Side Quest: Dungeon Exploration Failure and Strategy (3)
Inductive reasoning.
Simply put, it means coming to think, It was right in the past, so it will be right in the future too.
Throughout my academy life I had leaked a great many clues to Yu Seolhyeon. The weaknesses and shortcomings of opposing teams. Operations and schemes with high success rates. The hero team she was secretly running. Strategy methods for the dungeon currently under exploration, and so on.
From those countless clues, Yu Seolhyeon was highly likely to arrive at a single conclusion.
Future sight.
In the world setting, supernatural ability users with future sight were not entirely nonexistent, so even if she committed this error of inductive reasoning, it would not be particularly strange.
Of course there were plenty of grounds for rebuttal. If I truly possessed future sight, there would have been quite a few actions I would never have taken, or actions that left one wondering why I had not done things a certain way.
But Yu Seolhyeon was a person of high pride. People like that, in order to maintain their self-esteem, were highly likely to select only the information that supported their own logic and exclude everything that did not. It was a kind of psychological defense mechanism—similar to the way people on the internet, when their logic is challenged, look at and remember only the comments that affirm them.
From there it was easy to fall into confirmation bias. In other words, one came to believe only what one wanted to believe.
……Well, I'm not exactly in a position to talk about others either.
Almost everyone judged based on experience, and I myself could not escape the error of inductive reasoning. Had I not also trusted my past-life memories and done any number of reckless things? The performance evaluation operation, the gibbon strategy, the methods for persuading Yu Seolhyeon, and so on……
If those past-life memories had been wrong, I would clearly have found myself in all sorts of awkward situations. What if the gibbon's weakness had been different from the game? Even though I had comprehensively gathered information and comparatively analyzed past-life and present-life data before acting, the danger remained unchanged.
Moreover, even if every past-life memory had proven correct so far, there was no guarantee they would continue to match going forward. With lives on the line, I needed to be more careful.
……Of course, that doesn't mean I can simply refuse to trust my past-life memories either.
Because every piece of information so far had lined up, hadn't it? As I had already thought, I needed to be wary of inductive error—but that did not mean I should unilaterally distrust the memories either. Without utilizing them, responding to the events ahead would become extremely difficult.
Those past-life memories were my greatest advantage and strongest weapon. To survive, I paradoxically had to risk my life and take dangers in order to prove the argument.
Therefore what I needed most right now was not to tremble while fretting over whether the memories were right or wrong. It was to utilize them as fully as possible while securing a method by which I could protect my own life if things went wrong.
And in obtaining that method, conquering the Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon was indispensable. Judging from past-life and present-life information, there was a very high probability that the item I wanted lay sleeping inside that dungeon—the item capable of generating countless variables.
Ah, but if not, well……
"……Lee Jinhyuk."
"……."
Yu Seolhyeon's quiet voice pulled me from my thoughts. I lifted my head slightly and looked at her. She seemed drained of strength, confused, almost strange as she gazed up at empty air for a moment before beginning to speak.
"The Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon conquest was something I pushed through a bit forcefully."
Like a single water droplet plopping into a still lakeside, her voice gradually rang in my ears.
"Judging from the dungeon's scale, mana concentration, internal environment, and the monsters that appear at the entrance, I thought it was sufficiently conquerable."
As she said, the Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon was not particularly high difficulty—except for a few traps and the existence of the boss monster.
"I was actually confident, too. I was receiving periodic contact saying the conquest was progressing smoothly."
Then she let out a long, heavy sigh and moved her lips.
"But just now, contact came. Not only did the dungeon conquest fail—several heroes have gone missing."
The so-called rescue quest. From my past-life memories, the remaining time was four days.
"We're currently putting a rescue team together in a hurry…… After gathering more accurate information and preparing various equipment, the rescue team will depart first thing tomorrow."
If the story followed the official settings without the protagonist's help, the next rescue operation would almost certainly end in failure.
"Although it's unofficial, since I was the one operating it and approving the dungeon conquest…… I can't avoid internal responsibility. They'll tear into me from every direction."
Pitifully, the first attacks would come from family—from her siblings and sisters who could be considered competitors of sorts.
"And simply securing the missing personnel won't be enough to smooth over the current situation. Beyond rescuing them, unless we conquer the dungeon entirely."
The idea of making up for a mistake with results was a far too dangerous notion, but it was proof of how anxious she currently was.
"Because of that, the materials you showed me earlier have become absolutely necessary…… really ridiculously so."
Yu Seolhyeon suddenly turned quiet eyes on me.
"But you know. Doesn't the situation seem a bit strange? You specifically calling me out today, and showing those materials too."
"……."
"Doesn't this whole sequence of events feel a little too blatant?"
"……."
She looked at me with outright suspicious eyes. Her mind must have been quite complicated. She would be wondering whether I truly possessed future sight. Yet to explain the present situation, future sight was the most plausible answer.
"You—did you really know in advance? That it would turn out like this?"
"Hmm."
I paused for a moment. Even though I had leaked so many clues, the reason I had never simply said from the start, Yeah, that's right—I actually have foresight, was that saying it with my own mouth would only lower objective credibility, and given Yu Seolhyeon's personality it might rather increase her suspicion. She might also demand I prove the ability and force me into pointless demonstrations.
I had thought it far better to maintain an ambiguous attitude and gradually induce her to convince herself. But at this point, it seemed acceptable to falsely admit that I possessed future sight. She already appeared convinced of it. At that level, revealing it was better. And considering the direction of the story, basing everything on the premise of future sight would be more effective.
……I worked hard on the buildup, but is it all done? Is it okay to reveal it now?
I made my decision. Although it was a lie, admitting to foresight would lend my words a little more credibility—provided she believed without particular suspicion.
"Well, having come this far, continuing to be ambiguous would be strange too. Your thoughts are correct, Yu Seolhyeon."
"!"
"I knew to some extent."
"Then……."
"It's not something I can use whenever I want. There are certain conditions. Ah, of course the conditions are secret."
"……."
In reality, future-sight ability users could never perfectly control the ability themselves, and activation conditions varied widely.
"And right now there's no need to overthink it. You need these materials, and I simply want compensation from you for them. I'm proposing a kind of deal."
I quickly changed the subject. There were many things I wanted to obtain through a deal with her, and many things I needed to obtain.
"First, you might still have doubts about my ability. Just because a few things matched doesn't mean you can believe everything. But nothing to lose, right?"
Yu Seolhyeon simply listened in silence.
"Just by familiarizing yourself with the contents of these materials, there won't be any particular harm."
Of course if what I had written as weaknesses turned out not to be weaknesses it could become serious trouble—but she would properly distinguish between information safe to trust and information that might be dangerous if believed.
"Of course the choice is free."
"Haa."
She showed a conflicted look for a moment, then let out a bitter sigh. With so little information about the dungeon interior, she would want even a little more data for the rescue operation—even if the source was somewhat unreliable.
"I can't just share these materials with the team members thoughtlessly…… I'll have to enter the dungeon myself."
As if she hadn't already been planning to go in. Your supernatural ability is quite useful during dungeon exploration, isn't it. And she would be feeling something like apology and responsibility for the missing heroes.
"Will it be okay? The academy won't like it. And if a student participates, public opinion will get noisy too."
"It's not illegal, is it? In the first place we have temporary hero licenses—there's no need to care about public opinion one by one."
If academy trainee Yu Seolhyeon directly joined the rescue team, gossip would easily arise, but for her it was fine so long as the fact that she herself had been operating the team remained undiscovered.
"That aside, Lee Jinhyuk."
"Yeah?"
"Why did you reveal your ability to me?"
A strange light entered her eyes.
"Worst case—have you never considered that I could grab you and force you to spit out information?"
"……."
So you were at least a little aware that you're a bit of a bad girl.
"If you can really do something like future sight, you'd know how dangerous your actions are, right? Isn't that why you deliberately never revealed it until now?"
Her words were correct. Everyone would want future sight. That meant there would be plenty of people who would want to force it.
"Or……."
She glanced at me once.
"……is it because you knew I wouldn't do that that you're doing this?"
"……."
Well, I had been almost certain. It wasn't for nothing that I had memorized her character settings thoroughly. I had also heard information about her from various places and observed her for months…… comprehensively judging, I had concluded she would never force me—so long as I cooperated obediently.
"Scary words. Let's just say I trusted you. We're classmates after all."
"A foolish answer, unlike the theory top student."
Yu Seolhyeon reacted as if it were absurd. She called it a foolish answer, but the nuance was not particularly mocking.
"So well…… try saying it once. You said you'd receive compensation?"
"Hmm."
What should I receive as compensation for handing the strategy guide to Yu Seolhyeon? Actually it had been decided from the beginning—compensation she might not have accepted if she weren't already anxious after one failed conquest.
"There are about two. Is that okay?"
"As long as they're not unreasonable."
"Good. Then first…… give me the right to preferentially select one of the items obtained from the Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon."
"……Heung?"
When I demanded preferential distribution rights for farming items, she slightly tilted her head, then soon smiled. She seemed to have noticed why I had proposed a deal with her.
"……I don't have the authority to distribute the spoils obtained from the dungeon as I please, but if I force it a bit it's not impossible. Or I could siphon something off separately."
"Is that so?"
"But Lee Jinhyuk—you seem to know what items are there?"
It was a mischievous question, but I took it nonchalantly.
"So what will you do?"
"Well, okay. For now rescue is top priority."
She nodded readily. As she said, rescue and conquest were the top priority goals.
Considering Yu Seolhyeon's personality, even if a desirable item appears she won't change her words later.
If she cleared the dungeon safely with the information I gave, she would not want to sour relations with someone who possessed future sight over a single item. Ah, of course calling it "a single item" was a bit much—it was an extremely good item.
"And the second is not to harass Soyeon."
"Huh?"
Yu Seolhyeon blinked as if the demand had come out of nowhere.
"That's the second condition?"
"I know you don't like Soyeon, but stop doing that now."
"……."
After a moment of silence she suddenly scratched her cheek.
"You said you broke up, but you were thinking of her quite a bit?"
"I think I've said several times it wasn't a bad breakup. And we're childhood friends."
"Childhood friends……."
She seemed to think for a moment, then nodded once.
"Yeah, okay. I'll do that."
"You're not denying that you harassed her?"
I shook my head as if it were absurd.
"Anyway—well, okay. First I'll hand over the materials."
"Yeah."
Yu Seolhyeon received the carefully prepared Yeongdeung Mountain strategy guide and scanned the materials for a short time. Then, suddenly—
"Lee Jinhyuk. You proposed a deal to me, right?"
She took her eyes off the materials and spoke to me.
"Looking at it, you seem to want some item in the dungeon, and since you don't have confidence to conquer it alone you handed me the information—trying to obtain it using my team."
"You, don't tell me."
"Ah, don't misunderstand. It's not that I'm suddenly going to do something or change my words. Just……."
She immediately denied my assumption, slowly stretched the end of her sentence, then gradually moved her lips.
"……I just want to add one more deal term to you separately."
"Deal term?"
"Yeah."
Just as I was wondering what content, she opened her mouth.
"Let's go to the dungeon together."
At her sudden words I fell silent for a moment. Go to the dungeon together? With me?
"I roughly read the materials you gave and they're not bad. But wouldn't it be smoother if you came along?"
"……."
"I'll hire you as a tactical advisor. Ah, of course I'll give generous compensation too. How about about fifty percent of the compensation I'll obtain individually?"
"……The compensation itself is a lot."
Split personal compensation fifty-fifty? Converted to money it would be a considerable sum. Places like dungeons contained plenty of things that could make money—not all dungeons, of course, but the Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon did.
"Of course you can refuse. As I said, it's an additional deal. The dungeon conquest itself seems okay with just the materials you gave."
I can refuse? Funny words. Yu Seolhyeon was casually asking: Can I trust the materials you gave? Can I trust your ability? Are you confident?
Certainly, to give her more trust and faith, participating together might be good. Refusing here could be a bit disadvantageous long-term.
Did she judge that it's better for me to be by her side in case of emergency?
She thought of me as a future-sight ability user. The side effects of falsely revealing the ability were already appearing.
"I can't use it in the dungeon."
"Ah, is that so? Is the activation condition like prophetic dreams where you have to sleep or something? I think there was a foresight ability user like that in the past."
"Well."
"Anyway it doesn't matter. Whether you can use foresight or not, I highly evaluate your tactical aspects too."
"Aren't there veteran heroes on the rescue team? Plus putting a student like me into the team will cause a lot of internal talk."
"You don't need to worry about that far."
She asked again.
"So will you participate or not?"
"……Hmm."
To be honest, I did not particularly want to participate. Naturally—dungeons were not places one entered with a light heart. In the first place it was a dungeon dangerous enough that active heroes had gone missing. Only the game difficulty was low; reality might be different. Moreover the boss monster was a quite troublesome opponent. Its appearance was considerably creepy; even seeing it in the game I had slightly frowned, and if I saw that in reality……
But it's also an opportunity to directly see how active heroes form teams and act.
I already knew the strategy method, and I could somewhat safely accumulate dungeon conquest experience, so…… thinking of later, experiencing it once in advance might not be bad?
Still a bit……
"Lee Jinhyuk?"
No, wait—if I just watch out for the boss monster and the traps it might be okay……
"Are you listening to me?"
Ah, I'm conflicted.
Suddenly—
"Lee Jinhyuk."
"Ah."
"What are you thinking so hard about? Is it something to worry that much about?"
"……I can't easily decide on dungeon participation."
I let out a long breath. Okay, well. Think of it as gaining experience in advance. There were many mountains still to overcome—monsters, villains, dungeons, and so on—so experience of acting alongside veteran heroes would definitely help.
"Okay. I'll participate."
"Hehe. Good thinking."
"You said the rescue team enters tomorrow right away?"
"Yeah. And I'll text you the matters you need to know later."
I nodded once and thought.
……Probably nothing will happen, right?
Since it was the first time I would be entering a dungeon myself, I was still a little worried after all.