Quarterfinals Aftermath: "Kids! I Won—"
The moment I staggered back to the bench, eager for some well-deserved comfort from the others, what greeted me was the cold crack of a gunshot.
Thanks to Hye-ji's sudden ambush, I found myself crawling across the ground, blood pouring freely from my right thigh.
"...At least say something before you shoot."
"Didn't I tell you I'd kill you?"
Hye-ji was already aiming a smoking pistol straight at me. Her expression was dead serious.
"Be honest with me, Shinwoo."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Are you dissatisfied because I don't have breasts?"
Hye-ji asked the question with more gravity than I'd ever seen from her. Her face looked terrifyingly fierce, but her eyes were filled with nervous tension. In times like these, the only correct move was to comfort her.
"Not at all. Even if you had absolutely nothing there, it wouldn't be a problem."
"R-really?"
Suddenly Hye-ji lowered the gun. She cleared her throat with a pleased little hum.
"Well then... I suppose I could let it slide."
"It's actually better to be confident even if there's nothing at all."
"...Is that... so?"
"Covering yourself up with those fake tits is just wrong."
"Yeah... I guess."
Hye-ji nodded with a slightly sour expression. Wanting to smooth things over, I opened my mouth again.
"I'm serious. Besides, whenever I look at you I always feel stable and comfortable."
"Really? In what way do I make you feel comfortable? Tell me the truth!"
Hye-ji's face brightened instantly. She rushed closer, grabbed my shoulders, and stared straight into my eyes. Her gaze was overflowing with eager expectation.
I answered with complete sincerity, wanting to meet those expectations head-on.
"The comfort of something that never shakes."
- BANG!
"......You literally told me to be honest."
This time the blood flowed from my left thigh. As Hye-ji aimed the gun at me again, the professor doing commentary hurriedly tried to stop her.
Hye-ji! Stop right now! You've injured Shinwoo!
"Ugh, thank you so fucking much, Professor!"
When Hye-ji glared murderously at the commentary box with a look that demanded an answer, the professor declared firmly:
Use a potion to heal him and then shoot again.
"You son of a bitch."
A student who'd approached at some point poured a potion over my thighs, healing the gunshot wounds. The moment the injuries closed, Hye-ji racked the slide and aimed at me again.
"Die."
Getting shot, healing, getting shot again. The cycle repeated. Eventually Hye-ji seemed to get tired of it. She turned and left without so much as a backward glance.
Watching her go, Piece spoke to me.
'Fuck.'
While I treated my wounds with another potion, Jung Ayeon was having a clear, direct conversation with Jeong Bia.
"This lady has won."
"Yeah."
"I kept my promise."
"......I'll talk to them for you."
Then Jung Ayeon immediately turned and spoke to Spencer, who was still standing there in a daze, eyes unfocused and completely out of it.
"Do not interfere with this lady ever again."
With those final words, Jung Ayeon walked out of the dueling arena with a somewhat refreshed expression.
Meanwhile, Elsia looked at me with a complicated face before flashing a bright smile.
"Trash husband! Stay at least two meters away from me today!"
"Wait, what the hell? I only landed the last hit."
"But."
Elsia turned her back to me, then peeked over her shoulder and added slyly,
"You can stay within four meters!"
"Darius? You'd suck blood really well, huh."
"It's Ausol!"
I left the arena carrying the weight of countless criticisms on my back. Right now, calming Hye-ji down was more important than watching the rest of the matches.
It was already late at night by the time I'd spent ages soothing Hye-ji and finally returned to the dormitory. A delivery box was sitting in front of the door. The sender was none other than Uncle Kang Hyuk.
Isn't this the thing I was looking for last time but couldn't find?
'Oh right, that happened.'
Feeling like I'd received an unexpected Christmas present, I started opening the box with high expectations. What came out was...
"I'm really going to kill that son of a bitch."
Snack wrappers and already-used condoms. Whoever had packed it had even arranged them in a neat rainbow pattern. I immediately called Uncle Kang Hyuk.
After a few rings, he picked up.
"What."
"You motherfucker, you wanna die?"
"Ah, you saw it already?"
I could hear him cackling over the phone.
"You wrapped this shit up and sent it? What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Jealous?"
"Some of us still can't even get laid!"
"Anyway, throw that crap away and look at the very bottom of the box."
I quickly dumped the disgusting items out the window and tore open the bottom of the box like he'd said. It looked small on the outside, but there was another compartment hidden underneath. What came out was...
Something I'd never seen before. Two plain white, thick rings with no decorations. They were too small to be bracelets, but a little too big to be rings. A very ambiguous size.
"What is this?"
"A friend gave it to me as a gift."
"Really? For real?"
I was genuinely shocked in that moment. Because—
"Why? Surprised he'd give something so valuable to me?"
"You have friends? And ones that give you presents?"
"You little shit, I really will kill you."
Uncle having friends? That was more unbelievable than saying raccoons with beaks existed. It was utter nonsense.
'What about ones that shoot poison from their claws?'
I was quite surprised by the unexpected revelation.
"Anyway, he said it's equipment specifically for people who strengthen their bodies with mana like you."
"But what is it for? It's way too small to be a bracelet."
"Try putting it on your dick."
I examined the object carefully and answered confidently.
"Ah, it looks too small to fit."
"Stop talking about your dick, you bastard!"
"Then where am I supposed to put it?"
"Dunno lol."
It was an ambiguous size that wouldn't even fit Hye-ji's slender wrist, let alone my arm. I set the two rings on the desk and tried forcing both hands through them, but it was hopeless.
Then I remembered what Uncle had said about it being equipment for body reinforcement. Just in case, I placed both hands on the rings and circulated mana to strengthen my arms.
Suddenly the rings shattered.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!"
"Huh??? Hey, what happened? Did you catch your dick in a zipper?"
The fragments flew toward both my wrists one by one and began forming into the shape of bracelets. It was exactly like Iron Man's MK.42 armor—the pieces flying in rapidly and attaching in sequence. The only difference was the excruciating pain that came with it.
The agony was on the same level as when I'd first gotten the mana tattoos. Every single fragment that attached itself sent a sharp jolt through my nerves. Even though it was repetitive pain, I couldn't get used to it at all. It felt like my pain threshold kept rising higher and higher.
Though it was only a short time, the torment felt like an eternity. When it finally ended, I looked down at my wrists. Two plain bracelets, now much thinner than before, were wrapped around them.
"Fuuuuuuuck..."
"Oh, right."
When I complained about the pain, Uncle Kang Hyuk spoke as if he'd just remembered something.
"It's a bound item."
"You should've said that from the beginning, you asshole!"
"Oh, did you put it on? On your dick?"
"It's on my wrists and it hurts like hell."
It really was a bound item, just like he'd said. No matter how hard I tried to pull it off, it wouldn't budge. In fact, trying to remove it felt like it would rip the skin clean off my arm. Ignoring the strange foreign sensation on my wrists, I asked him,
"Who the hell made something this fucked up?"
"He made it by accident, apparently?"
"I'm curious what kind of person he is. What's he doing these days?"
"He's not in this world anymore."
'Oh shit...'
The sudden drift made my hands and feet tremble. I was momentarily stunned by the unexpected jab at the dead, but I quickly calmed myself and spoke in a somber voice.
"......I'm sorry."
"He went to another dimension to find a 2D girlfriend."
"Say that first, you son of a bitch!!! You scared the shit out of me!!!"
I'd plunged straight into hell and then shot back up to the surface in an instant. That had genuinely been terrifying.
At that moment, Uncle urgently said,
"Ah, my wife suddenly wants meat so I gotta go buy some!"
"Meat at this hour? Where are you even going to get it?"
"Just beat up the hunter who runs the butcher shop! Good luck!"
"Wait, at least tell me how to use this thing before you hang up!"
The call ended just like that. All I'd gotten was a pair of bracelets that would never come off. I had zero clue how to use them.
Right then, Piece spoke to me.
'Oh, that makes sense.'
Following Piece's advice, I circulated mana through both hands. I could feel the mana flowing into the bracelets. Since they'd suddenly attached themselves, it felt incredibly awkward at first. But as I kept the mana flowing, it started to feel as natural as if they'd always been part of my body. It was like they'd seamlessly merged with my existing mana circuits.
However.
That was it. Nothing else happened. There was no glow, no new effect, nothing.
'I had to endure that much pain just to get a fashion accessory?'
Then a brilliant idea suddenly came to me. The Cheonma Repulsor worked by condensing mana in the palm and then detonating it. Since the bracelets currently felt like part of my body, I tried condensing what little mana I had left into them.
The bracelets began vibrating violently in response.
'Perfect for jerking off.'
While thinking of different ways to use it, my concentration slipped for a split second. A tiny amount of mana condensed in my palm. And then—
- BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!
My dormitory exploded.
'.......'
The neighboring dorms were completely fine. The problem was that my room had been completely obliterated. What had been a two-room suite was now a studio—the door had been blown to pieces. The desk and computer right in front of me had vanished without a trace. The bed had collapsed and the blanket was torn, leaving only half of it. Thankfully the bathroom was relatively intact, though a huge hole had been punched through one corner.
That's right. I no longer had a home.