Chapter 8.

“There . ”

Right when my legs were about to give out, we found our target monster . A giant octopus running amok near the beach . There was a black hump was on its that made it seem as though it had two heads .

“I’m ready . ”

Yoo Yeonha spoke as she lowered her body in the thicket . Jin Hoseung and Hazuki took out their sword and axe, respectively .

“When we run at it, baby octopuses will pop out of its hump . When that happens, the two of you should fall back and be on standby until I kill them all . Warriors need to save their magic power as much as possible . Black hump octopuses have high regenerative power, so we need to remove its hump in a single blow…”

Yoo Yeonha’s explanation continued .

In reality, it was best to leave the baby octopuses to me . A handgun had a high base power, so it could kill any number of baby octopuses in one blow . On the other hand, it was hard to damage the main body unless a critical hit occurred .

However, Yoo Yeonha didn’t say anything to me .

So I just stood still, holding myself back from yawning .

“Then let’s start . ”

The moment her words fell, Jin Hoseung and Hazuki ran up . After closing in a fair amount, Jin Hoseung straightened his throat before roaring .

“Kueeeeek!”

“Kyak!”

My ears felt burning, but it had the desired effect . The back hump octopus lowered its head after discovering us . It then pointed its cannon-shaped hump towards us .

BOOM!

A thundering sound rang out, and dozens of creatures shot out of its hump . Seemingly mushy lumps rained down on us from the sky .

As planned, Jin Hoseung and Hazuki stepped aside, while Yoo Yeonha held up her whip, clearly coursing with magic power .

But I held up my handgun before Yoo Yeonha could make her move .

“Hey, you don’t have to…”

Yoo Yeonha tried to stop me in shock, but I ignored her .

Now was the only time I could shine .

I activated Bullet Time .

Immediately, the blood in my body began to boil . My vision became clearer and the world slowed down . I could see and predict the trajectory of the raining octopuses . Their one-dimensional movement made them much easier targets than the mole crickets .

There were twenty magic bullets loaded .

It was simple . I just had to look where I was shooting and pull the trigger . The added luck was the icing on the cake .

Magic bullets silently cut through the air, leaving behind a blue trace . One bullet for one target . The clip was emptied in an instant, but unloading and reloading were also instantaneous .

I shot another twenty bullets, then another twenty .

After I shot 60 bullets nonstop, the world returned to normal .

“… Huh?”

The creatures covering the sun disappeared without leaving behind a trace . The sudden change made Yoo Yeonha and the others confused .

“C-Come on . Let’s go . ”

“Ah, right . ”

“Yes!”

Quickly snapping out of her daze, Yoo Yeonha rebuked Hazuki and Jin Hoseung . Only then did the two warriors begin to run at the main body . Yoo Yeonha’s long whip shot out and grabbed onto the giant octopus’s hump .

The moment her elegant whip crushed the octopus’s hump, a mole cricket shot out from the ground

Kieeek—

Crying voraciously, the mole cricket jumped on Yoo Yeonha . I fired the last bullet I had in my barrel . Hitting the mole cricket on the mark, the magic bullet detonated inside and splashed the mole cricket’s blood and mucus on Yoo Yeonha .

Before she was covered in goo, Yoo Yeonha calmly spread out her magic power . The mucus from the mole cricket fell down after hitting this barrier .

“Uk…”

But she couldn’t block everything . Yoo Yeonha gave me a deathly glare, but she knew now wasn’t the time to complain . She shot out whip towards the octopus once again .

A beast-like whip then joined the sword and axe’s dance with tentacles .

**

Case closed . Time elapsed: 9 minutes 40 seconds .

Yoo Yeonha had brilliantly cut off four of the eight tentacles . All that while standing next to me and not moving more than a foot . She had thoroughly fulfilled her two duties — supporting the warriors and protecting the sharpshooter .

“…”

Now that the battle was over, Yoo Yeonha had her eyes closed shut .

Around her ankles and snow-white collarbone were the mole cricket’s dried blood and mucus . After letting out a sigh, she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped them off .

Then, she turned towards me .

“Excuse me . ”

Her eyes were smiling, but it didn’t seem so friendly . I met her eyes without being able to answer . The anger hidden in her eyes were like blades . Yoo Yeonha was a fearsome woman . More so than anything else, she hated her body and clothes getting dirty .

“You didn’t need to bother . I can take care of a mole cricket just fine . Much cleanly . ”

“…”

“Because of you, my clothes ended up getting dirty . ”

At that moment, two insensitive warriors approached me .

“Whew, that was swift thanks to you . I saw it . You killed the baby octopuses, right? Guns have their advantage, huh . ”

“That was amazing!”

It was Jin Hoseung and Hazuki, who were covered in blood and ink .

Seemingly afraid to get her clothes dirty, Yoo Yeonha slowly stepped away .

**

[Team 5 — Total time: 58 minutes 58 seconds . 16/100]

16th out of 100 teams .

Though she finished in the upper half of the teams, Yoo Yeonha’s expression couldn’t be said to be good .

But since grades were based on individual performance filmed through drones, she didn’t mind too much . Understandably, Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak’s teams took first and second place respectively . But she was bitter that Chae Nayun’s team came in higher .

“Drones filmed everything . They’ll be sent to your smartwatches, so why you were quick or slow to hunt your monster, your team’s compatibility with the monster, and how you could improve for next time . It’ll be part of your grades . ”

Kim Soohyuk gave a long-winded statement . Yoo Yeonha slightly turned her head and looked behind her . A dull looking man was yawning in a daze .

It was entirely his fault that her team came in late . Because he lacked stamina, they couldn’t reach the monster quickly . What should have taken just 10 minutes ended up taking 50 minutes .

But it was also thanks to him that they managed to end up 16th . His quick bullet serenade eliminated all the baby octopuses in 3 seconds . Since Yoo Yeonha was prepared to scuffle with them for 15 minutes, it could be said that he played a big role .

But of course, she still played the biggest role as she was the one who crushed the main body’s hump .

“…”

Yoo Yeonha held back her impulse to blame someone . But that only increased the unreasonable sense of jealousy and envy she felt towards Chae Nayun . She faced forward and glared at Chae Nayun’s head . If she wouldn’t be found out, she wanted to smack the back of her head .

Yoo Yeonha’s hands trembled, reaching towards Chae Nayun’s head .

But instead of taking such extreme action, she lightly touched Chae Nayun’s shoulder .

“Nayun, how was it?”

“Hm? Ah, it’s as you see . 4th place . What a shame . I wanted to beat Shin Jonghak and Rachel . What about you?”

“I’m… 16th . ”

“Oh? Wow, you got 16th with that gun using sharpshooter?”

“We got the black hump octopus . We just had to remove the hump . ”

“And that’s what you did, right?”

Yoo Yeonha nodded with a bright smile .

“Yep . ”

**

Late at night, after the end of regular classes, I was working out in the training room .

Because I just came back from running, I felt like I was dying . But it was something I needed to do, I focused on working out for 3 hours . Thankfully, the training equipment wasn’t too different from Earth’s . It was only that the weights were heavier . For example, the leg extension machine went from 15 kg to 500 kg .

“Ugh . ”

After completing my workout, I fumbled back to the dressing room like a zombie and collapsed on the seat . After collecting my breath for five minutes, I took out my laptop and a fatigue recovery drink from my bag .

First, I checked today’s results with the laptop .

[Luck applies! As the enemy is only a low-rank monster, your accuracy increases greatly!]

[All attacks hit their mark! Your Gift’s proficiency increases by 20%!]

[Perception increases by 0 . 03 . ]

[Luck applies! Your eyes and ears seem to work better!]

[You gain 27 SP . ]

As expected, I seemed to have gotten lucky with the accuracy I showed during today’s combat training . And thanks to standing out to Yoo Yeonha, I gained some SP too .

[Through working out, your strength increases by 0 . 02 . ]

[Through working out, your stamina increases by 0 . 02 . ]

[Through working out, your vitality increases by 0 . 02 . ]

[Mana mysteriously melts into your torn muscle fibers! Your strength, stamina, and vitality increase by 0 . 03!]

The amount of stats I got from working out was more than I expected . Something like this would have been impossible on Earth . Enlightenment and luck must have played a part .

But with the sharp pain all over my body, I wasn’t sure I could even get up tomorrow .

Of course, I already had a solution in mind .

===

[Fatigue Recovery Drink]

—Restores the body from fatigue . Contains a tiny amount of temperate mana .

*Current SP: 36

===

This was a fatigue recovery drink provided by Cube .

I planned on modifying its effect .

Of course, something like ‘completely restores the body from fatigue’ was unlikely to work . Even if it did, it would be a waste to use up all my SP . But with the right amount of restrictions, I could come up with a decent product .

I added one line to the fatigue recovery drink’s description .

—If ‘Kim Hajin’ goes to sleep within 2 hours of use, he will slowly recover from physical fatigue over the course of 8 hours .

I put in four restrictions .

Only Kim Hajin .

Sleeping within 2 hours of use .

Physical fatigue only .

Non-instantaneous recovery, but slowly over the course of 8 hours .

[You can save the modified setting using 0 . 5 SP . ]

Because the drink already had a similar effect, the amount of SP required was exactly the amount I gained from working out . After saving the modified effect, I gulped down the drink .

“Bulp . ”

Now, I had to go back and sleep .

Otherwise, the drink would have been a waste .

“Agh, my joints . ”

I staggered forward like a zombie .

**

At the same hour, Yoo Yeonha was analyzing the video from the day’s combat training . With several drones filming each team, she could see the battle from multiple angles .

“… At least he’s quick . ”

The more she saw it, the more curious she got .

The black hump octopus fired a total of 59 babies . But before they could even touch the ground, they were eliminated by the sharpshooter’s bullets . Black hump octopuses usually reabsorbed the babies they shot out to recover their energy . Then, they’d shoot more out from their hump . Because of this annoying trait, Yoo Yeonha was ready for a drawn-out battle, but the actual fight had ended in just 10 minutes .

“I don’t remember seeing him in Agent Military Academy . ”

The more she thought about it, the stranger this sharpshooter seemed . His stamina was abnormally lower than other cadets, and he had also suddenly changed his weapon…

That was as far as Yoo Yeonha got on her notes about Kim Hajin .

She received a sudden message .

[What’s up?]

It was Shin Jonghak . With a grin, Yoo Yeonha tapped on the hologram keyboard .

[Analyzing the video from today~]

[Why are you doing that now?]

[I’m going to inherit a guild in the future, so I have to look for promising talents . ]

[There are none in your team . They’re all trash . ]

Yoo Yeonha snickered . He was right, but also arrogant . If it was anyone other than Shin Jonghak, she would’ve found such behavior detestable . But just the fact that he was ‘Shin Jonghak’ turned his arrogance and impertinence into chicness . It wasn’t a logical explanation, but the reason Yoo Yeonha liked Shin Jonghak was far from logical in the first place .

[How’s that gun shooting guy?]

“Haha . ”

So he was curious after all .

He had a pretty cute side to him as well .

[He’s okay . He did a man’s worth of work . Exactly what you’d expect from rank 934 . ]

2 . 78 seconds . In that short amount of time, that man had shot 60 bullets and hit 59 . Yoo Yeonha made a pulling motion with her index finger . Was it possible to pull the trigger 20 times in a second? Or did that handgun have an automatic firing button?

Ding dong—

In the middle of her thinking, the bell rang .

[Ah, my room service is here . ]

Yoo Yeonha hopped towards the door .

Opening the door, she saw her neatly dressed butler waiting in front . She was happy to see the butler her father picked out for her .

“Thank you, Sechan-ssi . ”

The butler bowed respectfully .

Yoo Yeonha took her food and came back to her seat .

[I’m back . Were you waiting?]

Yoo Yeonha opened the dome-shaped lid on her elegant silver platter .

[No . ]

In it were plain food . A patty between two buns, the iconic symbol of commoners . On the side were french fries and a bottle of coke .

It was a hamburger set .

First, she munched on a fry .

[What did you order?]

Shin Jonghak asked just at the right time .

Yoo Yeonha replied casually .

[Just the usual . A little bit of foie gras entier . ]

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