Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: ACT2. The Left Behind and Those to Be Left (2)
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“I’m the newly awakened one, here in place of Lee Seon-yul.”
“What?”
The woman clutched her forehead as if in disbelief.
“That lunatic. He knew how serious this was if I was the one asking for help, and he sent someone who just awakened? Just wait till I get back. I’ll beat him to a pulp this time.”
She growled, cursing fiercely at Lee Seon-yul, but her eyes kept darting over to me.
What’s done was done. She was sizing me up, trying to gauge my usefulness.
[Activating skill, ‘Extreme Eye (S)’.]
[Character Information]
Name: Kim Ji-hyeon
Gender: Female (29)
Strength: 59 Stamina: 53 Agility: 62 Mana: 56
Unique Ability: Wind Sever (A)
Traits: Wind (A), Swift Sword (A), Rapid Movement (B)
Skills: Seven Flashes (A), Flash Step (B), Typhoon Sword Dance (A)
Not to be outdone, I checked Kim Ji-hyeon’s information.
Her overall stats were excellent.
The Wind trait. A player who possessed an elemental ability and combined it with her weapon, the sword.
Wind Sever was a unique ability that fit her style perfectly.
‘You’d need to be at least around Chapter 10 to build stats like that.’
Even with a lot of coins, you couldn’t just raise stats as you pleased.
If that were possible, the game would have been easy, and it wouldn’t have been called a failure.
‘Although, there is a way.’
A bug that could only be triggered at a specific moment.
The conditions were numerous and tricky, so even back when I played the game, I only succeeded once. But if I had to do it again, I could pull it off for sure.
The problem was that the moment was still far off, and there was one more thing I needed to prepare.
It was a shame, but for now, I could only do my best in the given circumstances.
“Still, he must have sent you because you have some skill for a newly awakened person. *Hoo!* Let’s start with introductions. I’m Kim Ji-hyeon.”
“I’m Kim Se-hyeon. Ms. Kim Ji-hyeon. First, could you tell me about the situation here?”
Kim Ji-hyeon’s brows furrowed.
She seemed to be struggling to organize her thoughts on how to explain.
“Death Bites keep swarming in. No matter how many I take down, I can’t escape while protecting the students. But even if I could somehow force my way through that, there’s another problem.”
“Another problem…?”
“About twenty students suddenly vanished. Literally, just vanished.”
Listening to Kim Ji-hyeon, a certain monster came to mind.
Once you go up a few ranks, monsters with special abilities start appearing.
With Extreme Eye active, I could see an abnormal clump of mana nearby.
This barrier was one of them.
Ghost Shadow.
Was it related to that monster?
‘I shouldn’t be encountering it this early on…’
A D-rank monster, one step above Death Bites.
That meant a creature like that was lurking in this school.
A dry laugh escaped me.
No matter how ridiculously hard this game was, I didn’t think it was ever this bad.
“So you don’t know the whereabouts of the missing students?”
“I have a rough idea, but if I try to solve it, I can’t protect the students here. So I was planning to investigate alone after evacuating all of them. The problem is, to enter the barrier and catch the monster controlling it, you have to touch the barrier’s core. And that’s difficult without a special ability or an item that lets you see it.”
Kim Ji-hyeon shook her head.
So she had a general idea.
Well, it would be absurd if she couldn’t even sense a D-rank monster’s barrier with stats like hers.
The ‘special ability’ she mentioned was something like my Extreme Eye.
“The plan is simple. I’ll draw the monsters’ attention. While I do that, you evacuate the students. You’ll have to handle any monsters that slip past my aggro. Can you do it?”
“It’ll work.”
Surprised by my confident answer, Kim Ji-hyeon’s eyes widened slightly.
Then, with a small smirk, she let out a short laugh.
“Good. Get ready. We’re starting now. I’ve already told the students to be ready to run at my signal, so you just need to protect them and lead them to where Lee Seon-yul is.”
I recalled the story of Chapter 1 again.
By now, Jeungsan Station should have been thrown into chaos by the attack of a building-sized monster.
If Lee Seon-yul had left for the school, a sub-quest to survive on our own until he returned would have triggered, but this time, Lee Seon-yul had stayed put.
It was safe to assume Jeungsan Station was secure.
“Alright, I’m starting now!”
After confirming I had entered the school building, Kim Ji-hyeon loosened up.
Before I knew it, dozens of new Death Bites were swarming the school grounds.
Her sword, gleaming silver-white in the sunlight, pointed toward the Death Bites.
Then, she took a deep breath.
“Run!!”
She shouted with a roar that could rival a lion’s.
Instantly, classroom doors flew open, and students who had been cooped up inside, holding their breath, poured out like a flood.
The refreshing scent of oranges filled the hallway.
It was the smell of air freshener.
‘Animals with a keen sense of smell tend to dislike strong fruit scents.’
I’d wondered why I hadn’t seen a single body. It seemed they’d sprayed the classrooms full of air freshener to avoid being attacked in the first place.
The overpowering scent would have also masked the smell of the students.
That must be why the Death Bites didn’t enter the classrooms and only wandered the hallways, chasing after Kim Ji-hyeon.
She had made good use of the air fresheners that were in every classroom.
[Activating skill, ‘Extreme Eye’.]
The number of students was considerable.
Whether at the front, middle, or back of the group.
If a Death Bite attacked from any direction, it would be hard to react immediately.
So, I needed to figure out where they were coming from in advance and move one step ahead.
“Kuhung!”
I instantly cut down one that was about to jump out from its hiding spot in the restroom, then immediately turned my gaze.
Perhaps because Kim Ji-hyeon was drawing aggro so well, there were no more Death Bites left inside the school.
The problem was the moment we left the school building.
“Where do you think you’re…!”
From here, Kim Ji-hyeon’s prowess began to shine.
Even when the Death Bites noticed with uncanny speed and turned towards the students, Kim Ji-hyeon would immediately rush in, forcing them to focus on her.
On top of that, her ‘Rapid Movement’ trait and ‘Flash Step’ skill overlapped.
Appearing here, then there in a flash.
She moved from place to place in an instant, attacking over a wide area, making it seem as if there were multiple Kim Ji-hyeons.
Thanks to her, the Death Bites couldn’t get past the halfway point of the school grounds.
Very rarely, one or two would slip by, but I stepped in and dealt with them the moment I saw any sign of it, so there were no student casualties.
[Character ‘Kim Ji-hyeon’ uses the skill, ‘Seven Flashes’.]
And a high-rank attack skill on top of that.
Seven lines were drawn in the air, and all the monsters nearby were sliced in two.
A student who happened to witness the scene gagged, but their will to survive must have been stronger, as they kept running with a pale face.
“…”
Meanwhile, I had been using Extreme Eye to its fullest to identify the students and concluded that the twins weren’t here.
In ‘End of Apocalypse,’ those twins were definitely at this school. Their uniforms matched.
Those twins were students here; they should have been here.
“W-We escaped!”
“Uwaaah!”
The students who made it out of the school cheered.
Having been trapped in the classrooms for hours, gripped by the fear of death, their sense of liberation must have been extraordinary.
Not that the situation outside was much different.
Glancing back at the school, I saw Kim Ji-hyeon, no longer holding back, slaughtering the Death Bites with all her might.
Even so, Death Bites continued to swarm, and it didn’t look like she could easily disengage.
I turned my gaze and spoke to a student who seemed to be in relatively good shape.
“Do you have a moment?”
“Y-Yes?”
“Do you know where the twins, Jo Min-woo and Jo Min-ah, are?”
“You know the twins? They… they’re among the ones who disappeared. I’m sorry.”
My eyes narrowed.
I had a feeling, but to think they were among them.
‘This is troublesome.’
My plan was slightly derailed.
I had to rescue the twins from the school.
The twins were characters I absolutely needed to maintain a friendly relationship with for future progress, so rescuing them myself would make things much easier.
The twenty missing students.
They must have been sucked into the Ghost Shadow’s barrier. To save them, I’d have to go back to the school and enter the barrier myself.
The problem was, if I did that, I couldn’t escort these students to Jeungsan Station.
“Excuse me!!”
As I was pondering what to do, I heard someone’s voice.
Their face was breathless, as if they had run hard.
My eyes widened at the appearance of an unexpected third party.
Lee Seong-chan? What was he doing here?
“Weren’t you terrified when they were looking for volunteers…?”
“I-I know! I know that! That I’m a coward!”
Lee Seong-chan’s face turned red.
But despite that, he didn’t look away from me.
“Watching you and Jeong Ha-yeon-ssi, I realized something. Was I going to stay a coward forever? I decided to change myself, but was I just going to get scared and hide again…? I felt that if I didn’t make a move here, I’d never be able to change.”
He hadn’t completely shaken off his fear, but his eyes held a glimmer of determination.
A faint smile touched my lips.
I didn’t dislike this type of person.
“You came at the right time. We were short on manpower anyway.”
“R-Really? What should I do…?”
“Please lead these students back to Jeungsan Station.”
“What? By myself!?”
Lee Seong-chan was aghast, shaking his head frantically.
…Even though you made it all the way here alone?
“You won’t encounter any monsters on the way back. Lee Seon-yul-nim will be coming to meet you.”
“Is it guaranteed that no monsters will appear? What if, by some chance, one does…?”
“No, I’m certain there won’t be any.”
When I spoke with strong conviction, Lee Seong-chan’s eyes wavered.
Monsters have their own territories.
Since a C-rank monster had appeared at Jeungsan Station, other types of monsters wouldn’t approach within a certain radius of it.
The Death Bites swarming the school was one example of that.
They were pushed out of the territory of a stronger monster, and at the same time, the place with the most concentrated prey was the school.
In other words, you wouldn’t encounter any other monsters on the way from the school to Jeungsan Station.
After I explained this, Lee Seong-chan was convinced.
“And there’s one more thing I need you to do.”
There were still several problems remaining.
Especially the most important one.
The food problem.
“On your way, stop by every mart and convenience store you see and gather groceries with the students. With many people, you can do it quickly, and most importantly, the students have backpacks to carry things.”
Even if I wanted to do it myself, there was a limit to how much one person could carry.
Even if I grabbed the biggest bag from a mart and stuffed it full, it wouldn’t be as much as what all these students could carry together.
“Food… so that’s a problem too. But didn’t they say there were plenty of supplies at the stadium?”
“Think about all the people in this area gathering at the stadium. And we don’t know how long it will take for this situation to stabilize. A supply shortage is inevitable.”
It would definitely happen.
Even if things didn’t follow the game’s story exactly, it was just common sense.
Since most people had lived without ever having to worry about starving, they generally didn’t recognize the problem of food shortages.
“Remember this. This isn’t your normal life where your life isn’t threatened. The top priority is survival.”
“Y-Yes!”
Lee Seong-chan nodded vigorously and led the students away.
I watched them for a moment before speeding back to the school.
Kim Ji-hyeon was still fighting.
The number of Death Bites had noticeably decreased, so the fight would likely be over soon.
“What, why are you back!?”
“I left it to another person who came to help. Not all the students have been evacuated yet.”
“You’re going into the barrier!? I told you, with your stats you can’t enter… *Keuk!*”
Kim Ji-hyeon’s eyes widened as if she realized something, but she was forced to look away from me as a Death Bite took the opportunity to attack.
In that moment, I touched the barrier’s core, visible through my Extreme Eye.
I heard Kim Ji-hyeon’s gasp of astonishment from behind me.
*Crackle.*
A faint spark fizzled as if to block my entry, but I passed right through.
The colors in my vision shifted rapidly, like spreading watercolor.
The building, which had looked clean as if newly built, was now splattered with blood everywhere.
An atmosphere designed to stimulate psychological fear.
If Lee Seong-chan had seen this, he might have fainted.
‘If I can catch the D-rank Ghost Shadow at this stage, I’ll get a considerable reward.’
A reward that shouldn’t have existed originally.
Now that I had the chance to get it, I had no intention of letting it slip away.
The Ghost Shadow’s fatal weakness.
Coincidentally, I currently possessed the power to perfectly counter it.