The Worst Human

What?

I tore the clothes off the woman I have a crush on, and he's getting turned on?

That Baek Sihyeon bastard is a total pervert.

Flutter—

I draped the discarded clothes over Yu Eunseol, who had collapsed to the floor with both arms crossed over her chest.

She was small enough that they slipped on easily.

"Put this on."

"You...!!"

"Later. First we deal with that guy."

I turned away from the murderous glare Yu Eunseol was leveling at me and reached into empty air, claiming the bonus reward for clearing the quest.

Grab!

A Skill Reinforcement Ticket.

I never expected this scrap of paper, edges peeking out from my clenched fist, to drop. It was the best reward I could possibly receive right now.

"Use."

Exactly as the name suggested, it upgraded a Level 1 skill.

The skills I currently held were Enhanced Vision, Stat Amplification, and Critical Strike.

Only one of them could flip this entire situation on its head.

Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 20 minutes.

I reinforced a skill whose duration hadn't even expired yet for one simple reason—leveling a skill reset its timer immediately.

With Elder Choi already subdued, Mental was useless now.

The guy had taken a full-force entrenching shovel from Mingoo and walked it off, but raw attack power wasn't what I needed either.

I just needed to be fast.

"Kyahahaha!!! You're an interesting bastard after all!!!!"

"Yeah. This is going to be real fun."

I slipped the Fake Cult Leader's fist as it came crashing down to swallow me whole.

Swish—

Whoooosh!!!!

A faint crimson light bloomed as Critical Strike detonated; the damage would take care of itself.

Of course hitting harder would deal more damage, but my current Strength was more than enough.

With only a slight exaggeration, the fist buried in his right temple looked like it had sunk halfway into his skull.

Thud!! Boom!! Thunk! Thunk-thunk— Thududududuk—

The Fake Cult Leader skipped across the floor like a stone on water before finally tumbling to a sprawling halt.

"What are you doing? Entertain me."

"......"

I drove my right foot straight down into the blank, unfocused face staring up at the ceiling.

CRASH!!!

The Fake Cult Leader rolled away like a rat and scrambled upright into a hunched crouch, muttering something under his breath.

"You little..."

"Don't care."

I was going to pay him back in full.

"Guhhk!!"

First I cracked him across the face with my right hand, then chased the rebounding head with my left and seized a fistful of hair.

Grab!

I locked him in place and drove three straight punches into his solar plexus.

The weight in my left hand suddenly increased—his head kept trying to sag toward the floor.

Whoosh—

I yanked the hair upward, tossing his head high, and the moment our eyes met I planted a clean right straight into his face.

CRACK!!!!

Even if I'd simply let go he would have gone down, but I kicked him square in the chest and sent him flying. Peace finally settled over me.

"Ahh... now I feel alive again."

You always have to return what you received, exactly as you received it.

Still, what the hell did I do to him that he's already half-dead?

"Uuuugh..!! Ugh..!!"

Not every hit had triggered Critical Strike.

Just one—the opening blow. He never recovered from that first damage before I stacked more on top of it, which was why the Fake Cult Leader was curled on the floor with his knees pulled to his chest, writhing in agony.

But something felt off.

"Kh...!!! Khh...!!!! Kuuuuugh..!!!!"

This wasn't simple pain.

Something was changing.

The Fake Cult Leader, wearing nothing but underwear, flushed a deep crimson. Veins that had already bulged across his face and neck began to snake and throb all over his body.

"Suho!!"

I sprinted toward him.

Whether it was my imagination or not, even his muscles seemed to be swelling.

Thud!!

I stomped on his chest and looked down. Completely blood-red eyes met mine—eyes that were already weeping tears of blood.

Whoooosh!!!!

The sound of air being torn apart rang out.

It was the Fake Cult Leader's roar.

"KRAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!"

No—the final roar of a monster that could barely still be called human.

Grab!

Whoosh—

I snatched the spear out of the air as it screamed toward me, spun it half a turn in my palm, and drove it straight down into the brow of the Fake Cult Leader as he threw his head back and howled.

SHUNK!!!!!

That was close.

"......"

Head still thrown back.

Mouth still wide open.

Impaled through the forehead by the spear, the Fake Cult Leader died, and the completion message floated up in front of his face.

Unfortunately I hadn't cleared the hidden quest.

I had a feeling the condition required killing the Fake Cult Leader only after whatever transformation he was undergoing had fully completed.

But I didn't regret it for a second.

I had no desire to take that kind of risk—and I still had this unused card in hand.

Goddamn it! Son of a bitch!

In the webtoon only Elder Choi's skills had ever been shown. They never revealed what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Fake Cult Leader possessed that made him so strong.

I'd assumed he would have something excellent.

But Blood Frenzy? Berserk?

One turned you into a cannibal who had to rip out and eat hearts. The other was clearly the skill that had made him swell with veins and weep blood like a monster at the end.

Neither appealed to me in the slightest.

So I left the Skill Acquisition Ticket unused.

Still, looking at the overall results, this episode had been more than satisfying.

I'd raised Strength and Agility by one each, pocketed a clean 200 points, and—completely unrelated to the Fake Cult Leader's death—upgraded Stat Amplification to Level 2.

On top of that I now held a Random Weapon Box that was practically vibrating in my hands.

For efficiency and style, a blade would be ideal, right?

Heroine Yu Eunseol's main weapon later became a Japanese sword, and protagonist Baek Sihyeon used a blade as well.

Or dual swords might be nice.

Slicing through zombies at high speed with a pair of short twin blades—that would look insanely cool....

THUD!!

A heavy, solid sound rang out.

It was the noise of the weapon I hadn't managed to catch hitting the floor.

I looked down at the thing lying there.

It was pitch black, as if Armament Haki had been poured into it.

But couldn't they have put just a little more effort into the design?

Was this really the best they could do?

Just a plain black round rod with no front or back.

Ah—there were grooves cut into one end so it wouldn't slip. That must be the grip.

But did it even need a distinction?

It was simply a slightly thick black lump of metal.

Length looked to be about seventy centimeters, thickness roughly the size of a toilet-paper tube.

Shorter than a gym barbell but thicker.

And from the sound it made hitting the floor, it was clearly heavy as hell.

And they expected me to swing this thing?

Even with Strength raised to 10 there was no way. A few swings and my arms would fall off..!!

"Pfft!! Don't tell me that's your weapon?"

"Whoa... that looks ridiculously crude..."

"Still, one hit from that and you're done for, right??"

"......"

Younghoon read my expression and tried to offer some kind of compliment, but I felt zero joy.

With a weapon like this, wouldn't an entrenching shovel be better?

"Haa...."

I let out a long sigh, bent down, and reached for the weapon on the floor.

Grab—

It was filthy heavy!!

Easily ten kilos. How the hell was I supposed to swing this?!!

Huh?? What? This hunk of metal is a bound item??

In this webtoon world, not only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weapons but all sorts of objects appeared as bound items.

Those bound items possessed special abilities.

Some could be stored and retrieved from a subspace inventory. Some automatically generated arrows when you drew a bowstring. Some raised the user's stats. Some even had skills built in.

If this was one of those bound items, then even this completely unstylish design didn't matter.

Design? Cool factor?

None of that was important.

Practicality.

Nothing beat the practicality of a bound item.

Drrrrrag..!!

I dragged the steel rod across the floor and walked up to the pulpit.

Standing in front of the waist-high wooden pulpit, I raised the steel rod in one hand.

And brought it down.

CRACK!!!!!!

The steel rod smashed through the wooden pulpit and buried itself deep.

I slowly turned around, the corner of my mouth lifting as I looked at Gihun's blank face.

"Yeah. This is my weapon. Got a problem with it?"

"....Ah, no... none at all..."

It wasn't stylish, but I had obtained an excellent weapon.

This episode was turning out far too satisfying.

But the ending was a little rough.

SMACK!!!!

Well, tearing a girl's clothes and walking away without getting slapped would have been even weirder.

"You... you really are the worst kind of human..!"

"......"

Yu Eunseol, thoroughly furious, twisted her face into a scowl, bit down hard on her lower lip, and glared at me as if she wanted me dead.

At this rate, was joining the protagonist's party even going to be possible?