Chapter 99 – Ghost (1)

The team duel arena looked completely different from the one-on-one arena. Instead of the Colosseum, it took place in a rectangular arena 130 meters wide and 250 meters long. The arena transformed into a mountainous area with rocks and shrubs as soon as the judge signaled the start. Obstacles separated the two teams, but that worked to my advantage.

“Jin Hoseung and I will charge forward. Everyone else can support us from behind.”

Rachel spoke as I jumped into a nearby tree.

“Um, Hajin?”

Rachel’s confused voice rang out from below. I smiled and gestured.

“Go ahead. I’ll support everyone from above.”

I claimed the high ground like a normal sharpshooter. Rachel nodded and entrusted me with my job. Then she and Jin Hoseung charged forward. I followed them from tree to tree.

“…!”

An arrow cut through the air towards me. I bent my waist and narrowly dodged it.

“Wow.”

My body felt light and I could easily continue dodging. My new physique had increased my speed stat to around 6.3 and I felt like a ninja.

I turned in the arrow’s direction. The opposing archer shot a second magic arrow, but I struck it down with a bullet. The bullet disintegrated the moment it collided, but still managed to alter the arrow’s path. The archer frowned and didn’t want to continue fighting.

“Daeyun! Take care of their sharpshooter!”

He shouted at a teammate behind him as he aimed for Rachel and Jin Hoseung. I glanced at the battlefield and felt like background music began to play.

“The heck.”

Yohei looked like he came straight out of a comic. He stood in the middle of the battlefield with his eyes closed and a tiny branch in his mouth. He seemed comfortable even as Rachel and Jin Hoseung charged at him. His katana remained in its sheath.

“Ronin, be free and wild like the wind.”

He blurted incomprehensible words and opened his eyes as Rachel and Jin Hoseung stepped into range. When Rachel’s rapier and Jin Hoseung’s saber almost cut him down… his katana flashed with a cold light. It soared and parried the two attacks like lightning. His sword seemed lighter than the wind, yet fiercer than a storm.

I watched the three warriors clashing in a daze. Yohei evenly matched two cadets thanks to all the buffs and extra magic power from his teammate.

I finally understood their formation. Yohei stood in the front while their sharpshooter remained in the middle. Their supporter and a warrior both guarded the magician in the back.

The so-called four-protect-one formation. Their strategy threw everything onto Yohei. Their sharpshooter supported both the front and back while the magician cast buffs on Yohei.

The strategy efficiently focused on defense as long as the magician didn’t die or someone like me didn’t interfere.

I detoured and looped around to the magician. It seemed I lacked in stealth as the muscular warrior with a buzz cut noticed me. He threw his axe like a boomerang as it chopped down all the greenery around me before returning to his hand. He frowned when he saw my gun.

“Why is a sharpshooter here alone?”

I fired a barrage of bullets without answering. The warrior calmly stabbed his axe into the ground. It grew bigger as he imbued his magic power into it. The supporter next to the magician also raised his shield and defended against the bullets.

Meanwhile, I looked for blind spots in their defense. Their magician hid behind the supporter, but I felt like I could reach him from above. During combat training, cadets wore special protectors that absorbed damage to their vital points. By design, a hit to their neck protector would instantly eliminate them.

Their warrior and supporter exchanged glances that seemed to say, You protect the magician, I’ll get that sharpshooter. The warrior charged at me with his axe. I didn’t particularly mind since I could easily use parkour in this obstacle-filled environment. The slow warrior couldn’t catch me as I hopped from tree to tree and kept my eyes on the magician. Their supporter must’ve felt my gaze as he performed something quite unique.

“Conjunction."

His kite shield multiplied and surrounded them. However, gaps still existed. By design, the shields couldn’t form a perfect cover. I aimed for the tiny gaps.

“Huaaap!”

The warrior swung his giant axe and crushed the tree I stood on. I jumped and turned in the air. Psssh— The tree scattered into pieces as I flipped upside down 10 meters in the air. Then I activated bullet time and everything immediately slowed. I spotted a tiny gap between two kite shields. I turned my gun slightly to the right and fired since I could easily control the speed and trajectory of my bullets.

Whish—

The bullet oddly curved in the air. I could clearly see its movement. It should’ve flown straight, but suddenly dropped. Then it went through the tiny gap between two shields like a homing missile.

“Aak!”

The magician screamed. He didn’t pay attention since he trusted the shields. He wouldn’t have instantly died if he had kept a single barrier around him. However, the magician wanted to conserve his magic power.

— Team Yohei, magician Yoo Soohwan has been eliminated.

My bullet struck his neck protector.

“Agh, this sly bastard!”

The warrior and supporter charged at me.

“Come on, sly?”

I climbed up a tree and constantly fired at them like a monkey throwing down banana peels.

“Get down! Get down here!”

I hopped to another tree and continued provoking him every time the warrior threw his axe. Meanwhile, the frontline battle also came to a close as Rachel and Jin Hoseung began to push Yohei back without the magician’s support. The opposing team’s sharpshooter busily dodged Tomer’s magic attacks. This battle was practically over while their two other members chased after me.

***

I messaged Yoo Yeonha 10 minutes after the duel from the waiting room and asked about Yohei.

[He has the wind attribute, the rarest among water, wind, earth, and fire. His gift allows him to display wind-like movements with his magic power.] [He can send out several sword strikes and fluidly dodge his opponents’ attacks. His gift is called Covenant of Wind.] [In summary, his gift and physical abilities are both excellent, but he lacks magic power and doesn’t do well in drawn-out fights.] [He formed his team to make up for his weaknesses. The magician Yoo Soohwan has a magic called target chain that transmits spells and magic power to a connected target from long range.] [The fight would’ve been more difficult if he survived until the end. Yohei’s battle sense is second only to Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak.]

Yoo Yeonha sent over a thorough report. Cadets often kept their gifts a secret, but she even found out about that. Asking her turned out to be a good idea.

The waiting room’s door opened as Rachel walked in with the same expression she always wore.

“Good work, everyone.”

Her face didn’t show it, but she sounded happy. Anyone could see that Rachel felt ecstatic.

“Especially…”

Rachel looked at me and smiled.

“We won thanks to Hajin eliminating their magician.”

“I shouldn’t be praised since I went off on my own.”

“We would’ve called you a troll if you failed, but you’re a hero since you succeeded. I thought you were Guan Yu [1] when you suddenly said you would take their magician’s head.”

Yi Bokgyu smiled as Rachel continued looking at me. Then she warmly nodded.

“Yes, well done.”

“By the way, where’s Jamer?”

Jin Hoseung asked as he looked around.

“Jamer?”

“Oh right, she did well too,” Yi Bokgyu added.

“Jamer… Ah.”

I kept getting confused because her real name was Tomer. Anyways, I wondered why Tomer hadn’t responded to the message that I found Fernin Jesus? Violet Banquet had a trustworthy system. I asked for 300 million won, but she shouldn’t worry about being scammed. Did she not have the money?

“Let me go find her.”

I left the waiting room and walked down the hallway in search of Tomer. She wasn’t in the bathroom or any another waiting rooms. Soon, I found her hiding in an alley near a vending machine as she called someone. I eavesdropped while walking towards her.

— Um, if you could loan me some money…

As expected, Tomer didn’t have the money.

— Is that all you have to say? How long are you going to drag out what should’ve only taken two weeks?

The caller sounded irritated.

— Sorry.

— Prepare for your punishment if you can’t close it out by the end of the week. Oh right, didn’t you also lose the item the team leader sent you?

— Ah, about that… I’m really sorry, but I’m pressed on money, so…

— Are you out of your mind? You sold it because you needed money!

— No, no, I didn’t sell it. I just lost it…

— Yeah, I’m so proud of you.

Tomer hung up the call feeling dejected.

“Haa.”

She deeply sighed and turned around.

“Hiik!”

I stood right in front of her.

She immediately froze. However, nothing from the call indicated her identity as a djinn. She seemed to realize that and felt relieved. I asked as I put some coins into the vending machine.

“What happened? You’re short on money?”

“...”

Tomer silently walked past me.

“Want me to lend you some?”

She turned and looked at me. Now I had her attention.

“You don’t know how much I need.”

“Well, you’re a magician. I can loan you as much as you want if you’re willing to write a promissory note.”

Magicians could rake in a lot of money. Clunk, clunk— A bottle of Sprite rolled down from the vending machine.

“I might not look like it, but I’m quite rich.”

***

I left the arena feeling exhausted. Our team’s second duel would take place at 3 P.M.

“Cheer up, only two duels left!” I tried to encourage myself when a familiar voice rang out.

“Hey, Kim Hajin!”

I turned around as Chae Nayun walked towards me.

“Kim Suho wanted me to tell you that he liked your match.”

“Kim Suho did?”

“Yeah, he went straight into his match. By the way, how did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Your bullet curved. What trick is that?” Chae Nayun curiously asked.

“My gift,” I simply replied.

“What a boring explanation. Yawwn.”

Chae Nayun locked her fingers behind her neck.

“Ah, I want to fight too. My matches don’t start until the afternoon.”

“I see.”

I ignored her and went on my way when I spotted someone else in front of me. Shin Jonghak and Yoo Yeonha stood about ten steps away. He looked at me with disdain and emotionless eyes. It felt like being in a haunted house. He always looked handsome, but scary.

“…”

Shin Jonghak looked back and forth between me and Chae Nayun. She frowned and shot back at him.

“What do you want?”

“Haha.”

Shin Jonghak laughed since he liked this side of Chae Nayun. Yoo Yeonha didn’t seem to understand why as she stood next to him. He sauntered toward us as if to switch places with me. I just walked past him.

“Are you leaving?”

Yoo Yeonha asked. Her eyes still focused on Shin Jonghak.

“Yeah. What about you? Are you going to your match?”

“Yes, it’s at 11 A.M.”

“I see.”

I suddenly remembered something.

“Oh right, hey.”

“Yes?”

Yoo Yeonha finally turned to face me. I briefly spoke.

“Bullets. 5.56 mm.”

“You want me to get you some?”

“Yeah, a lot.”

“It’s possible, but what do you need assault rifle bullets for?”

“I think I’ll need them in the future.”

“Hmm, hold on.” Yoo Yeonha turned on her smartwatch.

“How many?”

“About… six hundred?”

“Six… what?”

“Six hundred.”

“You know that high rank 5.56 mm magic bullets cost at least 200,000 won per bullet, right?”

“So it’ll be 120 million in total. Is that too much?”

I looked at her disappointed. Yoo Yeonha suddenly smiled like a queen.

“Pft. I can do something like that with my eyes closed. Don’t try to needlessly scratch my pride. Do you also need a weapon to go with it?”

“No, I only need the bullets.”

I almost patted her shoulder, but stopped halfway. Cough. I placed my hands in my pockets since Yoo Yeonha hated people touching her.

“I’m leaving now.”

“Yes… Ah, wait.”

Yoo Yeonha grabbed me.

“It’s about that ginseng.”

“What about it?”

“We’ll be able to produce medicine with it in two weeks. So I was wondering…”

“Are you asking if I have any more?”

“Yes. It looks like it’ll take a while for us to find proper traders.”

I rubbed my chin in thought. Ginseng. Honestly, I felt like I could obtain one by hiking a few times.

“I can’t say for sure, but I’ll trade it for your company’s shares if I find any. Deal?”

“That’s fine.”

I could hear Shin Jonghak while we talked.

— Chae Nayun, why are you hanging out with someone like him?

— What? What are you spouting?

— You didn’t forget about what happened before, right? You said he was weird and told me to squash him.

— Eh? Ah, no, um… I misunderstood at the time…

Someone like him. I found it quite unpleasant to hear, but that’s just how Shin Jonghak acted. He took pride in his bloodline and status. Honestly, he should be proud. His bloodline couldn’t compare to royalty, but Shin Jonghak’s ancestor served the king as a prime minister. His grandfather, Shin Myungchul, also saved the nation after Outcall like a true noble.

“Just ignore him. Jonghak doesn’t know much about you,” Yoo Yeonha said as she studied my face.

“I don’t mind.”

I walked past them to the lounge area.

***

All my team duels ended by 7 P.M. as I returned home exhausted.

“Hajin! Hajin!”

Evandel scurried up to me with a sullen face as I opened the door.

“Hajin! Hayang scratched me!”

She put out her right arm with teary eyes. I looked at the very light scratch. Haa. I swallowed my sigh and recalled one of the rules of childcare: never look bothered by your child.

“How?”

“I don’t know. Hayang is a meanie! Hayang, you meanie!”

Evandel shouted at Hayang. I looked over at Hayang yawning on the couch and acting self-important.

“She scratched you even though you didn’t do anything?”

“Un! I didn’t do anything wrong…”

Would a cat scratch someone for no reason? I looked around the room and found cat treats sprawled around the floor. The treat was called Churu, and even humans found it delicious. I told Evandel to give Hayang only one per day. Even if Evandel liked eating…

“Evandel, you didn’t touch Hayang’s treat, right?”

“…”

Evandel flinched.

“You did?”

“N-No… I just wanted to know how yummy it was because Hayang liked it so much. I only wanted a taste…”

Evandel made excuses as I watched her slightly dumbstruck. Suddenly, my smartwatch rang. A message came from Rachel.

[Hajin! Happy birthday ^—^!] [This is my gift. Great job on the duels today.] [Let’s go karaoke after the exams ~.~]

“Birthday?”

I tilted my head. Then I recalled that today was September 8th. Indeed, it was my birthday. I turned on my smartwatch and wondered how Rachel knew. I quickly found out when I spotted the party hat on my messenger profile.

1. A famous general from the Three Kingdoms era known as the God of War.