As soon as he gulped down the potion, he felt the swollen, throbbing sensation instantly subside.
“Ha... ah.”
Still, just in case, he fumbled around the spot where the poison stinger had pierced him with his hand, but as expected, what he felt was just his ordinary skin.
‘The poison that had driven me to the brink of death in less than five seconds...’
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Congratulations!
You have been chosen by a Divine Throne and enlisted as one of the Chosen!
We pray that you survive until the very end.
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A message has arrived!
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Main Quest.1 - Survive for 6 Days!
Rank.F
Now, monsters have been scattered across the entire world to measure your worth!
Survive until six days later and prove your worth!
But... can you truly prove your worth merely by surviving?
《Condition Fulfilled》
Excellent! You chose to kill monsters to prove your worth.
Since you've already killed ten or more, is there any reason to hesitate? Kill and kill and kill, and kill again! The more, the better! For you shall obtain something far more valuable!
However, if you are tired now, it may be good to find another method. But could you possibly know what that is?
Current number of enemies killed: 23/??
Reward - Bonus Points 1, ???
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“What is this now...”
Uju let out an exhausted voice. It might have been because he had nearly died from poison and come back to life, but this wasn't that.
Seeing something that resembled the status window he knew, but was absolutely not a status window, he couldn't help but feel troubled.
By Uju's common sense, a status window never gave out missions. True to its name, 'status window,' it only showed a Hunter's current state. The ability to objectively grasp oneself was excellent in its own right, but... hadn't this crossed the line?
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A message has arrived!
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Contract Mission - Have Sex
Rank.F
Have sex in any form within the time limit!
Time remaining - 5 days
Reward - A skill bestowed by the [King of the 72nd Legion]
Failure Penalty - Your death
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In accordance with the contract between you and the [King of the 72nd Legion], this cannot be refused.
Accepted.
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Regardless, the [King of the 72nd Legion] beyond the status window didn't wait for Uju. Looking at the mission that had been relentlessly forced upon him, a hollow laugh was all that came out.
“What is this now... this fucking bastard, seriously?!”
In the moment he was reading the details and letting out a hollow laugh, he spotted something terrible beyond the translucent status window.
Another goblin that had sneaked up while he wasn't paying attention was trying to pick up the pistol he had thrown away earlier.
-Bang!
“You goblin bastard, fuck...!”
He urgently drew another pistol, shot it dead, then ran over to secure the gun.
He had thrown the gun away earlier thinking he was as good as dead, but now things were different. He couldn't let these precious guns be touched by a goblin's filthy hands.
“It's not broken...?”
-Bang!
If a weapon broke just from being thrown, it was unfit to be called a weapon. But Uju, who didn't know that, carefully examined the gun here and there, and only let out a sigh of relief after test-firing it at a corpse.
-Thud!
And he quickly took off his backpack and put it on the ground. He intended to quickly switch magazines.
“......”
Even so, he didn't forget to keep watching his surroundings. A hidden goblin might shoot poison stingers again, or approach and steal his pistol like before. At the very least, he shouldn't let the same thing happen twice, should he?
‘If only I could know how many are left, at the very least.’
It was the moment he harbored such a thought.
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The [King of the 72nd Legion] has bestowed 10 coins.
『There are 18 left inside that building, and no more hiding outside.』
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At timing as if reading his mind, Uju was silent for a moment, then barely calmed his trembling heart and spoke.
“......What in the world... are you?”
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The [King of the 72nd Legion] has bestowed 10 coins.
『You must be confused since you were belatedly enlisted as a participant.』
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The [King of the 72nd Legion] has bestowed 10 coins.
『But you don't want to die, do you? That is precisely why you accepted the contract.』
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The [King of the 72nd Legion] has bestowed 10 coins.
『I shall not speak until you resolve the mission I have given. Look at your status window and mission window, and figure it out yourself.』
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After sending messages in rapid succession, it said only what it wanted to say and truly ended.
“......Status window.”
When nothing more seemed to come despite waiting a moment, he quietly muttered, “Status window.”
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True Name - I Uju (李宇宙)
Divine Throne - [King of the 72nd Legion]
Strength 1
Stamina 1
Endurance 2 (1+1)
Dexterity 4 (1+3)
Mystery 0
Luck 5
※Some stats have increased due to the Divine Throne's influence.
Bonus Points - 0
Coins Held - 40
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The contents weren't significantly different from the status window Uju knew, filling his vision. However, 'not significantly different' meant there were differences. And those differences troubled him.
Where [Unique Skill] and its details should have been, there was the name of the Divine Throne and [King of the 72nd Legion]. Below the status window, where there should have been nothing, there were unheard-of Bonus Points and a coin balance that had been notifying him since earlier. And even a strange stat called Luck.
And more than anything, what distressed him were the stat values listed in his stat window.
“1, 1, 2, 4, 0, 5. Hehehehe... fuck.....”
He felt no joy whatsoever at seeing something he had so desperately wished for achieved so effortlessly. Rather, it felt hollow. He could accept that Luck, which hadn't existed before, was what it was, but weren't there explanations added below the other stats? That they had 'increased due to the Divine Throne's influence.'
Uju found that sentence utterly disgusting. It felt as if he were being branded, as if he could never raise his abilities without another's help.
“......Haah. He said 18, right.”
He was depressed, but he well remembered that now was not the time to be like this. After all, he had nearly died just moments ago and miraculously survived. And if he let his guard down and fell into another life-threatening crisis after the [King of the 72nd Legion] beyond the status window had performed that miracle and told him, wouldn't he look like a complete idiot?
Moreover, regardless of the threat to his life, he had to eliminate all the goblins occupying the mart for his original goal. Even if they were hiding in fear now, the moment he entered to gather food and let his guard down, they would ambush him.
-Click
Even as he finished reloading, he kept his eyes on the mart entrance, lost in thought.
‘Should I just charge in?’
But he couldn't. No matter how much he thought, he couldn't shake the two reasons why he shouldn't.
First, since it was indoors, there would be plenty of cover and concealment. That would make it difficult to shoot and to hit targets. He could even be easily ambushed.
Second, those annoying obstacles serving as concealment were the very food Uju needed to secure. It was merely Uju's guess that things would be in disarray, so there was a decent possibility they were neater than expected.
Or, even if they weren't neat, there would definitely be things left. If he shot them all to pieces, he would be doing something incredibly stupid, defeating the very purpose of risking his life to break in.
But it's not like he had some other method either.
“Tsk tsk tsk...... Huh?”
While clicking his tongue and glaring at the mart entrance, goblins suddenly began bursting out.
“Kiek! Kyaaaaah... mmm.”
A huge goblin, well over 2 meters tall, emerged from behind the short, stubby normal goblins, letting out a languid yawn.
It looked exactly like it had been eating its fill and sleeping lazily inside the mart, only crawling out now because the riffraff were making a fuss.
“Hobgoblin..... Warrior?”
The large goblin appeared to be a hobgoblin, a kind of higher goblin species. If goblins were the standard F-rank monsters, this one could be called the standard E-rank monster.
However, what bothered him was that it wore a helmet shaped like a dented pot. According to Uju's knowledge, a hobgoblin wearing a helmet was given the additional title “Warrior,” raising its rank to E+.
“Haha... Idiots.”
But seeing that, Uju laughed happily.
He was someone who had nearly died to a mere F-rank poison stinger. And now, facing not an F or E, but an E+ rank monster, he smiled.
But he couldn't help it. Because E+ rank was, in other words, still E-rank no matter what. Meaning it was still a monster at a level where guns worked.
Yet it had come out so boldly like that. It must have come out confident in its strength, but doing so only made it a very nice target.
“Thanks, you bastards.”
Giving his thanks aloud, he quickly scanned the number of goblins with his eyes. If he missed even one poison stinger, it could become troublesome, so he intended to finish them all now if possible.
“......That one is the last!”
And the moment he spotted the last, 18th goblin shuffling out from behind the hobgoblin, he immediately raised his gun and fired.
-Ratatatatat!
He sprayed at the hobgoblin's thighs to keep it from charging while instantly blowing off the head of the goblin that had come out last.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
The hobgoblin let out a bizarre shriek filled with rage.
‘If it were a person, it would have wailed and collapsed by now.’
Thinking that a monster was indeed a monster, he didn't let his guard down and swiveled his gun to take down five nearby goblins.
“Kiek?!”
“Kieeeeee!!”
Then the goblins, sensing there was no hope, began fleeing all at once.
If even one poison stinger was among them, he would feel unnecessarily uneasy moving around. That's why he had tried to finish them now, but to think they would flee in an instant like that!
“You bastards...!”
He urgently shifted his gaze and muzzle, trying to identify the poison stingers, but it was impossible. Unfortunately, poison stingers didn't carry only poison stingers.
He knew they carried rusted daggers, clubs, and the like like other ordinary goblins, only pulling out the poison stingers from those filthy cloth panties when needed. But facing the actual situation, irritation surged up in him.
-Ratatata!
For the moment, he fired wildly in the direction of the ones fleeing the fastest, but since they scattered every which way despite having the heads to do so, it ended with only two more kills.
“Kuaaaaaah!!!”
To make matters worse, the hobgoblin limped closer, not caring in the slightest whether its subordinates or companions were fleeing or not.
-Ratatatat!
Without panicking, he swiveled his gun again and shot the hobgoblin.
“Kiiiii!!”
-Tick tick!
But he soon panicked. As if it had learned the gun's structure and firepower in that short time, it blocked the muzzle aimed at its head with its arm until the bullets ran out.
“Shit! Should I have brought a rifle??”
He shouted in frustration, but the truth was, since he wasn’t the psychopathic, trigger-happy thrill-killer Lee Uju, he couldn’t be sure that even if he’d brought a rifle, he would have been able to punch through its arm and hit its head.
“Kyaaak!”
In any case, by pouring out nearly half a magazine, he had definitely reduced one of its arms to tatters... The problem was that its remaining arm was more than enough to kill Uju.
—Thud!!
As he fumbled around trying to change magazines, he saw a fist come flying and belatedly tried to dodge. And instead of Uju’s torso, his backpack was flattened. How many magazines had been wrecked by that single punch?
“You fucking piece of...!”
Without holding back his curses, Uju dropped the submachine gun from his hand and drew his pistol.
—Bang bang!
“Kui?”
But the hobgoblin now used its mangled arm as a shield outright. Realizing that, unlike before, it couldn’t fire in bursts and had weaker destructive power, it glanced down at Uju as if puzzled, then grinned unpleasantly.
“Kikikiki!!”
“You son of a bitch?!”
—Bang!
That sight got under his skin, and he suddenly aimed for its leg. But sure enough, it blocked with its arm, then sprang off its one good leg and lunged at Uju by surprise.
—Whoosh!
“Fuuuck! What crazy bastard said you could take down an E-rank with a gun!!”
He somehow dodged again this time, but the fist grazed Uju’s shoulder. Just from being grazed, one layer of his outer clothing was torn away; if it hit him, it would be instant death, no joke.
“Kikiki!”
Leaving behind the hobgoblin that kept sneering at him, Uju began to run. Though it wasn’t fleeing—it was what they called a “strategic retreat.”
“Just you wait...!”
He planned to go back home and bring a rifle or a sniper rifle. A rifle might still be blocked, but he calculated that a sniper rifle should be able to punch through that arm and smash its head. And since its leg was injured too, he also figured he could get away easily enough.
Perhaps deciding that chasing him was impossible, the hobgoblin did not pursue Uju.
“Kyak kyak!!”
Instead, after letting out a loud laugh, it actually turned around and picked up one of the metal carts lined up outside the mart.
—Shwaaaak!
—Thwack!
“Keuk...?!”
Uju, who had never imagined a ranged attack would come flying, took the cart squarely in the back. It struck him so hard that the cart crumpled and was practically reshaped into something else entirely.
“Keo... huh... hgh...?”
Had his spine been damaged from being hit in the back? Far from moving, he was in a state where even breathing was difficult, and he had no choice but to helplessly watch as the hobgoblin approached.
“Kyaha, haha, kaha!”
The hobgoblin came hobbling over, looked down at Uju, and began laughing merrily. It thought it had already won.
“Fuck... you.”
—Bang! Bang bang!
He flipped his body over and tried to resist with his gun... but sure enough, it was blocked.
“What kind of bullshit...! This is...?”
Then, suddenly, in Uju’s field of vision, he saw something dangling between the hobgoblin’s legs. Since a hobgoblin was still a goblin, all it had on was a single cloth wrapped around its waist, and because it was standing over the prone Uju, looking down at him, that came into view.
The fatal weak point that any living creature, and any male, naturally had no choice but to possess.
‘If I shoot again, it’ll block it...’
He was on the verge of death, but Uju judged the situation coldly. This final strike absolutely could not be blocked.
—Bang!
He fired one more meaningless shot to scatter the hobgoblin’s attention, while bringing his left hand to his waist.
‘I’ll... shoot this.’
The second pistol he had brought without thinking. This would be his final move.
—Bang! Bang bang bang bang! ...Click!
“Kihiiii...!”
When the empty sound rang out because there were no bullets left, the hobgoblin moved its arm away and laughed, as if to say it was finally over.
—Bang!!
And then a gunshot rang out by surprise.
“Kieeeeeeeek!!!!”
The hobgoblin flopped over from the horrific pain one could only experience in hell, clutching its precious dangling bits as it began rolling around. It must have hurt so much that it even used the arm that had been shredded by bullets and could barely move to hold them.
“Haa... haa... you fucking bastard...”
Uju carefully crawled past it so he wouldn’t get hit by its blind thrashing.
“Die, you son of a bitch.”
And so he arrived beside the hobgoblin’s head.
—Bang!
Then, one shot.
“......”
It truly had been one difficult shot.