Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Otherworld Cheat Harem.

Episode 4: Enlightenment (1).

“Hup!”

I swung down the wooden sword I had prepared, using all the muscles in my upper body to produce the fastest strike I could muster.

Whoosh!

The wooden sword cut through the air as it descended. I lifted it again and struck down once more.

I repeated this action dozens of times.

“Hoo…”

Breathing was crucial as well. With each swing, I exhaled. As long as the sword continued to swing relentlessly, my breathing also needed to remain uninterrupted.

Thwack!

As soon as I finished my morning training, I leaned on the wooden sword, panting heavily. I could feel that my stamina had decreased compared to when I was in the modern world.

‘Well, considering even the food here is different…’

Memories of the modern world flickered in my mind. If I could return, I would do so immediately, but surprisingly, I didn’t miss it much.

The others might have thought I was crazy if they knew, but surprisingly, this other world didn’t feel so bad.

-Cock-a-doodle-doo!

A rooster crowed, and the morning sun began to rise.

It had already been a month since we had fallen into this other world.

Many things had happened over the month. The biggest change was Hanyoung and his party leaving.

“Hey, Deokgu. Watch your back at night, yeah?”

With their first paycheck in hand, they grew cocky and declared their departure with the money. Naturally, Hanyoung was behind it all.

“Want to come with us?”

He offered the same to me, but I refused. What kind of idiot would willingly join a party with a bunch of shady men?

“Too bad… Hey, Deokgu. How about giving me some money?”

“Why should I?”

“Why? Because you’re alive thanks to me going down into the dungeon every day and hunting. Time to repay the favor.”

“What kind of nonsense…?”

“I’ll just take a quarter.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

As soon as Deokgu showed signs of fear, I stepped in between them. It was true that he had gone into the dungeon with us, but his presence didn’t make much of a difference.

“Most of the monsters were taken down by Seoyoon anyway. At best, you took out ten a day. That’s barely enough to cover a night’s lodging, you know?”

“Tch, fine. Then how about paying me back for saving your life the first time we met?”

I gave Deokgu a signal with my eyes.

“Give it to him.”

“What? No, why…!”

“Deokgu.”

“…Let’s not see each other again.”

Deokgu resisted, but soon gave up and took out some money. About a tenth of what he had saved up so far.

“Alright, take care.”

With the money in hand, Hanyoung left the party with the delinquents. Coincidence or not, it was true that he had saved our lives at one point.

However, it seemed he didn’t like that fact, as Deokgu started fuming and throwing a fit.

“Why did you give it to him?”

“Give what?”

“The money! Without me, he wouldn’t have made it out of the dungeon, let alone found a way to survive!”

“Do you really think that?”

I looked at him. He was weighing the pros and cons like a psychopath.

“Deokgu, if you only chase immediate gains, you’ll get burned.”

“…Yeah, sigh. I guess I have to endure it again, like before, huh?”

“That’s not what I meant, but… whatever.”

I had no intention of clearing up his misunderstanding. The thought of finding someone new to enter the dungeon with was already giving me a headache.

‘Three people could probably manage, but…’

What if, just what if…

Let’s assume that either Seoyoon or I got injured during the hunt.

Then, Eunha would have to carry either me or Seoyoon and run away. Meanwhile, the other would need to fend off any monsters.

But Eunha doesn’t look strong enough to even help someone stand, let alone carry them.

‘We definitely need one more person.’

We must minimize the risk. When I brought this up, Deokgu seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.

“…How about the Class President?”

“You know the Class President is the only healer, right? We’re done for if they get hurt.”

The Class President had the ability to restore inorganic and organic matter to its original state. They even treated Hanyoung using that ability.

But its flaw quickly became apparent: they couldn’t heal themself.

If the Class President would get hurt or die, we would lose our only healer. And then we’d have to use ridiculously expensive priests and potions.

For those of us living hand to mouth, such a large sum of money was out of the question.

“But we can’t just take the other kids. The ones left are…”

However, it was also awkward to take someone who wasn’t the Class President.

After Hanyoung and the delinquents left the party, only eight of us were left. Me, Deokgu, Seoyoon, and Eunha. The Class President and Han Gahee. Plus, the two girls who followed Gahee.

Gahee was currently singing on stage, and the two followers trailing her possessed abilities that were completely useless in battle.

“Deokgu, what if you go?”

“Me?”

“You won’t help in the fight, but there’s nothing for you to do upstairs anyway.”

“…Sorry, but I have something I must do.”

“Really?”

Now that I had somewhat adapted to this other world, I wanted to ask him what exactly someone with such useless abilities could be needed for. However, I kept my mouth shut.

‘Coward.’

He was right. He hadn’t changed one bit and was still a coward.

We headed for the dungeon again today.

We couldn’t take a break just because we were one person short, so the three of us decided to enter the dungeon.

The darkness of the dungeon had become so familiar that it now felt almost comforting. As we walked, I unfolded the map.

‘It seems like we can head to the second floor soon.’

After passing through the first floor, where goblins appeared, the second floor supposedly had a giant turtle called the King Turtle.

Yes, a turtle.

‘With Seoyoon here, there shouldn’t be any problem with the hunt.’

A quintessential cold-blooded creature, turtles were sensitive to temperature changes. With Seoyoon’s ice abilities, it should be an easy hunt.

Even if this turtle had received some otherworldly buff making it resistant to temperature changes, it wouldn’t matter.

It would still be easier than dealing with small, agile goblins.

“Shall we try going to the second floor today?”

“…Second floor?”

“Yeah. They say turtles appear there… We can earn a bit more money too.”

“As you wish.”

With Seoyoon and Eunha’s permission, I guided them to the second floor.

The path up to the fifth floor was so widespread that it could be obtained even in the marketplace, so thanks to Deokgu’s ability, I could easily figure it out.

‘Turn right here…’

After navigating the dimly lit dungeon paths, I spotted the stairs and signaled the others.

We climbed the stairs slowly. Each step felt like it was gnawing at my mind, though I couldn’t tell what they were made of.

When we finally reached the second floor, the King Turtle was waiting for us at the entrance.

Snap, our eyes met.

Swish, I immediately drew my sword.

The King Turtle fired spikes from its shell.

My body moved instinctively, deflecting the spikes and slashing at its head simultaneously.

Crunch!

“…That was surprising.”

Looking at the King Turtle, whose neck was severed and dead, I muttered softly. Eunha, hearing my words, let out a small laugh and retorted.

“You didn’t seem surprised at all…”

“I was surprised.”

Who would have thought a monster would be waiting at the entrance? And a turtle that could attack from a distance?

‘Why am I doing this here?’

While pondering that question, I suddenly heard the sound of something slicing through the air.

Whoosh!

Creak.

“Be careful.”

“…Thank you.”

I drew my sword and looked at the ice barrier that had formed in front of me. In the middle of the glass-like shield was a large spike embedded deeply.

It was slightly blunt, but sharp enough to pierce and kill someone. Especially at the speed it had just flown.

“No, what kind of turtle launches a ranged attack…?”

This wasn’t Pokémon. How does a turtle with spikes on its shell even shoot them out?

But whether it was realistic or not didn’t matter. The King Turtle slowly stretched its legs toward us.

Grooooaaah.

Seeing that, we let out a hollow laugh.

“…Slow.”

“Yeah. It’s slow.”

Its slowness made its spike-shooting ability understandable. Without it, survival would have been impossible.

Seoyoon reached out her hand toward the turtle that was slowly crawling like a baby.

The King Turtle squirmed briefly before stiffening and collapsing to its side.

It didn’t even have a chance to retreat into its supposedly hard shell. The sudden temperature drop had forced it into rapid hibernation.

“How is it?”

“Hmm… seems fine.”

She said, spreading her hands wide. Thin threads of ice shot out from her palms.

“Get ready to collect the mana stones.”

The moment she said that, the temperature inside the dungeon dropped below freezing.

The price for the King Turtle was one daedonghwa1 per turtle. Roughly equivalent to ten thousand won.

While its value was about 20% higher than a goblin’s, the actual earnings were lower.

‘There aren’t many of them…’

Goblins moved in groups of dozens. That meant wiping them out could yield dozens of mana stones at once.

But King Turtles didn’t behave like that. Even if there were several in the area, only one would ever appear at a time.

‘Do we go higher? Or should we go back to hunting goblins?’

If money was the priority, returning to goblin hunting made sense. But what was the reason we came to the second floor in the first place?

Wasn’t it because we lacked the manpower to hunt effectively in the dungeon? Thinking about that…

‘This isn’t something I can decide on my own.’

Having made that decision, I went straight to find Deokgu. Cowardly as he was, and as useless as his ability had become…

He still knew the most among us.

“Hey, Deokgu…”

“Uh, uh! What?!”

“…Did I interrupt you?”

As I entered the room, Deokgu, who had his back turned with his pants down, hurriedly gathered his clothes and put them on.

A moment later, and I would’ve been scarred for life.

“We’re back.”

“Oh, really? Good job.”

“You said you had something to do; well, that’s something only you can do.”

I understood that his frustration had built up. Asking a high school boy to hold out for a whole month was a tall order.

But since he was already in this world, I felt like telling him to stop dealing with it alone and find himself a woman.

“It’s not like you don’t have money. Prostitution’s legal here, you know. Why not visit a brothel or something?”

“…Doing it with a prostitute is a bit…”

“Why? Whether you’re a virgin or not, no one would care.”

“…Then, want to go together?”

“What?”

Deokgu proposed to me in return.

“I’ll go if you come with me.”

“Hmm…”

It made sense that he’d be nervous. Prostitution was a crime back in Korea, and being the only man in a group full of women, he wouldn’t want the stigma of going to a brothel by himself.

It seemed like he wanted to offload some of that burden by convincing another man to come along.

‘Should I go?’

I said I would go with him, partly to test my abilities.

Truthfully, I was just curious.

Who wouldn’t be? What kind of beings were prostitutes in another world, anyway?

TL/N: Currency ↩️