Pyeonghwa stared intently at Yoon Gyeom’s face. The peculiar habits of someone lying didn’t appear. Well, Yoon Gyeom wasn’t the personality to lie about something like this. Pyeonghwa moved his steps toward him.
“Really say it super super super quietly.”
“Um, actually I heard something… your nickname when you used to go to school was Noh-tto. Noh Pyeonghwa psycho……”
“Wo, woaaaaak!”
“Mmph.”
“Shut it! Fuck, shut your mouth!”
Pyeonghwa blocked Yoon Gyeom’s mouth. His heart pounded wildly, and cold sweat trickled down his back. Pyeonghwa lowered his gaze and read the newly appearing chat.
[? Anyone hear that]
[Haven’t heard it since when he went to school]
[I had my sound turned way up so I heard up to ‘nickname when he went to school was’ <-]
[Whoa isn’t Yoon Gyeom someone who knows who Pax is?]
Fortunately, it seemed no one had heard the rest. Pyeonghwa let out a sigh of relief. If his identity was revealed, there would be more than one or two people coming to kill him. Bae Sinhyo wasn’t scary, but Do Dohae was scary…….
“Mmph.”
“Ah, sorry.”
[Pax respect the elderly a bit]
[lololololol gramps seems flustered hearing shut your mouth for the first time]
[He’s so fucking nice if it were me I would’ve immediately smacked his head he’s just a hehe-chung]
Whatever was being said in the chat window didn’t enter his eyes. Pyeonghwa wanted to quickly end this match and have a conversation with Yoon Gyeom.
Pyeonghwa, who removed his hand from Yoon Gyeom’s mouth, sent him a friend request. To exchange messages after the match ended, he had no choice but to become friends with him. Yoon Gyeom immediately accepted the friend request.
Now that they were friends, it was time to fight. One, two, three, four… Pyeonghwa, who had been calculating something in his head, opened his mouth.
“Hey, ahjussi. Let’s fight fairly.”
“Haha, I’d appreciate it if you’d call me hyung.”
“Huh? Even if I were a girl, would you have told me to call you oppa?”
“……Sorry. Ahjussi is right.”
It was a conversation between Yoon Gyeom and Pyeonghwa knowing their age difference was seventeen years, but viewers criticized Pyeonghwa, telling him not to bully nice people.
“Alright, Pax-ya. You say let’s fight fairly, how?”
“Ahjussi’s one arm is unfair, so I won’t use items either.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Instead, let’s play hide-and-seek. Ahjussi is it.”
Hide-and-seek? He must have some scheme again. I’m curious what trick he’ll pull, shall I go along with it? Even at Pyeonghwa’s shameless proposal, Yoon Gyeom readily nodded.
“Alright. I’ll give you time to hide. Is 5 minutes enough?”
[?? He’s okay-ing this when it’s blatantly saying he’ll ambush]
[Gramps looks so relaxed]
[Even in his active days he was famous for being calm lol]
In Yoon Gyeom’s eyes, Pyeonghwa was still an unripe fruit. He was confident he wouldn’t be caught even if ambushed from hiding. Same even if he used weapons. The methods to deal with him were endless.
“Yep. I’m going to hide. Bye.”
Pyeonghwa quickly ran behind the scorched temporary wall. Yoon Gyeom watched his disappearing back, then folded his arms, sat down, and closed his eyes. And exactly 5 minutes later, he slowly rose from his seat.
The first place he checked was the steel-framed ceiling. He said he wouldn’t use items, but he couldn’t trust those words. He thought about the possibility of him hanging from the ceiling using the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, but nothing was visible to the naked eye.
‘Where could he be?’
The haunted house had a structure where you move in a zigzag from the entrance and exit through the exit. But Pyeonghwa went back to the entrance he came in from. That meant he saw a place to hide on the way in.
Yoon Gyeom moved his steps toward the entrance direction where Pyeonghwa had disappeared. To deliberately induce an ambush, he didn’t hide his stomping footstep sounds. A faint energy wrapped around his hands.
‘He probably doesn’t know I can put Aura Blade on my hands instead of a sword.’
Yoon Gyeom first learned in Goehae that he could put the Aura Blade skill on his bare hands too. Since the skill description said it could be applied to weapons, he had thought for nearly 20 years that it was only possible on military weapons like swords or blades.
When the range of weapons expanded in Yoon Gyeom’s mind, he could put Aura Blade not only on hands or feet, but also on clothing like handkerchiefs. Though the effect was much weaker than applying it to real weapons.
‘The entrance is soon.’
Yoon Gyeom slowed his steps and listened carefully. There was no particular sound other than the zombies’ shrieks heard from outside the haunted house.
Squeak!
At that moment, a creaking metal sound was heard nearby. Yoon Gyeom quickly turned around. Silence flowed again.
At the end of his gaze were ominous props like a doll reminiscent of Annabelle, melted candles and occult symbols, family photos with torn faces, and more. Among them, what caught Yoon Gyeom’s eye most was an armor prop.
‘Was he planning to hide until the end instead of ambushing?’
If the situation was the same with four team members dead, the combined score would be much higher for Pyeonghwa’s team who gained many small points. Pyeonghwa probably thought of that when he suggested hide-and-seek. But there was still plenty of time left, and hiding in this narrow space was close to impossible. Yoon Gyeom chuckled and approached the armor prop.
“Come out. I know you’re inside.”
When Yoon Gyeom approached beyond a certain distance, the armor prop swung the model sword it was holding. Yoon Gyeom slashed the armor prop’s waist with his hand wrapped in Aura Blade. The body, perfectly cut in two as if cut with a cutting machine, spilled blood and fell to the floor with a thud.
“Hm?”
At that moment, Yoon Gyeom sensed a presence and bent at the waist. When he turned his head diagonally to look up, his eyes met with Pyeonghwa who was launching a kick toward him. Yoon Gyeom grabbed Pyeonghwa’s ankle just like that and slammed him down on the floor with a bang!
“Keuak!”
Crack! The ankle Yoon Gyeom gripped was crushed. Pyeonghwa let out a shrill scream, but Yoon Gyeom reached toward him with an expressionless face. His sharp fingertips aimed for Pyeonghwa’s neck.
Bang!
Yoon Gyeom’s fingertips crushed the floor like tofu, digging in deeply. Pyeonghwa, who barely twisted his head to dodge, sucked in a frightened breath with a hiss. Goosebumps rose as he thought that if he didn’t have the Fox Transformation skill, his skull would have been crushed like that.
The attacks continued relentlessly. Yoon Gyeom maintained his center with sturdy lower body and continuously swung his hand blade toward the lying Pyeonghwa. Though the path was clearly visible because it was a one-handed attack, because they were stuck too close, he couldn’t dodge everything. Pyeonghwa’s arm, which he tried to guard and block, was cleanly cut off.
“Aak! My arm! Aaaaak!”
Pyeonghwa regretted setting the sensitivity the same as reality as tears and snot streamed down. They say if you lower the sensitivity your senses can become dull, so most high-tier players set it to 100%, but how exactly do they endure this pain?
Pyeonghwa kicked Yoon Gyeom’s side somehow to create distance. But the opponent’s elbow was faster. The elbow and knee collided, and the winner was the elbow. Crack! Pyeonghwa’s kneecap shattered into pieces.
Eek! What kind of blade-elbow is this! Pyeonghwa gritted his teeth and raised his opposite knee. Even in the game, there was no match for attacking vital points. Pyeonghwa broke the tacit taboo among men and strongly kicked up between Yoon Gyeom’s legs.
Crunch!
“Keuaaaak!”
He definitely kicked that place squarely, but the one who took damage was himself. Blood burst out from Pyeonghwa’s knee like a fountain with a whoosh. His limbs were in tatters so he couldn’t even fight anymore. Pyeonghwa, who stopped resisting, yelled at Yoon Gyeom.
“Did you wear steel panties? Fuck, it hurts so much!”
“……”
Yoon Gyeom’s ears turned bright red. He couldn’t give any answer. How could he say that he momentarily put Aura Blade on that place? He didn’t know it would be possible since it was his first time trying it too. Well, that’s also a weapon… Yoon Gyeom suppressed his embarrassment and lightly slashed Pyeonghwa’s neck with his hand wrapped in Aura Blade.
<Pax team player, Pax has died.>
[Yoon Gyeom is crazy]
[He’s insane not lying he’s better than kids actively playing now]
[Is it real that it took 22 seconds from when Pax first attacked until he killed him?]
[He couldn’t even use one arm too wow]
[How the fuck does Pax attack there demon bastard lololololol]
[Yoon Gyeom’s team won lol congrats gramps successful revenge congrats]
The broadcast screen showed Yoon Gyeom from the observer’s perspective. Pyeonghwa’s viewers sent applause toward Yoon Gyeom.
Yoon Gyeom was staring down at the armor cut in two. Inside the armor was a real person.
The survivor inside the armor was a part-timer who played the armor ghost role in the haunted house. He, who had evacuated to another place in Phase 1, became disillusioned with the survivors who sacrificed others for their own families.
The part-timer followed behind other survivors until Phase 2, then ultimately survived alone and returned to the haunted house. He was going to endure here until the rescue team came, but Miella entered the haunted house. Miella was holding a sharp weapon with clear bloodstains. The part-timer didn’t want to get involved for no reason, so he acted like a prop.
