The Support Ate it All-Chapter 552: Finals Week 17–18 (7)

Before long, we climbed the hill and returned to our main base.

In the meantime, a lot had changed.

Just when we left, it had been an empty lot, but now dozens of small tents were lined up in rows.

[Lodging(F)]

And in a small hut built off to one side, team members were constantly coming and going.

Each of them carrying some light food in their hands.

[Cafeteria(D)]

‘They upgraded the most important stuff first.’

Food, clothing, and shelter are serious business.

Park Nari, Seo Ye-in, and I stepped into the hut together.

Like it was a free-for-all, the shelves were lined with all kinds of boxed lunches, sandwiches, and more.

We each grabbed one, chewed as we walked, and kept moving.

Next stop was the vending machine.

As I approached, Song Cheon-hye—who’d been lost in thought—noticed us and turned this way.

“You’re back. Did it go well?”

“We flipped the whole place over.”

I grinned and handed over the charged crystals.

Six of them.

As expected, Song Cheon-hye’s eyes shot up in shock.

“You got this many?”

“‘Our Nari’ and our friends worked hard.”

When I casually put a hand on Park Nari’s shoulder, Seo Ye-in tugged at my sleeve.

“...Me.”

“Of course, we can’t leave out Miss’s contribution.”

“Our Ye-in.”

As always, her mindset was: if I’m doing it for her, I have to do it for myself too.

Even Song Cheon-hye went blank for a second and muttered softly.

“Our Cheon... when did you get that close?”

“I don’t know. When you fight together, you just end up close before you realize it. Right?”

“U-uh... yeah... that’s true....”

Park Nari answered timidly, but her hand petting Beomi’s head felt oddly more upbeat.

Song Cheon-hye looked away and grumbled.

“I fought with you more than they did.”

“So you’re saying you feel distance from me?”

“That’s not what I meant....”

When I pressed her like I was picking a fight, Song Cheon-hye’s voice trailed off.

I let out a heavy sigh like I was truly disappointed.

“I thought we’d gotten pretty close. Guess I was mistaken.”

“We did get close...! We did!”

“Don’t you dare cross the line. Keep your distance. Understood.”

“No, if you keep taking it like that—”

Song Cheon-hye flailed, trying to find the right words.

I relaxed my expression and smiled.

“I’m kidding.”

“...Ah, seriously. Don’t joke about stuff like that.”

“You keep falling for it. Anyway, with six, you can upgrade a lot, huh?”

“Probably.”

As if she was going to show me, she pulled out the crystals she’d been holding too and tapped the vending machine screen.

Then she slid the crystals in, one by one, into the slot.

[Lodging(F→E→D)]

The lined-up tents vanished, and big canvas pavilions took their place.

Then those pavilions vanished too, replaced by small cabins.

Song Cheon-hye added,

“I’m only planning to keep the living facilities around this level.”

“Not bad.”

I nodded readily.

Sure, right now it felt less like finals and more like we were on a trip, but there was no reason to force food and sleep down to the absolute minimum.

More often than not, it was better to eat well, rest enough, and go in with perfect condition.

Song Cheon-hye kept tapping the vending machine screen.

This time, she installed something we’d been feeling the need for since early on.

[Barrier(F)]

Right away, a tall antenna-like thing rose up beside the vending machine and began releasing mana waves.

WOOOOONG—

In only a few seconds, our main base was surrounded by a blue membrane.

Song Cheon-hye immediately fed in the rest of the crystals.

[Barrier(F→E)]

WOOOOONG—

There wasn’t an obvious visual change, but the barrier felt a little thicker.

With that, we were a bit safer from volcanic eruptions.

Of course, there were still plenty of dangers left, so it wasn’t time to relax.

I looked at the vending machine and asked,

“We’re delaying the Crystal Tower for now, right?”

“Yes. Starting day three, we’ll build it.”

How high you stacked it was part of the finals evaluation, but beyond that, it didn’t have any special effect.

And if the tower was too tall too early, it was easier to get exposed to danger.

It was right to invest after building a solid foundation.

I nodded, then said,

“Can I ask you for one thing?”

“What is it?”

“There’s a <Card Shop>.”

“Yeah, I saw it.”

A facility where you could draw random cards at fixed intervals.

The higher the rank, the more cards you got, and the better the quality.

“Upgrade that for me.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to do other things first?”

Song Cheon-hye hesitated.

Rather than betting on probability this early, shouldn’t we prioritize facilities that gave guaranteed profit?

And it wasn’t just us—there were dozens of team members depending on this.

In normal circumstances, I would’ve made the same call.

But—

‘We’ve got a Lucky Charm.’

At worst, we were guaranteed a decent hit.

So it was better to install the <Card Shop> as early as possible and start drawing immediately.

Still, explaining why and convincing her would take too long, so I decided to use the fast and simple method.

I looked Song Cheon-hye straight in the eye.

“Trust me and upgrade it. I won’t let you take a loss.”

“...Understood. You did bring back a lot, too.”

“Yeah. And I’m going to bring back a lot more.”

“How far should I upgrade it?”

“To rank C.”

“That’ll probably take quite a few crystals... but I’ll do it.”

“Thanks.”

When I thanked her and turned around, Song Cheon-hye asked,

“You’re leaving already?”

“We’ve gotta move. Before the sun goes down.”

“Have a safe trip. And don’t push yourself too hard.”

I waved and started down the hill—then I spotted Shin Byeong-cheol right on cue and called out.

“Hey, Mr. Shin. Let’s talk for a second.”

“What is it, boss?”

“I’m assigning you a mission. It’s very important.”

“An important mission... then there’s no one more qualified than me.”

Shin Byeong-cheol put on a meaningful expression.

I handed him all the empty crystals I’d picked up on the way.

“Charge these.”

You had to find a sanctuary and stay nearby for a while, so doing it myself was a waste of time.

Best to assign it to other team members.

Shin Byeong-cheol accepted the empty crystals without complaint.

“Just trust me! I’ll charge them cleanly and bring ’em back up.”

“If you get them stolen or lose them... you know what happens, right?”

“Come on. Of course I’ll make sure nothing like that happens. Don’t worry.”

Shin Byeong-cheol immediately went back to his party and explained the situation.

After giving him one last look, I turned to Park Nari and Seo Ye-in.

“Let’s move.”

***** 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Group C’s main base atmosphere had sunk into something heavy.

A large number of the members assigned to crystal retrieval and charging hadn’t returned.

Even after the volcano’s second eruption ended and things calmed down.

They only got a grasp on the situation much later—when the ones who’d been rendered combat-incapable re-entered.

The damage was six parties.

Seventeen people.

Jeong Jin-myeong felt a headache coming on and pressed their forehead.

“...We got played.”

Six crystals had been stolen, but if those parties had been able to operate normally, they could’ve charged even more than that.

It was a massive loss.

Especially now, when they were just starting to build their foundation, and each crystal mattered.

Jeong Jin-myeong exhaled and thought,

‘What’s done is done. What matters is what happens next.’

They had to prevent the same thing from happening again.

So they listened to the victims’ accounts.

“We were charging, and suddenly everything in front of us turned blue.”

“Someone laid traps at the sanctuary, and we stepped on them hard. Sorry.”

“Something like a bomb flew down from the sky. I barely dodged, then got sniped.”

‘So it definitely wasn’t a monster.’

From what they’d observed, there were no monsters in this volcanic zone that used long-range explosive or shooting skills.

There was a small chance dragon-tooth soldiers had come down, but—

‘They said the effect was blue.’

That meant it was close to neutral.

Would the Flame Emperor Dragon’s underlings not be fire-aligned?

That didn’t add up.

So the conclusion was obvious.

‘It’s another group, no question.’

Nine times out of ten, it was Group B.

The chance Group A would ignore the nonaggression pact and start playing tricks this early was near zero.

Especially considering Moyong Jun’s defensive disposition.

But Group B?

They’d piled up plenty of bad blood—so trading blows wouldn’t be strange at all.

And there was a face that popped into their mind immediately.

‘Kim Ho.’

If it was him, he’d absolutely do something this bold.

‘And Seo Ye-in is in Group B too.’

Jeong Jin-myeong repeated the keywords they’d just heard.

‘Traps,’ ‘explosions,’ and ‘sniping.’

All things Seo Ye-in had shown before.

‘There’s no way they came in alone.’

Those two were always together.

More precisely, wherever Kim Ho went, Seo Ye-in trailed after him.

‘So those two are confirmed.’

They likely added a few more members as insurance and formed a party.

Jeong Jin-myeong frowned.

‘...I don’t know if we can catch them.’

A three-to-four-person party built around Kim Ho and Seo Ye-in.

Considering they’d taken down Mok Jong-hwa in the team PvP match with similar power, it was fair to treat them as roughly on par with most third-year club presidents.

After finishing their calculations, Jeong Jin-myeong looked over the members waiting and gave orders.

“From now on, we move in clusters. Two parties minimum.”

“Then our crystal intake will drop.”

At someone’s concern, Jeong Jin-myeong answered in a calm tone.

“It’s better than getting hit again. We’ll pull a few people off base defense to fill the numbers.”

“......”

“Before you start charging, check the area around the sanctuary carefully. And if you spot members from another group...”

Jeong Jin-myeong paused, then ran the last numbers and continued.

“...Only fight if we have at least three times their headcount. Otherwise, just pull out.”

“We need three times?”

“Honestly, I want to make it four times.”

“So you’re basically telling us to avoid them.”

“For now. Let’s move with focus on gathering information and crystals.”

“......”

The members reluctantly agreed, then dispersed to their roles.

Left alone, Jeong Jin-myeong’s eyes sharpened.

‘We won’t just keep taking hits.’

Once they had a rough read on the enemy’s route, they’d concentrate their force and take them down.

No matter how good someone was, if dozens of people rushed them at once, there was no answer.

Losing now was simply groundwork for winning later.

*****

‘That’s what they’re thinking, right?’

As I moved quickly with my party, that thought ran through my head.

I’d left clues out in the open, so Jeong Jin-myeong would’ve figured out it was us.

‘For a while, they’ll hunker down and watch.’

On top of the pressure they already felt about me, it wasn’t just one or two members who got hit, so they couldn’t help but shrink back.

Of course, they weren’t the type to take it lying down—after gathering enough information, they’d try to counterattack.

So what was the best choice I could make here?

‘Just don’t go.’

If I gave them no information at all, what could Jeong Jin-myeong even do?

They’d have no choice but to keep crouching there and waiting.

So, in a breezy tone, I said,

“Next, let’s go over toward Group A~”