Ch.224The Final Choice (2)

# 224. The Final Choice (2)

Among the Veritas raid members who had overcome countless crises and brushed with death, there was undoubtedly not a single person who would take Futri’s words at face value.

Just go down those stairs?

The part about escaping the tower by going down was probably true. She wouldn’t tell a complete lie. Clearly, some kind of torment awaited us on those stairs, though I couldn’t say what.

But we had no choice.

We should be grateful she was letting us leave without a fight, especially now that Suhyeok had ended up like this.

As the deputy raid leader, it was now my responsibility to lead the team.

“…Let’s go.”

We’ll make it out of the tower safely.

Without fail.

**

“Phew…”

“Haah…”

“Oppa…”

As soon as everyone entered the portal, it vanished without a trace. We never had any intention of going back anyway, but it was still quite abrupt.

Everyone gathered around Suhyeok, who was cradled in Seyeon’s arms.

“Stop.”

“Unni?”

“I’d like to say we can rest for a while, but you know that’s difficult in this situation.”

A completely unknown, enclosed space.

One created by Futri, no less.

Even in our weakened state, everyone knew this wasn’t a safe place.

“If you absolutely can’t move, raise your hand honestly.”

I deliberately avoided looking at Suhyeok, gritting my teeth. I couldn’t let my cold resolve waver.

“We need to be honest. This might be our first and last chance to rest.”

“I can move, but fighting might be… difficult.”

Perhaps understanding the weight behind my emphasis on “first and last,” and what that implied, everyone began honestly reporting their condition one by one.

There was no need to draw a conclusion. We were all completely battered.

“I’d like to go down the stairs as quickly as possible, but we’re not in any condition to do so. So we’ll take a full rest. Two-person teams will take turns keeping watch, 20 minutes each. First watch is 16, then 25, then 34.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than the sound of people collapsing to the ground echoed around us. My own thud was among them.

“I’m counting on you, unni.”

“Likewise.”

“Of course.”

Team 16 was Seyeon and Arang. Despite desperately wanting to rest themselves, the two younger members went to opposite ends without complaint and kept watch.

I carefully laid Suhyeok, whom Seyeon had gently handed over, across my lap and softly brushed his hair away from his eyes. As I sighed, wondering what to do next, I sensed movement.

Not enemies.

It was the unnies and dongsaengs who had collapsed or lain down.

“Even moving like that might be a luxury right now.”

“If moving this much is a luxury, then I’d rather spend my last moments looking at oppa’s face for one more second before I die.”

Yuri was always straightforward. She crawled over to me, looked at Suhyeok’s face, and clenched her teeth. Looking closer, I could see her trembling as she tightly balled her fists.

“We were perfect. No, given our current state, we *were* perfect. But it’s so unfair.”

“What is?”

“You know how in games there are those events where you’re forced to lose? Where you have no choice, and it’s necessary for the story to progress.”

“You think that’s what’s happening now?”

“How else could we end up like this without even getting a proper fight? Maybe in an early main story segment, but not in a raid-related storyline.”

“Yuri. This isn’t a game…”

“Fuck, I know that! I know! But it’s still unfair!”

Yuri shouted, though not loudly. I had reflexively contradicted her, but deep down, I sympathized with what she was saying. The others seemed to feel the same way.

“What can we do? If we’re talking about unfairness, then being dragged into this tower in the first place—starting with Suhyeok and then all of us following—was unfair from the beginning.”

“That’s not what she means, Subin. You know that’s not what Yuri’s saying.”

“I know. It’s about our efforts being wasted. No matter how difficult or terrible it was, it should have been an obstacle we could overcome, but this time it wasn’t. That’s why it feels unfair. Especially when we were so close to the end.”

“Subin…”

“But so what? Does complaining about unfairness solve our situation? It doesn’t. This space itself might be finite, or in the worst case, there might be a mechanism where the stairs disappear if we stay in one place for more than 30 minutes, causing us to fall.”

The raid members drew in sharp breaths at my hypothesis.

“This space itself might be a trap where the stairs never end no matter how far we go down, or we might reach the bottom only to find a dead end, or we might open a door at the bottom and find ourselves back on the first floor of the tower or right in front of that bastard Futri. Then what? Wouldn’t that be even more infuriating and unfair than now?”

“…”

“But we still have to go down. Why? Because just like how we entered this space, we have no other choice. We need to rest even if the stairs might disappear at any moment. Why? Because resting before going down gives us a better chance of making it down ‘well’ than going down immediately. So don’t waste energy feeling sorry for ourselves in advance. It’s a luxury.”

I hadn’t intended to say so much, but being human, my emotions got the better of me. Unable to face the raid members, I lowered my head and looked at Suhyeok.

What would Suhyeok have done in this situation?

What would he have said?

I’m not Suhyeok. I’m even smarter than him. Yet he’s our leader, and no one ever questions his orders. So I try to reference his guidance and analyze his personality and tendencies, which are quite different from mine.

“I’m sorry.”

“…No, I should be the one apologizing. Rest. Just rest.”

Why did Suhyeok appoint me as deputy raid leader? Simply because I’m smart? Because I’m good at multitasking?

I don’t want to disappoint this guy I love.

I don’t want to disappoint the unnies and dongsaengs who love him and all of us.

But the only decision I could make with this supposedly brilliant mind of mine was to take a full rest.

It was frustrating.

Frustrating, but…

– For now, let’s rest! Rest, fill our stomachs, and then think! Isn’t it already something that we’re all alive and together? Right?

Imagining Suhyeok’s unspoken words, I closed my eyes while sitting.

**

One hour later.

Suhyeok was still unconscious, and this time, instead of Seyeon, Yehyun unni had agreed to carry him on her back. Before entering the tower, this wouldn’t have been an issue—even a support role could easily carry a man.

But then.

“Let’s move out.”

“Ugh-!”

“Unni?”

“Unni!”

“Ah, I… I’m sorry…”

We stumbled before we even started.

Yehyun unni had collapsed while trying to stand up with Suhyeok on her back.

As if crushed by something heavy.

“S-sorry. I guess my body went limp after resting.”

“No, it happens. It’s my fault for not considering that. Still better than falling while going down the stairs.”

“I’m sorry. Really sorry…”

Yehyun unni kept apologizing as if she’d committed a grave sin. Then she strained to get up, her face turning red with effort.

“Maybe we should let someone else—”

“N-no. I have the most free hands, so this makes sense. Let’s go.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Of course!”

“…Let’s move.”

It would be unreasonable to expect recovery from an incomplete hour of rest. We couldn’t afford to waste more of Soyu unni’s magic when we didn’t know what lay ahead.

I tried to convince myself of this.

*Tap- tap- tap-*

The staircase was dim and quiet. And dizzying. The spiral stairs seemed to go on forever, though thankfully there was a handrail to hold onto.

Without it, the vertigo would have been much worse.

“…”

“…”

If not for the sounds of breathing and footsteps, there would have been no sound at all. And we had no idea when or where something might jump out at us.

It was the perfect environment for developing nervous exhaustion.

Eventually, someone broke the intentional silence that had become unbearable.

“How far down have we gone?”

“By my count, 192 steps.”

“Hmm… an apartment floor usually has about 20 steps, so that’s like going down 9 or 10 floors. We’ve come quite far.”

“If the tower were like a normal apartment building.”

“Hearing it that way makes my knees ache a bit…”

“Come on, unni, we’re not that old yet.”

No one actually believed that descending the equivalent of 9 floors meant we were near the bottom of the tower.

But there was a vague sense of hope. Nothing had happened so far.

Above all, Suhyeok’s presence—still unconscious but definitely breathing—kept that spark of hope burning brighter.

So while I would normally have demanded silence, I didn’t stop them. I even chimed in about how many steps we’d descended.

But then.

Was it because that small talk was born of carelessness?

Or was it just bad timing?

Just as I stepped onto what was, by my count, the 202nd step.

*Crash!*

“Kyaah!”

“Unni…!”

“Yehyun unni!”

“Suhyeok!”

“Oppa!”

Yehyun unni tumbled down. We rushed to help her and Suhyeok, but…

“My body…!”

Somehow, our bodies had become as heavy as if they were laden with sandbags.