Night of the Prophets (4)

Last night, after Kim Dokja claimed the flag of Dongmyo Station, we spent the entire dawn circling the surrounding districts the station had occupied, planting flags as we went.

"God, I'm filthy exhausted…."

Helping Kim Dokja had meant staying up all night, crawling into bed late, and only now dragging myself upright. A quick check of the time on Dokja's phone told me it was already 3:50 in the afternoon.

Dokja should be waking up soon. But Hyunsung and Heewon… did they already head out?

I kicked the blanket off the bed, got up, and ducked into the shower for a quick rinse of my hair, a face wash, and a brush of my teeth.

Not much time left. Until the Night of the Prophets.

With the Night of the Prophets almost upon us, I decided to make my final preparations for the fight against the Lesser Dragon.

Attribute window.

Ding!

"At least the coins are solid…."

I'd done well last night, deliberately hitting the crowded zones and shaking people down for coins. What had been nearly seventy thousand had jumped to ninety-five thousand in a single sweep after I cleaned out fifty-three people.

I feel a tiny bit bad for the ones I robbed. Still, I'll be taking down the lesser disaster for them, so they can suck it up.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I'd scraped those coins together one by one. Now it was time to spend them without holding back.

Raise every stat to 40.

"Hooo……."

The moment every stat hit 40, vitality surged through my whole body. Confidence welled up like I could do anything right now.

Raising the stats is great, but the spending really stings. Still, I've got 51,510 coins left, so I guess that's something….

I'd considered stocking up on consumables like grenades and flashbangs in advance, but I decided to buy those once the Lesser Dragon hunt actually started.

With that, every preparation is finished.

All that remained was to head to where the Night of the Prophets would open and hunt a dragon.

After a quick wash, I stepped out of the shower with the towel I'd used on my hair and face still draped around my neck. And right on cue, there was Kim Dokja sitting up on the bed with a dazed look on her face.

"Oh? Dokja. You're awake?"

"Yeees…."

Kim Dokja answered in a thick, sluggish mumble, face still half-asleep. The gap moe from her usual self was ridiculously cute.

"Ughgh… what time is it, Jinwoo?"

"Around four in the afternoon, I'd say?"

"Hah— already?!"

"Well, you worked yourself raw all night. Bound to pile up some fatigue, right?"

"I'll wash up real quick! Just wait outside for a bit!"

Kim Dokja hurriedly lit up her phone screen, then bolted straight into the shower.

"Someone's in a rush."

I watched her vanish into the shower for a moment, tossed the wet towel into the laundry basket, and headed outside. Waiting for us out there were Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung, who had gotten up far earlier than we had.

"You two aren't tired? You were on your feet all night. You could've rested a little longer…."

"Haha, not at all. But Jinwoo, where's Dokja?"

"She just went into the shower. Said she'd wash up and be right out, so she should be along any second."

"I see."

"Come on, standing around waiting is boring. Have a Bacchus."

I handed a bottle each to Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon. Both of them took the drinks with bright little smiles.

"Thanks, Jinwoo. I'll enjoy it."

"I'll drink it well, Jinwoo."

The three of us killed time chatting while we waited for Kim Dokja to come out.

A little later, the tent flap stirred, and Kim Dokja stepped outside.

"Oh? There she is."

"Dokja, you've come out."

"I'm ready to leave. When do we go?"

"Mm, just a second."

Kim Dokja held us back for a moment, then looked over at Jung Minseob and Lee Seongguk standing nearby and walked up to them.

The second they saw her coming, Jung Minseob and Lee Seongguk flinched, faces tight with nerves, and each of them folded their hands—one behind his back, one in front.

"Sleep well?"

At Kim Dokja's words, both their expressions crashed. Tears welled at the corners of their eyes as they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠started begging her in the most pathetic way possible.

"…Please, just spare our lives."

"…Kh-hh, we're begging you."

Kim Dokja seemed to weigh it for a beat, then opened her mouth.

Staring at the system messages floating right in front of their faces, Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob looked utterly lost.

"One. From this moment on, you will not speak of my true identity to anyone else."

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Two. You will obey my orders without question, and independent action without my permission is forbidden."

"Of course!"

I looked at the two of them with something like pity.

Tsk tsk… poor bastards.

Even if they scraped through the fourth and fifth Main Scenarios in one piece, both of them would die—or go missing—under the Salvation Church's attack at the tail end of the sixth. Knowing that future, I clicked my tongue where the others couldn't hear.

"We're alive!"

"Ohh!"

Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob looked giddy with pure relief at the simple fact that they had survived.

Kim Dokja eyed the two Prophets for a moment, then nodded.

"Well… fine. I don't know when I might change my mind, but work hard. I'll decide based on how you do."

Hearing that, Jung Minseob hesitated, then carefully opened his mouth.

"Um… then what should we call you from now on, Representative…."

"Call me the same as you do now. In front of the other Prophets, call me 'Yoo Joonghyuk'."

"Understood."

"Ah, and Jung Minseob."

"Yes, ma'am."

Kim Dokja pointed at the Hahoe-mask-shaped Hidden Item hanging around Jung Minseob's neck—the Fugitive's Mask.

"That Fugitive's Mask of yours. Hand it over."

Jung Minseob made a miserable face, but he passed the mask over without a word.

Kim Dokja set the mask against her face. The muscles of her face bulged and writhed, and little by little the shape of her features began to change.

"Oh, shit! That's basically what it looks like getting jumped by a Facehugger in Alien…."

"Ah, seriously! Jinwoo, don't say things like that! I just pictured it!"

"But it's almost exactly the same! Am I wrong?!"

"Well, that may be true, but…."

"I can hear all of this, you know…?"

A moment later, the face behind the mask had fully become Yoo Joonghyuk's.

"Waaah…."

As Kim Dokja's face finished transforming into Yoo Joonghyuk's, Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob let out small sounds of awe.

"Is that the real Yoo Joonghyuk's face?"

"She's beautiful…. The Representative is a beauty too, of course. But the real Yoo Joonghyuk's face is just… ah, no, maybe a little short of that?"

"See? I told you she didn't look like Yoo Joonghyuk."

"Right? Now this is a goddess-tier face."

At Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob's words, the veins stood out on Kim Dokja's face and neck as she silently glared at the two of them.

These insane bastards… what kind of garbage are they spouting…?

Saying that right to her face… they clearly had a death wish.

That aside— in the original work, Kim Dokja's face was supposed to look blurred, like a filter was over her features. How was it now?

From what Jung Minseob said, it doesn't look completely blurred?

To my eyes, Kim Dokja's face was an absolute beauty on the same level as Yoo Joonghyuk. But the way those two talked, it seemed like some kind of haze was there—just not a full blur. Something in-between.

Is this another privilege of being a webtoon reader from the real world?

Hmm. I couldn't say for sure, but just being able to see a face that beautiful with zero filtering was more than enough for me.

I'd zoned out thinking about Kim Dokja's face for a second, and by the time I came back, she had taken Lee Seongguk's phone and was checking something on it.

"'Prophets' group chat participants… thirty-six total?"

"Ah, the 'Prophets' in that chat are all early dropouts. There isn't a single Apostle among them."

Jung Minseob looked at Kim Dokja with careful eyes and asked,

"…Um, Representative."

"Mm?"

"You said it yesterday, didn't you? 'You should have read it to the end'…."

Jung Minseob and Lee Seongguk stared at her with their eyes sparkling like kids full of expectation, and pressed on.

"Do you know the Revelation as well, Representative?"

Kim Dokja looked at the two Prophets and gave a crooked little smile.

"You won't regret grabbing my line instead of Yoo Joonghyuk's."

"…! H-holy crap. Don't tell me…?!"

"I think we just hit the jackpot…!?"

"Enough. Let's get moving."

"Y-yes, ma'am!"

I quietly watched the two of them, faces lit up and buzzing with excitement at Kim Dokja's words.

………….

Maybe I should think this over a little.

A short while later, following Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob's lead, we headed for Anguk Station.

That was where the Night of the Prophets was scheduled to be held.

For all that, of the Prophets who show up to the Night of the Prophets, everyone dies except two….

More precisely, only three survive: the one who lives out in the provinces and isn't inside the Seoul Dome, plus Lee Seongguk and Jung Minseob.

Kim Dokja was studying the Prophets' group chat on the phone she'd taken from Lee Seongguk, so I casually drifted up beside her and snuck a look at the conversation.

Reading the Prophets' chat, the veins stood out on Kim Dokja's face as she muttered under her breath.

"Text copies, my ass. Buy the novel with actual money, you brats. And while you're at it, the webtoon too…."

"That really set you off, huh?"

"Of course…! Obviously— J-Jinwoo?!"

The second she heard my voice right beside her, Kim Dokja whipped around in a panic. Belatedly, she hid the phone behind her back.

"How long have you been watching?"

"From the 'is Yoo Joonghyuk really coming' chat? Don't worry, though—I didn't look at anything after that."

"…Really?"

"Of course. I just glanced over wondering what you were reading, and it happened to be the part about whether Yoo Joonghyuk was actually showing up."

Kim Dokja shot me a suspicious look, but I ignored it.

My heart's pounding.

The fact that I was about to see my favorite legendary creature—a dragon—and the fact that I was about to hunt that dragon had my heart thrashing in my chest.

"We've arrived."

At Lee Seongguk's announcement, Kim Dokja reluctantly tore her gaze off me and looked ahead.

Right in front of us, the platform of Anguk Station came into view. And with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it, the Prophets who had already arrived.

Murmur, murmur, murmur.

"Is that for real? Is that person actually coming?"

"They say it is."

"Come on, it's gotta be a lie, right?"

The buzz of the Prophets gathered on the Anguk Station platform, muttering among themselves, drifted over to us.

At last, the Night of the Prophets was about to begin.