By Zephyria He tried to gather information in the bathroom, but Hong Ye-seong himself rolled into the stall right next to him, rustling around. The numerous footsteps chasing after him and the people waiting in front of the bathroom were likely the security personnel attached to him.
Eui-jae sighed silently. The enemy was right next door, but he couldn’t move rashly.
‘I just want to hit him once.’
It was good that Hong Ye-seong came on his own, but he wasn’t happy with the tails he brought along. Even if he ignored Hong Ye-seong now and walked out as if nothing had happened, he would inevitably run into the guards guarding the front of the bathroom, since there was only one entrance. If he was even more unlucky, he might have to go through ticket inspection and ID verification.
In the end, he had to wait until Hong Ye-seong left this place on his own… Feeling disturbed, Eui-jae automatically struck Rodin’s The Thinker pose.
‘If you came to the bathroom, you should quickly do your business and leave…’
He was also one of those people who did other things in the bathroom instead of doing his business, but he glared at the next stall for no reason. He had to return quickly or Lee Sa-young would worry… No, he shook his head.
‘Worry, my ass.’
Eui-jae changed his mind. Anyway, he would throw a tantrum if he was late. He might even come to the bathroom himself if things went wrong. Considering his past behavior patterns, it was a very possible story.
Lee Sa-young sometimes got hung up on strange things and threw tantrums that were hard to understand. He had told him to live quietly, but he still dragged Eui-jae all the way to Songdo. Date, my ass, he just wanted him to be his errand boy….
“Ah! Crazy!”
“Mr. Ye-seong! Are you okay?”
“Aaaaaah!”
“…It just seems like his work isn’t going well. Keep waiting.”
The thoughts that had drifted towards Lee Sa-young were cut off by Hong Ye-seong’s desperate screams. Eui-jae glared beyond the wall with a gaze that seemed to penetrate it.
‘Damn, does a person even make noises like that?’
Hong Ye-seong now alternated between rustling and intermittently howling like a roe deer. Fortunately, the guards didn’t rush into the bathroom, probably because this was a familiar occurrence. Listening to the cries that were more like a roe deer than a roe deer, Eui-jae fell into thought again.
Hong Ye-seong and the equipment he made were the main attractions of this Artisan Exhibition. But why was the main character cooped up in the bathroom like Eui-jae, who had nowhere to go? There should be a separate waiting room for him.
“Ugh!”
He knew it since he uploaded a picture of an egg to Inhat and looked for Mana Stone. Hong Ye-seong was out of his mind. Eui-jae nervously, but silently, shook his legs and made a decision.
‘If I can’t avoid it, I should dig something out.’
He wanted to hit Hong Ye-seong on the head and escape, but there was no easy way to escape, so he would obviously be caught immediately.
In the end, Eui-jae chose the next best option. He leaned towards the next stall and focused on the sounds he heard. However, the person who had confined himself in the narrow bathroom stall only cried like a beast instead of speaking human words, and the whispering of the Hunters outside the bathroom was heard more clearly.
“…But why did he go into the bathroom? He could have done the test in the waiting room.”
“He said the waiting room doesn’t feel like he’s trapped. He needs a narrower place.”
“If that’s the case, he should make a portable rice chest….”
“This bastard is misusing the rice chest. Do you think you’re Yeongjo? Rice chests are for storing grain.”
“And he said something might explode if we’re not careful.”
Eui-jae’s eyes widened. What? He could still hear the sound of something rustling and pressing buttons like crazy in the next stall. Was that rustling sound the sound of him touching explosives? As Eui-jae, who had inadvertently become a person sitting next to a bomb, was horrified, the Hunter who had asked the question also whispered in a surprised voice.
“Are we okay being so defenseless like this? Wouldn’t it be a big deal if the bathroom exploded?”
Yeah, stop him quickly. Drag him out. Are you going to let the building explode? Eui-jae also agreed in his mind, but what came back was a cold answer.
“Director’s order is to let him do whatever he wants as long as he’s not trying to shake off the security personnel or doing anything that threatens his safety when he’s not making equipment.”
“Isn’t what he’s doing now a threat to his safety?”
“He’s an S-class, so he’ll be fine even if something explodes….”
“In the first place, he wouldn’t listen even if we tried to stop him.”
“Even if the building’s bathroom explodes?”
“He’s a rich Artisan, so he’ll fix the bathroom in no time.”
The Hunters outside were nonchalant, as if this wasn’t a one- or two-day occurrence. Anyway, the problem is that Hunters all believe in their own strength and have a serious lack of safety awareness. They won’t come to their senses until a big accident happens.
Eui-jae listened more closely to the sound coming from the next stall. Hong Ye-seong, who had been fiddling with something for a while, exclaimed, “Ah!” There was a clear button sound that was clearly different from before.
“Done!”
And at the same time,
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep￣
An ominous alarm started ringing as if to tear his ears!
To make matters worse, red light flickered wildly beyond the partition. The presence of the Hunters waiting in front of the bathroom door also changed. He could hear several people rushing in.
‘Is it really going to explode?’
Eui-jae, who hurriedly moved his body to the opposite side of the stall, was wondering if he should open the door and run away now. His body wouldn’t be hurt, but the suit that Lee Sa-young bought him might be torn. He didn’t have the money to pay for this expensive clothes!
However, Hong Ye-seong, the person who created this situation, muttered in a tone that lacked a sense of crisis.
“Ugh, it’s so noisy. What’s wrong? Is it malfunctioning?”
“Mr. Ye-seong, are you okay!”
The once quiet bathroom was filled with the incessant alarm and the presence of Hunters. The next stall was still flashing red. Hong Ye-seong shouted loudly.
“Ah, I’m fine! I must have touched something wrong. It’s nothing.”
“Still, please come out so we can check your safety.”
“Hey, just a moment.”
He could hear Hong Ye-seong grumbling as he unlocked the door and left. He must have taken the machine with him, because now not only the next stall but the entire bathroom started flashing red. Eui-jae watched the dazzling red lights and sighed silently. Hong Ye-seong joked.
“Ah, it’s really nothing! It’s that thing. You know those crazy bastards who stole and sold other Hunters’ tickets last time? It’s an unregistered ticket detector that I made to filter out those guys, but it’s suddenly ringing.”
“Can’t you turn it off?”
“Yeah. It won’t turn off…. I wonder if it’ll turn off if I separate the Mana Stone?”
Once Hong Ye-seong’s safety was confirmed, the tension of the Hunters, who had been on edge, seemed to ease a little. One Hunter made a joke.
“Maybe there’s someone here who hasn’t registered their ticket?”
“Hey, everyone has done it if the ticket has blue letters on it.”
‘…Wait.’
Eui-jae suddenly raised his head. Blue letters? The scene he saw at the entrance of the convention center came to mind.
The amazing sight of blue light rising like stars on the black surface to create letters when he scanned the ticket with a palm-sized machine.
Art Star
What if that machine not only confirmed that it was a genuine ticket, but also registered the ticket? A chill ran down his spine. Eui-jae opened his mouth in shock and hurriedly opened his Inventory.
The equipment made by Hong Ye-seong would have been made with his Awakening skill and would operate according to the laws of the System. And the Inventory also operates according to the laws of the System. For some reason, his ominous premonitions were coming true one after another.
Lee Sa-young had both of the tickets he used to enter, so his ticket was currently in its pure state, that is, an unregistered ticket. If so.
‘How can the detector be so good….’
The machine was definitely detecting the Black Ticket in his Inventory and making all this fuss. What the hell was this crazy crafting skill? He didn’t want to have the value of Hong Ye-seong’s name confirmed in this way.
‘He should have made one more piece of equipment instead of making something like that.’
It was the moment when Eui-jae glared at Hong Ye-seong outside the door for the last time.
“…Wait.”
One Hunter’s voice dropped sharply.
“…It looks like there’s someone next to the stall where Hong Ye-seong was? The door is closed….”
“Huh? I don’t feel anyone there?”
“Maybe it’s a cleaning supply cabinet that’s closed.”
“Do you usually lock the cleaning supply cabinet from the inside?”
Eui-jae was at a crossroads. He could either hold out inside, trusting in ‘Silent Steps’, or pretend to be an ordinary person who didn’t know anything. He could hear a Hunter approaching the door. Eui-jae closed his eyes tightly, thinking, ‘Oh well,’ and made up a trembling voice like a goat.
“Ah, there’s someone inside….”
The Hunters’ momentum, which had been slightly relaxed, became sharp again. The Hunter said in a stiff voice.
“…Excuse me, but could you please come out?”
Eui-jae thought of the zombies he had seen at the Hanover Soup Restaurant. A disheveled appearance that didn’t look like a person after facing the storms of the world head-on. He loosened the neatly tied tie a little, unbuttoned one of the shirt buttons, and even loosened the neatly fastened jacket to create a wonderfully disheveled look.
He even adjusted the employee ID card hanging around his neck to make it clearly visible, and unlocked the door with a staggering gait like Choi Goyo. Eui-jae had set up several acting concepts in case of an unexpected situation. The concept he was going to use this time was as follows.
A new employee of the secretary team who barely joined the Wave Guild’s secretary team, but was so nervous about going outside alone with Guild Master Lee Sa-young that he ended up throwing up in the bathroom.
“……”
“……”
Amid the beeping alarm and flashing red lights, a suit-wearing Gas mask crawled out of the innermost stall of the bathroom without a sound. Moreover, judging from his trembling legs and arms, his physical condition didn’t seem to be very good.
The expressions of the Hunters who actually witnessed a human being like Soy Sauce Marinated Crab Macaron Dumpling changed strangely. The Gas mask grabbed the bathroom doorknob and whispered in a trembling voice.
“I’m, I’m sorry. I was, I was too nervous.”
“Are you affiliated with….”
“Wa, Wave Guild’s secretary team….”
“Wave Guild?”
“Yes, I came to assist Guild Master Lee Sa-young at the Artisan Exhibition…, ugh.”
Eui-jae grabbed the filter part of the Gas mask and pretended to gag.
Lee Sa-young of the Wave Guild. If he came to assist him alone… it was understandable that he was nervous. The Hunters’ gazes were filled with pity. The Wave Guild employee ID card dangling from his neck somehow looked pathetic.
It was then. No sooner had he realized the familiar and ominous energy that had approached him silently than a black figure burst into the bathroom, opening the door. Soon after, a low, sarcastic voice was heard.
“It seems like the guards are getting along quite well….”
The gazes that had been directed at Eui-jae were focused on the owner of the voice. Lee Sa-young walked straight towards Eui-jae, his hands in his pockets, without even looking at the others.
“Even going to the bathroom together.”
Thud. The black Walker stopped in front of Cha Eui-jae. Under the flashing red lights, with the alarm ringing as if to tear his ears, an oppressive shadow was cast over Eui-jae. He tilted his head slightly.
“Is the secretary’s preparation of mind. Over?”
It was the first time he was happy to hear that sarcastic tone.