The wind screamed like a warning siren through the dead city.
Concrete dust swirled at my heels as I moved between the fallen buildings. The shattered bones of civilization — broken lampposts, cracked billboards, upturned roads — surrounded me like gravestones. But all I could hear was the pounding of my heart.
Lee Ga-eul was alive, barely.
I had pulled her from under a collapsed vending stall just seconds before another Ruin Beast crashed into the area.
Her leg was gashed open. She couldn't walk.
"Y-you're not from the military, are you…?" she asked, her voice weak, eyes wide with something between fear and hope.
I didn't answer.
There was no point in lying.
I wasn't from the military. I wasn't even from this world.
Instead, I tore the strap from a torn backpack and started wrapping it around her thigh to slow the bleeding.
The girl winced. "I… I don't remember anyone like you being in this zone…"
Of course you don't.
Because I wasn't supposed to be here.
---
Ten minutes later, I dragged her into an abandoned stairwell near the outer wall. A half-collapsed pharmacy lay a block away — I needed to get there fast.
"Stay here," I said, lowering her into a corner behind a pile of debris. "If anything moves, don't scream. Don't run. Hide and don't breathe."
Ga-eul swallowed hard and nodded, gripping the jagged knife I had handed her.
I was about to move when it happened.
A sound.
No — a presence.
The air changed.
It felt like the world held its breath.
---
Across the street, in the space between two broken pillars, a figure emerged.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
His coat was dark and torn at the hem. His boots crushed stone with the weight of something ancient. The wind blew back his shoulder-length black hair, streaked with ash and blood.
His sword —
A plain longsword with a chipped edge —
Hung loosely from his right hand, its tip dragging along the ruined pavement with a sound like teeth grinding glass.
> Yin Sheo-han.
Even from this distance, I felt it.
The pressure.
Like gravity had tripled in his presence.
Like the world itself was wary of him.
He didn't look at me.
Not at first.
His eyes scanned the surroundings with surgical focus.
A beast searching for threats.
A man whose heart had long since stopped beating for others.
And then his gaze stopped.
On the stairwell.
On Ga-eul.
He began walking.
---
"No, no, no—" I whispered, backing into the alley wall.
He wasn't supposed to be here yet.
In the novel, he doesn't reach this zone until Chapter 5.
I had at least another twelve hours before his appearance.
What changed?
Me.
I changed it.
By saving Ga-eul, I had pulled her from death's grip — but also dragged the story off course.
And now the story was retaliating.
Yin Sheo-han walked without hesitation.
Toward her.
Toward me.
I could run.
Hide.
Let fate take its course.
But even from here, I saw it.
The slight tremble in Ga-eul's arms.
The helplessness in her eyes.
She wouldn't survive him.
No one did, not in the early chapters.
To Yin Sheo-han, the only survivors worth saving were those who proved their strength. Those who didn't — were liabilities. And he didn't carry liabilities.
He culled them.
---
I stepped out from the alley.
His eyes met mine.
For the first time, I saw them up close.
Not black. Not brown.
Grey.
The color of storms that never pass.
"You're not from this zone," he said flatly, voice like dull steel. "And you're not one of mine."
My mouth went dry.
"No. I'm not."
His eyes narrowed.
Something flickered behind them. Recognition? Suspicion?
It was hard to tell.
"What's your name?"
I hesitated.
One wrong answer, and I'd die here.
But maybe… maybe the truth would buy me something.
"…Ru."
"Ru what?"
"Ru Ryu-jin."
A pause.
Then, the faintest twitch in his expression. Like the sound of a memory brushing past his ear.
He lifted his sword slightly.
Not threatening.
Not yet.
"Never heard of you."
"You wouldn't have."
Another beat of silence passed between us.
The sound of distant screaming echoed beyond the wall.
Another Ruin Beast, or another desperate human trying to outlive the scenario.
Yin Sheo-han turned slightly, just enough to let his eyes glance behind me — toward Ga-eul's hiding place.
"She's injured," he said. "Dead weight."
"She scouted a Ruin Beast's position and survived," I replied smoothly. "You'll need eyes like hers for the next zone."
He raised a brow.
"And what do you know of the next zone?"
I said nothing.
But I didn't break eye contact.
Not until I saw the corner of his mouth lift.
Just slightly.
A smile?
No.
Approval.
"You're not just some random survivor."
He stepped back.
"She's your responsibility. If she slows me down, I kill her. If you lie again, I kill you."
Then, without another word, Yin Sheo-han turned and began walking away.
I stood frozen.
That was it?
He… let us go?
No.
He didn't "let" us do anything.
He made a calculation.
Judged the risk.
Just like I had.
---
The moment he disappeared behind the broken corner of the street, I ran back to Ga-eul. She was wide-eyed.
"That was… that was him," she whispered. "That was Yin Sheo-han. I saw his name above his head… the sword killer… why didn't he—?"
"Doesn't matter," I said, kneeling beside her.
She gripped my sleeve.
"…Who are you?"
I paused.
The wind blew ash across our boots.
"…Just someone who read too far ahead."