Chapter 18
Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Surviving the Rabbit Monster (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Tch! I was aiming for the heart!"
Na Youngho clicked his tongue.
The longer he drew back the string of [Air Bow], the more its mana drained and the greater its power grew.
This time, it had gotten too powerful and veered slightly off target.
"Kuoohhh!!"
The rabbit monster clutched its wounded side and let out a howl.
Na Youngho tried to fire another shot, but the distance was tricky.
"Hey! Lee Woo-hyung! Put up a barrier in front!"
If Lee Woo-hyung handled defense, Na Youngho could keep firing safely.
But Lee Woo-hyung was in full panic mode.
"Eek! It's all over now! We're dead meat!"
"Damn it! You idiot!"
Na Youngho grabbed Lee Woo-hyung by the scruff of the neck and yanked him back.
"Kuooh!!"
The rabbit monster charged at them, still clutching its side.
"Hey! Use your skill!!"
Na Youngho shoved Lee Woo-hyung forward as he shouted.
"B-[Barrier Creation]!!"
Creeeak!
A concrete barrier materialized right in front of them.
Boom!!
The rabbit monster slammed into it.
The impact made it stagger a bit.
"Urgh!"
Lee Woo-hyung looked pained too.
Creating the barrier was one thing, but maintaining its durability seemed to take a ton of stamina.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The rabbit monster pounded the barrier with its fists.
Each hit sent cement dust flying as the barrier's durability dropped.
"Aaaagh! Aaaagh!"
Lee Woo-hyung screamed, constantly reinforcing the crumbling barrier.
His stamina and mana drained with every patch-up, but it held firm.
"Urgh."
"Hey, Lee Woo-hyung."
"Huff, huff... what?!"
"Can you make a small hole in the barrier? Just enough for me to shoot arrows through the gap."
"Ugh, I can't be that precise!"
"Tch. Then quit thinking and just hold it together."
Na Youngho drew back the string of his [Air Bow] with all his might.
These were system messages visible only to Na Youngho's eyes.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"Drop the barrier exactly 9 seconds from now."
"Huh?!"
"Trust me. The second it drops, I'll fire and kill it in one shot."
Na Youngho wore the same steely expression he had during competitions.
"D-damn it!"
"...5 seconds, 4, 3, 2!"
Na Youngho counted down rapidly.
"1 second! Drop it!"
"Aaaah! Whatever!"
Whoosh!
Lee Woo-hyung dissolved the wall.
But the rabbit monster beyond it was already gone.
"It's... gone?!"
"Ngh...!"
Only corpses and Oh Sua, trembling in the corner.
The rabbit monster had vanished.
Shoo...
Na Youngho eased off the bowstring a bit.
Holding it at max charge nonstop would keep draining his stamina.
"Ah, over there!"
Lee Woo-hyung pointed at the ceiling.
There was a hole punched through it.
"...It escaped to the rooftop."
The rabbit monster hadn't broken through Lee Woo-hyung's [Barrier Creation]. It had retreated midway and smashed through the ceiling instead.
"Haa... It smashed the ceiling too? How strong is that thing?"
"Don't freak out."
"B-but."
Grab!
Na Youngho seized Lee Woo-hyung by the collar.
"It couldn't smash your [Barrier Creation], so it punched through the ceiling and ran. That means your barrier's tougher than the building's ceiling. Don't freak out!!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
"Good."
He let go of the collar again.
"To figure out if it really ran or if it's luring us near that hole, there's only one way."
"Wh-what's that?"
"Use [Barrier Creation]. Make it smaller this time, shield-sized—just big enough to cover your body."
"Will that work? I've only made walls so far."
"Try it."
"[Barrier Creation]!"
Whoosh!
Just as Na Youngho asked, a body bunker-sized barrier—like what SWAT uses for entry—appeared.
"Whoa... It worked."
That was when it happened.
Thud!!
Thud!!
Vibrations rumbled from the floor.
"Huh?"
Crack!!
Boom!!
The floor beneath Lee Woo-hyung shattered, and one of his legs dropped through.
"Whoa?!"
"Ngh! From below?!"
The rabbit monster had climbed out through the ceiling, scaled the outer wall to the third floor below, and punched through the third-floor ceiling—aka the fourth-floor floor—reaching up.
Boom! Bang!
The rabbit monster widened the hole by smashing more.
Now it was big enough to swallow a whole person.
"Hiiiik!"
Lee Woo-hyung struggled not to fall in.
"Kruryuryuryuh!!"
Drool flying, the rabbit monster yanked at Lee Woo-hyung's leg.
"H-hyung! Save me!!"
"You're fine! I'll kill it!!"
Na Youngho immediately fired air arrows at the hole in the floor.
Shoo-shoo!
Pew-pew!
No aiming, just spraying—but a few hit the rabbit monster's ear and shoulder.
"Kyaaah!!"
Thud!
The rabbit monster plummeted to the floor below.
"Lee Woo-hyung! Jump down!"
"Huh?!"
"Jump with the shield, you moron! Crush the monster bastard!!"
"U-uaaaah!!"
Lee Woo-hyung did as told.
"Keeik?!"
The rabbit monster looked shocked too.
Boom!!
Pinned under the hefty barrier gripped by Lee Woo-hyung, the rabbit monster convulsed, vomiting blood.
"W-we did it."
Lee Woo-hyung said as he stood.
"We did it, hyung! I killed it!"
"...Looks like it."
Na Youngho headed down from the fourth floor to the third.
The rabbit monster lay motionless, spewing blood.
"Hahaha! Nice one!"
"Hahahaha! We did it! We're gonna live, hyung!"
Na Youngho and Lee Woo-hyung laughed in joy.
"Wait, but..."
Na Youngho suddenly felt a chill.
"Why hasn't the mission clear popped up?"
That instant.
Ziiing...!
Golden light enveloped the dead rabbit monster's body.
Precisely, below its neck.
"What...!"
Lee Woo-hyung instantly formed his shield-barrier, and Na Youngho fired air arrows at the corpse again.
Shoo!
Ting-ting!
All bounced off.
"So that's what it was...!"
Na Youngho realized.
The rabbit monster was a fusion of the Bunny Girl's head and Lee Kyungsoo's body.
"Meaning... it has two skills...!"
If transforming into a rabbit monster was the Bunny Girl's original skill, then [50% Chance Revival on Death] must be Lee Kyungsoo's.
'Lee Kyungsoo cursing out the Total Administrator? That must've been from the excessive combat instinct penalty after reviving...!'
Lee Kyungsoo had probably died and revived once in a previous deathmatch.
That explained his violent personality shift.
Na Youngho pieced it all together.
The one thing he couldn't figure out?
'50% chance on death? If we're unlucky, it could keep reviving no matter how many times we kill it!! How the hell do we beat that!!!'
Of course, the [50% Chance Revival on Death] skill had limits.
'Die again within 3 minutes of reviving, and it's really over.'
But Na Youngho didn't know that.
"Krrrh...!"
The revived rabbit monster stretched lightly.
"H-hyung. What now?"
"Kyaaah!!"
The rabbit monster unleashed a roundhouse kick.
Wham!!
It struck the side of Lee Woo-hyung's shield, exposing his flank.
"Huh?!"
Crack!!
Snap!!
The follow-up punches snapped Lee Woo-hyung's neck, killing him.
"U-uaaaah!!"
Na Youngho fired air arrows instantly.
Shoo!
Pew-pew!
A few lodged in the rabbit monster's legs.
He tried for more, but...
"Huff, huff?!"
His breath came ragged.
As a skill, spamming it drained mana and stamina.
Plus, since it drew in ambient air, rapid fire thinned out the air around him.
"Kyaaak!!"
"Ugh... ah...!"
And the distance was way too close.
'Gotta bail first!'
Whoosh!
Na Youngho bolted, the rabbit monster in pursuit.
'Damn. Can't win.'
The monster's base specs were high enough, but fighting one that could revive was suicide.
Na Youngho raced for the stairs, but the rabbit monster's steps were faster.
'Jump out the window then!'
Crash!
Na Youngho hurled himself through a stairwell window.
"Kyaaah!!"
The rabbit monster lunged to grab him, but Na Youngho was quicker.
Swoosh!
As he leaped out, he fired his [Air Bow] at the monster.
Thud-boom!
Pew!
"Kuaaaah!!"
The [Air Bow] blew out one of the rabbit monster's eyeballs.
Clutching its eye, it collapsed on the third floor.
Meanwhile, Na Youngho—in mid-fall—fired an air arrow at the ground below.
"Spread out, air! As wide as possible!!"
Thwap!
The air arrow hit the floor and...
Whoosh...!!
It burst, forming a mattress of compressed pure air that cushioned Na Youngho's landing.
Thud!
"Urgh...!"
For jumping from the third floor, it was a light injury.
'Gotta get outta here.'
Na Youngho unfolded the note Dokgo Hyun had given him: "Open in emergencies."
The note read:
"Follow your plan, and if it fails, come find me. Waiting in 3rd Year Class 4 classroom."
* * *
3rd Year Class 4 classroom.
Dokgo Hyun, Baek Seonghui, and Na Youngho were there.
Na Youngho chugged a Healing Potion like water while explaining rapidly.
"...That's the gist of it."
"Hm. I see."
Dokgo Hyun nodded and fired off a question.
"So the rabbit monster's tough on its own, and even when you kill it, there's a 50% chance it revives?"
"Yeah."
Na Youngho's face was pure despair, but Dokgo Hyun looked nonchalant.
"Then what've you been doing all this time?"
"Huh?"
"It revives after a delay with a system message, right? Couldn't you just hit it with skills or whatever the moment it happens? Why stand there gawking?"
"......"
"Archer class and you don't know coup de grâce? What a letdown."
"Ugh...!"
Under Dokgo Hyun's critique, Na Youngho felt like a total moron.
"He couldn't have known. Who'd expect revival?"
Baek Seonghui stepped in to defend him.
"Sure, but usually you get a mission clear message on kill, right? Shouldn't that make you suspicious if it doesn't pop?"
Dokgo Hyun said it like he was the paranoid one.
Na Youngho had no comeback.
"Yeah. My bad. Sorry."
"Nah, it's not all on you. Can't help the mission's tricks."
Dokgo Hyun, who'd been harsh, switched tones and patted Na Youngho's shoulder.
As he did, he thought:
'The Bunny Girl and Lee Kyungsoo fusion wasn't just visuals—it merged their skills too.'
With that figured out, Dokgo Hyun was certain.
"Guess we team up then."
"That's why I'm here."
Dokgo Hyun extended his hand smoothly.
"Huh? Fist bump for good luck?"
"No."
Dokgo Hyun's palm faced upward.
"Then?"
"You wanna ally with us, right? But nothing's free in this world."
"You...!"
Archery club ace Na Youngho never imagined he'd get shaken down like this.
"Don't get it twisted. Not asking for cash."
"Then what?"
"Hand over a mini-item."
"My mini-item?"
Na Youngho pulled out his spray paint can and tilted his head.
"If you want this junk, take it."
"Perfect."
Dokgo Hyun swiftly stashed the spray in his Inventory Window and got to the point.
"Let's start with our skills?"
Dokgo Hyun revealed his first to ease suspicions.
"Mine's [Instant Acceleration]."
Of course, a lie.
His real skill was [Time Distortion], and [Instant Acceleration] was just one derived technique.
No way was he spilling all his secrets.
In this death game, there were no eternal allies or enemies.
"Like accelerating myself or objects super fast. Like this."
Dokgo Hyun stood at the back of the classroom.
Whoosh!
He dashed to the blackboard in a blur.
"Fast. Simple but solid skill."
Na Youngho bought it.
He never dreamed Dokgo Hyun would hide his power even now.
Without a shred of doubt, he shared his own.
"Mine's [Air Bow], like I said. Creates a bow that shoots air arrows."
Next, Baek Seonghui spoke up.
"I have [Winged Cat Summon]."
Poof!
Baek Seonghui summoned her cat.
A chubby one with wings.
"Doesn't look strong."
"It can trigger [Berserk] three times a day. Then it gets huge and powerful."
A winged cat in [Berserk] swelled to tiger size.
That's how Baek Seonghui survived her one-on-one deathmatch.
"Three [Berserk]s a day, huh."
A good idea sparked.