Episode 5
Three minutes remaining.
There was no time to rejoice at having survived, nor to check if there were more Goblins nearby.
Iun quickly began putting the food back into the bag.
‘To think all my wounds would heal when I leveled up.’
He had been on the verge of death, yet in an instant, he returned to a perfectly healthy body without a single wound.
This was something he hadn’t heard when sharing information at the hospital.
‘So people don’t know everything either.’
This meant there could still be hidden things.
‘By the way, I can really feel it now that I’ve raised my stats?’
[Name: Iun]
[Level: 2]
[Stats: Strength 5, Agility 12, Constitution 5, Magic 4]
[Trait: Slave of the Quest]
[Skills: Hoan Lv.1, Pain Immunity Lv.1, Strong Heart Lv.1, Silent Footsteps Lv.1]
[Remaining Stats: 0]
The moment he leveled up, Iun immediately invested the 5 new points that appeared in his remaining stats into Agility.
He didn’t feel he lacked Strength to kill Goblins, so he chose Agility over Strength.
Even while simply sweeping up food, he could feel his body moving more flexibly and quickly.
Before long,
[4/4]
The quest was completed.
[You have completed the quest.]
[You have acquired the item ‘Steel Dagger (E)’.]
At the same time, a silver dagger was clutched in Iun’s hand like magic.
Its quality was visibly different from the daggers the Goblins used.
‘Info.’
Iun checked the item information.
[Class: Weapon]
[Name: Steel Dagger (E)]
[Description: A sturdy dagger sharpened from steel]
[Ability: Attack Power +7]
‘How big is the difference?’
To compare, he checked the info on the Goblin dagger.
The Goblin dagger had Attack Power +2.
‘Oho?’
A whopping difference of 5 attack power.
Since it was hard to feel through numbers alone, he swung each dagger once at the merchandise display for comparison.
With the Goblin dagger, the display bent slightly and left a scratch, whereas the Steel Dagger cleanly sliced through it.
‘Not bad.’
He was very satisfied.
‘If a dagger like this is E-grade, how good must an A-grade item be? It feels like I could kill a Goblin just by touching it.’
Holding onto the hope that he might one day acquire such an item, Iun exited the convenience store.
On the way back to the hospital.
He looked up and saw Gang Jiun and the others through the window.
Eyes filled with considerable surprise.
This was Iun, who merely possessed a single skill called ‘Strong Heart.’
For such a person to have killed all those Goblins and come out alive?
They probably couldn’t believe it even with their own eyes.
Ignoring their reactions, Iun climbed the stairs.
He was heading to the furniture store on the second floor.
His path had already diverged from theirs, so there was no reason to go to the hospital.
It was simply a judgment that, since it was the same building, a certain degree of safety could be guaranteed.
‘First off, no Goblins inside.’
Arriving at the furniture store while lost in various thoughts, Iun looked inside.
He went right in, moving sofas and furniture to block any gaps a Goblin could enter through.
“Haa!”
And then he flopped down onto a bed.
Although his wounds had healed from leveling up, mental fatigue had been continuously accumulating.
“Iun oppa. Please move this aside.”
Then, someone called out to him from the blocked entrance.
“Cha Suyeon?”
It was Cha Suyeon, who should have been at the hospital.
“Yes. It’s me.”
Iun got up from the bed and headed toward the door, looking at Cha Suyeon through the gaps in the furniture.
“What is it?”
He had already fallen out with her.
Because she had chosen Gang Jiun instead of him.
“I came because I was worried. Are you okay?”
What the?
Worrying now, of all times?
“I’m fine? Did you come all the way down just to say that?”
“That too, but I want to go with you, oppa.”
“Suddenly? Why? Because I brought food?”
Iun pressed Cha Suyeon rather sharply.
At that, Cha Suyeon opened her mouth as if feeling wronged.
“It’s not like that. I really didn’t think you’d actually go out like that.”
“So did I go out for real or for fake?”
“Ha... I was really worried! I also felt sorry I couldn’t stop you.”
Thinking about it, she had been the only one trying to hold Iun back until the very end.
“Honestly, I still think it was wrong for you to go to the convenience store. Whatever the reason, it was something that could have put the majority in danger.”
Her continuing words.
What was she trying to say?
“So?”
“What do you mean, so! Just because someone has a different opinion doesn’t make them your enemy! You’re looking at me like I’m completely your enemy right now.”
Truly black-and-white logic.
As she said, Iun had been regarding them as enemies for the sole reason that they had opposed his opinion.
Thoughts could differ between people, after all.
‘Ha... I’ve become such a narrow-minded, stubborn bastard. How embarrassing.’
It seemed the fear of death from failing the quest had made him narrow-minded.
“And I tried to go out and help midway, but Jiun stopped me, so I only came now.”
“He stopped you?”
“Yes. He said it was already too late anyway.”
He had just acknowledged his own mistake, but he couldn’t help feeling disgusted by Gang Jiun’s actions.
“So I left there and came to you. Honestly, if we all pitched in, we could’ve easily gone to the convenience store and back, right? Those people have no loyalty.”
‘Loyalty, huh...’
Quite a nice word.
‘Hmm...’
After a brief moment of thought, Iun came to a conclusion.
Whether she would become a comrade he could trust with his back or merely a relationship of necessity, he didn’t know yet, but
“Come in.”
For now, he decided to believe in the loyalty she spoke of.
Iun moved the furniture blocking the entrance and let her inside.
“Thank you.”
The moment he accepted Cha Suyeon back in and she entered the furniture store—
Eeeeeen!
“Huh?”
A strange sound suddenly echoed from outside the building.
“Citizens of Seoul. This is Colonel Gim Cheol-o of the Capital Defense Command. We will be conducting operations effective immediately, so please wait inside the buildings.”
At the same time, the sound of a loudspeaker spread.
It was the army.
The army was moving.
The two stood at the furniture store window as if they had promised and looked down below.
Their number was fifty.
They walked proudly down the main road with guns in their hands.
Eeeeeeeen!
The siren continued to sound.
“It’s bait.”
It seemed to be a method to draw out the hidden Goblins.
“Kiiiiik!”
“Kiiiiik!”
“Kiiiiiiik!”
The method had succeeded perfectly.
Hidden Goblins excitedly began running out as if they had discovered prey.
A horde of Goblins surrounded the fifty soldiers.
Their number appeared to exceed at least one hundred, making the army look overwhelmingly disadvantaged.
But.
Ratatatat! Ratatatat!
“Kiiik!”
“Kik...”
“Krrrr...”
They had guns, the weapon of civilization.
As the Goblins appeared, the muzzles spewed fire, and the massacre began.
Truly the overwhelming power of guns.
To the point where one might wonder what meaning levels and skills had.
The battle lasted for roughly ten minutes, and at some point, the surroundings grew quiet.
The silence meant there were no more living Goblins nearby.
Gim Cheol-o took the microphone again.
“Cheonho-dong has been nearly cleared. Citizens, please wait in your current locations for about an hour, then you may return home.”
Those words meant he was confident they could clear all the Goblins nearby within an hour.
‘Well, with this much firepower, it’ll be quick.’
Iun, too, had no choice but to acknowledge the power of guns.
“Oppa. Look over there. I think the monster you mentioned has appeared?”
At that moment, Cha Suyeon cautiously pointed in one direction and spoke.
“It came out quickly.”
A Goblin with a height of about 2 meters 50 centimeters, its sturdy muscles visible.
It was different from the other Goblins.
Not merely talking about its size, it wore a helmet and armor like a medieval gladiator, and held a shield and sword.
“Info.”
[Lv. 20 Goblin General]
Level 20, no less.
He couldn’t gauge how strong it was.
Iun turned his head and looked at the army.
“Open fire!”
At Gim Cheol-o’s command, they began aimed fire at the Goblin General charging toward them.
Anticipating certain victory.
Ratatatatat! Ratatatat!
But it was a mistake.
The Goblin General held up its shield, covering only its face as it charged at the soldiers.
Even though bullets struck its arms and legs not covered by shield or armor, they couldn’t pierce its skin.
In other words, those Level 20 or above were not opponents that could be handled with guns.
And then the massacre began.
A massacre completely opposite from ten minutes ago.
“Kuaaack!”
“Shoot! Shoot!”
“Throw grenades!”
The Goblin General seized momentum and positioned itself at the center of the unit.
Shhhhrak!
It swung its sword and instantly severed the lives of three soldiers.
“Kikikikik!”
The Goblin General laughed as if amused.
Bwoooong!
This time, it swung its shield and sent five soldiers flying far away.
Overwhelming strength.
The guns and grenades the soldiers had trusted were all useless, so they had no choice but to be helplessly trounced.
Watching that scene, Iun opened his mouth.
“Get away from the window. Don’t make a sound from now on. Turn off your phones too.”
If they caught the Goblin General’s eye now, they would definitely die.
It was not an opponent they could do anything about.
‘Surely it won’t give me a quest.’
A sudden sense of unease crept in.
If a quest to defeat the Goblin General appeared, he’d be checkmated on the spot.
‘Please, just hold back this once.’
Iun and Cha Suyeon held their breath and waited without moving a muscle.
For the Goblin General to pass by quietly.
Ten minutes... Twenty minutes... Thirty minutes...
The two endured like that for an hour without a single word.
Iun quietly headed toward the window.
‘The Goblin General... I don’t see it.’
Only the corpses of soldiers and Goblins were strewn about; the Goblin General was nowhere to be seen.
‘Huh?’
But then, Iun saw people carefully coming up from the basement of the opposite building.
‘Crazy bastards. Did they only hear the loudspeaker?’
Since they had been in the basement, it was highly likely they didn’t know the outside situation and had only heard Gim Cheol-o’s words.
His words telling them to come out after an hour.
As a few people came out onto the main road, people hidden here and there began pouring out.
‘Can’t they see the soldiers’ corpses!’
Perhaps they judged the soldiers’ corpses to be from a simple suppression operation.
Iun wanted to shout that it wasn’t time yet, that the Goblin General was nearby, but
‘Damn! It wasn’t an ordinary Goblin.’
He couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth.
The fear of the Goblin General.
He had a conviction that this thing was not simply strong.
Just looking at the fight moments ago, it had protected its vitals with its shield and positioned itself in the middle of the unit.
In a brief moment, it had shown understanding of guns as weapons, tactics, formations, and the like.
Even if that was instinctive movement, one had to admit the creature was smart.
‘Yeah. At least grab that.’
Some of the people who came outside collected the soldiers’ guns and armed themselves.
“Let’s go home!”
Had the guns given them courage?
Or did they already believe the army had cleared all the Goblins?
“Let’s return home!”
“Since Goblins aren’t coming out even with all this noise, it seems like it’s over!”
They conversed with each other and reveled in victory.
Then in Iun’s eyes, people could be seen in the windows of the opposite building.
They were the same as him.
They had definitely seen the Goblin General and were merely holding their breath while observing the situation.
“Kiiiiiiiiik!”
At that moment, a sound sharp enough to tear through the air echoed from the sky.
“Urk!”
“What is that sound! This is!”
‘That bastard.’
The Goblin General.
‘So it was up there.’
It had been watching everything from the rooftop of a building.
Waiting for the prey to gather.
Kwoong!
‘Reckless bastard.’
It had jumped from a five-story building, yet its two legs were perfectly fine.
“Kik kik kik!”
With a wicked laugh, it raised a sword the size of a human body and approached.
“Shoot it!”
“Kill it!”
People shouting simultaneously.
They had guns in their hands and a target right in front of them.
The Republic of Korea’s reservists pulled the triggers.
Ratatatatatatat!
The outcome was obvious without looking.
Shhhk! Puhk! Pwoong!
It began killing humans again with its sword and shield.
“R-run!”
“What is this monster!”
People finally realized the reality and began fleeing, but it was no use.
No matter how hard they ran, they were caught in a single step of the Goblin General and losing their lives to its sword.
Then, one of the fleeing people turned back.
“Die, you bastard!”
Pwoooong!
A red fireball flew from the man’s hand and exploded against the Goblin General’s chest.
They were people with traits and skills too.
Even if oppressed by fear, there were bound to be one or two who used their skills to fight back.
“Use whatever skills you have!”
At the young man’s words who had launched the fireball, people brought out their skills.
Ice surged up from the ground and surrounded the Goblin General’s vicinity, and the young man’s fireball struck it again.
Thick smoke billowed up, and the people thought their attacks had worked.
However, Iun was different.
The Goblin General’s level was 20.
Skills used by people who were barely around Level 1 couldn’t have a great effect.
The result naturally revealed itself as the smoke cleared.
The Goblin General had taken the fireball without even using its shield, yet it didn’t have a single scratch.
No, on the contrary, it was curling up the corners of its mouth as if mocking those who opposed it.
Pwoong! Pwooooong! Shhhhrak!
The situation was resolved in an instant.
The Goblin General crushed people with its shield and swung its sword to sever necks.
“Krrrrrrrrr!”
And then it stepped on the corpses and roared.
‘Damn it.’
Iun quickly ducked his head and hid below the window.
He needed to see if it left, yet he couldn’t even look.
An hour passed like that.
Iun and Cha Suyeon didn’t move from their spots.
Another hour.
Outside was still quiet.
But they couldn’t move.
Another hour.
Though three hours had passed, Iun didn’t let his guard down.
Because death could approach.
And time continued to flow until night fell.
“Oppa.”
Cha Suyeon quietly called to Iun.
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t it okay now?”
Common sense dictated that waiting this long wouldn’t be sane.
“Wait a moment.”
Iun glanced slightly outside.
‘Did the electricity go out too?’
There was nothing but darkness.
“Kiiik!”
“Kiiiiik!”
“Die, you bastards!”
A commotion broke out outside.
It seemed to be people who couldn’t endure and came out, encountering Goblins.
‘The Goblin General doesn’t seem to be there.’
Though a fight had broken out, he couldn’t hear that rough voice of the creature.
“What do you think?”
“I think there are only Goblin soldiers.”
“You called it a Goblin General? How are we supposed to deal with something like that?”
As Cha Suyeon said, there was no way to kill it now.
But if time passed, it would be possible.
“There is a way.”
“There’s a way?”
“Yeah. We just have to level up.”
Iun had experienced leveling up firsthand.
Wounds healed completely, and when distributing points to stats, his very movements changed.
He was confident that if he reached Level 20, he could face it to some degree.
Because the indicator called Level must have been made for that purpose.
On top of that, he had a trait that set him apart from others.
The quest that allowed him to obtain skills and items.
“You mean we go outside and kill Goblins?”
“Yeah. To survive, we have to hunt Goblins instead. Before stronger monsters appear.”
“Well, if it’s you, oppa, it should be more than possible.”
She was relying only on Iun.
After all, her trait was ‘Angel of Protection.’
Since it leaned more toward defense than attack, she thought she wouldn’t be of help in hunting.
“That’s why I’m asking. Take care of me, Suyeon.”
But she was wrong.
The center of Iun’s hunting plan was none other than Cha Suyeon.
Her.