The Novel's Extra - Side Story 50 – Chae Nayun (5)

[You have met ⬛⬛⬛ in your world.]

[The episodes from here on out will significantly change.]

[Your luck has activated!]

[You have gained a massive amount of SP.]

[You have obtained 4,500 SP.]

A sharp pain stung my eyes and traveled to my brain.

I checked the system message again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I had to pinch myself a few times to be certain. Then I looked at Chae Nayun.

“Hey, are you joining the club or not?” Chae Nayun asked while pouting with her arms crossed over her chest.

However, my mind was preoccupied with questions that I desperately needed the answers to. I began to fidget anxiously after reading the system messages. Did the ⬛⬛⬛ in the system message refer to Chae Nayun? Did the system somehow intervene and do something to her?

“What the hell? Hey…” Chae Nayun grumbled.

I didn’t know the answers to those questions, but Chae Nayun was definitely related to the system messages just now. My next course of action became obvious. After all, I couldn’t just ignore such a huge variable, right?

“Let’s do it…”

“Hmm? What? Do what?” Chae Nayun’s ears turned red and her eyes trembled.

Her reaction slightly bothered me, but I ignored it and clarified the misunderstanding.

“The Pharmacy Club.”

“Ah,” Chae Nayun muttered while blinking a few times.

She made a strange noise that resembled a boiling kettle before finally clearing her throat, “Ehem. Alright, I’ll let you join. However, I have one condition.”

“What condition? You were the one asking me to join…”

“Regardless, I’m the club president! Anyways, I want you to come to the club room every day.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then that leaves me no choice,” Chae Nayun looked at me with a solemn expression and stretched out her right hand, “You pass.”

“…”

I didn’t bother shaking her hand. Chae Nayun frowned and continued shaking her hand in front of me. She kept trying to force me to shake her hand.

I reluctantly shook her hand in the end, which made her feel triumphant for some reason.

“Hey.”

I decided to tell her about something that had been bothering me for a while.

“What?”

“You have eye boogers.”

“What?”

I pointed at her left eye and she immediately wiped it with her sleeve. A huge eye booger the size of a chip crumb appeared on her sleeve.

“Oh, this? This isn’t eye booger. Geez, does this look like that to you? This is…” Chae Nayun mumbled before suddenly running away.

I couldn’t help but smile at her childishness, but my face soon stiffened after she disappeared. I looked at my smartwatch again.

[You have met ⬛⬛⬛ in your world.]

[The episodes from here on out will significantly change.]

It seemed I would have to stay up all night again. No, there honestly wasn’t even much time left for me to catch some sleep.

I scratched my head and looked at the overgrown trees in the forest. The snow-covered trees seemed to encircle the entire world. I could see the moon peeking out from behind them. It brightly shone with a pale coldness.

***

I woke up without my alarm on the last weekend of the month. I stretched and checked on the almond (Evandel), who continued to snore in the makeshift nest I made. Then I hopped into the shower.

[Monster of the Day]

[Cube’s Night View.jpg]

[Images of the new, infamous group in Pandemonium, Girasong.]

[Association News: We will definitely solve the discrimination against heroes who didn’t graduate from Cube.]

[Modern Tycoon vs Prestigious Hero Family]

I glossed over trending topics on the community forum before logging into a site similar to Youtube.

“Hmm?”

I saw a familiar face after scrolling for a bit.

[Seo Youngji’s Hero Survival – Season 3]

Our new Cube instructor, Seo Youngji, had participated as a judge in some sort of survival program. The TV program gathered hero academy dropouts and the winner would be able to become a hero. The program was quite famous and already in its third season.

[Youngji unni is so pretty ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

[That’s what the most agile hero looks like… Wow… She’s unbelievably fast…]

[I can’t stand that Kim Yongin guy… Argh!]

[They aren’t dropouts for nothing hahaha! Look at how shitty their mindsets are.]

[Did that Daniel dude come here to flirt with women? Crazy bastard…]

I wasted around twenty minutes watching the program before turning it off and leaving.

Ding!

I received a message when I reached the first floor.

[Hey, r u ub?]

[Go 4 food if ur ub?]

The messy texts came from Chae Nayun. She looked like the one who needed to get up first. I didn’t bother replying and made my way to the cafeteria.

“Thank you.”

The breakfast menu consisted of bibimbap, crab stew, salad, and ribs. I brought my tray filled with nutritious food to the table and sat down. The cafeteria didn’t have too many cadets on a Sunday morning.

I ate my breakfast while focusing on the system. Not one of my concerns from last week had been resolved yet. I hadn’t found a use for the absurd amount of SP I gained or who the ⬛⬛⬛ in the system message referred to.

▶ [Dazzling Dexterity] [Low] [No Attribute] [Evolving] [Grade 10]

— Dexterity

The user’s hands will become quite flexible and crafty.

— Dazzling

The user’s hands will move in ways that defy logic and common sense.

I contemplated whether or not to create this gift since yesterday. Dexterity might not seem flashy or useful, but this useful ability would help me with daily tasks like cooking, drawing, and writing. It would also help in combat with shooting, swordsmanship, hand-to-hand, etc.

However, it cost a hefty 3,000 SP. It originally cost only 2,000 SP, but adding the word dazzling increased the price by another 1,000 SP.

[Do you wish to save this setting?]

I contemplated whether to hit save or not when someone took a seat at another table across from me. We looked at each other with one table between us.

She just got out of the shower with her hair still drenched and had a towel around her neck.

“Oh, it’s Kim Hajin. Hi!”

Chae Nayun covered her mouth in surprise and waved at me.

I nodded and stood from my seat. I wasn’t avoiding her or anything. I just finished eating and didn’t see a point sitting there any longer.

***

— Welcome, Rank 934 Kim Hajin.

A mechanical voice greeted me as I stepped into the training room.

I hated this thing whenever I came here. Did this robot like making fun of me for being ranked 934th?

I changed into my training attire and began the session. I lightly stretched before sitting on the bench and lifting weights.

— Welcome, Rank 4 Chae Nayun.

I heard a familiar name and my eyes naturally went to the entrance. Chae Nayun stood there with her wet hair.

She waved after seeing me, “Oh? It’s Kim Hajin. Hi!”

I simply nodded and focused on my workout again.

Around a minute passed and Chae Nayun returned with her training attire on and came next to me.

She grabbed a dumbbell in each hand.

“Heup!”

Chae Nayun proceeded to lift the weights that were… quite heavy. Her weights were three times more than what I could carry.

“Huff! Huff!”

“…”

Is this some sort of new hazing? Why did she feel the need to show off in front of me? More importantly, how could she have so much strength with those thin arms? Which crazy bastard created this story setting?

“Fwah! Fwah!”

Chae Nayun began to get on my nerves, but I didn’t show it on my face. I left the training center after working out for just ten minutes.

“Fwah! Fwah!”

***

The third thing on my agenda was the firing range.

— Rank 934, Kim Hajin, confirmed.

— Creating targets. Please choose the number of targets. You may choose a minimum of two and a maximum of twenty.

“Maximum targets. Start.”

— Creating targets. Please choose your difficulty. You may choose from one to nine.

“7.”

— Training will soon begin. Difficult Level: 7.

Twenty holographic images of flying monsters appeared.

I aimed at them and pulled the trigger. The flying monsters instantly fell.

— Training has ended. Duration: 29.86 seconds. Score: 83/100

— Training has ended. Duration: 28.97 seconds. Score: 91/100

— Training has ended. Duration: 29.15 seconds. Score: 87/100…

I repeated the thirty second training sessions around a hundred times.

“It only increased by 1%?”

My [Master Sharpshooter] no longer grew with just training alone. I only gained 0.6% after grinding for two hours. I didn’t have many options since real-life combat still scared me.

“Should I start going to dungeons…” I grumbled to myself and made my way out of the training room.

I didn’t know if it was just a coincidence, but I bumped into Chae Nayun outside the door.

“Ack!” I jumped in surprise.

“Oh? Hi Kim Hajin!” Chae Nayun waved at me with a huge smile.

I couldn’t respond as I calmed my heart from the shock. Anger began to surge from within me for some reason as I looked at her brightly smiling.

“Hey, what the hell are you up to?”

“What?”

“Why do you keep popping up in front of me? Are you following me?”

Chae Nayun frowned at my words and retorted, “Hey, what bullshit are you spouting? I came to train too.”

“You came to what?”

“Wow, this bastard is quite delusional. Are you a narcissist? Do you think everything revolves around you? Ah, get lost if you’re done training. I have to train too.”

“…”

Only then did I manage to compose myself. Well, she was also a sharpshooter and she wasn’t the type to be lazy. It made perfect sense for her to come train instead of following me around.

[Main Character Setting Has Been Edited – ⬛⬛⬛]

I guess the ⬛⬛⬛ kept bothering me.

“You didn’t forget about tomorrow, right?”

“Huh? What’s tomorrow?”

“Ah, damn it. I knew you wouldn’t see the message. Go check your messages. I sent you something,” Chae Nayun grumbled in frustration and pointed at my wrist.

I checked my smartwatch and found several messages.

[Come to the club room as soon as class is finished tomorrow. We’ll be having our inauguration ceremony.]

She must’ve meant this. I simply nodded after checking the message.

“Don’t be late. Everyone else will be there too.”

“Alright, alright. I’m leaving now.”

I lightly waved and walked past her.

She suddenly said something in a small voice, “Also…”

It was quite uncharacteristic of her to sound like that, so I stopped in my tracks.

“Can’t you reply just once?”

I turned around and looked at her.

Chae Nayun was smiling, but there was something different about her this time. There seemed to be a hint of sadness in her smile.

But I wondered… what was there for her to be sad about regarding me?

I checked my message log in case I missed something important. I had ignored a lot of her messages.

[Hey, r u ub?]

[Go 4 food if ur ub?]

[R u eating alone?]

[Why are you eating like a pig? Haha!]

[Who knew I would run into you at the cafeteria?]

[Hey, are you free tomorrow after class? We’re having the inauguration ceremony, so you should come too.]

[Got it?]

[Answer me if you got it.]

[Hey, are you going to ignore the club president?]

[Ah… you’re pissing me off now kid.]

[Hey, fucking bastard.]

[Sorry.]

[Picture Attached]

[Video Attached]

[Mobile Gift Cards Attached]

[Did you get fooled? Hehe.]

[ㅡ.ㅡ]

[Hey, can’t you reply if you read it?]

[Wow… Look at this punk…]

[Ah, forget about it.]

[Come to the club room as soon as class is finished tomorrow. We’ll be having the inauguration ceremony.]

I never knew she sent me so many messages.

“Alright… I’ll be there tomorrow…”

***

The next day, Chae Nayun woke up in class when the bell rang. Well, she actually slept through the bell and only woke up when Yi Jiyoon shook her awake.

“Nayun, it’s time to get up. Class is over.”

“Huh? Oh, ok… Slurp…”

Chae Nayun wiped her drool and sat in her chair dazed for a while before shaking her head. She opened her eyes and saw a bunch of nauseating formulas on the board.

“Wow… what the hell are all of those? Is that some sort of alien language or something?” she grumbled.

She still had no talent for theory despite regressing and couldn’t understand why she had to sit through such a class. After all, she had no problem barging into a dungeon and navigating through it by instinct instead of using all this complicated jargon.

Yoo Yeonha spoke while arranging her pencil case, “Nayun, I heard our club room has been decided.”

“Oh, right! Hey, I’m going ahead!” Chae Nayun ran out of the room like the wind.

Yi Yeonghan, Kim Suho, Yoo Yeonha, Yi Jiyoon, and Shin Jonghak watched her scurrying away like an excited puppy before they walked out as well.

The club room was located on the fourth floor of the Serenity Wing, which was just constructed last year. Their room was called the wood room.

“Oh, this place looks nice,” Chae Nayun softly exclaimed while looking around.

It was more spacious than most classrooms and decorated with expensive furniture and items thanks to her family background. They also had expensive leather sofas, computers, research tools, medical almanacs, etc.

“Hmm… Looks like they did their best. This seems usable for now. Besides, I’ve always wanted to make my own club. Something related to medicine will also be a good boost to my resume. Oh, which brand are these furniture from?” Yoo Yeonha asked as she inspected the leather sofas and the room.

Clack… Clack… Clack… Clack…

Her high heels soon stopped at the kitchenette with a refrigerator and basket of snacks. Yoo Yeonha inspected the basket while trying to look as disinterested as possible.

Potato chips, cup noodles, chocolates, and various other snacks sparkled like jewels in her eyes. She stood there bewitched by them.

“Do they expect us to read all this?” Chae Nayun grumbled as she took out the medical almanacs one by one.

Flip… Flip… Flip…

She flipped through the pages before putting them back on the shelf.

Kim Suho suddenly appeared and said, “We should read them.”

“You scared me! When did you get here?”

“I was right behind you. Anyways, you should read all of those and do things properly if you’re going to start something.”

Kim Suho seemed serious about pharmacy now.

Chae Nayun smirked and sat on the leather sofa, “Yeah, I should… but what is she doing?”

Yoo Yeonha stood motionless in front of the snack basket and stared at it like a ghost who died without being able to eat snacks or something. Her long hair didn’t help with her ghostly appearance.

Ddruuk…

The door to the club room opened again.

Chae Nayun assumed it was probably Yi Yeonghan, so she didn’t pay much attention to it. She was half right as Yi Yeonghan entered with Seo Youngji.

“Huh?” Chae Nayun felt surprised at the sight of Seo Youngji.

Seo Youngji was quite tall and also had an imposing aura as a high rank hero. She fixed her glasses when she made eye contact with Chae Nayun and Kim Suho.

The two cadets respectfully bowed and greeted her without even realizing it.

Meanwhile, Yoo Yeonha’s full attention was still on the snack basket.

“Ah, hero Seo Youngji? Are you perhaps…?” Chae Nayun asked.

“Yes, I will be the supervisor for the Pharmacy Club. It will only be for this semester though,” Seo Youngji said with a shrug.

Chae Nayun nodded while in a daze and wondered to herself, Oh… so our supervisor is Seo Youngji, but why would a hero of her caliber work as the supervisor for a hobby club? Is she that free?

Someone rummaging through plastic could be heard amid their awkward silence. Yoo Yeonha kept poking at a bag of potato chips for some strange reason.

Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…

“Then, shall we start by introducing ourselves?” Seo Youngji asked as she looked around the room.

“My name is Kim Suho.”

“I’m Yi Yeonghan. I’m a huge fan! I follow the survival program you’re…”

“Shut it. I’m Chae Nayun.”

“… Shin Jonghak.”

“Huh? What the? Hey, Shin Jonghak! When did you get here? No, why are you even here?”

“I told him to come. I’m Yoo Yeonha. It’s been a while, hero Seo Youngji.”

Yoo Yeonha snapped out of her obsession with the snack basket and nonchalantly sat on the sofa. Some drool could still be seen on her lips.

“Alright, my name is Seo Youngji. I’m the rank 7 hero from the Hero Association,” Seo Youngji introduced herself with a smile.

Meanwhile, Chae Nayun looked around the room like a meerkat. Where the hell is he? Why isn’t he here? Don’t tell me he’s not coming… but he said he would. She anxiously thought to herself.

“I’ll be speaking informally to all of you from now on. I hope everyone is fine with that,” Seo Youngji continued.

Ah, crap! I didn’t tell him where the club room is! Chae Nayun inwardly exclaimed.

Chae Nayun was about to message him on her smartwatch during Seo Youngji’s speech when the door to the club room suddenly opened.

“I’ll be your supervisor and…?” Seo Youngji stopped midway in her sentence.

She looked over at the door and saw the cadet she referred to as the Cube mutant, Kim Hajin.

Kim Suho smiled and Yoo Yeonha narrowed her eyes at him. Yi Yeonghan only focused on Seo Youngji while Shin Jonghak grumbled under his breath. Chae Nayun covered her mouth with both hands when Kim Hajin entered the room.

“Are you a member of this club too?” Seo Youngji asked.

Kim Hajin only nodded at her question.

A vein protruded from Seo Youngji’s forehead at the Cube mutant’s rude response. However, she tried her best to suppress her anger and forced a smile, “Alright, then…”

Despite her efforts, Kim Hajin completely ignored her and looked at something else on his smartwatch. His actions were indeed quite rude.

Seo Youngji was a high rank hero supervising their small club. It would only be for a semester, but his reaction was still unexpected. Did he not know what an honor it was to meet a high rank hero because he never met one before?

There were less than three thousand high rank heroes in the world, so it was quite difficult to meet one. What was wrong with this kid and his rude behavior?

People would kill to meet Seo Youngji and she knew her worth quite well.

Seo Youngji, the high rank hero from the association, could easily subdue a group of cadets with only one hand. She gritted her teeth in frustration and growled, “Can you all focus? Especially you, Kim Hajin.”