Chapter 106 - Operation Gamer 1

Eun Ha's bombastic statement, about having an idea of how to pay the debt she caused to her protégé, took the Hunter by surprise,

"This is good. I'm glad you made good use of today's class," he glanced at the watch on his wrist, ostensibly. "You said you didn't have any scheduled plans for today, did you?"

"Yes! Tonight, we could go to amazing places! I want to have fun and have the Star's VIP treatment, and now I know I can!" said the fairy, apparently planning to make good use of her newly learned techniques.

"Let me guess: this shameless fairy intends to use her powers on herself to shamelessly flaunt and humiliate rivals and foes," the Hunter made a pretty good prediction of what was going on with Eun Ha's thoughts.

"What's the problem? Don't tell me that also this is banned by the Fairy Counsel?" the fashion stylist was apprehensive.

"No, it's not banned. It's just part of a cliché almost as old as the fairies themselves ... But, you can't do that, anyway," he lamented exaggeratedly.

"Why, Professor Shin?"

"Because today you're going to pay the second favor to me."

Recalling the last unpleasant experience for a moment, Eun Ha opened her eyes wide,

"Well, I was being optimistic about my free time, but actually I think I should go home and start working on my plan, ..."

"Don't even start, Jung. I am fulfilling our part of the agreement and you must fulfill yours," said the Hunter with an annoyed expression. "While you spent the whole afternoon training, I was doing some research and I think I can't wait any longer to act. I need your favor today."

The young fairy sighed, resigned,

"Yes, I know, we have a deal. I just wish I didn't have to deal with all those things again."

The Hunter kept silent about this, and Eun Ha now imagined that he also preferred not to have to take an amateur with him to hunting situations.

"Can we have dinner before, while the Professor tells me what we have to do?" 

With Hunter's consent, they went to dinner. And contrary to Eun Ha's previous plans, the restaurant was nothing expensive or trendy. In reality, it was a fried chicken chain, the sort that can be found in any corner of the city.

' Aish, I would never imagine coming to dinner with my crush in such a dull place ... ' the fashion designer lamented in her inner thoughts. But she tried to keep it cool, and charmingly smiled, biting a spicy chicken drumstick. Shin ordered the same, but was eating his absent-mindedly, immersed in his thoughts.

"Professor, I asked you to tell me what we are going to do. Not to tell me only in your head, like the last time," she complained, when it became apparent that he was going to fall into his usual silence.

"You little noise machine! You look like a shop door, always ringing," the Hunter crossly sighed. "I will speak when it is necessary to speak. And what needs to be said."

"Oh, yes, I know, each piece of information has a cost, and the Teacher doesn't teach classes for free. But it would have been different if…"

"Why do you have to know every little thing?" he asked, a little aggravated. Eun Ha thought she was going a little too fast for her poor Professor. She knew Hunter Shin was usually scary, intimidating and all. But now that she understood the energies, Eun Ha wondered if prolonged exposure to bad environments was what made her tutor be in a constant bad mood. Well, that happened even to humans and animals, didn't it? No wonder with a being that absorbs energy, like a fairy!

"It's not like I want to know about monsters. But it looks like I'm going to have to know if I'm going to pay back my classes. We're going on a hunt, aren't we?" she tried to find out.

"Hm," he grunted, apparently noticing that Eun Ha wouldn't wait for him to filter what to say. "Just be quiet. Listen without question."

And the Hunter told his pupil about his next Hunt.

"I had received a request from a fairy named In Jung some time ago, but I was busy with other things, and I was unable to answer at that time. This week, I found In Jung's studio empty. I didn't find him at his house either."

Eun Ha was doing her best not to ask questions, and she even thought about taking her moleskin out of her bag and taking notes. However, she thought it would irritate her normally irritable teacher. But she was beginning to see a pattern. One fairy had a candy store, the other had a studio. And herself, well, she was also something of an artist. She could have sworn that the In Jung fairy had a protégé, just as she had Ye Rim. And Chil Won had Mr. Kim from the muffin factory.

Just her Teacher, well, he was ... Hunter Shin.

"Are you paying attention or all I need to do is say what I want you to do?" the Hunter hated to speak, and most of all, hated to speak uselessly, so Eun Ha hurried to answer,

"No, no, I'm paying attention! In Jung didn't come back to his studio. But what had he asked for, earlier?"

"He commented about his suspicions In Jung believed to have been stumbled upon the activity of an Oneiric. A Oneiric is a creature that dominates the will of humans through fantasies and dreams. When the Oneiric captures a mind, it traps it in a network of illusory images, causing the human to lose track of reality. Oneirics are a plague today. He just wanted me to solve the problem because he thought his protégé was involved with people who had signs of possession by Oneirics."

"And are Oneirics like those wraiths?"

"No. The effects are different. Usually, humans are already addicted to some type of activity that attracts Oneirics, such as drug abuse, games or other types of escapism. Humans become obsessed with the pleasure of that activity, but the dreamers feed on the human's sense of pleasure. They are related to a succubus and incubus, but their focus is another type of pleasure."

Eun Ha shivered, thinking that dreamers were a plague, but the information even made sense.

"So, anyhow, are you going to do what he asked you to do? Wouldn't it be better to look for him first?"

"In Jung has always been impatient, and may have tried to solve the question himself, just like Chil Won. But I finally managed to locate the whereabouts of his protégé, and the whole case is really ... worrying," the young fairy realized that her tutor regretted having used this word, but now it was too late.

"What's going on, Professor Shin?"

"In Jung's protégé is a video game programmer. He recently created a kind of virtual universe as one of those games that young people spend hours online playing."

"And are the players in this game being parasitized by Oneirics? Most likely," Eun Ha tried to guess, and she gave herself an answer, feeling very satisfied with her own wit.

"You're right. The problem is that the game company that this boy founded was closed about a month ago, and this boy, Lee Yo Sub, disappeared. But I found his location, as I said."

"And where is he?! Eun Ha was anxious for the answer, but then remembered that it probably involved the difficult part of the hunt.

"It looks like he's in a clandestine LAN house. The only server that runs the game infested with Oneirics is the server at this LAN house. And according to the informants I got, it is the only updated game server for Yo Sub."

"And is there such a thing?"

"I must understand even less than you do network games, or MMORPG, as they call it. This LAN  house is not far from here, and is controlled by a family of criminals."

"Well, I heard that there are young people who are completely addicted to some video games, who can spend hours and even days immersed in these virtual realities," Said the fashion stylist, beginning to better understand the scope of the Oneirics' activities.

"Yes, I was told that this LAN house is crowded with young people who are completely absorbed in this game's virtual reality. They seldom go offline. I suspect that this human is being forced to produce the updates just for this clandestine server, for some reason."

"He's kidnapped there, is that it?" Eun Ha asked, concluding the unfortunate programmer's situation.

"I guess so. What I do know is that In Jung would not stand by and allow this kind of situation."

The younger fairy needed no further explanation to imagine that the fairy might have had trouble trying to rescue his protégé. The Hunter looked irritated with himself, but before his ward asked some kind of embarrassing question, he said,

"Well, getting into this LAN house doesn't seem to be that difficult, for the right people. What I need to do is find Yo Sub and if I can, In Jung. And get them out of there."

"What about the Oneirics?"

"One doesn't simply destroy Oneirics. The best you can do is banish them for a while away from humans. This really devastates infected humans, but it's not impossible for them to recover. 

"Now the big question, Professor. How can I help you, anyway?"

"Well,…" her tutor bit his lip in that s.e.xy, embarrassed way he did so well, when a question from Eun Ha baffled him. "Entering the LAN house is easy for the right people. However, I clearly don't look like a person who would go to that kind of place."

"And…?" 

The idea that came to her mind was a lot of fun, but Eun Ha had to ask, "Does Professor need me to change his appearance for a few hours?"

The Hunter heavily sighed and closed his eyes, and agreed.