Chapter 1736 – 1736. Savior Of The Academy
“Huh?”
Seong Hari was bewildered as soon as she entered the dungeon.
She wasn’t surprised that the entrance disappeared as soon as she entered the dungeon. She knew she would naturally be able to exit once she cleared the dungeon. What baffled her was the sheer size of the dungeon.
She had entered countless dungeons before, but this was the first time she had encountered one so vast. The sky was high, and the land and mountains before her stretched endlessly.
“I heard it was a B-rank dungeon… Was I tricked?”
She sighed, as if she had a headache. It was rare for her to be tricked like this recently, but it did happen. It was a ploy by those who tried to take advantage of her current situation.
“I guess they thought I was easy to deal with since I’ve been quiet lately. I’ll have to deal with them once I get out of this dungeon.”
She slung her spear over her shoulder and walked forward. If she killed every monster she saw, she would eventually be able to get out of the dungeon.
However, contrary to her expectations, she didn’t encounter monsters.
She encountered people.
Five men and women, all wearing what looked like matching black school uniforms, surrounded Seong Hari in an instant. Seong Hari was taken aback. They looked like students in their black uniforms, but they were all armed. Their appearance wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.
‘An academy? But it’s not the Maruhan Academy uniform…’
The man in the center spoke. Unfortunately, Seong Hari couldn’t understand him. It wasn’t Korean, but Japanese. She had been to Japan a few times for work, but she had never formally studied Japanese.
‘…Judging by his sharp voice, it doesn’t sound like anything good.’
The men looked at her with lecherous eyes, while the women stared at her with contempt. Well, she was used to that. She was currently wearing jeans, a tank top, and a coat. Her abs and other exposed areas were drawing the men’s attention.
Of course, being used to it didn’t mean she liked it.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t speak Japanese. I don’t know why you guys are in this dungeon, but… I need to do my job, so could you please move?”
Seong Hari spoke cautiously.
They all looked younger than her at first glance. Judging by their uniforms, they were likely students from a Japanese academy.
The problem was that they didn’t understand a word of Korean.
“Should I try English? …What should I say in English? Ah. It would be nice if I had a translator.”
It was a truly difficult situation. Just as she was sighing deeply, the man’s voice became sharp. At the same time, hostility and killing intent erupted from all sides.
‘No, even so, you shouldn’t just attack right away?!’
Seong Hari kicked off the ground and jumped upwards. A sword fell where she had been standing. And that wasn’t the end of it. A flame magic spell, shaped like a lasso, chased closely behind her. Seong Hari created a force field in mid-air to create some distance and swung her spear to dispel the magic.
‘They don’t hesitate at all when attacking people. They’re nasty.’
Perhaps they were wearing school uniforms to make people lower their guard.
She tightened her grip on her spear. She couldn’t just let it go after being attacked first.
She swung her spear once. The wind turned into a slash that swept through the surroundings. With a single blow, the area was devastated, and two of the men and women nearby were cut down and killed.
“W-what?”
Seong Hari, who had attacked, was taken aback. She had only swung her spear for the purpose of checking them. But two of them had died.
“You guys are too weak.”
But why were they doing this?
Moreover, there was something else she didn’t understand. Even after seeing her power, they weren’t afraid. They didn’t seem to care about the deaths of their comrades and attacked her coldly.
Did they have a death wish? No, it wasn’t that kind of feeling. It was more like they didn’t care about death itself.
‘Strange ones.’
Seong Hari jumped high into the air and threw her spear towards the ground. The spear fell like a meteor, causing a shockwave. The enemies, struck by the shockwave infused with lightning, couldn’t withstand it and were annihilated. And their corpses turned to ash and disappeared.
‘…What the heck?’
She had won, but she felt uneasy. It wasn’t just because her opponents were too weak.
‘It seems like I’ve entered a strange dungeon…’
She felt strangely uneasy.
• • •
It had already been 50 days since I came to this world.
That meant a day had passed in real time. Seong Hari and I had gotten quite used to it. However, we still hadn’t found Susanoo’s Magatama. We were heading in the direction indicated by the mark on the back of my hand, but there was no end in sight.
Now I was starting to doubt if we were even going in the right direction. But there was no other way, so there was nothing we could do.
‘There’s a limit to how far we can go forward.’
The place indicated by the mark was beyond an area called the Forest of Bewilderment. The problem was that the requirement to enter the Forest of Bewilderment was level 70 or higher. Thanks to that, Seong Hari and I were focused on leveling up by repeatedly hunting monsters and doing quests.
「Name: Hasegawa Sota
Affiliation: Caso Academy, 3rd Year, Class A
Level: 68
Job: Spirit Master
Sub-Job Level: 41
Sub-Job: Priest」
‘I just need to level up twice more.’
It would take two or three days.
Seong Hari and I entered the cafe and sat in our usual corner. We ordered our usual coffee and desserts and started talking.
「The time of the end has been delayed.」
「Time remaining until the end: 94 days.」
“Looks like someone else cleared an end-of-the-world quest.”
Seong Hari said, looking at the notification window.
Seong Hari and I weren’t the only ones trapped in the virtual reality. There were about 200 students who were connected to the virtual reality. They were more experienced in virtual reality than us, and they were working hard to survive by going around and doing quests.
“They wouldn’t want to die trapped in their capsules, so they must be working hard.”
“Shouldn’t we help them too?”
“Do you think they’d accept us?”
The students had their own community. We couldn’t join that community. From their perspective, we were outsiders. Moreover, the Tera Simulator had malfunctioned on the day we arrived, so we were under suspicion. They suspected that we were the cause of all this.
In short, it was bullying.
A Japanese tradition.
Moreover, they had heard Seong Hari and me talking in Korean, and rumors had spread that we were Korean-Japanese. It was a perfect storm of factors that made us targets for bullying.
“Hasegawa!!”
Someone shouted as soon as they entered the cafe. Seong Hari and I looked at the entrance.
Kikugawa Keiichi, with his pointed chin and narrow eyes, glared at us as if he wanted to kill us. His eyes were filled with anger towards us. Especially the way he looked at Seong Hari was unsettling.
“I told you before. Don’t come to our hunting grounds! And not only did you come to our hunting grounds, but you attacked us?!”
They approached us, huffing and puffing. They were filled with hostility and killing intent. Seong Hari and I stood up and prepared for battle.
Seong Hari, who didn’t understand Japanese, stood behind me, and I spoke to them.
“What nonsense are you talking about? We’ve never been to your area.”
“That woman! Your sister killed us! She was showing off her power! I don’t know where you got that item, but you guys broke the rules first!”
They drew their weapons. I lowered my voice and growled at them.
“I don’t know what you saw, but we were doing a quest. We didn’t kill you. And if we had killed you, would we be here in this cafe before you? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“You must have used a portal scroll or something!”
“I’ve never even heard of such an item! Don’t accuse innocent people and get lost!”
I pointed my sword at them. When Seong Hari also drew her sword, they flinched. They were especially wary of Seong Hari.
“Damn Korean! Are you going to be so shameless?!
“We said it wasn’t us. I don’t know who did it to you, but you shouldn’t be spreading such bullshit. Just because we’re staying quiet doesn’t mean we’re idiots. If we wanted to, you guys would be nothing.”
“Your attitude is nothing short of an insult to us. You should be bowing down to us, but you dare threaten us? Do you think you’ll be safe after this?!”
“What, are you going to attack us? If you’re going to attack, then attack already.”
I taunted them by flicking my sword. But they didn’t rush at us right away. They were hesitant to fight, glancing at Seong Hari. Then they backed away.
“…I’ll remember this. Don’t forget that this isn’t the end just because we’re retreating now.”
He growled once and disappeared with his group.
Seong Hari and I put away our weapons.
“Why are they acting like that?”
“I don’t know. They said we attacked them. Did you see how they were looking at Mom? It seems like they think they got a proper beating from Mom. Did you do something?”
“I’ve been with you the whole time. What would I have done?”
Seong Hari shook her head, as if she couldn’t understand.
I couldn’t understand it either. If they were lying to start a fight, I could understand. It would just be a normal case of bullying. But this time was different.
‘They didn’t seem to be lying.’
That’s what made it even stranger.
‘If I had my way, I’d kill them all…’
Seong Hari wouldn’t allow it. And even if I killed them, it wouldn’t mean much. They would just respawn in the village. Would I keep killing the same people over and over? I didn’t have time for that. Seong Hari and I had to find Susanoo’s Magatama.
“Mom, it’s best to be careful of those guys for a while.”
“Yeah. I think so too. It seems like the kids are a bit on edge because they’re trapped here.”
Two days later.
We reached level 70 and received a quest from the flower shop NPC in the village.
“There seems to be a change in the Forest of Bewilderment recently. The monsters have suddenly disappeared. I would like you to find out why.”
「Investigate the Forest of Bewilderment.
The monsters in the Forest of Bewilderment have recently decreased rapidly. Arinna wants to know the reason. Investigate the Forest of Bewilderment and tell Arinna why the monsters have decreased.
Reward: Experience, Arinna’s Flower.」
“We’ll be back to tell you as soon as we’re done, so please wait a little longer.”
「Quest accepted.」
