RE: Player again

278

[Chapter 092] [Evil for Evil (7)]

The barrier shook.

At first, they thought it was a monster passing by that unfortunately got lost inside the barrier and was causing a disturbance.

But after one violent shake, it started shattering with a cracking sound like glass breaking.

This doesn't feel good...!

Kwon Ji-na's intuition was ringing.

Having worked as a Player for a long time, she knew very well what this sensation meant.

The sensation that things were going wrong.

Then where had it gone wrong?

But now was not the time to think about that.

"Casters, quickly repair the barrier! Rangers patrol the perimeter!"

Even before she spoke those words, the Casters were already trying to repair the barrier that had started breaking.

Patching a cracked jar was quite difficult.

The Casters were coughing up blood while manifesting their internal mana.

But even with their combined efforts, they couldn't reverse the trend of the collapsing barrier.

It was just buying time.

It would have been better to release the barrier and build a new one.

If they were willing to risk exposing their location.

Who on earth is it?

Who broke the barrier?

This wasn't the work of monsters.

It must be the work of a Player, and quite a reckless one at that.

"We just needed to hold out for one day..."

Kwon Ji-na clicked her tongue.

Her original plan was to kidnap all the academy students, persuade them nicely, and just take their food before sending them back.

But things got complicated because of some Slayers.

So she changed the plan to suppress about 100 students and then release them.

Aiming for when the academy students would come down the mountain.

At that time, the Slayers planned to release the students and go into hiding deep in Seoraksan for a while.

They just needed to endure until then for one day.

In the end, the barrier collapsed.

...They're coming!

The location of the hideout was exposed.

Surely Players would come flooding in before long.

If that happened, a clash between both sides was unavoidable.

And as time passed, only the Slayers would suffer damage.

Kwon Ji-na's judgment was immediate.

"We're evacuating this location now! Telepath!"

She called for the Telepath.

As luck would have it, Shim Su-ji was in the direction she was walking.

Shim Su-ji who had been beating the fox Ein perked up her rabbit ears as soon as her name was called.

"Relay it to the others too." "Okay, got it. But what should we do with these kids?" "...Leave them here for the Players to find. It should buy us some time."

"Okay, understood."

Soon Shim Su-ji bent her knees towards the fox Ein lying on the ground.

The fox Ein looked up at her trembling.

[This unni is telling you out of pity.] [.......] [Eins like us shouldn't hold onto hope. It just makes you expect things.]

She stroked the fox Ein and giggled.

As if mocking the fox Ein.

As if mocking herself.

[People are nice to you because they want something from you.] [Even comrades you trust and entrust your heart to will turn their backs in the face of death. Sometimes they even sell out friends for their own gain....] [...You just don't know yet. So don't trust people too much, kid. We're different beings from them.]

The 1st Uijeongbu Recapture Operation.

She who fled after killing her sleeping comrades got up from her seat after reflecting on her life.

The Slayers were waiting up ahead.

At last, she had found a world where she could live.

No─

[─But I still believe in my friends.]

─She was running away.

That's why the fox Ein whose heart didn't waver seemed to shine brightly.

Shim Su-ji turned her head and looked back at her with firm resolve.

She felt curious and envious.

What monster was that fox Ein based on?

What kind of people were these friends she firmly believed in?

But Shim Su-ji erased the thoughts rising in her mind.

Instead she conveyed these words.

[─Fine, then try living like that. Don't blame me if you regret it.]

And these words too.

[Goodbye─, Jin Seo-na.]

☆

The search gained momentum as Jin Parang regained consciousness.

While Eun-ha searched the Seoraksan area comparing with his memories, Ha-yang made small holes in barriers.

And Parang sent telepathy to Seo-na through the small holes.

If the telepathy didn't reach, they quickly moved to the next location.

[Jin Seo-na!]

During this, Parang pinpointed Seo-na's location.

And Eun-ha's judgment was immediate.

"─Ha-yang, just destroy the barrier."

"Okay!"

As soon as his order fell, Ha-yang drew out the internal mana she had been gathering.

The air vibrated.

Even she had never manifested such a massive amount of mana before.

But she didn't panic and struck the barrier with the internal mana concentrated in her palm.

In an instant the barrier shook, and the part hit by her attack shattered with a crash.

Soon the barrier with a huge gap opened began to creak and start collapsing.

...This is really amazing.

Just how much mana does she have stored inside her body?

Eun-ha inwardly clicked his tongue.

She had certainly produced the result he wanted sufficiently, but seeing it directly with his own eyes, he could only be amazed.

She contained an amount of internal mana comparable to Eun-a.

Of course, Eun-a would contain an even greater amount.

Nevertheless, it was an enviable talent.

Jung Ha-yang was definitely someone who needed to be brought in.

"For now Ha-yang, you drink potions and recover your mana."

"Okay. But Eun-ha is this really okay? If we damage the barrier like this... won't it be dangerous?"

Meanwhile, Ha-yang holding potions in both hands anxiously pointed at the collapsing barrier.

"The Slayers inside will notice at this rate..." "That's the point." "Huh?"

Ha-yang tilted her head.

It seems she thought they would secretly infiltrate the guys' village and bring the students back.

That was a huge miscalculation.

He had no intention of ending it at just that level.

It was realistically impossible to sneak out 100 or so students.

"We need to sweep them all away while we're at it."

"...Can we do it?" "Don't you trust me?" "...No, I trust you."

Jung Ha-yang nodding without hesitation.

She expressed a different doubt.

"But how?" "We need to counter numbers with numbers."

Eun-ha answered her question while stepping inside the barrier.

There were only two advantages they could gain by openly destroying the barrier.

One was that the academy instructors and Players could now track the students' location.

Before long, people who grasped the situation would come to attack the Slayers.

And the other was─

"─We're going to lure in monsters." "...What?"

Ha-yang flinched seeing him speak while lifting the corners of his mouth.

She doubted her ears.

Luring in monsters.

It was an idea no normal person would think of.

"Monsters inhabit various places all over Seoraksan. But how do you think they'll react when they suddenly detect a huge amount of mana?" "......" "They're monsters that crave mana. There's no way they'll just quietly hide after detecting this much mana."

As if responding to his words.

The wind blew fiercely, and the other side of the darkness became noisy.

It wasn't the sound of beasts crying.

It was the sound monsters made.

The sound of breathing, the rhythm of striking the ground, monsters were revealing their presence from various places.

Their number exceeded several dozen.

Before they knew it, the forest was filled with hostility, killing intent, and malice.

To the point Ha-yang who read information through mana unconsciously became scared.

"─It's okay."

Just then, Eun-ha placed his hand on her head.

Ha-yang felt reassured.

Then she became scared again.

Because Eun-ha was wrapped in malice to the point he was indistinguishable from the monsters running from far away.

"You're not the prey for those guys, Ha-yang. It's the guys who will soon react to the monsters and manifest their internal mana. You keep your internal mana well stored."

"......"

"I've made this much of a mess. They're probably panicking with their blood running cold by now."

Noh Eun-ha snickering while glaring into the darkness.

Ha-yang found him unfamiliar.

Then when his eyes filled with killing intent turned towards her, she flinched without realizing.

"So Ha-yang, you deploy protective magic to guard the kids. With your current skills, you should be able to hold out until Players come to support."

"...What are you going to do, Eun-ha?"

Strangely, Eun-ha felt distant.

Ha-yang asked him while steeling her heart.

He didn't answer.

His silence meant something.

But Ha-yang instinctively felt she shouldn't know that meaning.

"...Okay, it's nothing. Leave it to me!"

So she spoke to him with as bright a face as possible.

He who slowly nodded his head said "Okay, I'll leave it to you then." and turned his head.

"Parang hyung, give me the cloak." "What? Hey, if I give you this cloak, what am I supposed to wear!"

"Stop complaining and hand it over."

"...Damn it..."

Just earlier, Jin Parang who regained consciousness was shocked to find himself naked.

At first he even boldly suspected Eun-ha had stripped him.

But after getting hit once by Eun-ha, he had since then just quietly wrapped the cloak tightly around his body.

But when told to hand over the cloak, Jin Parang shouted at the top of his lungs.

Still, he read Eun-ha's eyes and handed over the cloak wrapped around his body.

"They'll have to deal with monsters so they won't notice your presence. But I'm still uneasy so... take this too."

Eun-ha draped the cloak over Ha-yang's shoulders.

For a moment her round eyes wavered.

She grabbed Eun-ha's sleeve for an instant.

Feeling like she shouldn't let him go like this.

But seeing him with a face she didn't know, she couldn't bring herself to speak.

So she said something out of the blue.

"This... is the cloak Parang oppa was wearing naked... it smells."

"What!? You're saying I smell? I smell so good! I'm Febreze Jin Parang, Jin Parang!"

Words without context.

Eun-ha chuckled ignoring Jin Parang protesting behind him.

Then he tightened the cloak so it wouldn't come off, and finally patted her head.

"...You're messing up my hair."

"I'll leave the kids to you, be careful."

"...Okay, I got it. You be careful too, Eun-ha."

Ha-yang deployed concealment magic and Avenir's Cloak magic simultaneously.

Her presence melted into the darkness and could no longer be detected.

Like that, only Eun-ha and Jin Parang remained in the forest.

"What are we going to do now?" "What do you mean what..."

Jin Parang asked blatantly exposing between his legs, no longer embarrassed about being naked.

Eun-ha averted his gaze disgusted, then looked up above his head.

He manifested his internal mana.

Until now, he had been suppressing his aura because Ha-yang was there.

He had been pretending not to know.

There was no way he couldn't distinguish between monsters' killing intent and humans' killing intent.

"Did you think I wouldn't know?"

"...Kuk...!"

Eun-ha who wall-walked up a tree in one breath attacked the Hunter Slayer standing guard.

The Slayer who hurriedly blocked the attack fell from the tree to the ground.

He hastily grabbed his gun and tried to aim at Eun-ha falling straight down from the tree.

Stygian Eye

The Slayer's aim was thrown off.

Eun-ha ignored the bullet that grazed past his cheek.

This much didn't even leave a wound.

He imbued mana into the sword pulled back to his shoulder.

Black Thorn amplified the mana efficiency.

Mana Crasher

The Hunter Slayer's head fell off.

He who was trying to alert the other Slayers departed from the world just like that.

"Wow..."

The man's headless body collapsed onto the grass.

Jin Parang who watched that clapped in admiration.

He showed no particular reaction despite seeing someone die before his eyes.

"Parang hyung, put on some clothes before my eyes get dirty from seeing you like that."

"You bastard... you really talk dirty. Hey, where exactly are there clothes for me to wear here?"

"What do you mean there aren't any? They're right here."

Eun-ha indifferently pointed at the corpse of the man whose head had flown off, gushing blood from the cross-section.

Jin Parang made a disgusted expression going "Ugh".

But he still grumblingly approached, stripped the clothes off the corpse, and put on the blood-stained clothes.

While rolling up the parts that were too long.

That action was too natural.

For Parang who once lived in the slums, searching corpses wasn't an action that went against ethics.

"From now on we'll enter their village too."

Monsters were crying.

Screams could be heard from over there.

The faster monsters were causing a commotion first.

The two didn't even blink while hearing those sounds.

"I'll roam around and take out those guys. What do you want to do, hyung?"

Eun-ha had no intention of letting the Slayers escape.

He planned to hunt them down as soon as he confirmed his friends' safety.

In that sense, Jin Parang was cumbersome.

It might be better for him to protect their friends.

"Eun-ha."

But Jin Parang's answer was different.

"Can I kill them too?"

Eyes burning with fighting spirit.

No, eyes blazing with killing intent.

Goodwill for goodwill.

And evil for evil.

Jin Parang who pays back as much as he receives was right there.

Eventually Eun-ha who directly faced Jin Parang's unwavering eyes lifted the corners of his mouth.

"─Kill everything you don't like."

This night, the wolf stretched.