The two of them moved again like they always had, trying to find the best spot to make camp in.

Martin’s presence had been annoying, but without him, they’d lost a pair of eyes that could spot out potential danger.

Hana walked a little closer than before, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds as if expecting him to reappear from the shadows.

Deon noticed but decided not to comment on it.

The city had grown darker in the last few minutes. Sunlight bled weakly across the tops of broken buildings, leaving the streets below drowned in long shadows.

Above them, the clock continued its silent march.

69:07:42

Deon clicked his tongue.

"We need somewhere enclosed."

Hana nodded quickly. "A-And somewhere with only one entrance."

"Good. You are capable of learning," Deon joked, trying to lift up the mood a little after all that’s happened.

"That sounded like an insult..." she replied, but his attempt seemed to be working.

Hana looked like she wanted to complain, but the distant howl of something in the city killed the thought immediately.

They picked up the pace.

Every storefront they passed was either too exposed, damaged or already forced open. A pharmacy with shattered front windows. A clothing store with half the ceiling missing. A bank that somehow looked robbed even after the apocalypse.

Then Deon spotted it.

A narrow café tucked between two larger buildings, almost hidden beneath a collapsed signboard from the business next door.

The front windows were cracked but intact and only one visible entrance remained.

"There," he pointed.

The door groaned as Deon pushed it open, but the frame held. Inside, dust coated the tables and chairs, yet the structure itself seemed stable. It was one of the better-looking buildings that they’d seen the entire time rummaging around in the streets.

But more importantly—there were no side exits in sight.

"This works," Deon said.

They got to work immediately, flipping tables and shoving chairs against the entrance. Deon dragged a heavy display shelf near the counter and wedged it behind the door for extra weight.

By the time they were done, sweat clung to both of them despite the evening chill.

He managed to look behind the counter. Most of the food had already spoiled or been looted, but he found napkins, a metal tray, some abandoned aprons... but more importantly, a lighter near an old coffee machine.

Lucky~

Deon ripped apart the strips of cloth from the aprons, mixing the pile with the napkins before he set them all ablaze.

The heat instantly enveloped them, and like the survival switch had turned off in their brains, they both began to loosen up.

Hana stared at it quietly. "...This feels less terrible."

"Don’t get sentimental," Deon said, sitting opposite her in the booth. "It’s still terrible."

Even so, neither moved away from the warmth. For the first time since being dropped into the city, they could finally take a breather and process what happened.

Deon leaned back and stared into the flames, finally processing what the hell just happened in the last few hours.

A death game disguised as a miracle competition, monsters prowling what used to be our city, cards that healed wounds, a giant timer hanging in the sky...

And somewhere beyond all of it. Deon looked up, glancing at the stars above. Someone was watching...

But his thinking was disrupted by Hana, who spoke slowly. "Do you think...we’re the last people alive?"

Her hands were wrapped around her knees again, scared...but trying not to be despite everything.

"No," Deon said finally, shaking his head.

She blinked. "How do you know?" 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Yet, as she asked the question, Deon found himself not really having an answer to it.

He shrugged instead. "Beats me. At least in my head, this is all some kind of sick recreation..."

"Oh..." she responded weakly, staring into the fire for a moment before looking away.

She...doesn’t look too good. Maybe I should distract her somehow.

"Hey," Deon started. "What were you doing before all this?"

Hana glanced up. "Huh?"

"Your life," he said. "Before miracle lunatics started dropping us from the sky."

"Oh," she looked into the fire. "I was...between jobs."

"Meaning unemployed."

"Meaning exploring opportunities."

"Meaning unemployed."

She puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "You’re rude."

Deon shrugged. "Can you blame me, though?"

Hana huffed once before giving into the allegations. "Fine! I was okay?! I was unemployed! Are you happy now?!"

"Alright alright," Deon raised his hands defensively. "I was just joking, I get it..."

She stared at him for a second, then let out a quiet breath through her nose. Some of the tension in her shoulders eased.

"...I studied social work," she admitted after a moment.

That surprised him.

"You?"

"Yeah," she said more quietly, eyes returning to the fire. "I wanted to help people. Families. Kids. Animals...just anything, really."

"..."

Deon watched her for a moment before speaking again. "...Then why join Miracle Royale?"

Hana didn’t answer right away, drawing her knees closer with her arms instead as she rested her chin on top. The orange light flickered across her face, showing the hesitation there before she finally spoke.

"I know it probably sounds childish. But my wish was...world peace."

For a second, Deon genuinely thought he’d misheard her.

"...You’re joking."

"I’m not."

"That’s your miracle wish?" he asked, leaning back in disbelief. "Out of anything in existence, anything you could ever want—"

Her face flushed almost immediately, cutting him off. "It matters!"

"It’s impossible."

"So was healing magic," she shot back. "And monsters. And that floating countdown timer in the sky!"

Deon opened his mouth, then closed it again. Damn, she made a good point.

Hana looked back into the flames, as if staring at a memory from within instead of just embers.

"My parents were police officers."

"They spent their whole lives helping people. Running toward danger while everyone else ran away from it. Even when they were tired. Even when nobody thanked them."

Her fingers tightened slightly around her sleeves. "I think...I grew up wanting a world where people didn’t have to suffer like that anymore."

The joking mood faded on its own. But even so, Deon couldn’t help making the assumptions in his head.

Naive...way too naive.

Yet he believed that she meant every word.

"So why not wish for a world without evil people?" he asked eventually.

...

Hana looked up. "Because how would you know who’s really evil?"

"That’s easy," Deon said flatly. "If someone hurts innocent people, they’re evil."

"Or maybe they were hurt first."

"That doesn’t give them any right—"

"Do you really mean that?"

"..."

Deon went silent, not knowing what to say.

"People become things, Deon. Sometimes because of what happened to them. Sometimes because nobody helped in time."

Deon looked away first. This time...it was his eyes that dropped to the fire, staring at it blankly before the question slipped out.

"What about me?"

Hana blinked. "What about you?"

"Good or evil?"

Hana stared at him for a moment, as if the answer should have been obvious. Then she shifted forward and pulled out the [Basic Heal] Card from her pocket.

"Good," she said softly.

"That fast?"

She nodded without hesitation. "Someone who protected me twice, calmed me down when I was panicking, and even gave me a valuable card..."

Her gaze lifted, their eyes meeting each other. "...Can’t be evil."

Deon almost laughed at the answer.

Not because it was funny, no. But because if Hana Jung knew what he had done before he ever touched a camera...

She would never say it so easily.