Chapter 14 (2/2)

”Yeah, there's a f*cking reason. That a*shole came out swinging first, so it's only correct that we swing back even harder.” (Kahng Seok)

”But…. will it even work?” (Jeong Min-Woo)

”It's going to. Look, look!” (Kahng Seok)

Seeing Jeong Min-Woo tilt his head this way and that, Kahng Seok smirked deeply.

”What do you think this is~?” (Kahng Seok)

Kahng Seok then pulled out two pieces of paper from his pocket and waved them in front of his lackeys' faces.

”What's that?”

”He's not the only one who received a starting bonus, know what I mean? If we succeed, then we'll be the ones controlling this place in no time.” (Kahng Seok)

Kahng Seok declared triumphantly, before slightly c.o.c.king his eyebrow.

”….So?” (Kahng Seok)

While having his hands locked and fidgeting around, Jeong Min-Woo shrugged his shoulders. Seeing this, Lee Hyung-Sik sighed out as if he couldn't help it, either.

”Good. No need to worry about a thing, boys. We only need what, 5, 10 minutes, tops? Now you get it, don't you?” (Kahng Seok)

The two lackeys nodded their heads. Kahng Seok began gritting his teeth.

”All we have to do is to defeat that f*cker. When we grind that motherf*cker to nothing, then we win.” (Kahng Seok)

[Remaining time until midnight: 00: 36: 12]

The end of the treasure hunt was getting nearer.

The total number of hidden coins might have been 3000, but that didn't mean all of them could be found at once. After the coins were discovered and taken away in an area, they resp.a.w.ned after a short amount of time elapsed. Seol got to find that out after seeing the diary of the unknown student get updated numerous times.

Thanks to that, Seol had to roam the fourth and fifth floor several times, but eventually, he got to stretch his limbs in the end.

He felt fulfilled. He worked tirelessly and got to find almost 1600 coins in the end. Specifically, 1552 of them. There were twelve survivors partic.i.p.ating in the hunt, so this was the same as him monopolising over half of the available coins.

‘I should probably go there now.' (Seol)

After lightly tapping his bag, Seol headed upstairs. If he wanted to, he could keep finding the coins, but he was mindful of the time needed to use the item draw machine.

Now that cooperating with others was out of the question, no one knew what could happen later on, so, rather than anxiously wait till it was midnight, he knew it was smart to make some kind of preparations.

As if others were still too busy with the treasure hunt, there was no one beside himself inside the fifth floor library. The so-called draw machine kind of resembled one of those gacha machines one could find commonly placed in front of stationery shops, the only difference being this one was somewhat larger.

[The list of items available to draw] 1 coin to 9 coins: Food, daily necessities, a note from the Guide, medical supplies…. 10 coins to 49 coins: Relief supplies, souvenirs, various maps, a letter from the maid…. 50 coins to 99 coins: Weapons, defensive items, Survival Points, a brand new, cutting-edge smartphone…. 100 coins: Spell b.a.l.l.s, random coin box (contains up to 1~499 coins) 199 coins: Sixth floor access key (100% odds) 300 coins: SPECIAL

Seol fell into a deep thought. He needed 100 coins as the usage fee, so he had to deduct that amount. And since he didn't know what would happen later on, he had to reserve the amount to purchase the access key as well.

That left 1253 coins to play around with.

So, should he go for the ”SPECIAL” four times, or only try that one out a couple of times and get some spell b.a.l.l.s, instead?

He didn't think for too long.

First of all, he found the actions of Kahng Seok and his crew rather suspicious. They ran into each other a few times during the hunt, yet they didn't try anything, seemingly only focusing on the treasure hunt and nothing else. However, they couldn't fool his eyes.

‘I saw their colours.'

Originally, only Kahng Seok emitted the yellowish colour, but now, both Lee Hyung-Sik and Jeong Min-Woo emitted the same yellow hue as well. He had to pay them close attention, in other words. Since their colours were the same, it could only mean that they were cooking up something bad. So, Seol naturally chose the latter option.

He needed a weapon of some kind. Indeed, he needed an all-conquering ace up his sleeve that could help him out, even if he found himself stuck in the worst possible situation imaginable.

Seol picked up the first coin but, he soon began swearing out inwardly. Why? Because, he realised that manually inserting each coin one at the time was unexpectedly a lot of work, that's why.

”G.o.dd*mn it….” (Seol)

A somewhat lengthy time later, Seol packed the drawn items into his bag while ma.s.saging his aching fingers.

The end result was actually quite satisfactory.

[Random coin box: contains 81 extra coins] [Spell ball: Spider Web, x1] [Random coin box: contains 136 extra coins] [Spell ball: Poison Fog, x1] [Spell ball: Ignite, x1] [Random coin box: contains 292 extra coins] [Spell ball: Hydrochloric Acid, x1] [SPECIAL: Mirror of Understanding, x1]

He was especially happy with the results of two of the random boxes. Although it couldn't be called a ma.s.sive success, he'd happily call that a mid-level success or some such.

So, he still had 1061 coins remaining. Even if he went for SPECIAL twice, he'd have 162 coins left over.

Seol decided to stop around there. This should be more than enough, but also, time was running out, as well. As soon as the clock struck midnight, the so-called Hour of the Deceased would begin. So, he should quietly return to the 'safe zone' and wait until midday tomorrow.

Seol's steps as he walked down the staircase was confident yet easy going. What he didn't expect to find was that the cla.s.sroom 3-1 was still deserted. It was the so-called the safe zone, and there was less than 10 minutes before midnight, yet not even an ant could be seen.

Seol stood there wondering, until he heard the cla.s.sroom's sliding door noisily open up behind him.

”Uh? You were here already?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Seol turned around while inwardly thinking, Of course, people should start showing up soon.

The first one to enter was Hyun Sahng-Min, but he didn't look so good. A short while afterwards, s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah trudged inside as well.

”What happened to you? I got nearly f*ck all.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

”M, me too….” (s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah)

”I mean, what the h.e.l.l? It's like a crazy a*shole swept away everything or something. Why is it this hard to find a single d.a.m.n coin?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

”You're so right. You know, I shouldn't have been so fired up after finding a few in the beginning. I could only find 70 coins in the end.” (s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah)

s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah complained while ma.s.saging her feet.

”You're worse than me, though. I did meet the 100 coin requirement, at least.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Min's voice was also rather weak as well.

Seol thought about it for a long while, before deciding to give s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah 30 coins. Since he was already treating the remaining 162 as a reserve, he didn't even hesitate.

”Uhm….?”

s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah's eyes grew larger.

”A, are you giving me these?” (s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah)

The look in her eyes were already well past grat.i.tude and into the territory of ‘wors.h.i.+pping a saviour'.

”Wha, what the heck? 30 coins in one go?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

”Please, take it, Miss. What, you also need some?” (Seol)

”Holy sh*t. How many did you manage to find?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Seol scratched his cheek sheepishly.

”….Enough to survive, I guess?” (Seol)

Hyun Sahng-Min's expression showed how dumbfounded he was, before he suddenly exploded in a fit of laughter as he fell back.

”Aigoo~, so it was you.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

”I b.l.o.o.d.y knew it. I knew it didn't make any d.a.m.n sense, unless someone already swooped in and picked everything clean. I seriously searched everywhere, dude….! Uh-whew, so the guilty party wasn't Yun Seo-Rah, eh.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

”Why? What's up with Yun Seo-Rah?” (Seol)

”Mm? I thought you've realised it by now, too? I was thinking that she knew where all the coins were and was busy hogging them all for herself or something. I'm pretty sure it's not only me who thinks this way.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

That made sense.

Hyun Sahng-Min added that he was now feeling bad after inwardly slagging her off for being a selfish bi*tch - which led to Seol feeling even greater sense of guilt, knowing that he had inconvenienced everyone else albeit it wasn't his intention to begin with.

[The Hour of the Deceased will commence from this point on.]

Finally, midnight arrived. As if the three of them made a promise beforehand, they closed their mouths shut at the same time. However, there were only three of them in the base, even now.

”Where's everyone?” (Seol)

”It's obvious, isn't it?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Min answered Seol's query while fis.h.i.+ng out a cigarette.

”Even I was wondering whether I should return or not. In any case, I found 100 coins, so I decided to come back here, but…. Others probably aren't thinking the same way.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

”You think so?”

”Yeah. They are probably like, a just bit more, a bit more and then…. They should be going crazy trying to find enough for the usage fee, alone. And those trying to revive the dead, well, they don't even care anymore, it seems.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

So, that's how it was.

Although not as much as Seol, Yun Seo-Rah must've found a considerable number of coins for herself. What with the two of them sweeping away the majority of the available coins, there shouldn't be a lot remaining right about now.

So, it was as obvious as daylight that the compet.i.tion would only get worse. Seol never expected things to devolve in this manner while he was busy collecting the coins. No, he didn't even bother to think about it at all.

”Oh well. If they are worried about their lives, I'm sure they'll eventually show up sooner or later.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

Hyun Sahng-Min murmured while sucking on his cigarette.

”What…. are you going to do?” (s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah)

s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah asked while cautiously studying Seol's reaction.

Seol felt contradicting emotions in his mind. He didn't care much about Kahng Seok and his crew, but when he thought about Yun Seo-Rah and Yi Sung-Jin, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

”I guess…. I should find the ones that I can.” (Seol)

”Yes. Let me help you.” (s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah)

s.h.i.+n Sahng-Ah agreed immediately while her expressions showed how relieved she was. Seeing this, Seol became ever so slightly curious about her Status window. And so, just as he was about to take a peek into it….

”Oww, G.o.dd*mn it.” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

….Hyun Sahng-Min slowly stood up from his seat.

”I don't like this at all, but…. Yeah, I will lend a helping hand, too. A promise is a promise, right?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

He spoke as if letting out a long groan and playfully pointed towards the door with his chin.

”Shall we go, Mister Leader?” (Hyun Sahng-Min)

….It happened, then.

< 14.=”” a=”” dangerous=”” treasure=”” hunt=”” (2)=””> Fin.

(TL: The new shoes bit is actually a reference to a Korean nursery rhyme. It goes along the lines of ”we bought new shoes, so let's jump, jump up and down!” Etc, etc.)