Chapter 17
Kiiiiieeeek! Kieeeek!!
Even after losing all of its legs, the spider kept writhing and dragging itself forward.
It thrashed wildly as if it still intended to kill us with its teeth.
Han Siwoo drove his knife straight into the top of its head.
Kieek...!
With one last short cry, the spider died.
A foul-smelling liquid began to ooze out beneath it.
“Did we... get it?”
“Hey, that’s a cliché. Shut your mouth.”
Oppa scolded Han Siwoo, who was breathing heavily from exhaustion.
I stared blankly at the two of them and thought,
They killed it that easily...
The entire fight had lasted less than a minute.
I couldn’t tell whether this spider was weaker than the monster we had fought in the classroom, but it was still a monster.
If they’re this strong, maybe we’ll be okay even if there’s something on the rooftop.
I clenched my fist and looked toward the rooftop.
Then I noticed Lee Dohyun standing there with unfocused eyes, as though his soul had left his body.
Well, that was understandable.
He had nearly been killed by the spider just moments ago.
“Hey. You okay?”
“Ah... yeah.”
His answer came a beat late.
Seeing such an energetic guy suddenly look so deflated made me feel a little sorry for him.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have suffered any serious injuries.
His entire body was covered in marks from being grabbed by the spider, but at least none of them looked fatal.
I frowned as I looked at his wounds.
That must hurt.
Big wounds obviously hurt, but small ones had a strange way of constantly bothering you too.
I knew because I had cut my palm earlier—
Wait.
A sudden sense of discomfort washed over me.
I quickly looked down at my palm.
But...
It’s gone.
The wound that had definitely been there just a little while ago had completely disappeared.
...Did some of the elixir get on it?
It felt a little strange, but I decided not to think too deeply about it.
If a mysterious wound had suddenly appeared, that would be a problem.
But a wound healing was a good thing.
Now that the monster was dead, all that remained was heading to the rooftop.
Just as I turned around—
Ding.
A sound similar to the one I had heard in the classroom rang out.
This time, it was much clearer.
“Oppa. Did you just hear—”
I turned toward Oppa.
And froze.
“Damn it...”
At the far end of the hallway, countless creatures identical to the spider we had just killed were crawling toward us.
My thoughts spun in confusion.
Th-There wasn’t just one.
A chill ran down my spine, and my entire body stiffened.
I tensed myself and grabbed the edge of Oppa’s clothes beside me.
Countless black eyes filled the white hallway.
They were disgusting.
Horrifying.
My entire body began trembling.
Fuck. I have trypophobia...
Click. Click.
The sound of the spiders’ joints moving echoed through the silence.
Mixed in with it were noises that sounded somewhere between machinery and reptiles.
Kigik?
Kikkigik.
There were so many.
We should never have come to the rooftop.
I suddenly felt like an idiot for being happy just because we had defeated a single one.
Even if Oppa and Han Siwoo were strong, there was no way they could fight that many.
First, we should go back the way we came—
“AAAAH!”
A scream from behind stopped my retreating foot.
I turned around, already knowing what I would see.
And, as expected, there was nothing hopeful waiting for us.
They definitely hadn’t been there before.
Yet countless spiders had suddenly appeared behind us as well, as though they had all been hiding somewhere and decided to surround us at once.
“...We’re completely screwed.”
“Oppa... can you kill these ones too?”
“Does it look like I can?”
Oppa answered without even a second of hesitation.
Right.
I wasn’t expecting much anyway.
“Wh-What do we do...?”
“Fuck...! We should’ve just stayed inside the classroom...”
“W-Wait! Over there! There aren’t any spiders over there!”
Someone shouted desperately.
I turned toward the direction the woman was pointing.
There was only one place untouched by the spiders.
And that place was—
“...The rooftop.”
The path leading to the rooftop.
The place we had originally been trying to reach.
The spiders approached slowly, almost as if they were deliberately giving us enough time to run.
Oppa let out a hollow laugh.
“This looks way too obviously like a trap. Do they seriously think we’re as stupid as they are?”
“That’s why I told you we shouldn’t come here!”
“Hey, arguing about whose fault this is won’t change anything now. Everyone listening? Looks like this is our only chance to run. What do you want to do?”
Oppa gestured toward our only escape route with his chin.
The others answered in voices that sounded close to breaking.
“P-Please save me...!”
“I want to live.”
“I don’t want to die...”
It was an obvious answer.
Who wanted to die?
All of us had come here because we wanted to survive.
That was exactly why empty words like those weren’t enough.
I turned toward Oppa.
“You’re coming too, right?”
“Hah. Why are you asking something so obvious? You know my motto, don’t you?”
He grinned.
“Live a long life without standing out.”
I stared at Oppa for a moment.
For someone who says that, don’t you live kind of recklessly?
It wasn’t exactly the right time to say that out loud, so I kept it to myself.
“I’m counting to three. Run however you can. One.”
He wasn’t even giving us time to prepare ourselves mentally.
Well...
It wasn’t like we had time to spare.
Perhaps sensing the tension in the air, the spiders began moving faster.
Kiiiek.
“Two.”
I swallowed hard and stretched one leg forward so I could sprint immediately.
And then—
