Chapter 144
The moment Hwangso gently placed the grenade and Seojun took cover.
“Ah! He won! He wins this! It’s an unbelievable play!”
Cheers erupted from the commentary desk. It was the cheers of Arin and Bangju.
“I mean, blocking bullets with a frying pan. Everyone must have clearly seen how dumbfounded Hwangso’s expression was. We also have two people right here wearing exactly that expression.”
Arin continued speaking while glancing sideways.
Those two were Penguin and Taeyang.
While explaining Seojun’s fast and accurate aim, Penguin and Taeyang had said that Seojun’s decision to fight Hwangso was a mistake.
They said the equipment disadvantage was too hard to overcome, that it would be better to recover health first and then fight, or somehow leave the spot.
They had only said things that were perfectly reasonable. No emotion was attached.
But what the subsequent battle showed was this.
“It’s amazing that you can play the game like this with a frying pan! In the end, he wins! He wipes out two whole squads! He can’t take their vests or helmets, but what does that matter?”
Bangju asked.
“Why?”
“Because he has the frying pan!”
Similar reactions appeared in Seojun’s chat window.
-For real lololololol
-That’s right, with one frying pan you’re fully kitted out
-Since it’s an absolute invincible shield that bullets can’t pierce, isn’t looting a rare item like this good enough?
-It’s way too easy to get a frying pan to call it rare lololol
That just showed how huge the impact of Seojun’s play was.
Realizing it instantly, Bangju boasted.
“That’s true! But you know? Actually, I knew it would turn out like this.”
“You expected him to handle it with a frying pan?”
“Yes, of course. The moment he picked up the frying pan, didn’t everyone feel something unusual!”
“Not at all.”
“It’s not a new play at all; in the ancient Goguryeo Subakdo murals, there are even records of blocking bullets with a frying pan.”
Subakdo refers to the tomb murals of Goguryeo.
“Ah! Is that so?”
-Goguryeo Subakdo is legit lololololol
-It’s a time-honored skill, damn
-Right, why else would they make the frying pan so sturdy? Actually, he's using it for its intended purpose!
-Was there a frying pan in Goguryeo times?
-Then there wasn't, you bastard?
-What's this guy so confident about lololol
“Yes. Using a frying pan as a shield in an emergency isn’t unprecedented. In the first place, isn’t that why they made the frying pan by mixing orichalcum and titanium?”
It was a feast of nonsense.
“The main materials were orichalcum and titanium? No wonder!”
Anyway, the point gets across: it can block bullets.
“Of course, so far it’s mostly been used to protect the head from a distance, as an improvisation. Just outright blocking like that is really rare. And multiple times at such close range! It’s an unbelievable reflex.”
It’s not a reflex that reacts to seeing the bullet. That would make you a superhuman.
Still, seeing the muzzle and deflecting is already an incredible reflex.
“So what are you trying to say?”
“That with a god of swords who has such outstanding reflexes, once he holds a sword, the game is over.”
-Here they go with the sword again lololol
-The existing viewers in that room keep saying the same thing, everyone associated with Seojun is proclaiming the frying pan is a sword lololol
-Is Seojun making people go crazy like that, or does he only befriend those kinds of guys?
“Perhaps today’s tournament could be the start of a frying pan revolution in Ground Zero. Now, as soon as I say that, a fight breaks out elsewhere!”
The screen switches. The location is the airfield.
The hospital is quiet, Seojun’s squad is leisurely looting, and since only Seojun is left at the camp, it’s practically the only place a fight could happen.
Users hidden behind cover were busily shooting at each other.
Arin assessed and explained the previous situation.
“The battle started when Mental’s team suddenly ambushed Spoon, who was waiting at the bunker entrance! As expected, there’s no way they’d just let it slide.”
The fact that no clash had occurred so far was rather surprising.
“To think they landed together at a popular spot and almost ended up dividing the area nicely to loot and move on. That would be a disqualification as a streamer.”
So in the end, the two teams clashed.
Mental’s team’s A-rank user was Pado.
To borrow Seojun’s expression, he was a Pantyman, a veteran of the game.
The viewers knew too. That Pado was the best when it came to this game.
That Pado first landed an attack on Spoon, and the fight began.
Airfield spot.
The exact location of the bunker entrance there was beyond the outer wall surrounding the airfield.
In terms of appearance, from inside the airfield, it looked like a common Korean sanso (traditional grave mound) with earth piled up in a round shape.
But up close, you could see it was quite large, and from the opposite side, the entrance going down was dug out, which was different. By the way, the hospital’s bunker entrance is on the basement level.
Spoon, who was hit by the initial gunfire, immediately went to that dug-out entrance and started using a healing item.
And the team members took cover using terrain features like crates around the bunker and the cars they had parked, shooting to prevent enemies from getting closer while waiting for Spoon.
“Ah. It seems Spoon’s team plans to hold out a little longer and then go straight underground. Defensive, right? First, both teams have deployed smoke grenades.”
“That’s right.”
“It’ll open soon. Once Spoon’s squad enters the underground first, the latecomer will naturally be hesitant to go in. They need to do something before that.”
Bang!
Beyond the dense fog, bullets flew back and forth.
“Ah! Pado hit! That’s why you have to change your cover position after deploying smoke. Since the enemy would aim at the spot they saw, staying there defeats the purpose of the smoke, doesn’t it?”
The three commentators were breaking down the current battle.
“Ah, at that moment! Pado’s teammates get in the car. Could it be a frontal breakthrough?”
A car burst out of the dense fog.
Naturally, Spoon’s teammates in front of the bunker tried to shoot at the car, but they couldn’t properly stop it under the indiscriminate hail of bullets from Pado’s teammates.
Also, the car circled around the bunker instead of coming head-on.
“Are they giving up on the bunker? A quick decision?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ah! The player in the back seat is preparing to throw something?”
It was a grenade.
“But at that range, even if thrown like that, it wouldn’t reach the teammates positioned in front of the bunker... Ah! Spoon was there!”
The grenade flies from the car toward Spoon, who was almost done using the first aid kit.
But the grenade got caught on the edge of the slope and didn’t go over.
“What a coincidence! Player Japcho is looking embarrassed!”
“Of all places, to catch on the edge! Hahaha! It’s an absurd coincidence.”
“Indeed... Huh?”
That’s when it happened. The Pantyman behind the wheel—no, Pado—reached his arm out the window and shot at something.
Bang!
The bullet hit the grenade that was caught on the edge of the slope.
It didn’t explode immediately. That’s the physics engine for you.
Instead, the grenade fell downward.
The screen switches to Spoon’s perspective.
Spoon had just recovered his health and was getting up.
And the moment he looked up.
The grenade fell, and as time ran out, it exploded in midair.
Above Spoon’s head.
“Ah! Instant death! They lose an A-rank to a grenade!”
“Pado heads straight back to the airfield. While receiving enthusiastic cheers from the back seat! But the reason there’s no skinship like grabbing shoulders is probably because he’s bare-skinned, right?”
They cheer but don’t get close.
Not for safe driving because Pado is holding the wheel, but simply because he’s bare-skinned.
“Anyway, it seems they didn’t aim for the underground from the start! They caused a short ruckus and are immediately heading to board the plane, as if it was planned from the beginning.”
“They must be planning to aim for supply drops while flying in the sky. After all, you don’t necessarily have to go to the secret room, right?”
The airfield’s biggest advantage is the plane.
The downside of flying in the sky is that you can easily become a target, but there weren’t many people here right now. Moreover, most had gone underground.
Then the supply drops falling from the sky are almost certainly theirs.
“The underground winner will face Pado’s team.”
“It’s a truly rational strategy! And if Pado’s crazy improvisation is demonstrated once more, they might even win. Haha. To think of shooting it with a gun as soon as it got caught. You really have to be careful of panties.”
“No, I don’t know just how many iconic scenes are pouring out in this game.”
-For real lol
-Anyway, these veterans
-A-ranks really have class
-Spoon, who got shot, healed, and died, isn't he an A-rank?
-As if a spoon could...
-Everyone is amazing damn
-But Seojun is on his first game, is it right to treat him as a veteran?
-Yeah, it’s so damn right
[A storm will soon envelop the area.]
A lull came, and Arin summed up the situation. He began to show those going underground.
First was the nearby entrance.
“Now, these two Spoon-less Spoon squad members, looking a bit deflated!”
They show the two quickly descending.
“And then the hospital squad, fully looted, especially with plenty of doping items!”
Soon, the hospital team also went down. Into the dark, narrow, yet vast underground.
“That’s the last player. Personally, I think after this player takes the underground, he’ll have a final showdown with Pado. Since he deflected bullets with a frying pan and took down two squads... Huh? What’s he doing? He’s throwing his gun behind him right now? Huh? Huh? He’s going underground just like that?”
In a situation impossible to understand, Arin was dumbfounded.
“Observer, can we check his inventory?”
Bangju quickly requested, and Seojun’s inventory appeared on screen.
“Hmm. No level 3 vest, no helmet, and above all...”
Arin said. “... He has no gun either. What is this?”
Bangju laughed out loud. Thinking that he really does something extraordinary every moment.
“Hahaha! Looking at the viewers’ chat, I can see. They say he said he’d show that the frying pan is a sword, and threw it away!”
-Is he crazy? lololololol
-Is he always like that?
-He’s always like that! lolololol
-Ah lol, hurry and turn on Seojun’s room too lol, he says it’s super fun
-He says he’ll show what a true sword is
Then Penguin let out a sigh.
“Ah. Then he’s far from winning.”
“Huh? Penguin, what do you mean?”
Meanwhile, the screen showed Seojun talking with viewers.
[You say Taewoo is coming down? Ha... I’ll definitely catch that bastard. Definitely.]
* * *
After finishing a leisurely looting at the hospital, Taewoo, who was going down the stairs, felt a sudden chill and looked at the chat window.
Because the surroundings were dark, the only things he could clearly see were the chat window and the interface.
-lolololololol
-lololololol
-lololololololol
-lolololololol
‘What? Why are they laughing.’