What a Complete Disaster
Could there be a mess worse than this?
Two women under the status abnormality Hangover [E] were guzzling water nonstop and throwing it right back up again. It was pure hell.
I'm going to catch hell for this too.
The beautiful private annex of the Drunken Moon Pavilion was being painted over with the vomit of two thoroughly wasted drunks. If the owner saw this, he would absolutely lose his mind. The establishment's proudest suite, reduced to this.
How much are they going to charge me for this…
They were going to squeeze him hard under the excuse of cleaning fees. Yujin glared at the two women dunking their heads in the pond, then let out a long sigh. There was no one else to blame. He had a hand in this too.
Still, it was pretty entertaining.
Lee Sia had turned out exactly as he'd expected—but he never imagined Vivian would end up this far gone. She always looked a little vacant, but she was surprisingly sharp underneath. For a single Hangover [E] to leave her unable to even use her skills properly… there was a certain fresh amusement in that. Of course, if this kept going much longer, it was going to become a real problem.
"Chunbae."
"Kkyaaaang—?"
The little creature that had been watching the two women's disgrace alongside Yujin looked up and tilted its head. The look was so cute that Yujin ruffled its head—then shoved his hand straight into its mouth.
"Kkyaaaaang—!"
What he pulled out was a syringe: a Booster. According to Lee Ki-seok's explanation, it could heal non-fatal injuries.
"Wonder if this works on status abnormalities too?"
He had no idea. Ki-seok probably didn't either. They wouldn't have tested it on someone stuck with something like Hangover [E].
"Only one way to find out."
He needed to know how far its effects reached anyway. With only five left, it was a bit of a waste—but trying something beat sitting around watching this catastrophe unfold.
"Kid. Drag those two out of there before they drown."
Bubbles were rising to the surface of the pond—glub, glub. How long had they even been holding their breath? Park Ji-hoo hurriedly hauled Lee Sia and Vivian out of the water. His face was half out of his mind with panic.
They must feel like dying.
Hangover [E] was a status abnormality that lasted a full week—and at an intensity no ordinary person had ever experienced. By now the two of them were almost certainly thinking death would be preferable.
"Let's see."
Booster in hand, Yujin approached Vivian. She offered no resistance at all.
"Just kill me…"
Utterly sincere. Yujin ignored her and drove the needle into her arm.
"Ah. Damn."
An unexpected problem cropped up. The flesh of a player nearing level sixty simply would not yield to an ordinary syringe needle. Even Yujin had never considered that possibility.
"I'm going to have to tell him this needs fixing too."
He could pass the message along through Sia or Ji-hoo. In the meantime, Yujin drew up his mana. If the needle's strength was the issue, he would simply harden it.
A low hum filled the air. Not sword qi, but a slender thread of Syringe Qi condensed along the needle.
Thuck—.
The syringe Yujin had reinforced himself punched through Vivian's skin like paper.
"Good."
The Booster went in. There wasn't much volume to it, so the injection was over quickly. Yujin watched her carefully.
A few brief moments passed.
"Hm?"
The half-corpse look on her face snapped back toward normal at high speed—which is to say, she went blank again.
"Oh. So it works?"
Amazingly, the Booster worked on status abnormalities too. How high a grade it could handle was still unknown, but against E-grade it was clearly effective.
"Let go."
Vivian twisted her arm free of his grip.
"You good now?"
"Yeah."
Same old Vivian.
"This thing is seriously solid."
He'd liked it when Ki-seok first explained it—now he liked it even more.
"I should ask him to mass-produce these if he can."
The more Boosters they had, the more players' lives they could save. The needle problem still needed work, of course. But once that was solved, there was a particular floor where they would be extremely useful.
Hmm. Be nice if they were finished before we get that far up.
He'd have to send the kids to find out what materials were needed to make Boosters. Focus on gathering those, and they could manufacture far more of them.
"If you're back in your right mind, go save that one too. A little longer and she's going to do something drastic."
Vivian looked at Lee Sia, who was drooling in a steady stream, then opened her Dimensional Mailbox [B] and pulled out some dollars.
"How much?"
"Fifty dollars."
"Cheap."
Roughly seventy thousand won? About the price of an IV drip, if you thought about it that way.
Financial Healing [C]
As the skill activated, the money ignited and flared with light.
"Hwaaaah!"
Lee Sia—whose face had looked ready to invite zombies out for a playdate—sucked in a huge breath and shot upright.
"Ugh, I feel human again. Thank you, Nuna."
She wiped the drool away in a hurry and bowed deeply toward Vivian.
"It's fine."
But Vivian avoided her eyes. Some of the disgrace she'd put on display earlier was apparently coming back to her.
"All three of you, sit over here."
Yujin called the 3 No over. Park Ji-hoo sat in front of him as usual, but Sia and Vivian hesitated.
"Stop looking pathetic and sit down. I'm not going to bring up the scene you made."
At that, the two of them scurried over and gathered around.
"Yesterday, while you two were out cold, we—"
"You said you weren't going to talk about it!"
"Shut up and listen."
Thwack—!
He put the thrashing Sia down with a knuckle to the head, then continued.
"Anyway. The kid and I cleaned out a ruin."
"…A ruin?"
Sia rubbed her head as she asked.
"Yeah. How we found it and how we cleaned it out—I'm skipping all that. Too much of a pain."
Explaining it would mean also explaining how the two of them had wrecked Silverstream County. They were already edging sideways, looking for an exit; no need to drag that out now. Later. Later was fine.
"Anyway, we got all kinds of things out of there. The kid brought some for you two as well, so pick what you want."
Emotion flooded Sia's face—aimed squarely at Park Ji-hoo, of course.
"Ji-hoooo."
"Th-these are them, Nuna."
Ji-hoo rummaged in his Subspace and pulled things out one by one. Out of the ten rewards, minus the Dragon Scale Armor [B] Yujin had taken and the Azure Cloud Flowing Cloud Treasure [B] plus one more that Ji-hoo had claimed for himself, seven remained.
"What is this…?"
Sia's eyes went wide. Vivian's mouth parted slightly in surprise as well.
"Talk it over and split what you need. For the record, I only took one, and the kid only took two."
Divide seven between two people and one of them was inevitably going to end up with less. His point was that they shouldn't get sour about it.
"Who would get upset over something like that? Just getting a share at all is more than enough. Right?"
The natural attitude. This time the two of them had clearly been riding the bus. Even if Yujin and Ji-hoo had kept everything and only handed over one item each, the proper response would have been to bow their heads in thanks.
Sia snorted and started looking over the rewards.
Whoa…
The only word for it was insane. The lowest among the seven was C-grade. Everything else was B-grade. Sia already had Black Wing [B], but that had reached B through evolution. She had never seen an item that was born B-grade from the start. Of course her eyes were going round.
What do I actually need…
Weapons were covered. She had Black Wing [B]. So the daggers were a pass.
Don't need armor either.
White Oath [C] was still perfectly serviceable. The remaining items weren't particularly useful for her either. That left the rune fragments.
Hmm. What's this?
One skill caught her eye.
An eternal sword-scar carved in secret within the dusk. Inflicts continuous damage on struck enemies. Damage increases with the number of brands.
Oh. Dot damage.
Sustained damage—and it stacked.
I don't know exactly how much damage it does, but if I use this right…
It could become a lethal offensive method. Especially against huge-bodied boss monsters like the Holy Dragon.
This one, and…
Sia picked up the rune fragment engraved with Brand of Dusk [B]. And one more.
A bright mirror and quiet water. Slightly increases resistance to mental attacks, and maintains composure upon entering combat.
This one was a trait. Sia already ran emotional more often than not. If that flowed in a good direction, fine—but if it went the wrong way? She could hurt not only herself but her companions as well.
Maybe I wouldn't pull a scene like today's either.
If her mental attack resistance went up, maybe she could even hold off status abnormalities like Hangover [E]. Sia glanced sideways at Vivian and selected Clear Mirror, Still Water [B]. Fortunately, Vivian didn't seem particularly interested in it. Letting out a breath of relief, Sia lifted the two rune fragments.
"These are enough for me."
Two out of seven. The remaining five were all Vivian's—except.
"This one's enough for me too."
Vivian picked only one.
Consumes gold to raise a massive wave. Power scales with the amount of gold used to activate the skill. Only 24K gold is valid.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Looking at the skill she'd chosen, Yujin let out a hollow laugh.
"Did they make this one specifically for you or what?"
Gold Rush [B], of all things. Beyond dollars now—straight into gold. It practically sang an invitation to go bankrupt. Gold was expensive, obviously. A stack of dollars versus a lump of gold—the latter was far more costly.
"…Can you even use that?"
Yujin asked, just in case. Vivian nodded as if it were nothing.
"No problem."
"Whoa… Nuna."
Vivian was richer than they had imagined.
"It doesn't take as much as you'd think. The gold."
Picking up the rune fragment and learning the skill seemed to give her a rough sense of the cost.
"So it's not a burden?"
"Yeah."
"There's no need for you to force yourself into the attack line, so don't push it for no reason."
"I know."
Vivian gave a vague nod and started reviewing the skills she had learned. Four skills remained now—but no one else was hungry for more.
"Then I'll dispose of the rest however I want?"
Yujin scooped up the remaining items and rune fragments.
"What are you going to do with them?"
Sia didn't think he was going to swallow them all for himself. It wasn't about his character—it was about his power. Yujin wasn't weak enough to get greedy over scraps like these.
"Scatter them around. Looks like there are a few people who could use them."
As he spoke, a few faces floated up in his mind. The one who was good with a spear. The thoughtful brat. The brat's boyfriend. Hand these to them, and they'd put them to good use.