After a moment, I calmed down, wiped away my tears, and exchanged the situation with them about how we ended up here. Unable to explain the detailed story of being kidnapped by a Ranker due to a ridiculous rumor article, I just glossed over it saying I was somehow synced on my way home from work.

Their group had four people in total. They said there were originally more, but after hearing the singing voice, they disappeared somewhere. Unable to tell them exactly what I saw, I just remained silent.

A female student and a male student who got caught in a sync on their way home from school, a man who looked to be in his late 40s, and a woman who seemed a bit older than me.

Among them, the only one somewhat knowledgeable about Gates was the woman who introduced herself as ‘An Un’.

“Anyway, these young ones nowadays don’t know the terror of Gates. They’re all carefree like they’re on a picnic.”

“Ah, must be nice being an old fogey. You’re not doing anything either.”

“What, you, how dare you speak to an adult like that!”

“Now, now. Both of you calm down. That’s not what’s important right now.”

Additionally, An Un also played the role of the mental pillar.

The man, whose face had turned as red as a tomato, huffed for a while and repeated ‘these young ones nowadays’ three more times.

“I wonder if Tae In is okay.”

“As if. The way he ran off, he’s probably dead by now.”

“Hey!”

Even though we had met people, nothing had improved. They too were just pretending to be okay, when in reality they weren’t.

“Noona, I’m hungry. Is there anything else to eat?”

“There’s nothing left. It’s getting late, let’s just sleep. We’ll take turns keeping watch.”

“Tch, what’s the use of keeping watch in a Gate.”

“Ah, then why don’t you go out and die alone, mister.”

“This, this is really!”

It’s chaos like no other.

We have to be careful even when making a fire, but the night forest air was cold. The whole process of gathering dry branches and lighting a fire with a lighter somehow felt ridiculous.

The children excitedly gathering this and that, the sight of lighting the fire, and them falling asleep thinking this place was truly safe – all of it.

The middle-aged man kept complaining about something, constantly saying things like ‘What do these youngsters know.’ Though no one responded.

As smoke slowly rose, and everyone fell asleep, I couldn’t easily fall asleep. It felt like unexpressed emotions were churning inside me.

“It’s chaotic, isn’t it? But you should try to sleep. Don’t worry, I’ll wake you if anything happens.”

“Ah, it’s not because of that. I just can’t sleep. Too many things have happened…”

“I see.”

Silence quickly fell. The crackling sound of something burning spread in all directions, matching the echoes of the quiet forest.

“Um. Since it’s awkward, would you mind chatting with me? You said your name was Ha Young, right?”

“Ah, yes. Park Ha Young.”

“And you said you’re an Unawakened.”

“…Yes.”

“It’s rare to see an Unawakened who knows the guidelines so well. Schools do provide mandatory education, but not many know the details.”

Saying that, An Un took something out of thin air and threw it to me. It was chocolate.

“An Awakened?”

“I’m in the Production class. Not much help in combat, but I carry a lot of things.”

“Ah.”

No wonder she had a lot of emergency rations. I silently put the chocolate in my mouth.

“It’s a secret from those people. Especially from that middle-aged man. It might get troublesome.”

“I think I understand.”

“More importantly, you seemed to disapprove of lighting the fire.”

“…We don’t know what might appear. It could be like announcing our presence to monsters.”

“Then dying of hypothermia without lighting a fire isn’t so bad either.”

I hadn’t realized it earlier, but this person is incredibly sharp. I closed my mouth.

“Moreover, you seem to know something about this Gate.”

“…”

It was useless to keep my mouth shut. Her gaze persistently followed me, as if it wouldn’t leave until I spoke.

“…I have some suspicions.”

Even as I spoke, I couldn’t shake off the strange feeling.

Many of the monsters here take the form of trees. In other words, these branches might have once been parts of monsters.

How could I say that we might be lighting a fire with monster skin or nails…

“To increase survival rates, it can’t be helped. You know that survival methods vary greatly for each Gate. I’ve shared my secret too, are you really going to be like this?”

The pressure was persistent. A deep sigh escaped my lips.

“…I don’t know much about recent research either. Since there are people who were said to be enchanted by singing voices and went somewhere, there might be monsters that use mental attacks. Since it takes the form of a forest, the monsters that appear are limited. Harpies… might be a possibility, but there are fewer traces than usual for those. Other possibilities could be fairies or spirits…”

“You know a lot of details!”

“…If that’s the case, we can’t rule out the possibility of Dryads or Groves. If that’s true then…”

“It means this entire forest could be one giant monster.”

“…”

“And there’s a high chance the boss already knows our location, and is just leaving us alone for now?”

“…”

“Ah, so that’s why you had such an uneasy expression. If it’s something like that, I’ve heard a bit about it too. But that’s quite confident… leaving us alone because it can annihilate us anytime.”

“The estimated rank is probably S-class…”

“It is S-class. I confirmed it when we entered.”

“That’s ri- cough, cough, cough. What?”

“Shh, this is a secret.”

Seeing An Un put her index finger to her lips, I felt dizzy.

Right, that person is an Awakened. Then she can directly access Gate information… I felt like crying from the absurdity. Hearing again that the Gate I got involved in was S-class made my whole life feel like a lie.

I want to go home. Not just me, but everyone here probably thinks the same, but I intensely wanted to go home.

Unaware of my depression, she just had a bright expression.

“You really do know a lot about Gates. Usually people don’t know this much detail.”

“…I just learned a lot, that’s all.”

“Because you’re an Unawakened Returnee?”

“…!”

I choked again. Choking twice in a row made it even more painful. As I was coughing and shedding tears for a while, An Un handed me a water bottle.

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. I just, personally did some research on Unawakened Returnees. I didn’t expect to meet one here though.”

“…”

“You’re quite famous these days. I was looking for articles about Cheon Shin Woo and got curious, so I looked into it separately. They say the world’s only Unawakened Returnee joined Cheonrang, and when I compared the photo from the association’s information check with the article photo, it seemed to match.”

Her smiling expression was quite annoying. Even with the additional explanation, my dazed mind didn’t return.

Why on earth did you investigate me? I was about to ask this but stopped.

“That’s really all. I couldn’t find any records or information even when I searched. The information available from the association is limited, and for such a unique case as an Unawakened Returnee, there wasn’t much known. As if someone had intentionally covered up the information.”

“…I see.”

“This is all thanks to my keen eye. Others probably wouldn’t have noticed, right? So, I was wondering…”

“Yes?”

“What’s your relationship with Cheon Shin Woo?”

“Pffft!”

I ended up choking for the third time.

Tears streamed down not from emotion but as a physiological response. I might get dehydrated at this rate. After coughing hard and drinking water, An Un was waiting for an answer with a sparkling expression.

This person, does she not feel the crisis of being caught in an S-class Gate?

“…We have no relationship.”

“Really? Really?”

“I really don’t know. Whether there’s any relationship or not…”

If there was, I wouldn’t still be here like this.

I wondered if this person might also have some issue related to Cheon Shin Woo. It could be. Cheon Shin Woo was the number one ranker with a lot of karma.

An Un spoke as if she didn’t believe me at all.

“I see.”

“It’s true. I don’t understand why you’re curious about this.”

“I told you. It’s just personal curiosity-driven investigation.”

“…”

My eyes narrowed. An Un just kept smiling.

“You’re really on guard… Are you afraid I might attack you? If I was going to, wouldn’t I have tried already? Like poisoning your food?”

“…?!”

“But you’re fine now, aren’t you? My curiosity is satisfied. I’ll keep watch all night, so go back to sleep.”

“…How am I supposed to sleep here?”

“You’re tired, aren’t you?”

“…”

How could I sleep in this situation? I was tired, but as my mind became even clearer, I shook my head, and she laughed.

My body felt intensely damp. That night, I stayed up like that.

As soon as the next day came, the group started arguing, each insisting their opinion was right.

“What do you young ones know! Do you think if you just sit still, an S-class Hunter will come and save you?”

“But the safety guidelines say to wait in place until the rescue team arrives…”

“Guidelines, guidelines. Will those damn guidelines feed you! We’re about to die here!”

“…Thanks to those guidelines, we had dinner yesterday. The food I carry…”

“Tch, these days, young people have no thought. Huh? Do you just do as you’re told? You have to move to survive somehow!”

“But mister, as this elder sister said, if we move carelessly and encounter a monster…”

“How dare you talk back to an adult!”

“Are you an old fogey? Ugh.”

It’s chaos like no other. I silently watched their conversation.

“Anyway, government workers can’t be trusted. If they were going to rescue us, they would have done it by now… I’m going to find my own way out!”

“Still, what this elder sister says isn’t unreasonable…”

“But isn’t what that mister says right too? I think it’s better to just move along. We haven’t seen any monsters nearby.”

I didn’t offer a different opinion and remained uninvolved. I didn’t want to add my thoughts and get into a tiring argument.

“Alright, you student there. What are you going to do?”