Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Truth
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Creak—
Closing the door behind her, Yoon Joo-young plopped down onto the sofa in the living room.
She crossed her legs and pulled a cigarette from her pocket.
Just as she was about to put it in her mouth and snap her fingers to light it...
"..."
Yoon Joo-young stared at me intently for a moment before crumpling the cigarette and shoving it back into her pocket.
She must have decided smoking in front of a kid wasn't the way to go.
The complicated, enigmatic expression on her face as she looked at me was all the more intimidating because she said nothing.
After several minutes of sighing heavily and silently staring at me, she finally spoke.
"Who... are you?"
Who am I? After barging into someone else's bunker without even knowing who owned it, this was the question she hit me with. It was the kind of reckless, no-holds-barred query that suited her fiery temper perfectly—and for me, it was a godsend.
It opened the door for me to trot out the excuse I'd prepared.
I softened my voice a bit to sound cute and cautiously said to her,
"Um... I'm Lee Yeon's little cousin. My name's Lee Hyang..."
Normally, when people see a kid who looks like someone they know, they assume it's a younger sibling, cousin, or maybe even a child—rather than the person themselves.
But at my age, even if I'd matured fast, having a kid this young wouldn't make sense... So, cousin it was. No idea if it'd fly.
And so, I introduced myself as Lee Yeon's cousin, Lee Hyang.
"But... who are you to be in someone else's house like this?"
Instead of answering, Yoon Joo-young furrowed her brows.
"Little cousin? I know everything about that guy's background. He doesn't have any cousins."
The expected reaction.
She was the Hunter Association President. She had tabs on the family ties of pretty much every high-ranking hunter under her watch.
And for Lee Yeon—Korea's number one ranked hunter, someone she'd worked with for years—she'd know even better.
Not that the public knew, but she was aware I'd clawed my way up from an orphanage on my own.
So naturally, no parents, no siblings, no relatives at all. Cousins were out of the question.
But I elaborated anyway.
"W-well, I only found out recently. I met up with big bro Yeon not long ago, and he said there was something urgent, so he told me to hide out here for now."
If she had all the intel, I just had to claim it was new info not updated in the Association's network yet. Say I'd learned about it recently, and that was that.
Yoon Joo-young seemed to accept it for the moment and asked her next question.
"...What about your parents?"
"I'm in a similar situation to big bro Yeon..."
Suddenly, the cousin was an orphan too. One lie breeds another. But if I was committing to the deception, might as well go all in.
If I got caught, I was screwed anyway. Go big or go home.
I hung my head with a sad expression.
Acting skills honed across countless parallel worlds, I suppose...
A lot of women had fallen for it... Yeah, right. They never fell for it. I just took them without mercy.
But this was the real world. Even for Yoon Joo-young, devouring a shota on the spot would be a crime. Not that I minded—I was legal shota, after all.
"..."
Tap— tap— tap—
After hearing me out, Yoon Joo-young rhythmically drummed her fingers on the sofa armrest—a habit of hers when deep in thought.
After a long pause, she asked another question.
"So, do you know where your cousin went?"
"Not really... I think he said something about going overseas..."
Crunch—
"..."
A vein bulging on Yoon Joo-young's forehead. I gulped inwardly at the sight.
Calming her anger, she asked again.
"Who’s your guardian? Someone must've set up the meeting with Lee Yeon."
"I... I don't know who."
"You don't know? When did your parents pass?"
"...When I was really little."
"Then where'd you grow up?"
"Ch-Cheongsol Orphanage."
"When did you leave?"
"A... a week ago."
"Name of your caregiver?"
"Uh... that'd be... Kim Mi-young..."
The relentless barrage of questions pushed me to my limit, and out came the name of Team Leader Kim Mi-young—the spam text culprit.
"You're Lee Yeon."
"N-no, I'm not? I'm Lee Hyang?"
"..."
Yoon Joo-young leaned back against the sofa, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
"Hoo."
After a moment of silence, she snapped her eyes open sharply and said,
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"Do I look like a fucking idiot to you?"
"!"
Gasp—
In an instant, she shot up from her seat and grabbed me by the collar.
I dangled in midair, clutching her wrist and choking.
C-can't... breathe...
Failed to fool her, as expected. Never really thought it'd work... Shit.
Hacking and wheezing, I barely managed to summon the defense system.
"D-defense... system..."
Whirr—
The bunker's defense mechanisms activated at my command.
Half a dozen laser cannons emerged from the corners of the living room. They charged up, ready to fire monster-suppressing electric lasers—
Bang bang bang—
Yoon Joo-young flicked her fingers in sequence, blasting out mana bullets.
The mana shots from her hand pulverized the laser cannons hanging around the room, turning them into scrap metal.
'She really retired? What's with that reaction speed!'
Then Yoon Joo-young shoved her hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
'N-no... don't...'
She examined my smartphone this way and that, shrugging her shoulders.
"Look at this. Same phone as your fucking cousin? What a coincidence, huh? Or did he give it to you?"
Swish swish—
She unlocked my phone's pattern lock effortlessly.
How the hell does she know my lock screen pattern, damn it.
"Same pattern too. How weird, right?"
"Urk... urgh."
Only when I started gasping for air did Yoon Joo-young release my collar and fling me onto the sofa.
Thud—
My body tumbled pitifully across the cushions.
I coughed and wheezed, catching my breath, then looked at Yoon Joo-young.
She'd snatched my phone and was rifling through it without permission.
Nothing too embarrassing if she saw it, but still—don't just go through someone else's stuff!
As she scrolled through my phone, she suddenly froze.
"..."
"Wh-what... what's wrong?"
She turned the smartphone screen toward me and pointed at the crudely heart-shaped app icon.
"What's this app?"
**
"Th-that's how it happened."
"..."
I knelt in seiza position before Yoon Joo-young on the sofa.
With everything exposed, I had no more lies left. In the end, I gave her a rough rundown of the situation.
The Stone of Regression from the dungeon turned me into this body, and then the app appeared, letting me revert to my original form temporarily once I earned points.
I skipped how to earn points. How do you explain going to parallel worlds and getting railed by women?
Anyway, unlike in those parallel worlds, she didn't just pounce on me. She listened patiently to my explanation.
Once I'd spilled it all, Yoon Joo-young leaned back on the sofa like a mafia boss and let out a deep sigh.
"Hoo..."
She looked like she desperately wanted a smoke, but she held off in front of me.
Even with my identity busted, she wouldn't light up around this boy's body. Nice of her to consider it.
After sighing for a while, she scratched her eyebrow and said,
"Hard to believe. Really hard."
I got why she wouldn't buy it. Even in this post-gate world full of magic-like wonders, who would believe a shota suddenly appearing before them was who they thought?
But this was reality. Goddamn reality...
"It's... true. Look at my body. You think I'd choose this? It's all real."
"I thought that mansion thing was suspicious too."
"Th-that time, I used points to turn back temporarily."
"So you bolted here in that body? Then transformed in the bathroom and holed up in the bunker? Screwing me over for a whole week?"
"...Sorry. Wasn't on purpose."
"Hoo."
As I wilted under her gaze, Yoon Joo-young sighed and asked,
"So how do you get points? You need them to go back to normal, right?"
"!"
She was worried about me. Sweet, but explaining point acquisition was mortifying.
"W-well, it's hard to explain."
"What is it? Spit it out."
"Uh... by using the app."
"Using it how?"
"G-go to another world."
"Another world? Like a gate?"
"Yeah, kinda. Clear quests there... and get points."
"What kind of quests?"
What kind? The kind where you get fucked senseless by women and have your nipples and ass developed. Fuck.
I couldn't say that. I made up something plausible. Forgive me this little white lie.
"K-killing monsters or achieving feats. Like a game."
"..."
Yoon Joo-young pondered, staring at my smartphone and its tacky heart icon.
Thanks to that damn update, I was stuck like this—but at least she couldn't access the app's contents.
If she could, she'd see the parallel world list and all the shop's embarrassing items.
Dildos, Aneros, love gels, that sort of thing. Everything would've been busted.
"Quests, huh..."
She mulled it over.
"A-anyway, that's why I was holed up here. Need points first to go back and move around outside. Sorry for ghosting you... but there were circumstances."
"..."
That wrapped up my explanation. I'd been terrified at first, but spilling it all felt strangely relieving...
Now it was up to her. She might rail me like in the parallel worlds, side with me and help, do both, or neither.
After a stretch of silence, she spoke.
"Alright. I'll buy it. But I need to check something."
With that, she pulled out her own phone and started tapping away...