28. My Buff is a Drug
28. My Buff is a Drug
[ Comfortable Feeling ]
Comfortable Feeling Effect Level 2
When the skill ends, derived skill Regretful Heart activates (output hidden)
Choi Hye-yong Exclusive (output hidden)
[ Regretful Heart ]
Stamina Stat +1 Level
Regret Emotion 2 Levels
Cannot know that the buff is active
Choi Hye-yong Exclusive
'No way, did it actually work?'
For now, it had been created.
It looked like I'd just casually scribbled in a few extra words, but even so, I'd written it with a concrete image in mind.
From what Hye-yong had experienced personally, when creating a custom buff, the concretization of imagination was far more important than the written description.
'Let's check it right away.'
[ Comfortable Feeling ]
Comfortable Feeling Effect Level 2
At least the Comfortable Feeling part had come out properly.
By hiding the output, it had transformed into a buff that outwardly just appeared to ease the mind.
Seeing that, I got excited.
'Nice, nice! Imagination becomes reality. The next one must've succeeded too, right?'
I cautiously canceled the Comfortable Feeling buff.
'Oh?'
No message appeared at all.
It was as if the buff hadn't actually been applied.
Now I just had to check whether it was actually effective.
'...Oh.'
A very slight feeling of regret came over Hye-yong.
But it vanished without a trace the moment joy rushed in!
"Nice."
Hye-yong exclaimed out loud, delighted.
'So the person on the receiving end will just feel regret when the buff disappears, right?'
Hye-yong knew because he was the one orchestrating it, but others would obviously never suspect.
'They'll change slowly without even knowing what's being done to them.'
He looked forward, for various reasons, to what was to come.
'All I have to do is pretend I don't know anything and observe their reactions.'
Even if it wasn't for lewd purposes, the buffs that drew out emotions and the attitude of acting oblivious were essential for smoothly planting the Seed of Recognition, which was the core objective.
According to Bwitgwitgak, the most important things were the relationship built with the character in whom the seed was planted, and the magnitude of the presence they felt from Hye-yong.
In other words, how large and important a presence Hye-yong was in their hearts.
According to Bwitgwitgak, directly manipulating their minds was useless, and anyway he couldn't do it right now, so he had to increase his presence through methods like this.
'Ultimately, it's about making my buffs like a drug.'
If the buff becomes indispensable to the point that withdrawal symptoms set in without it, but there's only one person in the world who can cast that buff...
That presence would be greater than anything else.
'And that person will be me. Let's not rush, let's take it slow.'
Hye-yong ran simulations in his head, searching for any loopholes or points to reinforce.
2:20 AM.
His contemplation of his ability continued into the early morning.
'Hmm, still, the stats got a bit fucked up.'
Comfortable Feeling Effect 2 levels.
Regret Emotion 2 levels.
Stamina Stat increase 1 level tossed in for padding.
Objectively speaking, the buff's performance looked pretty shabby.
To think I dumped all my cost just to make this.
'Anyway, to raise the level of regret emotion, it costs several times more than raising stats or proficiency.'
The derived skill function and the hiding function ate up a fair amount of cost as well.
It couldn't be helped.
Not a single one of those functions wasn't necessary.
The Comfortable Feeling effect was a means of turning the reason for the regretful emotion toward Hye-yong.
Thanks to this Comfortable Feeling buff, I had to make her feel that her current comfort came from it, so that when it disappeared, she would feel regret toward Hye-yong, wouldn't she?
The derived skill function was a device to leave only regret behind.
Making her feel regret while the buff was still active would just be a vague sense of regret, nothing else.
There's a time and place for regret to truly hit home.
That regretful heart would only maximize when the thought 'the buff that gave comfort is over' settled in.
The hiding function was like an anesthetic to make her accept the buff without suspicion.
If a person realized that someone was intentionally drawing out specific emotions through a buff, wouldn't they instinctively feel resistance first?
Without this, I couldn't even scheme like this in the first place.
Because all the trust Hye-yong had painstakingly built up would be shattered.
If the full buff details were visible, I wouldn't be able to build new trust either.
'Right. No matter how I think about it, every function is necessary.'
For now, this level of performance was enough.
Over time, the cost would keep increasing.
What I needed to consider now was who to use this on, when, and how specifically.
The first person that came to mind was naturally Choi Ah-young.
'Since she's the friend I'm closest with right now.'
He had quite a lot of contact with Choi Ah-young throughout the day.
First, they were in the same party, so they went on raids together.
After that, the two of them went on additional raids alone together.
They'd probably have lunch together today as well.
'And after one more raid session, we'll part ways, then meet up in the evening to exercise together at 8.'
Opportunities to use the Comfortable Feeling buff were plentiful.
Like when resting and chatting after a raid, or during meals.
Or he could forgo the efficiency buff momentarily and aim for the exercise session.
'Reminds me of when Bwitgwitgak shared power as a reward for killing the Virus. Maybe a new one will pop up somewhere?'
If a new one appeared, he'd just kill it and ask for more locked functions to be unlocked.
Then he might be able to make more efficient choices.
He jolted!
For a moment, Hye-yong was slightly surprised at himself for thinking that.
'Haha. What am I talking about. Peaceful is the best.'
May 18, 10:01 AM
Otherworld Waiting Room
Today was the first deployment of the party's new ranged dealer, Na Hee-yeon.
Na Hee-yeon seemed quite nervous, maybe because it had been a while since her last raid.
Whenever Hye-yong saw Na Hee-yeon's face, he recalled yesterday's events and his heart raced.
'That thing...'
He let his eyes drift to those majestic twin peaks.
Especially since he occasionally stole glances at Seo Ha-yoon's and Choi Ah-young's hills too.
'Just what cup size is that?'
A size that, among her age group, would certainly be in the top 3%.
Hye-yong had groped all that to his heart's content yesterday.
On top of that, a deep kiss...
If he kept thinking about what happened with Na Hee-yeon yesterday, both his upper and lower heads were going to get extremely fired up, so he stopped there.
'If I had my way, I'd go to her at night and just pounce on her.'
He knew that even if he did, Na Hee-yeon would accept it without much complaint.
But the silly sense of pride inside Hye-yong wouldn't allow it.
If he did that, wouldn't it look like he was being controlled by lust?
Even if it was true, he didn't want to show it outwardly.
Even when he confessed to his first love senpai, he'd thought it would be nice to build up to their first time after dating for about 350 days, when the mood was perfectly ripe.
She'd accepted his confession, and that very day he was subtly dragged to her studio apartment to lose his virginity; he'd wondered if this was just how social butterflies rolled.
He was a person with good reason for his lack of experience with women.
Honestly, if someone called him a loser, he'd have nothing to say.
'If I pounce on her again, then really, this time for real...!'
Maybe his intense stare full of regret reached her, because he locked eyes with Na Hee-yeon.
Hee-yeon looked at Hye-yong and gave a meaningful smile.
'What... what is she trying to say?'
There was no way Hye-yong could know what was in Hee-yeon's heart.
"Then I'll start the briefing."
Choi Ah-young's briefing began as usual today.
Today's opponent was a creature called a Vine Human.
A monster formed when tree vines were wildly tangled together by a spirit into a human shape.
It was said to be a subspecies of Ent.
When you fight an Ent, it summons these Vine Human things like trash mobs.
The pattern to watch out for was Vine Restraint.
After restraining you, it would pierce through with a sharp vine, and the chance of fatal injury was extremely high.
Aside from that, it just swung its vines around a bit annoyingly; with the party's strength, it should be a manageable enemy.
"Everyone ready?"
"Ah, wait. I have something I need to prepare."
Na Hee-yeon pulled out bandages and a chest protector-like thing from the bag she'd brought.
Something like a sports bra was also visible.
"Ah... sorry. Hye-yong, I didn't think about you. I'll be quick, so can you look away for a bit?"
Quick? Doing what?
Hye-yong thought that for a moment, then in 0.5 seconds realized what she was going to do and turned around.
"Uh, uh, yeah. Go ahead."
Swoosh!
He heard the sound of Na Hee-yeon taking off her clothes.
Compression bandages, sports bra, chest protector... she had a lot of prep.
It seemed quite a bit of prep was needed for battle.
'Well, with them that big, if she didn't do all that, her tits would get torn to shreds while shooting the bow.'
But do people normally do this here?
Shouldn't she have done this in her room before coming?
Was she trying to seduce him?
As Hye-yong stood with his back turned, staring at the wall, all sorts of thoughts ran through his head.
"Done."
He turned around at her words and saw that Na Hee-yeon's chest had shrunk dramatically.
'Wow, they really do compress that much. Plus with the chest protector, there's no way her tits will get ripped while shooting.'
Still, not everything could be hidden; it was now about the same as Choi Ah-young's or Seo Ha-yoon's, or slightly bigger.
'Even that size is plenty pretty.'
For the record, Chae Hwa-ra was flat as a board.
"It gets stuffy and painful if I wear it for too long. So I put it on right before entering the Otherworld... I was in a party with only girls before, so I forgot. Sorry."
"Nah. It's not like it was hard for me."
It seemed she hadn't been trying to seduce Hye-yong after all.
"Th-then... shall we depart?"
Hye-yong noticed Choi Ah-young was stuttering and her face was slightly flushed.
"Oh, oh wow."
Chae Hwa-ra was the same.
Only Seo Ha-yoon was the same as usual.
He could immediately sense why.
'I see... so that power works on other girls too.'
Hye-yong could sympathize because he'd seen it too.
The reason Seo Ha-yoon was unaffected was probably because they were close friends and she'd seen it often.
"Okay, we're departing, so everyone gather around the crystal."
The party, heated up in a slightly different sense, entered the Otherworld.
ㅡ KAAAAAAH!
Along with an ear-piercing scream, all the vines that made up the Vine Human's body rotted and crumbled.
A dark orb inside it flashed with light and then vanished.
The Vine Human had been defeated.
'I watched diligently.'
Literally, he just cast buffs and watched diligently.
He had a gun, but he didn't use it.
After applying exclusive buffs to all party members, the remaining cost wasn't enough to assign a sufficient value to a pistol proficiency buff.
ㅡ "Yah, you shoot like total shit, don't you? No talent at all. You can't even hit anything, so what's with the gun~ Gonna shoot your F-rank friend in the back of the head? Just look for something else, man."
What Hye-yong believed in was buffs, not his own skill.
If things went the way Baek Yun-seo joked, he'd get an uncensored view of some fresh young girl's pink brain matter.
Even if he died like that, he'd just respawn outside the Otherworld crystal.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason.
They'd finally gotten Na Hee-yeon as a ranged dealer; what would happen if Hye-yong took over the ranged dealer role entirely?
Generally, the facility's ecosystem was meritocratic.
If you lacked skill, you got pushed out; that was how it went. But Hye-yong wasn't someone who followed the usual rules here.
He was a mod creator who'd been abducted by the world's creator and sent on a business trip to another world.
For him, making a name in this facility wasn't particularly important.
As long as he avoided being a dead weight that no one wanted to party with, that was enough.
Immediately after the battle ended, Hye-yong approached Hee-yeon.
"Good work, Hee-yeon. You're really good with a bow. Thanks to you, we cleared it easily."
"Ah, no... my skills aren't normally this good. I think it's because of your buff..."
In this battle, they'd kind of steered things to boost Na Hee-yeon's confidence.
[ Archer's Confidence ]
Bow Proficiency +3 Levels
Bow Power +1 Level
Strength Stat +3 Levels
Bow Shooting Accuracy +5 Levels (output hidden)
Na Hee-yeon Exclusive
Using the hiding function he'd just mastered, he concealed the shooting accuracy stat.
"Well, it's true that it's because of my buff."
He threw in a little bit of credit-taking.
"But you only benefited from the buff because your own skill is good. This is a blessing just for you, after all."
He praised her again.
It wasn't about carrot and stick; the ratio of taking credit and praising was what mattered.
"Right... Na Hee-yeon exclusive. I was surprised to see that attached. How do you have a blessing just for me?"
Na Hee-yeon reacted to the words "exclusive blessing."
"That's my ability. I can bestow exclusive buffs on people I consider comrades."
"Comrades... I see. So I'm being considered a comrade. By you."
Na Hee-yeon smiled as if pleased.
'Even if she can't remember, it stays in her unconscious. She's not just thinking I'm a special person. Once we get closer, will she remember things about me?'
Because Hye-yong could never find the right timing to tell Na Hee-yeon that the memory loss was actually just a prank, Na Hee-yeon had no choice but to keep misunderstanding on her own today as well.