Chapter 178
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 178
On a leisurely weekend afternoon, Dokyun squeezed his eyes shut against a rising tide of despair.
‘Go Eun-sam…!’
Eun-sam was gone now, but her karma was still tormenting him.
Where had it all gone so wrong?
It was his first weekend with no set schedule in a long time. Dokyun had planned to catch up on the novels he’d set aside and had begun a Deep Sea exploration with a joyful heart.
What kind of novel should he salvage this time? Could there be a hidden master crouching in those murky depths?
Fueled by a passion that hadn't faded even after several years, Dokyun began his exploration. But he soon felt a shudder wrack his body as he witnessed the monstrous creatures swarming the Deep Sea—and worse, the ones that had already crawled their way out of it.
‘What the hell is this Seven Dicks meta?!’
The monstrous lifeforms crawling to the surface were all novels that emulated the style of Eun-sam’s The Legend of the Seven Dicks.
That’s right.
Eun-sam had unleashed a poison upon the world of web novels.
Dokyun felt the contents of the monstrous novel he’d just read invade his mind.
=
[My Graduate Student Was NTR’d]
My prized S-rank graduate student, who went to the neighboring lab to lodge a complaint, hasn’t returned.
After waiting for days, I went to the lab next door, filled with suspicion. What I saw there was…
“Oooohhh, I’m ghostwriting Professor Kim-sama’s paaaapeeeer!!!”
…my student, ghostwriting Professor Kim’s paper.
Kkwadeuk—.
Professor Park’s fists clenched.
He made a decision.
‘…I’ll destroy them!’
You, who betrayed me, and Professor Kim, who stole what was mine.
I will destroy you all.
=
‘Ugh!’
Dokyun felt a wave of nausea rise in his throat. What was this? What kind of monstrous novel was this?
And did you want to know what was truly terrifying?
Even as he gagged, his finger was moving on its own, clicking to the next chapter.
Tremble. Dokyun’s fingertip shook. He squeezed his eyes shut, desperate not to see it, but when he came to his senses, he was already reading the next part.
‘Why…!’
Why would someone with this level of writing skill write this? With talent like this, they could succeed with anything, so why write such a ball-smelling novel?
What was it about The Legend of the Seven Dicks that had driven even a person like this insane?
It was a sensibility Dokyun simply couldn't comprehend.
Once again, Dokyun despaired.
The age of martial arts was gone. The age of pure romance was gone. The age of sci-fi had never even arrived.
Only one thing had come.
…The Seven Dicks meta.
*
Eun-ah’s eyes darted over to Dokyun, who was curled up on the sofa.
He looked so pitiful, as if he were shouldering all the sorrows of the world, yet watching him, Eun-ah felt a small thrill rise within her.
‘He saw it, he saw it…!’
It seemed he had read the novel she’d written in secret.
Needless to say, My Graduate Student Was NTR’d was Eun-ah’s work.
Unwilling to let Dokyun’s hobby cause him to neglect her, Eun-ah had devised this secret plan to somehow draw his attention back to herself.
The plan: to inflict enough internal damage on Dokyun that he wouldn’t be able to read novels for a while.
Inflicting the damage was easy. All she had to do was use the memories of Eun-sam that had seeped into her.
She didn’t understand why in the slightest, but as it happened, the current web novel meta was all about The Legend of the Seven Dicks.
Eun-ah was a ruthless hunter who knew how to use the weapons at her disposal.
Having written a monstrous work that was perfectly suited to the meta and designed to lure Dokyun in and devour him whole, Eun-ah had been watching him for the past few days, wondering when he would take the bait.
The result was a resounding success.
Eun-ah realized it was now time for her to step in and comfort him.
Slink, slink. Eun-ah crept toward Dokyun.
“K-Kkulbeol-nim, what’s wrong…?”
“Ah, Eun-ah-ssi.”
When Dokyun lifted his head, his face was already stained with tears. Seeing him on the verge of bursting into sobs, Eun-ah felt a flicker of panic but wrapped her arms around him.
“D-Don’t cry…!”
“Heuk!”
Pat, pat. She patted his back, trying to soothe him, but Dokyun couldn't seem to shake his sorrow.
In that moment, two thoughts collided in Eun-ah’s mind—Is he really this serious about it? and I’m the one who made Kkulbeol-nim like this!—and a strange feeling began to bubble up from the mix of guilt and exhilaration.
That’s right. It was the prelude to a dark evolution.
If someone didn’t stop it, the darkness of Eun-sam that had seeped into Eun-ah would awaken…
But unfortunately, there was no one present who realized it.
*
The next day, Dokyun closed the app, thinking he needed to stop his Deep Sea explorations for a while.
He put his smartphone down and stared into space for a moment, feeling empty.
‘…No, there’s still hope left.’
Dokyun closed his eyes and thought of the final volume of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb, which Eun-ah was scheduled to write.
It was the driving force that got him through each day.
The driving force that allowed him to open his eyes each morning with a grateful heart.
Dokyun soothed his aching heart with the belief that Eun-ah would write a kick-ass final volume for that book.
The Girl Who Catches Bugs was about to end soon.
According to Eun-ah, the manuscript was already finished and she was just staggering the upload dates. That meant there wasn't much time left until she started writing the final volume of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb.
Thump. Thump. Dokyun’s heart pounded.
He felt his internally damaged, broken spirit being mended.
As his chest swelled with anticipation and a smile spread across his face, Dokyun suddenly remembered something he had overlooked.
‘Come to think of it…’
Lately, it seemed like Eun-ah had started writing something.
Whenever he got close, she would always hide the screen, saying, “Y-You can’t look…”
At the time, he’d just assumed she was working and moved on.
‘Could it be…?’
Could she be working on the final volume of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb?
Could she be hiding it because she wanted to show him the finished version and give him a surprise?
As his thoughts continued, Dokyun felt his long-dormant happiness circuit begin to spin furiously.
The thump, thump of his heart was now a thunderous BANG, BANG.
Dokyun narrowed his eyes and looked around the house.
Eun-ah had been called into the company for an urgent matter. In other words, he was the only one home right now.
Swoosh—.
He pushed himself to his feet. He knew where the laptop was.
‘…The study.’
The table in the middle of the study. She had left it on top of that.
He could see it now. The final volume of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb, which Eun-ah might be writing. He could see it.
He knew it was a rude thing to do to Eun-ah, who was working so hard for his sake, but even knowing that, Dokyun couldn’t stop himself.
He walked quickly to the study, and calming his hammering heart, he approached the table in the center of the room.
On top of it lay the laptop, placed there carelessly. With trembling hands, Dokyun opened it and pressed the power button.
He knew the password.
‘20201203.’
The date he was first imprisoned.
Feeling a murky mix of guilt and exhilaration, Dokyun typed in the password.
The desktop appeared, and on it were three manuscript files arranged in folders. One was The Girl Who Catches Bugs, and another was The Legend of the Seven Dicks.
The last one was an unidentified file labeled [Untitled].
Gulp. Dokyun swallowed dryly.
Drrrk—. The mouse cursor moved across the screen, heading for the file.
Click. He clicked the file, and when a window popped up showing a single text file saved inside, Dokyun felt a thrill shoot down his spine.
‘This is it!’
He couldn’t wait any longer.
Dokyun hurriedly clicked the manuscript file to check its contents.
The manuscript finally opened.
…And what lay within was the abyss.
*
Eun-ah opened the front door and stepped inside, tilting her head at the sight of the completely dark house.
“K-Kkulbeol-nim…?”
Did he go out?
With that thought, Eun-ah took off her shoes and entered, only to see Dokyun sitting on the sofa, his upper body slumped forward.
Did something happen?
Puzzled by the fact that he wasn't reacting to her return, Eun-ah started to walk toward him.
“My graduate student…”
The words she heard made her freeze in her tracks.
“…was NTR’d.”
Eun-ah’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
“Th-Tha…”
She understood instantly. Dokyun had realized that she was the author of that novel.
‘H-How did he find out…?’
As that thought crossed her mind, Dokyun finally lifted his head into her line of sight.
His face was haggard, filled with despair.
Eun-ah realized.
There was nowhere to run.
Deciding she had to calm him down somehow, Eun-ah crept toward Dokyun and hugged him.
“Hehe…”
She smiled innocently and rubbed her head against him.
“…Why did you do it?”
But what came back was a voice thick with betrayal.
Flinch. Eun-ah’s body trembled. Her eyes were narrowed as she peeked at Dokyun’s face.
He looked like he was about to cry at any moment.
Belatedly, Eun-ah felt a wave of guilt wash over her.
“I-I’m sorr…”
“That was too cruel.”
Flinch. Eun-ah’s body trembled again. Regret surfaced.
That day, to appease Dokyun, Eun-ah promised to write The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb before the end of winter.
Furthermore, due to Dokyun’s vehement opposition, My Graduate Student Was NTR’d was discontinued, and Eun-ah’s dark evolution ended in failure.