Chapter 12
—
“What? Who is it?”
“Huh? Oh, it’s someone I know! Shin-woo hyung!”
Next to Lee Jin-yoon sat a Korean woman of a similar age.
A face I’d seen before.
She was the one who had rushed him at the airport last time, saying it was time to board.
“This is Yuna! Choi Yuna.”
“Hello.”
She barely glanced at me and gave a half-hearted bow.
Her expression was anything but welcoming.
Though her face, like Lee Jin-yoon’s, looked youthful—barely twenty—she had an air of unyielding pride.
Her tightly tied ponytail further emphasized that impression.
‘She’s no pushover either.’
She possessed a Guardian Spirit.
{Guardian Spirit: ‘Baeksabyeong’ Shimo Haihui (Historic)}
She, too, must be from a prominent family. Normally, this is what you’d expect.
Even among the wealthy elite, it’s extraordinary to have a Guardian Spirit at the legendary tier like Lee Jin-yoon does.
Looking around this tavern, most Awakeners here have Rare-Tier Guardian Spirits, which further underscores just how exceptional the legendary tier is.
Seeing this in person truly drives home the rarity of a legendary-tier Guardian Spirit.
“Hyung, I’m so glad to see you! I never imagined meeting you here!”
Lee Jin-yoon greeted me with overflowing enthusiasm.
Slightly tipsy, his exaggerated gestures became even more flamboyant.
“All I’ve been seeing are foreign faces I can’t communicate with, so I’ve been feeling pretty lonely. But to run into you of all people in a place like this!”
I understood that feeling.
As someone adjusting to life in a foreign land, meeting a fellow Korean is like finding an oasis.
I had felt the same way not long after becoming an Awakener.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Choi Yuna drew a clear boundary.
“Just to avoid any misunderstandings, let me clarify—we’re not close. We’re only together because of the raid.”
I hadn’t thought otherwise.
That thought almost slipped out, but I held my tongue.
‘A legendary Guardian Spirit…’
Anyway, back to the main point. Seeing his Guardian Spirit in person made my thoughts swirl.
I was reminded of my goal to find a companion for the next stage.
Initially, I thought about taking him along just because of his Guardian Spirit, but I quickly dismissed the idea.
‘No matter how good the weapon, it’s meaningless if the pilot is no good.’
Putting aside the fact that he possesses the “Infant Hero,” it was clear that Lee Jin-yoon is inherently unsuited for combat.
Recalling my first encounter with him only reinforced that conclusion.
Even if he wielded the most powerful weapon, if he couldn’t properly swing it and ended up being beaten by someone much weaker, that weapon would be utterly useless.
In the end, that legendary Guardian Spirit of his is just pearls on a pig’s neck.
But as I thought that far, another question popped into my head.
‘…Wait a second. For him to be here, he must’ve cleared the first stage on his own?’
Was it possible that he had undergone some mental growth in the meantime? I was starting to reconsider my assessment.
Bang!
“What the hell is going on?!”
A loud commotion erupted in the middle of the tavern.
***
“Where does an NPC get the nerve to defy a player?”
Amidst the mix of languages filling the tavern, that line of Korean stood out distinctly.
“This isn’t that kind of place! That’s just a staff member!”
“So what? Are you trying to uphold the virtue of someone who’s not even human?”
“What nonsense… We’re the same as you!”
Looking toward the source of the noise, I could roughly grasp the situation.
It seemed that the Korean Awakener was making unreasonable demands of a female staff member.
He probably thought it was fine to mistreat her because humans outside the Awakeners in this city aren’t “real” people.
“Don’t make me laugh.”
Stab.
“Guh!”
Without hesitation, the man drew a dagger from his coat and stabbed the tavern owner.
“You’re just pieces of data, anyway.”
“Guh… Argh.”
Thud.
The tavern owner collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely.
Despite his claim that they were mere “data,” the owner’s death was disturbingly realistic.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
A foreign Awakener nearby tried to intervene.
“Ugh…!”
But before he could act, the spear the man had been carrying on his back was already inches from his face.
Unparalleled speed.
“Who are you? Get lost.”
The would-be interloper couldn’t even respond.
That alone made the power disparity between them glaringly obvious.
Slice!
“Aaah!”
The man then turned and swung his spear with a flourish, killing another NPC—a female staff member this time.
“Stop it!”
“Why are you doing this?!”
Now, others in the vicinity began confronting him.
The man answered in broken English.
“So what? They’re not even real.”
He seemed to view this dungeon world as nothing more than a virtual reality game.
Even though the NPCs bled and showed pain just like real humans, he acted as if it didn’t matter because they weren’t “real.”
Then, he started attacking other NPCs nearby with his weapon.
Slash! Stab!
“Aaah!”
In an instant, the tavern turned into a sea of blood.
People tried to flee, but the man’s explosive strength and swift movements made escape impossible.
Although he refrained from attacking “Real Humans” like the Awakeners, the chaotic scene completely ruined the atmosphere of the tavern, where everyone had been enjoying a drink after completing a grueling stage.
Despite the escalating situation, no Awakener stepped forward to stop him.
{Guardian Spirit: ‘Wei Lue Bu’ (Historic)}
His Guardian Spirit was a rare historic tier, known for its exceptional combat power—Wei Lue Bu.
TL/n: Lue Bu could could be a reference to Lu Bu, a famous and notorious general during the late Eastern Han dynasty, who is often portrayed in historical records and the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novel as a fierce warrior.
In such a confined space, there were almost no Awakeners who could face him.
No one, except for me.
‘Should I stop him?’
To be honest, it’s not my business if another Awakener decides to act recklessly. After all, the consequences fall squarely on their shoulders.
But this city is not part of the stage; it’s a shared maintenance space for all Awakeners.
The city’s residents adapt organically to their surroundings and respond differently each time.
In other words, there’s no telling how that man’s actions might ripple through the entirety of this raid.
If I let him continue unchecked, who knows how it might hinder my path later.
Ultimately, there’s no choice but for me to act.
Screech.
I pushed my chair back and was about to stand up when—
“Hey! You there!”
Choi Yuna acted first.
***
“Hey, you’re Korean, right?”
“Huh? There’s another Korean here?”
“How embarrassing. If you’re going to behave like that, at least don’t speak Korean.”
She boldly confronted the man with the Wei Lue Bu Guardian Spirit.
Of course, she also had a historic-tier Guardian Spirit, but…
‘If it’s Shimo Haihui, isn’t that a sniper?’
From what I know, her Guardian Spirit is famous for being a sniper.
Considering how the Guardian Spirit system replicates known traits faithfully, their compatibility is the worst possible.
Yet, Choi Yuna stood her ground, showing no sign of backing down, even after witnessing with her own eyes that he specialized in close-quarters combat with his spear.
“Heh! You’re pretty cute.”
“What?”
The man wielding the spear looked down on her with blatant disdain.
Then, he flung the most disgusting remark that was sure to anger her.
“You can play with me instead of that one.”
He gestured to the dead female staff NPC, implying something unspeakable.
Considering what he’d likely demanded from that NPC before, his words were as vile as they could get.
“You piece of trash…”
Choi Yuna drew a mana gun from the holster at her waist and aimed it at him.
“Hah! You think you can beat me with that little gun?”
“Does this look like a handgun to you?”
The moment she spoke, her handgun transformed into a drum-magazine submachine gun glowing with blue energy.
It seemed to be her Weapon Projection Power.
“Huh?”
Ratatatatatatata!
The submachine gun spat out a torrent of mana bullets at hundreds of rounds per minute, scattering them in every direction.
Sensing the gravity of the attack, the man with the Wei Lue Bu Guardian Spirit quickly dodged.
“Tch!”
Papatapatapatapata!
But dodging was futile. Not a single bullet missed its mark despite his rapid movements.
Bang!
“Damn it!”
The defensive barrier enveloping the man’s body shattered instantly.
Now, the bullets would hit him directly.
“You little—!”
Realizing that Choi Yuna was no ordinary opponent, he stopped dodging and lunged forward, thrusting his spear at her.
Swish.
But Choi Yuna was already gone.
Not in a figurative sense—she had truly vanished, becoming transparent like a ghost.
“What the hell?”
The man, having lost his target, spun around, trying to locate her.
Bang! Bang!
“Urgh!”
Suddenly, bullets came flying from a corner of the tavern, drilling into his body.
Though his Guardian Spirit specialized in close combat, allowing him to withstand some hits, the injuries began to sap his strength.
The more he bled, the weaker he grew—it was inevitable.
He may have treated this world as a mere game, but his injuries were all too real.
“You… you sneaky little rat!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Panicking, the man swung his spear wildly, creating crescent-shaped shockwaves that destroyed everything in their path.
But it was all for naught.
“Where are you?!”
By then, Choi Yuna had relocated far from the tavern.
‘Already that far?’
I seemed to be the only one who knew where she had gone.
Across from the tavern, on the rooftop of an opposite building, Choi Yuna had projected a Mosin-Nagant rifle and aimed it at the man.
Bang! Thud!
“Gaaah!”
A single gunshot. A powerful impact.
The man let out a scream and collapsed to the floor, his knees shattered.
With that, the situation was completely resolved.
“Argh! Gahhh….”
Now he lay writhing in pain beside the corpses of the NPCs he had killed.
‘Wow, she’s really good.’
Without me having to lift a finger, Choi Yuna had cleaned up the situation flawlessly.
Her skill was impressive enough to leave me in awe.
But just then, another unwelcome presence appeared.
“Park Sung-hoon! What the hell happened here?”
A group of men entered the tavern. They were all Korean and seemed to be the injured man’s companions.
“Who did this to him…?”
The problem was, I recognized the face of their leader all too well.
“Huh? You… Yoo Shin-woo, right?”
And then.
“Well, well. Long time no see, errand boy.”
It turned out that this guy was an even bigger scumbag than the man with the Wei Lue Bu Guardian Spirit.
—
Read More at – GENZNOVEL.COM!!
PLEASE JOIN OUR DISCORD AND SUBSCRIBE THE ROLE TO RECEIVE LATEST NOTIFICATIONS!!
Click here -> https://discord.gg/S8c2kGVr2g
Comment