We were still in the wriggling stomach of the whale.

“… You should’ve told me if you felt sick.”

I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I started scolding Chae Nayun with her back pressed against mine.

I heard her faint laughter before she replied, “

Ah

, sorry… I thought I was alright…”

I couldn’t see her face right now since our backs were against each other. I had no choice but to do this due to the change I made to the Heart of Adaptation. As long as we remained in contact with each other…

“Don’t try anything funny,” I warned and squeezed her squirming fingers.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“

Argh!

That hurts!”

“I told you not to do anything funny.”

The plan was to let her lean on my back until she felt better, but she kept complaining that it wasn’t as effective. I had no choice but to hold her hands too.

“Hey… I think holding hands isn’t enough… I feel nauseous…”

“Deal with it.”

“What? You told me to tell you if I felt like fainting, right?

Ah…

I’m dying. I’m dying.”

“Shut up. I’m going to sleep, so don’t bother me,” I grumbled and closed my eyes.

Still, I couldn’t help but be bothered by Chae Nayun’s squirming behind me.

… Was bothered the right way to put it? I sensed something strange, so I opened my eyes.

I was aware that the pulsating sensation didn’t come from the whale, but from my own heart wildly beating. I also knew that I would have to return to my own world someday.

That was the reason why I shouldn’t let this novel get to me. The world in this novel… I would only end up saying goodbye to it. Both of us would only end up hurt if we pursued our feelings here.

I didn’t want that.

“But how are we alright all of a sudden?” Chae Nayun asked.

Her weak voice sounded different from her usual lively voice.

“Just think of it as one of my abilities,” I casually replied.

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah, think of it as something related to adapting. In gaming terms… You know what damage over time is, right? I can adapt to those trickling damages like poison and not get hurt by them later on.”

“Wow, so you don’t get damaged by ticks?”

“Exactly.”

Chae Nayun nodded after learning something new about me. Then she twisted her head towards me and rested it on my shoulder.

Her smiling face was suddenly looking at me with her back still against mine…

“Then, how do you plan to get out of here?”

“… I have a way.”

I gently shrugged and put her neck back in place.

I was confident that I could relay my thoughts to the whale through stigma. It would be much easier since I was currently inside the whale’s body.

“Hmm… Well, if you say that you have a way, I guess you really do. Anyways, what do you plan to do with that crystal?”

[Whale Crystal] [Jewel]

A crystal made out of the essence of the sea. The holder will have a whale’s lung capacity while possessing this underwater.

This

[Whale Crystal]

that brightly shone between my legs boasted an ability that was far better than any underwater gear known to man despite being merely a crystal.

“I’m sure we’ll find a use for it. I’ll sell it to you if it has some sort of medicinal properties,” I said.

“Wow, really? How much?”

“Expensive. Anyways, I’m going back to sleep.”

I had to prioritize recovering my stigma above anything else. I used up too much to treat Chae Nayun, so I didn’t have enough to control the whale.

Four hours of rest should be enough for me to recuperate sufficient stigma. I closed my eyes and leaned back. Chae Nayun’s back felt small, but it was better than nothing.

“… Hey,” Chae Nayun suddenly spoke.

“What?”

“Do you want to lie down?” she sounded a bit embarrassed.

I shook my head and asked, “How can I lie down here?”

She suddenly turned and I fell down with her back gone. Instead, my back landed on something soft.

“This will do, right?” Chae Nayun said.

I looked up and saw her face. Her cheeks were flushed red and her trembling eyes looked down at me.

“…”

I blinked a few times and became speechless. My heart started to wildly beat again.

Chae Nayun bit her lips and avoided my gaze. Was she embarrassed or did she regret her action?

Whatever it was, I found myself in quite a peculiar situation. It didn’t feel bad as I was slowly being lulled to sleep.

I had no idea why, but it felt cozy for some reason. I had a feeling that Chae Nayun was using her mana to make me feel this way, but I couldn’t think any longer as my eyelids grew heavy.

I fell asleep.

***

“Gwuooooh…!”

The whale spat us out.

Fortunately, Chae Nayun covered us with her mana so the whale’s vomit didn’t get on us.

“We somehow managed to get out,” I said.

We ended up on some island and the sky looked clear. The sun also shone down on us. The whale peeked at us before diving back into the water.

“Yeah, I can’t believe we made it out already…” Chae Nayun grumbled with a hint of regret in her voice.

“What do you mean already…” I also grumbled back in response.

We were stranded in the whale’s stomach for nearly eighteen hours. I poured out all of stigma, but the whale wouldn’t listen to me. In the end, I had to recharge stigma again and repeat the whole process two more times.

“It was good…” Chae Nayun pouted and looked at the sky. She suddenly recalled something and asked, “Oh right, what happened to that? You know, there were only ten of us, but suddenly we had eleven?”

“Oh, that?” I smiled.

It was one of the story settings I abandoned, the mystery of the rainy night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a big episode and was designed to be something even less than filler content.

“That was a night stalker.”

“

Huh?

Night stalker?”

“Yeah, you can look it up later once we’re back. I have a feeling Kim Suho already took care of it though,” I said with a shrug.

The night stalker was a ghost that usually moved at night, but I wasn’t worried at all. The night stalker was originally going to be taken care of by Kim Suho in my story setting, so he probably took care of it already even if I was gone.”

“We should focus on going back…” I said while checking our current coordinates on my smartwatch.

[37°50'27.2"N 130°38'35.4"E]

We were on an uninhabited island near Ulleung Island. It was a normal volcanic island and there didn’t seem to be anything around us.

Chae Nayun whistled while looking around our surroundings.

“Hey, let’s go,” I said.

“

Huh?

How? Shouldn’t we wait for rescue?”

“Waiting around for rescue is a waste of time.”

I morphed aether into a boat complete with a pointy bow and an engine. I worked on it for a few minutes when a system message suddenly popped up in front of me.

[Aether and Dazzling Dexterity have formed a synergy!]

[Anything you manifest with aether will receive a suitable ability from now on!]

It was a message informing me that my dexterity would add an effect to aether’s forms from now on.

Chae Nayun stared at the boat I made in mere minutes with wide eyes.

“Wow… this looks like a real boat…” she muttered in amazement.

“Yeah, it’s a real boat,” I said while pushing the boat to the water.

I hopped on board and extended my hand to her, “Hop on.”

“…

Huh

?” Chae Nayun flinched and stared at my hand. Then she smiled brightly and exclaimed, “SURE!”

“We’re taking off.”

“Okay! Go! Go! Go!”

Chwaaaaaa!

The boat created with aether and Dazzling Dexterity was faster than most speedboats. We thoroughly enjoyed its speed while zipping through the waters underneath the bright sun.

“Hey, Kim Hajin.”

“What…?”

I responded a bit late to her call.

She came close to me and whispered in a small voice, “… I like.”

I couldn’t hear her properly because of the crashing waves, but I thought I heard something…

I stared at her for a moment, but Chae Nayun already looked away at the sea instead of me.

“I like this view! It’s so beautiful!” she exclaimed.

But… I wondered why her ears had turned bright red.

I didn’t say anything and just looked forward. Then I gripped the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator. The boat sped up and it didn’t take long for us to make landfall.

As expected, Kim Suho had already sealed the night stalker in Misteltein.

***

The time of the year that Cube cadets loathed was nothing short of a vacation for me. Soon, theory week ended.

I would probably ace the exam without any problems… was what I was thinking as I left the classroom until I saw something strange in the distance, Chae Nayun and Rachel.

Chae Nayun seemed to say something to Rachel, who had a serious look while nodding. I had no idea what they were talking about, but how were those two having a normal conversation?

Did I stare at them too intently while in shock? Both of them spotted me.

“

Ehem

…

Anyways, you understand what I’m saying, right?” Chae Nayun cleared her throat.

Rachel nodded again and both of them separated.

I was curious, but they disappeared almost immediately and I didn’t get the chance to ask them anything.

In the end, I walked back to the dorm without satisfying my curiosity.

“Excuse me…”

Someone suddenly called me from within the trees.

I looked around and found Yoo Yeonha leaning against a tree with her arms crossed over her chest. She seemed to be trying to look cool or something…

I shrugged in response.

“Are you aware that there’s a strange rumor circling around these days?” she said in a cold voice.

“What rumor?

Ah

, your meddling in the decision making?” I nonchalantly replied.

Yoo Yeonha flinched and stared at me, “What did you just say? Meddling? How did you know… No, there’s no such thing.”

“Alright, forget about it then,” I said with a shrug.

Was it not the right time yet?

Yoo Yeonha frowned and curtly replied, “Anyways… I think you’re acting quite rash these days. I wanted to tell you to be careful. A lot of people have started paying attention to you recently.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you know about it, right?”

“…”

I simply nodded in response.

She was probably referring to the whale incident that happened last week since my name was mentioned a few times on the Hero Community Forum thanks to that.

“Also… only I know this information, but…” Yoo Yeonha said before she looked around her surroundings just to make sure no one else was around. She hid herself under the tree’s shadow before continuing, “It’ll be best if you don’t get too aggressive just because you find being followed annoying.”

It was quite a strange thing to say as I had no idea what she was talking about.

I raised an eyebrow to show her that I didn’t understand what she meant, but it seemed that she took it the wrong way.

“Well, I’m just advising you. It’s up to you how you interpret that.”

Yoo Yeonha disappeared into the forest after those words.

I was left all alone and stared at her disappearing into the woods. I was certain that kid was going down the know-it-all route…

***

The first day of the practical final exam arrived. This was the first day of the week-long practical exam. The first subject was basic survival.

More than one thousand freshman cadets gathered at the Black Mountain. The main goal was quite simply to hunt as many monsters or cadets as possible within forty-eight hours to earn points. Only solo-hunted monsters counted and the cadet that dealt the killing blow would receive the points if they were in a party.

In short, this exam was basically a solo survival event. It was currently twenty-two hours into the exam.

Yoo Yeonha faced one of the most perilous moments in her life.

“

Gulp!”

she tightly gripped her whip.

The sharpshooter looking down at her from a higher place made her extremely nervous.

“I’ll give it my all!” Yoo Yeonha shouted.

Kim Hajin simply nodded in response.

“Gulp!”

Yoo Yeonha nervously gulped again, but suddenly recalled a rumor she heard from the underground world.

She received it from the information guild, Fallen Flower, that Kim Sukho’s agents were dying one by one. One of the dead agents had been the infamous expert known as Jipen.

These kinds of rumors wouldn’t be floating around if Jipen hadn’t died since he was directly scouted by Kim Sukho after displaying stellar results on Violet Banquet.

However, the next information provided by Fallen Flower shocked Yoo Yeonha even more. The summary of the information stated that it was highly likely the person who killed Jipen was a Cube cadet. Yoo Yeonha suspected that Kim Hajin was the most likely culprit.

Jipen was a strong individual that even Yoo Yeonha frequently heard of. Did it really make sense that Kim Hajin killed such a powerful person?

“What are you doing? Are you just going to stand around all day?” Kim Hajin asked.

Yoo Yeonha felt as if there was a crippling dark aura hiding underneath his low indifferent voice. She started breaking out in cold sweat as her hand holding her whip began trembling.

However, she couldn’t back down. Her reputation was one thing, but she needed points to secure her ranking no matter what. She couldn’t afford to retire from the exam when only twenty-two hours had passed.

“

Hiyap!”

Yoo Yeonha swung her whip with all of her might.

Chwaaaak!

Her whip shot forward like a hungry viper and aimed for Kim Hajin’s neck, but he easily took a step back and grabbed the whip.

“Ha!”

Yoo Yeonha let out a triumphant shout.

Things were going just the way she wanted it to go. Grabbing her whip was the worst mistake he could’ve made in this fight.

Yoo Yeonha converted her mana into millions of volts and infused it into her whip.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

However, Kim Hajin wasn’t affected and still grabbed her whip. In fact, he was simply blinking while staring at her.

“…”

It was then that Yoo Yeonha finally admitted it. Kim Hajin was the worst enemy she could go up against whether it had to do with skills or attributes.

She immediately threw her hands in the air, “I surrender.”

“…?”

“How many points do you want? I have 103 points,” she said in a tone that resembled a negotiating merchant.

However, Kim Hajin shook his head. “No, I don’t want your points. Instead, I have a favor.”

“A favor?” Yoo Yeonha tilted her head in confusion at the unexpected request.

Kim Hajin bitterly smiled and scratched the back of his neck, “

Ah…

The favor I want to ask is…”