VSP 98

The feeling of excitement he had when he first opened his eyes in this house, wondering if they were dating, had long since vanished.

They had ended up kissing, almost sleeping together, and he thought he understood Cha Dogyeong’s feelings, maybe not perfectly, but to some extent. But that was the problem. It only made things more complicated.

It would’ve been easier if he just pretended to know nothing, accepted the affection Cha Dogyeong gave, put on everything Cha Dogyeong gave him, and take it for granted that Cha Dogyeong would stay by his side.

The mission would be cleared, the world would be saved, and the author would be satisfied.

……And he himself, who ended up liking being with Cha Dogyeong, would’ve been happy too.

But if things continued like this, Sejun would have to live constantly feeling guilty and doubting everything.

He would have to question both Cha Dogyeong’s feelings and his own. When he seduced Cha Dogyeong enough to please the author, when the mission’s influence disappeared, he would have to live in constant anxiety, wondering if Cha Dogyeong’s feelings will fade.

Sejun didn’t want that.

You know, Cha Dogyeong. I think I’ve come to like you a lot more than before. What about you?

……Or am I just acting like this because of the mission, because of that Lucky Love Mode?

There was no one who could answer that question now.

“Just.”

[……?]

“I just want to be a little prouder of myself.”

After answering the system’s question after a long silence, Sejun slapped his own cheeks. His wet face made loud slapping sounds.

It was a situation that could’ve dragged him into depression, but now wasn’t the time to be consumed by it.

That wasn’t Seo Sejun’s style.

Pull yourself together, Seo Sejun. Isn’t being endlessly positive is your only good point?

Sejun stared at the mirror for a long time and then made up his mind.

“I’ve decided.”

[What did you decide?]

“Clear this fucking mission quickly, grant the author’s wish, and become free.”

That was Sejun’s conclusion.

He was currently rolling along the track where the author had marked the finish line, trying to look away from it as best he could.

But eventually, while rolling along, his heart was moved. Before he knew it, he was standing in the drizzle, unaware that he was getting wet.

He had liked that his mana increased. He had thought the sub-mission that helped cover his fatal weakness was a welcome thing.

But now, even though he had obtained an item with far greater power than that, instead of greed, he started to fear that Cha Dogyeong’s feelings, the one who decided to give this to him, might not be genuine.

It was worse than the thought of his mana no longer increasing.

“Shaking from anxiety isn’t my style.”

And that kind of thing wasn’t Sejun’s style either.

His gaze turned to the ring shining on his finger.

If possible, he wanted to accept a gift like this with a smiling face, without any worry, believing it was a gift Cha Dogyeong gave him simply because he liked him.

“I’m going to sleep with Cha Dogyeong.”

Sejun was burning with determination, blurting out words that he could never have imagined himself saying when he first received the mission.

He would break free from the shackles of this damn mission, and then……

When there wasn’t even the slightest doubt left about his feelings or Cha Dogyeong’s feelings.

Whether it was a fling or a real love, he wanted to do it then.

With Cha Dogyeong.

[…….]

The system watched silently as he reached the daunting conclusion that it would be better to clear the mission instead of being consumed by depression, and his will burned within him.

Yes, that’s a typical Sejun conclusion. But how is someone who blushes and trembles at a single kiss going to have sex with Hunter Cha Dogyeong? Even if Sejun didn’t step forward and try to have sex with him, Hunter Cha Dogyeong would probably be the first to touch Sejun.

The system barely managed to swallow the words that had risen up to its throat—although it didn’t even have a throat to begin with.

And right then, when it finally held back what it wanted to say, the system heard an annoying voice.

<Heh heh……>

It was Lucky Love Mode.

Sejun hadn’t heard it, but while the two of them had been fooling around in the car, that mode had been making a racket like a one-person festival, blowing horns and celebrating. Now, when it made that meaningful sound, the system suddenly grew nervous.

[Please, I’m begging you, can you just stay quiet? You’re gonna mess things up even more.]

Of course, the system already knew. Lucky Love Mode, as always, would only pretend to listen.

As expected, Lucky Love Mode scoffed as if it had no intention of listening at all.

To the system’s ears, that scoff sounded exactly like it was saying, ‘I don’t want to.’

And it probably wasn’t just imagination.

Sejun, who was burning with determination to sleep with Cha Dogyeong, and Lucky Love Mode, who was watching him with a meaningful grin.

……Something was definitely going to happen soon.

The ominous feeling made the system tremble.

***

Bacheon Guild.

It was a massive guild, large enough to be called the best in Korea. The guildmaster was Lee Yongseok, known as the strongest among A-rank hunters. Their guild building was located in Gangnam, and the number of guild members alone exceeded a hundred.

Except for the guild ‘Raon,’ led by S-rank hunter Na Yookyung, that is.

In short, Bacheon was the runner-up line. Since the guildmaster’s rank also matched that, there was even a meme online where people repeated words twice whenever they mentioned Bacheon.

Some people might question how it could be called a large guild when it didn’t have a single S-rank hunter.

But there wasn’t a single guild where S-rank hunters actually acted as a unit, even though some guilds technically had them. So Lee Yongseok felt no shame.

‘If it’s Bacheon, it might not be number one, but it’s definitely number two.’

That was how people often evaluated the guild, but Lee Yongseok was dissatisfied with that number two.

He was already bitter that he hadn’t become an S-rank hunter and had to settle for A-rank, but even his guild couldn’t be considered the best because of that damned Na Yookyung’s Raon Guild.

Anyway, S-rank hunters had never once helped his life.

He knew the world only remembered first place, and that the highest-ranked hunters were bound to be the most popular. But even knowing that, he still got angry now and then, or rather, quite often.

With the money he had earned through hard work, Lee Yongseok built the guild’s headquarters near the Association. When people saw that building, they would say things like, “Wow, if an A-rank hunter makes that much, how much must an S-rank make?” Of course, as someone who had a complex about that, every one of those remarks got under his skin.

S-rank this, S-rank that.

Unspoken resentment kept piling up endlessly inside him, morphing into an ugly shape.

And while his days went on the same as always, the incident happened one day, on a Friday afternoon that barely held on to the edge of the workweek.

After finishing lunch, Lee Yongseok holed himself up in his office out of habit and sighed.

Recently, since there weren’t any dungeons worth stepping into, he had spent a lot of time just spacing out in his office chair. To shake off his dull mood, he opened a video app he had been watching often lately.

But right after logging in, he saw that a fairly big channel’s video analyzing the relationships between S-rank hunters was trending near the top, and his mood dropped even lower.

Lately, the fact that Cha Dogyeong and Seo Sejun had gone to an amusement park together had become quite the talk. Countless videos about it had been uploaded, and even some channels with a decent number of subscribers had started covering the topic to ride the wave of popularity.

Now that one of the major channels had picked it up, it had climbed into the trending videos list.

Lee Yongseok couldn’t understand why people made such a fuss over two men hanging out at an amusement park.

He hesitated over whether to click or not, but in the end, unable to suppress his curiosity, he clicked the video with a scowling face.

Inside the video, influencers who often appeared as panelists on that channel were having what was more like a talk show than a discussion.

[Well, you know, close brothers or friends could go to an amusement park together. But since they’re hunters, it’s different. It’s kind of an open secret that while S-rank hunters get along in a professional sense, none of them are actually close personally.]

[Right. It’s like, if we compare them to animals, these are people who could each be kings in their own territories. They’re grouped under the same rank, so it’s hard for them to get close.]

[Yeah, that’s well known.]

[They even say the Choi siblings aren’t close.]

[Ah, but that’s because they’re siblings……]

The panelists laughed at their own jokes, but Lee Yongseok was still frowning.

[But the atmosphere among S-ranks has definitely changed lately.]

[Yeah, Hunter Choi Hangyeol and Hunter Lee Dohun are the same age, and they didn’t really hang out before, but now they’re often seen together, right?]

[Though they’re still said to fight a lot.]

[They’ve always been known as frenemies.]

[Speaking of Hunter Lee Dohun, he hasn’t been taking shots at Hunter Seo Sejun lately, has he?]

[He used to post those sniping comments about Hunter Seo Sejun on social media all the time, but now it’s not that he’s slowed down, he’s stopped completely.]

[Did they make up?]

[Who knows……]