If a Rabbit Doesn't Know to Fear the Beast

Silk of a deep crimson, richer than spilled blood.

A dress that fell in smooth lines along every curve of the body.

A figure both bewitching and beautiful.

The vivid red set against her porcelain-white skin seemed to stain the very space she stood in.

An arrogantly lifted chin. A gaze looking down from on high.

She was, without question, no ordinary opponent.

Come to think of it, I had a cousin who was always running around in red clothes clutching a rabbit doll. Was she seven back then?

Is that what she'll grow up into? My aunt must have had it rough.

I snorted a quiet laugh and shifted my gaze past Jeokmyo.

Twelve men in black suits.

So the entire Twelve had come, it seemed.

"Chilmyo."

"Yes, Lady Jeokmyo."

"Is that him?"

"Yes. It is."

"Good work. Reliable as ever."

Aw, look at our Chilmyo.

Apparently he's a subordinate she trusts.

"I am Jeokmyo of the Twelve Earthly Branches. Comply quietly if you wish to live."

"Where exactly am I supposed to go?"

"······? You heard who I am, and you still talk back? Do you assume that because this is Korea, I cannot touch you?"

"What's your problem? Is asking where you're going really worth throwing a tantrum over? And by the way—'This One' my ass. Coming out with that kind of talk, you're not even funny."

"······What did you say?"

In an instant, Jeokmyo's face flushed crimson.

Blood-red mana erupted from her body.

Hisssss—

Killing intent—

—though if you could call it that, it was downright adorable.

Except, hold on. Why did her killing intent—

Why did it feel like a rabbit trembling in front of a beast of prey?

Unlike when I'd met Team Leader Cho Sanghyuk, I hadn't released a single wisp of my demonic energy.

I was curious how strong these people actually were.

And yet—

Why are they scared out of their minds?

"Don't come to someone else's country and run your mouth. Turn around and go home quietly. Otherwise, I'll beat you half to death and send you to prison. Ah, and even if you do go home, fix that speech pattern of yours. Quit trying so hard to sound tough."

I deliberately made myself sound even cruder.

Rough enough to read as mere bluster.

"Oho. So unfazed even by my killing intent—"

"Ah! Fix. The. Speech! Before I beat it out of you!"

The moment I cut ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her off mid-sentence, her expression froze over, cold and hard.

But what could she do about it?

She annoyed me too much to let it slide.

"You seem to be struggling for your life there."

"That would be you."

"Legendary-class, is it? How precious. Let me confirm whether you truly have the strength to act that way before me."

"Be my guest."

Jeokmyo put on a magnificent show of fury.

All while terror gnawed at her from the inside.

She slipped a hand into her inventory and drew out an item the size of a palm.

It looked like a miniature fortress.

"This is a subspace artifact, the Steel Colosseum. If you're an awakener, you've heard of it at least once?"

"Of course."

The Steel Colosseum was a Tower item.

When disputes broke out between awakeners, it let them fight without any collateral damage to the real world.

I had no trouble reading her true intentions.

It's a trap.

She had probably scanned my mana.

And sensing nothing at all, she'd gotten spooked.

No doubt she'd rigged something up inside the Colosseum.

But honestly—

Even if these small fry pulled something, could they beat Cho Sanghyuk or Daniel?

Impossible.

However.

Would it really only be them in danger?

"I hereby invite you inside. If all that insolence wasn't mere bluster, then accept!"

Crimson mana flowed out of Jeokmyo as she entered the Steel Colosseum.

Amid a brilliant flash of light, a blue notification appeared.

I accepted without hesitation.

"Sure."

Pin—

The scenery before my eyes shifted, just like entering a Tower floor.

It really is a colosseum straight out of imagination.

I extended my ki sense to gauge the arena's dimensions.

Walls of dark gray steel encircled the space in a perfect ring, roughly thirty meters high.

The floor was solid granite, about five hundred meters across.

There was no ceiling—just open sky.

A night sky strewn with the Big Dipper.

The view was so beautiful I found myself wondering about the maker.

Not a single current of air stirs inside. Completely severed from the outside, then.

Jeokmyo and her rabbit underlings stood arrayed on one side of the arena—when suddenly, blood-red mana began to ripple around them.

Wuuuuum—

The crimson mana swallowed the entire Colosseum, and thick ropes surged up from the floor to coil around my limbs.

Crunch—

The red ropes locked my movement in place.

Oho.

Apparently they'd prepared every trick in the book.

"Fun."

I gave them a faint, amused smile.

The acting ended here.

I unleashed the Heavenly Demon energy coiled within my dantian.

Huuuuuum—!

Violet radiance began devouring the sea of red.

Jeokmyo of the Twelve Earthly Branches.

Her first impression of Yu Jaewoo had been one word: handsome.

Tall frame, fine skin, deep black hair.

A sturdy physique that not even a long black coat could hide, and eyes that seemed to hold an abyss within them.

But appearance alone couldn't judge strength, so she had used her skill, Mana Detection Lv18.

'Wǒ cào!'

A curse burst out inside her.

'I can't sense anything?'

A man who'd cleared Floors 1 through 15 in under ten seconds—possessing no readable mana at all?

He was concealing it.

'He's dangerous.'

But this operation had been decided by the entire Twelve Earthly Branches.

She couldn't return empty-handed.

'If I go back like this, my position is done for. The others might get away with it, but I can't step down. Not when my family is being held.'

So Jeokmyo gambled.

The Steel Colosseum.

Inside the arena waited a formation she had poured her heart and soul into constructing—a sealing array built with no fewer than thirty high-grade mana stones.

'I'll seal his movements with that, then lock his limbs in mana shackles.'

It seemed absurd to go this far just to subdue a mere Level 15 climber, but her instincts had screamed at her to do everything in her power.

'My palms are sweating. This is no time to protect my pride.'

She had even secured an escape route in case the enemy proved stronger than she'd anticipated.

'Don't hesitate to declare surrender.'

The Tower item known as the Steel Colosseum expelled all participants the instant anyone inside declared surrender.

If the enemy turned out to be stronger than her?

She would simply flee in that moment of chaos.

The only real problem would be if he refused to enter the Colosseum at all—but contrary to her worries, he had accepted without a fuss, and Jeokmyo allowed herself a knowing smile.

'He walked into the Steel Colosseum without a shred of suspicion. That arrogance of his will be the very chains that bind him.'

"Activate the formation!"

Her command fell, and the First through Twelfth pressed both ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠palms to the ground.

They poured every drop of their mana into the array. Just as planned, the Crimson Blood Seal Formation roared to life, and ropes of blood burst forth, binding the legendary-class awakener hand and foot.

"Now we only need to fasten the shackles."

But in that very moment,

Jeokmyo saw Yu Jaewoo smiling.

Goosebumps erupted across her entire body.

She clutched her whitening head and swallowed dryly.

Gulp—

'I—I can't.'

She couldn't move a single step.

Run up to that and fasten shackles on him?

No. She needed to run. Now.

She finally understood.

That there were beings in this world who had every right to be arrogant. What savage beast that shook heaven and earth would ever fear the tricks of a rabbit?

Then—

Guuuuung—!

Violet light swallowed the sealing formation whole.

A sea of demonic energy descended upon the Colosseum.

Jeokmyo realized she had no chance of winning.

"Sur—"

Fuk—

Just as she opened her mouth to declare surrender, Yu Jaewoo blasted across the ground and pressed shut her mute point—a pressure point that, when sealed with inner force, renders one unable to speak—along with her qi points.

The First through Twelfth fared no better.

No one could move.

Step—

From the far end of the Colosseum, the legendary-class awakener Yu ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jaewoo came walking.

Step—

With every step he took, Jeokmyo's heart pounded like a runaway drum.

'I should have run the first moment I saw him.'

Regret crashed over her in waves, but it was already far too late.

Step—

"······!"

As though the ground itself had folded.

Yu Jaewoo was there before her in the blink of an eye.

Her eyes were wide open, fixed straight ahead—yet she hadn't caught even a single frame of his movement.

Yu Jaewoo stopped in front of Jeokmyo and spoke.

"If a rabbit raises its paw before a beast of prey, do you think it can spare its own life?"

GRROOOWL—!

Demonic energy risen from the very depths of hell roared like a lion, and Jeokmyo's eyes rolled back as she collapsed in a dead faint.

Gurgle—

Yu Jaewoo looked down at the foaming, unconscious Jeokmyo and said, dumbfounded:

"Seriously? Fainted right away?"

"Tsk tsk. And here I thought there might be something to you."

I clicked my tongue at Jeokmyo, out cold with her eyes rolled back. Just in case, I glanced over at the First through Twelfth—all twelve of them were foaming at the mouth, unconscious.

"Ha— what a handful."

It felt like a waste to just send them home like this.

Hadn't I earned the right to take at least something off them?

After reining in the energy still boiling out of me, I used my Void-Grasping technique to line the rabbits up in a row.

"Wake up, you bastards."

At my words, the rabbits snapped back to their senses in an instant.

Not that I'd undone the seals on their speech or their bodies.

Not a single one of them could talk or move.

"Listen up, and listen well."

Wuuuuum—

I cast the Soul-Capturing Art, and the rabbits' faces went slack and glassy.

Fuk-fuk-fuk-fuk—

Then I flicked out threads of energy and released the seals on their qi points.

"From this moment on, every one of you rabbit bastards is going to pull every last item out of your inventories and lay them out in front of you! Execute!"

The rabbits reached into their inventories and began producing their goods. Mana stones, talismans, random boxes, mana-sealing shackles, Chinese yuan, and more—a whole variety of items piled up.

I went through the rest as well.

Instructions for crafting explosive flame talismans, a primer on hand-to-hand combat, martial arts manuals, an... erotic magazine? The Art of War, the Twelve Earthly Branches' ledgers, the Twelve Earthly Branches' roster.

"Ledgers and a roster of the Twelve, huh."

Those could wait. What mattered right now was—

Expansion tickets—obviously I was using all of them.

"Yes!"

"Oh yeah!"

In an instant, my storage space had grown enormously.

After that, I stowed anything that looked as useful as the Golden Wound Salve into my own inventory, and loaded the mana stones into the Contract Inventory.

1,387 lowest-grade mana stones. 13.87 million won.

800 low-grade mana stones. 80 million won.

66 mid-low-grade mana stones. 66 million won.

16 mid-grade mana stones. 660 million won.

I didn't even bother counting the yuan.

Same with the assorted talismans and items.

Oh, and there'd been demon iron and raw ore too—all of it went into the Contract Inventory.

Next, I turned to the random boxes.

Four C-Class random boxes.

Four D-Class random boxes.

Four E-Class random boxes.

"It's gacha time!"

These days, the mere sight of a random box made my heart race.

I immediately took out the fusion agent, applied it box by box, sorted by grade, and breathed my magnificent Heavenly Demon energy into them.

Wuuuuuum—!

Squirm— squirm—

The fusion agent dyed itself violet

and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swallowed each box whole.

And then—

Shaaaaa—!

"Whoaaaaa."

All of them had turned into ???-Class.

Even this much alone made the gacha a resounding success.

That said—

What exactly are the conditions for a ???-Class result?

Did it have nothing to do with the grades before fusion?

I couldn't figure out the principle at all.

Summarizing the data so far:

One: I'd used four or more boxes.

Two: I'd breathed Heavenly Demon energy into them.

"Next time I'll experiment with three."

I opened one of the ???-Class random boxes right away.

Screeeech—

"Insane!"

A Random Skill Point Acquisition Ticket again!

Dopamine came flooding back through my whole body.

Truly, nothing in this world beats gacha.

"Spin it! Now! Hurry!"

I'm telling you, I'm dizzy with excitement!

On the bluish window,

four question marks appeared and began spinning wildly.

Doom-doom-doom-doom—

Come on, come on!

Ding—!

"Wha—! I got even more than last time!"

A curse slipped out of me before I could help it.

Wahaha. Haha. Gacha: total victory.