久久大陆

"Amazing…" Sol let out a satisfied sigh, "...As amazing as always, Jeong-Hui."

"Thanks!" He laughed a bit.

Korain reached over, giving him a playful, but stinging slap on the back with a laugh, "If only your skills as a warrior matched your finesse as a cook! Ha-ha!"

"...Yeah, yeah," he sighed out with a small chuckle.

The gloomy atmosphere from before had completely vanished at the dinner table, filled by the bickering between Yeong-Un, Sol, and now Korain–though they kept talking with their mouths full.

This prompted Ma-Ri to stop all three of them with swift chops to the head, causing them to fall in line like reprimanded children.

"Just because the world is under a new curtain doesn't mean we shouldn't maintain table manners," Ma-Ri scolded them.

"Yes, ma'am," they all said in unison.

He couldn't help but laugh, though he did his best not to laugh too loud as to get the same punishment from the icy-eyed vice-leader.

Still, he felt his worries wash away when with them. Even if it was only a temporary feeling to fill the haze in his heart, he felt things would go well.

…I guess today was a long day, wasn't it? He thought.

With dinner being finished, he got up, grabbing a few dishes in preparation to begin washing them all, but was stopped.

"Huh?" He looked up.

Eunji had stopped his left arm, but Sol had stopped his right in an action he didn't quite understand.

"We've got this, Jeong-Hui," Sol assured him with a smile, grabbing one of the dishes.

"You haven't taken your bath yet," Eunji said, "We can handle this much."

He paused for a moment, not knowing what to say as for some reason, this small, minuscule persistence of helping almost made him want to cry right then and there.

"...You sure?" He said.

Yeong-Un slung his arm around his neck playfully, pulling on his cheek with his azure-painted nails, "Ya' hard of hearin' or somethin'? It's called gratitude, fire-head!"

Even though the wild-haired, rambunctious adolescent said that, he could tell there was genuine thanks inlaid in his multi-colored eyes.

"Ow, ow…I hear ya', I hear ya'," he replied, moving Yeong-Un's hand away from his cheek.

As he began to leave, he looked back, seeing the other five all working together to handle the dishes themselves.

Rubbing his pinched cheek, he smiled to himself while heading to his room for a much needed bath.

What did I do to deserve such reliable friends? He asked himself.

Once reaching his room, it was easy enough to deal with his soaking wet, black uniform as he simply did away with his [Equip], leaving him in his still-dry undergarments, but it didn't change the fact his body was still drenched.

For the first time in a while, he set up a bath for himself, delving into the hot, but not scorching water as a sigh of comfort immediately traveled from his lips.

"...That hits the spot…"

After sitting there quietly, utterly relaxed as he kept his arms lounged on the clean porcelain, he decided to check on his stats.

"System status," he called.

[Player: Jeong-Hui.]

[Level: 24. EXP: 50/1350.]

[Age: 17. Class: Luminate Assassin.]

[Health: 3250/3250. Spirit: 3600/3600.]

[Usable Skill Points: 3.]

[Martial Arts Proficiency: Taekwondo: Level 33/9999 | Current Rank: Disciple]

[Assassin Arts Proficiency: Level 32/9999]

Catching his eye were the skill points he had available, which were practically the most valuable asset in this world, though they weren't exploitable like that.

"Let's see…" He muttered to himself.

Moving his finger in the air, he manifested his personal projection of the skill-tree, looking through the skills available.

Hades' Touch was really useful. If I level that up, it's duration will increase and the frost will become stronger. After I level that up…I'll be able to access "Underworld Projection" next–whatever that is, he thought.

It was an easy enough choice as he placed all of his skill points into increasing his frost-manifesting skill while lounging in the bath.

…Well, let's see what awaits tomorrow. Ever since I reached level twenty, I haven't had to worry about dailies, which is pretty nice. Though, I had to grill the System to stop alerting me each morning about them. At this point, the experience from them just isn't worth the effort, he thought.

During the next day, he took things slow as his muscles were sore and strained from the previous day.

"You don't have to help me with this, you know? You should rest," Eunji told him.

"Don't stress it," he told her, "...Laying around all day would drive my nuts, anyway."

They were on the lobby floor, handling the cleaning duties that inevitably had to be divided due to the size of the hotel.

He was in charge of mopping the smooth, tan-brown floors, dunking the cleaning tool into a bucket of water before continuing.

"If you say so…Thanks, Jeong-Hui," Eunji smiled.

The girl with short, hazel hair focused on wiping down the walls and cleaning the dust that had clung to them naturally over time.

"Hey, Jeong-Hui…" Eunji called his name, "You mentioned meeting people from across the world in the Sky Dungeon, didn't you?"

While they were both cleaning, he replied from across the lobby, continuing to work diligently with a focused smile, "Yeah. What about it?"

"What was that like?...I mean, we've been disconnected from the entire world since the start of all of this," Eunji asked.

He stopped for a moment, dunking the mop back into the bucket as he put his hand to his chin.

"Well…Oh! We met this really odd guy–he was from Japan, actually!"

"Really?" Eunji looked at him curiously.

"Mhm, mhm," he nodded, beginning to mop the floors again while talking, "His name was…Yaku? Yakem?...Yakeru! Yeah, that one. He was a shy guy, but he used robotic enhancements to fight."

"Robotic enhancements? I thought manmade weapons didn't work on Defects," Eunji said.

"That's what I thought, too! But, I'm pretty sure it was a unique System he had. Though…he wasn't really willing to tell me," he sighed.

As they talked away, it didn't feel like much of a chore to clean the lobby of the hotel. Though it wouldn't be much longer until once again, his body would be pushed.