Entering the Mountains for Training(End)
Whoosh! Whap!
Seowoon's punch shot out with a sound like a club slicing through the air, and Kichan clenched his teeth as he blocked it, standing his ground without stepping back.
He already knew well that once he retreated, it would be even harder to fend off Seowoon's attacks.
Pop pop!
In an instant, two more punches came flying at him.
Thud!
He blocked a punch aimed at his chest by thrusting his shoulder forward.
Pain flared and spread across his shoulder, but Kichan still didn't back down, thrusting his own fist forward to meet Seowoon's.
Whap whap whap!
But no sooner had he struck back than Seowoon's counterattack slammed into him, driving him backward and sending him sprawling.
"Ugh… I really held out well that time, though."
Seowoon smiled as he watched Kichan rubbing his chest with a look of frustration.
It was midsummer in the mountains, and the weather was hot enough that both of them had stripped down to the waist to train, a cool breeze drifting between them.
"You've gotten a lot better. Thanks to you, I'm gaining good experience too."
"Well, at first I couldn't even take a single hit without magic."
The two of them, their sun-tanned, muscular bodies on full display, rested for a moment before starting to spar again.
For three weeks now, they'd been fighting like this—only using martial arts in the morning, and going all out with both magic and martial arts in the afternoon.
After a long bout, they came down from the mountain and entered the house. As they did, Kichan spoke up.
"It's your turn today, hyung."
Saying only that, Kichan disappeared to wash up. Seowoon, watching him go, pulled out a pot, set some water to boil, and headed into the bathroom in the main room for a quick shower.
Slurp!
Kichan sighed as he watched Seowoon, towel draped over his wet hair, slurping up ramen.
"Hyung… seriously, ramen every time? Don't you think that's a bit much?"
"What's wrong with ramen? You won't get to eat it once we're over in the other world. Gotta stock up while I can."
"Well, MSG is pretty scarce over there, that's true. Still, I'd like to have a proper home-cooked meal for dinner sometimes."
As he grumbled and picked up his chopsticks, Kichan's forearm muscles bulged.
"Is this the system's influence? I mean, does a normal body change this fast?"
Seowoon flexed his arm, looking at the bicep that popped out.
"What was it they said again? The system's different, right? I read a post on the community site—apparently, the system works differently for regular people versus players who've learned martial arts. Their recovery is insanely fast. So even if you do the same workout, the results are on a whole different level."
"Oh, there's info like that?"
"There's everything on the community. All kinds of stuff."
Finishing his sentence, Seowoon watched Kichan inhale his ramen and checked the date on his phone.
"Tomorrow's the last day."
"Yeah. Won't be easy to come back down for a while after that. I've got quite a bit to take care of in the meantime too."
Seowoon, wondering what kind of "things" a high schooler could possibly need to take care of, asked,
"Take care of what?"
"Oh, nothing big. Company stuff."
"Company? You make it sound like you're a CEO or something. You working at a company now?"
Kichan just stared at Seowoon.
"I am a CEO, actually."
Seowoon put down his chopsticks and stared back at him.
"…Well, of course. It's not like I can just cash out otherworld items and spend the money without raising any red flags. How's a teenage head of household supposed to buy a house out of nowhere? The tax issues would be a nightmare, so I registered a business."
"Oh…"
For some reason, Kichan suddenly felt a lot more distant.
"It's all in the community. A business license is a must. Officially, I'm the CEO of an online shop. I even have employees."
"Employees? Plural?"
"Yeah. I've got two—one handling site management and another managing inventory. I've even got a small office with a warehouse attached. From the outside, it looks like a totally legit online store."
"Is it… profitable?"
"Been running at a loss for eight months now. Between staff salaries and office rent, it's about eight million won in the red every month."
Seowoon's expression stiffened.
"That's close to a hundred million won a year…"
"The shop's gradually picking up sales, and on paper, it's a solid online business with a ten-billion-won annual turnover. Being able to launder money from cashing out items without any hassle for just a hundred million a year? Not a bad deal."
"R-right…"
Seowoon stared at him as if looking at someone from another world. Kichan slurped down the last of his ramen broth and finally spoke.
"You're going to need a business license too, you know? Maybe not right away, but you're planning to bring in items you can cash out soon, right?"
"I am."
"Then you'll need a way to handle the cash. You're not just going to walk around with wads of bills forever. If you want to buy a house or a car, you'll have to set things up properly."
Seowoon fell silent for a moment, then muttered with a frown.
"So, all the money from selling items just ends up stuck in a company account."
"There are a million ways to pull money out of a business. Worst case, you just jack up your own salary. Pay the taxes and you're good. Plus, you can cover most stuff with a company card, so honestly, it doesn't matter much. Company money is basically my money."
Seowoon couldn't help but feel like he was listening to a line straight out of some shady businessman's playbook.
"Oh, and I already found a new place for you to move into. It's better than where you're living now. I signed the lease under a borrowed name, so you should start living there soon."
Kichan had overheard a passing comment last time, and now he'd even handled the housing situation. Seowoon couldn't see him as just a kid anymore.
"Don't make that face. The lease deposit is a loan, so make sure you pay me back."
"Uh… how much?"
"120 million won."
"Cough!"
Seowoon, mid-sip of water, choked hard.
"Is 'hundred million' someone's name now or what?"
"That's just what deposits go for these days. It's a villa about five years old, three bedrooms, and a separate kitchen-living room setup. Two bathrooms too."
Seowoon was dumbfounded at the mention of two bathrooms.
Having grown up without much, living in a place with two bathrooms felt like something only successful people did.
"Rich folks really do live differently."
"Says the crypto millionaire. I'm just living like everyone else."
"Name one other teenage breadwinner living like you."
"I'm loaning this to you interest-free, but it's still a big chunk of money for me, so make sure you pay it back."
Seowoon sighed, watching Kichan already hounding him to repay.
Still, staying in his current place—where trouble could come knocking anytime—felt riskier.
After they finished eating, Seowoon went back up the mountain, finished his final training session, and came down just as the sun was setting.
Vroooom!
Climbing onto his Hayabusa, which let out a crisp roar, Seowoon headed off toward his new place.
***
Jung Suhwa. Coming from a military family, she'd followed a fairly elite path. Up until just seven months ago, she was an agent with the NIS.
But joining the Cloyd Survival event had flipped her life upside down.
The moment she came back alive from Cloyd, it was clear to the NIS that some of their agents had abilities—and just as naturally, they identified her too.
Soon after, she was reassigned to the newly created Department of Homeland Security, where she was put in charge of managing these ability users as team leader.
Bang!
Her hand slammed down on her desk, making the office window shiver ever so slightly.
Outside her office, agents whispered nervously.
"What's the witch blowing up about now?"
"No clue. But it's always hell for whoever's on reporting duty."
"Whew… looks like the team's gonna be on edge again today."
The man standing before Suhwa could only shift his eyes around, unsure what to do.
"How long are we supposed to let those thug bastards run wild? Don't you get it? They're the reason the Resistance keeps pulling dangerous stunts!"
"T-Team Leader, this really isn't something we can control. We're just following orders from up top…"
"Orders to only observe and report?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Then what's with this delayed report? You trying to screw me over?"
Three weeks had passed since the incident, and the report was only now landing on her desk. There was no way this was normal.
The man hesitated, glancing at her face, then stammered out an excuse.
"Th-there was some kind of mix-up, and the report got overlooked…"
Bang!
Her palm slammed the desk again, and this time the big desk finally gave out with a loud crack.
"Do you take me for an idiot?"
Of course, the man knew full well that a lame excuse like that wouldn't fly. But what else could he do? Orders were orders. Ever since Suhwa took over as team leader, she'd meddled in every little thing involving the Pro-China Alliance. Some of them had had enough and taken their complaints up the chain of command.
The result? Even though she was the one managing the field agents, her own team had started to turn their backs on her.
"Report omission. Deliberate delay. Disciplinary hearing starts now. Step back from all duties until the process is finished."
The man's face twisted with frustration at her words.
It was already the third time this month that a monitoring agent was being disciplined.
Wearing a look like he'd bitten into something rotten, he stomped out of the room. Suhwa didn't so much as twitch.
The Ice Witch. She knew her nickname all too well.
Whether it was good news or bad, she never showed a hint of emotion. That cold, detached tone of hers—devoid of any warmth—was exactly why people called her that.
Ever since she'd been reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security, clashes with the higher-ups had become a constant. And the deeper she got into each Cloyd session, the worse it became.
Protect national security while cozying up to scumbags? What a load of bullshit.
That voice she'd heard not long ago echoed through her head.
"Haa…"
She let out a long sigh.
Seowoon let out a long sigh, staring down at the desk that had shattered and crumpled.
***
"Wow… how is this place so huge?"
"It's just a standard 20-pyeong apartment."
For Seowoon, who'd been living in a tiny studio, even just standing in the living room—which was larger than his entire old place—felt liberating, like his chest was opening up.
"Man, money really does make a difference."
Even though it was night, just looking at the living room balcony, where the sun would no doubt pour in during the day, lifted his mood instantly.
There was no comparing it to his old basement room, where sunlight was a rare visitor.
Watching Seowoon marveling in silence for the fifth straight minute, Kichan finally spoke up.
"It'll feel smaller once the furniture's in. Go check out the rooms."
Seowoon shot Kichan a brief glare for bursting his bubble, then went to explore the three rooms.
One was so small it seemed better suited as a storage space. The next was a bit larger. But the master bedroom? It was big enough that his voice echoed when he spoke.
"Whoa, it echoes."
"That's 'cause there's literally nothing in here yet," Kichan replied.
Seowoon, unfazed, pulled a mattress out of his inventory space and pushed it into a corner of the room. He threw down a blanket and pillow on top of it, but a lone mattress in such a big room didn't exactly look great.
"I'll buy furniture bit by bit as I earn more."
"Well, you better rack up a lot of coins next round. You've gotta focus on item farming too."
"I've got some coins saved up. What I need is to farm items that can be cashed out."
"That depends on what map you end up with. Total luck of the draw."
"Yeah, you told me. But hey, luck's been on my side lately."
"Well, I guess… not much to unpack here, but get settled and take a break. I'm heading out."
"Alright. Thanks a ton for today. I'll call you."
"Sure."
Even though they'd grown pretty close, Kichan still gave a polite bow before leaving. After the door shut, Seowoon flopped onto the mattress and pulled out his old laptop.
Kichan, always the cautious one, had installed a custom security tool he'd made, along with a quick-access launcher for the community site.
Without even logging in, Seowoon could now get straight to the forums and the item-trading marketplace.
As he browsed through the list of items that could be cashed out, sure enough, just like Kichan said, posts by alchemists kept catching his eye.
A lot of them weren't even looking to sell for cash—they wanted to barter for other items they'd crafted.
Scrolls… those are all made and sold by alchemists too, right?
It always felt a bit off that scrolls were going for just 3 million won, and now it made sense. The supply chain was basically dominated by alchemists.
He was scrolling through posts from people looking to buy items when suddenly, he felt a sharp surge of mana.
Huh?
It was a strange sensation—detecting a wave of mana like that not in another world, but right here, near his apartment. Seowoon quickly shut his laptop.
He crept over to the window and peeked outside. Across the street, on the rooftop of the building opposite him, a burst of orange light flared.
-KWAAAANG!
A deafening explosion rattled the air at the same moment.
He stared in shock, his mind racing. He hadn't expected something like this to happen in the middle of a residential area, especially not in the dead of night.
What the hell are ability users doing going berserk in the middle of a neighborhood?
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" :https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]