Chapter 17: The Return to the Practice Room

Chapter 17

The moment I believed I had lost consciousness, my vision abruptly returned, accompanied by a blinding flash that threatened to engulf me. My head remained muddled, and my stomach churned unpleasantly. ‘What is this? I was just in the practice room, wasn’t I…?’

“Sogum, what should I do?”

Before I could even begin to comprehend my surroundings, I heard a low murmur of voices. Turning my head, I saw Park Hyeon-seo, a troubled expression on their face, peering into a vending machine and letting out a frustrated groan.

“There’s no blue one left… Is the red Cool Six alright, maybe?”

A vending machine. Cool Six. A Death Game. A gunshot.

No sooner had Park Hyeon-seo finished speaking than I lost my footing, stumbled, and collided with the vending machine.

*CRASH—*

“Haa… *gasp*…”

“Sogum?”

“Ke-ek…”

“S-Sogum, are you alright? You’re suddenly… bleeding from your nose!”

In that instant, a torrent of blood gushed from my nose, staining the cream-colored fabric of my uniform. A startled Park Hyeon-seo rushed to support me, yet even as I clung to them, I struggled to discern if this moment was a dream or a harrowing reality.

“S-Someone shot me… in the back…”

My muddled senses slowly began to return, and with them, an agonizing heat erupted from my back—the very spot where I had been pierced just moments before, now burning as if engulfed in flames.

Tears streamed down my face as I tore off my uniform top, discarding it. In an instant, I was half-naked, but I had no mental capacity to care about my exposed body.

“Augh… it hurts, it hurts so much… I… I was shot…”

“Sogum, what’s wrong? Shot? What are you talking about?”

“P-Please, look at my wound…”

“Wound? It looks… perfectly fine from here… Is your back hurting, perhaps?”

The frigid winter air clung to my bare skin, raising goosebumps. The chill was horrifying, yet all I truly desired was to obliterate the searing pain that raged within my body.

It felt as though my entire body was aflame, the inferno centered on my lower back. Yet, despite my desperate pleas for someone to examine the gunshot wound, the only response I received was that I appeared perfectly fine.

‘It hurts, it hurts so much… What in the world is happening? Why…’

I had no way of knowing precisely what had transpired. The practice room, which should have been in the midst of a chaotic Death Game, was instead impeccably clean.

Could this, then, be a dream? No… it felt far too vivid to be merely a dream. Was it possible that I had returned to the past once more?

My body felt exactly as it had on ‘that day’—the day I had returned after meeting my demise at the graduation ceremony. On ‘that day,’ too, I had collapsed alone on my dormitory bed, writhing in an intangible agony and gushing blood from my nose.

“Sogum, you… you’re bleeding so much from your nose right now… What should we do?”

As I sank to the floor, engulfed by the horrific phantom pain, Park Hyeon-seo, who had been standing beside me, fumbled for a wad of tissues. They seemed intent on wiping away the copious nosebleed, but the unexpected turn of events had clearly left them utterly bewildered.

Amidst the chaos, a calm voice suddenly cut through the air.

“Just a moment, calm down. Try to breathe slowly.”

As a commotion began to stir, an emergency responder, sensing that something was amiss, rushed over. Being a skilled professional, their subsequent treatment proceeded with seamless efficiency.

Even as the responder managed to calm my trembling body and check my condition, the relentless nosebleed refused to cease, steadily draining my energy. One by one, my classmates began to gather around me as I received treatment.

*THUD—*

As I swayed, utterly depleted of strength, a dark-hued uniform top was draped over my exposed shoulders. It was almost tossed onto me, causing half of the garment to slip to the floor.

Even at a glance, it was clearly an Esper’s uniform, noticeably oversized. Wondering who had offered it, I lifted my head, only to meet a displeased blue gaze directly.

Yes, it was none other than that bastard, Yoon Geon-woo.

“Hmph… you…”

Yoon Geon-woo, having apparently given me his uniform, was left wearing only an Esper’s short-sleeved T-shirt. His impassive expression indicated that the biting winter chill permeating the room affected him not at all.

“Put it on. It’s an eyesore to see you like that.”

He gestured toward his uniform top, which had been carelessly tossed and was now pooling on the floor, indicating that I should put it on at once. While this might have been an uncharacteristic act of kindness from Yoon Geon-woo’s perspective, my feelings toward him were far too acrid to simply pick it up and comply.

“Is that… really what you should be saying to me right now?”

Facing him directly, a sudden rush of indignation welled within me. If only Yoon Geon-woo had collaborated with me, like other teams, I wouldn’t have endured such a horrific ordeal.

If I hadn’t regressed through some unknown power, wouldn’t I have simply perished in vain during the practice?

‘That scoundrel…’

While the Yoon Geon-woo standing before me wasn’t the exact rogue who had run rampant through the Death Game, I felt an inexplicable urge to unleash my frustration on him. After all, the one who had abandoned me and charged ahead was Yoon Geon-woo, and this person before me was also Yoon Geon-woo.

“What are you doing? Are you deaf?”

In stark contrast to my internal turmoil, Yoon Geon-woo merely twitched an eyebrow, as if utterly bewildered by my reaction.

The emergency responder, who had been attending to my physical state, stepped away to retrieve the completed examination form. Seizing this opportune moment, I spat words at Yoon Geon-woo, my voice dripping with venom.

“I don’t need this. I’ll wear my own.”

I flung the garment he had tossed aside and shot him a scathing glare. In response, Yoon Geon-woo sneered, an incredulous expression on his face.

“Your clothes? You mean that blood-soaked rag?”

Yoon Geon-woo gestured towards a crumpled mass on the practice room floor. True to his words, my uniform was filthy, having seemingly collected every speck of dust from the floor. Furthermore, it was heavily smeared with nosebleed, emanating an unsettling aura that made me feel I absolutely shouldn’t put it on.

Reluctantly, I considered donning the white long-sleeved T-shirt I wore beneath, but it, too, was equally drenched in blood. If only I had known, I would have chosen to wear black…

“Stop being stubborn and put it on. You look cold.”

Yoon Geon-woo picked up the discarded outerwear and offered it to me. It wasn’t a gesture of tossing or abandoning, but rather one of deliberate presentation. In that moment, I grasped the peculiar nature of his demeanor.

‘Is he… actually concerned about me right now?’

It felt utterly awkward to see this person, who had always been so coldly indifferent, suddenly alter his demeanor. I couldn’t fathom the reason, yet a fleeting thought struck me: Could my regression somehow be connected to Yoon Geon-woo?

‘Now that I think about it… I remember meeting Yoon Geon-woo’s eyes last time as well.’

Could it be that Yoon Geon-woo, an S-class Esper, had used some unknown ability for my sake? Even with a dangerous contamination level, simply to save my life?

It was merely a suspicion, but once that thought took root, my frozen heart began to pound with a renewed rhythm, and the Yoon Geon-woo I had so vehemently disliked suddenly appeared in a different light.

“Why… are you suddenly looking out for me?”

“I’m not looking out for you.”

“But you just gave me your clothes to wear.”

“Tch, why are you talking so much? If you don’t want to wear it, then don’t.”

As I began to interrogate him, Yoon Geon-woo clicked his tongue, his expression as though he’d just bitten into dirt. I had subtly attempted to steer the conversation towards the topic of regression, but it became clear that this approach was yielding no results.

While he certainly deserved a hundred apologies for his reckless behavior.

‘What if Yoon Geon-woo used his ability twice, just to save me…’

Of course, it might not be his ability at all, but for now, I could discern no other possible cause. After all, Yoon Geon-woo had been present in every single moment of my regressions.

With that thought, my heart unexpectedly softened. It was akin to how a person you despise, after a hundred wrongdoings, can unexpectedly move you with a single kind gesture. The sharp thorns I had aimed at him seemed to shift their direction.

I quickly took the outerwear Yoon Geon-woo was about to reclaim and hastily put it on.

“I’ll wear it. Give it to me.”

I had boldly donned Yoon Geon-woo’s clothes, yet once I had them on, I couldn’t help but feel utterly ridiculous.

I had assumed there wouldn’t be much difference in physique between two guys, but once I put on the uniform, the top stretched down past my hips, and the sleeves required folding several times.

‘He’s not just tall; what kind of monstrous build does he have?’

I grumbled inwardly, though for no particular reason, but the sight of Yoon Geon-woo’s back as he silently departed no longer filled me with the same animosity as before.

“Sogum… are you… alright?”

The moment Yoon Geon-woo left, Park Hyeon-seo, who had been frozen in place beside me, immediately inquired about my physical state.

Was it due to my mind settling, or perhaps because the relentless nosebleed had finally ceased? I assessed my improved physical state and gestured to indicate that I was now alright.

As the momentary commotion subsided, it seemed the Death Game hadn’t begun yet, as a large object appeared with a heavy *thud*, just as before.

As expected, it was the Gate Simulation Artifact. Seeing the familiar spherical artifact, I had no choice but to acknowledge my regression once more. It was then that a voice, heavy with concern, called my name.

“Sogum student? Could you come over here for a moment?”

The person who called me was none other than the emergency responder. They were said to possess the ability to specialize in treating those with supernatural illnesses. Whether they carried a specific artifact for this purpose, a physical examination report for me was already in their hand, compiled in no time at all.

“Is there… a major problem?”

“Well, I’m not sure if I’d call it a *major* problem.”

Alarmed by the responder’s grim expression, I pressed for more information, and they handed me the examination report. Looking down at the document, a red warning message immediately caught my eye.

“This is…”

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