VSP 14

It was not high enough for him to suffer a serious injury or concussion, but even an S-rank hunter would feel pain if his head hit the hard ground first.

“Ow, ow.” Sejun grabbed his head. Then he noticed his lower half dangling exposed and hurriedly pulled up his underwear and pants. Everything had already been seen, but he couldn’t just stay like that.

He pulled his pants up in a rush, his face red with embarrassment, when he saw Cha Dogyeong watching him quietly. Dogyeong stepped closer. His unbearably handsome face came so close that Sejun flinched before he realized it.

Wha-what the hell? Sejun almost stepped back, then stopped himself out of pride. Dogyeong, unlike his usual self, leaned closer toward him.

Of course, it wasn’t to kiss him or do something the original author would enjoy. Dogyeong stopped just short of Sejun’s ear, his lips close enough to brush it. Sejun shivered at the breath against his ear, the fine hairs on his skin rising.

“But, Seo Sejun.”

Sejun flinched at the movement of Dogyeong’s lips right by his ear.

I told you to call me hyung, you bastard…

Normally he would have said that, but this time he couldn’t get the words out.

“W-What?

Instead of saying that he should be called hyung, Sejun could only stutter.

He felt every hair on his body stand up. What the hell is this bastard doing? Did the author suddenly flip a switch? Did he change jobs from EX-rank hunter to something else?

While Sejun screamed internally, Dogyeong’s voice finally dropped by his ear. In the space where they were practically alone, Dogyeong’s whisper hit his ear directly.

“Since when have were you…?”

Bald….

Bald down there….

Sejun didn’t understand for a moment. Then his face turned bright red.

“Aaah!”

He screamed with a beet-red face, stumbling back. At the same time, Dogyeong stepped back from him. Despite dropping such a massive, problematic remark, Dogyeong’s face looked indifferent, the same as always.

Sejun flailed, unable to speak, he rubbed his ears to block it out, but Dogyeong didn’t care. He calmly opened his mouth again.

“If you don’t want to get caught again, hurry up and follow.”

He turned without hesitation and walked toward the exit.

Sejun stared at him blankly, his face burning, then panicked at the thought of getting caught by another plant monster. He yelled, “Hey, wait for me!” and quickly ran after him.

Even as he walked, his head kept replaying Dogyeong’s words.

Since when were you…?

Since when were you…?

Since when were you…?

Right. He had forgotten. It had become so familiar that he had completely let it slip. Humans adapt quickly. At first it had been unbearably awkward, but eventually he stopped even thinking about it when dressing or showering. He had only worried about exposing his lower half, forgetting the fact that down there he was hairless.

Panting as he chased Dogyeong, Sejun mumbled for a while, then couldn’t hold it back and finally shouted.

“Hey, you bastard, that’s a secret! Don’t tell anyone! Got it?”

Dogyeong didn’t look back. But Sejun knew how sharp his ears were, so he shouted again.

“I mean it! It’s a secret! Tell anyone and you’re dead!”

Like hell Dogyeong would be threatened by that. Seo Sejun? Threaten Cha Dogyeong? Even a passing dog would laugh. Dogyeong didn’t just ignore him, he even chuckled.

[We decided not to call that a threat.]

Or rather, maybe it was just impossible. The system scratched at Sejun’s nerves.

“Hey! Are you listening?”

Sejun shouted, Dogyeong ignored him, and the two of them walked out of the dungeon together.

Sejun never realized that Dogyeong had actually adjusted his pace to match his normal walking speed.

•••

A few days passed.

An A-rank dungeon wasn’t something you could just stroll into like a neighborhood errand. After the giant dungeon – the one where Dogyeong awakened as an EX-rank hunter, the Final Dungeon of The Genius Hunter Smashes the Gate – the dungeons hadn’t been appearing one after another. So it was a while before the three of them had their next turn.

When that Final Dungeon had first appeared, it felt like the world might end, with dungeons erupting all over the globe. Compared to then, things were peaceful now.

And after clearing that troublesome A-rank dungeon, Sejun, as usual, holed up at home and enjoyed his peaceful life.

Time passed idly, as if he had never suffered in that dungeon at all.

Of course, thanks to that day’s memory, sometimes he kicked his blanket or screamed in the shower, but it was still peaceful.

Even though that day gave Sejun a memory that would make him kick his blanket for life, it wasn’t like he only came out of it with a loss.

Sejun did have one gain.

[Sub Mission Success!]

That day, when he drove home with a lifeless face, a notification popped up on Sejun’s system window that the damn sub mission had been completed.

He had returned home in tatters, his very soul drained, and stared at the window with a hollow expression before weakly asking the system.

“The sub mission was a success?”

[Yes, I guess that was considered flirting.]

It meant he had succeeded in “flirting with Cha Dogyeong.”

But Sejun wasn’t the least bit happy. He was glad his hair had survived, but he had already exhausted every bit of his mental strength that day, and he couldn’t see how any of it counted as flirt.

Which part of that was flirting? Dangling upside down with his lower half exposed in front of Cha Dogyeong? Hearing “since when were you bald down there” or whatever? Or becoming Dogyeong’s coffee errand boy?

Not one part of it wasn’t humiliating. Sejun buried his face in the floor. It was a miracle he didn’t cry.

After lying there for a long while, Sejun finally asked a question.

“But why is this notification only coming up now?”

[Actually, it did appear back in the dungeon, but since you were out of it, I held it back.]

The system added, [I was worried you’d crash the car while driving.] Sejun just let it go and slumped onto the sofa.

It was the kind of posture his mom hated for being bad on the back, but he couldn’t care less right then.

His lower body had been bound so tightly the blood barely flowed, and after hanging upside down for so long, the blood had rushed to his head, leaving him with a severe headache.

On top of that came the mental damage.

Bald…

Ahhh.

Sejun tore at his hair. Then the system spoke up.

[I have some news you might like, Sejun-nim.]

“What is it…”

That day had been so awful that even when the system announced good news, he couldn’t feel happy.

Honestly, he was bitter.

He had been slapped by Lee Dohun, humiliated in front of Cha Dogyeong, dragged into a dungeon only to have his pants and underwear pulled off by a plant monster in the jungle, left dangling upside down while whining for someone to save him, rescued only by Dogyeong’s hand, and on top of it all, his expensive mana potions had been drained.

Every single thing was humiliating. Remembering Hoya’s disdainful stare at the end only made it worse. Damn bastard, you’re supposed to be on my side. You’re supposed to be on my side forever.

Sejun felt like he could die of misery. While he wallowed in gloom, the system, uncharacteristically gentle, spoke again.

[Please check your system log, Sejun-nim.]

At those words, Sejun sluggishly lifted his head and opened the system log.

[Sub Mission: Success]

That much he already knew, so it wasn’t surprising. What he didn’t expect was the line below it.

[Please claim your reward.]

Missions that gave fatal penalties for failure naturally had rewards for success as well.

Sejun’s weary eyes moved to the sub mission reward.

[Sub Mission Success Reward: Mana +10]

Blink.

Sejun blinked slowly. Mana +10. Ten more mana. For who?

For me?

“Mana?”

He couldn’t believe it and asked again, but the system answered brightly.

[Yes, the reward is mana.]

Sejun suddenly sat up from the sofa as if he had never been collapsed at all.

Mana. For hunters, it’s a love-hate relationship.

HP and mana almost never rose, just like hunter ranks. And the trickiest of all was mana.