Rattle, patter
"Take as much as you can."
"Since there are two of us, simple math says double the amount."
Thanks to the item Dokja handed me, I was able to sweep up food supplies without much trouble.
"The item's effect should be wearing off around now. We need to head underground."
"Th—"
"P-please... save... save me..."
'?! I didn't think there'd still be someone alive in a place like this.'
"Please... save me."
"I'll carry her."
"Do what you want."
Maybe Dokja had planned to save her too, because she didn't complain at all when I picked the woman up.
Thankfully, it didn't seem like she'd been outside for that long. I could still feel warmth through her clothes.
Now that I noticed it, her figure was actually kind of—
"...Oppa."
"What?"
"I'll carry her."
"?!?!?!"
Not long after I put the woman on my back, Dokja suddenly said she'd carry her instead.
"You got all slack-jawed just because your body touched a woman, didn't you?"
"What?!"
"It's completely obvious, you perverted bastard."
Tap tap tap tap
"Get over here, you perverted bastard!!!"
.
.
.
"Geumho Station! We need to get into Geumho Station."
"...It's closed. Should I rip it open and go in??"
"Can you?"
"I can, but I don't know if I can hold out."
My Strength was 10, excluding my attribute.
And since my attribute wasn't activated right now, I wouldn't be able to break through easily.
Even Yoo Joonghyuk had needed time to crumple an iron gate, hadn't she?
"Exit... 4... Exit 4..."
"To Exit 4!"
The woman on our back squeezed out the last of her strength to say "Exit 4," then lost consciousness.
So we hurried toward Exit 4.
Clank
"One, two—"
"Shit! They're trying to close it!!"
"Go! Oppamon!!"
"Dokyun! Dokyun!!"
Screeeech
I lunged forward just like that, shoved my hand into the gap of the closing shutter, and stopped it from coming down.
"Wh-what the fuck is this?!"
"Sorry, but we're coming in."
The people inside the station looked flustered by the hand I'd suddenly jammed in there.
Well, I'd be startled too if some lunatic suddenly stuck his hand into a shutter.
"N-no! You can't come in! Get lost!"
"We have an injured person."
Dokja, who arrived a beat later, pulled the item from her mouth and spoke.
"We're already full in here! We don't need any more people!"
"Can't be helped, right, oppa?"
"Okay. Got it."
Screeeeeech!
I put strength into it and lifted the shutter upward.
The shutter bent with the exact imprint of my hand left in it.
"Good job."
"R-run!"
That was how we entered the safe zone without much trouble.
"Put this in her mouth. It won't fully heal her, but it should have a neutralizing effect. Give me yours too, oppa."
"Here."
It kind of looked like she was smiling strangely after taking mine, but I decided it was just my imagination.
And even if she really was smiling because she got mine, I had no idea what was supposed to be funny about that.
The Constellations kept sending messages, but I seriously had no idea what any of them were talking about.
And what mattered now was growth.
Even now, I was stronger than ordinary Incarnations, but my target was Yoo Joonghyuk.
While Dokja and I had been hanging there for four days without getting any stronger, Joonghyuk had to be growing at an overwhelmingly fast pace in line with her nature as a regressor.
If I met her next time without having grown stronger in the meantime, I would definitely lose.
And that gap would only widen further.
By then, I probably wouldn't be able to pull the same stunt as before and wring Coins out of the Constellations.
That kind of thing only works once or twice. Get too greedy, and before you know it, they'll all disappear.
Thanks to the concentrate, my Stamina had at least reached Lv.12, but this still wasn't enough to win.
'Invest 3,200 Coins into Stamina, 4,000 into Strength, and 4,000 into Agility.'
I'd better leave the rest as emergency funds.
I might need to pay for something again like last time, and for now, Magic Power didn't seem that important.
"There! It's those bastards!"
"Ah, I was just about to get some rest."
"What are you punks?"
A big brute who looked like he was leading the group came back with the idiots who'd run away earlier.
In this world, muscles were no longer a measure of strength.
Only stats were one of the simplest measures of power.
He still had a big body, so he probably thought he was strong and came swaggering over because of it.
"H-huh! That woman is...!"
"What, isn't that the woman from the outcast group? Didn't she return with you guys?"
"Well, uh..."
From the rough shape of the conversation, it sounded like they vaguely knew the woman we rescued, but not on good terms.
"Dokja, am I the only one who finds these bastards disgusting?"
"I do too. Just wait for now."
Even evil had ranks.
Even among the absolute evil alignment, trash that low-grade probably looked pathetic despite belonging to the same side of evil.
"Hey, hand over the food and the women to us, then get the hell back outside. Do that, and we'll let you live."
"Hah?"
'Shit, this is bad!'
The moment Dokja heard Cheolsu's words, she started checking Dokyun's expression.
"...Over here."
Dokja moved the rescued woman to a safe corner.
"Even the Constellations won't be able to stop this."
"Just watch. Then you'll understand why I'm saying that."
.
.
.
Crunch
Crack
Snap
"I-I'm sorry... please spare me—!"
Craaack
"Oppa!"
"...."
"It's over now."
Dokja and the rescued woman looked around.
The entrance of the station they'd just come through had been dyed red, as if someone had painted it.
With the blood of those "obvious villains" who had begged for their lives.
"Of all things to touch, they had to touch oppa's reverse scale."
"...."
"I know why that hits your reverse scale so hard. It reminded you of the days when you couldn't properly protect me. But in the end, nothing happened, and I'm right here, aren't I?"
"...."
Dokyun still didn't say anything.
"I'm really okay. Look at me."
"...."
"Can you say something? Anything at all?"
"I... I..."
When Dokja looked into Dokyun's eyes and practically begged him, life returned to his gaze, and his eyes filled with nothing but Dokja.
"I'm really okay."
Squeeze!
"Oppa, oppa! I can't breathe!"
"Just let me stay like this for a moment."
Dokyun held Dokja in his arms and said nothing.
To Dokja, this kind of behavior from Dokyun was genuinely unfamiliar.
Holding her tightly enough to make it hard to breathe was practically part of daily life by now. But crying openly with tears streaming down his face was not something common at all.
There was a saying like this, wasn't there? When a friend or another family member cried, you either comforted them or teased them for it, but when a father cried, it was a real shock.
To Dokja, more than anyone, the word father was practically another word for Dokyun.
Not sniffling in a lighthearted mood, but Dokyun actually crying in front of Dokja—there were so few times it had happened that she could count them on one hand.
And now that Dokyun was holding Dokja and sobbing.
The pressure of having to protect Dokja in this ruined world, along with the guilt stirred up by what that thug had said, was tormenting Dokyun even more.
"Oppa, I'm all grown up now too. We're not parent and child, we're siblings. So I think it's okay for you to show your weak side, at least to me."
Dokyun sobbed in Dokja's arms for a long while.