VSP 16

Just moments ago, he had been saying “It’s worth doing sub missions”, it already felt like a past life. Sejun sighed deeply again and buried his head in his hands.

His future felt bleak.

The system watched Sejun, whose emotions were swinging back and forth almost like Jekyll and Hyde¹, and realized late that it had thrown too many facts at him and left him in a state like he would die. So it handed Sejun a carrot.

[But it is not an event that happens every day, and if it is only once in a while, wouldn’t you be able to handle it when you think about mana?]

With those words, the system showed the remaining time for the sub mission.

Sub Mission: Cooldown (6 days 23 hours)

Sejun let out a long sigh after seeing the cooldown of the sub mission in the log. Even while doing that, his head quickly finished its calculation.

If the sub mission’s duration was the same as last time, it would be the same two weeks, and if the cooldown was one week, then it would last about three weeks total. So within that time, if he met Cha Dogyeong once more and whether he flirted or fighted, that would be enough.

Probably in this world, where so many hunters were struggling with mana shortage, if there was a condition like that for mana +10, there would be no shortage of hunters rushing forward saying they would do it right away. He was lucky in a way.

Anyway, A-rank dungeons did not appear just because you wished for them, and after the clear of the giant dungeon, their frequency decreased even more.

And right now, three teams of S-rank hunters were taking turns raiding them, so it would take more than a week until the next raid. He would probably meet Cha Dogyeong again after the cooldown, and if he paid a little attention then…

If he thought about it carefully, it did not seem like such bad conditions.

[And it might not count as flirting in that kind of situation. Do not be too disappointed.]

“Yeah…”

Sejun nodded in agreement with the system.

Only then did Sejun stop digging into the sofa and lay down properly. Normally, the system would have nagged him a lot, saying things like, “Mother is right” or “It’s bad for your back,” but today it stayed quiet.

It must have decided not to nag him since he had suffered today.

He did not really want to think about it, but anyway, if he cleared the sub missions one by one with the main mission of “Eat Cha Dogyeong”…

Maybe, I can get stronger too.

Such hope arose in Sejun’s heart.

He had awakened as an S-rank hunter, and he had earned a lot of money while being dispatched to various dungeons. But because of the fatal weakness of mana shortage, he had gone through years of not being treated as a proper hunter.

Among netizens, there were frequent voices saying Seo Sejun should be removed from the S-rank hunter list. And one newspaper even went so far to that only the S-rank Hunters excluding Sejun were real.

Anyway, it was not the first or second time they had published articles without caring about how Sejun felt. And Sejun also knew well that the life of a celebrity was not easy enough for him to expect consideration from them. But he was not a tin doll without emotions, so of course every time it hurt.

If I can just somehow keep succeeding at these shitty sub missions… If I can just solve my chronic mana shortage.

A flame ignited within Sejun’s heart. It was a flame called motivation.

But that motivation was soon extinguished when the system said, [Sejun-nim, wouldn’t it be a good idea to shower? Watching you lying on the sofa after rolling around in the jungle is really uncomfortable.]

“Hey, system.”

[Yes.]

“Do you remember that doctor from last time?”

Ah. The system seemed to catch on to what Sejun was trying to say.

[Is that Dr. Park who was talking nonsense so brilliantly?]

Dr. Park was one of the typical intellectuals who disliked Sejun. He was also a university professor who had openly encouraged removing Seo Sejun from the S-rank list.

“Yeah, Dr. Park. That sounds right.”

[What about him?]

“He said to me, ‘If Seo Sejun’s mana doubles, he can put his name in the line of the strongest hunters. It is just that it will never happen.’”

It was something Dr. Park had really said on a famous program. That remark became a hot potato and heated up the internet for more than a week. Thanks to it, only Sejun, who already had a poor public image, was tossed around like a ping pong ball. It was a remark that grated him.

“I really want to see that guy’s shitty face when it actually doubles.”

[……]

“These sub missions suck though.”

But if I think about what I get, maybe it is worth enduring. Sejun closed his eyes. The system did not speak again for quite a while, so Sejun could sleep peacefully.

And then, a week later, the long-awaited sub mission gave Sejun a new mission.

Sub Mission: Flirt with Cha Dogyeong (13 days 23 hours remaining)

“That’s it!”

Sejun was delighted to see the sub mission with the same content.

He had spent days worrying that maybe something extremely hard would appear as a sub mission, but fortunately the content was the same. Or maybe not fortunately?

[It is really fortunate that you are simple, Sejun-nim.]

The system muttered like it had reached enlightenment, seeing Sejun who recovered quickly as if he had never been depressed about the sub-mission content, and was now happy that it was a chance to increase his mana.

Because Sejun was obsessed with the fact that he could increase his mana, the mission that required him to flirt with Cha Dogyeong no longer felt like bitter medicine.

The reward of the sub-mission was no longer sour grapes to Sejun. It was sweet. It was extremely sweet! He jumped up and down.

Of course, this was on a day before he realized that the mission was by no means an easy task.

But the excitement did not last long, and Sejun had to spend dull days again. After the one-week cooldown passed and a new sub-mission appeared, until that sub-mission had about a week left, no dungeon was assigned at all.

Since there was no dungeon to go to, and he had no friends, Sejun, who was always in shut-in mode at home, started rolling around again aimlessly.

“Ha, boring.”

[Shall I recommend another comic?]

“That’s boring too.”

After reading 100 volumes of Two Piece, he felt like he could skip reading shonen manga for a while. But he was not drawn to romance either. He did not really like dramas, and there was no movie that caught his interest.

In the past, if he found a movie he wanted to see, he had immediately driven out to watch a late-night showing, but lately he had no motivation even for that.

[Shall I at least turn on the TV news?]

Finally, the system even brought up the TV news. It was because Sejun had shown no interest in anything else. Sejun gave a halfhearted agreement.

“Uh-huh…”

The system turned on the 100-inch TV, which was practically a useless thing in the house since Sejun almost never used it.

The TV, which had not been on for a long time, immediately displayed public broadcasting news, probably because it had last been turned off while showing the news.

「Recently, S-rank hunters have been taking an active role in dungeon raids. According to reports, S-rank hunters have been focusing on high-risk areas that A-rank hunters alone had difficulty raiding. With the Hunter Association President Ryu Sehyun’s directive for S-rank hunters to step in directly, stabilization of high-risk areas is expected to accelerate.」

Just then, the news was covering the story of S-rank hunters taking the initiative to raid dungeons recently.

The main focus was on the new Association President, Ryu Sehyun, and on Cha Dogyeong, who had become the Association’s figurehead as an S-rank hunter, or rather an EX-rank hunter.

Of course, there was no mention of Seo Sejun. It was not much comfort, but since the news had not mentioned any other hunters aside from Ryu Sehyun and Cha Dogyeong, at least he did not have to feel resentful that only he had been left out. That was a small relief.

Sejun muttered blankly.

“But it looks like special management is working…”

[It turned out just the way Hunter Ryu Sehyun wanted. If things are like this, even the political world won’t be able to pick on them easily. The only response will be, ‘Why, when they are working hard?’]

“That’s true.”

From the start, it was special management done to avoid giving anyone an opening. Since hunters, whether they wanted it or not, were easy targets because of their strong power, Ryu Sehyun being sensitive to that and cutting off attack routes in advance was a very wise move.

While Sejun lay there chatting idly with the system, his phone, which rarely ever made a sound, received a notification for the first time in a long while.

He had a feeling about it. Sejun quickly sat up and checked the message.

[A-rank dungeon occurrence. Requesting support from 3 teams. Location is Suwon City…]

It was the message Sejun had been longing for.

Sejun shook his phone with a bright face, as if this raid that he had so hated going to was now something he welcomed.

“It came! Look at this!”

It was like he had completely forgotten that the system could easily interfere with his phone and check the contents anyway.

[I don’t think it’s something to be that happy about.]

The system reacted grumpily, but Sejun did not care at all.

1. From the novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It means his mood swings are extreme. ↩︎