Deck 1. The “Newbie Hunting Ground.”

Even though he’d only been gone a few days, the first breath of air told Jae-hee everything he needed to know.

I hate it here…

The suffocating atmosphere hit him immediately.

It wasn’t just that the air was stagnant. It was… tasteless. Dull and dead compared to the outside world.

So… freedom actually has a flavor.

He suddenly remembered something Ghost had told him.

“No matter how screwed up this world gets, it’s an adult’s duty to teach a kid that it’s still a hell of a lot better than a place like prison.”

And so, it had happened.

Jae-hee had finally tasted the sweetness of freedom. And that knowledge, in itself, was agony.

This trip outside had been a cruel awakening for the Jae-hee who’d been perfectly content with his prison life, the one who’d found peace in his humble circumstances.

“Master! Why have you subjected your disciple to such a trial!”

Muttering to himself, Jae-hee trudged toward his cell.

***

Inside Jae-hee’s four-man cell.

“I’m back…”

“Oh!”

“He’s back desu, he’s back desu.”

“So you made it back alive, huh?”

His three roommates, who had been up late playing poker, greeted their Deck Leader with sly grins when he returned after several days.

“Well, well, look who it is. The prodigal son returns.”

“How was your little trip outside desu?”

“Did you bring us something tasty?”

Jae-hee greeted Razor, Status Window, and Patissier in turn, then collapsed onto the floor with an exhausted sigh.

Patissier pleaded once more, his voice full of longing. “Did you bring back something tasty?!”

Razor and Status Window chimed in, feigning outrage.

“Hey, you went outside! Where are our souvenirs?! You brought some, right?!”

“Hand them over while we’re asking nicely desu!”

“What are you talking about… I don’t have anything.”

He’d actually planned to buy them something. He was going to go shopping on the last day, but an emergency mission had come up, and he’d never gotten the chance.

“Here, take these instead.”

Jae-hee pulled something out and offered it to his roommates.

They were three large feathers.

“Feathers from the monstrous bird, Albatross. I swiped them during the mission.”

The three men took them and stared at Jae-hee, bewildered. Jae-hee just grinned and nodded. “Think of them as souvenirs…”

“What the hell are we supposed to do with these?!”

“You went to the outside world! You should’ve brought back something cooler desu!”

“I want something delicious!”

The gift was meant to be deeply symbolic—a reminder of the hope for release.

But his three ruthless roommates, who valued only the material and the practical, completely failed to grasp his profound intention.

Surrounded by his roommates, Jae-hee protested in a feeble voice. “‘H-hope is the thing with feathers’… so these feathers are…”

“What kind of otherworldly nonsense is that desu! Did you catch that from Ms. Ghost desu?”

“That’s it, boys! Wrap this bastard in a blanket! Time to introduce him to another of our warm Joseon customs: the straw mat beating!”

After the chaotic and percussive straw mat beating was over, Jae-hee confessed that he’d been called away on an unexpected mission and hadn’t had time to buy souvenirs. Still, the mood in the room remained sour.

“Wait a minute, now that I think about it, Razor bro and you, Status Window, you both got outing permits too!” Jae-hee yelled, rubbing his aching back.

The mission that had awarded the permits was ‘Incheon in the Fog.’

Razor and Status Window had been deployed then, too. They both had their own permits.

“You two can just go out yourselves! Why are you giving me such a hard time?!”

Razor looked sad at that. He muttered, “My arm’s in this state, and there are people out there who want to kill me on sight…”

“Ah.”

“I can’t… I just can’t go back out there…”

Status Window and Patissier patted the grieving Razor comfortingly while shooting daggers at Jae-hee. Jae-hee shuddered.

“I don’t really have anywhere to go either desu…” Status Window mumbled sorrowfully. “No family, no friends, nothing to do…”

“Uh… what about new manga volumes?”

“You think new stuff like that is even coming out these days desu?”

“Oh.”

“Well, there are a few webnovels I’m following…”

In an age where the world was broken and the internet had slowed to a crawl, the most prosperous cultural content was, ironically, the kind that delivered the most entertainment in the smallest file size: novels.

And so, thanks to the sluggish internet of a half-ruined Republic of Korea, the webnovel industry was enjoying an unprecedented boom. Status Window was an avid reader.

“But I can read all of those from in here desu.”

“Huh? You can get on the internet here?”

“Of course desu. There’s an internet cafe on the ninth deck. You just have to pay with Credits desu.”

It seemed that while Jae-hee was gone, the three of them had been frequenting the ninth-deck internet cafe together every day, playing games and eating cup ramen.

Jae-hee ground his teeth, seeing how close the three had become in his absence. A sense of alienation crept over him.

“More than anything… I’m just scared to go outside alone desu…”

Suddenly, Status Window grabbed Jae-hee’s pant leg and wailed. “Why didn’t you go with me, Boy-kun!”

“I-it wasn’t my choice this time! I gave my permit to my master, and she only gave me half the time back!”

Shaking Status Window off his leg, Jae-hee turned to Razor. “So what are you going to do with your permit?”

“I’m thinking of selling it at the Auction House. They go for a crazy-high price.”

Auction House?

Jae-hee blinked, having never heard the term before. What was that?

“Ah, right. You guys haven’t been to one of the ship’s auctions yet.” Razor grinned. “One should be coming up soon, so let’s go together. It’s actually pretty fun. Then again, there’s so little to do in this prison that any event ends up being fun.”

The conversation turned to what Jae-hee had done and eaten on the outside.

He bragged about the hotel he’d stayed in, the rock festival he’d gone to with Ghost, and the subsequent tour of famous restaurants.

He deliberately left out his encounters with the Old and New Five Heroes. It wasn’t that he was trying to hide it, but for some reason, he felt a strange reluctance to talk about it.

“Wow, you ate so many different things. It must have been delicious…”

Patissier was envious of his culinary tour, while Status Window kept asking questions about the hotel.

“That hotel, how was it compared to this place desu? This is a converted cruise ship, after all. Was it better than here desu?”

“Are you serious? Of course the outside is better.”

The hotel had been a small single room, but compared to this cramped four-man cell, it was a palace.

A bed big enough for one, a private bathroom, a TV you could see from the bed…

“But look at this place. It’s so damn small.”

Jae-hee placed a hand on the wall of the cramped cell and complained, prompting Razor to shake his head in disbelief.

“This punkass got a little taste of freedom and completely lost his mind. Hey, didn’t you say you liked it here? That you wanted to live here forever?”

“The old me was the one who’d lost his mind. How could anyone live in a place like this?”

Jae-hee clenched his fists, his resolve hardening. “I’m gonna get out of here. No matter what.”

“Three hundred years? Was it ten million Credits? Good luck saving that up.” Razor scoffed openly. “Real money is one thing, but these prison Credits have a magic all their own. I guarantee you’ll end up blowing it all on something stupid. That’s how you learn.”

Jae-hee ignored Razor’s pessimistic lecture. “And to prepare for that day, I need to start training properly.”

The tools he’d requested to be made were just tools, the gear just gear.

Ultimately, the one who needed forging was Jae-hee himself.

You never know what might happen on the battlefield. In the end, only the fundamentals will save your life.

The Boy had taken his master’s teachings to heart.

“The gym’s on the second deck, right?” he asked.

“Yup. Never been there myself, just heard about it.”

On Deck 1, with no proper equipment, his workouts were limited to calisthenics and running.

Since becoming Ghost’s student, Jae-hee had diligently followed the routine she’d designed for him, but he was feeling the limitations of his environment.

He needed a proper training facility, or at least one minimally equipped for combat against monsters.

“It’s always the ones with nothing who blame their tools, their environment, their supplements.”

“Hey, I really need it!”

To be honest, Jae-hee had never once been to a gym in his life.

So he had a bit of a fantasy about them. He’d heard it was possible to get ripped just by working out there.

“I’m going to settle this.”

Jae-hee exhaled and made a declaration. “I will negotiate with the Deck 2 leader, Jail Mojik sis… for the right to use the gym.”

At the mention of Jail Mojik, Razor shuddered.

“Negotiate? How? You don’t have any cards that would interest that rope-freak, do you?”

“Oh, but I do.” Jae-hee giggled. “I thought so too, but then I realized I have a very powerful card up my sleeve.”

“And what could that possibly be…” Razor’s voice trailed off.

Jae-hee was looking right at him, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

“What’s with that disgusting waggling… wait, don’t tell me?”

Razor realized what Jae-hee’s “powerful card” was. “You son of a bitch, you’re not thinking—?!”

“Razor bro.” Jae-hee smiled a slow, deliberate smile. “You know Jail Mojik sis has a thing for you. We’re going to use it.”

“…!”

“Let’s try a honey trap. A serious one.”

Razor shot to his feet and scrambled backward.

But Status Window and Patissier had already moved to his sides, seizing his arms and holding him fast.

It wasn’t pre-planned; they were just playing along with the mood, which ended with Razor being restrained.

“L-let go of me! Let go, you fat fucks!”

Struggling, Razor ground his teeth at Jae-hee, who stood before him, still smirking and waggling his eyebrows.

“Damn it, asshole! What’s in it for me? Why should I cooperate with—!”

“Your Deck Leader position.”

The words left Jae-hee’s lips, and Razor’s shoulders went rigid.

“I’ll make sure you get it back, officially. How about it?”

“…”

Knowing full well how obsessed Razor was with the Deck 1 leader position, Jae-hee grinned.

“Just close your eyes and do it once! Give the honey trap a try, bro.”

“…”

“C’mon, please. I’m begging you.”

“Haaaah…”

With a long sigh, Razor slowly bit out his words. “I’ll cooperate. Whether the plan succeeds or fails, you give me back the Deck Leader position. No matter what. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Jae-hee clapped his hands together. Razor threw off his captors’ arms with a sharp hiss and looked around.

“Fine, fuck it! Let’s do this.”

Razor looked up at Jae-hee and asked, “So what exactly is the plan?”

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