Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Manager Gu's Enlightenment
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“What the fuck! Manager Gu, have you lost your mind?!”
“What are you thinking, dragging those orc bastards right to us? Is that big head of yours just for show? You trying to get us all killed?!”
The team leaders, eyes wild, hurled curses and accusations.
In a situation where they were all about to die anyway, who gave a damn about bosses or rank?
Manager Gu kicked away an orc warrior hot on their heels and urged them on.
“The whole forest is ablaze now, the commotion’s only getting bigger. The Martial Force will notice something’s up and arrive soon. If we hold out until then, we’ll have a shot at surviving.”
“How the hell are we supposed to hold out? Did dementia hit you early or what?”
“…I’m your superior first and foremost, but I’m also older than you. Watch your mouth.”
“Bullshit. When we’re all about to kick the bucket at the same time, what’s age got to do with anything?”
Orc warriors were merely D-rank monsters.
Even as elites, they weren’t much tougher than your average C-rank, nothing the team leaders needed to fear.
But no one’s invincible against sheer numbers.
The procurement company employees numbered only twenty, while the orcs were pushing a hundred.
And to top it off, the orc legion included seven orc mages.
Specialized in unleashing powerful fireballs while supporting their allies.
Just look at them now—most of the orcs were boosted by <Haste>.
That’s why the burdened procurement staff couldn’t shake off their pursuers.
“Damn it, damn it…!”
Song Se-yeong.
The boy who had cleverly turned the orc mages’ fire attacks against them, torching the forest to blaze a path ahead, had been muttering curses non-stop for minutes.
A fellow student.
And it seemed the fact that he’d offered up his junior as bait to an ogre had hit him especially hard.
“Jae-hyeok will be fine.”
One of the employees propped up the limp, waterlogged Song Se-yeong and tried to reassure him.
It didn’t help at all.
Song Se-yeong’s face crumpled.
“Fine? When you never bothered to rein in that clueless kid before, and now you spout crap like that?”
“Manager Gu used his wide-area taunt skill and drew the orcs, didn’t he? That’s got to lighten Jae-hyeok’s load a bit, right? Even if it means we’re the ones screwed. Ha ha.”
“…….”
Song Se-yeong shut his mouth.
The procurement company employees were all players.
And older than him, so you could call them industry seniors.
That’s why he’d misjudged them.
‘They’re weak.’
There was no way competent players would be out herb-gathering every weekend.
If they were high-rankers, Lion’s Castle wouldn’t have let them in on suspicions of ulterior motives.
They weren’t the kind of people you’d ask for help in the first place.
‘Kang Jae-hyeok, did you really…’
Sacrifice yourself just to help the weak?
‘Noble.’
Proof that one’s lineage—or oneself—had fulfilled a player’s duty.
It meant a noble being.
Every noble Song Se-yeong had encountered so far had, coincidentally, been unqualified trash…
‘…But a ducal house must be different.’
Song Se-yeong snapped to attention, his expression shifting.
“My apologies. I was a burden for a moment there.”
Now he walked straight without anyone’s help.
Far from resenting the procurement staff, he felt gratitude and regret.
‘I’ll fulfill my duty too.’
Song Se-yeong had vowed it when he enrolled at Lion’s Castle.
To become a true player, unlike the nobles.
He sensed this moment was his first step.
“I’ll hold off the enemies with you, sirs! Everyone else, use the opening to escape!”
His voice rang out, charged with fervor.
He squeezed out his last dregs of mana, a faint magical glow circling his fingertips.
The team leaders, who’d been blocking the orcs at the rear, came rushing over.
“Team leaders…!”
Song Se-yeong’s face lit up.
He thought they were responding to his call.
“You finally drag your asses over? Were you napping or what? What’s with the sleep-talking?”
“We’re out. You and the manager have fun.”
He was wrong.
The team leaders treated him like a lunatic and blew right past.
“Huh…? Huh?”
Song Se-yeong’s smiling face froze, and the procurement staff plunged into chaos.
With even the B-rank players they’d counted on fleeing for their own skins, it was the worst possible turn.
All eyes turned to Manager Gu.
‘Sir won’t abandon us, right?’
‘We’re okay, aren’t we?’
“…….”
Manager Gu read the plea in their gazes and inwardly cursed the team leaders.
‘I knew they always put self-preservation first, but I didn’t think they’d ditch this many people.’
Not that I’m any different.
But I couldn’t bring myself to abandon dozens of subordinates…
‘No, wait. I already sacrificed a kid, so maybe I’m worse.’
Recalling Jae-hyeok’s final retreating figure soured Manager Gu’s heart.
It felt like karmic payback.
If he’d shown them something worthy of respect all along, would the team leaders have bolted so easily?
Somehow, he doubted it.
Just as Jae-hyeok had changed his own heart, maybe they’d have changed a little too.
“Ugh!”
A split-second of distraction created an opening.
Reflexively blocking a flail with his sword, he stepped back and hurriedly threw up a sword barrier.
But he couldn’t block every one of the dozens of arrows—wounds opened on his shoulder, forearm, and elsewhere.
Kurrrle…
The orc mages, re-enchanting the crude arrows from the orc archers, snickered.
They seemed thrilled at how easily they’d corner their leader-looking human prey.
Kuraraat!
Kick-ek-ek!!
At the orc mages’ command, the orc legion surged toward Manager Gu like a tidal wave.
Clang! Chachachachang!
Deflecting flails, parrying swords, dodging spears, batting arrows…
Manager Gu was fully occupied fending off the onslaught from dozens of orcs.
He couldn’t find a single moment to counterattack.
A high B-rank.
Jaekyung’s rising star, slated for A-rank in a few years, still struggled against numerical inferiority.
‘Impressive, having faced it myself.’
Manager Gu shuddered.
Not because the orc legion before him overwhelmed him.
He was recalling Jae-hyeok, who’d butchered dozens of hobgoblins in seconds.
The boy had already wrapped things up by the time he’d hurriedly caught up.
Back then, he’d just been impressed.
Low-level mob monsters with short aggro range—easy pickings for a ducal bloodline with an awakened bloodline skill.
But now, experiencing something similar, his view flipped 180 degrees.
‘That kid… what is he?’
How the hell did he pull that off?
Manager Gu’s mind sank into thought.
Surrounded by shrieking orcs.
Even as he blocked attacks without a breath to spare, he kept picturing Jae-hyeok.
‘A far greater boy than I realized.’
‘Jo Seong-hyeon was obsessed with House Kang’s standard forms, just like that.’
Piecing together clues, his mind assembled the puzzle.
Puhwahak!!
It bordered on suicide.
Manager Gu started taking more hits.
Without Se-yeong and the subordinates’ aid joining in, he’d have suffered fatal wounds.
Of course—daydreaming in an already desperate fight.
But Manager Gu didn’t care.
Hacked by blades, stabbed by spears, smashed by flails, his body in tatters, yet he strained to grasp the vision flickering before him.
[Entering Flow State.]
Only after plunging into this unprecedented peak focus.
‘Ah!’
Lightning struck Manager Gu’s mind.
He recalled the House Kang forms Jae-hyeok displayed.
‘It was martial perfection.’
The stance, breathing, movements, intent.
Everything was worth studying, he was certain.
But too profound.
Even with his talent destined for A-rank, full comprehension was impossible.
Yet one thing stood out crystal clear.
-Your shoulders. They’re stiff, mister. Frozen shoulder or something?
The point Jae-hyeok had hammered home, even smacking him with a scabbard.
The finishing step of House Kang Iaido’s basic draw: catching a tossed sword reverse-grip, opposite hand sweeping behind the waist.
‘I was trying to catch it as stylishly as possible, but he kept nitpicking.’
Aren’t forms all about the flair, fundamentally?
Especially when it highlighted House Kang Iaido’s grace—why was Jae-hyeok so picky?
‘The basics aren’t for show either.’
Now the mystery unraveled.
Whoosh!
Manager Gu leaned back to dodge a spear, tossing his sword skyward.
His opposite arm fully relaxed.
Kruk?
The orcs sneered at the mad human’s antics and swung their flails.
Song Se-yeong’s magic shield shattered instantly, and the procurement staff’s skills were canceled by the orc warriors’.
In the end, a barrage of attacks poured toward Manager Gu in his bizarre stance.
Like a roly-poly toy, he snapped his torso upright and swung his dangling arm wide.
Snap!
The sword dropped from the sky into his reverse grip.
Kadddddrdddk!!
Orc jaws or necks shattered in sequence.
A horizontal slash from his blind spot.
Perfect ambush from the victim’s perspective.
To the procurement staff, it looked like he’d slashed the moon itself.
“Pity. If not for that arrow in my shoulder, I could’ve done better.”
Stabbed waist, crushed chest from the flail, back riddled with blades and arrows.
Surveying his wrecked body, dark red blood trickled from Manager Gu’s mouth.
Clang! Crash!
True to their pharmaceutical company roots, subordinates hurled potion vials—but futile.
Since diving into enemy lines and popping his wide-area taunt, he’d overdosed on potions, suffering withdrawal symptoms.
A potion shower barely healed him and only worsened the headache.
“…Might as well have you lot survive, at least.”
Just like the team leaders said, he was fucked.
Getting charmed by some kid irrelevant to his life and ending up like this—what an utter idiot.
‘Sorry. I’ll go see Mom and Dad first.’
His final apology to his sister, slaving away without weekends off.
He gripped his sword with what strength remained.
The trembling blade pointed at the orcs made them hesitate.
That human’s burst of power had left quite the impression.
Kura!
Only after the orc mages barked.
Kuek!!
The orcs charged recklessly.
Having lost too much blood, Manager Gu could barely register his surroundings.
He could only hope his subordinates, endangered because of him, escaped safely.
That way, his conscience might lighten a bit.
“Haaah!!”
Squeezing every ounce of strength, he thrust at the onrushing presences.
Sloppy.
To him now, the sword was just a tool to unleash skills.
His body was too wrecked to execute House Kang forms, let alone a lifetime of swordsmanship.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwaaang!!
To the orcs, though, this Manager Gu was far more terrifying.
Dozens fell each time they were swept by the radiant aura, the legion halving in moments.
Pathetic things, really.
So why had the team leaders fled, and why had Manager Gu faltered trying to ration his strength?
Kraaaaat!!
Because of the elite monsters.
At the orc warriors’ roars, new orcs emerged from the cliff tops, valley below, and beyond the brush.
The legion’s might.
To turn the tide, the orc warriors had to fall first.
But targeting them under seven orc mages’ protection was beyond Manager Gu’s means.
“Run…”
Puk!
“a…”
Puk-puk-puk-puk!!
Exhausted of mana, Manager Gu’s body sprouted spears and blades.
An orc approached the limp man, grinning, spat on both hands, gripped its flail tight.
Aiming playfully at his face…
Splatter!
Its head exploded, dead.
Step.
Footsteps approached.
***
“Huff, huff! Orc trash daring to think they can take us?”
“This is all Manager Gu’s screw-up. Damn, who’d have thought we’d be running from orcs.”
Around the catching-their-breath team leaders lay three orc warriors and dozens of orc corpses.
The pursuers who’d chased after they ditched Manager Gu.
‘Know your place… Orc mages are a hassle, but punks like you? I could solo truckloads.’
Team Leader Seol tsked, stomping an orc warrior’s head to pulp.
Step.
Footsteps sounded.
“Martial Force?”
The team leaders’ faces brightened.
Slash!
Their expressions frozen, heads severed.
“The kids split up suddenly, so I had hopes, but I drew the duds.”
The enigmatic figure turned away.
Ashes fluttered from his robe.