A Desperate Measure
A stab-proof vest!
The bodyguard was wearing a stab-proof vest under his shirt.
The knife barely penetrated the tip before grinding to a halt.
The bodyguard stared at me, his expression twisting in shock.
I quickly activated my item's effect.
◈ Effect: Strong Arm (A)
◈ Description: Massively boosts the user's physical strength.
"Ugh...!"
The bodyguard's hand clamped down on my arm holding the dagger.
The veins in his forearm bulged as if they were about to burst.
Even though I poured the power of Strong Arm into shoving the blade forward, I couldn't pierce through his raw strength and the protective vest.
Lee Jun was right when he said he couldn't win. This guy was no ordinary human.
"Ngggh...!"
His grip dug deeper and deeper into my forearm.
Is he trying to snap my arm right here?
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Lee Jun's tense gaze darting toward me.
I couldn't let myself ruin this. Summoning every ounce of Strong Arm's power, I dragged the bodyguard toward the restroom.
The bodyguard resisted, but my strength was just a fraction greater.
Inch by inch, I managed to haul him inside.
"Khah!"
"Heugh!"
The moment we crossed the threshold, we broke apart as if by mutual agreement.
A hole was torn in the bodyguard's vest, and the snapped blade of my dagger clattered across the floor. A dark, hand-shaped bruise was already blooming on my arm.
I spoke to him.
"Is it really okay for you to leave your client alone? My partner is still out there in the bar."
"Our client is a bit particular. He hates scenes... I'll just clean you up quickly, head back out, and drag your partner in too."
Mister, you can't use your gun here.
I knew that.
If I fired a gun in here, the sound would echo all the way outside.
The bodyguard took a stance.
...It was an excessively honest stance.
Straightforward, completely devoid of feints.
I could feel his absolute confidence—he believed that even if I saw it coming, I wouldn't be able to dodge.
But I hadn't survived countless battlefields by being easy to hit.
No matter what he throws, I'll dodge it and feed him a fist packed with Strong Arm.
Or so I resolved.
A sudden, sharp prickle shot down my spine.
Reflexively, I jerked my head to the side.
With a metallic screech as if lined with steel plates, the bodyguard's boot slammed into the wall where my head had just been.
His power, speed, and timing were terrifyingly difficult to match.
Mister?!
But I wasn't exactly a pushover either.
I threw a punch, putting my entire body weight and the full force of Strong Arm behind it.
Thud!!
The bodyguard was forced back, his muscles groaning under the impact.
His muscles were absurdly dense.
It was like striking a silverback gorilla.
"Tsk... What the hell are you? A pint-sized bastard shouldn't hit this hard..."
"Right back at you. What's with that body of yours?"
We stared at each other in silence.
Then, we lunged at the same time.
"Ha!"
The bodyguard's fist tore through the air.
A straightforward but incredibly powerful, fast, and precise strike leveraging pure physical enhancement.
I barely managed to evade his onslaught by utilizing the brief invincibility window of my Roll.
Mister, are you okay? I don't think I've ever seen you struggle this much...
"Haa... haa..."
"Haha, is your stamina finally bottoming out? You did well for a little guy."
I finally realized the source of the strange familiarity I'd been feeling.
This reckless, un-feinted style of combat that relied entirely on overwhelming physical specs.
I had fought people like this countless times before.
The United Human Forces' augmented soldiers.
Men who underwent physical enhancement surgeries just to interface with cybernetic limbs.
"You... did you undergo the enhancement surgery?"
The bodyguard's eyes narrowed.
"Who the hell are you?"
It seemed I had hit the mark.
To think a prototype of the surgery we received already existed in this early era.
Well, I guess Cap*ain America has been around since World War I, so...
"I was going to let you off with a light beating, but that's off the table now. I'm going to beat you to a pulp and drag you to Namsan. I need to hear exactly who you are."
"I go to Namsan almost every day. My office is right near there."
The bodyguard flinched, slightly loosening his stance.
"...You're not one of our employees, are you?"
"...? Are you from Sprout too? Or Maetan?"
"?"
"?"
"This is getting incredibly confusing."
The bodyguard lunged back in.
His punches grew even fiercer. The tips of my long goblin ears were grazed several times, beads of blood welling up.
At this rate... I was going to lose.
Mister, should I construct a gun? Rather than losing and dying, it might be better to pull back for now and try again...
CC advised a temporary retreat, but I couldn't do that.
This wasn't an Event Zone. The same situation wouldn't repeat itself. This might be my only shot.
Think. How do I usually fight? What kind of opponent did I hate facing the most?
When was it hardest to fight another human?
"Haah!"
The bodyguard kicked off the floor and leaped.
Damn it, no time to think.
Just then, the broken fragment of my dagger lying on the floor caught my eye.
"CC!!"
I reached out and shouted her name.
Light coalesced in my palm, shaping itself into a long, slender rod.
◈ Effect: Telekinesis (B-grade)
◈ Description: Allows the user to freely manipulate objects weighing under 5kg within a 5-meter radius.
Crash!
The bodyguard's fist slammed into the floor, sending shattered tiles flying in all directions.
I rolled across the floor, dodging the strike with the Phoenix Ornament Hairpin gripped tightly in my hand.
At the same time, I focused my mind on the broken shard of the dagger.
And the moment the invincibility window of my Roll expired—
"Too slow!"
His fist hurtled toward me.
A trajectory that perfectly predicted my movement.
I couldn't dodge it.
But my attack was faster.
"Kh-?!"
His fist wavered, merely grazing my cheek.
He looked down at his flank.
Embedded there was the broken shard of the dagger.
It had cleanly pierced the gap in his vest torn during our first clash.
"When did... this..."
"Aaaaargh!"
I threw a punch packed with the power of Strong Arm, striking the exposed end of the broken blade.
Driven by the impact, the blade acted like a bullet, sinking deep into the bodyguard's body.
"Cough... gurgle... ugh..."
His lungs punctured, he gasped for air and collapsed to his knees.
As I focused my mind, the dagger shard slid out of his wound and began to hover around me.
CC spoke.
Whoa, look at you playing with flying swords!
Sorry, Tracksuit.
I'm the one who mastered the flying sword technique first.
I stuffed the unconscious bodyguard into a toilet stall and slipped out of the restroom.
By now, Lee Jun should have finished his task... wait, what?
Lee Jun was sitting back at our table, looking utterly dejected.
I rushed over and slid into the seat opposite him.
"What happened?"
"Juhyeok..."
Lee Jun looked at me with a face that was on the verge of tears.
Looking closer, there was a bright red handprint stamped across his cheek.
"I got rejected... She told me to get lost..."
"What?"
"You... won your fight, I see. Ha... but I'm in shock. This is the first time I've ever been rejected with this avatar... I've been using this face for all my investigations... It was practically a free pass everywhere..."
"I don't know much about this, but try again. They say no tree can withstand ten strokes of an axe."
"...Do you think so? Alright. I suppose a little push-and-pull is only natural in human relationships, right?"
Lee Jun stood back up and headed toward the woman again.
Slap! Smack!!
When Lee Jun returned, deep red marks from a double-slap were clearly etched onto both of his cheeks.
"She told me I'm not her type. And that if I keep bothering her, she'll call the police. I don't think I can do this."
Lee Jun spoke in a thoroughly defeated tone.
I stared closely at Lee Jun's face. Though it was a man's face, it possessed an otherworldly beauty. He was probably burning through an immense amount of computational power just to render it.
"This face isn't her type...?"
Why don't you give it a shot, Mister?
"What?"
Instead of answering, I looked at my reflection in a clear glass.
Patchy hair that looked like it had been chewed on by rats, and a pathetic face dominated by a prominent nose.
Even as a joke, my face projected through this goblin avatar could not be called handsome.
Some people have unique tastes, you know.
Sometimes, the more high-and-mighty a woman is, the more she secretly desires to be dominated by an average guy...
Like, 'You? Dominate me?' That kind of vibe. Well, it's a pretty niche area, so maybe you wouldn't get it, Mister?
Anyway, what do you have to lose?
Unless you want to give up on the Event Zone right here?
Damn it.
I bit my lip.
I couldn't give up on the Event Zone.
Even in the Shoeshine Unit, countless comrades of mine had been sacrificed to those multi-legged tanks.
If I could appease their lingering spirits...!
"...I'll go."
"Juhyeok?"
I straightened my clothes and cautiously approached the woman's side.
She glanced sideways at me.
I squeezed my vocal cords to produce the deepest, most resonant baritone I could muster.
"Excuse me..."
"Ugh, what the fuck."
Before I could even finish my sentence, she spat out a curse and turned her head away.
I had no choice but to turn right back around.
...I knew it.
No one in their right mind would like a goblin face like this.
I knew it, yet I let myself get tricked by that wicked AI...
"What do we do now?"
"I know. What should we do? Should we look for another route? But who knows how long that will take..."
"Should I... go buy some flowers first?"
"Women don't like that. Trust me, I know."
"Right, she's a woman. Then how..."
Two people who had never dated a woman in their entire lives were clutching their heads, agonizing over how to seduce one, when—
Mister, hold on a second. Can you look at your phone?
At CC's words, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
The screen was on and felt hot to the touch. CC must have been operating it from inside my pocket.
Read... read this.
CC had pulled up the bar's description on a map application.
Narrow Bar
Narrow Bar is a lesbian bar catering exclusively to women.
A les... bar?
What the hell is that...?
While I was wondering, Lee Jun caught sight of my screen, clutched his head, and let out a silent scream of realization.
"Ah! Of course... No wonder... Ha... That explains everything..."
"...What's going on?"
"Juhyeok, this is a lesbian bar. No wonder she was so cold every time I tried to talk to her..."
"What's a lesbian bar...?"
"Ah, right. You wouldn't have those in Maetan. A lesbian bar is a pub where women who love women gather. In other words, that woman over there... she likes women, not men. Wow, if a woman had approached her, the bodyguard might not have even tried to stop her."
Lee Jun spoke with a bright smile.
His smile was blindingly radiant.
It felt as though the dim, gloomy bar had suddenly lit up.
"Is that so? That's a relief. At least we have a clue now."
"Yes. We'll have to ask a female Player for help. Sprout's guild leader is... well, her looks are fine, but she has more of a motherly vibe than a feminine one..."
"A female Player? Why?"
"Pardon?"
"You're a woman too."
"Eh."
Lee Jun flinched, visibly flustered.
"But, I... I don't have any pretty clothes, and I don't even have a female avatar..."
"You have your default avatar, don't you? That one should be female."
"I do, but... it looks exactly like how I look at home. My hair is a mess..."
Lee Jun's eyes darted around as she stammered out excuses.
I let out a sigh and gave her a low, serious warning.
"...Let me be honest with you. That bodyguard is incredibly strong. I'm not confident I can beat him in a rematch. This is our only chance. We have to bet everything on this moment. Use every single resource at your disposal."
"B-but..."
"Go into the restroom and change into your default avatar. Oh, and the bodyguard is knocked out in one of the stalls, so don't touch him."
"B-but..."
"Hurry!"
"Eek!"
Lee Jun hesitantly stood up and shuffled toward the restroom.
I emptied my beer glass while waiting for her.
When she didn't emerge after a long time, I was about to go check on her, but CC held me back.
Only when I had nearly finished another glass did the restroom door finally creak open.
A moment later, Lee Jun's true self—Choi Soyeong—stepped out. She had messy, unkempt black hair, thick black-rimmed glasses, a gray hoodie, and a long black skirt.
Her eyes darted nervously in every direction as she hesitated to approach.
I stood up and pointed toward the target woman.
Choi Soyeong frantically waved her hands, gesturing wildly.
I really can't do this! Aside from you, Mister, I haven't spoken to a single soul looking like this in years!
Shut up and just do it! That woman is going to leave any second!
Soyeong looked at me with a tearful expression, took a deep breath, and headed toward the bar counter.
Shuffling awkwardly, she hovered near the seat next to the woman before gingerly perching her rear on the very edge of the stool.
"H-hello..."
A short while later.
Choi Soyeong and the woman walked out of the bar, arm in arm.