Rachel feels scared for him. It appears that he is on the brink of death, and if nothing is done with him, then he can only die! “It is no time to panic…” She consoles herself. There should be something she can do.
“Hyon Hyung-ssi, don’t move… It is me, Rachel… I have come to help.”
For all of this to come to this. It can only be them. Someone is hunting the cube cadets within the Mock Dungeon and Rachel cannot do anything to stop them. Rachel recalls how bad it is the moment she becomes separated from her group.
The attackers are strong with plenty of low ranks, and leaders at least intermediate rank. At first, Rachel thinks that she must be being targeted, but no. The sight of Hyon Hyung pains her conscience. “And here I thought you are strong…” She admonishes him.
The thought of murder no longer stays on her mind. “They are Djinns anyway so killing one of them will only do well for the world.” She comforts herself with this line of thought.
When she is about to feed him the only healing potion she has, Hyon Hyung wakes up and grabs her by the wrist. “Don’t use it on me…” He weakly tells her in English, while his breathing is ragged.
Rachel is shaken.
***
Smarty pants, you should know better using it on yourself is the logical choice…
I want to tell her that, but I am too weak. “Please protect Yoenha…” I tell her with the little strength I have. The hidden camera I hide in Yoenha’s room is suddenly blackened. This can only mean that she is in danger.
This cannot be a coincidence. I cannot contact Hajin. The Mock Dungeon Trial has been compromised. Now, Jonghak has to fucking ambush me!
“I…” Rachel looks at me with doubt.
I am not convincing at all, and here I think of myself as some fancy liar, when I cannot even fool a single honest-to-good girl like Rachel. “Go,” I tell her. “Please protect Yoenha,” I beg her.
Even if she heals me with that potion she has, then its effects will be wasted on me. While potions can miraculously mend flesh and close wounds, they cannot replenish blood. They are not that godly!
I will not be combat effective if I do down that potion, so what are you doing!?
Rachel helps me drink the potion. I can only gulp it as it will be more of a waste if no one consumes it. I should have skipped the class, so that I can bodyguard Yoenha, but I don’t have that luxury.
Thanks to me once being in detention and having a low rank, the instructors have me attend class or else the consequences. Now. I feel that school doesn’t really matter anymore.
If any of the main cast dies, then fuck, I will hate the world for it.
“I… I can breathe…”
My right leg still feels weak, but it has already stopped bleeding. Rachel helps me to get up by giving me her shoulder. I try to walk, but clearly, I am limping.
“Wait here, I will call for help…” Rachel tells me in one breath, eager to go and seek help. I grab her wrist before she goes. “No. Go to Yoenha… She will need your help…”
“… Yes… I will…” Rachel gives me an affirmative.
I sigh in relief. I cannot go to Yoenha yet. I realize that my fight is here. If there are Djinns roaming around and targeting cadets, then I must stay here. Looks like Hajin’s vision of exterminating the Djinns inside Cube has been the right answer all along.
I press on my earpiece, trying to call for Hajin. “Yo~ my best friend… Still kicking?”
“Thank goodness…” I hear Hajin’s electronic voice through the earpiece. “I tried contacting you, but you seemed unresponsive…”
“I got knocked out. Jonghak is targeting me for some reason… I think the idiot got manipulated with words. I bet it's Yun Hyuk and his silver tongue…” I explain to Hajin my circumstances.
“Yeah, I wrote Yun Hyuk that way, but he seemed to have surpassed my expectations as a ‘smart’ individual. What are your plans?”
I need not think it over. “Do what you need to do. I sent Rachel as an advance force to protect Yoenha. I will stay within the artificial dungeon to steer Jonghak in the right direction, and return to my actual fucking job…”
“Yeah, I will leave Yoenha and Rachel to you… What do you plan on doing Jonghak?”
I cannot help but snicker, as a revenge plan is already forming in my head. “I will have him exterminate the Djinns inside the Mock Dungeon…”
“Then I will exterminate every Djinn I find outside the Mock Dungeon,” Hajin tells me in an uncompromising tone.
***
Shin Jonghak waves his spear, causing the blood drenching it to scatter into a crescent. The Djinn he has fought turns to ash, leaving nothing behind but his robes.
There are Djinns roaming around the Artificial Dungeon, and their purpose remains a mystery to Jonghak. They are quite slippery as every time Jonghak engages them in a fight, they easily escape and outmaneuver them.
And also… The cameras…
They are well hidden, but Jonghak is able to get insider information about where their blindsides are. That is how he is able to corner the Djinn that goes by the name of Hyon Hyung. Jonghak is very careful in finding the right opportunity to corner Hyon Hyung.
After all, these cameras are what protect the cadets from unlikely accidents.
However, the same cameras that should be overseeing them seem to be not working.
“Yo~ oh noble lord~” The playful tone irate Jonghak.
When he turns around, he sees Hyon Hyung. His brown hair and unkempt training uniform create the impression that he has been in a lot of battles. Fighting the Salamanders while handicapped by injuries is sure to be complicated.
“Looks like I am right… For you to recover this fast must only earn that you are a Djinn…” Jonghak proudly utters his deduction.
“Hey, if there is one thing I hate the most… It is freaking misunderstandings…” The Djinn is fickle, but surely, it is just another one of his tricks, so Jonghak will be hearing none of his words.
“You are a Djinn and that is the end of it.” Jonghak only needs to say this, and the next second, he comes to Hyon Hyung like a bolt of thunder. “I will mince you!”
His white hair trembles backward at the turbulence of the wind as he thrust his spear.
However, like the same way how the Djinn dodges his spear from their initial bout, he easily sidesteps and rolls to the side effectively dodging the one-two hit combo that Jonghak tends to use.
***
“Witness the power of…” I sidestep at Jonghak’s spear thrust, while jestingly teasing him with my words. “ROLLY POLLY!” I roll down to his sides until I am a few meters away from him.
I don’t know how Jonghak comes up to think that I am a Djinn, but I might as well embrace it.
“He he he he…” I showcase my third-rate villainous laugh. “You got that right! I have been the Djinn you are looking for. The master behind the scenes. The one responsible for everything!”
Jonghak rushes at me with spectacular speed. I can only thank Suho for his sparring with me as I am able to get used to this speed to some extent. I use my favorite trick— activating and deactivating [Always Here] on myself to mess with his aim.
“Your spear will never reach me! This is futile!” I boast to him, while I throw myself backward. I then fix my stance to a squat, making sure my calves are tense enough to react to Jonghak’s attacks.
Jonghak calms himself by changing his stance, and breathing rhythm. “So this is your true strength. You have been playing the fool all along! Nayun and Yoenha must have been fooled by your disguise, but I can see through you!”
Huh? Like… Huh? What the fuck… Jonghak is really misunderstanding things.
“Yes, you got that right… Do you wanna guess what I will do next?” I taunt him while I playfully juggle my pair of daggers to add the impression.
Jonghak’s fighting spirit emanates from him with danger. This is ridiculous. His magic power is becoming visible to the point that his aura has a hue of blue, orange, and red. “You pathetic scoundrel. After poisoning Yoenha like that, what else do you wish to achieve if not just to cause chaos, you madman!”
Poison? Yoenha? I want to learn more about what is happening, but…
“You Djinns have been always the same.” Jonghak dangerously utters while magic power pulses from his spear. Jonghak might really kill me.
I frantically activate and deactivate [Always Here] on myself and Jonghak. I then enter invisibility mode through [Not Here] and then roll to the side only to reappear from far away him. Yet, the trench that his flying energy spear strike leaves are just a foot away from me.
“I can still do it one more time…” Jonghak mumbles maybe for me to hear and tremble in fear of learning the gap between our strengths. "The next one will not miss."
I guess it is time I retreat. My muscles are hurting like hell, but I should be able to perform one last trick. I fake a snicker at Jonghak's words. “Pfft… As if… I have been dodging all this time… Imagine what I can do if I take this seriously…”
“… Your bluff will not work on me…”
“Bluff or not… Why don’t you try and see?” I vanish from where I stand. One of the few applications by combining [Not Here] and [Always Here] is this—
Quadruple Afterimage—
Comes from the north, south, east, and west are my afterimage. By activating [Not Here] and deactivating [Always Here], I can leave an afterimage in the wind that is indistinguishable from my real self.
I see Jonghak’s momentary panic, but he quickly adapts to the situation by bursting his magic power outwards. It is like how Nayun expresses her [Sea of Magic Power] as an aura.
~Clang
A crispy sound of colliding metal resounds. Spear and dual daggers collide! I retreat from Jonghak with a flurry, but no attack follows me. “Wow, you can block that! Still, that proves my point! My stealth abilities are amazing, no?”
“I have already seen your trick once. Come twice, and I promise you your death!” Jonghak declares to me with gravitas as if he comes from a murim novel.
“Oooh~ so scary…” I press on my chest as if I am having a heart attack. I am loving this acting as a pretentious villain, I might get hooked on it. “That’s great and all…”
My tone takes a turn for the worse as dread and gloom color my eyes. “Imagine if it is any other cadet. What do you think their chances for survival are?”
“You bastard!” Jonghak’s noble self cannot help but swear at me. I am flattered.
“Chaos? Terrorism? That is all and great, but murder is not that simple! It is fucking art! Bodies will fall! Cadets will die! And I shall be its executor! Let’s see if you can stop me! My Djinn subordinates have been roaming this Dungeon for some time already! Can you imagine the body count if they have been here since the combat training started?”
I smile at the one camera that has been witnessing my bout with Jonghak. “Oh~ maybe it is not just bodies that will fall, but also ash…”
I vanish with the wind, leaving Jonghak on his lonesome self.
Rachel feels scared for him. It appears that he is on the brink of death, and if nothing is done with him, then he can only die! “It is no time to panic…” She consoles herself. There should be something she can do.
“Hyon Hyung-ssi, don’t move… It is me, Rachel… I have come to help.”
For all of this to come to this. It can only be them. Someone is hunting the cube cadets within the Mock Dungeon and Rachel cannot do anything to stop them. Rachel recalls how bad it is the moment she becomes separated from her group.
The attackers are strong with plenty of low ranks, and leaders at least intermediate rank. At first, Rachel thinks that she must be being targeted, but no. The sight of Hyon Hyung pains her conscience. “And here I thought you are strong…” She admonishes him.
The thought of murder no longer stays on her mind. “They are Djinns anyway so killing one of them will only do well for the world.” She comforts herself with this line of thought.
When she is about to feed him the only healing potion she has, Hyon Hyung wakes up and grabs her by the wrist. “Don’t use it on me…” He weakly tells her in English, while his breathing is ragged.
Rachel is shaken.
***
Smarty pants, you should know better using it on yourself is the logical choice…
I want to tell her that, but I am too weak. “Please protect Yoenha…” I tell her with the little strength I have. The hidden camera I hide in Yoenha’s room is suddenly blackened. This can only mean that she is in danger.
This cannot be a coincidence. I cannot contact Hajin. The Mock Dungeon Trial has been compromised. Now, Jonghak has to fucking ambush me!
“I…” Rachel looks at me with doubt.
I am not convincing at all, and here I think of myself as some fancy liar, when I cannot even fool a single honest-to-good girl like Rachel. “Go,” I tell her. “Please protect Yoenha,” I beg her.
Even if she heals me with that potion she has, then its effects will be wasted on me. While potions can miraculously mend flesh and close wounds, they cannot replenish blood. They are not that godly!
I will not be combat effective if I do down that potion, so what are you doing!?
Rachel helps me drink the potion. I can only gulp it as it will be more of a waste if no one consumes it. I should have skipped the class, so that I can bodyguard Yoenha, but I don’t have that luxury.
Thanks to me once being in detention and having a low rank, the instructors have me attend class or else the consequences. Now. I feel that school doesn’t really matter anymore.
If any of the main cast dies, then fuck, I will hate the world for it.
“I… I can breathe…”
My right leg still feels weak, but it has already stopped bleeding. Rachel helps me to get up by giving me her shoulder. I try to walk, but clearly, I am limping.
“Wait here, I will call for help…” Rachel tells me in one breath, eager to go and seek help. I grab her wrist before she goes. “No. Go to Yoenha… She will need your help…”
“… Yes… I will…” Rachel gives me an affirmative.
I sigh in relief. I cannot go to Yoenha yet. I realize that my fight is here. If there are Djinns roaming around and targeting cadets, then I must stay here. Looks like Hajin’s vision of exterminating the Djinns inside Cube has been the right answer all along.
I press on my earpiece, trying to call for Hajin. “Yo~ my best friend… Still kicking?”
“Thank goodness…” I hear Hajin’s electronic voice through the earpiece. “I tried contacting you, but you seemed unresponsive…”
“I got knocked out. Jonghak is targeting me for some reason… I think the idiot got manipulated with words. I bet it's Yun Hyuk and his silver tongue…” I explain to Hajin my circumstances.
“Yeah, I wrote Yun Hyuk that way, but he seemed to have surpassed my expectations as a ‘smart’ individual. What are your plans?”
I need not think it over. “Do what you need to do. I sent Rachel as an advance force to protect Yoenha. I will stay within the artificial dungeon to steer Jonghak in the right direction, and return to my actual fucking job…”
“Yeah, I will leave Yoenha and Rachel to you… What do you plan on doing Jonghak?”
I cannot help but snicker, as a revenge plan is already forming in my head. “I will have him exterminate the Djinns inside the Mock Dungeon…”
“Then I will exterminate every Djinn I find outside the Mock Dungeon,” Hajin tells me in an uncompromising tone.
***
Shin Jonghak waves his spear, causing the blood drenching it to scatter into a crescent. The Djinn he has fought turns to ash, leaving nothing behind but his robes.
There are Djinns roaming around the Artificial Dungeon, and their purpose remains a mystery to Jonghak. They are quite slippery as every time Jonghak engages them in a fight, they easily escape and outmaneuver them.
And also… The cameras…
They are well hidden, but Jonghak is able to get insider information about where their blindsides are. That is how he is able to corner the Djinn that goes by the name of Hyon Hyung. Jonghak is very careful in finding the right opportunity to corner Hyon Hyung.
After all, these cameras are what protect the cadets from unlikely accidents.
However, the same cameras that should be overseeing them seem to be not working.
“Yo~ oh noble lord~” The playful tone irate Jonghak.
When he turns around, he sees Hyon Hyung. His brown hair and unkempt training uniform create the impression that he has been in a lot of battles. Fighting the Salamanders while handicapped by injuries is sure to be complicated.
“Looks like I am right… For you to recover this fast must only earn that you are a Djinn…” Jonghak proudly utters his deduction.
“Hey, if there is one thing I hate the most… It is freaking misunderstandings…” The Djinn is fickle, but surely, it is just another one of his tricks, so Jonghak will be hearing none of his words.
“You are a Djinn and that is the end of it.” Jonghak only needs to say this, and the next second, he comes to Hyon Hyung like a bolt of thunder. “I will mince you!”
His white hair trembles backward at the turbulence of the wind as he thrust his spear.
However, like the same way how the Djinn dodges his spear from their initial bout, he easily sidesteps and rolls to the side effectively dodging the one-two hit combo that Jonghak tends to use.
***
“Witness the power of…” I sidestep at Jonghak’s spear thrust, while jestingly teasing him with my words. “ROLLY POLLY!” I roll down to his sides until I am a few meters away from him.
I don’t know how Jonghak comes up to think that I am a Djinn, but I might as well embrace it.
“He he he he…” I showcase my third-rate villainous laugh. “You got that right! I have been the Djinn you are looking for. The master behind the scenes. The one responsible for everything!”
Jonghak rushes at me with spectacular speed. I can only thank Suho for his sparring with me as I am able to get used to this speed to some extent. I use my favorite trick— activating and deactivating [Always Here] on myself to mess with his aim.
“Your spear will never reach me! This is futile!” I boast to him, while I throw myself backward. I then fix my stance to a squat, making sure my calves are tense enough to react to Jonghak’s attacks.
Jonghak calms himself by changing his stance, and breathing rhythm. “So this is your true strength. You have been playing the fool all along! Nayun and Yoenha must have been fooled by your disguise, but I can see through you!”
Huh? Like… Huh? What the fuck… Jonghak is really misunderstanding things.
“Yes, you got that right… Do you wanna guess what I will do next?” I taunt him while I playfully juggle my pair of daggers to add the impression.
Jonghak’s fighting spirit emanates from him with danger. This is ridiculous. His magic power is becoming visible to the point that his aura has a hue of blue, orange, and red. “You pathetic scoundrel. After poisoning Yoenha like that, what else do you wish to achieve if not just to cause chaos, you madman!”
Poison? Yoenha? I want to learn more about what is happening, but…
“You Djinns have been always the same.” Jonghak dangerously utters while magic power pulses from his spear. Jonghak might really kill me.
I frantically activate and deactivate [Always Here] on myself and Jonghak. I then enter invisibility mode through [Not Here] and then roll to the side only to reappear from far away him. Yet, the trench that his flying energy spear strike leaves are just a foot away from me.
“I can still do it one more time…” Jonghak mumbles maybe for me to hear and tremble in fear of learning the gap between our strengths. "The next one will not miss."
I guess it is time I retreat. My muscles are hurting like hell, but I should be able to perform one last trick. I fake a snicker at Jonghak's words. “Pfft… As if… I have been dodging all this time… Imagine what I can do if I take this seriously…”
“… Your bluff will not work on me…”
“Bluff or not… Why don’t you try and see?” I vanish from where I stand. One of the few applications by combining [Not Here] and [Always Here] is this—
Quadruple Afterimage—
Comes from the north, south, east, and west are my afterimage. By activating [Not Here] and deactivating [Always Here], I can leave an afterimage in the wind that is indistinguishable from my real self.
I see Jonghak’s momentary panic, but he quickly adapts to the situation by bursting his magic power outwards. It is like how Nayun expresses her [Sea of Magic Power] as an aura.
~Clang
A crispy sound of colliding metal resounds. Spear and dual daggers collide! I retreat from Jonghak with a flurry, but no attack follows me. “Wow, you can block that! Still, that proves my point! My stealth abilities are amazing, no?”
“I have already seen your trick once. Come twice, and I promise you your death!” Jonghak declares to me with gravitas as if he comes from a murim novel.
“Oooh~ so scary…” I press on my chest as if I am having a heart attack. I am loving this acting as a pretentious villain, I might get hooked on it. “That’s great and all…”
My tone takes a turn for the worse as dread and gloom color my eyes. “Imagine if it is any other cadet. What do you think their chances for survival are?”
“You bastard!” Jonghak’s noble self cannot help but swear at me. I am flattered.
“Chaos? Terrorism? That is all and great, but murder is not that simple! It is fucking art! Bodies will fall! Cadets will die! And I shall be its executor! Let’s see if you can stop me! My Djinn subordinates have been roaming this Dungeon for some time already! Can you imagine the body count if they have been here since the combat training started?”
I smile at the one camera that has been witnessing my bout with Jonghak. “Oh~ maybe it is not just bodies that will fall, but also ash…”
I vanish with the wind, leaving Jonghak on his lonesome self.
