Episode 20 First Request (1)
-Beep beep beep beep-
Han Su-yeon woke up to the alarm she had set in advance.
It was still early in the morning, the sun not yet up, and the outside view through the window was pitch dark.
She got out of bed, took off her cute strawberry-printed pajamas, and went straight to the bathroom.
Her firm, smooth, unblemished body was reflected in the mirror.
Han Su-yeon, who still hadn’t fully woken up, closed her eyes and stood still for a moment under the cold water from the shower to wake up her half-asleep state.
At some point, she stopped showering with warm water.
Because the warm water flowing through her red hair and down her body felt like the hot streams of blood flowing from her comrades who had been with her for hundreds of rounds and who were slowly dying before her eyes.
After taking a shower, Han Soo-yeon dried her trademark red hair and tied it back.
And then he headed to the academy wearing the black training suit he had prepared in advance and a black hat pulled over his head.
***
Upon arriving at the academy, the sun was just beginning to rise, creating an atmosphere where darkness and light seemed to be mixed together.
Han Su-yeon walked around the academy, where a quiet silence flowed, perhaps because it was still early, and approached the large, beautiful blue lake located in the center of the academy.
Then, without hesitation, she jumped into the lake and dove.
The water in the lake was cold and so deep that the bottom was not visible.
Han Su-yeon swam hard to reach the bottom of the lake, cutting through the cold water while strengthening her body with magical power.
After diving hard for almost ten minutes, a blue glowing hole began to appear at the bottom of the lake in the exact center.
Han Su-yeon, who had reached her destination, put her body into the hole.
Then, with a slight sense of dizziness, the space began to distort, and Han Su-yeon was transported to a place that looked fancy.
The hole was the entrance to a dungeon hidden at the bottom of Lake Academy.
The palace of the fish king.
It was the name of the dungeon that Han Su-yeon was currently in.
This dungeon, which is a perfect fit for the proverb, “the darkness is under the lamp,” was discovered by chance by the villain who was an academy cadet and killed Han Su-yeon in the 5th round.
Since then, Han Su-yeon, who was watching the cadet in the 6th round, learned of the existence of this dungeon and has always conquered this dungeon before the cadet.
The dungeon’s level is C.
In the early rounds, it would take two years after returning to clear the dungeon, but starting from the 923rd round, Han Su-yeon raised her abilities to the max through grueling training in just two days and challenged the Palace of the King of Fishes.
Of course, it was a dungeon that was a bit too much for Han Su-yeon’s current abilities, but Han Su-yeon had the swordsmanship she had learned from ‘that person’ over hundreds of rounds, so she didn’t consider the possibility of failure.
Han Su-yeon walked towards the palace entrance bare-handed and without any weapons.
“Intruder!”
“Human! Attack!”
Two fish-man guards guarding the palace entrance discovered Han Su-yeon and suddenly stabbed her with their swords.
-Tiring-
[Use skill Magic Power Enhancement [C].]
Han Su-yeon wrapped her body in magical power and accelerated explosively. She twisted her body to easily avoid the stabs of the fish-human guards. Then, she grabbed the faces of the fish-human guards with both hands covered in fire-attribute magical power and slammed them into the palace floor.
-bang!!-
Two cracks appeared in the palace floor, and the heads of two fish-man guards were brutally smashed.
Han Su-yeon looked at the bodies of the dead fish guards with an emotionless gaze, then picked up the sword that one of them had dropped and leisurely entered the palace.
***
-Tiring-
[You have cleared the dungeon ‘Palace of the Fishman King’. As a reward, you will receive the Sword of the Fishman King,
When the dungeon’s core was destroyed, the dungeon collapsed and Han Su-yeon, who escaped the lake, used her fire-attribute magic to dry her wet clothes and hair.
And I picked up the ‘Siren’s Tears’ that I got as a reward.
Siren’s tears contained in a blue glass bottle.
Han Su-yeon opened the bottle’s lid and drank the Siren’s Tears in one gulp.
-Tiring-
[By consuming ‘Siren’s Tears’, your strength, agility, stamina, and magic power each increase by 4.]
When I consumed Siren’s Tears, just like the description in the system window said, my body felt lighter than before and my magical power also increased.
“Status window.”
-Tiring-
Name: Han Su-yeon
Age: 17
Ability
Strength: 32
Agility: 34
Stamina: 33
Horsepower: 30
Charm: 87
Luck: 44
Skill
Unique Abilities
——————
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After taking the elixir, the ability values in the status window were all over 30 for strength, health, and magic power.
Compared to Han Su-yeon on the first day of her return, her growth was incredibly fast, but Han Su-yeon was not particularly impressed by the process and results that had been repeated in the past dozens of times.
And Han Soo-yeon looked at the other reward, the Sword of the King of Fish, ‘Aaron’.
Aaron with a blue sword about 90cm long.
It was the sword that Han Su-yeon used in the early stages before obtaining other, better weapons.
Aaron was a level 6 weapon with the ability [Rapid Current].
[Rapid Current] was an ability that allowed one to use water-attribute magic power for 10 minutes once a day.
As she emerged from the dungeon, the sun had already risen high and was radiating its light.
I checked the time on my smartwatch, and it was exactly 12 o’clock.
Han Su-yeon was quite tired from having just cleared the dungeon, but she had no time to stop.
Because in order to prevent the destruction of the world, we had to keep running without stopping.
Without hesitation, Han Su-yeon dragged her tired body to the H Building training center of the academy.
***
-H Building Training Center, Training Room 320
The interior of room 320 was covered in a thick fog, as the enormous amount of sweat Han Su-yeon shed had evaporated due to her fire attribute magic.
“A flash.”
Han Su-yeon quickly drew her training sword diagonally toward the front.
The first form of the Yuha Sword Technique that Han Su-yeon’s master taught her, Il-seom (一閃).
A single movement that focuses all of the body’s senses solely on ‘cutting’.
To someone who was an expert in swordsmanship, Han Su-yeon’s movements were clean and free of unnecessary details, but she hung her sword down with a dissatisfied expression.
‘Compared to the Master, I am so lacking⋯⋯.’
Although she had trained under her master for hundreds of times, in her eyes, even the first move, Ilseom (一閃), which was the foundation of the martial arts, looked very shabby compared to her master.
After conquering the Mermaid King’s palace and practicing for hours in the training hall, her swordsmanship showed no signs of improvement, so she let out a small sigh of frustration and went into the private shower room attached to the training room.
‘Let’s go back now for today, since we have to go ‘there’ tomorrow.’
Han Su-yeon cooled down her body, heated up by training, under the cold water from the shower.
After taking a shower and getting ready to go home, Han Su-yeon left training room 320 and took the elevator down to the first floor.
“Oh, are you going home?”
As she came down to the lobby on the first floor, a female employee working at the training center noticed Han Su-yeon while watching a TV hanging on the wall at the counter and spoke to her happily.
Han Su-yeon nodded slightly at the female employee’s answer and approached her to return the training sword she had rented at the counter.
[At around 2:40 PM today, a wave-shaped gate, presumed to be Class D, was discovered near Sindorim Station⋯⋯.]
As I approached the counter, I could hear the TV news that the female employee was watching.
Sindorim Station Gate.
From what I remember, it was a gate where a D-class dire wolf and a C-class demonic beast called a Moon Wolf appeared.
Although it was a gate that was treated as a natural disaster, it was suppressed without serious damage by Hyun Si-Hyeon, an S-rank player who happened to be nearby.
Han Su-yeon knew from the first episode that the Sindorim Station gate would appear today.
However, since the damage was not that great and it was a gate that could be easily dealt with by Hyun Si-Hyeon, he did not bother to block it and instead focused on growing through training.
Han Su-yeon returned the training sword to the female employee, glanced at the TV screen out of the corner of her eye, and then suddenly stood upright, turned her head completely, and stared intently at the TV screen.
The female employee suddenly stopped and looked at the TV with a surprised expression, looking back and forth between Han Soo-yeon and the image on the TV, then opened her mouth.
“Oh, I heard there was a gate incident at Sindorim Station today. There were quite a few people injured or killed. Still, to several players who were there and to Hyun Si-Hyeon, an S-rank player from the Salvation Guild⋯⋯.”
However, Han Su-yeon wasn’t listening to the female employee’s explanation.
‘Aegis.’
Because, the footage on TV showed Kim Baram struggling against the Dire Wolf while holding the ‘Aegis’ that was supposed to be held by the original villain, Cha Eun-ho.
‘How on earth did Kim Baram get Aegis⋯⋯.’
***
-Tiring-
[Player ‘Kim Baram’s’ unique ability
[The main character ‘Han Su-yeon’ is paying attention to you. You will receive 500 VP.]
[Calculate VP for player ‘Kim Baram’s’ daily actions. Receive 500 VP.]
“Ugh⋯⋯.”
When I woke up, every nook and cranny of my body hurt as if I had been hit by someone.
I tossed and turned in bed for a while, trying to wake up completely, with the useless thought that maybe it was because I came home covered in blood yesterday and got slapped in the back by my startled mother.
When I came to my senses a little, I saw the notification window floating in front of me and smiled despite the pain all over my body.
‘Hehehe… I woke up and had 1000 VP. I don’t know why Han Su-yeon is paying attention to me again, but anyway, it’s so sweet…’
I was lying on my side in a hunched position like a shrimp, laughing alone on the bed, and then I shouted.
“Status window.”
-Tiring-
Name: Kim Baram
Age: 17
Ability
Strength: 14
Agility: 14
Stamina: 20
Horsepower: 7
Attractiveness: 51
Luck: 51
Skill
Unique Abilities
-Variable Points held: 5800 VP
The first thing that caught my eye in the status window that appeared before my eyes was, of course, the ‘VP held’ at the very bottom.
Due to yesterday’s events, VP had increased to a whopping 5800 VP.
Of course, I checked the ability stats just in case, but there was no such thing as a protagonist like me, who was a cancer-causing character, awakening from yesterday’s battle and having his ability stats increase.
Well, I didn’t expect that…tsk.
“⋯But I have a VP.”
No one asked, but I spoke in a hoarse voice to comfort my sorrowful heart.
“⋯⋯Let’s just write it down.
Rolling the dice has now become a daily morning ritual.
I rolled the dice, staring at them with bloodshot eyes, not long after waking up.
-Tiring-
[The effect of the skill
[Strength increases by 3 due to the effect of skill
[The effect of the skill
Due to the effect of the skill
“Hmm… It’s a bit of a shame, but… I’ll be okay since I’ll be able to work hard and earn money today too.”
Fully awake, I got out of bed and picked up my smartwatch that was on the desk.
And when I operated the smartwatch and went into the account app linked to my account, I saw that the reward money deposited by the association yesterday had arrived.
– Deposit: 6,000,000 won (Korea Players Association)
“It feels good to be a player.”
As I looked at the money coming in, I felt like my aching body was being healed.
Is this what they call ‘financial therapy’?
-Jiing-
As I was looking at the reward money with a blissful expression for a while, my smartwatch vibrated and an alarm went off in the Pixar Clan chat room.
‘Come to think of it, I think I got a message from the Pixar Clan chatroom yesterday too, but I was so tired that I washed up and went to sleep as soon as I got home.’
I opened the chat app to check the messages I received yesterday and just now.
-(Fox): For tomorrow’s request, come to Gangnam Station by 2 o’clock. Oh, and everyone must wear a mask when you come. – 8:34 PM
-(Crow): Yes, I understand. -8:35 p.m.
-(Raccoon): Confirmed. – 8:36 p.m.
-(Tiger): Hmm! Okay! -9pm
-(Rabbit): (Bunny emoji nodding vigorously) -9:21 PM
-(Cat): I’ll go too. -8:13 AM
“⋯⋯Huh⋯?”
I glanced through the chat room and let out a panicked voice.
No, to be exact, looking at the sentence in the very last line.
cat.
The cat’s true identity is unknown even to the clan members, except for the clan leader, Shin Yul.
But I had already met that cat character.
Her true identity is.
It was Yeo Ji-hye whom I met yesterday.
I was taken aback by the news of Yeo Ji-hye’s participation and looked at the funny monkey mask hanging on the wall with a troubled expression.
“If I go today, I absolutely must not take it off⋯⋯.”
