Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Role-Play Training
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Terrorists: Eliminate special agents, defend bases.
Special agents: Rescue hostages, capture bases.
Hostages: Capture terrorists.
It might sound a bit ridiculous that the hostages' goal is to capture the terrorists, but that's because they're not ordinary hostages—they're former special agents.
There are a few more complicated rules on top of that.
There are bonus points based on how long the terrorists hold the bases, additional individual points based on combat contributions, and points for achieving objectives.
Another key rule is that terrorists can kill hostages if they want, or let them live.
However, killing a hostage results in a massive penalty.
The same goes for special agents. They get hit with a huge penalty if a hostage dies.
That said, the terrorists won't end up killing any hostages.
That's because the penalty only applies to the individual who kills them, not the whole team.
But no one here is going to sacrifice their own score for the team's sake.
"This is gonna be tough."
"Yeah. With Yoo Ah-ra and Park In-hwan, they've got two top-rankers."
"Wasn't Park In-hwan like 5th overall?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"How do we even beat that?"
A worried voice came from beside me.
Yoo Ah-ra was one thing, but with Park In-hwan, ranked 5th overall, on the terrorist side, the difficulty was pretty high.
On top of that, the terrorists had been assigned much higher average skill levels to account for the hostage rescue element.
Still, it was doable.
If we could rescue the hostages Lee Seo-jun and Shin Young-jun first, things would go a lot smoother than expected.
And I already had a plan in mind.
I said to everyone,
"Gather up. Time for a meeting."
At Base A, one of the key strongholds in the role-play,
a meeting was underway among the students assigned as terrorists.
Of course, the hostages couldn't be allowed to overhear, so they'd all been shut in a small room nearby.
"Hey, what should we do? Anyone have any strategies or special ideas?"
Baek Du-eon, ranked 17th and wielding an axe as his main weapon, spoke up first.
Park In-hwan chuckled at that.
"Strategies? What for? Just steamroll them. Our side's way stronger. Why overthink it?"
Yoo Ah-ra cut in at Park In-hwan's words.
"That won't work."
When his opinion was flatly rejected, Park In-hwan narrowed his eyes.
"Why not?"
"We don't even know the enemy's positions. If we rush out recklessly, they could sneak in and rescue the hostages."
Among the hostages were Lee Seo-jun and Shin Young-jun, two of the top fighters in the school.
If they got free, the terrorists would lose their biggest advantage. We had to avoid that at all costs.
"Then we all stick right by the hostages."
"That won't work either. If we all crowd around the hostages, who's defending the base?"
There were two bases total. Concentrating everyone at one would leave the other vulnerable.
"Argh, nothing works."
Park In-hwan scowled. As the mood started to heat up, Yoon Ha-young stepped in.
"We need to split our forces evenly between the two bases. Clumping up at one just makes it harder."
That's when Park In-hwan flashed a sly grin and tossed out another idea.
"Right. Forget all that. There's actually a super easy way to win."
Yoo Ah-ra instantly caught on and scowled.
"Don't talk nonsense. Who's gonna do that?"
The easy win Park In-hwan meant was for one person to sacrifice their personal score and kill all the hostages.
"We just vote on the most useless guy and make him do it."
"Hey. You really... Fine. Just shut up."
Yoo Ah-ra glared daggers, and Park In-hwan awkwardly nodded.
"But honestly, don't we just need to block Lee Hyun-joo and we're good?"
Sung Jin-won, ranked 72nd, who'd been listening quietly, spoke up. A few students nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. Aside from Lee Hyun-joo, they don't have anyone that strong."
"True. Their best after her are like Yoo Ji-won at 14th and Kim Sun-woo at 20th."
"Put ten people on Lee Hyun-joo and handle the rest however."
As talk of blocking Lee Hyun-joo spread, the students nodded.
And they weren't entirely wrong.
Ranked 4th overall—her strength was proven by her ranking.
But Yoo Ah-ra didn't see it that way.
The most dangerous player on the special agent team was definitely Kim Sun-woo.
He'd placed 3rd in finals and shown great form in the last ranking test, but his overall rank was still 20th, so he hadn't gotten much attention yet.
It stung her pride, but even lowballing it, Kim Sun-woo was top-2 material.
And if she had to guess, he had strength on par with Lee Seo-jun.
"The top threat is Kim Sun-woo."
Yoo Ah-ra said in a serious tone.
A wave of confusion erupted.
"Kim Sun-woo? I mean, he's improved a ton lately, but putting him above Lee Hyun-joo is a stretch..."
"Yeah. The gap between 4th and 20th is huge."
"Hah. Yoo Ah-ra, you a Sun-woo stan or in the Sun-woo cult or what?"
Yoo Ah-ra shot Baek Du-eon a puzzled look at his words.
"Sun-woo cult? What's that?"
"You haven't heard? It's this new fad religion going around school."
"New religion? What are you talking about?"
It was the first she'd heard of it.
"It's just this nonsense that Kim Sun-woo's hiding his real power and he's actually better than Lee Seo-jun."
"Kukuku. Wait, people actually believe that?"
"It's pretty big among the first-years. They really buy into it."
"First-years are so naive. Yeah, Sun-woo's blown up lately, but better than Seo-jun? That's too much."
"Kuhuhu. Man, that's hilarious. Sun-woo cult. For real?"
One girl was clutching her stomach laughing.
"But yeah, there are a few. Like five in my circle. They think he took down Lily Rose in finals, and his magic was stronger than Seo-jun's in the public test. Kukuku."
"Wow. Those kids are total magic noobs. Who are they? Gotta filter them out."
"How could Sun-woo beat Lily Rose?"
"And his 3rd in finals was just treasure hunt speed."
Yoo Ah-ra felt a spark of wonder listening to them.
There were kids out there claiming stuff about Kim Sun-woo just like she thought.
She wasn't the only one who rated him that highly.
"...That might actually be true."
"What?"
"It's probably real."
"Whoa, no way! Yoo Ah-ra's a Sun-woo stan? For real?"
Baek Du-eon made a fuss, and Yoo Ah-ra furrowed her brow.
"What? Calling me a magic noob too?"
"Uh? N-no, that's..."
That's when Yoon Ha-young, who'd been quiet, spoke up.
"I think blocking Sun-woo first is key too. Like Ah-ra said, he's way better than you guys think."
"Whoa? Another Sun-woo stan here?"
Baek Du-eon snickered.
But Yoo Ah-ra and Yoon Ha-young's claims sowed some doubt among the others.
"Sun-woo's that good?"
"He's been impressive lately, but hiding his power? Nah. And he's got that mana stamina issue."
"It's not that bad anymore, from what I've seen lately."
"What do you think?"
Yoo Ah-ra turned to Park In-hwan.
Park In-hwan flinched for a second. He had no good memories involving Kim Sun-woo.
"W-what?"
"What do you think of Sun-woo? You got wrecked by him in that defense drill and ended up in the hospital."
Stabbed at a wound he'd barely forgotten, Park In-hwan snapped.
"Hey! Th-that was 'cause I was on defense. If we went at it for real, I'd win easy."
"...Sure, whatever."
Thoughts were free, after all.
That's when a voice boomed from the air.
[Five minutes have passed.]
[The role-play begins now!]
Base B, first floor.
I was walking alone down the long hallway inside the building.
The key to this hostage role-play training was 'infiltration and intel.'
A head-on fight against terrorists with higher average skill was hopeless, so we needed someone sneaking in separately to gather info.
Like hostage locations or enemy numbers per base.
Of course, that wasn't why I was moving solo. I'd drawn up my own strategy based on my knowledge from the original story.
"Hmm."
Anyway, right now I was using the effect of the 'Light Steps' trait I'd gotten last time.
Just like the name said, my footsteps were nearly silent.
Oh, right—I'd unlocked some mysterious achievement earlier.
['The Beginning of a Religion' achievement unlocked.]
[Reward: 2,000 points acquired.]
The Beginning of a Religion.
No matter how I thought about it, I had no idea what it meant.
No clue what it referred to or any guesses.
"What the hell?"
Was there a glitch in the external benefits?
A glitch...
There'd never been one before.
Some outside interference?
"...Hmm. Think about it later."
This was deep in enemy territory.
No room for carelessness. With no telling when someone might attack, I had to stay alert.
Where were the hostages?
Of course, past experience gave me a rough idea of their locations.
I'd gone through this training before regression too. But there were too many changes to rely fully on pre-regression memories.
For starters, Yoon Ha-young—who'd been a special agent in both the original and pre-regression—had been assigned to terrorists.
That's when a man appeared at the end of the hall. He spotted me, and his face hardened fast.
"...Kim Sun-woo?"
I stared straight at the guy in front of me.
Not a major character, but no mere extra either.
Park In-hwan, 5th overall in the magic academy rankings.
"...Never thought we'd run into each other here."
Park In-hwan gave me a nasty smirk.
But unlike his calm facade, his fingertips were trembling. More tense than expected.
I smiled back at him.
"Been a while since we chatted like this. You've been quiet since that defense drill."
"Shut up. I've been thinking nonstop how to pay you back for that humiliation. Perfect timing."
Park In-hwan glared and rambled on.
I tuned him out and scanned around for other terrorists hiding nearby.
Luckily, no other presences. He was alone here.
So, one-on-one.
Before, low mana meant I couldn't guarantee victory without Heart of the Great Nature. But not now.
I'd grown a lot over break.
"But you gonna come at me solo?"
"Hah! Cocky bastard. Think you're hot shit 'cause finals went well? Still just 20th place trash."
Park In-hwan gathered mana in his body and, without warning, fired flame thorns.
Whoosh!
I twisted my body, barely dodging his attack.
Insanely fast burst.
On a whole other level from what I'd seen in first-semester manifestation class.
Top-ranker growth was no joke.
"Tch!"
Park In-hwan looked shocked at my dodge, then started another spell. But I didn't give him the opening—I rapid-fired magic.
The three mana orbs from my hand slammed into his shoulder and legs.
"Argh!"
Park In-hwan crumpled to the floor in pain.
I didn't let the chance slip. I reinforced my body with mana and charged.
"You little—!"
Even in agony, Park In-hwan hurled a flame spear to block me.
But I countered with a well-timed mana orb, canceling it.
As the distance closed, I channeled mana into my fist and smashed his gut.
"Guak!"
Park In-hwan clutched his stomach, dropping to his knees in torment.
"Grgh! Cough!"
He spat on the floor.
Thud!
[Character 'Park In-hwan' feels fear toward you.]
[Reward: 500 points acquired.]
Park In-hwan curled up on the floor.
Breathing ragged, he kept spewing curses.
"Guh..."
I manifested a mana orb above my hand.
Not packed with tons of mana.
But enough to end it with one headshot.
Park In-hwan saw it and gritted his teeth.
"Y-you son of a—!"
"Hey."
He looked up at me with confused eyes when I called.
"Wanna live?"
"Just kill me already."
Even at my offer to spare him, Park In-hwan glared with murderous intent.
"Why? Don't wanna live?"
"You'd let me go? Hilarious."
"Spill the hostages' location, and I'll let you live—as a special favor."
Park In-hwan froze at that.
"...What'd you say?"