"AAAAGHHHH… HAAGH… ACKK… ha… ha… hah…"
Yuzen shot upright, his chest heaving as cold sweat dripped down his forehead. His hand clenched the sheet under him, and he noticed the fabric wasn't soft, but coarse and plain.
When his blurred vision finally adjusted, he saw a blue divider screen like the kind used in hospitals, and the steady beep of machines nearby confirmed where he was.
The divider on his left slid open.
"Wow, chill. You scared the hell out of me. I thought a level one disaster broke in or something."
The man who stepped through looked to be in his thirties, with a short beard framing his jaw and brown hair that hung messily to his shoulders. He rubbed his temple and sighed.
Yuzen glanced down at his arm, where a clear line was taped to his hand, dripping fluid from an IV bag. Wires ran from sticky pads on his chest to a heart monitor that beeped steadily beside the bed.
"You almost died, by the way. I checked for any medical condition, but nothing came up. Still, you went into cardiac arrest. First time I've ever seen something like it. What attacked you?"
Yuzen stared blankly at the edge of his bed, his mind unable to form a reply.
"Ah, guess you're still out of it. Get some rest. The Special Disaster Response team will talk to you later."
"Huh?"
The man tilted his head.
"Oh, you can talk now? Well, I couldn't figure out what caused this. And they'll want to know what attacked you."
Yuzen hadn't been asking about that at all. He was confused about what the SDR team even was. But before he could ask, his thoughts shifted to a heavier worry.
"I—"
Yuzen couldn't continue. Saying it wasn't an attack would mean admitting that the system in his watch had caused the backlash, but he didn't even understand what that system was.
AnWorld was supposed to be just a website full of livestreams.
How could those notifications and mods cause real pain in his body? Was everything in this world governed by the AnWorld system, and was that the same force that had transported him here?
His fingers clenched the sheet until his knuckles whitened.
A groan from the bed beside him, muffled behind another divider, cut through his thoughts.
"Hey, hey, you can't get up yet!"
The doctor's voice shifted to the next bed.
"Wait—wait, Jaein! Don't take that off!"
Yuzen froze. He couldn't hear much else, just the urgent shuffle of movement, the faint tug of fabric, the scrape of metal against the floor. Then the divider slid open.
Seo Jaein stood there in a hospital gown like Yuzen's, his pale face almost gray under the light. His brown eyes looked dead, the same hollow stare as before.
For one second their gazes locked. Then Jaein turned, limping toward the exit.
"Ah! Goddammit, Seo Jaein! Your leg needs to be healed first!"
The doctor stopped at the divider's edge, watching him go with a frustrated sigh.
"Hani's going to kill me. Should've sedated him with something stronger."
Yuzen's throat felt tight.
"I thought… I thought there were healing potions. Why is he limping?"
The doctor turned with a furrowed brow, looking at Yuzen like he had asked the strangest question in the world.
"You know healing potions only work on open wounds, right? Anything else needs a healer, sometimes surgery too. He fractured his ankle. A potion won't fix that."
The doctor gave a short laugh.
"Not unless you've got a Rejuvenation Potion, but that's insane. You'd need to kill a disaster-level ten for one of those. Hah."
"Uh…"
Yuzen dropped his gaze to the sheet, a tight feeling in his chest.
That damn Seo Jaein. He had thrown away the Rejuvenation Potions I gave him so many times!
The Jaein he knew used to be level-headed and always thought before he acted. Now, he was completely different.
Yuzen squeezed the fabric harder as the image of Jaein sobbing overlapped with the memory of him smiling coldly in the middle of a fight.
The world had changed.
And so had his MC.
*****
Yuzen's stay in the hospital was nothing short of exhausting. Many people came to him with different charts, and he underwent so many checkups that he started to worry about his own radiation level.
But at least throughout his short stay at the hospital there were no more notifications about his MC dying.
In fact, his livestream showed that Jaein had been captured just outside the hospital by a group of people wearing tactical suits who placed a weird-looking handcuff on him.
At first Yuzen was worried, but since there was no notification about Jaein being in danger, it seemed those people weren't trying to hurt him. That was confirmed when they brought him to another towering office building that shone in the sun.
There, Jaein was forcibly locked into a room while still in handcuffs.
The next day a group of people came again to the room where Jaein was and told him he was locked there for his own safety and would be released once he had fully healed. His MC just sat on the chair, not even looking at the people in front of him.
They also didn't try to make much conversation, except for the woman named Hani who kept visiting him every three hours, making very bad jokes and laughing awkwardly at them by herself.
Still, his MC stayed silent, not even acknowledging the woman's presence.
The comments on his stream were in uproar:
[#truesupreme]: God this woman! Just find someone else already! He is clearly not interested in you! Where is your dignity! smh
[#lovelovehani]: Shut up. Hani is just pure like that
[#truesupreme]: You shut up
[#highflo31]: You guys both shut up. This is fking boring. Where's the action
[#lovelovehani]: Who needs action if I can see my goddess every hour
[#sh69]: Where is the hoodie guy? He's not appearing anymore. Sad
[#anonim23]: lol get your hesd out of the mud. The MC is as straight as an arrow
[#lolledg46]: Arrow can bend O_o
[#tresav78]: Channel owner can't you just use the custom Mod already? We need more action
[#iamgod7613]: Imma donate 100k if another disaster appears nearby
[#truesupreme]: You're sick. Let him breathe
[#tresav78]: Hey you forgot the tags? This isn't "stay locked in the room" channel
[#lovelovehani]: Who cares about the tags if I can see my goddess Hani
[#truesupreme]: Crazy
Yuzen looked at the current subs he had and the Loens. He tried to access other people's livestreams but got the same [No Connection] notification again.
He tried calling his friend again, but the result was the same.
With a sigh, he continued eating the apple the nurse had given him.
The door to his room suddenly opened with a bang, followed by multiple footsteps.
His divider curtain was yanked aside so fast that he almost dropped the entire plate of apples.
"You."
The silver-haired woman, Hani, stood behind the man who had called out to him.
"Nice to meet you."
The man in front wore a black uniform trimmed with silver chains and embroidery, a high collar at his neck and a cloak draped over his shoulders.
He had silver hair, the same striking shade as Hani's.
On his right stood another man with dark hair and jet-black eyes that seemed to swallow the light. His expression remained calm and unreadable.
"My name is Seojin. I am here in place of the leader of the SDR team. Hopefully you don't mind, as the leader is a very busy person."
"I-It's fine. I'm Y-Yuzen."
The man smiled. His eyes curved into crescents, but for some reason Yuzen felt nothing but coldness from him.
"Perfect! I believe you've already met my sister Hani. She's the one who saved you. Twice, I believe!"
The smile never left his face as he gestured toward the black-eyed man.
"This is Min. He is the number one ranked healer in the country. I brought him here to check on you."
"I-I'm already perfectly fine… I think…"
The words stuck in his throat as the man's smile vanished in an instant.
"But sure. He can check on me."
"Perfect! I knew you'd be an understanding civilian the moment I saw you."
Yuzen flinched. The word "civilian" was emphasized a little too strongly, but he had bigger things to worry about.
What kind of check was this healer going to do?
"Go ahead, Min."
The man named Min walked toward Yuzen without expression. He extended a hand.
Yuzen, short-circuited by panic, placed his plate of half-eaten apples onto Min's palm. Min let it slide onto the bed without a word.
"Your. Hand."
His voice was flat, but there was an edge of irritation beneath it.
Yuzen's face burned red. He realized how stupid it was.
A muffled giggle escaped Hani, though she straightened her back and forced her face back into its cold, serious expression. Her brother gave her a disapproving glance.
Yuzen finally extended his trembling hand.
The moment their skin touched, only one thought flashed through his mind.
He was tricked. This man was not a healer.