98. My Buff is a Drug
98. My Buff is a Drug
August 2 (Thu) 11:31 AM
Combat Tournament Exam Waiting Room
There'd been one more fight yesterday, and we'd walked away with the win.
Since this was an exam, not a tournament, there was no championship to crown — five wins got you a perfect score.
Hye-yong had planned to stop at four, but then he looked at the newly posted match-ups.
"Xiao Yun, Li Ailing, Shu Lan."
Three unmistakably Chinese names.
Our next opponents were a party made up entirely of Chinese students.
Flinch!
Lanfang's whole body jolted the second she heard those names.
'Ah.'
Hye-yong caught on in an instant.
'These bastards...'
He walked over to Lanfang and repeated the names.
"Xiao Yun, Li Ailing, Shu Lan."
"......."
"Those three, right? Your old party."
"Yes... that's right."
Names Lanfang clearly never wanted to think about again.
That much was obvious.
No one who'd been bullied wants to remember the ringleader's name.
A good idea struck Hye-yong, and he made an offer to Park Yuri and Lanfang.
"How about we let Lanfang take the spotlight this match?"
"What? What's going on? Explain."
He answered Park Yuri, who sounded intrigued, and told her exactly what Lanfang's history with their opponents was.
Park Yuri laughed like the whole concept of bullying was absurd.
"If that's how it is, I can help. So I just stay put?"
"You step in only if she's really in danger. That ought to work."
Lanfang, who'd been listening to the exchange, panicked.
"Y-you don't have to do that! Please, just act normal! They're all C-rank — there's no way I can take them all alone...!!"
"Is our Lanfang still afraid of those people?"
"Nngh...."
Hit right where it hurt, Lanfang couldn't say a word.
Hye-yong grinned and stroked her neck.
"It's fine. You've trained hard all this time, haven't you? You're way stronger than they are. And you've got my buffs on top of that."
"Yeah. This guy's trash at everything else, but his support is rock-solid."
"D-do you really think so?"
Even with the encouragement, Lanfang still didn't look confident.
These were memories from her darkest, most miserable days, after all.
At times like this, you had to stoke her competitive spirit.
"Honestly, isn't this exactly why you gritted your teeth and trained so hard?"
"Lanfang, be brave."
"You're going to tell the people who treated you like dead weight — "
"You are the dead weight, not me!"
"Look at me! I left your party and became this strong!"
At those words, a single desire surfaced on Lanfang's face.
The desire for self-actualization!
Everyone wants to be seen thriving in front of an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend.
Even more so if they were the one who got dumped.
The reason, of course, is to make them regret it.
"Oh, look how well she's doing."
"Did I break up with her over nothing? Should I try to get her back?"
That's the feeling you aim to plant.
"I... I'll do it!"
"Good. That's what I like to see. That's my pet dog."
Pat, pat!
"Hehe, eheheh...."
Wow, there she goes again.
Lanfang, absolutely melting the moment Hye-yong scratched under her chin.
Park Yuri found it utterly baffling every single time.
'Still... I guess... it doesn't look unhealthy. He really does seem to take care of her in his own way....'
If he truly thought of her as nothing more than an animal, he wouldn't have paid any attention to something like past bullying.
'Maybe even that can be considered a kind of human relationship.'
At first she'd thought it was anything but normal by ordinary standards, but the more she saw, the more it felt like a deliberate choice.
Watching Lanfang and Hye-yong, who seemed to share genuine delight with each other, Park Yuri's sense of ethics was slowly shifting.
-
At that same moment.
"What? Isn't that Pang?"
"Where? Where?"
Li Ailing, who'd been reading the match-ups, exclaimed, and Shu Lan leaned in to look.
"It really is."
"Heh. Pang is our enemy?"
Hearing that, Xiao Yun smugly summoned her halberd into her right hand.
Li Ailing read the match-up again and recited it aloud.
"Choi Hye-yong, Park Yuri? Looks like she squeezed in with some Koreans."
"So there really is a team that'll take her."
"Ranks are D, D, C. You can tell just by looking. They had to take the exam and couldn't find anyone else to team up with them. A party of outcasts scraped together. This match will be easy."
Xiao Yun smiled smugly, clearly delighted that Lanfang was their opponent.
"I'm tired — think she'll save us the trouble and forfeit?"
"She must've seen our names too. Once she realizes she can't win, she'll forfeit."
"Ahaha, but she's so dumb she probably won't even figure that out!"
Xiao Yun was so self-assured that Li Ailing and Shu Lan chattered away just as cheerfully, as if they'd already won.
Bweee-ree-ree-ree! Bweee-ree-ree-ree! Bweee-ree-ree-ree!
Then all their terminals went off at the same time.
"Ah, seriously. Is it starting?"
"I was hoping for a forfeit."
Li Ailing and Shu Lan grumbled but stowed their terminals.
'So you want to fight, huh? Rian Pang, you insolent little....'
After she'd been retired, Xiao Yun would "accidentally" stick her weapon into her once.
Killing her outright would cost points for "insufficient ability control," but she was willing to pay that price to teach an uppity loser a lesson.
That settled it. Xiao Yun strode toward the arena.
After only a few steps, the sparring ground came into view.
The moment her eyes landed on Lanfang, Xiao Yun opened her mouth to taunt her.
"Pang, I don't know if you're fitting in with your new party. I just hope you aren't still causing trouble and leeching off—"
She couldn't finish.
Because Lanfang had charged her in an instant.
'Fast?'
Taken aback by the unexpected speed, Xiao Yun hastily thrust out the shaft of her halberd to block.
Clang!
She blocked it, but the impact was nothing to scoff at!
Both hands gripping the halberd went numb.
'S-she's strong.'
Xiao Yun's face, which had been completely at ease at the thought of facing Lanfang, twisted.
Because it shamed her that the thought "she's strong" had unconsciously crossed her mind.
'Insolent...!!'
The fact that the creature she'd looked down on and treated like a bug was now glaring at her with both eyes and actually contending with her — that infuriated Xiao Yun more than anything.
'I'll kill you. I'll definitely kill you!'
Her hands tightened around her weapon.
-
BZZZZT!
"Hyaaahk!!"
After Li Ailing, Shu Lan too was helplessly overwhelmed, wrapped in the electric current.
"W-what the...!!"
Xiao Yun herself had dropped her halberd and collapsed.
As Lanfang, eyes cold, walked toward her one step at a time, Xiao Yun could do nothing but inch backward from where she sat.
At first, when Lanfang had attacked alone, they'd all assumed she'd lost her mind and planned to dispose of her quickly, so all three had attacked.
But no matter how hard they hammered at the shield surrounding Lanfang, it showed no sign of breaking.
Even with three of them attacking, the shield's repulsive force created openings, and once they started taking clean hits they lost all momentum — until it came to this.
Lanfang stared blankly at Xiao Yun, who was choking on the bitter taste of defeat.
'...Was this all you were?'
When they'd first crossed weapons, Lanfang had been a little flustered.
The resistance she felt was so weak.
Gaps that revealed themselves the moment she looked even a little carefully.
Simply thrusting at the openings she saw was enough to collapse their stances and send them scrambling backward in retreat.
The result: two were retired, and one had dropped her weapon and lost the will to fight.
She'd just lashed out lightly, and this was what happened.
'Are these really the same people from back then?'
The people she'd thought she could never surpass.
Her old party members, the ones she'd always lagged behind and could only watch from the back — were they really those same people?
'I... really have gotten strong.'
Only now did it truly sink in.
Only after approaching the trauma that had once tightly encased her did she finally feel just how much she'd grown.
To Lanfang, protected by Hye-yong's shield and buffs, they weren't even opponents capable of landing a single scratch anymore.
A fierce sense of accomplishment she'd never felt before.
A pleasure born of deep satisfaction seemed to drench her entire body.
She felt as if she'd been reborn.
'The old me doesn't exist anymore. Master made me this way.'
'I could become strong because of Master. Because of Master, I found the will to try.'
'If I'd been alone, I couldn't have done anything.'
'Because of Master, I don't have to be looked down on by people like them ever again.'
'Everything is thanks to Master....'
'When I listen to what Master says, only good things happen.'
'Whatever Master says is the right thing for me.'
Lanfang had moved beyond simply serving Hye-yong as her master; she had begun to believe in him absolutely.
At the same time, the thought that she was the cherished pet dog of such an incredible person lifted her self-esteem, which had been buried at rock bottom.
Lanfang looked down pityingly at Xiao Yun, who couldn't even stand up properly, and let out a soft puff of air through her nose.
"Hmph...."
In that instant, Xiao Yun felt as if lightning had struck inside her skull.
'W-what? P-Pang — that, that bitch just looked down on me!?'
The same girl who wasn't even good enough to be my doormat?
The bitch who couldn't even say no and had to do whatever I ordered?
"Th-this, this...!!"
Xiao Yun's face contorted with rage, but there was nothing she could do.
Thwack! Thwack!
Lanfang swung her blade tonfas to finish off the defenseless Xiao Yun.
BZZZZT!
"Gyaaahhk!"
"The old me was so pathetic... they really were nothing special. To think I once thought I should cling to people like this...."
She looked at the retired Xiao Yun, murmured coolly, and turned away.
"Krhh...!"
Grind, grind, grind, grind!
This is insane, this is insane, this is insane!!
Even on the ground, Xiao Yun ground her teeth furiously.
But that was all.
Right now, there was nothing whatsoever she could do.
Whether it was shield support or blessings, the fact remained unchanged: Lanfang had attacked alone and subdued three people.
That fact infuriated Xiao Yun more than anything.
'It's incredible. I feel so refreshed and exhilarated. It's like a heavy weight sitting on my chest has been completely lifted!'
Xiao Yun's rage fed directly into Lanfang's pleasure, measure for measure.
To Lanfang, those people were a kind of trauma.
She'd fought desperately not to be abandoned, and in the end, hadn't they cast her aside anyway?
— You really are completely useless after all.
— All you ever thought about was getting carried from start to finish.
— You know the term "bus leech"? That's exactly what you are, Pang!
— We kept you around out of attachment all this time, but... it's just not working. Your attitude is rotten.
— Can you just get the hell out of our party?
Every insult, every word that had made her so wretched.
'I won... hehe....'
But she had subdued those very people.
With this very body she'd swung her weapon and crushed them when they came at her with everything they had.
The ones who'd mocked her and ceaselessly made her miserable had fallen helplessly, unable to do anything against the blade tonfas she swung.
That fact told Lanfang she was superior to them.
"Lanfang, you were amazing!"
"You did great, you know that?"
Ahh, they're praising me.
Master, and Park Yuri too....
Lanfang thought about this swelling emotion.
'Getting stronger really is such a wonderful thing...!!'
— Exam complete! Please move to the waiting room.
Today, Lanfang experienced the pleasure and the thrill of becoming strong.
The thought surfaced that if she grew even stronger from here, the odds of ever suffering such misery again would shrink further and further.
'I want to try harder and become even stronger.'
Choi Hye-yong.
If she stayed at her beloved Master's side, she could surely become far stronger than she was now.
If she became strong, no one could look down on her anymore.
She could be treasured even more by Master....
It was a moment when the love, trust, and devotion in Lanfang's eyes as she looked at Hye-yong grew deeper than they'd ever been before.
-
Waiting Room.
The instant they stepped into the waiting room, Lanfang rushed into Hye-yong's arms.
Burying her face in his chest and glancing up at him, her eyes were drenched with dependence and affection.
She looked like a newborn hatchling imprinting on its parent the moment it breaks free of its shell.
"Master, thank you. The only reason I could do this is because of you...."
Hye-yong hugged her back and spoke.
"No, Lanfang. I just provided a little support. It's all because of your own hard work."
"No, Master. Without you, I'd be less than a bamboo leaf a panda chewed up and spat out...!!"
Park Yuri, watching the scene, felt her fingers curling up and frowned.
"Ugh, fuck. The two of you are really making a scene."
But regardless of what Park Yuri said, the two of them just kept on with their conversation.
"Master... for some reason my body feels hot today. I want you so badly... can you be with me tonight?"
"Sure, since you worked hard today. Consider it a special reward."
Lanfang blushed deeply and smiled.
"Wow... a reward, a reward from Master. Lanfang loves it so much when Master gives me a reward...!!"
Ugh, urgh. Uuugh....
Park Yuri felt even her toes curling.
By now, Lanfang didn't seem to care in the slightest whether she was there or not.
The way she showered him with aegyo as if determined to fulfill her duty as a pet dog was cute, but also strange.
Park Yuri herself couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what was strange about it.
'Choi Hye-yong, that guy... is he that kind to anyone once they become his pet?'
That was something you could never know unless you experienced it yourself.
And Park Yuri was absolutely certain she would never, ever experience such a thing herself.
Because she believed with rock-solid conviction that her personality would never allow her to become anyone's pet.
"Please give me a reward kiss...."
"Here? Does Yuri not even register to you anymore?"
"Right now, my love for Master is so much bigger than anything like embarrassment."
"Oh dear."
Even as he said it in a scolding tone, Hye-yong's lips were already heading toward Lanfang's.
Smooch....
And the kiss began.
By this point, Yuri was simply at a loss for words.
'They're doing that right in front of me while I'm watching with both eyes wide open?'
Standing there watching made her mood plummet.
Couldn't they do that somewhere she couldn't see?
"The multi-team matches end after one more today, right!? I'm heading out first to prep for my one-on-one!"
Park Yuri barked it out like an announcement and left the waiting room.
The two were so busy nuzzling each other they didn't even say goodbye.
So this was what it felt like to be stuck as a third wheel between a couple — like total shit.
'Well, strictly speaking they aren't a couple, but....'
Still, it was definitely shitty.
Especially thinking about how they'd probably be stuck together all sticky and spend a hot night together made it that much shittier.
'That playboy can spend his nights with whoever he wants — it's none of my business. As long as it's a woman, he probably doesn't care who. He'll spout "I love you" to anyone.'
But why did it bother her?
Park Yuri failed to notice that she was walking with her lips poked out in a pout.