“……So that’s why you kept your mouth shut even when I had that fake school violence scandal? Because you thought it was hilarious?”
Bae Sinhyo’s face, twisted grimly, looked like a hurt child in that moment. Silence flowed through the audience and chat window for an instant. Pyeonghwa, who hesitated briefly, rolled his eyes and nodded.
“I did think it was hilarious.”
“Ha… fuck, I really never imagined it. The bastard who knew me best was giggling while watching me get screwed over.”
At Bae Sinhyo’s resentful voice, Pyeonghwa smacked his lips and let out a small sigh. It wasn’t like they’d get along again anyway, so it was awkward to say he’d asked Kim Subin to clarify things for him back then.
The emotional rift with Bae Sinhyo had widened from much earlier, and they weren’t on terms that would be resolved just by solving one problem now.
[Wow Bae Sinhyo is pitiful]
[If he knew it was bullshit and still thought it was hilarious, he’s a real scumbag]
[Fucking personality legend]
[Just how far does our Pax go, was there still room to fall further]
But the chat window was too noisy to pass over quietly. Before he knew it, Bae Sinhyo had become the victim, and he was being branded as an unprecedented villain. It was because his usual image wasn’t very good.
He wasn’t going to become a pro gamer anyway, and he didn’t care how people saw him. Nevertheless, there was just one person he cared about—Do Dohae. Pyeonghwa opened his mouth, hoping only that Dohae wouldn’t misunderstand.
“Are you deliberately chattering publicly? To send me to hell?”
Deliberately, what. He clearly poured out emotions as they came in a fit. Because Bae Sinhyo was emotional, impulsive, and the type who couldn’t think deeply. Pyeonghwa threw a sharp question while knowing everything. As expected, Bae Sinhyo blinked as if flustered.
“What? Hell?”
“It wasn’t even a rumor I spread, so why should I help a bastard I cut ties with?”
“That’s…! Because I only hung out with you in middle school…!”
“Ah ah ah~ So I’m saying~ why should I help when we cut ties~ am I a saint~ the bastard who spread the false rumor is someone else, so why are you only bitching at me~ do I look easy~ eui~?”
“……”
[He has a point though]
[Agree, if they’d already cut ties before that, nothing to say]
[lol his tone is annoying but it’s understandable]
[Huh don’t you know it was seriously bad then with national petitions? That’s too much;;]
[Pax being Pax, cheers]
Pyeonghwa grinned seeing the chat flowing as he thought. It was better for gathering aggro points to have both sides’ opinions clash without leaning to one side. Pyeonghwa hoped they’d fight noisily.
“Ha……!”
Even knowing Pyeonghwa’s words were logically correct, Bae Sinhyo heaved rough breaths as if feeling bad. He gripped the halberd fiercely and glared at Pyeonghwa with red eyes full of killing intent.
“No more to say, can I attack? The audience must be bored with just flapping jaws.”
When Pyeonghwa grumbled, someone in the audience shouted angrily, “What’s boring!” Laughter burst out from all directions, and Bae Sinhyo’s face flushed red and blue.
“Grit your teeth, bastard!”
When Bae Sinhyo’s anger boiled beyond a certain level, killing intent scattered from his red eyes. Making eye contact with Bae Sinhyo made one’s heart sink and freeze momentarily. It was his passive skill. Rushing in like a yaksha in that state—honestly, it would be a lie to say it wasn’t scary.
Kwang! Kwaang! Kwaaang!
“Oh, Bae Sinhyo went dark mode, right? But not scary at all, right?”
Pyeonghwa tried to act nonchalant and giggled while barely dodging Bae Sinhyo’s attacks. The floor caved in and cracked as if a sinkhole had formed, and dust clouds rose. Bae Sinhyo still wasn’t using active skills, but with passive skills alone he was far from civilian level.
Bae Sinhyo glared at Pyeonghwa dodging here and there while spinning the halberd above his head. Then using that momentum, he struck the floor. Crack, a fissure extended toward Pyeonghwa.
When Pyeonghwa stepped wrong on the floor and staggered, Bae Sinhyo leaped high into the air. He intended to strike down with the halberd, but Pyeonghwa quickly deflected it, ending in failure.
Pyeonghwa tried to kick Bae Sinhyo as he landed. But Bae Sinhyo deflecting Pyeonghwa’s foot in midair was faster. As a result, Bae Sinhyo’s body lost its center and covered Pyeonghwa.
Kung! The two rolled several times across the ring.
“Kkeok! Khek! Cough, cough! Fuck, get off! I thought I got stepped on by an elephant!”
Pyeonghwa struggled under Bae Sinhyo. Thinking this was the moment, Bae Sinhyo pressed Pyeonghwa’s neck with his elbow and raised his upper body.
Pyeonghwa squeezed his eyes shut and braced for the coming impact while fumbling for the hammer’s handle within reach. Bae Sinhyo’s large hand enveloped Pyeonghwa’s face at once.
“If you’re so confident, don’t hide behind anonymity, Noh Pyeonghwa!”
Swoosh!
Bae Sinhyo grabbed and removed Pyeonghwa’s gas mask. No, rather than removed, “ripped off” was a more fitting expression. Because the fixing device broke with a cracking sound.
Through the giant screen, Pyeonghwa’s bare face with widened eyes was broadcast. The murmuring in the audience grew louder, and chat rose so fast it was hard to read.
[Huh?????]
[Forced face reveal]
[Crazy he’s fucking handsome, is he a celebrity?]
[No why did he live like that with that face]
[His name is no peace? Lives up to his name]
Pyeonghwa swung the hammer at Bae Sinhyo mounted on top of him. Bae Sinhyo lightly stepped back and dodged the attack. Getting up, Pyeonghwa twisted his face and roughly swept back his hair.
“Ah fuck! Did you pick this fight to do this from the start?”
“That’s right, you bastard! I was going to expose your true identity then beat you to death so you couldn’t lift your face anywhere!”
“Ha, fuck……!”
Pyeonghwa let out a rough sigh mixed with curses. Bae Sinhyo hoped Pyeonghwa would express fierce anger. Separate from fighting skills, the more he exchanged words with him, the more it somehow felt like losing.
But the words that flowed from Pyeonghwa’s mouth shortly after were completely different from his expectations.
“I was supposed to have an outdoor date tomorrow, but it’s ruined because of you!”
“What?”
“I’m so fucking handsome that everyone will recognize me when I go outside, and my hyung… noona hates that kind of thing, you fucking bastard!”
“All you have to say is… ha, a date?”
“Just? Just what? Tomorrow’s date is so important! Acting cocky when you look like a virgin!”
“Shut up! Is being crazy about girls something to brag about? And you’re not that handsome!”
“If I’m not handsome, then you’re an orc?”
“Ha……!”
Seeing Pyeonghwa’s spirit unbroken even with his face revealed, Bae Sinhyo ground his teeth. He didn’t want to go this far because of old feelings…… But to bring him out into the world when he’d given up even his dreams being crazy about girls, it seemed he needed to show a definitive gap and trample his pride.
‘I need to turn that pretty face into a bloody mess. When he gets dumped by girls, he’ll have nowhere to go but Luckies!’
Bae Sinhyo threw the halberd he was holding outside the ring.
Kwang!
“Huh?”
Pyeonghwa tilted his head at Bae Sinhyo’s unexpected action, then twisted his face mercilessly. His pride was hurt wondering how much he was being looked down on for him to not use active skills and even throw away his weapon.
But he couldn’t throw away his weapon the same way. Because his secret weapon was in this hammer.
<Quiz Quiz Multitool: Intermediate Black Pink Hammer
A mechanic hammer equipped with a neon core.
Excellent defense penetration performance, and upon critical hit inflicts accumulating residual vibration damage for 3 seconds.
When impact accumulates, the internal core activates. When friction with the ground occurs, ports open and 8 tracking missiles launch.
Each missile deals 150% damage.
Available time: 01:21:33>
It was an intermediate weapon obtained from Quiz Quiz Multitool. The lowest-grade Black Pink Hammer was a squeaky hammer, the low-grade Black Pink Hammer was a small hammer, but when he got the intermediate question right, this cool mechanic hammer came out.
He didn’t know the difference between low-grade and intermediate would be this big. How amazing would high-grade or top-grade be, which he’d never drawn? Suddenly he recalled Dohae’s dagger he’d seen before. That dagger had such tremendous options attached that he’d had to scroll down.
‘In the tutorial, they told me to choose between Multitool and the egg. If Multitool is this good, doesn’t that mean the egg is even more amazing?’
Even now, the egg was hanging behind Pyeonghwa’s back in a transparent pouch. Inside the egg pouch, he barely felt any weight. It was amazing that even though the size had grown to that of a large watermelon, it didn’t interfere with combat.
<Hatching rate 98.9%……(in progress)>
When it was small it was ugly and gross, but now that it was plump, the wrinkles smoothed out so it was bearable. Maybe he’d grown attached from always carrying it around.
‘Be filial.’
Whiiik!
Pyeonghwa muttered in his mind and swung the hammer toward Bae Sinhyo charging bare-handed. The missiles would launch when impact accumulated, but progress was slow because he hadn’t landed a single effective hit. Still, thanks to the weapons clashing several times, charging was almost finished.
‘Now I need to create distance… uwak!’
Large weapons had the disadvantage of creating openings when swung wide. Seeing the pot-lid-like hand digging toward his chest, Pyeonghwa was startled and used fox transformation to spin his body like a tornado.
Flutter!
What Bae Sinhyo grabbed was the hooded cape Pyeonghwa was wearing. When the cape was caught, Pyeonghwa immediately loosened the attached string and created distance.
