86. My Buff is a Drug
86. My Buff is a Drug
July 12th (Thursday), 10:15 PM
Choi Hye-yong's Room
'For the Inner World Intrusion, I'd need to call Kwon Jin-ah out first.'
Hye-yong grabbed his terminal and mulled it over.
He'd already added her as a friend.
One message and he could get her outside.
'How should I play this?'
Should he lean into that day's performance and message her like he really was some commander? Or just act like a friend?
Hye-yong chose the latter.
[ Choi Hye-yong : Come out to the convenience store next to the girls' dorm for a bit. I've got something for you. ]
[ Kwon Jin-ah : Understood, Commander. ]
'Haaah... She answered "Commander" but... is she just testing me, or did she actually buy it?'
He'd been so confident in front of Kwon Jin-ah, but the moment the buff faded and he looked back on it, his certainty evaporated.
While he waited, Kwon Jin-ah walked out in her uniform.
"Sorry. For calling you out at this hour."
"It's nothing. I'm fine."
Man, she was ridiculously, painfully polite. Did she actually fall for it? Hye-yong had no choice but to put the acting back on.
"I was a little worried. How's your condition?"
"Maybe it's the buff... I'm all right."
"I'll cast a new buff on you."
He applied the Evil Spirit Suppression Buff he'd saved in his pages to Kwon Jin-ah, and added an Inner World Intrusion as well.
"If anything suspicious happens, contact me over messenger."
"Understood, Commander."
Turning away so she wouldn't see, Hye-yong let out a small sigh. Now all that was left was waiting.
'He's really looking after me that much...'
Watching Hye-yong's back, Kwon Jin-ah felt relief wash over her thanks to the secondary effect of the Evil Spirit Suppression.
'He's going this far for me, so I'd better work hard too.'
Recalling his words that getting stronger would give her more ways to control the evil spirit, Kwon Jin-ah turned around. The brief meeting ended.
-
Four hours later, late night.
'Kwon Jin-ah... she's definitely asleep at this hour, right?'
Originally he'd considered dropping in at one, but just in case he waited longer while working on the holy relic.
'Hope it worked...'
Hye-yong lay on his bed and cast Inner World Intrusion. Then, slowly, he opened his eyes.
'This is.'
The layout was slightly different, but it was inside the dormitory. And it clearly wasn't his own room.
'Did it succeed?'
He walked cautiously toward the bed. Under the plush blanket pulled up to her chin, Kwon Jin-ah was breathing softly in her sleep.
'Whoa, it worked.'
What were the exact criteria? Even Mina didn't seem to know precisely. Filing that thought away, Hye-yong quietly observed Kwon Jin-ah's sleeping figure.
'Hm... I came all this way, but maybe I should take a step back and think.'
The reason Hye-yong had taken advantage of Lanfang while she slept was that he'd been sexually aroused at the time and it had felt all right to do so. Doing the same to Kwon Jin-ah probably wouldn't matter much. It had been days since he last did it too, and he could just cast a Sleep Buff...
'No, forget it. I can get plenty of that in reality.'
Hye-yong decided to just complete the objective he came with and leave quickly.
[ Resentment : 0 ]
'No resentment toward me at all.'
[ Depression : 47 ]
'She's a bit on the depressed side. Well, can't be cheerful when an evil spirit is clinging to you, I guess.'
[ Betrayal Probability : 2 ]
'Oh, why's this so low.'
The likelihood of betrayal was insanely low, much lower than he'd expected. Low enough that it wouldn't go up unless he cursed her out every day while beating and raping her, or stood in front of her and revealed that everything he'd said back then was a lie. Only after seeing that could Hye-yong be certain.
'She completely and utterly fell for that ridiculous act!'
Thinking about it now, it actually seemed like a carefully crafted performance.
'Yeah. With how I set it up, Kwon Jin-ah had no choice but to believe it. She'd already been infected by the Virus before.'
If she genuinely believed that betrayal meant death, then it made sense for the number to be this low.
While he was here, he figured he should check how far he could push the growth buff.
[ Adaptive Stat Growth Efficiency Increase ]
Adaptive Stat Growth Efficiency Increase Lv. 17
Kwon Jin-ah Exclusive
'Level 17... That's about on par with what I can give Lanfang right now.'
The size of the Seed of Recognition seemed similar to Lanfang's.
'We were complete strangers before this. To jump this high in one go...'
As long as he pulled off the deception well, he didn't necessarily need to earn resentment. Treating someone well, treating them harshly — it was all just methods to grow the seed. This time he'd successfully exploited Kwon Jin-ah's situation.
"Nnn..."
Whoops. Kwon Jin-ah was starting to open her eyes. He hadn't done anything but watch! She seemed to be the sensitive type even while asleep.
'What do I do?'
He didn't know a fast way to exit the inner world. Should he just act natural? First, Hye-yong cast Acting Skill Buff on himself, just like last time.
"Nnn, mmm..."
Kwon Jin-ah opened her eyes and started violently at the sight of Hye-yong.
"Hyet! C-Commander!?"
"Awake? I was just about to wake you."
"H-How are you in my room?"
"Calm down. This is a dreamlike space."
"A dream..."
Kwon Jin-ah looked around. She seemed to be collecting her thoughts.
"You lock your door before sleeping, right? How would I get in without even picking the lock?"
"Th-That's true. So I'm not dreaming — the Commander entered my dream?"
"Yeah. It's an ability that Spiritual Ability Users have. Evil spirits always start by occupying the inner world first, after all."
"The inner world..."
Hye-yong turned his head naturally, scanning Kwon Jin-ah's room as if searching for something. Pure showmanship! Kwon Jin-ah watched, transfixed.
"I'm suppressing it now, so there's a high chance you won't see anything... but it might be making crevices in places you can't see. That's why I came to check."
Wow. Hearing Hye-yong's words, Jin-ah was amazed. He could even enter someone else's dreams. He's a far more incredible person than I thought. Spiritual Ability Users... she grew curious about just what kind of beings they were.
'So that's why it's a secret society.'
Taking this chance, Kwon Jin-ah wanted to ask a few things.
"Was I controlled by the evil spirit because my inner world was invaded?"
"That's right. Evil spirits prioritize manipulating the psychological side."
"Is there a way for me to protect my inner world on my own?"
"Unfortunately, no. This is the domain of spiritual ability."
"C-Can I... awaken spiritual ability too?"
"Won't work. It's determined from birth."
She'd halfway anticipated it, but the regret was unavoidable.
While keeping up the conversation, Hye-yong continued to look around Kwon Jin-ah's room.
'Plain and simple. Doesn't look like a girl's room.'
When the time felt right, he turned around.
"I think I've seen enough. It seems to be solidly suppressed, for now."
What a relief! Just as Kwon Jin-ah thought that, the commander's voice came again.
"There isn't much we can do right now. At best, you getting stronger as an awakened being, maybe."
"I'll keep that in mind. I'll train diligently."
"I'll be rooting for you. I'll be off then."
"Farewell, Commander!"
No matter what, this was way too formal. Feeling a bit weird about it, Hye-yong added a remark.
"Don't use such stiff speech. Others will get suspicious."
"Ah, got i... t."
"Yeah, that's fine. Sleep well."
Creeeak! Opening the door, Hye-yong exited the inner world. The moment Hye-yong opened his eyes on his bed, Kwon Jin-ah also woke from her sleep.
'Ah...!'
Her room, as always. Kwon Jin-ah got up, turned on the light, and examined the spot where the commander had stood.
'He didn't touch anything... but it's so seamless that I can't even believe he was here.'
It really seemed like he'd come in and left through a dream.
'But I have no choice but to believe it. The more I see him, the more my trust grows...'
Kwon Jin-ah felt her faith deepening every time she met Hye-yong.
-
'That makes one more person I can trust with a growth buff.'
Betrayal is death! If anyone firmly believed that, it was Kwon Jin-ah — there was no one safer to entrust with a growth buff.
'A subordinate, a loyal subordinate...'
Thinking that she'd get stronger and protect him, he felt genuinely reassured. To make that happen, he had to complete the holy relic quickly.
'Ah... Starting tomorrow I'm just gonna ditch all the physical training and stuff. That's not what matters right now.'
And he decided to take this weekend for himself. He felt a little sorry for Lanfang, who looked forward to playing with him every weekend, but it was all for the greater good.
-
July 15th (Sunday), 3:08 PM
Cafe Vivaldi
"Haaaaaum."
A truly drowsy afternoon. Sitting alone in the cafe, gulping down sugary snacks like potions, Hye-yong continued the engraving work.
'Let's push a little harder. The end's in sight.'
Hye-yong exercised extreme caution to turn this ring artifact into a holy relic. He confirmed that the structure of a plain growth buff and a growth buff with Lanfang's exclusive function imbued into it were different. But the similarities were so pronounced that the smallest slip could cause a mistake. As he knew well, the numerical units alone were completely different between a generic growth buff and one made exclusively for Lanfang. So he painstakingly, stitch by stitch, altered it little by little with artisan-level focus to ensure the holy relic was properly made for Lanfang.
And now that ring was about to be completed.
'Fwoo...!'
After meticulously checking everything, Hye-yong reshaped the last visible flaw. Just holding it, he could feel it steeped in divine power.
'It's exclusive to Lanfang, so I can't verify it myself.'
Still, Hye-yong trusted the result of his efforts. He decided to call Lanfang out at this point.
[ Choi Hye-yong : Lanfang, what are you up to? ]
There was no immediate response from Lanfang. He waited about five minutes, and then a reply came.
[ Lanfang : Ah! To think I only saw my Master's message now. I was training! ]
[ Choi Hye-yong : Training? Without a buff? ]
[ Lanfang : I have time and energy, so I can't just stay still because I don't have a buff! ]
[ Lanfang : Because Master isn't always by my side, wherever I go... ]
'Training without even a growth buff. Lanfang, you've grown.'
This master was pleased. He wanted to give a gift to that Lanfang.
[ Choi Hye-yong : If you're not busy, can you come to Cafe Vivaldi where we met before? ]
[ Lanfang : I'll run right over!! ]
As before, Hye-yong stood by the cafe door waiting for Lanfang. Because he'd taken a private booth for comfort, Lanfang wouldn't know he was inside.
Jingle-jingle. Just then, someone pushed the door open and came out. Holding a cake box.
"Ugh...!"
The other person reacted first upon seeing Hye-yong. Hye-yong reflexively turned his head too.
'Oh.' A familiar face! It was Park Yuri.
'Park Yuri, how long has it been?' It hadn't been that long, but it felt like ages. Just seeing her face brought back that time and made him feel... a little stiff.
"Nice to see you, Yuri."
"Don't act all friendly, calling me by name!"
So her personality hadn't changed. Of course it hadn't, but still.
"You come here often?"
"What's it to you?"
"I come often. Their cakes are good."
"...They are good."
It looked like Park Yuri also bought stuff here often. So they had that in common.
"What are you standing around here for?"
"Waiting for someone."
"Waiting for someone... Ah."
Park Yuri let out a small sigh as if she'd figured something out. At that moment, Lanfang approached with quick steps.
"Buffer-nim... Oh!"
Lanfang flinched in surprise at seeing Park Yuri.
"Oh, hi?"
"Hello..."
An awkward greeting between them.
"Ah, you haven't been coming to spar lately..."
"Ah. I've been training on my own."
"I'll be up for it anytime, so contact me again."
"Th-Thank you."
Park Yuri gave a meaningful look and went on her way.
"Buffer-nim, that person..."
"I was just waiting, and she came out. Don't worry about it, let's go inside."
"Yes!"
Their voices stuck in Park Yuri's ears.
'Those two... they're going out, right?'
Sunday. For a couple to meet at this hour...
'A date, and... they'll probably spend the night together.'
Thinking that, Park Yuri felt oddly restless.
'Sex... obviously they'll do it, right?'
As she walked, she unconsciously started to imagine it. The two of them panting, their bodies entangled.
'Like when he was pounding into me. Like a beast, rough, with that hard, huge, twitching thing...'
She could almost see the innocent-faced Lanfang, her expression twisted with intense pleasure, letting out a groaning moan as she took that thing with her body. Just as she herself had done when she was violated.
'Ooht! W-What am I doing. Stop imagining it. Stop it!'
Park Yuri felt a secret pang of regret. Lanfang was a girl she'd liked. The way she kept getting knocked down, but always resolved something inside herself and charged back in — that had looked so pure that it stirred a desire to dirty her. Maybe even before Hye-yong had done it to her, Park Yuri had wanted a rough physical relationship.
'With that girl, I think she'd take even rougher play without complaint...'
But Park Yuri had no choice but to give up. Because she knew. Because she now knew.
'She can do it whenever she wants, without any pressure, with that guy. There's no reason for girls to do it with each other when she's got something so good.'
Envious... Wait, what am I thinking again! That last thought had been so blatant that Park Yuri startled herself.
'G-Get a grip. What's wrong with you, Park Yuri!'
Park Yuri squeezed her eyes shut, shook her head vigorously twice, let out a sigh, and walked toward her dormitory.