Chapter 82 – Teamwork (3)

“Sigh.”

Tomer returned to the magicians’ dorm.

[Tomer, why is the mission being delayed? Are there other variables?]

Her boss sent her a grumpy message. Tomer had to injure or weaken Rachel and needed to disrupt her daily activities somehow. She thought she could quickly handle this with the help of spies, but a heckler kept obstructing her.

“Do I have to take care of him first?”

Nowadays, she felt bitter just seeing Kim Hajin. Every time she tried something, he appeared out of nowhere and foiled her plans. Kim Hajin refused to leave Rachel’s side.

“Tsk, doesn’t he know his place?”

Tomer couldn’t understand how a rank 334 could act so straightforwardly. She already investigated his background. He didn’t have any parents, much less a proper backing. Did he believe he could win a beauty’s heart with courage?

“Wait.”

A flash of insight struck Tomer. Kim Hajin felt strongly towards Rachel. However, Rachel seemed uncomfortable with his advances.

He kept making moves one-sidedly. Tomer could easily spread malicious rumors. You could bad-mouth someone behind their back, or you could exaggerate already existing rumors. However, she didn’t need such complicated schemes. She just had to exaggerate what she witnessed. First, she would have to get close to Kim Hajin and Rachel… no, the entire team.

Tomer messaged her boss.

[Is the mission just to separate this girl?]

[That’s right. The agent we dispatched will take care of the rest.]

Good, it’s time for a change of plans. Tomer laughed maniacally. Suddenly, her smartwatch vibrated. The intense vibration signaled that it came from Violet Banquet. Tomer quickly turned on her smartwatch.

[Truth Agency] [We have accepted Jamie Jamer’s request.]

“They’re replying now?”

She had forgotten about the Truth Agency because she made the request 2-3 weeks ago. Did they just have too many clients? She would be satisfied as long as she could find that bastard.

***

“Next week, each team will select a small-scale dungeon and present how to best conquer it.”

The professor handed out their team assignments just before Friday’s theory class ended. Cadets immediately groaned. However, Jin Hoseung and Yi Bokgyu didn’t worry at all. They turned around and happily looked at me.

“We believe in you, Hajin.”

The other cadets enviously looked over.

“Have a good weekend.”

The professor left as our team stood up.

“There’s a team leader meeting next Wednesday. Don’t forget to come to the auditorium if you’re a team leader.”

The class president, Yi Yeonghan, loudly shouted. I looked at Rachel as she put away her writing utensils. I spoke as we made eye contact.

“Let’s go to the café today and divide the work.”

“Alright.”

Tomer answered instead of Rachel. I turned to the side.

“Let’s go to the café.”

Tomer wore a bright expression.

“What’s up with you?”

“What do you mean? Everyone, Rachel, let’s go. We don’t have time.”

Tomer stepped in and urged the other members. I stared at her in a daze. What was she scheming this time? Did she set a nuclear bomb at the café?

We arrived at the café 10 minutes later. I peered through the roof and floor, but I couldn’t find any traps. Although I remained suspicious, I began to divide our work among the members.

“Hoseung and Bokgyu can look up the data on the dungeon. Jamer[1] and Rachel can calculate the mana density.”

We discussed our plans for 30 minutes. They would send their results to me, and I would assemble everything into a PowerPoint.

“That sounds good.”

“I agree.”

The team members all looked happy. Rachel suddenly grabbed my sleeve as I prepared to leave.

“Um, Hajin.”

“Yes?”

“Didn’t the English Royal Court contact you?”

“Eh? Um, what contact?”

Rachel slightly frowned.

“Um, the English Royal Court guild…”

“...?”

I tilted my head. Although I didn’t remember anything, I checked my email just in case. I had 1097 unread emails. I searched for royal court and found one email.

“Ah, they emailed me. Sorry, I don’t often check my email.”

“They emailed you?”

I didn’t know why, but Rachel seemed a bit angry as she pouted.

“Try reading it when you go home.”

“I’ll just read it now.”

I clicked on the email. They wrote it in Korean, so I could read it. They offered a 100 million won salary with additional benefits. It wasn’t a particularly good offer for a pre-contract.

“Can I take a look?”

“Sure.”

Rachel peeked at the contents. Her eyes busily moved, then she frowned.

“What kind of a contract is… never mind, don’t read this.”

Rachel stood up, fuming. Then she rushed out of the café with the angriest face I’d ever seen since I entered Cube.

“What, why is she so mad?”

The rest of the members watched her leave in a daze.

***

I reserved Sunday nights for recovering my sanity. I focused on playing a game called [Victory].

I won once again.

[How did you do that combo just now?]

The loser, Nayunjajangman, messaged me. We became friends since the last time we played. We often logged on around the same time and played against each other. Thankfully, the Random Consolidation System always gave me numbers like 37, 40, and 39, so I haven’t lost a single game yet.

[You must remain calm.]

[How are you so good? Are you an active hero?]

[No, not at all.]

The enhancement increased my understanding of the most efficient combo to use and even boosted my sense of time and movement within the game. Although my skills varied depending on what I rolled, I always played like an expert.

[By the way, why are your ranked stats 43 wins and 43 losses? Did you lose on purpose?]

[Yes, because I didn’t want to become attached to mere numbers.]

I lied without even batting an eye.

[Ah… I see. You’re amazing. I can’t sleep properly if I lose a ranked match. Do you log on around this time every day?]

[Yes.]

[Can I ask you to teach me around this time?]

I couldn’t help but smile. He acted surprisingly polite.

[Gladly. However, I’ll be logging off now. I have to go work out.]

[Oh! I was about to go work out too. Jinx!]

I didn’t reply and removed my helmet. I carefully opened the door so I wouldn’t wake Evandel. Then I headed to the fitness center. I arrived after about five minutes of walking and ran into Chae Nayun as I came out of the changing room.

“What, you’re here to work out too?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“Alright, work hard.”

Chae Nayun walked past me into the girl’s changing room. I headed to the treadmill without much thought. Suddenly, it crossed my mind. Nayunjajangman. Nayun. Chae Nayun.

“Mm… no way, right?”

I found it unlikely since Chae Nayun didn’t like jajangmyeon[2]. She wouldn’t use that as her ID. Not to mention, Nayunjajangman spoke like a man.

Beep —

I set the treadmill speed to 20 km. I couldn’t have imagined it in the past, but I didn’t find it so difficult now. I ran on the treadmill for the next 30 minutes and was soaked in sweat by the time I finished.

“Huu…”

I took out a sports drink from the fridge. Chae Nayun came out of the gravity room and slowly approached me.

“Hey.”

I silently stared at her. She fidgeted around, trying to buy time.

“What? Say something.”

“You see, my team got the hongcheon mantis dungeon.”

Chae Nayun worried about her team challenge since insect dungeons were some of the trickiest.

“Do, do you know anything about it?”

“How did you choose the most difficult one?”

“I know, right? The annoying magician in my team kept telling me to choose it.”

The magician in her team was Oh Junsik. I had recorded him in my settings book. Although he was skilled, he acted like an ass because his aunt was a 7 star magician. He probably wouldn’t bend to Chae Nayun either.

“He thought he could get bonus points with a difficult assignment, but he’ll probably ruin the presentation. He’ll stutter and make you facepalm yourself.”

“I know, I wanted to overlook it, but now… Sigh, I’ve never met someone more headstrong than me.”

At least she knew she also acted stubbornly.

“If possible, let someone else present. Unexpectedly, Hazuki is a good choice.”

“I want to, but I doubt that bastard will agree. Cough.”

The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward. We both distanced ourselves as we remembered our relationship. After all, we weren’t friends who could chat so amicably.

“H-Have fun exercising. I’m going back to the gravity room.”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll go lift some weights.”

***

At dusk on Tuesday, a sharp sword resounded throughout the area.

“Hey, didn’t I improve?”

Chae Nayun, who wielded a sword, asked with a bright face. Kim Suho nodded with a laugh.

“Yeah, you stopped closing your eyes.”

Only a week had passed since Kim Suho began teaching Chae Nayun. She grew at an incredible pace and stopped fearing close range attacks to a certain extent.

“I think playing that game helped me.”

“Game?” Kim Suho tilted his head.

“Yeah, I met someone even better than you. A super expert who only does close range combat.”

“Ah, Gladiator of the Century? But you don’t move your body in that game.”

Gladiator of the Century used brainwaves and iris movements as controls. Of course, you could play with a keyboard and mouse, but that would significantly lower your reaction time.

“Yeah, but an ordinary person could never pull off what he does. He’s my mentor!”

“Oh, he must be an expert then.”

The prideful Chae Nayun had acknowledged her mentor as superior.

“Yeah, he has a great personality too. He matches his win-loss ratio because he doesn’t want to be attached to mere numbers. Isn’t that cool?”

Most people played ranked matches to win, which resulted in boring matches. Each side would test out the waters with small maneuvers, and the outcome would be determined by which side dealt more blows. Like a boxing match, except one side would never be KO’ed. However, Extra7 played differently. He directly charged at you almost recklessly. Each of his movements could potentially be lethal, which helped Chae Nayun overcome her fear of close range combat.

“He must be an active hero if he’s that good, right?”

“No, I asked him, and he said… Eh?”

Kim Hajin suddenly appeared in the distance wearing flip-flops.

“Oh look, Kim Hajin’s here.”

Kim Suho had already told her that Kim Hajin would meet with him and that he could only teach her until Kim Hajin arrived.

“Hm? Oh, you’re right. Then I’ll be going now.”

Kim Suho stood up.

“Yeah, take care.”

“Don’t overwork yourself either, okay?”

Chae Nayun watched them together. It felt like they had gotten close recently, but how?

Now that I think about it, Kim Suho jokingly said they talked about me. Was it because of me?

Kim Suho and Kim Hajin walked away as they chatted. Chae Nayun strained her ears.

— How’s your condition?

Kim Hajin asked.

— Pretty good.

Kim Suho replied.

— Don’t overwork yourself. Friday’s right around the corner.

— Of course.

— Oh, and how’s Chae Nayun?

Chae Nayun’s heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t hear the most important part as they walked farther away.

“… The heck.”

She stared at them with a complex emotion.

1. Jamer is the fake name Tomer is using as a student, but this is the first time the main character is referring to her aloud to others so he's referring to her as Jamer. It's confusing because he always refers to her as Tomer in his head and the author refers to her as Tomer too, but in reality, the other characters only know her by her fake name as Jamer.

2. Jajangmyeon is Korean black bean noodles.