Chapter 104
Chapter 104
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: How to Steal the Protagonist's Woman
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Min Hayeon froze at the unexpected arrival of someone she never imagined would show up.
The chat exploded into chaos with Seong Suho's sudden appearance.
Min Hayeon kept her composure and asked him calmly.
"What brings you here?"
"Oh, uh... I rushed earlier and forgot to give you one."
"Ah..."
Min Hayeon accepted a beginner's Artemis potion from Seong Suho.
She took it gratefully, but deep down, she couldn't quite understand.
"Thanks for bringing it... but you could've just given it to me tomorrow. No need to go out of your way..."
"Ah..."
Seong Suho scratched his head awkwardly before replying.
"I didn't want to cause any misunderstandings. It'd be awkward if it looked like I was picking a fight with your boyfriend."
"Ah..."
Min Hayeon's eyes caught one message scrolling through the endless chat.
The moment Min Hayeon saw that chat, she gasped and covered her mouth in shock.
'...Oh my god.'
She'd only heard about the 5,000 points earlier and hadn't bothered adding it all up.
But now that she heard the total value of the potions she'd received, it made her head spin.
After hunting all day, she'd scraped together a measly 2,500 points.
Yet Seong Suho had whipped up potions worth 55,000 points in a single day—while cooped up in his room practicing alchemy, no less.
Min Hayeon had heard plenty about alchemists in the chat over time.
But she'd never paid much attention.
She figured everyone got rewards proportional to their effort.
This guy was operating on a whole other level from the start.
Min Hayeon was starting to piece it together.
The man standing blankly in front of her wasn't just anyone...
She pondered inwardly.
'...He's a good guy, at least. Thoughtful, even... Getting close to him would definitely help.'
As she resolved to befriend Seong Suho, he flashed a gentle smile.
"Well, I'll be off then."
"Um... wait."
"Yes?"
Min Hayeon grabbed Seong Suho just as he turned to leave.
"Would you... maybe want to party up just the two of us tomorrow?"
"...Pardon?"
Seong Suho tilted his head, clearly not grasping her words as he looked at her.
He was likely wondering why she was asking this when they were already in a party.
But Min Ha-yeon cleared it up right away.
"...Just you and me."
...
...
Min Ha-yeon finished her shower, slipped into her pajamas, and gently lay down on the bed.
"Ha... They said leaving this place would make a life like this impossible, huh?"
One piece of info from the gods on her channel stood out.
Once they left Zephyrium Village, this luxurious lifestyle was a pipe dream.
While luxury facilities existed elsewhere, the points she was currently earning wouldn't even come close, and even surviving day-to-day would be a struggle...
Her viewers were screaming for her to save points now.
But even her usually rowdy chat was dead silent tonight.
Min Ha-yeon glanced at it and chuckled softly.
"...Kinda awkward when it's this quiet."
It wasn't that they weren't chatting. They couldn't.
Min Hayeon always cut off channel transmission the moment she entered her room.
As a woman, she didn't want to expose her private life.
Alone on her unseen bed, she rolled around, thinking back to that man.
She'd proposed partying with Seong Suho—and he'd accepted positively.
That said, he'd expressed concern about Han Yeoreum.
(I'm fine with it, but... your boyfriend...)
(It's okay. We're not dying here anymore, right? Might as well split off for the future.)
(Got it.)
As Min Hayeon said, fourth-day summoners weren't keeling over in the streets.
Zephyrium made it hard to die even to monsters.
"...Yeo-reum might worry, but the other girls will take care of him. Time to worry about me first."
Seong Suho said he'd tell Han Yeo-reum at lunch tomorrow and head to the opposite side of the village.
Han Yeo-reum's party always hunted in the eastern fields.
Their spot tomorrow was the western field.
The west had denser woods and poorer visibility than the east, but the monster levels were the same.
The key was Min Hayeon sneaking out unnoticed.
Seong Su-ho could just explain and dip from the party, but it wasn't so simple for her.
So she planned to fake being sick and sit it out.
"He'll believe me.... Well, what's he going to do if he doesn't?"
Whether he believed her or not, it didn't matter what Han Yeo-reum said.
Min Hayeon figured testing a duo party with Seong Suho for efficiency came first.
"And if it's not that great... I'll just stay friends and go back to Yeoreum's party."
She had no intention of abandoning Seong Su-ho.
Alchemist was etched in her mind as an amazing class—and even just being friendly would help plenty.
"Anyway... time to sleep."
She turned off the light, lay down, and drifted off.
As her eyes grew heavy, a final thought flitted by.
'...Still, thinking about other things... makes me feel more at ease....'
Min Ha-yeon was able to go to sleep, forgetting Han Yeo-reum's behavior from earlier.
After accepting Min Hayeon's party invite, I headed straight back to the inn.
The moment I hit the room, I flopped onto the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Jackpot..."
As Armonia said, Han Yeoreum would have to keep being a jerk for opportunities like this to pop up again.
Though I'd deal with that before it came to repeats...
While Armonia and I were positive, one dissatisfied party chimed in...
"Nah, bribing with points? Please refrain from weird misunderstandings~"
Gay Dick Guy had been spamming the chat to cancel the mission nonstop.
To reassure him, I laid out the situation clearly.
"Think about it. Does partying mean I snag her? I've barely gotten close—don't overreact..."
He was clearly anxious.
Clinging desperately to protect his 100k points investment.
"No way! Hey, what were the conditions again?"
"C'mon, memory's fuzzy, huh...? It wasn't 'no points'—it was 'don't buy a girl with points.'"
Gay Dick Guy had specifically said not to buy a woman with points.
I'd used points, sure—but it was more goodwill than anything.
Not like I was purchasing her.
"C'mon, you fought in the Twilight Wars, right? Too timid~"
A constellation asking to reduce the mission reward?
"Huh? You spend points to watch channels?"
"...Fine."
"How much should I cut it by?"
I gave Gay Dick Guy that classic "how many spanks you want?" vibe from childhood.
He went silent for a bit, pondering, then typed one line.
...Down to 1/10 in an instant.
Even added polite speech at the end...
"Phew... Got it."
"So how do we do it?"
The chat went quiet for a moment—then a fairy popped into the room.
The fairy floated listlessly with an irritated droop to her shoulders.
"Sigh... Couldn't this wait till tomorrow?"
"Sigh..."
She let out a deep sigh in her childlike voice, and the mission update appeared in chat.
"Here goes... What even's the point of this crap... Sigh..."
The fairy bobbed her head, sighed deeply one last time, and vanished.
"Whoa, fast worker."
"So, make sure to give me some good advice when I need it."
I chuckled and sprawled out on the bed.
But Armonia questioned my actions as she watched.
'Well... yeah, but...'
I grinned at the chat.
'I'm a softie for favors. Hard to stay stone-cold with someone who's helped.'
Gay Dick Guy was quirky, but helpful.
His intel and fun vibes were spot on.
I closed my eyes and recited a confident line.
'I'm going to break the regression loop one way or another. So I should treat him even better.'
'Yeah, I'll have to watch the video again tomorrow...'
I ended the communication and drifted off to sleep.
...
...
I met the party at the eastern village exit, explained my "situation"—which was total BS.
"Must've used too much mana yesterday. Not feeling great. Probably can't hunt today."
"...You think the rest of us are full of energy prancing around?"
As expected, Han Yeo-reum didn't seem to have any intention of letting me go.
But what was he going to do if he didn't let me? I just wouldn't go.
However, I had no intention of leaving through a blunt confrontation.
The opponent is a regressor.
I need to avoid clashing with this guy right now.
"I'm sorry. At this rate, even if we drop or gather materials, I won't be able to make potions. In fact, I might end up making potions with side effects."
"..."
Han Yeo-reum gnawed his lip, then brushed past me toward the village.
"C'mon, let's go! We don't need some alchemist. Let's just buy potions first."
"Y-yeah."
"As for potions... we can just buy a lot of them."
The three women who'd gotten intimate with Han Yeoreum chatted casually now, heading to the potion shop without me.
Min Ha-yeon wasn't among them.
She must've made excuses after proposing the party invite.
To avoid any chance of running into Han Yeo-reum's party, I circled around the outskirts of the village and headed for the western exit.
There stood Min Ha-yeon, brown hair swaying as she admired the scenery of the forest.
I approached and greeted her.
"Hey there."
"Ah! Hi."
Min Hayeon and I exchanged greetings, then planned the day's hunt.
Even as a skilled archer, solo hunting worried her.
"I can shoot arrows fine, but I'm weak on the move."
"Ah... yeah, field archery doesn't need much movement."
She wasn't used to shooting while moving yet.
"But this potion..."
She pulled a beginner's Artemis potion from her inventory.
Studying its effects intently, she turned to me.
"With this potion, I think we can kill the mobs we'll facing in one or two hits."
"...That's impressive. I just made it for practice."
"Practice..."
"...?"
"Ah! Nothing. Let's take it slow at first."
Min Hayeon led the way into the forest.
Her appearance was reminiscent of an elf guiding someone through the woods.
And so began Min Ha-yeon and my first "date" (?).