Chapter ss87: Side Story 87 - What If Story (2)

I was watching over the dungeon's interior from the top of a tree on the mountain ridge. My thousand-mile eyes pierced through the thick mana fog and reached the raid team that entered the dungeon just now.

There were a total of seven people in the team including Yoo Yeonha.

I was munching on some snacks while watching over them.

— Phew...

Yoo Yeonha wiped her sweat with her sleeve. It seemed that her body stiffened up from the excessive anxiety she was feeling. I suspected that the past incident was still affecting her mental state.

Then, I suddenly saw a silhouette of the catastrophic disaster that day.

— Can you hear me?

The djinns' artillery barrage rained down on civilians and thousands died. Their corpses were littered all over the ground while the ravaged concrete streets were soaked in rivers of blood.

— Hey...?

Thousands of people were minced to pieces. Both the old and young had their bones and organs mashed together into a paste.

— Hey!

I snapped back to reality from the sudden scream.

I replied, "Yeah, yeah. What?"

— Hey! Why?! Why?! Why are you responding so late?!

It felt as if her shrieking voice was digging through my ear canal.

I simply smirked and replied, "Sorry, my bad. You can keep continuing. You'll find it up front..."

— So it's funny? What's so funny? Ha?! I asked you what's so funny!

"The dungeon will get agitated if you keep causing a scene."

Yoo Yeonh gritted her teeth and grumbled.

— Don't get distracted.

"I'm not."

I looked at her. She was surprisingly looking back at me despite our distance.

"I only have eyes for you," I added.

She flinched at my words and stuck out her tongue while pouting. It was our supreme team leader's habit that usually came out whenever she was taken aback.

— What are you saying...? Stop saying such nonsense and focus on your work...

Yoo Yeonha grumbled, but her cheeks were flushed red for some reason.

***

The hidden dungeon was surprisingly easy. The team itself was quite skilled, but the fact that they didn't need to concern themselves with scouting played a huge part.

"It really is amazing... How is it possible to see the inside of the dungeon from outside?"

Yoo Yeonha's fellow Cube alumni, Yi Jiyoon, asked.

She was the same age and graduated the same year as Yoo Yeonha, but always made sure to not cross certain lines when they were working.

"Yeah, I'm surprised myself. I thought he was only good at being a bodyguard," Lee Hojun said while fiddling with a pot.

The smell of ramyun was teeming from the boiling pot. Yoo Yeonha could feel her mouth salivating at the smell.

She discreetly swallowed her saliva.

"He is quite talented in numerous ways."

"Oh right, he's also a Cube alumnus, no?"

"Yes, but he dropped out before the first year even finished and worked as a mercenary for three years before signing a contract with me."

"As expected, you really have an eye for talent, team leader."

They were currently cooking inside the dungeon. They cleared the entire dungeon in only twelve hours, but had to replenish the nearly ten thousand calories they lost in the process as they could suffer from exhaustion if they didn't.

"Ah, the ramyun is finished."

Their menu for tonight was ramyun, pork belly, and other high-calorie food. In short, it was food that not only commoners enjoyed, but Yoo Yeonha also took delight in.

"Oh right, team leader doesn't eat ramyun, right?" Yi Jiyoon asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"It's alright. It's childish to be picky with food in these kinds of situations," Yoo Yeonha nonchalantly replied.

She sat down in front of the food and picked up a good chunk of the noodles from the pot and transferred it to her plate.

"I'll give it a try..." she muttered while reminding herself not to slurp the ramyun and eat it as gracefully as possible.

"..."

It was tasty as she expected, but she couldn't deny that it suddenly reminded her of Kim Hajin. After all, the ramyun he cooked was miles better than this one.

"How is it? I guess it doesn't live up to your taste buds..."

"No, I'm fine. I can stomach it."

Pork belly, tenderloin, instant rice, ramyun, bibim noodles, boiled eggs, etc...

Yoo Yeonha could eat all of these to her heart's content without having to be conscious of other people thanks to the extremely convenient excuse that they were inside a dungeon. Of course, she didn't forget to pretend that it wasn't really good, but ate all of her portions anyway.

"Shall we wrap it up?" Yoo Yeonha ate her fill and moved on to check their results for the day.

"Armor... sword... armband... necklace..."

They gained a total of four relics. All of them would definitely be worth billions of won judging by the dense mana that they emitted.

Yi Jiyoon walked towards her with a satisfied smile, "We got quite the haul. That accessory relic is the jackpot..."

Accessories fetched the highest prices among relics, which was why Yi Jiyoon was fixated on it. However, Yoo Yeonha couldn't take her eyes off the armband that looked perfectly suited for a marksman.

She continued staring at the armband and thought, 'It would be perfect for him.' The thought made her jump in surprise and she slapped her own cheeks.

'What's wrong with me? Am I going crazy?'

"Everyone... Let's get ready to go back. Pack up the relics and let's go..." Yoo Yeonha said.

***

The next day, Yoo Yeonha returned to the guild with her spoils from the dungeon. Even the media came since the relics she gained were worthy of such attention.

"Four relics...? These are really good! The necklace looks like it'll be at least an ancient tier," the appraiser of Essence of the Straits marveled at the relics.

Yoo Yeonha smiled and replied, "That's great news. Please store them in the vault."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Yoo Yeonha walked to her office as she still had to plan for her business trip next week.

"Aigoo~ Hello, team leader!"

She ran into the vice guild master.

Yoo Yeonha loathed the idea of even calling that sleazy weasel's name as he approached her with his entourage.

Yoo Yeonha put on a smile and greeted him back, "Hello, how are you, vice guild master? You seem to be in a good mood today."

"Of course! Our beloved team leader came back with four relics, so isn't that a cause for celebration? Hahahaha!"

The man's laughter annoyed Yoo Yeonha, but what annoyed her even more was the fact that he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I hope that you will continue working hard for our guild. Oh right, we don't care about the rumors about you, not at all. I mean, team leader is just the team leader, right?" the man said with obvious sarcasm.

However, Yoo Yeonha simply smiled in response.

"Also, I heard that you're going to China on a business trip next week. Please do your best for that as well! But don't worry, we'll clean up after you if you fail, so just relax. Bwahahaha!" the man said before he walked away with a burst of boisterous laughter.

Yoo Yeonha leaned on a wall and muttered under her breath, "Ah... So annoying..."

That man's very existence was a source of stress for her. She could feel another migraine pounding on her head.

She closed her eyes and massaged her temples when a low voice asked her out of nowhere, "Are you alright?"

"...?"

She flinched and opened her eyes to find Kim Hajin right in front of her.

"Huh? What?"

Why was he here? She wondered while tilting her head in confusion.

He was still in his combat suit and smirked as he placed his hands on her temples. He intended to place his hands on her temples, but ended up covering her entire face because her face was so small.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Just stay still."

Kim Hajin infused stigma's mana into her to cure her migraine. Blue light glowed from his hands and made her stop resisting as the soothing feeling spread throughout her entire body.

Not long after Kim Hajin removed his hands, she wobbled and leaned against his chest.

"Haa..."

She let out a moan after noticing that the pain had disappeared and looked up at him with out-of-focus eyes.

"What are you doing here...?" she asked.

"Stalking," he replied.

"Stalking...?"

"Yeah, you don't have to know anything other than that."

Yoo Yeonha was about to ask what he was talking about when they suddenly sensed someone's presence on the staircase. This made her come back to her senses.

"Get away from me!" she screamed and pushed him away.

"Whoa!"

Kim Hajin was pushed to the end of the corridor. Yoo Yeonha put on her haughty nonchalant expression and greeted her guild members.

***

A month before...

A mana field appeared in Northern China. Fortunately, there were no civilian casualties as they predicted the field's appearance. However, the field was so large that it couldn't be cleared by the Chinese guilds alone.

In the end, the Chinese government decided to auction the right to raid the field to various prestigious foreign guilds. Essence of the Straits was planning to participate.

The auction was being held at the largest auction house in Shanghai, China: Wigitzen.

Yoo Yeonha steeled her resolve as she arrived at the portal station. She was greeted by the tall skyscrapers of Shanghai along with a wave of reporters.

Her security detail paved the way for her and she barely managed to get into her limousine.

"You here?" I greeted her with a smile inside the limousine.

Yoo Yeonha took off her sunglasses and went straight to business, "My first schedule is the round table meeting, right?"

The auction would take place over five consecutive days and more than one hundred guilds were participating. However, the Chinese government restricted entry to only fifty guilds per day.

The purpose of the round table meeting was to prepare before participating in the auction.

"Did you finish your preparations?" I asked.

She didn't respond, so I peeked at the hologram she was looking at.

"I think Deshwing will be too difficult," I commented.

Only then did she finally look at me.

The field was auctioned off into twenty-seven fields and Deshwing was regarded as the most difficult one among them.

Yoo Yeonha suddenly asked, "Are you going to participate?"

"Me?" I frowned in response.

She tilted her head and said, "My bad. That came out wrong. You're going to participate."

"Huh...? Really? When was that decided?" I shrugged.

I didn't really feel like participating, but that didn't mean I didn't want to. I could gain some SP if I joined the raid and I was trying to come up with more ways to earn SP these days.

"This is your reward," she said as she took something out of her bag.

It was an armguard that covered one's thumb all the way to the elbow.

"They said it's an ancient relic. It'll be quite useful to you."

"Is this a bribe?"

"I'll give it to you if you promise to participate."

"Okay... Well, I want to be with you so I guess it's fine," I said with a smile and put on the armguard.

Yoo Yeonha suddenly flinched for no reason and grumbled, "Ah. Stop, will you? Don't joke about things like that."

"Why?"

"It's giving me goosebumps," she said while scratching her arm.

She sounded quite serious for no reason, but it was probably because she was nervous about the upcoming meeting.

"Sure.

"Ehem..."

Yoo Yeonha faked a cough while trying to stop herself from smiling. She seemed to be embarrassed and tried to change the topic.

"I think that's the place," she said while pointing at two huge buildings outside.

One of the buildings looked like a gigantic fish while the building next to it looked like a dome or a colosseum with a lid on top.

"The meeting will be in that colosseum and you'll be coming with me."

"I have to go...?" I asked while tilting my head in confusion.

"Yes, we're allowed to bring in one adjutant to the meeting and I chose you as mine."

"... Why?"

I couldn't help but find it strange. Yoo Yeonha was always conscious of her image and tried to distance herself from any scandals. That was also the reason why she avoided talking to me in front of others.

The only time we were able to talk was during a dungeon raid, traveling in the limousine during working hours, or at the mansion where paparazzi and spies couldn't infiltrate.

Of course, the round table meeting was also an official matter. It would be strange and attract a lot of attention if she brought along a mercenary instead of a hero as her adjutant.

"Do you remember Lee Hojun? The one who participated in the last dungeon raid..."

"Yeah."

"I was thinking of bringing him along as my adjutant, but it turns out that he was the one who sold my information to the press..."

"Oh..." I awkwardly scratched my head.

Yoo Yeonha seemed embarrassed about it and flashed an awkward smile. Then she added, "I thought about bringing Yi Jiyoon since she's talented, but... she's too dumb..."

Yi Jiyoon possessed excellent talent and decision-making abilities as a supporter, but she was the worst person to bring in these kinds of situations.

"You're the only one I can trust right now..."

I finally understood her intentions after listening to her.

Yoo Yeonha let out a sigh and covered her face with her hands.

I watched her for a few seconds and asked, "How long do you want me to massage your head before you sleep?"

"... What did you just say?"

"It'll feel really good. It felt good last time, right? Your head will clear up."

"... I don't really need it," Yoo Yeonha scoffed and turned her back towards me.

She was probably asking for it right now.

I placed my hands on her temples and it only took exactly three seconds before a moan escaped from her lips.