Season 4: Chapter 119. The Invaders (2)
“Oh, is that Sang-Hyeon?”
“Looks like it’s him, oppa.”
From a distance, Dongsu waved energetically. “Sang-Hyeon, is that you?”
They hadn’t recognized him right away because he wore a cap pulled low over his face. Ever since winning the world championship a few months ago, fans still chased him whenever they spotted him. This was his minimal disguise.
‘Huh? That’s Dongsu.’
Sang-Hyeon waved both arms frantically just in case his friend didn’t recognize him. “It’s me. It’s me!”
“Oppa, stop flailing and get over here already.”
“Ah.” He dashed forward without hesitation, fast enough to make Hyeon-Ju blink in surprise.
“I’ve never seen anyone sprint like that inside a department store...”
Whoosh!
In seconds, Sang-Hyeon stood right in front of them.
“What’s the point of the hat? Everyone is going to stare at you running around like that anyway.”
“They won’t know it’s me just by looking.” He scratched his head awkwardly.
Dongsu tilted his head in thought. “You’ve got a point.”
“What do you mean he’s got a point? You think a cap is enough to fool people?” Hyeon-Ju scoffed in exasperation.
“Come on, let’s go. The restaurant is inside. Our classmates are already heading there too.”
“Yeah, yeah. Time to see some familiar faces.” Dongsu nudged Sang-Hyeon with a grin.
Sang-Hyeon grinned back. It had been a while since he’d seen his old friends. Maybe it was an age thing, but just meeting them again brought a natural smile to his face.
“Wow. This place has changed so much.” Dongsu marveled as they walked through the department store.
Trendy little eateries that looked straight out of Runestargram lined the endless underground arcade. Despite being underground, the space was decorated like a European street.
“Parts of it were redeveloped, so they remodeled the mall too.”
“I see... our old neighbourhood...”
Sang-Hyeon quickly reassured him. “This is district one. Our neighbourhood, district three, is still the same.”
He gave a confident thumbs-up.
“It’s... the same?”
“Uh... yeah. Still the same. Haha...”
They had grown up. Staying untouched by redevelopment wasn’t necessarily a good thing anymore.
Sang-Hyeon realized he’d said something wrong and rubbed his head.
***
The three of them stepped into a brunch cafe decked out in frills and lace. The dazzling pink decor screamed that this place was for young girls.
Even Sang-Hyeon, who usually didn’t care about such things, hesitated at the door.
“Ah ha... I feel like we’re about to meet a bunch of young ladies in here,” Dongsu muttered awkwardly as he pushed inside.
Sang-Hyeon reluctantly followed. Sure enough, a group of ladies was waiting.
“Unnie!”
“Wow, you look so pretty!”
“Hyeon-Ju, how does a gold medalist get to be this gorgeous?”
Her classmates and juniors from the archery team surrounded her.
“Oh, I’m not that pretty. Come on~ ho ho ho.” That reply came from Dongsu.
The girls blinked, caught off guard by how naturally he said it.
“Why are you saying that?”
Thunk.
Hyeon-Ju shoved him aside and sat down at the head of the table.
“This is my seat, right?”
“Of course, of course.”
It was her birthday gathering, after all. She was the star.
“Wow~ the princess has arrived!”
“Kya ha ha ha!”
Sang-Hyeon dropped into a chair almost in defeat.
‘This is bad.’
He had noticed it back in high school too. The archery club juniors were... quite intense.
‘I’m already drained.’
Their relentless chatter still wore him out. It felt like being nibbled to death by a school of tiny fish. Once they had their fun with Hyeon-Ju, their attention shifted to him.
Dun-dun. Dun-dun.
The theme from Jaws echoed in his head.
“Oppa, how does your face look exactly the same?”
“My husband watches your streams every day. He laughs like crazy.”
“Oh? My boyfriend too! He always has it on the TV.”
“Oppa, are you going to come to all our gatherings from now on?”
“Yeah, right. He’s a superstar.”
“Excuse me, Hyeon-Ju is a gold medalist too, you know?”
They kept asking questions, but never gave him a chance to answer.
“Ha ha...”
Sweat began to bead on Sang-Hyeon’s forehead when the male juniors from the archery team shuffled in nervously.
“Sorry, we’re late!”
“We were standing outside debating whether we should even come in for ten minutes. Forgive us~”
“Your taste is... something else, Hyeon-Ju.”
They were cracking jokes when they suddenly froze like lightning struck them.
“S-Sang-Hyeon hyung?”
“What the?!”
“Holy...”
Sang-Hyeon greeted them awkwardly, “Ah. Hey.”
“Ah... hello, sir!”
“Long time no see, senior!”
They scrambled to sit down again, whispering urgently to Hyeon-Ju.
“H-He never said he’d be here...”
The girls burst into giggles at their panic.
“Yeah, it just... worked out that way.”
They all knew the truth. These guys were terrified of Yu Sang-Hyeon. No one really knew why.
‘This is on purpose, isn’t it?’
‘Dammit...’
Their earlier bravado completely disappeared as they sat in silence.
“It feels good to have everyone together like this. Really good.”
With that, Hyeon-Ju passed around the menus and started ordering.
***
As soon as the food came, Sang-Hyeon’s head finally cleared.
“Wow, this is good.”
The brunch turned out to be colorful and surprisingly sweet, right up his alley.
“Oppa, you’re eating so well.”
Dongsu answered for him. “He goes crazy for sweet and nutty stuff.”
“Oh, really?”
‘Do I?’
Sang-Hyeon tilted his head. Now that he thought about it, almond cereal had the same flavors.
“It’s really good. Way better than I expected.”
“Thank goodness.”
Maybe it was the sugar, but everyone relaxed. Old stories easily flowed out as they talked about their current lives. Marriage, babies, and some who no longer had anything to do with archery swapped tales from their companies.
“I still think holding out five years at Ah-Sung was more impressive than being a hit streamer.”
“Right...”
Corporate life sounded rough. Still, streaming wasn’t exactly a cakewalk either, especially for the Paprika streamers Almond steamrolled at the start.
***
Meanwhile, Cheese Village still enjoyed its peace.
“La la la~ la la~” Cutie Pie hummed her new single as she lugged a cauldron. “Hm-hmm~”
She was the village’s first official cook and had qualified in a flash by making massive batches of Corn Porridge faster than anyone. Official cooks were allowed to use the giant hearth in the village square.
Thunk.
She set the cauldron down and opened her recipe book.
“Wow. There are this many?”
Some dishes carried unusual buffs or effects. Sampling a variety of dishes eased the Bored state in no time. The more status ailments stacked up, the more growth became stalled. Once people met their basic needs, they always ended up seeking good food.
“Hm-hmm~” Cutie Pie couldn’t help but hum as she stirred her cauldron like a witch from a fairy tale.
This was her first dish as an official cook, the dish that made her a cook in the first place!
[Corn Porridge: 78%]
Of course, it was Corn Porridge.
— Ugh
— Why corn porridge again?
— Lol the Bored bar is going to invent a new tier at this rate
— After all that corn porridge, more corn porridge?
“What am I supposed to do? We have way too much stock left...”
They had competitively bid on corn and bought far more than they needed, so she had to clear the inventory.
“This is the first batch made by an official cook. People will line up for it. You’ll see!”
She busily painted a rosy and unconvincing picture in her head.
Thoom.
A heavy boom echoed from somewhere.
“What was that? Did something big topple over?”
She was too sensitive to sound to ignore it.
Thoom... thoom...!
The booms drew closer to the village.
“Uh... uh? Th-This sounds bad.”
The timing felt too precise and deliberate, like someone keeping tempo or a skill being triggered the instant its cooldown ended.
KWA-RAAANG!!
Dust billowed up in a gray cloud after a blast.
‘Huh?’
Cutie Pie’s eyes went wide. Something unbelievable reflected in her pupils. Someone shot up out of the ground.
“A... a person?”
People were popping out from beneath the earth.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?! Miners or not, you can’t just dig up the village floor!”
They were holding pickaxes. Obviously, they were miners. She had no idea what skill allowed them to carve all the way up through the town square, but this was ridiculous.
‘Huh?’
Their expressions looked off, and their outfits too. Every one of them wore a black robe.
She had never seen robes like that in Cheese Village, where they weren’t even at the level of caring about clothes yet. They had only just reached the porridge stage of cuisine.
‘Who are these people?'
They looked like they came from a far more advanced civilization. In truth, the black robes were a production freebie they had begged for to look cool. Not that Cutie Pie could have known.
‘They look dangerous...’
— $(@$@
— Gasp
— Whoa whoa whoa
— What’s with that outfit, the Akatsuki? Lol
— #%#
Filtered messages flooded the chat.
The robed figure in front said, “We do not intend to harm you.”
His voice echoed with a special effect, booming across the square.
“If you...”
“Were you going to hurt us?” Cutie Pie tilted her head.
“What? No, I said we don’t...”
“I wasn’t thinking that at all, but the way you rushed to say it first means you were going to!”
— Perception level one hundred lol
— LMAO
— Industry-hardened instincts, wow
“Who are you? Huh? You’re not villagers, are you? Huh? Who are you people?!”
Flustered by her sudden barrage, the black-robed group nevertheless grinned and struck a pose. If she asked, they were obligated to answer! Finally, it was the perfect chance to drop their cool villain team name.
“We are the...”
Cutie Pie shrieked almost at the same time, “Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
A scream from a horror movie split the air in Cheese Village. Only serious lungs could power such a piercing, high note.
— omg lolololololol
— AAAGH hahaha
— Ear genocide
— Human siren, wow
— (Real) job skill activated lol
Not just the leader, but every robed figure faltered.
“N-No... we said we don’t want to hurt...”
“What do we do? We haven’t even filmed our entrance scene!”
“I don’t know. Is she insane?”
“We didn’t do anything. Why is she screaming first?”
Technically, they had been hired for Cheese Village content. Even as the villains, they still needed time to act on camera. However, Cutie Pie didn’t let up and kept bellowing.
“Villagers!!! Weird people are here! Weird people have arrived!!!”
Murmurs spread as villagers trickled out one by one.
“This isn’t it.”
“They’re going to cut all this out.”
“We can’t even go live. Damn...”
The robed figures grumbled about their botched entrance. Their exchange looked downright suspicious to the villagers.
“Who the hell are these guys?”
“Huh? What is this?”
Everyone jumped when the intruders finally showed their true colors.
“I don’t care who you are! Just die, you bastards!”
KA-BOOM!!!
[Lava Pillar]
Ruuumble!!!
A searing red column of lava roared up from the ground. After the fifth advancement, Miners could branch into magic and walk a different path, such as being a Lava Shaman. As the skill activated, rising lava melted the Cheese Village plaza like a scoop of ice cream.
“Kyaaaaaaaaa!”
“L-Lava, in the village!!”
“Wh-What is happening!”
— ??
— No way
— Holy...
— What?!
— Wow
Pure chaos erupted. The intruders had roamed several mines and dungeons, pooling every Miner Coin to support a single person. So far, the strategy had paid off.
“Tremble in fear, you who have been marinated in peace!!!”
“Ke-ke-ke-ke-ke!”
“Wu-hahahahaha!”