The Support Ate it All

Evening.

Dang Gyu-young was the same as yesterday— the moment they got back to the guest annex, they sprawled out long on the bed.

They kept groaning nonstop.

“Uuugh, it’s over….”

The first day, it had been the three of us—me and Seo Ye-in—facing the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family together, but today it had been solo the whole time, so it couldn’t help being even more exhausting.

Still, thanks to that, there’d been solid progress on the Challenge Austerity.

[Sub-Quest: Stage 18 Austerity] (In Progress….)

▷Objective: Achieve proficiency (21/100%)

The first day had been 8%, so 13% was more than 1.5 times.

“At this pace, you’ll finish within a week.”

“A whole week of this?”

“Let’s try having a positive mindset.”

“My body’s dying, so I can’t think good thoughts. Hurry up and get over here.”

Dang Gyu-young waved a hand lazily, beckoning me over.

So I began fulfilling my duty as their exclusive massage therapist.

Meanwhile, in one corner of the bed, there was something wrapped up tight in blankets like a bundled-up pupa.

Its identity was, of course, Seo Ye-in after finishing training.

Dang Gyu-young stared at the blanket pupa and said,

“She’s totally sulking.”

“Looks like it.”

“Honestly, it was kind of brutal. Flying this way, flying that way.”

The number of times “random high winds” had slammed in today was beyond counting.

And the number of times Seo Ye-in had gotten caught up in them, and the number of times she’d gotten hit by mana BB pellets she would’ve dodged otherwise—those were impossible to count too.

Same with how many times she’d taken Evade -20.

Dang Gyu-young spoke again.

“Still… how’d she not throw a fit and quit, and do it all the way to the end? I’m seeing her in a new light.”

“She promised.”

In exchange for staying with the Dang family while accepting the risk of the Blood Cult, she’d accepted the condition of “train with your best effort.”

If she half-assed it or gave up halfway, she’d get dragged straight to Hyeseong Group.

So Seo Ye-in spent the entire day running the quest—half by her own will, half by pressure.

[Sub-Quest – Sailboat] (In Progress….)

▷Objective: Move along the flow and evade (283/1,000 times)

Despite the constant interference from “random high winds,” she’d managed to fill about 30% of the goal.

Of course, whether she liked that was a separate issue.

If she could, she probably wanted to beat the random high winds to death with a pot, but unfortunately that wasn’t realistically possible.

And it would be ridiculous to take it out on me or Ahn Jeongmi and the others, so she was swallowing that aimless anger all by herself.

I lightly tapped the blanket pupa as if knocking.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

“…….”

“Knock, knock, knock—are you in there?”

“There’s nobody here….”

“You are. Miss, come out for a second.”

“…….”

“Miss? Let’s talk.”

“…….”

The Seo Ye-in pupa rolled away to the other side.

But unfortunately, that was the edge of the bed.

With a thud, the blanket pupa fell off and curled up even tighter.

Looks like she’d completely cut off communication with the outside world.

Normally, in cases like this, I’d dangle bait like “Want to go to the downtown district when this is over?” or “Want to make cookies together?” or “Extend the Kim Ho pillow deadline?” to pump up motivation.

But if you always use the same method, it loses effectiveness.

Sometimes you need a variation.

So I sat down beside the blanket pupa and, putting on a deliberately heavy tone, opened with—

“I think I misjudged something.”

“……?”

“Up until now, you’ve crushed everything, right? Like the ultra-genius, top-tier genius sharpshooter you are.”

“……!”

“I thought it’d be the same this time, so I set the difficulty high… but maybe I overestimated you. Starting tomorrow, let’s make it a bit easier.”

The blanket pupa shuddered, and Seo Ye-in peeked her head out.

“…I can do it.”

“No, if you push yourself for no reason, it’ll be worse for you.”

“It’s not pushing.”

“I’m thinking of cutting the BB shooters down to two people. Just normal sharpshooter level.”

This time, a hand shot out of the blanket pupa and grabbed me.

“Four.”

“Still… I don’t know if that’s okay. What if you suffer like today?”

“I can do it.”

Seo Ye-in emphasized it again.

So I said, hesitating, but acting like I was reluctantly accepting it.

“Fine, then we’ll see how you do tomorrow and decide. Whether to drop you to ordinary level, or drop you to pathetic level.”

“Top-tier genius.”

Her gray eyes were burning with rare fighting spirit.

Like she was going to prove her skill.

Meanwhile, Dang Gyu-young was watching the back-and-forth with interest.

Then they let out a hollow laugh.

“So that’s how you softly lure her in.”

“You’ve learned.”

“Yeah. It won’t work on me anymore.”

Dang Gyu-young smiled smugly.

So I leaned in close, then put on the same heavy expression and opened again.

“Actually, I’ve got something to apologize to you about, too.”

“Hey, I said it won’t work. You literally just did that.”

“High-difficulty dungeons aren’t usually cleared with just two or three people. Even if you’re not aiming for first, most of the time you still go together.”

“…….”

“So you could aim for… like third place, and take it easy. Second place can go to Hong Yeon-hwa.”

Dang Gyu-young’s face went dead serious as they sprang up.

“Hey. Bring me both the Austerity and the Challenge.”

*****

The next day.

From the moment Seo Ye-in and Dang Gyu-young stepped onto the training grounds, they were radiating fighting spirit.

Maybe it felt strange, because the Dang twins slid over quietly.

“What happened last night?”

“Yes… everyone seemed to be having a hard time, so…”

“?”

“…we had time to steel our minds.”

“!!”

Dang Ilbi and Dang Hanbi couldn’t hide their shock.

They looked at each other and traded a line at a time.

“Steeling their minds because it’s hard.”

“That’s beyond bold— it’s an extreme solution.”

“If you keep pounding on something too much, it breaks.”

“But in any case, it worked.”

“More like you made it work.”

Even Ahn Jeongmi, a little ways off, was looking at me with eyes full of respect.

I mean, I’d evolved a sloth into an enraged chimpanzee overnight—who wouldn’t be amazed?

Soon, Dang Gyu-young began training against the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family, while Seo Ye-in trained against me and Hyeseong Group’s four staff.

ROOOOAR—!

One side of the training grounds was swallowed by shadow.

And Seo Ye-in stood at the center of a whirlwind.

WHEEEE—!

“…….”

She calmly swept her gaze around as if reading the flow, then took one step, then another.

As Seo Ye-in picked up speed, Hyeseong Group’s four exchanged signals with their eyes.

Ahn Jeongmi aimed the toy-like mana gun forward and pulled the trigger.

TIK-KONG, TIK-KONG,

Hyeseong Group’s employees fired mana BB pellets along with it.

Seo Ye-in moved along the flow and lightly dodged all of it.

▷Evade (284/1,000 times)

…….

▷Evade (291/1,000 times)

…….

▷Evade (301/1,000 times)

Then, three mana pellets surged in from three directions, and just as she tried to slip between them—

WHEEEE—!

A sudden high wind occurred.

If it were yesterday, she would’ve gotten nailed by the pellets and stacked Evade -60 on the spot.

But today’s Seo Ye-in was different.

FLASH!

Her gray eyes took on a chilling light.

[Bullet Time] had activated.

Perceiving everything around her in slow motion, Seo Ye-in kicked the air with Featherstep.

Then she twisted her body like an acrobat, evaded the mana BB pellets, and landed lightly.

▷Evade (304/1,000 times)

Seo Ye-in made a V sign toward me.

“…I can do it.”

“Yeah. If you do it, you can do it.”

I honestly hadn’t expected her to succeed on the first try.

I nodded, feeling pleased.

After she’d developed a response for “random high winds,” Seo Ye-in barely got hit by mana BB pellets at all.

Later, it even seemed like she didn’t need Bullet Time anymore.

WHOOOOO—!

Another random high wind occurred.

Even as Seo Ye-in flew up in a clean parabola, she dodged every mana pellet.

Then, like she’d intended it, she landed right in front of me.

“…Who am I.”

“You’re a top-tier genius.”

“And.”

“An absurd ultra-genius.”

“Not ordinary.”

“Whoever said that nonsense! Someone with no eyes, clearly.”

When I savagely condemned yesterday’s me, Seo Ye-in nodded with a satisfied look.

Then she returned to her original position and started stacking evades again.

▷Evade (381/1,000 times)

…….

▷Evade (403/1,000 times)

The atmosphere on Dang Gyu-young’s side also seemed very different from yesterday.

ROO ROO ROO ROO—!

Shadows heaving like waves.

Lab Director and Dark-Shadow Commander crashing into their opponents with reckless aggression.

Their momentum was so fierce the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family actually hesitated.

BOOM!

The instant Dark-Shadow Commander’s head burst from a steel pellet, another Dark-Shadow Commander rose up and thrust a sword.

Dang Ilbi redirected it like a seasoned fist fighter, flicked their finger again, and the moment Dark-Shadow Commander was destroyed, it was summoned again immediately.

Dang Hanbi was similarly being pressured by Lab Director.

Dodging thick shadow forearms, they spoke back and forth.

“Seems ‘steeling the mind’ has a tremendous effect.”

“The Undead’s movements are clearly different.”

“And the summon interval seems shorter too.”

“It’s probably just the difference in concentration.”

Just like that, Dang Gyu-young was manipulating the shadows with terrifying focus.

At the same time, their lips were moving like they were muttering to themself—if I had to guess, something like:

‘I’m first. I’m first. I’m first. I’m first….’

After that, Seo Ye-in and Dang Gyu-young kept training, drawing out every bit of their potential—

[Sub-Quest: Stage 18 Austerity] (In Progress….)

▷Objective: Achieve proficiency (31/100%)

[Sub-Quest – Sailboat] (In Progress….)

▷Evade (553/1,000 times)

They’d basically «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» filled an entire day’s progress before noon.

Dang Gyu-young blinked while checking the quest window.

“…I can’t believe it, even though I did it.”

“Looks like nothing’s impossible for humans.”

Dang Gyu-young’s eyes narrowed.

“But I’m pissed, like I got tricked.”

“Does it matter whether you got tricked? What matters is you did this much.”

“…Hey. Bring me your cheek.”

“I don’t see any reason for you to pull it right now.”

“No reason? Really?”

I ran to protect my cheek.

While we were having an out-of-season game of tag on the training grounds, a strange sense of déjà vu hit, and we both turned our heads at the same time.

The source of the déjà vu was Dang Eunbi.

Just like the other day, she appeared carrying a tray.

The difference was that instead of teacups, there were glass cups sloshing with juice, and there were more of them—including portions for Hyeseong Group’s employees.

As everyone’s attention gathered, Dang Eunbi smiled brightly.

“You must be thirsty. Please drink and continue.”

Everyone casually picked up a glass of juice.

Since it was now certain Dang Eunbi’s target was only me, the others didn’t need to worry anymore.

‘And I’m poison-immune anyway.’

Still, I tossed out a question in a half-teasing tone.

“You set up another device mechanism?”

“Would I use the same thing twice?”

Dang Eunbi replied sharply.

Yeah. She wouldn’t reuse a device mechanism that had been exposed once and hadn’t even worked.

Unless she was an idiot—unless she was treating the other side like idiots.

As she handed over a glass, she added,

“There’s nothing in it, so you can just drink.”

“Yeah. I’ll drink it.”

At my thanks, Dang Eunbi stuck her tongue out at me.

Then she went over and plastered herself against Dang Gyu-young.

“Siiiis~”