HACKED 94

“Master.”

How long had I been in that same posture? Ja-myeong-go called out to me quietly.

What did that call mean? Stop idling and get up and move? It’s dangerous here so get away? Instead of wasting time like this, go recover the other Incarnations? Several cynical question marks floated through my mind before vanishing.

“……”

Even though I heard him, I did nothing. I only stared blankly at my bloody, empty hands—the hands that had held the Model Student’s hand moments ago.

There was no sensation in my legs after kneeling for so long. My pants must be a mess by now. From the knees down, they wouldn’t just be soaked in blood; they would look like they had been dunked deep into it and pulled back out.

“Mister Kim.”

Someone called me again. This time it wasn’t Ja-myeong-go.

“Let’s go a round of wrestling with me.”

A man’s hand, large and with prominent knuckles, gripped my hand powerfully. I snapped my head up. Tears that I didn’t know had pooled fell in drops down my eyes. My blurry vision cleared a little.

The Dokkaebi was looking down at me. There was no time to argue about why he was suddenly talking about wrestling in this situation. He spoke again.

“Arm wrestling is wrestling, too. Let’s wrestle, Mister Kim.”

A notification message I saw earlier flashed through my mind.

Passive Skill: ‘Hemophobia’

: A monkey’s butt is red. Red is… blood? Blood is scary!

Morale decreases when seeing or coming into contact with blood. The greater the amount of blood, the stronger the morale-decreasing effect, and there is a certain probability of falling into the status ailment ‘Fear.’

[<The Bloodless Dokkaebi> falls into the status ailment ‘Fear’.]

‘Wasn’t the Dokkaebi currently afflicted by the status ailment “Fear”? …Ah.’

The question was resolved quickly. It was because the notification message I saw after that came to mind.

[The average health of the unit members has fallen below 10. (Current Han (恨) Stacks: 4 [Max])]

[‘Han (恨)’ stacks have reached the maximum (4).]

[All unit members can now attack while ignoring all effects such as buffs, debuffs, items, and status ailments.]

A moment ago, the Han stacks of the formation bonus ‘Winds and Frost Unchanging’ had reached the maximum. Therefore, all unit members had entered a state where they could temporarily ignore status ailments and attack. It wasn’t that the status ailment was “cleared,” but rather “temporarily ignored.”

And the reason for this situation was clear.

In <No Lifer>, when calculating the ‘average health of the unit members,’ deceased unit members are included as long as the situation occurs during battle. The health of a deceased unit member is counted as 0. For example, if 5 out of 6 unit members have 100 health and 1 dies during battle… the average health of this unit is not 100, but 83.3333…

Meeting the condition for level 3 Han stacks, ‘average health of the unit members below 20,’ isn’t easy, but it isn’t extremely difficult either. However, the condition for the maximum level, an average health below 10, is significantly harder. It means all six unit members must fight while maintaining health in the single digits…. One must walk a tightrope on the edge of a state where it feels like they will die but they don’t.

But what if there is a unit member whose health is 0? That creates a relative margin for the other unit members. Even if some have 10 health, or in some cases over 20, the condition of ‘average health of the unit members below 10’ can be achieved.

It was a truly terribly heartless and cold-blooded calculation, enough to make me feel guilty just thinking about it, but… it was true. <Sickly Model Student> had been helpful until the very last moment, and she was still being helpful now.

‘Then the Dokkaebi is currently… in a state where he is ignoring everything, from the status ailment “Fear” due to “Hemophobia” to the status ailment “I do not listen to the orders of those weaker than me.”’

The fact that the temporarily normal Dokkaebi’s very first suggestion to me was “Let’s arm wrestle.”

“It’s an opportunity that the baby Dueoksini gave her life to create. We can’t let it go to waste like this.”

Baby Dueoksini? Is he talking about the Model Student? I didn’t know exactly what that title meant, but I understood the core of what the Dokkaebi wanted to say.

I looked down at the Dokkaebi’s hand gripping mine. Then I followed that hand with my gaze all the way up.

There were large holes pierced in the Dokkaebi’s shoulder and chest. They were wounds so gruesome that saying “holes were pierced” didn’t do them justice. If they had been stabbed just a bit deeper, I might have been able to see through to the other side.

“Okay. Let’s do it, arm wrestling.”

I gripped his hand in return.

The arm wrestling was short and concise. It couldn’t even be called a match. While our hands were joined as if shaking hands, I applied a little force and flipped his hand so the back of my hand faced upward. That was all.

The Dokkaebi applied almost no force to his hand throughout. I didn’t know if it was because his injuries were so severe that he couldn’t use strength, or if he was staying still on purpose. Since there was no way he couldn’t defeat a lone, ordinary human like me no matter how badly he was hurt, the latter was more likely.

“You won, Mister Kim. Congratulations.”

The Dokkaebi declared with a face whose expression was unreadable. He didn’t look happy at all. He didn’t seem angry because of a defeat that wasn’t even a defeat. He was just strangely calm.

[<The Bloodless Dokkaebi> has admitted defeat in the wrestling match.]

[The status ailment ‘I do not listen to the orders of those weaker than me’ is cleared.]

Only then did the Dokkaebi apply force to the hand he had been leaving limp and pulled. Regardless of my will, my body was suddenly pulled up. He pulled me up with a jerk, like pulling a radish from a field, and then completely let go of my hand.

“Say, Mister Kim. Do you have something you want to make me do to celebrate the win?”

He asked. I pointed toward the other end of the hallway.

“Those things, leave not a single one behind.”

“……”

“Kill them.”

Whoosh.

Embers sparked in the empty air. Flames that were similar to yet different from the Gumiho’s Fox Fire. It was Dokkaebi fire.

The flames were reflected and wavered in his light-colored pupils. A white face, blue eyes, and flickering Dokkaebi fire, all splattered with blood in a way that didn’t suit the epithet “Bloodless.” The whole scene was surreal.

He gave a wide grin.

“Of course.”

˙✧˖°🎮 ⋆｡˚

The S-Class Hunter ran hard, following the guidance of the status window. He shook off the hunting dogs that persistently stuck to him in between, and those that wouldn’t fall away easily, he killed.

[<The Hunter Hunted by Divine Punishment> has died and returned to a fragment of the narrative.]

[<The Origin of the Amazons> has died and returned to a fragment of the narrative.]

As soon as he arrived in the hallway in front of the Library Director’s office, he sensed that two of his comrades had died.

He already knew that <The Hunter Hunted by Divine Punishment> would die before long. An ultimate skill is a skill used as a final struggle just before death, or with the resolve to take the enemy down with you. Moreover, since the S-Class Hunter had practically thrown him to the enemies and fled alone, he naturally wouldn’t have lasted long.

But why <The Origin of the Amazons>? They were at a numerical disadvantage with only two on this side, but they should have fought together with as many as four comrades over there.

‘By the way, that Gumiho bastard earlier was a total psycho…’

He ground his teeth. He had left that crazy Gumiho surrounded by hundreds of hunting dogs, somehow shaking her off through sheer volume. Surely there wouldn’t be another terrible 5-star like that one here. Surely.

‘Now I just have to kill the Compiler.’

The hallway was dark so he couldn’t see well, but he knew by the presence that a battle was taking place nearby. However, whether <The Origin of the Amazons> died or not, that side was not his goal. He had no intention of going to help.

However, there was one fact the S-Class Hunter overlooked. If it was enough time for him to reach this point while avoiding the hunting dogs… then the enemies who were with him at the library entrance could also sufficiently reach this place.

A tedious and familiar presence was felt behind him. The young twins who handled longswords. They also arrived at almost the same time as the S-Class Hunter.

‘I thought I was the first one here?’

The S-Class Hunter tried to turn his body hurriedly. But one step faster than that, the attack of an ally who recognized a new enemy swarmed the twins.

“The damn swordsmen have come again. I will not leave a single one alive. Die quietly!”

<The Silver Grass Flower of the Warring States Period> rushed forward with his bamboo spear held high.

Passive Skill: ‘Ochimushagari (落ち武者狩리)’

: A defeated warrior is even afraid of silver grass flowers (落ち武者は薄の穂にも怖ず).

When facing an enemy using a ‘longsword’ as a primary weapon, attack power increases by 15%, and if the enemy has the ‘Samurai’ trait, attack power increases by an additional 15%.

It was the Silver Grass Flower’s passive skill, ‘Ochimushagari,’ which had worked as a perfect counter against San Gun.

However, there is always another counter for every counter.

Passive Skill: ‘Unbreakable Resolve’

: If I can avenge this enemy, I shall have no regrets even if I die (此讎若除 死即無憾).

When the enemy has the ‘Japanese Origin’ trait, attack power increases by 15%, and when the enemy has ‘invaded,’ attack power increases by an additional 15%.

“Truly resolving to die today (今日固决死).”

“I pray to the heavens, please let us surely annihilate this enemy (願天必殲此賊)!”

Even though their small bodies were stained by gruesome injuries, the twins, whose eyes never withered, swung their swords from both sides.