This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 395

The sound of the magic pen echoing along the corridor walls was akin to a squeaky draw.

Honestly speaking?

It was far from a pleasant sound.

Nevertheless, not saying anything to Bora was because her expression was so serious.

That’s why I couldn’t ask.

With time already scarce, what on earth was this?

And while I hesitated to ask, the drawing that Bora had been creating at the tip of her pen was nearing completion.

It was… a ‘door’.

A picture of an iron door that seemed to definitely exist somewhere was now filling the wall.

To think she managed to draw something like that with just a magic pen.

That alone was shocking, but an even more astonishing event soon followed.

At the moment Bora completed the drawing by adding the part corresponding to the doorknob…

Bora, who had been drawing with the intensity as if possessed by a ghost, suddenly wobbled.

“No, what the…”

In an instant, the drawing became reality.

How could this be possible?

No matter how diverse talents can be in this vast world… isn’t this far beyond common sense?

I must have lost my words as I stared blankly at the newly created door.

“Phew, huff… quickly…”

As expected from a talent so powerful it could turn nonsense into reality, perhaps the aftershock of using it was also on an enormous scale.

Bora, who had moved back to lean against the wall on the other side, struggled to lift her trembling fingers to point at the door she had created.

And almost simultaneously, at the moment I heard the words spilling from Bora’s mouth… instinctively, I knew.

Honestly, I still couldn’t fully comprehend how this was happening, but anyhow, I realized that Dogun would be behind that door.

So then?

There was no longer any reason to hesitate.

Perhaps Chae-rim, who stood nearby, had reached a similar conclusion.

As soon as I threw my gaze toward where Chae-rim was standing, she also glanced in our direction.

After locking eyes, without either of us waiting for the other, we both stretched our legs and kicked the door in front of us.

Boom—!

It wasn’t just one, but the sound of the door being kicked by two people was surprisingly loud.

And along with that ridiculously loud sound, what unfolded before us was… a basement scene that seemed to have been left untouched for a long time, mixed with grotesque things, and there lay Dogun, unconscious and limp.

Moreover, it was the moment I spotted a sinister hole flickering behind him—

“No way—!”

My already heating head felt like it was exploding as my sanity snapped.

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“Ugh…”

What on earth happened?

It felt as if I were floating in the air.

And perhaps because of that bizarre sensation, it wasn’t easy to regain consciousness.

It couldn’t be helped.

It couldn’t be helped because my head felt slightly heavy, as if a fog were clinging to my mind.

With my mind creaking like a rusty old machine that had been left idle for too long, I forced myself to think.

So what exactly happened here?

‘For now…’

I distinctly remembered that the monster wearing the guise of a girl had blocked all my airways with its tentacles out of fear I might struggle.

It might be that I fainted almost immediately because of the overwhelming feeling of suffocation, leaving what happened afterward a bit hazy.

Just like my mind now felt shrouded in fog.

I really wanted to open my eyes and check the surrounding situation, but sadly, that too was impossible.

It’s no wonder; whether it’s a side effect of being forcibly knocked out or something, my eyelids were stuck shut as if someone had smeared glue on them.

Interestingly enough, even during this, I could feel sensations quite vividly.

In a situation where anyone would feel anxious, I was able to maintain some calmness because of that very point.

Setting everything else aside, the feeling on my back and head being soft and cozy like a bed or pillow meant that I at least seemed to have avoided the worst-case scenario.

“I really thought I was being taken away…”

Did someone storm into the basement where I was trapped right as I lost consciousness?

This was, of course, just my speculation, but it seemed very likely.

It couldn’t be anything else; otherwise, it wouldn’t explain why I was laid out on a bed now.

Of course… that didn’t mean I felt completely at ease.

There was still the possibility that all of this could be a fake and merely my delusion.

After all, the wreckage I saw when Chae-rim and I fell into Heogye was overwhelming.

Some of it was even in good enough condition to be sold again if just cleaned a bit…

So perhaps the bed I was lying on and the pillow supporting my head were things taken from there.

Until then, I hadn’t felt the need for any of it, so it had been left unattended…

Both the monster disguised as a girl who had kidnapped me and the Queen of Another Ones seemed to treat me like family, so for the sake of playing family as those two preferred, it was possible they intentionally gathered these kinds of items.

So I wanted to open my eyes to clarify that point, but… no matter how hard I tried, nothing changed.

Was that why?

Unknowingly, a surge of fear welled up within me.

“No…”

To feel sensations so strikingly clear yet being unable to open my eyes was strange.

Could something have gone wrong during the rescue?

And while I struggled amid the darkness, feeling confined, those vivid sensations were working overtime.

Thanks to that, each time someone touched my body, the feeling was alarmingly clear.

For instance… there were hands that tightly grasped mine as if fervently praying, and gentle touches cleaning my body that I felt at least twice a day.

If only I could open my mouth, I could voice my thoughts.

Or at least hear sounds; I wouldn’t feel as frustrated in this darkness.

Despite all my efforts, nothing changed, and the only sensation I felt was touch, which only added to my frustration.

Knowing that everyone was waiting anxiously for me to wake up made it worse.

“Please…”

I don’t even hope for my eyes to open anymore… but please, if only my fingers would move… just, please… move…

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As Dogun struggled amid the suffocating darkness, the women observing him, despite having been unconscious for a week, felt far from okay about Dogun’s continued lack of signs of waking.

Among them, especially serious were Yoonseo and Chae-rim.

To be honest, there was no way for them to feel otherwise.

For those two, it was unavoidable that…

Chae-rim, even though she was present, was lost in thoughts about putting Dogun in danger, and Yoonseo was deliberating that perhaps Dogun’s ongoing unconsciousness was because she had acted recklessly.

Thus, their state was the most serious, but… it wasn’t like the other two were fine.

Seolhwa, who hadn’t been at the scene, was equally engulfed in sorrow, and Bora, too, was just as sorrowful.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere in the house, a shared space for the four of them… felt like walking on thin ice.

Even conversations as trivial as greetings were nowhere to be found.

And amidst that ice-cold atmosphere… a whole week passed.