Chapter 14: Item Recovery (2)

Team Leader Park Chul-woo carefully opened the worn-out door of Room 302.

With a creaking sound, the dusty interior of the hospital room was revealed.

Faint light came through the torn curtains, but the room was overall dark and eerie.

The four beds were damaged in places, and the floor was scattered with shards of broken glass and unidentifiable debris.

“The signal is definitely coming from this room. Everyone, spread out and search. And remember—stay alert at all times.”

Team Leader Park spoke as he confirmed that the search device in his hand was still emitting a strong signal.

I double-checked the mental map in my head, just in case, but fortunately, no red dots appeared on this floor.

We each began to search the hospital room.

I checked under and around the beds, Seo Ji-hyun examined the wall near the window and the shattered glass, and Han So-ra looked over a toppled cabinet in the corner and the surrounding floor.

The team leader was searching near the entrance while also keeping watch over the hallway.

We had to thoroughly search the room for an item whose appearance we couldn’t even imagine.

“Ouch!”

Just then, Han So-ra let out a small cry as she examined the floor near the cabinet.

It looked like she had accidentally touched a sharp piece of broken tile.

A small drop of red blood dripped from the tip of her finger.

Han So-ra furrowed her brow in annoyance.

And in that very moment—As soon as her blood was shed, one of the old drawers nearby began to rattle.

Rattle, rattle.

“Huh…?”

Clatter!

A drawer flung open, and something like a white bundle of bandages shot out rapidly.

“What…?!”

The bandages slowly unraveled and, like a living snake, writhed and flew straight toward Han So-ra.

Before she could even react, the bandages began to wrap tightly around her arms and torso.

“Kyaa! What is this?!”

Han So-ra struggled in panic, but the more she resisted, the tighter the bandages squeezed her.

Her arms were already pinned down, and it didn’t look like she could escape on her own.

“So-ra!”

“The item… it activated!”

Team Leader Park and Seo Ji-hyun both shouted in alarm.

Seo Ji-hyun quickly pulled out a small knife from her waist, while Park shouted in urgency.

“D-Don’t move recklessly! E-Everyone, step back first…!”

I gasped at the sight unfolding before me.

There were still no red dots on my mental map.

This wasn’t a “being”—it was a dangerous item, just as the team leader had warned.

It could be more dangerous than a monster if handled incorrectly.

The bandages kept tightening around Han So-ra, and her face turned pale from fear and pain.

The team leader’s warning echoed in my mind—if we handled this wrong, things could get even worse.

The bandages were now crawling past her torso and arms, starting to wrap around her neck and face.

“Ugh… nghh…”

The bandages constricted her chest and throat so tightly that it looked like even breathing was a struggle.

“S-So-ra!”

“We can’t wait! I’m cutting it!”

We couldn’t just stand there any longer.

Team Leader Park and Seo Ji-hyun rushed in at the same time.

Park tried to pull the bandages off with his bare hands, and Seo Ji-hyun slashed at them with her dagger.

But the bandages were far tougher than they looked.

Park’s strength couldn’t budge them, and Seo Ji-hyun’s blade only skimmed the surface or left faint scratches.

“Grr…!”

“It’s not cutting…!”

Sssshk!

Crack!

Instead, the bandages reacted to their attacks, splitting and writhing out toward their limbs.

In a flash, both Park and Seo Ji-hyun found themselves entangled too.

Three team members were now on the verge of being completely restrained.

“…I have to do it!”

I pushed away my hesitation.

Saving my teammates came before hiding my strength.

I stepped forward and grabbed the thickest bundle of bandages wrapped around Han So-ra with both hands.

Despite being just cloth, the texture felt more like tough leather.

No wonder Seo Ji-hyun’s knife couldn’t cut through it.

But that didn’t matter to me.

I took a deep breath and pulled the bandages with all my strength.

Crack!

Rip!

There was hardly any resistance.

What looked like tough, unbreakable bandages tore apart in my hands as easily as tissue paper.

As I yanked with tremendous force, all the bandages binding Han So-ra snapped and unraveled.

The ones trying to entangle Park and Seo Ji-hyun also fell to the floor limply, as if drained of life.

The wildly writhing bandages were now nothing more than old, dirty scraps scattered across the floor.

“Guh…! Hah… hah…”

Freed from the bindings, Han So-ra collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.

Red marks were clearly visible on her neck and arms.

Park and Seo Ji-hyun also looked stunned as they checked their limbs, then looked back and forth between me and the shredded bandages.

“T-Thanks… Min-jun… I thought I was done for…”

Han So-ra finally managed to speak through her heavy breathing.

“Thank you so much, Min-jun. That could’ve gone terribly wrong.”

Team Leader Park also let out a sigh of relief as he spoke, though his voice still trembled slightly.

“Haa… haa…”

Seo Ji-hyun looked at me silently for a moment, then gave a small nod—her own way of expressing gratitude.

This was the danger of the “items” the team leader had warned about.

An item without proper knowledge or handling could be just as deadly as a monster.

We had just experienced that firsthand.

For a moment, we all stood there in silence, catching our breath and staring at the scattered bandage scraps.

The hospital room, already a mess, was even more chaotic now.

We composed ourselves and left the wrecked Room 302.

The team leader carefully placed the bandage that had fallen to the floor into the bag.

It seemed like the bag was also an item—he let out a sigh of relief, saying he felt reassured now.

As they stepped out into the hallway, Han Sora rubbed a small cut on her finger and spoke.

“That thing popped out as soon as I started bleeding, right? I was totally shocked.”

“We can’t be sure, but there’s a high possibility it’s an item that reacts to blood. We should be cautious.”

Seo Ji-hyun added her analysis.

Team leader Park Chul-woo nodded with a troubled expression.

“We need to be more careful from now on. Let’s move slowly.”

Everyone agreed with the team leader’s words and started walking down the hallway again.

Perhaps because of the earlier commotion, no one said a word.

Then suddenly, Han Sora glanced at me and opened her mouth.

“But Min-jun, you were amazing! Honestly, I thought we were all going to die back there. How did you tear it apart so easily?”

With her question, I could feel the gazes of both team leader Park Chul-woo and Seo Ji-hyun subtly turning toward me.

My heart sank.

I thought, Here it comes, and tried to shrug as naturally as possible.

“I was just so shocked and out of it… I guess I just happened to grab a weak spot or something?”

I gave an awkward laugh and brushed it off.

The three of them fell silent for a moment.

Team leader Park simply turned his gaze away and focused on the item scanner, while Seo Ji-hyun stared at me intently through her glasses.

It didn’t seem like they believed me completely.

They might have sensed that I was hiding something.

But they didn’t press any further.

“Well, thanks to you, we’re alive! You’re such a lucky charm, rookie!”

Han Sora tried to lighten the mood again, playfully tapping my arm with her usual cheerful voice.

She probably knew my excuse was just that—an excuse—but chose not to dig deeper, playing along instead.

“Anyway, I’m just glad everyone’s safe. Let’s stay cautious from now on.”

Team leader Park wrapped things up awkwardly with a clearing of his throat.

Seo Ji-hyun still seemed to be observing me for a bit longer but soon shifted her focus back to watching the surroundings.

They didn’t ask about what happened again.

Was it because they had grown used to the strange things that happened in this abnormal world?

Or maybe because I had saved them?

Or perhaps they believed that digging deeper wouldn’t do anyone any good?

Whatever the case, it seemed they had decided to quietly move on from this incident.

I let out a sigh of relief.

It felt like my secret had been partly exposed to my teammates—but I had no regrets.

Even if it happened again, I would save them.

“Our next destination seems to be the staff break room over there.”

At the team leader’s words, we tensed up again and moved forward.

A subtle shift had formed within the team, but our mission was far from over.

We stepped once again into the dark corridor of the abandoned hospital.

***

“Phew.”

After securing the second item without any problems, we exited the hospital.

There was a small incident where Han Sora screamed again upon seeing the doctor monster, but other than that, everything went smoothly.

The second item was a small teddy bear that followed any sound it heard.

It felt unnecessary to bring such an item—

But we retrieved it just in case it had some hidden ability.

Outside, the team leader of Team 6 approached us.

“I heard a loud noise earlier—are you all okay?”

Since the hospital was completely abandoned, the sound made while retrieving the bandage must have echoed far.

I glanced at Team Leader Park to gauge his reaction.

“Oh, our teammate just overreacted to a small cut on her finger…”

“Haha, sorry~ it stung a bit…”

Han Sora laughed playfully and held out her finger at Park’s words.

It hadn’t been a deep cut, so the wound had already mostly healed.

“…Well, yes, I suppose that happens.”

The Team 6 leader looked exhausted as he stared at Han Sora, then said they would start pulling out as well and turned back to his vehicle.

Team Leader Park and Han Sora had kept the bandage incident hidden from the Team 6 leader.

“Let’s head out too.”

“Okay.”

We grabbed our bags and headed for the car.