Chapter 139
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: Something's Off About the Newbie's Skills (2)
So Ye-seo's eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.
“Ch-Cheon Da-eun… Senior?”
Her eyes spun in circles.
Huh? Why is my sky-like senior suddenly…?
So Ye-seo instinctively felt her body tense up. If she hadn't snapped out of it, she might have bowed deeply right then and there without it seeming strange at all.
But she soon realized the doll in front of her showed no reaction to her words. It simply stood there, staring straight ahead with empty eyes.
“Wh-what? Huh?”
“Ah, looks like you didn't hear me. My skill is Doll Creation. As the name implies, it's the ability to make and control dolls. This one's my custom doll modeled after Instructor Cheon Da-eun. It can fight, and I can send it on all sorts of errands.”
So Ye-seo gaped, her mouth hanging open as she alternated glances between Kang Ihyeon and the doll he'd created.
Eh? Huh?
She sounded like a broken robot, spouting meaningless noises.
“A d-doll…? Th-this…?”
It looked way too much like the real thing to be called a doll.
It was hard to believe.
But what could she do if she didn't believe it?
The scene right in front of her eyes wasn't the kind that would change just because she refused to accept it.
At So Ye-seo's reaction, Kang Ihyeon shrugged nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.
“Just treat it like my clone. You can handle it however you want. If you give it orders properly, it can do cleaning, laundry, shoulder massages, that sort of thing. Right, Da-eun noona?”
At his words, the Cheon Da-eun doll jerked its head mechanically.
“Yes, Master.”
But at that sight, So Ye-seo screamed internally.
How could I…! Order errands from that face…! It'd be defiling my senior's face!
How could she treat a doll with her respected senior's face so casually?
She racked her confused brain, starting to analyze the situation. Why was this kid handling her senior's doll? Had he gotten permission from her senior?
Drawing a conclusion was easy.
The reason Senior Cheon Da-eun went out of her way to contact me and ask me to look after this kid…
Senior Cheon Da-eun wouldn't turn a blind eye to something illegal.
He was clearly her prized disciple.
Or at least someone as precious as one.
“Alright, let me tell you about the tasks ahead! Normally, we'd ease newbies in slowly while teaching them the ropes… but our team's swamped these days. Sorry, but I'm throwing you right into the action.”
“Understood.”
She led Kang Ihyeon to a massive circular gate in the corner of the office.
“This is the Exploration Team HQ's portal. It connects the 'rift points' of countless small rifts inside the 'Great Rift,' letting us fold vast distances like paper and travel them in an instant. We're taking this to Rift 105. I'll brief you on the details en route. Follow me.”
Without hesitation, So Ye-seo stepped into the rippling blue portal.
Kang Ihyeon followed her with his doll in tow.
The moment he passed through, a bizarre sensation twisted his entire body, and his vision blurred briefly.
When he opened his eyes again.
They were in a completely different space.
Muggy air. The damp touch of mud underfoot. Unidentifiable insect cries echoing from all directions.
They stood in the heart of a dense jungle.
“This is Rift 105, the 'Swamp Spider Lair.'”
The sweltering jungle heat.
Suffocating warmth crushed his lungs.
Thick, humid air clung to his skin like a wet blanket, leaving a sticky discomfort, while enormous ferns and nameless vines overhead intertwined densely, blotting out the sky entirely.
The unpleasant dampness stuck to his skin, making even breathing feel stifling. So Ye-seo fanned herself with her hand, wiping sweat from her forehead.
“Haa… I never get used to this place.”
Right then.
Kang Ihyeon quietly commanded his doll, Cheon Da-eun.
“Cool the area a bit.”
At his words, cold mist rose from the tips of the Cheon Da-eun doll's fingers.
The chill spread outward, instantly turning the muggy air cool and refreshing.
The sticky mud underfoot froze solid in a flash, the cloying humidity transformed into crisp cold. Even the dense canopy overhead now sparkled with thin, transparent frost catching the sunlight.
The repulsive smells and annoying noises vanished like a lie.
It was as if the midsummer jungle had turned into a midwinter forest in the blink of an eye.
“Y-you even replicated the s-skills…?”
“Ah, my dolls are like downgraded versions of the originals. Lower rank, but they can mimic a bit.”
“Even so, that's amazing…! A ability like this has so many uses.”
She upgraded her assessment of Kang Ihyeon.
He might not be just some parachute hire after all.
No, at this level, he was closer to a top-tier talent.
D-rank.
Because of that word on the paperwork, she'd inwardly thought she couldn't entrust him with real missions.
Figured he'd just handle menial tasks in the back.
But right before her eyes stood a doll wielding B-rank level freezing magic at will—and its creator.
So Ye-seo felt her mood lift a little.
For the first time, she dared to hope this newbie might be the relief pitcher to fill their manpower shortage.
He's not just tall and handsome. And he even smells nice… He had real potential from the start!
Vitality returned to her voice.
“Alright, let me explain about Rift 105.”
She drew a map in the air with her finger and began the briefing.
“This is a small-scale rift, divided into 5 zones total. From here to the boss-level monster, the Swamp Queen Spider's habitat, it's all jungle and swamps. The main monsters are spiders, as the name suggests—all kinds. Poison spitters, ones that make massive web traps, even ones that self-destruct. Super varied. Most are weak to physical attacks, but watch out—some special ones have high magic resistance.”
“Hmm, got it.”
“Our main goal right now is clearing the webs in Zones 3 and 4 to secure a safe assault route. We've done this a bunch already, so we're nearly done. Should wrap up everything today.”
“All the seniors are there too, right?”
“Yep. They're probably sweating it out in Zone 3, clearing webs right now.”
So Ye-seo grinned playfully and patted Kang Ihyeon's shoulder.
“Bring that doll along, and everyone'll welcome you with open arms. They've been suffering through sticky webs forever— one ice spell, and it'll all be neat and tidy. Natural AC is a bonus.”
Hearing that, Kang Ihyeon fell silent for a moment, lost in thought. Then, with an expression like he'd made up his mind, he looked at So Ye-seo.
“Team Leader.”
“Yeah?”
“Before jumping into combat, there's something I'd like to test. Is that okay?”
***
Leading with Da-eun noona's clone body was a successful strategy.
By showing her emotionless, machine-switched consciousness, I'd firmly implanted the image of a highly capable, reliable newbie in Team Leader So Ye-seo.
I could feel her gaze sparkling with expectation and fondness, unlike when we first met.
But that's beside the point…
This place I was standing in now, Rift 105.
It felt strangely familiar.
The damp, sticky swamps. The massive trees blotting out the sky. The unpleasant insect cries buzzing in my ears.
And that fishy, foul smell wafting from afar.
Everything felt all too familiar.
It wasn't strange.
Unlike the 1-7 rifts I'd cleared smoothly upon arriving in this world, Rift 105—and all the 100-series rifts—were 'active' ones I could actually run in the game.
In other words, I'd cleared this rift in Dominant Evil at some point.
But even as a hardcore Dominant Evil player, I didn’t have every strategy guide for the hundreds of rifts memorized in my head.
New rifts poured out with every season— who could remember them all?
Still, what matters now is the deja vu itself.
The mind might forget, but the body remembers.
I closed my eyes and focused every nerve on this humid air, this foul smell, all these sensations.
If it's a 100-series, the 5th rift…
Then, fragments of forgotten memories began surfacing one by one.
Webs, deadly venom, stealth monsters, hidden shortcuts.
Not every detail, but the core strategy elements came back to me.
Forgetting this would make me an idiot. It's my specialty of specialties.
Shaving even a minute or second off rift clear times to spin the infinite gacha faster and more efficiently than anyone else—that was the basic survival skill for every 'Dominant Evil' player in this shitty gacha game.
But I can't go rampaging through the rift my way while pretending to be a clueless newbie…
To do that, I needed to win over this woman, Team Leader So Ye-seo, completely to my side.
With my body, or my heart.
Or else form a new team where I could operate independently.
As I weighed my options and pondered, So Ye-seo asked me.
“What're you thinking about? With such a serious face.”
As Da-eun noona said, this team leader really was kind and had her cute side.
Even though this cheeky newbie was butting in out of nowhere saying he wanted to 'test something,' she wasn't mad or suspicious—instead, she watched me with curious eyes.
I liked that a bit.
For starters, maybe I should test one of the simpler strategy methods.
“Team Leader, is there a river or something nearby?”
“A river? Yeah, a big swamp river if you go that way a bit. But it's off-limits because of the underwater spiders…”
“Let's go there.”
I led the puzzled woman to the riverbank.
A massive swamp river reeking of squelching mud and rot. Beneath its surface, something huge writhed.
“Team Leader, I'm going to have my doll make an ice path over this river now.”
“Ice path… Yeah, that'd avoid the underwater spiders. But if we're doing that, couldn't we have skipped coming down to the river?”
“But if the ice melts later, it'll turn into a muddy mess.”
“Ah.”
At my words, So Ye-seo let out a gasp of realization.
“Pretty thoughtful, huh? Okay, let's do it your way!”
So Ye-seo's eyes sparkled even brighter.
“Then, Da-eun noona, freeze along the riverbank and make a path.”
At my command, the Cheon Da-eun doll extended her hand toward the river.
Powerful cold burst from her fingertips.
In an instant, the winding river and its banks began covering in thick, solid ice.
The underwater spiders wriggling below froze solid, trapped in the ice.
At half the original's combat power, it wasn't super fast, but better than hacking through underbrush.
And above all, it was comfy.
The ice path shot straight toward Zones 2 and 3.
I turned to So Ye-seo and beckoned.
“Shall we go, Team Leader?”
“…Y-yeah!”
She stared blankly at the ice path I'd made, then grinned widely and followed me.
We glided smoothly over the swamp on the sleek ice path.
Much faster and safer than the old route.