Woojin grinned as he looked at his phone. “This is great.”

The kid had purposely given him a fake number. 

Since he already knew where Jaemin lived, Woojin wasn’t worried about meeting him again. But he had been wondering how to ask Jaemin if he could stay for a couple of days. But now, he had found a great excuse to be a little shameless. 

Woojin casually strolled towards Jaemin’s apartment. 

***  

“Whoo.”

Do Jaemin sighed as he saw his fellow schoolmates avoid his eyes. It was great that the bullies didn’t dare bother him anymore, but now everyone, with one notable exception, avoided him like he carried the plague.

He was eating lunch by himself at a cafeteria table when someone set a tray in front of him.

“Hey, I heard your big brother beat up all the bullies. Is it true?”

Jaemin sighed once again at Lee Soolgi’s question. He had to admit, Soolgi was beautiful. But he had to focus on studying. If he started to think about dating, it would be tantamount to betraying his hard-working sister.

“Let’s just eat.”

“Hehe. Is it true he’s your older cousin?”

He guessed that weird rumors were making the rounds. Before Jaemin could explain the situation, Soolgi laughed lightly.

“Heh heh. I thought you were just handsome, but you also have some backing. Lee Joonhyuk won’t bother us again.”

His guilt toward his sister wasn’t the only reason why he’d tried to distance himself from Soolgi. Everyone in the school knew that Joonhyuk had a crush on Soolgi.

However, Soolgi didn’t even glance in Joonhyuk’s direction. She only had eyes for Jaemin, so of course, Joonhyuk despised Jaemin with a passion.

Initially, Jaemin had done his best to stonewall Soolgi so that he could tactfully talk to Joonhyuk.

I don’t need to be tactful anymore. To either of them.

Woojin wasn’t really his older cousin, but even if that rumor spread, it didn’t hurt him. The bullies didn’t dare even cross his path now.

Jaemin decided to look at the silver lining. At least, he didn’t have to walk on eggshells around her.

Soolgi beat him to the punch. “Do you like me?”

Jaemin looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

Why was this girl so aggressive?

Soolgi’s smooth brows furrowed, then she pouted. “What? Am I not pretty?”

Of course, you are pretty. 

However, the words wouldn’t come out of this mouth. 

Soolgi smiled at his expression, “Eh-he. Let’s just eat.”

He had to remember, study over dating. It wasn’t too late for him to date after he got a job. Even after lunch, Soolgi stuck around him. It was only when school ended that Jaemin managed to break free of her, and head towards tutoring.

Rrring.

“Uh, big sister.”

His sister, Do Jiwon, always called him around the time he headed towards tutoring.

[How are you?]

“I’m okay, nothing much happened. Oh yeah, I met a strange big brother yesterday. He said he was five years my senior, and an alumnus of our school. Do you know him? He said his name was Kang Woojin.”

His sister was also an alumnus of Mido High School. Now that he thought about it, his sister was also five years his senior, so she should have been in the same grade as Woojin.

[Huh? Woojin? He was a kid who suddenly went missing before the Dungeon Shock….]

Jiwon remembered Woojin. But the only reason she knew him was because the entire school had known he’d seemingly vanished. She hadn’t been particularly close to him.

“Uh, so you know about him, big sister. I’ll give you a more thorough explanation when you come home this weekend. That big brother helped me out a little bit.”

[Ok, Jaemin. Sister’s break time is over. Study hard.]

His big sister had been working at the factory even during her third year in high school.

Jiwon was the reason why he could go to school without worrying about his living expenses. It was also why Jaemin could afford tutoring. His sister, who was only five years older, was both his mother and father.

She was the reason behind his fiery motivation to study hard.

“Oh yeah. He said he would return my money, but he just disappeared...”

Jaemin couldn’t help but grin when he thought about Woojin.

He always seemed one screw shy of being crazy, but he also didn’t seem like a bad person. He was scary when he was beating up the bullies, but he had been nice to Jaemin.

In Jaemin’s opinion, the way Woojin had handled the bullies had been worth all the 7,300 won. From the beginning, he hadn’t planned on taking back the money. However, Woojin had promised numerous times that he would repay him and disappeared. This thought made him laugh.

Ddi-dik, Ddi-rori.

Jaemin dragged his tired body home after tutoring. But he was greeted by an astounding sight when he entered his apartment.

“Uh?”

There were shoes in the entryway that he’d never seen before. Moreover, their owner was lying on his bed, casually eating a tangerine.

“You are back, Jaemin?”

“B-big brother. How did you know my passcode?”

“I saw it last time when you entered it.”

“This…this is trespassing.”

“Ah, I tried to call you, but someone else answered the phone.”

“That…that is...”

Jaemin’s mouth felt dry. He really had thought he’d be extorted and put in a bad situation back then. That was why he had given Woojin a fake number…

“Bitch. Do you think I’ll hit you? Just come over here. I have something I have to ask you.”

Jaemin was nervous, so he sat rigidly at attention in front of Woojin. If a stranger had peeked into the room right then, they would’ve mistaken the owner of the house as the trespasser. Woojin popped a peeled tangerine in his mouth as he asked a question.

“You said Awakened make a lot of money?”

“Th-that’s true.”

“I read there were guilds, associations and a lot of annoying things like affiliations. I also read that some dungeons were disclosed to the public and are under a monopoly. Explain it to me.”

It was such an out-of-the-blue question that Jaemin tilted his head in confusion.

“Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?”

Woojin’s answer was succinct, “I want to attack a dungeon.”

“Big brother is one of the Awakened?” Jaemin asked in surprise, and then mentally kicked himself. 

Woojin had defeated over twenty bullies in a flash. Now, his lightning-like movements made sense. It was a little concerning that Jaemin had believed Woojin’s Jiri Mountain story like an idiot. 

“I just need some money. Tell me what you know.”

“If you want to enter a private dungeon, you have to register yourself with the Association as an Awakened.”

Even before he wanted to work for the Guilds, Jaemin had been greatly interested in Awakened. Truth to be told, every boy his age had their own secret interest in Awakened.

Woojin quietly listened to Jaemin’s detailed explanation while he slowly peeled another tangerine.

“So, in conclusion, I just have to register myself as an Awakened, then I can make the most money by attacking dungeons by myself?”

Jaemin smacked his chest in frustration at Woojin’s crude summary. It was as if he hadn’t even heard Jaemin.

“That’s just how the rate is calculated. But it’s way too dangerous to attack a dungeon by yourself, so it’s usually best to join a guild. If not, you could get a job at the Association or another government office.”

Woojin frowned, “I hear you have to take an entrance exam for a guild? I don’t have time to wait for the result. Don’t the Associations and government offices all work on monthly salaries? I can’t wait for a month either.”

Jaemin shook his head firmly. “Then, at the very least, you’d have to form a party. Dungeons are a dangerous place. Oh yeah. You said you bought a cell phone? Be sure to download this app.”

“App?”

Woojin wasn’t familiar with smartphones, so Jaemin held out his hand for the phone.

“I’ll do it for you. Uh? This is Gallery1. Wow, people still use this. Did one of your family members give it to you?”

“Is-isn’t this the newest model?”

“What? Maybe four years ago, sure? Did you perhaps buy it as a new item?”

At Jaemin’s reaction, Woojin knew he had been duped.

That motherfucking phone salesman.

He had conned the ultimate necromancer. If this was Alphen, such an event was unthinkable.

“Ah, this is so slow. Anyways, this is the Dungeon Forum app. Originally, it was the subway info app. However, the Awakened Association purchased it and remade it. Now it’s a comprehensive portal that deals with everything related to dungeons. ”

Jaemin kept prattling as he went through everything he knew about dungeons and Awakened. The Dungeon Forum was indeed as comprehensive as he’d said.

It had a section for hiring members to attack dungeons and a search function for dungeons within its raid period. Most importantly, it also had a warning system for dungeons that were close to Dungeon Breaks.

“Once you register as an Awakened with the Association, you can log in with your Awakened ID. It’ll even give you a record on who failed their dungeon raid.”

“Hmm.”

Woojin started to familiarize himself with the app. “Anyways, so if I just search for a dungeon during its attack period, then I can challenge it?”

Jaemin replied, “I heard it’s safer to challenge a Mine.”

The app also had information about Mines. It had the location of the most important item, the Return Stone, but also the types of monsters that appeared in its depths. It was much easier to form a party to enter a Mine since it was considered relatively safe.

The problem was that anyone who attacked a Mine had to give a fixed percentage of discovered loot to the Guild or Awakened who’d conquered the dungeon. There was also a fixed service fee to the Association and another commission to the team or person who’d first conquered the dungeon.

Since Woojin was still weak in comparison to his Alphen self, entering a Mine with an exploration period felt like a better choice. The problem was that the entrance fee required to enter the Mine was a burdensome sum for the current Woojin.

Since one had to risk one’s life in a dungeon raid, everything was free. On the other hand, Mines were gold mines where one could find items, monster’s corpses, and Bloodstones. Therefore, it required an incredible amount in commission and entrance fees.

“So, a dungeon where I could make a fair amount of money has an entrance fee that is over 100,000 won?”

“T-that’s correct.”

There were numerous dungeons with higher fees, but no dungeons with lower fees. The free dungeons were all abandoned Mines like [Gwachun Station’s 1st Exit], where one couldn’t make any money.

Woojin thought about it. He could challenge a dungeon in its attack period to get a sizable windfall, or he could aim for a safe conquered Mine with less profit.

He agonized over the decision, but his answer was ultimately unchanged. The thought of his family prevented him from pursuing a reckless challenge. He wasn’t some apostle of justice. He had no reason to put his life on the line to clear a dungeon in its attack period.

Moreover, he couldn’t return to his mother to ask for the entrance fee….

“Let me borrow some money.”

“…….”

When he heard Woojin’s shameless words, Jaemin felt like he had fallen into a trap from which there was no escape.