VSP 18

…Next time I have to remember and buy it. Sejun naturally promised himself about the next time and cleared his throat. It was a bit embarrassing that he had completely forgotten.

“Why are you wearing a suit all of a sudden?”

Sejun deliberately changed the subject. Fortunately, Cha Dogyeong didn’t comment on the obvious subject change and answered.

“There was an Association event.”

“Ah, I see…”

An Association event. Of course, as the only EX-rank Hunter in the world, the love calls toward Cha Dogyeong were endless, and thanks to that Sejun knew he was busy.

Because of his personality, which disliked official events in comparison to his symbolic value, Ryu Sehyun cut down most of his schedule and only called him for absolutely necessary events.

He didn’t seem like it, but he was diligent in a way. But then again, if it wasn’t to his liking he would refuse even if he died. Was that diligent or not?

While thinking that, Sejun smacked his lips at the lingering sour lemon taste in his mouth and sat down at a spot some distance away from Cha Dogyeong.

Ah.

Sejun suddenly remembered. Come to think of it, because Lucky Love Mode had activated, he had thought maybe that was flirting, and so he had willingly put his mouth on the straw Cha Dogyeong had been using.

Sejun hurriedly checked the sub-mission.

But he was disappointed to see that the sub-mission had not cleared. It looked like it was far too weak to be considered flirting.

No, but we even had an indirect kiss! The system even said Lucky Love Mode was shy!

[It looks like shyness and missions are separate things.]

“How can that be…”

In the end, all he had done was drink that ridiculously sour lemonade–Cha Dogyeong insisted was lemonade–for nothing. Since the sour taste still seemed to linger in his mouth, Sejun groaned and swallowed his saliva.

After that, silence filled the air.

Cha Dogyeong, after finishing his drink handed his tumbler to a nearby Association staff member, then crossed his arms and closed his eyes as always.

When he entered that state, he was saying clearly not to talk to him, Sejun let out a small sigh of relief as he had escaped suffocating silence.

When had I ever been alone with him like this?

Since they weren’t on good terms, and Cha Dogyeong was always surrounded by people, moments where Sejun and he were left alone were nearly nonexistent.

[The author said…]

While Sejun was thinking that, the system suddenly spoke.

[Whenever they wrote a scene with you two sticking together, it kept creating a strange atmosphere, so the PD banned it and made her rewrite it repeatedly.]

“……”

[The desire to make you stick together overflowed…]

Sejun frowned as he realized the reason why there had never been an unintended scene of him being alone with Cha Dogyeong.

Right after that, Lee Dohun arrived, and soon after, the entrance to the dungeon opened.

Since Dohun had arrived late and the dungeon entrance opened almost immediately, that day Sejun and Dohun entered the dungeon with hardly any contact. For Sejun that was fortunate, since fighting with him would only have been tiring.

But.

“Ugh.”

As soon as he felt the peculiar sensation of passing into the dungeon, the floor gave way under him. Sejun hadn’t imagined the ground would collapse immediately upon entry, and he toppled straight down.

Thud!

It wasn’t high enough to call it a fall, but since he had dropped suddenly from above, Sejun groaned while barely getting his body together after hitting the floor. Meanwhile, unlike him, Cha Dogyeong landed naturally and let out an annoyed sigh beside him.

Only then did Sejun look around and open his eyes wide.

“Ah, fuck.”

He immediately cursed.

The reason the ground had suddenly collapsed was because they had fallen into a large transparent cube-shaped room. Since the door was in the middle of the cube, there had been no floor under it, so they had dropped.

Looking back up in the direction they had fallen from, the dungeon entrance that had always been freely open disappeared at that very moment.

“Ah.”

This type was called “escape room type” in Korea, and “puzzle type” abroad. It was a very tricky kind of dungeon.

Sejun looked around. Lee Dohun was nowhere to be seen, probably pulled into a different cube.

Since in escape room type dungeons it was quite common for people to be scattered into different rooms even if they entered through the same entrance, it wasn’t surprising.

The problem was that Sejun and Cha Dogyeong had ended up trapped in the same cube.

And the missions given by these cubes were always random.

<Selecting mission…>

On the upper surface of the cube they were trapped in, hologram letters appeared. It said, selecting mission.

“Ha, fuck.”

Sejun couldn’t hold back and cursed again.

There were two reasons escape room type dungeons were shitty.

First, no matter how strong you were, you couldn’t break out by force, even if it was an E-rank dungeon and the one trapped was an S-rank hunter. Even Cha Dogyeong, the EX-rank Hunter, couldn’t solve it with strength.

Second, if you failed to fulfill what the escape room dungeon demanded, or gave up, you would be forcibly dropped into a brutal dungeon called the Antlion Hell. You had to roll around like you were going to die before you could barely escape.

In effect, the cube itself was the dungeon boss.

But although it was troublesome, for Sejun it wasn’t entirely bad. A dungeon you could clear without fighting was not bad at all for Sejun, an S-rank Hunter who struggled to fight properly.

Of course, he wasn’t certain what mission might appear and the harshness of the Antlion Hell if they failed made him curse.

But unlike Sejun, who had no choice, Cha Dogyeong, who usually cleared most dungeons with nothing but strength, looked quite annoyed.

Sejun, watching Cha Dogyeong brush his bangs back in irritation, opened his mouth cautiously.

“Hey, even if it’s an A-rank dungeon, a cube only asks for one thing. If we do just that, we can get out.”

It was an unusually gentle tone. He hadn’t forgotten about the sub-mission. But Cha Dogyeong had no thought of understanding Sejun’s feelings.

“What if it gives us a quiz? The moment we get it wrong, it’s over.”

Even for Cha Dogyeong, the EX-rank Hunter, the Antlion Hell seemed to be a place that was troublesome and irritating. Sejun looked at his annoyed face with a strange expression.

Seeing him like this, Sejun realized again that this guy was younger. And with that face, in that suit, brushing his bangs back like he was angry, he somehow looked… pretty sexy…

Ah.

Startled by his own thought, Sejun slapped his own cheek. Smack! A louf sound rang, and he felt the sting.

[Now you’re even hurting yourself!]

“Shut up, I can’t forgive myself, that’s why.”

The system shouted in surprise, but Sejun preferred the stinging pain. It was better than having crazy thoughts.

Haa. After that, he somehow felt a bit more at ease, so even while the cube rolled to select a mission Sejun could stay calm.

He leaned back smoothly against one wall.

From what Sejun had experienced so far, the missions cubes gave seemed difficult at first but, when you thought about it they weren’t impossible.

Like how Cha Dogyeong said, sometimes they gave a quiz you had to answer in time, or you had to keep your balance in a tilting cube without falling during the time limit, or you and your teammate had to go through the same-shaped door at the same time…

Yeah, almost like drinking games, you could say. There had never been missions that were truly brutal or cruel, like in the movie Saw. So there was no need to be too nervous.

Even if you failed, you just had to go through the Antlion Hell once and come back out.

Of course, that place was shitty and hateful, so Sejun had cursed the moment he realized this was an escape room dungeon.

[You’ve never even played drinking games. You had no friends.]

“Shut up.”

The system was picked on him but Sejun got annoyed and ignored it.

So, while there are some people who actually liked this type of dungeon, even they probably didn’t want to fall into the Antlion Hell. Anything is only fun as long as you can enjoy it.

Sejun too had fallen in a couple of times before, and each time he barely got out while swearing endlessly, then spent a week sick and weak.

But as long as you didn’t fall into the Antlion Hell, it’s a dungeon that makes you wonder how could something this sweet exist. If you were really lucky, a quiz might pop up, and if you just got that one right, the dungeon would be cleared immediately and the reward would come.

That was why this dungeon was called a Puzzle Dungeon abroad.

While Sejun was thinking, the spinning cube finally seemed to decide on a mission and began to slow down.

And then, Sejun heard something he shouldn’t have heard.

[Lucky Love Mode activated!]

…What?