67. My Buff is a Drug
67. My Buff is a Drug
A hand shot out, aiming to grab the trembling girl by the throat and slam her to the ground.
She twisted to slip away, but she was a split second too slow.
Park Yuri's lazy right fist drove in straight for her side.
Thwack!
D-did that land?
Contrary to Hye-yong's concern, Lanfang just barely caught it with her elbow.
It still must have hurt, because she grimaced.
She didn't flinch, though—she kept swinging her blade tonfas, trying to force Park Yuri back.
Swoosh!
But Yuri had zero intention of retreating. She just leaned her upper body back a bit and let the strikes sail past, looking down on her like she was a complete non-threat.
Clang, screeech!
The knuckles and blade tonfas clashed and scraped as they struggled for control.
They'd traded a few attacks and blocks, but anyone watching could see Lanfang was getting pushed back.
The gap between a D-rank and a C-rank is unavoidable...
His fingers itched to buff her, but doing that would weaken the growth buff, and more importantly, Park Yuri would notice.
All he could do was pray Lanfang showed the same stubbornness she'd shown while sparring with him.
Whiff!
Park Yuri's right fist shot upward, aimed at Lanfang's chin.
Lanfang saw it coming and dodged, but she had no time to steady herself, and her stance crumbled right there.
Crack!
She couldn't even think about defending against the low kick that swept her right leg out from under her. She just toppled straight over.
Hngh...!
This isn't fun. You're way out of your league.
Lanfang, flat on the ground, forced herself back up, legs trembling hard.
I-I can still keep going.
Those words seemed directed not at Park Yuri, but at Hye-yong.
No, I mean... the gap's too massive. You don't have to get up.
Part of him wanted to tell her to stop, but seeing her fight just to stand, he couldn't bring himself to do that either.
Right. Lanfang is trying to change the version of herself that's always been helpless and insecure!
As he'd reminded himself over and over, the reason she'd kept ignoring reality was simply that all her effort had never led to any real change.
But this time was different.
Hye-yong's growth buff was giving Lanfang the motivation to grit her teeth and push herself.
If I try... I can actually change. Because of Master, my effort is finally being rewarded. I want Master to stay by my side forever. So I can't let him see me give up over something like this!
Lanfang got back to her feet and gripped the handles of her tonfas even tighter.
Alright. Come on.
-
Let's end this. I'm sick of beating you up.
Hngh, hng...
Lanfang had been enthusiastically pummeled by Park Yuri for almost thirty minutes.
Tears were streaming down her face, but the mood didn't feel that grim—probably because Yuri had been holding way back and tapping her the whole time.
If Yuri had actually gotten serious, Hye-yong probably would've had to step in and body-block with a shield at some point.
Still, I've gotta change my assessment. You've actually got guts.
Looking down at Lanfang, who'd collapsed and couldn't get back up, Park Yuri let out a snort. She hung her knuckles back up in the storage room, shoved her hands into the pockets of her jersey, and walked out.
As soon as she was gone, Hye-yong hurried over to check on Lanfang.
Lanfang, you okay?
Y-yeah, I'm okay. Just... so exhausted. Haah.
Lanfang's body was burning hot, drenched from head to toe in sweat.
You could tell at a glance just how ferociously she'd torched all her energy.
Lanfang kept trying to catch her breath, then soon covered her face with both hands, mortified.
Waaah...! There wasn't a single cool moment, I just kept eating hits...!!
N-no! Today, you were cooler than anyone I've seen.
At Hye-yong's words, Lanfang peeked at him through her slightly spread fingers.
D-did I do good?
Yeah. I'm proud to call myself your master.
Then she slowly lowered her arms and lifted her chin just a little, her eyes full of shy expectation.
Then... please praise me.
His hand moved to the spot under Lanfang's chin without a second thought.
Pat, pat, pat!
Hehe, heheh. Praises...
In that moment, a thought crossed Hye-yong's mind.
Maybe... just living like this could be happiness?
And that was another day gone.
-
July 1st (Tue), 9:30 AM.
Lecture Hall.
Now then. It's been one month since the start of the third semester. How many of you will actually manage to advance this time around?
If the first day of a semester was about maintaining your rank, today was the day you could finally raise it.
Hmm. So how far should I go?
The results from last month's exam had been converted into points he could spend on rank adjustments, so he had a decent amount of wiggle room.
Going from F to E costs 1500P. From E to D is 5000P. My exam scores for this round convert to 2645P...
Hye-yong currently held 7,431 points.
Whoa. Blow through it without thinking and it burns down way faster than you'd expect. Now I get why Choi Ah-young lives so frugally.
He'd thought he'd racked up quite a lot, but there was less left than he'd expected.
Eating expensive food with Lanfang and going around having fun had drained points like water leaking from a cracked jar.
Not that it really matters. I can earn a mountain of them fast whenever I put my mind to it.
Should he go for a double promotion, or just climb up steadily?
That was the dilemma.
There's another rank-up opportunity next month, so... whatever.
Since he didn't have any special plans this month anyway, he decided to kick the can down the road for one more month.
No point in launching himself up the rankings just to fork over a fortune in maintenance costs.
Those of you still stuck at F or E-rank would do well to push for D-rank as quickly as possible. It'll soon start getting hard to fit in. If you keep lagging behind, you'll just be sitting around twiddling your thumbs until a fresh batch of first-years shows up.
The moment Lee Ji-eun said that, the whispering among the girls started up again.
— There are still people at E-rank?
— I heard there are even some still at F.
— If you're still F, wouldn't it be better to just drop out? Like, can you even find friends to raid with?
— Honestly, E is pretty much the same. Can't even get mercenary work, and who'd invite you to a party?
— They'll just have to throw money at it and rely on artifacts.
— Don't you need talent to use artifacts well too?
Hmm...
Though his body didn't move an inch, Hye-yong's ears were flapping wildly.
So basically, you have to hit at least D-rank to even qualify as a student who can keep up with the curriculum.
After mulling it over, Hye-yong ultimately decided to just go for the double promotion.
Eh. What's the big deal? If I need points, I can just run raids solo.
His safety net was the page function built into Buff Custom.
Up until now, he'd nursed a handful of worries about running raids alone.
That was because handling attack, defense, and evasion all by himself, all at an expert level, was flat-out impossible.
No matter how much Buff Custom was a cheat ability practically on the same level as creating skills and traits from scratch, it still took a bit of time to erase a buff and rebuild it—so if a raid boss suddenly launched something unexpected or trash mobs ambushed him, he could die on the spot.
On top of that, after defending or evading, he'd have to re-create an offensive buff from scratch again, and that was a massive pain in the ass.
He'd practiced making buffs quickly to build up efficiency, but it hadn't really made a difference.
But now?
He could lay down relentless firepower with a firearms proficiency and power buff stacked together. If the raid boss sent out a long-range attack, he could just flip to another page, defend, then flip back to offense and keep blasting away.
If he got surrounded by trash mobs, he could swap to a mobility buff, break free, and then switch right back to offense.
Going completely solo wasn't impossible anymore.
Of course, he was still way too short on cost-credit to actually go on a real rampage just yet.
This is what ability means. This is what convenience looks like.
At any rate, he'd have no issues with raids up through E-rank, at minimum.
His income wouldn't truly skyrocket until he started hunting Aberrants with Mana Barriers and running D-rank raids. Still, since he wouldn't be splitting profits with a party if he went alone, even E-rank raids would let him pile up points fairly quickly.
You may submit your rank advancement applications through the rank management app on your terminal. There will be one comprehensive exam this month as well, along with separate exams for each class. Furthermore, beginning next week, full-scale physical training and occupational training are scheduled to start. Students who are interested may participate. Those of you who feel your time is better invested elsewhere are free to train on your own. I recommend that any student at D-rank or below take part, but... it is not mandatory. Each of you is responsible for your own life. Dismissed!
Lee Ji-eun delivered this all in a booming voice, then strode straight out of the lecture hall.
Oh. That's it for today? This place really is great—basically semi-autonomous.
The fact that even physical and occupational training wasn't mandatory showed just how wonderfully slack-friendly the environment was.
It practically broadcasted that lazy fools with no talent didn't deserve to graduate from this institution.
I'll be participating, obviously.
Strip away his Buff Custom ability and Hye-yong's baseline physical specs were so atrocious they were practically indistinguishable from a non-Awakened's.
Even with a growth buff applied every single day, he still huffed and gasped whenever he ran. The fact that his stamina was still stuck at level 4 was proof he had zero talent.
But just because he had no talent, and just because physical training wasn't his main profession, didn't mean he shouldn't put in the bare minimum, right?
Raising even one stat through training meant reducing danger and conserving cost down the line.
Plus, who knows? I might even make some new connections.
Familiar faces all drenched in sweat together during training.
Hey, we're short-handed. Any ideas?
Guess we'll have to find a mercenary.
Oh, you're that guy I always see at training!
Well? Should we just grab him?
And then, while running a raid together... a clutch shield at a critical moment.
That guy's actually better than he looks, huh? And maybe some sparks fly...
Hye-yong.
He'd been busy daydreaming about a classic Japanese rom-com scenario when Choi Ah-young, sitting in the seat beside him, spoke up.
He glanced over and saw her holding up her terminal in her left hand, pointing at it with her right index finger.
Guess that means check the chat room.
He opened Messenger and saw messages the kids had left in the party group chat.
[ Choi Ah-young : Class ended crazy early today. What if we spent more time raiding? We could run one this morning, rest, then do another during our usual time too. ]
[ Seo Ha-yoon : Yeah. Sounds good! ]
[ Na Hee-yeon : I'm in too. ]
[ Chae Hwa-ra : This is precisely what I desired! ]
Looks like I'm the only one who still needs to reply.
The raids they were currently running together as a party were E+ difficulty.
Normally they cleared it twice a day, or three times if their condition was really solid.
Everyone had been grinding hard, and they'd obtained the Essence of Strength twice now, so the party's overall power had been noticeably reinforced.
This Essence of Strength scaled proportionally to your current stats, so for Hye-yong, whose baseline stats had been dogshit, both his strength and agility had each gone up by a full level from it.
They were now standing at the crossroads of whether to start attempting D-rank raids, so everyone was getting a little greedy.
Well, it's not a bad thing. More points for me, I guess.
[ Choi Hye-yong : Couldn't possibly miss it. ]
And so, right after class let out, everyone gathered in the Otherworld Waiting Room.
Everyone! Did you submit your rank advancement applications!?
Seo Ha-yoon asked everyone with a lively smile.
I maintained D-rank. Didn't have enough points to go up.
Choi Ah-young.
There must be a wall of points required to jump from D to C.
I debated going up to D... but I decided to stay at E for this month. It's not like I'm changing parties.
Na Hee-yeon had started out at E-rank.
The fact that she'd even considered moving up but chose not to meant she'd saved up a decent number of points.
This vessel has undergone a double promotion! Truly, explosive growth one might say!
Chae Hwa-ra had apparently just yolo'd straight for the double promotion.
She wasn't wrong—the phrase "double promotion" did have a satisfying ring to it.
Well, in Chae Hwa-ra's case, if she ever got genuinely desperate, she always had the "Unnie card" she could cash in.
I shot straight up to D rank too.
Amazing, Hwa-ra, Hye-yong! I could do it too, but... it felt like too much pressure, so I couldn't make myself!
That confession meant Seo Ha-yoon had also stopped at E-rank.
So now our party's fighting strength is three D-ranks and two E-ranks? That shot up fast.
Choi Ah-young wore a deeply moved expression.
She had every right to be. When she'd first taken over as leader of this party, she'd been sure everything was over. She'd cried so hard into her pillow her eyes had swollen up puffy.
She'd never imagined they could grow this quickly. Being able to think about the future so warmly and harmoniously like this—she couldn't help feeling emotional about it.
Everyone's hard work played a part, obviously. But... the vast majority of it is thanks to Choi Hye-yong.
A faint flicker of unease crossed her mind.
Without realizing it, her gaze was drawn toward Choi Hye-yong, who was laughing and chatting with the other party members.