Chapter 88
After finishing the hunt, he summoned Lilith and moved with the Masked Mercenary Group to the rest area inside the drill yard they had named Abyss's Rest.
"Huh."
Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a dry laugh.
It was because of the scene in front of him.
Lee Chul-woo was grilling meat over a brazier, and at the table beside him Yang Su-chan, Michael Chang, Dina Kruger, and Kurihara Ayane were playing cards. A mountain of cash was piled on the table, and even from a glance it looked like several hundred million won.
By the pond Lilith had made, Andrei Ivanov sat with a fishing rod lowered into the water. Lilith herself was stretched out on a hammock strung between two trees, reading a book.
Yoon Sang-hyuk walked toward the Masked Mercenary Group members who were drinking and making a racket right next to the place where Lee Chul-woo was grilling meat.
"Hah! My lord."
"You’ve worked hard."
The Masked Mercenary Group members all sprang to their feet and bowed.
"It's fine. Keep resting."
Lilith came trotting up to Yoon Sang-hyuk.
"Oppa. You're back?"
He stroked Lilith's hair and sat down in an empty chair.
"Masked pervert. Why don't you join in too?" Michael Chang said, waving the card in his hand.
"You lot can play among yourselves. And if you're going to call me a masked pervert, it sounds like you'd enjoy being sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic."
"H-hey, haha. I'm joking, I'm joking."
"But what are all of you doing here?"
Without even looking at Yoon Sang-hyuk, Yang Su-chan kept his eyes fixed on his cards as he spoke.
"Can't ya see? We're resting. Taking a break. Okay? I'm the boss, right? Five thousand, easy."
"Call."
"Raise! Five thousand and another ten thousand!"
Yoon Sang-hyuk shook his head and went into the makeshift building reserved for his own use. He showered in hot water, then came out again and opened a can of cold beer from the mana-powered refrigerator.
The tinkering projects the basement family had started as a joke were surprisingly useful.
"Hurry up and come eat some meat. I went all the way to Hoengseong to buy this myself. Hanwoo, Hanwoo."
Lee Chul-woo shouted at the top of his lungs.
Yoon Sang-hyuk lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. He had hunted nonstop for a day and a half, and in that time he had gained nearly 2 percent experience.
It had been about a month since he began hunting in the Abyss of the Ancients. He was already growing accustomed to the monster wraiths that appeared there. Naturally, his hunting speed had increased, and so had the amount of experience he gained.
His current experience had already climbed past 31 percent. If he hunted diligently for about two more months, he might finally overcome the wall at level 300. The thought of that moment excited him so much that he was even cutting into his sleep to keep hunting.
Yoon Sang-hyuk still hadn't gone up to the second floor. The respawn rate of the wraiths inside the fortress was beyond imagination. Even hunting only on the first floor was enough to yield experience that went beyond fast leveling and straight into absurd speed, so he didn't feel any need to go to the second floor yet.
He would enter the second floor only after breaking through the level 300 wall.
He tried to fall asleep, but the noise from outside kept him from drifting off. Just as he was tossing and turning, unable to sleep, someone came inside. His eyes were closed, but he knew who it was. Only one person gave off such a heady, sweet fragrance.
"You want something?"
"Can we rest for just one day tomorrow?"
"There's nothing stopping us, but..."
Honestly, he didn't want to rest. If he took a day off, the time he could spend leveling would be pushed back by a full day.
"Then tomorrow, please just invest one day in me."
"And if I ask what it is ahead of time?"
"No, you can't."
"Fine. No need to wait until tomorrow. Let's go to the Masked Castle now."
With everyone drinking and shouting, and gambling and shouting even louder, there was no way he was going to get any sleep here. It would be better to go back to the city house, sleep deeply there, and while he was at it, see his friend Kim Chul-jung and his family.
* * *
He woke after finally getting a proper night's sleep for the first time in a while. Checking the time, he saw that it was three in the afternoon. He and Kim Chul-jung had kept passing the bottle back and forth until dawn. From their conversation over drinks, it seemed Kim Chul-jung had adapted well to Twilight Workshop.
As soon as he left the room, the smell of food hit him. Yoon Sang-min, sitting on the sofa, noticed Yoon Sang-hyuk and waved.
"I hardly get to see your face these days."
"We're both busy."
"Say it straight. You're the busy one. How can you go more than ten days without even thinking of coming by?"
"You know the answer, so why ask? Is Lilith here?"
"Yeah. She came earlier and started fussing about making food."
After showering, he had breakfast with Yoon Sang-min and Lilith for the first time in a while. Then, shoved along by Lilith, he had to leave the house.
"Where are we going?"
He drove out of the garage and onto the road.
Lilith entered an address into the navigation system.
"Here, first."
"Garosu-gil?"
"Yes."
He didn't know why she suddenly wanted to go to Garosu-gil, but they headed out. Perhaps because the workday was still far from over, there weren't many cars on the road. The Masked Castle wasn't far from Sinsa-dong's Garosu-gil, so they arrived not long after setting off.
Garosu-gil had been crowded with people even before he had gone to Eternal World, and today was no different. Everyone passing by kept looking at Lilith. The charm radiating from the ruler of succubi wasn't something a pair of sunglasses could hide.
Without saying a word, Lilith walked slowly down the main street of Garosu-gil. She kept studying the people passing by, especially young women.
"What are you doing?"
"Wait and see."
Lilith went back and forth along Garosu-gil several times, observing people.
"Lil—"
He was about to call her name when her steps suddenly quickened. Lilith approached two women walking toward them from the opposite side of the street. Their faces still looked too young to be adults.
"Hello."
Lilith spoke to them out of nowhere. He didn't know what she was up to, but he watched in silence.
The women she addressed looked at her with startled eyes. It was only natural for them to be surprised when a tall foreign woman suddenly spoke to them.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Don't be alarmed. I'm the kind of person who does this sort of work."
Lilith took a business card from the case inside her bag, plucked one out, and handed it to the woman on the left.
"Succubus Entertainment?"
"Yes, that's right. I'm Lilith, the representative of Succubus Entertainment. Have you ever thought about becoming a singer?"
"A singer?"
"Yes. An idol group."
Yoon Sang-hyuk snorted softly. Lilith was out here doing street casting for singers she could train at her own entertainment agency.
"You look like you have real talent for singing."
"Me? What makes you say that? I can't sing, and I'm terrible at dancing. Don't idols have to dance well?"
She seemed aware enough that she was attractive, because she said nothing about her looks.
"We have absolutely amazing trainers at our company. Your singing and dancing will improve fast."
"It's not the kind of thing you can fix just by practicing."
Lilith shook her head vigorously.
"I can tell at a glance. There's incredible talent, flair, and passion sleeping inside you right now."
With her index finger, Lilith tapped the woman's chest.
"Uh... but I've never even heard of an agency called Succubus Entertainment."
"Of course you haven't. It's a company that was only set up recently. You, um... what's your name?"
"Lee Jin-hee."
"Jin-hee. Do you watch the news sometimes?"
"Every now and then?"
Lilith took out her phone, searched something on the internet, and showed it to Lee Jin-hee.
"You know who this is, right?"
"Of course. It's Park Hyun-woo."
Lee Jin-hee's friend let out a sharp cry.
"That's right. He's one of the top three vocalists in Korea. Read the article underneath."
"Park Hyun-woo has signed with Succubus Entertainment..."
Lilith opened the gallery and showed the women a photo. It was a picture of Lilith standing with a man, apparently the singer from the article she had just searched.
"Park Hyun-woo is signed to Succubus Entertainment. Looks like I'm not some con artist, right?"
"I guess not, but... I'm really hopeless at singing and dancing."
"I told you, practice will take care of that. Why don't you come by our company first and take a camera test? You'll get to meet the trainers and Park Hyun-woo too, so isn't that good?"
"We can meet Park Hyun-woo?"
"Of course. He doesn't have a schedule today, so he'll be at the company. What do you think? Interested?"
As Lee Jin-hee hesitated, her friend nudged her in the ribs.
"What about the plans you made?"
"Ah, right. Sorry. I don't think I can today. I already have plans with my friends."
Lilith smiled brightly and shook her head.
"That's fine. Come by the address on the business card sometime. Call before you come, and I'd appreciate it."
"Yes, I'll definitely come."
"Then I'll see you next time, Jin-hee."
After the women left, Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a light sigh and said,
"Why did you drag me along?"
"I wanted to show you how I work."
Yoon Sang-hyuk nodded as if he understood.
"But did Park Hyun-woo really sign with you?"
"Yes. Jey said it would be easier to sign at least one famous person."
As a new agency, they had no recognition. What little name value they lacked could be made up by bringing in an entertainer at top-star level.
"Not bad. So did you recruit a lot of trainees?"
"Three."
"And you're going to pick up two more and debut them as a five-member group? The group name is Lilith?"
"My name, yes."
"Your name?"
"Yes. Isn't that great? Once those kids become famous stars, my name will be spoken by a lot of people."
Yoon Sang-hyuk laughed as if he couldn't believe it.
"You want to be famous?"
Lilith nodded energetically.
If she really set her mind to it, she could become famous right this second. If she led her subordinates and swept through a city, she would become world-famous in an instant.
"Did you secure a composer and lyricist?"
"Jey helped a lot."
If Jey was helping in earnest, the agency Lilith had set up would find its footing quickly.
He had half-jokingly told Lilith to try running an agency because she looked bored, but seeing how happy she was while working actually put him in a good mood.
"So today, you're just doing street casting all day?"
"Of course not. We have to go to the office later too. I'll introduce you to the kids I picked. They're incredibly pretty and talented."
Since the children had been chosen personally by the ruler of succubi, there was no need to wonder about their talent.
"I'm planning to teach them how to seduce men."
"Whoa there, don't do that. You'll have every man in Korea drowning in Lilith's charm."
"That's the goal."
Seeing Lilith say that so seriously made him laugh again.
"Just wait. I'll make men all over the world fall hopelessly for Lilith's charm."
Somehow, when Lilith said it, it felt like that might actually become reality.