SHOWR 17

Chapter 17

Sunbae’s figure completely disappeared.

Only then did the gaze I had nailed onto him finally fall away.

After looking around, I approached some reeds I spotted nearby and sat down on them.

The dampness seeped through my clothes.

Once settled, I stared again at the place where Sunbae had vanished.

Hyungtaek came over and sat down beside me on the reeds.

We silently looked at the same place.

Kugugung—! Kwagwagwang—!

From far away, along with a deafening roar, an enormous cloud of dust rose up. It was so massive it felt like a volcano had erupted.

Hunter Oh, who had been staring blankly at the merciless barrage of skills, pouted his lips.

“That hyung really doesn’t seem human. Isn’t he a monster?”

Once, in an interview, he had said his goal was to take Kang Jinseo Hunter’s ranking.

He must be grumbling now in that same sense.

I didn’t respond and calmly listened to his complaints.

“Isn’t he worried about addiction? Can he just pour out that much mana like that? I’m already starting to get side effects. How many years has hyung been a hunter? How is he still so fine? Seriously.”

Unlike his sulky tone, his eyes shining as he looked beyond sparkled brightly.

‘Is it admiration?’

The young hunter sitting next to me seemed like someone who sparkled with competitiveness and passion.

“Isn’t this really balance-breaking? Right?”

“He is an amazing person.”

Even while we exchanged empty conversation, the wall of waves was turning into dust and disappearing in real time.

“Noona.”

“…….”

“Hyung.”

“Yes.”

“Want to make a bet with me?”

“What kind?”

“How many hours it’ll take Jinseo hyung to clear it.”

I turned my head to look at him.

He was someone whose playful smile suited him very well.

“Hmm.”

“Hyung really is a monster, but oddly enough, he’s kind of slow at clearing gates. I’m betting about four hours.”

I fell into thought.

I already knew that my skill infused in the oil had activated without issue. So it was obvious that it would only be a matter of time before Sunbae found the exit.

Since it took me a little over three hours—me, who had no stamina and was busy running around avoiding monsters.

“Hmm, about one hour?”

“Oh, you really don’t know hyung well.”

Hyungtaek turned his body toward me and propped his chin on one hand.

“If I win, you give me your number, noona.”

“If I win?”

“I’ll give you mine.”

“…I won’t bet.”

“Ouch. Then what do you want?”

“Nothing in particular.”

“That really hurts. Then noona, I’ll let you decide later if you win. Deal?”

“Okay.”

After our time-killing conversation ended, I turned my head again and fixed my gaze in the original direction.

However, my profile still felt strangely prickly.

“Are you going to stay here? It’s cold.”

Even though the skill had worked normally, the reason I wasn’t leaving was to prepare for the extremely unlikely chance that something went wrong.

Not that I could really help, but honestly, I was worried.

‘This is why I came all the way to Japan in the first place.’

“Let’s go together. What if you catch a cold?”

He dusted off his pants and stood up, holding out his hand to me.

“It’s okay.”

I shook my head.

At that, Hyungtaek plopped back down beside me.

“You even make me feel inferior in a place like this.”

He muttered something, but it was so quiet that it didn’t reach my ears.

How much time had passed like that?

Before the eyes of everyone, including me, a status window flashed brightly.

[Gate Clear!]

We all jumped to our feet at the same time.

I smiled brightly with joy, but the smile on Hyungtaek’s face carried ambiguous happiness.

It must be because the bet ended in my victory.

Having safely protected my phone number, I ran toward the clearing where people had gathered.

Someone had shouted that the exit portal had appeared over there.

Since it took about an hour to clear one gate, it seemed there would be no great difficulty in clearing the remaining gates within the time limit.

My steps were light as I kicked off the splashing ground and ran.

^[Main Quest: Clear the Labyrinth Gate that threatens Earth’s safety! (2/22)]^
^[Sub Quest Clear!]^
^[Completion reward: 1 stat point granted, stat skill tree will be opened!]^

Hyungtaek, who had been staring blankly at Bitna’s retreating figure, rubbed the back of his neck and muttered.

“Her number… It’s my first time failing to get one.”

Letting out a small, self-mocking chuckle, he slowly followed after Bitna.

“Hmm?”

At that moment, something strange caught his eye.

Each time Bitna stepped on the water-covered ground, the ripples that spread out were slightly different from normal.

Don’t they usually just spread out in a simple circular shape?

He looked down at his own feet and tilted his head.

“I wonder if Mimi came too.”

Making a day trip back and forth to Japan left my whole body aching.

As soon as I entered the shop with my exhausted body, I looked for Mimi, but she wasn’t there.

“Her food’s still here… Is she still in Japan?”

Ugh, I don’t know.

I carelessly tossed my bag onto the floor and threw myself onto the sofa.

I didn’t do anything inside the gate, but perhaps because I had been so tense, overwhelming fatigue washed over me.

I felt like I could fall asleep any second, but there was something I had to do before sleeping.

‘Open the skill tree!’

For a suddenly given sub quest, the completion reward was quite generous.

Just being able to open the skill tree meant I could figure out where it would be best to invest my stats.

In high spirits, I tapped ‘Accept Quest Completion Reward.’

^[You can open the skill tree for one stat among sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.]^

“What? I can only choose one?”

It felt like I had been scammed.

Even though it felt that way, complaining wouldn’t change anything, so I immediately began to deliberate.

If I could only choose one of the senses, I had to be quite careful.

‘I should think first about which sense will be most necessary going forward.’

My plan to happily read through the opened skill tree and then sleep was ruined.

“Ha, this is hard.”

When I invested 1 stat point into sight, the level 1 skill effect was to show the path to the target I wanted to find.

Then if I invested 1 more stat into sight, would the same effect simply level up? Or would a new skill with a different effect appear?

Since Mimi wasn’t here, there was no one to ask, which made it frustrating.

It seemed I would have to decide this important matter after Mimi returned.

After turning off the status window, I forced my heavy body up.

Only then did I realize that I had been covered in dust all day.

“Let’s wash and sleep…”

As I dragged my heavy legs toward the bathroom, a notification sound rang from my phone.

Startled by the unfamiliar sound for a moment, I then remembered that I had changed my phone.

That latest model phone was given to me by Ian, saying he would contact me when necessary.

There were only two saved contacts: Jinseo sunbae and Ian.

I turned on the screen and checked the message that had arrived.

[Come to the alumni meeting]

“Hmm?”

After reading the message, I naturally thought Nara unnie had sent it. But thinking about it, she didn’t know this phone number.

When I checked the sender again, my eyes widened.

“Sunbae?”

Why suddenly tell me to come to the alumni meeting? And in such a firm tone?

Because of the mysterious message, I had no choice but to spend a night full of worries.

Jinseo, who had arrived home before Bitna, was sitting at the edge of the bed without moving at all.

From the moment Ian went into the kitchen to prepare dinner until the food was fully set, he remained in that position, staring only at his phone.

With a serious expression, Jinseo typed a message.

[Are you coming to the alumni meeting?|]

Tap tap tap.

His thumb quickly pressed delete.

[Come to the alumni meeting?|]

The moment he finished the sentence, he erased it again.

After repeating writing and deleting dozens, hundreds of times, he roughly ruffled his bangs in a surge of self-loathing.

“Ha…”

What am I even doing?

Finally deciding to delete the message entirely, he was just about to press the delete button—

“Ah.”

The message was sent by mistake.

“Ah.”

Like a broken machine, he repeated the same word before finally flopping back onto the bed.