Chapter 9: Escapism

It was truly the worst illusion.

I repeated dying hundreds of times.

The problem was that it was too realistic. It must be because of the original work. Since I read the contents of the original work, it came out like an illusion.

But there are a few questions.

Why does that dream repeat hundreds of times and implant the core of a monster into my body in different ways?

Moreover, from the second or third time, it was as if it knew and hid, then killed me.

What the hell? Is it an illusion different from the one I know from the original work?

It’s definitely a dream. The development is strange because it’s a dream.

Hahaha. Of course. It’s just a dream.

As I comforted myself, that gloomy ghost was staggering alone next to me without noticing.

I wish it would just disappear.

“Are you awake? Cadet Yoo Eun-ha.”

Rebecca appeared in front of me as I woke up in the infirmary.

“Yes. As you can see, I almost died thanks to you, professor.”

“I apologize for that. No, to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”

Rebecca looked genuinely troubled.

“Excuse me?”

“Let’s get to the point. Have you ever been close to death? Or do you have any abilities related to death or illusions?”

“None of the above.”

I’ve never been close to death, and I don’t have any abilities related to illusions or death.

“The illusion I cast on you all is just one. It draws out the most terrible memory from your life as an illusion.”

“You’re lying, right?”

I should pretend not to know here.

“I also interfered with your mind while you were in pain and saw your illusion directly. I was surprised too. The best I could do was to keep your mind from collapsing.”

Huh? No, wait, this is a dream, right? Why are you thinking seriously? It’s just 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, but I think I roughly know why, so don’t worry.”

“It’s unsettling, but if you say so, then it must be.”

What if a person in a dream is unsettled? 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. Kissing that Flame Spear Bitch was also a mistake.

Alright. Let’s take this opportunity to leave the Academy.

“Um, professor.”

“Why?”

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

She was originally this kind of woman. Usually strict, but immediately self-reflective when she makes a mistake.

“Can I take a break from school for a while? The shock is quite big.”

“It’s the beginning of the semester.”

So what.

“How should I tell my oppa about today to make him happy?”

“Ah, alright. I get it. Do as you please!”

To explain briefly, Rebecca is also a heroine from the original work.

It seems like both Kim Ji-hye and this woman still like Yoo Jin-seok, so I decided to take advantage of it.

* * *

Yoo Eun-ha, who was on a personal leave from school, screamed.

“Guwaaaaaaah!”

Playing around is not something a person should do.

It can’t be helped. I decided to play with that gloomy ghost that was twitching while being one with the wall.

What should I play with that ghost? As I was thinking, I threw a knife.

Thud!

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

“Tsk.”

I had the room wallpapered white so that the ghost would be more visible. It seems that magic is useless.

I pulled the knife out of the wall beyond the disappeared ghost.

“If you laze around doing nothing, you’ll gain weight.”

To be honest, no matter what I ate, I never gained weight, and even if I didn’t eat, I wasn’t hungry.

But isn’t it wrong for a person to live so lazily?

Living expenses are running low, and before something goes wrong as a human, the slave mentality of a Hell Joseon commoner came to mind.

If there’s no work, create work.

It can’t be helped. I have to make money.

I pushed the ghost pretending to type on the keyboard off the chair with a knife and sat down to look for a part-time job nearby on the internet.

– Location: New Seoul Gangnam Tower Building B1.

– Recruitment: 5 people

– Job Description: Cleaning monster and hunter corpses. Calming pills provided.

– Compensation: 500,000 won

Not bad, but not appealing. ‘Cleaning’ means that monster and hunter corpses have been stuck in that basement for a long time. The smell must be terrible. Can calming pills solve that?

– Location: New Seoul Cloud Dungeon

– Recruitment: 2 people

– Job Description: Clear floors 1 to 5 with Bbeomi-chan.

– Compensation: Rewards obtained in the dungeon are distributed fairly. However, artifacts and cores belong to the person who gets them.

Bbeomi-chan? It gives me the creeps.

But the idea of forming a party to clear the dungeon is good. The compensation is also in the usual format of distributing rewards in a party.

A dream is ultimately influenced by the person.

Did I unconsciously think of Bbeomi-chan?

“Oh my God.”

I moved on to the next one.

– Location: GC Convenience Store across from Hanseong Academy.

– Recruitment: 2 people (female preferred)

– Job Description: Literally a convenience store part-time job.

– Compensation: 12,000 won per hour.

Hmm, unlike the real world, isn’t it too easy to find a part-time job site in this world?

At first, I thought so, but now I see that it was simplified to fit the standards of hunters.

The hours are negotiable. Right now, I’m not in a position to work at a convenience store, so Bbeomi-chan seems like a better option.

* * *

Cloud Dungeon

“Oh my gosh! It’s so pretty! I love this white hair!”

Should I just go back? I seriously considered it.

“Hawawa. My name is Kim Bbeomi, I’m a D-rank hunter, and I’m the party leader for the Cloud Dungeon strategy. Please call me Bbeomi-chan or Bbeomi-san. I mainly use magic.”

What a load of crap.

“I’m Shinohara Mariko. I’m from the famous ninja family Shinohara in Japan. I came over to Korea to help my best friend Bbeomi and to sightsee. I graduated from Tokyo Hunter Academy last year and I’m a D-rank hunter. I use Katon Ninja Arts..”

The Shinohara family. In the original work, it’s one of the top hunter families in Japan. The head of the family is a woman, and later, when a Hellgate opens in Japan, the head Shinohara Yuzuki falls into the Hellgate and is saved by Choi Si-woo who was dispatched there.

Yeah. What more is there to say?

The head of their family is also a sub-heroine.

If she’s from that family, there might be some connection, but I decided not to get involved. She’s a character I didn’t see in the original work, so I can ignore her.

“I’m Geum Taeyang. I’m currently attending Seoul Hunter Academy. I joined to earn some pocket money, and although I’m still a student, I’ll be signing a D-rank hunter contract with the Black Wolf Guild after graduation. My specialty is close combat using physical enhancement. Even though I look like this, I’m a sweet guy.”

Next is Geum Taeyang. In adult novels and comics focused on NTR, NTL, and female corruption, he’s one of the top three characters along with the squinty muscle man and the hypnotic pig.

Somewhere, his tanned bronze skin and blonde hair. A well-built body.

The word Geum Taeyang instinctively made my eyes go to his lower body, and sure enough, one side of his pants was distorted.

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

– Gulp

Damn it. You are my enemy.

“My name is Yoo Eun-ha. I’m attending Hanseong Academy, and my ability is acceleration for speed combat. Please take care of me today.”

“Wow~ I got a white-haired beauty.”

The NTR specialist looked at me with a lewd gaze. No way, nothing will happen, right?

He won’t attack me or anything, right?

The Cloud Dungeon has a gloomy dark cloud inside and occasionally rains poison.

The monsters are also slimy. Like slimes?

The slime I actually encountered didn’t have any significant weight.

It just looked like a human-sized pudding?

The strategy for slimes is simple. They are extremely weak to magic, and Reina’s spirit arrow can kill them instantly. They are also weak to large swords, and if you attack the core, they die immediately.

I used a knife to stab the core of the slime.

Splat!

The slime lost its form like a burst water balloon and the liquid spread out.

If I hadn’t quickly moved away, my uniform would have been soaked, making me a sight for Geum Taeyang.

“Hawawa. Poison rain is falling over there!”

“Katon! Fireball!”

Kim Bbeomi-chan used some strange light to indicate areas we shouldn’t go to, and Mariko was lighting torches throughout the dungeon.

Katon Fireball? Why is she mixing Ninja Arts with Magic, shouldn’t it be Goukakyuu no Jutsu?

“Got the slime core!”

Geum Taeyang was surprisingly diligent.

Unlike that peculiar duo, I was just using acceleration to break the slime’s core.

It was easier than expected.

But there’s something I’m curious about. They said to clear up to the 5th floor.

“Bbeomi-san.”

“Hawawa, call me Bbeomi-chan!”

Annoying woman.

“B-Bbeomi-chan.”

“Hawawa?”

“But isn’t this a dungeon that’s already been cleared? Why do we need to go to the 5th floor?”

“Hawawa hawawa. This dungeon experiences a flood of demons on the 5th floor after being cleared! You can earn a lot of cores by clearing them!”

“Oh, so we’re going to sweep them up?”

Indeed, even D-rank cores are worth a lot when accumulated. Each one is worth 50,000 won. If we collect and share them, it would be a lot.

Isn’t this practically a jackpot?

“Hoeing! I rented it for a while with the help of my oppas. It’s hard to do it alone, so I need everyone’s help!”

“Can we do it with just us?”

It was a surprisingly honest question from Geum Taeyang.

That bulge in his pants still bothered me. Is he really not from that side? Physical enhancement is something anyone can use with enough effort. He didn’t mention any other abilities.

“This Bbeomi-chan is not weak! Actually, the rule is to have four people, but I can do it alone!”

Indeed, Bbeomi’s skills were exceptional.

She was using detection magic to scout the surroundings and cleaning magic. Plus, her best friend was lighting torches everywhere.

Aside from those two, Geum Taeyang’s close combat skills were also quite decent.

We reached the 5th floor quickly.

The difficulty was lower because it was a dungeon that had already been cleared by a guild.

“Isn’t this too easy?”

“Hawawa. You should know that you got a good opportunity thanks to me!”

Bbeomi-chan proudly showed off her non-existent chest.

Indeed, if we secure the cores well, it would be as profitable as cleaning corpses.

Yeah. It was smooth sailing until then.

“Hey, ladies. There’s a button here.”

Until that Geum Taeyang bastard found a suspicious-looking button on the wall.

“Isn’t that a trap?”

“Huh? I already pressed it.”

“You son of a bitch.”

Boom!

Before I could curse Geum Taeyang, Bbeomi-chan’s party fell somewhere.

* * *