Yesterday, Oh Junhyeok celebrated becoming an E-Rank Hunter by partying all night.
First, they went to a barbecue restaurant, then karaoke, and finally a club.
The club, which he hadn't visited in ages, turned out to be less exciting than he remembered.
He did get hit on by women after all, he was a Hunter now. Plus, he'd gotten noticeably more handsome since becoming a formal Hunter.
Oh Junhyeok went to a motel with a woman he'd hit it off with, while I returned home alone.
She just wasn't my type.
She was pretty, no doubt, and had a certain charm from dressing up.
But her chest was small.
If her face had been celebrity-level stunning or her ass had been perfect, maybe...
I could enter the world of Vampire Detective. There, I could have relationships with women who were as beautiful as they come. There was no need to obsess over a girl I met at a club. I wasn't that desperate.
Whenever I had a spare moment, I'd dive into Vampire Detective for some action, so I never had to worry about being starved for female company.
And I didn't get a good feeling about her.
Brrrt!
My smartphone vibrated. It was a message from Oh Junhyeok.
Oh Junhyeok: Hey, did you get home safe?
Sung Yujin: Yeah. Just woke up.
Sung Yujin: How was the girl you went to the motel with last night?
Oh Junhyeok: Don't even ask, man.
Oh Junhyeok: I saw her pull out a condom from her purse, and there was yellow powder in there.
"Yellow powder... Flash Powder? Heh."
I let out a hollow laugh.
Flash Powder is a drug.
More precisely, it's a powder made by grinding the petals of the Paralplecia, a C-Class plant-type monster.
It can be consumed directly, mixed into water, or concentrated and injected. No matter how it enters the body, Flash Powder takes effect.
The concentrated form is called Heaven Flash.
The side effect is the gradual destruction of the mind. Flash Powder is banned in all countries. It's highly addictive, but more importantly, it can deteriorate the mind to the point where users no longer recognize their own parents.
Sung Yujin: "So, did you do it?"
Even though Oh Junhyeok loves women, I never imagined he'd sleep with a woman on drugs. But he defied my expectations.
Oh Junhyeok: "Yeah."
Oh Junhyeok: "I pretended not to notice and just went for it."
Oh Junhyeok: "She even drank water in the middle of it."
Oh Junhyeok: "Surprisingly good. She got so wet when I pounded her."
Oh Junhyeok: "Drinking water seemed to tighten her up too. Still didn't kiss her though, lol."
I froze.
He slept with a woman on drugs and said it was good?
Oh Junhyeok isn't the type to lie about something like this. If he said it was good, it must have been genuinely good.
"The girl who hit on me yesterday came with Oh Junhyeok. That means she probably had Flash Powder too... Damn it! What does it feel like? Why did I come straight home last night?!"
I clenched my fist and pounded my head repeatedly. By avoiding the girl, I'd failed to satisfy my burning curiosity.
Sung Yujin: What are you up to?
Oh Junhyeok: Nursing a hangover with hangover stew.
Oh Junhyeok: This hangover is killing me, lol.
Sung Yujin: What about the girl? Just sent her home?
Oh Junhyeok: One-night stands are all I do with girls who use drugs.
Oh Junhyeok: I bailed while she was still asleep.
With Oh Junhyeok, I knew there wouldn't be any problems in the future.
After all, as a club regular, he'd been through this kind of thing countless times.
Sung Yujin: So, becoming E-Rank makes girls come on to you?
Oh Junhyeok: Yeah, lol. I was surprised yesterday too.
Oh Junhyeok: I've been slacking off as a Hunter because it's a hassle.
Oh Junhyeok: I regret not becoming E-Rank sooner.
Oh Junhyeok: You should be diligent with your Hunter activities. Don't end up regretting it like me.
Sung Yujin: Yeah.
Sung Yujin: I was planning to anyway. I awakened a bit late, you know?
Sung Yujin: My goal is to become an E-Rank Hunter by the end of this month.
Sung Yujin: With my current skills, E-Rank should be no problem.
Sung Yujin: Jin Seyoung said that if we only consider my Yeongcheon Ryu skills, excluding physical abilities, I'd be D-Rank.
Sung Yujin: But there's a huge gap between D-Rank and C-Rank.
Sung Yujin: My current physical abilities are in the upper tier of F-Rank. I'm not far behind E-Rank in that regard either.
Oh Junhyeok: All right.
Oh Junhyeok: With your skills, Sung Yujin, E-Rank will be a piece of cake.
Oh Junhyeok: But what about your performance points?
Sung Yujin - 730 points.
Oh Junhyeok - Sung Yujin, has it been about three months since you started as a Hunter?
Sung Yujin - Yeah.
Oh Junhyeok - That's a pretty standard pace. You must be going out regularly?
Sung Yujin - Yeah. I usually just join public parties and head into dungeons.
In the meantime, I'd been joining public parties and entering dungeons once or twice a week.
The profits weren't great, but I was doing it to build up my performance record. I've even made some connections through these public parties. Though, to be honest, I haven't actually kept in touch with anyone.
Oh Junhyeok - But reaching E-Rank in just a month? That's impossible.
Sung Yujin - Nope, it's totally doable.
Oh Junhyeok - You're going to dungeons every day? Stop it. Rest is crucial for Hunters.
Sung Yujin - I'm aiming for E-Rank Dungeons.
Oh Junhyeok - With your skills, it's technically possible, but E-Rank Hunters probably won't want to take you along.
Sung Yujin - Heh. There's always a way.
After a few more chats with Oh Junhyeok, I began preparing to go out.
Today, I would enter an E-Rank Dungeon.
"Mr. Sung Yujin?"
At the sound of my name, I looked up from my smartphone.
A young man, who appeared to be around my age, approached and greeted me. He was large and wore armor.
"Yes, I'm Sung Yujin."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Gibuseon, the leader of the 'Starting Today' Party."
He extended his hand. I slipped my smartphone into my pocket and shook it briefly.
"Please take good care of me today."
"Ha ha! Don't worry! We'll ensure your safety and security!" Gibuseon said enthusiastically.
I followed him toward the dungeon entrance.
Starting today, the party had two new members. One of them was someone I knew.
"Are you the passenger for today?"
The man had short, sporty hair and carried a spear.
"Let's hurry to the dungeon... Oh, Senior Sung Yujin?"
A red-haired woman recognized me and greeted me warmly. Dressed in leather armor, she wore a sword at her hip.
I was slightly surprised to see her. She was a junior from the Hunter Department.
"Im Soyeon? Aren't you F-Rank? Oh, are you a passenger too?"
"No, I'm part of this party. I never imagined I'd run into Senior Yujin here!" Im Soyeon exclaimed enthusiastically.
She was a freshman at National Cheon University, making her my junior. We weren't close just acquaintances who exchanged greetings.
"Oh? What a coincidence! This is Sung Yujin, our passenger for today."
"Sung Yujin. Nice to meet you."
I greeted them. Regardless of the situation with Im Soyeon, I was meeting the man with the spear for the first time.
"And that stoic guy over there is Im Seongui. Soyeon's older brother."
Gibuseon told me the man's identity.
"Im Seongui. You're my sister's senior? Please take good care of her. She's a bit clumsy."
He lowered his head in a bow, his guarded expression softening.
"There's no need to bow so deeply. Soyeon and I aren't particularly close. Besides, she's doing great as one of the Hunter Department's rising stars."
My insincere compliment earned me a slightly awkward smile from Im Soyeon. A little lip service was easy enough to give it didn't cost me anything.
And it wasn't entirely wrong.
Im Soyeon was a pyrokinetic, someone with the ability to manipulate flames at will. Her crimson hair wasn't dyed; it had naturally turned red upon awakening her powers.
Awakening and having your hair or eye color change... that means you have talent.
I exchanged a few words with them.
I harbored no ulterior motives toward Im Soyeon.
Im Soyeon was a woman with cat-like features, her eyes slanting upward. She was of average height with a B-cup bust. Her crimson hair reached her collarbones, a classic mid-length style. A mole graced the left side of her lips.
If she had a killer figure, maybe... but she's just not my type.
I had no intention of letting my dick run wild in reality. That would only attract troublesome women.
After our conversation, we entered the E-Rank Dungeon, the Ruins of the Wild Dogs. This dungeon spawned E-grade monsters called Contaminated Wild Dogs.
"Let's go into the dungeon! Of course, Senior Sung Yujin doesn't need to do anything!" Gibuseon said enthusiastically. Gibuseon was a D-Rank Hunter.
"As an F-Rank Hunter, I'd only get in the way. I'll trust you all," I replied.
Among Hunter Parties, there was something called a "Performance Taxi" a system where they accepted one additional member for a fee. In gaming terms, it was similar to a high-level player carrying a newbie for money, helping them level up quickly.
I paid 3 million won to use a Performance Taxi. It's not a big deal for me.
Although I'm part of this party, I don't have any ownership rights over the monster byproducts. I only get credit for dungeon entry, hunting time, and the performance points earned from the hunt.
In return, I don't have to do anything. I just need to quietly follow them around.
If I can earn 400 performance points in six hours of hunting, that's a good deal for me.
An F-Rank dungeon typically yields 50-70 performance points per day, while an E-grade dungeon earns 300-400 points.
The Contaminated Wild Dog, being a poisonous variant within the E-grade, offers a higher performance score, potentially exceeding 400 points.
With my current score at 700 points, I still need 2,800 more. Roughly seven more Performance Taxi runs should do the trick.
To be honest, I never intended to use the Performance Taxi in the first place.
To gain experience, I applied to join a public E-Rank Dungeon Party. Theoretically, Hunters could enter dungeons one rank higher than their own.
However, E-Rank Hunters were a dime a dozen in this world. Public parties had no reason to accept F-Rank Hunters and risk unnecessary complications.
Even when I tried to form my own party to enter an E-Rank Dungeon, no one applied. F-Rank Hunters, unlike me, saw no need to venture into E-Rank dungeons for performance points.
Man, this is easy.
I followed them, reading a novel on my smartphone. I had to make the most of these spare moments to consume creative works, since the Pleasure World App only tracked what I'd already read.
Oh, I like this character illustration... Her chest is huge!
I glanced over at the "Starting Today" party's combat situation.
Gibuseon was both a tank and a damage dealer. Contaminated Wild Dogs fell one after another to his sword and shield. Clad in steel armor, he showed no fear of their claws or teeth.
His shield technique is impressive. I wouldn't be able to defeat him easily in a fight.
At this level, he'd be considered quite skilled even among D-Rank Hunters.
Is he doing Performance Taxi work on the side due to his schedule?
Public parties become rare from D-Rank onward. Most Hunters have fixed parties by then, and the lower ranks have been weeded out.
Fixed parties operate on set schedules. I'd heard that some D-Rank Hunters run Performance Taxis during their downtime to earn extra money and improve their performance records.
"Im Seongui, that guy's no pushover. They said he was E-Rank, but he's practically D-Rank."
Even a D-Rank Hunter could become monster fodder if they let their guard down in an E-grade dungeon. But Im Seongui was quick to assess Gibuseon's situation and provide support.
Whenever Gibuseon missed a monster or got surrounded, Im Seongui moved swiftly to assist him.
Im Soyeon was responsible for collecting monster byproducts.
They had worked together countless times.
"...He just does what needs to be done without needing to be told. That's the advantage of a fixed party."
Public parties were noisy.
The party leader would constantly bark orders: "Do this! Do that!" They were always demanding too much from the members. If I drew my sword and showed off my skills by hunting monsters, they'd either become wary of me or start sucking up to me, trying to network.
Should I join a fixed party?
It was getting tiresome to form public parties every time I entered a dungeon.
"Senior Yujin, what are you reading?"
"A novel."
"A novel? Is it interesting?"
"No."
I answered honestly.
This novel was boring. Even though the author was Korean and the novel was written in Korean, it reeked of Japanese tropes.
"...Then why are you reading it?"
"Because the female characters are pretty."
I answered honestly.
Most of the heroines and supporting female characters in this novel were busty.
"Were you always like this, Senior?"
"Yeah."
I answered vaguely, completely uninterested in Im Soyeon.
Silence descended.
After a while, I approached Gibuseon, who was resting.
"Mr. Gibuseon, I'd like to fight a Contaminated Wild Dog one-on-one. Is that possible?"
"Ah, you seem eager to get your hands dirty. Yes, that's possible."
Gibuseon nodded with a friendly smile.
"We also have antidotes, so feel free to fight to your heart's content."
In the end, I didn't get to fight to my heart's content.
The Contaminated Wild Dog couldn't evade Yeongcheon Ryu's practical combat techniques and was killed with a single strike.
...At least I don't think I'd lose in a one-on-one fight.
I quickly lost interest in the Contaminated Wild Dog.
Afterward, Gibuseon's eyes sparkled as he peppered me with questions, clearly intrigued by my skills. I gave him vague answers and pulled out my smartphone.
Hmm. Is the pink-haired character's pubic hair also pink?
This was a crucial question.
If someone has rainbow-colored hair, do they have rainbow pubic hair too?