How to get on the protagonist’s flower path

The situation we found ourselves in felt like we were tap dancing on the anger trigger of Choi Soo-jung.

As soon as I heard “as expected,” Choi Soo-jung gathered rough winds in her hand with a cold glare.

“Junior, I thought you understood my situation? Can’t you think straight?”

Despite her sharp response, the conman boldly smiled and said, “I know. I know your bloodline and your past. That’s why I brought you into this dungeon.”

It was truly a storm of aggro.

This conman must have lost his mind to the dopamine from gambling.

Or maybe he had 99 lives and wanted to experience dying at least once.

But why drag me into it, why?!

“Aha. So I can take that to mean you want to die here?”

“Wait a second!”

I felt like crying at the thought that I had to intervene in this tense situation. Teacher, save me. Guys, help me!

“Isn’t it better to go outside and regroup instead of fighting each other right now?”

The conman chuckled at my words. Why is he laughing? This is ominous.

“You can’t get out. It’s an event.”

The winds in Choi Soo-jung’s hand became even more concentrated.

Hey, you conman, don’t add fuel to the fire! Did you really need to say that now?!

“If you kill me now, both Kang Nahyun and your senior will die here with me.”

“What?”

What is this nonsense?

“This place is the Temple of Beasts. It’s where the beastmen come for trials.”

The conman continued to speak with a grin.

“Of course, the difficulty of the trials is beyond what we can overcome without knowing the strategy. But I do know the strategy…”

His annoyingly smug smile was that of a victor who had the upper hand in negotiations.

“You have a reason to come back alive, don’t you, senior?”

But why is my life tied to your negotiations, you liar! You said it wasn’t dangerous!

You two-faced bastard! I’m not going to believe you again!

Choi Soo-jung glared at the conman for a moment but then slowly released the winds she had gathered in her hand.

Although her gaze still held a deadly intent, it seemed she wouldn’t kill him at least for now.

Congratulations, conman. You’ve successfully gambled. Damn protagonist kid.

“…So, what do we need to do?”

I asked cautiously, trying to look scared.

There was no need to worry. According to him, he should know the dungeon strategy very well.

He was an enormous gaming nerd who knew every part of this game inside and out, so he must have had some confidence in causing hidden events.

The conman smiled widely.

“Navigating the maze.”

Clap, clap, he lightly clapped his hands and then flopped down onto the ground.

“First, let me brief you. Sit down, senior.”

The conman gestured for me to sit. He meant me too, right?

Once Choi Soo-jung and I sat in front of him, the conman took out chalk and wrote on the stone floor.

“Maze,” “traps,” “script,” “clairvoyance.”

“First, can you see that door over there?”

We looked at the door the conman was pointing to. The rectangular stone door was an open hole with no door panel.

“If you go through that door, the maze will begin. Once you enter, it’s one of two outcomes: you die or you escape alive.”

The conman shrugged nonchalantly.

“You can’t come back through that door.”

What? Laughing? Is this a joke? You bastard?!

“Anyway… there are all kinds of traps in the maze, and there are hints written in the beastmen’s script near these traps. Hints to avoid the traps.”

The conman pointed at himself.

“And I can decipher that script.”

As expected, a gaming nerd.

“So, we can avoid all the traps.”

“Exactly. As long as we keep avoiding the traps, we’ll eventually find the exit.”

“Why do we need clairvoyance?”

“Because the script is written in places only beastmen can read. It’s written so high you have to fly to see it, or it’s written very small, so you need clairvoyance to check the details.”

“I see… I’ll do my best.”

“Right. I’ll use a sight-sharing skill I got from leveling up to share your vision with Nahyun to assess the situation.”

“Got it!”

“Then the briefing is over.”

The conman stretched.

“Just in case, let’s check our equipment before we head out!”

“Sure.”

“Okay!”

After receiving and organizing the various potions the conman handed over, I stealthily approached Choi Soo-jung, who still seemed to be in a bad mood.

She was still furrowing her brows deeply.

“Uh, um…”

“…What is it?”

“How should I address you moving forward? Or should I not?”

“You can call me whatever you like, or you can call me senior. I don’t mind the small stuff.”

“Then, senior…”

Since she seemed to be a senior…

I was just a poor puppy caught up in the conman’s scheme, wearing the shell of a good kid who is careful of others’ feelings.

“Sure.”

“Uh, um, what Yu-han did this time was bad, right?”

“By my standards, yes.”

“Then I’ll scold him later. Yoori will scold him too…!”

I glanced at the conman and then whispered to Choi Soo-jung as if revealing a significant secret.

“This is a secret, but if Yu-han does something bad, Yoori promised to scold him.”

I wiggled my fingers and hesitated for a moment. Finally, I closed my eyes tightly and said in a small voice, “So, please don’t worry too much…!”

Seeing me like that, Choi Soo-jung laughed.

“Haha,”

“Ahhahaha!”

After laughing heartily, she seemed to lighten up a bit and responded to me with a much more relaxed expression. She reached out and lightly tugged at my cheeks.

“Oww.”

“But tell me. When Yoori scolds that guy, can I join in too?”

“…Sure!”

But I get the feeling she won’t stop at just scolding him; she might actually kill him.

Even while having my cheeks pulled, I smiled happily at Choi Soo-jung’s grinning face.

Finally, we managed to escape the hellish atmosphere. My cheeks hurt a bit, but I could gladly sacrifice them.

“Soft~.”

But when will you let go of me, senior?

Choi Soo-jung’s hand, which had been fondling my cheeks for quite a while, finally stopped when the conman came back after finishing his preparation for the strategy. My cheeks were tingling.

Thanks to my sacrificed cheeks, the party’s mood dramatically improved. We each gripped our weapons tightly and moved toward the stone door.

As soon as we entered the maze, the stone door closed with a rumbling sound.

“Here we go~! Now we have no choice but to find the exit!”

“Let’s go.”

“Fighting!”

As the conman activated the sight-sharing skill, his eyes began to glow even brighter red than before. I felt a connection with a sense flowing from him like a thread.

It felt unpleasant.

“Take the next corridor, go right.”

“Left.”

“Straight.”

We moved quietly, following the conman’s directions.

Occasionally, we reached dead ends, but those places were surely where treasures were hidden, so the conman must have purposely led us there.

However, when we agreed to work with the conman, we decided that any treasures obtained inside the dungeon would go to him first, so they were just an empty dream for me. Ugh, I’m getting annoyed again.

Anyway, after a while of smooth progress, it seemed like the tension eased a bit, and Choi Soo-jung started to float in the air again.

One noticeable change was that she kept trying to have physical contact with me. She would hug my neck from behind or rub her head against me.

…Why?

Well, I guess it’s good that I seem to have gained her favor? The higher the favorability with the main characters, the better, so I decided to think of it as a good thing.

After a long walk, we saw a stone door that looked identical to the entrance.

The only difference was that this door was currently open.

“The exit!”

“We finally made it~!”

We hurried toward the exit.

As we exited, we found a reward room as described in the original work.

In the center of an altar decorated with the bones of beasts lay a rough-looking key made of bones.

That key… it was probably one of the key items in the main storyline.

“Senior, go and grab the key.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You have to grab it.”

Choi Soo-jung seemed reluctant, but she approached the altar and grabbed the key as the conman said.

The key began to faintly glow, and then letters started to appear on it. The script of the beastmen that we had seen while wandering through the maze.

Suddenly, I glanced to the side and saw the conman grinning deviously. What a real conman.

Choi Soo-jung suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!” as she grabbed the key, her face filled with surprise.