Ch.228Forgotten Things

# 228. What I Had Forgotten

[Skill ‘One for All’ has been activated.]

My whole body hurts.

“Suhyeok…!”

A splitting headache like my skull is being cleaved with an axe, stabbed with an awl, and stirred violently with fingers.

An extremely unpleasant sensation mixed with severe motion sickness.

A dazed, numb feeling like I’ve slept too long.

And on top of that, being shaken up and down frantically to ominous sounds that give me goosebumps just from hearing them.

Where am I and what situation am I in right now?

Why am I being carried on the back of a woman I’ve never seen before, why do all these women look like they’re dying, and why are they desperately calling my name?

I don’t know. I don’t know anything.

But there seemed to be one thing—no, two things—that were certain.

That the current situation is extremely bad.

And that I seem to have forgotten something.

“If he uses that skill, Suhyeok will—!”

“This isn’t the time to worry about that! Run!”

I wanted to ask someone, anyone, to explain the current situation. But that wasn’t easy.

As soon as I tried to open my mouth, I nearly bit my tongue from the recoil and almost gagged. I reflexively turned my head to the side, not wanting to vomit on the neck of a woman I’d never met before… but that movement brought another wave of excruciating pain. When I involuntarily let out a groan, the woman carrying me turned her head in surprise, which made my body jerk in response, causing yet another surge of pain.

A perfect vicious cycle of pain.

I had the feeling that I’d completely forgotten something.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t be running for my life in this unfamiliar place with unfamiliar women instead of being in my studio apartment.

And what’s with this terrible emptiness and the pain throughout my body?

“Shit, how much further do we have to go down?!”

“Save your energy instead of cursing!”

“Aaaaargh!”

The young woman beside us screamed with a harsh curse. And though I hadn’t noticed when I first woke up, the woman carrying me had a strong scent mixed with the smell of blood. Normally, small pains are overshadowed by greater ones, and under normal circumstances, I would have frowned and backed away from such a smell, but…

This woman was desperate.

I decided not to make futile attempts like asking “Who are you people?!” or “Where am I?!” or “What the hell is going on?!” or “Aaagh! It hurts so much, why is this happening?!”

Instead, I thought about what I needed to do.

‘Remember.’

It’s impossible to immediately resolve this situation where my body hurts like hell and I don’t know what’s what.

So I vaguely guessed that this situation, which feels so incredibly disconnected from my normal life, might somehow be resolved by recalling these memories that have become blank.

‘Remember, remember, remember…!’

If you tell someone not to think about a pink elephant, they’ll think about an elephant, and if you try to fall asleep by counting sheep, sleep eludes you because you’re focused on counting—that’s how the human brain works.

Everyone has experienced the frustration and suffocation of trying to force themselves to remember something forgotten, only to find it becomes even harder to recall.

But in an urgent situation like this.

If I might die if I don’t remember.

“N… ame…”

“Huh?”

“Name… at least…”

“Oh!”

I had absolutely no information to try to recall anything blindly. When I managed to speak without biting my tongue, the women running alongside me cheered just from that.

“Ayuri!”

“Seon Seyeon!”

“Eun Subin!”

“Tae Arang! In Soyu! Ra Yehyun!”

Their names were all unusual. Or rather, their surnames were. Three were carrying and four, including me, were being carried. It seemed absurd to think about this in such a situation, but regardless of personal preference, they were all beautiful.

It wasn’t the suspension bridge effect or surging libido.

I had a fundamental question.

Why was I with six beautiful women?

What was the missing link between these six and me?

Rumble—

“Aaaah!”

“Shit shit shit shiiiiit!”

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Oddly enough, I thought of a disaster movie. A tsunami so massive it engulfs skyscrapers. Collapsing buildings and cars being swept away, people washed away like dust. The protagonists watching from afar, struggling to escape.

For some reason, I feel cold.

And for some reason, I feel sleepy.

I thought I would get used to this complex pain like how one quickly becomes desensitized to smells, but apparently not.

I was clearly dying.

Even without being a doctor, it was obvious my body was in tatters, and when I should be resting completely, I was bouncing around as if on a roller coaster—the outcome was predictable.

I need to remember.

I need to remember…

These six people, these six who seem to care about me deeply for some reason, and my missing link with them…

Six people…

Six people……

Six… people…?

‘Huh?’

Something felt off. It was a different kind of awkwardness, a misalignment different from the emptiness I’d been feeling all along.

It’s still forgotten, but the cause seems different somehow. That kind of feeling.

I was about to give up completely and close my eyes, but something even more irritating and frustrating than before made my chest feel tight. It felt like if I could just recall one word, I might remember everything!

“Please. Tell. Me. Something.”

“Suhyeok?!”

“Explain, briefly, please.”

I felt bad asking the woman carrying my heavy body to explain the situation. I would have understood if she ignored my request, cursed at me, or pretended not to hear.

“Game. Same engineering department. Transferred to game. Summoned. Many crises. Overcame together. Final boss. Facing annihilation. Deal. Your memories. Now. Great escape.”

But the woman carrying me, despite her rough breathing, spat out words as clearly as possible.

‘Ayuri, Seon Seyeon, Eun Subin, Tae Arang, In Soyu, Ra Yehyun, game. Same engineering department. Transferred to game. Summoned. Many crises. Overcame together. Final boss. Facing annihilation. Deal. Your memories. Now. Great escape…’

Given the situation, each word must be a key piece of information, but hearing them only made the blank void of my memory even more chaotic. I wanted to ask for more explanation, but the women seemed to be reaching their limits.

‘Transferred to game? Summoned?’

So this is a world inside a game?

‘Ugh.’

For a moment, I squeezed my eyes shut from a dizziness that surpassed my existing headache. It felt like something I shouldn’t forget had flashed through my mind.

To find that feeling that had been instantly buried, I began to erase all the countless efforts I had made to remember.

How much time had passed?

‘Ah.’

[…weakling!]

Still, I didn’t know who it was.

[…contractor! Please!]

My clouded mind cleared slightly, my heart that felt like it would burst from frustration calmed somewhat, and the pain throughout my dying body lessened a bit.

[You stupid idiot foolish contractor! Please! Wake up…!]

My memories hadn’t returned, but I realized that this voice was what I had been forgetting all along.

At the same time.

“Rada…nia.”

[…Suhyeok!]

The moment I called the name of the being I had forgotten, everything before my eyes turned pure white.

**

It was hard.

It hurt.

I was lonely.

I was half-doubtful.

I was happy.

I was joyful.

It was fun.

I wished this time would last forever.

I hated it.

Even with a contract engraved on our souls, were we still strangers from different worlds?

My heart ached.

There must have been some demonic trick, but was I really nothing to him?

My heart hurt so much.

I could only watch. No matter how much I shouted, my voice couldn’t reach him. Even though I was inside him. Even though I was closer to him than anyone else.

His body and mind were being whittled away.

It was heartbreaking that there was nothing I could do.

I screamed.

Even knowing he couldn’t hear me, I shouted that he shouldn’t fall for the demon’s tricks anymore.

I did so even though I knew he would choose self-sacrifice.

The demon who had tricked my precious contractor and companions looked at the contractor with an unpleasant smile.

Was it my imagination that our eyes seemed to meet?

No. No.

Nonononononono.

As expected, a demon was a demon.

Demons don’t lie. That must be true. That if he gave up what he gained from the tower and went down as he was, after the demon tampered with the contractor’s memories, they could leave the tower.

That since there were stairs, they just needed to go down them.

But the demon didn’t say how many stairs there were.

How many they needed to descend.

Where the exit was.

Whether it was safe to stay in one place for more than a few minutes.

Whether there was a time limit for going down, and if so, how long.

What would happen if they exceeded the limit.

The contractor’s companions knew none of these things.

I didn’t want to blame them. They were pushed to the extreme too.

I could see they were doing their best, but it looked like meaningless struggling.

Indeed, they can’t manage without the contractor.

Then I must somehow wake the contractor up.

It would be sad if the contractor with lost memories couldn’t recognize me…

But even without memories, those companions would be more precious to the contractor.

And they would find the contractor far more precious than me.

No matter how much I had formed a soul-binding contract with the contractor and had become a being half-freed from the tower, fundamentally, I was still a being of the tower.

So.

Wake up.

You foolish contractor.

Wake up and.

Save your beloved companions.

Just like you saved me.

By using me.