/
Chapter 113
Seo Dawon double-checked, “After using it for 3 to 4 hours, you’re exhausted. Is that right?”
“That’s correct. Actually, I wanted to do more, but… Maybe due to my lack of concentration after a while, but the rate of improvement seemed to falter.”
Above the mid-high rank, the rate of increasing the skill’s rank greatly decreased. This change in growth pace was often called the [High Level Slump]; Kim Sangyoon had reached this section.
“Hmm…” Seo Dawon listened to Kim Sangyoon with a careful expression and, soon, reached out his hand to him. A jelly-like golden mass fell genty from his fingertips and plopped onto the floor. It looked simultaneously like a constant flow of water droplets and slime.
The issue was that within seconds these unidentifiable objects amalgamated into a great shiny mass and stuck onto the floor. The way the light bounced off its surface–its holographic sheen–the mass looked a bit like pudding. I had the sense that Kim Sangyoon did not know what was going on.
“Use your skill here.”
“…..What? Here?”
“Yep. As hard as you can.”
Abruptly, Seo Dawon asked Kim Sangyoon to use his skill at his strongest output against that strange object. Kim Sangyoon seemed somewhat bewildered but did not hesitate to take his sword out of his inventory.
It was Berserker. Unwilling to be in his way, I retreated a couple of steps.
“Haaahhp!”
Shlorp–
Kim Sangyoon’s attack… couldn’t cut through that pudding, although his blade was deeply embedded in its midst.
“Ugh….!”
In addition, though he went red-faced trying to pull Berserker out, the pudding only slightly vibrated, not releasing the sword. Even his left hand was beginning to be captured in the pudding, and Kim Sangyoon tried to flounder at the wrist, trying to ensure that his hand, too, would not be locked there. “It…It won’t get out…”
“I guess Lee-kyung-ie needs to help out?” Seo Dawon gave me a wink.
I nodded and went to pull at Kim Sangyoon’s arm. The warrior stayed calm when I went to grab at his arm, but as soon as I began to pull, he suddenly pushed me away. I had no choice but to fall from the force. Frustrated and a bit bewildered, I turned to Kim Sangyoon, “What are you……”
However, when our eyes met, my protest died–in that short moment, Kim Sangyoon’s face turned unusually red.
What on earth? No way, was the [reward] triggered again? But! I was just trying to help by grabbing his arm, though…
“No, I…!” I was about to say it was all a misunderstanding, but Kim Sangyoon was struggling, no longer listening to me.
Slowly, but persistently, he tore at the pudding that was holding onto his hand. With a great scream, Kim Sangyoon finally escaped, “Gaaahh!”
He looked like a monster with his eyes rolled up. Only when Kim Sangyoon recklessly dug himself out of the pudding and escaped did Seo Dawon flick his finger. The golden pudding debris that was splattered all over the living room melted away. As expected, was Seo Dawon the cause of Kim Sangyoon’s abrupt recklessness?
“Gasp, gasp…….”
“Isn’t it effective? Just now, your power exceeded your current limits.” Seo Dawon spoke casually to Kim Sangyoon, who couldn’t even speak in between his gasps. Though he looked as if he was about to cry, the Warrior alternated between trembling and nodding at the Mage.
Seo Dawon patiently observed the Warrior; at the Warrior’s nods–with an all-knowing expression–he offered a small stone placed upon his palm. “Eat it. It’ll help.”
“……” In response, Kim Sangyoon closed his eyes and swallowed the stone he received.
In the end, I was once again the only one who couldn’t follow the sequence of events. However, it was a bit difficult to ask for clarification from Seo Dawon in front of Kim Sangyoon.
Because, when Kim Sangyoon looked at me, I was sure I saw hints of resentment in his expression. Just like he thought I was somehow involved in the chaos that just happened. As if Seo Dawon and I had caused all this–that Seo Dawon somehow induced him to feel this way…
‘Damn. Seo Dawon, why do you never explain anything to me first…’ I had many complaints, but I endured for now.
After calming down, Kim Sangyoon sat down on the sofa; I tried to adopt Seo Dawon’s despicable demeanor–that was to say, I tried to pretend I was careless and unmoved. “In two days, Sangyoon-ssi and someone named Koo Hui-seo will attend a party together.”
“…I understand.”
I explained why I had called the Warrior over today.
Kim Sangyoon looked as if his soul escaped his body; when he noticed me observing him, he closed his tear-filled eyes and opened them again after masking his emotions. After a short silence, he tried to make a show of recovering his calm and cleared his throat. “Cough, cough… By the way… Why did Koo Hui-seo agree to have me accompany him as his partner?”
This time, Seo Dawon answered that question, “When we went to the hospital to rescue him, you came along, right?”
“That’s…true.”
“Unfortunately, Koo Hui-seo was discharged the day before you finished your small vacation at the VIP annex. Afterwards, Koo Hui-seo suddenly became guildmaster of the Red Dragon Guild. You’re presented as his plus 1 in his first official event as a guild master. This…What do you think other people will assume?”
“That I…helped Koo Hui-seo-ssi to become a guildmaster?”
“That’s right. And that’s true, to an extent.”
“…….”
In other words, he meant for others to assume that Kim Sangyoon was Koo Hui-seo’s subordinate. Continuing on from the clues laid behind at the hospital, the Warrior was to continue to be a tempting false bait. Kim Sangyoon also seemed to notice his underlying intent; his nodding face became more serious.
“I’m not too sure about Moon Issak, but I’m certain that Bae Jaemin will attend. So, it would be better for you to go than Lee-kyung-ie,” the Mage said.
There was no way Bae Jaemin, [HaHae]’s guildmaster, would not attend such an important party. At these words, Kim Sangyoon looked as if he finally understood all the strands of information thrown at him.
He agreed to the plan, though he asked something that must have been on his mind for a long while, “By the way… What happened to Koo Kyungman? Shouldn’t I also know the clear narrative here?”
“It’s better for you not to know,” Seo Dawon responded.
“They’ll find it weird for me not to know, though. Especially… Bae Jaemin. You said that person is coming to the party.”
“Of course not. If you said you don’t know, do you think Bae Jaemin would naively believe you?”
Under these circumstances, Kim Sangyoon would be outed as Koo Hui-seo’s associate or subordinate. Even if Kim Sangyoon were to claim he honestly had no idea, everyone would consider that a lie–they would just believe that he had no desire to tell the truth. Kim Sangyoon nodded as if he understood, but he could not hide his disappointment.
Listening to their conversation, I recalled and tried to erase the memory of Koo Kyungman’s last moments from my mind. However, Kim Sangyoon noticed my expression and roughly seemed to guess at his grisly end, “Well…I see that there’s no chance of Koo Kyungman crawling back.”
“……”
“Then, how should I treat this Koo Hui-seo? My collaborator? Or perhaps I’ve been blackmailed by him…..”
“He’s under a similar contract like yours.”
“Mmm……”
“Even so, don’t take liberties with him. Koo Hui-seo has some peculiarly awful tastes.”
“What do you mean to by that…” Kim Sangyoon shook his hands in front of him, denying the accusation.
It honestly felt strangely unpleasant to hear it described as Koo Hui-seo’s ‘awful taste.’ Of course, Seo Dawon may very well have been describing the torture he inflicted upon his own brother, but, since Koo Hui-seo newfound obsession was me, I felt that those words were taking a dig at me.
‘No, stop digging a pit for yourself……’ Of course, immediately afterwards, I realized that my thought process wasn’t logical.
I had a long-held habit of entertaining the delusion that those I liked were actually looking down upon me. This habit perhaps formed from the influence of a long-lasting old crush on someone I had adored in my adolescence. And, I had originally been interested in Seo Dawon because he was so similar to that person in mannerisms and, to a lesser extent, in appearance as well.
‘Now that I think about it…He became a User too.’
The name that had long been buried in the depths of my consciousness rose to the surface, unbidden; but, Kim Sangyoon’s quiet grumbling voice broke me from reminiscing.
TL: Soon enough, MC and ML should have a long-needed conversation about Seo Dawon’s way of planning things.
Also, wonder what Seo Dawon would think if MC said that he originally started having a crush bc it reminded him of an old flame O.O