A Feast Served on a Silver Platter
The Dugun Dugun Heart Attack concert wrapped up without a hitch.
Well — two of the girl group members did get murdered by Jung Sujin along the way, but the internment camps were overflowing with villains as it was, so it hardly counted as a problem.
Victoria stretched her arms high overhead, soaking the warm sunlight into every inch of her. Her skin was so pale that standing beside her was enough to make your eyes water. God, it actually hurt to look at her.
"Let's go grab a drink!"
"Huh? It's still the middle of the day."
"You're supposed to drink when the sun's out! It's safer that way, right? Drink when it's dark and you're just asking for an accident."
"Ah. I see."
Flawless logic. Not a single hole in it.
"Oh, how old are you, by the way? You are old enough to drink, right?"
"Twenty-one."
"Ah! Ah, is that so! Got it. Then I can drop the formalities, yeah?"
The sheer nerve of it left me speechless. What the hell was she doing? Was this a foreigner thing? I had a feeling that pressing the subject any further would just piss me off, so I let it drop and changed the topic.
"Your Korean is incredibly good..."
"Of course! I love K-pop. That's why I practiced."
Strangely enough, there wasn't a trace of a Russian accent in her speech. She sounded like someone who'd grown up in Korea. If you only heard her voice, who'd ever guess she was a foreigner?
"At first I went to China because they were paying a lot. Didn't really click, though. They wanted me to attack Taiwan or something? I got the hell out of there."
"Good call. If you'd taken that job..."
"I'd probably be sitting at the bottom of the ocean by now, right? Taiwan's got this S-class lunatic they call the Black Dragon."
Victoria grinned and planted a hand on my shoulder. Even at a glance she had to be over a hundred and seventy centimeters — a real giant. The height difference was inevitable.
A chill ran through me. Should I really go with her alone? I'd thought of a plan beforehand, but this wasn't going to cut it.
"Um, hey. Would it be all right if my friends came drinking with us?"
"Hm? Oh! Of course. Are they the people you worked with last time?"
"Ah, you might recognize a few faces. There's an A-class hero among them."
A kind of insurance policy. A body this fragile couldn't handle any sudden surprises.
If only I were a little sturdier. Truly pathetic, myself included.
Point Shop.
I had no choice. I was going to use the only means I had of protecting myself.
The Status Window had told me I could spend points at the shop to buy items or skills. Which meant that if I used what I had wisely, conquering Victoria wouldn't be all that hard.
Nice. Everything I wanted, right there. I bought the Super-Strength Sleeping Pills on the spot. A small glass vial settled into my palm.
I'd mix this into her drink, then take her. The thought of having that beautiful body however I wanted already had me buzzing.
The place Victoria took me to was a bar attached to some strange club.
"Hmm. Party of five."
"Yes, right this way."
She was clearly a regular — the staff recognized her face on sight. Thanks to that, we were shown to a quiet private room without any of the usual formalities.
"All the booze in here is on my tab, so drink as much as you want."
The room was done in a Japanese tatami style you rarely saw. Decorative katanas and Buddhist statues lined the walls, along with hanging scrolls covered in kanji I couldn't begin to decipher.
An odd place, in more ways than one. I wouldn't have figured a Russian for the type to like a spot like this.
"A friend of mine runs this place, so I can get the drinks dirt cheap! Everybody, drink up!"
She pulled several bottles of what looked like extremely strong liquor from the fridge in the room. Could a person even drink that? Physically, I wasn't sure it would go down.
"Anyway, I can't believe your 'friends' are Kim Yerin and Baek Hanyoung! I nearly jumped out of my skin!"
"You know them?"
"No?! Not personally. But they're famous!"
Well, setting aside Han Yuri, who was still going through her trainee process — Baek Hanyoung and Kim Yerin were A-class heroes. Of course she'd recognize them.
"Famous?"
"Yeah! You're in dramas and movies all the time."
"...I haven't been working much lately."
Kim Yerin looked slightly flustered as she stared at Victoria. Victoria snorted a laugh, covering her mouth as she muttered.
"Yerin, you're famous for selling your classmates' photos to fund your gambling habit and getting cut off for it!"
"..."
"Looks like you made up, though? You're hanging around with Baek Hanyoung."
"Hanyoung and I have always been close! And don't you sneak informal speech in on me like that!"
She was the one in the wrong, so why was she the one getting angry? The thought crossed my mind, but I kept it to myself. Kim Yerin was more than capable of climbing on and riding me out of spite.
"There's barely even an age gap. Let's just talk casual!"
"...How old are you?"
"Twenty-five!"
"Hey! I'm older than you!"
Victoria didn't answer. She just grabbed a bottle of vodka and cracked the cap off with a crunch.
"A little lukewarm. Maybe the fridge is broken. Vodka's supposed to be drunk ice-cold."
She ran her fingers lightly along the bottle. A crackling frost spread across the glass, the outside frosting over in a thin sheet of ice.
The contents didn't freeze. High alcohol content, probably.
Victoria then tipped that vicious liquor back and chugged it in one go. It wasn't grape juice. She didn't even pause for breath.
Half that enormous vodka bottle vanished. I was left staring, dumbfounded that so much liquor could disappear that fast.
"Hah! Nothing beats a drink for killing the nerves. Fuuuuh! I really thought I was going to die back there!"
"Uh... are you drinking that straight from the bottle?"
"Hmm?! Oh, don't worry! I grabbed separate bottles for you guys!"
Victoria pulled more bottles from the fridge. The labels looked familiar.
Soju? They sell that here too?
Green glass bottles. No matter how I looked at them, those were the brand I knew.
"Koreans love this stuff, right? Baby vodka. Fine as a palate cleanser, but it's too weak for me. You guys drink that!"
Perfect. This was my chance...
Victoria isn't a physical type like Baek Hanyoung.
Judging by Kim Yerin's case, most A-class heroes derived the bulk of their power from unique abilities rather than raw physique.
Which meant that in terms of pure physical capability, nobody in the A-class could match Baek Hanyoung's hands. I quietly passed the vial to our resident orca sitting next to me.
"..."
"..."
We hadn't discussed anything beforehand, but a look was all it took. She picked up the fresh vodka bottle sitting beside Victoria, flicked her finger, and snapped the neck clean off. Liquor sloshed out, but she didn't care — she just tipped it back and drank.
"Wow. Impressive."
"Hah. We ought to toast."
"За здоровье!"
"What?"
"Cheers! Cheers!"
Baek Hanyoung gave her a dubious look as she clinked bottle against bottle.
From where I sat, I could see what she was doing. The left hand that wasn't holding anything flicked upward for the briefest instant. And — plop. Something dropped into Victoria's drink.
It happened so fast I could barely process it. All I saw was Baek Hanyoung's left hand rising. Nothing more, nothing less. I sat there blinking, only just piecing together what had happened.
"Russians are supposed to be heavy drinkers, right?"
"Of course! Honestly, what I just drank barely even counts."
"That so? Then how about another toast."
Easy.
The lowest difficulty setting I'd encountered yet. Hanyoung's mouth twisted into a smirk as she waited for Victoria to drink.
At last — gulp, gulp. The liquor went down. She kept at it, a long, unbroken pull. Victoria kept her lips on that bottle for a long while. The contents hit empty in no time.
"Mmm... the taste is a little weird, hic!"
"You're not passing out from that little, are you?"
"Uh... wait. My eyes just suddenly..."
She trailed off and collapsed on the spot. Or rather — she fell asleep. That was the more accurate way to put it.
Good.
Time for some fun.