41. My Buff is a Drug
41. My Buff is a Drug
June 2, 11:50 a.m.
Streets near the Awakened Facility
Na Hee-yeon.
I feel bad admitting it, but the first time I saw her, the only thing that came to mind was, 'Damn, her tits are huge.'
Chae Hwa-ra.
At first, it wasn't like that. But weirdly, if I look at her right after seeing Na Hee-yeon, I just feel kind of sorry for her.
While Hye-yong was thinking those things, the party members were deep in a serious discussion about survival gear.
"Cooking proper meals is going to be tough. We'll need a week's worth of food, so we should pack as much compact stuff as possible — instant food, canned goods, that sort of thing."
"How about we throw in some emergency rations or calorie bars, too?"
"The most important thing is water. We can't carry a whole week's supply, so we should pack a reasonable amount and each get a filtration bottle. Oh! I think bringing at least one torch would be a good idea, too."
Naturally, Chae Hwa-ra was excluded from all of this.
While Choi Ah-young, Seo Ha-yoon, and Na Hee-yeon talked, Chae Hwa-ra just stood there staring blankly, as if she had no clue what to do.
To be fair, this wasn't exactly the right setting for running her chuunibyou gimmick.
"Then let's split into two groups and buy things. I'll go with Hye-yong."
"Okay! Hee-yeon, Hwa-ra. Let's go too."
They split up, each taking responsibility for someone.
Ah-young looked after Hye-yong, and Ha-yoon and Hee-yeon handled Hwa-ra.
It wasn't that Hye-yong couldn't manage on his own, but trailing behind Ah-young and just buying whatever she told him to was clearly a lot easier.
"First, we need to get you a backpack."
Wow, we even have to buy our own backpacks?
I can't tell if this is meant to build students' independence or if the country's just a bunch of penny-pinchers.
As Choi Ah-young had said, the nearby market had a special section prominently displaying survival supplies.
The same went for backpacks — plenty of students had skipped lunch and were already busy picking out survival packs.
'I need to carry ammo, too.'
Something with a decent number of extra pockets would be good.
Hye-yong joined the ranks of backpack-browsing students and inspected them carefully.
"How about this one?"
He asked Choi Ah-young, and she nodded as if he'd picked well.
"Looks perfectly fine to me."
Then I'll take this one.
He checked the tag. It read 355 Points.
'For just a backpack, this thing is goddamn expensive...'
Still, if they performed well on this exam, the point rewards would more than make up for it. He decided to treat it as an investment.
'Come to think of it, if I'd kept living as dead-weight trash without ever going on raids, I'd basically be taking this exam with almost nothing to my name.'
He counted himself lucky to have at least broken the cycle of poverty.
He scanned the barcode with his terminal, paid the points, and bought the backpack.
For now, he laid the empty pack flat in the cart.
Choi Ah-young returned to where Hye-yong was waiting, having apparently picked out her own backpack as well.
"Now we need to get food. We should focus on easy, simple instant meals and canned goods, but those calorie bars Ha-yoon mentioned wouldn't be a bad idea either."
"Yeah. Can't exactly expect proper meals in that kind of situation."
"Still, for canned food at least, you should pick stuff you like. Go grab about a week's worth of food, whatever you think you'll eat, and bring it back to the cart."
"Okay."
Hye-yong went to the opposite side of the aisle where Ah-young was deliberating and looked over the canned goods.
'Canned pineapple... canned peaches....'
For fruit, peaches seemed like a safe bet.
'Whoa. They've got canned hamburgers? And what the hell is canned roast chicken leg? Is that even safe to eat?'
Maybe the corporations were different from the Korea Hye-yong had lived in — even though everything was written in Korean, the company names were all unfamiliar, and the variety of canned goods was surprisingly broad.
Granted, they didn't exactly look delicious, being canned food and all. But he grabbed whatever seemed suitable for survival and kept bringing armfuls back to load into the cart.
'Calorie bars: cheese flavor, strawberry, chocolate. Keep it balanced...'
Just thinking about eating nothing but this stuff for a week was already making him feel sick of it, but considering the fun that lay ahead, he figured this much discomfort was well worth enduring.
"How's this? Check it over."
"Hm. Nothing to nitpick, really. Well, you've got snacks... but I guess a little bit won't hurt."
This wasn't the Hell-Joseon Hye-yong knew; the chip bags and boxes here had practically no empty space inside them.
They seemed to be filled with exactly enough air to protect the contents and nothing more.
He'd figured a few snacks might be good for morale or as extra food, and thankfully, they passed Choi Ah-young's inspection.
"I think the only things left are a compass and a survival water bottle."
"We need a compass, too, huh."
"Usually, you hand in your terminal for this kind of exam."
Maybe because they'd moved fast, they'd gotten everything they needed without much crowding.
Lunch break must've been ending — students were flooding into the market like a tidal wave.
'It's gonna be a madhouse for a while now. Good thing we got almost everything picked out ahead of time.'
When it was all rung up, the total came to over 600 points.
Though the backpack alone was more than half of that.
It hit him: if you don't have money, you can't even take the exam.
What kind of school expels you if you can't maintain your rank, anyway?
'I threw away seven years and two months to get into this place, and they still treat students like this?'
Of course, the synchronization procedure wasn't a total loss even if you didn't attend the Academy.
Even if you got expelled, the ability to freely enter and leave the Otherworld without major fatigue was a massive advantage — enough that clans would treat you like royalty if it meant recruiting you.
Grumbling to himself, he paid up and crammed everything he'd bought into the backpack.
"You need to pack well. It's not just food going in there — you'll need spare clothes, a towel, stuff like that."
Right, clothes and towels had to go in, too.
Even if they washed and wore the same things, they'd at least need a change of clothes.
Toiletries, too.
'Ah, just thinking about washing up already has me looking forward to it.'
There was no way they'd go a whole week without bathing.
If they found a pond or something, the discomfort alone would force them to wash.
He wasn't holding out hope for bathing together — but if their guard happened to slip, he might at least get a nice view.
It wasn't like he was that desperate; it was just that Hye-yong, having lived through a truly boring school life, really wanted to experience one of those heart-fluttering, youthful moments that only adolescence could offer.
'When you picture five dicks going on a trip together, the mental image is just depressing.'
Hye-yong crammed the food, water bottle, and everything else in tightly, trying to leave as much space as possible.
'Wait, it's the Otherworld — so we can just toss trash anywhere, can't we?'
Instant food and canned goods looked even better now.
"Oof."
Once everything was in and he shouldered it, the weight was seriously substantial.
He was definitely going to need a Strength buff just to move around with this thing.
Choi Ah-young, having packed her own bag and shouldered it, walked over to Hye-yong.
"The others aren't back yet, it looks like."
"Should we wait a bit?"
They hung around outside for a short while, and soon Seo Ha-yoon, Na Hee-yeon, and Chae Hwa-ra emerged with huge backpacks of their own.
'Oh man, Na Hee-yeon... check out how her tits are pressing against the straps.'
Hye-yong's ideal chest wasn't actually all that huge.
As Mina had said, a size that was nicely, pleasantly large probably hit his taste best.
But there was something about an obviously massive chest that went beyond personal taste — something that just made a person marvel.
'Must be a pain in the ass for the person carrying them around, but as a spectator, I couldn't be happier.'
Once everyone was gathered, Choi Ah-young spoke up.
"Now let's all head back to our rooms and grab personal things — spare clothes, towels, utensils, whatever we need."
"Yeah, let's do that."
Na Hee-yeon answered and readjusted her backpack.
Jiggle!
'This. This is what I'm here for today.'
They parted ways with those thoughts, agreeing to finish packing and then meet up again.
Back at the dorms, Hye-yong considered what personal items he should bring.
'Two changes of clothes should be enough, right?'
He packed enough socks and underwear to change daily.
Toiletries could stay for now — he'd need to shower tonight anyway.
'How many dishes should I bring?'
One thing was certain: he had to pack everything just right.
The backpack was already about to burst at the seams.
Which made sense. If it weren't stuffed full, that'd be weird — it was holding a week's worth of survival gear, after all.
'I still need to pack ammo... Maybe I should just strap an ammo pouch to my waist?'
That didn't seem like a bad idea.
After agonizing for about an hour, he managed to close the pack by pressing down hard, leaving only the side pocket space for his toiletry kit.
He tried it on. The sheer weight crushed down on his shoulders.
'Isn't this even heavier than actual military gear?'
It would get lighter as the days went on, sure. But the thought of hauling this around and living out of it for a whole week suddenly made the future feel a lot less rosy and a whole lot darker.
[ Backpack-Carrying Specialist ]
Efficient Backpack Method Level 3
Strength Stat +3 Levels
Self Only
'If I throw a bit of cost into something like this, it'll be manageable, at least.'
Whether it was because Geum Na-rin considered Hye-yong extremely important, or simply because defeating the Virus had given her some breathing room, his cost allocation had grown quite a bit.
He felt like he could comfortably buff all his party members and still grab some firearm proficiency and accuracy options for himself.
Stats up to Level 10 cost relatively little, by design.
It was only beyond that point where costs started doubling and tripling.
'Though I guess that also means the gap between Level 10 and Level 11 is just as huge.'
Anyway, seeing everything packed gave him a nice sense of accomplishment.
Had the others finished packing?
He asked for updates in the group chat.
[ Choi Hye-yong: Hey guys, all packed? ]
No response. Everyone must've been busy cramming their bags.
'Well, the scale of preparation is bound to be different for guys and girls.'
He decided to wait while imagining what the Otherworld they'd soon be surviving in would look like.
About thirty minutes passed.
Bwee-reek!
As if they'd been waiting for the cue, messages came flooding in from all of them.
The next plan was to gather at the cafe and discuss how best to handle survival once they were inside.
It might end up being pointless since they didn't know the internal structure, but it was still better than doing nothing.
They gathered at the cafe and talked until dinnertime, then went their separate ways.
'So it's already dinner.'
Hye-yong opened his messenger.
[ Geum Na-rin: What are you up to? ]
[ Geum Na-rin: Let's eat dinner together! ]
[ Choi Hye-yong: Sorry. I've got a prior commitment today. ]
[ Geum Na-rin: Oh, really? Nothing you can do about that, then. Enjoy your dinner. ]
A chat log where he'd turned down Geum Na-rin's dinner invitation.
There were others besides that, too — excuses about his stomach not feeling well.
He didn't actually have a prior commitment, nor was his stomach upset. He'd deliberately made excuses and declined.
He just felt bad about her treating him so much, generous as she was.
'Today's fine, though... Should I tell her thanks for everything so far and say dinner's on me this time?'
He considered it, then closed the messenger app.
'Geum Na-rin is taking the exam too, so she's probably incredibly busy right now.'
Tonight, he'd just eat at the cafeteria alone.
The cafeteria food was good enough, anyway. He liked it.
He picked the bulgogi.
After dinner, he came back and decided to just lie in bed until it was time to go work out.
'Hoo... I really am nervous.'
So far, the anticipation had been stronger, like he was just heading off to do something fun. But now that crunch time was approaching, a creeping tension was undeniably starting to settle in.
To Hye-yong, maybe not — but for other students, this was a major exam that could determine a significant chunk of their future.
At the very least, he had to take it seriously.
'My cost capacity has grown a fair bit, too. Maybe I'll use the excuse that my skill has evolved and bump each of their exclusive buffs by one stat.'
They'd definitely love that.
Who would possibly dislike being made stronger?
He spent the time thinking about whether he'd missed anything, or needed anything else.
"Let's do our best tomorrow, Hye-yong."
"As long as we're doing it, we might as well get good grades. We have to show everyone that we're not some bottom-feeder party anymore, don't we?"
"Of course."
After parting ways with Choi Ah-young, he decided to shower immediately and go to sleep for perfect condition management.
And so, the next day, 9:00 a.m.
All the students taking the exam assembled in the auditorium.
A man in an instructor's uniform fed a transition stone into the Otherworld Crystal installed in the hall.
The crystal blazed with light!
"Alright, the exam begins now. Starting from the first row, walk slowly and enter the Otherworld."
This was his first time seeing an Otherworld Crystal linked to a transition stone from a distance like this.
'So that's how it works — the light stays active so people can keep entering and leaving.'
Nearly all 600 students filed in. Then it was Hye-yong's turn, from the very last row, to head into the Otherworld.
'Oh man. Here we go. My heart's actually fluttering a little.'
If the Otherworld had always felt like heading to a pre-arranged hunting ground before, now it felt more like setting out on a new adventure.
He hoped there wouldn't be too much danger, and plenty of heart-pounding events instead.
With that silent wish, Hye-yong walked into the light.