Chapter 95
Chapter 95
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: So-hye's School Fight
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lee Sang's point was valid.
Because before heading into the Trials' Arena, players could prepare to some extent if they wanted to.
‘By turning the items they want into actual items...’
Unlike last time, when they'd been forcibly stranded on the island without a thing to their name, this time they could use objects brought from the real world just like items.
So what Lee Sang had pointed out was this: if they prepared the necessities for the desert in advance, they wouldn't necessarily need Kwon Na-ye or Manager Kim to join them right away.
Water or clothing could simply be grabbed from reality.
In response to Lee Sang's words, Hae-jin spoke up.
“I know exactly what you're getting at. If we pack survival gear for the desert ahead of time, we wouldn't need any magic help, right?”
“Yes, exactly.”
That was the crux of what Lee Sang had been saying.
Hae-jin nodded in agreement on that front.
“If it were just about surviving the desert, sure. But that's not the whole story.”
But according to Hae-jin, there was more to it than Lee Sang had considered.
Lee Sang asked about it.
“If that's not all...?”
“Plenty of the monsters that show up in the desert have high resistance to both physical and magical attacks. That's why we need to link up. And on top of that, we've got to clear the hidden trial, right?”
“Right.”
“To pull that off, we need to form a proper party among ourselves. I could handle it solo, but it's about time we all stuck together anyway.”
“Hmm, I was being shortsighted.”
“Hm?”
Hae-jin cocked his head when Lee Sang abruptly called himself foolish.
Lee Sang gave a wry smile to the puzzled Hae-jin.
“Ah, of course you've got the whole plan laid out already, Leader, and you explained it all. But bringing it up like this just makes me feel awkward.”
“No, no. Questions are always welcome anytime. You never know—maybe something you say sparks an even better idea for me.”
“You think?”
“Yes.”
Hae-jin had thus given a rough rundown of the next Trials' Arena, prompted by Lee Sang's question.
He slowly rose from his seat.
“Alright, then... We've all busted our asses in this Trials' Arena, so how about we grab some food and call it a night?”
“Sounds good.”
“Sure thing.”
Afterward, Hae-jin and the party members headed out for a meal before going their separate ways.
Once the group had parted, Hae-jin, Raffaello, and Manager Kim returned home.
The three of them were tending to their own tasks around the house.
That was when it happened.
*Ring-!*
The sound of the front door opening rang out.
There was only one person who came to this house anymore.
Manager Kim's daughter, Kim So-hye.
“I'm home.”
*Patter patter.*
No sooner had Kim So-hye given her greeting at the entrance than she darted straight to her room.
Hae-jin, Raffaello, and Manager Kim all tilted their heads at the sight.
“Hm?”
They had no choice.
Kim So-hye was normally the bright type who would cheerfully greet all three of them one by one after school.
Yet here she was, skipping that routine and heading right to her room.
Hae-jin and Manager Kim hadn't seen it—they'd been in the middle of sparring on the terrace—but Raffaello, fiddling with random knickknacks in the living room, had caught it clear as day.
‘That was definitely...’
Raffaello stood up from his spot.
He'd spotted something off about Kim So-hye.
Just then, Hae-jin and Manager Kim wrapped up their spar and entered the living room.
“What's going on, Rael?”
“Ah, bro. Uh... mind if I talk to So-hye first?”
“Go ahead.”
Talking to a minor like Kim So-hye might go better with the youngest among them, Raffaello.
Hae-jin figured he'd let Raffaello take the lead for now.
Raffaello approached Kim So-hye's room.
*Knock knock.*
“So-hye, can I come in?”
“Ah... No.”
Kim So-hye told him not to enter the room.
Raffaello asked her.
“You changing clothes?”
“Yeah.”
She was changing, so no entry.
In that case, they could talk after.
“Then come on out once you're done changing?”
But Kim So-hye turned down Raffaello's offer.
“No. I'm beat—gonna crash early.”
Raffaello took a firmer stance at Kim So-hye's insistence on just sleeping it off.
“Want me to open the door and come in?”
“No, I wanna sleep.”
Kim So-hye stuck to her guns about sleeping, but Raffaello had seen what he'd seen.
He couldn't just drop it.
Raffaello spoke up in a serious tone.
“...You've gotta tell us what's wrong, So-hye, or none of us—me, bro, any of us—are gonna sleep easy. We just got back from the Trials' Arena. How are we supposed to unwind if you're acting like this?”
“...”
Kim So-hye fell silent at Raffaello's words.
Moments later, she opened the door.
*Click.*
And in that instant...
Raffaello realized he'd been right about what he'd glimpsed earlier.
“Who? Who did that to you?”
Raffaello blurted it out upon seeing Kim So-hye in the doorway. Manager Kim rushed over in a panic.
“What did you say? What the hell does that mean?”
From Manager Kim's standpoint, Raffaello's reaction was enough to set him off.
Asking who'd done that to his daughter?
It was as good as saying someone had roughed her up.
As Manager Kim closed in, Kim So-hye—head bowed—thumped Raffaello's chest.
“Argh, seriously! This is exactly why I didn't wanna say anything...”
Manager Kim lifted Kim So-hye's chin.
“Daughter, show me your face.”
That was when Manager Kim saw it.
Kim So-hye's face, bruised in spots here and there.
Manager Kim's expression turned downright murderous.
“Who did this?”
“I just... tripped on the way home...”
Kim So-hye claimed her wounds were from a fall.
But Manager Kim cut in before she could finish.
“You think your old man can't tell a scrape from a fall apart from a beating?”
“Sigh, it was just kids fighting, Dad. You get involved, it turns into a mess.”
“It was a fight?”
“Yeah.”
“Don't give me that nonsense, sweetie. If you got knocked around like this, no way the other side's normal.”
“...”
His daughter went quiet at his words.
She had to.
Kim So-hye's father, Manager Kim, had drilled it into her from childhood: don't let yourself get beaten, no matter where you go.
By that logic, she was way beyond the level where ordinary students could touch her.
And yet she'd come home injured?
No normal person could pull that off.
Manager Kim questioned her about who'd beaten his daughter.
“A Player?”
“...Yeah.”
“But why hide it? If it's a Player, that's exactly when your dad steps up.”
A normal like Kim So-hye stood no chance against a Player.
But the reason she hadn't spoken up was...
“Cuz they're kids.”
Players or not, to Kim So-hye, it was beef with her peers.
That's why she'd kept it under wraps.
She didn't want a kid squabble blowing up into grown-up drama.
Manager Kim wasn't blind to his daughter's reasoning.
“Kids, huh... Yeah, if it was your age beating on you, then kids did it. But listen, sweetie—even minor Players pack more punch than your average adult.”
Plain as day.
Give him any self-proclaimed tough guys from the normal world, even adults versed in scraps or martial arts, and a Player minor could mop the floor with them.
That held after wrapping up just the first Trials' Arena.
Let alone now, post-tenth.
No normal stood a prayer against a Player.
Which was why Manager Kim had some choice thoughts on the Player kids who'd thrashed Kim So-hye.
“Power like that comes with responsibility. But these punks? Players who jumped a normal kid like you? Can't abide that as a fellow Player.”
“Urk, Dad. The thing is...”
Kim So-hye laid out what had gone down at school that day.
Her class originally had zero Players.
She'd sorted out the resident delinquents herself, bringing some peace to the room. Then bam—a transfer student girl shows up, and she's a Player.
Overconfident in her strength, the new girl demanded Kim So-hye hand over the top-dog spot she'd cleared out.
Kim So-hye told her to play bully games somewhere else if that's what she wanted.
Naturally, the now super-powered transfer student wasn't having it.
She beat Kim So-hye senseless one-sidedly, seized the classroom, and in just one day, took over the whole damn school.
Sure, the school had a handful of other Players scattered around, but they weren't the bully type.
Even they were no match for this new Player transfer.
Hearing the story up to that point, Hae-jin mused to himself.
‘Survivors up to now shouldn't be pushovers, even the ones already there.’
For a transfer to unilaterally crush even the established Players? That was no fluke-level threat.
But then, tangling with a girl like that meant Kim So-hye wouldn't have walked away pristine either.
Raffaello asked her about it.
“But So-hye.”
“Yeah?”
“What's your plan going forward? Player or not, even with everything Manager Kim bro taught you, you can't take one.”
“Well...”
Kim So-hye trailed off, at a loss for words.
Made sense.
A normal had zero options against a Player.
Raffaello pressed the hesitating girl.
“No real plan, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“So what then?”
“Honestly? No clue. Asking Dad or Hae-jin bro or you, Rael bro, for a kids' fight just felt... off.”
“Hey, So-hye.”
“Yeah?”
“You pick.”
“Pick what?”
“Way I see it, Dad heads over now? Disaster waiting to happen.”
“Uh...”
Kim So-hye glanced at her father, Manager Kim.
Hae-jin was holding him back for the moment, but his face was thunderous.
Raffaello spoke to Kim So-hye once she'd clocked his expression.
“My take? Hae-jin bro handling it wraps things up neatest. You agree?”
“Yeah... probably.”
Kim So-hye figured Hae-jin stepping in beat her dad charging off, if help was on the table.
Raffaello eyed Hae-jin now that she'd ditched the solo act.
“Yeah, so bro.”
“Hm? Out with it.”
“Heal So-hye up first.”
“Right. Perfect Heal.”
Hae-jin reached out and healed Kim So-hye's wounds.
[Skill! ‘Perfect Heal’ has been used.]
[Recovers all damage from the target.]
*Fwaaah-!*
Thanks to Hae-jin's recovery skill, Kim So-hye's injuries were fully mended.
Raffaello commented upon seeing it.
“This heals you right up—why hold out on us?”
“Sorry...”
“Nothing to be sorry for. Tomorrow, you go to school with Hae-jin bro. No Korean Player's gonna not know him. Right, bro?”
Raffaello had dumped the school drama on Hae-jin.
But it wasn't wrong, so Hae-jin rolled with it.
“Yeah, So-hye. Tomorrow, we'll head to school together, bro and you.”
Kim So-hye had planned to tough it out alone, but with Hae-jin offering to tag along, she couldn't hide her wave of relief.
Beaming gratefully, she gave a spirited reply.
“Yes!”