VSP 58

Passing through the blue glowing dungeon entrance, Lee Dohun relaxed his shoulders muscles, thinking that since rotation would start soon he wouldn’t have to face Seo Sejun for a while. He decided to just treat this dungeon as stepping in shit, finish it quickly, and move on.

But things didn’t go as planned.

“Ugh!”

As soon as he stepped inside, the ground gave way. Dohun fell and instinctively adjusted his body midair to land safely.

He rubbed his stiff shoulder, tensed from the sudden drop, and looked up. Seeing the familiar interior, he let out a hollow laugh.

“Ah? Ha, unbelievable.”

It was an escape room type dungeon, the so called cube dungeon.

In the empty blue space, cubes floated around.

Sometimes it was so easy you’d think, “That’s it?” But when it wasn’t, it was the kind of dungeon that could break a person.

Dohun clenched his teeth. He remembered the last time he had been in one, when the question was, “What is the longest river in the world?” and he had answered the Han River, only to get thrown into the Antlion Hell.

With overwhelming monsters chasing him, he had been forced to run for an hour just to survive.

And when he finally got out, exhausted, he had seen Cha Dogyeong and Seo Sejun waiting outside leisurely, which only made him angrier.

Come to think of it, what mission had those two cleared that day?

He tilted his head, realizing he had never heard what they had done.

“Aaagh!”

He was pulled back from his thoughts by a scream from above.

Seo Sejun, who had entered carelessly, was falling.

Normally, Dohun would have stepped aside. He didn’t care if Sejun got hurt.

But at that moment, Lee Dohun couldn’t understand himself.

“Urk!”

“Ugh!”

He caught Seo Sejun.

And not just caught him, but in a princess carry.

•••

“……?”

Sejun couldn’t understand what was happening. Seeing Dohun picking a fight earlier, Sejun had already guessed today’s raid wouldn’t be easy.

[This looks like it’ll be tough today.]

Even the system had said that.

But he never expected that the dungeon he entered with Dohun would be an escape room type.

Since the entrance always formed at the center of a cube wall, everyone fell as soon as they went in.

He had braced himself for the fall. But he hadn’t expected to end up in Dohun’s arms. The moment their eyes met while he was carried like a princess, Sejun was truly stunned.

The funny part was that Dohun seemed even more flustered than him.

“Ah, fuck!”

Dohun cursed, then threw Sejun down onto the floor like he was tossing a sack of rice.

“Argh!”

Thrown so suddenly, Sejun hit the ground. It wasn’t as bad as falling straight from the entrance, but it was still a person being slammed to the floor. He couldn’t be unscathed.

“You crazy bastard, what the hell are you doing?!”

“Fuck! Damn it! Fuck!”

Sejun shouted, his voice breaking with anger, but Dohun didn’t care. He frantically brushed off his shirt, even though nothing had gotten on him, as if he couldn’t forgive himself for having held Sejun like that.

[That must have been quite a shock for him.]

“I was shocked too!”

It wasn’t just Dohun. Being in his arms was a huge shock for Sejun too.

He hadn’t even been held like that by Cha Dogyeong!

The comparison was ridiculous, but Sejun didn’t even realize that as he flailed in disbelief.

It took them more than ten minutes to calm down.

Lee Dohun’s breathing grew ragged as if he had been through a workout, he let out a long sigh. Sejun was finally calm, he also let out a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

<Selecting mission……>

While they were making a scene, the cube dungeon conditions that had been spinning in circles slowed down under their gaze.

“Why did have to be an escape room?”

[Well, in some ways, escape rooms are the easiest, right?]

“They’re easy only if it gives us something solvable. Otherwise, it’s a death trap.”

Especially since this was an A-rank dungeon.

Sejun had never faced an A-rank dungeon’s Antlion Hell before, but remembering how even Dohun, with his beast form, had nearly died crawling out of an A-rank Antlion Hell, he guessed the penalty here would be something he couldn’t possibly withstand.

Back when he had his first kiss with Cha Dogyeong in the room, the reason Dogyeong used to persuade Sejun was that Sejun wouldn’t be able to handle an A-rank Antlion Hell.

That memory of kissing Cha Dogyeong came to mind, and Sejun fanned his cheek, which was starting to heat up. The system spoke.

[There’s no point worrying in advance. Let’s just hope something easy comes out.]

It casually said, like it wasn’t its problem.

[Lucky Love Mode activated!]

…What?

[Huh?]

Sejun and the system both made dumb sounds at the same time.

<Mission has been decided.>

While the spinning escape condition in the air slowly revealed its form, Sejun panicked.

Wait, fuck. Lucky Love Mode? Why the hell are you coming out here?

[I don’t know either!]

That’s not Cha Dogyeong! Stop it!

[I can’t stop it! That thing isn’t something I can control!]

Even though it was an inner conversation, both Sejun and the system were noisy. Of course, not knowing any of this, Lee Dohun only stared at the condition, hoping it would be something simple.

And the escape condition was finally decided.

“……”

“……”

Both of them saw the mission that floated in the middle of the cube, and fell silent. Neither Sejun nor Dohun could speak.

They blinked again and again, rubbed their eyes, but the words didn’t change.

<Kiss to leave the room.>

It was a condition Sejun had seen once before.

And that day… was the first time Seo Sejun ever kissed someone. A landmark first kiss.

The partner then had been Cha Dogyeong, and Sejun had ended up receiving his second kiss the same day, like he was just solving everything in one go.

Of course, the partner had been Cha Dogyeong again.

That time too, Lucky Love Mode had interfered and produced a ridiculous escape condition. And now it had done the same again.

Up to that point, Sejun could tell himself “fine, whatever.”

Because this world itself wanted Seo Sejun and Cha Dogyeong to end up together. Because this world wanted Seo Sejun to “eat” Cha Dogyeong. Because there were sub-missions, and because the will of this world, Lucky Love Mode, existed.

So up to there, he could, even if he couldn’t fully accept it, at least let it go.

But that “whatever” was only ever supposed to apply to Cha Dogyeong. The main mission target, Cha Dogyeong! So why the hell was Lucky Love Mode activating now?

With none other than Lee Dohun as the partner.

Sejun’s face turned pale. He couldn’t even look in Dohun’s direction. The system, which had been silent like it too was stunned, finally muttered.

[Sejun-nim, Lucky Love Mode is smirking.]

“……”

[This isn’t a mistake. It knows. It couldn’t possibly confuse Hunter Lee Dohun with Hunter Cha Dogyeong.]

“…Uh…”

[So that means.]

The system’s tone grew colder.

It truly hated that Lucky Love Mode was meddling in its logs. And it could clearly see it.

[That bastard wants something.]

This bastard, Lucky Love Mode, was stirring up this shit because it wanted something.