Chapter 30
An officetel in Incheon.
The windows were covered with thick blackout curtains, making it hard to tell whether it was day or night.
The only things filling the room were the faint glow from three monitors and a low, droning hum.
The monitors' light shone across the cluttered room.
There was barely room to step anywhere in the room.
Beside the bed stood a precarious tower of countless delivery boxes, still unopened and piled so high she'd forgotten what she'd even bought.
Next to it was a pile of leftover delivery containers.
The desk was just as chaotic.
Amid the scattered empty energy drink cans and snack bags, only the high-end gaming keyboard and mouse were still in place.
At the center of that chaos, a girl was half-lounging, sunk deep into a plush gaming chair.
Her bob haircut was uneven, as if she'd roughly cut it herself with scissors at home.
Her silver hair, tinged with a mysterious blue, stuck out wild and untamed, as if it hadn't been brushed in ages.
A worn-out hoodie with a stretched neck and dolphin shorts that rode a handspan above her knees.
A-rank lightning mage Shin Seha was staring blankly at the monitor.
At the end of her gaze, the list of posts in the Hunter Gallery kept scrolling endlessly.
She kept hammering F5 to refresh, waiting for new posts to appear.
Ding-dong-
At the sharp doorbell that tore through the silence, Seha's shoulders shot up as if seized by a spasm.
“Eek!”
She almost toppled backward in the chair.
Her heart lurched.
A stranger's voice came from outside the door.
It was the delivery man. The malatang she'd ordered an hour ago had finally arrived.
‘Ah, damn it... I checked the box to leave it at the door.... Why do they always ring the bell and make a scene....’
Swallowing the curses bubbling up inside her, she reluctantly got to her feet with a groan.
The brief moment of having to face the delivery rider was the most stressful part of her day.
Seha pulled the hood low, all the way down over her eyebrows.
Miraculously, she made it to the front door in silence without knocking over the tower of trash.
Seha stepped up to the intercom and whispered in an almost inaudible voice
“Um... please just leave it at the door....”
But there was no reply from the other end.
Either the delivery man hadn't heard her, or he had some rule about handing it over in person.
A little time passed, but the presence outside the door didn't go away.
Bang, bang, bang. Instead, the delivery man started pounding on the door harder.
‘Ah, fuck... why won't he leave....’
In the end, there was only one option.
Seha pulled her hood low again.
And cracked the door open just a little, only a slit.
Just enough that the delivery man's face couldn't be seen.
She barely slipped a hand through the tiny gap and snatched the plastic bag.
Before the delivery man could even say, 'Enjoy your meal,' she slammed the door shut.
Her heart was pounding like crazy.
“Seriously....”
Back at her computer, Seha opened the malatang lid and instinctively clicked into another gallery.
After logging in with her fixed nickname as usual, she entered the Mage Gallery. She dragged the scroll bar all the way down, then slowly read her way back up through the older posts.
At the top of the gallery was, as expected, a new post from the newbie she'd been finding most interesting lately.
[Title: Training on the 14th Floor Was a Sweet Deal]
Author: ㅇㅇ(D44.444)
The mana concentration here is on a completely different level from outside.
Just meditating inside the tower makes your mana pool keep growing.
And I tried the fruit too. Tastes like shit, but the effect hits hard.
Give it a try, give it a try.
ㄴ Refrigerator : If it's that good, don't eat it all yourself. Share some.
ㄴ Magic Is Firepower : I'm curious—sell me one. I'll pay generously.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(D44.444) : You'll just make me come all the way back to Busan to trade again anyway.
ㄴ Magic Is Firepower : That's what you get for being such a quick-witted little brat.
“This kid really doesn't take a single day off....”
Without realizing it, a faint smile appeared on Seha's lips.
An anonymous poster with no nickname at all. She didn't know their name, face, or gender.
But in truth, they had a lot in common with her.
An addict who lived in the gallery all day. Seha felt a strange sense of kinship with the faceless stranger.
But not everything was the same.
“...I'm just holed up in my room.”
She'd been putting off climbing the tower for months, using the strike as an excuse.
And there were hardly any people who could even call her out on it.
After all, Shin Seha was a prized A-rank mage.
The problem was the self-loathing. The guilt of doing absolutely nothing.
Meanwhile, that fearless newbie was climbing the tower without hesitation.
And solo at that, on an unknown difficulty level called Extreme.
What Seha felt while looking at that newbie wasn't jealousy.
Rather, she felt vicarious satisfaction.
Someone similar to her. But watching someone like that keep climbing the tower, unlike herself, gave her a strange thrill.
Seha set down her chopsticks and tapped at the keyboard out of habit.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : If you're gonna brag, at least hand out some burgers, okay?
Right after leaving that comment and just as she was about to scoop up a spoonful of the numbing malatang broth.
Buzzzzz-
The phone she'd left face-down on the desk shuddered with a loud vibration.
A caller name appeared on the screen.
[Park Sang-cheol, Association President]
Park Sang-cheol.
The man leading the recent hunter strike.
He was an A-rank hunter like Seha, and also served as the head of the Hunter Association.
Well, Seha couldn't help wondering what kind of legitimacy an association with no S-ranks could possibly have.
Seha immediately hit the decline button.
But the phone kept ringing stubbornly again.
Once, twice....
And when it rang a third time, Seha finally let out a deep sigh and pressed the answer button.
If she ignored it now, he would definitely show up at her house.
That would be several times worse.
“Hello....”
[Hunter Shin Seha! Why weren't you answering your phone? I was worried sick!]
A deafening voice boomed from the other end, loud enough to make her ears ring.
“What is it....”
[What do you mean, what is it? It's tomorrow's protest! We need even one more A-rank hunter to join so the government bastards can't ignore us!]
“I-I’m... not feeling very well....”
[How are you not feeling well?]
“Pardon?”
[I asked what was wrong.]
“A-ah, a cold....”
[Come now! An A-rank hunter can't be throwing a fit over a mere cold! This is a matter of all our survival. We absolutely need you, Hunter Shin!]
“I, I'm not really good at fighting and stuff....”
[Haha, don't worry!]
Park Sang-cheol laughed heartily, but there was a subtle pressure behind it.
[You don't need to grab a microphone or fight or anything like that, Hunter Shin. All you have to do is blast some lightning into the air once or twice! Just that alone would make us feel so much more secure. It's not even that hard!]
[And if you keep skipping out like this, it doesn't look good. I know you well, Hunter Shin, so that's fine with me! But what will the other hunters think if they see it? Why is Shin Seha the only one never showing up—did she make some deal with the government? If rumors like that start spreading... wouldn't that be a problem?]
It was basically coercion.
But a protest? Just thinking about it made her chest tighten.
Crowds of people, bursts of camera flashes, hundreds of eyes raining down on her.
Just imagining herself standing in the middle of all that made her palms damp with sweat.
As Seha hesitated, Park Sang-cheol delivered the final blow.
[If that's the case, then I suppose I'll have no choice but to come see you myself and persuade you. We should clear up any misunderstandings between us, don't you think? Right?]
At the words 'I'll come to see you myself,' chills ran down Seha's spine.
Just imagining a stranger entering this room—especially a man brimming with that much energy—made her feel like she might suffocate.
In the end, Seha answered weakly.
“...I'll think about it.”
With that, Seha quickly hung up.
She didn't have the energy to keep the conversation going.
A deep sigh escaped her.
She opened the gallery again. Her only refuge that could make her forget this dreadful reality.
Just then, the newbie had posted something new.
[Title: Should I Go Get S-Rank Soon...]
ㄴRefrigerator : Ugh, at least go hit A first before coming back.
ㄴMagic Is Firepower : But how do you even get S-rank certification? Is that based on floor too?
ㄴDung Beetle : It's based on output. S-rank certification is strict, so you have to go to the World Association.
ㄴDung Beetle : Even just going to take the test draws way too much attention, so the system sucks.
ㄴㅇㅇ(F44.444) : Sounds way too good.
ㄴRefrigerator : This is insane, seriously.
A post filled with vague expectations about becoming an S-rank hunter.
“S-rank....”
Without realizing it, Seha looked toward the dusty frame sitting on one corner of the desk.
In the photo was her past self, with hair much longer than it was now.
She was holding her A-rank hunter certificate and smiling brightly, as if she had the world in her hands.
When she first awakened, it felt like she could do anything in the world.
She believed she would stand at the top of the tower and be recognized by everyone.
No one—not even herself—would have imagined she'd become a shut-in ordering delivery food in a dark room like this.
Seha thought of the newbie again. A gallery addict like her, an attention seeker. But they kept moving forward.
Reckless drive and overwhelming talent. Seha found it enviable, yet strangely comforting.
Maybe that guy really would become S-rank. Unlike her, who had sunk down and stayed there....
Seha took a bite of the now-cold delivery food and posted another comment.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : ...Are you an idiot or something.
A phrase packed with all sorts of meaning.
Seha couldn't take her eyes off the monitor for a long time.
Once again, only the faint clicking of the keyboard echoed through the room.
***
After several days of training, I stepped onto the 15th floor.
This was already the third boss floor I'd encountered.
But there was no way I was afraid of some mid-boss now.
What I was afraid of was somewhere else.
“Magic-Cutting Old Man...”
Just the fact that I'd have to meet that crazy old man again already made my head throb.
For now, I decided to deal with the boss in front of me first.
“Desertification.”
I cast the skill as usual.
The soggy swamp ground instantly turned into dry sand.
But there was something different from usual. There was an area where Desertification didn't work.
In front of me, a black swamp—clearly different from an ordinary marsh—was giving off an unpleasant steam.
Through Insight, I could see that place was filled with toxic miasma several times denser and more vicious than anywhere else.
It felt as if all the jungle's poison was seeping out from that swamp.
That wasn't all.
“Ugh, the smell.”
A foul stench stabbed at my nose. My brow furrowed on its own.
“Just come out already....”
I fired several sand bullets toward the middle of the swamp.
Soon, the dark red surface of the swamp began boiling violently, and a massive form rose up.
The 15th-floor boss, master of the corrupted swamp: a swamp slime.
It was a monster that controlled the entire swamp as if it were its own body.
Dozens of sticky tentacles shot up from the ground and lunged toward me.
Good. So the swamp is your territory, huh.
“Then it's a domain expansion showdown.”
With the swamp as the boundary, I looked at the desert spread out behind me and muttered under my breath.