Chapter 19
Thankfully, it looked like I wasn’t too late.
Just as I was calming my anxious heart, everyone’s stunned gazes turned toward me. In the middle of the silence, my brother’s sharp voice rang out.
“...Are you out of your mind? If you ran away, you should’ve stayed gone! Why did you come back here? Are you that desperate to die?”
For a moment, I was dumbfounded.
What exactly had he done right for him to be yelling at me like this?
You’re the one acting like you desperately want to die.
Those words rose all the way to the tip of my tongue.
But there would be plenty of time for this conversation later.
After glaring at my brother for a moment, I turned my eyes toward the Red Poison Spider.
Perhaps it was furious that its attack had been blocked, because the Red Poison Spider clacked the feeler-like legs beside its fangs together.
It looked angry that its attack hadn’t worked.
The savage aura spreading from it was so intense that my knees nearly went weak.
“Was that just now... you?”
As I slowly approached the group, Han Siwoo glanced at me and asked.
Behind Han Siwoo, one of the Watcher Spiders cautiously crept closer.
Before I could even warn him to be careful, Han Siwoo sensed its presence and twisted his body, smoothly letting the incoming attack pass by him.
If I had still been my pre-awakening self, I probably would have been shocked and unable to adjust to what was happening.
But now that I had awakened, I could understand everything.
The world after awakening was astonishing.
It was like a newborn baby opening its eyes and seeing the world for the first time.
Senses I hadn’t even known existed inside my body began to stir violently.
They were telling me one thing.
Slaughter the spider in front of you right now.
Apparently, the Red Poison Spider felt the same way.
Its mouth twitched once again.
And I knew exactly what kind of attack it was about to use.
The skill it had used earlier was Poison Mist, an attack that spread poisonous fog over a wide area.
And the attack it was about to use now was probably Poison Wind—a powerful gust mixed with poison.
Unfortunately, blocking it by myself was beyond my abilities.
But I wasn’t alone.
“I’ll explain everything later. So for now, don’t ask anything and just do what I say. Oppa, use ‘Shield Enhancement.’ Hurry!”
“What? How do you know about my skill...?”
My brother clearly didn’t understand what was happening, but he seemed to notice the ominous pressure coming from the Red Poison Spider.
He quickly activated his skill.
The shield in his hands began to grow larger after he used Shield Enhancement, and I immediately activated my own skill.
[Skill, ‘Skill Enhancement Lv.1’ has been activated.]
A skill.
A supernatural ability that seemed like something only a game character should be able to use.
The fact that an ordinary human could use something like this was completely ridiculous.
But at this point, none of that mattered.
My life was in danger.
Who cared whether something was supposed to be possible or impossible?
If something was impossible, then I just had to make it possible.
When my Enhancement skill was added on top of my brother’s Shield Enhancement, the shield began expanding until it was taller than a person.
Matching its size, I placed my hand against the shield and activated another skill.
Shield.
Mana flowed through my hand and spread across the surface of the shield, forming a wide hemispherical barrier.
The instant I pulled my hand away—
Fwoooooosh!
A violent wind slammed against the shield with a deafening noise.
Piiiiiiing!
If we had been even one second slower, the Poison Wind would have hit us.
The shield shook violently several times, making my heart pound with worry.
But contrary to my fears, it soon became still again.
After the Red Poison Spider used Poison Wind, there was a brief delay before it could launch its next attack.
In other words, we had a little time.
“How did you know that thing was going to attack?”
The moment I turned around, my brother started questioning me.
The others were staring at me suspiciously as well.
For a moment, I wondered how I could explain my situation in a way they would actually accept.
There was a reason I had been able to predict the Red Poison Spider’s attack.
When I awakened, perhaps my memory had improved as well, because I remembered a book I had completely forgotten about.
It hadn’t been particularly interesting.
I remembered reading only the beginning before eventually putting it down.
And the reason I was suddenly thinking about some random book in a situation like this was simple.
I think the book I read might actually be the source of those prophecies.
Of course, I didn’t remember everything that happened in it.
However, I had been able to escape this place using the few pieces of information that occasionally came back to me.
“I already told you. Things like prophecies keep appearing in my head.”
“...So that’s how you knew what kind of attack that thing was going to use?”
My brother looked like he thought I was talking complete nonsense.
Seeing his expression only made me even more certain.
If I had told him that a novel seemed to have become reality, he probably wouldn’t have listened to another word.
I let out a long sigh.
“Yeah. So can you believe me a little now? Do you seriously have that little trust in your own sister?”
My eyes moved across the group one by one before stopping on Lee Dohyun, who was staring blankly at me.
Then I naturally added,
“And you were in the prophecy I remembered too.”
“M-Me?”
Lee Dohyun blinked and pointed at himself.
I nodded firmly.
Then I spoke with emphasis.
“Everyone can survive only if you awaken.”
“What...?”
Lee Dohyun stared at me in disbelief.
It must have sounded absurdly sudden.
But if we wanted to escape, Lee Dohyun absolutely needed to awaken right now.
Crackle.
Crack.
As the attacks continued, cracks gradually began spreading across the shield.
I grew impatient.
We don’t have time for me to calmly convince you.
“I literally almost died just now...”
“Kim Jia. I don’t know how you awakened, but awakening isn’t something that happens as easily as you seem to think. He could actually die.”
Han Siwoo stepped in front of Lee Dohyun as he spoke.
Of course I knew that.
I knew that awakening the way I had was an unusual case.
