Chapter 14. Backroom (2)
After crossing the desert and reaching the low-temperature zone, a bone-chilling cold instantly settled over my skin.
The entire world was pure white, like an untouched sheet of drawing paper.
There was nothing to see except snow.
Snow battered against my body as if it were trying to beat me down. Instead of clothes, my entire body was gradually covered in snow, and my vision was nothing but white.
I ran desperately.
I didn't even have the time to wonder whether I was going in the right direction.
With every step, the snow swallowed my legs, but I forced myself to sprint forward with everything I had.
Then, I reached a critical point.
My left foot, which I was about to step forward with, landed on something hard.
I couldn't tell whether it was frozen snow or something else.
Whatever it was, it was hard and slippery.
My foot slipped immediately.
Normally, something like this would have been trivial.
But not this time.
“……Ugh!”
My balance collapsed the moment my foot slipped, and with half my body already buried in the snow, I couldn't regain my footing.
I fell.
The snowfield swallowed me.
Everything I could see was snow.
Cold snow surged over me like waves and buried my body.
I was swallowed by a world made entirely of snow.
Death had suddenly appeared right before me.
I struggled however I could.
I twisted my entire body, trying to get back up.
But the harder I struggled, the more the light of hope faded.
My body temperature dropped rapidly, and my movements became sluggish.
A gentle drowsiness began urging me to sleep.
My eyelids slowly grew heavier.
Even then, the snow continued piling on top of my body until I couldn't even guess how deep it had become.
I squeezed out the last bit of strength I had and stretched out my hand.
My trembling hand pushed uselessly through the snow.
A mistake in judgment.
And because of it, the cold touch of death had come for me.
My breathing became blocked, and I couldn't push away the freezing death settling over my body.
Where had everything gone wrong?
Feeling the back of my hand slowly freeze, I began looking back.
Would things have been different if I had chosen the volcanic region instead?
No.
If I had simply looked more carefully at the elevator buttons earlier, maybe none of this would have happened.
If I hadn't come to the mart in the first place, things would've been much easier.
I already had cute companions like Confirmation Bias and the Book.
Why had I willingly come here and made things difficult for myself?
Regret surged around me like waves.
I closed my eyes.
The feeling of giving up began sprouting inside me like a small seed.
Just as I was about to let everything go and surrender myself to sleep—
I felt something through my gradually numbing senses.
Something was hitting the edge of my body.
I concentrated on my five senses.
Flap, flap.
I heard something fluttering.
The Book.
The Book was hitting me.
What did it mean?
Is it telling me not to give up?
The instant that question appeared in my mind, a strong feeling of affirmation slammed into my thoughts.
Just like when I first left my house, the Book's thoughts reached me.
Never give up.
Then the Book began flapping its pages like wings, clearing away as much nearby snow as possible to create some space.
The Book was made of paper.
Was it really okay for it to touch snow like this?
The thought worried me.
I gritted my teeth.
“Y-Yeah.”
The moment I opened my mouth, snow poured inside.
I chewed and swallowed it, then stretched forward even the left arm that had been supporting my body.
I twisted my body.
Rustle—
Snow fell away, creating a small empty space.
I swung my outstretched left arm around and pushed the snow aside.
After creating enough room, I forced myself upright.
My body rose.
Barely managing to keep my balance, I moved my foot.
One step.
My body moved forward.
Then two steps.
Three steps.
Just like when I kept moving even after falling into the Veil and losing my senses, I continued forward while engraving that same determination and conviction into my heart.
“Cough! ……Haa.”
I coughed.
My body trembled.
My legs were half-frozen and barely moved.
Every time I took a breath, freezing pain rushed through my lungs, as though frost were forming inside them.
The cold was so extreme that my entire body almost felt hot instead.
It was obvious that I was going to die like this.
I remembered the time I had been trapped inside the Veil.
Back then, I'd managed to escape by thinking quickly.
But this situation was very different.
This time, the low temperature itself was physically threatening my body.
The situation was even more hopeless than back then.
Even so, I kept moving.
And not every difference between then and now was negative.
I wasn't alone anymore.
As though proving that thought, warmth suddenly wrapped around my stiff left arm.
That warmth completely covered my hand.
“I'll pull you out right now, huff… Just hold on a little longer!”
In this pure-white world, a hand that still carried color wrapped around my arm.
Then pressure was applied.
The hand pulled me upward.
My body slowly rose.
At the same time, my vision changed.
The white sheet of drawing paper peeled away, revealing a beautiful landscape painting underneath.
Different colors began filling the world.
The blank paper became a painting.
And the painting became a world.
Inside that world stood a woman.
“Haa… Haa…… Are you okay?”
The person who had pulled me out was Lee Yeonhee.
Holy light continuously poured from her hand and gently wrapped around me.
She pulled me into her arms and shared her body heat with me.
Had she reached this place before me with the help of her divine power and then come back to save me?
Looking at her face, I saw that she was pale.
Her body, pressed against mine, was gradually becoming colder as well.
She must have pushed herself far too hard.
Even though she wasn't in good condition herself, she had still helped me.
I felt both sorry and grateful.
Ever since we entered the mart, I had always been the one protecting her.
So the fact that she had now saved my life felt strangely unfamiliar.
Still, one thought came to mind.
I hadn't made the wrong choice.
“……Thank you. Really.”
At my words of gratitude, Lee Yeonhee gave me a soft smile despite her pale complexion.
It wasn't a bright smile like a flower blooming.
Instead, it was simple and beautiful.
As I looked at that smile, I realized that my feelings toward Lee Yeonhee had changed slightly.
Before, it had felt like I'd bought stock that was guaranteed to succeed.
But now, it didn't feel like stock anymore.
It felt like I'd gained a true companion.
Just like the Book, which always cared about me.
Just like the Gallery, which was always helping me.
I grabbed the Book, which was rubbing its cover against my shoulder, placed it on my chest, and gently stroked it.
Lee Yeonhee wasn't the only one I needed to thank.
“Thank you too. A lot.”
The Book happily fluttered before going completely limp on top of my chest.
Come to think of it, it had entered the snow for my sake.
The Book was made of paper.
And paper was obviously something that got wet from snow.
I became worried.
While stroking it, I carefully touched its pages.
The paper beneath my fingertips was dry and soft.
It seemed I didn't need to worry.
I sighed in relief.
Once my tension loosened slightly, all kinds of emotions rushed over me.
This had only been the fourth room.
There were still countless rooms ahead of us.
Yet even that fact couldn't ruin this moment.
I pulled Lee Yeonhee and the Book into my arms and finally let all the tension leave my body.
Drowsiness and exhaustion slowly crept over me.
“Should we…… rest for a little while before moving on?”
“Yeees.”
Exhausted from using too much divine power, Lee Yeonhee answered happily from inside my arms.
The Book also agreed, pressing itself even closer against me.
Snow could technically be used as drinking water, so resting here wasn't such a bad idea.
I surrendered myself to the overwhelming drowsiness while gently stroking the two sources of warmth in my arms.
Sleep came almost immediately.
My eyes slowly closed.
My thoughts became broken and disconnected.
My heavy head and body began shutting down for sleep.
As my body sank down, my consciousness seemed to drift somewhere far away, and I felt a strange sense of floating.
I sank deeper and deeper into sleep.
Following Lee Yeonhee, who had already fallen asleep, and the Book lying limply against me, I entered a deep sleep as well.
It had been a long time since I'd slept this comfortably.
[Painting Section]
After getting the minimum amount of rest we needed, we immediately started moving again.
We quenched our thirst with snow, eased our hunger a little, and then opened the door.
The door quietly opened.
Through the gap, we caught sight of the sign beyond it.
The next room was the Painting Section.
At a glance, the room's layout looked very similar to the Photo Section we'd encountered earlier.
Maybe it was because photographs and paintings were similar in nature.
Could there be disgusting paintings scattered everywhere inside, just like there had been in the Photo Section?
“That's…… possible.”
“Then let's not pay attention to the paintings and just move straight through.”
I wasn't exactly in the mood to leisurely admire artwork anyway.
We decided to skip the Painting Section without even properly examining it.
“The western door.”
The western door had strangely attracted me from the very beginning, so I chose west again this time.
Technically, the Terrain Section we'd encountered earlier meant my gacha pull had failed.
Even so, I trusted my instincts and chose west.
We immediately opened the door and entered the Painting Section.
Countless paintings hung across the walls.
I deliberately kept my gaze fixed only on the western door.
It seemed like the correct decision.
I wasn't directly looking at the paintings, but I could still vaguely sense their colors.
The farther forward we went, the more the overall colors of the paintings seemed to turn red.
As we passed through that area, I deliberately blurred my focus as much as possible.
We managed to reach the western door without any major problems.
“Let's go through immediately.”
“Yes!”
Lee Yeonhee and I opened the door without hesitation.
Another new section appeared.
We read the name of the section visible through the gap in the door.
And we couldn't help but gasp.
[Food Section]
Not a Grocery Section.
Not a Fruit Section.
Not a Vegetable Section.
Not even a Meat Section.
It was the Food Section.
A place containing everything from actual meals to drinks and snacks.
Beyond that door was possibly the best section we could have encountered in this entire place.
