Chapter 34
The only ones who noticed the Taewang girl's presence right away were me and the cadet president.
But not a single cadet failed to grasp the danger once she revealed herself.
Even if their skill with Sense Qi was mediocre, anyone could tell at a glance.
That overwhelmingly surging flow of Qi wasn't something you could ignore just because your eyesight was a bit poor.
Even someone who'd lived their whole life in gentle breezes could understand the explosive energy of a tornado right in front of them.
The cadets got it.
She was on a whole different level.
Even without my original story knowledge, anyone could see she was one of the Eight Kings—or something on that level.
"What are you all doing? Didn't you hear me say run?!"
A rough voice snapped the cadets out of their freeze, like rabbits before a beast, overwhelmed by the gap in power.
It was the hero who'd barely made his presence known until now.
Honestly, for a hero, he seemed lacking compared to me or the cadet president.
At least in terms of total gathered Qi volume or quality, he was below us. And handing off command to the president didn't scream tactical genius either.
But stepping forward willingly against an unbeatable foe right in front of him? That was pretty heroic.
"Y-you guys need to run too! I'll... I'll hold her off... I don't know how long I can last, but..."
His hands trembled violently around the battle axe.
Truth be told, this hero wasn't incompetent.
Our two cadets were just freakishly exceptional, that's all. He was solidly average for a hero candidate.
He'd measured the gate's average Qi density meticulously before entering and brought what he thought was enough manpower.
From his perspective, the girl in front of him was a total bolt from the blue—a walking disaster.
Yet here he was, stepping up instead of fleeing. Gotta respect that. Heroic, really.
But his brave stand went unnoticed by the girl. She showed zero interest in him.
Her attention was fixed solely on me.
She ignored the cadets fleeing behind me, and even the president—who outperformed me in several areas—didn't get a glance.
She just stared at me like an appraiser eyeing a gem's quality.
"......"
At this point, I'd given up on escaping.
To run, you need an angle. But her radius spanned several kilometers—it was all her territory.
If she wanted, she could snuff out every life in this gate in the blink of an eye.
The fact she hadn't meant there was a reason.
In the original story, she formed temporary alliances with some of the Eight Kings. Language works fine, at least.
Of course, those "alliances" were more like "I'll kill the others first, then you"—warhammer-style pacts. But still.
What was Taewang's personality in the original? Her hobbies? Routes? Pro-civilization or anti?
I racked my brain like a fan whirring overtime, scavenging for any survival intel.
All while her gaze never wavered from me... or so I thought.
Until I noticed her burrowing into my arms, kneading my breasts like dough.
"Hm."
"......"
Knead knead. Squish squish squish.
A girl two heads shorter than me groped my chest with a straight face.
In this powder-keg battlefield, the three of us froze, speechless, breaths held.
Thank goodness.
If those two had freaked out trying to "save" me and provoked her, that would've been real trouble.
But seriously, I didn't even see her move. No afterimage, nothing.
If Taewang wanted me dead, I'd already be a corpse with my heart ripped out.
Instead, she was earnestly fondling my breasts.
There had to be some deep meaning here.
...What meaning, exactly?
......
No, really, why?
"...W-what are you doing?"
I mustered the courage to ask.
As far as I knew, Taewang wasn't into girls.
Hell, did Eight Kings even have sexuality?
Suddenly craving maternal affection or something?
She looked up at my bewildered voice, her expression blank.
...I'd thought it from her illustrations, but damn, she was cute.
If she weren't a monster who could tear people apart effortlessly.
"...You're not it."
"Huh?"
"You're not the one I was looking for. This Qi structure... a bit heterogeneous, sure, but still human at the core. Not the vibe of my big catch."
Taewang asked me with genuine curiosity.
"Why?"
"Why... what? Sorry, no clue what you mean."
"Last time I opened a gate, you spotted and countered Abyssal Erosion—something I'd never shown humans before. So I figured you had to be my trophy fish."
But I wasn't, obviously.
"Why?"
"...Why ask me?"
Was I supposed to confess this world was a game and I'd played it start to finish?
"You're a fascinating human. You've piqued my interest. I'd love a private chat."
Taewang picked up her fishing rod.
The words "just the two of us" set off alarm bells.
This wasn't just us two. So she needed to "clean" to make it so.
I saw her train of thought clear as day.
"W-wait a sec!"
"Hm?"
"...Talking's fine. Actually, it's what I want. But no need to off those two. They'll make themselves scarce."
"Really?"
She relaxed her grip on the rod.
If they left voluntarily, no point in dirtying her hands.
Not mercy—just that everyone here was beneath notice from her view.
I signaled the two: Take the opening and run.
"I can't leave a first-year alone!"
The hero was principled, alright.
Trembling like that, yet still trying to save me.
The president was more rational.
"...We have to run. We can't stop that monster anyway."
"But!"
"Think about it. She wants to talk. She could've killed us anytime. Remember that."
She gave him an emotional out.
"I'm a cadet you have to protect. Will you?"
"I-I'll bring reinforcements! The Heroes! Just hold on till then!"
Finally, guilt twisting his face like he might drop dead, the hero dragged the president away in retreat.
Now it was just me and the monster who could kill me without twitching a finger.
In this spine-chilling setup, I felt an odd calm.
At least no one else would die on my watch.
Taewang seemed oddly favorable toward me.
Among the Eight Kings, she wasn't humanity's worst enemy.
If Ganwang had popped out, we'd have been pulped before knowing it.
Room for talk... seemed to exist.
"Let's sit and chat."
Taewang turned her head, and where she looked, a lake like an ocean appeared.
It'd been a sandy beach moments ago.
She sat in a fisherman's chair that materialized from nowhere and offered me one.
She cast her line into the potentially bottomless new lake and asked:
"Your name?"
"...Joo Hyowon."
"Unique Ability?"
"...Light and Darkness."
"Yin and yang, compound attribute. Rare talent, yeah. That's how you sensed my Qi? ...Doesn't fully explain it."
Of course not.
My knowledge defied this world's logic.
"......"
"......"
A brief silence fell.
Then it hit me: this was a conversation.
One-sided questions and answers didn't count.
"...You opened that last gate?"
"Yeah."
"Sent the gutter rats to kill first-years too?"
"Yeah."
"...Heard you promised 100 million per kill. Where'd you get that cash?"
Taewang stared at me with bright, curious eyes.
"Why get cash?"
"Then how were you gonna pay?"
"They're dead. Free."
Makes sense.
Naive gutter rats slaved away for a crime syndicate, only to get purged and diced up.
No enemies in human society? Doesn't mean cash grows on trees, no matter how strong.
Come to think of it, that organization from Hyowon's story vanished because Taewang shredded them in secret.
No wonder it never came up.
I wouldn't have known.
"...Why do that? Academy first-years mean nothing to you."
"Normally. But word was a special trophy lurked among them."
That trophy being—
"Ganwang. One of your so-called Eight Kings."
"What!?"
I faked shock on cue.
Anyone without the original story would freak.
Ganwang—one of the Eight Kings.
The only one humanity ever took down.
Alive and hiding as an academy first-year? Mind-blowing.
I knew it all, but had to act stunned. Otherwise, suspicion.
"You weren't surprised. You knew from the start."
Her deep-lake eyes pierced beyond my facade, seeing right through my amateur acting.
"Getting more interesting. I don't know human society inside out... but a first-year shouldn't have intel like this."
"...Dunno."
No point bluffing it'd fail anyway. Switched to pure bluff strategy.
I'm something special.
Not your average human. Curious? Gotta be.
Worried poking me might backfire unlike others?
So spare me.
"Tell me where the trophy is. I'll let you live."
"Nah. That'd doom humanity."
One Eight King equals three Heroes.
Alone, can't wipe us out.
But if one devours another and powers up? Game over.
Every route's final boss was an upgraded King who'd eaten the rest.
Feed underdeveloped Ganwang to Taewang now? Instant extinction. No way I'd snitch.
"I can find it without you. Shut up and you're dog food."
"Maybe. But you went roundabout for a reason, right?"
Opening a lame Fluid Gate herself.
Sending rats to cull first-years, reducing samples.
Purging rats to silence them.
All to hide from Ganwang, the academy, and other Kings that she knew it was here.
"Kill me here, and it's 'an Eight King bothered with a puny Fluid Gate to off a first-year.' Ganwang or academy brass notices. Security tightens, or it ghosts. Even without proof."
"Spare you?"
"I'll testify no Eight King. Just a high-end dungeon beast from condensed Qi gaining sentience."
"Hmmm..."
A bite tugged her line.
"...Fishing takes patience. No rush now. Hooked something more fun than fish."
She yanked hard, reeling in her catch from the lake.
It was—
"But whether you're worth negotiating with? Gotta test that."
The same monster that nearly killed me before.