Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World (Final Revision)

Deadly flower (2)

Han Sooyoung, who was passing by, caught a glimpse of Yoo Jonghyuk and hurriedly hid behind a pillar.

With the regressor's recent habit of cutting off heads, if he noticed her, she was done for.

Han Sooyoung shivered and waited for Yoo Jonghyuk to pass by, afraid of the sunfish as much as Fors was afraid of Gehrman, except that this time the danger was real.

Meanwhile, the regressor seemed engrossed in his thoughts.

Hanahaki disease is a disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. It ends when the beloved returns their feelings, or when the victim dies.

["Be damned! You heartless being, you will die because of the person dearest to you!"]

The curse Yoo Jonghyuk was bearing now seemed to be a variant of the Hanahaki disease.

Here, like when Kim Dokja's fate was read in the 3rd round, the 'person dearest to him' didn't necessarily mean that he loved them romantically but that it was the person he was the most attached to.

In theory, it would end simply if he confessed his feelings to the person in question.

However, that was the problem.

(Because who else would the person he is attached to be other than the one he had met in the 0th round and decided to endure thousands of regressions for?)

Who would he be the most attached to?

Lee Jihye? Or the currently dead Lee Hyunsung or Kim Namwoon? Was it his sister? Or...

"Cough... Cough!"

Yoo Jonghyuk looked at the red petal he had just coughed out in his hand, tainted with blood, then clenched his fist.

'Kim Dokja...'

But how could he ever confess that he considered Kim Dokja as a true companion if the man was dead to begin with?

[You will die because of the person dearest to you.]

He scoffed and endured the pain in his chest. It was foolish of him to have even become attached to a man who was present in only one regression.

As a regressor, how could he make that mistake?

Maybe, if he had cared more about his other companions instead, it would have been easier.

Or if Kim Dokja hadn't died there in the first place...

Yoo Jonghyuk gritted his teeth.

Nothing was happening as he wanted.

This round was also a mistake.

But when had anything happened as he wanted anyway?

From the beginning, from the moment that he had to regress alone to save the world, he had been unlucky...

Han Sooyoung frowned.

Did she see it right? Yoo Jonghyuk coughed blood? Was the regressor perhaps terminally ill?

She decided to ignore it and ran away in the sunfish's blind spot.

Meanwhile, the child that Cale had saved woke up and noticed the crimson-haired teenager.

While the child registered the situation, Cale asked him a question.

"Did you see my... childhood friend? The girl I am always with."

He still didn't remember her name.

The child returned to his senses and his attention turned back to Cale.