Is It So Wrong to Seek Product Placement in a Gate? (2)
Is It So Wrong to Seek Product Placement in a Gate? (2)
It was Yujin's first time inside an A+-rank Gate.
To Yujin, it felt fundamentally different from an ordinary A-rank Gate.
The monster bombarding him with attacks right before his eyes proved that much.
[Gruwaaahh!!]
'This was worlds apart from the entrance exam.'
The monster Yujin was fighting was called an Executioner.
It was a tentacled monster that began appearing in A-rank Gates.
The version in the entrance exam had only been an illusion, but he had defeated it without much trouble...
'This was far beyond anything that should appear in an A-rank Gate. It must have been enhanced.'
Its attack speed was beyond comparison with the illusion he had fought before.
Even near misses produced enough wind pressure to tear his clothes.
Speed translated directly into power, so a clean hit might have killed him.
It truly deserved to be called an A+-rank Gate.
Even a strike force from the Cheonhwa Clan would have struggled.
Yujin could only marvel at the difference.
But...
'Its movements were broad and its pattern was easy to read. If anything, that made it easier.'
-Whoosh.
Whether it was the enhanced monster or the illusion from back then,
there was little difference to Yujin.
Attacks too fast for the eye to follow?
He had never relied on watching the attacks themselves. He baited them, predicted them, and dodged.
He had hunted these things until he was sick of them before regressing, so reading their patterns was easy.
An overwhelming difference in stats?
It had certainly grown stronger, but Yujin had grown considerably stronger as well.
His serious hell-training with Sia had raised them by roughly 1.0, and four days of sweat-soaked training with his master had added another 0.3.
Together, his Strength and Agility had risen by a full 1.3 since the entrance exam.
He still knew its patterns almost perfectly.
His physical stats were also markedly higher than before.
The two combined, and Yujin's katana traced a beautiful violet trajectory once again.
It danced between the tentacles, cutting every obstacle in its path in two.
Free and beautiful.
'And above all...'
-Baaaang!!!
'For some reason, all its aggro was focused on me. That made it easy to handle.'
The strange part was that the monster's tentacle attacks were directed only at Yujin.
He did not even need to hypnotize it into directing its attacks at him.
It was an odd thing.
The reason the monster Executioner was so notorious was its habit of attacking the weakest members of a strike force first.
Yet now it focused every attack on the man who was obviously the strongest.
It had not swung so much as one tentacle at the two women behind him.
It was as though it had some reason to target Yujin specifically.
It was clearly strange, but...
Yujin decided not to think too deeply about it.
'A tentacle monster that liked men? What kind of supply was this when there was no demand?'
There was no time to philosophize leisurely in the middle of a fight.
He decided it was probably some female tentacle deity and moved on.
Coincidentally, Alice in the rear didn't find it strange either.
She had been trembling with elation for some time.
'Yujin had asked me to lend him my strength...!!!'
The corners of her mouth quivered with joy.
It was an unusually bold reaction for timid Alice, but...
she could not help it.
When Yujin said they would clear the dungeon, she had assumed he would leave her behind because she was still too weak.
She hated that.
She hated that he would go into a dangerous battle.
She hated that her weak self would be forced to watch helplessly.
She was sick of it as though she'd endured the same thing dozens—hundreds—of times before.
But...
But Yujin had readily reached out to her.
He had said it would be difficult alone and asked her to join forces with him.
In return, he had promised to protect her no matter what happened.
Those few words washed away everything that had accumulated in her heart.
Her grief over her own weakness. The loneliness of being the one who could only wait. All of it.
Alice was finally giving her buried regret an outlet.
'Besides, when Yujin hugged me, I kept rubbing that with my lower belly... It definitely had not been intentional, though! If I fought well, he would forgive me, right?'
Admittedly, one slightly dubious motive was mixed in there. Anyway.
That was why she watched closely.
Yujin's fight—the battle of an A-rank awakener.
She was searching for the perfect opening.
-Slam!!
"Alice, now!!"
Yujin's voice came at exactly the right moment.
He had deflected the barrage of tentacles and created an opening for her.
But she had not needed the signal.
A blue fireball was already streaking from her wand like a comet.
-Whoosh.
"Okay!!"
Her mana stat was in the high fives, extraordinary for a freshman cadet.
She possessed an exceptionally rare S-rank Magic-type Innate Talent.
And finally, she was determined to be useful to Yujin.
Those three factors combined into tremendous firepower that engulfed the monster.
-KABOOOOOM!!!!!
[Arrrrrggghhhh!!!!!]
[Arrrrrggghhhh!!!!!] The explosion was deafening.
Chunks of flesh scattered through the air, burned black, and drifted down as ash.
A delayed blast of heat struck them, hot enough to roast their skin.
The monster screamed as it writhed in agony.
And finally...
[Graaaw...!]
"...!!!? Yujin!! It was still alive..."
"It's okay. I'll finish it."
-Slash.
The blast had exposed its core beneath the missing flesh.
A beautiful violet arc slashed diagonally across it.
The monster—one even an ordinary A-rank awakener couldn't have defeated alone—collapsed without resistance.
With a thud.
"...Whew."
"We, we did it, Yujin!! We did it!!"
"It was thanks to you, Alice. When it came to firepower, magic really was king."
The two awakeners high-fived over their perfect teamwork.
And then...
"By the way, Director. You saw that, right? This really is dangerous, so go back to the entrance and stay..."
"I signed a waiver! Please, please let me film this!! If I can capture this, I don't care if I die!!"
Behind them stood a woman with a large ENG camera on her shoulder.
That was how a party of one vanguard, one rearguard, and one porter cleared the dungeon's first floor.
* * *
A little earlier, just as they were descending the stairs.
Yujin had heard footsteps behind him, mistaken them for an ambush, and swung his katana first...
"Eeek!?"
"......!!!!!?"
-Freeze.
"Director!!?"
It was the director, not a monster.
He had nearly become a murderer.
Fortunately, he had pulled the strike by a hair.
"I told you not to come in, so why did you...?"
"W-well, you see!? Actually, I..."
-Riiip.
"Oh."
...He had not managed to stop the wind pressure from slicing her clothes, leaving the director's sweater as revealing as a maternity nursing top, with a bold strip of underboob exposed.
The director continued explaining without showing any embarrassment.
"I actually wanted to direct films, not commercials..."
In short, she wanted to shoot something blockbuster-worthy and use it as her film-directing portfolio.
Yujin's expression hardened.
"No. It's too dangerous."
"I don't care if I die! I even brought a waiver saying it would be entirely my fault if I—"
"Absolutely not."
What? She didn't care if she died?
I'd bet my Yujindo that the moment she actually faced death, she'd scream for me to save her.
Given my personality, I wouldn’t be able to ignore her completely.
He had no intention of adding useless baggage.
"C-clans hire porters too, don't they? Treat me as a porter and work me hard! I'll carry anything..."
"Ms. Porter, you are expelled from our party."
"Please don't! If I miss this, I'll spend the rest of my life shooting cosmetics commercials!!"
The director kept clinging to the idea despite being expelled.
She looked ready to follow them in secret if Yujin refused.
I had no choice but to hypnotize her...
"Go back to the stairway entrance..."
-Pause.
"...Hmm?"
He stopped just before casting the hypnosis.
Wait. We had been filming a commercial, hadn't we?
Then villains had barged in, and a Gate had opened...
"Director, did you film us taking down the villains too?"
"Of course!"
"Oh."
That was genuinely tempting.
Five villains defeated in a row, followed by a relentless advance through a Gate?
That looked better than awkwardly acting his way through a commercial.
The downside was adding one underboob-bearing burden to the party, but...
'I was going to protect Alice no matter what. One more person...?'
Protecting one extra person while I guarded our precious Alice would hardly burden me.
After a brief deliberation, he nodded.
"If you don't take me with you, I'll really bite my tongue right here..."
"Fine. We don't have time to argue. If you insist on coming, you may follow us."
"...?! You really mean—"
"But I have conditions."
Of course, I wasn't planning on taking her along without strings attached.
First: keep quiet during combat so you don't get in our way.
Second: your share of the loot is zero.
Third: stay within fifty centimeters of Alice.
"If you follow those three rules, I will protect you as best I can."
"...!!! Then—"
"However, Alice is my highest priority."
Fourth: if danger arises, I will always prioritize Alice's safety.
The director's face went blank.
"...Our?"
"Yes. Alice trusted me enough to follow me into this dangerous place, so I have to protect her even if it costs me my life."
My expression hardened.
He delivered the cold words with deliberate severity.
"If Alice is endangered, I will not care whether you live or die. Your life is only my third priority."
"Y-Y-Yujin...? What do you mean...?"
"For the record, my own life comes second. Alice comes first. Keep that in mind."
Alice couldn't hide her bewilderment at his cold-blooded declaration.
...Tsk. Her favorability toward me probably dropped again.
A man who donated to charity and acted kind would seem even worse when he suddenly said something like that.
Even though he was promising to protect her, it probably sounded frightening.
But there was no helping it.
I had to nail this down now so no one would start protesting when things got critical.
Better to be a cold but rational guy than one who stands by and lets people die.
He was only warning her in case. At worst, a few pebbles would probably fly her way.
"Oh my? Oh my, oh my. How tactless of me. Hehehe."
"...!!!? I-it's not like that!! Yujin and I are...!"
"Ah, to be young and in love."
Oddly, the person ranked third was smiling instead.
Was she truly that obsessed with movies?
Anyway, after establishing those priorities,
We properly began clearing the dungeon, but...
in the end, all that caution proved unnecessary.
-Boom!!
'Even the Wulsk had the same patterns. For all that A-plus talk, had only their physical stats changed?'
I lured one monster at a time with hypnosis and dodge-tanked its attacks.
Behind me, Alice—already among the strongest A-ranks in burst firepower—waited for an opening and unloaded on it.
With those tactics combined, we reached the boss room in under thirty minutes.
Far from my life being in danger, it had been a no-hit run so far.
There was only one problem with this combination.
"Yujin!! We did it!!"
"...!!!? Alice!! Your clothes are burning again!!"
"Again? How much—hngh!!?"
-Whip.
"Don't Korean clothes catch fire way too easily!!"
Alice's clothes caught fire easily, perhaps because they were so thin.
...Every time she used magic, holes had burned through them and the fabric had torn.
I had offered her a tracksuit top, but she said it was too hot. And now look what had happened.
I hurriedly took off my jacket and threw it to her.
"That thing was made in China... Anyway, Alice, put this on!! Director, don't film her!!"
"Don't worry. I was filming you, Yujin!"
"I'll be checking the footage later, understood!?"
"Check all you want!"
I even imposed quality control on the footage.
That brought the accidental underwear exposure to a swift end.
All that remained was...
the Gate's master waiting in the deepest part of the dungeon.
Defeating the boss monster.
"Ahem. Shall we go, then? We can't let our guard down in a Gate until the boss is defeated."
"Y-yes!"
I steeled myself and stepped forward.
Beyond the blue barrier, a monster looked down at us.
We would defeat the Dueoksini and close the Gate.
'We'd finish this one quickly too. There was nothing to worry about.'
-Step.
As the vanguard, I passed through the barrier first...
"Alice, I'll draw its attention. You—"
-Crack-BOOOOOM!!!!!
"———Discipleeeeeeeee!!!!!! Are you aliveeeeeeeee!!!!!!!"
"......!!!?"
My master's shout thundered from the distance and hammered my eardrums.
...Huh? Wasn't entry into the Gate blocked?
How did she get in?