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An array of flashy lights lit the Han River underneath the Seoul night sky.

We arrived in front of EN Entertainment’s headquarters.

“Is this the right place?” I asked.

The building was so modern yet artistic that I wondered if it was really a building or a piece of art. Its edges were so sharp and intricate as if carved with a sculpting knife and chiseled one by one.

Chae Nayun counted the floors before nodding, “Yeah, I think this is it.”

I looked inside with my thousand-mile eyes. There was nobody in the CEO’s office as expected, but quite a lot of employees were working overtime.

“You stay here. I’ll go and hack the CEO’s pc.”

“Why? Let’s go together.”

“It’s easier for me to move alone,” I said before I took out the Veil of Darkness.

It was the ability the hijackers so kindly gifted me. I changed it to the size of a blanket and used it like a garment.

“Hey, wait a minute. I can squeeze in there too… I think I can…”

However, Chae Nayun forced her way into the veil. She squirmed a bit before looking up at me with a smile.

I looked at her in disbelief, but she seemed adamant about going together.

“It’s dangerous if you go alone,” she said.

“… Alright, let’s go together.”

I moved with Chae Nayun. We were so close that we basically moved as one. Then, we jumped as high as we could and reached the building’s rooftop. I immediately hacked the building’s security system.

[Hacking Target – EN Entertainment Security System]

Control over the security system was soon transferred to my smartwatch. I opened the rooftop door and confidently walked down the stairs.

[CEO’s Office]

The CEO’s office was right below the rooftop.

I took advantage of the administrative control I gained through [Hacking] and opened the door.

“Wow, they really went all out decorating this place,” Chae Nayun said as she looked around the office.

The office was decorated in a manner that Chae Nayun liked. It had all sorts of awards and antique furniture. There was even a screen golf system installed.

[Hacking Target – Kim Jiheung]

“The CEO is Kim Jiheung, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

I hacked the CEO’s pc to take all the files, emails, and messages in it. I even combed through to see if there were any files related to Chae Jinyoon.

“Did you find anything?”

“… No.”

As expected, there weren’t any files related to Chae Jinyoon on the PC. Those files were probably stored in Kim Jiheung’s private server if any of them did exist.

“Do you think they deleted everything?”

“These kinds of people don’t trust their own kind. It’s very likely that they didn’t delete it and are keeping it somewhere else.”

Most underlings usually kept an insurance even though they knew things would get ugly if they were caught with it.

“Tsk… There’s nothing…”

I continued to comb through the files, but didn’t find anything useful.

“Let’s go.”

“You’re done?”

“Yeah, he’s probably going to sync his smartwatch to this pc one day. We just have to wait for him to do that.”

I would get access to his smartwatch the moment he synced the two together. Every single file in his smartwatch would be at my disposal.

Thud!

A large sound resounded from outside the window.

Both of us froze on the spot and felt our legs become weak, but we rushed as fast as we could back to the rooftop.

“Ah… What the hell is that thing?” Chae Nayun grumbled while pointing at a monster peeking out from the Han River.

It was a gigantic snake-like monster that let out a ferocious scream at the top of its lungs late at night.

“It’s a djinn’s doing,” I replied.

It was quite common for such ambushes or disturbances to occur in this world. Seoul was the capital of South Korea, which was the strongest country in this world according to my story setting. These kinds of events frequently occurred at least once every two to three months.

However…

The thing that scared me right now was… there were suddenly two people behind us.

“Aren’t these the two brats we saw at the arcade, Boss?”

It was a gigantic man and a small woman from the Chameleon Troupe.

Both of them had their eyes on us and walked towards us.

Chae Nayun immediately pulled out her sword and I infused aether into my Desert Eagle.

“Hey, don’t try anything funny. We just came here to enjoy the view,” Cheok Jungyeong said.

“Fuck off,” Chae Nayun growled as she infused mana into her sword.

Cheok Jungyeong suddenly smiled brightly after seeing the mana infused sword. He exclaimed in delight, “Hehe! You’re quite brave. Alright, if you insist. We shall have a go at…”

Boss blocked Cheok Jungyeong.

However, I noticed that her eyes were focused on me.

“You there. Your heart has caught my eye,” she said.

My heart started beating wildly at her words.

Boss didn’t say anything after that. It seemed like she was pondering something. I couldn’t help but feel extremely nervous as to what she was thinking. To be honest, the suspense was killing me.

“Hmm… Ah… So it was you that time,” Boss realized.

The air around us suddenly grew heavy after she had a realization and her shadows started to slither like snakes.

However, a single ray of mana cut all the shadowy snakes down.

It was Chae Nayun.

“Oh? Hoho! You’re quite skilled!” Cheok Jungyeong exclaimed in delight once again.

He grinned from ear to ear and clenched his fist until his muscles started pulsating.

Boss suddenly said in a cold voice, “I have no interest in you, little girl. I just have something I wish to discuss with the boy.”

“Huh? What are you talking about, Boss? That kid is quite strong too. No, I think only that kid is strong,” Cheok Jungyeong said while scratching his head.

“Step aside, little girl,” Boss warned again.

“Little girl your face,” Chae Nayun retorted before she stood in front of me.

I looked at her in surprise, but she seemed adamant about protecting me. In the end, I simply nodded and tried to send an SOS signal to Jin Sahyuk.

“Hey, what are you doing over there?”

A clear voice suddenly asked. The tense situation was instantly defused by the voice as Boss’ shadows stood down and all of us looked at where the voice came from.

“You’ve got guts crawling out of your cave and coming to Seoul. You bunch of thieves.”

“… Seung-Ah unni?”

It was the vice leader of Creator’s Sacred Grace, Yun Seung-Ah.

She looked at the Chameleon Troupe and shrugged, “I’m not the only one here. You know that Divine Archer, right?”

Creak…!

We suddenly sensed a bowstring being pulled quite a distance away from us. The sound was so crisp and clear that the sound traveled through the air.

“So can’t you just go back to where you came from?” Yun Seung-Ah asked.

She said it in a manner that sounded like she was asking a favor, but was in fact threatening them.

However, Boss showed no reaction to the threat. Instead, her gaze was still fixed on me. Well, on my heart to be precise.

Then, she spoke in a voice mixed with a hint of laughter, “… I guess we’ll run into each other again.”

After that, both of them were suddenly shrouded by a shadow and disappeared from the rooftop.

Tak… Tak… Tak… Tak…

Yun Seung-Ah approached Chae Nayun and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

“Huh? Ah, yeah. I’m okay. But unni, what was that just now?” Chae Nayun asked.

Yun Seung-Ah bitterly smiled and replied, “We had a meeting today.”

“A meeting?”

“Yeah.”

Yun Seung-Ah stole a glance at a tall skyscraper in the middle of Seoul before shaking her head.

“The association was having a meeting on what to do with some relics they recently obtained… but the association is just a political field these days. They’re completely divided. They were transporting the relics through the sewer network, but the djinns somehow got wind of it. So they ambushed it, what else?”

“… Really?”

It seemed that the association was much more corrupt than I wrote them to be.

“Anyways, you’re fine, right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

“What about you?” Yun Seung-Ah checked up on me as well.

“I’m fine as well,” I replied.

“That’s a relief. Then, follow me. It’s dangerous if you stay in these kinds of places.”

We followed Yun Seung-Ah to the streets.

Not even five minutes had passed, but the djinn’s ambush seemed to have been resolved already.

Yun Seung-Ah accompanied us to the main street before saying that she had to go back to her guild and disappeared.

“I’m tired…” I grumbled under my breath.

To be honest, my future looked bleak. I mean, the Chameleon Troupe’s boss basically told me that I was marked. Come on, I already changed the heart’s settings. Was it really that obvious?

“Are you tired…?” Chae Nayun asked.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod.

Chae Nayun suddenly grabbed my sleeve and muttered, “Then… we need to talk about what happened a while ago and…”

She looked around us before whispering in my ear, “Shall we… go rest for a bit?”

“…”

I looked around our surroundings and saw numerous signboards with the word ‘HOTEL’ around us. I looked back at Chae Nayun and she lowered her brightly flushed face.

“Haa…” I let out a sigh as cold sweat formed on my forehead.

***

A new class started on Monday. It was a rank based class.

We were basically grouped into twelve groups based on our ranks. The 1st to 99th, 100th to 199th, 200th to 299th, and so on.

I arrived where the ones in the four hundredths were having their class at the dueling arena. There were quite a lot of cadets present. All of them were waiting for class to start.

“Hey, isn’t that Chae Nayun’s boyfriend?”

I was going to sit, but some big guy appeared in front of me and blocked my path. I stared at him without saying anything. He grinned and extended his hand to me.

“Nice to meet you. I’m the third son of Yedang, Lee Sanghun.”

It was an unexpected situation, but I simply nodded and shook his hand in response.

“I heard the rumors about you,” he said while shaking my hand.

Then, he came a bit closer and asked, “So… I was thinking… Can you teach me? I’m talking about that skill you used to seduce Chae Nayun. I’m sure you have some amazing skills, right? Can you teach me some of that…?”

***

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at the first group’s dueling arena was even more intense than the one with the four hundredth ranked cadets.

Chae Nayun was glaring at Jin Sahyuk, who looked down at her with an arrogant gaze. Chae Nayun gathered her mana and materialized it into a twenty meter long sword. She swung it down with all of her strength.

Kwaaaaaang!

However, the gigantic sword failed to graze the hem of Jin Sahyuk’s clothes. She had summoned a shield that easily blocked the sword and followed up by swinging a whip at the gaps in Chae Nayun’s defense.

“Euk!”

Chae Nayun was flung back after getting smacked in the chest.

This was already her sixth time failing.

Jin Sahyuk looked down at her with the same eyes as if to openly humiliate her.

“You’re weak,” she said.

Chae Nayun gritted her teeth at the comment and got up. She rushed at Jin Sahyuk for the seventh time. This time, she used a combination of feints and consecutive attacks. Dozens of mana swords ferociously charged at Jin Sahyuk.

“Hmm…”

However, Jin Sahyuk simply tapped the ground with her feet and dozens of spears shot up from the ground to destroy Chae Nayun’s swords.

“Ah!” Chae Nayun exclaimed and froze on the spot.

“Pitiful… Do you really think you can protect him from them with pitiful skills like yours?”

Chae Nayun’s eyes widened as she realized the meaning behind those words. Jin Sahyuk was referring to those people they encountered that day, the Chameleon Troupe. After all, Chae Nayun recognized the stupid voice of that gigantic man as well.

However, what surprised her was the fact that this woman was watching them that day.

“You bitch…”

Anger welled up inside of Chae Nayun, but her head became cooler the angrier she got.

She controlled her shattered sword with mana and mended it.

“I suggest that you give up.”

“… You better shut your trap while I’m still being nice.”

“I’m not someone the likes of you can handle.”

“Shut up!” Chae Nayun's voice thundered across the dueling arena.

Someone suddenly interrupted, “Hey, cursing at the instructor is a point deduction!”

However, she didn’t care about that at all. Chae Nayun surrounded her entire body with mana and everyone in the arena gasped in shock.

She was now armed with mana armor. The armor made out of layers of tempered mana wasn’t aura. It was an entirely different type of armor that perfectly protected its wearer.

Jin Sahyuk raised a brow at the unexpected display and started to warm up her mana.

“Kwuuuuahhh!” Chae Nayun screamed and swung her sword with all her might to kill that bitch.

***

Classes finally ended at five exactly when the sun began to set.

I went to the club room while massaging my aching wrist.

“Hajin!”

I bumped into Kim Suho in the corridor.

“Ah, you surprised me. What do you want?”

Kim Suho bitterly smiled and placed his arm around my shoulder, “There’s no club activity today.”

“… What?”

I furrowed my brows and looked at the bags in Kim Suho’s hands. They were probably the toys that Evandel always wanted.

“Hoo, are you trying to compete? Evandel is still going to choose me in the end, you know?” I sneered.

“Haha, no. Not that,” Kim Suho shook his head and smiled.

He gave me a piece of paper. It was a visiting ticket.

“Go drop by the infirmary for me.”

“…?”

He said a few other things that instantly convinced me to change my destination to the infirmary.

I really wanted to see Evandel, but she was my priority right now.

***

“Erm…?”

Chae Nayun could feel someone’s gentle touch on her forehead.

“… Ah.”

She opened her eyes and saw a familiar face sitting in front of her bed. Perhaps it was because she was dizzy, but everything seemed so hazy and dream-like.

Was he always this handsome or did he start to get handsome these days? It would be a problem if he got any more handsome than this…

“Why did you get so worked up?” he asked in a grumbling voice.

However, Chae Nayun felt happy since she could feel that he was sincerely worried about her. She still had a hard time discerning if this was just a dream, so she pinched her cheek.

It hurt, but also felt good.

“Hehehe…”

Kim Hajin furrowed his brows after seeing Chae Nayun laugh like an idiot.

“Answer me,” he said.

“Ah… She provoked me first… I thought I could win, but… it was a stretch…”

Chae Nayun knew very well how much stronger she had grown. In fact, she was confident that she could win against the twenty-two year old Chae Nayun from her previous life if they fought right now.

However, Jin Sahyuk was much stronger than her past self.

“Yawn…!”

Anyways, a loss was a loss. What was important was that Kim Hajin finally came.

Chae Nayun yawned after finally letting go of the tension and Kim Hajin suddenly placed his hand on her forehead.

She could feel warm mana flow from his hand into her body and started to feel warm.

Chae Nayun looked at Kim Hajin dumbfoundedly.

“Don’t overdo it from now on,” he whispered.

She felt like her ear would melt from his warm, gentle voice. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside.

Chae Nayun smiled, but suddenly recalled what Jin Sahyuk said.

Pitiful… Do you really think you can protect him from them with those pitiful skills of yours?

A corner of her heart felt heavy after remembering those words, but she continued to smile.

She steeled her resolve to become stronger and protect Kim Hajin, Chae Jinyoon, her happiness, and all of her friends.

“Alright…” Chae Nayun replied with a smile.

However, a sharp pain suddenly struck her head and forced her to wrap her hands around it.

“Keuk!”

Kim Hajin jumped from his seat and asked, “Hey, are you alright…?”

Chae Nayun didn’t miss this opportunity. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down.

Kim Hajin muttered, “Eh? Aah?” before falling on top of her in the bed.

Chae Nayun wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him. Kim Hajin was severely taken aback by her boldness, but slowly surrendered himself and kissed her back.

A faint gentle warmth blossomed in the closed white space.

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