Chapter 6 — Player Discount Ramen
The restaurant was smaller than Aken expected, from the outside it looked like any ordinary ramen shop squeezed between two larger buildings. A faded red lantern hung above the door, swaying slightly in the evening breeze. But the sign outside made it clear who the place catered to.
PLAYER DISCOUNT RAMEN
20% OFF WITH PLAYER ID
Jae-Min stared at the sign like he had discovered hidden treasure. "…What a Beauty."
Aken glanced at him. "It's just ramen."
Jae-Min shook his head dramatically. "You don't understand."
He pointed at the sign with deep emotion. "That sign represents survival."
Aken said finally "Your unbelievable"
They walked inside, the interior smelled incredible. Rich broth, grilled meat, garlic, and with a hint of exhaustion. Nearly every table was occupied by Players. Some wore armor, others had their weapons leaning against chairs or walls. One large man in heavy plate armor was asleep face-down on the table while his ramen slowly got cold. Jae-Min whispered reverently. "The sacred hall of broke Players."
They found an empty table in the corner, a waitress walked over. She looked like she had seen every kind of Player nonsense imaginable and had developed full immunity to it. "What can I get you?"
Jae-Min opened the menu, then froze. He slowly lowered it. "…Aken."
"What?"
Jae-Min turned the menu around. "Look at this."
Aken glanced at it. The ramen prices ranged from ₩9,000 to ₩14,000. Jae-Min placed a hand over his heart. "…This is Inflation."
Aken leaned back in his chair.
"You just said dinner was on you five minutes ago."
Jae-Min nodded seriously "Yes." Then he raised one finger. "But we must approach this strategically."
Aken sighed. Jae-Min studied the menu like a battlefield commander. "If we both order the ₩9,000 ramen…"
He began calculating. "…with the 20% Player discount…"
"…we remain economically stable."
The waitress stared at him. "…So two basic ramen?"
Jae-Min nodded proudly. "Yes."
She wrote it down. "Anything else?"
Jae-Min thought deeply. "…Free water."
She walked away without responding, Aken watched her go. "You know she hates us right."
Jae-Min leaned back comfortably. "She hates everyone."
A moment later their food arrived, two steaming bowls of ramen were placed on the table, with two bottles of Kangen water. The smell alone was worth the money, Jae-Min picked up his chopsticks immediately. "To survival."
He started eating like a man who had just escaped death, Aken took a slower bite. The broth was rich, warm and comforting. For a moment, everything felt normal. Then Jae-Min spoke again with his mouth half full. "You know…"
Aken already knew he wouldn't like whatever came next. "What now?"
"You're weird."
Aken kept eating. "That's isn't new information."
Jae-Min leaned forward. "I'm serious."
He pointed his chopsticks at Aken. "You fought that mutated boss like it was normal."
"It wasn't normal."
"Exactly!"
Jae-Min pointed again. "And then your wounds started healing!"
Aken paused slightly. Curse Regeneration, he still wasn't fully used to it. Jae-Min lowered his voice.
"…What exactly is your trait again?"
Aken hesitated for a moment, then he answered. "Level 1 Curse."
Jae-Min nearly choked on his ramen. "That sounds terrible."
"It is."
Jae-Min wiped his mouth. "…But curses don't normally heal people."
Aken shrugged. "Mine does."
Jae-Min stared at him for several seconds, then he slowly returned to eating. "…I'm choosing not to question that."
Aken appreciated the decision, they ate quietly for a minute. Then Jae-Min suddenly froze. "…Wait."
Aken looked up. "What's wrong?"
Jae-Min slowly pointed toward the entrance of the restaurant, a group of Players had just walked in. They immediately attracted attention, their armor was polished, their weapons looked expensive and the emblem on their jackets was unmistakable. A silver wolf. Jae-Min whispered. "…Silver Fang Guild."
Aken glanced at them, the Silver Fang Guild was one of the stronger mid-tier guilds in the region. The group sat at a table nearby, one of them spoke loudly. "Did you hear about the mutated dungeon earlier today?"
Aken's hand paused slightly, Jae-Min slowly leaned forward. "…That's us."
Aken quietly drank some water, another guild member continued. "Apparently someone cleared it."
"Yeah, but the report said there were only two Players inside."
Jae-Min looked like he wanted to disappear, Aken kept eating calmly.
The guild member laughed. "Must've been some lucky idiots."
Jae-Min whispered. "…I feel kinda insulted"
Another Player spoke.
"They're probably beginners."
"Or fools."
Jae-Min lowered his head. "…Definitely insulted."
Aken finally finished his ramen, he stood up calmly. "come on, let's go."
Jae-Min immediately followed, they walked past the guild table toward the exit. Just as they passed, one of the guild members glanced at them. "…Hey."
Jae-Min froze, Aken stopped walking. The Player leaned back in his chair. "You two Players right?"
Jae-Min nodded nervously. "…Yes."
The guild member studied them for a moment, then shrugged. "Be careful with the dungeons lately."
Aken raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
The Player frowned slightly. "Something weird is happening to them."
He leaned forward. "Several gates have started mutating."
Aken's eyes narrowed slightly, that confirmed it. The earlier dungeon wasn't an isolated incident. The Player continued. "Monsters stronger than they should be, strange energy readings, and weird system notifications."
Jae-Min spoke awkwardly. "…That sounds concerning."
The guild member nodded. "It is."
Then he pointed at them. "If you're low-level Players, stick to safe gates for now."
Aken nodded once. "Thanks."
They left the restaurant, the evening air felt cooler now.
Jae-Min rubbed the back of his head. "…Okay."
Aken glanced at him. "What's the problem?"
"That was super uncomfortable." Jae-Min finished
Aken agreed. Jae-Min suddenly grinned. "But either way we survived it."
Aken looked confused. "Survived what?"
"Social interaction with high-level Players." Jae-Min said confidently.
Aken sighed, but as they walked down the street, his system window suddenly flickered. A small message appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Curse Resonance Detected]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Aken stopped walking, Jae-Min looked back. "What's the matter?"
Aken stared at the notification, the message expanded slowly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[New Hidden Condition Approaching]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Somewhere nearby, something connected to his curse had just appeared.
END OF CHAPTER 6