I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

I quickly spotted several boxes on the inner shelf of the storage room marked ‘Scheduled for Evening Auction.’
Inside were a variety of items, along with sheets of paper that appeared to be their instruction manuals.

I took a few of the smaller items that looked valuable, along with the corresponding manuals.
Some items were larger than expected or seemed useless, so I gave up on those.
“…Might as well take this too.”

I grabbed a handful of the chips that were scattered all over the floor and stuffed them into my pocket. Just in case.
The hallway leading back to the auction house from the storage room was quiet.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I had cleared out too many enemies, or if they had simply abandoned this side, like that manager-class monster earlier.

When {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I reentered the auction house, the afternoon auction was still in full swing.
I cautiously approached the spot where my team members were gathered.
Next to them sat a young woman I’d never seen before, shaking in fear, and at their feet were several item boxes.

It seemed they had successfully bid on a person while I was gone, and also picked up a few additional items.
Team Leader Park Cheolwoo was nervously biting his nails, eyes darting between the auction status board at the front and the chips in his hand.
He was muttering in distress under his breath:

“Ah… this isn’t enough… should I give up on the next item…”
It looked like they were almost out of chips.
Despite how many chips we had before, they must’ve vanished fast once the bidding heated up and competition kicked in.

“Team leader.”
As I approached quietly, the team members flinched and turned to me in surprise.
“Kim Minjun! You’re safe! Are you okay?”
“Hey, are you alright?!”

Park spoke first, his voice a mix of relief and concern.
Han Sora and Seo Jihyun were also looking at me with worried expressions.
Only the woman they’d won in the bid looked back and forth between me and the others in confusion.
I nodded and handed the chips I’d just retrieved from the storage room to Team Leader Park.

“Yes, I’m fine. And… with this, we should be able to keep bidding for a while longer.”
Park’s eyes widened at the amount of chips I handed him.
“Wh-Where did all this… This will give us a breather.”

He nodded in astonishment.
The other team members also let out sighs of relief.
I discreetly showed them the bundle of items and manuals I’d hidden inside my clothes.

“I’ll step outside for a moment with these.”
When they saw the items I’d brought back, a mixture of surprise and faint smiles appeared on their faces.
“Yes, we’ll finish up the bidding and meet you outside.”

At my words, Team Leader Park nodded with resolve.
I quietly exited the auction house and stood outside, listening in on the voices from within.
And just like that, the rest of the afternoon auction tipped entirely in our team’s favor.

Using the chips I had brought, Park joined the bidding with advice from Seo Jihyun.
“Five thousand points! Five thousand!”
“Seven thousand!”
Park Cheolwoo raised his paddle without hesitation.

“Seven thousand! Anyone else? No? Sold at seven thousand!”
Like fish in water, our team began sweeping up every item that came up for auction.
I peeked in through a crack in the door.

High-grade armor items, exploration gear with special functions—even things that looked like ancient relics of unknown origin.
As we snatched up item after item, the faces of the other bidders were filled with frustration and disbelief.
They shot us glares, but before our overwhelming financial power, they could do nothing. One by one, they sighed and began to leave their seats.

“Tch, I guess I’ll aim for the evening auction instead.”
“No chance in the afternoon—those guys are sweeping the whole thing.”
Hearing their grumbling voices, I felt a slight pang of guilt, knowing the items for the evening auction were already in my pocket.
But I quickly shook my head.

This was necessary—for my quest rewards and performance bonus.
When the afternoon auction finally ended, we quietly exited the auction house with the items we had won and the terrified woman in tow.
Fortunately, the woman had already completed the minimum required ten game runs, just like us.

Having used up the last of our chips in the bidding, we decided to head straight outside.
At last, we stood before the heavy iron door we’d entered through.
Clunk.

As if it had been lying, the door that hadn’t budged before slid open smoothly, revealing the dim corridor of the abandoned building.
We left the casino behind, saying nothing but feeling a deep sense of relief.
In silence, we boarded the company vehicle and slowly returned to headquarters.

Inside the car, a strange atmosphere formed—relief, fatigue, lingering excitement, and a touch of unease, all mixed together.
Even so, Seo Jihyun sat alone, endlessly typing away on her tablet PC.
Her expression was far more serious and focused than usual.

“Jihyun-ssi, your face doesn’t look good… is something wrong?”
Team Leader Park Cheolwoo asked with concern.
At his question, Seo Jihyun paused her typing and glanced around at us.

“Team Leader, everyone. I’m currently working on the mission report… but I think we need to decide how much detail we’re going to include.”
“Huh? Shouldn’t we just report everything exactly as it happened? We hit the jackpot this time!”
Han Sora asked, sounding puzzled. As she said, judging by the results alone, we had achieved incredible success.

But Seo Jihyun shook her head.
“This exploration mission was mainly a test designed by HQ to evaluate whether Teams 11 through 15 could adapt to more difficult missions. It was essentially a trial run.”
“…A trial?”

“Yes. And our Team 15’s results are too exceptional.”
Seo Jihyun continued in a calm tone.
“Not only did we complete the exploration, we deciphered all the area’s rules and carried them out. We acquired multiple items, successfully rescued a civilian, and…”

She glanced briefly at me, then went on.
“…Mr. Kim Minjun infiltrated the auction house’s storage alone and defeated multiple monsters. This outcome far exceeds expectations.”
“And… that’s a problem?”

Team Leader Park asked cautiously.
“If we report everything exactly, HQ will likely raise the average mission difficulty for Teams 11 through 15 significantly. Meaning that other teams will face added burdens because of us.”
Her words about a major increase in mission difficulty chilled the air in the car.

“And furthermore…”
Once again, Seo Jihyun looked at me.
This time, a complex emotion flickered in her eyes.

“…Because of Mr. Minjun’s performance, there’s a real chance he’ll be scouted by a top-tier team—possibly between Team 1 and Team 5. If that happens… our team will be sent on even harder missions, without Mr. Minjun.”
“That’s…!”
Seo Jihyun’s final comment landed like a hammer blow.

The smile vanished completely from Han Sora’s face, and Team Leader Park let out a deep sigh and lowered his head.
Only the rescued woman in the backseat looked around in confusion, unable to grasp the heavy atmosphere.
Even I felt a cold weight settle in my chest. I had just begun adjusting to fighting monsters… just started forming bonds with my teammates.

And now they were talking about harder missions and transferring me to a higher team?
All of us were plunged into deep thought.
***

In the end, we only reported the items we had won at auction and the civilian we had protected.
The fact that we had defeated monsters, or that I’d infiltrated the storage room, was kept secret.
We simply reported that we had participated in an auction-style event inside a casino-like facility and collected chips through a game.

That was all.
The items I had obtained during my infiltration of the evening auction—
“Leo, I’m home.”

—I returned home carrying them.
We decided that I would hold onto the items for now, and if we were ever assigned an item-retrieval mission, I would pull them out from home and claim I had obtained them then.
When I called Leo, he hesitated for a moment before slowly approaching me.

I scratched the back of his neck, then suddenly warned him, just in case.
“Leo, don’t touch any of the items I brought back, okay? It’d be seriously bad. Got it?”
There was no way he understood me, but when I said “seriously bad,” Leo seemed to nod quickly.

Leo was a smart cat. Maybe he really did understand.
That’s when a system window popped up in front of me.
[Quest Complete.]
[You have achieved an impossible feat.]
[Reward is increased.]

[All stats have increased by 1.]
[You can now read all posts in the Monster Gallery.]
“…That’s a weird one.”
I didn’t expect to get something related to the Monster Gallery instead of stats or skills. I could read all the posts now, but I wasn’t sure how useful that was.

Maybe the Monster Gallery is an important feature in this game?
The +1 to all stats was huge.
Because for me, a +1 in any stat was never just a +1.

“Hoo…”
Even after returning home, I was still buzzing with excitement.
It was the first time.

The first time I had fought monsters like that.
At first, I had been completely terrified of them. But now, it felt a little different.
It was like my fear of monsters had been overshadowed by my trust in the cheat.

The tension of combat, the relief of winning—it all felt… kind of good.
Just a little, I had stopped being afraid of fighting monsters.
To shake off the lingering excitement, I threw a punch into the air.

“Rrrrowr–!”
Startled, Leo leapt straight up.
“Ah, sorry… Leo, did I scare you?”

Flustered, I rushed to comfort Leo, who was trembling in a corner.
Come to think of it, there’s a training room in the exploration team building. I should check it out next time.