Hate You (2)
The joint team of Cargo and Escort had been finalized. We cut to the meeting room of Kang Hyun's Team A4 and Im Hae-jun's Team B12.
— Yun Hwa-rim: "First, I see about three routes. The loot is inside the underground tunnel, and once we bring the cargo out of there, there are three forks in the road. I recommend the third route."
Yun Hwa-rim recommended a route. Since I already knew how all of this would play out, I watched comfortably.
Is there any popcorn around? I'd love to munch on some.
— Yun Hwa-rim: "What do you think?"
Yun Hwa-rim asked Kang Hyun with confidence, and at that moment, Kang Hyun looked at me.
— Kang Hyun: "What does the escort team think? I heard you were in the military."
— Yun Hwa-rim: "They probably don't have any. Let's just go with my plan—"
Just as Yun Hwa-rim was about to push her plan forward without even listening to my opinion.
— Seol Ha-woon: "No."
"...Hmm?"
As I watched, a strangely uneasy sense of dissonance brushed past my mind.
The editing just now was a bit off. It felt like double-editing had been spliced in, showing quite a few cuts of the team members suddenly snapping their heads to look at me.
Huh? Why? Suddenly? It's fine, but why? Why this close-up of their gazes? That never happened.
— Seol Ha-woon: "More than seventy percent of escorting is about the route. If the route is wrong, even escorting becomes meaningless. In that respect..."
The Seol Ha-woon on the screen took a deep breath and refuted Yun Hwa-rim to her face.
— Seol Ha-woon: "This third route doesn't look good at all."
The editing grew even heavier. Not only Yun Hwa-rim, but all the other team members were dramatically close-up.
Their expressions were incredibly strange. Most of them were distorted, looking at me with deeply concerned faces.
— Yun Hwa-rim: "Why? It's the easiest path."
— Seol Ha-woon: "It is when entering the cargo location. But once we start transporting the cargo, there are sections where we will get surrounded."
Yun Hwa-rim bit her lip. She glanced around the meeting room, scanning the team members. They shrugged their shoulders or shook their heads as if they sympathized with her.
That never happened.
No, it did happen, but in a completely different time and space.
— Yun Hwa-rim: "An open field is actually better. We can just fight together."
— Seol Ha-woon: "Escorting isn't about fighting together; it's about preventing the enemy's approach in the first place. Therefore, we keep the entry route the same, but change the escape route."
The team members looked at Seol Ha-woon with eyes full of doubt as he completely revised Yun Hwa-rim's route.
— Yun Hwa-rim: "...But then we'll have to go through the forest. If our vision is blocked, how will we transport the cargo—"
— Seol Ha-woon: "The escort team will lead. Besides, the Orcs' vision will be blocked just the same. We will defeat the Orcs one by one as they enter the forest."
Silence followed. No one said a word.
— Yun Hwa-rim: "No, I mean, still—"
— Seol Ha-woon: "Shh."
Shh?
Shh?!
I shushed Yun Hwa-rim? I did that to Im Hae-jun!
The Seol Ha-woon on the TV continued.
— Seol Ha-woon: "Yes. In this operation, my words will be absolutely right."
My exact wording was, "In this operation, my words will be right. At least, I will do my best to make it so." But no matter how long I waited, the rest of the sentence didn't play. It had been edited out.
Silence fell over the meeting room. No one looked at my face, and each of their sour, displeased expressions was shown one by one.
— Kang Hyun: "The escort team's..."
A sigh was mixed between his words. He didn't sigh back then. Is this AI regeneration?
— Kang Hyun: "...I'll follow your opinion."
It looked like an inevitable choice. Seol Ha-woon smirked, twisting the corner of his mouth. It was a rotten smirk, not even a smile.
— Seol Ha-woon: "Yes."
"...Wow. I'm getting dizzy."
Did I just have a dream? It felt like I had been hit on the back of the head a few times, but the live broadcast was still ongoing.
Next was Yun Hwa-rim's perspective. She was crouching against the wall, looking disheartened, and Lee Jong-su approached her.
— Lee Jong-su: "Just bear with it. We're a joint team. We have to give those guys a chance to shine too."
— Yun Hwa-rim: "...Shine? What if the team falls apart because of that?"
I nodded belatedly.
So this is the infamous 'evil editing' I've only heard about.
"...Kim A-rang."
The boomerang of the pendant from the final qualifiers had come back to bite me like this.
I glanced at the real-time chat.
My head throbbed.
"Ah, what a headache."
Right on cue, the screen transitioned, and Lee Jun-ho's team started their labyrinth raid.
The cargo location was the Lizard Spawning Pool. Lee Jun-ho, heavily buffed with all kinds of spells by Kim Woo-hyeok—a buff-type spellcaster—moved almost entirely alone to extract the cargo, carrying out over seventy percent of the transport by himself.
"He's good."
He really was good.
I watched the live broadcast while smacking my lips. I felt like I needed Tylenol more than popcorn.
Episode 2 of Labyrinth Exploration NaN ended after showing the raids of six teams. Our team wasn't among them. Thanks to that, my image was completely ruined.
The world was filled with talk about Season 3 of Labyrinth Exploration, not just online on communities and social media, but offline as well.
[GIF: Seol Ha-woon muttering, "In this operation, my words will be absolutely right."]
"Ah, Lemierre was a mage?"
I thought it was some kind of wild vegetable bibimbap or something.
"I am that Black, you punk."
UDT Black. The official name was Battle Line Assault and Covert Kill-team, or so people said, but I didn't know the details. It might just be the color black.
I clicked on another post.
1. War God Lee Jun-ho
2. 96th Place Lord My-Words-Are-Right
3. Yun Hwa-rim, dying of frustration
Lee Jun-ho became a hot topic by practically grinding the labyrinth on his own, and the 96th place "Lord My-Words-Are-Right" was me, Seol Ha-woon.
Yun Hwa-rim was shown leaning against the wall, clutching her chest, looking like a mother-in-law getting a heart attack from frustration.
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
Why am I self-torturing like this?
Even as I thought that, I clicked on another post.
First of all, as everyone knows, labyrinths vary greatly in size, scale, and purpose.
Among them, the Cargo Escort labyrinth is selected by the Association as the 'labyrinth that must be cleared first' because if it's not closed quickly, the monsters inside will come out to the streets and cause civilian casualties.
Furthermore, the Scout is extremely important in Cargo labyrinths.
You know how Scouts work as freelancers these days, right? The Scouts whose names you know don't just make hundreds of millions; they make tens of billions of won a year, and corporate Scout guilds have revenues exceeding a hundred billion won lol.
But Kang Hyun's team had a C-rank Scout. It's ambiguous. It might be 70% accurate, but 30% inaccurate.
Considering the Scout was C-rank, Yun Hwa-rim probably chose the open field. Because entering the forest introduces too many variables, whereas going to the open field allows them to rely on Kang Hyun's combat power.
Seol Ha-woon didn't know that.
Of course, Seol Ha-woon's words aren't entirely wrong. If you lead the cargo into the forest, the Orcs won't be able to surround you because of the trees...
3-line summary: Lord My-Words-Are-Right is military-style. Yun Hwa-rim is explorer-style.
Even though Seol Ha-woon was getting cursed out, it wasn't entirely bad for me. If you succeed in objectifying yourself, it becomes like this.
Moreover, my public recognition was rising rapidly.
Though not as fast as I had hoped.
"...Is it because it's a negative issue?"
The recognition system of MoMo was quite deep.
Level 1 was simply being known. Level 2 was how much impression or influence you left on someone. Level 3 was whether you achieved a particularly great feat.
Come to think of it, it's incredibly detailed for a mobile game.
Anyway, with this rate of increase, reaching Recognition Level 8 was just around the corner.
Knock, knock.
"?"
Was it the staff?
I opened the door.
"Hi?"
It was Seo Ji-woo, raising her hand.
I immediately closed the door.
Thud, thud!
— Hey, why did you close it! Open up!
I opened the door again. Frowning, Seo Ji-woo shoved her foot through the gap first.
"They said to come in ten minutes. For the interview."
"Interview?"
"Yeah. And..."
Seo Ji-woo handed me something.
"What's this?"
It was a blue, glowing object the size of a ping-pong ball.
Seo Ji-woo's eyebrows twitched. "It's a Mana Socket. Don't you know?"
A Mana Socket. An item that holds mana. Like a portable battery for a phone, it supplements a spellcaster's mana, and it was extremely expensive. This tiny thing probably cost around twenty to thirty million won.
"I'm grateful for your help, and I don't use this anymore anyway. It's not compatible with the socket I normally use. I was going to sell it secondhand... but consider it a return favor for the cabin~"
Basically, only one Mana Socket could be used at a time. Since it was an artifact that supplied mana directly to the circuits, it was highly sensitive, and wearing more than one would cause a clash.
I shook my head.
"I don't need it."
"Oh, really? What a coincidence. I don't need it either."
Seo Ji-woo tossed the Mana Socket over the threshold. She grinned like a mischievous child and ran away.
I watched her back, closed the door, and picked up the Mana Socket.
If you infused mana into the socket, you could change its size as you wished.
I turned it into a bracelet and put it on my wrist.
Since I received it, it'd be a waste to throw it away...
Knock, knock—
"Who is it this time?"
I opened the door.
This time, it was a guy with brown curly hair, smiling needlessly.
"Hyung~"
It was Im Hae-jun.