“So what do we do?” Chae Nayun asks. Her eyes land on Rachel. I think I know what she is thinking. It is the Devil we are talking about. It is too strong of an enemy, and I am barely even qualified. If not for my Gift’s adaptability, I will not be able to participate in this either.
I open the door to let Rachel exit. “Please, Miss Rachel… Can you wait outside in the meanwhile while we discuss our plans?”
“Please let me in too…” Rachel asks almost begging. “If you are planning on subjugating the Djinns in all of Cube, then the more hands you have, the better…”
I glance at Hajin. “What is it? President?”
Kim Hajin has changed a lot together with his increase in strength. But essentially, he is still the same good guy. That is why… he cannot let Rachel join in. “You cannot. You will die. You are weak.”
Cruel words come out of his mouth which is uncharacteristic of him. The rudest I see of Hajin is him giving the silent treatment, but this is something else.
He cocks his Desert Eagle that suddenly appears on his palm in a flicker. “How about this? If you are not convinced, let’s fight now.” He realizes that Rachel is not carrying any weapon, so he returns his Desert Eagle to hide it back on his waist, deciding to fight her with a different method.
“Since you don’t have your weapon right now, I will kindly fight you bare-handed one on one.” He brusquely challenges Rachel. Isn’t this kind of preposterous? You are a ranged shooter, Hajin!?
On second thoughts, Kim Hajin is not at a disadvantage. After all, he is swimming in quite a lot of amount of SP. Proving these thoughts are the next scenario that presents itself in front of my eyes.
***
“Fine,” Rachel widens her legs and gets herself into a fighting stance. “I will make you take back those words!”
Before Rachel can even blink, Hajin rushes forward with agility. Hajin doesn’t have any splendid martial ability of any sort, but he has his SP, and Setting Intervention which allows him to alter the settings of objects. He focuses his thoughts on his shoes and activates his Setting Intervention.
-20 SP. [Effects: Temporarily increase the movement speed of the shoes’ wearer.]
From Rachel’s perception, Hajin suddenly disappears from her sight. Suddenly, she feels something tapping the back of her head. It is Kim Hajin’s index finger.
“Bang, you are already dead…” Hajin’s hand imitates the form of a gun with his index finger as the gun’s barrel. He taps the back of Rachel’s head. “You just died to my gun, Miss Rachel…”
Former Agent Military Academy Rank 1543, and now Hero Military Academy Rank 934 Kim Hajin. Against Rachel who is supposed to be Rank 4, he wins over a landslide.
Kim Hajin feels bad for cheating, but he cannot risk Rachel’s life. Every character in the novel is important to him and to this world. There is a reason why they are the protagonists of the story.
Rachel blanches in pure disbelief at the difference in their levels. She thinks to herself that the fight is not over yet, she must prove herself. However, before she can even make another move, she feels a deadly and threatening amount of concentrated magic power.
It is one of Kim Hajin’s trump cards. The magic power, the stigma, the tattoo-like marking on the back of his palm glows an iridescent white until an orb the size of an acorn forms at the tip of his index finger.
“I told you, you are weak…” Kim Hajin reiterates that fact. “Stop being stubborn and retreat…”
Suddenly, Nayun intervenes in their fight by exhaling a tremendous amount of magic power. It is strong but not enough to cause a commotion for their instructors to meddle with their business.
“Stop,” Her magic power that rushes to the outside causes Rachel to feel a dreadful trembling on her skin. “Enough, Hajin… You being the bar is too much. You are just bullying her.”
The [Sea of Magic Power] that Nayun wields is so powerful that just by expressing its presence alone, Rachel is already feeling goosebumps on her skin.
“Hajin, please calm down…” Suho taps Rachel’s shoulder, and with his own magic power, dispels Nayun's magic power invading her system. It also quells the pressure of magic power coming from Hajin. “This is no way to treat her like that…” Suho then glances at Hajin asking him to back off.
‘They are all monsters…’ Rachel comes to realize this truth.
***
What the f—
They are all monsters. I feel like not stopping being surprised again and again. Hajin’s strength is within expectations, but it is still a feast for the eyes to see. The pure magic power that comes out from his stigma is bonkers! Nayun’s method of expressing her magic power is also a surprise as it resembles the Wolf of Valhalla’s, her master’s, aura during the conferment ceremony on the Djinn subjugation. There is also a need to mention Suho’s low-key monstrous power as he easily dispels the pressure colliding on Rachel.
There is no need for me to feel insignificant in comparison to them.
“So,” Nayun claps her hands as she withdraws her magic power entirely. “As I am saying, let’s set the bar lower to be fair. Hyon, go fight instead of Hajin.”
Huh?
Like.
“Huh?”
“Do your best, Hyon Hyung-ssi!” Kim Suho good-naturedly cheers me up.
I simply receive a stink-eye from Hajin as if telling me not to lose. No. I feel like he is threatening me not to lose. Come on, Hajin-chan… You are not the threatening kind, aren’t you?
“Good luck,” Nayun half-heartedly cheers on me.
Hajin and Suho walk away, while Nayun kicks me from behind. This leaves me and Rachel in the middle. I cannot even complain to Nayun about her physical abuse as Rachel throws me an issue of challenge.
“Fight me, please don’t go easy on me…” She deferentially calls me, which I feel a little bit good about.
“I… I cannot fight her! I am her fan!” I complain to my audiences. “Hey, Hajin… Bro~ Aren’t you Rachel’s fan too?” Kim Hajin tilts his head away as if to refuse my claim. Kim Suho gives me a thumbs-up while Nayun maintains a poker face.
“Here I go!” Rachel spiritedly shouts.
I fumble on my steps. My footwork isn’t anything great, but I am quite precise about where and when to dodge. However, my moves are a little bit awkward. I really don’t want to fight Rachel.
Rachel’s fist is pulsing with magic power as she attacks me with alacrity. I see her fists leave an afterimage as it drives forward on my temple only to reappear on my lower rib.
I am already tilting my head backward in anticipation of her fist coming at my head at that moment, but as it is faint, I am only wasting my time. The best response at this very second is to counterattack with a strike of my own. I can strike her throat with [Always Here] reinforcing my palm with stealth effects, or I can just kick her away while targeting her legs by activating and deactivating [Always Here] on her feet, thus making her fall from losing her footing. But then again, I don’t want to fight her.
I imbue [Always Here] on myself and deactivate it within a microsecond. This messes up with Rachel’s tempo, giving me the opportune chance to grab her wrist, lift her arm, and toss her on the floor reminiscent of a judo throw.
This is the safest way to subdue her without causing much injury, and at the same time, saving her from disgrace. I pin her under me by placing my knee on her abdomen. Well, this is also a disgraceful defeat in a sense, but less shameless than me mercilessly overpowering her.
But Rachel is relentless. She kicks my leg from under her causing me to lose my stance. She use her both arms to clip my head. And then, she strikes my forehead with a headbutt.
Rachel is really doing everything she can to defeat me. I almost feel pity.
I feel dizzy from the headbutt. Rachel takes this as an opportunity to kick me back so that she can distance herself from me.
“Hey, stop holding back…” Nayun angrily shouts at me.
To this, Rachel feels offended as she blushes pink in anger. “You!” This is the first time I see Rachel angry. Even when reading the novel, I never see her express anger. She is the kind to keep her anger locked inside her.
“Well, I must have been pretty rude… Come on… Don’t you know! I am the strongest of them all, yet they make me fight you!” It is an empty boast, but who cares.
“““Eh?””” Suho, Hajin, and Rachel have the same reactions.
But not Nayun. “You fucking bastard!”
Apparently, Nayun cares.
“Hmmm… In terms of survivability, I guess he is the strongest…” Suho comments.
“And doing bullshit stuff… so yeah…” Nayun sarcastically adds.
Rachel takes a dreadful tone, her eyes are a little bit teary. “It is unfair. So all of you are not taking me seriously after all…” Everyone shuts up at her remark. “Take me seriously, please… damn it…”
It is the first time I hear her cuss. I am experiencing a lot of first times as a part of this world. I now feel bad for Rachel. “Sigh… Well, you asked for it…”
I am strong. But not strong enough to stand equal to Suho, Nayun, and Hajin. But. I am strong. I have become sufficiently strong enough to make Rachel feel inferior. It is not as obvious to me as I am too busy desperately finding ways how to get strong no matter how minuscule the increase in strength is.
But really… I am strong too…
My eyes focus on Rachel. “I am sorry, Rachel, but I will go all out from now on.”
***
Rachel realizes how weak she actually is, and she doesn’t like it.
But even if that is the case, she will fight, she will prove herself to them. There are Djinns hiding in Cube, and she wants to help. But it seems that her help is unwanted. It hurts her pride, but she is a burden.
She grits her teeth as her every strike is dodged within a millimeter of a distance. It feels so close yet so far. Suddenly, she feels like she loses her senses on her legs. She sees her legs, yet, she cannot perceive them anymore. It is as if it has become invisible in plain sight.
In the blink of an eye, she falters in her stance as she cannot move her legs the way she wants it. The brown-haired cadet in front of her vanishes within an instant, and the next thing she knows… is that she is in the infirmary.
“W-what happened?” Rachel asks the staff nurse working in the infirmary.
“You fainted. Don’t you remember? Your classmate helped you here… He said, you suddenly lost consciousness… So, do you have any past medications that might be the cause of it?”
“No,” Rachel weakly explains. “It must be exhaustion because I have been sleeping less and less lately…” She lies to the nurse, while she considers her situation.
Rachel lost. And her offer of aid is rejected.
“So what do we do?” Chae Nayun asks. Her eyes land on Rachel. I think I know what she is thinking. It is the Devil we are talking about. It is too strong of an enemy, and I am barely even qualified. If not for my Gift’s adaptability, I will not be able to participate in this either.
I open the door to let Rachel exit. “Please, Miss Rachel… Can you wait outside in the meanwhile while we discuss our plans?”
“Please let me in too…” Rachel asks almost begging. “If you are planning on subjugating the Djinns in all of Cube, then the more hands you have, the better…”
I glance at Hajin. “What is it? President?”
Kim Hajin has changed a lot together with his increase in strength. But essentially, he is still the same good guy. That is why… he cannot let Rachel join in. “You cannot. You will die. You are weak.”
Cruel words come out of his mouth which is uncharacteristic of him. The rudest I see of Hajin is him giving the silent treatment, but this is something else.
He cocks his Desert Eagle that suddenly appears on his palm in a flicker. “How about this? If you are not convinced, let’s fight now.” He realizes that Rachel is not carrying any weapon, so he returns his Desert Eagle to hide it back on his waist, deciding to fight her with a different method.
“Since you don’t have your weapon right now, I will kindly fight you bare-handed one on one.” He brusquely challenges Rachel. Isn’t this kind of preposterous? You are a ranged shooter, Hajin!?
On second thoughts, Kim Hajin is not at a disadvantage. After all, he is swimming in quite a lot of amount of SP. Proving these thoughts are the next scenario that presents itself in front of my eyes.
***
“Fine,” Rachel widens her legs and gets herself into a fighting stance. “I will make you take back those words!”
Before Rachel can even blink, Hajin rushes forward with agility. Hajin doesn’t have any splendid martial ability of any sort, but he has his SP, and Setting Intervention which allows him to alter the settings of objects. He focuses his thoughts on his shoes and activates his Setting Intervention.
-20 SP. [Effects: Temporarily increase the movement speed of the shoes’ wearer.]
From Rachel’s perception, Hajin suddenly disappears from her sight. Suddenly, she feels something tapping the back of her head. It is Kim Hajin’s index finger.
“Bang, you are already dead…” Hajin’s hand imitates the form of a gun with his index finger as the gun’s barrel. He taps the back of Rachel’s head. “You just died to my gun, Miss Rachel…”
Former Agent Military Academy Rank 1543, and now Hero Military Academy Rank 934 Kim Hajin. Against Rachel who is supposed to be Rank 4, he wins over a landslide.
Kim Hajin feels bad for cheating, but he cannot risk Rachel’s life. Every character in the novel is important to him and to this world. There is a reason why they are the protagonists of the story.
Rachel blanches in pure disbelief at the difference in their levels. She thinks to herself that the fight is not over yet, she must prove herself. However, before she can even make another move, she feels a deadly and threatening amount of concentrated magic power.
It is one of Kim Hajin’s trump cards. The magic power, the stigma, the tattoo-like marking on the back of his palm glows an iridescent white until an orb the size of an acorn forms at the tip of his index finger.
“I told you, you are weak…” Kim Hajin reiterates that fact. “Stop being stubborn and retreat…”
Suddenly, Nayun intervenes in their fight by exhaling a tremendous amount of magic power. It is strong but not enough to cause a commotion for their instructors to meddle with their business.
“Stop,” Her magic power that rushes to the outside causes Rachel to feel a dreadful trembling on her skin. “Enough, Hajin… You being the bar is too much. You are just bullying her.”
The [Sea of Magic Power] that Nayun wields is so powerful that just by expressing its presence alone, Rachel is already feeling goosebumps on her skin.
“Hajin, please calm down…” Suho taps Rachel’s shoulder, and with his own magic power, dispels Nayun's magic power invading her system. It also quells the pressure of magic power coming from Hajin. “This is no way to treat her like that…” Suho then glances at Hajin asking him to back off.
‘They are all monsters…’ Rachel comes to realize this truth.
***
What the f—
They are all monsters. I feel like not stopping being surprised again and again. Hajin’s strength is within expectations, but it is still a feast for the eyes to see. The pure magic power that comes out from his stigma is bonkers! Nayun’s method of expressing her magic power is also a surprise as it resembles the Wolf of Valhalla’s, her master’s, aura during the conferment ceremony on the Djinn subjugation. There is also a need to mention Suho’s low-key monstrous power as he easily dispels the pressure colliding on Rachel.
There is no need for me to feel insignificant in comparison to them.
“So,” Nayun claps her hands as she withdraws her magic power entirely. “As I am saying, let’s set the bar lower to be fair. Hyon, go fight instead of Hajin.”
Huh?
Like.
“Huh?”
“Do your best, Hyon Hyung-ssi!” Kim Suho good-naturedly cheers me up.
I simply receive a stink-eye from Hajin as if telling me not to lose. No. I feel like he is threatening me not to lose. Come on, Hajin-chan… You are not the threatening kind, aren’t you?
“Good luck,” Nayun half-heartedly cheers on me.
Hajin and Suho walk away, while Nayun kicks me from behind. This leaves me and Rachel in the middle. I cannot even complain to Nayun about her physical abuse as Rachel throws me an issue of challenge.
“Fight me, please don’t go easy on me…” She deferentially calls me, which I feel a little bit good about.
“I… I cannot fight her! I am her fan!” I complain to my audiences. “Hey, Hajin… Bro~ Aren’t you Rachel’s fan too?” Kim Hajin tilts his head away as if to refuse my claim. Kim Suho gives me a thumbs-up while Nayun maintains a poker face.
“Here I go!” Rachel spiritedly shouts.
I fumble on my steps. My footwork isn’t anything great, but I am quite precise about where and when to dodge. However, my moves are a little bit awkward. I really don’t want to fight Rachel.
Rachel’s fist is pulsing with magic power as she attacks me with alacrity. I see her fists leave an afterimage as it drives forward on my temple only to reappear on my lower rib.
I am already tilting my head backward in anticipation of her fist coming at my head at that moment, but as it is faint, I am only wasting my time. The best response at this very second is to counterattack with a strike of my own. I can strike her throat with [Always Here] reinforcing my palm with stealth effects, or I can just kick her away while targeting her legs by activating and deactivating [Always Here] on her feet, thus making her fall from losing her footing. But then again, I don’t want to fight her.
I imbue [Always Here] on myself and deactivate it within a microsecond. This messes up with Rachel’s tempo, giving me the opportune chance to grab her wrist, lift her arm, and toss her on the floor reminiscent of a judo throw.
This is the safest way to subdue her without causing much injury, and at the same time, saving her from disgrace. I pin her under me by placing my knee on her abdomen. Well, this is also a disgraceful defeat in a sense, but less shameless than me mercilessly overpowering her.
But Rachel is relentless. She kicks my leg from under her causing me to lose my stance. She use her both arms to clip my head. And then, she strikes my forehead with a headbutt.
Rachel is really doing everything she can to defeat me. I almost feel pity.
I feel dizzy from the headbutt. Rachel takes this as an opportunity to kick me back so that she can distance herself from me.
“Hey, stop holding back…” Nayun angrily shouts at me.
To this, Rachel feels offended as she blushes pink in anger. “You!” This is the first time I see Rachel angry. Even when reading the novel, I never see her express anger. She is the kind to keep her anger locked inside her.
“Well, I must have been pretty rude… Come on… Don’t you know! I am the strongest of them all, yet they make me fight you!” It is an empty boast, but who cares.
“““Eh?””” Suho, Hajin, and Rachel have the same reactions.
But not Nayun. “You fucking bastard!”
Apparently, Nayun cares.
“Hmmm… In terms of survivability, I guess he is the strongest…” Suho comments.
“And doing bullshit stuff… so yeah…” Nayun sarcastically adds.
Rachel takes a dreadful tone, her eyes are a little bit teary. “It is unfair. So all of you are not taking me seriously after all…” Everyone shuts up at her remark. “Take me seriously, please… damn it…”
It is the first time I hear her cuss. I am experiencing a lot of first times as a part of this world. I now feel bad for Rachel. “Sigh… Well, you asked for it…”
I am strong. But not strong enough to stand equal to Suho, Nayun, and Hajin. But. I am strong. I have become sufficiently strong enough to make Rachel feel inferior. It is not as obvious to me as I am too busy desperately finding ways how to get strong no matter how minuscule the increase in strength is.
But really… I am strong too…
My eyes focus on Rachel. “I am sorry, Rachel, but I will go all out from now on.”
***
Rachel realizes how weak she actually is, and she doesn’t like it.
But even if that is the case, she will fight, she will prove herself to them. There are Djinns hiding in Cube, and she wants to help. But it seems that her help is unwanted. It hurts her pride, but she is a burden.
She grits her teeth as her every strike is dodged within a millimeter of a distance. It feels so close yet so far. Suddenly, she feels like she loses her senses on her legs. She sees her legs, yet, she cannot perceive them anymore. It is as if it has become invisible in plain sight.
In the blink of an eye, she falters in her stance as she cannot move her legs the way she wants it. The brown-haired cadet in front of her vanishes within an instant, and the next thing she knows… is that she is in the infirmary.
“W-what happened?” Rachel asks the staff nurse working in the infirmary.
“You fainted. Don’t you remember? Your classmate helped you here… He said, you suddenly lost consciousness… So, do you have any past medications that might be the cause of it?”
“No,” Rachel weakly explains. “It must be exhaustion because I have been sleeping less and less lately…” She lies to the nurse, while she considers her situation.
Rachel lost. And her offer of aid is rejected.
