Ch.120120 – Cheonggyecheon Urban Legend 1

# 120 – Cheonggyecheon Ghost Stories #1

July’s heat is truly fierce.

This summer was especially hot, to the point where sweat would stream down if the air conditioner wasn’t running.

And of course, our home’s air conditioner had broken down, so the airflow was completely ineffective.

“Hey, get the AC fixed quickly. Why is your house so hot?”

Yang Juhui, sprawled out in a spread-eagle position on my floor, poked at me with her foot as I sat at my computer desk.

Yang Juhui naturally had a high body temperature.

With someone like her in my room, it was bound to get even hotter.

“If you’re that hot, go back to your own house.”

“What are you saying? My house doesn’t have an air conditioner.”

Who would have thought there’d be a house without air conditioning in this sweltering heat wave with an average temperature of 34 degrees?

That in itself was a nightmare.

“Can’t you draw an air conditioner from your Status Window? Or withdraw 100 points and install an air conditioner at my house? Honestly, you could do that much for me, right?”

Yang Juhui urged me to use my Status Window’s drawing or withdrawal functions.

I decided to open my Status Window and take a quick look at the situation.

『Name: Ha Yeongwon Lv.5

Traits: 《The Broken Clock》 《Holding Breath》 《Strong Heart》 《Trait Enhancement》

Quirk:

Funds: 1324 Points

Description: Time that had been stopped for a long while has started moving again. Inevitably experiencing various events and growing, you fear yet simultaneously look forward to what will happen next.』

『Shop ◀ Click to open』

『Clinic ◀ Click to open』

『Training Ground ◀ Click to open』

『Mercenary Corps ◀ Click to open』

Currently, I had 1324 points.

In addition to earning a lot of points at the Cheon family mansion a few days ago, just yesterday I went through the corridor with Yu Dahui and Kwon Sua, making it a three-person team.

It was to update Yu Dahui and Kwon Sua’s Status Windows.

The character sheets we acquired were as follows:

「Name: Yu Dahui Lv.5

Trait: 《Elegance》

Disposition: Innocent

Quirk: None

Possession: Lucky Paper Crane

A rich young lady who seems to have jumped out of a story. She enjoys playing pranks and creating and keeping secrets. This girl will be a surprisingly excellent companion in crisis situations that are greater than usual.」

「《Elegance》: Able to maintain dignity at all times. Ignores the negative effects of 《Quirks》. However, death from stacked quirks remains unchanged.」

「Lucky Paper Crane: A paper crane folded neatly with someone’s heart. It tracks nearby divine images and talismans. Being a very rare tool, finding one can be considered lucky.」

Dahui had a trait called 《Elegance》 which had the effect of ignoring the influence of ‘quirks.’

So that’s why Dahui could continue living normally without any problems even after being devoured by the Woman in Red.

As a side note, after dying to the Woman in Red, the quirk Dahui had was 《Guilt》, but I put her in the clinic and removed it.

Also, Dahui always had the “Paper Crane” item, which came with an additional explanation that it was a difficult item to find.

Besides the one Dahui had, there was a hint that if you rummaged through drawers or lockers in the corridor itself, you might acquire a paper crane with a very slim chance.

「《The Broken Clock》’s advice: All drawers, desks, and boxes in the corridor may contain various tools.」

「Tools are generated and deleted at regular intervals. Find various tools for survival.」

“I see.”

I also put Dahui in the training facility.

Dahui’s training list looked like this:

『Yu Dahui – Training List!』

『Drawing 21/100 times』

『Folding Paper Cranes 121/1000 pieces』

『Reward: 《Whisper》』

『《Whisper》: Able to speak with a mysterious voice.』

Dahui’s training reward was 《Whisper》, which allows her to speak with a mysterious voice, but honestly, I wasn’t sure what that meant.

Still, it’s probably better than having no trait at all.

Let’s look at Kwon Sua’s Status Window.

「Name: Kwon Sua Lv.3

Trait: 《Attention Grabbing》

Disposition: Carefree

Quirk: None

Possession: None

A girl who receives attention just by existing. The problem is that negative things also like to focus on this pitiful girl. What can this girl do?」

「《Attention Grabbing》: Innate charisma that cannot be acquired through effort. Can unreasonably steal the attention and focus of surrounding beings.」

Attention Grabbing.

When Kwon Sua saw this, she said, “It’s a taunt skill. It increases aggro from enemies.”

It was a skill that wouldn’t be strange for warriors who tank damage in RPG games to have.

It was a trait that suited Kwon Sua well, who had received the attention and interest of many people while working as an idol.

In reality, Kwon Sua had something that unreasonably stole people’s attention. I knew it well because I’d experienced it several times.

It easily breaks people’s will, I tell you.

For reference, Kwon Sua’s training ground looked like this:

『Kwon Sua – Training List!』

『Singing 100/100 times』

『Dancing 750/1000 times』

『Reward: 《Flexible Body》』

『《Flexible Body》: The body becomes extremely flexible. Can squeeze into any space where the head can fit.』

Flexible Body.

It was a cat-like trait, good for hiding here and there.

Traits that increase physical abilities are always at least halfway useful.

Let’s get back to the air conditioner conversation with Yang Juhui after checking the Status Window.

“There’s a lot I can do with points, so if I withdraw them recklessly, Jeongseok will get angry again.”

Not long ago, I was so hungry that I converted points to money and ordered chicken.

I also bought summer clothes and new sneakers.

But Jeongseok got angry, saying, “Hey, points have value that can’t be converted to money!”

He was such a strict guy.

Under Jeongseok’s assertion, we were planning to collect a ton of points during this vacation.

Now that we knew 《The Broken Clock》 could turn back time by consuming 100P, the more points we had, the better.

By the way, we recently discovered through experimentation that time doesn’t rewind inside the Nightmare Corridor.

That was unfortunate, but finding out how to create save points was fortunate in its own way.

「《The Broken Clock》’s advice: You can save time by taking and developing photographs.」

「Saved points can be canceled by destroying the photograph.」

「When loading saved time, the most recent photograph takes priority.」

Taking a physical photograph.

That was the method to determine the point to return to when rewinding time.

《The Broken Clock》 provided various pieces of advice like this.

It consumed 10P per piece of advice, but the number of times was no longer limited.

“Ugh, it’s too hot to stay here any longer. Hey! I’m leaving!”

“What? Where are you going? We were supposed to all meet at our hideout later. You know we’re all going to Seoul tomorrow, right?”

“I can’t go to Seoul. I’m meeting Gong Yerin and Lim Huiyeon today. Probably tomorrow too.”

Yang Juhui had recently started meeting with Gong Yerin and Lim Huiyeon.

Actually, Yang Juhui didn’t want to meet them, but I asked her to.

“Juhui, they don’t remember us, right?”

“No, they don’t. If they remembered, they’d also remember how I beat them up. If they were in their right mind, they wouldn’t ask to go to a cafe with me.”

That makes sense.

Wang Jahyeon and his group were the biggest unknown factor in my recent corridor conquests.

I should be careful.

# # #

The Yeongji Foundation Human Resources Development Center, where Teacher Hong Miri’s office was located.

That’s where our pirate crew’s hideout was.

“Let’s put the refrigerator here.”

I was focused on decorating our hideout, which was about 10 pyeong (roughly 33 square meters) in size.

There’s no man who isn’t interested in setting up his own secret base.

Right now, the empty space only had a round table, chairs, and a refrigerator, but the thought of gradually adding more furniture made my whole body tingle with excitement.

“If we put a sofa here and a computer over there, it would be perfect.”

It would be no problem to buy things like sofas or computers if we withdrew points for money. But Jeongseok would get angry if we converted points to money.

So we decided to gradually increase our equipment through second-hand transactions using our allowances.

“How about asking the Chairman for help?”

Jeongseok, who had helped me move the refrigerator from the first floor to here, asked me.

“He’s your paternal grandfather, right?”

“Hmm…”

I had only told Jeongseok that the Chairman of the Yeongji Foundation was my paternal grandfather.

It was because of the “Monkey’s Paw” incident that happened before.

To be precise, rather than me telling him, Jeongseok guessed, “Only the Chairman’s family members could have made wishes, so how did you do it, Ha Yeongwon?” and then figured it out on his own.

“If the Chairman really is your grandfather, you wouldn’t need to live in a house with a broken air conditioner, right?”

The Cheon family was wealthy.

It was only natural that with such a rich grandfather, one wouldn’t need to suffer in the heat.

But Mom and Dad had hidden from me until now that I had a wealthy grandfather.

I hadn’t asked Mom about my grandfather yet either.

“I think there’s a reason why Mom and Dad have kept my grandfather a secret from me until now. And honestly, the Chairman isn’t someone who can be trusted. It’s better not to have debts if possible.”

The Chairman who terribly transformed his younger brother with the Monkey’s Paw out of jealousy.

If he had said to the paw, “Return my brother to his original state,” his brother who had turned into a monster might have returned to normal.

But the Chairman didn’t do that.

Would a person who ruins even his twin brother, who is like his other self, for his own greed, suddenly show affection to a grandson who appeared out of nowhere? When there’s no bond at all?

I didn’t think so.

“If we reach out to him, we’ll only end up in debt and be used. It’s better if we solve what we can with our own hands.”

“I think so too. I don’t consider the Chairman an ally either. I was worried you might get carried away with having a prestigious grandfather backing you, but I’m surprised at how level-headed you are.”

“The only ones I can really trust are you guys. Actually, why aren’t the others coming? I know Juhui can’t come because she’s meeting Gong Yerin, but what about Sua and Dahui?”

Only Jeongseok and I were in this spacious room.

“We decided to go to Seoul today, right? It should have been discussed in the group chat.”

“Right. According to Seyeon, the Cheonggyecheon area in Seoul has been really noisy lately.”

“Jeongseok, do you think it’s true that they’re selling dinosaurs at Cheonggyecheon?”

“I don’t know. That’s why we need to go check it out.”

The Cheonggyecheon animal market was famous for selling various things, but recently, the number of people claiming to have seen ‘dinosaurs’ on social media had increased.

It could just be a baseless rumor, but if it was true… it meant I might be able to get my hands on a real dinosaur.

“I need to get my hands on a dinosaur ghost no matter what.”

“Ah, damn, it’s hot! So hot!”

Just then, someone burst through the door.

It was Bong Jiyeon, who hadn’t been seen for the past few days.

Dahui was also beside her.

“Yeongwon, Seok. Hello.”

Me, Yu Dahui, Jeongseok, Bong Jiyeon—

In conclusion, we ended up going to Seoul as a four-person party.