Chapter 180 Grape Jam (3)
Yoon-seok smacked his lips. An 8th-floor mission challenger? Well, it was probably a fierce climb up the Tower…
‘This is getting annoying.’
To be honest, there was nothing to feel good about from beating a small fry, and there was nothing to gain either. He didn’t know how this happened, but he just wanted it to end soon. They stood face to face with their weapons drawn.
“…The summoned pet uses dual swords?”
“Growl!”
“Are you trying to imitate him?”
The man facing off against Asura jeered at Yoon-seok. He didn’t know who he was talking about, but Yoon-seok hoped he wasn’t talking about him.
“I’m sorry, but I won’t go easy on you!”
“Growl!”
The confrontation began. The man who offered to use one sword for the sake of fairness made the first attack.
Whoosh!
His blow cleaved from top to bottom. Asura, who crossed both swords to block him, suddenly tilted its head. Yoon-seok felt he knew the reason. Probably, contrary to his expectations, he was too weak. He just blocked the attack, but his foe bounced away. He did quickly regain his feet, at least.
“Is the summoned pet’s main specialty strength? It’ll be dangerous if I get hit.”
“…Growl?”
“Unless we do not have a head-to-head match.”
The challenger moved in a zigzag as he rushed Asura. Was he an agility-specialized challenger? He appeared confident in his speed, but…
‘Why am I doing this?’
Yoon-seok was ashamed, and guilt was beginning to blossom in his heart. Even though he was bluffing, his nature couldn’t be considered bad. But, this incident would also serve a lesson that he shouldn’t look down on his opponents.
‘It feels like I’m doing something bad..’
It felt like he was bullying the weak. But when he thought he should come up with an excuse to stop this, Asura read the man’s movements and stretched his sword forward accordingly. His attack harmonized the principles of strongness and gentleness, though it wasn’t even laced with energy.
‘…That’s Heavenly Reign?’
Practice makes perfect. Did he perhaps learn from watching it? He saw faint signs of black waves forming at the end of the sword. If an 8th-floor mission challenger were hit by that, he would disappear.
Yoon-seok urgently sent sonic casting to Asura.
—Stop. Don’t do it. Just get hit.
“Growl?”
As soon as Asura stopped, his magic scattered meaninglessly in the air. The next moment, his foe’s sword hit Asura’s chest.
Clang!
It sounded like steel crashing into steel. Yoon-seok quickly issued a series of orders.
—Fall dramatically and pretend to be in pain as much as possible.
Standing blankly like a telephone pole, Asura started to lay awkwardly on the floor and wriggle mechanically.
“Growl! Ggrr!”
—Nice, then miniaturize from here.
Asura became smaller, according. The opponent had an expression that said ‘Huh?’ the entire time.
“Did I win?”
Soon after realizing his victory, a bright smile tugged at his lips, and he approached Yoon-seok.
“His strength isn’t that bad, but that’s about it.”
“…”
“Plus, this is also a problem. Even if the opponent is me, how can he be neutralized by just one attack? If you don’t solve this problem somehow, you won’t be able to ascend further. That’s how the Tower is.”
“…”
That’s how the Tower was… listening to him speak, he was no professor. Yoon-seok moved on from his advice, picked up Asura, and put him away. Although he complied, Asura looked somewhat dissatisfied.
“Then, I’ll be going down.”
“Yes. Thank you for your help.”
With the instructor’s thanks, Yoon-seok returned to Seat 34. Lee Su-yeon was sitting there watching. She would’ve felt the magic that Asura was trying to pull out, and he was sure she would’ve noticed that he lost on purpose. Yoon-seok pondered for a while.
“…”
Grape Jam’s rating was SS-. He didn’t know what extraordinary abilities she had. Furthermore, whether it was his previous life or a parallel universe, his memory had revealed she had something to hide. That was why he approached it more carefully. But after going through these troublesome things, he knew for sure.
This wasn’t his way of doing things. Whatever his opponent’s cards were, Yoon-seok approached openly.
“Aren’t you curious?”
Lee Su-yeon frowned.
“What?”
“I thought you’d be curious at this point. Whether I know who you are or not.”
Only then did Lee Su-yeon’s poker face collapse. For a moment, her eyes trembled with confusion. But…
“I don’t know what you’re saying, and I’m not curious.”
Was this still not enough? Still, she didn’t take the bait. Yoon-seok shrugged.
“Really? But I’m curious. Why did a ranker hiding her identity come and bump into my shoulder?”
Lee Su-yeon bit her lips slightly. Only after staring at Yoon-seok for a long time did she reply with a sigh.
“I wanted to make sure you are Choi Yoon-seok.”
“You wanted to make sure it was me…?”
This was a more interesting answer than he thought.
“Let’s go out first.”
“Let’s do that.”
Lee Su-yeon and Yoon-seok quietly stood and left the lecture hall. They both hid their tracks and moved secretly, so no one in the hall noticed.
“Follow me.”
Lee Su-yeon guided Yoon-seok to the rooftop. Some challengers came out to rest, but the rooftop of this spacious building was decorated like a garden, so he didn’t worry too much about any onlookers.
“Let’s ask our questions one by one. I have a lot of questions for you, too.”
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After sitting on the bench, Lee Su-yeon firmly spoke. Yoon-seok nodded. He didn’t know what she was so curious about, but he thought he could find out something new. But before that, he had something to do first.
‘Death God.’
Yoon-seok first registered Lee Su-yeon’s name on the list and then quickly read the information written.
「Lee Su-yeon.」
17 years old. Nickname, Grape Jam. Affiliated universe, Earth. And a 21st-floor duel challenger.
“Weakness? What’s this all of a sudden?”
“I don’t intend to fight. I just want to clarify one thing.”
“What kind of nonsense…”
“Looks like your name and age are real.”
In response to Yoon-seok’s answer, Lee Su-yeon realized that a skill with a method of information collection was used.
“Isn’t it cowardly to say ‘let’s ask each other questions’ and do this without asking?”
As she said, it was, but it couldn’t be helped. Registering the list just now wasn’t solely for basic information collection.
*Rank C – Regardless of the distance, you will appear behind the subject’s back registered in the list and give the first blow with the unavoidable characteristic.
It was a minimum amount of insurance, just in case.
“I’m sorry. There’s no way I can compensate you for this, but I’ll let you ask first.”
Lee Su-yeon laughed, struck momentarily speechless by Yoon-seok’s apology.
“…Has your personality always been this unpleasant?”
“Is this a question?”
“No. Ah, this isn’t even a joke. Forget it. I’ll just use one item before I ask you a question. There’s nothing to be wary of. Unless you’re trying to lie.”
With Yoon-seok’s shrug, Lee Su-yeon took out a piece of paper and tore it.
「Strong Trust is activated.」
「Challenger Choi Yoon-seok and Lee Su-yeon cannot tell any lies for 10 minutes.」
「Would you like to accept this?」
「If both sides do not respond, Strong Trust will be canceled.」
Even without this, Yoon-seok could see through lies. But if he didn’t respond to this, it meant he would give up on this conversation.
‘No way. I didn’t know something like this existed.’
When Yoon-seok responded to the condition with a smile, Strong Trust was triggered. Yoon-seok quietly waited for her first question.
“Did you know who I was after I bumped into you? Or was it before that?”
It was a little far from what he expected. He thought she’d ask something else because her identity had already been discovered, but this was the question. It appeared meaningless on the surface, but that was why it was even more suspicious.
Yet as long as he was asked a question, he had to answer.
“It was after.”
When he replied, Lee Su-yeon nodded slowly. He didn’t know what was so important about this answer, but she looked somewhat relieved.
“It’s my turn now. Why were you curious about me?”
Yoon-seok did not ask why she bumped into him. The answer to this was already given by her earlier. Of course, there were constraints at the time, but Yoon-seok knew that the answer was true.
Lee Su-yeon calmly answered.
“Because I doubted it might be the real you.”
He felt dejected. He thought there would be a secret, but it was based on her feelings?
“Was it just a feeling?”
“We decided to ask questions one by one, but I’ll answer this one anyway. It felt like that. I was far from being sure; there was no basis.”
The first question was wasted. He wanted to ask a few new things, but unfortunately, it was her turn to ask again.
“How did you find out about my identity after bumping into me?”
“It was thanks to the other effects of this skill I used on you earlier.”
Yoon-seok pointed to the book still floating beside him because he hadn’t decided on a death cause yet.
“In short, you realized it thanks to this information-type of skill?”
“We decided to ask one question at a time… but yes. Well, that’s right.”
He wasn’t lying. It was the same for registering someone on the list and gaining back forgotten memories. In a way, b Death God} could also be classified as an information collection type.
After answering, Yoon-seok realized that, in a way, this sounded like a conversation with Elle. Telling the truth but not the whole truth. It was possible to cleverly deceive the other person with this.
‘Maybe that’s what the previous answer was like.’
Yes and No. In the future, Yoon-seok decided to ask questions that only required such answers. But then.
“I’ve solved all my problems now. So ask your questions carefully. I’m not going to answer anything else.”
Lee Su-yeon drew the line. Had she resolved everything with those two questions? Were they so important she had to ask with this item active? They didn’t seem so important, but that was why…
“The fact that your mother liked grape jam. Is that the only reason why you set it as your nickname?”
He threw out new bait. If she was done with her questions, he just had to make new ones.
“How did you…”
Even when he said he knew who she was, her eyes only shook for a moment. But what a strong reaction this brought.
“Can you answer my question first?”
Yoon-seok acted as if nothing had happened. The only important thing now was to create questions for her to ask.
“Yes, that’s right. But how do you know that?”
As Yoon-seok intended, Lee Su-yeon asked a new question. However, what he didn’t expect was the huge fish he had caught with his simple prodding.
“Did you come back, too?”
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It took him some time to understand the question’s intent. After understanding, he felt his skin prickle. If he hadn’t seen a similar Unique Power to this, or he hadn’t experienced the pocket watch, he wouldn’t have believed it.
“I mean, you said you knew after I bumped into you. But how…?”
Nickname, Grape Jam. Real name, Lee Su-yeon.
For her, Yoon-seok’s present was the past.