Chapter 179
She couldn't understand how that guy was there in the first place. It was possible to jump up to the third floor with the power of blessings. The part that she couldn't understand was how he had thought of going up there.
Sun-Woo was currently on the third floor of the building on the right. Min-Seo had placed the most personnel there. Before Dae-Man sent the negotiation request to them, they had been the best fighters on the team and had been used as combatants for obtaining tokens. Min-Seo handed them grenade launchers and instructed them to aim at Sun-Woo and pull the trigger when given the signal.
In other words, that place had the most grenade launchers and ammunition, and at the same time, it was also where the most tokens were stored. From Min-Seo's perspective, it was the place where she would suffer the greatest loss if attacked. It was her Achilles heel.
Within the smokescreen that made it impossible to clearly see even a step ahead, how did Sun-Woo realize this fact and act on it? Did he realize it in a fleeting moment when the wind blew and cleared up the smoke? Did that even make any logical sense? Just what did that crazy bastard do for a living?
She had no idea. At the moment, she had to...
"Hey, don't hesitate, hurry up and shoot!" Min-Seo urgently pointed at Sun-Woo.
The snipers hidden behind various rocks and buildings all aimed their grenade launchers at Sun-Woo. However, they were unable to pull the trigger in time. Although the wind had died down, it was still blowing strong.
While they were hesitating to pull the trigger, Sun-Woo disappeared once again. The grenade launcher barrels aimed at Sun-Woo lost their target and wandered aimlessly. Someone looked at Min-Seo with their eyes shining as if waiting for the next order.
But now was not the time to leisurely give out orders.
"Oh shit, that son of a bitch...!"
After cursing in a husky voice, she drew her bow, and before the light of blessing could even reach her legs, she started running toward the stairs. It was because she was the only one who saw Sun-Woo jumping over the window and entering the building. Sun-Woo was someone who was impossible for her to predict. She had to stop him before the situation spiraled completely out of control.
***
Whoosh—!
The wind blew. No, the wind helped me.
A gust of wind was relatively natural. It was far more natural than a lightning strike in a clear sky, a pillar of fire shooting out from nowhere, a snake appearing, or a gigantified plant moving...
If I just added a blessing to be used as a cover-up and added an appropriate amount of smoke, Bade's power could be utilized in a variety of different situations.
I practiced using the power of the Loa for a while, and I especially focused on mastering Bade's power. Bade's wind was strong, but delicate control was impossible. I practiced narrowing the range of the wind and concentrating its power into a single point.
Unlike my skills in manipulating blessings, which didn’t improve no matter how much I practiced, the method of practicing the power of the Loa was simple but difficult. I just had to offer a large amount of sacrifices, use their power a lot, and at the same time, I just had to maintain a strong bond with the Loa.
Fortunately, the method of forming a bond with Bade was simple.
[How was Bade's elevator service? Please give me a review!]
"Good! It was the best!" I said while hanging on the third-floor railing and looking down at Min-Seo.
If I wanted to make Bade happy, all I had to do was flatter him. There was no need to be sincere. If I praised him with an excited tone, as if I couldn't contain my happiness, Bade would jump for joy.
Crash!
I smashed the window swaying from the wind with my fist and climbed inside. It felt like a few shards of glass were stuck in my fist, but it didn't seem necessary to remove them right away. It didn't hurt much, so I could deal with it later. Now was not the time to worry about a few fragments of glass stuck in my fist.
One of the Department of Crusaders members hiding on the third floor of the building spotted me and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh...? It's Sun-Woo!"
He quickly moved the barrel of his grenade launcher that was pointing outside the window in my direction. Along with his shout, all the students from the Department of Crusaders that were on the same floor looked at me, and their numerous grenade launchers were aimed at me.
[If you need help, shout out the name of the technique! This is the moment where we need to use the technique that we practiced in the underground chapel earlier!] Bade exclaimed excitedly.
I ran toward the closest opponent aiming his grenade launcher at me and nodded.
While mastering Bade's power, I had many conversations with him. Most of these conversations involved me going along with the flow. Through these conversations, we created something called a technique. When I signaled to Bade by extending my fist, condensed wind would be released in the direction of my extended fist, making it appear as if I had struck the opponent with my fist.
The moment the opponent was about to pull the trigger, I extended my fist and shouted the name of the technique.
"Wi-Wind Punch!"
[Wind Punch! Bam, bam!]
I felt embarrassed to say the name of the technique out loud, so I lowered the volume of my voice and stuttered a bit, but it seemed like Bade was extremely delighted.
Woosh—smack!
My fist extended out along with the wind and struck the opponent’s jaw. In reality, it was not my fist that had made contact with the jaw, but rather, it was condensed wind. But to an observer, it would not appear much different.
The opponent lost consciousness and collapsed before dropping the grenade launcher that they were carrying. With a loud thud, the area fell into silence.
Although numerous students from the Department of Crusaders were aiming their grenade launchers at me, none of them could easily pull the trigger. It was probably because I suddenly appeared and caught them off guard.
At that moment, someone muttered in a terrified, helpless tone, “Oh my god...”
"I couldn’t even see his fist...!"
"You crazy bastard! Stop admiring and shoot!"
The sharp voice of a female student broke the silence. The students belatedly regained their senses at that voice before clumsily aiming at me and pulling the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
I was familiar with the sound of a grenade launcher, and I felt uncomfortable. For some reason, my heart beat violently even though I hadn’t used Bossou's power. The sounds of screams overlapped with the sound of the grenade launcher. It was an auditory hallucination. It was definitely an auditory hallucination.
I ignored the sound and ran toward the nearest enemy. I closed the distance and extended my fist before shouting the name of the technique once again.
"Wind Punch! Wind Punch!"
[Oh, nice! That's it! Bam, bam!]
Whoosh─!
The wind seeped in through the broken or open windows. At some point, I could read the flow of the wind. I could see where the wind was coming from and where it was heading. Beyond just having a deep bond with Bade, it felt like I was seeing the world through Bade's eyes.
Flutter!
The wind followed by touch and wrapped around my body. The bullets flying toward me decelerated in the wind, crumbled, and then fell to the ground. Rather than me dodging the grenades, it looked more like the grenades were avoiding me.
I trusted Bade, so I didn't dodge the bullets. I just charged at the enemy and extended my fist. Wind blew out with each punch, and when a gust of wind struck the enemy, they collapsed. The grenade launchers they were holding all fell to the ground. The bullets they shot failed to hit my body, and as a result, perplexed expressions settled on the faces of those witnessing this sight.
Occasionally, tokens would spill out of the pockets of the enemies I subdued, and I would pick them up. I would also snatch grenade launchers from subdued enemies and throw them at the other enemies I hadn't subdued yet. There was no need to put too much effort into each throw. Even if it missed, Bade’s wind would correct the trajectory.
Smack!
"Ahh!"
In an instant, I subdued all the enemies, with the exception of one.
Since I had swung my fist wildly while having shards of glass embedded inside, my fist was completely covered with blood. The blood was sticky due to being dried up from the wind. My wounds seemed to have deepened slightly.
Even if I immediately used restoration spells after returning back to the underground chapel, it would be difficult to avoid leaving scars. Ji-Ah nuna would certainly nag at me about it again.
I strutted toward the last remaining opponent.
The opponent lay collapsed on the ground. They said with with a pale face, "Y-you crazy bastard...!"
They weren’t entirely wrong. I raised my fist, which was painted with dried-up blood.
"Aaargh!"
At that moment, a shout came from the direction of the stairs. It was a sharp, resounding voice that was filled with wrath. It was Min-Seo's voice without a doubt.
I hadn’t expected the situation to work out so perfectly, but in any case, all was well that ended well. I lowered my raised fist and turned toward Min-Seo. She was catching her breath with her head lowered.
"Ha, ha... It's so damn exhausting. If only I didn't twist my ankle," Min-Seo said while looking around at her fallen comrades.
"W-what the fuck, you guys already got wasted?!” Min-Seo shouted in frustration.
The sight of people sprawled on the cement floor felt like a desolate scene, even for me.
***
With the help of blessings, Min-Seo quickly ascended the stairs. Internally, she wanted to leap up to the third floor in one go like Sun-Woo, but her injured ankle prevented her from doing so. Nevertheless, she believed that she had climbed the stairs relatively quickly, but by the time she reached the top, the situation had already ended.
Against just Sun-Woo alone, all the combatants were annihilated. Well, they weren’t exactly completely annihilated, as one person still remained. However, even the last remaining person had lost their will to fight. It was practically no different from complete annihilation.
With this, it would become impossible for her to gain an advantageous position in the negotiations. Min-Seo tried to suppress her boiling rage, but when the throbbing pain in her ankle intensified, she couldn't hold back and she ended up pointing angrily at Sun-Woo.
"You crazy bastard! Is your first instinct to resort to violence? And you call yourself a clergyman?"
"Then is it okay for clergymen to aim their grenade launchers at people and threaten them?”
"...I guess you have a point. Fine, why are you doing this? What do you want?"
After thinking things through, she agreed with him, so she quickly acknowledged what Sun-Woo said and moved on to the main point. If she understood what Sun-Woo wanted, even if it didn't give her an advantageous position in negotiations, she would at least be able to negotiate on equal grounds.
"Before you negotiate for Su-Ryeon, negotiate for the two other hostages first."
"Okay, I can do that. So, how much do you want for those two?"
Min-Seo reluctantly accepted Sun-Woo’s offer as if she had no choice but to do so. It was because if she rejected his proposal here, she had no idea what that guy would do. Unless he asked for an outrageous amount, she was willing to pay the cost required to buy Su-Ryeon.
"Seven."
"...Seven total for two people?"
"No? Seven each."
"You crazy bastard! Hey, let's all just die here. Screw the negotiations and just die—!”
Tap.
After aggressively spewing out a series of insults, Min-Seo was just about to approach Sun-Woo when she suddenly halted.
Her hand, which had been secretly drawing a blessing array in order to intentionally invoke the collision phenomenon also stopped. The divine power that failed to become a blessing array scattered and disappeared. Meanwhile, Min-Seo's gaze remained fixed on Sun-Woo's hand without wavering.
"Don't come any closer."
Sun-Woo's blood-stained hand was holding onto tokens that had been in the sniper team’s possession on the third floor.
Although she collected and gathered all the tokens from her team members before the negotiation with Sun-Woo, it seemed like she had missed a few tokens.
Min-Seo's gaze started to quiver.
"...You know you can't use those anyway, right? Each token is bound to an individual. It's registered to the digital watch, so it doesn't make a difference if you have it. Taking tokens by force during negotiations is a violation of the rules," Min-Seo said in a frenzy.
She had a habit of speaking faster when she was flustered, but Min-Seo's words were all true. The tokens were personal belongings, so they had no meaning even if it was in someone else's hands without going through an official transfer through negotiations.
It was a rule designed to help the students from the Department of Priests, as the exam would become too combat-oriented otherwise. However, there was no rule that prohibited forcibly taking tokens during negotiations. Those were just words that Min-Seo had spewed out in the heat of the moment in order to overcome her current crisis.
Crash!
At that moment, Sun-Woo threw one of the tokens he was holding to the ground. He threw it so hard that it broke in half due to the force of the throw. Sun-Woo stepped on it and stepped on it again until it was reduced to smithereens. Min-Seo's face turned pale. Sun-Woo subtly smiled.
"There's no rule that states that we can’t break the tokens, right?"
"Hey, you son of a bitch─!"
"Don't come any closer. I'll break another one," Sun-Woo threatened while pulling out another token.
Min-Seo reflexively stopped moving toward him. Each and every token was precious to Min-Seo. She had a reason to do well on this practical exam. She had saved Gabriel from dying in the previous incident and entered into a contract with him to receive substantial financial support. However, if Gabriel suddenly announced that he would offer a large amount of financial support, both Gabriel and Min-Seo would be in a difficult position.
Thus, Gabriel came up with a plan. He decided to support her through a foundation, under the guise of a scholarship. In order for that plan to work, Min-Seo first had to be selected as a scholarship student. That was why Min-Seo was so desperate. In order to be selected as a scholarship student, her overall ranking based on the combination of the written and practical exams had to be within the top ten.
Min-Seo forced herself to calm her boiling emotions and said, "Yeah, okay. Just calm down for now, and, uh, put the tokens down first."
She tried to not appear agitated, but she couldn't hide the trembling in her voice. Sun-Woo gently placed the tokens on the floor before wiping the blood off his fist.
"Does that mean you accept the offer or not?” he asked.
“...Sure, do whatever the fuck you want. I’ll pay seven for each of them, you motherfucker.”
Sun-Woo silently handed over the keys to the two hostages, and Min-Seo also transferred ownership of fourteen tokens over to him. She felt like she was continuously sustaining losses, so Min-Seo felt bitter inside. If only her ankle was okay... She would have fought back, but because her condition was like this, she couldn’t even think about engaging in a one-on-one fight.
"Now, next is Su-Ryeon, right? So how much are you going to ask for Su-Ryeon, you fucking asshole? Around one hundred tokens?"
"I don't expect that much. How about fifty?"
Min-Seo let out a sigh. The asking price was so absurd, but more importantly, she didn’t have fifty tokens at the moment. However, that didn’t mean that she could give up on Su-Ryeon. She had wasted fourteen tokens in order to save two useless hostages, all for the sake of Su-Ryeon. It was even harder to give up on Su-Ryeon because of the sunk cost.
"...I think I can pay about half of it."
"Half. Half..."
Sun-Woo pretended to contemplate, but displeasure was clearly written on his face. His silence created a strangely tense atmosphere because it was long and heavy. Min-Seo subconsciously gulped loudly.
"Then let's roughly make it half, to around twenty tokens. Since I received fourteen tokens earlier."
"...Hmm, if you can do that, that’d be great for me.”
Min-Seo made an effort not to show her satisfaction, because she didn't want to give Sun-Woo a reason to change his mind. Sun-Woo briefly checked Min-Seo's expression before slowly nodding.
"Okay, twenty tokens."
He handed over the key to Su-Ryeon's handcuffs. Min-Seo also handed him the ownership of twenty tokens and secretly smiled, but her mood suddenly turned sour when she watched Sun-Woo turn away. She couldn't explain it exactly, but she instinctively felt like she had suffered a loss.
However, the negotiation was already over.
***
"Well, that was a profit."
Honestly, at first, I had entered the negotiation with the thought of only getting twenty tokens, but somehow the situation turned around and I was able to get more tokens than expected. Anyway, it worked out well.
After finishing the negotiation on the third floor of the eerie-looking cement building, we came down. We handed Su-Ryeon, who was in Dae-Man's arms, and the other two hostages over to Min-Seo.
"Su-Ryeon, you bitch. How much do I have to spend to save you?"
"You crazy hag. If you hadn't betrayed me, none of this would have happened!"
"If I hadn't betrayed you, both of us would have been caught. It's better than the worst-case scenario," Min-Seo shamelessly said while releasing Su-Ryeon from her handcuffs.
While releasing the handcuffs of the other two hostages, the students from the Department of Crusaders waiting in ambush nearby began to creep out. At just a rough glance, it was possible to tell that there were more than thirty of them. They must have combined four teams together.
"Hey, get lost already. I don't want to see your face. Before we beat you up black and blue and handcuff you after ten minutes.”
I just stood still without responding, but Dae-Man stepped forward and said, "Min-Seo, you have too much of a foul mouth! How about toning down on the swearing?"
Min-Seo frowned.
"Are you going to give me money if I speak nicely?”
"No, I don't have that much money."
"Then why are you being so nosy? Should I tear your muscles apart with my muscle destruction technique?"
Dae-Man confidently thumped his chest.
"You won’t be able to tear my muscles with just any technique!”
Perhaps due to her nerves getting tense due to the negotiation, Min-Seo's tone of voice was even more aggressive than usual.
"Looks like you have overly inflated pride just because you fiddled around with some exercise, you son of an anchovy.”
"I can't endure what you said just now. Come at me."
While the two were quarreling, I surveyed the terrain. I wanted to examine the surroundings and plan ahead, just in case we ended up in another battle. In doing so, my eyes met with a female student. It seemed like she was a member of the Department of Crusaders, but even after the negotiation was over, she continued to hide and watch over me. When our eyes met, she widened her eyes in surprise and crouched down before escaping.
I pointed at her and asked Min-Seo, "...Is she your teammate?"
Min-Seo narrowed her eyes and carefully examined her face. She shook her head.
"No? I don't know her."
"Oh, she's my friend!" Su-Ryeon said with a delighted face as she stood next to me. But then she tilted her head as if she found it strange.
"But she's from the Department of Priests... Why is she here?"
At the mention of the Department of Priests, everyone's expression stiffened. The atmosphere hadn’t exactly been lively, but it had been rowdy to a certain extent. However, such an atmosphere turned cold instantly.
The girl from the Department of Priests noticed our gaze and took a few steps back, before eventually banging her watch like crazy and wildly running in the direction of where the students from the Department of Priests were located.
The gesture she made was her manipulating the digital watch to inform her team members of her location.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m