Chapter 23
Chapter 23: Weekly Dungeon Conquest (4)
"Yes, what is it?"
Baek Jin-woo tilted his head.
Hadn't everything already been settled with the Headquarters?
"We are from the Director's personal secretariat. We are currently reviewing the proposal you made previously in a favorable light—"
"Ah, that."
Swoosh.
Baek Jin-woo raised his hand and cut them off.
"No need."
"Pardon?"
"Didn't the Headquarters already express their rejection last time?"
"……To be precise, it was not a rejection. They said they would support you if you brought solid evidence. And now that Player Baek Jin-woo has presented solid evidence, we are saying we are reviewing it favorably."
The staff member tried to speak as gently as possible, but that was only in tone—
Not a single word sat well with Baek Jin-woo.
How incomparable to Yu Ji-a!
Yu Ji-a, who had readily put forward a large sum of money when he had nothing. And the Headquarters, who were now rushing to ‘review’ things only because something worth having had shown up.
Who looked better?
It went without saying.
Help is only truly appreciated when it comes at the moment you actually need it.
In truth, there was also a subtle stiffness to the staff member's demeanor.
He could guess what they were thinking.
No matter how well you're doing as a player, you're not even Ranker-level—yet you're asking for 1.3 billion in a lump sum?
Of course, Baek Jin-woo knew well it had been an unreasonable request.
But Yu Ji-a had granted that unreasonable request—and on top of that, had given it to him as a gift, without hesitation.
"I'm sorry, but that proposal……. It's no longer necessary."
"Pardon?"
"And—"
Baek Jin-woo smiled faintly and spoke—softly, yet without any room for negotiation.
"I already belong to a company. If you wish to speak with me about anything, please do so through Yu Ji-a of YuBaek."
"YuBaek……?"
The staff member's eyes wavered.
"That will be all."
With a polite nod to them both, Baek Jin-woo glided forward and passed them.
The staff members had no way to stop him, firm as he was.
More than anything, there was something they needed to know.
"Senior, what is YuBaek? And Yu Ji-a—surely they don't mean that Yu Ji-a from Daeseong Group? The one who recently left the Headquarters?"
"……Let's look into it right away."
The head secretary bit down hard on his lip.
A powerful feeling had settled over him—that they had just let something important slip through their fingers.
***
After finishing the Thursday Dungeon, Baek Jin-woo headed straight to the rooftop of a nearby building.
The Friday Dungeon is different from everything up until now.
The format itself was different from before.
If previously his Summoner Beasts had been the ones hunting monsters—
The Friday Dungeon was a format where the player had to run themselves.
The 2 Summoner Beasts being used for the first time were as follows:
The C-Rank Sky Dolphin and the B-Rank Sky Wyvern.
Their defining feature was that the player could ride them!
"Huu."
Baek Jin-woo felt his nerves tighten.
Would this actually work?
Riding a Golem and riding a Wyvern were entirely different matters.
The Wyvern actually flew through the sky.
Even if the Shield meant he wouldn't die from a fall, the fear was something he couldn't help.
This too was the gap between the game and reality!
But I have to pull it off.
To achieve a time attack on the Friday Dungeon, he needed to be able to control both Summoner Beasts freely.
"Sky Wyvern."
—Kkirururururu!
The moment Baek Jin-woo called, the Sky Wyvern let out a roar as if it had been waiting.
At the same time, it flapped its wings and lowered its posture.
A gesture saying: get on.
"Here we go!"
Baek Jin-woo climbed on without hesitation and stroked the creature's head.
"Let's head to the East Sea."
If he was to practice flying with the Wyvern—
He needed to practice swimming with the Dolphin.
Both of those had to be mastered before he could take the shortcuts in the Friday Dungeon.
Fwoong, fwoong!
The Wyvern began slowly lifting into the sky.
This actually works.
If he practiced enough, he might not even need taxis anymore.
There would certainly be finer details to flying and swimming alike, but he wasn't worried.
After all, Baek Jin-woo had his Drill Instructor.
***
Half a day was more than enough to grow comfortable with flight.
Baek Jin-woo turned out to have more of a knack for it than expected.
—My lord, you are remarkable.
"Save the flattery."
—No, I mean it. Your speed at picking things up is quite exceptional.
"I said save it."
That Drill Instructor.
He seemed to have quite the talent for flattery as well.
—It really is true.
This time it was the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer who chimed in from beside him.
"Hm? What's true?"
—Well, the rest of us are only used to it because we still have our old memories…… Back then, getting used to riding the Wyvern took an incredible amount of suffering. Motion sickness, vomiting, the works.
During the days of Battle of Summoners.
The Drill Instructor and the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer were veteran Summoner Beasts who had been through every hardship imaginable.
It couldn't have been otherwise.
They had climbed the Tower of Trials together—the dungeon renowned for its peak difficulty.
In that process, they too had been forced to control the Wyvern and the Dolphin.
"Is that so?"
—Yes. As expected, God of Jinu. You are truly worthy of being our master.
The sight of the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer gripping her staff with both hands as she praised him was utterly adorable.
Unable to hold back, Baek Jin-woo reached over and ruffled her red hair.
"Alright, thanks. Next up is Sky Dolphin riding, yes?"
Current location: the waters off Yangyang.
He had come to the East Sea because they needed to go out to a fairly deep area.
Swimming, well.
He was somewhat confident about that.
He had learned as a child, and he had always liked the water.
But keeping up with a dolphin's swimming speed and withstanding the water pressure were entirely different matters.
He needed to practice alongside the Drill Instructor.
—My lord, please hold on tightly here.
The Drill Instructor was thorough, and the swimming practice too ended on a fairly successful note.
***
Friday morning.
As usual, Baek Jin-woo pushed through the line of reporters that had been camped out and dived naturally into the Low-grade Friday Dungeon.
His equipment was on, of course.
Huuu, I'm actually excited.
The truth was, the decisive moment that earned One Heaven the title of ‘God of Jinu’ was precisely his Friday Dungeon play.
The dungeon that gave Special Runes!
The Friday Dungeon from the days of Battle of Summoners had been something of a fun minigame, enjoyed by veteran players who had shared videos with one another in the community—what they called ‘shaving down’ the time attack records.
Low-grade was easy.
Mid-grade was hard.
High-grade was absurd.
Top-grade made you want to throw up.
[Player Sprint will begin in 10 seconds!]
[Reach the destination as quickly as possible!]
The setting was a corridor.
In front of Baek Jin-woo's field of view, a line drawn on the floor ahead of him became visible.
10 seconds from now.
He had to set off from here.
Low-grade is nothing. Even if I go all out, they shouldn't be suspicious.
He stretched his body and readied himself to run.
At the same time—
"Wind Falcon."
—Kkiyoooot!
"Put the movement speed buff on me."
Fwoooong!
A cool breeze brushed past the tip of his nose and he felt strength filling his entire body.
So this is the movement speed buff.
The seconds ticked down.
[3]
[2]
[1]
1 second remained, and—
Baek Jin-woo lowered his posture.
[0]
[Go!]
The moment the line drawn on the floor vanished, he kicked off the ground and sprinted.
"Huu, huu, huu!"
Breathing out in a steady rhythm, he ran at maximum speed.
Countless obstacles appear while the player is running.
Avoiding them while running—that is the point of the Friday Dungeon!
Of course.
Every obstacle order and every shortcut was stored perfectly inside Baek Jin-woo's head.
Shwaaaack!
He ducked low to lightly dodge the small stone flying in from far ahead, and automatically found the flat sections of the wildly shifting floor, landing on them one after another with precision.
Fluid movements without a single error!
Good.
Baek Jin-woo felt something he hadn't in a long time—excitement.
Yeah. This is it!
It was actually far more thrilling than controlling it through a screen back then.
And—
There was a section that appeared after about 1 minute.
A fairly wide gap in the floor, filled completely with water.
The 1st hidden route!
Baek Jin-woo's eyes lit up.
The official route was originally to cross that water and continue straight ahead.
But—
Using the Sky Dolphin to travel beneath that water allowed him to bypass all the tricky obstacles on the upper path.
"Sky Dolphin!"
—Kkiiiiiiii!
He naturally grabbed the handle on top of the Sky Dolphin as it appeared from midair—
"Hruup!"
He held his breath.
And then.
Splash!
Baek Jin-woo plunged into the water!
No need to worry about the equipment.
It had waterproofing.
Papababat!
The Sky Dolphin cut through the water at tremendous speed.
Even amid all that, Baek Jin-woo kept his eyes wide open and controlled the dolphin.
The result of practicing through the night.
Then, the moment 30 seconds had passed—
Puuuahhhh!
The dolphin leapt up out of the water!
"Okay!"
With that, the tricky section was over.
Baek Jin-woo shouted as he soared through the air.
"Sky Wyvern!"
—Kkirururururururu!
Right on cue, the Wyvern appeared and brought its body directly beneath Baek Jin-woo!
"Wahoo!"
Baek Jin-woo let out a shout at the sheer thrill of it.
From here on—it's flight time!
If the first setting had been a corridor, the space from here opened up into the sky.
That meant flight was possible.
From Mid-grade and above there was quite a bit to manage even in flight, but for Low-grade you just flew straight through.
After all, there were only ground-level obstacles.
Wait.
Had he been too serious from the very start?
Well, it's fine.
He had looked up the world record before committing to this one.
[Friday Dungeon — Low-Grade]
[World Record 1st Place — Rachel]
[Clear Time — 00:01:25]
A time Baek Jin-woo had no way of breaking no matter what he did right now.
To break that record, the Wind Falcon would need to be pushed to its absolute limits, and the runes would need to be fully set.
The Wyvern and Dolphin's speeds would need to be pushed to the extreme as well.
Give it about half a year and I'd break it.
Of course, that was only because this was Low-grade.
Go up to Top-grade—
And even Rachel would stick out her tongue at the difficulty.
Of course, she could clear it—but she took the official route without using any shortcuts.
Going through by having her Summoner Beasts smash every single obstacle one by one.
I'll try that one later.
—Kkirururururururu!
As they drew close to the destination, the Sky Wyvern let out a joyful roar.
And not long after—
[Reaching the destination!]
[Dungeon Clear!]
[Clear Time — 00:02:16]
2 minutes 16 seconds!
Not a bad time at all!
For the record, the Friday Dungeon also had ‘Auto Combat’.
If the player wasn't present and only Summoner Beasts were sent in, a virtual player would replace the real one and move exactly the same way as before.
And this, too—
[Congratulations!]
[You have broken South Korea's all-time record!]
[A special achievement has been unlocked!]
Was, naturally, the expected result within South Korea.
***
That night.
Baek Jin-woo's father, Baek Jin-cheol.
His mother, Hwang Myeong-hui, who had come home late from work, was preparing dinner.
"Honey."
Hwang Myeong-hui set down the freshly steamed egg casserole and asked,
"What do you think our Jin-woo's been up to lately?"
"Who knows. He said he had registered as a player before, so he's probably out doing dungeons or something."
The 2 were extremely busy.
They were always working and barely watched TV, being rather oblivious to news in general.
"Should I try reaching out?"
"Leave it. He takes after me, so he'll be managing just fine on his own. If I keep contacting him just because I'm worried, it only puts pressure on him."
"Hmm, I suppose."
Still unable to resist, Hwang Myeong-hui picked up her phone.
She was going to call her daughter, Baek A-jin.
Her daughter was easier than her son that way—A-jin had always kept in touch regularly.
—Yeah, Mom!
"Do you know what your brother's been up to lately? He's barely been in contact at all."
—My brother……?
A question mark, followed by a brief silence.
It was because Baek A-jin had pressed her lips firmly shut.
Should I say? Should I not?
Part of her wanted to just blurt it out right then and there.
That brother of hers.
He's absolutely blowing up right now.
But—
He told me not to say anything first.
And the B-Rank Shadow Wolf he had promised her kept floating through her mind.
A Summoner Beast worth no less than 500 million.
After a moment of hesitation, she opened her mouth again.
—Don't worry too much. He seems to be doing well? And he said he'd be coming by soon.
"Oh my, really? Come along with him when he does."
Hwang Myeong-hui smiled and chatted with her daughter a while longer before ending the call.
And then dinner began.
In the middle of it—
Baek Jin-cheol pulled a white envelope from his chest pocket.
"What's that?"
"My bonus from this time around. 2 million."
"Oh my."
"Use it for household expenses. And for that Jin-woo. Let's give him some more allowance. He must be struggling to readjust after waking up from that coma—but the fact that he's trying to live diligently is something to be proud of."
"Should we?"
Hwang Myeong-hui smiled with delight.
Truth be told, her son had caused her some heartache at times.
It happened occasionally at gatherings with friends……
How someone's child had become a proper player and joined a major guild.
Or how someone else's child had gotten into Daeseong—or was it Daeseong Group?—as a new hire and was apparently working themselves to death.
Every time they met, everyone was subtly showing off their children, and Hwang Myeong-hui had had nothing to say.
Of course, that much was fine.
But there were a few insufferable friends.
Jin-woo's alright, isn't he? I heard he woke up! Truly, congratulations. Listen, all that success and prestige doesn't really matter? When it comes down to it, health is what matters most.
Still, I do worry. He's in his mid-twenties with a 3-year gap…… Ugh, but he's young, so he'll get back on his feet. What are his plans? Is he going to retake the college entrance exam from scratch?
Her veins had nearly popped at the temples thanks to friends like that—
But—
"Huhuh."
Hwang Myeong-hui looked at the envelope Baek Jin-cheol held out and simply smiled.
Even so, it's a relief.
A-jin and Jin-woo.
Both of them growing up healthy and beautifully.
The 2 parents still hadn't the faintest dream that their son was currently plastered across the news in enormous headlines.