The Support Ate it All

[Side Quest: Stage 1 Hardship] (In Progress……)

▷ Objective 1: Achieve close combat proficiency (0/100%)

▷ Objective 2: Defeat a D-rank or higher monster using close combat (0/1)

▷ Condition 1: Greatly reduced ranged damage

▷ Condition 2: Less than 9 hours of sleep per day

Hardship assigns the most suitable customized quest to the target, either to enhance their strengths or to compensate for their weaknesses.

This must be the latter.

Since Seo Ye-in’s class was Gunslinger, her close combat capabilities were relatively weak.

She had struggled against Sa Gong-wook’s gang during the final exam too.

In the end, she did blast them away with her shotgun, but that was only possible because the fight happened in a narrow corridor.

If the battle had taken place in a more open space, it wouldn’t have been that easy.

Might as well use this chance to patch things up.

She’d still remain a ranged fighter going forward, but unexpected situations could always occur.

If she honed her close combat skills now, it might come in handy later on.

The quest objectives were very straightforward.

As long as she practiced close combat in some way, her proficiency would gradually increase, and once it reached 100%, Objective 1 would be complete.

And for Objective 2, she just had to defeat one powerful monster using close combat.

To practically force the player into completing both objectives, a condition that reduced ranged damage was applied.

So far, it seemed doable enough, but the real problem was the second condition.

Less than 9 hours of sleep per day.

I couldn’t help but question it.

What does close combat have to do with sleep time?

No matter how I looked at it, it felt like they just threw it in to mess with us.

Still, there were parts I could vaguely guess at.

Some hardship quests intentionally created unfavorable conditions, meant to push players to overcome their weaknesses even under harsh circumstances.

In other words, the core of this quest was to train close combat skills while suffering from sleep deprivation.

Honestly, nine hours isn’t even that hard.

For the average person, that’s enough time to sleep comfortably and even squeeze in a nap.

Of course, that wouldn’t be the case if we were using a sloth as the standard.

The record for Seo Ye-in’s minimum sleep had been during the time when the Witch of Corruption caused chaos in the underground floors.

Back then, I had been the only one to join the subjugation team, leaving behind Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in, whose skills were still lacking at the time.

Seo Ye-in had been motivated by that and trained hard, reportedly sleeping only ten hours a day.

But the condition for this hardship quest demanded even less. It was nine hours, which was shorter than her personal best.

Seo Ye-in looked at me with an unhappy glare.

“Unfair contract.”

“Yeah… it kind of turned out that way.”

I had expected there to be some tough conditions, but I hadn’t thought it would involve sleep.

Honestly, even from my point of view, “going on a trip” and “baking cookies together” weren’t really worth the trade.

Seo Ye-in pointed at the quest window.

“Cancel it.”

“I can’t do that either.”

Once a quest was assigned, there was no turning back.

No matter what it took, the only option was to see it through.

That was why we always made sure to get the other person’s consent before initiating a hardship quest.

Seo Ye-in glanced back and forth between me and the quest window.

“A crisis…”

Perhaps sensing the serious mood, Ahn Jeong-mi who had been standing by approached us.

“Young miss, Kim Ho-nim. Is something wrong?”

“It’ll be quicker if you take a look yourself.”

At my signal, Seo Ye-in shared the quest details, and Ahn Jeong-mi began reading through them carefully.

“This is actually perfect timing. I was already planning to adjust your schedule to include close combat training. And the conditions seem reasonable enough…”

But the moment she read Condition 2, her expression hardened.

“…This won’t be easy.”

“I was scammed.”

Both of their eyes turned toward me at the same time.

Feeling a bit wronged, I decided to defend myself.

“First of all, I’d like to clarify that I’m not the one setting these conditions.”

“I understand that it wasn’t intentional. If it’s you, Kim Ho-nim, I’m sure you understand the young miss well.”

As expected, Ahn Jeong-mi was a rational and thoughtful person.

Knowing full well that sloths required at least ten hours of sleep, there’d be no reason for me to set such an unreasonable condition on purpose.

“Still, this is far too harsh. Is there really no way to revise or cancel the quest?”

“I’m sorry, but there isn’t.”

When I gave a firm answer, Ahn Jeong-mi let out a small sigh.

Then she turned to Seo Ye-in and said,

“Young miss, it looks like you’ll have to do it.”

“…Okay.”

Seo Ye-in slowly nodded her head, as if she had come to terms with it.

But her motivation seemed to have hit rock bottom.

Soon after, we stood face to face at the center of the training room.

The only difference from usual was the relatively close distance between us.

And instead of a sapling, the weapon in my hand was a toy hammer.

I gave it a light smack just to test it.

Boing.

Both the sound and the impact were surprisingly satisfying.

I stepped forward.

“Alright, here I come.”

“Go ahead.”

Just as I took another step, the barrel of her gun pointed straight at me.

Ratatatatata!

A hail of magic bullets.

Dodging them with stealthy footwork, I closed the distance by the slimmest margin.

Seo Ye-in kept firing as she backed away, but I was faster in closing the gap.

Once I was in close range, I swung the toy hammer.

Boing!

“……”

A slight twitch appeared between Seo Ye-in’s brows.

Agitating her a bit wasn’t a bad thing.

It would trigger her competitiveness and maybe spark a little motivation.

Ratatatatata!

Another volley of magic bullets rained down.

I approached in the same way and brought the toy hammer down.

However, as if she had expected it, Seo Ye-in tilted her body slightly to dodge and continued firing.

Ratatatata!

I circled around Seo Ye-in like a satellite, and the moment I saw an opening, I lunged and slammed the toy hammer down.

Boing!

“……”

Seo Ye-in silently patted her head.

She was clearly getting more and more worked up.

Then, as if a thought had struck her, she put away her assault rifle into her inventory and pulled out a pair of pistols, gripping one in each hand.

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It seemed she had decided to switch weapons.

“Good call.”

Even if the firepower was slightly lower, the portability was much better.

It would probably be easier to deal with close-range combat too.

The spar resumed, and the dual pistols alternated bursts of blue fire.

Tututututu!

I closed in again and swung the toy hammer, but it was a clean miss.

I quickly pulled it back and swung again, but this time, it only grazed her lightly.

She dodges well.

Maybe it was because she was a genius sloth, or maybe because getting hit by the toy hammer was pissing her off…. either way, she was learning fast.

Thanks to that, there was progress in the trial quest.

▷Objective 1: Achieve close combat proficiency (1/100%)

On top of that, even at close range, Seo Ye-in kept firing her dual pistols relentlessly.

Tututututu!

It definitely made dodging harder.

With no other choice, I summoned a dark cloud to deflect the magic bullets, and the tide began to shift back in my favor.

The toy hammer struck again and again.

Boing! Boing boing! Boing boing boing!

“……”

Seo Ye-in came to a stop once more, then put one of her pistols back into her inventory.

What she pulled out next was a kitchen frying pan.

She must be really mad now.

I glanced at the frying pan and asked,

“Did you name that one too?”

“Not yet.”

“‘Not yet’ sounds like you plan to.”

“Soon.”

“What are you thinking of naming it?”

Seo Ye-in pointed the frying pan at me.

“Kim Ho Pan.”

So she meant to hit me first, then name it as a sort of trophy.

But would that really be as easy as she thought?

No way I’m letting that hit me.

Kim Ho Pot was something I only allowed to hit me because I was going easy on her.

Kim Ho Kim Ho Pot hadn’t even hit me. It hit Dopple-Ho instead.

I had no intention of increasing the Kim Ho merchandise collection any further.

Whether she knew what I was thinking or not, Seo Ye-in pointed her magic pistol at me with one hand.

Tutututu!

And in the other hand, she kept the frying pan raised, ready to swing at any moment.

Her tactic was obvious, but just like I’d been doing so far, I dodged the magic bullets and kept moving closer.

Then, at the critical moment—

Swish

Seo Ye-in’s form blurred and vanished without a trace.

She had activated Ghost Dance.

She was probably circling to my flank or behind me to swing the frying pan.

But the fatal flaw in that plan was—

You’re up against me.

I had more than enough ways to respond.

I could just use Ghost Dance myself, or even let her hit me. Distortion would activate regardless.

Still, if I was going to counter, I figured I might as well do it overwhelmingly.

That way, it’d leave no doubt that her tactic didn’t work.

I pulled the dark cloud closer to my head and quietly spoke the activation phrase.

“Soft and Cushy.”

Poof!

The cloud, once the size of a fist, rapidly expanded and enveloped my upper body.

The frying pan swung into it and was instantly repelled with a boing. Seo Ye-in’s posture collapsed, leaving a clear opening.

Of course, I didn’t miss that chance.

“Let’s put the frying pan away.”

That thing’s not doing you any favors in training.

The toy hammer came down with terrifying force.

Boing boing boing boing!

***

After an entire training session of hammering the sloth with the toy hammer—

▷ Objective 1: Achieve close combat proficiency (12/100%)

“Not bad for the first day.”

“……”

Seo Ye-in turned her head to the other side instead of answering.

She’d been hit with the toy hammer all day. Wouldn’t it be stranger if she wasn’t upset?

Still, it’s not like I could hit her with the sapling.

If we were going to train in close combat without getting hurt, this was the best option.

She didn’t appreciate the deeper reasoning behind it, and her gloomy mood lingered for quite a while.

During dinner, she kept staring at me, only to quickly look away whenever our eyes met.

It was the same even when Father Seo came to visit her room.

Normally, she would sit beside him and watch mini-games together, but now she had her whole body wrapped in a blanket, turned away from him.

Seeing that, her father asked,

“Daughter.”

“……”

But no reply came, and the question was redirected toward me.

“Did you two fight?”

“Something like that.”

I explained everything that had happened that day, including the close combat training, and her father nodded as if he understood.

“Go make it up to her.”

“Of course.”

Eventually, her father left, and since it was about time for bed, I gently shook the lump of blankets.

“Hey.”

“……”

“Hey, come on out.”

“……”

But the blanket lump only curled up tighter.

She was seriously sulking.

I asked softly,

“Should we sleep separately tonight?”

Didn’t seem like she was in the mood to sleep next to me.

At that, a pale hand suddenly slipped out of the blanket and grabbed my wrist.

“……Sleep with me.”

“Sure. But let’s ditch the lump, yeah?”

She must not have been able to give up the Kim Ho pillow, even when she was angry.

Soon, we were lying side by side in bed, and just like always, Seo Ye-in wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head against me.

Only tonight, the grip around my waist felt a little tighter than usual.

In that position, Seo Ye-in mumbled softly.

“No toy hammer…”

“Just a few more days, okay? After it’s over, we’ll go have some fun, bake some cookies too.”

“Mm…”

But I wasn’t sure if she had actually heard me to the end.

Judging by the sound of her soft, steady breathing, she must’ve fallen asleep already.

I looked down at her for a while, then shifted my gaze to the ceiling.

And I thought,

Less than 9 hours of sleep a day, huh…

What happens if it goes over 9 hours?