“Look. I'm holding back my anger for Joo-yeon’s sake so please leave us alone.”
“But Mr Kang, we need your niece's eyewitness account…”, a low-voiced man speaks calmly to my uncle.
“And you think it's appropriate to ask her after such a traumatic event she has been through?!”, my uncle replies with his voice tone obviously indicating he's upset with the men he's talking to.
My consciousness starts to regain as I slowly blink my eyes. I can see a familiar ceiling that reminds me of a hospital’s one. The conversation I'm hearing now is a bit muffled, but somehow I'm able to recognise one of the voices. Uncle Seung-min sounds upset at someone or at least two men. A few seconds later, I'm able to listen to their conversation a bit clearer.
“Please calm down, Mr Kang. Inappropriate as it is, we believe that this unforeseen case might be related to the nine S-rank Slayers who've been missing three months ago.”
“Even if Joo-yeon has important info to tell you, I'm not pleased with how you do your questioning. Also you two showed up here without notifying me. Isn't it the Alliance’s fault of measuring the wrong rank of a Labyrinth?”
“Mr Kang,” the other man, with a voice that sounds boyish to me, speaks with a determined tone. “We acknowledge our mistake of not checking properly, but we’re trying our best to figure out what exactly is going on with this case.”
Alas, I have to interrupt the heated conversation since I don't think I’m able to handle another stressful scenario.
“Uncle Seung-min…”
They all turn their heads to look at me. As I sit upright, I notice, besides the fact I'm wearing a hospital gown, there are no wounds in my wrists. I look a bit shocked. Uncle Seung-min asks me if anything is the matter. I shake my head, telling him it's nothing despite my inner thought wondering what happened to those wounds I've got. I then start to notice the two men, who are standing behind my uncle, are dressed in black-and-white suits. One of them, with a perm hairstyle and sharp facial features that are aesthetically attractive, looks like a bodyguard seeing how muscular he looks. He probably is more muscular than Jung-han, and yet he has the same height as him. He then steps forward, starting a conversation with me along with his (probably) assistant who has the average looks of a friendly Korean boyish-looking man.
“Slayer Kang Joo-yeon, my name is Shin Chang-wook, the guildmaster of Moohan Guild.”
“And I'm Hong Ki-joon, the supervisor for the Moohan Guild’s raids. We're here to ask you…”
“Look, you two. Regardless of your intentions, I dislike how you're interrogating Joo-yeon.”
“Mr Kang, this isn't an interrogation.”
“Then, tell me, Mr Hong. Why is your S-rank Slayer boss here? I'm not oblivious, you know. I've read all the information about some of your abilities, Mr Shin Chang-wook.”
“Mr Kang! That's quite disrespectful…”
“Ki-joon, it's fine. Mr Kang has the right to be upset at us.”
I know why Uncle Seung-min is behaving coldly to these two high-ranked Slayers. I've heard the Moohan Guild has only members who are from B-rank to S-rank. Unlike the general public who always admire S-rank Slayers, Uncle Seung-min is aware of the rankism I've been receiving for the past two years. Even though I've yet to encounter a S-rank one badmouthing me, I won't be surprised if many of the S-rank Slayers are rankists whether or not they publicly show their disgusted look at me like what Jang did. It's a good thing that before the atmosphere gets heavier, my uncle’s phone makes a message’s notification sound. He takes out to see the message. After reading it, he looks more displeased. I ask him what it's about.
“Oh. I'm asked to take over someone else's shift at the gym.”
“You'll get extra pay for that, right?”
“Well yes, but Joo-yeon, I can't leave you here with these men asking you questions right after you woke up.”
“I’ll be fine, uncle. In fact, I wanna ask Slayer Shin about something. Don't worry about me. I know what I'm doing, uncle.”
“Well if you say so…but you still can tell the staff here to have these men leave immediately, okay?”
I give Uncle Seung-min a calm nod. With that answer, he leaves my patient room, assuring me that he'll visit me again once he finishes the new shift he got from the manager of a gym where he currently works part-time.
“You've got a protective uncle, Slayer Kang. He gave me the look as if I was going to hurt you.”
“Well I apologize for the cold shoulder you got from him, Slayer Shin. It's because of my rank that he's cautious towards higher-ranking Slayers.”
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“I understand his concern. Regardless, I still intend to ask you about what happened to you for the past three days, Slayer Kang. That's why I came here to see you today.”
“What do you mean by that? The past three days…”
“You went missing during that duration. My guild was informed by the survivors named Han Bok-shil and Park Jung-han about you being the last one to remain behind in the Painting Labyrinth, in which they described anything that was painted or is a painting attacked your raid team.”
“Ms Han & Jung-han…Painting…”
I experience many quick flashbacks related to the Painting Labyrinth which I’ll refer to that wretched room with this name Slayer Shin has told me henceforth. It's an unpleasant thing to remember, seeing how I'm making a clenched fist now. I try to maintain a calm appearance in front of Slayer Shin and his assistant, whom both of them eventually sit down on a sofa in front of me. Probably because I don't want to look like a distressed damsel at this moment.
“What happened to Ms Han & Jung-han?” I ask him promptly. “What is this about me being missing for three days?”
“Slayer Han Bok-shil may have to retire seeing how her left eye was too late to get regenerated by the time she met our S-rank healers waiting at the gate. Slayer Park Jung-han is in the intensive care unit at another hospital. He'll be discharged tomorrow since one of our healers was able to detoxify him with a high-grade healing spell. As for his mental health, unfortunately there's not much we could help seeing how he appears to be having PTSD from his experience at the Painting Labyrinth. As for yourself being missing for three days, the gate of the Labyrinth raid you were in somehow exploded in a bright orange light by the time one of my guild’s raid teams were about to go in to rescue you. Everyone involved thought you died inside that Labyrinth. That's until a passerby found you floating in the Han River this morning.”
“Me…at Han River…how did I get there?”
“That's why we’re here to find out. Do you remember anything from that Labyrinth, Slayer Kang?”
“The last thing I remembered was…”
I still have a shocked look on my face as I find myself unable to believe that I just magically reappeared in the most famous river of this country. My memories of the Painting Labyrinth feel all jumbled up with random images of it in my mind. To no avail, I can't remember my final moments in that scary room. So I look in Slayer Shin’s brown eyes as I tell him what I know so far.
“...being trapped inside. That's all I remember. But I do know that the Painting Labyrinth we were in…it's as if there was a hidden mastermind constantly changing the interior design of that room. That's all I can speculate.”
“I see. Thank you for telling us this much info.”
He looks like he's satisfied with my vague answer to his question that he gets up from the sofa, walking towards the entrance door of my patient room. His assistant follows him with the same gestures.
“I guess we should take our leave now. I wish you a safe recovery, Slayer Kang Joo-yeon.”
I furrow my eyebrows, thinking if I should ask him another important question. Before they can step out of the door, I call out to Slayer Shin who turns around to look at me as I ask this question.
“Slayer Shin, how is your eyesight today?”
“Huh? Why are you asking that to Slayer Shin?” Slayer Hong asks as he also turns around to look at me.
“Well…I just…remembered seeing the “yellow dust” these past few weeks. Just wanna remind Slayer Shin to take care of his eyes. That's all. Hehe…”
I hope they believe what I've just said to them. Otherwise, this will get too complicated if they don't. I can't believe I just made an awkward laugh.
“My eyes are fine, Slayer Kang. I hope yours are too.”
With that answer, both of them walk out, shutting the door behind them. I overhear Slayer Hong’s muffled voice calling me an oddball for asking a random question. Once I no longer hear their footsteps, I plop back down on the hospital bed. There's a good reason why I ask that embarrassing question to Slayer Shin. And that's…
“So not even a S-rank Slayer can see this pop-up window in front of me, huh?” I mutter to myself while I stare at the familiar-looking window hovering above my eyes right now. Either my brain is about to experience another mental breakdown or a petty high-ranking Slayer put a Curse Skill on me. Regardless, the latter possibility sounds ridiculous since F-rank Slayers, despite having 100 million people as of today, aren't exactly a threat to national security. As for the former one, I can still think about how much it costs for me to stay at this hospital so brain damage is ruled out. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but…
“I'm the only one who can see this thing in front of me.”
Suddenly, I hear a static sound that indicates a digitalised message materializing as a slideshow. I see the presented words that feel familiar to me.
[Welcome, Kang Joo-yeon.]
[You're officially selected for The Restart Program.]
[Please wait while this revision of The Guideline registers your overall profile to be verified.]
Guideline…Restart Program…could it be…
Now, some of the memories from the Painting Labyrinth have come back in a clear picture in my mind. It turns out this thing, which is actually a video game user interface or “level system” for a simpler term, was implemented within my soul or something. Speaking about souls, the next message is mentioning something related to it.
[Verification of Kang Joo-yeon's overall profile has been completed.]
[Connecting to the revisioned Guideline's permission to check up on the “backup soul” that's vital for Kang Joo-yeon’s physiological needs.]
This is getting complicated. What is a “backup soul”? The way it talks about it sounds like I'm a computer who needs to replace my CPU or restart the operating system which luckily has its data backup stored in a USB or something. Either way I'm trying to make sense of what's happening in front of my eyes since I was found alive this morning. The next message has popped up with the usual ‘ding’ sound. As I read it, I see a familiar name written on the screen.
[The “backup soul” named Elysian - The Archdruid is temporarily deactivated.]
[Please wait for further instructions from one of the judges to analyze this system error.]
“What does that even mean?”
I sigh heavily because I'm getting more confused about the meaning of that last message. I wonder who is the admin of this Guideline thing or more importantly, who’s Elysian? I don't have European bloodline flowing within me. I can't help but wonder if that person is the one who gave me the choice to stay alive and survive from the Painting Labyrinth. I don't know much about druids or receiving messages from an unknown side, but one thing's for sure. I've been chosen to become stronger.