SSG 268

‘What is this?’

He was flustered. He tried to pick up the fallen potion. But his hand would not move.

It was as if pushing the buy button in the purchase window for the potion had consumed all his strength.

‘I need to drink it quickly.’

He didn’t even have the strength to turn his head, so he couldn’t assess his exact condition, but there was no way it was normal.

The only reason he was hanging on was thanks to the nanomachines. But even that wouldn’t last long.

‘Did I underestimate 1 HP too much?’

In the game, with no pain or anything, he could just drink a potion and recover. But in real life, being at 1 HP was literally being on the verge of death.

He had somewhat expected it, but he’d thought the nanomachines would at least let him last long enough to drink a potion.

‘Or maybe it’s because I took too much damage before? Maybe I’ve lost so much blood that the nanomachines can’t function properly.’

One thing was certain: if he couldn’t drink the potion soon, he was going to die.

‘Damn it!’

He had just barely survived Hades’s grasp. But now he was going to die because of sheer exhaustion?

Yuseong struggled desperately to pick up the potion. But his fingers only twitched a little, and he still couldn’t reach it.

---

Hyewon was walking down the road. Both her hands were full of groceries, errands for her grandmother for today’s lunch.

‘Will he come today?’

Today was usually the day Yuseong came to eat at her grandmother’s house.

For some personal reason, Yuseong always came for a meal after a set number of days.

Of course, there were days when that schedule broke, but except for those times, he always visited her grandmother’s house regularly.

‘Lately, the interval’s gotten shorter.’

For her, this was nice. She got to see Yuseong more often.

After a while, she could see Yuseong’s house in the distance. But even if it was his house, she knew he didn’t really spend most of his time there.

‘Probably busy with that game and running his company.’

She’d been so surprised when she found out he was the CEO of Gospel. But even after everyone learned the truth, Yuseong’s attitude didn’t change.

Yuseong was just Yuseong.

She was about to resume her walk toward the house.

Her phone rang.

‘Who is it?’

It was an unknown number. If it had come to her private number, she might have ignored it, but since it was her work phone, she answered.

“Hello?”

[Hello, Miss Hyewon.]

“…Who is this?”

[I am President Lee Yuseong’s secretary.]

“What?”

His secretary? Considering Yuseong’s social standing, it would be more strange if he didn’t have one, but she couldn’t think of a reason for such a person to call her. She wondered if it was a prank call.

But it was related to Yuseong, so it wouldn’t hurt to at least listen.

“What is it?”

[I’ll get straight to the point. I hear you live near the president’s villa. Are you there now?]

“I am, for now.”

She glanced at Yuseong’s house.

[That’s good. Sorry, but could you please go to the president’s house and check on him? We haven’t been able to contact him. Please check if everything is okay.]

“What? You can’t reach him?”

[That’s right. The president has a chronic illness, you see. I’m worried that might have flared up.]

Hyewon’s heart dropped.

“Then, I’ll call 119 right away…!”

[No, given the president’s position, we’re hesitant to call an ambulance unless absolutely necessary. It could cause a fuss over nothing. Please just check at the house and let us know. If anything’s wrong, we’ll respond immediately.]

“Alright.”

She still hadn’t entirely shaken off her doubts, but it was just a matter of checking Yuseong’s house once.

If it turned out to be a prank, she’d just be the butt of a silly joke.

But if it wasn’t and Yuseong’s life was really in danger…

Hyewon strode off toward his house, leaving the groceries by the side of the road.

She was already close by, so she arrived soon.

She rang the doorbell. No answer. She rang again and again, but nothing.

“There’s no response.”

[That’s odd. We talked to him at that house just an hour ago.]

Hearing the worried voice on the other end, Hyewon’s heart started pounding, too.

[You should probably check inside the house yourself.]

“You expect me to climb the wall?”

[No.]

At that moment, the front gate in front of her quietly opened.

“W-what?”

[The president’s house can be controlled remotely. In case his illness ever flared up, you see. Only I, his closest aide, have that access.]

Her trust in the caller rose. If someone had this much control over the house, they had to be very close to Yuseong.

[Please go inside.]

Hyewon crossed the yard and knocked on the front door. But again, there was no response.

Then, suddenly—

Clack!

“Did you do that one, too?”

[Yes!]

With the automatically opened door, Hyewon carefully stepped inside.

“Yuseong? Are you there?”

There was no reply. She hesitated to enter without permission, but the thought that he might have collapsed inside gave her courage.

[Please go to the president’s room. As quickly as possible.]

“Okay.”

She went up to the second floor. She’d been there before, so she knew where it was.

“Ah!”

She gasped. Blood was seeping out from under Yuseong’s door.

Her mind went blank. Reflexively, she ran to the door and opened it.

“Y-Yuseong….”

The scene inside was even more horrific than she’d imagined.

In the middle of a pool of blood lay a person.

Though she couldn’t see him clearly through the battered, armor-like device, she easily recognized who it was.

It was clearly Yuseong.

His appearance was harrowing. Mutilated—that was the only word. It looked as if he’d been crushed in a collapsed building. The mangled body and broken metal pieces were grotesquely tangled.

Surely, he couldn’t be alive.

Thud!

Hyewon collapsed on the spot.

It was her first time seeing something so horrific, and the fact that the victim was the person she loved made it even worse.

[Get a hold of yourself, Miss Hyewon!]

Then, the voice from her phone brought her back.

But barely. She still hadn’t escaped her panic.

“W-what do I do? Y-Yuseong…!”

She stuttered. She had no time to wonder when her phone had switched to speaker mode.

“R-right. An ambulance, I’ll call—”

She tried to grab her phone with trembling hands, but then stopped at the next words she heard.

[We can still save him.]

“What?”

[You should see a potion bottle in the corner of the room, like in Arc.]

She looked around the room without thinking.

And just as he said, there was a potion, just like the ones she used all the time in Arc, rolling in the corner.

But what did he want her to do with it? Potions existed only in games, no matter how alike they looked; they didn’t exist in reality.

“Uh…ah….”

“Y-Yuseong?”

Hyewon rushed to his side. She got blood all over herself, but she didn’t care.

“Po… Po….”

Yuseong was trying to say something. She put her ear to his face.

“Po… tion….”

‘Potion? Is it really that?’

Why would both the secretary and Yuseong desperately want that bottle? Surely it couldn’t be a real potion.

[There’s no time! Feed Mr. Yuseong that potion now! Even he can’t last with wounds like that for long!]

The voice on the phone hurried her along.

Finally, Hyewon grabbed the potion. She didn’t really believe it was genuine, only that it must matter since both insisted on it.

But things developed very differently from what she imagined.

“Huh?”

To her shock, Yuseong’s body began to recover. His smashed body returned to normal, new flesh covering the ruined parts.

With wide, astonished eyes, Hyewon watched.

“Gah!”

Yuseong groaned. It was much louder and clearer than the dying whispers from a moment ago.

A single potion couldn’t restore him completely. But all he needed now was enough strength to move his hands.

He hurriedly opened the shop and bought several more potions. Then he drank them.

His recovery accelerated. But the fading pain started to rear its head again.

Yuseong checked his body. His crushed exoskeleton was pressing down on his healing form.

“Uuuuugh!”

Crack!

With the power suit broken and unable to disengage, he had no choice but to forcibly yank himself out. In the process, more wounds opened.

But compared to the moment earlier, when he was dying and couldn’t even move a finger, such wounds were nothing.

Freed at last, Yuseong sat atop his own puddle of blood and kept chugging potions.

Once empty potion bottles had piled up in the corner, he finally recovered his original body.

“Hoo!”

He let out a big breath.

He really had almost died this time. If Hyewon hadn’t rushed here in time…

‘Ah, Hyewon!’

He looked in her direction.

She was looking at him awkwardly, frozen. He could see the embarrassment, confusion, and fear swirling in her eyes.

He’d barely survived thanks to her, but now it was clear a troublesome problem had arrived.

But first, there was something he had to say.

“Thank you, Hyewon. You saved my life.”

“Huh, huh?”

Seeing him bow deeply, some of her confusion eased.

Still, to her, Yuseong no longer looked like any normal person; her thoughts tumbled through every possibility.

Monster, alien, demon—every kind of creature from novels, movies, and comics, plus every unknown entity her imagination could conjure.

Hyewon, just an ordinary person in real life despite her Arc ranker status, couldn’t help but be afraid.

She even wondered if Yuseong might kill her now to keep his secret.

But Yuseong thanked her and showed no aggression.

“Y-you’re Yuseong… right?”

“Yes, I am.”

“W-what are you really….”

[You’ve recovered.]

Hyewon jumped back in shock.

Yuseong looked at the phone Hyewon had dropped.

“Messiah. So, you’re the one who called Hyewon?”

[I determined she was the most optimal helper to save you. All other options would have taken too long.]

“S-secretary?”

Messiah? Was that the secretary’s name? For a person, it sounded far too grand.

‘Well, in other countries people are named Jesus, Michael, Muhammad… maybe it’s not that strange.’

But more than the name, the change in tone and speech bothered her. Now the secretary sounded exactly like a robot.

“Secretary?”

Yuseong asked, puzzled.

[It was an excuse for the emergency.]

“An excuse?”

“…I think we need to have an honest conversation now.”

It looked like there was no choice but to tell Hyewon the truth.