The Author's POV

"This will do for now."

Brian carefully combed his hair and adjusted his clothes in front of the mirror. In addition to his white shirt, he wore a black pair of pants that seemed a bit too big for his body.

His shirt was slightly wrinkled, but given his current living conditions, it was all he could do.

It was still nevertheless a good look for him. He looked sharp.

"Haaa…"

As Brian exhaled, he leaned forward and placed both hands on the side of the sink.

Softly mumbling under his breath, he gazed at his reflection, particularly his green eyes.

"You can do it. You can defiantly do it, Brian!"

This was the first day of his new job, and he couldn't screw it up. Brian's resolve hardened as he thought about his mother's condition.

"I can definitely do it."

As Brian turned around, he slapped his cheeks and closed the faucet.

As he carefully opened the bathroom door, he felt his previous nervousness disappear completely.

Upon exiting the bathroom, Brian was greeted by a blast of cold air coming from the air conditioner of the building.

"You must be the newbie."

A young man in his mid-20s greeted him near the entrance to the bathroom. With long black hair that flowed down his shoulders, he had a face that mesmerized everyone who looked at him. Especially his eyes that made one fall into a trance with just a glimpse.

'Handsome.'

As he stared at the man in front of him for a moment, even Brian was mesmerized for a short couple of seconds.

"Eh..ah."

He fumbled with his words.

As he extended a hand, the man carefully scrutinized Brian's face.

"Nice to meet you, newbie."

A bright smile adorned his face.

"My name is Hemlock. Hemlock Feyner...and I'll be your supervisor."

***

"Smallsnake!" "Smallsnake!" "Smallsnake!"

Suddenly, he was awakened by a familiar voice. After slowly coming to his senses, Smallsnake spotted a familiar face.

'…Ren.'

He silently thought to himself as he struggled to open his mouth.

He could feel water dripping inside of his mouth as some of the water began spilling all over his face. He didn't know for how long this had been going, but he no longer felt as thirsty as before.

Even so, his body and mind remained numb.

"Smallsnake!" "Smallsnake!"

He heard Ren's voice calling out for him.

'Why is it him out of all people?'

When Smallsnake thought about how someone would hallucinate near death, he wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

If there was a face that he didn't want to see when he was close to death, it would definitely be Ren's.

He had been traumatized enough by him.

"Smallsnake!" "Smallsnake!"

Smack—! Smack—!

Upon feeling his left and right cheeks sting, and after the dream cleared up a bit, he realized he had not been dreaming, and Ren had indeed been slapping him continuously.

Smack—! Smack—!

"S…stop!" "Stop!"

"You're awake!"

Smallsnake heard Ren's relieved voice as the slapping stopped.

"…Yeah."

Smallsnake similarly replied in a relieved voice, but for a different reason.

'Thank god the slapping stopped.'

They really hurt.

"Are you okay?"

"…Yeah."

The moment Smallsnake tried to move his body up, he realized he couldn't move a single muscle.

"Ugk."

A pained groan escaped from his lips as his mind blanked.

"Stay down."

A hand pressed down on his chest as Ren shook his head.

"You're still far too dehydrated to move. Fortunately, I've given you enough water to hydrate you, but your conditions are still terrible…"

Though Smallsnake couldn't see clearly, at the moment, he could see Ren's face turn bitter with worry.

'I guess he cares…'

He was somewhat happy to see this. Sometimes, Smallsnake really doubted that Ren cared for him, but seeing how worried he was for him, Smallsnake realized that he indeed cared.

He was just too much of an ass to show it.

A smile spread on his face as he turned his gaze away from Ren and he stared at the ceiling.

"..it's..b..ad, isn't it?"

It didn't take a genius to understand that his current condition was terrible.

From barely being able to move his body, to feel little to no energy.

Smallsnake could tell.

…He was on the verge of death.

'This sucks.'

Smallsnake uttered inside of his mind as his eyelids grew heavier.

'I don't want to die yet.'

There was still something that he wanted to do before dying. Something that he promised himself to accomplish no matter what.

He couldn't die just yet.

Yet…

His eyelids progressively became heavier. He didn't know what was happening, but the incoming darkness scared him.

The only thing he could see at the moment was Ren's blurry figure. He could also faintly hear something, but his mind was too out of it to properly process what he was trying to say.

In the end, darkness slowly overtook his vision and his consciousness slipped.

Fortunately for him, he was able to make out the last words that Ren had said to him.

"Have..a..rest."

Unknowingly, a faint curl spread on his lips before his mind slipped.

'Okay.'

***

"This is bad."

I carefully stood up as I stared at Smallsnake, who was passed out before me.

His current condition was quite frankly terrible. If something wasn't done soon, I couldn't guarantee his life.

"I need to do something about this qu—"

"It's just like you said, they know each other."

"What did I tell you?"

Suddenly, two sinister voices filled with malice echoed throughout the room as my head snapped back and I saw two demons standing behind the door of the room.

"Who goes there?"

I asked while taking a glimpse behind them. It was there that I caught sight of the others on the floor.

Seeing Jin and the others on the ground staring at me with their eyes open, I realized that they were probably responsible for beating me up and trapping us.

Rather than answering my question, one of the demons slowly walked in my direction.

"Oh, so you know demonic language?"

Similarly taking a step forward, I tried to shield Smallsnake away from the demons.

His current state was critical, and if anything happened at the moment, I feared that he would die.

'Shit.'

Just the thought made my heart palpitate with anxiety.

'No matter what, I can't let anything happen to Smallsnake.'

It wasn't just because his safety was my responsibility, but because he was one of the people I knew for the longest.

Even before Amanda, Kevin, and the others…

He had been with me through my highs and lows. I couldn't for the love of god let anything happen to him.

"I'm quite curious as to how you humans managed to get into this planet."

One of the two demons asked. He had a rather bulky figure and two large horns on his head that circled inwardly. The darkish red tone of his skin and the aura he exuded were similar to those of a Viscount ranked demon.

On normal occasions, such level of strength wasn't anything that I would take note of, but since my mana was currently sealed, it certainly felt like I was staring at a huge mountain.

"I'm also quite curious. Have the humans perhaps figured out a way to teleport to other planets? If so, that would truly be problematic."

The other demon spoke up. Unlike the bulky demon, he had a rather lanky build and his horns were sharp rather than curly like the other demon.

Nevertheless, he also exerted the strength that closely resembled a Viscount-ranked demon.

Posed with their questions, I didn't answer them, but rather carefully looked around my surroundings.

Opening my mouth, I asked a couple of questions.

"Where are we, and what do you want from us?"

My current priority was figuring out where we were before anything else.

I already had a little hunch, but I needed to make sure before anything else.

"Where we are?"

As the demons glanced at each other, they had strange looks on their faces. As they laughed silently to themselves, a smile cracked on their faces as they turned their attention back to Smallsnake, who was lying behind me.

"There's no need to be so impatient. You will see soon enough…You will see soon enough…"

***

"You can teleport?"

With wide-open eyes, Amanda and Melissa stared at Kevin.

"How come you never mentioned this before?"

Melissa asked as she leaned her body forward to get a better look at the giant pyramid in the distance.

As she pushed some of the leaves away from her face, she silently muttered.

"…and you're also saying that you know of a way to teleport to anyone you want?"

"That's correct."

"Does that include Amanda and I?"

"…Yeah."

Kevin scratched the back of his ear as he kept his gaze toward the front. At the moment, he was truthfully answering all of their questions.

He was really afraid of what they would do if they realized that he had a way to know where exactly they are located at any point in time.

Feeling Melissa's sharp gaze, Kevin stood motionless as he didn't dare utter a single word.

Taking another look at the pyramid in the distance, Melissa asked.

"Are you sure that Ren and the others are inside of that thing?"

"Sure."

Kevin confidently replied as he caught a glimpse of the system interface in front of him.

Massaging the bottom of her chin, Melissa's brows furrowed even more tightly.

"And are you sure that you can teleport to any of them at any point in time?"

"Yes."

Kevin once again confirmed.

However, recalling something, he added.

"I can only teleport once though. I can't teleport back out since there's a cool down for the skill."

"I see…"

Rather than being surprised by the sudden revelation, Melissa didn't show any reaction.

It was only after a while that she removed her hand from her chin and gravely nodded her head.

Putting on a pained expression, she let out a long sigh.

"Although I hate to say this, it looks like we have to make some sacrifices. It was nice knowing them for the time that we did—"

"We're going to Ren."

Cutting Melissa off, Amanda placed her hand on Kevin's shoulder and grabbed Melissa's hand.

Her sudden action surprised the both of them as they looked at Amanda with a baffled look.

But instead of caring about how they looked at her, Amanda sternly looked at Kevin and ordered.

"Get going, and stop wasting time."