“...and Kim Horak was far too hasty. Kim Horak tried to show too much and ended up suffering needless humiliation. If he’d taken it slowly... I think he still would have won normally.”
In truth, for Kim Horak, something like a protective aura hadn’t even been necessary. All he had to do was coat his gauntlets—though they looked more like fingerless gloves than gauntlets—with magic power and slowly overwhelm him.
“...A victory of technique. No, was it a defeat of technique?”
Oh Junhyeok scratched the back of his neck.
Since he had suddenly surrendered in a situation where he’d all but won, he didn’t even know how to describe it.
“But something about it feels unpleasant.”
Seo Yeongji belatedly frowned and muttered. On her laptop, a photo of Kim Hajin’s face had appeared at some point. It seemed she was writing a report.
“What does? That he lost on purpose?”
“No. It’s true Kim Hajin put up a good fight, but the defeat itself is at least understandable.”
“...Is it?”
Oh Junhyeok looked down at Kim Horak, who was still in the arena. He was being treated with an expression that could have been anger or relief. No, it could hardly be called treatment. After gulping down a high-grade potion, Kim Horak tensed his entire body, and the bullets pushed themselves out of his muscles.
“At first—no, from beginning to end—Kim Hajin did overwhelm him. His reaction speed, literally pouring out bullets, and his dynamic vision as he chased Kim Horak. Honestly, even I was surprised.”
“Yeah. I agree. He really was fast with the gun.”
“But from a certain point on, Kim Hajin slowed down just as much as Kim Horak did. Even though all he’d been doing was attacking without being hit anywhere. I suspect Kim Hajin can’t maintain those movements for long.”
Tak-tak-tak-tak—Seo Yeongji continued speaking while tapping on her laptop like a stenographer.
“And right before Kim Hajin surrendered, at the very end, he clearly intended to finish it. I saw him pull the trigger. But no bullet came out. At that moment, Kim Hajin’s expression stiffened slightly, and he rummaged through his pocket. But he didn’t take anything out.”
“Meaning he used up all his bullets. Hmm.”
“Right. But Kim Hajin didn’t try to fight Kim Horak. Even though Kim Horak only had his left arm. Why was that?”
“Because he wasn’t confident he could win?”
Seo Yeongji nodded lightly.
“Exactly. He was out of bullets, but his opponent hadn’t been retired. And though he only had one arm, he could still fight. In that situation, you could say Kim Hajin had already lost.”
Oh Junhyeok drew in a deep breath. Then he tilted his head.
“Ah, right. But how did he break the protective aura? It shattered cleanly with a single bullet. Twice, at that.”
“Yes. That’s the problem. That’s why I said it felt unpleasant.”
Seo Yeongji took off her glasses. It was the gesture of someone about to launch into a serious explanation, so Oh Junhyeok gulped.
“Like you, most people probably didn’t see it, but I saw the movement of magic power. The magic power was clinging to the bullets.”
“...Is that possible? For a cadet, no less?”
Mana was an extremely difficult power to handle. Yet to compress mana thinly enough to coat a bullet, while making it dense enough to smash a protective aura? Even the current Oh Junhyeok couldn’t be confident he could do that.
“I’m looking through the market right now. To see whether it was a trick using an item, or if it was talent. If he used an item, it’s illegal. If it was talent... I don’t know what kind of talent that would be, but it might be ‘unprecedented.’”
Watching Seo Yeongji intone seriously for a moment, Oh Junhyeok let out a sigh.
“Whew~ Anyway. I don’t like it. I thought justice was being served, but instead he got completely wrecked.”
Kim Horak had won. But it was, quite literally, nothing more than a victory full of wounds.
In a one-on-one duel, a warrior was usually the natural enemy of a marksman. Yet in a duel he should have dominated overwhelmingly, Kim Horak had instead been toyed with. Not only his personal trauma, but the evaluations from guilds and scouts might plummet. On the other hand, the cadet named Kim Hajin had firmly engraved his three-syllable name into the minds of the people gathered here.
—Yeah. Kim Hajin. You know him? Ah, I don’t know him either. But just now, with Kim Horak...
—He uses a gun. Yes, it does seem like his limits are clear, but he broke a protective aura, you know? Yes. The protective aura was immature, but the very fact that he broke it has value...
—I don’t know how he broke a protective aura with a gun either. That’s why I’m calling you right now...
Just like that, the people involved were already making calls.
“That can happen. There’s no rule saying justice always wins. No, more importantly, we don’t even know for sure who justice is, so what justice are you talking about?”
“...Yes, yes. Please keep writing your report, Miss Seo Yeongji. Something like, ‘Discovery of a new talent.’”
Just then, the host announced the start of the next duel.
Seo Yeongji glanced at the watch on her wrist.
“Kim Hajin. I’ll have to remember him. Now let’s just watch our Kim Suho’s match before we go. Three matches left.”
“Yeah. I was thinking the same... What’s that guy suddenly so upset about?”
Oh Junhyeok looked ahead. The man who had earlier been grinning at them had, for some reason, transformed into a vicious expression as he stared at the passageway on the right. The side where Kim Hajin was.
Seo Yeongji replied as if it were nothing.
“...Well, maybe he didn’t like the duel. People always have differences in taste.”
* * *
After the first duel, I used my two nomination rights as well. My opponents were two male cadets ranked somewhere around 300 to 400. Those duels began at five and ended by eight.
Looking back on it now, it was a rather strange reversal of compatibility.
Of course, my condition wasn’t good. The magic power of Stigma, which had been completely exhausted, recovered slowly, and I couldn’t use “Bullet Time,” which was limited to one minute per day.
Even taking that into account, however, “swordsmen” were truly difficult to deal with.
My first opponent, Kim Horak, had gauntlets—or rather, fingerless gloves that were hard to even call gauntlets—as his weapon, so his vulnerable area was large...
No, perhaps if Kim Horak hadn’t covered his entire body with a protective aura. If he had conserved his magic power by using it only on certain parts, like his fists and arms, and slowly tightened the noose instead of trying to end things quickly...
My chances of victory would have been slim.
That was the end result of carelessness. He had wanted to show the scouts too much. Perhaps he’d even coveted a title like “fastest victory.”
Unlike Kim Horak, however, opponents on my level slowly tightened the noose around me. They blocked the bullets I fired with their long-reaching swords and engaged me in a probing battle instead of charging recklessly. For me, with no way to approach them, it was truly torture.
Yet in the end, I seized victory in both duels, though in truth, both were thanks to luck.
The first opponent was a ricochet.
A bullet I accidentally fired at the floor bounced into my opponent’s armpit. The unexpected pain made him drop his sword, and at that moment, he surrendered.
The second opponent was a mistake.
This duel was a long battle that lasted a full thirty minutes. During that long time, my opponent sweated profusely while defending against my bullets, and that sweat gathered on the floor to form a shallow puddle. Then, right before it could end in a draw, he charged at me in the gap when I was changing magazines. And he slipped on his own sweat.
Hoooiiik—!
I still remember that scream.
“Ah, the more I think about it, the funnier that bastard is, seriously.”
I lay down on the bed in my room, snickering.
In any case, the result was two wins and one loss out of three matches.
Since ranged marksmen receive a point adjustment when facing melee warriors, my worries about repeating a year had now completely disappeared.
“Aah~”
I stretched and looked out the window.
Night had deepened before I knew it. Darkness covered the world like a thick curtain, and the waning crescent moon, the only source of light, was faint and pale. The scenery outside was eerie enough to stir up baseless unease.
“...There shouldn’t be any problem.”
Suddenly, the Chameleon Troupe came to mind. I saw them with my own eyes in the arena. On top of the Chameleon Troupe’s leader, “that guy” had entered this place too.
A monster who retained the instincts of a beast deep in his bones and was obsessively fixated on strength.
If things had gone according to the original progression, he would have sensed Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak’s potential and made plans for the future. He would have returned peacefully, satisfied.
But not now.
Here, there were more than enough opponents he would want to fight “right now.”
“It’s not like I can stop him.”
My head would burst from a single flick to the forehead.
“Hmm...”
My wandering gaze turned toward the corner of my bed.
The gift Park Suhyeok had given me was there. Saying it was a gift of thanks to his first investor, Park Suhyeok had sent me something quite expensive.
“A drone...”
A small drone equipped with a camera.
It was a detection device about the size of a person’s fist.
* * *
A chilly wind brushed through the leaves. The leaves tangled together and rustled—singing a bleak song.
Somewhere in the artificial forest attached to Cube, a man was sitting. He was in the middle of the darkness, but his bulky body was easy to spot. All the more so because he was wearing an ill-suited suit.
“By my standards, he wasn’t anyone special.”
The man muttered quietly.
—Oh, really? But what do you mean, by your standards?
“Yeah. By my standards, he’s a rat. I really don’t like him. A tiny little bastard holding some tiny little thing, just firing away from far off.”
—No, you just don’t like his fighting style... Sigh. I’m asking why the leader is keeping an eye on him.
“How would I know that?”
The giant’s voice stood out threateningly.
—Why are you getting angry?
“If you’d seen that bastard fight, you’d understand. A rat-like bastard like that ought to have his throat cut...”
The man’s two eyes were already bloodshot as he muttered.
The duels held by the immature brats in the morning and afternoon had heated him up. The impulse to jump in right away and show them what was real had been intense. He had barely managed to endure it, but right now, his reason was maintaining a taut balance with his instincts.
—What about Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak?
“Yeah... I think they were decent... or maybe not...”
—Speak clearly.
“They were decent. Happy now? Not now, but I want to fight them later.”
It was then.
“Excuse me?”
A voice approached from behind him. The man glanced that way. It was one of the policemen dispatched this time. He seemed to have failed to sense the man’s presence because he was small fry who hadn’t even learned magic power.
—Don’t forget why the leader brought you along.
At those words, the man nodded.
“Yeah... I know. I’m damn good at recognizing strong guys.”
—That’s all you’re here for.
“Um, what are you doing here? The forest is off-limits to outsiders. Please come out at once.”
However, the policeman approached while shining his flashlight. The man looked at him with chilling eyes. The murderous intent in those eyes issued a grave warning.
But in the deep darkness, his vision was blocked, and the policeman continued walking.
“Good grief. How did you even get in here? Excuse me! Come out!”
The man smirked.
“...Hey, Hunchback.”
—What?
“I’m gonna crack one walnut before I go.”
“No, stop talking to yourself and come out!”
At that instant, the man’s fist cleaved through the air. More precisely, it struck the air itself. That simple punch caused the air to vibrate, and the resulting wave engulfed the policeman’s limbs. Crushed to death by it, the being that had been a human just moments ago was mangled beyond recognition.
—Did you crack the walnut?
“Yeah.”
—...The leader is going to kill you now.
“Keep it a secret.”
—I will until you get caught. Move for now.
He was small fry, but thanks to him, the man’s mind had at least cleared up a little. He stood and walked. The lodging wasn’t far from here. If he walked just a little farther...
Voices seeped into his keen ears.
—Hey. What is this?
—Ugh, fuck, this is a corpse! Hey. Report it to headquarters!
He looked back. Far in the distance, he saw two policemen retching. He grinned.
Bzzzz—
“Mm?”
At the sound of some mosquito buzzing, he looked forward again.
—What?
“...No. There was a mosquito.”
—How boring. Hurry back. Before I snitch that you killed someone.
“Yeah. I’m going, I’m going. I’ll be there soon.”
He moved his legs again.
The tiny drone hovered silently, as if watching the giant’s back as he disappeared, then vanished as well.
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────
A Sudden Encounter (1)
—Tak.
I closed the laptop.
“······That’s brutal.”
He had killed someone without the slightest hesitation. Simply because he wanted to kill, for his own pleasure.
But this was my world.
The shell of society remained intact, and life had become more convenient than ever thanks to science and magic. Yet lurking beneath it were clear yet ambiguous “anti-humans,” unbound by morality or law.
And that didn’t only mean Djinns.
Beings who were human, yet denied heroes. However, to call them mere criminals would be inadequate, for like heroes, they were superhumans with transcendent power. The official term was “wanted criminals,” but the public called them “villains.”
“What did he die from?”
From the footage recorded by the drone, I couldn’t make anything out.
Only after slowing it down to 0.1x speed did I get a rough idea of what had happened. The guy threw a jab into empty air, and in that instant, an enormous blast of wind pressure swept over the policeman. The policeman died instantly.
“He killed someone without even touching him······ Hm, but this thing.”
I looked at the drone I had moved onto the bed. It was unexpectedly useful. If I bought a better, more expensive drone and added a few settings to it, I’d probably be able to make good use of it in the future.
Bzzzz—
Just then, my smartwatch suddenly buzzed.
[Hey. Can I nominate you?]
It was Chae Nayun. By nomination, she probably meant the duel exam that would continue until tomorrow.
[Why all of a sudden?]
[What do you mean, all of a sudden? You picked fights with me plenty of times.]
Right now, I had one nomination ticket left. But since everyone had to fight at least three duels and at most six, I didn’t need to fight any more unless someone nominated me.
[No. I overdid it yesterday, so I’m sore.]
In a one-on-one against Chae Nayun, I had no chance of winning. Even putting aside the fact that arrows were stronger than bullets, I didn’t have the physical ability to dodge her rapid fire.
[Think about that tomorrow. Hey. But how did you break protective qi with a bullet? It didn’t look like you used a custom-made weapon. Everyone’s going crazy. Is that your Gift? It is, right?]
So this had been her real goal.
I just ignored her without replying. Come to think of it, she probably didn’t have any nomination tickets left now. No, even if she did, she wouldn’t use them for the sake of maintaining her condition. Tomorrow, she had a duel scheduled with Rachel.
“Whoa, it’s already 12?”
I took off my smartwatch and looked at the time. Before I knew it, it was midnight.
The moment I turned off the lights and lay down in bed, another message came.
[You really did something flashy.]
This time, it wasn’t Chae Nayun but Yoo Yeonha.
I replied briefly.
[I didn’t want to get hit.]
[Many guilds are already showing interest in the fact that your bullet destroyed protective qi.]
[I know.]
My SP had gone up quite a lot. About 185 over the course of 12 hours. If I saved up just a little more, I’d be able to create a new technique or physique.
[It seems they’ve already started giving your Gift names like “Superpowered Bullet” or “Bullet Enhancement”······ By any chance, what are your thoughts on guilds?]
[Those Gift names are way too lame.]
[No, not that. What do you think of “Essence of the Strait”?]
“Hmmm.”
Yoo Yeonha definitely had a tendency to judge people by their usefulness. That would grow even worse with age, and in the future, she would become a complete saint(?) who was not bound by high or low birth, nor concerned with wealth or poverty.
In other words, useful people were the best.
[Preemptive contact is illegal. You get the hammer. Fine of 500 million won.]
I sent it without thinking, simply intending to end the conversation.
[First, I am still a cadet. Recommendations between cadets do not violate the law. Second, I can pay that much any time.]
A very serious reply came back.
Now she was making me feel awkward for no reason.
[That’s not your money, it’s your mom and dad’s.]
[Oh, right. By the way, in your second and third duels, you were quite good at acting.]
“······No, but what is with her?”
Why did she keep talking like I was hiding something? The one actually hiding his strength right now wasn’t me, but Kim Suho.
[Were you watching?]
[I had time left over. If I had to give you one piece of advice, I’d say your growth seems a bit too steep. You were rank 934 as a swordsman, but after switching to sharpshooter, you pressured rank 18 like that. No matter how well sharpshooter suited your aptitude, the plausibility······]
“What is she even saying now?”
I just ignored Yoo Yeonha’s message too. It wasn’t like I was forcing myself; I was starting to get sleepy. I had fought three times in one day, so it was only natural.
“······Oh, right.”
I had even pulled the blanket over myself, but there was one last thing.