Chapter 7
Kang Do-yoon was staring at the screen with a grave face, his mind digging through every last scrap of memory.
He had watched the entire game ending, multiple times even.
Yet the only things he could recall were the basics: becoming a guild intern, joining the same team as the female characters, leveling up, triggering the X-scene events, switching to different female teammates, leveling up again, and more X-scene events. Over and over.
“……”
Did the story even exist? He had definitely watched the ending. The full harem ending. But the important parts? Completely blank.
Kang Do-yoon covered his face with both hands.
‘Even if it is an adult game, there shouldn’t be any huge crisis, right?
‘I’m sure there won’t be any major events.’ He tried desperately to comfort himself.
Right about then, a cautious voice came from beside him.
“Kang Do-yoon-nim.”
“Yes?”
“Is something the matter?”
Yoo Chae-won was watching him with clear concern.
“Your expression has become quite serious.”
Kang Do-yoon hesitated for a moment.
He knew the original protagonist had quit work for childcare leave and the story had gone off the rails, but she wouldn’t understand that.
So he gave a vague excuse instead.
“I’m just envious of the permanent staff. And paid leave too.”
“Ah.”
Yoo Chae-won nodded as if she had understood.
For a while she fell silent, her face gradually turning red.
Then, with an expression of resolve, she spoke.
“I… I…”
“Hm?”
“Th-that…”
Yoo Chae-won avoided his gaze.
“If Kang Do-yoon-nim is alright with it…”
“……”
Her face flushed even deeper.
“P-pregnancy activities…”
“What?”
“Me and you—”
At that moment, the attendant’s voice rang out from the next room.
“Please prepare to enter.”
Yoo Chae-won jumped in surprise.
“Ah! I’m coming in!”
She hurriedly straightened her posture, as if she wanted to erase the conversation that had just happened.
Kang Do-yoon didn’t ask anything else.
The two of them walked toward the gate.
Yoo Chae-won secretly let out a small sigh.
“…I’ve really lost it.”
Of course Kang Do-yoon hadn’t heard.
That day, the gate clearing was far faster than usual.
SWISH.
SWISH.
SWISH.
Every monster was gone in one swing of Yoo Chae-won’s sword.
But she was swinging harder than usual.
“Waaah!”
“?”
“No way!”
“……”
“Ugh…”
Each time Yoo Chae-won swung her sword, she made strange noises.
Kang Do-yoon kept glancing over at her, but in the end he didn’t ask.
Sometimes ignorance was a blessing.
They cleared the gate the whole day without the level rising.
Kang Do-yoon checked his status window.
─────────────────
[Name] : Kang Do-yoon
[Level] : 4
[Class] : Recovery Mage
[Skills] : Heal Lv.1, Shield Lv.1
─────────────────
The required experience seemed to have increased sharply.
But he couldn’t even challenge the higher gates.
If this had been a game, maybe. But in reality, there was only one life on the line.
No save. No load.
“I’ll have to work hard tomorrow too.”
Just as he was about to greet Yoo Chae-won, she had already vanished.
Kang Do-yoon had long grown used to her sudden departures and headed back to the dormitory.
***
And Yoo Chae-won opened her eyes in the basement again.
Her hands and feet were bound to the chair.
Now it was an everyday routine.
“Yoo Chae-won.”
A familiar voice.
Yoo Chae-won’s body trembled.
“Y-yes, senpai!”
“Hey.”
“…Yes.”
“Do you know why I called you?”
“Yes…?”
Yoo Chae-won blinked.
“I… I really don’t know!”
The senpai’s eyes narrowed.
“About the pregnancy activities thing…”
“……”
Yoo Chae-won’s face went completely pale in an instant.
“P-please spare me!”
“Spare you? Spare you from what?”
The senpai said with a look of disbelief.
“I told you to protect and assist, to keep him safe. What kind of joke is this? You’re the one who went up first on the wall.”
Yoo Chae-won bowed her head deeply.
She couldn’t say a word.
“You’ve come all the way to level 4, haven’t you.”
“Yes…”
The senpai let out a sigh.
“You didn’t realize that this is the phase where everyone is getting impatient because the level isn’t rising fast enough? Don’t cause a big accident in this exact section. Even though you should know, you’re just leaving…”
“Up until now, everything has been fine.”
“Can you be sure there won’t be any problems from now on?”
“That’s not…”
“You.”
The senpai pointed a finger at Yoo Chae-won.
“You told Kang Do-yoon-nim about pregnancy activities today. I’m telling you everything.”
“Eek?”
Yoo Chae-won’s eyes nearly popped out.
“Why?!”
“You knew I was going to report it, yet you still did it?”
Yoo Chae-won bit her lip.
She hadn’t even thought of that.
She truly hadn’t thought of it.
“Isn’t that a personal matter…?”
“Personal?”
“…No.”
Yoo Chae-won immediately changed her attitude.
Seeing her like that, the senpai sighed.
“Wait here.”
She took out her phone and sent a message somewhere.
Yoo Chae-won’s face grew paler and paler.
If she were removed from the party starting tomorrow, what would happen?
It was over.
I should have thought it through first.
In the worst case, she might be banned from approaching him.
Just thinking about it made her tear up.
At that moment.
Vibrate.
Her phone buzzed.
The senpai casually checked the reply.
And then…
“…Eh?”
For the first time, she showed a panicked expression.
“?”
Yoo Chae-won blinked.
This was the first time she had seen the senpai panic.
“What did she say?”
“Ah, nothing.”
The senpai hurriedly hid the phone behind her back.
Too suspicious.
“Senpai.”
“It’s nothing, I said.”
“Senpai~please.”
“S-sorry. I’ll untie you. Don’t force yourself and do well from now on.”
“……Yes.”
Yoo Chae-won freed her bound hands and feet with obvious reluctance.
Then she left the basement as if nothing had happened.
The senpai left alone simply stared at her phone screen in silence.
─────────────────
It’s fine for the individual to suggest pregnancy activities.
It might even be good.
Well done.
‘What on earth are you thinking?’
The senpai clutched her head.
***
Kang Do-yoon and Yoo Chae-won kept clearing gates.
On the third day.
DING.
The familiar alert window popped up.
─────────────────
Level up achieved.
Lv.4 → Lv.5
Level-up reward granted.
- Skill Enhancement Scroll x1
- Mana Stone x40
─────────────────
“Yes!”
Kang Do-yoon cheered.
Finally level 5.
“Oh?”
Kang Do-yoon’s eyes sparkled.
This time it wasn’t just mana stones.
Skill Enhancement Scroll.
A surprisingly pleasant reward.
“This time it should work!”
He immediately pressed the use button.
Last time it had failed.
So this time it felt like it would succeed.
No grounds for that feeling, but he had the feeling.
Flutter.
The scroll began to glow.
Kang Do-yoon held his breath.
And.
[Enhancement Successful]
“Finally!”
Kang Do-yoon clenched his fist.
Success.
He immediately opened his status window.
[Heal Lv.2]
He had never actually used Heal yet.
But he felt it had become stronger.
Just that was enough to make him happy.
At that moment, Yoo Chae-won spoke from beside him.
“Kang Do-yoon-nim, you’re level 5 now, right?”
“Yes, you’re level 5 too, Yoo Chae-won-nim?”
Yoo Chae-won nodded.
“Then it should be possible to clear the hard difficulty gate now.”
“Eh?”
Kang Do-yoon’s eyes widened.
Hard?
For a second.
Hard?
Thinking about it made him feel strange.
Once the gate was cleared, it disappeared in this world.
Multiple parties were clearing the same gate at the same time, but the spaces were separate so they could do it simultaneously.
The gate would reset.
It was closer to a game structure than reality.
He hadn’t expected the hard difficulty to still be there.
In most cases it wouldn’t remain, right?
In transmigration stories, the game systems usually disappeared and only the gates remained.
But here it felt like the game systems had been carried over intact.
“How strange…”
“What?”
“Nothing at all.”
Kang Do-yoon gave a hollow laugh.
“How about the hard difficulty? Is it okay?”
“I’m fine with it.”
“Then it’s better to prepare a little more for hard… Is it okay from now?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
At that moment Yoo Chae-won said,
“The guild warehouse has equipment and consumables that can be rented, so even interns can borrow them!”
“Oh.”
That was new information to him.
Anyway, it was the first time attempting hard difficulty.
Preparing couldn’t hurt.
“Good. Let’s go.”
The two of them walked toward the guild warehouse.
As soon as they entered the building, the reception desk appeared first.
An employee smiled and said,
“Please give me your employee card.”
Kang Do-yoon handed over his intern employee card.
The employee checked it and continued explaining.
“If you’re still an intern, you can only use equipment and consumables with a red mark.”
“You can’t use anything else.”
“If you want to rent, just bring the items and give them to me.”
“Equipment can be rented for up to three years.”
“Consumables are single-use and a maximum of three per item can be rented.”
“Did you understand?”
He had understood only about half.
But he could probably figure out the rest.
Interns could use only basic equipment, right?
After the explanation, they entered the inner area.
“Oh.”
Various weapons lined the display shelves.
Kang Do-yoon’s eyes sparkled.
Swords.
Spears.
Axes.
Even weapons he had never seen before.
Weapons he had only seen in fantasy games were actually displayed.
“Whoa…”
As a man, he couldn’t help himself.
A sword made his heart race.
He naturally headed toward the sword display.
“This one is really cool.”
“How much do you think that weighs?”
“Oh. There’s a sword too.”
A short time later, a voice came from beside him.
“K-Kang Do-yoon-nim!”
“What is it?”
“Recovery Mage equipment is over here, a bit further inside.”
Yoo Chae-won pointed to the opposite side with her finger.
Kang Do-yoon turned his gaze.
Everything there was displayed support-type equipment.
“……”
Kang Do-yoon looked back at the swords.
Gleaming swords.
Cool-looking weapons.
A man’s romantic dream.
“Can’t Recovery Mages use swords either?”
“What?”
“…No.”
Kang Do-yoon couldn’t tear his eyes away from the swords.
“… Let’s go.”
His voice was thick with deep regret.