Is That All You've Got?
Even in the middle of a fight, the way to get information might be a lot closer than I thought.
Until now, Jisu had always gone into combat completely blind. Checking a smartphone mid-fight was bizarre enough on its own — in a battle where anything could happen, it was a fatal mistake waiting to happen.
But right now, wasn't there someone feeding him a constant stream of combat intel?
So what if he used his operator properly? Couldn't he check the market prices in real time?
If he just had the price he'd bought in at and the amount it had moved, he wouldn't need to pull up the Bitstorm site just to check his status window. He could track the fluctuating prices on the fly, right in the middle of a fight. And if he could keep getting those reports, it would be like prying off one of the shackles locked around his ankles.
Having gotten that far, Jisu carefully called out to Seyeon.
"Um, Seyeon."
"I think I might need to ask you for a favor."
But what was he even supposed to say?
Could you log into Bitstorm real quick and check some coin prices for me?
As mid-combat intel requests went, that was going to sound… extremely weird.
Seyeon. So, uh, I'm just so, so curious about the prices of the cryptocurrencies I invested in that I genuinely cannot focus on this one-on-one. Could you please hurry up and go to a site called Bitstorm and tell me how the whatever-whatever coin I bought is moving?
Even he had to admit it was an absurd thing to ask. And just coming clean to Seyeon about his ability was out of the question, too. In the Hunter industry, laying your hidden cards out for the world to see was, depending on the circumstances, practically suicide — and even if he and Seyeon had gotten somewhat close, it wasn't as if they'd known each other all that long.
"……!"
Jisu barely managed to catch Woohyeok's charging strike with his bare hands. Once again, five viciously sharp spikes jutted from the man's fist.
"Looking around in the middle of a match? Guess you're still feeling pretty good."
Listen to the mouth on this guy.
He cursed the man out in his head, but Woohyeok's attack felt less like a hit and more like simple contact. It barely hurt. Fortunately, his stamina stat didn't seem to have taken any damage.
Forget it. No need to start grilling Seyeon about all this right now.
Looks like he'd have to stay in the dark through this fight after all. Not that it mattered. The only reason he'd wanted to ask was so he could fight more strategically if Seyeon could check the coin prices for him — and right now, Woohyeok's attacks didn't hurt in the slightest. Which meant there was nothing wrong with the market. If things actually got dangerous, he could always ask then.
Alright, so now I need to attack — but if I hit him too hard, this guy's going to get seriously hurt. Is that okay? Not that I care about putting a bastard like him on the ground, but I don't need that kind of thing haunting my dreams…
While Jisu was turning that over, Woohyeok spoke.
"So my attacks really aren't landing at all."
A thin, knowing smile crept across his face, as if he'd seen this coming.
"Figured as much. I've done a little analysis on you."
…Analysis?
The moment Woohyeok said he'd analyzed him, Jisu's curiosity won out over any urge to talk back. He went quiet and listened.
"I don't know what your ability actually is, but your physical stats spike for a single instant — and in that moment, the raw explosive power is on a level nobody can match. No idea what kind of mechanism that runs on, though."
Even as he spoke, Woohyeok didn't ease the force behind his fist.
"But that's only ever going to last a second. A castle built on sand — the kind that comes crashing down the moment you look at it. Power that burns bright and dies. Power that can never last a lifetime. Am I wrong?"
"…"
Jisu fell into thought. Woohyeok had clearly picked apart the fights Jisu had made a name with so far — the first wyvern battle, the moment their fists had first met. The "burst of explosive power" part, at least, made sense. He had coughed up blood after killing that wyvern.
But that wasn't actually how it worked.
Is this bastard a complete idiot?
While Jisu was thinking that, Woohyeok was preparing something else entirely.
If I can just buy a little time, I can finish him in one shot.
Back when Woohyeok had still been living like garbage on the streets, day after grinding day, and his talent as a Hunter had first awakened — the merciless fighting style he'd built from the gutter, combined with a lucky roll of status bonuses, had been enough to make him a powerful Hunter.
But that wasn't all he had.
As long as warm blood was pumping through them — monster or human, it didn't matter — he could put them in the ground in a single blow.
The prep's almost done.
Woohyeok could feel the current gathering inside his body.
That was it. That was the moment his talent as a Hunter had opened its eyes. The instant a bolt of lightning had torn through him. At the brink of death, Woohyeok had awakened — and become a human being who could generate electricity.
Woohyeok's true talent. The ability to create electric current.
The power to generate electric current from within the body.
The only people who knew that fact were a vanishingly small handful — including his boss, Jeong Siyun, guildmaster of Seongwolhoe. The ability had been cultivated in secret. It was one of Seongwolhoe's hidden cards, still completely unknown to the outside world.
If he could just make contact and dump the current he'd built up inside his body, he could send anyone to the afterlife.
The iron knuckles Woohyeok used as a weapon weren't just a matter of personal taste. They were the most effective tool he had for putting that current to work.
Of course, the world was fair. Once he generated a charge, his status stats dropped off a cliff. And the aftermath was more than enough to make him suffer. The stats would recover on their own given time — but Woohyeok knew, by instinct, that if he kept repeating this attack in a short window, it would eventually kill him. High-voltage current tearing through a body might not hurt in the moment, but that didn't mean the body itself went unchanged.
He was still human, after all.
But that was fine. If it meant putting down the irritating bastard in front of him, none of that mattered.
Woohyeok flicked a glance at Siyun. She was wearing an expression that said she had no idea what was happening — but she knew exactly what he was about to do.
Don't kill him. We need to bring him back to the guild.
She'd said that, clearly. Woohyeok had other ideas.
Why the hell should I care about that?
From the moment this Jisu had blocked his fist like it was nothing, Woohyeok had hated him with a purity he couldn't talk himself out of.
He'd lived like a stray dog, that was why. He'd clawed his way to this position by making a living out of sinking his teeth into people stronger than him.
If the Jisu in front of him happened to die, so be it. Siyun would chew him out, sure — but a dead Jisu couldn't become Seongwolhoe's asset, and he couldn't become Seongwolhoe's threat, either. That was fine. Back to square one. It might slow things down a little, but it wouldn't put any real hole in the plan. Siyun wasn't stupid enough to throw him away over her feelings.
It would be fine. Jisu had been a bug from the start — something that was never supposed to appear.
The plan was perfect. Draw his attention, lock down his offense, gather the current fast. And when a destructive enough charge had built up inside his body — dump it straight into Jisu.
He didn't need to think about what came after. Dead or not, that wasn't Woohyeok's problem. If anything, he was hoping the guy would die.
And then, at last, Woohyeok felt it. The moment was right.
Now.
Electricity of more than enough voltage was circulating through his body. High pressure like this would kill Jisu, just like he'd figured.
You dumb bastard. Picked the wrong person in the wrong place — and now you're going to die here.
A thin smile spread across Woohyeok's face as he delivered what amounted to an ultimatum.
"Got any last words before you die?"
"Huh? What was that?"
Jisu answered with an expression that was impossible to read. Fair enough. How many people on earth would understand being asked, out of nowhere, if they had any last words?
Woohyeok clicked his tongue and began gathering the current, little by little, toward the tip of his fist.
"Last words, he says. Honestly."
"?"
This was the end. Some random nobody shows up, gets handed an SS-rank out of nowhere, and everything he'd caused up to now would just be a little incident — a story only the people who were there would ever remember.
Woohyeok's face was all confidence as he roared.
"YOU PATHETIC BASTARD!!!!!!!!"
In that instant, every last drop of high-voltage current he had gathered inside his body poured into Jisu.
And how much time had passed?
No — how much time even made sense to have passed?
Wh-what?
"?"
Woohyeok stared at Jisu.
He looked completely fine. Not like he was gritting through pain. Not like he was enduring anything. The same unbothered calm sat on his face as if nothing in the world had touched him.
Cold sweat slid down the back of Woohyeok's neck.
Time kept moving, as if nothing had happened at all. From the moment Woohyeok had shouted, it was as if the clock had stopped — everyone around them was simply staring at the two of them, and nothing else.
Woohyeok checked his own body. The strength was gone. He had no energy left. It was the exact same crash he always felt after discharging electricity.
The current definitely went out, though?!
If that was true, this shouldn't be happening. No — this couldn't be happening.
"What… what are you?"
"…"
Jisu said nothing. He wore an expression that truly, genuinely looked as if nothing had happened at all. That face, that posture — it made Woohyeok's skin crawl even worse.
"What the hell are you?!"
Woohyeok couldn't hide his shock. Of course he couldn't. If he'd sent a current, there should have been some reaction — whether it landed or not. No: with a voltage that high, standing there completely unharmed should have been close to impossible.
Should have been.
Until the man standing in front of him.
Badly shaken, Woohyeok started backing up without realizing it.
A human that electricity didn't work on? That shouldn't be possible. Not as long as he was human.
As Woohyeok's thoughts tangled over themselves, Jisu started walking toward him — one unhurried step at a time.
"Hiiik—!"
Woohyeok toppled over backward before he even knew what he was doing. And the most spectacular part of it was this: whether he fell or not, Jisu simply looked down at him, cold as ice.