[Actor Go Jun-seo Dies of Sudden Cardiac Arrest; Fans Devastated]
[Hallyu Star Cha Hyun-woo Remains in Coma, Asia's 'Shining Star' Fades]
[Sawang-ui Toll Mounts as Stars Shin Chae-won, So-hee, and Kwak Min-jun Perish]
[Investigation: Only 58% of Celebrities Pulled into 'Other World' Survived]
[Nowhere to Hide: Celebrity Survivors Report Severe Panic Disorder, Emotional Trauma]
Her thumb froze mid-scroll over the headlines.
A notification had just lit up her screen.
[Hong Eun-ji: Ji-woo, did you hear? About Kwak Min-jun…]
[Hong Eun-ji: Are you going to the funeral tomorrow?]
[Seo Ji-woo: Yeah, I’ll be there. He was so good to me during the shoot.]
[Hong Eun-ji: Okay. I’ll tell the manager. We can go together.]
[Seo Ji-woo: Sounds good.]
After the brief exchange with her friend, Seo Ji-woo let out a long, weary sigh.
What was happening to the world?
She was only twenty-two, but it felt like all she did these days was sigh. The world had gone mad.
So many of her colleagues, gone one after another.
One of them was Kwak Min-jun, a senior actor she had just been filming a drama with. She’d promised to attend his funeral, but he wasn’t the only one.
Go Jun-seo, Shin Chae-won, and so many others.
There were too many funerals to attend. Television series were being forced to halt production, one by one.
People far more famous, far more successful than her, had died in the very first round.
Compared to them, she was just a rookie, her career barely beginning. Yet she had survived where they had not.
The reason was simple: they were unlucky.
If she hadn’t gotten good runes, she would have been one of them.
A bitter smile touched Seo Ji-woo’s lips.
She had come so far. It felt like a lifetime ago that her biggest dream was to see her name—even as an unknown—in an article just like the ones she was reading now.
From the outside, living in this penthouse, it looked like she had made it. But she knew better. Would any of this have been possible without her company's sponsorship?
“Something on your mind, Miss Ji-woo?”
A man in a suit, having just completed his security check of the apartment, approached her.
It was Ahn Tae-joon, the bodyguard assigned to her six months ago.
“Oh, no, it’s nothing, Mr. Ahn.”
“You can speak more comfortably with me. Haven’t I told you that before?”
“Ah… I was just thinking about why the world has become like this, and how I’m supposed to survive the next round.”
“Don’t worry about the next round.” He laughed, his confidence absolute. “You have me. What is there to worry about?”
The bodyguard draped his suit jacket over the back of a dining chair.
He then moved to the wine cellar, retrieved a bottle, and poured himself a glass.
“Would you like some?”
“Oh, no, thank you. I’m fine.”
His casual way of acting like he owned the place always made her uncomfortable, but Seo Ji-woo simply accepted it. It wasn’t really her house anyway, she thought.
The penthouse was provided by her sponsor company, and the bodyguard was simply necessary personnel from that same company.
Strictly speaking, he’s probably here to watch me, not just protect me. Ji-woo was not naive enough to think she wasn't being monitored.
“Ji-woo, you worry too much. Please, trust me and try to relax. I’ve been your manager and your bodyguard for over half a year. Surely you can trust me by now?”
“Of course. Who else would I trust?” Even in the Otherworld, she wasn’t completely alone. Ahn Tae-joon, twenty-nine, had been with her when she’d completed the first round’s quest: defeat one hundred goblins.
It hadn't been an easy mission, but with his help, she’d cleared it. The effect of the random rune pieces she’d received was significant, but she truly felt she could trust her bodyguard to see her through anything.
At least I can trust him, she told herself.
When the sponsor company first assigned him, Ji-woo had been warier than ever. She hated the idea of a stranger, a man, having free run of her apartment. But after six months of watching his dedication, she had slowly let her guard down.
During the quest, she had seen his sincerity firsthand as he threw himself between her and the attacking goblins.
That was why she trusted him more than anyone.
“I don’t know what kind of quest the second round will bring, but don’t worry. We’ll face it together. Don’t you dare give up, because I will always protect you. No matter what.”
Ji-woo sighed, her thoughts shifting. “By the way, I saw someone moving in downstairs earlier.”
“They brought over some rice cakes… they looked really good.”
“Eating those would make you gain weight.”
“Still, shouldn’t we have accepted? It feels rude to turn away new neighbors trying to say hello.”
“Forget about greetings. People only do things like that because they expect something in return. If you accept once, they’ll just keep coming back for more.”
Ji-woo remembered the two young men she’d seen in the hallway. They seemed friendly. One of them had a flicker of recognition in his eyes, but he’d kept his composure, not reacting to her fame. He must be a fan, she figured, someone who knew she was sponsored by the company.
“I think one of them was old enough… Do you think he also cleared the first round? That he defeated a hundred goblins?”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? That someone could go through something so awful and then just walk around calmly like it was nothing.”
“You managed it too, Ji-woo. How hard can defeating a hundred goblins really be? Anyone who failed at that is just a loser.”