The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 30. Looking Back (2)

‘The Golden Law.’
The meaning wasn’t difficult to grasp. There was no hidden profundity waiting to be unearthed. A straightforward interpretation would suffice. Yet something about it felt awkward when connected to the Nine Eyes.
Directions like left and down surely carried some significance, yet no matter how many times I turned it over in my mind, the pattern eluded me. The more carefully I deliberated, the more tangled my thoughts became.
In the end, I spent the night wide awake.
‘I can’t make sense of this.’
Sleep wouldn’t come. After tossing and turning in bed until exhaustion set in, I decided to shelve my interpretation of the Golden Law for now. Forcing conclusions by sheer effort of will would only lead me astray. I needed a clue—a thread to pull at.
There were two ways to find that thread.
First: unlock the right direction.
Just as the left direction connected to downward, it was quite likely that upward would extend from the right direction. Once the meanings of the three colors became clear, I could narrow down the significance of gold considerably.
‘But I have no way to obtain nectar….’
The remaining method was to experiment and uncover the meaning directly through practice.
I, who had spent days staring up at the ceiling, suddenly threw off the covers and rose.

Spend enough time in the Survival Zone and your sense of day and night blurs. There are no clocks, and nearly every facility runs around the clock, making it difficult to find a truly dark space. I could only rely on the Mobile Phone from the Tutorial to gauge the date and time.
05:17 AM.
The Plaza, usually teeming with survivors, was at its quietest during these hours.
I came down to the 1st Floor wondering if Yoon Seora might be here, and caught sight of a familiar silhouette.
‘Lee Seol-ah?’
Just as I was about to call out in greeting, my half-open mouth slowly closed.
Lee Seol-ah was browsing the notice board.
She didn’t seem to have come for a run. The basic Missions could be repeated indefinitely, so there was no worry of running out of papers. Which meant that hovering about like this suggested she was looking at Missions of ‘very easy’ difficulty or higher….
Her slender shoulders sagged. Watching her cast her eyes down, it was clear she was deeply disheartened. The young man hurried toward the board.
“What do I do….”
“Lee Seol-ah?”
“Eek?!”
At the sudden call, she spun around with a peculiar shriek, her startled face relaxing into relief as though a decade of worry had lifted in an instant.
“Brother!”
“Good morning. Did you come to run? It’s been a while—want to do a few laps together?”
“Ah… shall we?”
Her response was reluctant. I caught the hesitation that flickered across her face in that instant.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
“No, that’s not it. Um, more like… I’m not confident? I haven’t been able to practice much lately….”
She trailed off with an awkward smile. It carried the same clarity and purity as always, yet I couldn’t shake an odd sense of discord. Her normally bright complexion looked haggard today.
‘Hmm?’
As I examined her more closely, something felt off.
Now that I looked carefully, there wasn’t just one thing wrong. A full month had passed since her Job was assigned, yet her clothes were identical to what she wore during the Tutorial. After meeting Shin Sang-ah and Hyun Sang-min, the discrepancy struck me all the more sharply.
When I’d checked Lee Seol-ah’s Aptitude through the Status Window, it wasn’t bad at all. I wasn’t sure if it surpassed ‘Prodigy,’ but I did remember seeing ‘Jack of All Trades.’
“Have you eaten?”
I ventured the question casually, and she nodded vigorously.
“Of course! I had plenty.”
Grrrrrrowl.
The sound of a growling stomach cut through the moment. Naturally, it hadn’t come from mine.
“…I have to do Missions if I want to eat….”
Her voice was hollow, different from before. The peach-colored skin of her neck flushed crimson like a sunset. I stared blankly at the notice board.
As I’d suspected, the girl wasn’t here to do the basic Missions. She’d been lingering near where papers for ‘easy’ and ‘slightly easy’ Missions were posted.
Of course, none were visible now. I’d shattered every last one of them a few days ago.
[The Lee siblings have been helping us out pretty consistently, from what I can tell.]
Hyun Sang-min’s words suddenly struck my mind, and I felt as though my head had been struck by a hammer.
‘Ah….’
Now I understood. Lee Seol-ah and Lee Seong-jin—the two siblings hadn’t failed to earn points. They simply couldn’t have earned them. The two of them had to support Yoon Seora’s livelihood as well.
To undertake a Mission that yields reasonable Survival Points, you need abilities and equipment suited to your Job. Going in empty-handed would only get you killed.
If you were forced to lower the difficulty, the rewards plummeted accordingly. Repeating low-difficulty Missions consistently might let you scrape together a few points, but that would’ve gone toward Yoon Seora’s upkeep.
In the end, it was a vicious cycle. Worse, Lee Seol-ah had entered the Survival Zone with only 46 points. Lee Seong-jin had barely scraped together 114. Already struggling, and now caring for an outsider on top of it all—the situation had spiraled into irreversible decline.
‘Damn it.’
I gripped the spear shaft tightly.
‘Things I didn’t even need to do.’
I’d promised myself I wouldn’t repeat the treasure-hunting fiasco, yet here I was, making the same mistake again. For all my talk of restraint, I’d ended up thinking and deciding everything based on my own perspective.
If I’d just paid a little more attention. Why hadn’t I considered that not all survivors were in the same circumstances?
For Lee Seol-ah, it must have felt like I’d taken away even the thin thread of life she’d managed to hold onto.
“…I’m sorry.”
At my abrupt apology, Lee Seol-ah’s eyes went wide as saucers.
She’d known, of course. The rumors about me had been spreading lately—there was no way she could have missed them.
“No, no, that’s not it!”
“It’s me. I’m the one who ruined it all.”
“You say the strangest things. That mission paper wasn’t even mine, remember?”
…….
“And over these two months, you’ve barely touched anything except the basic missions, have you? It’s my fault for being lazy during that time. My fault!”
Watching the girl try so earnestly to comfort me, my sense of guilt only deepened. She was blaming herself for being idle, but that couldn’t be right. She must have been desperately fighting to survive all along.
“You’re responsible for Yoon Seora, aren’t you?”
“That’s… well…”
Lee Seol-ah’s mouth opened and closed as if the words had gotten stuck. The expression on her face made it clear she was wondering how I’d found out.
“Since when?”
“Maybe… about ten days after entering the Survival Zone…”
Over a month? I let out a hollow laugh.
If that were true, she could’ve asked for help at least once. But every time we met to run the Track, the girl never opened her mouth about it. She showed no sign of struggle whatsoever. If I hadn’t heard about it yesterday, I’d probably still be in the dark.
Watching her eyes droop sheepishly made my chest tighten.
‘What do I do.’
I hadn’t committed to anything yet, but I was thinking of helping Yoon Seora. I’d reaped the benefits of the gold Marker all the way here, so repaying Kim Han-na’s debt wouldn’t be a bad trade either.
But the siblings were unexpected. Sure, if I took Yoon Seora off her hands, the burden would lighten, but… it was too late. Others were already far ahead. Could I even catch up, let alone accumulate a thousand points?
Caught in the swirl of racing thoughts, I found myself confronting the truth again: my nature was Chaos. Part of me wanted to help, but another part wanted to abandon it all and just focus on the missions.
To help or not to help.
Standing once more at this crossroads of choice, I closed my eyes.
Suddenly, a memory from two months ago surfaced in my mind.
[Let’s run together!]
The girl who’d found me in my shock and come to comfort me. The girl who hadn’t forgotten that I’d saved her life and was repaying that debt.
Then a verse from the Bible that Kim Han-na had left behind drifted through my thoughts.
‘Treat others the way you want to be treated.’
Perspective Taking.
Putting myself in someone else’s shoes.
What if I were in the siblings’ position, or in Yoon Seora’s situation? Without a doubt, I’d be hoping for help.
[I don’t think this is purely altruistic. It’s closer to giving and receiving.]
Her words were starting to make sense to me.
Perhaps.
Perhaps there might be a future like the one she spoke of. A future where I receive help from someone. Could that someone be the girl standing right in front of me?
No. Even if such a day never came, what mattered was how I felt. For whatever reason, I just wanted to help.
Not like someone like Kang Seok. Now that I knew about this kind-hearted girl’s situation, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t.
‘I’m not exactly stretched thin.’
The moment I made my decision, I opened my eyes and spoke.
“Let’s run.”

The young man and the girl ran the Track.
After finishing first and waiting, I waved at Lee Seol-ah as she drew near. She stopped just before the finish line and collapsed, gasping for breath. I smiled faintly.
“Just thirty laps. Surprisingly weak stamina?”
“You—you’re—doping!”
Lee Seol-ah protested indignantly.
“Not doping, I’m telling you.”
Even as I objected, I chuckled bitterly. Here I was, recommending competence elixirs to someone and not even knowing how she was surviving.
“How do you feel now that you’ve run?”
“It feels good.”
Lee Seol-ah smiled as she caught her breath. Despite being dragged along, not a hint of reluctance showed on her face.
“Want me to make you feel even better?”
“What?”
In the Neutral Zone, Survival Points could be loaned or transferred. I transferred two hundred of my Survival Points to the girl.
“W-wait? Two hundred points?”
“You completed the mission successfully. You deserve the reward.”
I said it teasingly, but the girl’s face showed nothing but gratitude and confusion about what to do with herself.
“Even so… two hundred points is quite generous….”
The gratitude made her uneasy instead. How could someone have lived so poorly that two hundred points would elicit that reaction?
“What’s your brother doing now?”
“Seong-jin? He should be waking up soon.”
“Then go eat breakfast with him. Two hundred points should be enough for a proper meal.”
“A proper meal? If we’re careful, that could last us ten days.”
“No. Spend it all. Every last point.”
Lee Seol-ah cut the matter short with finality.
Wait—Lee Seol-ah hadn’t spoken at all. She simply stared up at her with a vacant expression, as if lost in thought.
“Once you’ve eaten, come to my quarters. Do you know where Yoon Seora might be?”
“Oh, o-older brother?”
Lee Seol-ah rose unsteadily to her feet. Her dazed expression made it impossible to tell whether she was still dreaming or awake.
“Why, why….”
“Mm… because I’m grateful?”
“But… I haven’t done anything for you….”
Watching the girl stammer, Lee Seol-ah scratched her cheek out of habit.
“That’s not true. You ran with me back then.”
Now that she thought about it, that was right. After that run, she’d become aware of her own frailty and had thrown herself into training with reckless intensity. In a way, Lee Seol-ah might have been the reason she’d begun cultivating herself in the first place.
Lee Seol-ah fell silent for a long moment, her lips parting and closing repeatedly without sound.
“Older brother.”
She wrung out the words as though squeezing them from her throat.
“Hmm?”
“Could you… turn around for a moment?”
“It’s not difficult. Why?”
“I want to cry, but I’m too embarrassed.”
Lee Seol-ah smiled faintly. This, no doubt, was Lee Seol-ah’s own way of saying thank you.
“Do as you like.”
The moment she turned around, a wail erupted behind her. Startled, she spun back to find Lee Seol-ah already collapsed on the ground again, tears streaming freely down her face.
‘Is she actually crying?’
This time, it was Lee Seol-ah’s turn to be taken aback.

After sending Lee Seol-ah off.
Lee Seol-ah headed for the 5th Floor.
It was a place she’d never been before. According to Lee Seol-ah, there was a modest lounge there, and Yoon Seora apparently spent most of her time in that space.
Lee Seol-ah had assumed it would be reasonably livable since it was meant for rest, but—
“…….”
She had to revise that judgment the moment she arrived.
A circular space of modest size with only a few chairs scattered about. It barely deserved to be called a lounge at all.
As she pushed open the glass door and stepped inside, she spotted a woman lying in the corner like a lifeless thing, a hood pulled down over her head, her body curled up like a shrimp.
A dry cough. The sound made Lee Seol-ah’s palm recoil from the cold floor beneath it, and she shuddered.
‘It’s freezing in here.’
Locked in deep sleep, perhaps. Lee Seol-ah made noise with her footsteps, but the woman didn’t stir.
Wheeze. Wheeze.
Listening to the faint, shallow breathing, Lee Seol-ah found herself at a loss for words.
Yoon Seora, too, had changed dramatically from how she’d appeared during the Tutorial. And not for the better.
The cheeks that had been as fair and smooth as white porcelain had taken on a sallow, yellowish tint, and the hollows beneath them had deepened alarmingly. Her gaunt wrists were so skeletal they seemed barely held together by skin. She looked like something broken beyond repair.
“…Yoon Seora?”
Lee Seol-ah called her name and placed a hand on her shoulder. The woman’s body jerked.
“Yoon Seora.”
A moment after gently shaking her—
“…Hah!”
Yoon Seora gasped sharply, as though jolted from a nightmare, her voice ragged and choked. With her left arm, she pressed desperately against her face, her body curling ever tighter, trembling like a wind-battered aspen leaf.
“Why….”
The gesture—a child cowering to minimize blows—left Lee Seol-ah no choice but to retreat.
“Are you alright?”
“Ugh… ugh…!”
“Yoon Seora!”
“Wh, wh…?”
Finally, she lifted her head. Her eyes, clouded and unfocused, stared emptily at Lee Seol-ah.
“Uhhh….”
A pained moan escaped her lips, and her eyes fluttered shut. The tension drained from her body all at once, leaving her limp. No matter how many times Lee Seol-ah called her name, Yoon Seora’s eyes wouldn’t open.
‘Has she lost consciousness?’
It felt far more serious than simple fainting.
Lee Seol-ah hurried to lift Yoon Seora into her arms. Even supporting her full weight in both hands, she felt almost no resistance.
She left the lounge and climbed to the 10th Floor. Rest in the quarters should restore her vitality—she’d wake soon enough.
Lee Seol-ah laid Yoon Seora carefully on the bed, unease settling over her.
She’d brought her here, yes, but she’d never imagined things had deteriorated this badly. That superior—the one who’d asked Kim Han-na to make the request—must have known Yoon Seora had reached her limit.
‘I need to check.’
Lee Seol-ah activated the Nine Eyes.

[Yoon Seora’s Status Window]
[1. Information]
Summoned Date: 2017. 03. 16
Marker Grade: Silver
Gender · Age: Female · 20
Height · Weight: 166.2 cm · 48.2 kg
Condition: Critical
Job: LV 1. Warrior
Nationality: Republic of Korea (Area 1)
Organization: —
Alias: —

[2. Traits]
① Nature
Indifference (lacking interest or curiosity), Self-Abandonment (surrendered to despair, refusing to look back)
② Aptitude
Prodigy (sharp intellect and remarkable talent), Keen Observation (meticulous attention to detail)

[3. Physical Stats]
Strength: Lowest ↓2
Endurance: Lowest ↓1
Agility: Lowest ↓3
Stamina: Lowest ↓2
Mana: Low-Medium
Luck: Low-Medium
Remaining Stat Points: 1

[4. Abilities]
① Innate Abilities (0)
② Job Abilities (0)
③ Other Abilities (0)

[5. Mental State]
Depression (listless, weighed down by concern) / Despair / Pessimism (viewing life through darkness, consumed by sorrow and hopelessness)

“…What?”
Lee Seol-ah’s brow furrowed.
Yoon Seora’s condition, displayed in the Status Window, was catastrophic.

(To be continued in the next part)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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