Toy Hammer vs. Pot
I explained the rules of the Toy Hammer Game first.
"Let's start with a round of rock-paper-scissors. Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
I threw rock; Seo Ye-in threw paper.
Kim Ho wins.
I picked up the toy hammer sitting on the folding desk and gently tapped it against Seo Ye-in's head.
"The winner attacks with the toy hammer. Again — rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
This time I threw rock and Seo Ye-in threw scissors.
Seo Ye-in wins.
With a look that said oh, it's like this?, Seo Ye-in slowly brought the toy hammer down toward my head, and I gave a nod while simultaneously flipping the pot over and putting it on top.
The toy hammer then gave the little pot a light bonk.
"The loser defends with the pot. Does that all check out?"
"Check."
"And grabbing the wrong one is a foul. If you win the rock-paper-scissors but grab the pot, or lose but grab the hammer — that's a foul."
"Foul, check."
To sum it up: whether you won or lost the rock-paper-scissors, you had to snatch the right tool off the desk in a flash and follow through with the attack or the defense.
You could call it a game that demanded a fair bit of quick reflexes.
Seo Ye-in showed a flicker of interest, but mere curiosity wouldn't be enough.
If I was going to have her do this all week, I needed stronger motivation.
So I decided to dangle a modest reward.
"Beat me ten times and you get one Wish Ticket. How's that sound?"
"......The pillow?"
Seo Ye-in, true to her desires.
Ever since she'd slept like a baby on the Kim Ho Pillow during the midterms, she'd shown a peculiar attachment to me.
She'd even leaned on me the entire time she was talking with Ahn Jung-mi.
And honestly, if she insisted on spending a Wish Ticket on that, there was no reason I couldn't oblige — so I nodded readily.
"The pillow's fine too."
"Ten wins......!"
With my approval, Seo Ye-in's competitive fire blazed even hotter.
It looked like she intended to rack up ten wins in short order and claim the Kim Ho Pillow for herself.
Won't be that easy, though.
Whether she could take even a single win off me — let alone ten — remained to be seen.
Before we began, I used Amplification to raise Bestow by two ranks.
Using Amplification.
The rank of Bestow has increased. (F → D)
Then I passed a skill over to Seo Ye-in through Bestow.
Using Bestow.
Bestowing 'Wind Force (C+)' upon the target.
Rank of bestowed 'Wind Force': E
Cooldown: 00:03:58
Bestowing a skill at F-rank dropped it three tiers, but at D-rank the penalty was only two.
On top of that, the higher rank had substantially shortened the cooldown, and the Special Training Room's 90% reduction slashed it down even further.
The end result: this devastating skill could now be used once every four minutes.
As long as I simply kept re-casting it every time the cooldown came back around during our training, her escape from F-rank was as good as guaranteed.
- Fwiiiish—
Seo Ye-in, apparently fascinated by Wind Force, sent gusts of wind this way and that.
But it was a skill completely mismatched with her class, so all she managed was a light flutter of her hair.
I took half a step toward the desk.
"Shall we begin, then?"
"Okay."
"Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
I threw paper; Seo Ye-in threw rock.
Seo Ye-in loses.
By the time she'd picked up the pot, however, the toy hammer was already descending on her head.
- BOING!
"Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
I threw scissors; Seo Ye-in threw rock.
Seo Ye-in wins.
But her swinging hammer never even reached half of its arc — it was cut off mid-swing, blocked by the pot in empty air.
- CLANG—!
A crisp, clear ring echoed through the room.
We set down whatever we were holding back on the desk and continued the rock-paper-scissors as if nothing had happened.
"Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
Another win for me.
Before Seo Ye-in could get her guard up, the toy hammer cracked against her head once more.
- BOING!
Even going up against my lucky mascot in rock-paper-scissors, I wasn't the slightest bit behind.
My win rate was actually higher than hers.
Because I don't play on luck alone.
Going against Seo Ye-in on pure chance alone left me with no real shot at winning.
Go Hyeon-woo had already proven as much with his fifteen-game losing streak.
But for the hero candidates who had transcended the limits of ordinary humans, the outcome of rock-paper-scissors was never decided by luck alone.
There was the sharp eye that caught the subtlest twitch of an opponent's fingers — and the reaction speed to read it and respond in an instant.
From what I'd observed, Seo Ye-in's eye was quite good, but it still fell somewhat short of a veteran gamer's caliber.
So the win rate settled at about 75% for me, with Seo Ye-in taking the remainder.
Of course, that was only the rock-paper-scissors win rate.
For toy hammer accuracy, I sat at 100% and Seo Ye-in at 0%.
The speed gap alone was considerable, to say nothing of our difference in close-quarters combat experience.
In the end, far from her original plan of "quick ten wins, then the Kim Ho Pillow," Seo Ye-in failed to take even a single game and got hammered, one-sidedly, over and over.
- BOING! BOING! BOING-BOING! BOING-BOING-BOING!
"......"
Seo Ye-in stared at me intently.
On her expressionless face, a single thread of competitive pride flickered.
This, too, was one of my intentions.
With its trademark squishy impact and that grating little boing sound effect, the toy hammer had a way of souring your mood considerably the longer it went on.
In other words, it was tailor-made for provoking someone's competitive streak.
She'll start using it soon.
Right on cue, at the very instant the next round of rock-paper-scissors began,
- FLASH!
Seo Ye-in activated Bullet Time.
She could read every minute movement of my fingers — exactly what I was about to throw — so matching it meant a guaranteed win.
- FLASH!
With the Special Training Room's 90% cooldown reduction applied, Bullet Time could now be cast once every thirty seconds.
Which meant a rock-paper-scissors victory every thirty seconds.
Seo Ye-in's win rate shot up accordingly, but there was one unfortunate problem.
Winning rock-paper-scissors isn't the end of it.
A game only counted once she'd cleared the next stage as well — landing the toy hammer.
And so far, Seo Ye-in's accuracy sat at a flat 0%.
By design, the Toy Hammer Game put the defender at a greater disadvantage than the attacker, because the pot's surface area was so small.
With a big pot, you could just flip it over your head like a helmet — but this tin pot was barely the size of a palm.
To block the incoming hammer, you had to position it precisely at the point of impact.
Granted, that much was never particularly hard for me.
It had been a long time since I'd mastered close-quarters combat.
- CLANG!
The toy hammer rapped against the overturned pot again and again, each strike ringing out with that crisp, clear tone.
- CLANG! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!
Seo Ye-in was casting Bullet Time every time the cooldown returned and winning the rock-paper-scissors, but whenever it came to actually swinging the hammer, she kept getting stuffed at every turn.
And how did she fare on defense?
- BOING! BOING! BOING-BOING-BOING!
Still couldn't block a single one. Accuracy: 100%.
Unlike me, Seo Ye-in had only ever experienced ranged combat in bulk, and she wasn't accustomed to close-range defense.
The pot's tiny size made defending even harder.
Cover her forehead with the pot and the hammer thudded into her temple; cover her temple and it cracked off her forehead — or the other side.
- BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!
Head covered, Seo Ye-in gazed at me steadily.
I think she's getting angry.
At the same time, she seemed to have come to a realization.
That against me, raising her rock-paper-scissors win rate meant nothing at all.
Only by using Bullet Time in the hammer exchanges did she stand any real chance.
I resumed the game.
"Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
I threw rock; Seo Ye-in threw paper.
Kim Ho wins.
- FLASH!
Seo Ye-in immediately activated Bullet Time.
She caught the toy hammer I swung straight down with her pot.
- CLANG!
It was the moment the 100% hammer accuracy finally broke.
Having taken her first step at last, I felt a quiet satisfaction.
"Good, let's keep it up. Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
But every gain comes with a price.
Because she'd devoted Bullet Time to the hammer exchanges, her rock-paper-scissors win rate swung back in my favor.
And so I won this round as well.
- FLASH!
Seo Ye-in activated Bullet Time right away, just as before — but I had anticipated even that.
I simply stood there holding the hammer, and the short-lived duration of Bullet Time drained away.
And in the very next moment,
- BOING!!
Lightning-fast, I planted the toy hammer squarely on her gray head.
"Don't burn it so hastily. Work on timing it properly."
"......"
Seo Ye-in gave a small nod up and down.
Already a woman of few words — she somehow felt even fewer now.
More rock-paper-scissors followed, and more exchanges of hammer and pot.
I started to swing the toy hammer, stopped halfway, swung it through — repeating the rhythm over and over, constantly varying the tempo.
All so Seo Ye-in could find the optimal timing, rather than firing Bullet Time off too rashly or too late.
She still got hit more often than she blocked,
- BOING-BOING-BOING! CLANG! BOING-BOING-BOING! CLANG!
She's keeping up well.
Her successful blocks were visibly increasing.
And with that, my hit rate was visibly falling.
Which meant her proficiency was climbing fast.
A monster of talent, as always.
At this rate, she'd probably hit E-rank well before the week I'd budgeted ran out.
"Rock, paper—"
"—scissors."
I threw scissors; Seo Ye-in threw rock.
Aw, I lost.
I reached naturally toward the desk to defend.
But the spot where the pot should have been was empty.
Seo Ye-in had taken it first.
Why'd she grab the pot when she won?
With that question in mind, I lifted my head — and immediately had to widen both my eyes.
"Hey, you—"
Because there was Seo Ye-in, mid-full-swing, pot hurtling toward me.
- KRAK—!!
Thanks to the unfortunate accident, the Toy Hammer Game and the Bullet Time special lecture were temporarily suspended.
"Hands up properly."
"......Sorry."
The perpetrator, Seo Ye-in, stood at attention with both hands raised above her head.
When I fixed her with an axe-blade glare, her eyes slid guiltily away.
I walked over to Seo Ye-in and pressed her in an interrogating tone.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you."
No, no, she shook her head.
"That was no lie — that pot swing was loaded with emotion. You know you were angry."
"......A little?"
"Sure, you're allowed to be angry. But does that mean you get to hit people with pots? Yes or no?"
"No."
I thrust the pot before the perpetrator's eyes — evidence and murder weapon alike.
"Do you see this? Do you see what you've done?"
"Kim Ho-shaped pot."
That was how hard she'd swung: the pot was driven deep inward, molded into the shape of my skull.
Seo Ye-in poked at it curiously with her fingertip a few times, then, when I narrowed my eyes, raised both hands again.
I pressed her once more in my interrogating tone.
"Do you repent?"
"I repent."
"And from now on, you won't hit anyone with a pot, will you?"
"......Check."
"Hands down."
When Seo Ye-in lowered her hands and came closer, I slipped my hand inside the pot and applied force.
With a series of creaks and pops, the Kim Ho-shaped pot flattened back out — though the dent remained, leaving the surface lumpy and uneven.
Guess it's no good for cooking anymore.
And it was borrowed from the kitchen, too.
Still, it should have no trouble blocking a toy hammer.
I set the pot back on the table.
"Let's continue."
"Okay."
The Toy Hammer Game carried on deep into the night.
But from the dented pot, the old crisp, clear ring could be heard no more.