It was truly the worst illusion imaginable. I died over and over, hundreds of times. The problem was how realistic it all felt. It was probably because of the original novel. I had read the original, and those scenes were likely being pulled from it to manifest as illusions. But there were a few questions that lingered in my mind.

Why did the dream repeat hundreds of times, and why did the method of implanting the monster's core in my body vary each time? Furthermore, after the second or third round, it was as if I knew it was coming and tried to hide, only to die again.

What the hell? Is this an illusion different from the one I remember from the original?

It’s just a dream, after all. That’s why everything’s weird. Haha. Yeah, it must be. It’s just a dream.

As I tried to comfort myself with this thought, that gloomy black specter wobbled around beside me, oblivious as usual. I wished it would just disappear already.

“Are you awake, Yoonha?”

I opened my eyes to find Rebecca standing before me in the infirmary.

“Yes, Professor. Thanks to you, I almost died,” I replied sarcastically.

Rebecca had a genuinely troubled expression on her face.

“I apologize for that. To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be this severe,” she said.

"Excuse me?"
“I need to ask. Have you ever had a near-death experience? Or maybe you have some special ability related to death or illusions?”
“None of the above.”

I hadn’t experienced anything like death, nor did I have any abilities related to illusions or death.

“The illusion I cast was a simple one: it’s supposed to bring out your most painful memory and show it as an illusion.”
“You’re lying, right?”

I had to play dumb here.

“I even intervened mentally when I saw how much pain you were in, just to keep your mind from collapsing. I was shocked by what I saw. The best I could do was make sure your mental state didn’t break.”

Wait. No, hold on. This is just a dream, right? Why am I taking this so seriously? I only saw an illusion because this is a dream. Back when I read the original, I imagined Yoonha dying multiple times, so that must be why.

“Well, I’ve never died, but I think I understand why this happened. You don’t need to worry,” I said, trying to brush it off.

Rebecca still looked uneasy but nodded. “Alright, if you say so.”

Why should she be troubled by something in a dream? She couldn’t even see the gloomy black figure standing by the door. No, I need to remember: this is a dream. Just a dream. Kissing Han Soo-ji—that was a mistake too. Alright, time to make plans to leave the academy.

“Um, Professor.”
“What is it?”

Rebecca, feeling guilty about what had happened, was being more cautious than usual. She wasn’t typically like this, but when she made a mistake, she tended to reflect on it deeply.

“I was wondering if I could take a break from school for a while. I think I’m a bit shaken from today.”
“But it’s the start of the semester…”

So what?

“I wonder how I should explain this to my brother. What will make him happy to hear?”

“F-fine, fine! Take the break!”

To clarify, Rebecca was one of the heroines in the original story. She, like Kim Ji-hye, probably still had feelings for Yoon Jin-seok, my brother, so I decided to use that to my advantage.

Yoonha, now on a special personal break, let out a scream.

"Graaaaaaah!"

Even taking a break can be exhausting. With nothing else to do, I decided to toy with the gloomy ghost hovering around. What could I do with it? I grabbed a knife and threw it at the figure.

Thwack!

Unfortunately, the knife went straight through the ghost and lodged itself into the wall.

“Damn.”

I had even redecorated the room in white to make the specter more visible. No magic seemed to work on it either. I walked over and pulled the knife out of the wall, where the ghost had momentarily disappeared.

“If I keep lazing around like this, I’m just going to get fat.”

Honestly, no matter how much I ate, I hadn’t gained a single ounce. I didn’t even feel hungry when I skipped meals. But still, it didn’t seem right for a human to live so lazily. Plus, I was running out of money. Before something went wrong, the ingrained work ethic of a lowly wage slave from Hell-Joseon (Korea) kicked in.

If there’s no work, then I’ll make some.

I had no choice. I needed to earn money. With that, I shoved the ghost aside—it was mimicking typing on a keyboard—and searched the internet for part-time jobs.

Location: Basement 1, Gangnam Towerville, New Seoul
Positions Available: 5
Job Description: Cleaning up monster and hunter corpses. Free anti-anxiety pills provided.
Payment: 500,000 won

Not bad, but not appealing. “Cleaning” likely meant dealing with old, dried-up corpses of monsters and hunters in the basement. The stench must be unbearable. No amount of anti-anxiety medication would fix that.

Location: Cloud Dungeon, New Seoul
Positions Available: 2
Job Description: Sweep floors 1 through 5 with Vubmi-chan.
Payment: Fair distribution of dungeon rewards. Artifacts and cores are up for grabs.

Vubmi-chan? Creepy. But the idea of clearing a dungeon with a party was intriguing, and the payment system was standard. The dream could influence reality to an extent, so maybe I’d imagined Vubmi-chan into existence without realizing it?

“Lord, help me.”

I moved on to the next listing.

Location: GC Convenience Store, across from Hansung Academy
Positions Available: 2 (Preference given to females)
Job Description: Convenience store clerk.
Payment: 12,000 won per hour.

Huh. It seemed easier to find part-time jobs in this world than in the real one. I guess they made the site more straightforward, tailored for hunters. The hours were negotiable, but since I didn’t have the luxury to just work at a convenience store, maybe Vubmi-chan would be the better option.

Cloud Dungeon

“Wow! What a cute, white-haired girlie we’ve got here!”

Maybe I should leave. Seriously.

“Hawawa, my name’s Kim Vubmi, D-rank hunter, and the leader of this Cloud Dungeon raid party! Please call me Vubmi-chan. I specialize in magic, nice to meet you!”

Good grief.

“I’m Shinohara Mariko. I come from the famous Shinohara ninja family in Japan. Vubmi is my close friend, and I came to Korea for sightseeing and to help her out. I graduated from Tokyo Hunter Academy last year, and I’m a D-rank hunter specializing in fire techniques.”

Shinohara family. One of the top hunter families in Japan, with their leader Shinohara Yuzuki being saved by Choi Si-woo after falling into the Hellgate in Japan later in the original story. And yes, she’s a secondary heroine.

The less said about this, the better.

Since I hadn’t seen her in the original story, I figured ignoring her wouldn’t matter.

“And I’m Geum Taeyang. I’m a current student at Seoul Hunter Academy, here to earn some spending money. I may still be a cadet, but after graduation, I’m set to sign a contract with the Black Wolf Guild as a D-rank hunter. My specialty is close combat with body reinforcement. Don’t judge a book by its cover—I’m a sweet guy at heart.”

Next up is Geum Taeyang. His name alone sent alarm bells ringing. He had the look of an NTR character straight out of adult comics: a muscle-bound guy with squinty eyes. As soon as I heard his name, I instinctively glanced at his lower half, and wouldn’t you know it—his pants were bulging in a very suspicious way.

• Gulp.

Crap. He’s my enemy.

“My name’s Yoonha. I’m a student at Hansung Academy, specializing in speed combat with acceleration. Let’s have a good day together.”

“Whoa~ We’ve got a white-haired beauty here!”

Geum Taeyang ogled me with a lewd gaze. He wouldn’t… He wouldn’t try anything, right?

Cloud Dungeon was filled with dark clouds that occasionally rained toxic drops. The monsters were slimy, sludge-like creatures, like living blobs of goo.

The first slime I encountered didn’t seem too threatening. It looked more like a giant pudding. Defeating slimes was simple: they were weak against magic, and Reina’s spirit arrows would take them down in an instant. They were also vulnerable to large swords, but all you really needed to do was target their core.

I stabbed at the slime’s core with my knife.

Splat!

The slime exploded like a popped water balloon, losing its shape as it spread across the ground in a liquid mess. If I hadn’t been quick, my uniform would’ve been drenched, giving Geum Taeyang something to ogle at.

“Hawawa! That’s where the poison rain is coming from!”

“Fire technique! Fireball!”

Vubmi-chan was zipping around casting some odd magic, marking off areas we shouldn’t enter, while Mariko was lighting torches throughout the dungeon.

Isn’t fire technique more like something from a ninja clan? Shouldn’t she be using some kind of Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu instead of Fireball? It would suit her better.

“Slime core, get!”

Geum Taeyang, surprisingly, was more diligent than I thought. Unlike the quirky duo, I was just accelerating and stabbing slimes left and right. It was actually pretty easy.

Though I was curious about something. We were supposed to clear up to the fifth floor, right?

“Vubmi-chan.”
“Hawawa, yes?”
“Isn’t this dungeon already cleared? Why are we bothering to go all the way to the fifth floor?”
“Hawawa, hawawa~ This dungeon gets overrun with monsters on the fifth floor even after it’s cleared! We can collect a ton of cores there!”

“So we’re just here to sweep them up?”

Sure, even D-rank cores are valuable. They go for 50,000 won each, and if we collect enough, that’s a nice chunk of change. This really might be a golden opportunity.

“Hawawa! I got my brothers to rent this place out for us! It’s too much for me to handle alone, so I needed all your help!”

“Are we really capable of doing this on our own?”

Geum Taeyang asked a surprisingly reasonable question, though I couldn’t help but keep noticing that obnoxious bulge in his pants. Is this guy for real?

“Hawawa! This Vubmi-chan is stronger than you think! The rules required a four-person party, but I could’ve done this alone!”

Turns out Vubmi really was skilled. Her exploration magic and cleansing spells kept us safe, and her best friend Mariko was constantly lighting torches to guide us. Even Geum Taeyang’s close-combat abilities were solid. It didn’t take long to reach the fifth floor.

The fact that this dungeon had already been cleared by a guild also made it easier.

"Isn't this a bit too easy?"

“Hawawa, you guys really got lucky finding me! You should be grateful!”

Vubmi-chan, with her non-existent chest puffed out proudly, boasted like she’d won the lottery. Sure, if we kept collecting cores like this, we might actually make as much as corpse cleaning.

Yeah, everything seemed to be going smoothly—until…

“Uh, ladies? There’s a button here.”

Geum Taeyang had found something that looked incredibly suspicious, embedded in the wall.

“Isn’t that a trap?”
“Huh? I already pressed it.”
“You bastard.”

Boom!

Before I could even finish cursing at him, Vubmi-chan’s party was sent tumbling into the unknown.