The Insider Otaku Club President (2)
“Huh?”
“I said pick. How to pick a dungeon, that is.”
With those words, Im Yujin pointed her index finger at me and struck some kind of peculiar pose.
It looked like something straight out of an anime, honestly, though I couldn't say for certain. I'm not exactly deeply versed in Japanese subculture genres.
“Right! Of course, no matter which dungeon we enter, you'll learn the basics of exploration. A Combat Support's job includes things like counting monster numbers and guiding the party, after all.”
“…Well, yes.”
“But that's exactly what we must NOT do, Seonho. Especially as members of our club. Is It Wrong to Seek Treasure Chests in a Dungeon? — say it with me!”
She calls that embarrassing name out in public without a shred of hesitation.
Well, I suppose that's precisely what makes her an insider otaku — the ability to spit out something like that proudly, without being embarrassed by it at all. I could never.
Truth be told, ever since she picked the slime dungeon earlier, I'd simply been playing along with Im Yujin's energy, humoring her.
What she needed right now wasn't someone trying to fix her flaws through Suggestion — it was a junior who could take her jokes in stride.
Since I was deliberately tailoring my reactions to the ideal junior she'd enjoy, this alone would probably be enough to build up Im Yujin's affection for me pretty quickly.
‘Honestly, I still have no idea how I'm supposed to win her over, though.’
Unlike the original heroines, she had no standard conquest route laid out for her, and breaking her in with brainwashing like some villain would be a waste of a character this good.
Ideally, I wanted to keep that insider-otaku personality fully intact while making her into an obedient slave devoted to me — but that probably wouldn't be easy.
Still, Im Yujin had two more years until graduation, so time itself was on my side.
“You're right. It really doesn't suit our club, does it?”
“Answer properly, Seonho! What's the name of our club?!”
“…I-It's, um… Is It Wrong to Seek Treasure Chests in a Dungeon?…”
“Heheh. Yes, that's right! We learn exploration techniques in order to find treasure chests! And to do that, first we need to learn how to screen for the dungeons most likely to contain them….”
Im Yujin snickered as I put on a show of embarrassment to play along. Honestly, it was cute enough that I didn't really mind.
She, in turn, seemed to be growing fonder of my reactions by the minute, gleefully throwing out all sorts of weird nicknames and parodies as she talked.
And so I silently trailed after an excited Im Yujin — who had no idea that, strictly speaking, she was the treasure chest — until she led me up to one of the many dungeon gates.
“The dungeon we'll be entering today is~! Drumroll, drumroll, drumroll….”
「Trap Room – Beginner」
“The one and only, Trap Room~!”
A dungeon that radiated an ominous aura from its very name.
Probably because of that off-putting title, no other students so much as glanced at it — a deeply unpopular gate.
I could roughly guess why Im Yujin had brought me here, but if I acted like I already knew everything, it would surely kill her enthusiasm.
More than engineering moments to build affection, I needed to keep Im Yujin's interest in me flowing endlessly, so for the time being I'd have to keep playing the clueless junior.
“The… Trap Room?”
“Flustered, junior? Scared?”
“N-no, I'm not scared. It's just a rather unusual dungeon, so….”
“Heheh. Scared, so scared. So even the second-ranked student in his year is weak to this kind of thing, huh?”
“I told you, I'm not scared!”
I wasn't actually frightened at all, but if I reacted like this, she'd assume I was genuinely terrified and just bluffing, and get even more hyped up about it.
Exactly as predicted, my overdone reaction earned me another knowing smile as Im Yujin moved to pat my shoulder — and, finding her hand couldn't reach, settled for thumping me on the back instead.
“Whoa there, easy now. It only looks intimidating — for us Combat Supports, this dungeon is actually a piece of cake.”
“…Really?”
“It's the opposite, if anything. Lots of traps means lots for someone in our position to do inside the dungeon. A trap, used well, becomes a weapon even for hunters like us who lack combat abilities.”
“…A weapon?”
“You'll see once we go in! Let's go, junior Seonho!”
“W-wait a second, senpai! I haven't mentally prepared myself yet….”
Grabbing my wrist without the slightest hesitation so we wouldn't get separated passing through the gate, Im Yujin pulled us into the Trap Room.
Playing the awkward junior perfectly tailored to her tastes right up to the end, I followed behind her and entered the dungeon.
The interior of the first dungeon I'd ever entered was considerably darker than I'd expected.
The moment we passed through the gate, what met my eyes was a space that brought to mind some ancient ruin.
Naturally luminescent blue crystals embedded in the walls faintly lit the dungeon's interior, but I'd come straight in from a bright area, so my vision felt distinctly cramped.
“It's pretty dark in here. Not pitch black or anything, but… there's also kind of a creepy atmosphere, isn't there?”
“A true explorer never fears the dark. And you'll get used to this level in no time, junior.”
“Yes….”
“By the way, junior — could you stand right there for a moment and hold still?”
“Sure.”
Slipping slyly around in front of me, Im Yujin faced me and thrust both arms straight up in the air as if demanding a hug.
For a split second, I nearly misread the adorable gesture as her asking to be held. Though there was no way she'd request something like that in this situation.
“Hnngh, hnnnngh~!”
“…What are you doing, senpai?”
“Hold on, just hold on a sec….”
Raising both hands wasn't enough for her — she started hopping up and down, trying to bring her palms down onto my head. But the height difference left her hands hovering in empty air, agonizingly short of their target.
As a fellow Mental Type buff user, I quickly figured out what she was trying to do and slightly bent my knees, narrowing the gap between our heights.
“Here you go, senpai. You were trying to buff me, right?”
“…Hmhm, sharp eyes as always, junior.”
With a slightly sheepish expression, Im Yujin carefully brought her hands down onto my head.
Had it been Han Jaewook, he probably wouldn't have been able to resist teasing her about her height right there. I could picture the idiot's face perfectly — the kind of fool who'd thoughtlessly shave points off his affection meter.
With this kind of senior-junior banter, it's best not to touch whatever the other person has a complex about. That's why I'd bent my knees without a word, never once mentioning the height difference outright.
-Pat, pat.
“I'm going to channel my mana into your head now, so… don't be startled if you see something strange, okay?”
“…Okay.”
“…Sight Sharing, Connect.”
Along with the short activation phrase, I felt Im Yujin's mana flowing into my head.
Since I was always the one casting Suggestion on other people, being on the receiving end felt a little strange — but I accepted her mana as calmly as I could, without any dramatic fuss.
At the very least, I knew Im Yujin was not the type to pull anything on me. Characters with personalities like hers are fundamentally incapable of deliberately harming others in the first place.
“Close your eyes for about ten seconds, then open them again. That should make it easier to adjust.”
“……Yes.”
Meekly following her instructions, I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again — and what appeared before my vision was… me.
Or more precisely, a view looking up at me from below. The exact perspective Im Yujin should have been seeing from her position was being shared with me, vivid and real.
“So? First time experiencing my ability.”
“…….”
…Honestly, this genuinely startled me.
I'd known roughly what her ability was, but I'd never imagined it would feel like this.
It was a sense I'd never once experienced before, so being flustered was only natural. Anyone would feel that way if their normal field of vision suddenly doubled.
Worse, one half of my vision refused to move according to my own will, so an odd discomfort and claustrophobia welled up — a perfectly instinctive reaction.
“It's kind of dizzying…. This is your field of vision coming into my eyes too, right, senpai…?”
“Yep, exactly. My ability is called Sensory Sharing, after all.”
“Sensory Sharing…. Since you put it that way, does that mean you can share senses other than sight too?”
“Mm. Though normally I stick to just sight. And occasionally, when it's really needed, hearing as well.”
“I see….”
“But wow, you really are tall, junior Seonho. Seeing the scenery from much higher up than usual makes everything look different somehow.”
“Huh? You can see my field of vision right now too?”
“Of course. You and I are sharing sight right now. I'm so used to it that doubling my vision doesn't bother me at all. Well, even for me, sharing vision with four or more people at once is still a bit of a strain.”
“That's impressive, senpai.”
She was saying she could take up to three people into that expanded field of vision without breaking a sweat.
Truly befitting the top student of the third-year Support Department — Im Yujin was a considerable elite herself. Even from just briefly watching her ability and how she wielded it, I could feel it.
It was still a little disappointing that she wasn't a heroine in the original story, though….
‘Somehow, that makes me want her even more. I can't let her slip away.’
Used skillfully, this Sensory Sharing could prove quite useful in the bedroom as well.
“Alright, junior! Until your vision adjusts, you stick close behind your senpai like a little duckling. Got it?!”
“Yes, senpai.”
Walking with a field of view completely different from normal did feel a bit awkward, but for now I quietly followed Im Yujin deeper into the dungeon.
As for the plan for how to win her over — I'd figure that out after finishing one full exploration run.
The dungeon interior twisted and coiled like a maze, with strange marks carved into the walls and floor here and there.
Gouges where windows or blades had scraped the stone. Dents where something heavy had slammed into it. And even bloodstains, impossible to tell whether they'd come from humans or monsters.
Since it was a Beginner dungeon, death-prevention magic was built in as standard, so we wouldn't die even if we triggered a trap — but a strange tension prickled at me all the same.
“…….”
Im Yujin, on the other hand, was inexplicably calm — a far cry from her usual high-energy self.
Having stepped fully into her own field of expertise, her attitude had become endlessly serious, and with every step she took, her complex gaze was shared into my eyes as well.
With every stride she scanned the surrounding traces, cautiously pressing a hand against the walls and floor, scuffing her shoe against the ground as she mapped out the dungeon's structure.
Until now I'd only ever seen her playful, bright side — like some mischievous middle schooler — so this was the first time I'd seen her serious, and it left a surprisingly deep impression.
‘I'd almost believe she was a different person.’
So this was what they called the type who plays hard and works harder, I supposed.
I was walking behind her, mulling over that thought, when she suddenly raised a hand and blocked my path.
“Hold it right there, junior.”
“Yes.”
She didn't bother explaining why. Because there was no need to.
At the edge of her shared vision, from within the shadows, I could see three or four monsters — presumably goblins — creeping toward us.
“Goblins. You have no combat abilities, right, senpai?”
“Nope. You?”
“I do have a gun, but… I probably can't use it inside a dungeon.”
“Exactly. It'd be all noise and no effect — just summon more monsters our way.”
“Then should we run? They haven't noticed us yet, I think….”
“No. We're taking them down.”
“……Huh?”
“This is your first lesson, junior. How a Combat Support fights inside a dungeon.”