I Knew You Could Do It (1)
I brought him here saying I’d carry him… and all he got to see was me getting my ass kicked.
Kang Hae-il looked down at his blazing body, the flames licking at the wounds scattered across it as they healed.
I’m completely reliant on my power.
He had known it for a while now.
It was like some kind of curse of abundance.
His ability was so overwhelmingly good that he had come to depend on it entirely, and as a result, his actual combat instincts had barely improved at all.
Flames of Conviction.
Offense and defense in one.
A single ability that covered both attack and defense perfectly.
As long as his mental strength held firm, these flames would protect Kang Hae-il forever.
When he was injured, fire would ignite at the wound and heal it. When an enemy was struck by the flames, they would suffer devastating damage.
And even that, Hae-il could choose.
Depending on how he perceived the enemy, the fire could become the flames of hell itself… or nothing more than the sting of a cigarette burn.
The ultimate skill, possessing offense, defense, healing, and utility all at once.
Which was exactly why he fought so recklessly.
It was fine to take hits.
As long as he didn’t die, the flames would only grow fiercer.
That home run I just ate was probably because of this complacency.
The troll warrior had definitely been a powerful monster, but it was the same level as him. He shouldn’t have struggled this much.
The fight against the orc warrior Kerak had actually been far more difficult.
I let my guard down.
He had been hit because he let his guard down.
What a pathetic idiot.
As he was mentally beating himself up—
“Didn’t you see that!? Hyung-nim’s punch actually landed!”
The porter informed him.
That Hae-il’s attack had connected too.
“Huh…? My attack actually hit?”
“Of course it did. You’re not an idiot. You didn’t just take a home run and nothing else, right?”
Whoosh.
Kang Hae-il turned his head to look at the troll.
A massive hole had been punched clean through its upper body, and it lay motionless.
Lucky hit… it actually connected?
The cross-section was far too clean for something his skill had torn through, but with chunks of flesh and dark blood pouring out, it wasn’t exactly the time to be nitpicking details.
More than anything, humans are wired to believe what they want to believe.
It worked after all?
Hae-il looked down at his fist, and his mood improved slightly.
I’ve grown too.
Because Kang Hae-il had always longed for growth, the circumstantial evidence that his combat ability had improved caused the walls of doubt to crumble easily.
“Haha.”
He let out an awkward laugh and asked, “That’s a relief. So… does this mean we cleared it?”
“Yeah, but…”
Junil added something else.
“It’s not completely dead yet.”
“What?”
“That troll still has a bit of breath left. Looks like it has a regeneration ability.”
Ah, regeneration…
Kang Hae-il recalled the scenes he had witnessed while fighting the troll.
That’s right. I could see it recovering in real time.
Just like Hae-il, the troll’s regenerative ability had been exceptional.
“Then… we’d better finish it quickly.”
They had to end it while it still had breath left.
Fwoosh!
As he reignited his flames—
That was when it happened.
“Hyung-nim. Should I take the last hit?”
“Huh?”
The porter made a strange suggestion.
“If I get the last hit, won’t I level up faster? Killing a guy who’s already lying there should be easy enough for me too.”
After all, the whole reason they had entered this gate was to level up the porter.
Only then could they take on the World Boss with peace of mind.
And Junil even gave up the Flash Step reward that was supposed to be first place, saying it suited me better.
More than anything, Hae-il’s trust in Junil was extremely high.
Hadn’t Junil already yielded the maximum reward to him once before?
So handing over something as minor as a bit of experience was only natural.
“Sure. You take it.”
Junil was the one in a hurry right now.
Of course, the Constellations did not see it that way.
* * *
“Yes!”
At the words “you take it,” Junil nodded vigorously.
He deliberately whispered so quietly that only the Constellations could hear.
“Good thing I left it with just a thread of life.”
The troll just happened to have a bit of breath left?
As if.
There was no way the professional hero Julian’s skill was that sloppy.
If he had wanted to kill it, it would have died instantly.
He had simply used the troll’s regeneration ability to “operate” on it.
Left it unable to die, yet unable to do anything but lie there.
With this, it would look like Junil was taking the last hit with Hae-il’s explicit permission.
“Alright~ Time to go deliver the finishing blow~”
Since they had mutually agreed that Junil would kill the boss, even if he ended up with first place contribution, no one would suspect anything.
But that wasn’t all.
There was another benefit.
Syrvelis’s Sacrificial Sword.
This very short, plain-looking, yet special blade.
He had created the perfect angle to use it.
◈ A common sacrificial blade, but one that has been touched by Syrvelis’s hand. Those stabbed by this blade die as extreme cold penetrates deep into their body, perfectly preserving the corpse. The body is then stored in the demon realm and can later be summoned again to serve as a subordinate.
◈ Corpse preservation and resummoning can each only be used once every 24 hours.
Thud!
He drove the blade deep into the troll and whispered.
“You… become my comrade.”
“!?”
The troll’s eyes bulged wide, trembling violently.
Clink—
The opponent’s mental suffering has reached its peak.
Even the tears that could only be obtained when the opponent’s mental agony reached its limit.
“It may look simple, but it’s a combination that nets three benefits at once.”
A single move that achieved three goals.
“Krrgh… ugh…!?”
Crack…!
The troll’s eyes bulged as its entire body froze from the bones outward, locked in place by the extreme cold.
A death just as agonizing as being burned at the stake.
Ding.
Dungeon Boss Defeated!
Contribution +1030
Achieved 2-Star (★★) Clear Condition!
The quest cleared and the notifications arrived.
Done.
Junil casually tossed the sword into his inventory and checked the messages.
Got two stars… but what was the condition for three?
It would be nice to get three stars.
But he had no idea what the condition was.
“Should we head out like this?”
Even if they left now, he had first place contribution, so the rewards should still be decent.
Besides, they weren’t only planning to clear one or two gates today.
“Yeah. It’s over, right? It’ll probably send us back automatically.”
As he spoke, a heavy rumble interrupted them.
BOOM—
“…?”
“What the hell?”
Both Hae-il and Junil’s gazes snapped to the same spot.
Rumble…!
Piles of stone within the dungeon came crashing down, and from within the debris, a glowing rift opened.
Another crack. Another gate had appeared.
“Uh…”
“There’s more?”
Only then did Junil realize something was off.
“Is that why the one-star clear message never appeared?”
The one-star quest: Eliminate all monsters within the dungeon.
That was why the clear message that should have popped after killing the boss had never shown up.
“This is annoying.”
Junil scratched his head.
He had gone through all the trouble of creating plausible justifications to legitimately secure first place contribution.
Warning! An external entity has entered the dungeon!
Killing this last one would probably hand first place straight to Hae-il, wouldn’t it?
The aura of the final remaining creature was anything but ordinary.
This was most likely the true hidden boss, and the condition for a three-star clear.
“Why the hell is this showing up now?”
* * *
“Because it’s the training camp meta, you idiot! Kiriri!”
Ram swung his fists excitedly into the empty air.
“I expected you to try to steal it! But stealing requires a repertoire! If I strip away all your repertoire, what the hell are you going to do?!”
Swish, swish, swish!
Ram shadow-boxed in the air.
“A-amazing, sir! Ram-nim!”
Sam was busy praising him again.
“This time, things like holy water or last hits probably won’t work! That monster doesn’t have the luxury for any of that!”
“Exactly. And this one gives the most contribution by far! If Hae-il takes this one, he’ll sweep every single reward!”
“Looks like the porter’s just going to end up as a loot magnet this time!”
“Kiriri!”
Ram laughed.
He believed that even Junil would find it difficult to defeat this particular monster while pretending to be a mere porter.
Ram leaned his face close to the monitor and taunted.
“Julian?! Yeah, you’ve got talent. Go ahead and try more! Let’s see if you still have any repertoire left!”
* * *
Meanwhile, outside the gate.
“See! I looked it up and there’s an article!”
Someone shouted, holding up their phone.
“Some gates explode immediately if the clear fails!”
“…Crazy.”
“And the more people that enter, the harder it gets, right!? Having an F-rank go in is definitely not a good thing!”
This was why the residents had been so anxious about an F-rank entering.
It wasn’t just a baseless rumor—there were even articles written about it.
Since research on gates was still in its infancy, anything could be said and no one would bat an eye.
Professor Kim broke out in a cold sweat at their words.
W-was that how it was?
So this was why defending Junil had become such a problem.
And then—
“Hey, look at this. That porter guy… apparently he really goes to S University?”
“No way… and his major is business. Wasn’t that professor in the economics department?”
“Then he really was his student!?”
Professor Kim waved his hands desperately.
“N-no, in this day and age, who even uses the word ‘student’ like that? You’d have to be a graduate student to be called a proper student… he’s just an undergraduate.”
“Shut up! Graduate students aren’t students, they’re slaves!”
Damn it.
Someone clearly had a grudge against the teaching profession.
To make matters worse, a relatively calm-looking person stepped forward and said,
“Ah… I wondered why such a smart person would say something like that. Now I get it.”
He had come up with a plausible theory.
“Mister, you’re trying to blow up this area to redevelop it, aren’t you?”
“Whoa~ That makes sense. Blow it up and run away yourself?”
“Right. And no one’s ever seen that guy’s wife or kid. Isn’t the kid an American citizen or something?”
This was pure madness.
I just never got married! I’m single!
Gates, apartments, redevelopment, academic background, American citizenship…
All the things that made people in this world sensitive had combined into a single explosive mass of insanity.
It was practically an allergic reaction.
“Wow~! Professor! So smart! So smart! Ewww! Ptooie! You’re trying to redevelop it all by yourself!?”
“You devil! If you’re gonna destroy something, destroy everything! We all have to redevelop together!”
Clang!
Empty cans that should have gone into recycling kept flying at him.
Damn it… Junil… please show them something!
The professor had lost all hope.
It wouldn’t be strange if he got kicked out of the apartment at this point.
“Please stop! Everyone! Calm down!”
That was when it happened.
A woman stepped in front of the professor to shield him.
Clang!
Even taking the can in his place.
“…?!”
Professor Kim’s eyes shook.
That back view…
The professor always remembered his top students.
After all, he needed to recruit them for graduate school.
That was why he recognized her instantly from her back and her voice alone.
“Lee Suyeon?”
Lee Suyeon.
One of the consistent top students in the business department.
And she wasn’t alone.
“Seriously. These residents are something else.”
The tall man wearing oversized goggles who followed behind her.
“If it’s those two men who went in, of course they’ll clear it and come out! So everyone just shut up and wait!”
When the man took off his goggles, everyone recognized him.
“Huh?”
People began whispering among themselves.
Ting~
“It’s Yu Jihun.”
“Yu Jihun…?”
“What the hell.”
“What kind of gate is this?”
Yu Jihun.
The man who had once led the most successful party.
After the Gangnam Station gate incident, his party had been annihilated and he had disappeared from the public eye for a while. And now he had appeared here.
Alongside Lee Suyeon, no less.
“This F-rank isn’t the kind of F-rank you people are thinking of!”