Chapter 266:

Chapter 266:

Yu-hyun took the girl to a place where no one else ventured.

It was a highland where Namsan used to be, but now it was nothing but a barren hill and some bizarre structures.

He found a decent spot to stay and brought the girl there.

“This should be safe enough. What’s your name?”

“Me, me?”

“Your name. I can’t keep calling you ‘you’ or ‘fruit’.”

“My name is... I don’t have one. That was the condition.”

“Condition...?”

Yu-hyun raised his eyebrows at the unexpected remark.

The nameless girl nodded with a pitiful smile.

“Mister...”

“...I’m not a mister. Just call me oppa.”

“Oh, okay. Oppa, how old do you think I am?”

“You don’t look older than 12, even if I’m generous.”

“Then you must know how long it’s been since the earth was ruined?”

“Well, it’s been 10 years now...”

He stopped mid-sentence and realized something was wrong.

The girl nodded again.

“That’s right. When the calamity struck the earth, I was just a clueless child. How do you think I survived until now?”

“...You made some kind of deal with the Tellers.”

“Yes. In exchange for becoming a fruit, I got the benefit of not dying until then.”

“...So the fruit harvesting was a trial that was foreseen since the beginning of the end?”

Those who became eligible for the fruit would not die until the 98th trial came.

Of course, it wasn’t true immortality.

They could still die if someone deliberately killed them.

But they had much less chance of facing danger than other survivors.

The hosts of the end made sure to protect the fruits from harm.

Their deaths had to be displayed on this splendid stage where everyone could see.

“That was foolish of you. You’re only postponing your death.”

“I wanted to live. That’s why I had no choice but to make the deal.”

“But you’re going to die anyway.”

“But I got to live until now. I thought it was better to delay it as much as possible if I had to die someday.”

“...”

Yu-hyun didn’t say anything about the need to survive like that.

He wondered what he would have done if he were in her shoes.

If he hadn’t met Choi Do-yoon when the end began, he might have also fallen for the temptation of becoming a fruit.

He didn’t want to die either.

He wanted to live.

He had no right to judge someone else’s wrong choice.

“Still, I can’t believe they took your name too. It’s hard to call you anything like this.”

“Oh, you can call me whatever you want. Or whatever you feel comfortable with.”

“Whatever I want...”

Yu-hyun felt an odd attraction to the girl when he saw her.

He saw his past self in her, who wanted to live at any cost.

Then, even if she died, it would be too cruel for her to die without a name.

If your name disappeared in this mixed realm, it meant the death of your existence. Yu-hyun knew that better than anyone.

“Fine. I’ll just give you a random name.”

“A name?”

“Yeah. Um. I got it. Seo Ha. Your name is Seo Ha.”

The girl widened her eyes at that.

“Seo Ha?”

“Why? Don’t you like it?”

“No, no. How can I not like it? It’s just... I was surprised to get a name all of a sudden.”

“Is it similar to the name you lost?”

“I don’t even remember my old name. I forgot what it was when I became a fruit. It’s just... It sounds nice.”

“It sounds nice?”

“It has your heart in it.”

“...”

He just thought of it on the spot, but she said it had his heart in it. What kind of nonsense was that?

Yu-hyun closed his eyes briefly and opened them again.

In that short time, he recalled his past memories that were now faded.

His mother had asked him with a smile, what would be a good name if he ever had a sibling.

He had said that it would be nice if he, as an older brother or oppa, could choose one for them.

He thought he had forgotten that, but he remembered it when he gave Seo Ha her name.

‘Well. If she thinks so, let her be.’

As Yu-hyun was about to leave, Seoha timidly asked him.

“Um, what is your name, oppa?”

“Yu-hyun. Kang Yu-hyun.”

“Hmm. Then, can I be Kang Seoha?”

“What?”

“It feels weird to have only a name without a surname. Since I got a name from you, I thought it would be nice to share the same Kang family name.”

“Hey, that would make me...”

Like your father.

Yu-hyun desperately swallowed the words that were about to come out of his throat.

“Anyway, the thing about being a fruit is that people won’t recognize you unless they see your face clearly, so keep it well hidden. It’s best not to show yourself at all.”

“Oh, then how do I get food?”

“Don’t you have any points?”

“I didn’t need points before, but now that I’m a fruit, it’s different...”

“Sigh.”

Yu-hyun sighed and seriously wondered what would happen if he didn’t kill her himself and let her starve to death.

But then he shook his head.

Even if she starved to death, the most important thing, the fruit-like heart, would be useless unless he took it himself.

And taking out the heart from a corpse that he deliberately starved to death was also disgusting.

“Here, eat this.”

Yu-hyun handed her some canned food that he bought from the dimensional store.

Kang Seoha’s eyes widened.

“Oh, are you giving me food?”

“Yeah.”

“But I don’t have any points.”

“I’m just giving it to you. Just eat it.”

“But still...”

“I’m not as poor as you think.”

It sounded like a lie, but it was true.

Yu-hyun had been able to indirectly gain a lot of karma by moving with the same party as Choi Do-yoon.

Thanks to that, he had enough points to compete with the top survivors.

Buying a few cans of food was nothing to him.

“So just eat it.”

“I...”

“If you don’t eat, I’ll force-feed you. Do you want me to force-feed you or do you want to eat voluntarily?”

When Yu-hyun said that half-threateningly, Kang Seoha finally opened the can and ate the food.

She seemed sorry for taking his food, but she was hungry enough to focus on eating. She emptied two cans in no time.

Kang Seoha seemed surprised by how much she ate, and soon turned her head away and said sullenly,

“...Don’t be nice to me.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not like that.”

“No matter how nice you are to me, I’m bound to die anyway.”

She seemed to have accepted her death a long time ago. She thought she was definitely going to die.

“If I don’t kill you, and if you just hide safely as I told you to, there’s no reason for you to die.”

“It’s not like that...”

“And all you have to do is eat well and live well as a kid. What do you mean by fate or destiny? I told you, right? If you can live, try your best to live.”

Yu-hyun said that without hiding his emotions.

He usually focused on concealing his feelings when dealing with anyone, but strangely enough, he found it hard to do that in front of this girl.

He didn’t know why. He just thought he didn’t need to pretend in front of this kid.

It was strange, but Yu-hyun felt relieved.

How long had it been since he faced someone without wearing a mask like this?

“Just hold on for three days.”

Even though Yu-hyun was annoyed by Kang Seoha’s attitude, he didn’t forget to give her some advice.

Why was he taking care of her so much?

He thought he had found some answer to that question.

‘Yeah. I just hated it.’

The way she said she would rather die than live like this.

It made him angry to see her say such things so easily.

It made him feel like he was a fool for living so hard until now.

And he was fed up with this world that forced people to die.

If they wanted him to die, he wouldn’t die. If they wanted him to live, he would live.

What Yu-hyun did was his own rebellion against the realm.

“It’s only three days. After that, you’ll see that living is better than dying.”

That’s right. This was a lesson for this ignorant girl to teach her how precious life was.

“So don’t say things like you want to die.”

Yu-hyun said that and pressed down on Kang Seoha’s head with his hand.

Kang Seoha lowered her head and couldn’t say anything back to him.

She just shivered and shed tears.

Yu-hyun was surprised.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

“I, I don’t know.”

Kang Seoha wiped her tears with her hand, but they didn’t stop.

No matter how much she wiped them, they kept flowing.

She said as if making an excuse.

“I just, I just suddenly felt happy...”

“Hey, hey. If you’re happy, why are you crying?”

“I, I don’t know. Sob.”

“Sigh.”

Yu-hyun sighed and comforted Kang Seoha’s back. He felt like she would keep crying if he didn’t do that.

Kang Seoha hugged Yu-hyun’s chest and tried to stop her tears.

Yu-hyun looked up at the sky blankly and lamented how things turned out like this.

‘I feel like I’m raising a child all of a sudden.’

He felt like an idiot for worrying about whether to kill her or not until today.

He patted Kang Seoha’s back for a while and consoled her.