#28
“…….”
Actually, he bought it because the skill names were embarrassing. Skills could be registered up to three maximum, but he wanted to bury ‘Why So Angry?’ and ‘This Bastard’s Still At It.’
Pyeonghwa only registered ‘Fox Transformation’ and ‘Demagogue’ for this match. It was a matter of pride.
-♬♪♩♪♬♩♪
The amusement park’s background music changed. The cheerful melody with fanfare was the guide sound announcing the first phase had begun.
Pyeonghwa looked around to find the safe zone. Luckily, a safe zone marked with fluorescent yellow-green lines was right next to him.
“……Pass. Pass this too. Jeongjo? Damn, it was Yeongjo. Oh, this one’s easy. Taejong.”
After confirming the safe zone’s location, Pyeonghwa muttered while rubbing the silver bracelet on his wrist.
[What’s he saying]
[Is that a skill too?]
[Joseon Dynasty skill ㄷㄷ]
No one in the chat window figured out the real reason Pyeonghwa was muttering to himself.
Pyeonghwa grinned while looking at his left sleeve, which had become quite thick. The bracelet had already transformed into the form of a vambrace.
<Quiz Quiz Multitool: Low-grade Heavenly Silkworm Thread (天蠶絲)
Silk thread extracted from silkworms with special spiritual energy.
Though not sharp due to poor quality, it doesn’t break easily. Vulnerable to high temperatures.
Available time: 01:59:59>
‘Answering questions is annoying, but the quality is good. For low-grade to be this good.’
Quiz Quiz Multitool could transform into seven types of weapons. One of them was the Heavenly Silkworm Thread in the form of thin thread.
To use the weapon, you had to answer quiz questions correctly. Five chances. Each wrong answer lowered the weapon grade, and if you got all five wrong, the item was permanently destroyed.
Today, Pyeonghwa answered the fourth quiz correctly—’Which Joseon king killed Jeong Do-jeon?’—and obtained a low-grade weapon.
If he’d answered the third quiz correctly, he could have gotten mid-grade Heavenly Silkworm Thread, but weapon grade and problem difficulty were directly proportional.
Pyeonghwa approached the middle-aged man who had become an arsonist. He was still setting fires with crazed eyes to prevent people inside the souvenir shop from coming out.
When Pyeonghwa lightly flicked his finger, a thin thread shot out from the vambrace with a whirr.
“Cough! Ahjussi, save me! Cough, cough!”
“Ha, save you? When I was begging just now, you kept your mouth shut and didn’t say anything!”
“I’m sorry, cough! Save me! I don’t want to die!”
“Shut up! You don’t deserve to li— Keurk!”
Pyeonghwa wrapped the thread, thinner than fishing line, around the arsonist’s neck and pulled hard. Even though it was just a game character, he felt a sensation like strangling a real person’s neck and got goosebumps.
The arsonist flailed while gasping, then rolled his eyes back and went limp. Pyeonghwa shivered and loosened his grip.
The unconscious arsonist collapsed to the floor with a thud. Pyeonghwa shouted toward the people inside the shop.
“Go to the carousel! There’s a fence there so it’ll be okay for a bit!”
The people who had been blocking their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs or clothes rushed out and ran toward the carousel.
One, two, three, four…… Pyeonghwa started counting then gave up. Who knew so many people had been hiding in that cramped souvenir shop. Half of them were young children.
Zombies sensitive to sound started swarming, but fortunately it was still phase 1 so they weren’t that fast. There was plenty of time to evacuate.
“Dad, cough, Daaaad!”
The man who’d been attacked in the face with the flamethrower didn’t get up, as if he’d lost consciousness. A girl who looked about twelve years old sobbed while shaking his chest, but he didn’t move at all.
Pyeonghwa didn’t hesitate and entered the shop, slinging the man over his shoulder. And with his other hand, he clasped the child’s hand.
“Don’t worry. Oppa will save you. Let’s go!”
“Cough, thank you, ahjussi…!”
“…….”
Pyeonghwa, experiencing being called ahjussi by someone for the first time, paused for a moment.
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ he’s so good at acting]
[You want to hear ‘oppa’ from a kid that badly? Grossㅉㅉ]
[Oppa-obsessed Pax <-new!]
Because his fresh twenty-year-old face was covered, viewers estimated Pyeonghwa’s age to be late twenties based on his tall height and good build.
Pyeonghwa read the stream of chat comments and pouted his lips. He couldn’t honestly reveal everything…… A neon sign showing displeasure (- -^) flashed above Pyeonghwa’s goggles.
“Excuse me, someone take this person!”
The people who had evacuated to the carousel were trying to cover the fence with a long banner they’d gotten from somewhere. Some were taking off their coats and shirts to stuff into the fence.
Pyeonghwa handed the man slung over his shoulder to the people and lifted the child to set her down inside the fence. When Pyeonghwa didn’t enter the fence and turned around instead, the child grabbed him tearfully.
“U-uncle, why aren’t you coming in…!”
“Be right back. Wait.”
Pyeonghwa retraced his steps. In front of the burning souvenir shop, several zombies had their faces buried around the collapsed arsonist.
Pyeonghwa swung his arm downward. The Heavenly Silkworm Thread flew out with a whirr, wrapped around the base of a pillar several times, and secured itself firmly.
The zombies discovered Pyeonghwa and whipped their heads around. Pyeonghwa ducked to avoid the zombies charging with shrieks and moved quickly in a semicircle. The zombies’ legs caught on the Heavenly Silkworm Thread and they tumbled down with crashes.
Not missing that opportunity, Pyeonghwa headed toward where the flamethrower was. The arsonist had already become a zombie. With the flamethrower’s gas tank still strapped to his back.
“I don’t think I killed that ahjussi, but do I still get deducted points?”
[Deduction ㅇㅇ but injury is better than killing]
[ㅁㅈ make up the points by killing zombies]
[Where’d you buy that weapon ㅈㄴ interesting is it Spider-Man?]
Pyeonghwa wrapped the Heavenly Silkworm Thread around the arsonist’s legs to trip him, then aimed for his neck. Hoo, ha…. After a short breath, he pulled the thread with force.
Crack! The neck bone broke and the arsonist’s head separated from his body.
“Urk! Fuck, I’m gonna puke. Huek!”
Pyeonghwa dry-heaved while separating the gas tank from the arsonist’s body. Meanwhile, the zombies he’d knocked down started swarming again. Pyeonghwa grabbed the flamethrower and ran at full speed toward the safe zone.
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋI did that at first too]
[I still play in clean modeㅠㅠㅋㅋㅋminor version;;]
[But is Pax good at games? Can’t really tell]
They said it was a game more realistic than reality, but who knew the sensation of killing would be this vivid. Now he understood why <Last On>’s success was always followed by ethical issues.
Pyeonghwa, who was about to climb over the carousel fence while soothing his churning stomach, paused when he discovered an uninvited guest.
[ImaDdakDae]
Red letters floating above his head announced he was an enemy team player.
“Where’ve you been? Thought I lost you, you bastard.”
It was ImaDdakDae, a game streamer who’d been on a downward trend ever since being targeted by Pax right before hitting 1 million subscribers.
He currently had 900,000 subscribers, but his views were cut in half and his income was quartered. No matter how he changed his content direction, it was useless. He even earned the dishonor of ranking in the top 5 of netizens’ most disliked game streamers.
ImaDdakDae thought this match was his last chance for a comeback. Before other teammates killed Pax, he had to find him first.
But <Last On>’s broadcast system had an anti-spoiler function. If you wrote information about the opposing team in chat, it was automatically blocked.
ImaDdakDae had arranged a code with his editor in advance. The AI filtered out even complexly written Korean or initial consonants, but it couldn’t filter cleverly crafted codes.
Using this trick, ImaDdakDae could receive real-time reports of Pax’s location from his editor disguised as a viewer. Though the distance was far and it took time to get here, he found Pax faster than anyone.
“You’re…… the 38-year-old streamer ImaDdakDae who got investigated by police after getting caught by parents for DMing their daughter-aged child asking to meet?”
Pyeonghwa introduced ImaDdakDae clearly enough for everyone there to hear. Then ImaDdakDae erupted in anger.
“Hey, I was wronged too! I didn’t know she was a minor! Kids these days all act like adults, how was I supposed to know how old she was?”
“There were two confirmed victims, or was it three…….”
“Ugh, shut up! I explained that a million years ago!”
“Ah, yes. So why are you here?”
“Obviously to kill you, you bastard!”
“Gasp…!”
An emoticon neon sign showing wide eyes flashed on Pyeonghwa’s goggles. Pyeonghwa stretched his finger out toward the survivors crouching between the carousel horses.
“You didn’t come here because there are lots of kids, right?”
“What nonsense are you talking?”
“Tsk tsk, when the world falls into chaos, all kinds of crazy bastards run wild. Arsonists, child sex offenders…….”
“Fuck, I said I’m not! It was a suspended prosecution, and I explained everything! Don’t believe him, that bastard’s crazy!”
ImaDdakDae jumped up and down as if wronged toward the viewers watching the broadcast. But it wasn’t said for the viewers to hear. Pyeonghwa grinned under his gas mask, raising the corners of his mouth.
