Chapter 164: Hunan Province (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 164: Hunan Province (1)
“A-rin, thank you for today.”
Her words were all it took to make my tangled thoughts crystal clear.
I thanked Kang A-rin.
“Yeah. It was nothing.”
She replied coolly, as always.
I added, “Ah, and please tell Yu Serin I said thank you, too.”
“…Yeah.”
At my words, Kang A-rin’s red eyes wavered, just for a moment.
If it hadn’t been for Yu Serin, I’d still be blissfully unaware, just going about my training.
There was no time to waste.
They had already started to move. That single thought consumed me.
As soon as I finished talking with Kang A-rin and left Maengju Building, I hurried toward the dormitory.
Night had fallen before I knew it.
In front of the dormitory, I didn’t head up to my room on the second floor as I usually would.
I stopped in front of a door in the farthest corner of the first floor—Yu Hana’s room.
-Knock, knock.
I knocked on her door.
I had to take Yu Hana with me.
A voice came from inside.
“…Who is it?”
“Sorry to bother you so suddenly. It’s me, Hae-in… There’s something I need to talk to you about…”
Before I could even finish.
-Click.
The door was flung open.
Standing there was, of course, Yu Hana.
She looked like she had just gotten out of the shower, her hair still wet.
Yu Hana’s sky-blue hair hung limp and damp.
“Come in.”
I stepped cautiously into her room.
Like with Kang A-rin’s room, it was amazing how different two places with the same layout could feel.
Her room was filled with a distinct Eastern fragrance.
The scent lingering in the air wasn’t from a diffuser, but a calming aroma that soothed the mind.
An orchid placed by the window made the room feel a degree fresher.
I was looking around her room when…
I’m staring.
Feeling it was rude to keep openly gawking at her room, I sat down at the table she guided me to.
Facing her, I was the first to speak.
There was no time for small talk.
“Hana.”
“Yes?”
At my serious tone, Yu Hana tilted her head as if to ask what was wrong.
I continued calmly.
“This weekend… or by next weekend at the latest.”
I paused for a moment and looked her straight in the eye.
“Let’s go to China.”
I couldn’t bring myself to call it a trip.
Because I already knew what was waiting for us there.
Seeing my serious expression, Yu Hana’s own expression tightened slightly.
Her sky-blue eyes grew somber.
“You mean… that place from before?”
“Yeah.”
I had suggested a trip to China during the break, but because she had to undergo the Succession Ritual with Yu Mujin, our promise had been postponed indefinitely.
This time, however, we couldn’t put it off any longer.
But it was true that things had become more dangerous. I opened my mouth to carefully explain the change in circumstances.
“But… the situation is a little different from last time. It might be danger…”
But at that moment, Yu Hana cut me off.
“You must have a reason.”
She looked at me with calm eyes.
"A reason we have to go."
Her gaze held no trace of doubt or fear.
Only complete trust in me.
“If you’re the one asking, then there must be a reason we have to go, right?”
she said.
I couldn’t argue with that.
“I’ll assume we’re leaving this weekend, then.”
She stood up, gave me a small smile, and slowly came up behind me.
-Swoosh.
Yu Hana’s soft arms wrapped around my shoulders and chest, ever so gently.
The next moment, she leaned down and rested her chin on my shoulder.
The scent of shampoo and the cool dampness from her wet hair tickled my nose.
She whispered in my ear, her voice full of mischief.
“So, it’s a trip?”
“…It’s hard to call it a trip this time…”
“Just the two of us?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Hmm…”
At my answer, Yu Hana seemed to ponder for a moment.
-Nibble.
Then she gave the nape of my neck a little bite.
It was more like a cute complaint, and it didn’t hurt.
-Peck.
Then, her warm lips left my neck and brushed lightly against my cheek.
“It doesn’t really… matter.”
Yu Hana whispered.
Trapped in her embrace, I was speechless.
*
The Fragment of Order buried in Hunan Province was, in principle, similar to the Vatican’s fragment in its method of succession.
The subject places their hand on the fragment, immediately falls unconscious and defenseless, and in that state, must pass an internal trial.
The method of becoming the fragment’s master was similar, but the location was different.
For the Vatican, the difficult part was simply the entry requirement: the Pope’s permission.
Once you managed to get in, you just had to slip by when no one was looking, making the difficulty quite low.
Besides, I’d gotten that permission easily thanks to the cheat card that was Cheon Yeo-wool… so it was practically a cakewalk.
However, the fragment in Hunan Province was the complete opposite.
Anyone could go there.
Thanks to the portal, there was no need for a visa or any special qualifications.
However.
The location was the problem.
‘Zhangjiajie (張家界).’
I pulled up a view of the place on the hologram screen in front of me.
Pillars of rock, carved like sculptures, soared into the sky.
If you’ve ever watched a Chinese movie or drama, you’ve probably seen mountain ranges made of stone like this.
Mist filled the gaps between the stone pillars.
The tops of the pillars were covered in green vegetation, like moss.
And it was a valley where hundreds, thousands of these pillars gathered to form a colossal forest.
That was Zhangjiajie.
Its depth was hard to measure, its height difficult to gauge.
The Fragment of Order was there.
Which led to the obvious question.
Where, in all that vastness?
If I knew the location, couldn’t I just go straight there?
But…
“I don’t know.”
Even I don’t know the location.
Because that’s how I designed it.
I pressed a hand to my forehead. In the original game, I had made this Fragment of Order into a kind of experiential device, meant to give players the joy of exploration.
Following the same route every time would be boring for them, after all.
It was designed to spawn randomly in one location among the thousands of pillars within Zhangjiajie.
Players had to test their luck and skill to find the fragment’s location.
And that was exactly what Yu Hana and I had to do now.
But.
I hadn’t designed it to be completely hopeless.
It was random, yes.
But I designed it so that its location could be deduced from clues given in the area.
It was more like a puzzle; by analyzing and inferring from external hints and appearances, you could narrow down the candidates to five or six locations.
Normally, I would have to go there myself and search for each and every one of those clues.
However…
The world has gotten a lot more convenient.
I turned on my laptop and logged into the Hero Auction.
Then I clicked on the ‘Jobs’ category.
The Hero Auction wasn’t just for items and artifacts; you could also pay for the information networks or manpower of local guilds.
I typed ‘China’ into the search bar. Countless businesses appeared.
I clicked on the one that stood out the most.
[WeWillDoAnything.]
[Location: China]
[Seller Description: We will do anything. ]
The business’s name was ‘WeWillDoAnything.’
The text had no spaces, probably due to a machine translator.
It really felt like they would do anything.
“……”
It was a little creepy.
But from what I’d heard, they were effective.
I opened the message window and sent an inquiry.
[belief_]: Hello, I'd like to ask if a local survey of Zhangjiajie is possible.
The moment I thought I should probably do some training while waiting for a reply…
-Ding.
A reply arrived instantly.
Pros.
[haochia]: Possible
[haochia]: What kind of survey?
They got straight to the point.
[belief_]: I need photos of the rock pillar joints and the vegetation in the Zhangjiajie area. As many as possible.
-Ding.
This time, too, the reply came in less than a second.
[haochia]: 60 million won.
The price itself was reasonable.
Zhangjiajie wasn’t a Safe Zone in the first place.
It was a hazardous area where monsters could appear.
Considering the cost of surveying that entire vast region, this was a fair price.
To be honest, I even thought it was cheap.
I completed the payment immediately.
The Auction also functioned as an escrow service, so there was no risk of getting ripped off.
The seller could only withdraw the funds after I received the results and approved the completion of the transaction.
[haochia]: Will provide first report within 24 hours
With that message, he was gone.
“…They’ll do a good job, right?”
I could only hope so.