed to be provocative and reprimanding, clearly telling her to run away. However, deep down, there was a deep message that she absolutely must not leave that child alone.
'bang'
once.
‘Bam! Bam!’
Twice.
‘Bam! Bam! Bam!’
… three times.
“Brother, I told you not to.”
By the eighth attempt, I was out of breath by the end of the prayer. As my stamina declined, my speed gradually slowed down.
After breaking two more, I lost all my strength and fell to the ground in an ugly manner.
I tried to swing the fire extinguisher with all my might, trying to move my legs quickly. However, it wasn't enough to break all four at once. No matter how fast I tried, the moment I swung to break the fourth one, the first pillar was restored.
“Gasp…. Gasp…. Why, why isn’t it working….”
I lay on the floor, panting heavily. I must have been running hard and exerting my strength, because beads of sweat were dripping down my cheeks and onto the floor.
‘Bonggu has really fast legs.’
‘The runner-up in our class is Bonggu!’
‘Class 3 student Chae Bong-gu! He succeeded in the relay race!’
Memories of being praised for running fast flashed through my mind.
Then what are you doing, right now, at this very moment, it's so slow that you can't even achieve success.
“One more time… just one more time.”
“Brother. Stop….”
“You can do it!”
I forced myself up. The moment I braced myself with both legs, my vision went black. As I slowly came back, my body began to sway.
‘Kugu-kung-’
But it seems fate is only trying to give me despair. Just like before, the surroundings began to shake as if an earthquake had occurred.
The only difference was that it was different from the previous shaking that had shaken loudly but ended without much trouble.
“Brother, come upstairs!!”
This time, for real,
“Stop being so stubborn! You could really die!!”
At the same time as Ha Min's urgent cry, cracks began to appear in the wall.
“Go quickly!!”
‘Okay, run away. You can’t do anything.’
No. I won't go.
‘Are you stupid? You even broke my head, and now you’re trying to commit suicide?’
I don't know. Something like that.
‘At your current speed, you can’t break the trap.’
What do you know?
‘That kid gave everything he had to save your life, and you’re going to throw it away?’
I don't know. I don't know.
"no!!"
There is only one thing I know.
“I will never leave you behind!!”
I once again broke the pillar that was tying the child up. But, no matter how much I broke it, it was no use at my slow speed.
It felt like reality was increasingly throwing me into the mud.
“I will never leave you alone!!”
I couldn't tell if the sweat or tears running down my cheeks were real. I was running so fast that I couldn't see Ha Min's expression.
When I was constantly running around and started hearing a beeping sound in my ears and my eyes started getting dark,
A clearer auditory hallucination than before flowed softly into my ears.
‘Need help?’
Help me.
‘What kind of help do you need?’
Let me run away with Ha-min.
‘Are you serious? In a way, that kid is someone you’ve known for less than a year. Do you really need to do that?’
Because my heart tells me to do so.
‘….’
Because I told you never to leave that kid alone.
‘Okay. I heard your thoughts.’
In my vision, which had become completely black due to exhaustion of all my energy, someone appeared and reached out to me.
I thought the outstretched hand was a rope and grabbed it, standing up.
I was able to face the entity that had been continuously hallucinating in my ears.
‘Let’s save him together. Our ‘youngest’.’
He had seen it before, in his dreams. He was moving through the cyberpunk city at the speed of light.
It looked exactly like ‘me’.