There was no point in waking up that old lady again since she would just come up with more excuses.

Among those who were sleeping, Jo Chan-ho was the first to wake up.

"Yun-seong, you’re up first."

"Yes… well… Did you sleep well, Byeong-ok?"

Of course, I had to make sure not to show any signs that I was suspicious of Jo Chan-ho.

I was exhausted from not getting any sleep, but I started a conversation, pretending to know nothing.

"After everything that happened yesterday, I couldn’t sleep deeply. But I feel like some of my fatigue has eased."

"That’s good to hear."

"We should eat before we move, so I’ll wake the others. Yun-seong, could you check the area around the clearing?"

"Yep, just in case, I’ll bring a weapon with me."

I grabbed my club and shield. I wanted to take some food and run, but doing so would only raise suspicions. There was no need for supplies just to take a quick look around.

All I had to do was scan the surroundings and come back, I started walking at a steady pace.

'Why don’t I see any monsters? Maybe they haven’t reached here yet since we’re quite far from the building…'

I looked around, but nothing stood out. It felt like I was just hiking through a wooded mountain.

'I need to get a job, that’s the only way I can prepare for the worst.'

Rustle—

I heard the sound of someone walking. It could be a monster, so I quickly hid in the bushes.

After a short while, I started hearing people talking.

"Noona… Where are we going?"

"Anywhere, as long as we get as far from the building as possible. Monsters aren’t the only danger. You saw it yourself—people fight over food and water. Yu-hyun, you can’t trust people easily just because they’re human. We… were just lucky."

Looking closely, I realized they were the siblings I had seen in the building when I first regained consciousness.

'Were they lucky, or did they somehow manage to survive? What should I do? Should I talk to them? They might have information I don’t know.'

The girl, who seemed to be the older sister, looked extremely wary. That was concerning, but at the very least, she seemed less dangerous than Jo Chan-ho.

I had no idea when I’d encounter other survivors, and as long as I didn’t act threateningly, they didn’t seem like they would attack me. So, I carefully approached and spoke.

"Wait a moment."

Startled by my voice, the girl moved her younger brother behind her and drew a dagger, shouting.

"Who’s there?!"

"I don’t intend to harm you. Calm down, I just want to talk."

"Forget it! Don’t come any closer! If you do, I’ll stab you!"

'Her guard is too high… I need to calm her down first.'

I placed my club and shield on the ground and raised both hands to show I meant no harm.

…

After standing still for several seconds, the girl finally spoke first.

"Are you alone? Why did you approach us?"

“I’m not alone. I have a group, but we’re resting a bit farther away. I just wanted to exchange information."

"How many are in your group?"

"Including me, five. Now, can I ask something? Have you seen other people or monsters?"

"The monsters haven’t reached here yet. They might come later, though… As for other people, I don’t know, we were too focused on running away…"

"Might come later? What do you mean?"

"It’s my turn to ask. A little east of here, we found a woman’s body… Was that you guys?"

"....A woman’s body? What are you talking about? Wouldn’t she have been killed by a monster?"

I hadn’t been east yet. After all, only a day had passed since everything went to hell.

'Why are they suspecting me? If they found a body, wouldn’t monsters be the first suspects?'

As I pondered their suspicion, the girl spoke again.

"The body was stripped."

'...Was this Chan-ho’s doing?'

As soon as I heard that, I immediately suspected Jo Chan-ho. But after a bit of thinking, I realized it wasn’t him.

'No, he was with us the entire day yesterday. It wasn’t him… It was someone else.'

"No, it wasn’t our group. There are three men and two women in our party."

"How can we believe that?"

"If I or my group were responsible, I wouldn’t have shown myself to you like this. I would have gathered my party and ambushed you instead."

"........"

"I’d appreciate it if you trusted me. I’m treating you with enough caution, aren’t I? Now, let me ask—why did you say the monsters might come later?"

"That’s…"

Rustle—

"Ah, there you are, Yun-seong. And these two are?"

The moment I heard the voice, I felt a chill run down my spine. Because it belonged to the psycho Jo Chan-ho.

'Fuck… How did he find me all the way out here?'

I forced myself to stay calm and answered.

"...Oh, Byeong-ok. I was scouting the area and happened to find some other survivors. I was having a conversation with them."

Seeing a fully grown man suddenly appear, the girl seemed uneasy and shouted.

"What?! You said your group was far away! So you really are the culprits!"

"Hmm… It seems like there’s some misunderstanding. I came looking for Yun-seong because he hadn’t returned for some time. Please, calm down."

Jo Chan-ho smiled as he reassured the two students. His naturally gentle face and soft-spoken manner seemed to work, as while they didn’t completely let down their guard, they slowly relaxed since he wasn’t showing hostility.

"Byeong-ok… How did you find me?"

"Since quite some time had passed and you hadn’t come back, I looked for some tracks. Thankfully, since this is a mountain path, there were footprints to follow."

'Fuck… He tracked me… by following my footprints?'

I was lucky I hadn’t attempted to run away. If I had, Chan-ho would have noticed something was off and definitely pursued me. With my poor stats, he would’ve caught up in no time.

If it were a normal person, I’d have been grateful that they came looking for me. But knowing that he might be a deranged murderer, the fact that he tracked me so easily was horrifying.

"If you two don’t mind, would you like to join our group? In a crisis like this, having more people around would be reassuring."

"...What?"

"Of course, I’m not forcing you, but we all need to work together to survive this ‘tutorial.’ There’s only so much an individual can do."

Hearing Jo Chan-ho’s suggestion, the girl hesitated. With just the two of them, surviving against both monsters and other humans would be difficult.

If our group had been normal, this would have been a great offer from her perspective. Her younger brother had mana and a mysterious unique trait, but he was still young, so she likely had a lot of concerns.

'Her hesitation is understandable. She’s young, too…'

"......"

The young woman was still hesitating when the boy, who seemed to be her younger brother, spoke to her.

"Noona, wouldn't it be okay to follow them? They don’t seem like bad people…"

Yes, from their perspective, joining our group seemed like a reasonable choice.

'...I can already guess what she’ll say.'

If Jo Chan-ho weren’t in our group, this would have been the right choice for them.

"Alright… but we have conditions, just because we're younger doesn’t mean we should be forced into dangerous tasks, and we won’t tolerate being made to share our food and water unfairly. If that happens, we will leave."

"Haha, yes of course. Welcome, my name is Jo Byeong-ok."

"...My name is Lee Yu-rim, my younger brother’s name is Lee Yu-hyun."

"I’m Lee Yu-hyun, hello…"

Jo Chan-ho smiled warmly and spoke with enthusiasm.

"Great to meet you guys. Now, shall we get moving? Yun-seong, the others are waiting."

"...Alright."

…I couldn't bring myself to stop those kids from making this decision.

When we returned to the clearing, the others had already woken up and were preparing breakfast. Though breakfast consisted only of bread and water, in a situation like this, we had to be grateful that we had anything to eat at all.

Hyun-jin noticed me and called out.

"Yun-seong hyung! Where did you go? We were worried."

"I just scouted the area a bit at Byeong-ok’s request. Anyway, greet our new members."

"Oh… They’re just kids, huh?"

'From my perspective, you’re just a kid too. You’re only a year older than her at most…'

"Hello, I’m Lee Yu-rim. This is my younger brother, Yu-hyun. Nice to meet you."

As Hyun-jin and Yu-rim exchanged greetings, the middle-aged woman suddenly spoke up, clearly discontent.

"Oh dear… they’re just students. Byeong-ok, I understand that it’s good to have more people, but… aren’t they too young?"

‘What is this old hag doing?!’