The way ‘sun’ (태양) and ‘sun’ (해) sound different but mean the same thing —
for him, ‘watching’ and ‘contribution’ sounded different but meant the same thing.
He’d just asked Seo I-an whether she thought she could clear the Floor 41 boss today, mentioning that he wanted to watch.
She’d answered with eyes full of resolve.
“No. Even if I could clear it today, I’m not planning to.”
“Why not? Isn’t clearing it better than not? The community says levels are everything for Awakened.”
Source: the Awakened Community.
Which was exactly why so many Awakened deliberately ran the floor just below their personal record on repeat — to grind levels.
“Levels are everything? Bunny — are you by any chance on the Community?”
She saw right through him and asked.
“No. I just pick things up from people.”
He denied it immediately.
An NPC on the Community?
That would be strange.
Her eyes narrowed slightly — but.
“Well, I guess meeting a lot of people means hearing a lot of things.”
She accepted it, more or less.
Either way, Seo I-an had said she was willing to give up the gains from clearing the boss today because there was something else she wanted to do.
And she hadn’t forgotten to remind him — she needed the exact same items as today, by tomorrow, without fail.
But why does she need the Invisibility Elixir?
He’d been about to ask, but she woke the boss before he could.
Well. I’ll find out soon enough.
And so, the following day.
Floor 41. Forest of the Giant.
He stepped in, immediately put on the rabbit mask, and started looking around.
The items Seo I-an had asked for by today were all craftable on Floor 41, so he planned to gather them here.
He got everything made, and was just about to go looking for Seo I-an when——
“Looking for something? Need a hand?”
A voice appeared suddenly from behind his head.
“You scared me! Give some warning before you appear!”
“Sorry. Anyway, Bunny. I’m in a bit of a rush today — do me a favor. Just get everything out fast.”
“Hm?”
Was that a request or a threat?
Total cognitive dissonance.
“UGHHHHH——”
She was actually in a rush. Seo I-an stamped her feet and dropped something onto the ground — thud.
A lump of TC she’d brought pre-prepared, slammed down as she pushed him along.
Fine — calling it a request, not a threat.
But——
“This is way too much.”
Like, seriously too much.
He hadn’t come here to sell the whole house.
“I put in more than enough — keep the excess as a deposit, and if it’s not enough just put the rest on a tab! Bunny, come on, hurry — I’m really in a rush!”
Why such urgency?
He blinked rapidly twice.
[Seo I-an Status Screen]
— Currently very urgent!
Confirmed: not exaggerating.
Oh…… does she need to use the bathroom?!
The thought followed naturally.
That’s definitely a bathroom situation.
And he was now convinced.
He started moving quickly, determined to protect the dignity of a fellow human being.
He’d accepted the deposit already anyway — nothing holding him back.
“Thanks as always!”
She took the items and removed her helmet, handing it to him.
She seemed to want him to hold it, so he took it.
She started doping — pre-loading the capsule recovery potions into both cheeks, ready to bite down if needed.
“You already finished all the regular mobs?”
The regular mobs had to be cleared before the boss appeared.
He hadn’t heard a single mob getting cut down while he was gathering.
Which was why he asked — and got back a simple:
“No.”
“Then why are you doping already?”
“You’ll see.”
She smiled lightly and immediately started downing the elixirs he’d just sold her. One after another, no pause.
All-Stats, then Boss Damage, then Invisibility.
Continuous, without stopping.
The amount looked like it would fill her up.
Thud.
The last empty bottle hit the ground.
Her entire body went translucent.
Since he was a Hidden Party Member, it seemed she still registered to his eyes.
“Bunny.”
“Yes?”
“You said before you wanted to watch me take down the boss, right? Stay and watch. I’ll give you a show.”
She snatched her helmet back from his hands.
Pressing it firmly onto her head, the eyes visible through the visor curved in a self-assured arc.
That night.
Something unprecedented happened in Korea.
[Tower (Korea) Floor 41 record change!]
— 1st place: Seo I-an. 4 minutes 21 seconds 08.
— 2nd place: Hong Je-hun. 42 minutes 02 seconds 24.
A completely impossible record had just been set.
[Title] Is Seo I-an literally flying around in the Tower?
[Author] Anonymous22
— Under five minutes, what on earth?
└ [Anonymous1] Even with the rabbit showing up that doesn’t add up
└ [Anonymous22] Right. Even if she just went straight for the boss that time wouldn’t happen
└ [BunnyIsWooWooCute] At this point I’m pretty sure Seo I-an kidnapped the rabbit
And at that moment.
Seo I-an, who had just taken down the Floor 41 boss, and Woo-joo, who had watched the whole thing through to the end, were inside the Floor 41 Tower together when they heard the notification.
Wait, where’s Ragcho? Why haven’t I been pulled into the blue room yet?!
Something that should have happened wasn’t happening.
Something that had always happened wasn’t occurring.
It had never been like this before.
He was looking around in vague unease when——
“YESSS!! BUNNY!!!”
Seo I-an called his name with her face bright as sunlight and came sprinting toward him.
With the helmet blocking everything but her eyes, somehow the fact that the corners of her mouth had gone through the roof was still completely obvious.
“Why can’t you touch merchants! Times like this call for at minimum a high five!!”
She reached him and started stamping in frustration.
“Congratulations.”
“AAAARGH——!!!”
She was so happy her whole body was shaking.
The seams of the silver armor vibrated along with her, producing a bright, cheerful clinking sound.
“Don’t you need to step out?”
Someone who had been in that much of a rush?
He asked out of genuine concern for her situation. She replied——
“Hm? Why would I?”
“Weren’t you in a hurry for… something urgent?”
He’d steered around saying bathroom out of respect for her dignity.
“The urgent business finished just now.”
“Sorry?”
“Anyway, Bunny! This Invisibility Elixir — it’s an absolute game-changer. Got any more?”
“An Invisibility Elixir of all things? ……Oh!”
Only then did he catch on to what Seo I-an had done.
And he was genuinely impressed.
For reference — as a Hidden Party Member, he could see the quests the floor’s owner received.
Seo I-an’s Floor 41 quest: eliminate all Rainbow Spirits, then travel to the heart of the forest, pull the Red Ruby from the World Tree, and defeat the boss mob that appeared.
Standard Tower quest structure.
Clear the regular mobs first, then deal with the boss that followed.
In the normal order, you’d work your way through the Rainbow Spirits stationed along the path to the forest heart, taking them out as you went.
But she hadn’t taken the conventional route.
She’d made her own shortcut.
Turned herself invisible with the Invisibility Elixir.
Sprinted straight to the heart of the forest with nothing in her way.
Once there — instead of pulling the Red Ruby from the World Tree, she tapped it.
The Spirits startled and came flooding in.
Every color of the rainbow converging from every direction.
“I was genuinely so sick of picking them off one by one — doesn’t this feel SO much better when they all come at once?!”
She grinned savagely and called out.
She drew her longsword, condensed sword aura along the blade until it was dense and crackling, and let it fly like lightning.
Apparently, the more targets you had, the more satisfying an AoE skill felt to use.
And the result of that was the record Seo I-an had just set on Floor 41.
Average clear time: around an hour. Fast runs came in at around 40 minutes.
She’d demolished all of that — by drinking every elixir the moment she got them and sprinting.
All within the five-minute window the elixirs lasted.
Her urgency the moment they met made sense now. It had nothing to do with a bathroom.
“No stock right now, but I’ll set some aside when I have it.”
If Seo I-an was using the Invisibility Elixir for faster clears, there was no reason for him to refuse.
Faster clears meant higher rewards.
With the same contribution percentage, shorter clear time meant a bigger share for him — that was obvious.
“Sure. And don’t sell any to Hong Je-hun. Okay?”
The name came out of nowhere.
They were currently swapping the top two spots back and forth — she probably wanted to keep a strategic edge.
A deeply competitive person.
But just as fast a grower.
He didn’t dislike her entirely — but personal feelings were personal feelings, and business was business.
“A wandering merchant can’t turn away customers. But I’ll always make sure to hold your share back first.”
“Hmm……”
She didn’t look happy about it. Her eyes went flat for a moment — but she relented.
“Well, if that’s how it is, I can’t do much about it.”
She shrugged and kept going.
“But if you’re looking for both of us at the same time, you come to me first. Okay?”
“Sorry?”
“The advance deposit?”
Seo I-an curled her fingers into a circle.
She had a point.
Which was why he currently had a lot of TC sitting with him.
“Wouldn’t it be better to burn through it as fast as possible?”
“You put down the deposit specifically for this, didn’t you?!”
“Well — among other reasons.”
She grinned.
He’d assumed from appearances that she was the kind of person who relied on raw power. But look at her actually using her head.
Never judge people by appearances. A deep lesson, learned today.
“Oh come on, don’t you like spending time with me more than with anyone else?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Where did she get that kind of confidence from. He shrugged back at her in response. Then——
“Really? I like spending time with you.”
“Whoa. That came out of nowhere.”
“What, did I sweep you off your feet?”
Snicker.
She started laughing, easy and unbothered.
That harmless laugh made the fact that the Tower run was genuinely over feel real.
Even though he still hadn’t seen Ragcho yet.
“But where is Vehr?!”
Having laughed for a while, she suddenly started looking for someone called ‘Vehr.’
And then — out of thin air — an enormous Doberman appeared from somewhere, with yellow text floating above its head that read: Tower Merchant Vehr.
“Speak of the devil. Vehr! Why are you so late today?”
“Had some things going on, woof. Anyway, go collect your reward, woof!”
……Right.
He knew all Tower Merchants added something like -nya or -woof to the end of their sentences.
But he was never going to do that himself.
Wandering merchants didn’t add weird sounds at the end of sentences.
He’d decided that from the very beginning, and by now it had been long enough to qualify as customary law.
“……Still no weapons.”
“What am I supposed to do about inventory, woof?!”
Vehr barked back unrepentantly.
The attitude on that one.
A dead ringer for its customer.
“Vehr! I’m not asking you to bring a matched set, I’m asking for even just one — is that really so hard?!”
Seo I-an raised her voice to match, not backing down.
“Weapons get rarer to find the higher the floor goes, woof!”
At that — whoosh.
Seo I-an’s head snapped toward him.
Why are you looking at me?
“The wandering merchant doesn’t carry them either.”
He hadn’t gotten a single weapon from inside a Tower so far.
The light bowgun he was currently using had been rented from the Association.
“Preorder, same as before?”
“If any blade-type comes through, I’ll set it aside.”
He wouldn’t have any use for melee weapons anyway.
“Alright.”
All business apparently concluded, she——
“Bye then, Bunny and Vehr! See you next time~!”
Waved her hand broadly back and forth.
And after that——
“Hewwo~.”
He was pulled into the blue room where Ragcho was waiting.
“Ragcho! I met another Tower Merchant today.”
Ears and tail bolt upright — watching Vehr bark at Seo I-an and then looking over at Ragcho with her ears perked and tail gently swaying made the contrast feel almost angelic.
“It seems that way-nya. Woo-joo-nim smells like Vehr-nya.”
Ragcho came close and sniffed briefly, then named exactly who he’d met.
“Do Tower Merchants know each other?”
“Obviously-nya. We pick up our stock from the same place every day, so even if we didn’t want to meet, we’d have no choice-nya.”
So they restocked rather than made things. Like actual merchants.
“That Vehr seemed to have quite a temper.”
The image of Vehr barking straight at Seo I-an was still fresh in his mind.
Entirely unintimidated. In that fearless Doberman he’d seen something almost admirable.
“That’s because Awakened Seo I-an has a fiery personality-nya. Tower Merchants are assigned to match the temperament of their customer-nya.”
“Oh…… then what about me?”
Ragcho responded to his question with a warm, eyes-only smile.
……In good conscience, he couldn’t think it was his cuteness that had gotten him Ragcho.
Probably just meant he had a generally easygoing personality.
Anyway.
“Ragcho — today I wasn’t pulled in here right after the boss went down. Did something happen?”
He asked directly.
Normally, the moment the boss was defeated — not even a moment to think did it go down? — he’d immediately find himself in this blue room.
But today, even after Seo I-an took down the boss.
Even while she met with the Tower Merchant and wrapped things up — he hadn’t been brought here.
He’d only arrived the moment she left the Tower.
“That’s partly because of Woo-joo-nim-nya.”
“Why?”
“A Tower has never been cleared this fast before-nya. So calculating the reward took a little longer-nya.”
“Oh? Does that mean the reward’s going to be better?”
Shorter time to clear = higher reward.
Common knowledge.
Ragcho rose to two feet and puffed out her chest with unmistakable pride.
“Obviously-nya! Now go collect your reward-nya.”
Utterly dependable.
A smile rose on his face before he even noticed.
He pressed his finger to the Floor 41 Reward Basket, his chest pleasantly full of anticipation.