Parasitic Growth (2)
I’m Kang Seojun. What brings you here?
“Um… this is a bit of a long story! If it’s alright with you, could we talk inside?”
Hm…
It was tempting to ask if it was wise to let Jin Serin into his room. He thought for a moment but dismissed the worry quickly.
The intention was unclear, so he should stay on guard. But she was, after all, a heroine. He couldn’t keep turning her away at the door like this.
Clunk.
“Come in.”
Kang Seojun opened the front door, took a few steps back, and spoke.
“Thank you, thank you!”
Jin Serin bowed deeply, her waist curving 120 degrees as she peeked through the half-open door.
Just as she was about to step inside…
“Allow me to go first, Miss.”
A slender, formally dressed arm blocked her path.
“Hm?”
Kang Seojun frowned at the unexpected third party.
A moment later, a neatly groomed woman with her hair tied back emerged from behind the door.
“Ah…”
The moment he saw her face, Kang Seojun relaxed.
‘Of course. There’s no way Jin Serin would come to a strange man’s house alone.’
She was Jin Serin’s personal bodyguard, Seo Eunha.
Seo Eunha entered the entryway, scanned the entire space for a long time, and only then removed her shoes.
“This is improper…! Are you inspecting my house as if it were yours?!”
Jin Serin followed her in and whispered a small scolding.
“Come in and sit anywhere.”
Kang Seojun headed toward the refrigerator.
Guests first—something had to be offered.
But there was nothing edible in this house except water. The water purifier was a godsend, at least.
He poured water into a plain glass cup without washing it.
Touching anything would only spread more filth.
Jin Serin and Seo Eunha wandered around the room, unable to find a proper seat.
Kang Seojun handed them each a cup and sat on the edge of the bed.
“There aren’t any chairs. Sit here.”
“O-okay!”
Jin Serin immediately sat down. Seo Eunha moved to stand near the balcony window.
“So, what’s this about?”
Kang Seojun found the situation odd. In the original story, Jin Serin’s events usually only triggered when the player approached first. Coming all the way to his door so early was unheard of.
“I want to make a deal!”
“A deal?”
“Yes! Yesterday at the entrance exam, I saw Mr. Kang Seojun! Your Willpower is A+ grade. I heard you don’t even have a hallucination-resistance trait. If you have any secret techniques, I’d love to buy them!”
“Ah…”
So that was it.
Kang Seojun instantly understood her intentions.
The original story had a similar event: Jin Serin, facing a training wall, asked the protagonist for help.
This was just a slightly altered version of that scenario.
“Hm…”
Kang Seojun stroked his chin and thought.
Right when he was worrying about not having food, Jin Serin had approached offering information. This was clearly good luck.
But…
“How am I supposed to handle this…?”
What Jin Serin needed was a way to grow her Willpower.
If he taught her the proper method, he could receive more than enough compensation—enough to cover two weeks of living expenses and even cover the entire academy period without worry.
“I’ll buy it at a premium!”
Jin Serin looked at him with eyes half hopeful, half tense.
Her nervousness flickered for a moment.
“She’s probably been stagnant for a while now.”
Kang Seojun knew the cause of her stagnation.
It wasn’t a flawed training method or her already reaching her limit.
It was the trait she carried: **Chosen One**.
**Chosen One** was the inferior version of **Favored One**. It granted full sponsorship from a single constellation.
But it had a fatal flaw: if the holder refused the constellation’s demanded destiny, growth would stop completely.
It was like a shaman falling ill if they refused to accept the spirit possession.
People with **Chosen One** could only grow until they accepted their fate.
Once they accepted it, they would receive massive growth buffs.
But for Jin Serin right now, that was still a distant possibility.
Right now, normal training methods couldn’t raise her stats at all.
There was, however, another way.
Hidden pieces always existed for those who knew where to look.
“I have one that might fit perfectly.”
“Alright. Let’s make the deal.”
After some thought, Kang Seojun nodded.
Jin Serin’s face lit up.
“However, the process won’t be easy. I’ll definitely receive compensation.”
Jin Serin swallowed once, her expression a mix of anticipation and nervousness.
“W-well, let’s negotiate the conditions!”
Kang Seojun had no intention of asking for something ridiculous.
Jin Serin was desperate. Asking too much would just make her reject it.
“What conditions did you have in mind?”
If she had any specific conditions, they could start there.
“Yes! For every one point increase in any stat, I’ll give a reward equivalent to an upper-grade item. When stats reach 21 or higher, I’ll provide a reward equivalent to a rare-grade item!”
Upper-grade and rare-grade rewards for stat growth.
That was actually generous.
Everything in this world—items, traits, skills—had grades.
From lowest to transcendent: lowest, low, common, upper, rare, epic, legendary, mythic, transcendent.
Higher grades meant astronomically higher value.
An upper-grade reward was worth a car and a full apartment. Even a single rare-grade item let you live worry-free for years.
Given how urgent her situation was, she must have offered a very lenient deal from the start.
The Seongjin Group wasn’t like the Taesan Group, ruthlessly crushing opponents. Accepting this straight should cause no issues.
He would need to tweak it slightly to match the current situation.
“For the first transaction, we’ll do a down payment in cash. For stats reaching 21 or higher, we’ll handle a rear-payment deal with rare-grade artifacts, but I’ll personally select them from the Seongjin Group’s artifact warehouse.”
“Eh?! You know about the Seongjin Group?!”
Jin Serin’s eyes widened.
“If you didn’t know, wouldn’t that be strange…?”
“Ah…!”
Jin Serin fidgeted with her cup, then glanced at Seo Eunha.
Seo Eunha thought for a moment and gave a tiny nod.
“I-I accept! Let’s go with those conditions!”
The deal was closed.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Evening.
Jin Serin’s penthouse in the bustling district of Stellaport.
[Kang Seojun: Payment confirmed. I’ll tell you the training location tomorrow. Please pick me up in front of the house at 9 a.m. since we’ll need to travel by car.]
Jin Serin read Kang Seojun’s message, then sank into the sofa.
“He seems oddly mysterious, doesn’t he?”
“To me, he just looks like a suspicious guy.”
Seo Eunha, sitting across from Jin Serin, looked at her tablet PC and spoke.
On the screen was detailed information on Kang Seojun.
“The data too.”
Other than being an orphan, there was no record of his past.
His weirdly balanced stats, the body that was already broken to the point of being a miracle he was still alive, the calm, detached way he accepted the sudden deal offer as if he had predicted everything…
Also, the apartment he lived in—when checked, it turned out to be in his own name.
No family, no work history, and yet he could afford an opulent Stellaport studio.
Everything about him was abnormal.
“Are you worried?”
Jin Serin looked at her.
“Of course I am. I don’t like the feeling at all. This man clearly has some kind of background. If he didn’t, there’d be too many things that don’t make sense. I’ll have to stay suspicious until I figure out what that background is.”
“He gets creepier the more I look at him.”
Seo Eunha didn’t want to get close to him even if it meant staying away from people.
But she couldn’t say anything about reversing the deal.
Jin Serin’s stagnation had been a problem that every royal medicine and top-tier trainer had tried and failed to solve for years.
They had exhausted every method but couldn’t even find the root cause.
So she had come here without much hope.
And this man had accepted the proposal with surprising confidence.
Clearly there was something there.
But…
“I’m not convinced at all…”
Even the so-called experts who had passed through Jin Serin over the years had been confident at first. Then they left with confused expressions.
He clearly had something, but she didn’t feel he was anything like them.
“Moreover…”
The experts she had met before all had clear origins and backgrounds.
They all had proven, reliable methods.
This time was different.
She didn’t even know his background or what he even wanted to do with Jin Serin.
The lack of information made Seo Eunha feel deeply uneasy.
If he ever intended to use this deal to harm Jin Serin…
She bit her lower lip at the unpleasant chill.
“Um…”
Jin Serin, watching her, spoke softly to soothe her.
“Don’t worry so much. Besides, I contacted him because I needed something, and tomorrow my sister and the entire escort team will be coming with us. I’ll protect myself properly too.”
“…That’s true.”
Even so, Seo Eunha’s unease didn’t vanish easily.
She knew there was no real basis for her worry, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that getting tied to him—even unconsciously—would lead to being controlled by him in some way.
And on the other side…
Kang Seojun’s studio apartment.
“I get money from Jin Serin, quest rewards, constellation sponsorship, and now an extra hidden piece.”
Kang Seojun’s plan to extract maximum benefits from Jin Serin was finally complete.
“This is the perfect plan—kill two birds with one stone.”
Seo Eunha’s intuition had been half right.