Chapter 7

[Parasitic Ring (EX Rank)] [Once equipped, it cannot be unequipped.]

Even for a bound item, Beondo Island had never heard of one that couldn’t be removed once equipped.

“Its name is somehow strange too.”

Parasitic, it feels as if something is parasitizing her body. Just in case, she tried to remove the ring again. And this time, something else made its presence known instead of the system window.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, she felt something squirming in her stomach, accompanied by pain. She placed both hands on her lower abdomen. But the strange squirming had already disappeared.

“Is it just my imagination?”

She rubbed her lower abdomen, lost in thought. She felt she needed to learn more about this item. Although it had saved her life, she had an ominous feeling that she shouldn’t continue wearing this strange, irremovable item without thinking. She was lost.

“Where should I go…?”

The official route wouldn’t work. An EX-Rank item would obviously cause a lot of trouble if it became known to the world. So, she had to find an illegal route. She knew one thing about that.

“It’s also strange that I suddenly returned in time.”

Whether she had returned in time or if time hadn’t passed, the Entity wasn’t sure yet. She had entrusted everything to an unknown item and returned alive. But now that she was out, she couldn’t rely on it entirely. She pondered deeply all night, for herself. Now that the boyfriend who had constrained her was gone, she wanted to live a life where she could do everything she wanted and eat everything she craved. Being restricted by such an item was not a welcome prospect. Her unfocused eyes sparkled with a strange light.

***

The next day, in the morning. Nara Shim and Cho-i woke up at dawn with swollen faces, preparing to go to Hyeonchan An’s house. Nara Shim looked at her puffy face, thinking it looked quite like someone who had cried a lot, and felt satisfied.

“But you…”

“Why?”

“No, never mind.”

Even with a swollen face from eating and sleeping right away, she was beautiful. Instead of blaming the unfairness of the world, Nara Shim admired the face, which was out of its mind but still pretty, picked up her clothes, and went out with Cho-i. Fortunately, finding Cho-i’s bankbook and seal at Hyeonchan An’s house was not difficult. Being a rich young master, he had a separate study in his house, and they found them in the third drawer there.

“Hey, this is locked…”

Snap.

“Huh, what did you say?”

“Oh, nothing. Let’s quickly pack them.”

“Right, right.”

Cho-i kept fiddling with her bankbook, which she was touching for the first time since it was made, as if it were a novelty. Nara Shim quickly snatched it away to check how much was inside.

“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand…”

“There’s more than I thought, isn’t there?”

Cho-i, who had been peeking at her bankbook from beside her, said.

“Two hundred twenty million.”

“That’s a bit little for the time I worked here; I guess he spent some.”

“He really did all sorts of things.”

“Well, I used his card too.”

“Did he let you use it freely?”

“No, I asked him every time I bought something.”

“It’s a shame he’s dead. He should have to spit out everything he spent.”

“It’s fine. He’s already dead. Let’s just consider it the price of his life.”

Cho-i, seemingly thrilled to have her bankbook back, snatched it and put it in her pocket, walking along cheerfully. Nara Shim sighed and followed her, turning on her phone to check the time. 8:30 AM. There were dozens of missed calls. She knew this would happen. It was time to go to the guild.

“Cho-i Hyeon. Come here.”

“Why?”

“First, let’s get our story straight.”

“Do we have to?”

“Of course we do! Who would believe you, a C-Rank, if you said you killed all the B-Ranks? And murder is forbidden even inside a dungeon!”

“That’s true. Okay. How are we going to do it?”

“First, let’s…”

Nara Shim explained what to do to Cho-i, and Cho-i nodded. After finishing their discussion, the two women looked at each other, nodded, called a taxi, and headed straight to the Hanshin Guild. They didn’t know what they would see there, but they probably wouldn’t think two C-Ranks had caused trouble. So, the two women, facing the Guild Master in the Guild Master’s Office, were met with:

“Waaah.”

“No, I mean. Ugh.”

Tear attack first. Honestly, two people who lost all their party members overnight, had their lives threatened, and then escaped couldn’t possibly be sane, so this was the concept they decided on. The Guild Master stared silently at the two women with an expression that was either pathetic or bewildered. Nara Shim wiped away her tears and explained with difficulty:

“So, I mean. We found a hidden dungeon inside.”

“A hidden dungeon?”

“Yes, but with our rank, ugh, we couldn’t get through, so we barely, barely escaped.”

“And?”

“But, when we came out, the boss monster’s rank had also gone up…”

“Ugh…”

Baekdeok An let out a groan. There was nothing strange about the two women’s words. A hidden dungeon is a dungeon that can appear anywhere at any time, and it’s unknown what variables it might bring. But it was strange that the two people who survived were two C-Ranks, not B-Ranks.

“Hyeonchan tried to save me, but he…”

Cho-i said, tears streaming from her large eyes. Her face was so pitiful that one might want to hug her, but Baekdeok An’s expression became serious at her words.

“Hyeonchan died trying to save you?”

“Yes.”

Cho-i rolled her eyes, pretending to recall something she couldn’t quite remember.

“When the boss monster approached, Hyeonchan pushed me forward, and the boss monster’s foot immediately crushed Hyeonchan.”

At those words, Baekdeok made a subtle expression. There was only one reason for that expression: ‘It doesn’t sound like he was trying to save her.’ His nephew was certainly capable of such a thing. However, like a seasoned person, he kept his mouth shut and nodded.

“What about the other two?”

“Sangyeop, the uncle, managed to kill the boss monster, but he couldn’t dodge the attack and was impaled by a horn. Suyeon tried to tank the attack, but she was thrown and landed on her neck.”

While Baekdeok, the Guild Master, was deep in thought, the two women exchanged glances. Then, they took out something they had prepared in their pockets.

“Huh?”

Surprisingly, the Entity was…

“A, a resignation letter?”

“It’s time for us to renew our contracts anyway, isn’t it? We’re both so mentally exhausted that we think we need to rest for a while.”

“That’s right. Even when I close my eyes, I see Hyeonchan’s face. It’s driving me crazy!”

Baekdeok urgently pushed away the two resignation letters. Losing three B-Rank hunters at once was already a huge loss, and he couldn’t afford to lose two C-Rank hunters as well.

“Don’t do that, reconsider. A vacation, I’ll give you a long vacation.”

Then Cho-i stepped forward.

“No. I don’t think I can work here anymore, in a place where traces of Hyeonchan still remain. Even now, tears… *sob*!”

“Me too. I’m more sensitive than I look. I won’t ask for severance pay.”

Nara Shim knew they wouldn’t give it anyway, she bit back a curse inwardly. Seeing that the two women had no intention of changing their minds, Baekdeok let out a frustrated sigh. Cho-i then pulled out another paper envelope from her pocket. “Condolence money” was written in large letters on the paper.

“And this, it’s not much, but please take it.”

“Oh, no, you don’t need to.”

“But he was my boyfriend, wasn’t he? Please.”

“…Then, I guess there’s no choice. Will you come to the funeral?”

“I don’t know. I just want to end it like this. Please take good care of Hyeonchan’s final journey. Goodbye.”

Cho-i stood up and bowed, and Nara Shim followed suit, bowing as well, and then they left the Guild Master’s Office. Baekdeok watched the two women leave and massaged his temples, a headache forming as he looked at the empty sofa.

“How am I going to tell the boss about this…”

The news that his third son had died in the dungeon had already been delivered. But as soon as the boss heard the story, he asked,

‘So. You lost three B-Rank hunters?’

Sometimes his cold-hearted actions were astounding, but he was also a businessman. He couldn’t let the guild he had built up so much now falter. In such cases, replacing the number of hunters was the safest method, but now two more C-Rank hunters had left.

“Well, still. I understand, since her boyfriend died. And she even left something thoughtful like this.”

Baekdeok looked at the condolence envelope Cho-i had left. Seeing the thin, small numbers through it, it seemed to be a check. And when Baekdeok took it out, he was momentarily speechless.

“…This is.”

Inside was a cultural gift certificate. A 5,000-won one at that.

As soon as Nara Shim and Cho-i left the guild, they immediately hailed a taxi, and Nara Shim asked as they drove away,

“Why did you give them money there? You didn’t even get your own money. How much did you put in?”

“Huh?”

Cho-i mumbled, chewing on the peppermint candy she had secretly taken from the boss’s office.

“Five thousand won cultural gift certificate.”

“…What?”

Cho-i then crunched and swallowed the candy, and repeated it with clear pronunciation.

“5,000-won cultural gift certificate.”

“…How did that happen?”

“What?”

“Why, how did you come up with such an idea?”

Cho-i ran her tongue over the peppermint candy stuck to her teeth and said,

“Once, some bastard offered a scout to a younger bastard and threw an envelope at him, and inside was a 5,000-won cultural gift certificate. It was so messed up back then that I really wanted to try it myself.”

“That’s the story from the novel you were talking about yesterday while eating chicken, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Forget it.”

“Can’t you listen?”

“No. Once you start that, there’s no end to it.”

“No, listen, in that novel, the guy who gave the cultural gift certificate was a real bastard, but he was so incredibly handsome that his fans even celebrated his death anniversary.”

“So he dies?”

“He was a bastard, so he died, of course.”

“Oh, right….”

“But his death anniversary isn’t even out yet, so how do the fans celebrate it…?”

Nara Shim had to endure listening to the novel’s plot, or whatever it was, throughout the taxi ride, barely suppressing the urge to shout, ‘What the hell is that, you nerd!’ It felt like her ears were about to fall off.