Chapter 104
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Yamtti's Past
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"Ms. Ye-dam. You call this work?"
*Swish—*
A report was scattered across Kim Ye-dam's face.
*Fucking hell, I spent two hours straight on that report.*
She wanted to spit in her boss's face right then and there, but she held back.
She had to, if she wanted to make a living.
"Go and write it again."
"..."
"Why aren't you answering? Don't want to work? Then hand in your resignation and get out."
"No, sir. I'll rewrite it."
"Oh, and before you go, get me a coffee. You can't write a report to save your life, but you make a killer cup of coffee, right?"
"Yes."
Biting her lower lip, Kim Ye-dam went to the break room and returned with a coffee she had spat in.
"Here you go, sir."
"Thanks. Mmm, delicious as always. Ah, what are you staring at? We don't have all day, so hurry up and rewrite that report."
"Yes."
That day, Kim Ye-dam rewrote the report five more times.
It was the first time in her life she had ever wanted to kill someone.
*Work is piling up, and that bastard of a boss is... haa...*
The drink after work was heavenly, and the last night of December was hell.
*It's almost New Year's, and I have to put up with this shit. Seriously.*
There was nothing she, a rank-and-file employee, could do to get revenge on her boss.
Did she have the strength? The money?
An orphan from a poor background, it was a struggle just to support herself.
*If only I could win the lottery right now.*
With that thought, she drank herself to sleep, only to wake up in a meadow.
No, before that, she saw an angel in her dream.
*Something about surviving until the 20th round...*
It was so unbelievable that she still felt dazed.
She thought it was a dream, and when she was suddenly told to create a nickname, she chose Yamtti.
It didn't have any special meaning; it was just the nickname of a female streamer she'd always wanted to be like.
Soon, an angel appeared in the sky and said.
[If each of you defeats 100 goblins, you can return to Earth.]
At those words, Kim Ye-dam scoffed.
*What a realistic dream.*
But it didn't take long for her to realize the truth.
Green blood and a scene of utter chaos.
The screams from all directions, the desperation reminiscent of a war.
The scene, too vivid and realistic to be a dream, jolted Kim Ye-dam to her senses.
*Th-this is real. It's really happening.*
If she didn't kill 100 goblins, she would die.
She drilled that single fact into her mind and struggled to kill the goblins.
But killing a moving creature was harder than she'd thought.
Moreover, all Kim Ye-dam had in her hand was a short goblin dagger.
*What do I do? What should I...*
Just then, a thought flashed in her mind—the rune she had received from the first random rune fragment.
[Rune of Charm]
- Effect: Seduce and dominate humans simply by making eye contact or physical contact. You can dominate up to 5 people and can only use it on the opposite sex.
The duration is infinite, and the charmed human will be completely loyal to their master. Cannot be used on monsters or angels.
*Right, I have this.*
Kim Ye-dam used the rune to dominate a nearby male player.
"E-excuse me!"
"Yes?"
Dominating him was simple.
The moment she looked at him and decided to seduce him.
A pink light flashed in his pupils, and a message appeared, telling her he was dominated.
[Player 'Sucker' has been charmed.]
<Currently Charmed Humans>
1. Sucker (Player)
2. (None)
3. (None)
4. (None)
5. (None)
[You can release a human from the charm by saying the activation phrase 'Release Charm' along with their number.]
Sucker looked at Kim Ye-dam with a vacant expression.
"Is there anything you need me to do? Master."
"Ah..."
Her daze was short-lived.
"G-goblins! Protect me from the goblins!"
"Yes, Master."
As soon as she gave the urgent command, Sucker moved immediately.
*Slash—*
"Kiek!"
"Kaaak!"
The player under the Rune of Charm's spell obeyed her words without question.
Seeing the man become her faithful knight, she decided she needed more.
*It said I can dominate up to five people, right?*
She dominated any human she could find nearby.
"Be a meat shield up front!"
"Block the goblins' daggers with your bodies!"
"You! Guard me from the side!"
They followed any command she gave.
With human meat shields, hunting goblins became much easier.
*I-I survived. I passed the first round.*
The Rune of Charm proved to be exceptionally useful in the real world as well.
"Ms. Ye-dam! What time do you call this, showing up for..."
The day she went to work to hand in her resignation, the boss who had tormented her became her subordinate.
"Crawl like a dog. Beg me for forgiveness for what you did."
"Woof woof, yes. I was wrong, Master."
Ignoring the stares of those around him, the boss crawled around the office all day.
The master's command was absolute.
*He seemed like such an intimidating boss, but it was this easy to make him submit.*
Any trace of sympathy had long since vanished.
A sneer appeared on her face as she watched her boss crawl toward her like a dog.
"Now, go kill yourself. Get out of my sight."
"Yes, Master."
She never heard any news after that, but it was obvious what had happened to her boss.
"Haha, haha, hehehet."
From that day on, Kim Ye-dam couldn't stop laughing.
*Anyone, I can make anyone kneel at my feet!*
In an instant, she had risen from the bottom of the barrel to the pinnacle of human society.
The reality that had been hell was now a reality worth living.
The Rune of Charm was powerful.
She could make anyone grovel and control them just by meeting their eyes.
If she told them to transfer money, they did. If she asked for something they had, they gave it without hesitation.
*Hehe, I was right to quit my job. I can live just fine without one, can't I?*
She could have as much money as she wanted, and even...
"From now on, this house is my house. You stay in that room and don't come out."
"Yes, Master."
She could even break into someone's house and live there as if it were her own.
*Seducing some rich old guy is a piece of cake.*
She seduced a single man living in a 100-pyeong apartment with a view of the Han River.
Living in the multi-billion-won apartment as if it were her own, Kim Ye-dam thought.
*The world is so unfair. We're in the same Seoul, yet some people live in basement apartments while others live in the sky.*
She wasn't lamenting the unfairness.
Her position had completely changed, after all.
She was just muttering to herself, marveling that a world this high up existed.
*I want to live this life for a little longer.*
To do that, she had to survive the rounds.
The problem was that the Rune of Charm didn't directly help with hunting.
*If I could dominate monsters, hunting would be so easy.*
But it wasn't too bad.
She could bring along players to act as meat shields, allowing her to hunt more safely than anyone else.
Later, she even monopolized experience points by having the humans subdue the monsters so she could deliver the final blow.
*Turns out, it's incredibly versatile.*
Thanks to this, she was able to grow faster than others.
In the 3rd round, she was able to change her class to Tamer.
It was a class that tamed monsters and used them as minions, which was perfect for her, as she couldn't charm monsters herself.
As she was rapidly growing stronger, Kim Ye-dam belatedly discovered a drawback to the Rune of Charm.
"Wh-who are you? Who are you to be in someone else's house!?"
"Huh?"
She had accidentally erased the homeowner's name from her list, and the charm had broken.
Until now, she had used and discarded people, so she never knew that removing them from the list would break the charm.
And that a target, once charmed, could never be charmed again.
"Ah, so I can't just charm and release the same person over and over."
After killing the homeowner and disposing of the body with her trace removal skill, Kim Ye-dam sat on the sofa and thought deeply.
*Then I can't carelessly release the charm on humans I want to keep as my minions, can I?*
Having learned something new, she became more cautious with her charm.
*It's a bit of a shame there are only five slots.*
Still, the Rune of Charm was undeniably overpowered.
So much so that she didn't envy the zone representatives' authority.
*Because the charm can dominate any human, not just players.*
Level and class didn't matter.
Even opponents stronger than her were no exception.
The charm was a power that could dominate even the president if she put her mind to it.
With an ability comparable to, no, far superior to a zone representative's power of domination, she controlled people.
With her Tamer abilities, she controlled monsters.
All living things were beneath her.
*This is getting a little boring.*
It was around then that Kim Ye-dam learned about a cafe called PleSeBa.
*'Players Change the World'? I like the sound of that. And a lot of players have joined.*
Liking the cafe, she decided to take the interview test.
She was surprised when she learned she had to participate in a murder.
But that was all.
For her, who had already committed murder, it wasn't a difficult task.
*Hmm, if I play my cards right, I might be able to dominate the person who founded this cafe.*
After building more trust and being appointed to an executive position, she coaxed them into having offline meetings in addition to their video chats.
Eventually, she was able to meet the "Chairman" in person.
"Oh my, are you the Chairman who founded the cafe? Hellooo?"
"Hello. You must be Yamtti?"
"Hehe, yes. A pleasure to meet you."
The moment their eyes met as she smiled, Kim Ye-dam dominated the Chairman.
[Civilian 'Song Jae-gyeom' has been charmed.]
*Huh? Wait, a civilian?*
Players were identified as players, but this one was a civilian?
Baffled, she had him introduce himself and learned an absurd fact.
"My name is Song Jae-gyeom, the eldest son of Chairman Song Baek-hyun of the LC Group. I am thirty years old and a civilian."
"You're not a player?"
The paradoxical situation of the founder of a players-only cafe not being a player himself.
It was absurd, but for Kim Ye-dam, it didn't matter.
*Player or not, it means I can control the chairman of PleSeBa as I please!*
It was from this point on.
"Don't call me Master in front of others. Act like you're one of the early members, just like the other executives."
"Understood."
She colluded with the Chairman, pretending to be an executive of PleSeBa, and began to pull the strings of the cafe.
Though it paled in comparison to Oseong, the LC Group was still a corporate behemoth.
With the eldest son of such a company as her slave, she had no need to worry about money.
"By the way, Chairman. Why did you create the cafe?"
"At first, since I couldn't become a player myself, I thought I'd at least gather some... but now, the main purpose is to expand my influence and surprise my father."
"Aha, so you want your father's approval."
"Yes. You could call it a surprise gift. But before that, I'm going to kill Ma Kyung-rok."
"Ma Kyung-rok?"
"The eldest son of the Oseong Group. He's the one my father always compares me to. That's why I have to kill him first. If I don't, I'll be compared to him for the rest of my life."
Although she dominated him with the Rune of Charm, it simply increased his favorability toward her from 0 to 100.
These people were still capable of thought.
They didn't act like emotionless puppets.
Even while dominated, his existing thirst for revenge and feelings of inferiority remained.
*So he was sharpening his blade in the shadows.*
Kim Ye-dam knew that feeling well.
She had wanted to stab her boss more times than she could count.
"I understand what you want. I'll help you kill Ma Kyung-rok."
"Are you serious?"
"But only when our influence has grown much stronger. When we're so powerful that a man like Ma Kyung-rok has no choice but to seek out PleSeBa."
Kim Ye-dam grinned.
"Let's kill him then."