Birds of a Feather (3)

The synergy between the penguin and my subspace was a match made in heaven.

I hadn't realized it at first, but now I knew for sure.

This perfect compatibility was probably thanks to my luck. In the MoMo system, a temporary boost in luck was far more powerful than ordinary, passive luck.

"A hotel... So you're saying we should run a safehouse business?"

"Right."

None of the loot the penguin brought back was of any use to me. Normally, items below C-rank were melted down for mana stones or had their special effects extracted.

"Yeah. I suppose you're right."

Broadly speaking, a subspace was a type of rift.

For the record, not all rifts were labyrinths.

"...Ahem."

I crossed my arms.

Look at him, learning how to give lip service.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Anyway, you're saying we need a building for our customers to stay in, right?"

"Then... Oh, right."

I pointed at the two scarecrows in the subspace.

Yun-suabi and Kesu-abi.

"Think of them as friends and guards. I'll summon them out whenever I need them, though."

Having accumulated a massive amount of experience during the defense labyrinth, they were now elite scarecrows. It was proof of how crucial real combat experience was.

"And... we can't exactly build a proper hotel."

No matter how skilled I was, I wasn't a master builder capable of erecting a building single-handedly.

So, I pulled out the crystal fragment I had obtained as loot.

I had been wondering what to do with it, but seeing Aro's capabilities, it was well worth the investment.

"House, appear!"

I rolled the fragment while imagining a modern house I had once seen in a magazine.

Whoooosh—

A blue light flared and expanded. It shot straight up in clean, geometric lines, stopping at a height of about three stories.

Ssssshh—

The membrane of mana slowly dissolved, revealing the brand-new headquarters of Astroal Merchandise.

"Oh~"

The interior was exactly as I had envisioned. I liked the layout of the rooms, too.

The first floor was the lobby and counter. The second and third floors were lodging.

"How is it?"

"We just need to bring in some furniture. How many people usually stay here?"

Exactly the size of a standard party.

"Hmm..."

But I didn't have the money to buy furniture. Should I ask the old man again?

Seriously, the broadcasting station seems to be raking in cash. They could at least pay me my appearance fees.

"Aro. You know that if we put this loot on the market, it could be traced back to us, right?"

The world wasn't that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠naive. Explorers remembered their own loot. If I tried to sell these items, someone would definitely recognize them.

Even if we melted them down, doing so without verifying the source was illegal.

"A network?"

Oh, right.

I checked Aro's information window again.

Procuring rare items through a merchant network. Automatically deducting 10% of daily profits for maintenance.

"What do you use that 10% maintenance fee for?"

"...Just stick to 10% for now. But where is this network located?"

MoMo.

MoMo?

I wondered if I had misheard.

"...Say that again."

"MoMo... That's not your mom or dad's name, is it?"

"......"

My mouth hung open like a fish gasping for air. My eyes went completely blank.

This penguin knew about MoMo.

How?

Misinterpreting my expression, Aro explained how the network operated.

"Hey. Do you know who made you?"

"......"

Aro probably didn't know anything beyond that. He was just a robot, after all.

"Fine. I get it. For now... use that to furnish the place."

I sat down in a chair and searched for "penguin" on the explorer community forums.

Some weird robot penguin saved my life...

It was all in English, but translating it roughly:

I survived thanks to some bizarre penguin.

Does anyone know about this penguin? What are the conditions to enter its space?

Maybe the penguin's space is a mini-labyrinth.

I think the penguin is someone's pet.

I checked all the registered pets in the Association, but there's no such penguin.

Don't try to find the penguin. Just be grateful there's a savior in dangerous fields.

As expected, there were quite a few posts about the penguin. I skimmed through them, then glanced back at Aro.

"Aro, I'm heading out. You can use that laptop to look around... Oh, you're already watching something."

I thought he was just standing there blankly, but he had already turned on a drama.

"I'll buy some things at home and send them over as snacks first."

Snap.

I snapped my fingers and returned home. I ordered a massive amount of delivery food—pizza, fried chicken, jokbal, buckwheat noodles, and more.

"Since a 1.5-portion of jokbal sold for a hundred million won..."

In reality, by black market standards, it wouldn't even be a hundred million—more like ten to twenty million won. Even if sold through official channels instead of the black market, after taxes and fees, it would net around forty to fifty million.

"Well, I'm sure he'll make us a fortune."

Tokens, coins, whatever they were. Once I stocked up the inventory, Aro would take care of the rest.

The next day.

I returned to the dorms early in the morning. I still had a few days of vacation left, but I couldn't sleep properly.

To be honest, my back was killing me. The beds at the dorms were so high-quality that I could no longer tolerate the cheap mattress in my studio apartment.

...In truth, my body was in worse shape now than it had been before my regression.

Compared to back then, when I just holed up at home playing games, my physical condition now as an active explorer was far worse.

It was only natural.

If I hadn't acquired the Dream Bubble skill, I might have retired halfway through.

Thud. Thud.

I walked, leaning on my cane.

"...I can't even walk without you now."

My left leg had deteriorated as well. Before the regression, I had only limped, but now, I had to drag it along if I didn't have my cane.

Anyway.

I stopped and looked at the staff building.

It was a building on the premises that housed the editing rooms, night-duty rooms, and the cafeteria. This entire site was, in a broad sense, a subspace—and thus, a rift.

In other words, not all rifts were labyrinths.

However, there was one hypothesis I had yet to verify.

Does a labyrinth that is not a rift exist?

There was still so much I didn't know.

The cause of my regression. The connection between MoMo and Labyrinth Exploration NaN.

And above all, the true depth of this broadcasting station.

Aro said he used the MoMo network, but MoMo was ultimately a game based on the Labyrinth Exploration series. In fact, its official release was still several months away.

"...Come to think of it."

The foundation of Labyrinth Exploration MoMo was 'the entire Earth.'

In MoMo, not only the contestants of the Labyrinth Exploration series but also every explorer registered with an Association license appeared as playable characters.

And that very MoMo system was what structured the current me—the spellcaster, Seol Ha-woon...

"Mr. Seol Ha-woon?"

Someone called my name. I startled and turned around.

It was Kim Yoon-jun.

"Ah, Mentor."

I bowed my head. He tilted his head in curiosity.

"Isn't your vacation over in three days? There shouldn't be anyone in the dorms right now."

He seemed to have brought snacks for the staff.

"I know. But I'm not used to my studio apartment anymore. I felt like my back was going to snap while sleeping."

Dream Bubble only improved sleep efficiency and natural recovery; it couldn't protect my back from a cheap, unforgiving mattress.

"Mmm~ Ah, right. Mr. Seol Ha-woon."

Kim Yoon-jun smiled at me.

"You did great in the defense round. I really enjoyed watching it. Je-Mal-Olh always exceeds expectations."

"Haha... Thank you."

"Did you make good use of your loot?"

"...Yes. I put it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to good use."

For a penguin's self-interest, that is.

"But..."

I scratched the back of my neck, gauging Kim Yoon-jun's reaction.

Just like before, he seemed to know something.

Should I probe him a bit?

"...Strangely, I've been having these thoughts lately."

Kim Yoon-jun stared at me quietly, his face urging me to continue.

"That the labyrinths we enter might not be fake, but real..."

Suddenly, Kim Yoon-jun's expression turned ice-cold. I pretended not to notice and pressed on.

"I mean, that the labyrinths we enter are actually just tiny fragments of a much larger, unimaginably massive labyrinth..."

I shrugged.

"Just a delusion of mine."

Kim Yoon-jun quickly composed his expression, smiling with his usual gentle face.

"As expected of a spellcaster, the scale of your thoughts is on another level."

He then pulled out his smartphone.

"Ha-woon, shall we exchange numbers? I noticed you don't have an Instagram."

"Ah, sure."

I had been thinking about creating an Instagram account. Social media increased the rate of public recognition acquisition, but I hadn't found the time until now.

Since he brought it up, I should make one today.

"Let's grab a meal sometime and talk."

"Sure. I'd like that."

"Tomorrow at 1:00 PM. I'll text you the location."

This soon?

I was slightly taken aback. I thought "let's grab a meal sometime" was the Korean equivalent of saying absolutely nothing.

"Uh... okay."

"So..."

Suddenly, Kim Yoon-jun's voice dropped to a serious, quiet tone.

He placed a firm hand on my shoulder.

"Until then, don't dig too deep."

He murmured those cryptic words, then smiled brightly once more.

"See you then."

"...Yes."

"Take care. Go, Je-Mal-Olh!"

Kim Yoon-jun walked into the broadcasting station building. I stared blankly at his arms, which were piled high with boxes of cake and coffee.

He knew something I didn't. Yet, he refused to tell me.

The reason was likely... because it was dangerous.

Kim Yoon-jun was a good person. I didn't sense any suspicious mask or hypocrisy from him.

If possible, sharing information with each other wouldn't be a bad idea.

"...Oh, right."

I sent a text message to Kim A-rang.

She attached three of my best A-cut photos.

Fiddling with my smartphone, I signed up for Instagram and immediately uploaded the three A-cut photos.

"Yaaawn..."

Lee Si-ah yawned as she walked out of the theater, having just completed her tenth viewing of the Labyrinth Exploration Episode 9 movie.

"Huh... Wait, what?!"

Lee Si-ah's eyes went wide at her smartphone notification.

Posts erupted simultaneously from all the accounts she followed. With trembling hands, Lee Si-ah opened Instagram and searched for the handle she saw.

@Seolhaun

Seol Ha-woon had actually opened an account!

It even had a verified checkmark. It was a 100% authentic account featuring four of his personal, never-before-seen photos.

@Seolhaun

Lee Si-ah quickly hit follow and liked the post. She saved the photos to her phone immediately.

Every single picture was precious. Explorers rarely engaged in public activities outside of their work.

"Please, upload more..."

Lee Si-ah mumbled with a goofy grin as she walked down the street.