"Whew," he sighed out and knocked on the door.
Rummaging sounds came from beyond the door before they turned to footsteps. A Korean woman nearing her forties opened the door and looked inquisitively at the Lorn. She wasn't bad-looking by any means, but you could still see her age clearly. And the end of her eyes pointed sharply upwards, giving her a naturally angry look. Lorn also noticed that the room smelled of ink a bit and the jewel on her forehead was painted blue.
"Damn! What a beauty!" Lorn said, whistling. "I knew coming to this Guild was the right choice. What's your name, pretty girl?"
Miss Han looked at him from top to bottom and smiled slightly. She liked what she was hearing and she liked what she was seeing. Lorn wasn't really a supermodel: his skin was somewhat tanned and his nose was eyes were on the smaller side. But he was tall when he posed properly and although he didn't have the 'chad' chin, it was still defined enough to pop out. It also helped that he looked clean and proper thanks to Yara.
"Han Jihye, but you can just call me Jihye," she said. "And where did a handsome young man like you appear here?"
"Me? Handsome? You must be joking. I don't dare call myself average next to a fairy tail like you."
Jihye smiled with satisfaction.
"Damn, rude of me to forget intros," Lorn continued. "Name's Lorn. Lorn Ashin. I just got scouted by the guild."
"Oh! A new member! How exciting!"
"Ugh, the people here are unbelievable," Lorn sighed. "I can't believe they just told me about the rooms ya'll were staying. What is this? Three cards? They should've told me exactly where your room was!"
"Who did you meet before me?" she asked.
Lorn smiled cheekily. "Of course, I found you first. God must've wanted us to meet quicker."
"He really might've," she smiled coquettishly. "Even I'm regretting not knowing you a second sooner."
"Can I come in?"
"Sure. Have some dinner if you want."
Lorn acted like a playboy who had the shittiest lines, but that was exactly Jihye's type. Easy-to-use idiots who may or may not be useful, but are still good to keep around just in case.
Jihye's room was the biggest and fanciest of the three Undying. Lorn still smelled the ink in the air, but he couldn't find the source. He thought of complimenting the blue jewel on Jihye's face, but since she was hiding how she made it, he decided not to mention it. He was acting someone dumb, but it would never be good to offend her randomly.
He sat down at a large table and waited as Jihye prepared some leftover fried meat. She served it in a large plate for Lorn, but kept a smaller piece to herself.
"It's too much for me to eat. Need to keep an eye on my weight."
"Oh, I love a good meat. When I was a kid, I used to eat nothing but it…" Lorn laughed.
"Eat up, then."
As Jihye sat down with her plate, Lorn pulled at Jihye's spoon she left on her plate. It landed on the right of the two, and Jihye, looking oblivious to what Lorn did, clambered up again to get it. Lorn gestured her to stop and pulled the spoon towards him with his skill. It did a little jump and landed cleanly in his hand. He coolly wiped it with a handkerchief and put it on her plate again.
Jihye looked at him with surprise for a second before speaking.
"How did you do that?"
"It's a skill I learned. Makes me pull things towards my body. A bit useless now, but I'm sure I'll find better uses later."
"But how did you learn it?"
"Oh, I got it through a thing called Spirit Bonding. If another Hunter works your spirit, you get bonded together and you also get three of their skills randomly. It's a gamble. I wish I'd gotten something better, but as always, my luck fucks me up."
Jihye's eyes looked twenty times more interested in Lorn. The easy-to-use idiot suddenly became useful.
"Is that why you got recruited?" she asked sweetly.
"Yes. The Hunter I bonded with was a member of the guild."
Jihye's expression was the same, but her eyes were more serious. She really was thinking hard.
"Anyone else know about this?"
"Probably not. That Guildmaster hag was talking about spirit bonds being rare coz it's so useless."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I don't know. Who cares? Anyhow. I was thinking I'll sell the info back on Earth," Lorn said, leaning back onto his chair, a slight smirk on his face. "Saw a bunch of people selling info for big money on the One Leader's other game. What was it?"
"Falling Earth?"
"Yeah, that. I don't really get it, but since this world's gonna be a game like that one, I'm sure there's gonna be big profits for info like this. I'll sell the same thing to a bunch of people and walk out of it a rich man."
Jihye was frowning. She would be thinking about all sorts of things wrong with the statement. If she was the one to think of the idea, she might not even find the flaws, but if someone else said it… she was the type to find each and every fault with it.
"Wait," she said softly. "I don't think it's the best to sell it."
She slid over and put her hand over Lorn's. Lorn grasped it and spoke.
"Why not? We can get rich easy and simple. If we somehow leak the new game, there's gonna be an endless wave of people wanting to get an edge at it. Don't you know how those idiots flock around the other game? Falling Earth? They're so invested, some even put half their earnings into it."
He was already speaking of 'we'-s.
"No, no, no," Jihye shushed at Lorn. She leaned over and kissed him slowly. "Slow down," she said, sliding atop him.
"Yeah?" Lorn smirked. He grabbed her ass and pulled her closer. "What if I don't feel like slowing down?"
"You'll eventually learn to when you're with me," she smiled and kissed him again. "It's not profitable to sell the info now," she said. "We don't have anyone to sell to, anyway. You know the type of people stuck here with us, right? People stuck with crippling debt, trying to make ends meet by selling themselves as guinea pigs. What are you in here for? Debt? Or did you just felt like risking a brain damage randomly?"
Lorn paused a bit.
"Debt," he murmured out.
He roughly kissed her on the lips and squeezed her ass randomly. Jihye let it happen. She would let it happen happily. After all, Lorn was practically shouting out his insecurities - the hurt to his pride. She would feel completely in the zone with him as her new plaything.
"See? We all might make a lot of money, but most of it will either go to their debts, or medical bills, or whatever else that needs paying. They won't be able to pay the full price for your info. Some won't even be able to realize its full worth."
"So what are we going to do?" he asked impatiently.
"Keep the spirit bond thing a secret for now. We'll wait patiently for our chance, and when rumors of the game start growing, we'll make the biggest killing of our lives."
"That's years away from now!"
"No, no, no. Of course not," she said. "At most, it'll take half a year. And besides, we'll have each other for that time. What's there to be worried about?"
She kissed him again. This one was much more passionate.
"Just promise me this..." she said, slowly taking off her bra. "You'll keep the secret tight."
"Alright," Lorn breathed out. "I promise."
He grabbed her up and put her on the bed. He hastily pulled her pants down and was about to pull her in, but a knock on the door interrupted his actions.
He paused for a second, but continued on as if he heard nothing.
"Mr. Lorn!" a muffled voice came from behind the door. "Miss Sybil's calling for you."
"Not NOW!" he shouted back.
"She said it's extremely urgent and that I need to bring you through any means!"
"Motherfucker!" he cursed and pushed himself off the bed.
"Who is it?" Jihye asked, pulling up her pants.
"The Hunter I'm bonded with," Lorn spat out. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Wait!" she grabbed his hand. "Keep the secret."
"Yeah, yeah," Lorn grunted. "Oh, the old hag knows about it. Maybe some other people, too."
"I'll go talk to her," she said, kissing him again. "I'll take care of everything. Just keep the secret."
Lorn nodded. "I'll be back as soon as possible."
Jihye managed to hide the grimace. She assumed some expectant expression and opened the door for him.
Lorn walked out and glared at the soulless. At the corner of his eyes, he saw something red flashing out of his vision.
"What does she want?"
"I don't know, Lord Undying."
Lorn tsked and nodded at him to follow.
"Where is she? Take me to her."
The two walked away, and Lorn heard the Jihye's door close behind him. He turned the corner and immediately stopped.
"Good job," he said to the soulless. "Now, one last thing. Run to the Guildmaster and tell her that Han Jihye is coming to talk about spirit bonds. Tell her to play along. Tell her I said it too."
The soulless nodded almost enthusiastically.
"Wait. You want some kind of reward?" Lorn asked. "Will a silver coin do?"
"It's okay, Lord Undying. I'll be off."
Lorn saw the soulless running for a while before wondering if he should chase after the red bob cut that was eavesdropping on his conversation. He decided it was too much trouble and headed to his temporary house.
He got into his room, lied down onto the bed, and sighed deeply.
"Finally done. Let's just hope I never see those two again… It's too much to keep three acts going at the same time," he murmured. "Meeting Yara again would be cool, though."
As per his habit, he checked the mirror again. Sadly, there was no update to his skill, but he did see a new notification.
[You have passed a qualification to receive a Behavioral skill. These skills appear when a Hunter acts a certain way, or tries to accomplish something unique and specific. In your case, you've shown promise as a practical manipulator, using your knowledge in psychology to subtly control others. On your next rank up, you will receive a skill related to this concept.]
Lorn saw the message and wasn't sure how to feel about it.
'It's probably not something to be proud of, right?' he mused. 'But why do I feel so satisfied?'
Lorn hoped they'd give him an ability to read other's minds. That would make things so much easier.
He put the mirror down and slept.
…