thefictionvixens Chapter 74 : Chapter 74
Chapter 74 : Chapter 74
Chapter 74
I, Lee Ju-seong, was successfully provoking the Red Team and set off on the return path, retracing the way I came to head back to the Blue Team area.
When I crossed the boundary between the Red Team area and the Blue Team area, I heard a middle-aged woman's voice from the Red Team area across the border.
“Wa-wait a moment!”
I turned my body, and a middle-aged woman with permed hair and a bulky frame was standing there.
Park Ok-young.
Kim Ju-han’s tool, the frontwoman for Taepyeong-gyo, and…… someone’s mother.
Her face was shining strangely bright.
As if this was not a game site where blood and desire intersected, but some street corner for proselytizing.
“Ju-seong, repent even now. The Lord will save you. Even a person like you.”
A low laugh broke out.
“Did you chase me all this way just to say that? By yourself?”
Park Ok-young pretended not to hear my laugh, or perhaps deliberately ignored it, and continued speaking incessantly.
“Your sins are deep and heavy. But our church is prepared to embrace you with love. Come back even now. We will pray for you. Until that day when your sins are washed away and your soul is saved…….”
“Stop right there.”
I raised one finger and cut off her words.
Then I asked in a low tone.
“The person who truly needs to be saved is someone else, so why don't you mention that person's name?”
Park Ok-young's expression momentarily froze.
I took a deep breath and said, overlaid with a sneer.
“Even in this situation, you don't mention your own daughter's name at all.”
Park Ok-young's smile began to distort.
“What is your relationship with our So-yul?”
‘Our’ So-yul.
Family treatment? No. It’s possession treatment.
There are surprisingly quite a few.
If we’re talking about parents who treat their children as possessions.
No, is it even surprising? These days, it's such a typical archetype that you can easily see just by taking a walk around the neighborhood, so it's not really surprising.
In the same context, within her values, the treatment of Park So-yul must be quite terrible for Park Ok-young.
The basis is: ‘The kid is just rebelling. Since we’re parent and child, no matter what happens, the kid is bound to return to the parent’s embrace someday.’…… This is what lies beneath.
I answered Park Ok-young's question with a slick smile.
“I’m the same as you. She’s one of my possessions.”
It was a statement purely meant to scratch Park Ok-young.
Park Ok-young had her trigger button pressed and had a fit as she defended herself.
“What do you, a total stranger, know to speak so carelessly! Thanks to whom did that child live! Who was it that healed her when that child was sick…… Nobody recognizes my hard work of going to pray every day for that child while enduring my husband's persecution! There is no one who loves children as much as I do!”
She is properly sick in the heart.
It seemed that back when her husband was alive, he repeatedly tried to stop her and got angry, telling her not to give away their assets to a cult.
The fact that she packaged all of that as her husband's persecution was enough to consider her ruined beyond repair as a human being.
I snorted as I left behind Park Ok-young, who was screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Just look at the sight of her not realizing she's always benefiting from her daughter.”
And whether Park Ok-young shrieked and insulted me or not, I let it go in one ear and out the other as I added more words.
“Just know that you lived thanks to So-yul even now.”
If it were up to my temper, Park Ok-young's head would have fallen before the nonsense exceeded two sentences.
But I left her be.
Because dealing with Park Ok-young was ultimately Park So-yul's share.
Despite hurling curses at me loudly, Park Ok-young was only making noise with her mouth while staying in the Red Team area, unable to follow into the Blue Team area.
The moment she was loudly chattering about her narrow views like a frog in a well from a safe zone, it was confirmed that Park Ok-young was an existence that posed no threat at all.
Just as there is no eagle that fears a frog.
I quickly erased Park Ok-young from my mind.
Then I glanced at the surveillance cameras installed throughout the game site.
‘With this, the intention that I have a will to betray must have been conveyed to the management side as well. This one move will give me an advantage in the decision battle later. With this, the first gateway has been passed.’
Securing the intention that I want to betray in advance.
Even for the success of the operation to be unfolded in the future, this small strategic placement was very important.
Since I succeeded in setting up the strategic placement, and as a bonus, created cracks in the Red Team's mental state, it was safe to evaluate it as having achieved great results.
Not long after returning, I encountered the Blue Team members.
The members were gathering in front of the large swings and discussing, then they brightened up upon discovering me, who had just returned.
“Oh! It’s Ju-seong! You’re back?”
“How was the state of the Red Team?”
While questions poured in from here and there, Park So-yul was keeping her mouth shut with a scary face.
It wasn't because she felt disappointed in me.
What would be the part Park So-yul should be most concerned about right now?
It is the fading of her killing intent.
A person's heart is bound to have its density thickened by people and diluted by people.
Lest the harmonious atmosphere dilute her killing intent, Park So-yul was staying in a separate place alone, chewing on her unfortunate past.
Just as a sports athlete warms up to heat their body before the main game, she was heating her killing intent through psychological warming up.
Conscious of Park So-yul, I conveyed the results of my reconnaissance(?).
“That side was still focusing on the mini-games. However, they attacked me when we encountered each other.”
Jang Ha-na was startled and scanned my body up and down.
“You fought with the entire opponent team? You looked so fine that I thought you just quietly scouted and came back.”
“It was just a light hit and run. Thanks to that, the other side has injured members, so they won't be able to cross over carelessly.”
“Wow, fighting alone and even inflicting damage on the other side. Can't you just end this game right now by yourself, Ju-seong?”
“Are you speaking sincerely?”
“Wahahaha, it’s a joke. I’m not so shameless as to just ride along quietly.”
Since I conveyed my results, it was now time to hear the members' results in turn.
When I asked for the results, Ryu Nam-gyu stomped his feet and tapped the tilted floor.
“Results? You can see for yourself. While you were away, we cleared one more mini-game. A 35 million won one.”
Next, Choi Ga-eul reported.
“Those who didn't participate in the mini-games scattered and looked all over our area. There were thirteen mini-games prepared.”
Two 70 million won mini-games.
Four 35 million won mini-games.
Three 14 million won mini-games.
Four 7 million won mini-games.
If everything was added up, 350 million won could be accumulated.
If all seven survived, it was an amount where they could acquire 50 million won per head.
The three men grumbled about the part where this seesaw game was a 50 million won per head game.
“We have to risk our lives for every mini-game, but the compensation being only 50 million won is a bit much.”
“Exactly. If the fee is taken out, the amount that actually falls into our hands is 30 million won. We get little compared to the trouble.”
“Complaining won't clear the mini-games automatically. Since Ju-seong is back, let’s finish the 70 million won ones first.”
The other people were focused on the 70 million won mini-games to earn even one more cent.
However, I noticed a completely different part.
It wasn't the 70 million won mini-games that decided the whereabouts of this game.
Rather, it was the opposite.
Overturning the expectations of other people, I declared that the priority of clearing would be the exact opposite.
“Let’s quickly clear the 7 million won mini-games first.”
The members widened their eyes and tilted their heads at my words.
The aspects of their faces represented the thoughts they were holding in their heads.
From the 7 million won ones? Why?
Jang Ha-na readily spoke up.
“Ju-seong, you haven't misunderstood anything, have you? While we’re taking the risk anyway, it’s natural to touch the high-amount ones first, right?”
Heo Nam-jun chimed in.
“That’s right. Time is limited and there’s an opponent, so we should clear the high-amount ones first for efficiency.”
Ryu Nam-gyu crossed his arms, narrowed his brows, and asked.
“If the opponent clears the high-amount mini-games while we’re clearing the low-amount ones, the game site will tilt to that side. If that happens, we have to take risks when clearing the high-amount mini-games.”
Their logic was valid.
That’s why the frame had to be broken instead.
Because only by flipping the appropriate standard move could I strike the psychological blind spot of the opponent, the Red Team.
I smiled leisurely and said.
“Just trust me. I’m trying to touch the 7 million won ones first because I have a use for them. It’s all part of the operation.”
The members fell into thought at my words that I was drawing a big picture.
Even if some doubt arose, an atmosphere hovered that there was nothing to lose by following my words.
Jang Ha-na nodded her head readily, as if it wasn't something worth agonizing over.
“Fine. Since it’s something you’re doing, it must be meaningful regardless.”
Ryu Nam-gyu also shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, you haven't been wrong so far, so I’ll believe you.”
Thus, the team members scattered and decided to clear the 7 million won mini-games first.
Me and Park So-yul, the two women who were originally close, and the three men.
We reached an agreement to divide into three groups and proceed with the clearing efficiently.
While the Blue Team scattered into three paths, I quietly spoke up as soon as I was alone with Park So-yul.
“So-yul, actually, I had a few words of conversation separately with Park Ok-young. The words she said after chasing me were……”
However, even before my words ended, Park So-yul cut me off with a voice mixed with a sigh.
“She did that again, didn't she. That she has always been praying for me, do I know how pitiful a person she is, that she sacrificed her whole life for her family. Right?”
I looked at Park So-yul, unable to continue speaking for a moment.
“How did you know?”
Park So-yul lightly shrugged her shoulders and answered calmly.
“Because she was always like that. She always said she was the victim while forcing me to be thankful.”
The emotion carried at the end of the words was neither cynicism nor anger, but just a weary fatigue.
As if it were a story she had already heard hundreds or thousands of times.
Thanks to that, I could have certainty.
Her affection has completely fallen away.
The more a person is deeply loved, once it cools down, it never regains its former temperature.
Just as granite that has once cooled down never returns to being magma.
From the recent statement, I obtained confirmation that there would be no case where Park So-yul would feel a clumsy old affection and show mercy to Park Ok-young.
To start with the result, it took less than 15 minutes to clear all four of the 7 million won mini-games.
Park So-yul and I secured two, and the other two groups secured one gem each.
We gathered in front of the collection box, and the members handed the secured 7 million won gems to me.
Everyone thought I would naturally put the gems in the collection box.
Because they were gems that existed for that.
Because that way we could win the game and survive this atrocious deathmatch.
However, I took the four gems and overturned everyone's expectations.
“I won't put these gems in the Blue Team collection box. I’m going to use them for another purpose.”
Utilizing gems in a way different from their original purpose.
This was a move corresponding to the second step of that plan, the Kim Ju-han hunt.