Chapter 701: Week 8 PvP (2)
When I told him to come over first, Shin Byeongcheol obediently left the class next door and came into ours.
Looking mildly bewildered.
“What do you need me for?”
“Before I explain, let me ask one thing.”
“Huh? Go ahead.”
“Mr. Shin Byeongcheol, what’s your current PvP score?”
“PvP? Just under 400.”
If I remembered right, he hadn’t broken 600 last year, so after the soft reset he must have dropped to 200.
Which meant he’d raised it by around 200 points from there.
“Looks like you’ve won a fair amount?”
“Of course! I might look like I get beat up all the time, but, huh? Down in the lower league, I’m basically unbeatable.”
“What a thing to brag about, idiot.”
“Wow, look at that. You asked, and now you’re chewing me out. Is that why you called me over?”
“Obviously not. Why do you think I asked about your score?”
By this point, Shin Byeongcheol seemed to have mostly caught on.
Still, he asked with a puzzled look,
“What, you want to pair up? Then why me instead of someone else?”
“Because I got a quest.”
My current PvP score was 931.
Shin Byeongcheol said he was a little under 400, so he barely qualified for the “500 points or lower” condition.
At that, his whole face lit up with a grin.
“Oh, wow. Such a tragic story! How could I not lend a hand?”
“So you’re coming with me?”
“Obviously. Starting now, we’re a pair.”
“No backing out later?”
“Why would I back out? Once you’re paired, you’re paired to the end. Trust! That’s the most important thing in life.”
He even added, “Should we draw up a contract too?”
The real reason he was so happy was simple: this was basically a free ride.
Even top-tier players couldn’t do much against me, so the opponents matched against our average score wouldn’t even be worth worrying about.
As Shin Byeongcheol burned with fighting spirit and got ready to head out, I casually added,
“...There are a few things you should keep in mind, though.”
“Keep in mind? What keep-in-mind things?”
“Because of the quest, our matchups might get set a little higher than our actual average.”
The cheerful look on Shin Byeongcheol’s face stiffened for a second.
Then he forced a smile back onto it.
“...W-well. It’s a quest. That could definitely happen.”
“And you’re going to be the one handling all the crystals.”
“What? Why?”
“Because of the quest?”
Only then did Shin Byeongcheol realize something had gone seriously wrong.
He hurriedly pulled out his notebook and started flipping through it at top speed, like he was checking something.
“Wait, hold on, let me see... I forgot to mention it, but in a little while I’ve got a meeting with some clients—”
“Your business hasn’t been doing well lately because of the potions.”
Because of T.E.B, he had become a target for all kinds of clubs, and to avoid them, he had ended up under the Discipline Committee’s “intensive observation.”
As a result, customers had practically stopped coming lately.
With his excuse cut off at the root, Shin Byeongcheol kept his mouth shut for a while without saying anything.
Then he turned to me in disbelief.
“Come on, shouldn’t you have said that part first?”
“Then you would’ve run.”
“I can still leave right now, you know? I cannot accept a pair like this.”
“Didn’t you just say once you’re paired, you’re paired to the end? And that trust is the most important thing?”
I threw his own words right back at him, and he grabbed his hair in anguish and smacked his own mouth with his hand.
“Damn this mouth of mine. Couldn’t it think before it talks?”
“Be more careful next time. For now, let’s go together.”
“Hey, isn’t this too much? Why am I the only one who has to handle all the crystals?”
“What’s so hard about it? It’s not even a two-on-one. I’m protecting you the whole time anyway.”
I answered as if it were nothing, then abruptly went serious and shot back,
“Or are you saying you don’t trust me?”
“It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s me. What if I screw up and the crystal gets destroyed? I won’t be able to face you.”
“It’s fine. I trust you. Believe in me, who believes in you.”
“...Look at that. That was annoyingly moving. Whatever. I give up.”
That was Shin Byeongcheol, shaking his head and saying, Fine, let’s just do it.
*****
Before long, we headed to the arena and scanned our student IDs at the terminal.
Then, while we waited for the match to be assigned, we held a quick strategy meeting.
“I’m not asking for much. Find the crystals, charge them diligently, and run around diligently.”
“Well, that much sounds manageable.”
“And if you get the chance, set a trap here and there too.”
“That’s not hard either.”
Shin Byeongcheol nodded easily, then started listing examples, saying these were the kinds of traps he could set during combat.
Step on this one and a smoke bomb goes off, step on that one and your legs get bound, and this one fakes you out once before firing a poisoned needle...
I nodded and said,
“Try whatever works. I’ll adapt.”
“Got it. Let’s do this.”
Right then, our names and our opponents’ names appeared on the scoreboard.
[Kim Ho 931 points / Shin Byeongcheol 389 points]
vs
[Jang Chongmyeong 808 points / Wang Sehun 713 points]
“So that’s, what, about 100 points above our average?”
“Just about. But those names...?”
“They’re not even trying to hide it.”
At this point, weren’t they basically enjoying the act of pretending to use fake names?
Of course, considering how atrocious their naming sense was, there was also a solid chance they’d chosen them in complete sincerity.
In any case, we stepped onto the teleportation magic circle and entered the arena one after another.
The next moment, what spread out before us was an enormous pit.
Just eyeballing it, the area was about the size of an athletic field.
The pit was crammed full of scrap metal, chunks of stone, and unknown debris of every kind.
And even now, trucks were arriving one after another and dumping still more waste into it.
At the very center of the pit stood some structure that looked like a tower.
It kept glowing red-hot, belching smoke, and rising upward—
then dropping straight back down.
WHAM—!
Everything beneath it must have been flattened, burned, or melted.
Looking at it, Shin Byeongcheol voiced his guess.
“A mortar? Or maybe something like a blast furnace?”
“Close enough.”
“Whatever it is, seems best not to go near it.”
“We’re going to have to.”
“...?”
Shin Byeongcheol stared at me like I’d lost my mind again, then belatedly seemed to realize something.
“That’s the sanctuary?”
“Yep. We have to go charge it.”
“...Damn it. Seriously.”
And it wasn’t as if staying away from it meant safety either.
The giant mortar glowed red-hot again, rose up, then slammed back down.
WHAM—!
At that, chunks of metal and fire flew in every direction.
Noxious smoke also spewed out, and at a glance it was obviously poison gas.
So that’s why it got judged a hostile environment.
Shin Byeongcheol gave me a bright smile.
“I really hate this school’s practical evaluations.”
“Who likes them? At least the conditions are the same for everyone. Them and us.”
“Well, that’s true.”
As we said that, we turned our eyes toward “them.”
Jang Chongmyeong’s eyes sharpened.
“...I didn’t expect to meet you two in the very first match.”
“Our score range is similar.”
“That is what surprises me. You spend time with that one often enough, but I remember PvP being the exception.”
In other words, what kind of wind had blown through for me to pair with Shin Byeongcheol?
This was one of those times where honestly saying it was because of a quest would put me at a disadvantage. If they knew, it could become a weakness.
So I grinned and answered,
“Every now and then is fine. If anything, isn’t this good news for you two?”
“It certainly is welcome.”
Mr. J and Mr. W belonged to the dark-blade faction of the Swordsmanship Club, and they had attacked Shin Byeongcheol before to dig up information about T.E.B.
Things had fizzled out only because I intervened at the time.
With the pair’s murderous stares fixed on him, Shin Byeongcheol gave an awkward laugh and said,
“Uh... seniors? Beating me up here isn’t actually going to make anything come out, you know.”
“We are aware. We merely wish to conclude our contest as martial artists.”
Of course, it looked more like they mainly wanted to vent their frustration.
That failed attack had probably earned them an earful from their seniors.
Shin Byeongcheol scratched the back of his head.
“Man, since it’s PvP, we were gonna fight anyway. But are you two really okay with this? Using your real skills?”
“Of course, we intend to moderate ourselves appropriately.”
With that, Mr. J and Mr. W drew ordinary D-rank longswords.
As their terrible fake names made obvious, they were extremely clumsy about hiding their identities, but they had never openly shown their full skill.
Especially not in PvP, where everything got recorded in replays.
Wang Sehun let out a chilly aura as he looked at Shin Byeongcheol.
“Even so, I believe there will be no deficiency in our strength when it comes to taking down you alone.”
“So you gentlemen really came in with a plan.”
From the start, even with their real ability, taking me down wouldn’t be easy.
So their plan was to just beat down the easy target, Shin Byeongcheol.
Shin Byeongcheol turned to me for confirmation.
“You are going to keep me alive, right?”
“I told you to trust me. Just do exactly what we talked about.”
“Y-yeah, okay.”
From my side too, I had to clear the sub quest at maximum completion, so there was no way I could let the crystal container get destroyed.
Soon, Shin Byeongcheol pulled out a bunch of chopsticks and slotted them between every joint of his fingers.
Then, while facing the two assassins in that state, the countdown began.
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Start!]
[Kim Ho 100% / Shin Byeongcheol 100%]
vs
[Jang Chongmyeong 100% / Wang Sehun 100%]
TAP!
The two of them immediately came rushing in, using footwork.
Even without revealing their true ability, they were fast.
At that, Shin Byeongcheol spun in the opposite direction and broke into a full sprint.
“Hey, hey, where’s the crystal?! The crystal!”
“I guess we have to find it now?”
In this pit packed with every kind of junk imaginable.
At that, Shin Byeongcheol’s head whipped frantically back and forth.
He kicked aside heaps of scrap at his feet to check if one was buried underneath—
SWISH—!
—and narrowly dodged an incoming longsword by a paper-thin margin.
“You said you’d cover me! You said you’d cover me!”
“Isn’t it fine as long as you didn’t get hit?”
I answered lightly, even as I smacked Wang Sehun away when he came at us again.
BANG!
Compressed wind exploded, sending him flying backward. He corrected himself in midair and charged right back in.
Meanwhile, Jang Chongmyeong had already closed the distance again and thrust out a sword.
SWISH—!
[Shin Byeongcheol 100%]
[Shin Byeongcheol 98%]
“Hey, hey, help, help! He hit the bone.”
“If it was a sword, why do your bones hurt?”
“No, I mean the cut’s deep!”
“It’s 2%. Put some spit on it.”
Just as Jang Chongmyeong tried to continue the attack—
WHAM—!
The giant mortar-blast-furnace thing in the center of the pit slammed down again, scattering debris everywhere.
He had to avoid it, so even he had no choice but to falter and pull back.
Shin Byeongcheol immediately sped up.
“Hey, hey, hey, runrunrun. Searchsearchsearch.”
“Let’s look calmly. When you rush, you see less.”
Laughing, I kept pace at his side.
Then, at the outer edge of the pit, a truck arrived and dumped its load of waste with a crashing roar.
And in the middle of it, for a brief instant, I caught sight of something glinting.
Shin Byeongcheol didn’t miss it.
“That’s it, the crystal!”