Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Training and Vacation (2)
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Rustle.
Baek Seonghui pulled a piece of paper from her pocket.
The contract continued in that vein.
"Ugh..."
Baek Seonghui pressed her forehead as if dizzy.
"Well, it just means we'll live together and train. No other intentions."
"B-but why does my head hurt so much?"
"You were about to cry again, so to calm you down, I added a bit of brandy to the black tea. But then you kept drinking it straight, finished a whole bottle of brandy, and begged for more. So I pulled out the whiskey from the cupboard, just in case..."
Dokgo Hyun hesitated awkwardly, glancing at her.
Baek Seonghui let out an "Aah!" of realization.
"H-how much did I drink?"
"...Anyway, there's no more booze left in my house."
She'd drained it all.
It wasn't booze that underage Dokgo Hyun had bought to drink himself—it was what his parents had left behind. And Baek Seonghui had polished it off.
"Anyway, you hold your liquor well."
"..."
Baek Seonghui squeezed her eyes shut.
The model student she'd been was already a killer from the tutorial, but this time, she'd truly shed that image.
Embarrassed, she covered her cheeks with both hands. Dokgo Hyun chuckled.
"Whatever. Let's have some hangover stew."
The two unpacked bean sprout hangover soup from a stall near the station.
Baek Seonghui, looking queasy, stuck mostly to the broth.
"Ahh, I feel alive again..."
Then, a sudden question hit her.
"Hey, Hyun?"
"Yeah?"
"But... is that bean sprout hangover soup place actually open?"
"Yeah."
"Even in this hellish world?"
"Of course."
The world had gone to hell, but people—no, NPCs—were working.
If they didn't, penalties kicked in.
"The guy running it had '-NPC: Bean Sprout Hangover Soup Owner' floating over his head."
The station area was crowded with people.
All of them with NPC markers hovering above their heads.
It felt eerie. Not because it was particularly different, but because it was so everyday.
Their faces were stiff, like they were shocked the world hadn't changed more.
Like they couldn't grasp why they had to work when everything had fallen apart, or if commuting even made sense anymore.
It wasn't just office workers.
Unemployed guys heading to PC bangs in the morning, night-shift workers clocking out—they all looked just as off.
Even though the Total Administrator on TV had declared the old world dead, why were the jobless still shuffling to PC bangs out of habit?
...This one-week vacation is for getting used to that eeriness.
Giving players a full week off seemed like the administration's way of making them savor the flipped world slowly.
"Anyway, the world's still kinda functioning."
"Yeah..."
Baek Seonghui had no choice but to accept Dokgo Hyun's odd words.
"Hey, but Hyun?"
"What?"
"Why are you training me, anyway?"
"It's all in the contract."
"Can't you just explain it? My head hurts."
"Hm."
Dokgo Hyun finished eating and explained.
"I'm helping you because I want you to survive the Loser's Revival Round in one piece and bring back every scrap of info."
"Yeah... but why are you so interested in the Loser's Revival Round?"
To Baek Seonghui, Dokgo Hyun was a player— no reason to care about the losers' bracket on purpose.
But Dokgo Hyun was thorough.
"To me, the Loser's Revival Round seems meaningful in its own way."
"Why?"
"Think about it. Why bother putting a dropout mission in the tutorial and offering a revival chance?"
"Just the Total Administrator's whim, right? Something arbitrary."
"That's a fair point. But he prepared the revival from the dropout stage onward, and he's bothering to track borderline cases like you—NPC-player hybrids. That suggests more than just a whim."
Maybe other explanations were secondary, and "Total Administrator's whim" was the real answer, like she said.
But even to find out, Dokgo Hyun wanted Baek Seonghui to go, endure everything, and return safely.
"So, you train under me, survive, and come back. Got it?"
"Y-yeah. Got it."
"Good. Training starts now. Follow me."
The rooftop of Dokgo Hyun's apartment building.
The door was usually locked, but he picked it with Venom Knife's [Venom Mode].
"Our building's roof is pretty spacious and sturdy."
In an ideal world, they'd train in a park or gym, but outside was risky.
Even with humans turned NPCs "functioning" as society, who knew what curveballs awaited.
Only place that comes to mind is this rooftop.
No CCTV up here—he'd already checked.
"Here."
Dokgo Hyun handed Baek Seonghui a jump rope.
"Start."
"How many?"
Whoosh.
Instead of a number, he flashed a Healing Potion.
She got the message—her face paled.
"Y-you really mean it?"
"Go!"
30 minutes later.
"Hah, hah! Hah!"
Baek Seonghui was drenched in sweat.
Puddles forming on the rooftop floor.
"Can't you go faster?"
Dokgo Hyun pushed sternly.
"Th-this is my limit!"
"Okay. Stop."
Baek Seonghui had jumped rope nonstop for 30 minutes.
At the pace he demanded.
"Confirmed. You're stronger than a normal human. Half-player for sure."
Whoosh!
Dokgo Hyun tossed her a kitchen knife.
"Eek?!"
"Hm. Good dodge, but I meant catch it. Battle stance."
Dokgo Hyun didn't know much about knife fighting himself.
His MMA gym taught Krav Maga on weekends, so he'd picked up self-defense basics for fun—but nothing advanced.
But with [Time Distortion] as his foundation and repeated Venom Knife use, his skills had grown naturally.
And the best way to improve he knew...
"Go on, stab me."
"What?!"
"We have Healing Potions. Stab my body with that knife."
"A-are you insane?!"
"You need to get used to stabbing a person with a blade."
Special forces don't slaughter live pigs in training for nothing.
You have to feel a wriggling, pained, bleeding thing at least once.
"I can't! N-no way."
"Jeez. Fine. Cheat mode it is. [Afterimage Creation]."
Shimmer...
Dokgo Hyun's form split into multiples.
"The one in the middle is me—the rest are afterimages. Stab the afterimages."
"Ugh, urgh."
Baek Seonghui hesitated.
They faded while she dithered.
"Gonna stab or not? Uses mana every time."
"S-sorry! I really can't!"
She made a tearful face and bowed 90 degrees.
"Please skip this from training!"
"Sigh. With a soft heart like that."
Dokgo Hyun was exasperated.
Couldn't even stab an afterimage—how would she survive the Loser's Revival Round?
But there are other ways.
"No choice. Baek Seonghui, summon your familiar."
A winged cat appeared.
"Hey, Tubby."
"Why call me, nya? I'm sleepy, nya."
"Your owner's too soft-hearted. So you need to get stronger."
"I'm already strong, nya!"
"You, nodding off like that."
"Keep teasing and...!"
The winged cat flexed its front claws.
Razor-sharp.
"Alright, I'll make afterimages. Kill every one except me. Can you do it?"
"Of course, nya!"
Dokgo Hyun decided to train her soft-hearted owner's familiar instead.
Shimmer...!
As he created about six afterimages.
Rip rip rip!
The winged cat shredded them at blinding speed.
"Whoa!"
Dokgo Hyun was impressed.
"You're fast. And stronger and more precise than I thought."
"Just like you said, nya! Fast, strong, and precise, nya!"
"How'd you know the farthest one was real?"
"By shadows and scent, nya!"
The winged cat wasn't just cute—it specialized in scouting and assassination.
Impressive olfactory detection beyond sight.
Shadows, huh.
Thanks to the cat, Dokgo Hyun realized his afterimages had no shadows—or very faint ones.
Shimmer.
He tried [Afterimage Creation] again, focusing on shadows this time.
Need to concentrate on shadows for the clones next time. Good lesson.
"Now, I'll fake-attack your owner. Block me."
"Got it... nya...!"
"Huh?"
"Bring... it... nya...?"
Shimmer.
The cat was already asleep.
"..."
Dokgo Hyun stared, dumbfounded, at Baek Seonghui. She looked exhausted too.
"Y-you're right. Can't sustain summons long."
"In the tutorial, you kept it out for ages, freely."
"Guess 'cause I'm not a full player anymore—just a Loser's Revival contestant...?"
They took a break.
Fortunately, a short rest let her reuse the skill.
"Bring it, nya!"
The cat perked up too.
Passes out after barely a minute, huh.
According to her, it was about a tenth of her player days' ten minutes.
After repeated summons and dismissals.
"Oh?"
Unlike before, it held over 70 seconds fine.
"Perfect. You're adapting."
"R-really? Why?"
"Proficiency's rising."
Even with fixed mana stat, repeated skill use boosts efficiency gradually.
Same for stamina, strength, speed.
Why Dokgo Hyun trained her: to squeeze max efficiency from her stats.
"Like wringing drops from a dry towel—to the absolute limit your stats allow. That's the point of repetitive training."
"Eek, sounds brutal..."
"But efficient."
He'd proven it through tutorial and prelims himself.
"Plus, I'll teach you [Mana Circulation Method]. Master it, and you'll crush the other loser trash in the revival."
They trained [Mana Circulation Method] together.
"Feel it when you use a skill? Circulate that mana through your whole body, like flowing it inside your veins at the same time."
Dokgo Hyun explained, but she struggled at first.
He got more specific, patiently.
"Won't work standing still. Try it while jumping."
The bounce and explosiveness helped time the mana flow.
Thud!
She got it quick—model student for a reason.
Not a model student for nothing. Fast learner.
"Once you're used to it, you can do this."
Dokgo Hyun flopped flat on the rooftop.
Seemed like resting, but he was 'preheating' his body with [Mana Circulation Method] for instant response.
Ready...!
At the perfect moment, he unleashed the circulating mana's momentum.
Thud!!