131. My Buff is a Drug
[ Growing Anxiety ]
Stamina stat increase 1 level
Anxiety 9 levels
Anxious mind amplification 6 levels
Unaware that a blessing has been cast
Ahn Se-rin exclusive
A full-cost buff, far stronger than the one he'd used when he first dragged Lanfang into the mire.
Having said that, Hye-yong simply sat in silence.
'Alright, should start climbing soon...'
The performance had been convincing, so it would rise fast.
The anxiety would crawl through the folds of her brain, slowly and insidiously, until it dominated her mind.
What was Ahn Se-rin thinking right now?
From Hye-yong's perspective, it was a genuine pity he didn't have a buff for reading other people's thoughts.
'...What's wrong with me?'
Her breathing grew ragged.
It felt like her chest had been completely sealed shut.
She didn't have hyperhidrosis or anything of the sort, but beads of sweat dripped from her clenched fist.
Classic symptoms of anxiety—Ahn Se-rin found herself incapable of thinking clearly.
'What should I... do here? What can I possibly do...?'
A disaster she had brought upon herself.
Drunk on her own status.
Consumed by her own pent-up fury.
Desperate to salvage her pride.
She had crossed a serious line, driven by the single-minded impulse to press Choi Hye-yong down and keep him pinned there.
'If I just drop everything now and apologize...'
Ahn Se-rin's hands trembled uncontrollably.
Her eyes, fixed on the table, had gone bleary and unfocused.
There was no real awareness left in those pupils anymore.
'If... I apologize here.'
— Then why don't you try giving me a deep kiss.
A kiss...
She could do a kiss.
If it meant escaping this situation, a kiss was nothing...
But Ahn Se-rin knew.
It would never end with just something like that.
The stakes would definitely escalate.
This time, he might even demand she give him her body.
— Just stay still!
— You fucking bitch, why are you so strong?
— Hit her! Smash her face in!
— Won't she die then?
— Who gives a shit if she dies?
The memories of that day resurfaced.
"Hh, huck, mmmph..."
She couldn't suppress her ragged breathing.
Ahn Se-rin steeled herself.
She couldn't show this kind of weakness in front of Choi Hye-yong.
Absolutely could not let him see that she was anxious.
'Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down. Calm down and think...'
As she forcibly tried to steady herself and keep her mind working, questions about her own worth began to surface.
Choi Hye-yong disliked her.
No, given how she'd treated him from the very beginning, he might well loathe her—far beyond mere dislike.
Just as much as she detested Hye-yong, Hye-yong probably detested her.
Even more so now that she'd made threats involving his relatives.
'He's probably moved past simple dislike and reached outright hatred.'
And therefore, he wouldn't demand her body.
He wouldn't want to do something like that with a person he found loathsome.
Now that she thought about it, his remark about trying a kiss might have been nothing more than a provocation.
— The second I showed an opening, you brought up my friends and family and threatened me? That's about as low as it gets.
— Is that how you people do things? Glad I poked and prodded... Just imagine if I'd actually joined Eun-ha Group or whatever. Would've been a disaster.
...Looking back now, it was obvious.
Her initial assumption—that giving him her body would resolve things—had been nothing but her own arrogance.
That realization brought her a small measure of relief, but then another problem arose.
So what was she supposed to do now?
Nothing was improving.
Her relationship with Choi Hye-yong had still reached the point of no return, and if things continued this way, all that remained was for him to join hands with another group and begin applying real pressure on Eun-ha Group.
That alone might not be a huge problem.
This wasn't a real power struggle, after all.
Even if they lost here, it was only their pride that would take the hit; it wouldn't have any practical impact on either family.
But Yoon Eun-ha was proud—a woman who relished the fact that she was born special.
If the angered young lady demanded to know what had happened, she could never bring herself to answer.
Because the moment she answered, she would lose every scrap of trust the young lady had placed in her.
And as a result, she might be cast out.
If that happened, then she...
Ahn Se-rin's very identity as a person...
The anxiety seemed to swell even stronger than when she'd believed she might be raped by force.
Se-rin's mind went completely blank.
But she couldn't afford to lose her wits.
It was the fault of the anxiety that kept welling up from somewhere deep inside her.
I can't stay like this.
You can't stay like this!
You have to do something.
Anything...
It was as if someone were whispering those words into her ear, over and over.
'But.'
Crinkle.
Ahn Se-rin's hand clutched the hem of her uniform trousers.
Anxiety drives a person frantic, but at the same time, it renders them powerless.
She didn't know what to do.
She had to do something, but what was she supposed to do?
If she didn't say something soon, it would be as good as admitting she had nothing to refute, no cards left to play.
But it was true. She had nothing to refute and no cards left.
'I can't just keep agonizing like this forever.'
The very moment she thought that.
BANG!
Hye-yong slammed the table again.
This time, genuinely startled, Ahn Se-rin's head snapped up.
"Just how many minutes are you going to sit there without saying a single word?"
Min-utes...?
Had that much time really passed?
"Hey, say something. You're not mute."
Even if he told her to speak, she had no idea what to say.
"You acted on your own—so what are you going to do about it?"
I won't do anything.
"My friends, my family. What are you going to do to them? Tell me."
I can't do anything...
"Say it, come on. You won't talk? You were plenty brazen earlier."
So what was she supposed to say.
"Go ahead and tattle to your precious young lady. Tell her I sexually harassed you."
At this point, there was no way she could...
"Let's see how you handle it."
...No, she couldn't say it.
Better to say nothing at all and simply confess that she had failed.
"I'm telling you again: make sure you do it. Because if you won't, I'll tell her myself."
Every single word Hye-yong spoke shattered Ahn Se-rin's flimsy countermeasures.
"That's...!!"
Ahn Se-rin let out a pained cry without meaning to.
But Hye-yong had no intention of listening.
"We're done talking. I'm leaving. I don't want to share the same air with a person like you for even a second longer."
"Wait—please wait a—"
Beep!
At the sound that rang out, Ahn Se-rin's every action, every thought, froze solid in an instant.
She'd thought Hye-yong was standing up and moved to grab him—but he wasn't.
Hye-yong had brought his hand to his chest pocket.
And the moment his finger touched it—beep—a mechanical sound rang out.
Ahn Se-rin stifled a horrified gasp.
"Wh-what... did you just do...?"
"A recorder."
"...!!"
「Shock」
A sensation as though the word itself had been hammered directly into her brain tore through Ahn Se-rin.
Terminals generally had functions similar to ordinary smartphones, but they lacked phone call and recording capabilities.
Moreover, applications could only be installed through the App Store.
Since the App Store, too, was managed by the Awakened Management Bureau and only displayed approved apps, it was safe to assume things like recording were impossible with a terminal.
Any attempt at hacking would be immediately noticed by the facility.
So she hadn't bothered to check.
And yet, he had personally prepared a recorder.
In that case, did that mean... everything had been recorded?
This entire conversation...
Everything I said—the threats, the young lady, the Yoon Jun family harming my family—all of it!?
"Ah, ahh... ah..."
Forgetting even that she mustn't show weakness in front of Choi Hye-yong, Ahn Se-rin stretched a pitifully trembling arm toward Hye-yong's chest.
Her hand clenched desperately, as if she needed to seize the recorder in that pocket right this instant—yet her grasp closed on nothing but air.
Hye-yong simply rose to his feet and turned his back.
'No.'
'Don't go.'
'If you walk out of here with that, then I...!'
Ahn Se-rin shot to her feet and shouted in desperation.
"Stop!"
Mana surged through the arm she stretched toward Hye-yong.
"Hand that over... You're not leaving until you hand it over."
"Hah, really now."
Hye-yong switched his buff page.
A shield?
No, Acting.
Holy relics were enough for a shield.
"You're so pathetic it's unbearable, Ahn Se-rin. So in the end, you're going to try taking it by force? Fine, go ahead. I'm sure you'd love to kill me, so go wild. But just know one thing. Even if you attack me, I won't take a single scratch—"
Beep—
By touching his chest pocket, Hye-yong made the mechanical sound ring out again.
"And in that instant, you might just have to give up everything you have."
Ahn Se-rin couldn't continue her words.
The arm she'd aimed at Hye-yong slowly lowered.
Still standing, she pressed both hands against the table.
She let her head hang toward the food she hadn't touched a single bite of.
"Ugh, urk, hngk..."
Hye-yong watched her like that for a moment, then turned around.
"Thank you, please come again!"
With the employees' farewell at his back, he exited the restaurant.
Once he was certain he'd made a clean getaway, relief and an immense sense of catharsis washed over Hye-yong, and his body trembled.
'Phew—fuck! It actually worked.'
Truth be told, Hye-yong had no such thing as a recorder.
Did he really seem like the type of thorough person who would've prepared something like that?
Absolutely not.
He had simply improvised the idea on the spot.
Oh? If I'd been recording this, wouldn't that be a hell of a situation? Something like that.
But he had no recorder.
Still, he could at least pretend he did.
That's right.
The true identity of that beeping mechanical sound was...
[ Recorder Sound ]
Stamina stat increase 1 level
When pressure is applied to the chest, a mechanical beeping sound rings out.
Ringing sound 1 level
This buff, right here.
Just as the description said—a buff that made the surrounding air vibrate and produce a sound when he pressed firmly on his chest.
He'd made a deliberate show of it, reaching into his front pocket and pressing lightly.
If it hadn't worked, he'd planned to simply turn around and leave, but fortunately, it activated.
Now that he thought about it, simply producing a sound was surprisingly cheap in cost and simple in execution.
He could fire a Fireball, after all.
Ahn Se-rin had fallen for it completely.
In fact, it was inevitable that she would.
Who would ever imagine he possessed an ability like that?
'Of course she'd assume it was a recorder!'
Anyway, things seemed to have gone well this time too.
'Since she's convinced I have the recording, she won't dare lay a finger on me.'
The moment she gets caught, it's ruin—would she really be crazy enough to go tattle to the young lady?
Over something as trivial as sexual harassment?
Hye-yong was certain.
Ahn Se-rin would tremble in anxiety, merely waiting to see what move he made next.
Even if by some miracle she mustered the courage to confess everything to the young lady, it would be hard to shield her at this point.
Didn't the conversation directly reference the Yoon Jun family and Yoon Eun-ha herself?
Just like when they'd sent her to apologize, they'd have no choice but to cut ties cleanly and claim Ahn Se-rin acted entirely on her own.
'This is what you call a masterstroke. A person needs quick wits, after all.'
Hye-yong gave a big stretch.
Aah, pure bliss!
Huh? You fucking bitch! That's what you get for threatening people with their friends and family!
Think being pretty fixes everything? A bully picking fights with a garbage personality.
Hye-yong had no idea what kind of feelings had driven Se-rin to come and apologize to him.
Which was precisely why he could think such things.
'The instructors were absolutely right. Adult or not, she's just a kid.'
His mood vastly improved, Hye-yong immediately contacted Lanfang via Resonance.
〔 Lanfang, what are you doing? 〕
〔 Ah! Master! 〕
〔 I was just thinking about Master! 〕
〔 Lanfang is always thinking about Master! 〕
Having just emerged from that confrontation, communing with Lanfang was so moving it nearly brought tears to his eyes.
He was in a good mood because things had gone well, but it was also true that Hye-yong had burned through quite a lot of emotional energy.
He felt as if all that spent emotion had just been replenished in this single moment.
'Our Lanfang is the best.'
〔 Let's stay together tonight. 〕
〔 I'm actually out on the street right now. 〕
〔 I'll kill some time, so take your time getting here. 〕
〔 Let's grab a meal and watch a movie. 〕
Naturally, a hot night was included.
Just thinking about rolling around on the bed with cute Lanfang made his lower half already start to stir.
Today he was in an especially good mood, so it felt like it would be a lot more fun than usual.
〔 I'll be right there, Master! 〕
Lanfang, who had been sitting alone in the cafeteria eating dinner, picked up her tray, stood up, discarded everything that was left, and walked with quick steps toward the dormitory.
'Master wants me! Sex with Master. Feeling good with Master!'
She'd been spacing out, and the sudden summons had lifted her mood considerably. Lanfang returned to her dorm room and pulled out a single paper bag stored inside her closet.
'The time has come... to show Master this...!'
Rustle!
What Lanfang pulled out of the paper bag was a sexy lingerie set and a dog costume set purchased from an adult goods shop on the internet.
It was no empty boast when Lanfang said she had been studying to become an excellent pet dog.
She had actually been looking up all sorts of information about dogs online and learning how to mimic them, and drifting through that sea of information had eventually led her to master-slave animal roleplay—in other words, SM adult content.
She'd been incredibly tempted to buy this costume set after reading reviews that said "my boyfriend went crazy with love."
'Ahh, I bought this to be showered with affection, but now that the moment is here, I'm so embarrassed. Will Master really like something like this?'
'What if he thinks someone like me doing this is just a pathetic eyesore...'
'No! I'm not the one who decides! Judging is Master's role!'
'Master is waiting, so I should leave right away, but...'
'I can... practice just one more time, right?'
Lanfang changed into the entire outfit and stood before the mirror.
Calling it a bra was generous.
It was a breast cover that gaped wide open at the center in the shape of a dog's paw print.
Thin panties stamped with the same paw print pattern.
Even a garter belt connected to knee-socks bearing the matching design.
It was truly blatant and utterly obscene.
On top of that, standing in front of the full-length mirror wearing a headband with cute floppy dog ears, her face grew hot all on its own, and a wave of self-conscious shame crashed over her.
Still, Lanfang could endure anything if it meant being loved by Hye-yong.
She knelt down, lightly placed her right hand beside her chest, and tried mimicking a dog.
"...Woof, woof!"
Uuugh—! It's embarrassing no matter when I do it—!
Even though she was alone, she squeezed her eyes shut.
...She decided to cancel practicing tail-wagging.
'Putting that in makes my butt hurt...'
Somehow... it'll work out, right?