Episode 21: Sniff sniff, I want to smell more.
Episode 21: Sniff sniff, I want to smell more.
This is driving me crazy.
"Kim Si-woo is fucking dead."
I'm gasping for air.
The Kim Si-woo with the steel stamina who wouldn't get tired no matter how much he swung his sword is dead.
Damn it.
"At this rate, I'm not even A-rank, I'm below B-rank."
Sweat is pouring down.
I've been going to the Training Center every day for the past few days.
2 hours?
No.
On days without tutoring, I rented a private room at opening time and used it all day.
Feeling like this wouldn't work, I rented a full-day pass.
It's not a small cost at 250,000 won per day, but it didn't matter.
Because my priority was to normalize my physical condition as quickly as possible.
"Huff, huff."
Blisters formed on my palms.
Do you think I'd give up just because of this?
I earned the spot of academy valedictorian and was even called the next-generation Supernova with nothing but grit.
A hurdle like this was nothing to me.
"Phew."
I looked down at my palms, which were bleeding profusely.
My vision kept getting blocked by sweat, so I wiped my face with a towel.
I forced my trembling hands to curl and gripped the sword again.
I was slowly getting used to the feeling of the sword in my hand.
But that's it for today.
"Because I have tutoring today."
I can't go there completely exhausted.
That would be rude to the student who is paying for the lesson.
"Phew......."
I steadied my breathing.
Now I have to start the lesson for her 2nd Examination.
2nd Examination.
The 1st semester final exam for 1st-year cadets.
It's only a month apart from the 1st Examination, but the difficulty of the exam was definitely different.
The reason was simple.
Because the opponent appearing in the simulation was not a monster, but a villain.
The appearance pattern of monsters is very simple.
In the first place, even in actual combat, most monsters have low intelligence and often move in simple patterns.
There were rare cases where that wasn't true, but those were irregular cases.
That's why the simulation monsters that appear in 1st-year classes were mostly beginner level.
However, villains are different.
No matter how much it's a 1st-year simulation, the patterns were miraculously sophisticated and numerous.
This was because they often input the behavioral patterns of actual arrested villains to give a wake-up call to students who took the Hunter world lightly in the 1st Examination.
So, the task for the 2nd Examination is to escape from the villain until support arrives.
The goal was to take the survivors distributed in the simulation city and escape to the target point.
Students participating in the exam can act with two directions in mind.
Prioritizing one's own survival rather than saving citizens.
Or, throwing oneself to fight and hold off the villain to save citizens.
The latter case usually earns more points.
Self-sacrifice.
That was the virtue absolutely necessary for a Hunter.
Of course, if you step up for no reason and get eliminated right at the start, you fail.
So, a strategic approach was needed.
And this 1st-year 2nd Examination was.
'It was the exam where I first took the top spot in the grade.'
It was the subject I was most confident in.
"Let's wash up first. I smell pretty bad."
I headed to the shower room.
Because it would be a problem if I smelled like sweat.
After finishing training, I came to Yoo Ara's house.
I walked down the familiar street and entered the familiar complex.
Then, a question suddenly popped into my head.
"It's about time other students applied. Why is there no word?"
It was strangely quiet.
I made a repeater 2nd in the grade.
Of course, it's because I sucked the honey in Class D while the Class A kids were beating each other up, but 2nd place is still 2nd place.
It was about time other students who heard this news should have approached me through Yoo Ara.
"There's no word at all."
Yoo Ara had never mentioned that another student wanted to learn, either.
It was a difficult situation for me, as I needed to recruit several students as quickly as possible.
"Don't tell me......."
As I thought and thought, I reached a conclusion.
A very simple reason.
The reason why Yoo Ara hadn't recommended other cadets to me until now.
"Doesn't she have any friends?"
I had never heard Yoo Ara talk about friends while receiving tutoring until now.
Even if she talked about what kind of class she was taking, she didn't say which friend she went with.
"The mention of a classmate was the first and last time, when she said she was pushed aside by Lee Hye-ri."
In an academy that is a meritocracy, the treatment a repeater receives is miserable, so it couldn't be helped even if she didn't have friends.
"Hmm, I can't go to the Academy, though."
It's a difficult task.
Time will solve it, though.
"Still, I have to bring it up."
To tell her to bring other cadets.
I have to do sales now.
I can't just teach Yoo Ara forever.
Since I quit my job, I have to be responsible for my minimum livelihood.
It would be fine if there were no places where money was leaking.
The money going into the Training Center alone is in the hundreds.
"Of course, they have to take a test."
It's not like I'm only trying to make money.
If I were going to do that, I would have gone into business with Bong-sik sunbae.
As I was thinking that, I had arrived in front of Yoo Ara's house before I knew it.
Knock knock.
As soon as I knocked on the door.
Dada-dada.
I heard the sound of running from inside.
The soundproofing isn't great.
I can hear everything.
Hmm.
"You're here!"
Yoo Ara greeted me with a bright face.
"Yeah. Now we have to prepare for the 2nd Examination."
"Y-yes, we should. Hahaha."
A strangely excited Yoo Ara looked at me.
I wondered why she was like this.
[Yoo Ara : Conquest Rate - 68%]
The Conquest Rate went up again.
It must be because the Conquest Rate is over 60%.
Acting like a puppy wagging its tail while looking at me like this.
I went inside.
"Huh?"
As I brushed past Yoo Ara, who opened the door, she let out an exclamation and twitched her nose.
Her nose wiggling was just like a rabbit.
Yoo Ara, who was sniffing with her eyes closed, looked at me.
"Ssaem, did you exercise?"
"How did you know?"
"You smell like sweat."
"Oh? Really?"
I scrubbed even my pubic hair when I showered, yet it still smells?
"But it's okay. It's not a bad smell. The smell is manly and nice."
Then, she leaned her body toward me and sniffed again.
[Yoo Ara : Conquest Rate - 72%]
It went up again in the meantime.
What is this?
Does she have a smell fetish or something?
"Ssaem, if you have time later, let's go to Orange-Young together. I'll pick out a perfume that suits you."
Why is she like this?
She was especially gentle today.
Her tone was soft, and it felt like there was a faint scent of perfume in the room, too.
'Wait a minute.'
"Did you put on perfume?"
"Oh? Did you notice? I put some on because it felt a bit much to just go to school like that. How is it?"
Putting it on while going to school.
The smell sinking into my nose heavily, it was obvious she hadn't put it on long ago.
Do you think I wouldn't know something like this?
"Try smelling it."
Yoo Ara thrust her wrist at my face.
The increased Conquest Rate, the changed attitude of Yoo Ara.
This is definitely the influence of the Conquest Rate.
Does it change this much?
Maybe it's because it passed 50?
It must mean that positive emotions have increased more than negative emotions toward me.
So she is trying in her own way to build up affection.
Hmm.
But now was not the time for that.
"Focus on the lesson. The 2nd Examination is not far away."
"But Ssaem, we haven't even started the lesson yet."
"Do you want to get expelled?"
She is in a state where she will be expelled if she slips even once.
If she can't finish the 1st year properly like this, she would be expelled without mercy.
Expelled after passing the 1st Examination.
Isn't that too unfair?
The fact that she has feelings for me is not important right now.
What is really important is that Yoo Ara passes the exam.
At my firm words, Yoo Ara shut her mouth tight.
Even so, the Conquest Rate didn't drop.
Ding.
[Yoo Ara : Conquest Rate - 73%]
It actually went up by 1 more.
What the hell is she.
Why is the Conquest Rate going up so fast?
It doesn't seem like it's just because the cumulative Conquest Rate is high?
Recently, Yoo Ara's heart would pound whenever she thought of Kim Si-woo.
This must be because she masturbated while thinking about him repeatedly.
She knew in her head that she had to prepare for the exam, but her body kept looking for masturbation.
It's only natural.
When she recalled the lesson she had with him, the erotic situation at that time hammered the heart of twenty-one-year-old Yoo Ara.
Her crotch twitched and her lower abdomen throbbed.
After she couldn't take it anymore and masturbated while imagining the situation when she received tutoring, the afterimage of Kim Si-woo in her imagination remained in her head.
The time she spent thinking about Kim Si-woo kept increasing.
Don't they say that if you see someone often, your face becomes familiar and your favorability goes up?
Yoo Ara was in exactly that situation.
So, on this day, which was a tutoring day, she was more excited than usual, applied cosmetics, and even wore perfume that she didn't usually wear.
'Maybe we'll go further.'
Her heart pounded with the desire to go further, not in the lesson progress, but in other progress.
So she waited.
"Ah."
The moment Kim Si-woo brushed past her and entered the room, Yoo Ara smelled the man's sweat coming from his body.
The scent of a man that an ordinary person could never smell, which she barely caught because she was an Awakened.
She smelled the scent of body wash and shampoo, exquisitely mixed with sweat, spraying masculine pheromones.
And that smell knocked on the heart of Yoo Ara, who was deeply into Kim Si-woo.
It was her first time smelling a scent like this.
Because he had always been giving off only a clean scent.
Most of it was the scent of perfume mixed with the office smell peculiar to an employee who came after finishing work.
But such a wild scent.
Yoo Ara, who had been off guard, was properly hit by his scent.
She kept wanting to close her eyes and appreciate it.
"Sniff sniff."
I want to smell more.
"Ssaem, let's go to Orange-Young together."
She wanted to recommend a perfume that matched his scent.
Not the male perfume that feels a bit like an old man that he uses now, but a beast-like scent.
She wanted to recommend it properly.
But what came back was.
"Focus on the lesson."
A stinging remark.
"But Ssaem, we haven't even started the lesson yet."
"Do you want to get expelled?"
Yoo Ara looked at Kim Si-woo, who was glaring at her and saying a word.
It wasn't wrong.
What's urgent for her right now is graduating from the Academy.
But to be in such a state.
'Ssaem.......'
Yoo Ara looked at Kim Si-woo, who was firmly focusing her on the lesson.
Twinkle, twinkle.
For some reason, his face seemed to be shining.
It was an effect where the harder an item is to get, the more valuable it seems.
The appearance of Kim Si-woo, who gave off an atmosphere that was hard to approach, was more than enough to bewitch Yoo Ara's heart.
The firmness transformed into charisma and melted Yoo Ara's heart.
'Why does he look so cool?'
That's why Yoo Ara's Conquest Rate went up.
Without Kim Si-woo knowing, Yoo Ara's heart started to burn a little more.
But she will endure it for now.
Because as Kim Si-woo said, the 2nd Examination is not far away.
If she passes Lee Hye-ri and takes 1st place in the 2nd Examination, he will praise her, right?
Since it's vacation after the exam, she should ask him to go play somewhere together.
Yoo Ara steeled her will.
"The 2nd Examination mainly targets simulation villains."
And she focused on the tutoring.
Of course.
She didn't forget to try to sit as close to him as possible.
'Getting this close is probably fine, right?'