Chapter 17. For Growth (4)[What do you want?]
I knew Yoo Yeonha would agree. She was the type who couldn"t stand one-sided favors.
Now, I wondered I should ask for.
Asking for money didn"t feel right. It was Yoo Yeonha I was talking about, but she was still a minor. She likely couldn"t freely spend tens of millions of won.
[It"s simple. I need a weapon.]
After sending her the above message, I sent her the link to Essential Armory"s Desert Eagle.
Yoo Yeonha looked at the link I sent her and looked back up at me. She didn"t seem to have any hostility.
[I think it"s pretty cheap.]
[…I understand.]
Great, she agreed.
[Is it possible to get it by tomorrow?]
The quicker it was, the more money I would make. Even if tomorrow was too difficult, I hoped to get it by the end of the week.
[Yes, I"ll take care of it.]
Surprisingly, she replied without hesitation, even though her parents should still be in charge of guild work. I was impressed by her decisiveness.
“Get back to your seats.”
The break ended at just the right time, as the old professor resumed cla.s.s after drinking some water.
**
Wednesday"s theory cla.s.s ended. And at 3 P.M., anti-personnel training began.
In a fairly large training field, each cadet met with others they promised to spar. Meanwhile, I looked for the instructor pitifully.
“Hey.”
A sharp voice stabbed my ear from the back. It had to be calling me. I turned around and instantly froze. Chae Nayun was glaring at me with terrifying eyes.
She asked, “Spar with me.”
The hostility in her tone bordered on killing intent.
Gulp. I swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Like the saying, "a word causes a debt worth a thousand gold taels," I had made a terrifying enemy with a sentence. Indeed, Chae Nayun was too dangerous of a person to have as an enemy. In order to live a peaceful life, I had to mend our relationship even at the cost of kneeling and begging.
But looking at Chae Nayun, I fell in thought. Would she be able to forgive me for my rash insult just because I apologized?
Seeing me silent, Chae Nayun pointed at my gun and spoke.
“Your gun. Take it out.”
The first training gun broke when I fought the Djinn. This was a new one. I looked down at my holster, then back up at Chae Nayun.
“I don"t want to.”
“…You scared?”
These two words carried a great echo, causing the eyes on the training field to fall on us.
“Mm…”
How should I act in front of Chae Nayun?
Without a doubt, the "incident" I was clueless about was well known among all cadets. The original Kim Chundong should have known about it too. So if I apologized now, it might seem like an even greater insult.
“No.”
…Furthermore, it might be better for me to remain a bad guy to Chae Nayun. My first and foremost goal and the reason I worked so hard without resting… was all to kill her older brother within a certain amount of time.
Even if I mended my relationship with Chae Nayun and even became friends, my actions would only leave her with a cruel sense of betrayal and hatred.
“I"m afraid you might get hurt. This thing uses real bullets, you see.”
Immediately, the weight of the atmosphere changed. Chae Nayun clenched her bow. I could see the amount of force she put in through the veins popping out of her hand.
“I don"t think your bullets will hurt me even if they hit.”
Chae Nayun forcefully suppressed her anger and retorted with a cold sneer.
My response was simple.
“You won"t get hurt. You"ll die instead.”
“…Ha, say that again, punk.”
Chae Nayun approached me up close. She looked like she would explode at any moment. She was technically 165 while I was 174, but she seemed a lot bigger for some reason.
“Really, who do you think you are?”
The atmosphere turned for the worse and more spectators gathered to watch the fight. At that moment…
“Chae Nayun, get back.”
The instructor stepped in. I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that she came before it was too late. Chae Nayun turned towards the instructor.
“Why should I?”
“Before he gets a gun for sparring, no one can spar with Kim Hajin cadet.”
“But I don"t mind.”
“I mind.”
“Why—”
“Failure to heed an instructor"s order will be met with disciplinary action.”
“…”
An instructor"s words were absolute. Chae Nayun clenched her teeth with a wronged look. But in the end, she gave me a final glare before leaving. The spectators also dispersed and went back to their training.
Everything had returned to normal.
“Take your gun out.”
The instructor spoke as she wrapped her hands in bandages. Her name… Park Hyun-Ah, was it? I asked the instructor.
“Does a gun for sparring even exist?”
“How the h.e.l.l would I know?”
Crack, crack. The instructor cracked her knuckles and neck in front of me.
“Now, come.”
Then with a smile, she gestured with her finger.
This person… Did she enjoy this?
**
Thursday was the hunting club"s orientation. But since cadets weren"t required to go to orientations, I decided to skip it for this week. It was partly to avoid Chae Nayun, but the main reason was to test out the weapon I would receive as quickly as possible.
“Ah, I can"t wait.”
I was currently at Angel Box, a coffee shop near Seoul. I was waiting for an item at this place. For the record, cadets were able to use Portals 5~6 times a month as long as they filled out a form.
Time pa.s.sed by. 5:29:55… 5:29:56… 5:30:00.
At exactly the promised time, the shop"s door opened.
A man in a black suit and sungla.s.ses walked in with a suitcase. After looking around for a moment, his eyes met mine. I waved my hand happily. The man"s expression didn"t change. Striding with his long legs, he walked up to me.
“Kim Hajin-ssi?”
“Yes, that"s me.”
I felt like I knew who this man was. Only one person popped up in my head when I thought about Yoo Yeonha"s attendant – Jin Sechan.
The man presumed to be Jin Sechan placed the suitcase on the table without sitting down.
“Here"s the item. Please take a look.”
“Are you in a hurry? You can sit.”
I pointed at the chair in front of me. Before I received this item, I wanted to do a quick test.
“…Hm.”
He sat down without complaint.
I took out the laptop I bought from my bag. Yesterday, I made some changes to this laptop. Right, I could use the laptop to modify the laptop itself.
“Are you doing something?”
“What do you mean?”
The man tilted his head.
“Why are you tapping on air?”
“…You can"t see this?”
I lifted up my laptop.
“…”
He looked at me as if I was crazy.
I see, I had a bit of a suspicion, but it seemed I was right. Only I could see this laptop.
“Haha, I"m kidding.”
That was fine with me.
I turned the laptop on. The additional setting I put into my laptop was this.
[When Kim Hajin is within 50m of a target with an altered setting, the content and summary of the change will be sent to Kim Hajin"s laptop.]
[*Does not work on targets past a certain level of importance.]
The reason I added this setting was because I thought it would be more efficient if I was told about a change through an objective medium rather than having to notice it and then being told by the co-author.
Either because the co-author didn"t care or because he encouraged the modification I made, I only had to pay 200 SP.
[A change in setting has been detected.]
And currently, there was an alert in the laptop as expected.
[Jin Sechan – His feelings for Yoo Yeonha has been deepened.]
I didn"t mind this change.
“Anyways, I"ll take a look now.”
I opened the suitcase.
Click. Click.
With an elegant sound, the case opened. A brilliant light erupted from the inside.
“…Wow.”
Sitting on top of a fancy red velvet was a platinum handgun and a magazine. It was even more beautiful than what I saw in the picture.
“As promised, it"s the Desert Eagle with full attachments and a 60-round magazine of pinnacle grade magic bullets.”
“Thank you. You can go now.”
I no longer cared about Jin Sechan. Using my laptop, I checked my new weapon"s setting.
===
[Desert Eagle]
[High rank] [Metal attribute]
A masterpiece handgun. Contains several added effects.
「Attack Power Amplification – 1/10」
「Low rank Weight Reduction Magic」
「Intermediate rank Recoil Control Magic」
===
===
[Magic Bullet]
[Pinnacle grade] [Null attribute]
.44 Macon steel mana bullet with condensed high-purity mana.
「Attack Power – 4/10」
===
I felt much better being able to read their descriptions.
Without having to modify the gun or the bullet, I felt like I could easily kill a low-intermediate rank monster. I should also be able to take Aether from the devil"s nest in Suwon.
“Then I"ll be going.”
“Ah, yes, take care.”
After sending Jin Sechan off, I checked the amount of SP I had left.
250.
Now, how should I spend this?
**
After leaving the coffee shop, Jin Sechan contacted Yoo Yeonha. She asked as soon as she picked up the call.
—Did you deliver the item?
“Yes.”
—Was there anything special about him?
“That"s…”
There wasn"t anything “special”, but there was something he found strange. No matter how much he thought about it, the man"s demeanor wasn"t what a 17 year old should have. Not to mention, it was almost as if he knew who Jin Sechan was…
—Yes?
“…No. There wasn"t anything special in particular.”
But he couldn"t come to a decision with just that short exchange. After all, he was Cube"s cadet. Even Yoo Yeonha had an air of dignity and elegance that didn"t suit her age.
—Yes, I understand. Thank you for your work, Sechan-ssi.
“My pleasure.”
With that, the call ended.
Though he wanted to talk a little longer, he decided to be content.