Underground Waterway Battle (2)
-Bang! Baaang!
Kieeeek!!
Two more rounds slammed into the Black-Haired Spider, and four more of its legs tore free, tumbling across the damp concrete below.
What I really wanted was to target the weak point on its head, but that part of its carapace was just a touch too tough for that. It would take at least three consecutive hits to the same spot, and the damn thing moved too well to let me line that up.
Better to just take the legs off first. A single bullet could punch through two of them at once, and once all its legs were gone, a mobility-less spider had no way whatsoever to attack me. I could finish it off later, after regrouping with the others — that was more than enough.
-Splash!
Uuuuuuugh…!
-Bang!
Uuuuh….
In the meantime, the Three-Eyed Eel's second eye had burst under my scope as well, which left only one remaining.
Same logic applied here — no eyes, no way to attack me — so I was neutralizing it the same way. Even outside a dungeon, I simply didn't have the marksmanship to blow a Three-Eyed Eel's head apart with firearms.
Two spare rounds, after setting aside the two I needed for Cho Jin-hyun. If those two shots took out the eel's last eye and two more of the spider's legs, the count would work out perfectly — or so I was calculating when Cho Jin-hyun glared at me, his voice cracking with rage.
"Y-you damn brat…! From start to finish, you've been sabotaging Black Moon's plans!"
"Black Moon? What's that?"
"…D-damn it…! What are you idiots doing?! Kill him, kill him NOW!!"
Kieeeek!!
Uuuuugh….
So he blurted out a mistake and handed me a hint, just like the Cho Jin-hyun of the original story. Unbelievable.
That said, for all his slip-ups, his ability itself was genuinely dangerous. It was only because we were outside a dungeon that I could handle him alone — if this had been inside a dungeon or the thick of a Monster Wave, there'd have been no winning this solo.
-Bang, baaang!
Kieeeek!!
-Splash!
My last two rounds disabled the spider's final pair of legs and the eel's last eye.
All that remained now were the Three-Eyed Eel, blind and submerged in the water, and the spider's body — nothing left but a torso that couldn't even crawl.
Ending them could wait. Securing Cho Jin-hyun's artifact was the top priority.
"Damn it, work already! What is this godforsaken teleport circle doing…!"
-Baaang!!
"Gyaaaagh!!"
My second shot punched clean through Cho Jin-hyun's right wrist — again.
He clutched it with his left hand, glaring at me with pure hatred.
"Y-you son of a…!!"
But the fact that he didn't rush me told me his artifact still needed some time before it regenerated.
Losing his artifact now would make everything that came after far more difficult, so I charged at him, rifle raised, the last chambered round ready.
…One more shot.
One more clean hit, and that dangling wrist would come off entirely.
Somehow, no matter what, I had to get my hands on the Ring of Reincarnation on his right index finger.
To the original story's Seo Woojin, it would've been little more than a weapon-summoning trick — call up any weapon, anywhere. But for me, it was a treasure on which my future survival would quite seriously hinge.
-Baaang!
"Aaaaagh!!"
-Thud.
…There it was.
Cho Jin-hyun's wrist, pierced through by my third and final shot, dropped something onto the ground, and it didn't take me long to realize what it was: his right hand.
Not long to notice that something was glinting on its index finger, either. Though the severed flesh, punched through by three rifle rounds, was admittedly a bit grotesque.
"Aaaaagh!! Y-you damn…!!"
Even through the agony, he seemed to understand he could not lose that artifact, and hurriedly hunched over, reaching toward his fallen wrist.
The rifle was worthless now, its rounds spent, so I tossed it aside, drew the dagger from my coat, and lunged.
Without monsters to command, our raw physical abilities were roughly even — his or mine, no meaningful difference.
…Except that he was down one hand along with his weapon, and I still had both of mine.
-Shunk!
"Graaagh!!"
Reaching for his own wrist, Cho Jin-hyun took my dagger in the opposite arm and screamed again.
I'd had an opening for his throat, but deliberately passed on it. As I said — he was worth more to me alive and limping home.
Besides, it was better to let a few openings show than to fight him tooth and nail. It would feed the illusion that I was still just a brat short on real combat experience.
-Fwoosh!
"Damn it…!!"
Even as we fought, the teleport circle had already activated, spitting out white light.
There was no time to hesitate. Cho Jin-hyun was in no state to refuse the retreat — stay here, and he would die.
Some men, even in this situation, would abandon the teleport back to headquarters to recover their artifact first. Cho Jin-hyun would never be that kind of man.
"Damn you! Next time, I swear I'll kill you! I'll carve the flesh from your bones, slice by slice, and feed it to the dogs…!"
-Fwoosh!!
Spitting villain curses to the very last, Cho Jin-hyun vanished in a swirl of white light.
As the tiger leaves behind its pelt, so Cho Jin-hyun left behind his right wrist — and along with it, the Ring of Reincarnation, gleaming brilliantly on the index finger of his severed hand.
"…Finally."
-Thud.
I tossed the wrist carelessly onto the ground and put the ring on first. That much — that alone — was a core artifact I had to protect to the very end.
With my mana nearly drained, I couldn't use it yet, but there was no doubt it was the genuine article. After all, the 'barrier' he'd conjured at the start had been this ring's handiwork.
A legendary-grade artifact that became whatever weapon or tool its wearer willed, serving at the user's intent.
Supposedly it came with some grand backstory — a keepsake gift from Cho Jin-hyun's dead lover, or something of the sort. Not my problem. Where in any world does a villain or an extra exist without some tragic sob story attached?
All I cared about was one question: did it help my harem or not? The rest of the tiresome personal drama could be left to the original-protagonist types with their useless, overflowing sense of justice.
After stripping the artifact from Cho Jin-hyun, I made straight for the nearest manhole cover and climbed out.
I had no leisure to worry about getting filthy. Confirming and explaining my position underground, where the signal barely reached, would have been far more of a hassle.
Thirty minutes after emerging into sunlight, the call came through from Cha Eunju again.
"S-Seonho…! Where are you right now?!"
"Just came up outside. There's a ladder out of the waterway and I climbed it — oh, there's a lift right next to me, too. You rode it with me earlier, so you know roughly where that is, right?"
"I-I'm coming right now…! I found Park Hana's brother too! Don't move from there and just wait, okay?!"
With that answer, murmuring voices drifted over the line, and barely five minutes later Cha Eunju and the others came running.
Park Cheon-ho was squeezed in beside Park Hana, so it seemed they'd at least followed my instructions to regroup first.
"Seonho, aaaah…!!"
-Latch!
"Hey, Eunju. Don't cling. I just crawled out of a sewer — I'm filthy."
"Huaaang…! I-I was really worried…!! If, if something had happened to you, all alone somewhere, hnngh, hic…!!"
"I told you, my clothes are dirty. Stop rubbing your face on me."
Perhaps I'd worried her too badly, because Cha Eunju was unusually disobedient, clinging to me for dear life.
Meanwhile the others gathered around one by one, surrounding her and shooting me worried looks.
"You're really okay, Lee Seonho? You didn't sneak off somewhere else and get hurt again?"
"If I had, I'd have told Isabel first. I'm a little grimy, but I'm in one piece, so relax."
"…Still, better safe than sorry. Pardon me for a moment, Lee Seonho."
Maybe because she'd been through this twice already, Han Sora's concern for my body came naturally — as did Kim Isabel slipping behind me and pushing holy power into my back.
As her hands worked over my back, I cautiously suspected that 'healing' wasn't their only purpose, but I let it slide in silence.
"Um, excuse me…."
"Hm?"
"I said this earlier, but… you got dragged into all that trouble because of me, for nothing…."
-CRASH!
"I'M SORRY!!! LEE SEONHO!!!"
"……Huh?"
"I heard everything from my little sister!!! You got sucked into a teleport circle trying to save Hana!!! I sincerely apologize for putting you in danger in her place!!! And I sincerely thank you for trying to save her!!!"
…Ugh, so loud.
Park Cheon-ho had sprung forward, crisply cutting off his little sister's tsundere maneuver, and was even kneeling before me — a total stranger.
Even reading the novel, he'd been noisy enough that the text itself felt loud, but experiencing it firsthand, his lung capacity was clearly something else. I genuinely started wondering whether some kind of volume-dampening Suggestion existed.
I'd already seen all this in the original, of course, but I had to play the stranger, so I exchanged introductions with the usual boilerplate.
"You wouldn't happen to be the twin brother Hana mentioned?"
"THAT'S RIGHT!!! The name is Park Cheon-ho!!! A pleasure!!!"
"…I already know this, but I'm Lee Seonho. Pre-enrollment still, Combat Support at Cheonmu Academy, and my ability is…."
"RIGHT!!! I'm a Cheonmu Academy enrollee too!!! I'm in the Combat Department, so let's be friends when we meet at the academy, Lee Seonho!!!"
"…Sure. And about that bomber you were chasing…."
"AH, YES!!! Truly a terrifying villain!!! Setting off a single bomb to destroy a Ferris wheel wasn't enough for him — he smashed the Sky Bridge AND Maze Park to pieces!!! Such an unspeakably evil monster should never be allowed to exist in this world, a horrific…!!!"
-WHACK!
"AAAAGH!!!"
"Ugh, you idiot! That's enough, you're embarrassing us! Can't you see Seonho's uncomfortable?! Huh?! And you're not even confirmed for enrollment yet, you dumbass!"
-Whack, whack!
"AAAGH!! O-Ow!! That hurts, quit it, Park Hana!!!"
Park Cheon-ho, who'd been blaring at maximum decibels a moment ago, now cowered as Park Hana — face bright crimson with embarrassment — kept kicking him.
It was the bickering-yet-close sibling duo I remembered from the original story. Usually with Park Cheon-ho causing the nuisance and Park Hana settling it with violence.
I should keep Park Cheon-ho on good terms going forward.
The man was ready to grovel before a total stranger on the strength of a single sentence — you saved my little sister.
Simple-minded meant easy to use, and a guy that useful absolutely had to be kept close.
After all, Park Cheon-ho himself was the single best vehicle for stacking all kinds of flags with Park Hana. And once co-op classes rolled around and we had to assemble party compositions, having him on the roster would simplify any number of considerations.
Normally I'd deploy Choi Marie as tank, since she could defend a wide area — but not every co-op class could be taken alongside other years.
"Call it fate, us meeting like this. When we run into each other at the academy, no pretending we're strangers, Park Cheon-ho."
"OOOH, DEAL! Looking forward to it, Lee Seonho!"
One unkillable human shield of a tank, who'd bounce back no matter how carelessly you threw him into danger.
One close-quarters brawler capable of defense-piercing damage — and, someday, one heroine sprawled beneath me, mewling with that prickly look wiped off her face.
And on top of that, a legendary-grade artifact to shore up my lacking physical abilities.
I'd suffered hardships my fate never promised me, sure — but as far as the payoff went, this event had delivered, without a doubt.