Serotonin
After parting ways with Kim Jin-ah's party, I headed to the famous street stall selling gukbap, the landmark dish of Server 1450. Even though some time had passed, the place was still packed with people. I paid with a Festival Coin and grabbed a seat.
There's only one item on the menu anyway, so soon a steaming bowl of gukbap was set in front of me.
"Here's your gukbap! The bowl's hot, so be careful. This is a ttukbaegi!"
The gukbap came in a white bowl with an unfamiliar design, but apparently it was similar to a ttukbaegi despite the looks. Sure enough, the gukbap inside was bubbling away, and when I touched the bowl, the whole thing was radiating heat. The server who brought it over was bare-handed, though—probably had some fire resistance skill.
I scooped up a bit of the hot broth with my spoon and tasted it. It had a light salting, just subtle enough. I'd been living off nothing but White Rolls lately, so even this faint saltiness made my tongue perk up. There was salt and pepper on each table, but no need to add more.
I savored a few more spoonfuls of the pure broth, then added the side ingredients one by one. A spoonful of the chopped greens that looked like green onions. A dash of pepper. A bit more seasoning paste. And finally, the poison arrow.
(Poison: Strong)
This is a potent poison arrow you can get on Floor 6. The poison on it is uniquely odorless and colorless. That's why dumping it into food like this doesn't affect the taste at all. My poison resistance is already maxed out against consumables like this, but you never know.
I generously dissolved the poison into the gukbap, mixed in the rice, and started eating leisurely. While savoring the flavor filling my mouth, I opened the system interface and brought up an unfamiliar window.
A window I never had any reason to check in Tower 2661, where I'm the only one. There were the names of Kim Jin-ah and the rest of the party members I'd just parted with.
Kim Jin-ah's proposal to me was more pragmatic than I'd expected.
"Jin-hyuk, between Festival Coins and Meteorstone, which do you need more?"
When she asked that out of the blue, I said I needed coins more. Meteorstone is a material item for event-limited gear, and I wasn't that interested in equipment types. Importing consumables unavailable on lower floors with Festival Coins would be way more useful.
She clapped like she'd known it all along. "Perfect then. We need Meteorstone more. So how about this?"
Instead of splitting dungeon clear rewards by headcount, she suggested we each take all the coins or stones. "And we form a fixed party to grind traps on purpose like before, snagging rewards quick."
On top of that, she proposed making a party for a sort of speed 'coin farm.' Our clear time—triggering the boss fast via trap—was less than half the records. And we got more rewards than average, so looping this dungeon beat ambiguous high-rank ones. The raw resources per clear were less, but per time spent? No contest.
Plus, she was confident she could trigger that trap again. "But why should I?"
I turned it down flat, of course. What reason did I have to party with them?
Kim Jin-ah wasn't an idiot; she knew that. "C'mon, I told you—go all-in on coins."
Turned out her "all-in" was bigger than I thought. In exchange for Meteorstone, they'd hand over individual rewards and coins from personal event quests.
Her party gets my protection to farm stones safely. I get coins faster than soloing high dungeons. Win-win since we want different stuff. But it hinged on one thing: me not needing Meteorstone at all.
I'd only said I preferred coins—not that I didn't need stones. But Kim Jin-ah nailed it like she read my mind.
When I asked how, she went full detective spilling the case. "When you blasted Min-hyung oppa, I secretly searched your name on the community. Figured you were famous."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you fought like a total ranker back there. Knew you were big on another server."
She'd dug through my old community posts—tons of brags—and pieced together my resource situation. Figured I had overflowing mats to enchant gear freely. Noticed my current gear looked basic but guessed it was all high-enhanced. Concluded event gear wouldn't help much compared to my maxed stuff.
Not entirely accurate, but close. My gear is high-enhanced—purely in Durability, though. I don't want Meteorstone gear because specs aren't the issue; I just don't care much for gear types.
Anyway, no downside to accepting. "Sure, whatever."
That was my first time using friend requests and trade.
*Thud.*
I set down the empty gukbap bowl, poured in some antidote potion, and wiped it out. Gotta do that or some other challenger could get poisoned by the residue.
"Don't wanna get stuffed and mounted as the stall terrorist."
I left the bowl, stood, paid more Festival Coins, and ordered a few to-go. I planned to try other stalls, but nothing would top this gukbap. And I still had tons of coins left.
After that, Kim Jin-ah's party and I looped the dungeon several more times. True to her word, she remembered and retriggered the boss trap perfectly. Our shortcut clears sped up—we did four runs in the time others took for one.
They raked in massive Meteorstone shards; I pocketed dozens of Festival Coins.
"Here you go, to-go order. Not eating right away? Want some heat stones in there?"
"Nah, fine."
"Alright, come again! Open straight through till the festival's last day!"
What the fuck is this? Did the gukbap have hallucinogens? Mental corruption?
I yanked an antidote from inventory and typed asking why her speech was like that.
She must've learned from my chats with community ghosts—gone wrong direction. Thought something was fucked; stashed the antidote.
Min-hyung started calling me "hyungnim" after eating that shield smack. Thought he was a prick at first, but post-hierarchy sort, he's all polite. We had a coin deal, but I'm basically carrying them—fair enough.
Short replies to those two, then headed to the inn with the to-go gukbap.
Today felt genuinely fun after so long. Low nutrition, but first party play ever, plus good food. They kept talking despite my trashed social skills. Even without the coins, fixed partying was worth it.
If it was just max coins, no need for her offer. Could've crashed top-level parties hitting endgame—no solo stubbornness required. But that wouldn't have been this fun. Might've sparked conflicts from my comms issues.
Not the dopamine flood from growth highs, but a gentle serotonin wave. Nice sometimes.
The next day, coin grinding in mind, I sought the mini-dungeon entry map.
"Jin-hyuk! Here!"
Kim Jin-ah and crew were already at the portal. Joined right up. No need for "ready?" checks anymore. Hand straight to portal for entry.
"Hey, move."
Some asshole by the portal smacked my hand away. What the fuck?
"This is our party's spot."
This prick's got a mouth on him. Our party? Thought maybe they'd prepped before we gathered, but nah. No party around him—just solo like me. Yet he said "our party"?
"Quit staring, fuck off."
What the hell is this guy's deal?