Chapter 120: Cheonggyecheon's Urban Legend (1)

July's heat is brutal.

This summer was especially hot, to the point where sweat would pour down if you didn't turn on the air conditioner.

And of all times, our house's air conditioner broke down, so the air wasn't flowing well at all.

"Hey, fix the air conditioner quickly. Why is your house so hot?"

Yang Juhee, sprawled out in a starfish position in my room, poked me with her foot as I sat at the computer desk.

Yang Juhee originally had a high body temperature. With her in my room, it was bound to get even hotter.

"If it's that hot, go back to your house."

"What are you talking about? We don't have an air conditioner at home."

To think there's a house without air conditioning in a world with an average temperature of 34 degrees Celsius.

That in itself was a nightmare.

"Can't you draw an air conditioner or something from the status window gacha? Or withdraw 100 points and install an air conditioner at my house. Honestly, you can do that much for me, right?"

Yang Juhee urged me to use the status window's gacha and withdrawal. I decided to open the status window and take a quick look at the situation.

『Name. Ha Young-won Lv.5

Traits. 《Sloppy Clock》 《Breath Holding》 《Strong Heart》 《Trait Enhancement》

Quirk.

Funds. 1324 Points

Description. Time that had been stopped for a long time has started moving again. You, who are inevitably experiencing various things and growing, are both afraid and excited about what will happen next.』

『Shop ◀ Click to open』

『Treatment Center ◀ Click to open』

『Training Ground ◀ Click to open』

『Mercenary Group ◀ Click to open』

My current funds were 1324 points.

In addition to earning a lot of points at the Cheon family mansion a few days ago, just yesterday Yoo Dahee, Kwon Sua, and I went to the corridor as a group of three.

It was to update Yoo Dahee and Kwon Sua's status windows. The character sheets we acquired were as follows.

『Name. Yoo Dahee Lv.5

Trait. 《Elegance》

Disposition. Innocent

Quirk. None

Possession. Lucky Paper Crane

She's a rich young lady who seems to have popped out of a story. She likes to play pranks and create and keep secrets. This girl will become a surprisingly excellent companion in crisis situations bigger than usual.』

『《Elegance》. Can maintain dignity at any time. Ignores the negative effects of 《Quirks》. However, death from quirk stacking remains unchanged.』

『Lucky Paper Crane. A paper crane neatly folded with someone's heart. It tracks nearby sacred statues and talismans. As it's a very rare tool, finding one can be considered lucky.』

Yoo Dahee had a trait called 《Elegance》, which could ignore the effects of 'quirks'.

So that's why Dahee could live normally without any problems even after being eaten by the red woman.

By the way, the quirk Dahee had after dying to the red woman was 《Guilt》, which I removed by putting her in the treatment center.

Dahee also always had the "Paper Crane" item, which had an additional explanation that it was a hard-to-find object.

It seemed that besides the one Dahee had, there was a very slim chance of acquiring a paper crane when rummaging through drawers or lockers in the corridor itself.

『《Sloppy Clock》's advice. All drawers, desks, and boxes in the corridor may contain various tools. Tools are generated and deleted at regular intervals. Find various tools for survival.』

"I see."

I also put Dahee in the training ground. Dahee's training list was like this.

『Yoo Dahee - Training List!

Drawing pictures 21/100 times

Folding paper cranes 121/1000

Reward. 《Whisper》"

《Whisper》. Able to speak with a mysterious voice.』

Dahee's training reward was 《Whisper》, which allows her to speak with a mysterious voice, but honestly, I didn't understand what this meant.

Still, it's probably better than not having any trait. Shall we look at Kwon Sua's status window?

『Name. Kwon Sua Lv.3

Trait. 《Steal Attention》

Disposition. Carefree

Quirk. None

Possession. None

A girl who receives attention just by existing. The problem is that negative things also like to focus on this pitiful girl. What can this girl do?』

『《Steal Attention》. Innate charisma that can't be acquired through effort. Can unreasonably steal the gaze and attention of surrounding beings.』

Steal Attention. 

Seeing this, Kwon Sua said.

"It's a taunt skill. It increases aggro from enemies."

It was a skill that wouldn't be strange for tank warriors who take hits in RPG games to have.

It was a trait that suited Kwon Sua well, who had received attention and interest from many people while working as an idol.

In fact, Kwon Sua had something that unreasonably stole people's gazes. I knew it well from experiencing it several times myself.

It easily breaks people's will, I tell you. By the way, Kwon Sua's training ground was as follows.

『Kwon Sua - Training List!

Singing 100/100 times

Dancing 750/1000 times

Reward. 《Flexible Body》

《Flexible Body》. The body becomes very flexible. Can squeeze into anywhere as long as the head can fit.』

Flexible Body.

It was a cat-like trait good for hiding here and there. Traits that increase physical abilities were always worth at least half their value.

Let's stop looking at the status window here and return to the air conditioner conversation with Yang Juhee.

"There's a lot I can do with points, but Jung-seok will get angry again if I withdraw them recklessly."

Not long ago, I was so hungry that I converted points to money and ordered chicken. I also bought summer clothes and new sneakers.

But Jung-seok got angry, saying, "Hey, points have a value that can't be converted to money!"

He was a very strict guy. Under Jung-seok's insistence, we were planning to gather a ton of points during this vacation!

Now that we knew 《Sloppy Clock》 could rewind time by consuming 100P, the more points, the better.

By the way, we recently discovered through experimentation that time doesn't rewind inside the nightmare corridor.

That was unfortunate, but... finding out how to create save points could be considered fortunate in its own way.

『《Sloppy Clock》's advice. You can save time by taking and developing photos.

Saved points can be canceled by destroying the photo.

When loading saved time, the most recent photo takes priority.』

Taking physical photos. That was the way to determine where you'd arrive when rewinding time.

《Sloppy Clock》 gave various pieces of advice like this. It consumed 10P per advice, but the number of times was no longer limited.

"Ugh, it's too hot to stay any longer. Hey! I'm leaving!"

"What? Where are you going? We were supposed to all meet at our hideout later. You know we're all going to Seoul tomorrow, right?"

"I can't go to Seoul. I'm meeting Gong Ye-rin and Im Hee-yeon today. Probably tomorrow too."

Yang Juhee had recently started meeting with Gong Ye-rin and Im Hee-yeon. 

Actually, Yang Juhee didn't want to meet them, but I asked her to.

"Juhee, they don't remember us, right?"

"They don't. If they remembered, they'd remember me beating them up too. If they were in their right mind, they wouldn't ask to go to a cafe with me."

Makes sense.

Wang Ja-hyun and his group were the biggest unknown in my recent corridor conquests. We should be careful.

***

The Talent Development Institute where Ms. Hong Mi-ri's office is located. That's where our pirate crew's hideout was.

"Let's put the fridge here."

I was focused on decorating our roughly 10-pyeong hideout. After all, no man isn't interested in decorating his own secret base.

Right now, it was just an empty space with a round table, chairs, and a fridge, but I was tingling all over at the thought of gradually adding more furniture.

"If we put a sofa here and a computer over there, it would be perfect."

If we withdrew points for money, buying things like a sofa or computer would be no big deal. But Jung-seok would get angry if we converted points to money.

So we decided to increase our equipment one by one through second-hand deals using our pocket money.

"How about asking the Chairman for help?"

Jung-seok, who had helped me move the fridge from the first floor to here, asked me.

"Isn't he your paternal grandfather?"

"Hmm..."

I only told Jung-seok that the Chairman of the Yeongji Foundation was my paternal grandfather.

It was because of the "Monkey's Paw" incident before.

To be precise, rather than me telling him, Jung-seok guessed, "Only the Chairman's family could have made wishes, so how did you do it, Ha Young-won?" and figured it out on his own.

"If the Chairman is really your grandfather, you wouldn't need to live in a house with a broken air conditioner, right?"

The Cheon family was rich.

If you had such a rich grandfather, it was natural that you wouldn't need to suffer from the heat.

But Mom and Dad had hidden from me until now that I had a rich grandfather. I haven't asked Mom about grandfather yet, either.

"I think there's a reason Mom and Dad have kept grandfather a secret from me until now. And honestly, the Chairman isn't someone to be trusted. It's better not to have debts if possible."

The Chairman was someone who horribly transformed his younger brother with the monkey's paw out of jealousy.

If he had said "Turn my brother back to normal" to that hand, maybe his brother who had turned into a monster would have returned to normal, but the Chairman didn't do that.

Do you think a person who ruins even his twin brother, who's like his other self, for his own greed would be fond of a grandson who suddenly appeared, with whom he has no bond at all?

I didn't think so.

"If we reach out to them, we'll only end up in debt and being used. If possible, it's better for us to solve what we can with our own hands."

"I think so too. I don't consider the Chairman an ally either. I was worried you might go overboard relying on your impressive grandfather, but I'm surprised you're more level-headed than I thought."

"The only ones I can really trust are you guys. No, so why aren't the others coming? I know Juhee can't come because she's meeting Gong Ye-rin. What about Sua or Dahee?"

Only Jung-seok and I were in this spacious room.

"We were supposed to go to Seoul today. I should have mentioned it in the group chat."

"Right. Seo-yeon said things are really noisy around Cheonggyecheon in Seoul these days."

"Jung-seok. Do you think it's true they're selling dinosaurs in Cheonggyecheon?"

"I don't know. That's why we need to go check it out."

The Cheonggyecheon animal market was famous for selling all sorts of things, but recently, people claiming to have seen 'dinosaurs' have been increasing on social media.

It could be just a baseless rumor, but if it's true... it meant I might be able to get my hands on a real dinosaur.

"We need to get our hands on a dinosaur ghost no matter what."

"Ah, damn, it's hot. So hot!"

Just then, someone burst through the door.

It was Bong Ji-yeon, who hadn't been seen for a few days. Dahee was next to her.

"Young-won, Seok. Hello."

Me, Yoo Dahee, Jung-seok, Bong Ji-yeon-

In the end, we ended up going to Seoul as a party of four.