Chapter 9: Escapism

It was truly the worst illusion.

I died hundreds of times over and over.

The problem was how realistic it felt. Probably because of the original work. Since I'd read the original content, that's what appeared in the illusion.

But I have a few questions.

Why did that dream repeat hundreds of times, each time with different methods of jamming a Mutant's Core into my body?

Moreover, from the second or third time, it was like they knew - hiding before killing me.

What the hell? Is this a different illusion from what I know in the original work?

It must be a dream. That's why things are so weird.

Hahaha. Right, it's just a dream.

As I try to comfort myself, that gloomy ghost keeps staggering around obliviously next to me.

I wish it would just fuck off.

"Are you awake, Student Yoo Eun-ha?"

I woke up in the infirmary to find Rebecca standing before me.

"Yes. As you can see, I nearly died thanks to you, Professor."

"I'll apologize for that. Honestly, I didn't expect it to be this bad."

Rebecca wore a genuinely troubled expression.

"What?"

"Let me ask you something. Have you ever had any near-death experiences? Or do you have any special abilities related to death or illusions?"

"None of the above."

I've never died, and I don't have any abilities related to illusions or death.

"The illusion I cast on you all was just one thing - bringing out the most horrific memory from your life as an illusion."

"You're lying, right?"

Better play dumb here.

"When you were suffering, I used mental interference to directly see your illusion. Even I was shocked. The most I could do was try to keep your mind from breaking."

Huh? No, wait, this is a dream, right? Why am I taking this seriously? I just saw an illusion in a dream. It's because I imagined Yoo Eun-ha dying multiple times while reading the original work.

"Well, I haven't died before, but I think I roughly know why, so don't worry about it."

"I'm still uneasy, but if you say so, I'll trust you."

What do I care if a dream person feels uneasy? They can't even see that gloomy black man standing by the infirmary door.

This won't do.

This is a dream. Let's be clear about that. That kiss with the flame spear bitch was wrong too.

Alright. Let's use this chance to look for a way out of the Academy.

"Um, Professor."

"What?"

Rebecca had become a bit timid because of what she did to me.

She was originally this type of woman. Usually strict, but immediately falls into self-reflection when she makes a mistake.

"Could I take a break from school for a while? The shock was pretty big."

"At the start of the semester?"

What do you want me to do about it?

"How should I tell oppa about what happened today to make him happy?"

"A-alright. Fine! If that's what it takes!"

Let me explain briefly - Rebecca is also a heroine from the previous work.

Since it seems both Kim Ji-hye and this woman still like Yoo Jin-seok, I decided to use that.

* * *

Yoo Eun-ha, currently on a glorious self-imposed school break, screamed.

"GUWAAAAAH!"

Even playing around isn't something a human should do.

Can't be helped. Guess I'll play with that gloomy ghost that's twitching while fused with the wall.

What could I do to play with that ghost? While thinking, I threw a knife.

Thunk!

Unfortunately, it went through the ghost and stuck in the wall.

"Tch."

I wallpapered the room white to see that ghost better. But it seems even magic is useless.

I pulled the knife back out of the wall, visible through where the ghost had disappeared.

"Just lying around doing nothing will make me fat."

To be honest, this body has never gained weight no matter what I ate, and I never felt hungry even when I didn't eat.

Still, a person shouldn't live so lazily, right?

Living expenses are running low too, and before something goes wrong, my Korean commoner slave mentality kicked in.

If there's nothing to do, just make something to do.

No choice. Gotta earn money.

After shooing away the ghost that was now pretending to type at a keyboard in the chair with my knife, I sat down to look up part-time jobs in the area online.

Location: New Seoul Gangnam Tower Building B1

Recruits: 5 people

Job: Monster and Hunter corpse cleaner. Anxiety medicine provided.

Pay: 500,000 won

Not bad, but not appealing. If it's "cleaner" work, that means the corpses of monsters and Hunters have been dried and stuck there for a while. The smell must be horrible. Is anxiety medicine really enough?

Location: New Seoul Cloud Dungeon

Recruits: 2 people

Job: Exploring floors 1-5 with Bbeum-mi

Pay: Fair split of dungeon rewards. Artifacts and Cores go to whoever gets them.

Bbeum-mi? Something gives me the creeps.

Still, the idea of forming a party to clear a dungeon is good. The reward system is also typical for party play.

Dreams are heavily influenced by the person after all.

Did I unconsciously think of Bbeum-mi?

"Good Lord."

Let's move on to the next one.

Location: GC Convenience Store across from Hanseong Academy

Recruits: 2 people (women preferred)

Job: Exactly what it says - convenience store work

Pay: 12,000 won per hour

Hmm, unlike the real world, the job search site in this world seems too simple, no?

That's what I thought at first, but looking at it now, it seems they kept it simple since it's a site made for Hunters.

Hours are negotiable. Right now I'm not quite free enough for convenience store work, so that Bbeum-mi thing might be better.

* * *

Cloud Dungeon

"Hogok! You're so pretty! I love your pure white hair!"

Should I just go back? I seriously considered it.

"Hawawa. My name is Kim Bbeum-mi! I'm a D-Class Hunter, and I'm the party leader for this Cloud Dungeon exploration! Please call me Bbeum-mi-jjang. I'd like it if you called me Bbeum-mi-ssi. I mainly use magic!"

What a fucking shitshow.

"I'm Shinohara Mariko. I'm from the famous ninja family Shinohara in Japan, and I came to Korea sightseeing since my bestie Bbeum-mi asked for help. I graduated from Tokyo Hunter Academy last year and I'm a D-Class Hunter. I use Fire Spell ninja arts."

The Shinohara family. In the original work, they're one of the prominent Hunter families in Japan. Their head is female, and later when a Hellgate opens in Japan, the head Shinohara Yuzuki falls into the Hellgate and gets saved by Choi Si-woo who was dispatched there.

Yeah. What more needs to be said?

Their family head is also a sub-heroine.

Since she's from that family, there might be some connection, but I decided not to get involved unnecessarily. I can ignore her since I never saw her in the original work anyway.

"I'm Geum Tae-yang. Currently attending Seoul Hunter Academy. Here to earn some pocket money, and though I'm just a student, I've got a D-Class Hunter contract with the Black Wolf Guild after graduation. I specialize in close combat using physical enhancement. I may look like this, but I'm a sweet guy."

Next is Geum Tae-yang. One of the big three along with squinty-eyed muscle men and hypnosis app pigs in NTR, NTL female corruption adult novels and comics.

Sun-tanned skin with blonde hair. A decently built body.

At the word "Sun", my eyes instinctively went to his lower body, and sure enough. His pants were distorted on one side.

Much bigger than what I lost when becoming Yoo Eun-ha.

*gulp*

Fucking bastard. You're my enemy.

"I'm Yoo Eun-ha. Currently attending Hanseong Academy, and I use speed-based combat with acceleration. Looking forward to working with you today."

"Woohoo~ A white-haired cutie!"

The NTR specialist actor looks at me lecherously. Surely, nothing will happen though, right?

He won't try to assault me or anything, right?

The Cloud Dungeon has gloomy clouds inside and occasionally rains poison.

The monsters are also slimy creatures. Like slimes?

The actual slimes I met didn't seem to have much substance.

They just look like human-sized puddings?

The strategy for slimes is simple. They're super weak to magic, and even Reina's spirit arrows can take them out easily. They're also weak to greatswords, and die instantly if you hit their core.

I just used my knife to stab at the slime's core.

Splat!

The slime lost its form without any resistance, spreading like a popped water balloon.

If I hadn't dodged in and out, my uniform would've gotten all wet - a nice sight for that Geum Tae-yang.

"Hawawa! That's poison rain falling over there!"

"Fire Spell! Fireball!"

Kim Bbeum-mi-jjang spams some weird lights to show us areas we shouldn't go, while Mariko lights torches scattered throughout the dungeon.

But wait, isn't Fire Spell ninja arts? Does it work with magic Fireball? Wouldn't it fit a ninja family better to just do Fire Spell ninja arts like in that one manga?

"Slime Core GET!"

That Geum Tae-yang was surprisingly diligent.

Unlike that weird duo, I just use acceleration to pop slime cores.

It's surprisingly easy work.

But I'm curious about something. They said exploration up to floor 5, right?

"Miss Bbeum-mi."

"Hawawa call me Bbeum-mi-jjang!"

Annoying bitch.

"B-Bbeum-mi-jjang."

"Hawawa?"

"Isn't this dungeon already cleared? Why do we need to go to floor 5?"

"Hawawa hawawa. After this dungeon was cleared, there was a demon outbreak on floor 5 so there are lots of mobs! You can get lots of cores if you kill them!"

"Ah, so we're cleaning those up?"

Even D-Class cores add up. They're worth 50,000 won each. Split between us after collecting a bunch, it should be quite a lot, right?

Isn't this basically free money?

"Hoeeng! I rented it seasonally by asking my oppas! It's hard alone so I need everyone's help!"

"Can we handle it with just us?"

That was a surprisingly honest question from Geum Tae-yang.

That bulge visible through his pants still really bothers me. Is he really not that type? I mean, anyone can use physical enhancement if they try hard enough. He didn't tell us about any other abilities...

"This Bbeum-mi-jjang isn't weak! Actually I could go alone according to the rules, we just need 4 people!"

This Bbeum-mi is definitely skilled.

From scouting magic for reconnaissance to cleaning magic. Plus that torch villain friend constantly lighting torches beside her.

Apart from those two, Geum Tae-yang's close combat is quite impressive too.

We reached floor 5 quickly.

The difficulty had dropped since guilds had already cleared the dungeon.

"Hey, isn't this too easy?"

"Hawawa. Unni, oppa, you found a good opportunity! You should know it's thanks to me!"

Bbeum-mi-jjang proudly thrust out her non-existent chest.

If we manage the core collection well, we could earn as much as corpse cleaning.

Yeah. Everything was going smoothly until then.

"Oh, noonas. There's a button here."

Until that Geum Tae-yang bastard found an obviously suspicious button on the wall.

"Isn't that a trap?"

"Huh? I already pressed it though?"

"You fucking bastard."

BOOM!

Before I could finish cursing at Geum Tae-yang, Bbeum-mi-jjang's party rolled somewhere.

* * *