Chapter 28 – Soldier – [Two]

“Need any help?”

Han Siwoo asked, but Seo Yun shook her head.

“Nope!”

Under the watchful eyes of the two, Seo Yun skillfully prepared the chicken while boiling water. She would have liked to fry some chicken, but she wasn’t confident enough in her cooking for that, so she opted for the relatively easier boiled chicken. Neither of them seemed likely to complain about the menu.

True enough, after serving the boiled chicken into their respective bowls, they both simply showed pleasant reactions as grateful recipients.

“I’ve never even had something like this back in the village!”

Gaeulbi exclaimed in admiration, beaming a wide smile, and even clapped her hands once more, thoroughly pleasing Seo Yun. Seo Yun handed a canteen to the still-smiling girl and said,

“Wash your hands and eat!”

“Yes, Mom!”

Meanwhile, looking at the chicken in his own bowl, Han Siwoo muttered,

“What’s this, why do we each get a whole chicken?”

“What, you want more?”

“No, it’s not that. What about yours?”

Seo Yun replied,

“Didn’t I say last time? I don’t usually eat food.”

“So you’re just going to watch us eat?”

“I’ll have some broth. With makgeolli.”

“And you think the meat will go down our throats easily with you doing that?”

“Are you worried about my feelings? Then I’ll just leave.”

Seo Yun got up from her seat. Belatedly, Gaeulbi’s eyes widened, and she commanded Han Siwoo,

“Grab her!”

Han Siwoo did as told. With both shoulders seized, Seo Yun shouted about how men and women are different and how dare they touch her, but it seemed this era lacked that kind of sensitivity. And unlike the old Kim Jihyeok, who was practically weak-willed and lacked the energy to push his own will, these two were overflowing with both energy and strength. In the end, Seo Yun, unable to resist, surrendered.

“I’ll eat. I’ll eat.”

Only then was Seo Yun released, and Gaeulbi laughed.

“Good thinking!”

Two chicken legs were inevitably placed in Seo Yun’s pot. Chewing on the chicken skin, Seo Yun thought. It was true that this rare food, eaten after so long, was delicious.

At the same time, she also thought it was a waste.

Wasn’t this a situation where skeletal remains, having starved to the bone, were scattered everywhere? In the midst of this, eating when she didn’t need to felt no different from pure gluttony, stimulating a sense of guilt. It wasn’t like her starving would make others eat more, but still.

“It’s really delicious!”

Gaeulbi tore off a piece of meat with an extremely satisfied face and put it in her mouth. Seo Yun, who had been chewing her meat with mixed feelings, also smiled unconsciously.

Gaeulbi chewed and swallowed the food in her mouth diligently, then asked,

“How on earth did you get the chicken?”

“I bought it.”

“Wow, they sell chicken? So with Contribution Points, can you eat chicken every day there?”

“No? If they just let people buy freely, Players overflowing with Contribution Points would sweep up all the chickens. But if they raise the prices, ordinary people wouldn’t even dare to think of buying it, so there’s a purchase limit. You can only buy a maximum of one per week. They sold me two considering I hadn’t bought any until now.”

“So chicken is precious there too, huh. So it’s very expensive?”

“It’s expensive for ordinary people to buy and eat, but not to the point they absolutely can’t…”

Seo Yun explained, to avoid making the two who were receiving the food feel burdened, that she already had overflowing Contribution Points, and also, now that she was a Priest, she received a monthly fire usage fee, so she could buy as much chicken as she wanted just by staying put.

Hearing that, Gaeulbi asked,

“So, Seo Yun, doesn’t that mean you don’t have to do anything in the village now?”

“Well, yeah?”

“Then why are you going out and struggling to fight Monsters? If a precious Priestess like you wanted to stay safely inside the village, it doesn’t seem like anyone would say anything.”

Seo Yun didn’t know how to answer that. Before her Class Change to Priest, it would have been easy to answer. She could have just said, ‘To gain suitable strength to survive wandering alone.’ That was indeed the reason she wanted to become a Player back then.

But now, after the Class Change, it wasn’t.

‘Fulfill your role, Angel…’

The voice of a certain red-haired Goddess echoed in her head. Seo Yun tried hard to chase that voice, like an auditory hallucination, out of her mind and said,

“I have my own reasons. So what about you guys?”

Han Siwoo answered first.

“In a harsh world, getting stronger is good, what else?”

“What a damn vague answer.”

Han Siwoo looked at her with a ‘seriously…’ face, but Seo Yun paid no mind. She turned her head toward Gaeulbi.

“What about you, Gaeulbi?”

And a shocking answer came back.

“To get super strong and beat all the soldiers to death!”

Seo Yun just blinked for a moment.

“The soldiers?”

“Yeah! They say Martial Artists are bleak in the early-mid game, but once you hit Level 15, you get pretty strong, right? I’m gonna blow the heads off every soldier I see.”

Seo Yun didn’t know how to react to the girl speaking like that. She stayed silent for a moment before barely managing to ask,

“Why do you hate soldiers so much?”

“Would I like them?”

“I’ve heard stories about soldiers confiscating people’s belongings under the pretext of requisition.”

“They’re just looters. But requisition isn’t the big problem.”

“Then what is?”

“Conscription… I mean, kidnapping is the problem.”

This was something Seo Yun was hearing for the first time.

“Soldiers kidnap people?”

“Yeah. They take people. Not just anyone, only people they need. Like doctors or other important people… You be careful too, Seo Yun.”

“Why me?”

“They say soldiers get desperate to capture people with rare and important Classes like Mages, Paladins, or Priests.”

“Even so, I obviously look young. Would they try to conscript me?”

“Well? I’ve seen them take a 46-year-old woman.”

It was Han Siwoo who cut off that conversation. Han Siwoo tapped his bowl with his spoon and said,

“It’s a bit much to talk about depressing stuff while eating precious food, huh?”

“Right? I’m sorry!”

Gaeulbi grinned and started tearing into the chicken body again. Both Seo Yun and Han Siwoo finished off their share of meat and even drank all the broth.

“Thank you so much for today!”

To the happily smiling Gaeulbi, Seo Yun handed over some items she had separately prepared. They were foodstuffs like potatoes and smoked meat. After packing them into her backpack, another energetic word of thanks came from Gaeulbi.

“Really, really thank you!”Amidst Gaeulbi’s waving hand, Seo Yun returned to Happy Village. She stood before the village’s largest tent. After hardening her expression for a moment, she entered inside.

“Chief? I have something to report.”

As previously agreed, Seo Yun relayed the information she had gathered today to Oh Haengbok.

After hearing the report, Oh Haengbok muttered.

“So there are two wandering Players, you say. As thanks for helping them, you got a sword, and as a token meaning ‘let’s get along in the future,’ you even got a belt.”

“Yes.”

“So, they really have no intention of coming to this village?”

“Yes. They seem scared their things might get stolen.”

“What? I’m already the strongest in Incheon, what more could they possibly covet to worry like that? Look at my warhammer. Don’t they know this is a rare item that appears in the Rulebook too? Spell Shatterer, an item that strips away two layers of magic with each hit? It’s something I got by killing it in a duel with a Centaur general…”

Seo Yun decided not to mention the part about them having a bottomless pouch where items endlessly go in or whatever. Instead, she asked something else.

“So, what will you do about the army stationed up there? Are you giving up on the expedition?”

“Well, now that we know why the monsters aren’t coming down, we should just hunt flying monsters or something, right?”

For Seo Yun, this was an unexpected reaction. She thought this hot-blooded Orc, upon learning the reason he couldn’t hunt, might get angry and roar or something, but somehow he seemed rather composed.

“It seems you don’t think the army being stationed is much of a problem.”

At Seo Yun’s words, Oh Haengbok nodded.

“It’s good for us, isn’t it? If monsters come down and cause havoc, people will die. The army holding their ground up there means they’ll do their jobs, right? I’ve had my share of experiences with soldiers since the world changed, so I don’t exactly like them, but still… that’s commendable.”

“Even though you’ll earn less Experience Points from not being able to hunt properly?”

Oh Haengbok laughed.

“Leveling up, you see, isn’t about becoming an overpowered character and showing off.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s to survive. Have you ever seen a Gutworm swallow our apartment building? Have you seen Centaurs invade in company-sized units, skewering men to death and kidnapping women by carrying them on their backs? I have.”

Seo Yun had heard before that Oh Haengbok’s high Level wasn’t achieved through systematic hunting. In the period not long after the world changed, fighting desperately against the monsters that randomly spawned across this land, he had somehow reached that Level.

“Anyway, things should be a bit safer now, right? Still, we can’t let our guard down completely, so we should continue hunting on our own… But if those Martial Artist bastards come whining in the meantime about wanting to get stronger too and why we won’t let them join the hunts, I’ll just be furious…”

Oh Haengbok continued grumbling for a while longer before finally thanking Seo Yun for bringing valuable information and sending her off.

Seo Yun was on her way back to her own tent.

Her expression twisted. The three she hated to see—Park Taeyang and his crew—had come into view.

It seemed they had seen Seo Yun too.

Lee Jongho awkwardly raised his hand and waved, then opened his mouth.

“Fancy seeing you here… Hi?”

To Seo Yun’s surprise, even Jeon Sangguk standing next to Lee Jongho opened his mouth.

“Uh… hi.”

Seeing even Park Taeyang nod his head in her direction, Seo Yun was startled. Unable to hold back, she had to ask.

“What the hell? What scheme are you plotting to start greeting me now, you fucking bastards?”

Park Taeyang’s face contorted, but no curse words came out of his mouth.

Lee Jongho deflected the conversation.

“We’re just doing it, what’s the big deal…”

Then, the three really left without any further action.

Returning to her tent, Seo Yun pondered what had just happened.

It wasn’t hard to guess. It seemed Lee Jongho had persuaded his crew in his own way. Arguments like they had to stick together for a while longer and couldn’t keep going on like this, or something along those lines.

Feeling her face grow hot, Seo Yun thought.

I thought that bastard was trying to get close with some sinister ulterior motive, but it seems that wasn’t it.

Her thoughts even turned to the fact that Oh Haengbok, contrary to her worries, was acting perfectly fine. Suddenly, this thought crossed her mind.

‘Am I an Axe Soldier?’

The village Players set out the next morning.

Having changed their Equipment to hunt flying monsters, the Players of Happy Village once again left the village.