The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 36. To Paradise (2)

Lee Seol-a, Lee Seong-jin, and Yoon Seo-ra—the three of them had been consumed with missions lately. The deadline for the Neutral Zone was drawing near, and since they needed to accumulate 1,000 Survival Points to enter Paradise, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they spent half their days at the 1st Floor Bulletin Board.
Of course, Seol-a had told them not to worry if they didn’t reach 1,000 points, but that wasn’t quite reassuring enough.
It wasn’t merely a matter of pride. As time passed, the three of them increasingly realized just how enormous the value of what Seol-a was providing actually was.
And she’d even gotten them full sets of equipment. With so little time remaining, only about thirty percent of survivors had managed to assemble complete, decent gear. Considering this, they could see how advantageously positioned they were.
In other words, it was a question of honor before survival. After she’d done this much, failing to gather 1,000 Survival Points would mean proving themselves unworthy of being survivors. At the very least, they wanted to—and had to—prove they were capable of qualifying for Paradise on their own terms.
‘Success!’
Lee Seol-a practically bounced with joy at completing the “Normal” Mission. True, by current standards, it wasn’t much of an accomplishment even managing it solo. But compared to her first day attempting missions, it was tremendous progress. Back then her hands had trembled so badly she could barely manage a proper Bowstring Draw.
‘Will you praise me?’
The memory of her brother telling her not to fear, that she could surely win, encouraging her step by step even when she must have felt frustrated—it brought a smile to her face.
‘This is fun.’
Lee Seol-a scanned the bulletin board with innocent eyes.
“Normal” Missions still had the most remaining attempts among all difficulty levels, so there were still papers left—just seven or eight, but enough. She planned to build her confidence a bit more before moving on to the “Somewhat Difficult” Missions.
‘I should try this one too.’
Just as she was reaching out to settle on her next task, she froze.
“Oh my, it’s been a while?”
A voice cut through the air, and the girl’s hand stopped. A woman stood behind her, eyes narrowed like a viper’s—one who’d approached without making a sound.
“Who… ah.”
Lee Seol-a stammered, then let out a small gasp. She didn’t quite remember clearly, but she thought she knew who this was. There was a fleeting memory of seeing her on the School Rooftop after the Tutorial ended.
“You’re from the same Area, aren’t you?”
“I remember you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’re the one who showed off and died first, right? In the Lecture Hall.”
At the mocking tone, Lee Seol-a’s expression hardened visibly.
“You don’t know who I am, though, do you?”
“I’m… I’m sorry, my memory isn’t very good.”
“I figured as much. Anyway, nice to see you. I’m Oh Min-yeong.”
“Yes, yes. Hello.”
Though Lee Seol-a offered the greeting politely, her expression remained decidedly uncomfortable. Her counterpart made no effort to hide the hostility in her tone and manner.
“The deadline’s coming up soon. Did you manage to gather all your Survival Points?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Really? You haven’t even reached 1,000 points?”
“I… haven’t.”
The malice in Oh Min-yeong’s words flustered her further.
Oh Min-yeong crossed her arms, scanning Lee Seol-a from head to toe.
Judging by her emphasis on mobility, she wore a supple Leather Jacket as her outer layer, with a small Chain Mail shimmering silver beneath it. Her Leather Pants looked well-made too, and a Main Gauche hung from the black Belt at her waist. Then there was the Recurve Bow slung across her back and the quiver bristling with Arrows….
Even a rough estimate put the gear at over 14,000 points. While Oh Min-yeong had assembled equipment of her own, she couldn’t have afforded even one of the girl’s defensive pieces if she’d sold everything. Her lips twisted.
“Looks like you’re doing well these days?”
……
“Mind if I take a look?”
She stepped forward boldly and reached out without waiting for permission. Lee Seol-a tried to back away in alarm, but the bow had already passed into Oh Min-yeong’s hands.
“Oh, um….”
“Wow, expensive gear really is different. What’s the price tag on this?”
“I… I’m not sure. Probably not that much?”
Lee Seol-a barely managed the answer.
“That so?”
Oh Min-yeong, turning the bow over in her hands, smiled coldly.
“Then how about giving me this?”
“…I’m sorry?”
“You said it’s not expensive. I’m not asking for it free, obviously. If you give me this, I’ll help you out too.”
“Oh, no. That’s okay.”
“Don’t be like that. You said you need to gather Survival Points too. If you join my team, you could have them stacked up in no time at all.”
Oh Min-yeong jerked her thumb over her shoulder. Three men sitting in the Café Lounge were watching with interest, smiling and even waving.
These were, in fact, the same three who’d tried to attack Yoon Seo-ra. Lee Seol-a didn’t know the full story, but an inexplicable unease made her desperate to leave the area.
“Give… give it back, please.”
Lee Seol-a, squirming with anxiety, grabbed hold of the bow and pulled, but Oh Min-yeong tightened her grip.
“Why are you acting like this? I said I’d help.”
“I don’t need it. Just give it to me quickly.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll give it to you. I said I would!”
The moment Lee Seol-a yanked it away, Oh Min-yeong nearly stumbled, her expression flashing with surprise. She’d underestimated the girl’s strength and lost it in an instant.
“You.”
“I’ll be going. Goodbye.”
Look at that. Oh Min-yeong’s eyes flared with sparks as she watched the girl’s retreating back. Her pupils churned, seething with undisguised jealousy.
“Hey, how much do you get per time?”
At the sharp cry, Lee Seol-a’s footsteps halted. She turned so quickly her hair whipped around her, her lower lip trembling.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing. Just curious.”
Oh Min-yeong’s teeth bared in a contemptuous smirk.
“For someone like you, how much do you make per session? A hundred points? Two hundred?”
“W-what did you just say?”
Lee Seol-a’s ears seemed to betray her.
“How many times have you done it to get him to buy you gear like that? Hm?”
Her eyes went wide as saucers at the naked mockery.
“My brother isn’t that kind of person.”
“Please. You think I don’t know you two are living together?”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
Lee Seol-a’s voice rose, her indignation raw. Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes, making her look utterly wronged.
They barely knew each other. Not a single word exchanged, neither in the Neutral Zone nor in the Tutorial. Yet here she was, launching this unprovoked attack—it made no sense at all.
“I told you. I want to help. Why? You don’t want my help?”
“I already said I don’t need it!”
“Look at you. Raising your voice like that?”
At Oh Min-yeong’s signal, three men who’d been watching stood up. Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Lee Seol-a shuffled backward hesitantly.
“I’m just trying to teach you an easy way to earn points, that’s all.”
“N-no. I don’t want to.”
“Worried about the points? Don’t be. Those guys give out plenty.”
Watching Oh Min-yeong speak with such brazen ease, Lee Seol-a’s face screwed up in disgust.
‘Why?’
She hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Stop pretending to be so pure, will you? What’s with the act now?”
The moment the poisonous air radiating from Oh Min-yeong overwhelmed the girl into flight—
“How about you keep your introductions to yourself?”
A man abruptly wedged himself between them. Lee Seol-a looked startled; Oh Min-yeong’s face twisted in anger.
A man in black sunglasses and a backwards green cap.
Hyun Sang-min.
Oh Min-yeong ground her teeth.
“You.”
“Huh, I heard a dog barking and came to check, but look—there’s a bitch yapping away.”
“What did you just say?”
“Oh, sorry, sorry. I know you’re human, but comparing you to an animal was a bit harsh.”
Hyun Sang-min raised his hands, his expression genuinely apologetic.
“So your nickname was…”
He slipped off his sunglasses slightly.
“Ten Points, wasn’t it?”
Oh Min-yeong trembled, her body quaking, but she forced herself to maintain composure.
“You should watch your mouth. Unless you want to end up hurt.”
“That so?”
Hyun Sang-min glanced around the lounge, then snickered.
“If you’re really dumb enough to rely on those guys… why don’t you look over there for a second?”
Following his nod, Oh Min-yeong’s throat tightened. Three or four other Survivors were watching them intently.
“Your only ally is you… wait, you’re not even an ally, are you? Isn’t that right, lap dog?”
“Shut your mouth.”
Oh Min-yeong’s eyes burned with murderous intent as she glared at Hyun Sang-min.
“I’m sick of looking at your face. Get out of my sight. You bastard.”
“Don’t want to. Besides, you’re just as much of a bitch, aren’t you?”
Hyun Sang-min shot back with a laugh, then lightly nudged Lee Seol-a.
“She’s probably dying of jealousy over you, hm?”
“…N-no?”
Oh Min-yeong flinched, her eyes widening in a grotesque expression.
“Not jealous at all? What’s there to envy about a woman who sells her body for points?”
Her voice trembled despite her attempt at composure. Hyun Sang-min, meanwhile, remained perfectly at ease.
“Stop bringing yourself up like that. I already know you’re not like that, so you’re just throwing a fit for nothing, aren’t you?”
What was he saying now? Lee Seol-a, whose heart had been trembling with anxiety, narrowed her eyes.
“Someone’s dragging through each day with their tail between their legs, wagging it around— while someone else~.”
His tone felt almost like taunting mockery,
“Shut your mouth.”
A cold, lethal voice cut through. Not that Hyun Sang-min was about to stop.
“When Lee Seong-jin and his sister, or even Yoon Seo-ra, were struggling, you liked it, didn’t you? You’d watch them in secret and console yourself. At least I’m better off than those bastards—that kind of hollow superiority.”
“Insane. Completely insane. When did I ever? Do you have a mental disorder?”
“You had your hopes up too, didn’t you? Wondering when they’d fall to your level. You were the one who planted those expectations in their heads, weren’t you? Weren’t you?”
At that moment, Lee Seol-a, who’d been listening with an expression of disbelief, went blank.
[Yes. Well… I don’t know who hit them, but they sure got hit hard.]
No way.
Without realizing it, Lee Seol-a clenched her fist and fixed her gaze on Oh Min-yeong, who was glowering with venomous hatred.
“But what can you do? One day you notice they’re living quite happily, you know? Eating delicious food every meal, training hard, decked out in all kinds of gear. So an inferiority-ridden woman like you can’t stomach it and needs to blow off steam?”
“Shut that filthy mouth, you bastard!”
A cry like a scream tore from her throat. Her eyes had grown so wide they looked ready to split, glistening with tears.
“I ended up like this because of you!”
“Huh?”
“You! It’s because of you! Why do you help only them? Why don’t you help me? I suffered too! I followed you with my life on the line!”
Now Oh Min-yeong was ranting incoherently. Hyun Sang-min let out a scoffing laugh.
“Think about it yourself. Would you want to help someone acting like this?”
“What! What did I do so wrong!”
“Wrong? You’ve done plenty.”
“And you are…?”
Oh Min-yeong spun around and faltered. A woman in white stood there, arms crossed, smirking.
“I brought you all the way to the 2nd Floor, and you got played by Kang Seok like a fool.”
The woman with the short bob was none other than Shin Sang-a.
“If you’d pushed a button like Lee Seong-jin did, maybe I’d understand. But you left me behind and rushed in pretending you didn’t know me— who were you again?”
At her sarcastic question, Oh Min-yeong’s mouth fell open.
“And that’s not all, is it? You did the same thing on the 4th Floor.”
“That… that was…”
“You didn’t give anyone a Resurrection Elixir for free like Yoon Seo-ra did.”
Shin Sang-a spat sharply, then smiled with a twist of her lips.
“When you’ve given nothing, what do you have to say about asking for help?”
“I… I…”
Without giving her a chance to speak, surrounded on all sides, Oh Min-yeong suddenly broke. Her body crumpled to the ground as she wailed and sobbed uncontrollably.
Shin Sang-a, who had been staring coldly at her, suddenly lifted her gaze as a shadow fell over them. When things seemed to be taking a strange turn, three men who had been watching stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
A large man in the center walked out.
“It doesn’t seem like much of an issue, so why make such a scene?”
“It’s not much of an issue. The bitch just won’t stop barking, so it’s annoying. Now that her master’s here, maybe it’ll finally get quiet.”
At his drawling voice, the large man fixed a fierce glare on Hyun Sang-min.
“I know who you are. You’d do well to watch your tongue.”
“The bitch and her master are exactly the same. Why do you keep making a fuss about my mouth?”
“You must have a death wish.”
“Want to test it? Are you confident?”
Hyun Sang-min tapped the crossbow on his back. The large man slowly glanced around. Hyun Sang-min’s team and Shin Sang-a’s team as well. He was outnumbered.
“…I’ll remember your face.”
“Oh, you should say it properly— ‘I’ll see you again’?”
“Don’t think all East Markers are the same. Let’s settle this properly when we get out to Paradise.”
“Oh my, how terrifying~.”
Hyun Sang-min did a little shoulder shimmy, and Shin Sang-a covered her mouth as she giggled. After staring hard for a moment, the large man dragged Oh Min-yeong away and disappeared.
At the sudden quiet that had finally returned, Lee Seol-a let out the breath she’d been holding.
“Phew…”
Like a bolt from the blue. She never would have guessed Oh Min-yeong was thinking that way. It felt like a storm had swept through.
After a brief pause, Hyun Sang-min gently patted the young girl’s trembling shoulder.
“You all right?”
“Yes, yes!”
Lee Seol-a bobbed her head eagerly.
“I found it just in case, so thank goodness. You need to be careful. They’re a nasty bunch.”
“Thank you so much. Really….”
The girl bowed deeply, and Hyun Sang-min waved her off.
“Don’t mention it. It was all because of that punk, anyway.”
“My brother?”
“Yeah. He said something felt off about Oh Min-yeong, so he asked me to keep an eye on you and Seong-jin for a while. I agreed, naturally.”
“Is that so? I was asked by Yoon Seo-ra.”
Shin Sang-a glanced around the 1st Floor as she spoke. Hyun Sang-min nodded knowingly.
“Anyway, want to rest for a bit? If you’ve got energy, we can tackle a Somewhat Difficult Mission. You and Seong-jin.”
“C-can we really do that?”
Lee Seol-a’s eyes lit up. If she could just join Hyun Sang-min’s team, she wouldn’t have to worry about incidents like the one that just happened.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already cleared it with the team. Besides, do I look like the type to move for free?”
“Um… no?”
“Exactly.”
Hyun Sang-min nodded as if asking why she’d even pose such an obvious question.
“In exchange for doing you a favor….”
He pulled out a Cigarette Pack and smiled coolly.
“You’re going to help me with some Difficult Missions!”

The end of the Neutral Zone, which had seemed so distant, suddenly loomed near.
The greatest achievement Seol had accomplished during this time was clearing “Very Difficult” Missions repeatedly with her team.
The highest difficulty had dealt them a harsh blow on the first attempt, but after thorough preparation and retry, they managed to clear it with relatively less risk.
Though there were nail-biting moments in between, they never faced a critical wound like Salvatore Riorda had.
After successfully completing the Mission for the tenth time, they could see the paper on the Bulletin Board had vanished.
“Finally it’s done.”
Tong Chai, removing his Turban and tossing it aside, looked relieved.
“Though there is one left….”
Delphin gazed up regretfully at the paper hanging at the very top.
“Let me warn you now. If anyone’s thinking of attempting that, I’m dropping out for sure.”
“I’m with him. That’s madness.”
Tong Chai and Riorda were quick to object.
“But there’s additional compensation for it too….”
“I’m against it as well. No matter how appealing, that isn’t it. There’s a difference between recklessness and courage, Delphin.”
Even Hao Win opposed it, so Delphin pouted.
“…I suppose, no matter how many times I look at it, it does seem impossible.”
He still seemed reluctant, but eventually raised both hands in surrender.
The six of them exchanged brief farewells. After nearly a month of sharing life and death together, they couldn’t simply pretend they’d never met.
Seol had successfully fulfilled Kim Han-na’s request to build connections.
“Thanks to you, I managed to accumulate plenty of Survival Points.”
She shook hands with Tong Chai,
“I owe you my life. If trouble finds you, come to Sicily.”
Salvatore Riorda spoke bluntly,
“Well, we’ll see each other once more tomorrow anyway.”
Delphin winked,
“Love is emotion, friend. Don’t forget that.”
She bumped fists with Hao Win.
“I was a Priest no one ever asked the name of….”
The nameless Priest left with a wry smile.
Left alone in the Plaza, Seol gazed at the Bulletin Board.
An Impossible Quest.
It offered an enormous reward of 172,800 points, and as Delphin had mentioned, additional compensation as well.
‘VIP Shop….’
She felt tempted, but Seol shook her head firmly. It required a regiment-sized force of Earthlings at Level 4 or above, and solo was suicide—even if she came back from the dead, she couldn’t manage it.
Having cleanly given up, Seol climbed the stairs.
Just one more day and the Neutral Zone would be over. The Dormitory bustled with activity, there being so much to prepare.
‘Pack first, gather supplies, return the phone tomorrow, keep only 1,000 Survival Points….’
Thinking of Survival Points brightened her mood. While most team members had invested in abilities or equipment, Seol had been ruthlessly frugal. As a result, her current Survival Points were more substantial than ever.
But they were useless if she didn’t spend them—she’d have to use them before today ended.
As she organized her bag, Lee Seol-a kept swallowing back a tide of regret. Even though she knew it was impossible. The ‘Impossible Quest’ kept shimmering at the edge of her vision. If only she could succeed—she’d be able to buy things she’d once thought were hopelessly out of reach.
She had to work hard to push the stray thoughts away.
“Three enchanted notebooks, a fountain pen of stream of consciousness….”
Clink.
In the middle of packing, something fell from her bag with a soft, metallic sound.

(To be continued in the next part)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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