Leggings Aren't Worn to Show Off

Lee Haerin read the chat and nearly choked up with gratitude.

"See! I told you it wasn't my fault!"

The stream had been live for less than five minutes, and all the broadcast showed was her from behind. The viewers were busy admiring the curve of her hips where her leggings dug in.

"Ugh. There I go again, being a total mess."

She had adapted to streaming remarkably well — maybe because of what she'd blurted out the moment the recording started. It had turned out to be nothing much. Only viewers who donated 50,000 won in coins could even type in chat, so the quality of the chat window improved dramatically. Lee Haerin didn't spare the screen a single glance as she pushed deeper into the cave.

Lee Haerin gave a small snort at the chat.

"I've been down here plenty of times. That's why I've got the whole guide memorized."

At her original combat power of 2,142, her damage would have fallen short. Even granting that an assassin dodges everything and lands every blow, that only holds if you can kill in a single strike. It wasn't for nothing that five-person parties were recommended. But with 6-Star gear, Lee Haerin's damage wasn't merely sufficient — it overflowed. So she strolled into the cave at her leisure, trusting in her own skill besides.

"Just give me coins already. Quit staring at my ass."

Lee Haerin smiled coolly at the camera.

Lee Haerin flicked one glance at the chat window, then fixed her eyes straight ahead. Ants the size of crocodiles were approaching — one on the wall, two on the ground, one on the ceiling. Fortunately, Floor 1 was a tutorial, and monsters only spawned from the front.

She drew her dagger. Reversed grip. Knees bent.

Still, a stream is a stream. Why not make it a little flashy?

Inwardly, Lee Haerin was leaning on the excuse that Shin Gaon had asked her to promote him.

She stretched her right leg back — a sprinter crouched at the starting blocks — and locked her gaze onto the ant charging in from the front.

Thwack!

Her left foot became the pivot; her right leg exploded forward, kicking up a whirl of dust. Strength and elasticity no ordinary human could match. She closed the distance behind the ant — positioning worthy of an assassin — and the dagger carved across its flank.

Splurt!

Ant fluid sprayed in an arc. The head came clean off, legs still twitching. She didn't retrieve the dagger. She spun once on the spot and dealt with the ant beside her instead.

The two remaining ants picked up on the changed vibrations and turned toward Lee Haerin. She landed, straightened her bent legs, and kicked off the wall.

The ant reared its head back, smacking its mandibles. The dagger split it clean down the middle. At the crisp sound of the cut, the last remaining ant broke and fled.

Lee Haerin's eyes never left it. She sprang, chest turned toward the ceiling, and arrived directly beneath the ant. The dagger surged upward. The ant fell in two halves, and her toes touched down in a pretty, perfect circle.

She flicked her hand, scattering the fluid clinging to the dagger, then lowered her head to inspect her equipment. Not a speck of grime — it looked brand new.

So this is what 6-Star gear is worth?

Her hair, her shoes — nothing felt sticky at all.

I can go home fresh and dry.

Joining Slave had been the right call, she thought.

"Everyone. Did you not just see how stylishly I killed that ant?"

Lee Haerin couldn't understand the viewers' reaction at all.

"Chairman..."

Lee Haerin pressed a hand to her forehead, but a smile was tugging at the corner of her mouth. The blade cut beautifully. It felt like only yesterday that even with her ability active she'd been barely chipping through shells. One piece of equipment, and the whole feel of it changed.

She'd spent three months scraping by, hawking materials one bundle at a time. The donations she'd received today alone came to thirty million won. In less than an hour, she'd earned what three months of grinding had brought in. She'd poured every coin into repairing her equipment, and worked part-time jobs because a girl had to eat.

This is it. THIS! No more loading and unloading cargo for me, ever again. That's right — I told you it wasn't my fault!

So Lee Haerin thought.

Everything after that went smoothly. She trampled ants, centipedes, and every manner of cave vermin underfoot. With numbers like these, a first-time climber or a 3-Star wouldn't have had an easy time of it.

Lee Haerin reached a dead end. More than thirty bugs swarmed before the portal. She cut down a brown grasshopper the size of a human leg as it came charging at her, and between the severed halves the rest of the swarm advanced.

A rustling chorus echoed through the cave.

Lee Haerin exhaled. Blue particles glittered in the air — mana, the wellspring of a climber's power.

She drew the dagger up in front of her chest. Her arm multiplied into a blur, like a frame-dropped screen. Her ability: Hwanmu — Ring Dance.

She spun. The tip of the blade traced a circle. The circle hung in the air long after — and the woman inside it was gone.

Shkk-shkk!

A whole cluster of bugs was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠torn apart. Blue trails unfurled through the air, lines coiling and coiling again, ring after ring of blue linked like a pig's tail. A single dance had killed a third of them.

The dance was not yet finished.

Crack. Crack.

The sound of hard carapaces shattering filled the corridor as Lee Haerin walked straight across the corpses. She stopped in front of the portal — there were two, blue and red. Blue meant escape. Red meant ascent.

He said to call it a day here, after all.

Lee Haerin turned her gaze to the chat window.

Lee Haerin snorted.

"Coins. Now."

She held out her hand.

With BaoBao around, I'll be hitting a hundred million a day. Kyahaha! What should I do when I get home? Gotta go hard on the booze for once.

Then something occurred to her, and she looked down at her practice dagger.

The teeth are worn out again, and the handle's all frayed. Should I ask for a proper weapon while I'm at it? At this point I'm basically his personal golden goblin ATM. Yeah, I should get a full set of armor too. Eh, no big deal.

Lee Haerin laughed once, and stepped into the blue portal.

Watching Lee Haerin's stream, I let out a low whistle of admiration.

So my slave was worth this much after all. As she should be. A climber above everything else.

Climbers differed from ordinary people down to the very cell. My face being exceptional even among them was beside the point — climbers were beautiful and handsome to begin with. Most of the people who sold their faces like celebrities had been beaten out in the competition long ago. These days you needed both the looks and the gift of gab. Since arriving here, I hadn't watched anything but TowerGallery and Tower streams. There was no need to watch anything else.

That was quick. Well, Jin Bora was never going to sit still after watching the stream.

Jin Bora's guild had been founded by four classmates: a blacksmith, a mage, a tank, and a healer — all of them 4-Star. The guild master was the blacksmith. One of the reasons the guild had swelled to twenty members was precisely that it had a blacksmith.

They had their own circumstances, of course, but Celebrity remained stuck somewhere around Floor 7 — because Jin Bora, their mage, was a debuffer. They had asked Lee Haerin to join, but she wouldn't hear of it. There had to be a story behind that, and Lee Haerin had been wise not to go.

I checked the mail. Its contents were stiff and formal. Using the gallery handle written in the mail, I sent a DM.

The reply came instantly. In the history I remembered, it hadn't been this fast — Lee Haerin's stream seemed to have pushed things ahead of schedule. I liked fast, too.

Ha Jun-seok had a textbook case of eighth-grader syndrome, and it had only gotten worse since he awakened. The man ranked human beings by their Star rating.

After that we hashed out the details. I agreed to lend the equipment free of charge; in exchange, once they began climbing, the Celebrity party would transfer its affiliation to Slave. That way, even if misfortune befell the tank, my hands would be free to act.

A 6-Star blacksmith can craft shop gear, Tower rewards, and even hidden equipment with his own two hands — unlike the mere 5-Stars, who can only produce pieces tied to specific classes or abilities.

For instance, this particular armor had been used in-game as a speedrunning tool for blasting through floors. Grab a tank, brute-force everything on raw combat power, then discard the whole thing without a second thought. It was designed for exactly that.

Still, handing out equipment for free doesn't balance the books. So I decided to take the tank's life as payment. The world may be unfair, but karma ought to collect its debts.

And what should I make for Jin Bora and the healer? Jin Bora's personal color was purple. What would suit hair and eyes of that shade? I began browsing through the gear I could craft within Floor 5.

It suited Jin Bora, who carried herself like a queen. Next, the healer. She was older than me, and a churchgoer besides — this one would do nicely.

A perfect fit for the church noona. I doubted I could find anything that suited her better.

Just as I finished drawing up the whole plan, a text arrived. It was a little past midnight.

I could almost hear the sound of her affection points ticking upward.