Chapter 1 (3)
Chapter 1 (3)
Basurak... basurak.......
I can hear the sound of them approaching.
The closer the sound of the bushes moving gets, the harder my heart pounds.
'Calm down. I have to pretend I don't know anything for now. That way, they'll let their guard down.'
Should I run? No, they said this is their territory.
I don't even know the geography here; running away would just mean staying in the palm of their hands.
In that case, I'd rather fight, come what may!
Pretending to be oblivious, I poked at the branches with a piece of kindling and carefully slid some stones between my legs.
This one's for throwing. This one's for grabbing and smashing down.
Besides that, I carefully checked my surroundings and managed to find a stick the length of a walking cane that fit perfectly in my hand.
'They're still some distance away. Let's prepare as much as possible.'
While pretending to gather more branches, I grabbed the cane-length stick and prepared by placing the stones and the stick around me.
Thump-thump-thump!
My heartbeat sounds insanely loud.
I'm not joking, I think even the guys approaching might be able to hear it.
'Fucking hell, this is driving me crazy.'
My head is incredibly confused right now.
Because I'm meeting enemies? No.
I've met all kinds of enemies in virtual reality games, so is there any reason to be nervous now?
The reason I'm confused is because two types of thoughts are still grabbing each other by the collar.
It's a good thing. Let's just die to those guys and log out.
There's no way even the forced logout is broken, right?
What if I actually die if I do that?
The hunger that feels real, the system window that won't appear.
It feels like fiction, but it's clear we've transmigrated to another dimension.
Ah, fuck, seriously!
Has a guy who's turning thirty in a couple of days gone crazy?
Dimension hopping? Did I have a Tsar Bomba in my house or something?
Did a level 9999 Demon King cast some ultimate magic?
Please, get a grip! If I stay like this, I'm going to starve to death!
"Ugh......."
My head hurts because there's no definite answer.
It's the first time in my life I've had a headache just from agonizing over something.
Busureok!
But time was not on my side.
Far from the conflict between the two thoughts ending, the situation was getting worse as the guys revealed themselves.
Now I have to come up with an answer.
It was around then that I spotted three men with rough appearances, wearing animal furs and looking like they hadn't washed properly.
"Hey. Who the hell are you to be lighting a fire in our territory?"
The guy who looked like the leader among the three men opened his mouth toward me with a super nasty expression.
And I began to feel a sensation I hadn't felt in any virtual reality game until now.
"Hey! Can't you hear what our hyung-nim is saying? Who are you, you bastard!"
"Where the hell did you come from!?"
Uksin!
As their expressions twisted menacingly, my heart felt something much more intense than a feeling I had felt somewhere before.
Since I need information, let's try talking first.
I don't even know where I am, so let's figure that out first.
"Uh... where is this place?"
As dazed and foolish as possible.
Like a complete idiot who got lost because he's stupid.
"Huh, he's asking where this is?"
"Is this guy an idiot?"
"That's what I'm saying, hyung-nim. To think he'd dare ask where he is after entering the mountain of our Ho-san-chae (Tiger Mountain Stronghold)."
Ho-san-chae. Just by the name, it sounds like a third-rate bandit group that would get wiped out by the protagonist or the righteous faction in a martial arts novel.
'And the guys in front of me look just as third-rate.'
I pretended to be flustered and rolled my eyes desperately.
The dirty bandit being called hyung-nim is clearly holding a low-quality axe.
The lackeys behind him are also holding axes, but their outfits are even shabbier than the hyung-nim bandit's.
The only other difference is that the hyung-nim bandit is wearing leather armor.
"Ho...Ho-san-chae? Wh...where is that bandit stronghold located? Are you perhaps the masters of this mountain?"
I scratch the back of my head in a dazed manner, putting on a flustered expression.
Look down on me. Disdain me. Ignore me. Mock me!
"Hyung-nim. I think this guy is a real idiot."
"Hmm. As you said, he looks like a guy who's missing a few screws."
They let go of their tension at my foolish appearance.
The fact that they let their axes, which were ready to be swung at any moment, hang loose is proof of that.
'Please, just go. Just get lost.'
I hoped they would disappear because of my foolish appearance.
However, the world is never that easy.
"Still, just in case, let's drag him to the stronghold first. The boss's mood hasn't been right lately anyway."
"Ah, come to think of it, he did say to thoroughly check anything suspicious."
And I felt that heart-constricting sensation I felt earlier once again.
As the bandits' eyes changed completely.
But thanks to the intensity being weaker than before, I could understand the identity of this feeling.
'This is... hostility.......'
To be honest, I don't have a good personality.
I can't stand it if I'm treated 'unfairly' even a little bit.
I had a bad relationship with my seniors in the military and at work, so I received a lot of disadvantages.
Because I always rebelled if it didn't make sense by my standards.
Because of this personality, I got into fistfights a few times and even made enemies who had clear hostility toward me.
Because of that, I became sensitive to hostility directed at me.
But the feeling these guys were inflicting on me was the same as that.
These bastards are showing hostility toward me.
And I am feeling that hostility.
I felt that sensation from them, which I hadn't felt in virtual reality games until now, which I hadn't felt from lumps of data made of 0s and 1s.
"Hey, you. Follow us while we're asking nicely."
"Eh... where do I have to go?"
"Obviously, you have to go to our boss! If it were normal times, we would've just taken your clothes and kicked you out, so consider yourself unlucky."
"Hehe, that's true. I should have paid my respects to the master of the mountain, so thank you."
"...Hyung-nim, I think this guy really is an idiot."
"I think so too. But it can't be helped. Like I said earlier, the boss's mood hasn't been right."
I stood up from where I was sitting and grabbed the stones and the piece of wood.
If I hadn't felt hostility, I would have been captured quietly or died on purpose.
However, my instinct, which felt the hostility, is telling me.
Kill those bastards!
"Hup!"
Swish! Thwack!
"Aaargh!?"
The stone I threw hit near the hyung-nim bandit's eyeball!
"You, you bastard!"
"Kill him!"
The two lackeys come running, raising their axes.
I grit my teeth and throw the rock in my hand toward the lackey on the right.
Crack!
"Kuhak!"
Perhaps it's the effect of 100 Geungol, but the stone flew at a speed that even I couldn't imagine, hitting his forehead faster than the lackey's movement to block it with his axe blade.
"Hyaaat!"
The remaining lackey swings his axe blade, aiming for my head.
At this moment, I could feel two things.
One was the most blatant murderous intent among all the hostility I've received so far.
The other one is.......
'What? Why is it so slow?'
It feels like I've entered a slow-motion world.
And my body was also slow, like slow motion.
I don't know what's what, but for now, die!
Dodging to the side, I swung the piece of wood straight into the lackey bandit's side.
"Kuhuk!"
The lackey bandit, clutching his side, still tried to swing his axe to chop my head off even in that state.
I ducked to avoid the axe, dove inside, discarded the piece of wood, and threw a hook straight into the guy's side.
Because my personality is shitty, I got into fistfights, so I learned boxing!
Get a little taste of a 100 Geungol right body hook!
Crunch!
"Kkueogeok!!"
The moment I drove my fist into his side, I felt it.
That the guy's ribs located at his side had been crushed.
Not stopping there, I tucked his arm holding the axe into my side and applied force in a direction the joint shouldn't bend.
Snap!
"Aaaargh!"
I can feel the sensation of breaking his arm, not just bending it, through my side.
Confirming he let go of the axe, I smashed my elbow into his face.
I need to get the axe quickly......!
Whoosh!
"Kuaaaa! Die! Dieeee!"
At that moment, the hyung-nim bandit, with blood flowing from a wound near one of his eyes, screamed like a madman and swung his axe.
I kicked the hand axe that had fallen to the floor and quickly put some distance between us.
The hyung-nim bandit, covering one eye with his hand, panted heavily and glared at me as if to kill me.
"Huff! Huff! How dare you trick me!? I'll definitely kill you and turn you into salted seafood!"
Hmm, what a murder threat worthy of the martial arts world.
Whatever he said, I grabbed the axe I had kicked away.
The quality is bad, but it's enough to kill a person.
'I have more leeway than I thought.'
Thanks to the high stats related to my body's abilities, such as Geungol, Angong, Igong, Yeongong, and Ganggong, through character customization, I could feel relaxed even while receiving murderous intent.
Geungol is muscle and bone.
Angong is dynamic vision.
Igong is hearing.
Yeongong is flexibility.
Ganggong means the hardness of the body.
Currently, these stats are all 100, but 100 with martial arts learned and 100 without martial arts learned are worlds apart... or so the strategy site said.
Anyway, I don't know if these guys learned martial arts or not, but I can be sure of one thing.
'I can take them.'
No, it's not just that I can take them; even in a 3-on-1 situation, I have leeway.
"Cough! Cough! Ugh!"
"Huff! Huff!"
"Ugh......!"
One of the lackey bandits, as expected, sat down clutching his broken side.
The bandits, wounded on their foreheads and eyes, panted heavily and split to the left and right.
'They're going to strike from both sides?'
Thump-thump-thump!
My heartbeat is accelerating again.
It's not a heartbeat caused by intense action.
It's a heartbeat for the axe held in my hand.
A weapon not for subduing the opponent, but clearly for killing.
That weapon is now in my hand.
I'm a modern person who has beaten people up, but of course, has never killed anyone.
Therefore, my reason as a modern person caused hesitation in swinging this weapon.
"That bastard is a newbie! Strike!"
"Die!"
The bandits attacked, thinking I was a newbie with no experience in killing people based on my appearance.
First, the lackey bandit bleeding from his forehead rushes in, swinging his arm wide.
As I twist my upper body to the side, the axe blade swings full force in front of my eyes.
And I spotted the lackey bandit with his upper body leaning forward.
He smiled a triumphant smile at my appearance of not having killed anyone,
Kwachjeuk!
"Uh......?"
He couldn't hide his bewilderment as he felt the sensation of the axe splitting his head.
"Uryaaaa!"
The hyung-nim bandit rushed toward me, aiming for that opening.
A smile was drawn on his face too.
It's as if he's saying, 'You're not in your right mind from the shock of killing someone, right?'
Kwajak!
"Kuaak!?"
Therefore, unable to dodge the axe blade flying toward his torso in time, he fell down as his feet lifted off the ground from the impact of the axe blade embedding into him.
"Ku...kuhuk......! Weren't... you... someone... who... had... never... killed... a... person... before......."
"Yeah, that's right. It was my first time killing someone."
"Th...then...how......."
"Well. Now that I've actually done it, it wasn't a big deal? Maybe it's because I met bastards I genuinely wanted to kill?"
"Kke...kkeueuk......."
That's right.
Despite having killed a person, I was fine.
No, rather.......
'It's fun......?'