Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: The Lunch Line Story
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“Mind if I go over that line-standing story from earlier again?”
“Sure.”
That damn lunch line.
Seol Do-yun nodded.
“To achieve the common goal of eating, the teachers created a system called lining up.”
Yi Yu-hyeon opened her mouth, recalling past memories.
“But there are always kids who exploit that system. They shove past the ones patiently waiting their turn and cut to the front. The kids at the back, who end up eating late, try to stop their antics. Sometimes they even cut in themselves, and it turns into a fight.”
Seol Do-yun listened quietly and nodded.
“In the end, the kids who kept cutting and staying at the front get pushed out. But once the back-row kids finally cut to the front, they start thinking differently. ‘We’ve waited in line all this time, so maybe we can keep eating first now.’”
“That makes sense.”
“And the cutting culture continues. Meanwhile, new kids join the class. They know nothing and keep getting stuck eating last.”
Yi Yu-hyeon spoke while watching Seol Do-yun’s expression.
Her face was always smiling, so it was hard to read her true feelings.
“Then the back-row kids start wanting to eat first too, so they try to pull down the established cutters. This time, along with the new kids.”
“The counterattack begins again?”
“Haha, yeah. And so the fights keep going, just to eat a little faster. More kids learn to cut, the newcomers see it and pick it up too, and eventually they start insulting the ones who wait patiently: ‘You idiots are the dumb ones for waiting!’”
“That’s too much.”
“Right? It drags on like that until no one wants to line up for food anymore. Then one kid gets shoved hard and gets seriously hurt. Someone calls for their mom. Another kid causes chaos and accidentally spills food. Parents storm into the kindergarten. And then they fight over who started it.”
“What a mess.”
“A system made so everyone could eat happily ends up with no one eating happily.”
Seol Do-yun fell silent after hearing Yi Yu-hyeon’s whole story, lost in thought.
After dragging Kim Woo-sung down, she’d been planning to build something like the Abyss Cartel.
But perceptive Yi Yu-hyeon seemed to have sniffed it out and was trying to dissuade her.
“I get what you’re trying to say. You softened it quite a bit with that example.”
But things had been too tough for too long.
She didn’t want anyone daring to ignore or mess with Abyss, which had become her identity.
Even if her orphanage experiment origins came out and drew pity, someone might weaponize it.
Whether pity or a weapon, she hated both. Being looked down on was unbearable.
She just wanted no one to treat her carelessly anymore.
“......Once you claim the front and show a gap, attacks come. Others might not notice the gap and ignore it, but I’m always on edge.”
“So you’ll live in constant tension just to eat first?”
“I’ve never let my guard down since birth. It’s fine.”
“Does that make Do-yun happy?”
“Yes! I’m always happy eating first.”
Seol Do-yun smiled brightly.
It was an immediate answer without a hint of hesitation. Somehow, it fit.
Yi Yu-hyeon carefully opened her mouth.
“Hm...... But would Sae-byeok try to join you up front?”
“Why bring her up out of nowhere?”
“You two hung out together once. In kindergarten, some kids are always stuck together like glue. That’s what came to mind. Even if Do-yun goes to the front, I feel like Sae-byeok would stay back.”
Probably.
For some reason, she always ended up as the victim and never tried to escape it.
She thought about the reason.
Bad-luck Yi Sae-byeok easily fell into pitfalls others set, but even when she could escape easily, she stayed because she couldn’t betray the bonds she’d formed there.
“It’s fine. I’ll just drag her along. The front is way better for living.”
“......Would Sae-byeok come just because you pull her?”
“......”
“To let Sae-byeok eat first, your choice might end up sending her to the very back of the line.”
She needed to refute that quickly.
All the things she’d done just to avoid being underestimated—she’d drag Yi Sae-byeok into them all.
She’d wondered what Yi Yu-hyeon wanted to say while holding her back, but this was a leading interrogation trying to tie it to Yi Sae-byeok somehow.
She had to counter, but countless words clashed inside her, and not one came out.
“I just want Do-yun to be happy. I hope you don’t end up in a situation where you can’t be truly happy because of a choice you made.”
“You’re talking like Yi Sae-byeok is my happiness, but she’s not.”
“Really not at all?”
Seol Do-yun answered immediately, without thinking.
“Yes.”
Yi Yu-hyeon paused to think at Seol Do-yun’s reply.
‘She denies it completely.’
If she was denying it even while fooling herself, it was best not to touch it without a plan.
But telling her would restrain Seol Do-yun’s actions, scarred and worn as she was.
“People react most strongly where their weaknesses and passions lie.”
It was so staunchly denied that forcing it open might trigger an unknown reaction.
Unable to predict what motive led her to deny her own heart so thoroughly, Yi Yu-hyeon spoke as carefully as possible.
“Do-yun could run away anytime if she wanted, but she stays and tries to change this place entirely.”
“......That’s.”
Her words failed her.
Her heart started beating faster bit by bit.
“To protect a weakness, you sometimes have to face it head-on. Denying it isn’t always the answer.”
“I don’t create weaknesses in the first place.”
Seol Do-yun had advanced many things by grabbing others’ weaknesses.
So she hadn’t made any of her own. She left no traces that could be seen as such.
She’d even built an image of someone obsessed with money as a device.
Seol Do-yun always thought about how she’d attack herself and blocked those paths.
Sometimes she grew paranoid, suffocating from suspecting everything, but planning countermeasures made her feel at ease.
She’d suspected paranoia, but given the cutthroat situation, it wasn’t.
There might be enemies just like her, so it was rational suspicion.
She’d discarded or eliminated anything that could be a weakness.
She thought she’d done well.
“Want me to tell you what Do-yun’s weakness is?”
“......Stop.”
Seol Do-yun, who had been quietly listening to Yi Yu-hyeon, cut her off with a slightly urgent tone.
Suddenly her heart pounded wildly, her head throbbed. The blowing wind felt even colder.
Her head spun.
She wanted to tell her to stop several more times, but her heart raced so much that opening her mouth might bring on a cough.
The world seemed to spin.
“Do-yun’s weakness is......”
“Stop!”
Seol Do-yun drew the pistol from her uniform and aimed it at Yi Yu-hyeon’s neck.
“Please stop......”
Her mouth forced the words out, but her eyes were those of someone about to collapse. The hand holding the gun trembled.
“......”
Seol Do-yun snapped back to her senses, bowed her head briefly in apology, and left the spot.
* * *
Afternoon gate raid time.
Seol Do-yun finished gearing up and entered the C-Rank Gate.
She dodged the pouring attacks and boring ambushes, analyzed the monsters’ patterns familiarly, and informed the others raiding with her.
They reached the boss room smoothly.
Since she was the only one without a second awakening, she was left alone at the back after the clear.
Suddenly, soldier monsters sent by the boss ambushed from behind.
They were like piranhas, swarming one person after another.
One monster sank its sharp teeth into Seol Do-yun’s shoulder.
“That hurts......”
She infused magic into her hand, grabbed the monster’s face, and hurled it far away.
She calmly pulled out the embedded tooth, and then more of the same monsters charged at once.
“......”
Her mind blanked for a moment; she just watched the onslaught without defending.
“Ah, I’m screwed.”
By the time she snapped out of it, she was surrounded by the monster pack in an instant.
She glanced at the other party members—they were all focused on the boss.
If she called for help now, someone’s concentration would break and they’d die.
[Krrrrr......]
Should she have done her second awakening earlier?
Stupidly, she’d forgotten magic weapons, and forgot to ask a teammate for a pistol.
Actually, she didn’t want to admit forgetting her weapon. She’d rather get torn apart.
The magic pistol from her uniform that she’d aimed at Yi Yu-hyeon had been disposed of to destroy evidence.
She hadn’t even killed her, yet she’d ditched the gun—clearly out of her mind.
[HP: 2,582,000/3,000,000]
The system window showed plenty of HP left, so she wouldn’t die, but it might hurt a lot.
Right on cue, a monster crunched into her leg.
Crack!
Seol Do-yun condensed magic in her leg and kicked an incoming monster’s head.
At the same time, another bit her already-wounded shoulder.
“......”
Staring down at the monster, Seol Do-yun poured magic into her arm and punched the one on her shoulder.
‘When will those guys finish the boss?’
The pain made her hate moving.
Fighting barehanded, the monsters didn’t die easily. And these were B-Rank gate monsters—tough as hell.
‘Oh, right, I brought a dagger?’
Seol Do-yun sat in the corner and pulled out her dagger. Her pierced shoulder wouldn’t cooperate.
A recovery syringe would be nice. Of course, all the syringes were with the boss-killing party.
‘I thought I managed my mentality well, but I failed, huh.’
The feeling of her hidden side being exposed brought a mad fear of losing it.
She debated killing Yi Yu-hyeon, who’d dug into her, to eliminate her.
Or maybe just knock her out to erase her memory—not bad.
Of course, pointless since she wouldn’t kill, but her thoughts kept drifting there.
Once her maintained mental fortitude cracked even slightly, the damage was severe.
After her mental strength crumbled a bit, the impact was too much.
The only option she could think of now was to endure until the party finished the boss before her HP hit zero on that broken status window.
If waiting didn’t work, she’d crawl out of the gate.
‘It hurts......’
Ever since she’d gained consciousness, it had always hurt in situations like this.
Nothing she could do while weak.
Seol Do-yun kept fending off the charging monsters.
That was when it happened.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Gunfire from behind.
“You fucking bastard, where’s your head at!!! First awakeners rely on weapons—how the hell do you forget yours!!”
Yi Sae-byeok stripped off her shirt, soaked it in her own blood, and used the gunfire to draw the monsters’ attention to the blood.
As they lunged, she threw the blood-drenched shirt aside, escaping their pursuit for a moment.
Turning, she spotted Seol Do-yun leaning against the wall, spacing out, and her spine chilled—remembering when they’d been trapped in a gate together before.
“Hey!!!! Snap out of it!!!!”
Thwack!
Yi Sae-byeok punched Seol Do-yun’s dazed face and shoved a magic pistol into her hand.
Suddenly punched, Seol Do-yun spat blood and scowled.
“......Why are you here?”
“Closed an E-Rank gate nearby and had time, so I dropped by. You psycho. Why’re you acting like a spaced-out nutjob?”
“Why’s an unawakened like you in here?”
“Fuck, even after I save you, you bitch.”
Yi Sae-byeok supported the battered Seol Do-yun.
“If first awakeners didn’t pull stupid shit like forgetting weapons, I wouldn’t even be here.”
“I don’t need saving. I’ve got it.”
“Big talk from the guy who ditched his weapon and became monster chow.”
“I enjoy turning into monster chow sometimes. Don’t meddle in my secret hobby.”
“Wow. Disgustingly just like you.”
Seol Do-yun eyed Yi Sae-byeok supporting her.
Her leg, just recovered from an injury, trembled under the weight.
Spotting it, she shoved her away immediately.
Yi Sae-byeok scowled, shoved off for no reason.
“You’re extra bitchy today. Puberty or what?”
“Got a recovery syringe?”
Yi Sae-byeok tossed her a quick-recovery syringe from her pocket.
Seol Do-yun skillfully stitched her wound with needle and thread from her pouch, then injected the syringe to heal fast.
[HP: 2,982,000/3,000,000]
The presumed HP number rose quickly.
Seol Do-yun left a note so the party could focus on the boss and walked toward the gate exit.
“Sae-byeok.”
“What.”
“Want a piggyback?”
“Fuck off.”
Yi Sae-byeok scowled, remembering the last time she’d “offered a piggyback” and flipped her instead.
Seol Do-yun let out a low chuckle at her reaction.
Walking side by side with Yi Sae-byeok, Seol Do-yun put some distance between them under the excuse of catching her breath.