VSP 3

So two weeks passed.

Every day Sejun anxiously glanced at the remaining time of the sub mission hanging at the edge of his vision, but he kept ignoring it and forced himself through two weeks like that.

Finally, one day the sub mission’s time limit ran out.

That morning, Sejun received a message.

「Ryu Sehyun: There is a full S-rank hunter meeting at the Association today at 3 p.m. Come too.」

It had been a few months since all the S-rank hunters had charged in and defeated the former Association President, who turned out to be the final boss. The message was from Ryu Sehyun, the newly elected Hunter Association President.

And it was the first personal contact Sejun had received in half a month. Aside from spam texts. Of course, this one also felt more like a notice-style group text.

Sejun, who never missed such gatherings, grinned.

[Good grief… getting so happy over one group message. If only you had held your temper and made some friends.]

“Shut it. I told you, I am the one and only under heaven.”

Saying that, Sejun stretched his body.

<Cha Dogyeong eating 0/1>

Sub mission: Flirt with Cha Dogyeong (Expired)

The troublesome mission was still stuck at the edge of his vision. The only difference was that where the time limit had been written, now there was only bright red text that read “Expired.”

Why red, of all colors? The warning-like color made him feel as if he had committed some great sin, and Sejun grumbled.

As the system had warned, Sejun worried that a penalty might come. But there was no change in his status window, and nothing was wrong with his body either.

He had not been teleported to some strange place, he was not in pain, and he had not received a debuff.

So the time limit and all that must have been just empty bluff? Sejun felt relieved.

Since he was going to see everyone after so long, he thought he should dress up nicely, and with that in mind, he got up from the bed to head to the bathroom.

“……?”

But Sejun frowned at the strange feeling from below and looked down at himself with a puzzled face. Somehow, it felt bare down there.

He reached down and touched. His proud magnum was still there. Nothing wrong. Then what?

Tilting his head, Sejun walked to the bathroom to wash.

And not long after, he screamed. Not “Aagh” but a shrill “Kyaaah.”

•••

Sejun’s white PoXsche cut across the road.

Since the Hunter Association was located in the middle of Gangnam, it was a tough place to drive to, but Sejun’s PoXsche sped down the road at a pace that was fast yet just short of reckless driving.

Even though people called him a human scouter, Seo Sejun was also recognized as someone who surpassed humans. With his extraordinary eyesight, he weaved through the crowded Gangnam roads with agility.

And maybe because of the price of his car, other drivers gave way timidly, so he reached the Hunter Association at miraculous speed. When he finished parking, it was 2:38, well before the 3 o’clock meeting Ryu Sehyun had mentioned.

[By my count, you were caught on camera at least three times.]

The system muttered.

[For you, Sejun-nim, the problem is not the fine, but the penalty points. If it gets reported that Seo Sejun lost his license from speeding tickets piling up, the reporters will love it.]

“Shut it, can you?”

Sejun shouted irritably. But the system did not back down.

[Do you want me to draft the headline for you? ‘Seo Sejun, fined for speeding… accident unworthy of his luxury car?’]

“You.”

[Of course, I do understand why you are so angry.]

The system’s tone began to take on laughter.

[Serves you right, pfft, for ignoring the penalty, pfft, I told you not to, puhuh.]

“……”

Sejun forced himself to ignore the system’s logs.

He parked the car and walked up to the first floor, letting out a deep sigh.

He had dressed himself up, driven his favorite car, and finally come to the Hunter Association after a long time. So why did he feel like he was naked, why did he feel so unsettled?

When he first got Ryu Sehyun’s message, he had been in a good mood…

[That is because you are bare down there.]

The system, reading his thoughts, spoke with a smirk.

Normally, the system did not read every thought of the hunter. But when synchronization was particularly strong, sometimes it read even their thoughts. And with Sejun, that happened often.

Normally he did not mind, but right now it was unbearably irritating. Sejun showed his annoyed expression without hiding it and growled.

“Shut… up?”

[Bare. Hill.]

In the end, Sejun could not take it and turned the system Off.

For a hunter to shut off the system that managed all their status windows, caught their condition instantly, and voiced another part of their self was practically taboo, but he just could not endure it.

Bare hill.

Nothing below.

Sejun’s body trembled.

When he first opened his eyes that morning, he had thought, see, there really was no penalty! and felt relieved.

He even started to think maybe all that talk about the author and everything was just the system’s prank. Even though he knew well that no matter how much self the system had, it would never play such tricks on a hunter.

But then he went to the bathroom, lowered his underwear to take care of business, and screamed.

‘Kyaaaaa!’

His lower half had turned into a bare hill overnight.

Smooth and soft.

If someone interested in Brazilian waxing saw it, they would gasp and say, ‘Wow, where did you get that done? Tell me, it’s amazing.’ It was that clean.

Sejun, whose soul nearly left him from the shock, belatedly realized.

This was the penalty of that damn sub mission!

[My word.]

Even the system let out an exclamation, as if it had not expected the penalty to come in this way.

[You will not be able to go to public baths.]

That is the problem now?

Sejun grabbed his head and tore at his hair. The fact that below had become smooth and bare like a child before puberty was frustrating enough, but the bigger problem was that the damn penalty was real. Up until this morning he had been doubtful.

It was real. The penalty, and that cursed mission.

He really had to flirt with Cha Dogyeong? What? With that Cha Dogyeong?

Me?

I really have to eat Cha Dogyeong?

Sejun, who had never once imagined doing that sort of thing with another man, found the mission far too unrealistic.

So he escaped. He ignored it.

And the cursed mission punished him like this, telling him to do it properly.

The system watched Sejun tearing at his hair, then threw out a comment.

[It is below this time, but next time it might be above.]

‘……!’

Sejun unconsciously grabbed his still thick head of hair, then pictured it all falling out like autumn leaves.

…It was horrifying. Bald, at his age!

Of course, the fact that below had become a bare hill, and that he could not casually go to public baths anymore, was shocking. But that was nothing compared to losing his hair!

It was not like he went to public baths often, and he did not have a job where he had to strip in front of others, so that did not matter. But hair!

A news article saying Seo Sejun went bald!

As Sejun clutched his hair in fear, he heard a strange ding sound effect in his ears.

He looked up and saw the mission window, which had lit up on its own.

<Cha Dogyeong eating 0/1>

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

The word “Expired” disappeared, replaced by a new deadline.

(13 days 23 hours remaining)

It was the exact same time limit as before, as if he had been given another chance.

“…Shit, this pisses me off.”

Remembering the morning’s event, Sejun kicked a pebble by his foot for no reason. The bare sensation below was irritating, and feeling pitiful about his own situation made him more irritated.

The lack of anyone to talk to bothered him more. As he entered the front gate of the Association, Sejun turned the system back On.

The system immediately spoke as if it had been waiting.

[You turned me back on in exactly five minutes.]

“I will turn you off again.”

[Come on, you will not.]

Hearing the familiar voice of the system, Sejun felt a little better. Of course, he would never say it out loud, or the system would get full of itself.

The Association building looked the same as always, even though it had been a while since he came.

As expected of a place full of money, it shone with brilliance. There was no trace that the place had collapsed twice before, leaving not a single pillar standing.

Dogyeong must be here already, right? He was always the type to arrive well before the appointed time.

Thinking of Cha Dogyeong made Sejun’s stomach churn. Normally, he had never once felt good thinking of Cha Dogyeong, but this time the feeling was on another level.

People around who recognized Seo Sejun let out small exclamations of “Oh,” then started whispering to each other.

“It’s Seo Sejun. Why is he here? They say there’s an S-rank meeting today.” “Ah, still, they invited him?”, and other such words went straight into his ears.