What the Hell Is This?

What the hell is this even supposed to be?

An x, stuck to the E in a size so microscopic I almost missed it.

I peel my eyes wide and look again.

A definite x.

It's an x.

Yeah. That's an x.

I rub my eyes, sit up straighter, look again — still just an x.

So is this an EX-rank trait?

Even if it is, what's with this name?

A gunslinger with snake eyes.

Haa… my head suddenly spins.

"Hoo…."

I let out a long breath and sit down on the bed.

The mattress ought to groan under me. It doesn't make a sound.

Too many things have stacked up at once. My head's a mess….

Kim Deokbae.

Get it together.

Where did the mental fortitude go — the one you hammered into shape over years as a special forces NCO?

This is not the time to lie around.

I drag up the scraps of information I'd picked up lurking on the Hunter Gallery.

They said you can enter the tutorial the moment you first awaken.

Right!

If it's come to this anyway—!

Time to start the Elite Beautiful Girl Hunter Life!

Stewing in bed for a hundred days won't spit out an answer.

If I don't know what the trait does, I just have to test it.

"Tutorial… enter!"

My vision flares bright.

My body lifts, weightless — that little lurch you get when an elevator starts to rise.

Ah, wait, I didn't put any pants o—

—shnk

I close my eyes, then open them.

A space of pure white.

Looks like I made it into the tutorial zone just fine.

Well… you run the tutorial solo, so I'm not going to worry about the lack of pants.

Tutorial difficulty is set from the hunter who just walked in.

I'd heard Normal is already decent, and Hard is a jackpot.

I'm more nervous than I expected.

Huh? Is it coming up?

E? Easy?

No.

No!!

That doesn't make any sense!! Was this thing an E-rank trait after all?!

Extra?

Hoo…… whatever it is, as long as it isn't Easy, I'll take it.

I've never even heard of a difficulty called Extra.

And it's not Extreme, and it's not Hell — Extra?

What's that supposed to mean?

Stay calm.

A problem you can't answer right now, you skip. Fast.

That said, you push every inference you can make all the way to the end.

Easy is one goblin.

Normal is three, Hard is seven.

If this had been Extreme or Hell, maybe around fifteen?

But the difficulty in front of me is Extra.

I ballpark it somewhere between seven and twenty.

Next up: weapons.

I pull up the status window and check my skills.

Weapon Mastery and Penetration I can guess at a glance.

The one under them, I have no idea.

I'll have to confirm it in a fight.

Did Weapon Mastery spawn because of my special forces years?

I pick up a dagger off the floor.

It settles into my hand like it belongs there.

No pouches or anything….

Oh. There is.

A tactical belt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sits by itself on the floor.

I buckle it around my waist and cinch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it tight, stow the dagger, and pick up the pistol lying next to it.

There's a gun too. They've got everything in here.

I ease the slide back just enough to check the chamber.

One round seated.

I hit the mag release and drop the magazine.

Nine rounds remaining. Confirmed.

No spare mags in sight.

Should I grab more weapons?

I pick up a huge axe. Hmm… it doesn't nestle into my grip the way the dagger did.

Weapon Mastery's level being too low, maybe?

I could use it if I had to, but it's awkward.

I set it down without hesitation.

Stick with what I actually know, for now.

Time left: two minutes, already.

I look out through the transparent barrier at the battlefield beyond.

Thick brush, trees packed in close.

Good cover. I burn every scrap of it into my eyes, one piece at a time.

The stats I'd checked while looking at my skills were a little girl's, through and through.

I have to move smart.

Ten seconds left.

I set myself to sprint for the nearest cover.

Five, four, three, two, one.

The barrier vanishes.

At the same instant—

—GROAAAH!

A howl rips from the far entrance.

That sounds like a hell of a lot of them.

I don't panic. I dive for the tree I marked earlier.

The howling sharpens, closer and closer, and then a pack of goblins comes pouring out.

Five, six, seven.

More behind those, by the look of it.

That settles it.

Extra Difficulty is Hard and then some.

I snap my focus back to the field.

Width of the battlefield: roughly fifty meters.

Distance to the goblins that broke first: forty.

Weapons in hand: dagger and pistol.

Time to see what a bullet actually does.

I ease my body out of cover. Hold my breath. Sight in.

Squeeze.

—BANG!

—thuk!

"Keeeegh!"

A hole punches through the lead goblin's forehead.

It drops like a sack. The ones behind it trip over the body and go sprawling.

If I can put it in a vital, it's a one-shot.

Confirmed.

I hold my breath again.

—BANG! BANG! BANG!

A beat of silence.

Then the goblins shriek and come on again.

Counting the ones already down, twelve goblins total have shown themselves.

Five with daggers, three with long spears, two archers, two with enormous blunt weapons.

I draw the pistol again and aim.

The second they see the muzzle, the goblins try to hide.

They scatter every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠which way.

I can still hit them.

—BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three goblins skid and go down.

One spear goblin is left standing there, frozen solid.

Freeze up on a battlefield and you're dead in a heartbeat.

—BANG!

—thud

The dirt drinks blood until it's soaked.

The two archers and the two blunt-weapon brutes seem to have taken cover.

Those four have a little more going on upstairs.

I lean against the tree for a moment and catch my breath.

Was there a time limit on the tutorial?

Even if there isn't, I can't just sit here forever.

Hoo….

A grenade would've been nice right about now.

I cut the complaining short and start to commit — and that's when it hits me.

First Bullet - Snake Eye. That skill.

I should try it.

I call it in my head. Activate Snake Eye.

My vision blacks out for an instant, then comes back.

Ah… so that's what this is?

The world has flipped into a sight I know far too well.

This is infrared.

I ease my head around the tree.

Breath blooms out from behind a trunk.

Two behind that tree, for starters.

Two more hot smears in the brush.

One blunt weapon, one archer.

Think.

The two in the brush I can kill right now.

Grass hides a body. It does not stop a bullet.

And I have two rounds left.

So is killing those two the right call?

Yeah.

Hoard it and it turns to shit.

Take the guaranteed kills first.

They already know where I am.

The archer behind the tree will be thinking the same thing I am.

I don't underestimate the other guy.

I snatch up a rock and hurl it hard the other way.

—tok!

The sound hits, and I break the opposite direction in the same breath.

Two goblins burst from the brush a half-beat late.

Focus.

Focus.

—BANG! BANG!

Got them.

Two down—

—thung!

—pssh!

An arrow comes off the tree to my left.

It kisses past, just over my shoulder.

If I hadn't been shooting on the move, that might have taken me clean.

And it's an opening in the same instant.

I don't take cover. I just run the archer down.

It reads my intent, abandons cover, and fumbles an arrow onto the string in a panic.

Still….

I think I'm faster?!

The archer goblin is almost done nocking.

No time to draw the dagger.

I toss the pistol up a fraction, then snatch it by the upper frame.

Heat from the barrel burns through my palm.

I clench my teeth and eat it.

I have no idea how strong a little girl's arms actually are.

I still have to drive it in!

—crack!

Skull fragments and blood fountain into the air.

Well. Smash a head with a hammer and of course it pops….

I'm still riding the vicious rebound when—

—WHAM!

Huh?

That elevator lurch. The floating one.

I felt it again.

What?

The battlefield is spinning.

I know this feeling.

There's ringing in my ears, too.

Ah. It's not the field that's spinning. It's me.

I'm about to eat dirt.

—whump-whump-WHUMP

"Cough! Cough! Khk… ghk…."

Oh… shit….

—KUUOOOOR!

Get up….

I have to get up!

Goddammit… there's still one left.

I turned into a pretty girl and my brain turned into a pretty girl too?!

I checked out for that long?

Freeze on a battlefield and you die. I said that.

You idiot!

—KUUOOOOR!

Move!

—sssshhhrrrk

—KRAANG!!

Dirt and grass explode in every direction.

A monstrous blunt weapon is buried in the ground right beside me.

I got my body out of the way. Barely.

This is it.

Last chance.

I come up drawing the dagger with my right hand, and in the same motion I split the goblin behind me.

It screams.

I have one rule I have always kept.

You finish the job. Properly.

I slam my left hand down on the right that's already driven high.

—crack!

The dagger punches into the center of its forehead.

I bite down on my lip.

Then I rip the blade straight down with everything I have.

—krrrk-krrrk-krrk

The muscle in my arm feels like it's about to tear.

Blood fountains off the goblin and paints my face.

A little more! I lock my grip down as it tries to slip, ready to carve the thing in half if I have to.

"UAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

The dagger stops around the solar plexus.

"Haa… haa…."

The goblin topples slowly backward.

—whump

My whole body is shaking.

Why was that so hard.

Blood runs down from my forehead and blacks out one eye.

That's the end, right?

On Extreme, on Hell, they love to dump another wave on you out of nowhere.

My heart is slamming like it's trying to kick its way out.

Breath that feels like it could stop any second.

Tremors that will not quit, head to toe.

Can I keep fighting?

It'd be hard… I don't care.

Come out.

Come out all you want.

I'll take you. However many times. However I have to….

Huh?

The second it says I cleared, the tension dumps out of my whole body in one long slide.

All that grim resolve I'd packed in melts like spring snow.

Hah, thank god.

Lie down. Just lie down.

No sky — only a white ceiling.

I lift my right arm a little.

Five years without it, but it was there for twenty-two, I guess.

Disgustingly familiar.

Whatever. Is it fun reward time now?

The dopamine starts to tick.

I'm allowed to get my hopes up, right?

It was Extra!

Hard is seven goblins and I killed twelve.

Sure, expecting things is how you get disappointed — but this? This I can expect!

An SSS-rank skill?

A mountain of magic stones?

What is it? Show me the loot already!

Haa?

Haaaaa?

A measly 10 grams of magic stones, a Constellation Selection Ticket that everyone gets anyway, and a sad little gray skill book floating there like an afterthought….

Aaaargh!!

I really do try not to swear!!

This fucking—

—I'll make a four-line poem out of that.

Now that's more like it.

I believed in you!

The skill book starts to shine.

Ohh…!

Gold?! Gold!

A blaze of gold light erupts, dazzling.

—crack

A Trait Growth Ticket?

What's that supposed to be.

"Kim Deokbae."

Ah?

I said my real name without even thinking.

"Cancel!"

"Cancel!!"

My body lifts, weightless.

"I said cancel!!"

Aaaaaaagh.

I open my eyes to the bed.

My body is spotless. Healed.

You have got to be kidding me.

I registered on the rankings under my real name….

Augh… I'll think about the headache later.

First, lock onto the dopamine in front of me.

Trait Growth Ticket. Use it. Now.

The second I say ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it, my body starts to glow.

Light streams off me, then settles.

Is that it?

I open the status window and check the trait.

What changed?

It has the energy of someone going, Oppa, nothing's different, right?

Do I have to mash my face into the screen again?

"Hnnnngh…."

Huh?

The x got a little bigger.

I'm sure of it. What used to be ant-asshole tiny has expanded a notch.

So that's how it works?

Keep growing it all the way and it becomes a full EX-rank trait?

All right. Let's do this.

I can. If it's me.

I lock that in and open the skill window.

Jacobson's Organ? Something weird just showed up.

In cases like this, using it is always the fastest answer.

Jacobson's Organ: ON.

Nothing happens.

I open the tooltip and read the description.

…What?

What is this thing even saying?!