NOVEL NEXT Chapter 43
“Surely not…”
As the game progressed and they lost the dragon twice in a row, Li Zhi-Xuan’s suspicions turned into certainty.
The Prisoner is not normal right now.
He might be in a critical condition.
[qq7785dd55 (Twisted Peyton): jg are you okay?]
So, Li Zhi-Xuan typed a message to the Prisoner, something he usually wouldn’t do.
[Prisoner (Rek’Sai): okok no problem]
You’re okay?
No, you’re not okay.
Every move he made indicated that the Prisoner was in very poor condition.
Yet, what sent chills down his spine was the fact that the Prisoner was still performing well.
‘…Prisoner.’
Even without the usual sharpness,
Without the amazing plays of the past,
Even without the super plays he used to ace like eating a meal,
The Prisoner methodically continued heading towards victory.
It was as if he were a monster born to achieve victory.
And that only made Li Zhi-Xuan want it more.
The game continued.
After a fierce battle with no retreat from either team, they finally wiped out the enemy team.
-Finish!
Finally, as the enemy team’s Nexus exploded, the long-awaited word appeared on the monitor.
[Victory]
Although it was written in Korean, so he couldn’t read it, he knew its meaning all too well.
They had barely snatched victory after a prolonged battle.
“Phew…”
Despite the harsh cold winds outside, Li Zhi-Xuan’s head was drenched in sweat, likely due to how focused he had been in the game.
It was that intense.
‘…Alright.’
Li Zhi-Xuan was uncharacteristically nervous.
Having ruled over others all his life, today he felt like a teenage boy, struggling to contain his pounding heart.
What should he say?
Wait, don’t I even know how to speak Korean?
“Coach Jang Seok-Hwan!”
Li Zhi-Xuan urgently called out for Coach Jang, who was probably slumped somewhere.
If Prisoner left the results screen lobby like this, he wouldn’t get the chance to talk again.
At that moment.
[Prisoner: 4390uwpt6yj 2oi-5m=]
‘Huh?’
After the game ended, the Prisoner said something in the lobby chat.
Li Zhi-Xuan was tense, not expecting the Prisoner to message first, and he read the chat line by line.
‘What is this?’
However, he totally couldn’t grasp the meaning.
The bizarre string of characters.
Li Zhi-Xuan’s mind was enveloped in confusion.
‘What does it mean?’
Of course, it wasn’t Chinese, and it definitely wasn’t Korean.
English… unlikely as well.
It felt like someone had just randomly mashed the keyboard…
“Uh?”
At that moment, a picture naturally formed in Li Zhi-Xuan’s mind.
The Prisoner, collapsed on his keyboard right after the game ended.
“Surely not…”
Li Zhi-Xuan’s heart raced.
If the Prisoner had collapsed, he knew all too well what that would mean.
[qq7785dd55: hey]
[qq7785dd55: you okay?]
No response.
Even after a while, there was still no answer.
It felt ominous.
A creeping dread started to coil around him like a snake.
[qq7785dd55: prisoner?]
There was still no answer.
The lurking dread had now manifested itself as reality right before Li Zhi-Xuan’s eyes.
‘It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be.’
The Prisoner can’t die?
No way. The Prisoner shouldn’t die in such a place.
He needed to be looking towards even greater heights alongside him. He had more than enough talent and ability to do so.
[qq7785dd55: hey?]
[qq7785dd55: where are you]
[qq7785dd55: i’ll go]
He needed to find the Prisoner.
That thought consumed Li Zhi-Xuan’s mind as he first thought of calling an ambulance.
“120, gotta call 120…”
What’s the 120 number in Korea again?
Is it really 120 too?
[“This is your life civil service…”]
Not this number.
Even without knowing Korean, he could sense the calm tone of the operator.
No, he was thinking wrong from the start.
How can he report or help someone when he didn’t even know who they were or where they were?
“No, no, no, no, no, no…”
Li Zhi-Xuan felt despair for the first time in his life.
He couldn’t just let the Prisoner go like this.
The Prisoner still had so much to do.
“Coach Jang Seok-Hwan!”
At his near-screaming shout, Coach Jang finally dashed out from his room, roused from his nap.
“What, what’s going on?”
“The Prisoner, the Prisoner…”
“What about the Prisoner? What’s wrong?”
“He looked really bad, so I asked if he was okay. He said he was, but then, as soon as the game ended, he just stopped replying! I need to find the Prisoner, but I don’t know where he is.”
Coach Jang furrowed his brow at Li Zhi-Xuan, who was speaking incoherently for once.
He wasn’t sure what exactly was happening, but it was definitely concerning that if he left Li Zhi-Xuan alone like this, something bad might happen.
“Calm down. I’ll try something.”
Coach Jang quietly assessed the situation.
Li Zhi-Xuan, who looked half out of it.
The strange messages on the game result screen.
Putting the pieces together, Coach Jang realized something might be very wrong.
‘Did the Prisoner collapse?’
The Prisoner was terminally ill.
It wouldn’t be strange for him to collapse at any moment.
Given that the Prisoner had collapsed, it made sense that Li Zhi-Xuan, who was already obsessed with him, could almost lose his mind.
“First, I’ll call everyone I know. There might be someone who can get in touch with the Prisoner.”
Though he said it to calm Li Zhi-Xuan down, considering the Prisoner and their last moments together, it probably wasn’t the most effective method.
‘But it’s better than doing nothing.’
Regardless, a life was at stake here.
‘First, it’s better to call 119. The only clues I have are the game ID and phone number, but… doing nothing is worse.’
Just then, while Coach Jang was rushing around with his phone,
Li Zhi-Xuan burst out of the dormitory without even putting on his coat.
“Where are you going all of a sudden?”
Coach Jang hurriedly chased after Li Zhi-Xuan, but the elevator was already gone.
“Damn it…”
Li Zhi-Xuan bolted out of the dormitory without knowing where he was going.
It wasn’t a planned action.
It wasn’t rational.
It was nothing but impulsive and instinctual behavior.
Li Zhi-Xuan ran through the streets, looking for the Prisoner, not even knowing where he was.
“Prisonerprisonerprisonerprisonerprisonerprisonerprisonerprisoner…”
Li Zhi-Xuan wandered the streets.
“Where are you…!”
In search of the Prisoner, whom he didn’t even know where to find.
He just kept pacing around.
*
The sensation of losing consciousness wasn’t strange to him.
However, losing consciousness and then coming to again was a completely different sensation.
A peculiar feeling, nothing like waking up from sleep.
In that peculiar state, the first thing he noticed was a faint light from a night lamp and the worried face of his mother watching over him.
“Ugh…”
“Yujin! Are you okay?”
Maybe it was the sudden noise, but his head throbbed.
“…Where am I?”
“Where do you think? You’re home.”
Only then did the surroundings come into focus.
At first, he thought it must be a hospital room, but surprisingly, it was his own room.
“The doctor came by. They said it’s probably just your first time. …Thank goodness. When you were lying there, I…”
“…First time?”
What’s the first time?
And what’s the good news?
Maybe it’s because he had just woken up, but he couldn’t speak properly, as his throat was dry.
“This is really… even though it’s not my first time raising a daughter, I don’t know what to say.”
His mother awkwardly cleared her throat as if feeling out of place.
“Yujin.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t be too startled when I tell you this.”
“Uh… okay.”
What in the world is she about to say?
Could it be… am I really dying?
While various thoughts spun around in his head, finally his mother, with a look of firm resolve, spoke.
“The doctor said there’s slight anemia, but otherwise, your body is fine. No need to worry too much. Just rest a bit, and you’ll be alright.”
“Okay.”
“So….”
Even as she said everything was fine, her hesitant demeanor felt very off.
Was there something so alarming that his mother was this flustered, even though it wasn’t death?
“…You started your period.”
For a moment, his brain went blank.
What did I just hear?
“……Huh?”
A term that was utterly foreign to him, having lived as a man for over twenty years, suddenly popped out, leading him to one clear question.
“Me? Why?”