I Became the Academy's Veteran Player Inside a Novel
Under normal circumstances, the whole plan for this Anomalous Phenomenon had been nothing more than getting reasonably close to Seo Yujin and getting out alive.
Build some rapport by surviving a crisis together, then return to the Hunter Academy and slowly take things from there — that was the extent of it.
Well, well.
An opportunity had just rolled right up to my doorstep, bold as brass.
Which meant, having a room to myself was an absolute necessity.
Seo Yujin would be coming and going from my room on a regular basis from now on.
It had to look natural in advance — like me having my own room was simply the way things were.
Besides, having a spacious room all to myself with working hot water and electricity was a plus in its own right, and I wouldn't have to sit around awkwardly with people I barely knew.
There were even books and a TV (no idea why, but the cable reruns came in crystal clear), so boredom wasn't an issue.
18:00
I checked the clock hanging in my room. Six in the evening.
Knock knock.
Someone rapped on my door.
"Room service."
Through the wall, a commotion carried over from somewhere down the hall.
-This ramen is so salty a fish could swim in the broth! Where did you get the nerve to bring food this inedible!
-I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, sir.
-And what the hell is this hair, you little bastard?! Take it back and eat it yourself!
-The hair is something you just put in there yourself, sir—!
Crash.
A plate shattered.
-KYAAAAAAAH!
An unfamiliar scream rang out.
What on earth was that?
I couldn't even begin to guess what they'd done to it.
Anyway, it seemed the others had already gotten started.
Now all that's left is me doing my part.
Knock knock.
The knock came again.
"Yeees?"
"Room service."
"It's open. Come in."
Click.
The door handle turned.
"Guest, I'm coming in."
Creeeak—
The door swung open.
A female employee, her mouth stretched into a grin that split her face from ear to ear, wheeled a cart inside with a smile.
"Guest, your order—"
The moment she pushed the cart into the room and spotted me, she froze mid-motion, as if her whole body had turned to stone.
"Welcome."
I was sitting on the edge of the bed, completely naked.
I looked at her, lazily bobbing my fully erect, massive cock up and down.
"The food's fine and all, but if it's that mouth of yours, there's something I'd like to order."
Chiiiieeee—
Maintaining her smile to the very last, the woman dissolved into ash from the head down and vanished.
Huh? That was way too easy.
I didn't even treat her like the others did.
I got dressed and inspected the food on the cart she'd brought.
"Oh?"
I'd half expected them to have brought up the bizarre things we'd seen on the second floor and called it food, but it turned out to be surprisingly ordinary fare.
Pizza and pasta.
Gorgonzola Pizza
An ordinary pizza.
Aglio e Olio Pasta
An ordinary pasta.
It smelled good, and the status window listed it as perfectly normal food, so it seemed safe to eat.
I wheeled the cart out into the corridor.
The others were already rolling their own carts out of their rooms.
Chubby spotted me and spoke up.
"You think this stuff's actually safe to eat?"
"Tastes fine to me."
Glasses was already gnawing away at a California roll, cheeks working like a chipmunk's.
I announced, "Let's all eat together in one room."
We gathered in Yoon Seokhyeon's room and had dinner together.
"Yujin, what's with the bird bites? Take the glove off and eat properly."
Chubby said through a mouthful of chewed pizza.
"Huh? ...Oh. I'm just not that hungry."
Seo Yujin poked listlessly at her food with a fork, the glove still on her right hand.
Yoon Seokhyeon picked the meat out of a lobster and set it on her plate.
"Even if you have no appetite, force it down."
"What's with you two?"
"Yeah, what's with you two? Huh?"
Glasses and Chubby made a commotion beside them.
Yoon Seokhyeon cleared his throat.
"Ahem. It's, it's nothing. If even one of us loses combat strength, it could put all of us in danger. That's all."
Chubby said, "Well, the variety of food is nice, at least."
Yoon Seokhyeon glanced sidelong at me, then went back to working on his lobster.
[Damn it, Kim Ian. Was this what you were aiming for all along? Ordering more room service food so you could feed all of us — deliberately risking your life to take a room alone. Why, why didn't I think of that? I figured the F-Class bastard was only good for backstabbing people. Sniff. ...Fine. A spirit of sacrifice for your comrades. I'll admit that much.]
What is this guy even saying?
Anyway, this pizza is delicious.
Chewing my pizza, I stole a glance at Seo Yujin's condition.
[What do I do? Am I going to die? Should I just tell the others the truth?]
Glasses set down the slice he'd been eating and turned to Chubby.
"Hey, about that thing earlier — the demonic poison. Was it something you couldn't heal?"
"Did you sleep through class or what? That can only be cured with a holy elixir that drops rarely in dungeons. And apparently they barely drop these days, so there's none on the market either."
"No, I know that. I was wondering if there was maybe some way to slow its progression, like with healing or something."
"Nope. And if we're talking about slowing it down, that'd be something Ian could've pulled off, not a healer like me."
At Chubby's words, Seo Yujin's head whipped around toward me.
I shook my head.
"I can't do it either. The only holy skill I know is 'Explosion.' About the only thing I can do is blow up a magic circuits."
Seo Yujin's eyes went wide.
She looked down and saw that her bracelet had turned red.
[He's lying. There is a way. But he's deliberately not saying it? Why? Why?]
My eyes met Seo Yujin's.
She casually looked away.
[Wh-what was that look just now? Don't tell me... does he know I've been poisoned with demonic toxin?]
Glasses scratched his head.
"I see. Ugh, damn it. Everyone keeps saying I look like their son, so I can't help but worry."
Yoon Seokhyeon chimed in from the side.
"Killing her on the spot was the only choice we had. Leaving someone infected with demonic poison alone is like carrying around a time bomb. You never know when some demon might tear its way out of the body and attack us."
Glasses and Chubby nodded.
Seo Yujin rose from her seat.
"Let's go."
"Huh? Where?"
Yoon Seokhyeon asked.
"Up to the fourth floor, obviously. After we received our room service, the door leading to the stairwell opened."
"It's our first day, so wouldn't it be better to rest here for now?"
Everyone nodded along with Yoon Seokhyeon.
Seo Yujin said, "I think we should climb as fast as we can, even if it's just one more floor."
She clenched her gloved right hand into a tight fist.
I watched the room's mood for a beat, then stood up.
"Let's go up. It's not even seven yet."
Yoon Seokhyeon thought it over for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine, let's do it."
We each headed back to our rooms to grab our things.
Having come up from the third floor, we started by surveying the entire fourth floor top to bottom.
There were no survivors like the janitor.
Every guest room was spotless, as if it had just been tidied.
There should have been bodies somewhere — yet the third floor and the fourth alike held not a single trace of a guest.
Yoon Seokhyeon said, "Looks like the layers split off from each other?"
Everyone nodded.
Even on the same fourth floor, the people who'd originally been here and the ones of us who'd just come up were apparently divided into entirely separate dimensions.
Just like on the third floor, we decided to take one room each: Yoon Seokhyeon and Glasses, Seo Yujin and Chubby, and me on my own.
"Hmm? This one has a living room?"
At Yoon Seokhyeon's voice, we all drifted over to that room.
It had a separate bedroom and two bathrooms.
Glasses poked his head into the shower and hollered, "Oh, there's even a jacuzzi in here."
"For real?"
Chubby went dashing over at full speed.
Seo Yujin and I lingered in the doorway without going in.
"Haah—"
She let out a sigh, her face clouded.
I asked her, "Why the sigh?"
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing."
She didn't even seem aware that she'd just sighed.
I abruptly grabbed Seo Yujin's right arm.
She flinched and stared at me.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"Why haven't you taken that glove off this whole time?"
"Mind your own business—"
She tried to yank her hand free of my grip, but she was no match for my strength.
The others were too busy oohing and aahing over the room to notice us.
I glanced around, then asked in a low voice, "You. Don't tell me that thing's tentacle got you?"
Seo Yujin's pupils trembled like the ground in an earthquake.
Unable to answer, she swallowed hard.
I fixed her with a steady look.
"I have a holy attribute, you see, so I'm pretty good at sensing magic circuits."
She kept her eyes darting toward the others and said, "Don't tell the others. Please. I'm begging you."
Somewhere along the line, tears had welled up in the corners of her eyes.
I let out a sigh, then spoke carefully, keeping my voice down.
"Come to my room secretly later tonight."
"...?"
"It's hard to explain right now. But there might be a way to cure it. So come by my room later."
Seo Yujin's bracelet glowed blue.
Her pupils dilated.
It was the face of someone who had just caught sight of hope.
"Mm-hmm."
Seo Yujin nodded.
1 a.m.
I was passing the time reading a mystery novel from the bookshelf in my room.
Knock knock.
A knock at the door.
I walked over to it.
"Who is it?"
"Me."
Seo Yujin's voice.
"A ghost story, is it? You reek of one. Open up already!"
"Quit joking and open the door... it's creepy out here."
I opened the door for her.
Standing in the darkness with her phone's flashlight on, Seo Yujin hurried inside.
Dressed in her combat suit, she still had the glove on her right hand.
I perched on the edge of the bed and said, "Show me."
Seo Yujin bit her lower lip.
She carefully peeled off the glove and rolled her combat suit's sleeve up past her elbow.
From her hand all the way to her elbow, the flesh had turned pitch black.
It did not look good at all.
"Hmm..."
With a grave expression, I examined her arm from every angle.
Cutting the arm off might save her. With a healer around, something could probably be worked out.
But for an S-rank archer of the prestigious Hunter Academy, the arm that drew her bowstring was her very life itself.
She looked desperate.
"...Can it be cured?"
"It hasn't even been twelve hours yet, right? And it's already this bad?"
Seo Yujin nodded.
I pretended to hesitate, then opened my mouth.
"I'm about to tell you the treatment. This is absolutely not a joke, so I need you to hear me out to the end."
Anxiety flickered across Seo Yujin's face.
"Wh-what is it?"
I told her, dead serious.
"If you do it with me, the demonic poison can be removed."
"...What?"
Seo Yujin furrowed her brow.
"You have to have sex with me."
Her bracelet glowed blue.