Coming Out
No matter how you dressed it up with pretty words, that was the bottom line. We were the Association's fill-in party.
A party that specialized in exploring the gates everyone else avoided for one reason or another.
Of course, exploring easy, high-profit gates was the better way to make money. But every advantage came with its own set of problems. Especially for someone like me, who had to live with the possibility that yesterday's disaster could happen all over again. Better to seek out the hard ones and build experience under harsh conditions than to cherry-pick the easy routes.
Besides, when it came to filming and uploading footage, the difficult gates would draw far more eyes than the easy ones.
"Go ahead and pick something out."
Once the contract was finalized under the supervision of the lawyer Han Sang-yeon—Han Sul-ye's father—had introduced, the very first thing we did was apply for equipment rentals.
During the spider fight we had gone into battle without proper gear, barely even wearing decent armor. We couldn't keep doing that once we started real gate exploration.
In my case, my skill could generate almost any outfit I needed, so armor wasn't really an issue. For the others, though, a solid set of armor could mean the difference between life and death in a crisis. That was nothing to take lightly.
We followed the staff member into a display area lined with various pieces of armor.
"We've developed a new model of armor on our end. Would anyone like to try it on?"
"Try it on?"
"Yes. There are things you just can't know until you actually wear it."
No one stepped forward right away. We ended up deciding with rock-paper-scissors, and of course the most introverted of us—Lim Hana—drew the short straw.
The moment the staff member led her into the changing room, a half-scream of a voice came floating out.
"You want me to... wear this?"
"Your figure is lovely, Awakener. It should suit you perfectly. Go on and put it on."
"B-but..."
"Hurry up."
Even from outside the changing room you could practically see Lim Hana's flustered expression, but she finally caved under the staff member's prodding and stepped out wearing the so-called latest armor.
"Wow."
To our surprise, it was a white bodysuit. The chest area looked like it had been reinforced for a bit more protection, but honestly I had my doubts about whether something like that could actually function as armor.
"It may not look very reliable, but this is the latest armor our Association research team poured their hearts into. It uses a generous amount of monster materials, and we've completely solved the chronic breathability issues that plague bodysuit-type gear."
"Ah... I see."
It sounded like the performance was solid, but most people would probably have a hard time even trying it on. Still, it made for excellent eye candy.
I was gazing at her with a faintly satisfied look when Lim Hana suddenly spoke up.
"Seha, your eyes are getting dirty!"
"Ahem. You must be seeing things."
But Lim Hana latched onto me immediately.
"You try it on too, Seha."
"Me?"
"Yes."
So it was a 'now you get a taste of this' situation.
"I don't really need armor anyway. It would just get in the way."
My perfectly logical explanation fell on deaf ears. The others pounced like they'd spotted fresh prey and shoved me into the changing room as well.
In the end I had no choice. I stripped off my clothes and put on the most basic model of the bodysuit that the staff member—eyes gleaming for some reason—handed me.
Or rather, I tried to put it on. A minor problem cropped up.
"The zipper won't go up."
My chest was catching the zipper halfway. I finally stepped out of the changing room with nearly half my breasts exposed, and Lim Hana—who had been the ringleader pushing me to try it—screamed in panic and rushed to block me from view.
"Kyaa! Seha! How can you come out looking like that?!"
"I can't help it. The zipper won't go up."
"That's not the point! Get back in there and change right now!"
"Yes, ma'am."
She was the one who had forced me into the thing in the first place. And after everything we did every night with nothing but bare skin between us, this was what she got worked up over?
Of course I couldn't say any of that out loud, so I just grumbled to myself, changed back into my regular clothes, and came out. For some reason everyone else's faces had gone bright red and they were carefully avoiding my eyes.
Anyway, after that whole ordeal we finished the equipment rental in a rough fashion and returned. The instructor wasted no time giving us the details on the gate he wanted us to explore.
"This gate was discovered about a year ago. Several exploration teams have gone in since then, and the monsters that were inside have essentially all been cleared out. The problem is the gate simply refuses to close."
"It won't close even after all the monsters are dead? Is that even possible?"
"That's exactly why it's such a headache. At first the Association ran its own investigations, and if it really wouldn't close we thought about using it for resource mining. But nothing special ever turned up."
Han Sul-ye, who had been listening quietly, raised her hand.
"Yes, Miss Han Sul-ye."
"Even an empty space has value if you can put it to use, doesn't it?"
"True enough. If there's only one entrance and the interior volume is generous, you could use it as a warehouse. We actually tried that."
"And there was a problem?"
"We built a warehouse, stored goods inside, and then when we checked later a random percentage of the items had simply vanished."
"Oh dear."
It was the very definition of a white elephant.
"The reason we're entrusting this place to you is that we're pinning our hopes on Miss Seha's absurdly high aggro values."
"You're thinking there might be something previous parties never noticed, still hiding somewhere?"
"Exactly."
That was entirely possible. Even a creature that normally stayed curled up and refused to show itself would go completely berserk and charge the moment it saw me.
We set the exploration for three days later and started preparing. Right around then, Lamia's training period came to an end.
As expected of the top prospect of her class, Lamia was selected as the number-one draft pick. She turned the draft down cold and stayed with my party.
"Are you sure about this? Some of those offers looked pretty sweet."
Several guilds had apparently thrown contract fees in the hundreds of millions her way—not quite on my level, but still substantial.
"I'm fine. When you gain one thing, you have to give up another."
"True enough."
She was a reasonably well-known idol even if her agency was mid-sized. Getting tangled up in affiliation issues would only complicate things.
Han Sul-ye came from a chaebol family, so money wasn't likely to tempt her. Lim Hana was the one I was a little worried about.
"Don't worry, Seha. Girls stick together, right?"
"Ah... yes."
The next day Lamia brought someone with her—her fellow group member, Lim I-jin.
She wasn't dressed in the outrageous outfit I'd seen in the dream. She had a baseball cap pulled low over her head and wore a teal tracksuit with the three white stripes down the sides as she walked into the center.
Come to think of it, I'd been dressed pretty much the same way the first time I came to register as an Awakener.
"Hello. I'm Lim I-jin."
"Lee Seha. Nice to meet you."
If Han Sul-ye gave off the air of a haughty young lady, Lim I-jin had the vibe of a prim teenage girl. Of course her body was already fully adult; it was just the impression she gave.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Lamia led her by the hand to complete her Awakener registration.
"This is another rare skill. Excellent."
The instructor who verified her skill looked mildly surprised. Skills this effective for prolonged combat were extremely uncommon.
"Is it good?"
"Of course. The current trend may favor styles that overwhelm enemies in a single burst, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a highly useful skill in many ways."
At the instructor's firm reply, Lim I-jin's cheeks colored slightly. She didn't show it openly, but she seemed the type who was secretly weak to praise.
The moment her registration was finished, I moved straight to recruitment.
"We're heading out on a gate exploration in a few days. Would you like to come with us, Miss I-jin?"
"Me? I haven't even finished training yet. Is that allowed?"
"Normally no, but if someone with instructor qualifications is present, it's fine. Miss Sul-ye is coming along as well."
"Ah."
I-jin glanced at Sul-ye, then nodded.
"I probably won't be much help, but I'll go with you."
With that promise secured, I headed home. As always I washed up and climbed into bed, and she was already waiting for me in the dream.
Today's fashion appeared to be a king and his favored concubine concept.
She was wearing a glittering gold dress with an outrageous amount of skin on display—the kind actresses deliberately chose for film award ceremonies when they wanted to generate buzz. I gave her a round of applause.
"Wow. You really went all out."
"Right? I put some effort into it."
It was something else. The quality was on a completely different level from usual, enough to make me wonder if today was some kind of special occasion. But when she started to launch into an explanation of the day's setting, I stopped her.
"I think we need to do that today."
"Do what?"
"Imitate me."
"Huh? Today?"
"Before we start full-scale party activities, I feel like we need to lock this down for good."
"Ahh."
From now on I would have to manage the party properly, and every single one of the others shared one common point: they all met me in their dreams. Reality-me, however, had no such common ground. Simply being an outstanding tank wasn't enough of a bond, and I didn't have a good enough reason to force the dream connection on them.
But if I ended up in the same situation as them, I could start giving orders like "stick together among yourselves," and I could handle a certain amount of management from inside the dream as well.
"So how do you want to do it?"
"You've gone to all this trouble building the stage. We might as well put it to full use."
"Instead of going at it the usual way, we just make sure that when the others see us, they see your real-world appearance?"
"Something like that. Though you'll need to act a little flustered when they spot you."
"I get it."
She nodded, then seemed to remember something and frowned.
"Does that mean from now on I have to roll around with those girls too?"
With the others it had always been one-on-one when we got down to business. Breaking that pattern apparently didn't sit well with her.
"Ah, I was planning to stop that soon anyway. From now on, unless there's some problem between the members, I'll handle things separately."
"In that case, fine."
With the casting of our most important lead actress settled, we launched straight into the performance.
And only when the atmosphere had heated up nicely—while we were still in the middle of our royal affairs atop the throne—did we finally let the others watch us from beyond an invisible wall.