Oh, The Misery //Solo Leveling// Sung Jin Woo x Antares

7: I am ready

"You held out this time."

Kang-Dae said as he walked closer to Jin-Woo, the ladder taking in deep breaths as he faced the ground to spew some saliva. His lungs were having a difficult time breathing. He was ready to give in and sleep on the concrete floor, but the embarrassment got to him and opted to stand still. Every bone in his body burned ever so strongly as tried with all his might not to fall down.

"Here."

A cold sensation brushed his face making Jin-Woo lean into the touch and grab on immediately. His whole body felt refreshed for the small amount of time that the water lent him.

"Thanks...again." A shy smile appeared.

"There are still four more laps to go." His smile flattened again, but he still obeyed Kang-Dae's orders, a small glimmer of hope appearing on his eyes as he realized the miles he ran. Six. Yesterday I could only go for four before I fainted. It wasn't a pretty sight but at least he managed to get better than before. Could it be... Jin-Woo raised his head to the light blue box in front of him. 3 points had been added since then, and with the newly appointed strength the results had shown themselves in small ways.

At first he hadn't believed anything from the system. He guessed it was just some hallucinations after escaping that double dungeon, after all the rest of the hunters left with some kind of scar, and it was only normal for him to be given the worst scars among the group- that survived, he can't begin to phantom what it would be like to die by the hands of those statues. He doesn't want to think about it.- Mental scars flowering, weird mental scars but something nonetheless, a better outcome compared to being paralyzed from the waist or losing a leg and an arm. And your life, your life.

"Listen to the voice before regretting it later."

Jin-Woo's eyes had widened as he heard that coming out of Kang-Dae's mouth.

"You know about the system?"

He said nothing about it, leaving that day with the small advice. The moment that Jin-Woo tried to look for him in the halls, he was already gone.

With that warning in mind, and the newly discovered fact at midnight -That Lee Kang-Dae had awakened as an S rank- he couldn't ignore this anymore and went to work.

The next 4 days had gone the same way. A daily quest: 100 push ups, 100 squats, 100 sit ups and a 10 kilometer mile run. For some reason it felt as though he had heard that before but he can't grasp it where. Jin-Woo still did them all and slowly saved up his points, finally earning 18 in total of his week as he finished running the four other laps around the hospital. When he sat down next to the newly appointed S rank, another waterborne was waiting for him that Jin-Woo thanked him for once again.

Why does he do this? It's one of the questions that he has no idea how to communicate to an S rank, much less whatever kind of player he was. He didn't mind the help at all, rather he welcomed it after destroying his body every time to the point of exhaustion. However it also made him uncomfortable just how silent Ju-Hee's brother had been about their situations. He wasn't as weak as him if he was declared an S rank. Could he have been a player that leveled up before me? It's the only thing he could guess, but even then, for what reason was he helping him? Were players all allies or enemies? Were there more players in this world or just them? Was there a fixed level gap? Was he at the top or did he still need to grow? Are hunters like them reawakenings? No, then that would mean all reawakened people around the globe somehow managed to keep this secret from all the associations and international guilds. It was something he could hardly believe, he looked everywhere on the web and the first one was right in front of him.