Hidden Scenario - Escape from the Ichthyosaur's Stomach (5)
After taking Kim Dokja's slap and tumbling across the floor like a cartoon character, I clutched my cheek — searing hot and throbbing — and shuffled back toward her.
"I let coins blind me. I'm sorry, Ms. Kim Dokja."
"………."
Then I dropped into the posture known as a full bow in Korea and a dogeza in Japan, begging for forgiveness.
A number of Constellations are pointing fingers at Incarnation Park Jinwoo, asking if he has no pride.
"In a situation like this, does pride put food on the table or make you stronger?"
Kim Dokja stared down at me for a long while as I kept bowing — her gaze cold, laced with contempt — then finally let out a sigh and held out her hand.
"One thousand coins…."
"Excuse me?"
"Give me a thousand of those fifteen hundred coins you just received, and I'll forgive you."
Had I misheard her? A thousand coins?
Sure, I'd been in the wrong — but a thousand coins for a single act of forgiveness? That was absurd!
"How much did you say? Five hundred coins?"
"I said one thousand."
I'd floated five hundred as a cheerful counteroffer, but Kim Dokja drove the nail home with a firm one thousand, and I couldn't stop a look of pure dismay from crossing my face.
"Six hundred."
"Nine hundred."
Kim Dokja looked down at me with a cold, capitalistic smile, while I gazed up at her, cold sweat beading on my forehead, wearing the expression of a man who knew he'd walked into a trap.
"…Let's just split it down the middle. Seven hundred fifty."
"Fine. We'll settle at seven hundred fifty."
I wore a dejected look at the prospect of handing over seven hundred fifty coins, while Kim Dokja — her cheeks still flushed with residual shame — smiled with quiet satisfaction at having extracted seven hundred fifty coins as the price of forgiving Park Jinwoo.
Seven hundred fifty coins is a fortune in the early scenarios. Lucky break. Still a little embarrassed, though….
Looking at Park Jinwoo — a deranged pervert with a sucker's streak — Kim Dokja began wondering whether she might fleece him again if the opportunity arose.
But did Park Jinwoo truly have no idea what she was thinking?
Seven hundred fifty coins as an apology fee for one look at that glamorous figure? Not a bad deal.
Let's just leave it at that….
…No, wait. This is exactly how I should be acting. It lets me join Kim Dokja's party naturally.
I absolutely did not lose to lust! If I lost to anything, it was to coins!
Splash!
"……!?"
"……!?"
Without warning, the stomach wall heaved, and everything floating inside the ichthyosaur's gut — debris and water alike — began to slosh and sway.
The ichthyosaur had started moving somewhere.
I hurriedly gathered the items resting on the debris, while Kim Dokja pulled out her smartphone and checked the time.
According to Ways of Survival, ichthyosaurs start secreting stomach acid roughly three hours after feeding.
In other words, we didn't have much time left.
"Haha, what a shame. It was getting so interesting."
A voice crackled out of thin air, accompanied by the sizzle of sparks.
"A Dokkaebi…?"
Kim Dokja turned her gaze toward the sound and murmured the word under her breath.
Golden light bloomed in the empty air where the sparks were crackling, and with a pop, the Dokkaebi Bihyung appeared.
"That's right. You're not surprised at all?"
"I knew you'd come."
"Hmm…. I see. And what about you?"
Bihyung murmured a small note of admiration at Kim Dokja's words, then turned his question on me — standing quietly off to the side, watching the two of them.
"Me?"
I put on a faintly flustered expression at Bihyung's sudden question, but with him waiting for an answer, I slowly exhaled, smoothed my face, and opened my mouth.
"I didn't expect a Dokkaebi. Honestly, being stuck inside this giant water snake's stomach is a lot more alarming than you are."
Bihyung's eyes went round at my answer. He was probably shocked that I'd claimed being inside a lowly ichthyosaur's stomach was more unsettling than the presence of a Dokkaebi like himself.
"Ah, haha. I see! Grit! Well, that can happen…!"
Having just been told by Incarnation Park Jinwoo that he ranked below a Grade 7 monster — an ichthyosaur, a Sea Commander — Bihyung clenched his teeth hard, but forced a smile and pressed on.
"Hmm. I don't know about the man over there, but you speak as if you were waiting for me."
"Of course I was waiting."
I watched Kim Dokja answer Bihyung's question with perfect composure and felt a small flicker of admiration.
Even with her gender flipped from male to female, Kim Dokja is still Kim Dokja.
"You've got coins to collect from us, don't you?"
"…Hmm, coins?"
Bihyung snorted and put on a faintly mocking expression at Kim Dokja's words, but his pupils trembled ever so slightly — clearly rattled.
"We failed the scenario, so you need to collect the penalty coins."
"Not our lives?"
"If you were taking our lives, the failure result would have said 'Death.' You wouldn't have written three question marks. That means there's room to negotiate with a Dokkaebi like you, doesn't it?"
"…Hahaha! How entertaining."
Bihyung clapped his tiny hands and laughed at Kim Dokja's dazzling rhetoric.
"Was I wrong?"
"How did you know all that, Ms. Dokja?"
"Ah, haha. I just thought it was suspicious that the scenario failure result showed ???, so I made a simple deduction."
Of course I already knew the answer, but staying silent any longer might raise suspicion, so I asked the question in a tone of genuine admiration for Kim Dokja.
She answered a little flustered, as if my question had caught her off guard.
Dokja, if you get this flustered answering me, how are you planning to explain things convincingly to the rest of the party….
Bihyung, who had paused briefly at our exchange, cut in at the perfect moment.
"Correct. Remarkable. To reason that far from such a tiny clue… you truly live up to being an Incarnation who has caught the Constellations' attention."
Bihyung spoke to Kim Dokja with genuine admiration in his voice.
"As you said, even if you fail a sub-scenario, you can survive so long as you pay the coins."
"How much?"
"Pay five thousand eight hundred fifty coins. You over there as well — just five thousand eight hundred fifty coins, and I'll spare your lives."
"………?"
How much?
🪙 Coins Held:8,205 C
At Bihyung's answer, I pulled up my Attribute Window to check my current coin balance. I had 8,205 coins.
8,205 minus 5,850 left 2,355 coins.
That insane albino furry bastard?