Chapter 180
Chapter 180
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: Part 2 Chapter 43
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Dun had been leisurely keeping Pyo Sang-hoon company as his sparring partner in dc143c-T (the world with Korea), but there was a reason he returned a bit prematurely.
{Colin: Sorry to send a letter while you're traveling.}
{Colin: There's an adventurer visitor at the mansion. They clearly weren't let in since you weren't here, but before I knew it, they were sitting primly in the drawing room sipping coffee. They claim to be an old acquaintance of yours.}
It was a message from Colin Altoid, who had been managing the mansion in Dun's stead.
It was about the persistent visitor at the mansion—obviously Seol Do-yun—so Dun had ignored it.
{Colin: When I said you weren't here, they came back again today. This visitor is sprinkling cinnamon scent all over the drawing room. No idea what they're doing.}
{Dun: Chase them out for now.}
The moment he received that, Dun scowled, bid farewell to Pyo Sang-hoon, and quickly returned to his original world.
Travel between the two worlds without the multi-dimensional stone was still unstable, so landing in odd places was par for the course.
He pictured the Sabark Mansion and activated his skill, but when he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by flowers.
He had crash-landed in the Sabark Mansion's garden. Dun's head poked up amid the riot of colorful blooms.
Seol Do-yun, who had been kicked out of the drawing room and come to the garden, suddenly turned at the presence she sensed nearby.
“?”
Dun was half-buried alive in the mansion flowerbed. He wriggled his deeply buried body free and rolled to the side.
In the process, the flowers the mansion staff had so carefully tended were ruined.
As he straightened the broken stems and brushed dirt off himself, someone tall and strikingly handsome approached.
It was Seol Do-yun. Her pale face bloomed with a bright smile, tinged with faint mockery.
“Dun, you look ridiculously cute like that.”
She reached out with a handful of dirt and dumped it fresh on Dun's head as he frantically brushed soil from his hair.
“Don't spread cinnamon scent in my house.”
Dun grimaced and flung the dirt from his head at Seol Do-yun like he was warding off evil spirits.
Cinnamon was a scent Dun particularly disliked. He couldn't just stand by while she filled the entire mansion interior with it.
“I waited so long, and you didn't come—I was getting disappointed.”
Seol Do-yun whined playfully, then pulled a small perfume bottle from her pocket and spritzed Dun's nape. Cinnamon wafted strongly.
“Ah, shit. I'm gonna kill you.”
“Haha.”
Seol Do-yun burst into laughter as Dun grabbed her collar in an instant.
She placed one hand over Dun's gripping fist, tilted her head up slightly, and her jet-black hair cascaded softly back.
Locking eyes with Dun, she asked softly.
“Don't you have a lot to explain to me?”
Seol Do-yun dangled Dun's smartphone, which she'd slyly snatched from his pouch, right in front of his face.
Dun scowled irritably and clicked his tongue.
“Come to the drawing room.”
* * *
Back in the drawing room.
Seol Do-yun eyed Dun, who had changed into casual clothes. The tank top and shorts looked out of place in the aristocratic mansion and were amusing, but they suited him well enough.
Slurp.
Dun gulped the hot coffee like it was noodle soup, wiped his mouth, and leaned back on the sofa, draping an arm arrogantly over the backrest.
“Straight to the point: yeah, I went to your world.”
“You seemed to be having a blast.”
Seol Do-yun smiled.
Honestly, when she first heard Dun had appeared in the real world, she'd brushed it off. Weird rumors always stuck to him anyway.
But after investigating the mysterious hole that suddenly appeared in the middle of the association building's wall, her thinking changed.
The investigation turned up a kid who looked just like Dun.
At the same time, Yi Sae-byeok had been closely watching someone specific lately and even arranged a temporary identity for them, so she couldn't help but dig.
Later, she spotted Dun at a PC bang, furiously gaming and trash-talking someone, and let out a hollow laugh.
Even after confirming that much, she still suspected some kind of mental manipulation.
So instead of approaching rashly, she entered the game to cross-check with the real Dun.
But whether he could really travel to the real world or not, the Dun in the game had been absent for days.
Then she ran into Dun in person and found real-world artifacts on him.
That clinched it.
Just as Dun could travel to the Da-bo-seok world, he could go to their world too.
Though judging by the wall impalement and the dirt burial, he wasn't handling the ability well yet.
“Wanna try the air system again?”
“What for.”
Dun pulled his smartphone from his pocket and tossed it to Seol Do-yun. He didn't even have a lock pattern or password—totally reckless.
Seol Do-yun saved her personal number and some useful association contacts.
“You haven't even exchanged tigos yet, right? No place of your own, crashing in association guest rooms. Must be inconvenient in all sorts of ways.”
Dun narrowed his eyes at Seol Do-yun's coaxing tone listing his needs.
“Persuasion mode activated. You want something from me?”
“Nope. If I had to say, maybe some trust?”
“......Smells like druggie bait.”
As Dun eyed her suspiciously, Seol Do-yun burst out laughing.
“Kidding. Truth is, I'm the one who wants the most from you. Not that it has to be you specifically, but since we're the same kind.”
“Oh-ho...... So the original childhood friend wins out, huh? Don't be like that, Do-yun-ah. Cherish this side too.”
Dun raised an eyebrow and leaned in toward Seol Do-yun.
“Don't be gross. I've got a few questions for you.”
Seol Do-yun laughed and pushed Dun's forehead away with her index finger.
“No fun.”
When Seol Do-yun didn't panic or recoil much, Dun lost interest and went back to looking bored.
“Be honest with me. Got it?”
“Knew you'd ask for info. What's on your mind?”
Dun leaned back on the sofa again and nodded for her to go ahead.
“You know there's a you in our world too, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Any chance you two share memories, emotions, thoughts? Like your current thoughts going to Yi Sae-byeok, or hers coming to you.”
There were too many inconsistencies to call Yi Sae-byeok and Dun simple clones.
Maybe the same soul? But that wouldn't allow two existences in the same time and world.
“What? No.”
He blurted out a denial at the absurd notion, but then Dun paused to think.
‘Lately, past memories suddenly sharpened, and emotions felt vivid.’
He'd originally planned to toss Pyo Sang-hoon a few good items and leave, but the vivid emotions made him immerse too much and help out.
But it was so brief, maybe just a momentary recollection of past memories.
It was too vague to explain to Seol Do-yun, so he stuck with his initial denial.
“Got it.”
Seol Do-yun spoke upon hearing Dun's clear denial.
Maybe because it's Bachinum, the soul reaction during cloning is different. Tricky stuff.
“Anyway, Dun. Any leads on the identity of the thing constantly spawning gates and dungeons?”
She'd been looking into it from all angles to put a stop to it, but academic info circulating so far had limits.
Research on gates and dungeons pointed toward Montgijel, but now knowing this world was the real one, she needed to investigate that enemy and area thoroughly before rushing in.
Lucky that Dun hailed from Montgijel.
“Leads...... What exactly do you want to know?”
“Appearance first. Ever encountered it?”
Dun closed his eyes, furrowed his brow, and rummaged through past memories.
“Thing is, not sure if I saw it or not. It's fuzzy. Like porridge—can't tell if it's the real thing......”
“Porridge...... What does that even mean?”
“Body like flowing fabric stitched together, that sort of...... Hard to describe. Not even sure it's the guy. No mouth visible when it spoke; voice came straight to my head. Every time I went to kill that slimy bastard, it had some new patchwork body. Couldn't tell if those were minions or the real deal. And that was back then—could look totally different now.”
“I see......”
Back then, its power was unstable, making all gates and dungeons easy. Now they were far more refined and powerful.
High chance it'd shed that unstable form.
It'd take time, but a good way to confirm came to mind, and Seol Do-yun smiled.
“Anyway, you're hunting that thing too, right?”
Dun nodded instead of answering.
“Since our goals align, I'll share something interesting. Info I dug up from palace library materials and academic papers lately.”
Dun showed interest, straightening from the sofa and leaning forward.
Her intel was usually solid, so he had high expectations.
“Nature in the world follows rules. Rain falls, water flows, evaporates into clouds. Sprouts get eaten by herbivores, herbivores by carnivores, carnivores decompose into nutrients for new sprouts. Cycles for the world's sustainability.”
“And?”
“The reason the world's natural rules seem perfect amid countless interactions is they dump tiny errors somewhere. Turns out every world has a secondary continent like a trash bin. All anomalies happen there. We found a suspicious zone here recently too. Entrance seems to be near the North Pole.”
Dun's eyes widened at 'North Pole' while listening to Seol Do-yun.
Then he chuckled to himself, composed himself, and spoke.
“So Montgijel could be this world's error dump?”
“That's the guess. Though it seems way bigger than calculated. Explains why monsters and dungeons pop up so much here.”
World history had records of dungeon-like things here too, though not many.
Before checking Montgijel, she planned to visit that zone in her own world.
Seol Do-yun looked up at Dun. He yawned hugely and dumped his empty coffee cup into his mouth. Utterly laid-back.
“Anyway, Dun, thanks for making time. I'll visit sometime, so hang out again then.”
Seol Do-yun added as she stood.
“Oh, and security was easy to breach. For a place whose owner brags about hacking imperial security, it was kinda sloppy?”
Dun's brow twitched at that.
“Whoa, thanks for the heads-up, Do-yun-ah. Next time, I'll set up landmines and nukes just for punks like you.”
They waved goodbye and exchanged well-wishes before parting.
* * *
When word spread that Yi Sae-byeok got caught in a B-rank gate, quite a few people flipped out.
“You, fuck. I said if you get critically wounded, I'd block you from gates forever!!!! If you die, I die too!!!”
Yeo Woo-hee shrieked, squeezing Yi Sae-byeok's face like dough. She wasn't the only one losing it.
Lee Kyung-seop and others had their turns too.
Even the mild-mannered Byeon Woo-jin. It hit hard how their gazes toward her had changed.
Before, as long as she was alive, critical wounds or not, they'd praise her coolness. Now, any injury in a gate turned her into a reckless fool who couldn't let go of greed.
No one said it outright, but she felt that way anyway.
‘Don't ever do that again.’
Surprisingly, Pyo Sang-hoon's scolding stuck the most.
Right after emerging from the gate, his wounded expression pleading never to do it again lingered in her mind.
Maybe because they weren't close, so it rang clearer. Or because he'd just overcome monster phobia.
[Take care going in.]
(Bowing emoticon)
She'd thought contact would dwindle from betrayal, but it increased.
After getting trapped in the gate with him last time, he came to the association more often.
He'd greet her, ask what she'd been up to, thank her, then head back down.
Subtly tough mentality. If it were her, she'd hate the person beyond words and steer clear.
Lost in such thoughts on her way back to the dorm, she noticed bustle at the room entrance.
‘Oh, right—Woo Ji-yoon's moving out today?’
Yi Sae-byeok climbed onto her bed and lay there peacefully, watching Woo Ji-yoon's stuff disappear bit by bit.
“Sae-byeok-ah, you're moving out soon too, right?”
“Yeah.”
After lying about sharing with a sports academy prep friend, she actually found someone to share with.
Hard to find solo-living folks, so it took effort.
‘Ah, got it! You're welcome anytime! Rent since we're sharing...... No, no! Don't worry about it!’
Not even threatened, but she trembled in response—didn't sit right.
If she seemed uncomfortable, Yi Sae-byeok would pretend to stay temporarily then leave.
Could've found a solo place, but the process was a hassle.
“Take care. Hit me up!”
“You should head out.”
“You really won't live with me......?”
Yi Sae-byeok stared silently, and Woo Ji-yoon sighed regretfully.
“Fine, no whining. Take care......”
Woo Ji-yoon hugged Yi Sae-byeok and left in a taxi.
Yi Sae-byeok just waved half-heartedly, returned to the room, wriggled under the covers solving Korean reading passages, then went out for water.
Last month, with Woo Ji-yoon and others moving out, she'd thought a lot, but lately busier, stray thoughts lessened.
“......”
Yi Sae-byeok wandered the now quieter hall in a daze. The twisty Korean passage from earlier still twisted in her head.
Near the water cooler, she spotted Seol Do-yun in the distance filling a tumbler. A tablet was tucked under his arm.
‘This guy's staying too?’
Staring blankly as she approached, their eyes met suddenly.
They hadn't talked lately, and without business, nothing to say, so she planned to just drink and pass.
But he spoke first.
“Caught in a B-rank gate, huh? Managed to survive again.”
She wanted to dodge another lecture, but it was a surprisingly clean one-liner.
With his emotionless vibe and clear self-interest, Seol Do-yun could feel oddly comfortable sometimes.
“Got a problem?”
Yi Sae-byeok blew on the paper cup rim and replied flatly.
“Nah, just thought your life's pretty tenacious.”
She figured as much.
Seol Do-yun swallowed his afterthoughts and noticed the scribbled notes on Yi Sae-byeok's hand—probably for memorization.
“More importantly, Sae-byeok-ah, entrance exams tough?”
“?”
Yi Sae-byeok frowned at Seol Do-yun's normal check-in. Building up to some bullshit, probably.
“Ever get your head hot bumping into hard problems while studying?”
“Yeah, sure. Why.”
Her head had heated up reading Korean passages hard.
Agreeing, Seol Do-yun grinned and held out his tablet. A photo showed snow-covered ground.
“Wanna cool off at the North Pole together?”
“......”
“Study for exams there—no overheating. I'll tutor you specially for a thousand won an hour.”
“......”
Seol Do-yun took back the tablet, flipped a few photos, then held it up again to Yi Sae-byeok's dumbfounded face.
It was a video of a cute baby Siberian husky.
The adorable pup bounced through the snow, then a foreigner appeared chasing after it.
“Waaah, so cute. North Pole's the best!”
Dubbing the foreigner's mouth shape, Yi Sae-byeok kept spacing out, then scratched her hair.
The husky's cuteness lent absurd logic credibility.
“What do you say—book your ticket too?”
Stalling by filling her cup, Yi Sae-byeok sipped once, pretended to ponder seriously, then flipped him the bird instead of answering.