The Picnic and the Thunderbolt Master
When I opened the door to the training hall with the picnic basket in hand, a thick wave of sweat hit me. "Hey, guys." As I stepped inside the wide entrance and called out to my friends, the gazes of the guys who had been lifting weights all turned toward me. The trio in the distance spotted me too and waved. "Baekseol, just deliver this and then let's go find Danpung." "Eung!" My friends were clearly in for a rough time ahead, so I figured I should at least feed them well.
"Did you call for me?" While I was organizing the things I'd prepared for them, someone approached and spoke up. "Who are you?" "Ah, I'm from Class B..." Just then, a hand landed on the man's shoulder and stopped him. "Aagh! What the—?!" The man who had been reaching out clutched his shoulder and spun around with a sharp glare. "Scram. She's our supporter." "S-Senior Shinyong..." Realizing who had grabbed him, the man took a step back. "The vice-top is here too." Chanyong and Noah popped out from behind Shinyong. "I'm the dragon." "No one asked. And I'm the dragon too." They were bickering without a break as usual.
"Stop fighting and come eat this." "What's that?" When I shook the lunch basket in my hand, all three pairs of eyes lit up. They had already guessed without me saying a word. "I packed high-protein lunches for you guys." "Excellent. As expected of our supporter." Shinyong, whose expression barely changed, gave a thumbs-up with his usual blank face. This guy was getting weirder the longer I knew him. "Gaeul, did you make these yourself?" "Of course." "Oh yeah!" Kim Chanyong flailed his arms like an excited balloon and started acting up. "Let's eat on the grass." "A fine decision." "Hurry up." "Thanks, Gaeul."
"Ta-da." "Whoa!" When I spread out the mat on the grass and laid out all the food, short cheers burst from the trio. "You guys have been working hard preparing for the match, so I put in some extra effort." "Woooh!" Chanyong gave the biggest reaction, but the other two weren't far behind. "Our supporter really is the best." "Haha, thanks for the food, Gaeul." "Dig in until you burst." The noisy guys instantly went quiet the moment food entered their mouths, eating like proper men.
"Chanyong, have more soup." "Mm-mm!" Anyone watching would think they were facing mortal enemies. They ate like it was a battle. "Owae eia eu iai eueue..." "Dude, swallow first and then talk." "Ugh." "High-protein low-fat meals are usually dry and tough, so why does this taste good?" Kim Chanyong nodded. "That's because you guys are stuck eating chicken breast. Stuff like this beef or cuttlefish costs more but doesn't have that problem. And since you're not dieting on purpose, you should eat a decent amount of fat too." Chanyong nodded again and started moving his spoon even faster.
"Eat plenty, guys." "Mm!" "It's so good!" "Delicious, Gaeul." "It's probably your last supper, after all." A sudden silence fell over the trio as they ate. "Cough!" Maybe startled by the quiet, Kim Chanyong coughed and spat out a grain of rice. "You okay? Here, drink some water." I handed him the water bottle and he gulped it down in a panic. Once he finished, he stared straight at me without a word. The other two wore the exact same look. "What? Just finish your food." "Gaeul, that 'last supper' you just said..." "A last supper is a last supper. You know, the meal you eat before you die?" Noah, who had asked the question, rolled his eyes around. "Food!" "Want some too, Baekseol?" "Eung!" Ding! "Yay!" Baekseol settled on my lap and started nibbling on flowers.
"Um... Gaeul." "Yeah?" "Are we going to die?" Gulp. Kim Chanyong's Adam's apple bobbed as he heard Noah's loaded question. "Halfway?" "Huh?! Why? Why on earth?!" Chanyong asked in a rush. It could have sounded like a joke, but all three of them looked deadly serious. "How long are you planning to keep swinging pieces of metal around in the training room?" "We're trying our best." Shinyong set down his spoon, apparently thinking I was belittling their efforts, and answered seriously. "Have you given it everything you've got?" "We're trying to give it everything we've got." "So you think you can win?" "We're trying to win." Chanyong and Noah nodded along with Shinyong's words. "I'll make sure you win for real. But it's going to be hell." "...How?" "I'll introduce you to a teacher." "A teacher? Don't we already have our J-class instructor?" These guys were clearly misunderstanding. What we were learning at the academy was completely different from what was needed for the match. "Are people monsters? What you're learning here is monster combat, not person-to-person fights." "That's obvious. So what are we supposed to do?" "What do you mean? You need to learn how to fight." When I finished, a different kind of silence settled over us. "Luckily, there's someone near me who's been through so many wars they're sick of it. A literal specialist in person-to-person combat." "W-War..." Even so, they seemed to feel the weight of the word "war" more heavily, probably because they'd eaten enough battlefield meals themselves. "I told you about the Tower, right? Over there, no one holds back. They openly encourage killing each other." Just like the helicopter-glasses guy I'd met, people kept bringing it up. Monsters stayed still, but humans were the real problem. "I can guarantee that if you die, there's a high chance it won't be a monster that kills you— it'll be another human." "......" "So, friends, the choice is yours." This wasn't a peaceful country like the one I originally came from. It only looked the same on the surface; the core was completely different. The deterrent against war was ridiculously weak. Especially with highly advanced civilization and individual military power, politics existed here too. If these innocent friends got caught up in politics, they would clearly be ground to dust. "The academy's protection will only last a few years at most. You need to grow stronger before that happens." Unfortunately, no amount of individual power could stand against an organization. Wherever groups formed, they tried to control the strong under the name of politics. To resist that, you either had to belong to a faction yourself, turn your back on the world entirely, or—if you refused both—possess enough power to rip out their tongues. "What will we learn if we go?" "I already told you. How to fight. If you just keep growing like this, you'll end up dancing on someone else's tongue and die screaming." "We can fight here too..." "Did I talk around it too much? You'll learn how to kill people." Vwoom—! At my gesture, a dimensional pocket opened in the air, and something pitch-black with an entrance-like maw poked its head out. "For the record, I'm the type who rips out tongues." "......" "The choice is yours. If you go in, PT will be waiting." "P-PT?" After talking about killing people, the sudden normal words left them looking completely lost. "One thing's for sure—you'll become way stronger than you are now." When I met their eyes and nodded with certainty, a spark of longing slowly appeared in their dazed gazes. "I'll go. I can't miss a chance to get stronger." "Me too! I'll go too!" "...I'll go as well." Led by Shinyong, they all agreed one after another. When I had nothing to say, just nodding seemed to work out fine. Honestly, I had just nodded for no particular reason. "If you've decided, go in." Shinyong moved first like a proper leader. He took a step forward, stopped right in front of the portal, and looked at me. I nodded again. "I'll repay your trust." "As expected of the top student, Shinyong. I believe in my friend." Shinyong gave a serious nod and disappeared into the portal. Next was Kim Chanyong. "We haven't known each other long, but I trust you." "Kuh, that's our dragon." "Right? I'm the dragon, aren't I?" "Of course." "Hehe." After I nodded at him, he vanished beyond the portal with a mischievous laugh. Last was Noah. "Gaeul..." "Noah Taylor." "Yeah?" "Don't mess around. Work hard." The face of the young master-like boy twitched slightly. Noah was one of the strongest in our class, yet his expression and personality were gentle. "......Okay." Once Noah went in last, the lively picnic spot fell silent. It felt like the hollow emptiness after turning off a broadcast. "They're all gone." "I'm here!" "Oh? My friend is still here." "Eung!" I picked up Baekseol as she climbed onto my chest and flipped her over to show her round belly. "Aww, our little one ate well." "Eung!" I had just sent them off, but worry was already creeping in. On a whim, I peeked into the portal and saw the trio looking flustered, just as expected. "Teacher, please take good care of my friends."
"Gaeul. Are those the friends you mentioned back then?" "Yeah." The frozen trio trembled as they stared at me. I was used to it by now, but Heracles basically radiated killing intent like crazy. The overwhelming pressure that made breathing difficult must have been a first for them. "Can I kill them?" "Just keep them alive. I can patch them up somehow."
"Then leave them to me." "Please!" The trio wore faces like they were already dying and looked like they wanted to say something. "Guys, PT is super expensive. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so learn well and come back."
"Summoning magic is not merely connecting a straight passage. It is a large-scale composite spell that transmits attributes and personality between caster and summoned, then completes the contract. Scholars divide this process into the notes Gung, Sang, Gak, Chi, and Wu, splitting the sounds and attaching them to lines."
Last time Baekseol came to me, so this time I had to go to him. His attribute was lightning. The crackling squirrel. Zzap! I still didn't know his personality well. But he kept trying to give me what he had. Maybe he had been alone for so long that having a family now made him happy. Zzzt! His appearance was round and fluffy like Baekseol's. He had soft fur and round eyes, and when happy his bushy tail swayed. Because he was an autumn squirrel, he was plump all over. His cheek pouches were always bulging—maybe from carrying sunflower seeds, or maybe he just had chubby cheeks. Rumble—! He kept cracking the sunflower seeds I'd given him to eat and stuffing them into my mouth instead. The pretty brown stripes suited him perfectly. He was only about the size of a handful. That was the kind of friend he was. Zzzzt—! I painted the picture on the canvas with the brush of thought. It was okay if it was rough. The more I closed my eyes and drew his form, the more vivid the squirrel waiting on the other side became. The one who had been alone on the grass seemed to notice me, looked around, then turned his gaze my way. He looked like he had been waiting for a long time.
"Danpung." BOOOOM—!! The moment I called his name, a massive bolt of lightning crashed down. Thanks to that, sunlight poured through the hole it punched in the gym ceiling along with thick dust. Thud-thud-thud-thud. Before the dust even settled, something the size of Baekseol came charging at full speed from afar. "Bbiit!"