Lend Me...
"Lend me..."
"..."
Holding her breath, Jin Yu-jeong narrowed her eyes and stole a glance to her side. The hair shimmering in the sunlight gave off a strangely divine aura. The small girl walking beside her was frowning slightly, looking deep in thought as if troubled by something. Park Jeong-ah. Yujeong was currently trailing right behind her.
I ended up skipping school after all...
She had missed school plenty of times before to avoid the bullies or to help out at her mother's restaurant, but this was the first time she had ever just walked out of the school gates without permission on a whim.
But I couldn't help it.
After all that chaos, there was no way she could just walk back into the classroom and sit through a lesson as if nothing had happened. The scene from earlier was still vivid in Yujeong's mind. The furious bullies rushing in, Park Jeong-ah casually dealing with them, and even snapping a drawn dagger in half with a mere tree branch when one of them lost their temper...
Of course, it wasn't because the branch was anything special. How could a mere piece of wood slice through solid metal? Yujeong wasn't blind. Though she was just an ordinary person, she was deeply interested in the superhumans known as Awakeners. Thanks to the knowledge she had gathered from the superhuman documentaries she watched religiously, she knew exactly what Jeong-ah had done.
Sword Qi.
Sharpening the energy that only Awakeners could wield—often called mana or aura—and coating an object with it. Its cutting power was said to easily surpass that of any real sword.
But they said using Sword Qi isn't something just anyone can do.
To quote the documentary Yujeong had watched: wielding Sword Qi required a massive pool of internal mana to begin with. Moreover, because one had to coat a specific object with their own energy, both sensory resonance and the ability to control it were absolutely crucial.
In short, it was insanely difficult.
But Jeong-ah did it without breaking a sweat.
Casually pulling off a technique that even Academy students struggled with, one usually reserved for active-duty superhumans... And she was an ordinary girl who, until just recently, hadn't been any different from Yujeong herself. She must have only recently Awakened, too.
What that implied was simple.
An absolute genius...
Whether it was talent or something else, the exact word didn't matter. Only one thing mattered to Yujeong.
I have to stay on Jeong-ah's good side.
She might just be the savior who could rescue Yujeong's school life. They hadn't gotten off on the wrong foot, and they shared a sense of camaraderie from being bullied together. Of course, everything depended on how Yujeong acted from now on.
Having reached a conclusion, Yujeong mustered her courage and nudged a little closer to Jeong-ah's side. All to make the best possible impression.
It was after that that we slipped out of school. Somehow, I ended up ditching the rest of the day's classes, but it didn't really matter. It was only a single day out of the many days I had left to live. Besides, my primary reason for attending class was to quickly grasp the state of this world, and that goal was being met just fine while wandering around outside.
I walked, taking in the sights of the streets. Come to think of it, this was the first time I was actually looking around the outside world since undergoing this bizarre experience—whether it was possession or reincarnation. As I walked, looking around to see if there was anything else different, a voice called out.
"Are you looking for something?"
The owner of the voice was a female student in a school uniform. This student, whom the bullies had referred to as 'Shuttle No. 2', was following me for some reason, her eyes sparkling. Shuttle No. 2... No, that's not it. Let's see, what was her name again...? I read aloud the three characters engraved on her silver name tag.
"Jin Yu-jeong?"
"Yeah?"
"Why do you keep following me? Aren't you going back to school?"
Yujeong chuckled awkwardly, scratching her head.
"Well, it's not like missing a day or two is going to kill me... I skip school pretty often anyway. Besides, those guys got beaten to a pulp earlier. I'm scared too!"
"Scared?"
"If I stay at school, they'll definitely take their anger out on me!"
Yujeong shook her head vigorously, making a big fuss. Indeed, those bullies weren't normal. Pulling out a dagger just because things didn't go their way. They were acting like gangsters whipping out weapons. Most students probably wouldn't stand a chance the moment a weapon was drawn. It was virtually impossible for an ordinary person to disarm an assailant holding a blade without getting hurt.
"More importantly, what was that earlier? Did you Awaken?"
Yujeong asked cautiously, but I couldn't give her a proper answer.
"Who knows..."
Did they call manipulating mana 'Awakening' here? I had simply done what I always used to do. That aside, there was something else that had actually surprised me. For a mere fourteen-year-old to take such a violent stance. In the uncivilized medieval era where I active as a Hero, such situations were daily occurrences, but wasn't this supposed to be a civilized society?
Of course, there were people like that in the South Korea of my memories, but they were a tiny minority of extreme delinquents. Most people didn't walk around with daggers tucked into their pockets. Perhaps that kid from earlier was the average for this world. Like, maybe the entire Earth had turned into a giant slum. A lawless wasteland where you couldn't let your guard down for even a second...
"Do kids around here usually carry a dagger or two on them?"
"Of course not! This isn't an Academy. Who brings personal weapons to a regular school? It's completely illegal. But Lee Hui-ji's dad is a city council member, and she's an Awakener herself, so the school doesn't dare touch her. I didn't even know she carried a dagger until today."
Fortunately, things hadn't gone quite that far. Even in this world, incidents like earlier didn't seem to be very common. I was thinking of carrying a training sword around just in case. Still, it was a relief to know the world hadn't completely gone to ruin compared to the one I remembered.
"By the way, where are we going now?"
"'We'?"
Who said anything about 'we'? When I glared at her slightly, Yujeong smiled sheepishly and asked,
"Hehe, where are you going, Jeong-ah? Can I tag along?"
She was cute, so I decided to let it slide. Well, to be honest, I didn't have a plan. I had just walked out on a whim. I couldn't go back to the orphanage at this hour, so I needed to find something to kill time. Wandering the streets had its limits; I couldn't just loiter outside forever.
What did I used to do outside in the past...?
Racking my brain, in situations like this, I usually headed to a PC Bang. Back when I was a student, on days I skipped school, had half-days, or finished exams early, I would always kill time at a PC Bang before heading home. I could just follow the same routine this time. With that thought, I asked Yujeong if there was a PC Bang nearby, but her response was entirely unexpected.
"A PC Bang...? What's that?"
"You don't know what a PC Bang is? You know, a place with rows of computers where people sit and play games."
"Ah, I think I heard about that from my dad. He said those used to exist in the past. There probably aren't any left now. I heard they all shut down when Capsule Rooms started popping up."
"Capsule Room?"
What on earth is that? I stared at Yujeong with a blank expression, prompting her to continue with a look of surprise.
"You don't know what a Capsule Room is? It's just like what you described, but with rows of capsules instead, and people go inside them to play games."
"What even is a capsule?"
"You don't know what a capsule is? No way, how can you not know? Did you grow up in the mountains or something? Usually, kids our age have used a capsule at least once or tw—"
She cut herself off with a gasp, quickly averting her eyes. Flapping her arms as if she had made a massive slip of the tongue, she frantically tried to salvage the situation.
"A-actually, it's totally normal not to have tried it! I only tried it for the first time last year myself!"
I could guess the reason for her panic. For some reason, Yujeong knew I was an orphan. She probably assumed I grew up in poverty and had never even laid eyes on a capsule, which would be a common luxury for average middle-class families. It was a misunderstanding, but there was no need to correct her. It was half-true, after all. I asked the fidgeting Yujeong,
"So, what is a capsule?"
"Well, a capsule is..."
To briefly summarize Yujeong's explanation, it went like this:
"So, in simple terms, it's like a virtual reality gaming console?"
"Yeah!"
I felt this every time, but this place was completely different from the Earth I originally lived on. Starting from my reincarnation into the body of a young girl, to the abundance of mana-wielding superhumans, and now technology advanced enough to produce virtual reality devices. At this point, it was only right to treat this as a parallel universe.
"So, are we going to a Capsule Room?"
"Yeah, I'd like to check it out."
"Awesome! Let's go, let's go. It's been a while since I've been to one too. This is going to be so much fun!"
It wasn't long after Yujeong started walking with an excited expression.
Bzzzz—
"Ah."
A vibrating sound rang out, and Yujeong froze. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the message, and her face immediately fell into a pout.
"Ugh... My mom says since I skipped school, I need to come over and help out. My family runs a restaurant..."
"Really?"
"The school must have contacted her right away. Ugh... I should've just ditched instead of officially leaving!"
Which meant Yujeong couldn't come with me.
"I... I really wanted to go to the Capsule Room with you, Jeong-ah."
"Nothing we can do about it."
It was a shame to lose my guide, but I couldn't hold back someone who had work to do. Just as Yujeong was turning around with a dejected face,
"Wait."
"Huh?"
I had no choice but to call her back. Turning back around, Yujeong looked somewhat excited.
"A-as I thought, it's a bit much for you to go alone, right? You need me there, don't you? Should I skip the restaurant? Should I?"
It seemed she was hoping I would hold her back. Unfortunately, however, my reason for stopping her wasn't some trivial desire for company. Rather, it was a much more primal, fundamental reason...
"Um, how much does the Capsule Room cost? Like, per hour."
"The one right up ahead is two thousand won an hour! And three hours is five thousand won, I think?"
Just as I thought. Price-wise, it wasn't much different from a PC Bang. Now that I had the information, it was time to get to the main point. I cleared my throat awkwardly before speaking.
"Well, the thing is... I don't have any money on me right now..."
"Uh-huh."
"But I really want to go to the Capsule Room..."
"I-I see..."
"Could you maybe lend me some cash?"
Midway through the conversation, Yujeong's expression had gradually darkened as if she realized what I was after. By the end, before I could even finish my sentence, she was already rummaging through her bag to open her wallet.
"H-how much do you need...? I have to take the bus, so if you could just leave me enough for fare—"
Hey, if you put it like that, it makes me look like I'm shaking you down! This is strictly a loan between friends, okay?