Jeonggongbeop shook his head from side to side and answered curtly.
“You posted earlier, [If I get lost here], didn’t you?”
“I did, yeah.”
“I identified the ‘Building F, Room 12031’ urban legend from that post.”
“Wow, just from that? How? Are you some kind of genius?”
Han Yujin’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
This was purely the intellectual curiosity of a troll. She was curious what kind of deductive process that stubborn stickler for principles had gone through.
“It’s simple.”
Jeonggongbeop opened his mouth. His voice was dry, as though he were giving a lecture.
“The newbie hunters were waiting for you at the entrance to the ‘Lost-and-Found Center at the Terminal Station.’ They must have been certain that you had broken the rules and ‘drunk the tea and fallen asleep.’ But you saw through the fact that the rulebook was forged and fled.”
“Oh, you’ve got it right up to there. You’re totally spot-on, aren’t you?”
“There were four of them. You were alone. A head-on fight was impossible. The ‘Terminal Station’ is a single-path structure, so there aren’t many places to hide. You needed a way to shake them off. At that moment, you posted [I think I’m fucked] on the Gallery. Even though you knew your opponents were watching the Gallery too.” “……”
“That wasn’t panic. It was ‘bait.’ Bait to let them know you were alive and had enough leeway to check the Gallery, drawing them deeper in. And then you must have remembered the only trigger in the ‘Terminal Station’ that leads to another space: the ‘lost child occurrence’ gimmick.”
Jeonggongbeop placed a hand against the old subway wall.
“You didn’t flee to the ‘Lost Child Center’ to escape the newbie hunters. From the very beginning, you ran in order to lure them into the ‘Lost Child Center.’”
Goosebumps rose on Han Yujin’s skin.
Because this man was reading the picture she had drawn in her head perfectly.
“‘Building F, Room 12031, Lost-and-Found and Lost Child Center.’ The core rule of this urban legend is that ‘when a lost child occurrence happens, four people nearby are randomly summoned to determine whether they are guardians.’ And ‘if they are not guardians, they are immediately disposed of.’ You planned to use that rule to deal with the four newbie hunters perfectly.”
Jeonggongbeop looked straight into Han Yujin’s eyes. His gaze was sharp as a blade.
“The post you made, [Come find me if I get lost], wasn’t an SOS from a panicked newbie. It was an ‘invitation’ calling for the ‘real guardian’ who would come retrieve you after you had carried out this entire plan. Am I right?”
“……”
Han Yujin closed her mouth. What was this? She felt as if she had been stripped naked. In ten years of Gallery life, this was the first time anyone had read her moves so accurately.
“Amazing.”
Han Yujin clapped.
“Wow, I guess not just anyone becomes a blue mod. I admit it. You’re kind of insane. To analyze that much just so you could be first in line for pizza.”
“……”
Jeonggongbeop’s expression—that robot-like face of his—collapsed for the first time.
He clenched his fist tightly, then relaxed it and let out a deep sigh.
“Han Yujin. Do you know what people call beings like you?”
“Hmm… a genius? A beautiful girl?”
“A monster.”
He spoke not with contempt or fear, but in a voice that conveyed a pure fact.
“You are not afraid of urban legends. You ‘use’ them. Skillfully, at that. You have gone beyond the category of an ordinary survivor. That talent of yours is… dangerous.”
Jeonggongbeop took a small notebook from his coat. It was damp with blood, but the contents seemed intact.
“‘Yuil Limited Company’ or the ‘Special Disaster Department’ are probably watching you. No, they may have already contacted you. They will try to use you. But before you join hands with them, I have a proposal.”
“What is it? Don’t tell me it’s a confession. I’m already taken.”
“Taken? What does that… No.”
Pressing hard against his forehead, Jeonggongbeop continued.
“I am offering you a position as an administrator—a blue mod—of the Urban Legend Survivor Gallery.”
“……Excuse me?”
This time, it was Han Yujin’s turn to be flustered. She stared at him with wide eyes.
“Wh-what are you offering me? A blue… mod?”
“That’s right. Your abnormal way of thinking and your ability to interpret rules would be a great help in operating the Gallery. Managing troll users, analyzing dangerous urban legends, verifying new procedure manuals… More than anything, the position of administrator could also guarantee your safety to some extent……”
“Wait, wait. Stop.”
Han Yujin raised a hand and cut him off. She looked as though she had truly just heard the most absurd thing in her entire life.
“Hey, mister. Are you telling me to become the Gallery’s ‘eraser’?”
“Rather than an eraser… it would be setting the Gallery’s order right…”
“Do I get a salary?”
“…There is no salary.”
“Benefits? Do you guarantee a four-day workweek? Paid leave? The four major insurances?”
“This isn’t a company, Han Yujin. Everyone voluntarily, for the sake of survival…”
“No, then why would I do it?”
Han Yujin wore an expression of genuine incomprehension.
“You want me to spend my precious time cleaning up other people’s shitposts, get cursed at for playing armband, and deal with trolls like me, all without getting paid? Are you insane? Who on earth would do something like that?”
“……”
Well, wasn’t Jeonggongbeop doing exactly that?
Han Yujin covered her mouth and burst into laughter.
“That’s so pitiful… Do you want to feel some kind of belonging or something? Do you want attention? Or are you just addicted to the Gallery? A lust for power? What is it, exactly?”
A vein stood out on Jeonggongbeop’s temple. He gritted his teeth and said,
“…Let’s go.”
He turned away as though she was no longer worth answering. The faint light of the subway station exit could be seen.
“Oh, right.”
Han Yujin called Jeonggongbeop to a stop.
“This is money I ripped off the newbie hunters.”
Han Yujin shook the heavy money bag for him to see.
The money she had earned by exchanging the crystals was ten million won.
The money she had earned from farming the newbie hunters was ten million won.
Han Yujin held out half of what she had taken from the hunters.
“Do you want half of this? Instead of ten pizzas.”
“…I don’t need it.”
“Come on, don’t refuse. You saved me, didn’t you? Think of it as a kind of labor fee. Buy yourself something good with it. It’s because I’m grateful, grateful.”
Han Yujin stubbornly shoved the money bag into his arms.
With hands that had not wavered even when he had searched corpses inside urban legends for days and obtained S-grade crystals, Jeonggongbeop accepted the five-million-won money bag.
“…This money.”
“What? Does it feel dirty? Come on, it’s not dirty money. They probably earned it by scamming newbies anyway, and money that came out of shit isn’t shit, right? Buy yourself some Häagen-Dazs with it.”
Han Yujin bounded lightly up the stairs.
At that, Jeonggongbeop hurriedly shouted.
“Wait! Are you all right mentally? PTSD, or anything frightening!”
Han Yujin whipped around at that, narrowed her eyes, and said,
“What? Are you looking down on me because I look like a woman? Do I look like the type who’d tremble in fear over something this minor?”
“No, that’s not what I…”
“I’m disappointed. I didn’t take you for that kind of person.”
“Wait, listen to me…”
Watching Jeonggongbeop fall into panic, Han Yujin curled up the corner of her mouth.
If it had been her original body, it would have been a nasty smirk, but in her changed body, even that was not a bad smile.
Showing her sharp canine teeth, she opened her mouth.
“I’m joking. You kept being so stiff, so I wondered if you could get flustered. Guess you’re not an anomaly. You don’t have to worry.”
Then she bowed her head, spun around, and waved.
“Thank you for helping me today! I’ll be going now!”
The slender back of a white-haired girl disappeared into the light of the exit.
It was an utterly refreshing and clean departure.
Left alone in the dark subway station, Jeonggongbeop looked back and forth between the five-million-won money bag in his hands and the stairs where the being he had just called a “monster” had vanished while humming.
◆
Han Yujin threw the money bag onto her bed and flopped down just like that.
“Haaaah, I’m dying.”
It had been exhausting, but the harvest did not seem bad.
She had dealt with the newbie hunters and gained money.
And above all, she had even obtained bait material in the form of a blue mod offer!
In the end, Han Yujin’s life began and ended with the Gallery.
And now that she had arrived home, it was time to do her “real work.”
As Han Yujin connected to the Gallery, the corners of her mouth naturally curled up.
— Looks like ㅇㅇ finally died lol [3]
— Probably getting toyed with by the newbie hunters, right? (photo) [17]
— Seriously, how is there not a single bastard worrying? [3]
— Smash rec if you honestly don’t believe ㅇㅇ is a girl [1]
“Hmm. Hmm.”
A hum came out of her on its own.
It was only natural to be happy when even a few comments were left on a post she had written in the Gallery.
But now, she hadn’t written anything, and yet the topic was rolling around about her?
An incredible thrill, like electricity crackling up and down her spine, washed over her.
“Hmm. But.”
Han Yujin quietly propped up her chin.
Somehow, there are more people unfairly bashing me now?
Users who hoped she was dead.
Bastards who were convinced she was an old hand.
There was even one who had already pronounced her dead.
All kinds of suspicion were overflowing.
Of course, enormous popularity was usually accompanied by equally enormous malice.
If this were an ordinary person,
—‘Huh! There are more people hating on me for no reason?!’
It would be normal to be startled and become gloomy.
But Han Yujin’s reaction was the exact opposite.
She smiled with her whole face and wiggled her fingers.
“I can’t let that stand.”
Han Yujin was, by nature, a mad fighting dog.
Her eyes glowed with an ominous red light.