Say You Want to Live (3)
Ram and Sam shot upright at the same time.
Whoosh—
“F-finally!”
“Julian, you son of a bitch! He’s finally lost his mind!?”
It was because of Julian, who had shown up still dressed as a porter.
He had been so careful to keep Sagosul and the porter completely separate this whole time.
Maybe Yu Jihun’s constant jabs had finally gotten under his skin?
Suddenly appearing in his porter outfit, he was spouting arrogant nonsense.
Say You Want to Live
📍 Objective: Make Yu Jihun say he wants to live
Say you want to live?
Who the hell did he think he was?
An F-rank talking about saving people?
Even as they were dying, Yu Jihun and his party could only stare in disbelief.
Ram and Sam, on the other hand, were practically throwing a festival.
They had been hoping Julian would slip up at least once.
But they never imagined he would throw himself straight into the fire like this.
“Anyone can see this porter is suspicious as hell! Kiriri!”
Ram spun in excited circles.
“You’re finished! You’re done for, you bastard! I’m exposing everything! Sam!”
“Yes!”
Sam was smiling for the first time in a while too.
Jingle—!
Ram tossed him a handful of coins.
Not just one or two.
Clatter clatter clatter—!
“This is where we go all in!”
They would need more and more coins going forward.
If they didn’t capitalize on this mistake, their chances would only get slimmer.
“Hurry up and dump every coin you have to bring Kang Hae-il here! And get all the Rekkas over too, somehow!”
“Yes!”
This time Sam didn’t complain. He gathered every last coin and burned through them all.
Bringing Kang Hae-il over was easy. All they needed was for him to get the “intuition” that the porter was here.
Since it aligned with reality, the Constellations didn’t find it too suspicious.
As for the Rekkas, they were already watching this area anyway.
A giant red magic circle had just shot up into the sky. Getting them to film it was nothing.
“Julian… it was fun while it lasted. Your little mask game ends here! Kiriri!”
She was certain she had him in checkmate.
In truth, the one actually in checkmate was Yu Jihun.
“Then say you’ll never look down on F-ranks again.”
“Are you out of your damn mind!?”
Rumble…
Nearly half his body was already sunk into the demonic swamp.
The more his body was pulled into the magic circle, the more it turned him into a sacrifice.
“U-urgh!?”
The shorter members of his party were already struggling to breathe.
Black water had flooded their airways, turning every breath into a wet, gurgling rasp.
“Is that so hard to say?”
“You… you… you fucking…”
Yu Jihun couldn’t get the words out.
Why?
Because of his pride.
I’d rather just die than say it.
Yu Jihun.
A man who could die for his pride.
But the problem now was that dying for his pride wouldn’t just kill him.
Countless others would be sacrificed for Yu Jihun’s pride.
The porter grinned like he knew exactly that.
“Oh. Then don’t~ If everyone dies, that’s that~.”
He cupped his cheeks and taunted them with an exaggerated “yay!” pose.
Grind…
Yu Jihun’s teeth ground together.
He’d rather die than acknowledge this bastard!
But—
“Fine!”
The moment the black water reached his chin, the surrender tumbled out of Yu Jihun’s mouth.
“I-I will… never look down on F-ranks again!”
“Bwahahahahahaha!”
Go Jinseok burst into laughter beside him.
“Mr. Yu Jihun. I thought you were a decent leader. To think you were this pathetic!? Relying on a guy like him!? Humans really are all the same, huh?”
In his eyes, the porter had no power at all. He was just here to mock Yu Jihun at the very end.
“Hey, porter? How vicious. Even the demon I contracted with would cry… If you’ve had your fun, stop ruining my entertainment and leave. You don’t seem useful as a sacrifice anyway.”
Junil slowly turned his gaze toward Go Jinseok.
He’s completely off guard.
This was the power an F-rank held in this world.
Despised by everyone, yet able to escape any suspicion and make any excuse.
Go Jinseok didn’t even question why his own magic circle wasn’t activating on Junil.
The chains didn’t wrap around an F-rank? Impossible.
This magic circle actually activates better the weaker the target is.
It was a circle used for sacrificial rituals.
Anyone stronger than the caster couldn’t be used as a sacrifice.
Obviously.
That was the nature of a sacrifice.
A living being placed in a weakened state.
It was why “young girl” was so often used as a symbol in stories.
But claiming weakness let you avoid it?
That made no sense.
One coming out was enough to shut down all those questions.
This is basically a cheat skill.
Even if he didn’t want to admit it, Junil was slowly getting used to life as an F-rank.
“Hey! H-hurry up and save us! You made a promise, didn’t you!?”
Yu Jihun snapped.
One of the shorter members was already submerged up to his forehead. Of course he was desperate.
“Jeez. Someone’s impatient.”
Junil casually reached into his inventory.
“You… you don’t actually have a way, do you!? Is that it!? If so, I’ll curse you for the rest of eternity even if I go to hell—”
“Ugh, shut up.”
Junil explained in an annoyed tone.
“There’s this thing called holy water.”
“Holy water…?”
“Not the one that made real estate prices skyrocket. I mean Holy Water.”
“I understood that the first time.”
Splash—
Junil shook a bottle of clear liquid.
“If you throw this at evil bastards like black mages, they explode instantly.”
“…!?”
Yu Jihun’s eyes widened in shock, but Go Jinseok only sneered.
“Hah. As if. Holy water is only effective against low-grade demons—”
That sneer was the last smile he would ever make.
“Then what happens if I throw a dagger coated in holy water!?”
He rattled off the explanation like a machine gun and hurled something.
BOOOOOOM!
It had clearly struck Go Jinseok somewhere.
Exactly where, no one could tell.
Probably the lower half.
Because Go Jinseok’s lower body had been completely obliterated.
“…!?”
Go Jinseok stared at the empty space where his lower half had been and collapsed.
Or rather, fell.
Thud.
Without a lower body, his torso had simply been floating in the air.
The upper body had dropped.
“K-kuaaagh!?”
Go Jinseok flailed his hands where his body used to be and left behind his final words.
“M-my… I’m… a-a eunuch!?”
Go Jinseok met a truly horrific end.
Yu Jihun could only stare in horror.
The result of the holy water item was far too brutal.
Even Yu Jihun frowned at the sight.
“Holy water… can do this much?”
But the quick-witted Constellations had already figured it out.
What killed Go Jinseok wasn’t holy water.
He had compressed mana to its absolute limit on the dagger and hurled it with explosive force.
Took even more power than when I killed that orc.
While spouting nonsense to avoid suspicion, he had compressed mana into the dagger multiple times.
So that even the slightest impact would cause an explosion.
The result was perfect.
Leveling up really does make mana control way easier.
Compared to when he used Mana Blade at a lower level, handling mana now felt noticeably smoother.
So levels really do matter.
He felt once again that he had to keep raising his level.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
Go Jinseok screamed in agony as he died.
Crackle…!
The red magic circle spat out one massive spark before vanishing without a trace.
The sacrifices who had been dragged into the black water all shot back up to the surface.
“Cough! Bleeegh!”
They violently vomited out all the water they had swallowed.
“I-I’m alive! I’m alive!”
“Haa… damn it…”
Some of them even burst into tears.
Having barely escaped death, it was only natural.
“Haa… haa… Is everyone okay!?”
Yu Jihun checked on each of his party members one by one.
Then he approached Junil.
“…Thank you. I owe you one.”
Yu Jihun couldn’t quite manage a smile, but he still bowed his head like a man.
Clack!
“Looking down on you was a complete mistake.”
A clean admission.
“Yeah, whatever. Just keep your promise.”
“Of course. I will never look down on F-ranks again.”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
At that moment, someone appeared beside them.
“Why would you look down on someone because of their rank? Ranks are just numbers.”
It was Kang Hae-il.
“I’ve been looking all over. So you were here.”
“Ah… I came looking for you, hyung.”
Junil gave a perfectly casual excuse.
“You’ve got a good teammate, Yu Jihun.”
Yu Jihun straightened his previously bowed back as he spoke.
“He’s only F-rank, but he clearly has his own uses.”
“Even though he’s F-rank, he works really hard.”
“So the reason he’s so impressive for an F-rank was effort… I still have a long way to go.”
“Of course. Even if he’s F-rank, he went to S University. He must have studied like crazy.”
The two of them kept talking about F-ranks for a long time.
“Even if he’s F-rank. He does this and that… it doesn’t feel like he’s F-rank at all…”
Kang Hae-il kept bragging about the porter like dog owners showing off their pets.
Junil was genuinely speechless.
This is the first time I’ve seen Kang Hae-il talk this much.
The porter’s skill is basically a cheat, he has infinite inventory, he’s like Doraemon, he knows everything, he can analyze anything with one look… and so on.
It got to the point where Yu Jihun said this.
“I get it now, Kang Hae-il. The more I listen, the more it sounds like the porter is stronger than you.”
“What? That’s not true.”
But when it came to drawing the line, Kang Hae-il drew it clearly.
After Yu Jihun received full treatment from the healers, he spoke again.
“See you next time. I’ll be stronger by then.”
His farewell was slightly different from his initial attitude.
Kang Hae-il’s gaze finally turned to Junil.
“By the way… why did you come back here? It’s dangerous. You should’ve stayed completely out of it.”
“I came to find you, hyung.”
“You can’t participate in combat anyway.”
Instead of scolding Junil for running away, he asked why he had come back to such a dangerous place.
Some Constellations, feeling guilty like a thief with a guilty conscience, assumed the situation looked suspicious.
He had run away, only to return to the dangerous scene and even take down the black mage.
It did seem a bit strange, didn’t it?
But Junil had a prepared answer for that too.
“Oh. Well… I need to make money.”
“Money…?”
Instead of explaining, Junil showed him.
He grabbed Go Jinseok’s upper torso, flipped it over, and shook it like laundry.
“W-what…”
Jingle! Jingle!
Several gold coins fell out, along with potions and strange magic tools.
“All of this is money. Let’s go farm the orcs too before some random guys take it all.”
“Uh… yeah.”
Kang Hae-il seemed a little flustered by the shocking sight, but—
I guess even a porter needs moments like this to shine.
He didn’t want to interrupt the only real chance the porter had to do his job.
Junil then went to loot the lower half that had been blown off as well.
Thud.
Various items—though not that kind of item—fell out.
Huh?
One thing that he normally wouldn’t have paid any attention to caught his eye.
A book?
It was a small book.
A message appeared above it.
Ding!
You have discovered a hint regarding the World Boss!