Becoming the Academy's Veteran in the Novel
"That much?"
Was it because I was S-Rank? Even if a life had a going rate, why were they offering this much?
Yoon Seokhyeon said, brimming with pride.
"The hotel's posting up to a billion won per person for a team of five, and the Hunter Association added another seven hundred million a head. And still nobody wants to go in. There's zero information on what's happening inside. Of course, the ones without the skills wouldn't get in even if they wanted to."
"1.7 billion's a pretty sweet deal, no? Might as well give it a shot."
At my answer, the others exchanged glances with each other.
They clearly hadn't expected that.
Yoon Seokhyeon turned to me.
"You'd have to sign a waiver saying that even if you die, neither we nor the hotel can be held responsible. Can you do that?"
"Yeah. Isn't that a given?"
Everyone was wearing a face that said, This isn't how it's supposed to go...
Apparently they'd only planned a scenario where I backed out.
Seo Yujin asked me.
"That Holy Explosion skill you used on Oh Hyunsoo this morning. Is it close-range only? Can't you use it at range?"
Wow, she still genuinely thought it was Holy Explosion.
Ha, my S-Ranks! Ab. So. Lute. Ly!
I tilted my head.
"Why? Is close-range a problem?"
"Hmm. It's not that I'm looking down on you, but fighting up close with a skill like that when you've got no defense is pretty dangerous. How do I put it... it's just not very S-Rank of you?"
Seo Yujin tilted her head right along with me.
She seemed to be copying my mannerism to look annoying, but even that was such a cute face.
Ah. I really want to educate that attitude with my dick ASAP.
I cleared my throat.
"Ahem. So what's that supposed to mean? I can't come?"
"Well... that's kind of what we're saying."
"Then why'd you even ask me here in the first place?"
Seo Yujin's lips curled up at the corners.
"Hm? Because you're S-Rank. I naturally assumed you could use it at range too?"
I huffed out an angry breath through my nose.
"So you were going to invite me along if I could use ranged Holy Explosion, but since it's close-range, that's a no?"
"Basically, yeah?"
"Then that settles it."
"...Huh?"
"I can use it at range too. If you don't believe me, go check how my S-Rank evaluation went. I did it at range back then."
Eyes darted busily back and forth around the room.
The this-isn't-right... expressions I'd found so irritating at first were, for some reason, starting to grow on me.
Probably the 1.7 billion talking.
I stood up from my seat.
"I'm in. Hotel urban legends tend to involve a lot of demon stuff, so someone with holy-type abilities like me could actually be useful. Besides, I know my urban legends pretty well."
"Oh? You're into urban legends?"
Seo Yujin asked, her eyes going round.
I ignored her and kept going.
"Looks like you just called me here to mess with me, but since I could genuinely be useful, give it some real thought."
With that, I walked out of room 104.
Around dinnertime, I was added to a group chat.
The next day.
Half past six in the morning.
At that dawn hour, I was standing in the corridor of an empty lecture building.
Riing riing—
"Yeah, Seolha?"
[Ian-ah, over here, over here.]
When I turned my head, Seolha was waving at me from the far end of the corridor.
I walked over to her.
Seolha, her baseball cap pulled down low, took it off and swept her long blonde hair back.
The scent of shampoo washed over me in a wave.
She glanced around and said,
"This spot should be fine."
"Huh?"
Seolha grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the women's restroom.
It was done up in upscale wood styling, so spotless you'd think no one had ever used it. A faint fragrance diffuser scented the air.
She opened the stall doors one by one to check them, then shoved me into the one at the very back.
The inside seemed to be at least twice the size of a normal public restroom stall.
Having seated me on the closed toilet lid, Seolha latched the door with a click—and climbed up onto my lap.
"Seolha, wh—oop."
Before I could even get the words out, she wrapped both arms around my neck and kissed me.
I grabbed her ass under her skirt and mingled tongues with her.
It was our first kiss since coming out of the dungeon.
Churp.
After a long while, Seolha finally pulled her lips away.
She looked into both my eyes and said,
"Panty laundry?"
"What, in case someone sees?"
I asked in a low voice.
Yoo Seolha had celebrity-tier name recognition. She'd probably filmed more commercials than most actual celebrities.
If word ever got out that someone like her was fooling around with a guy in a bathroom...
Seolha tilted her head.
"That's weird, though?"
"What is?"
"Back in the dungeon, you told me to take your creampie because you were planning to knock me up. So why aren't you doing it with me now that we're out?"
"Huh?"
"I'm already all ready to get pregnant."
Seolha pushed her lips out in a pout.
"I've got a good eye for these things, so I'm being careful for now. We don't exactly have a decent place to meet, either."
"Tch. And yet you apparently went at it like crazy with Ji-yoon unni in her office yesterday."
"...Ji-yoon told you? It wasn't that crazy."
"Do you have any idea how much she bragged-not-bragged over text yesterday? About how you came in her mouth AND inside her."
"Seolha, keep it down a little, would you? What if someone actually walks in."
"Is that really what matters right now?"
Seolha, straddling my lap, began stripping off her clothes one piece at a time.
When her bra came undone and her supple breasts sprang free, her already-perked pink nipples instantly seized my gaze.
She took one of her own breasts in hand, making the nipple jut out even more, and pressed it up against my mouth.
"Suck."
I swallowed hard.
Wow. How can a nipple's color and shape be this damn appetizing?
But was this really the right place?
Think it through. It was still early morning, hours from the first class at nine. This was one of the old buildings, so it didn't host many classes to begin with. Which was, I'd heard, exactly why there'd been so much griping about it getting a bathroom renovation.
Seolha telling me to come here made sense too — nobody came to this building.
"Suck it already."
Meanwhile, Seolha forcibly ground her nipple against my lips.
"Mm."
I finally gave in and took her nipple into my mouth, licking it this way and that with my tongue.
"Hnngh."
Seolha bit down lightly on her lower lip.
She took my hand and brought it up to her other breast, making me grope it.
"You like my tits, don't you?"
"Mm-hm."
My head was nodding on its own.
"You loved them so much in the dungeon too♡"
I moved my mouth over and licked the nipple on the other side.
Seolha lifted her chin.
"Aahh. Feels good."
"Seolha, keep your voice down just a—"
"You're hilarious, you know that?"
I swirled my tongue around her nipple as I spoke.
"What is."
"You told Ji-yoon unni that if she got caught, you'd knock her up first. That's why you pounded her loud enough to bang the whole office and gave her a creampie, right?"
My eyes, locked with Seolha's, drifted away all on their own.
She grabbed my chin.
I resisted. It was useless.
"Kim Ian. Eyes back on me."
At her one line, I was forced to meet her gaze again.
"You do all that with Ji-yoon unni, but with me I'm supposed to keep my voice down so we don't get caught?"
I gently rolled Seolha's nipple with my tongue as I answered.
"That was just... talk. We're college students, and Ji-yoon's got a job. It was more of a 'I'll take responsibility if we get caught' kind of thing—"
Seolha said,
"If I get caught, I said I'd support you, didn't I? I've got a decent chunk saved up. Even if I quit the Academy and just grind dungeons, I'll keep you fed."
"Yeah... Ji-yoon said pretty much the same thing, actually..."
"What? Ji-yoon unni said that too?"
"You're both just... exceptionally capable..."
She climbed down off my lap.
"Hey."
"..."
"Pants off."
"Huh?"
"What's 'huh'? Whip it out."
I pulled down my pants and underwear.
Seolha neatly folded her clothes and mine together and tucked them into the shopping bag she'd brought.
"Sit still."
As I sat on the closed toilet lid, Seolha crouched down between my legs and took my cock into her mouth.
"Mmph."
[Haaah. This cock, finally. Four days? Five? Whatever. Point is, I can't live a single day without it anymore♥]
Seolha stroked my shaft with her hand and gently licked the tip of my urethra with the very tip of her tongue.
"Ahh—"
My head tipped back on its own.
It felt like receiving a blissful torture session in a sealed room.
Seolha asked,
"So you don't want to get caught with me?"
"Do you?"
"Huh?"
"You kept your distance from me in class, watching how the others reacted. Weren't you worried about the rumors?"
"Wait. So THAT'S what that was? Fine, I don't care anymore then."
Seolha stroked my cock with her hand as she went on.
"Next class, feel free to grope my tits in front of everyone. Kiss me, whatever. Start a rumor that I'm your bitch, fine by me. Or should I just tell the others myself?"
Yoo Seolha seemed oddly anxious about something.
Apparently, ever since we left the dungeon, she'd felt like Ji-yoon had stolen a march on her.
That was why she'd dragged me out here first thing in the morning.
I fondled her nipple as I spoke.
"Seolha. With Ji-yoon it's fine because there's zero chance of us getting caught. She's an assassin — she senses people's presence within her radius like a ghost. And I don't want our relationships exposed and causing problems for either of you."
Seolha rose to her feet.
Gripping my cock, she climbed up over me.
Inside her skirt, my cockhead brushed against her slick folds. She wasn't wearing panties.
Spreading herself open, she sank straight down the length of my cock in one smooth motion.
"Ah. Ahaaang."
Seolha moaned.
The moment her walls recognized the one-of-a-kind cock and locked perfectly into place around it, she began rocking her hips back and forth.
"Haa. Haa. I'm going public from now on."
"..."
"I'm not saying we let people catch us doing this. But starting now, I'm going to act closer to you. Let it show that I like you. Ji-yoon unni can't do that because of her job, but I'm a college student, so I can."
I gripped Seolha's ass.
"If that's what you want, go for it."
"...Really?"
"Obviously. If Yoo Seolha likes me, of course I'm happy."
"Hehe."
Seolha hugged me and swayed her hips in a sultry rhythm, rubbing her cheek against my face.
"Aahng. Feels good, Ian-ah."
"I need to hurry up and found a club so we can get a clubroom. No more doing it in places like this."
"A club? Then wouldn't we need one more person? Ah. Right, we could just stuff it with any deadweight members who never show up."
"Sure, that works."
Seolha sensed something off and looked at me.
"You."
"Yeah?"
"Other than me and Ji-yoon unni... is there someone else?"
"What? No? There isn't."
"You swear?"
"I swear."
Seolha stopped moving her hips.
"Oh, right."
"What?"
"You said you're going to your job today. Some kind of anomalous phenomenon?"
"Yeah."
Seolha's face clouded with worry.
"Are you seriously going? Isn't it way too dangerous? Those people... I mean, forget them. I'm just worried about you."
She had no idea I was headed for the Novelpian Hotel — the one nobody had ever walked out of alive.
If she knew, she'd never let me go.
Right now, all she'd heard was "anomalous phenomenon," so as far as she was concerned it was about on par with a haunted house.
I flicked my tongue over Seolha's nipple as I said,
"It's fine. I'm going in properly prepared."
"That Seo Yujin girl... never mind."
"What about her?"
"Nothing. She's got a pretty face, but she's flat as a board. Not your type at all."
"You know me well."
I seized Seolha's breasts and sucked her nipples in slow, deliberate pulls.
"Aahng♡"
Her hips began working busily.
My cock stirred up every corner of her depths.
Then—
A sound of people came from outside.
I sucked hard on Yoo Seolha's nipple one last time and lifted my face to meet her eyes.
Seolha had gone tense too, frozen on top of me.
The bathroom door swung open.
A man and a woman slipped in, whispering.
"Babe, hurry."
"You seriously want to do it HERE? Hey, there's someone in that stall at the end."
With the latch showing occupied, there was no way they couldn't tell.
"Shh. They're doing it too. This place is that kind of place."
Yoo Seolha and I stared at each other in wide-eyed shock.