A few hours later.
Thwack!
At last, Jae-hee succeeded in smacking Ghost’s wrist aside.
He’d seen her attack coming, and instead of dodging, he’d pushed himself inside her guard—just within the attack’s trajectory—while simultaneously grabbing her wrist and shoving it outward.
Of course, he’d only managed it because Ghost, seeing him flounder, had given him so specific coaching.
Still, he had done it. And in just a few hours.
“Hahh, hahh…!”
Gasping, Jae-hee collapsed onto the floor in a starfish sprawl.
Ghost glanced at her deflected wrist, a low hum of approval escaping her lips before they curved into a smirk. “Well, not bad for a rookie.”
“Hahh, hahh, hahh! Jesus, I thought I was gonna die…”
“I’m sure you get the basic principle now. The application is up to you. But well, this should be enough to handle the riffraff on Deck 1.”
Jae-hee himself didn’t realize it, but the counter he was now using was an application of a rather profound martial insight.
A counter-technique embodying the principle known as Reactive Supremacy: to subdue the opponent by moving second, after seeing their attack and ceding the first move.
Theoretically, it was a powerful counter, as it responded directly to an opponent’s move. But in practice, it required a near-precognitive level of tactical reading, honed through countless battles. Even seasoned masters on the front lines struggled to use it.
Yet Jae-hee had achieved it with his own absurd, innate speed.
Talent really is everything in this world, Ghost thought, clicking her tongue.
Jae-hee, for his part, wasn’t fully aware of what he’d accomplished. “Can I really get stronger after just a few hours of special training…?”
“Your ability was strong to begin with. The problem was you didn’t know how to use it. Now that you have a direction, you’ll be able to sweep aside that kind of garbage.”
And so, his training in applying Stormroad to combat ca to an end.
Stretched out on the floor, Jae-hee’s tongue lolled out as he panted. “God, I’ve used up all my strength… I’m starving to death…”
“Co to think of it, you probably haven’t had a single al since you got here.”
All Jae-hee had eaten recently were the combat rations from the previous mission, a chunk of bread stolen from the Patissier’s bag while he waited, and the carton of milk Razor had bought him.
After running on empty and then getting put through the wringer with special training, he felt like he was truly at death’s door.
Clutching his rumbling stomach, Jae-hee’s eyes began to well up. “So… huuuungry…”
“For crying out loud.”
Gazing down at the pathetic sight, Ghost let out a huff and jerked her chin toward the door of the guard’s lounge.
“Can’t be helped. Follow . I’ll get you sothing to eat.”
“What? You have food?!”
“You think I live by starving?” Ghost opened the lounge door and stepped out first. “Co on. To my room.”
Realizing he’d been invited to Ghost’s room, Jae-hee clapped a hand over his mouth a beat too late. “Oh my!”
“‘Oh my,’ my ass. Get moving.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
***
Jae-hee trotted after Ghost, following her down a corridor in the central section of Deck 0.
Was it his imagination? He couldn’t see a single soul, yet he felt eyes on him from all directions.
“Um, is soone there? The air feels… clammy sorta…”
“Don’t worry about it. As long as you’re with , they can’t touch you.”
So, does that an they will touch if you’re not around…?
Jae-hee rubbed at the goosebumps prickling the back of his neck. His senses were screaming warnings, telling him unseen dangers were scattered all around.
But Ghost strode ahead nonchalantly, crossing the corridor. Swallowing hard, Jae-hee hurried to keep up.
Though it was better than the corridor of hanged corpses he’d first seen, every hallway on Deck 0 was bizarre and grotesque.
There was a section draped in ghastly blue cobwebs, another where a thick, blood-red fog clung to the floor, and another carpeted entirely in shattered mirrors.
Suddenly, Ghost let out a dry chuckle. “You know, this place is like a horror-thed the park, isn’t it?”
“Huh? A the park? What’s that?”
“You know, an amusent… Ah, never mind. They were a thing, once upon a ti.”
Her words trailing off, Ghost finally stopped in front of a cell.
“Here.” She slid open the iron bars and stepped inside.
Jae-hee followed hesitantly, murmuring, “Pardon the intrusion~”
He scanned the bleak interior. It was a narrow cell, converted from one of the corridor’s passenger rooms. A single worn-out bed and a ssy pile of junk were the only things in the windowless space.
“Whoa, you live in a place like this?”
Ghost’s reply was sharp. “Why? Got a problem with it? Going to chip in for so new furniture?”
“Nooo, it’s not that I have a problem…” Embarrassed, Jae-hee sat down ekly on the floor.
“Appearances aside, it’s livable.” Ghost unfolded a collapsible table propped against the wall, then pulled a gas burner from a cabinet. “And I just got my food rations before you showed up.”
“Ooh!”
“Inmates on the other decks can eat at their designated cafeterias or at the restaurants in Deck 9’s comrcial arcade.”
Ghost gestured toward the gloomy, eerie corridor of Deck 0. “But down here, even the guards who are supposed to distribute food have run off, and the prisoners on this floor aren’t allowed on any other deck. So…they just give us rations and we have to fend for ourselves.”
She grumbled that delivering the food to the other prisoners was her job, too.
“Let’s see. The standard first al in this prison is the pig slop they serve at the newbie cafeteria on Deck 1. But these are special circumstances. so…”
Rummaging through a storage bin in the corner, Ghost pulled out so instant noodles. “You’ll eat ran, I take it?”
“Yes! Yesyesyesyesyes!” Jae-hee nodded his head furiously. “Absolutely! Yes, please! This is amazing! Hooray!”
“Five packs of ran at once is the minimum. You can handle that?”
“Heck yes! You know what’s up, Granny!”
Next, Ghost produced two cans of tuna. “They gave us so tuna since we just made port. I’m putting it all in, okay?”
“Oh, yeah—!”
“And… this is one of my treasures.” Ghost opened a small refrigerator and held up a vacuum-sealed pack of kimchi. “Can’t have ran without it.”
“Granny…!” Overco with emotion, Jae-hee unknowingly perford a full formal bow. “You’re so gonna be blessed!”
Appalled, Ghost gave him a kick. “Don’t be so dramatic, punk! Just sit down and get ready to eat!”
And so it was. A pot piled high with tuna ran, and a pack of kimchi for each of them.
As steam billowed from the pot before him, Jae-hee was on the verge of tears. Ghost gestured with her hand. “Don’t be shy. Hurry up and eat.”
“Thank you for the eeal!”
He grabbed a huge mouthful of noodles with his chopsticks, transferred them to his bowl, and inhaled the scalding strands without even blowing on them.
Slurrrrrp!
It was hot enough to burn his mouth, but even that pain was a joy in the mont. Despite being the cheapest brand of ran made in Korea, it was the most delicious he’d ever had in his life.
“Holy… shit…!” He couldn’t even manage to say how good it was. Just squird with delight.
“Hey, slow down. You’ll get indigestion.” Ghost clicked her tongue and personally used the ladle to spoon broth and noodles into his bowl.
Jae-hee lifted the bowl to his lips and gulped down the broth.
“Khaaaah…!” His face flushed red and his nose was running as he choked up with emotion. “It’s so good I’m crying…”
“Looks like those tears are running from your nose.”
Cracking a small smile, Ghost tied her hair back to eat. The mass of white hair was pulled away, revealing a surprisingly young face that didn’t fit her at all.
Jae-hee was taken aback all over again. He’d already seen her face during the previous mission, but it was still hard to get used to.
She really doesn’t look like a granny…
With a flawless grip on her chopsticks, Ghost plucked up a bundle of noodles with unnecessarily elegance and slurped them down with gusto. She followed it with a piece of kimchi from the pack.
While chewing, she let out a sigh. “Dang, I’m craving soju. Should’ve grabbed a bottle.”
“What? You can drink here?”
“Obviously. On this ship, you can do anything as long as you have the credits. Drinking in your room? That’s not even hard.”
Shoving noodles and broth into her small mouth at once, Ghost swallowed calmly and continued her explanation.
“You get nothing but crap at the deck cafeterias, but the Deck 9 common area has lots of great places to eat. You saw while being brought in, yes?”
“Yeah. Though I only got to see…”
“Once this situation is sorted out, you should look around. The restaurants in the common area are really good. Better than the downtown of most cities.”
Jae-hee clenched his fists, making a vow. “Then, after this is all over! I’ll treat you to a huge al there, Granny!”
“Hah, a huge al? Just worry about yourself,” Ghost snapped.
Then, a beat later, she reconsidered. “Hmm… actually, that might work.”
“Huh? What might?”
“The price for teaching you that technique. Our little agreent.” A smirk spread across Ghost’s lips. “Take to Deck 9 once you’re out of trouble. Treat to sothing expensive. And drinks. Then we’ll call it even.”
Jae-hee nodded eagerly. “Of course! I’ll treat you to the full course!”
“‘Full course,’ my ass. You don’t even know what one is…”
The conversation naturally faded, and the two focused on their al.
Jae-hee ate like a starved wolf, and Ghost was an impressive eater herself. The pot that had been brimming with tuna ran was soon empty.
As Jae-hee swished his chopsticks through the remaining broth, Ghost asked, “Want to make more?”
“Um, do you have any rice, by any chance?”
“Rice? I might have so instant rice, let’s see…”
She did.
Ghost expertly simred the instant rice and so torn-up seaweed in the leftover broth, creating a perfect ran porridge. Jae-hee devoured it without seeming to take a breath.
“Whoa…” After cleaning his bowl, Jae-hee lay sprawled on the floor, patting his swollen stomach. “I could die right now and have no regrets.”
“Why’s a young punk like you got no regrets? You should be clinging to a bucket list a mile long.”
Ghost imdiately started washing the bowls and the pot.
Listening to the clattering sounds, Jae-hee began to nod off.
When she finished washing up, Ghost ca back and chided him. “Silly punk. Lie down right after eating, and you’ll turn into a cow. Walk it off a little before you sleep.”
“Hehe, then I’ll just beco a cow… Actually, I wanna be a cow… Mooo.”
“Good grief.”
Clicking her tongue, Ghost fetched a blanket from a corner of the room and draped it over Jae-hee’s stomach.
“Yeah, get so sleep. When you wake up, you’ll have a fight on your hands with Razor and his crew.”
“Thanks… so muc…”
The young man hadn’t eaten or rested properly in days. His consciousness quickly sank into the depths of oblivion.
The last thing Jae-hee saw before sleep fully claid him was Ghost’s silhouette, perched at the cell entrance. Her forehead rested against the iron bars, sharp eyes sweeping the corridor.
As if she were standing guard against so unseen threat…
“…”
And with that, Jae-hee drifted off.
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