Chapter 31. Crispy outside, soft inside.
Chapter 31. Crispy outside, soft inside.
While preparing to go to work the next day, Choi Yeon-ju asked abruptly.
"What is your ideal type?"
"What ideal type?"
"I'm talking about women. The scheme with Lim Seo-yoon is on track, so wouldn't it be better to look for another woman soon?"
"I told you before."
"...Don't tell me you mean that? The muscular splinter body type or whatever."
"You remember well."
To be honest, it's not my ideal type. Just think of it as a hot personality I'm into right now. Because I don't have an ideal type.
"I like anyone as long as they're pretty."
"Just pretty is enough?"
"They need some personality, but you said it yourself. You said you could create enough personality with hypnosis."
"I did say that."
"Then isn't it enough if we just create the personality?"
Choi Yeon-ju nodded at my question. However, as expected, she didn't abandon her aggression toward me.
"So any pretty woman is fine? Even a married woman?"
"What are you talking about? What's hotter than a married woman?"
"Are you insane?"
Choi Yeon-ju looked at me like I was a lunatic. I was dumbfounded.
"Tsk tsk. You don't know anything. Married women are always hot. You know why?"
"What's the reason?"
"It's not that they're hot because they're married, it's that they became married because they're hot. In other words, they're verified individuals."
"My god."
Choi Yeon-ju facepalmed.
"What breast size do you like? Big? Average? Or flat?"
"I like them big or small."
"Don't tell me you're into flat chests too?"
"Flat chests have their own charm. When people criticize flat chests, they compare them to men, but those guys aren't getting turned on at all. Even with a flat chest, women have them sticking out more than men, right? Because of the nipples?"
"Are you actually turned on by looking at that?"
"Why do I see that spot as a female switch?"
I asked while genuinely pondering. Choi Yeon-ju didn't answer. She just gave me a look like she was staring at human trash, then got on the elevator that had arrived and headed to the underground parking lot.
I wasn't deeply hurt this time. I just felt sorry for Choi Yeon-ju for not knowing this turn-on. It was unexpected that she asked about my ideal type, but as she said, rather than finding another woman after finishing Lim Seo-yoon's training, it saves time to seduce them whenever possible, so it wasn't incomprehensible.
Anyway, since I decided to become a new me through yesterday's consultation, I thought it would be good to show a slightly different side starting today.
Lim Seo-yoon comes tomorrow. Today is the day I was supposed to go to the Gate, but Choi Yeon-ju said I didn't need to go for a while.
Still, I should go.
There's nothing to do anyway, so getting used to the Gate would be a good thing.
Without telling Choi Yeon-ju I was going, I quickly got ready and left for the Gate.
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Driving while dumbfounded after hearing the massive coverage range of the person she dedicated her loyalty to since morning, Choi Yeon-ju had to answer a call from an unknown number.
Her mood was ruined by Seong Byeong-jin's absurd turn-on motto, so she answered the phone but was twice as prickly as usual.
"Who is this?"
[Is this Dr. Choi Yeon-ju's phone?]
"Yes, it is. Who is this?"
[This is Lee Si-woo.]
That idiot.
Her bad mood seemed to improve slightly. Choi Yeon-ju smiled and changed her attitude.
"Ah. Representative-nim? Why are you calling all of a sudden?"
Checking her phone, it was a call to her personal phone, not her work phone. It was the phone number on the business card she gave Lee Si-woo. It seemed to be Lee Si-woo.
It wasn't that she couldn't guess. She wasn't close with Lee Si-woo, and he wasn't the type to call out of boredom, right?
"Don't tell me you've gathered all the materials?"
Choi Yeon-ju asked.
[I haven't gathered all of them, but I'm calling because I've secured the Swamp Blue Frog and the Orc. I thought I should hand them over first.]
It was a slightly deflating report. Choi Yeon-ju, whose complexion had brightened a little, made a disappointed face. No matter how much he was a representative of a crew with telekinesis abilities and whatnot, she wondered if he wasn't as competent as to gather all the materials in that short time. Certainly, other monsters aside, the Iron Lizard was a rare monster with a small population. It was understandable that it was strange to find it, so it was a forgivable situation.
The method of handing them over first wasn't bad either. They wouldn't have a way to preserve the corpses anyway. Rather, the fact that they smuggled the corpses out while avoiding the Association's surveillance was a situation that deserved applause.
Choi Yeon-ju checked the time. It would be a bit late if she received the corpses, but it didn't matter. This was more important than the Association's work.
"Let's go right away. Where are you?"
[I'll give you the address. Sejong City...]
Choi Yeon-ju immediately turned the car around to go to the Association.
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Sejong City Cosmo Palace Tower.
It was the largest building in Sejong City, which had become a new safe zone after the Gate appeared.
Under the insanely large 44-story building, Choi Yeon-ju nodded as if convinced.
"With this much, it makes sense to act like that."
She knew Lee Si-woo wasn't an ordinary person, not just an idiot, seeing as he called like this even after coming to the lab and getting 500 million won ripped off, but seeing it in person and guessing were originally very different things.
Perhaps because they had already talked about Choi Yeon-ju, as soon as she entered the building, a guide attached themselves without a sound and guided Choi Yeon-ju.
From Choi Yeon-ju's perspective, it was convenient, so she wasn't annoyed that they attached someone without a word.
The guide didn't go up but went down to the basement. When she followed the guide into the elevator, instead of pressing the floor to go to, they started manipulating the panel. The elevator moved on its own without even pressing a button. It was proof that there was a hidden floor not written on the elevator panel.
Choi Yeon-ju looked at the guide, dumbfounded by that, but the guide didn't see Choi Yeon-ju's gaze.
'No. Why am I trying to pick a fight? After sticking with that person, I think I've become a bit strange too.'
Choi Yeon-ju, who came to her senses, shook her head slightly to clear her mind.
The elevator, which had gone down for a while, stopped. The guide couldn't follow here, so the guide stepped aside at the entrance and gestured politely to Choi Yeon-ju. Choi Yeon-ju nodded to the guide and got off the elevator immediately. She had entered a suspicious place that reeked of a secret society, but Choi Yeon-ju wasn't scared at all.
In a way, she really was an amazing woman.
The inside was much, much wider than she thought. They had completely hollowed out a floor. The ceiling was packed with lights, so it was dimly lit, but the walls and flooring were black. It seemed designed so that people were easy to see, but the structure couldn't be grasped at once.
Indeed, even Choi Yeon-ju couldn't grasp the structure after a quick glance.
There was no need to look for Lee Si-woo after getting off the elevator. He was right in front. It wasn't just one person. There were four women with Lee Si-woo.
Choi Yeon-ju felt a sense of déjà vu.
'Was this bastard's ability hypnosis too?'
Choi Yeon-ju thought that, then immediately recalled Lee Si-woo's self-introduction from the beginning. Lee Si-woo was an esper with telekinesis. She had even confirmed it with his Hunter license, so it must be accurate. Then, it was natural for the content of the conversation she had with Seong Byeong-jin in the past to come to mind.
[If you were the universe's greatest pretty boy, would you have done this? There are tons of women who would spread their legs if you just went and said 'Hey, spread them.' No, in the first place, you wouldn't have asked me to show you how to hypnotize. Because women who would spread them just by you saying the word would be lining up and pulling numbers. The universe's greatest pretty boy doesn't need dark slaves. Because every woman on Earth has been a dark slave since birth.]
Choi Yeon-ju thought deeply. She hadn't been charmed herself, and that probably wouldn't happen. Lee Si-woo wasn't the universe's greatest pretty boy, after all.
'In other words, the city's best pretty boy?'
If he was a handsome man like Lee Si-woo, even if he couldn't use every woman in the world as a dark slave, she wondered if four was possible.
Choi Yeon-ju didn't notice that her way of thinking was gradually becoming similar to Seong Byeong-jin's.
"I didn't know when only you, Lee Si-woo, came to the lab, but Seong Ha-na-ssi was here too."
"Do you know me? I'm honored. Doctor-nim."
At Choi Yeon-ju's words, the blue-haired beauty waiting behind Lee Si-woo, Seong Ha-na, brightened up and bowed. Choi Yeon-ju smiled artificially and bowed back to accept the greeting. Suddenly, she thought of Seong Byeong-jin.
'If that man had seen this, he wouldn't have treated me like that.'
Lim Seo-yoon was the same, and Seong Ha-na was the same; they were famous figures in the Hunter world. They were also people who had their names on Choi Yeon-ju's Seong Byeong-jin dark slave list. Even such people were honored when Choi Yeon-ju acknowledged them. It was proof that Choi Yeon-ju's influence was enormous.
Only Seong Byeong-jin, a mere Association cleaner, didn't know that fact.
It was a frustrating thing.
"Because you were a Hunter I was watching with quite a bit of interest. I haven't seen you around lately, so you were with Representative Lee Si-woo?"
"Yes. We hit it off, so we decided to work together."
Choi Yeon-ju nodded at Seong Ha-na's words. She had no desire to participate in his idiot-like plan, but she couldn't show that openly for now. If she didn't give the materials she promised because of her attitude, only Choi Yeon-ju would be in trouble. Since she would get two types of materials today, it wouldn't be a problem to cut ties once she got the Iron Lizard later.
"I wanted to have a conversation with you once. Because healing ability users are rare."
Choi Yeon-ju smiled and boosted Seong Ha-na. As she said, Seong Ha-na was a healing ability user. A valuable resource indispensable for Gate hunting. On top of that, she was female, and the only beauty Seong Byeong-jin would turn his eyes to was Seong Ha-na. From the perspective of Choi Yeon-ju, who had to create a dark slave crew with suggestion and pleasure, there was no healer better than Seong Ha-na.
Honestly, if this happened, it was a bust. Because as far as she knew, there was no healer Seong Byeong-jin would be excited to sleep with other than the blue-haired female right in front of her. It might be difficult to cut ties after receiving the Iron Lizard corpse. If she was unlucky, she might have to join the plan and participate.
Of course, it was fortunate that Seong Ha-na suddenly disappeared and he reached out to Lim Seo-yoon first. While healers could be replaced somehow, Lim Seo-yoon was an irreplaceable resource.
Of course, it was only possible if Lim Seo-yoon fell into Seong Byeong-jin's clutches, but she wasn't particularly worried about that. Anyway, if she received the materials here and started the modification, there was almost no chance Lim Seo-yoon would run away.
Lee Si-woo, unaware of her inner thoughts, beamed as Choi Yeon-ju looked favorably upon Seong Ha-na. He thought the possibility of her joining had increased since her relationship with his crew member wasn't bad. Since it was necessary to build some rapport at this time, there was no need to stop Choi Yeon-ju from talking to Seong Ha-na.
"Ah. I met someone I was interested in, so the conversation went off track for a moment. Where are the things I requested?"
Of course, there was nothing more to say since Choi Yeon-ju had already grasped Seong Ha-na's whereabouts.
"I was thinking I should guide you anyway. Please come this way."
It was a bit of a shame that the conversation was unilaterally cut off due to Choi Yeon-ju's request, but Lee Si-woo just smiled nonchalantly and guided Choi Yeon-ju inside.