Chapitre 101: Chapter 101
Our walk home was interrupted by the unexpected approach of a woman.
She looked to be over 170 centimetres and had pitch-black hair that came down to her shoulders and that contrasted with her snow-white face. Even the leather motorcycle jacket she was wearing couldn't conceal her voluminous curves, which struck yet another contrast with her slender waist. Her skinny black jeans couldn't possibly hide her shapely legs. This was a woman who had the aura and atmosphere to make anyone believe she was a model.
She was also someone I already knew.
'What's she doing here?'
It was the Poison Witch Cheon Sooji. She strode over from the other side of the park while looking at me, almost like a model coming down the catwalk.
People out walking their dogs, kids playing on their bikes, students chattering in groups of twos and threes, all of them, regardless of their age or gender, glanced at least once at Cheon Sooji.
State: Slight Thrill / Good Mood / Inner Peace
Her gait looked haughty. The word 'Queen' truly suited this woman. She gave off the impression she was walking with high heels even though she was wearing black Converse sneakers. It was perhaps an exaggeration to say each and every step she took had flourish, and yet, it wasn't quite an exaggeration, either.
"We meet again, Mr. Sovereign."
"My name is Kim Hyukjin."
To my amusement, Sunhwa's summary changed.
Summary: Brocon Guarding Against a Beauty
Sooji stopped in front of me. The atmosphere around her was quite different compared to when we were GVGing. She looked as cold and haughty as ever, but she didn't give off a cold edge.
"Why are you here?"
"Ah, our Guildmaster asked me to deliver this."
She pulled out two envelopes from her bosom.
'Checks?'
Inside each envelope was a $100k check.
"He gave you this?"
"Yes, he asked me to deliver them."
As if. There was no way Song Kiyeol would send Cheon Sooji, not in this day and age when electronic transfers were incredibly easy.
'She must've insisted.'
I stared at Sooji for a moment. A faint smile was wreathing her eyes.
"It's been a while since I was given such a cold reception." She smiled lightly. "Normally, men act in one of two ways when I visit them."
Yes, and I could guess what those two ways were. People were either intimidated by her model-like figure, or elated. In all actuality, there were a ton of people who liked Cheon Sooji, and it wouldn't be long before she dipped her toes into modeling and became quite a famous model.
"It's just that I'm not very happy about the fact that you came here after finding out where I live."
"Why?"
"Because Taeguk Shield's Guildmaster gave away my personal details like it was the address to the nearest McDonalds."
The smile in Sooji's eyes grew deeper. Perhaps out of habit, she licked her red lips a little.
"I think you must be the only man who would say such a biting remark about a 3rd generation chaebol."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. It's charming."
I shrugged. "Thank you for your flattering words, but I'd like it if you didn't come here in the future."
I didn't really have any desire to get involved with Sooji. She was someone who had plenty of scandals with countless celebrities and Players. There were even some unexplained deaths among them. I didn't know if they were really linked to Cheon Sooji, but I didn't want to be buddy-buddy with her all the same.
'More than anything… because she herself claimed she was an ex-girlfriend of the Demon King.'
No one knew if that was even true or not. Cheon Sooji just said it was, and it aroused a wave of gossip worldwide for quite a while afterwards.
The Demon King, Kang Sun-il.
It was just an alias, of course, but I didn't want to make any connections with the Demon King just yet. Countless people lived good, happy lives without ever coming in contact with the Demon King. This was my second chance. I wanted to live a little more comfortably, a little more happily. There were a lot of precious people next to me now, too.
"Please tell Mr. Song Kiyeol to not carelessly give away my personal details."
"Got it."
Sooji didn't look all that upset by my cold rebuff. Smiling, she said, "You're the first person I've seen who's been this indifferent after getting a total of $200k. Isn't an amount like $200k more than enough to make your heart throb, even if it's not throbbing towards me?"
"Everyone is different."
To be honest, $200k just felt like a number to me. It was definitely good, yes, but it didn't make me reel or anything. I myself could feel that I was very different from how I had been when I was preparing for the civil service exam in the past.
Out of nowhere, Sooji said, "I like men who are stronger than me."
"..."
"To be honest, I've taken a liking to you."
Just then, a refreshing early autumn breeze blew in, setting Sooji's hair aflutter. I smelled the pleasant fragrance of shampoo.
'Wow.'
Her preparations were thorough.
'She's using seductive energy.'
This, too, could be called a poison. A poison that posed no harm to one's life or health, but was more like a drug. My Eye of Perception saw through it, and my poison resistance immediately nullified it.
Perhaps believing in the power of her seductive energy, she went on rather confidently, "Would you like to go out with me?"
And so, I answered, "No."
At that moment, Sunhwa's summary changed again.
Summary: Relieved Brocon
Walking past her, I strode towards our house, feeling her emotions and state through Eye of Perception.
'She apparently wants to seduce me.'
This was the same Cheon Sooji who was famous for being a philanderer of men. No matter how pretty and sexy she was, I wasn't that attracted to her. Wait, come to think of it, I remembered seeing a picture of Sooji on the news about six years ago and thinking, "What would I have to do to date a woman like that? Will I ever get a chance to meet a woman like that?"
'It's only been a few months since I went back in time, yet…'
Even I had to admit that I had changed a great deal. It felt weird. Cheon Sooji took initiative to propose dating, and I refused her.
'Life is becoming more and more fun.'
"Ah, right." I turned for a moment, casting a look in Sooji's direction. "Please relay this to Mr. Song Kiyeol for me. If any completely black corpses show up, particularly in the south, contact me immediately."
"Got it. I'll cooperate."
We dipped our heads in mutual farewell.
"See you later. Next time, I will come to you looking a little more pretty."
"..."
"Or maybe you want me to be a little more sexy instead?"
I turned around. As I headed towards our base, I said to Sunhwa, "We're gonna rest for about one day. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!"
Sunhwa seemed very pleased. We got into the elevator, and as it rose, Sunhwa looked at me with a serious expression.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"That unnie just now was super pretty, right?"
"Yeah, can't deny that."
Sunhwa shook her head.
"But I don't like the feeling of her."
"All of a sudden?"
Even though she didn't have something like Eye of Perception?
"This is just a woman's intuition."
Wasn't she a bit too young to call herself a woman?
"Trust my intuition. It would be best not to get too close to that unnie."
"...That so?"
Sunhwa nodded to herself, looking every bit like she truly believed her words were right and she was being very serious.
"I'm against that unnie."
One day passed. Yeonseo made a group chat.
–Tada! Our party group chat!
Our party of six was me, Sunhwa, Yeonseo, Yoohyun, Sunghyun, and Sung-gu. Four of the six were future top-class Rankers. In other words, geniuses. It was both fascinating and fun that I was in a team with such geniuses.
Yeonseo sent a KaTalk.
TN: KakaoTalk, the most popular messaging app in Korea. KaTalk for short.
–Boss Hyukjin. What should we do now?
–Let's meet up and discuss it.
Our meeting spot was a coffee shop in Sinchon. Maybe because they recognized Yoohyun, people kept looking over. But because they were intimidated by his huge muscles, they didn't approach us.
"See the Hyundai Department Store over there?"
It was on the other side of the street. Hyundai was in its name, but its owner was Sungshin.
"The building right next to it is the U-Plex Building."
"Hyungnim. I know that place well because I've bought a lot of clothes there. You can buy a lot of plus-size clothes there."
"After we drink our coffees, we'll go study the terrain of the Hyundai Department Store and that building. Understood?"
Everyone understood. All of us were given the first entry rights to the 'U-Plex Dungeon'.
'That place will turn into a dungeon.'
Sunghyun cautiously said, "Hyung. If that place becomes a dungeon, what'll happen to the people inside?"
"They'll probably die. Same as the Seoul Station Dungeon."
When that place first turned into a dungeon, everyone inside died. After a gate formed at Exit 2, the rest of the station turned to normal, but everyone inside the U-Plex when it transformed would probably die… if they didn't have the ability to clear it.
His voice still as calm and quiet as before, Sunghyun continued. "Is there any way we can save them?"
"We will issue a warning through Taeguk Shield."
Taeguk Shield's word held far more power than ours.
"The problem is that we don't know when or how the U-Plex Dungeon will open."
We could hardly say 'That place'll become a dungeon, so shut down your businesses and go home, please'. Even if we said it, there was no way people would listen.
If it was the same as the past, there would be a few early signs in September, and on the 3rd of October, there would be a dungeon break. That meant the dungeon would suddenly appear sometime between September and early October.
"The moment I see signs it'll transform into a dungeon, I'll contact Guildmaster Kiyeol."
That was the best we could do. I had already felt it during the 1st Players Convention. I was actually weakening the Players, so much that we were probably falling behind the Players in the other servers around the world.
'Though we have, of course, suffered fewer losses.'
Our current losses were reduced, but I was taking away opportunities for Players and people to grow in exchange. I had to walk the fine line where I could minimize losses while still allowing the Players to grow. That was the balance I had to do my best to find.
"Also, we're going on a vacation tomorrow. Is there anyone who can't make it?"
"Dafuq? A vacation all of a sudden? What kind of vacation? Do you need the Firemaster again?"
Everyone realized that the vacation I was talking about was no ordinary vacation.
"Put plenty of food in your Inventory. When you're back home, buy as many poison resistance items as you can."
Tomorrow, we would be heading to Sin-an, South Jeolla Province. More precisely, to an island called 'Plum Blossom Island' located in Sin-an.
Everyone understood what I was saying.
"Invest as much as possible in your armor."
Sung-gu shivered. "Eurgh. What is it this time? Are we going somewhere dangerous again?"
I decided to tell them the truth.
"Four pitch-black, rotten corpses have been discovered there."
"Ah fuck. Didn't you say it was a vacation?"
It wasn't even publicized to the press yet. I was only able to find out about this thanks to my cooperation with Taeguk Shield.
"The cause of death is unknown."
…Or so it should be, but I already knew. The deaths were the doing of Pearl Centipedes, early level 30 monsters. They were monsters we absolutely needed to kill.
"Boss Hyukjin. Is it because of monsters? And we have to kill those monsters?"
"..."
I nodded. This trip was preparation to go into the U-Plex Dungeon. But just then, my phone ringtone went off. A name popped up on the screen.
[Noona]
I picked up the call from my sister. What she said was rather interesting.
"...Is that true?"
It was something that hadn't happened in the past.
____
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