Starlink (2)

“……”

Damn it.

The Jutak really was a cool beauty schoolgirl.

And her chest was huge as hell, too.

On top of that, she was shy and kind, and because she’d made a mistake with me, she was trying extra hard to make it up to me.

That absurdly perfect girl was running the Infinite Gallery as its Jutak.

“Wow….”

I kept staring blankly at the photo, again and again. It had a strange sort of magic to it.

I could sort of understand what she’d been thinking when she sent it. The embarrassed message that came with the picture made that pretty clear.

So she only just saw the post I made on the gallery.

She’d probably agonized over it and chosen this method in the end. Why she’d picked this instead of just comforting me with words… ah. Right, I had asked her to show me before, hadn’t I?

“Shit….”

The fact that she’d taken a selfie purely for me somehow felt incredibly hot.

No, seriously, this gloomy busty schoolgirl sent me a selfie telling me to cheer up by looking at her boobs?!

“F-first, save it.”

Like any messenger app, it could be saved without issue.

I didn’t exactly have any use for it, but since it was for me, keeping it for personal collection seemed fair enough.

Seeing her face in person, it really hit me that she wasn’t from this world.

Pure white hair—no, maybe I should call it silver. And her eyes were a vivid sky blue that suited her surprisingly well.

And most of all—

“She’s got a recommendation badge on her eye….”

She had a recommendation badge on her right eye. There was no way that thing was a real Earthling.

Still, kind of nice of her.

Honestly, I hadn’t felt that bad to begin with, but she’d gone out of her way to send me something like this just to cheer me up, and that eased the sting a little.

I’d thought I’d wrapped up Floor 50 of the Demon Tower pretty well, but after checking the gallery, I felt a little bitter again.

I’d been wondering what I’d say if he showed up again later.

They said that as you climbed the tower, you’d be forced to relive the same trauma all over again.

Naturally, the memories of this time would remain only with me. Of course, a completely different timeline might appear, or a different trauma could surface instead…

Still, thinking about a bad reunion with Dojun after our goodbye made me angry and sad at the same time.

I probably would’ve been fine in a day or two.

Thanks to the Jutak, I was laughing again, which meant I didn’t need to lie there all listless for days on end.

“Hiss… Do I need to reply to this?”

Unfortunately—or fortunately—there was no feature that told you whether a message had been read.

I could just pretend I hadn’t seen it and swipe the picture without replying, but she’d sent it to cheer me up. I figured I should at least say something back.

“……”

But this was my first time messaging a girl one-on-one.

What the hell was I supposed to say?

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Phew….”

After agonizing over it, I finally sent the Jutak a reply, then checked Starlink’s functions again.

Three ??? features that would unlock at 50 uses and 100 uses.

[28/50] [28/50] [28/100]

Half and then half of half, I guess.

I didn’t think I’d used it that many times, but the count had already piled up that much.

Apparently, whatever the other person sent also counted as interaction. If that hadn’t been the case, I’d have been seriously cheated.

I’d already spent 2,800 TP.

That was 2.8 million won on a few rounds of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠conversation.

…Should I keep talking to the Jutak and unlock it?

Honestly, I wasn’t sure.

Sure, I had TP saved up now, but it wasn’t going to stay that way forever.

Getting 100,000 TP had been a lucky fluke; under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn’t even have 10,000 right now.

I still need to buy new gear, and I learned a few things from talking to the Jutak.

Right now, I wanted to spend TP somewhere else more than I wanted to burn it on the Jutak.

To be honest, even if Starlink’s functions unlocked, would there really be anything amazing there?

Maybe I should just send her a daily greeting or something.

Then one day, it’d unlock on its own.

Even if phone calls became available, they’d probably be awkward to use anyway.

What would I even talk about with the Jutak on the phone?

If messages cost 100 TP, I couldn’t even guess how expensive a call would be.

Still, I am curious.

It wasn’t like the count reset, so I decided to let it build slowly.

First, I needed to buy what I’d saved up for.

I had to buy the next tier after the iron sword, and I needed a new shield, too. I’d used up all my mana stones, so I needed to restock those, and I still had to get a spellbook.

“Let’s see… the next tier after the iron sword is….”

“……”

The price had shot up way too high, sir.

Four million won, and I wasn’t even trying to buy some master-forged legendary blade or anything.

I didn’t even know how much different it was from the iron sword, so was it really worth paying four times the price?

[TP Owned: 94,706]

I had enough TP to buy it, but… no, even so….

Still, buying the same old thing again after already upgrading feels wrong, too….

Now that the next tier had finally been unlocked, it felt even worse to just buy the previous one again because the price was scary.

No, at that price, maybe buying it again actually was the right move.

“Ugh, fuck, I don’t know….”

There was no point in saving TP if I wasn’t going to spend it, and if I didn’t buy it now, I’d never be able to afford it later.

I also knew by now exactly how important equipment differences could be.

Click.

“……”

After tossing the steel sword into my cart, I added a leather shield for 3,000 TP as well.

I considered buying the next tier once the leather shield arrived, but since it was only a support item, I decided not to overinvest.

Because the next one would probably cost 10,000 TP, and honestly, that was just too much.

I’ll buy this one right away.

I grabbed the armor I’d put off buying because I wasn’t sure it would do much immediately.

As expected of a first-tier item, it was cheap. There were all sorts of other pieces—helmets, gloves, shoes, and so on—but I skipped them for now.

After all, once I had parry effects, I figured armor wouldn’t matter all that much.

Heavy gear could end up being a drawback if it just made my body sluggish.

[Royal Knight Order Basic Swordsmanship 3rd Form] - 3,000 TP

[Royal Knight Order Basic Swordsmanship 4th Form] - 4,000 TP

[Royal Knight Order Basic Swordsmanship 5th Form] - 5,000 TP

I tossed every volume of my one and only swordsmanship teacher’s manual into the cart, too.

For a while, it would probably be better to focus on training rather than climbing the tower.

[Low-Grade Mana Stone] - 100 TP x20

[Mid-Grade Mana Stone] - 1,000 TP x3

[“Genuine” Beginner Fire Grimoire] - 9,900 TP

I also stocked up on mana stones, mixing beginner and mid-grade ones, and added the fire magic spellbook I’d felt I needed in Floor 50 of the Demon Tower.

[Premium Pillow] - 1,000 TP

[Premium Blanket] - 1,000 TP

After tossing in bedding that would make my life more comfortable, I grinned.

That should do it, right?

That was about all I could think of off the top of my head. This should be enough.

I had no idea what the total would come to, but I had enough money, so I figured it’d be fine.

[Steel Sword] - 40,000 TP

[Leather Shield] - 3,000 TP

[Cloth Armor] - 1,000 TP

.

.

.

[Premium Blanket] - 1,000 TP

“……Hm.”

I blinked at the total after everything had been added up.

I knew I’d loaded up a lot, but this was more than I’d imagined.

Am I overspending too much?

I could buy it. Even after dropping this much, I’d still have over 20,000 TP left.

And even if I tried to cut things, there wasn’t really anything I could remove.

I absolutely couldn’t take out the pillow and blanket, which meant the only things left to cut were the cloth armor or one of the swordsmanship books….

Honestly, rather than save a few thousand TP there, it seemed better to just spend it all.

[Would you like to proceed with the purchase?]

…Eh, screw it.

Click!

I was going to buy it all eventually anyway.

Better this than hoarding it and then dumping food all over the gallery for no reason.

I’d been thinking about coming back after a month and throwing out some food, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thanks to the Jutak, I realized it had only been two days since I’d flung chicken around.

I hadn’t known the warped flow of time in the tower could be this useful.

After finishing that true, authentic FLEX, I went straight into the gallery and started looking for a familiar nickname.

Starlink registration.

Something I’d learned from talking to the Jutak:

Oddities, TP, central administration, and so on. Things that were normally censored weren’t censored in Starlink.

I didn’t know why.

Was it because I’d paid the 100 TP fee, or was there some other reason hidden beneath it?

I figured I’d find out by talking to this guy a lot from here on out.

“-Hey, I want to talk about oddities and the tower and a few other things. Got time? And just so you know, this costs money every time I send it, so don’t keep replying bit by bit—send one long message back.”

Okay.

This time I’d made sure to warn him properly so the Jutak disaster wouldn’t repeat itself.

Not just any gallery member, but Sage’s Stone—I was sure he’d understand exactly what I meant.

Beep-!

I smiled at the reply that came back almost instantly, about as fast as the Jutak’s had.

As expected of an intelligence-type, he immediately proposed an efficient method.

Instead of asking and answering one thing at a time, we’d trade everything all at once, like letters.

I didn’t know whether there was a character limit, but doing it that way would definitely use TP more efficiently.

It doesn’t really feel like a messenger app anymore, though….

Well, wasn’t good enough good enough?

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Mm… so that’s how it is, huh.”

I wrapped up a nearly two-hour-long debate with Sage’s Stone.

We’d talked for two hours, but the TP spent came to exactly 1,400.

Sure, that was 1.4 million won, but compared to the conversation with the Jutak, it was efficient.

…No, wait. Is the Jutak’s photo worth more?

The Jutak’s selfie, sent with that embarrassed expression, had cost 280,000 won.

That sounds like a pretty good contest.

If I could resell it, wouldn’t gallery members pay hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, for it?

Of course I had no way to sell it, and I had no intention of doing so anyway.

Swish.

I lowered my gaze and checked Sage’s Stone’s final message one more time.

The conclusion, after all the twists and turns, was still: unknown.

There simply wasn’t enough information yet.

What’s more, Sage’s Stone came from a fantasy world, so he didn’t have a proper understanding of words like “siren” or “vaccine.”

Especially when it came to that oddly sci-fi atmosphere I’d felt with my eyes closed on Floor 50 of the Sky Tower.

When I heard terms like administrative code, Z-63, central administration, and vaccine, there wasn’t much I could immediately connect them to.

Of course, I’d understood things in my own way and made my own inferences… but in the end, I came back to the same answer: I still didn’t know.

The one thing Sage’s Stone and I seemed to agree on was that this tower had likely been built intentionally by someone.

“Phew….”

And after more than two hours of debate, the conclusion I reached was—

“That I need to unlock Starlink with the Jutak.”

I needed to figure out what the ununlocked Starlink features were.

Maybe, just maybe, something important was hidden in there.

Just like Starlink could bypass the gallery’s censorship, there might be something special tucked away there, too.

What am I supposed to talk about with the Jutak?

For the record, the reason I’d decided to unlock it with her was simple.

TP was limited.

It made more sense to talk to the Jutak, since I had more interaction count built up with her.

It wasn’t like Sage’s Stone and I were close enough to just shoot the breeze.

And personally, the Jutak was easier to talk to.

“I was thinking of swinging a sword and training a bit, but….”

For now, maybe I should just keep talking to the Jutak until I hit 50 uses.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“……”

I couldn’t sleep.

Why not? I didn’t really know.

Was it because this was the first time someone had said something like that to me?

No… if I was being precise, it wasn’t the first time.

Because of my huge chest paired with my small frame, I’d dealt with all kinds of stares.

And as for being called pretty—that had usually come with ugly implications.

I hadn’t really wanted to hear it, and even when I did, it never felt good.

It should have been like that….

“You’re already treating me well enough….”

I’d been lying under the blanket for hours already, but sleep still wouldn’t come.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but in the end I still couldn’t drift off, so I sighed and checked my device.

Even though I knew there wouldn’t be a message. Even though I knew there was no reason for one to come.

I still found myself staring at the last message I’d seen.

After staring at those words of thanks and being pretty for a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠long while, I opened my photo album.

I quietly checked the photo of Wiki-nim I’d saved in secret and tried stitching his voice into my head.

My face felt hot for some reason, so I covered it, then smacked myself on the head.

I closed my eyes again and tried to force myself to sleep, but in the end I just repeated the same thing over and over.

“Seriously, seriously, I need to sleep….”

I had to climb the tower tomorrow, too. At this rate, I was going to end up sleeping in for the first time in years.

So I really did shut my eyes tight, clutch the blanket, and wait for sleep to come for a while.

Beep-!

“……”

When I heard it, I let out an involuntary laugh.

Now I’m hearing things, too.

I knew there wasn’t going to be a message. The conversation had ended hours ago. I was being stupid.

Go to sleep already….

If I just slept and woke up, I’d feel a little better.

With that thought, I waited again.

Beep-!

“……”

I frowned at the sound.

Was it… real?

Maybe it actually was.

But why?

I’d told him not to send anything unless it was important because it cost money.

Messages were probably expensive enough that three of them would buy you a soda.

Would he really spend money just to talk to me…?

As expected, my hallucination—

Beep-!

It’s real…!!

There was no way a fake message would come three times.

If this was a hallucination, then I’d just have to stay up all night.

“I’m not asleep—!!”

I’m not asleep… no, I mean, I wasn’t asleep yet, Wiki-nim…!