Chapter 69. Assistant Gathering
It was a bright afternoon.
Seo Dan-bi hurriedly finished getting ready and opened her front door.
As she stepped out, she pulled out her phone and opened a chat app, navigating to the “Assistant Group Chat.”
She posted a message.
【Seo Dan-bi】─Can I bring a friend?
Today was the day of the first-ever assistant meetup, a gathering that Ha Yumi had organized for the assistants to meet and chat in person.
Seo Dan-bi felt nervous about meeting people she’d only interacted with online, and she decided to bring a friend to ease her nerves.
She had already told her friend about the plan, but if the others objected, she was prepared to go alone.
‘Why isn’t anyone replying?’
As Seo Dan-bi anxiously checked the chat, responses popped up.
【Ha Yumi】─A friend?
【Somang】─No.
【Ha Yumi】─Who’s the friend?
Other assistants quickly chimed in, and Seo Dan-bi hurriedly responded.
【Seo Dan-bi】─It’s the person who came with me when I stopped by Geon’s house before. She knows about Geon’s broadcast too.
【Ha Yumi】─She knows about the broadcast? How?
【Seo Dan-bi】─I told her.
【Seo Dan-bi】─She didn’t believe me at first, but after I showed her the supplies I sent, she did.
【Seo Dan-bi】─Anyway, she already knows about Geon’s broadcast, so I’ll bring her. It’s fine, right?
【Somang】─No.
【Seo Dan-bi】─Please?
【Somang】─No.
【Ha Yumi】─Hmm.
【Ha Yumi】─Do as you like. Think of her as a potential assistant.
【Seo Dan-bi】─Thank you! Onion rings!
【Somang】─😠
With Ha Yumi’s approval, Seo Dan-bi sighed in relief.
She felt nervous about going alone, but having her friend with her gave her confidence.
With that, she made her way to her friend Hwang Mir’s house before heading to the meetup location.
***
Outside a quiet café, the reflections of two women could be seen in the glass door—Hwang Mir and Seo Dan-bi.
“Are you sure I can come?”
“It’s fine. Most of them agreed.”
With that, Seo Dan-bi pushed open the café door and stepped inside.
A soft chime rang, and the warm scent of coffee greeted them. Seo Dan-bi quickly scanned the interior.
‘Ah, there they are.’
She spotted two women sitting in a corner—Shin Somang and Ha Yumi.
Shin Somang looked much like she did in her photos, while Ha Yumi looked just slightly different from her pictures.
‘I thought she edited her photos a lot, but it seems like she only did a little.’
Both of them were beautiful.
After briefly admiring them, Seo Dan-bi pulled at Hwang Mir’s sleeve and nodded toward the assistants.
Hwang Mir lowered her voice and asked, “Is that them?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why aren’t you going over?”
“You go first.”
“What are you talking about? You should lead the way. I don’t know them at all.”
“I’m meeting them in person for the first time too.”
“But you know them better than I do. Stop hesitating and go.”
Urged on by Hwang Mir, Seo Dan-bi gulped, took a deep breath, and slowly walked toward Ha Yumi and Shin Somang.
Standing in front of them, she greeted them shyly, her usual online confidence nowhere to be found.
“Hello…”
Both Ha Yumi and Shin Somang, who had been looking at their phones, glanced up.
“…Hello.”
Shin Somang nodded and greeted her.
“Oh? Pururu? Why are you so late? We’ve been waiting for a while!”
Ha Yumi stood up with a bright smile to greet Seo Dan-bi.
“But Pururu, you look so different in person compared to your photos.”
“…”
Was that an insult?
Seo Dan-bi’s brows furrowed slightly.
“Why did you even bother editing your photos? You look good enough that the original probably would’ve been better. If you don’t know how to edit properly, just don’t.”
“Oh.”
It was a compliment.
The corners of Seo Dan-bi’s lips twitched upward, her face revealing her thoughts.
Next to her, Hwang Mir stood awkwardly, unsure of how to interact.
Noticing her, Ha Yumi tilted her head and asked, “Is this your friend?”
“Oh, yes. Hi, I’m Hwang Mir, Dan-bi’s friend.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ha Yumi.”
Ha Yumi smiled and extended her hand for a handshake, and Shin Somang introduced herself shortly after.
With everyone introduced, the four women ordered drinks and gathered around a round table, starting a conversation centered, of course, on Kang Geon’s broadcast.
***
As their conversation flowed while watching Kang Geon’s broadcast, Seo Dan-bi nervously held her cup, sipping her drink through a straw before cautiously speaking up.
“So, um… should we just talk casually like we do in chat? It feels a bit awkward using formal speech…”
“Yeah, I think that’d be more comfortable too.”
Shin Somang agreed. Speaking formally had created some distance between them.
“I always use formal speech in the chat though,” Ha Yumi said, not entirely on board.
She preferred that they continue using formal speech, especially since she was older and didn’t like being addressed casually by younger people.
“I don’t mind if you two speak casually to each other. That’s none of my business. But it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to talk to me casually, given the cultural norms. I’m quite a bit older than you.”
“Doesn’t matter. The majority agreed to it.”
“Age is just a number.”
Regardless of her objections, Seo Dan-bi and Shin Somang started speaking to Ha Yumi casually, since the majority had already agreed to it.
“Wait a minute. I never gave you permission to talk to me like that! I’ve been using formal speech to show respect, and yet you just switch to casual speech without even asking? That’s not right. You should go back to using formal speech.”
“Then you can speak casually too.”
“Yeah, don’t be a boomer.”
“…”
Are they crazy?
Fine, do whatever you want.
While Ha Yumi stared at them in disbelief, she thought about how ridiculous the situation was.
“Can I speak casually too, then?”
Hwang Mir, who had been crunching ice, hesitantly asked.
“Not yet. You’re not in on this.”
“You’re not an assistant yet.”
“You’ll have to wait until you become one.”
All three—Seo Dan-bi, Shin Somang, and Ha Yumi—rejected her suggestion in unison, telling her to wait until she became an assistant.
The conversation eventually continued, shifting back to Kang Geon’s broadcast.
They shared details of events that had happened during the broadcast, updating each other on things they might have missed, while Hwang Mir listened with interest.
As they shared information, the initial awkwardness began to melt away.
The conversation naturally flowed toward more personal topics, moving beyond Kang Geon’s broadcast and into their everyday lives.
Gradually, they began to open up and get to know each other better.
With time, the discussion took yet another turn.
The topic shifted to the monsters that had started appearing on Earth.
There was a YouTube video of a slime, the goblin Shin Somang encountered in an alley, and the undead spirits of the Hedgehog Summoner that had caused a stir in the news.
Lastly, there was the recent murder case.
The murderer wasn’t human.
The CCTV footage shown on the news depicted a grotesque creature, not a person.
Naturally, they had already informed Kang Geon about it the night before.
The footage had caused an uproar online.
For people who had never known about monsters, many assumed it was fake, but more and more people were beginning to accept the existence of monsters as a reality.
After all, gigantic undead spirits had once appeared over the city of Seoul.
There were still many skeptics who believed it was all a hoax or some kind of hologram, but the number of believers was growing.
It wasn’t the only monster sighting, after all.
Reports and videos of monster sightings were flooding major online platforms worldwide.
Of course, most of the videos were fake, but there had now been the first officially recorded casualty caused by a monster.
The Earth-based assistants discussed how they should prepare and deal with monsters if they appeared again, considering their options besides just relying on Kang Geon.
As Kang Geon’s name came up in the conversation, it eventually led to his alias from the other world—Gauntlet.
“Why did he pick such a weird name?”
They wondered aloud, joking about the choice.
At that moment, one of the café employees, a person with exotic features who had been cleaning cups, froze and reacted to the name.
The employee stared blankly at them, repeating “Gauntlet” to themselves.
Noticing something odd, the café’s owner placed a hand on the employee’s shoulder and asked, “Are you alright?”
“I… I think my memory is coming back…”
“What? Really?”
The owner looked shocked.
This employee with foreign features had originally been found unconscious in an alley behind the café.
When they woke up, they had lost all their memories.
The owner had helped them instead of reporting them as an illegal immigrant, even going so far as to register them under a relative’s name to keep them employed.
It was an act of pure kindness, driven by the owner’s deep sense of empathy.
They couldn’t bear to abandon someone who didn’t even remember their own name or past.
The owner had taken the employee in, hoping that one day their memories would return, and they could help send them back to their home country.
Now, the café owner watched with anticipation, clenching their fists as the employee struggled to recall their past.
“Kang Geon… Gauntlet… Gauntlet is Kang Geon… I came to this world because…”
“Hey, are you okay? Your eyes look weird!”
“Ugh… my head…”
Crash!
The cup the employee had been holding fell to the floor, shattering, as the employee collapsed.
Inside the employee’s mind, fragmented pieces of memory began to come together.
Her name was Sage Lunaris.
She was a dimensional magician from Elemencia, who had come to Earth seeking Kang Geon’s help.