You Did Well
It was the usual walk home after work.
“Oppa, thanks again for today.”
“Yeah. Get inside safe.”
Once again, Hwangbo Ji-eun was bursting with energy, firing off her usual dirty jokes and teasing. I listened to her the whole way while escorting her back to her place. The moment she punched in the passcode for the shared entrance of her one-room villa and was about to step inside, a man suddenly burst out from the alley beside us.
“J-Ji-eun! Wait…!”
Up until that point I hadn’t thought much of it. I was even half wondering, Is this it?
But then—
“Oppa, what are you doing here…?”
The way Hwangbo Ji-eun’s face stiffened told me everything I needed to know about how serious this was.
This is it. The reason the quest had offered a million won as a reward.
“Uh, can we talk for a minute? Maybe grab a coffee somewhere nearby?”
“No, I’m fine. There’s nothing for us to talk about.”
“I-I brought money.”
“…….”
Hwangbo Ji-eun’s face hardened even further. She was the same girl who had laughed and said she’d let me touch her breasts if I paid her, yet hearing it thrown at her like this clearly didn’t feel great. Of course it didn’t. Suggesting it herself and hearing someone else say it were two completely different things.
Ji-eun really is pretty immature.
After working with her for the past few days, that fact had become obvious. She was a twenty-one-year-old otaku who hadn’t even done her military service. How mature could she possibly be? Bragging about “graduating” a virgin or casually dropping dirty jokes that would make most adults blush—that was just her being a kid with a grown-up body.
“It’s not about the money, oppa. We agreed from the start that it was only about helping you lose your virginity. You’ve got some experience now, so go find a girl you actually like.”
From Ji-eun’s perspective, she was trying to let him down as gently as possible. But from the man’s perspective, it clearly wasn’t landing that way.
“What the hell are you saying…? I like you! I’m doing all this because I like you!”
The man’s condition was worse than I’d thought. He seemed extremely worked up. Had he taken something? Provoking him any further probably wasn’t a good idea.
“I don’t really like you, though?”
“…What? Then why the hell did you sleep with me?”
“Hah, I just felt bad because you were still a virgin…”
“Don’t lie.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said don’t lie! You like me too!!”
From the sidelines, it was obvious the conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Ji-eun was doing her best to be as nice as possible, but the man refused to accept any of it. He was forcing his own obsession on her, and the way he was getting angry was genuinely threatening.
Flinch!
“Why are you acting like this?!”
In the end Ji-eun got scared too. She hid behind me and shouted, “If you keep this up, I’m calling the police!”
The instant the word “police” left her mouth, the man’s eyes went completely insane.
“C-call the police? Who the hell do you think you are?”
And those deranged eyes were now locked directly on me.
“Ah, it’s because of this bastard, isn’t it? The guy who’s been walking you home every single day lately, seducing you. That’s the problem, right? Look at this fucking loser… He doesn’t suit you at all, Ji-eun! Wake up!”
I let out a hollow laugh. A fucking loser, huh. He wasn’t exactly wrong. I’d never heard anyone say I looked intimidating. I’d heard plenty of times that I looked kind, though.
Still, do I really deserve to hear that from a guy like him?
I didn’t have an amazing physique, but I was definitely in better shape than the chubby man standing in front of me.
Anyway.
“O-oppa… what do we do…?”
Ji-eun, facing a situation like this for the first time in her life, was trembling like an ordinary girl and asking me for help. The hand clutching my collar was shaking like a leaf in the wind.
I gently stroked her head and said, “Oppa will handle this, so step back a little more.”
She nodded shakily, barely able to speak, and carefully moved away from me. The man saw it and grew even more agitated, screaming. His eyes were completely bloodshot now.
“See! I was right! It’s all because of that bastard! That’s why you’re ignoring my calls! Ugh… I think about you every single second of the day! Just wait, Ji-eun. I’ll get rid of him for you.”
…….
If I had a more intimidating build, bigger frame, and scarier face, would things have been different? I was having these pointless thoughts when the man pulled something dangerous from his pocket. A kitchen knife wrapped in newspaper.
“Kyaaaaaah! Kyaaak! What are you doing?! Oppa, please don’t!”
Ji-eun screamed the moment she saw it. Lights that had been off inside the villa began turning on one by one. But that only seemed to provoke the man further.
“Hehe… Don’t worry. I just need to take care of that guy.”
Gulp.
I’d already known the situation was dangerous, but the appearance of the actual blade made the tension feel ten times heavier.
“Fuck…”
The curse slipped out on its own. Cold sweat ran down the back of my neck. My thighs tensed involuntarily. My breathing grew rough.
Honestly, how many people ever faced someone holding a kitchen knife in real life? Realistically, almost no one.
But this wasn’t a dream.
There’s nothing in particular you can’t do, is there?
In a way, maybe encountering the Ring was what let me stay relatively calm. I’d already experienced several unrealistic situations through the recent quests. It seemed my courage had grown a little.
“You fucker! If you don’t want to die, get the hell out of the way! I just need a minute with Ji-eun… just a minute!”
The hand holding the kitchen knife was trembling too. Of course he was scared as well. Even if he was a little unhinged, he probably hadn’t ever killed anyone before.
That was when it happened.
Wiiiiiiiiing!
The sound of police sirens echoed from the crosswalk below and rushed toward us. It looked like they had been dispatched the moment they heard Ji-eun’s scream.
Wow, are Korean police seriously this fast?
However…
This is only going to provoke him more.
“Ah, p-police… Fuck! Move! Get out of the way right now!”
Just as I feared. The police might be arriving soon, but unless they could teleport, they couldn’t possibly be faster than a man who had completely lost his mind.
Panicking at the thought of the police, the man charged straight at me, swinging the kitchen knife wildly with one hand.
“……!”
It was fucking terrifying. The random, uncontrolled swings made it even scarier. The blade looked brand new—insanely sharp.
“Uaaaaah! Die, you son of a bitch! You wicked bastard who seduced innocent Ji-eun!”
What surprised me wasn’t just that I was dodging the attacks by backing away. I was actually watching each swing with calm eyes and narrowly avoiding them by a hair’s breadth.
Wow. I had this kind of dynamic vision and agility?
It wasn’t there originally.
You gained it.
It’s from buying the Starter Package a while ago.
That made sense. All my stats had only gone up by one point each, yet my body definitely felt lighter. One point must be worth more than I’d assumed.
From a human perspective?
Quite a lot, actually.
Still, fear was fear. If I’d been an expert at this kind of thing, I would have already subdued the man in front of me.
“What’s going on over there! Stop immediately!”
The moment the police finally arrived, the man grew even more desperate.
“Huk, huk… No! This isn’t funny! Fuck!”
He changed direction, abandoning me and charging straight toward Hwangbo Ji-eun instead. Seeing that, I panicked too. Unlike me, Ji-eun had no way to dodge those attacks.
In the end…
Show some courage, Kim Hyun-woo!
Muttering that embarrassing line to myself, I charged at the man. In one swift motion I grabbed him from behind and locked my arm around his throat.
I don’t even know why I chose that method.
“F-fuck… Let go! Kkuk, krrrk… Let go, uup, uuugh…”
The man struggled violently. I poured every ounce of strength I had into my grip. I wasn’t thinking about killing him at all. I was simply fighting to survive.
Then—
“Stop! You’ll actually kill him!”
The instant the police officer ran up and urgently tapped my arm, I finally exhaled and released the strength in my arms.
“Huk… huk… huk…”
My entire body was drenched in cold sweat. My arms were twitching from how hard I’d squeezed. The man I had choked had his eyes rolled back and was collapsed on the ground. The kitchen knife lay discarded on the floor beside him.
Only after confirming that did every ounce of strength leave my body. I collapsed right there on the spot.
Ha… hahaha… It’s over.
Somehow… I managed.
“Huuueeeng, oppa! Oppa, are you okay?!”
“I-I’m… okay…”
Wow, my voice was shaking badly. I don’t think I trembled this much even during my freshman year presentation.
And then—
“Blood! You’re bleeding, oppa! Huuueeeng, what do we do? Mister officer, our oppa is bleeding!”
I hadn’t even noticed. One of the wild swings must have cut my arm. The adrenaline was still pumping so it didn’t hurt yet, but a stinging sensation was slowly starting to rise.
“We’ll administer first aid immediately, then…”
“Yes, we’ll cooperate fully. We’re a bit shaken up ourselves.”
“Thank you.”
Even though my mind was a complete mess, I ended up accompanying the sobbing Hwangbo Ji-eun all the way to the police station to wrap up the situation.
“Huuueeeng, so that person… hueeng, is someone I met a long time ago… because he was a virgin… I thought I was being nice and… hueeng… slept with him… huuueeeng…”
“Hmm. I’m sorry, but could the boyfriend explain the situation instead? Your girlfriend seems quite traumatized.”
“Ah, yes… I understand.”
While I calmly explained what had happened, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
What would have happened to Ji-eun if I hadn’t been there?
She wouldn’t have died.
But she would have been hurt badly enough to wish she had.
The right cheek would have been sliced open first.
Then, desperately trying to hold on, she would have grabbed the man’s hand only to be stabbed in the abdomen.
While suffering in fear and agony, the police would finally arrive.
The situation would be resolved, but because of that event, Hwangbo Ji-eun would be completely broken beyond repair.
…….
After hearing the Ring’s words, I let out a deep sigh of relief. My arm stung a little, but it was a hundred thousand times better than the nightmare the Ring had just described.
And then—
“You did well.”
“…Pardon?”
“Even police officers get scared when someone’s holding a weapon. You really handled that excellently. If it weren’t for you, this could have ended in disaster. You showed incredible courage.”
Hearing even the police officer say that, I could only lower my head in embarrassment.
Well…
It didn’t feel bad at all.