Then Die (2)
About twenty minutes earlier.
When Junil had slipped away claiming he needed the bathroom.
“Ah, I really gotta go—gotta go real bad~”
But as Junil passed by, someone was lying face-down on the ground. And surprisingly, the person was alive.
“What the…?”
Curious, Junil took a closer look and saw she was holding a camera. Never mind the camera—this was someone he knew.
‘Huh?’
Who was she again? Thanks to the physiognomy mastery he had gained during his hero days, he could read faces like an open book. This woman was a reporter.
Right. It was Do Juhye, the reporter who had tried to hand him her business card last time.
‘She’s back again?’
He was just starting to feel a spark of fondness when—
“Ugh, can the porter please disappear? You’re ruining the shot.”
“······.”
Back to the present.
The heads of the two orcs that had nearly turned the entire Gangnam Station area into their personal territory were rolling across the ground like crushed cola cans.
Sagosul quickly located the optimal spot.
‘There it is.’
He remembered exactly where Do Juhye had cursed him out earlier.
‘Get a good shot of this.’
Click!
He naturally struck a perfect Sagosul pose.
“Whoa······!”
Do Juhye’s eyes went wide as she excitedly hammered the shutter.
“Thank you······ Sagosul. To think you’d grant me this honor again······.”
After accidentally capturing Sagosul rescuing children last time, she now had him slaying orcs with a clean solo shot!
‘Good thing I stayed an Awakened.’
Raising her level to 10 as a rogue had nearly killed her several times over, but it had been worth it.
Because of that, she could sneak into a spot like this and snap photos like these.
Thanks to it, she had captured scenes a reporter might only dream of landing once in a lifetime.
Still, she had one big worry.
‘How on earth am I supposed to reach level 30 now?’
Unlike the previous level 10 restriction, this main quest demanding level 30 looked incredibly difficult for a rogue like her.
‘Well······ it’ll work out somehow.’
Thinking this might be the last time she could harvest so many photos as an Awakened, she kept pressing the shutter.
Click! Click!
Before Sagosul’s appearance at Gangnam Station, public opinion on the Awakened Forum had been roughly like this.
Leave Sagosul alone! How many times do we have to say it!?
Sagosul only hunts goblins well.
Comparing him to S-rank Kang Hae-il is an insult.
He doesn’t even have any real skills.
Even E-rank production classes are walking around with their noses in the air calling themselves white-collar office workers these days lmao
Sagosul is literally their only hope
While progressing through Main Chapter 1, positional conflicts had begun to emerge bit by bit. Among them, the most despised role was low-rank close-range dealer.
Their frustration had transformed into blind support for Sagosul. After all, he was practically the only close-range dealer showing any real performance, and he wasn’t even using skills that looked particularly high-ranked.
It was actually a reasonable analysis, but the close-range classes—who already carried enough hardship—couldn’t help but seethe with anger.
Then, roughly twenty minutes later.
The top trending post on the Awakened Forum had been replaced by this one. The post’s content was as simple as its title.
It was a single gif-edited clip.
The scene showed two orcs being slaughtered in the blink of an eye.
The users’ reaction was explosive. Just minutes ago everyone had been saying he could only hunt goblins. Now the comment section had flipped 180 degrees.
Everyone was stunned by the abnormal display of power. Who could have imagined a named monster treated as a national crisis would be sliced apart in a single cut?
“Da······ damn it.”
Even Ram, the one who had created this scenario, couldn’t have predicted it.
“All of them in one slash?”
When Yu Jihun’s party was collapsing, Kang Hae-il was supposed to appear. Instead Sagosul had shown up and cut them down in one blow.
“What kind of fucking bug is this!? Just how strong is he!?”
Julian’s strength was becoming impossible to predict. Meanwhile, Yu Jihun’s party—who should have been far stronger—had crumbled far too easily.
“And why did Yu Jihun’s party collapse already?”
With Yu Jihun’s combat ability, the entire party shouldn’t have been wiped by two orcs. They had been far too weak today.
“It looks like Kang Hae-il burned them with fire earlier, so they were weakened······ Given their ice attribute······.”
“Damn it!”
Ram clutched his head.
“Julian, you bastard!”
Bang!
Knowing the fire prank had been Julian’s doing, Ram was furious.
“U-um, what should we do, Ram? Can Yu Jihun survive the next crisis?”
“······.”
“Should we cancel it?”
Ram stayed silent.
“At the very least, Kang Hae-il has to save him.”
“Th-that’s······.”
The narrative between Yu Jihun and Kang Hae-il was critically important. They were rivals who acknowledged each other and comrades. They were far too valuable as supporting characters!
“Keep going. Hae-il will manage somehow.”
Yu Jihun falls into crisis. Kang Hae-il saves him. The plan had not changed.
Tap—
Junil sheathed his sword and thought.
‘The orcs’ traits······ they’re exactly the same.’
Everything he had encountered so far—the necromancer, black magician, demon, goblins—had matched Fairy Corporation’s default settings perfectly. The orcs were no exception.
That was why Junil had been able to handle them far more easily than their actual strength suggested.
Orcs were aggressive and possessed high combat intelligence, but they had one fatal flaw: they didn’t focus much on defense.
‘They think properly guarding vital points is something only cowards do.’
Even those tough, tank-like orc bodies had weaknesses.
‘Neck, ankles, wrists······.’
It might differ slightly from human weak points. Since slicing through an orc’s hide was difficult in itself, the key was targeting the thinnest skin and narrowest bones.
This was less a battle and more like butchering livestock. No matter how sharp Mana Blade’s cutting power was, orcs still protected themselves with magi, so striking vital points remained crucial.
‘Well, that’s way too easy for me.’
Here, he was the Goblin Slayer. In one of his previous lives, Julian had even been called the orc disaster.
‘One left now?’
Junil walked toward the final orc. At a glance it looked the strongest of the three and had the highest level. Kang Hae-il was struggling against it.
In pure firepower Hae-il outclassed Junil, but—
‘If I aim properly, another one-shot should be possible.’
Julian had the know-how. With the right strike he could even finish Kerak in one blow.
But—
Warning! Transmission Overload!
Your body level is gradually failing to withstand the transmission!
Please level up!
‘Huh?’
This alarm suddenly popped up. No wonder he had been feeling increasingly sleepy and heavy.
“Damn level······.”
Junil unconsciously grumbled about his level.
“Hmph. No matter how high the level, it’s still just an orc, isn’t it?”
Yu Jihun spat from the side. He seemed to think Junil was talking about Kerak’s level.
“What? You were still alive?”
“······Weren’t you the one who saved me?”
“No. Not at all. Why would you think that?”
They stared at each other, both looking dumbfounded.
“Because you even knew my name······ You called out ‘Hey, Yu Jihun!’”
“That’s just something I already knew.”
“?”
“Am I really that famous?”
For even Sagosul to know him. Yu Jihun smiled with clear satisfaction.
“What are you even talking about?”
Thud!
Sagosul’s kick landed squarely on Yu Jihun’s wound.
“Ugh!”
“Stop acting like a baby.”
“D-does this look like acting to you!?”
Yu Jihun pointed at the spot where his arm had been severed and shouted in fury.
“I’m going to die like this!”
“You won’t die, you idiot.”
You think this is my first time hitting you?
Thump!
“Aaaaargh!”
Grabbing the writhing Yu Jihun by the collar, Junil growled menacingly.
“Yu Jihun.”
“······?”
“You’re nothing. You’re a bastard worse than F-rank. Got it?”
It was obviously just him venting.
Yu Jihun’s eyes widened dramatically as he trembled.
“No matter what, saying I’m worse than F-rank—is that something you can say to another person!? Sagosul!?”
“?”
He covered his ears as if he had heard something unbearable and muttered in panic.
“Calling me F······ Sagosul wasn’t a hero after all······.”
Even though Junil had been the one throwing the insults, somehow he was the one feeling oddly wounded.
‘This damn······.’
In a foul mood, he headed toward Kang Hae-il.
‘Let’s at least finish off the orc.’
Yu Jihun’s injuries were severe. He barely managed to drag himself to the side and lie down.
“Damn Sagosul······ He kicked the wound so it hurts even more······.”
Grumbling, he leaned against a piece of asphalt debris and stared across the way.
Kang Hae-il was fighting Kerak. Massive flames engulfed the orc, only for Kerak to push them back with wind and swing its enormous twin blades.
‘They really are monsters.’
Both Kerak and Kang Hae-il were monsters.
‘But······ the guy who cut down two of them in a single slash is······.’
A monster above monsters who had slain two orcs like that.
Sagosul.
Just what was that guy’s true identity?
Yu Jihun’s gaze followed Sagosul’s back as he walked toward Kang Hae-il.
“Jihun oppa······ are you okay?”
Huff······ Huff······
It was Seo-hee, a fellow party member. She could barely use one leg and had dragged herself over. Not only physically, she looked mentally exhausted too. Her whole body was drenched in cold sweat and her eyes were unfocused.
“Did we manage to block all the orcs?”
Even in that state she asked whether the mission had been completed.
‘She didn’t see it.’
It seemed she hadn’t even had the energy to notice Sagosul had wiped them all out. Jihun simply nodded.
“Yeah. There’s one left. Reinforcements have arrived, so······ it should be fine.”
Even Kang Hae-il alone was putting up a decent fight against Kerak. With Sagosul joining, it would surely be over quickly.
That’s what he thought, but—
“Reinforcements······?”
“Sagosul came.”
“Is that the person over there?”
The man Seo-hee pointed at was Junil. Instead of helping Kang Hae-il, he simply stood there shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Ah~ Come on! That’s not how you do it!”
He was giving unsolicited advice.
“Why would you turn it to the left like that? You really don’t know anything.”
‘What the······ this crazy bastard.’
Yu Jihun was speechless. Just what was this guy doing?
‘There’s no way he can hear that.’
In truth, the advice probably wasn’t reaching Kang Hae-il, who was too focused on the fight. The real target had never been Kang Hae-il.
It was aimed at Kang Hae-il’s Constellations.
“Even if I jumped in I’d do better than you. Tsk tsk······.”
It was a form of ant-torturing. He was trying to make Kang Hae-il’s Constellations sick of it and leave.
‘Wow. You’re still supporting Kang Hae-il even after this? Ruthless. Truly ruthless.’
Raising Constellations was difficult, but shaking them off wasn’t easy either. That was why he sprinkled in these little acts—to make them so angry they would abandon him.
On the other hand, Junil’s own Constellations were split in their reactions.
While some fanatics interpreted it favorably, others urged him to hurry up and help.
That was how much Kang Hae-il was gradually being pushed back by Kerak.
‘How dare you come into Sagosul’s stream and cheer for Kang Hae-il?’
Junil felt a petty surge of spite.
“Ah~ Now that I think about it, maybe I should jump in after Kang Hae-il dies? Then I’d be number one, right?”
The hero deliberately training his Constellations by acting tough.
As expected—
Defeat the Orc Together With Hae-il!
🎁 Reward: Experience gained within 1 hour x3
It seemed quite a few Constellations had believed Sagosul really wouldn’t step in. A quest had suddenly appeared.
‘Triple experience?’
It was an enormous reward that was exactly what Junil needed right now.