Chapter 26: Item (1)
Some time had passed after I told Hyunsung about Park Hyaeyoung’s death.
Of course, I didn’t say things like “Jung Jinho is suspicious,” or “That guy is a murderer” to him.
It was up to Kim Hyunsung himself and not me, who had to arrive at the conclusion that ‘Jinho was the one who killed Park Hyaeyoung.
I didn’t need to convince him, and I didn’t even have to persuade him. It was enough to be consistent with my attitude for now and let Jinho fall into a trap.
‘That will be good for all of us.’
Hyunsung was a reasonable partner who would rather doubt Jinho than to doubt me in such circumstances. The mischief he would inevitably do in the future would also help Kim Hyunsung reach a logical conclusion about him.
As time passed, Kim Hyunsung often spent time alone, constantly observing and checking.
He watched Jung Jinho carefully and sometimes even observed me quietly. I thought I knew what he was thinking as he did so.
Whenever he wore a cold expression, I thought Kim Hyunsung was thinking about how to kill Jung Jinho.
‘He is the enemy of the future, the calculating killer, the murderer who killed Park Hyaeyoung.’
There was no single reason for Kim Hyunsung to remove Jinho from the shelter immediately. No matter how much Buddha-level compassion he had for others, he definitely wanted to get rid of what would surely become an enemy in the future.
But how could he get rid of this problem?
From Kim Hyunsung’s point of view, he would love to deal with him as quickly as possible, but he still had many other things to worry about. It seemed difficult to find the right opportunity, and there were many things to consider before that.
For example, one of them was the problem of proceeding down the dungeon.
“How about we go down together to lower levels?”
“Together… What do you mean?”
“Yes, Hyunsung-ssi. Jung Hayan is about to finish her training as a Wizard… Jinho has also joined us so I think there will be enough people to lead an attack. Seokwoo seems to have found a class too… I would also want to advance a little more slowly and cautiously, but I think the time has come to make a choice as food is running out. Our purpose to train others was to attack the monsters on the lower levels.”
“Well…”
“We can’t always live here. Even if I’m anxious, I think we should try.”
It looked like his head hurt a little when I proposed this.
We had no choice but to attack the dungeon with a party that was destined to be divided up in the future. In fact, I had to lay down the scene before him, and it was for Kim Hyunsung to decide.
He had to decide whether he was confident enough to break through the lower levels of the dungeon with them and then also take responsibility for what happened afterward.
If Kim Hyunsung himself was confident, the situation would eventually turn out in their favor no matter what happened.
‘We could lead an attack on the dungeon along with the death of the murderer who had killed Park Hyaeyoung.’
In other words, we would be able to use Jung Jinho up to the marrow of his bones.
If he was going to be killed anyway, it was better to use him to the fullest.
“It’s impossible to go hunting again with the new people who joined recently. We don’t know when something like what happened with Park Hyaeyoung would happen again… Yet I also don’t think it’s a bad idea to go out once and scavenge the area for supplies, rather than to just wait like this. Both food and drinking water are scarce right now. If we choose to settle down without venturing further, we will all eventually die.”
“…”
Kim Hyunsung was quite cautious.
It seemed that he had guessed it was a little too dangerous to act on such a plan, after seeing Jinho appear out of nowhere like that. Maybe he thought it was impossible to deal with Jung Jinho while he was with us.
When I was about to fan the flames again, Kim Hyunsung slowly replied.
“I think it will be okay for us to go out once again.”
“You do?”
“Yes I do. Let’s go down to the lower levels of the dungeon. You probably still have a little time to prepare. We haven’t worked together with Jung Jinho’s party yet, so it would be better for both the parties to practice a little with each other.”
“Yeah. I think so, too.”
I would hate to let my guard down before a killer. It was the same for Kim Hyunsung.
“I will call Jinho, Hayan and Deokgu and then talk to them together about it.”
“Alright.”
“On second thought, would you please go ahead and inform Hayan and Deokgu about this instead of me?”
“Yeah. Okay.” I really wanted to tell them about this as soon as possible. I thought that this might be some pretty good news, so I had volunteered to tell them about this myself.
As I hurried over to them, I started noticing the beautiful scenery around me. Then I saw a very heartwarming sight I had not seen in the shelter recently.
“Thank you, Jinho-ssi.”
“Thank you, Jinho Oppa.”
“There’s no need to thank me. We all have to help each other in order to survive and live on.”
Jung Jinho was trying to build good connections with the weaker people.
But all of this was going to be meaningless. He was trying to win them over with his totally pointless mind games.
“If you ever need help with something, you can always tell me.”
“We have to usually go out and search for food, but we have all this food now which you have given us. Jinho Oppa, please take a break. Until then we’ll distribute the food among the others.”
“Let me help you too. It’s not a very difficult task, and wouldn’t it be better for everyone to live under a sense of sacrifice and brotherhood too.”
‘That sounded funny.’
I couldn’t hold back my laughter as his words.
‘These stupid people…’
In this world, no one did any favors for free. There was always a price.
Perhaps Kim Hyunsung also helped these people because of feelings of sympathy and self-satisfaction that he felt afterward.
As far as Kim Hyunsung was concerned, the situation in the shelter was not that bad.
However, in my view, what Jung Jinho really wanted, in reality, were the lives and necks of those who were laughing and talking with him right now.
But thanks to him, the evil gazes that Park Deokgu and I were attracting since we expressed our intention to move independently had now become even more explicit.
The people were starting to compare us with Jung Jinho.
‘Who do you even think you are?’
I assumed that was what they were thinking about us currently.
Jung Jinho not only shared the food he had brought with himself but also did even the smallest of chores. He was different from us, who kept our share of food to ourselves. It was not unreasonable for them to compare him with us.
Me, Park Deokgu, and Jung Hayan seemed to be becoming increasingly selfish and worse in their hearts, but I thought there was no need to start imitating the hypocrite Jinho.
The power to direct and control the people didn’t come from acting helpful in front of these weaklings.
Authority wasn’t proportional to closeness. That was what drove these kinds of people.
Actually, It might not just be some meaningless acting on his behalf after all. Nevertheless, it was difficult to understand what he was aiming for while looking at his actions.
I was worried about whether I had gone ahead and sprinkled red pepper powder on the psychopath killer Jung Jinho that had angered him in the beginning, as it was also possible that he hadn’t even committed a crime. Perhaps he was trying to live as peacefully as possible while suppressing his original disposition.
However, the dice had already been thrown.
“Let’s eat together.”
“Ah! Seokwoo Oppa, thank you.”
Yoo Seokwoo, who had recently been triumphant in finding a class while traveling with them, also came into view. It looked like he had decided to hang out with Jung Jinho’s party. Sometimes he looked very anxious, but he got what he wanted anyway. And now he had a good place within this humble shelter.
I had no choice but to turn my gaze away from these people who did not realize the true value of hard work.
I didn’t want to keep looking at the heartwarming scene, which was a curse in disguise.
As I walked a little more, I saw Jung Hayan and Park Deokgu together.
“Hayan-ssi.”
“Oh, Oppa.”
When I went nearer, Jung Hayan, who was testing a simple magic spell, ran over without hesitation and grabbed onto my sleeve tightly.
Park Deokgu was smiling when he saw this.
‘Well…’
“Are we going outside then Oppa?”
“What? Yeah, maybe…”
“That’s great!”
We hadn’t been dating and didn’t even have such a relationship yet, but the people in the shelter seemed to have already accepted the relation between Jung Hayan and I as an established fact.
Whether she was aware of it or not, Jung Hayan had been holding my hands and getting closer to me more frequently.
I felt encouraged when these friends of mine didn’t show much rejection, unlike the other people of the shelter. Of course, I still had problems because of her when everyone else was sleeping.
My heart started beating fiercely every time I woke up from my sleep in a surprised state because Hayan was getting bolder with her actions.
If it wasn’t for Park Deokgu, we would have been even closer than we were before.
“Didn’t you say you were going to meet Kim Hyunsung-ssi? I think you came back a little early… Did the story work well?”
“I’ve just come back from meeting him. It seems like we have something on our hands… Is there time?”
“There is still some time remaining, Oppa.”
“Can I ask what’s going on, Hyung-nim?”
“Of course, I think we’re going to go to the next levels of the dungeon sooner or later.”
“We are finally going down?”
“I don’t know much for now, but I think more people will follow Jinho.”
“Well… They won’t appreciate him for very long…”
“I think so too. Still, we can’t help it because it’s important to attack together, immediately. Hyunsung-ssi has also realized the importance of this strike.”
“By the way, can we even succeed in attacking this dungeon, Hyung-nim?”
“We have a good chance in surviving. I think so, yeah.”
Kim Hyunsung believed that we could certainly attack this place.
“I don’t have to tell you, as you already know, that it would be better to keep a distance from the group of people who follow Jung Jinho. Of course, on the outside you can appear to be cordial with them…”
“Alright. Don’t worry too much about us, Hyung-nim.”
“The same goes for Hayan.”
“Yes. I understand, Oppa… I won’t be tricked by him.”
That sounded hilarious. She was definitely going to be tricked by him in one way or another.
Park Deokgu was a little better, but in the case of Jung Hayan, one never knew when she would explode since she was like a ticking bomb. Therefore, she needed continuous careful management and mental grooming.
If she again acted unexpectedly like in the situation with Park Hyaeyoung, I wouldn’t be able to do anything this time.
“Don’t worry too much about Yoo Seokwoo.”
“Oh God, I don’t care about him, even a little.”
“If so, then that’s good, Hyung-nim.”
With Park Deokgu at the lead, I slowly walked down a path, and once again, my gaze fell upon the group huddled around Jinho. I was dumbstruck.
People who were doing nothing other than hogging onto free food that Jung Jinho had brought were looking at us with strange expressions.
I thought I was going to be overwhelmed.
I just had to act casual in front of them.
It wasn’t that anything had happened yet. I was just going to have another meeting with Kim Hyunsung.
After ignoring their gazes, I started heading to the place where Kim Hyunsung was. Before long, I could see his figure taking something out of his bag.
My mood elevated. The empty equipment window that I was always concerned about whenever I looked at my status window was finally going to be filled with something.
I imagined that one day I would be able to see or wear some equipment with various stats and other items, but the opportunity had emerged far soon than I had expected.
All of us definitely required an upgrade before going underground.
Kim Hyunsung was handling them just to relieve his own anxiety. It was obvious that he wasn’t giving them out to us just for the dungeon attack, but also to win against Jung Jinho if they faced them.
Kim Hyunsung was trying to raise our strengths in order to prepare for any accident beyond our anticipations.
“I have something to give you.”
“Were you hiding these from us, Hyung-ssi? Your expression is like a grandmother who is giving out some old toys.”
‘This pig…’
Only
Even if I wanted to shout out aloud, I knew I could not do that. Kim Hyunsung was also a little embarrassed. He replied with a good-natured smile.
“These are helping items.”
Of that, I was sure.
The edge of my lips curled into a little smile. It was not an item like a common sword, spear, or a shield.
What he took out of his bag were a bracelet and two rings. They looked crude, but I felt mysterious magic emanating from them.
‘Thank you, Hyunsung-ssi. These would be phenomenal.’
I thought there would be some insurance going underground with him, but it turned out to be much better than I had thought.