## Chapter 57 – A New Proposal
Returning to the waterfall, I found Science and Seo-hee with an inflatable boat on the water, deep in conversation. Judging by the waves they were creating, they seemed to be running various simulations.
“You’re back?”
Seo-hee spotted me first and waved.
“Yeah. Anything happen?”
“Nope.”
“What about Mina?”
“I’m perfectly fine as long as you’re around.”
Oh dear, looks like I might have to extend her hours by another three?
Seeing my expression, Science cleared his throat and subtly changed the subject.
“What’s that behind you?”
I turned to see Ji-won Han following me, a sleeping bag over her head, nodding off.
After trudging along, Han Ji-won’s head finally bumped into my back, jolting her awake. She looked around, disoriented,
and then promptly collapsed on the ground and started sleeping.
“Does she just follow you around like some kind of cat?”
Tell me about it. She kept begging me to take her with us, but I ignored her. Now she’s been trailing me for five hours, napping as she goes.
I told her to go back, but she wouldn’t listen. Eventually, I couldn’t even bring myself to send her away.
“So, how’s the preparation going, Mina?”
“Great. As far as I can tell, survival won’t be a problem. It’s a bit cramped, which is annoying, but if it means staying alive, I can put up with a little discomfort.”
Science exuded confidence.
It seemed like we could start right away.
So, after a short break, I led Science and Seo-hee into the woods to scout for a location to hunker down for the five days of the typhoon.
Somewhere far from the rocky mountains, thickly surrounded by forest on all sides.
Finding the best possible spot took longer than expected.
“Hey, shouldn’t you be sleeping? You only got an hour. Seo-hee tells me you’ve been getting it on with other girls too, not just her.”
“I’m fine. I’m not really tired.”
“You’re a stamina monster, aren’t you?”
Science looked surprised.
I couldn’t blame him. I’d been marveling at my own abnormal stamina lately.
+
〈Status Window〉
Name: Jung Woo-jin
Strength: 12
Agility: 11
Stamina: 14.9
Physical Resistance: 8%
+
By consistently completing my daily quests, my stamina, which had dropped to 11, had risen to nearly 15.
That’s about a 36% increase in numerical terms.
Maybe that’s why I haven’t been feeling tired lately, even after busting a few nuts. Even on more strenuous days, a couple of extra hours of sleep were enough to recover.
‘These daily quests are a real goldmine. Who knew they’d boost my stamina stat?’
Now I’m curious. How much stronger will my body become if that stamina stat goes over 20, 30, 40, 50… and keeps increasing?
Anyway, thanks to my ample stamina, I wasn’t too tired, even though I only slept for an hour.
“This terrain looks pretty good too, don’t you think?”
The scouting took about ten hours.
First, Science selected a few promising locations, and then the three of us discussed them and settled on one.
Once we had a spot, we got right to work.
“Get the boat out.”
Science waved his hand. I hesitated for a moment, then decided to buy a new one from the store instead of pulling the old one out of my inventory.
“Huh? This one’s different from the last one.”
“Yeah, it’s much bigger.”
The one I bought before cost ₩120,000.
This one cost ₩700,000, but it was on sale for ₩560,000.
“Oh. It’s nice that it’s bigger, but why did you suddenly switch to this one?”
It suddenly occurred to me. Was it really right to be stingy with money when our lives were on the line?
“You get what you pay for, right?”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. There’s always a reason why something costs more.
“So I bought it just in case.”
I was glad I did. The durability was definitely better, and it was a four-person boat, so there was plenty of room.
And it seemed like I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“Nice! It’s much more comfortable and relaxing than the first one.”
“Wow. Really? This is so comfy!”
Seo-hee and Science seemed to like it too, jumping around on the boat and giving me looks that said, “Let’s go with this one.”
“There’s a slight problem if we do that, though.”
“What is it?”
I sighed deeply and said,
“We can manage to survive somehow, but this thing costs a pretty penny….”
Let me reiterate: the first one cost ₩120,000.
This one cost ₩560,000.
That’s almost five times as much.
Seeing my troubled expression, Science jumped up and clenched his fist.
“Hey, hey. Let’s just go with the big one. As soon as this is over, I’ll catch a ton of fish for you! Don’t worry about the money. Trust me!”
“I’ll help too!”
The two of them were burning with motivation.
“Are you sure? You’ve both already been through a lot trying to find a place to set up here.”
“We won’t have anything to do during the typhoon anyway. We’ll just be sleeping for five days, right? I might as well stay up all night until the typhoon comes! What do you say, Seo-hee?”
“That’s a good idea. Let’s go hard for two days.”
I checked my cash balance.
[Cash: ₩2,794,651]
I actually had plenty of money to finish all the preparations, but there was no need to refuse their enthusiasm.
“Then I’ll trust you two and buy it.”
“Don’t worry! Trust me!”
Nod.
I immediately bought two more.
We’d use two, Science would use one, and we’d put our daily necessities in the small boat we’d already bought.
‘So, the boats are all set. Next….’
Just then, a notification popped up in front of me.
[Daily purchase amount has exceeded ₩1,000,000.]
[A gift will be awarded.]
Huh? A gift?
『Customer Appreciation Discount Coupon (50%): Awarded when the daily purchase amount exceeds ₩1,000,000. Can be used to get a 50% discount on the same product. Can be used once.』
‘I didn’t know there was something like this.’
After reading the explanation carefully, I realized it meant that I could get a 50% discount on any amount of the same product.
In other words, if I used it to buy 10,000 bottles of water, I’d get them all for half price.
‘I should save it. There might be a time when I need it later.’
I bought some rope and handed it over, and Seo-hee and Science skillfully tied it so that we could tighten or loosen the ropes at any time.
“Mina, is there anything else you need?”
“Hmm. We need to block the rain, so can we buy tents too?”
“Tents?”
“Yeah. Insulated tents for indoor use. It would be nice if there were ones that go over the bed, with the bottom open.”
“Will that work? Won’t they just blow away in the wind? Wouldn’t it be better to just cover them with waterproof vinyl? It seems like a waste of money.”
“Don’t be so stingy. If you were born with a dick, you have to try and take on challenges sometimes! Don’t you want to be a little more comfortable for five days?”
Science waved his hand, telling me to hurry up and get them.
He had a potty mouth, but he wasn’t wrong, so I bought the tents he wanted.
‘Tents are pretty expensive, aren’t they? ₩70,000 each.’
Or maybe that’s cheap?
“Get waterproof vinyl too! Transparent, if possible!”
I was buying and handing over the items they wanted one by one when someone tapped me on the back.
It was Han Ji-won.
Because she hadn’t gotten a definite answer from me yet, she was following me around, exhausted, with hollow eyes.
“What about me…?”
We had three large inflatable boats and one small one.
We’d load the small one with daily necessities, and then three people, three people, and two people would ride in each of the large boats.
Me, the homeroom teacher, and Kim Yeon-joo would be one team.
Seo-hee and the twins would be one team.
Science and Park So-young would be one team.
“Can I… ride with Science…?”
This question also implied whether she could be accepted into the group.
I stared at Han Ji-won.
‘An Awakened. A Player.’
Someone who, like me, had opened their status window—in a way, my competitor.
But she posed no threat at all.
That’s because even if you awakened, nothing changed.
‘When I first opened my status window, I thought I’d be able to allocate points to strength and agility like in a game and become unstoppable.’
Not at all. The stats were just for show, a way to see my condition intuitively.
They didn’t help with combat at all.
Thanks to that, I felt frustrated at first because I couldn’t allocate points, but lately I’ve been feeling relaxed instead.
Even if Awakened people appeared, even if they tried their hardest, I knew they couldn’t raise their stats.
‘I was a little worried about her ability, but…’
If she was following me around and so desperately trying to get me to take her in, it was obvious that it wasn’t anything special.
If she had a powerful ability, she would have used it to threaten me or somehow advertise that she was useful.
As I continued to remain silent, Han Ji-won’s eyes became even more hollow, and she fidgeted. Then she grabbed my wrist.
“Come with me.”
Han Ji-won pulled me to the side.
“I’ll be back in a minute!”
“Okay!”
Despite it being daytime, there wasn’t a single snake in the forest.
Had they already sensed the coming typhoon and moved?
“Um.”
When we were far enough away from the others, Han Ji-won turned around and hesitated.
“What can I do to get you to take me in?”
Having been rejected for almost a whole day, Han Ji-won was now on the verge of tears.
I couldn’t exactly blame her.
The typhoon was fast approaching, and I didn’t seem to have any intention of taking her in.
She must have thought she was really screwed.
“Can’t you just take care of me? Then I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.”
“Anything?”
“Yeah. But I need a guarantee of safety, a guarantee of human treatment, a guarantee of 14 hours of sleep. No hitting or bullying me for not being able to do things well. And give me as much food as everyone else.”
“You’re asking for a lot.”
“But if you agree to all of that, I’ll really do whatever you tell me to do. Whatever you tell me to do.”
Han Ji-won, afraid that I would reject her again, emphasized it over and over, watching my expression.
She said she would do whatever I told her to do.
Suddenly curious, I asked Han Ji-won,
“If that’s the case, why don’t you just go to the other kids in our class and make the same offer? With your looks, if you said you’d do anything for them, the guys would give you their liver and gallbladder. They’d desperately try to save you, even if a typhoon was raging.”
Then Han Ji-won lowered her head and shook it, her eyes trembling slightly.
“Not them. There’s no hope. And I don’t want to go back there.”
There was a hint of fear in her voice when she said she didn’t want to go back.
Yesterday’s events suddenly came to mind.
Yoon Chae-yeon being scolded for not being able to do things well, and the other kids in the class taking it for granted.
And Han Ji-won, who had been startled by my approach and cowered, protecting her head with her hands.
‘If Han Do-gyun is the type of guy I think he is, he probably wouldn’t go easy on a girl.’
Hadn’t I been beaten until I was hospitalized?
‘But that’s that, and there’s no reason why I should take her in because of those circumstances.’
If you make an exception for one member, the whole group gets tainted.
You can’t make exceptions.
And, more than anything, Han Ji-won wasn’t stupid.
“Denied.”
“Why?”
“I can’t agree to the conditions you mentioned.”
Han Ji-won’s eyes trembled, and she started to tear up.
“I don’t want to go back to the other kids in our class. Please. Let me stay here.”
I sighed briefly and said,
“I’m sorry, but you don’t have to act pitiful in front of me, Ji-won.”
“What do you mean.”
“Yoon Chae-yeon is clumsy and a little slow, so she might get beaten up, but you’re not at that level, are you?”
“I… I don’t really know what you mean.”
Since she kept beating around the bush, I told her directly.
“I know you’re acting.”
Then the pitiful, tearful expression on her face vanished as if it had never been there.
Her eyes were still hollow, but there was no longer any sadness or fear.
“How did you know?”
