Ch.7225. The Beginning of the Cooperation Mission (1)

The minivan heading to Paju.

For the past few days, Yuri had been incredibly busy without a moment’s rest. This was a crucial mission that would determine Flame Guild’s future direction.

Although they were an advance team rather than an assault team, they needed to be thoroughly prepared for their reconnaissance of Zone A.

‘Equipment, gear, and condition thresholds are all perfect.’

Fortunately, both Yuri herself and Soso were fine, despite their thresholds having fluctuated recently.

‘For this mission, the Association set strict threshold cutoffs.’

They were using precision equipment capable of overcoming mana and magical interference—the latest technology from national research institutes cooperating with the Association for this dungeon recording.

‘But such severe noise interference means…’

The magical energy in the territorialized dungeon far exceeds normal levels. If they had entered with low thresholds, their MCI would immediately reach maximum levels.

That would mean receiving the dungeon’s curse directly without any resistance, making it impossible to carry out the mission normally.

‘But our guild’s operator is excellent, so there was no problem.’

Thanks to Minsu and the information team’s cooperation, Flame Guild’s thresholds were being very well managed. Everyone assigned to this reconnaissance mission had thresholds above 80.

The factors that lower an Awakened’s threshold vary from person to person. But Minsu had perfectly analyzed the MCI waveform data stored by Flame Guild.

‘He identified the specific threshold-lowering factors for each guild member in detail.’

Following Minsu’s advice, the field teams had thoroughly managed their thresholds, which was reassuring for Yuri as guild leader.

Even in areas with severe magical energy like this one, the guild members would be able to endure well.

‘Actually, I was the one who almost… faced danger, more than the others.’

Something that happened a few days ago almost caused Yuri’s threshold to drop below 80.

After finishing a meeting with Solaris’s Pyotr, Yuri had followed Soso and Minsu who were heading somewhere.

‘Soso’s expression was strange.’

At first glance, she had the serious face of a swordswoman, but Yuri noticed that the nape of Soso’s neck was flushed as she stood beside Minsu.

Shortly after, the two entered the training room, and Yuri heard the door lock. She became extremely anxious.

‘But fortunately, there was recording equipment inside.’

In Flame Guild’s training room, there was video recording equipment.

It was equipment set up so guild members could review their habits and weaknesses after training or sparring. Actually, despite the expensive cost, guild members rarely used it.

The two guild members had sparred in front of the equipment, not knowing it was operating.

‘That was really… sparring, right?’

It was the guild leader’s duty to diligently review the training records of guild members.

So immediately after the two left the training room, Yuri hurriedly entered to check the equipment. Sure enough, there was very suspicious footage left behind.

‘Look at this. No matter how you look at it, Soso is just indulging herself.’

The two had engaged in hand-to-hand combat sparring.

It seemed odd at first that Minsu, a mage, would challenge Soso, a highly skilled swordswoman, to a physical fight.

But Yuri knew well that Minsu was also excellent at combat. So she unconsciously found herself cheering for Minsu in the footage.

But the result was as expected. Minsu was quickly taken down by Soso’s grounding technique and ended up rolling on the floor, restrained by her.

‘How… shameless for a man and woman to rub their bodies together like that!’

Of course, it was just sparring, but Yuri felt her insides boiling. And strangely, she envied Soso.

Fortunately, the subsequent sparring switched to standing combat. But, naturally, Soso dominated.

‘It’s not that Minsu is lacking. It’s that Soso is exceptional.’

Even Yuri, an S-rank hunter, wasn’t confident she could defeat Soso in close combat. She knew from occasionally sparring with Soso.

Despite Yuri’s excellent mana sensitivity, she could only dodge Soso’s attacks half the time. The rest she could only block with shields made of ice.

‘But for Minsu to dodge twice…’

That was actually an unbelievable result. With Soso’s skill, she should hit 100% of the time. In the video, Soso was serious and didn’t go easy on Minsu.

Yet, two of her attacks were ineffective, meaning Minsu, who remained at C-rank by awakening metrics, had managed to react to Soso’s attacks.

‘He really is amazing.’

But Yuri couldn’t help being even more surprised by what happened next. Suddenly, the two became entangled, becoming one body.

It felt too explicit and sensual.

‘Even thinking about it now, it was truly a shocking scene.’

Soso mounted Minsu, who was lying face down, and began to touch his body all over. The scene, which looked like she was greedily exploring his body, made Yuri feel like her blood was rushing backward.

‘During work hours… and in the headquarters building, what were they doing?!’

In fact, more than the shameless act itself, it was the fact that Soso was entangled with Minsu that almost made Yuri lose her mind.

But shortly after, upon hearing the conversation between the two, Yuri soon understood Soso’s intention.

‘That’s Chugong Gwahyeol?’

In Muguk, there are many secret techniques related to mana. Among them is a healing method where a skilled Awakened helps another Awakened.

Chugong Gwahyeol is one of the highest-level mana techniques that artificially releases mana roads to help accelerate and circulate mana.

‘But to anyone watching, it looked like Soso was just indulging herself…’

Of course, they were both clothed. It wasn’t bad enough to call them in for questioning.

But when young men and women have such close physical contact, it’s natural to have inappropriate thoughts. And Soso was clearly excited.

‘Could it be that Soso is… trying to seduce Minsu?’

Yuri knew well that Soso still had feelings for Minsu, so she couldn’t help having all sorts of thoughts when she saw that scene.

But nothing more happened. It just ended there. It was just post-sparring relaxation, nothing more.

Still, seeing their bodies pressed together and Soso’s flushed face with rapid breathing, Yuri felt something indescribable.

The feeling that something very precious was being taken away from her by someone. Because of that, Yuri almost had her threshold drop again.

‘At home… I barely prevented it through meditation…’

After work, she returned home and printed a larger photo of Minsu to put on her wall.

Then she hugged the bear doll Minsu had given her tightly as she lay down. Around the bear’s neck was the towel Minsu had lent her at Mount Seorak. She filled her mind with thoughts of Minsu.

It was a meditation method Yuri often practiced.

‘It seemed filled with Minsu’s scent.’

So she felt a little better.

And thankfully, despite Soso’s seemingly explicit seduction attempts, Minsu didn’t respond. If he had fallen for her actions, it would have been truly unbearable.

‘Still, I can’t be complacent. If Soso is being this aggressive toward Minsu, I can’t just sit back either.’

And having committed a great wrong against Minsu, she was at a disadvantage as things stood.

‘It’s driving me crazy… I want to know what Minsu thinks of Soso.’

And now she happened to be sitting next to Minsu in the minivan. She simply couldn’t help but ask about that incident.

“Minsu, what were you doing with Soso in the training room? I saw everything.”

*

*

Meanwhile, in the same minivan, Soso was sitting in the passenger seat with her eyes closed.

Though Paju wasn’t extremely far, it would take over an hour by car. So she was pretending to rest, leaning back into the seat.

But she had heightened all her senses to the extreme. She was warming up her body in preparation for the very dangerous mission ahead.

But that wasn’t the only reason. She was very curious about the conversation that might take place between Yuri and Minsu, who were sitting side by side in the minivan.

“Minsu, what were you doing with Soso in the training room? I saw everything.”

With her ears focused intently, she heard their conversation. Soso inwardly smiled at Yuri’s words. She felt a strange sense of victory.

‘I checked several times that the video recording device was working properly.’

Yeon Soso knew that Yuri still had feelings for Minsu. But now things were different from the Eins days.

‘I will never let Yuri take Minsu from me.’

To ensure that, she needed to be more proactive. She had no intention of hiding her feelings anymore like before.

So, following advice from the community, she used Chugong Gwahyeol as an excuse to make a physical advance on Minsu.

‘Minsu said it himself. My Chugong Gwahyeol was quite good.’

It was certainly a Chugong Gwahyeol filled with her personal desires. But her desire to help Minsu was genuine. The effect was undoubtedly good.

‘The other effect must have been good too.’

Anyway, Minsu clearly acknowledged that her Chugong Gwahyeol was good, so he must have become aware of her as a woman.

Minsu had also said he wanted to get closer to her step by step.

‘This is how I’ll continue to appeal to him.’

So deliberately leaving the video recording was a declaration of war against Yuri. The current Yuri was her excellent colleague.

But at the same time, she was undoubtedly a rival in love.

‘I’ll prove it. That I’m a woman who can be much more helpful to Minsu… and who can love him much more.’

Having made up her mind, Soso focused her senses again.

***

Paju was bitterly cold.

Although it was already March, the weather was still cold. Even at midday, you could see the guild members’ breath freezing white in the air.

‘It’s like the dead of winter. No, it might be much colder than that.’

Team Leader Seo Duho, who checked the nearby temperature, said incredulously:

“Minus 30 degrees Celsius. We might need to worry more about hypothermia than monsters.”

I checked the temperature in the area provided by the Association on my smartphone.

‘Other places have above-freezing temperatures. That means just this area…’

When I mentioned this fact, Team Leader Seo nodded.

“It seems to be a side effect of the area becoming territorialized.”

Magical energy itself is a mass of curses and debuffs. In this dungeon’s case, the side effect was extreme cold. Fortunately, it wasn’t a major debuff for Flame Guild’s raid team.

‘This level of cold is fine.’

The cold isn’t an issue for me and Yuri to begin with. And Soso has resistance to cold thanks to her Cheonma Divine Technique.

Other guild members are Awakened who can endure this level of cold too, so there won’t be any problems with the reconnaissance mission.

‘Still, it’s time to be tense.’

The territorialized area, like a dungeon, is right in front of us. An unpleasant smell, magical energy, is spreading through the cold air.

A little while ago, I was somewhat taken aback when Yuri suddenly confronted me in the minivan. It’s true that Soso had made explicit physical contact during sparring.

But we hadn’t done anything impure in the training room, so I was confident. I recalled our recent conversation.

I answered Yuri’s question straightforwardly:

‘We just sparred and did some post-workout stretching. Is there a problem?’

‘But, but for adult men and women to have such close physical contact…’

‘If you saw the video recording, you know. It was just purifying mana roads, nothing more, nothing less.’

When I responded so forthrightly, Yuri couldn’t say anything.

‘Actually, what Yuri did at Mount Seorak was more dangerous. Well, I wonder if she remembers.’

Still, Yuri’s eyes kept trembling. As she was about to speak again to question me, I cut her off first.

‘But, but still, a man and woman alone in the training room…’

‘Wait. I know how to separate work and personal matters, so you don’t need to worry unnecessarily.’

‘Is… that so?’

Yuri seemed relieved at those words. But soon, after thinking about what those words implied, her expression became strange again.

‘Yuri also showed her personal feelings at Mount Seorak.’

In fact, rather than Soso, it was Yuri who had made the dangerous impulsive move toward me.

But today wasn’t the time for such pathetic love games. I briefly surveyed the inside of the minivan and firmly grasped Yuri’s hand first.

‘So, Guild Leader, let’s focus on the upcoming mission. That’s all that’s on my mind right now.’

Perhaps not expecting me to take her hand so suddenly, Yuri trembled.

Yuri became docile. But seeing that she still wanted to ask something more, I drove the point home.

‘Of course, you feel the same way, right? It’s a very important mission… if not, I’d be disappointed.’

‘I… I… of course, as guild leader, the guild comes first…’

And interlocking my fingers with hers in a way that wouldn’t be noticed by others, I said:

‘That’s what I thought. I trust you as our guild leader. I’m looking forward to this mission.’

‘What? Yes… yes!’

Yuri nodded deeply and readily agreed to my words. That seemed to have the effect of soothing her.

The moment we got out of the minivan, Yuri returned to her usual self. She led the guild members toward the temporary camp where the advance team was gathered.

In front of the guild members, she called out energetically:

“The advance teams that arrived before us have probably already completed reconnaissance of Zone C. I’ll go talk to those people about Flame Guild’s dungeon entry time.”

Yuri headed toward a temporary building. It was the building used as the advance team’s strategy meeting room.

But an hour later, Yuri’s expression wasn’t good when she returned to Flame Guild’s temporary barracks after finishing the meeting.

“The guild in charge of Zone C reconnaissance… they’ve already had casualties.”