Chapter 4: Chapter 3

Surprisingly, Choi Gang-hu withdrew without protest, showing a smile charming enough to captivate even a fellow man. Still, Seo-ha couldn’t feel at ease. He couldn’t afford to ponder for too long. He needed to make a decision as quickly as possible.

“You’re taking a half day off? Now?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, it’s troublesome without you, Seo-ha.”

When he applied for a half day off that very day, Park from the accounting team frowned.

“Seo-ha, did something happen? Isn’t this your first time taking time off?”

Lee from the overseas sales team asked with a surprised expression.

“I heard there was a commotion upstairs, is it related to that?”

Kim from the production management team showed unnecessary curiosity. Seo-ha evaded the core issue, made up an excuse, and quickly left the office. As he went down to the first floor, the elevator kept stopping at each floor.

In that short time, he saw YH Capital employees running around busily, presumably due to whatever Choi Gang-hu had done. It seems he dropped a financial bomb this time, not a physical one.

Regardless, Seo-ha calmly left the building and headed straight to the university hospital by bus. After entering the building, he briefly hid in the bathroom and tried casting [Sanctification] and [Light of Healing] on himself, but his remaining lifespan remained unchanged.

Burying his complicated feelings, he entered the hospital room filled with the smell of disinfectant. Next to his older sister’s bed was a lone coffee cup, seemingly left behind by the caregiver.

“Sis, I’m here.”

Though his blood boiled at the caregiver’s behavior of leaving an unconscious patient unattended, he suppressed his anger as usual and greeted his sister. He also exchanged brief nods with other guardians in the room.

The first thing he habitually did was to closely examine the monitor readings connected to his sister’s finger. He wanted to pour healing skills on her right away, but he had to be patient. The neurosurgeon who had operated on his sister had asserted that even a healer would need to be at least A-rank, and even then, a practitioner above level 150 to cure brain disorders.

“It feels even better seeing your face after playing hooky from work.”

First, he checked the nasal tube supplying liquid food to see if she had eaten well, and used a suction device to remove phlegm from the tube inserted in her airway.

After checking her diaper status, he very carefully changed his sister’s position to prevent bedsores. He carefully propped her up with soft pillows he had prepared separately to prevent her from hitting the bed corners.

“I have a dilemma.”

He sighed as he gently wiped his sister’s entire body with a towel wrung out in warm water. Today, he felt like he needed to vent, even if there was no one to listen.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange.”

There was no way Choi Gang-hu would personally come out just to hire an office worker. His interest was in the dungeons themselves, not in trading dungeon by-products. For the purpose of researching revenge against the higher beings who had thrown him into the Abyss. This means the talk about office work was likely just an excuse.

“What on earth is that person up to?”

Choi Gang-hu’s recent actions reported in the news followed the original story’s flow exactly. Accepting his father’s proposal to establish the From Hell Guild, and systematically crushing the interfering schemes of his half-siblings aimed at him.

He was definitely not the type of person to show deep curiosity towards someone he just met, especially in the midst of having a mountain of things to do. Even less so to the extent of following him down to the bathroom and waiting.

Seo-ha sighed again as he carefully applied baby lotion to his sister’s dry skin. It was clear that something about him had piqued Choi Gang-hu’s interest, but not knowing the cause made him anxious.

“Oh my, student. When did you come?”

As he was tidying up his sister’s hospital gown and pulling back the curtains, the caregiver returned with a leisurely attitude. Seo-ha had to resist the urge to ask how long she had been gone.

“Hello. It must be tough in this cold weather.”

“Oh my, you’re always so considerate.”

When Seo-ha bowed politely with a smile as bright as the summer sun, the caregiver covered her mouth and chuckled in response.@@novelbin@@

“I should have brought some warm drinks.”

“Oh, you brought tangerines last time.”

“I should take care of you more often… but my wallet situation isn’t as I’d like.”

“Such a bright-looking kid with such pretty words.”

“As always, please take good care of my sister.”

Unconscious patients in critical condition can’t make demands or complaints. That’s why he always tried to maintain a good relationship with the caregiver. Fearing his sister might be mistreated in his absence.

Seo-ha, who needed to work, couldn’t be by her side 24 hours a day. This was why he had to be considerate of an employee despite paying over 100,000 won a day for care plus meal expenses.

‘Sis, please wait just a little longer.’

Seo-ha left the hospital room only when it started to get dark outside after taking care of his sister all day. The bus took him to a public bathhouse near his company.

Not a modern, stylishly decorated jjimjilbang, but an old-fashioned neighborhood bathhouse with a worn exterior, the kind you might find one or two of in every neighborhood. This was where Seo-ha ate, slept, and lived after work.

♨Geumsu Bath♨

As he opened the glass door with an old-fashioned font lettering sticker attached, a narrow counter that looked like a ticket booth came into view. A woman in her 50s, who was just coming out through the inner door, looked surprised to see him.

“You’re off work already? How about the hospital?”

“I went there. I got off work a bit early. How’s Minji?”

The woman, Im Myung-hee, who tilted her head as if something unusual had happened, showed signs of embarrassment at his casual inquiry.

“Oh, uh, she said she went to Daeseongri.”

It seems she went to the university OT to welcome new students. Awkwardness was evident in Myung-hee’s back as she tidied up the counter while avoiding eye contact.

She was concerned that Seo-ha, who hadn’t even graduated elementary school and was tasting the bitterness of social life at an early age, might feel upset.

Im Myung-hee’s daughter, Park Minji, was a Chinatown survivor like him. Now she’s living like an ordinary college student, desperately hiding that fact.

In the sealed-off area where everyone was going crazy, Minji had saved her life several times with Seo-ha’s help. Myung-hee had heard about this, which is why she readily took in Seo-ha when he had nowhere else to go.

Thanks to this, he was able to eat and sleep here even after his older sister collapsed. Myung-hee, who had been rustling about for a moment, held out a banana milk.

“Here. Drink this and get a good rest today. I’ll take care of the cleanup.”

“Ah, I’ll enjoy it. But I should clean up. That’s my job.”

“Didn’t you leave work early because you weren’t feeling well?”

“I just played hooky.”

Though he smiled and shook his head, Myung-hee didn’t seem to believe him at all. Fearing she might sympathetically force more food on him, Seo-ha quickly bowed and entered the interior.

He thoroughly cleaned the changing room with its rows of upper and lower lockers, and the facilities inside the bath area, and meticulously organized various supplies. Several hours evaporated in the blink of an eye.

“Phew.”

Only after restocking the refrigerator with drinks could Seo-ha sit down and catch his breath. After doing physical work, he could feel that his overall physical abilities had improved.

Thanks to taking a half day off for the first time in his life, his condition wasn’t bad, but the usual stiffness he felt was completely gone. On days when he worked overtime until late, there were times when he couldn’t even straighten his back properly.

‘I still get dizzy occasionally though.’

After slurping down the banana milk and brushing his teeth, he spread out a soft blanket on the flat board in the changing room, which was empty of customers as there was no night business. Then, as soon as he turned off the lights and closed his eyes, a part of the original story suddenly flashed through his mind. The early episode where Choi Gang-hu’s From Hell Guild obtains the world’s first elixir during a dungeon raid and puts it up for auction. His eyes snapped open.

The issue he had been pondering all day was a binary choice. Whether to become a member of the From Hell Guild or a national hunter. As soon as he remembered the existence of the item known as a panacea, the scales in his mind tipped sharply towards guild membership. This was because the methods he could try for treating his older sister and himself had increased. Self-healing after leveling up, hiring skilled healers, and now even consuming the elixir.

‘I can’t be sure if even one of these will work, but…’

The more options, the better. Especially since it’s unknown which method might work. Becoming a guild member increases accessibility to all these options.

First, he could more easily raise the funds to hire a healer. Compared to national hunters, guild members have higher signing bonuses, annual salaries, and special allowances, increasing the likelihood of earning big money.

Moreover, he now had a way to instantly increase his mana stat, and even a path to obtaining the elixir. These were powerful merits enough to outweigh the inability to guess Choi Gang-hu’s intentions and the instinctive fear of his personality.

It even surpassed the vague reluctance to twist the original story’s development, and the advantage of being a national hunter which could legally sever ties with YH Capital.

Seo-ha finally made up his mind to accept Choi Gang-hu’s scouting offer. After all, isn’t stress from a boss something everyone lives with?

As long as he doesn’t become obsessed with something and go crazy, Choi Gang-hu seems to be the type who responds well to a gentle approach, so if Seo-ha acts weak and flatters him well, he should be able to endure somehow.

It’s a matter of life and death, so that much is nothing. In fact, he’s used to it. As for the novel’s plot, who knows. He has to survive first. With that thought, he planned to go and sign the contract as soon as dawn broke, but…

“…Mr. Choi Gang-hu?”

As soon as morning came, Choi Gang-hu showed up at the bathhouse. Even carrying a mismatched bath basket. He says he came to wash up before work.

A person who, due to habits formed in the Abyss where he couldn’t let his guard down for a moment, doesn’t easily expose bare skin other than his face and hands to others?

“Is there a problem?”

Choi Gang-hu, who came in with the cold winter wind clinging to the hem of his coat, stared at Seo-ha with his head tilted. As if Seo-ha’s excessive surprise was strange.

“No. I was just wondering how you knew to come here.”

“I saw the bathhouse while passing by.”

Isn’t this situation too coincidental to be a chance encounter? It’s clear to anyone that he came intentionally after preparing in advance.

The beige bath basket looks like a new item obviously prepared by a subordinate. There was a lot he wanted to say, but he just quietly nodded without voicing it.

“I see.”

As Seo-ha responded in a gentle voice, the corner of Choi Gang-hu’s mouth slightly curled up. It was hard to tell if he was sneering or satisfied.

Anyway, it wasn’t bad. It saved him the trouble of going to find Choi Gang-hu. Just as he was about to bring up the contract, Choi Gang-hu, after briefly looking around the empty changing room, threw his stylish long coat into a locker.

Then, as if intending to quickly get through an unpleasant task, he rapidly unbuttoned his shirt. In an instant, his firm chest muscles were revealed. It was truly a perfect physique as if sculpted by god.

“…Then, have a good time.”

Quickly averting his gaze, Seo-ha turned around hastily. He could sense that Choi Gang-hu’s nerves were on edge after exposing his bare skin without a layer of armor. However,

Thump!

“Where are you going?”

Seo-ha found himself trapped between Choi Gang-hu’s arms as he was pushed against the lockers. Like a pitiful prey that had just been captured.