Chapter 45: CH 42

Chapter 42
 
     I thought I had slept with the door locked, but, first thing in the morning, I awoke to Seo Dawon’s smiling face standing beside my bed with a mug in hand.
     Seo Dawon said to my frowning face, “I have good news and bad news…Which do you want to hear first?” He handed me the mug.
     Accepting it with two hands, I noticed the cup contained perfectly heated hot water. After sipping, I replied, “Bad news?”
     “I think Kim Sangyoon betrayed us and contacted Bae Jaemin.”
     “…..What?!”
     That’s not bad news; that’s horrible news! I lept to my feet in surprise. When I saw Seo Dawon’s calm demeanor, however, I remembered that he still had ‘good news’ to deliver. With that in mind, I began to soothe my thumping heartbeat.
     “What’s the good news?” I asked.
     “Jaemin happened to be out of the Hub, so the two couldn’t meet….” Seo Dawon smiled wickedly. The grin was so chilling that I unconsciously took another sip of warm water.
     ….He probably did something to Kim Sangyoon? After half the water in the mug was drunk, I asked, “Kim Sangyoon…You didn’t kill him?”
     “No. We still need him, after all.” Afterward, he rose from my bedside and opened the door to the bedroom.
     What I saw beyond that door…..
     “MMmph! MMMmMM!!!” With a completely purple face, Kim Sangyoon kneeled on the floor.
     Imagine waking up to a two-meter-long man kneeling in front of my bedroom door as soon as you wake up.
     Seo Dawon calmly drawled, “I think we need to educate him a bit before we go to the Dungeon.”
     As soon as the doorknob turned, Kim Sangyoon immediately raised his head; his lifted face clearly contained overwhelming traces of anger, embarrassment, and fear.
     Unlike his aggressive eyes, the Warrior made no aggressive move and did not spit or curse. The muscles worked underneath a frozen face, cramping from the effort.
     Something seemed unnatural, “What…..” I wondered.
     Seo Dawon replied from behind me, “Ah. I made it so he couldn’t speak temporarily.”
     “……..?”
     “Since I brought him in at the crack of dawn, I didn’t want to disturb your sleep.”
      The invisible gag, then, must be one of Seo Dawon’s skills. The kneeling Warrior couldn’t utter a single word and only moaned around his unseen restraints.
    It was a bit amusing to see him squirming and flaring his nostrils in vain. Amidst my bleary observations, Kim Sangyoon looked mournfully into my eyes, as if he were begging for some compassion.
     I asked, “Did you eventually decide to cling onto Bae Jaemin instead?”
     Kim Sangyoon leapt up, with his knees still stuck to each other, and shook his head from side to side, desperately denying our accusations.
    I felt something hard against the small of my back: to refute Kim Sangyoon’s vehement denial, Seo Dawon poked me with a strange cell phone and placed it in my hands. The cell phone’s lock screen was a selfie of the captive Warrior–the owner of the cell phone was quite clear.
     Kim Sangyoon’s face paled when he saw the cell phone in my hand. Keeping watch on his bleached face through the corner of my eye, I quickly read through the last text he had sent to [HaHae Bae Jaemin].
 
[Jaemin-nim, I have some urgent news to deliver–it regards the Red Lotus Guild and Seo Dawon. Please meet me in front of [Owl’s Ghost Ship] normal route entrance.]
 
     Obviously, this text was clear evidence of betrayal. The location of the meet-up was where we had agreed, yesterday, for power leveling.
    “Mmmh!! Mmmh!” King Sangyoon kept shaking his body as if he was in a hurry to explain his actions, but, after seeing the text, I lost any crumb of sympathy I had for the man.
     So, I ignored him and gazed pleadingly at Seo Dawon.
     “Rest assured. He hasn’t sent the message yet.” He said.
     I finally released a deep sigh, containing the stress that had been building up this morning.
    Seo Dawon continued, “For now, just listen to me…since Kim Sangyoon can’t see me….”

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     Seo Dawon explained the events that led to Kim Sangyoon’s circumstances. “Originally, this contract was used to tame intelligent monsters captured by the ‘Tamer’ class….”
     In the middle of his explanation, Seo Dawon told me to flick my finger–a set punishment gesture–at the Warrior. Though I didn’t fully understand his instructions and felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of ‘punishment,’ I did as he asked.
     As soon as I finished flicking my fingers,  Kim Sangyoon’s body suddenly startled to tremble all over. He twisted his body, and choked sounds spilled out of his gagged throat. Something supernatural–invisible–seemed to be strangling him.
     W-What if he dies?
     My hands nervously rubbed each other; the shock made my fingers tremble, a mirror image to Kim Sangyoon’s own struggles.
    “If you want to stop the ‘punishment,’ just flick your finger again.” Seo Dawon calmly explained, as if he were reading a manual for a new home appliance. I hastily flicked my finger.
    With a loud clap, Kim Sangyoon’s twisting and squirming also ceased…Kim Sangyoon cried, but still couldn’t move from his kneeling position; unable to change his position, he bent over and tucked his head between his thighs.
    “Hmmm…..” I stared at his weeping back with mixed feelings. This is torture……
    “There’s ‘rewards’ too. Try patting Kim Sangyoon’s head, gently.”
    I looked back at Seo Dawon, suspiciously, but Seo Dawon urged me, “Are you going to just drag him along like that?” With no other choice, I raised my hands over his bright red hair.
     After stroking his hair twice, I quickly pulled my hand back and observed him. And…I made eye contact with Kim Sangyoon’s bloodshot eyes.
     His gaze looked strangely hazy. His was not an expression of someone who had just endured painful torture but looked, instead, like he had taken recreational drugs. I retreated a few steps, disgusted.
     Seo Dawon continued, voice laden with an unusual steadiness, “A ‘submission contract’ literally compels the subject to obey…They will fear disobeying commands and experience the joy of obedience. After using the ‘punishment’ and ‘reward’ commands a few times, the subjects will get used to the contract.”
     “…..”
     “What do you think? Effective, isn’t it?”
     Of course, it was impressively effective.
     It was horrifically impressive.
     Seo Dawon didn’t seem to notice my haggard expression and encouraged me to train Kim Sangyoon using the ‘reward’ and ‘punishment’ commands. “Why don’t you try it two more times?”
     Ha……
     I refused to follow his suggestions and closed the bedroom door with trembling hands. Seo Dawon and I were left alone in my room; he stared at me, mysteriously.
     “How did you know Kim Sangyoon betrayed us?” I asked.
     “….Well, I downloaded a program I had since long ago onto Kim Sangyoon’s phone. I could keep an eye on him and his activity through his phone.”
     Had he messed with the phone while Kim Sangyoon took his shower….?
     I nodded at Seo Dawon in lieu of an answer. Seo Dawon continued, “Then, I sent Bae Jaemin and Lim Jisoo a message from an unknown sender. About sighting Lim Jisoo’s brother outside the Hub…Ah! I managed to contact my former client and received his help. I didn’t reveal that I’m Seo Dawon, but the client had sent me a number to call–for any favor–after I fulfilled their request.”
     That’s why Bae Jaemin had left the Hub in such a hurry this morning. I tried to suppress my complicated feelings and looked up at him. “But…Why didn’t you say something to me….”
     “Ah, of course I would normally let you know all this….but your acting was so bad.”
     “…..”
     “Kim Sangyoon needed to be fooled by you as well. He needed to feel as if you 100% believed in him…That’s why I didn’t inform you of my plans.”
     I couldn’t really deny his words, so I eventually decided that I couldn’t really blame Seo Dawon for our current crisis.
     Soon, I began to grow angry at Kim Sangyoon’s deception. Sangyoon, you punk…Were all those tears yesterday nothing but smokes and illusions? We even gave you a skill!
     I truly believed the sincerity of his desire to kill Ahn Joosung…I guess he was method acting. He should have been an actor instead of a User…Damn it.
     “I was tricked when I asked him if he wanted to kill Ahn Joosung…Ah, so annoying.”
      “He might have changed his mind after he returned home.” Seo Dawon said–a paltry effort to appease me with his soothing smile.
 
 
TL: Remember when Dawon said that rankers are a bit…questionable? In ammoral fights like this, MC really does feel like the shrimp in a whale’s fight. Thanks for reading! I’ll have a bonus chapter (so two chapters?) tomorrow (hopefully)!

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