“……It’s difficult with just my strength. It’s hard to save all of you, so I think it would be better to split up from here. Don’t gather together as much as possible, and stay hidden.”

“Why? Why? Why are you abandoning us?”

“Because death attribute monsters appear where people are gathered……”

“I’m asking why you’re abandoning us! Huh? Can’t we go together?”

“……”

“Ha, you’re going to abandon us even though we’re begging like this? Just wait and see. I’ll report you to the Association. We’ll see if you can still live well on your own then.”

Everything was a mess. Crying, begging, and when that didn’t work, threatening, clinging while crying. He received all of this with an expressionless face, shook off the people, and approached me.

The smile on Baek Yi Hyun’s face, how could it be erased? I walked towards him with slow steps.

“……Shin Ah, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

The answer came out surprisingly calmly. He nodded.

“They’re Reapers who use fear skills to immobilize people and harvest their necks. I’ll protect you, but it’s dangerous to just stand still.”

“I’m really okay. I can move.”

It was exactly as I said. Although I wasn’t without fear or terror, it wasn’t to the extent that I couldn’t move.

A foul odor came on the wind. Black smoke gathered in the distant sky. I spoke while looking at the sky.

“Smoke is gathering over there in the sky.”

“Oh? You’re right……”

Baek Yi Hyun’s face turned serious as he looked in the direction I pointed.

“Are you going to save them?”

“What do you want to do?”

I asked. Instead of answering, Baek Yi Hyun asked me back.

“……I don’t know.”

At my pathetic answer, Baek Yi Hyun slowly stroked my head. I raised my head again to meet his gaze.

“Why did you save them?”

“What?”

“Those people just now.”

They were a hindrance, weren’t they? You could have left them all to die and escaped alone.

Why did you do it?

To my naive question, Baek Yi Hyun answered with a kind look in his eyes as he removed his hand.

“Because you would be sad if people died in front of your eyes.”

His tone was calm, as if they weren’t even worth saving if it weren’t for me.

I lowered my gaze and said.

“……Let’s go save them.”

Even if we can’t save them.

Death attribute monsters crave life. They instinctively wander in search of living things, devouring them and envying their vitality, ultimately turning even living beings into death.

So it was natural for them to come to places where living people gathered.

It’s such an obvious fact, I don’t know why I forgot it.

Someone followed us. It seems they’re determined to stick with Baek Yi Hyun. It will be dangerous.

I no longer had the energy to speak, so I just followed wherever Baek Yi Hyun went.

You are kind and gentle, and even have the ability to save others.

Since I had already given up on something in the past, I didn’t feel particularly jealous now. I just thought, so that’s how it is.

The place we arrived at was truly chaotic.

“Are you alright?”

Despite the scent of death, the smell of corpses, screams and tears, the metallic scent mixed with blood – all these odors must have been nauseating, yet Baek Yi Hyun approached the people.

Because of him, the monsters in the sky were cleared.

“Thank you, thank you……”

“Why are you coming only now!”

While some people shouted their gratitude, others were angry, asking why we came so late.

“It’s dangerous to gather together. Stay as far apart as possible, and even if you move together, do so in groups of no more than two.”

Baek Yi Hyun didn’t lose his gentle smile.

The more people gather, the more dangerous it becomes for him too.

When he said to stay apart, someone shouted that they should stay together. No matter how many times he tried to persuade them, they kept repeating like a parrot that in times like these, people should stick together, calling themselves survivors.

“……Then you need to hide well. Don’t get caught.”

In the end, we were the ones who surrendered.

Why don’t they believe us when they’re asking for help? Before I could resolve my doubts, several people grabbed onto Baek Yi Hyun. As if requesting him to stay here.

“……How can I become as strong as you, brother?”

A boy who had been saved by Baek Yi Hyun spoke. Baek Yi Hyun answered while wiping the blood flowing from the wound.

“Well. Maybe if you work hard?”

It was a ridiculous answer. If one could become strong just by working hard, half the world would be strong people.

By the way, with so many people here, it must be dangerous.

It feels like there’s a stone stuck in my throat.

And, something was strange.

“……This is weird.”

“What’s wrong?”

Baek Yi Hyun asked curiously as I mumbled while looking at the red sky.

“Quite some time has passed. But no one has come.”

“……No one?”

“This is at least an S-rank gate, so the Association should have dispatched people by now. It’s strange……”

I don’t know. It would be natural to ask how I know such things, but Baek Yi Hyun didn’t express any doubts. As if he naturally trusted me, he only wore a serious expression along with me.

When I closed my eyes, I could see the energy around us. Among them, there were no hunters with the same energy as Baek Yi Hyun.

“Still no one has come……”

The moment he muttered, unpleasant things gathered again. No, they started to gather.

Should I say what I’m feeling now? Would those people listen if I speak? In the fleeting seconds, not even a few, complicated thoughts swept through my mind.

Is there any need to think further? I shouted.

“We need to get away from here right now!”

Yes, if even one person listens. That person could be saved. At my words, gazes gathered on me.

“You are……”

“As Yi Hyun said, everyone should separate as much as possible and get away from this place.”

“Why?”

“……We have to.”

“Are you trying to monopolize the hunter for yourself?”

“……”

“We know everything. You two are friends, and you’re a civilian, right? It’s easier to protect one person than many, so that’s why you’re doing this, isn’t it?”

“……There’s no time to explain. Those who can escape, please do so.”

Unfortunately, because one person contradicted my words, others started to look around, unsure whether to believe those words or not. Ah, now we really don’t have time. This shouldn’t be happening.

“So who are you to give orders!”

The person who had been looking at me with disgust shouted. I approached that person and pulled their arm.

“Kyaa, what is this…? Gasp!”

And in that spot, a pitch-black sword was stuck.

“Kyaaaaaaah-!”

A piercing scream rang out loudly. Along with this, a clattering sound was heard.

Skeletons wielding swords and bows appeared from all directions, creaking their necks.

Because death has no life, they always wander in search of beings with vitality.

“Ah, aah. Aaaah-! Mi, Minji. Minji!”

And those who meet death because of them, if unlucky, become ‘living deaths’ that neither die nor live, and they too come to crave life.

“Daddy, Daddy!”

“Kyaaah!”

Among the skeletons were a few corpses that had started to rot while still alive. As if they had been alive until just now, wearing the clothes they wore in daily life, now biting at people.

On the ground were living corpses and skeleton soldiers, and in the sky were black wraiths.

This situation was no longer something Baek Yi Hyun could handle alone.

“Please, Hunter. You’re a hunter, aren’t you? Do something, do something!”

Someone ran to him and cried out desperately. But that was no different from telling Baek Yi Hyun to die.

“Even I can’t……”

“And you call yourself a hunter?! People are dying!”

It was already a cry that had lost all reason.

“Stop it. At this level, it’s not something a hunter can handle alone.”

I pulled him away from Yi Hyun. The wailing transformed into an even louder sound.

“But you can’t just do nothing! You’re not going to do anything at all, are you?!”

My eyes became empty as I heard that voice. Would Baek Yi Hyun even put up with this? A troubled smile was clear on his face.

“……It really isn’t something he can handle alone. Are you telling him to die?”

“Who said to die?! Go and try to save some people! You can do it, can’t you!”

Wrong. Words don’t get through. They’re already consumed by fear and can’t judge properly.

What should I do in this situation? My head hurts. Baek Yi Hyun grabbed my shoulder and stepped forward.

“Shin Ah, it’s okay. I’ll just quickly clear the surroundings and come back.”

People in panic, people screaming. People running towards ‘what used to be human’ calling out names, already enslaved by death without even grasping the situation.

He is walking into the midst of all these people.

Looking at his back, I said to the person who had finally pushed Baek Yi Hyun’s back:

“……Don’t take it for granted that someone will protect you.”

Then what am I supposed to do in this situation! A voice came from behind. I ignored those words and walked along the path Baek Yi Hyun had taken.

People wailing as they embraced their friends and family who had become zombies, people who wouldn’t let go of their loved ones even as their stomachs were pierced and torn apart.

Just what are families to them?

I pulled back someone who was approaching a person who had already died, even though their legs were crushed.

“That person is no longer the one you knew.”

No vitality can be felt from the dead. There is no intellect or reason. Yet the soul is still bound, unable to leave the body and crying.

“B-but it’s Suyoung. My friend Suyoung. Suyoung, Suyoung……”

With those legs, they wouldn’t be able to escape even if attacked. I approached the being that used to be Suyoung, emitting a rotten smell, and struck its head with the hammer I was holding.

A liquid like sewage splattered. The person who had witnessed their friend’s death right before their eyes froze with their mouth open.

“Uwaah, save me please!”

Someone else screamed.

“Miss, miss, you know that hunter, right? Please, please ask him to help us. Okay?”

Someone crawled over and grabbed my legs. Help? He’s already fighting so many deaths in the sky, and you want him to come here and help again?

Ah, what should I say in this situation?

I carefully removed that person from my legs and tore a cloth to bind the wounds of the person whose legs were crushed.

“Huu, huuuk. Huuuk……”

Was it because they had seen death right before their eyes, or simply because it hurt? The people who were endlessly shedding tears seemed to have no will to do anything anymore.

Blood and screams, death and despair. People crying while holding onto their family, people hiding because they couldn’t escape. People who have given up and are just standing still, or those who have frozen, unable to resist the fear.

Is this what hell looks like?