VSP 131

“Jeong Siwoo! Hey!”

Siwoo acted like he didn’t even hear Sejun. He was in a strange mood today. Sejun clicked his tongue as he watched Siwoo’s back move forward without hesitation, then he hurried to catch up and stood by his side.

He wondered where Siwoo got the confidence to walk like this.

Siwoo was classified as a mental type, just like Hangyeol, but their abilities were completely different. Siwoo’s physical stats were significantly lower. At least Sejun had a summon like Hoya, but Siwoo had zero ways to protect himself other than brainwashing, which only worked on weak mobs.

He was short and had a delicate frame without a single muscle. No one could expect him to handle close-quarters combat like Hangyeol.

To make matters worse, Siwoo’s mental skills were rated poorly because his techniques generally didn’t work on dungeon bosses. He was an S-rank hunter with the ability to brand and mind-control large groups, but he was never the core of a raid.

That was why people usually ranked Siwoo just above Sejun, who was at the very bottom of Korea’s S-rank hunters. If a boss appeared right now instead of small mobs, Siwoo might as well be walking straight into a monster’s mouth.

He shouldn’t be acting like this. He knew his limits, and he was usually comfortable staying in the back. Was he just in a bad mood? This went beyond a simple tantrum.

“Siwoo, seriously, what’s wrong with you? You know this is dangerous.”

Sejun eventually grabbed Siwoo’s shoulder to force him to stop. He couldn’t tell how far a spiraling Siwoo would go if he let him continue.

However, Siwoo just frowned and gave a bizarre response.

“Why are you acting like we’re close?”

“What?”

“I asked why you’re calling me by my name like we’re friends.”

Siwoo looked at Sejun’s hand on his shoulder with disgust. He slapped it away.

Sejun wasn’t even offended; he was just baffled. He let out a hollow laugh. Was the fact that he used his name really the most important thing right now?

He didn’t need to overthink how to respond to his hostility. Sejun scowled.

“Hey, I don’t know who crawled up your skin today, but aren’t you crossing the line? I was going to let your bad mood slide, but this is too much.”

“.….”

Siwoo knew it, too. He was being excessively sensitive today.

But he couldn’t help it. Just looking at Sejun’s face annoyed him.

Siwoo kept his mouth shut. He didn’t reply and just walked past Sejun.

“…Wow.”

Sejun wondered if the guy was going through a late puberty or if his personality had always been this bad. The problem was that they had never really interacted, so he had no memories to search through. Even back when everyone hated Sejun, Siwoo hadn’t been this extreme.

Regardless, his only partner for this raid was being uncooperative. Between that and the environment, today wasn’t going to be easy. Sejun sighed.

Kyahaha!

Sejun summoned his spirits. He couldn’t just leave Siwoo alone just because the guy was acting out. The small spirits flew off in all directions, and Sejun followed behind Siwoo.

After they walked for a while, the scouting spirits began to report back.

Concrete buildings were smashed to pieces everywhere, but the marks left on the ground were the real problem. The floors and walls were gouged out as if a giant steel blade had spun through the interior. Only one thing came to mind.

It was a massive snake with blades wrapped around its entire body.

And it looked like more than just one or two of them had turned this city into a disaster zone.

Sejun ran toward Siwoo to share what he found. Even a reckless Siwoo couldn’t ignore that kind of intel. He stopped and listened to the explanation.

“If you brainwash the small fry, I can handle the boss.”

“Can you even do that?”

Siwoo immediately questioned him. Sejun scratched the back of his head. He didn’t feel bad about the doubt because his past reputation was so famous.

“Well… I think I can now.”

“How can I trust you?”

Siwoo was an S-rank, but he had no idea that Sejun’s mana had increased. If he only remembered the old, troublemaker Sejun, his lack of trust made perfect sense.

But at this point, Sejun was annoyed too.

“What are you going to do if you don’t believe me?”

Jeong Siwoo shut his mouth. He clearly wasn’t convinced by Sejun’s words; his angry face just made him look like a pouting child.

Sejun sighed and finally backed down. He couldn’t blame the guy for not trusting him, especially given his past.

“I’ll be better than before, so just focus on holding off the mobs.”

Siwoo suspiciously glared at him. To be fair, Sejun thought he would be skeptical too if his past self confidently claimed he could solo a boss. It was a sad reality, but his history of causing trouble was just too long.

“Your abilities don’t work on bosses anyway. It’s pathetic for two S-rank hunters to complain and call for help in an A-rank dungeon. Just trust me for once.”

“…Fine.”

After reaching that tense compromise, the two men moved deeper into the city.

The atmosphere wasn’t exactly positive. They had already argued once, and they weren’t on good terms to begin with. And the tension unique to A-rank dungeons hung over them. Nothing could be heard except for the sound of the sharp wind whistling between the buildings.

A-rank dungeons were always dangerous for Sejun, but he especially felt nervous today. Why did everything feel so threatening? Was it because his partner was Jeong Siwoo, someone he technically had to protect?

Sejun’s train of thought was cut short.

As they approached the rubble of a collapsed building, something lunged toward Sejun’s face.

“Whoa!”

Sejun punched the thing flying at him. It was a reflexive strike, but Sejun possessed the physical power of an S-rank hunter. The object hit by his fist flew in the opposite direction with a thunderous crash.

However, that didn’t solve everything.

“Ugh.”

Sejun looked down at the hand he had used to strike the creature. Blood was trickling from a deep, gouged wound.

“What the hell is that?”

Jeong Siwoo, who was half a step behind Sejun, watched the thing Sejun had knocked away with wide eyes.

It was a snake. It was only about the size of a thread snake, but its entire body was armed with rotating steel blades.

It looks like a tornado potato, Sejun thought. He instinctively compared it to the snack, but the creature, which had been writhing on the ground after the impact, hissed and quickly vanished between the buildings.

The surroundings instantly fell silent. In the midst of the quiet, broken only by the wind, Sejun swallowed dryly.

“…Dammit.”

He wondered how many of those things were hiding in the city.

He stared at the back of his hand, where the flesh was torn. If he kept hitting those things with his bare hands, his body wouldn’t last.

He noticed a piece of rebar stuck in a nearby ruined building. Sejun ripped it out with brute force and tossed the long, thin metal rod to Jeong Siwoo.

“Ack!”

Siwoo instinctively twisted his body to dodge the rebar. It hit the ground with a loud, metallic clang.

“What was that for?”

“What do you mean? You need a weapon too.”

Even if his mana had increased and he wore the ring, Sejun’s weakness was still mana. It was a fatal flaw; once he ran out of mana, he only had his physical body to rely on.

Besides, his partner today was the fragile Jeong Siwoo. The responsibility of clearing the boss fell entirely on Sejun’s shoulders.

He decided that summoning Hoya could wait until they actually found the boss. Some might call him overly cautious, but Sejun felt this was the right call.

Plus, this dungeon felt a bit eerie. If the System were still around, Sejun would have shared every little thought and asked for his opinion. He would have mentioned how this place felt strange, just like the Taeseong Department Store, and how they should be careful.

Unfortunately, the System was currently absent, and his partner today wasn’t exactly trustworthy.

Jeong Siwoo didn’t even think about picking up the rebar. He stared at the rusted metal and groaned in annoyance.

“You want me to carry that? Don’t be ridiculous!”

“What else are you going to do? Do you plan on just dying?”

“I’m a mental type!”

“Are you going to say that to the boss? Pick it up already.”

Sejun grew annoyed. Siwoo looked at him as if he couldn’t believe this was happening. He huffed in frustration and pulled his sleeves down to cover his hands. He picked up the rebar with a scowl, looking as if he were handling a piece of filthy trash.