LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 75 - "Have we met somewhere before?"
Chapter 75 “Have we met somewhere before?”
The department store in the
Thanks to that, it was a must-visit spot for any B-rank or higher hunter who was tired of mass-produced equipment. In the game, players would shop here at least once…
“I’ll take this and this, and this one too, please.”
“Yes, of course, right away!”
…only after going through such hardships.
‘FLEX… But isn’t this too much FLEX…!’
Shinsegae Department Store located in Gangnam.
The entire 5th floor was filled solely with hunter-related equipment.
Even a simple smoke grenade cost at least a million won, a place where it was daunting to even think about buying anything.
In such a place, Sophia shopped as casually as an adult in a stationery store, just picking up whatever she wanted.
I could only gape in amazement.
“Customer, this is an invisibility cloak imported directly from England. It has the ability to blend the wearer’s body with the surroundings as soon as it’s worn.”
“Oh my! I must have this!”
“Uh, Sophia, aren’t you buying too much?”
“Sister… Can we go shop for clothes too…?”
How could she keep this up for two hours straight?
Seeing Sophia not getting tired at all, I worried about her bank balance and tried to get her out of there quickly.
“No, no! We’ll be here for at least five more hours. So, both of you, just wait and see!”
“Fi… Five hours?!”
That meant going in during the morning and coming out in the evening.
But before that, does she even have that much money?
‘How much money does Sophia have…’
“Shin-woo. Just stay by my side like a kept man, okay? And as for Ria’s clothes, I’ve already picked them out. You just need to go and buy them. Got it?”
“Ugh…”
“No loopholes…!”
Although Sophia said it was fine, playing the role of a kept man didn’t suit me.
It was obvious she was buying a few things for me too, and just the total of those items seemed to exceed ‘a billion won,’ making me break out in a cold sweat.
Feeling crushed by the pressure and guilt.
Seeing Ria, who also wanted to shop herself, getting as down as I was.
“Oppa… Let’s at least get some ice cream…”
“Shall we…?”
“Ah, then I’ll give you my card. Go to the first floor and have some ice cream.”
“No, I can buy ice cream with my own money…”
“Just take it!”
It’s fine.
Really, it’s fine.
Sophia was now almost forcibly showering me with money.
Unable to resist the power of a hunter, I ended up holding a black card.
“We’ll be back…”
“We’ll be back…”
“Okay, both of you, have fun.”
Ria and I, holding hands, staggered towards the elevator.
***
Ria, who was sulking because she couldn’t buy her own clothes,
“Lick, lick!”
Even as a monster, was still a kid after all.
When I handed her an ice cream to cheer her up, she started licking it happily.
“Mmm… Pass.”
“?!”
She sometimes turned serious and expressionless, evaluating the taste.
‘Still, I’m glad Ria is happy.’
Sitting across from each other on the first floor of the department store, I wondered if we should just wait here until Sophia finished shopping.
That was how immersed Sophia was in her own world, enjoying herself.
Even if I wanted to save some money for my own items, my account balance was already in the red.
As a low-level Hunter Meister, all I could do was wait…
“This is a total scam!”
…when I thought I couldn’t do anything.
“What?”
The department store, also used as a shelter in case of a monster appearance, had a habit of quickly amplifying loud noises around.
Thanks to that, I quickly noticed the commotion in front of a cosmetics store in the first floor lobby.
“You just sold it to the previous customer for 39,000 won! But why is it 390,000 won for me? Are you scamming me because I’m a foreigner?!”
“No, that was because…!”
“…Huh?”
A woman arguing with the store owner over prices.
A black beret.
A blue ribbon decoration.
A black jacket with silver hair cascading down like Yoo Che-ran’s.
The moment I saw her blazing red eyes, I was so shocked that I…
“Ri… Riverine?!”
“Hmm…?”
“Oh!”
I accidentally said her name out loud.
As our eyes met, I felt something terrible would happen, so I grabbed the ice-cream-eating Ria and started running away.
“O, Oppa?! What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later! Just later!”
“What’s later?”
“?!”
“…!”
But Riverine wasn’t a member of the monster group who couldn’t catch up to ordinary people’s running.
“Oppa! This person is dangerous, so get behind me…?!”
“A monster? Heh. Even though it’s a humanoid monster, I’ve never seen one that can talk. Quite an unusual pair you are.”
We managed to get down to the deserted underground parking lot, but at that moment, Ria and I froze stiff to protect me.
No, to be precise, we were fixed in place by threads.
“M, My body…!”
“Can’t move…”
As expected, without the monster transformation, the magical threads were invisible.
Riverine’s skills were indeed first-class.
So please, let us go.
“R, Riverine! Let’s clear up this misunderstanding!”
“Misunderstanding? First, you need to explain how you know my true identity.”
Was she trying to intimidate me?
Riverine wrapped a thick magical thread around my neck, visible even to an ordinary person.
It was a warning that she could snap my neck at any moment if I tried anything funny.
“O, Oppa! Stop it right now!”
It was also a threat to show resistance was futile.
“If that monster girl does anything rash, I’ll break your neck immediately.”
“What?!”
“So calm her down.”
“Hey, hey! I’m calm! S-So don’t do this…”
“…”
Surprisingly, the little monster could talk.
Seeing Ria like that, Riverine made a puzzled expression.
Just then,
“Riverine! We’re ‘colleagues,’ aren’t we?!”
“Colleagues? You?”
I wondered if it was okay to use my knowledge from the original story, but I decided to ‘win over’ Riverine.
“Yes. It’s too much for colleagues who haven’t seen each other in a while to act like this!”
“…”
Members of the monster group only knew each other’s names.
They rarely gathered, and except for the leader, Katarina, they didn’t know each other’s faces.
This was a setup for future DLC (expansion packs), and I decided to use the developer’s trick like this.
“W-Wait a minute! If you really are one of us, then let’s contact the leader first…”
“Senior! Don’t do that and just let us go. I’ll make the call myself.”
“S-Senior?!”
Also, I once maxed out Riverine’s affection level.
As a veteran player, I knew all about her dating story and even unlocked all the 19+ CG scenes.
“Senior.”
“…! Ahem!”
Riverine was always treated as a junior in the monster group along with Dorothy.
Calling her senior earned immediate affection points.
“Fine. Then you make the call. ‘Junior.'”
In fact, she was somewhat a senior.
“Oppa? Do you know this person?”
“Ah, yes… She’s kind of like my boss at work.”
“…And another woman?”
Ria was looking at me with narrowed eyes.
While I was calling Katarina’s number on my phone, Riverine stood there, visibly flustered.
***
“So this is a department store…”
He had only heard about it in stories and had never been to one himself.
That made sense, given that department stores no longer existed in his world.
Human marketplaces or farms were common.
But a building entirely made of people was a first, and though he had studied beforehand, the blond boy was so nervous he could barely walk.
‘Everyone’s smiling… It’s such a wonderful sight.’
The Napoleon-era gold coins he had given to Katarina had been exchanged for Korean currency.
That should be enough to cover the cost of replenishing his equipment.
‘After this, the trouble in China will start, right?’
In a month, the 70-year ceasefire between North and South Korea would collapse, plunging the country into a state of pre-war tension.
When that happened, ‘he’ would cross the demilitarized zone and set foot in this land.
To prepare for that day, the boy, recalling the events he had studied in books, started looking at the quality hunter equipment in Shinsegae Department Store.
However,
“This is unbelievable! This grenade is designed for large monsters and it’s only 100,000 won! And this magic wand has a dragon’s crystal embedded in it, yet it’s only 1.2 billion won…!”
Having never been to a department store, he quickly forgot his original purpose and got lost in shopping.
But at that moment.
Bump!
“Oh…”
“Oh, sorry.”
He was frantically looking around the store without a break when he accidentally bumped shoulders with someone.
The blonde boy hurriedly turned to apologize politely.
“…!”
Golden hair just like his own.
The moment he saw those ocean-blue eyes he had only seen in photos,
“…! …!!”
The blonde boy froze.
He knew this would happen someday but still, it was too sudden.
“Oh, uh, oh my
…”
However,
Sophia, knowing nothing of his circumstances,
“…? Excuse me…”
“!! Yes!”
“Have we met somewhere before?”
Though it was their first meeting,
Sophia tilted her head, feeling that the boy was neither unfamiliar nor unpleasant.