This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 654

Perhaps it was because everyone witnessed firsthand that a moment of carelessness could lead to the worst outcomes.

The tension in the air was palpable, something I could feel crawling on my skin.

Even now, my body tingled all over as if being poked by countless needles.

In such suffocating air, I hurried my steps.

Whether it was thanks to that or not, the tree which once seemed so distant had abruptly grown nearer.

Now looking up at the tree from a relatively close distance, I realized… it was massive.

It had already seemed overly large before, but now it felt even more so.

As I gazed at it, it was as if my sense of distance was malfunctioning in real-time.

It was that colossal.

It reminded me of the World Tree that elves might worship as if it were a deity, or something along those lines.

While having such thoughts in my head, I was still vigilant about my surroundings.

Since I had proposed this operation, I had no intention of retreating cowardly. Miss Almighty, leading the group from the front, suddenly raised her hand and halted our march.

In that instant filled with confusion, she suggested taking a break here.

“Right now, here?”

“Yes.”

“But everyone still seems full of energy…?”

Could it be that the person who naturally found themselves as our representative was questioning if this was necessary?

Due to being closest to the front, one of those behind hesitantly attempted to articulate their protest, but she seemed unwilling to change her mind.

“What I mean is, let’s take a short break here. If we tire ourselves out completely before resting, it’ll be tough to respond swiftly to unexpected situations.”

“Ah, um…”

Perhaps it was because of ‘that event’ a few hours ago.

Though her reasoning sounded plausible, it wasn’t completely unarguable.

The person guiding the conversation, glancing at her, seemed to struggle to find any retort, and ultimately nodded in agreement.

“Well then, let’s start preparing to rest.”

“How long do you intend to rest here…?”

“I’m thinking about one to two hours. I hope that’s enough.”

“That’s more than sufficient.”

Two hours, at most.

That was the entirety of our planned rest time, yet everyone eagerly contributed to fortifying our surroundings.

Since we decided to take a break now, perhaps they wished to relax comfortably for those two hours without worrying about Another Ones.

Metal debris scattered around suddenly rose into the air, then clustered together, transforming into a metal plate.

That newly formed plate became our floor.

To ensure Another Ones couldn’t sneakily meddle, layers of sand and gravel stacked beneath it to level the ground, which had been slightly tilted.

With the floor set, it was time for the walls and roof.

Considering that peculiar entities might have wings and could approach from the air, having walls and roofs as solid as the floor was equally crucial.

If done sloppily, such circumstances could lead to trouble again.

So the thick ice that surrounded us served that purpose.

As we sat inside that dome of ice—

“Though saying this in such a situation feels odd, being here feels oddly similar to taking a trip to Northern Europe.”

It genuinely felt like I had stepped into an igloo.

And it seemed I wasn’t alone in feeling this way, as comments floated in from beside me.

To be honest, I expected a poor reaction.

After all, it wasn’t the kind of comment suited to our current circumstances.

The atmosphere was anything but appropriate.

Yet, contrary to my expectations, the responses I received weren’t as sharp as I’d anticipated.

“By Northern Europe, are you perhaps referring to that ice hotel in Finland?”

“Ah? Have you been there?”

“I went there once with my husband. It was our honeymoon.”

Her mentioning of a husband caught me off guard.

She seemed to be around the same age as Chae-rim, so had she already gotten married?

To be honest, that was unexpected.

Given the industry, I often heard about foreign heroes’ scandals daily, leading me to think that renowned foreign heroes were all indiscreet.

Just look at Shamsir, who showed up with nearly ten men surrounding her.

So I thought everyone was like that, but seeing the face of this hero speaking about her husband was pure love.

Naturally, it led my thoughts to Dogun.

‘He must be so… angry… right?’

Most likely so.

If I were him, I’d definitely feel that way.

And along with being angry, he… must be worrying about me.

Perhaps because of those thoughts, I suddenly wanted to see Dogun’s face.

Stealthily glancing around and noticing the sharp stares, I decided to gently take out my personal mobile phone that I had tucked deep into my pocket, so it wouldn’t break.

It was unrelated to the mobile phone I submitted before entering Heogye—this one was personal, known only to a select few.

That’s why my personal mobile phone was all the more precious, and it was in perfect condition without a single scratch.

Moreover, I had dozens of messages piled up from Dogun.

It was unusual for him not to answer calls on the official phone, so had he switched to messaging my personal one instead?

As if confirming my suspicion, the timestamps on the received messages were quite recent.

Since the signal had completely cut off, no new messages were coming in.

While the inbox was overflowing with unread messages, I didn’t even dare to check.

Having to resist the gleaming notifications that seemed to tempt me, I ignored them and accessed my gallery instead.

As I quietly flipped through the photos of Dogun and me…

Perhaps I became too engrossed in it.

I didn’t notice someone approaching from behind.

“What? Didn’t submit your mobile phone? Is that your boyfriend next to you?”

The sudden voice startled me so much that I almost dropped my phone.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Perhaps it was because they were concerned about my reaction.

The other person immediately apologized, yet my heightened sense of caution didn’t diminish in the slightest.

Understandably so—after all, the person was ‘that woman’.

What else could I say?

The individual who suddenly struck up a conversation was none other than Shamsir—the one I had been cautious about.

Last time I had checked, she was seated far away. Had she come over, puzzled about what I was doing with my phone?

Glancing at Shamsir, who appeared dissatisfied, I opened my mouth.

“Well, what are you doing here?”

What could she possibly want?

Stating it like that was basically akin to asking why she had come over.

Her eyebrows twitched in surprise, as if she never expected to hear such words.

Before long, she regained her composure.

“What am I doing? Once we arrive at the tree, we’ll need to stick together, so I thought I’d establish some rapport ahead of time.”

Establish rapport, huh…

Had she forgotten that she had previously openly picked a fight with me?

Caught off guard by her words, I was utterly flabbergasted.

“By the way, your boyfriend is quite handsome… what does he do? An actor? A model?”

I had hoped to keep Dogun’s existence under wraps from this woman.

In an instinctive reaction, my expression twisted in surprise.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong! I didn’t mean anything strange by it.”

Then what did she mean?

“I just wanted to say… he looks good. Having a reason to return is always a good thing.”