Gang Dong-taek’s question was making him nervous.
“Did you see him? Answer me.”
“We had an unpleasant conversation yesterday afternoon.”
“Did you see him again after that?”
“I didn’t.”
Kang Dong-taek slumped his body, then asked.
“When and where did you meet?”
I looked up and replied.
“Yesterday, in the forest, but we were together for only a short while.”
“Tell me more.”
“There’s not much more to say. I hardly remember what we were even arguing about yesterday.”
After saying that, I slumped over and sat similar to him, I asked,
“I’m a little suspicious of Kim Byeong-wo, have you asked him?”
Kang Dong-taek opened his eyes and shrugged.
“I asked Han Do-Kyun to follow you.”
“Well, we both met Kim Byeong-wo.”
When I stopped talking and cleared my throat, Gan Dong-taek gulped.
“What was he doing?”
“I do not know.”
Kang Dong-taek blinked twice before raising his voice.
“You said you followed him secretly! This bitch!
“He caught me.”
Kang Dong-taek’s expression was blank.
“I didn’t know that Han Kyun was secretly following me until I got caught, and he came out of hiding. Beong-wo threatened to break our limbs. I turned my back to berate Han Kyun. When I turned back around, Beong-wo was gone. The man was so fast; he was like Quicksilver, do you know Quicksilver from The Flash? Wait, do you even know The Flash?
“You’re too noisy. So what happened to Han Do Kyun after that? ”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I wondered where Kim Byung-Woo went, so I followed the direction he as head, but… well…”
I lowered my voice
“I met a monster.”
“A monster?”
“A large lizard! Its golden eyes felt like they would melt from its rage, after seeing that I ran away from the mountain and then tripped on the root of a tree that protruded above the group. So, I don’t know what happened to Han Do Kyun.”
“What about Jung Ho-Bun, have you see him?”
“Nope.”
Kang Dong-taek closed his eyes with arms folded. He opened his eyes and said, “I was in a hurry to escape.”
“What happened to your face? You look horrible.”
I rubbed my face with the palm of my hand. The skin was peeling off like I got sunburned.
“You mean this? When I was resting, I laid down on some grass, maybe I was allergic, or it might be that toxic goblin meat I ate, hives might be the side effect.”
At this point, I was looking for an opportunity to leave. Park Tae-sik came running.
“Hey, Byung-Woo Kim is coming.”
I saw my chance to escape. Along with some other thugs, I ran toward Kim Byung-Woo. He tightened his grip on his sword.
“What?”
I admired the sword in his hand. The sword was as bright as the sun, and designed to be sturdy but light.
“Did you get it from the forest?”
“You’re starting to annoy me.”
He stared at me.
“If you talk one more time, I’ll cut your tongue off.”
I didn’t dare to ignore his sword because I knew he meant it. That was the moment that I decided to become mute in=front of him.
Kang Dong-taek pointed to the rounded object protruding over Kim Byung-Woo’s shoulder.
“The shield is also new.”
I looked behind Kim Byung-Woo and saw his brand new shield, and it was as impressive as his new sword.
“Are you willing to sell?”
In response to Kang Dong-taek’s question, Byung-Woo Kim spits out his iconic words.
“Go away.”
Kang Dong-taek didn’t leave but didn’t try to stop Byeong-Woo from going either. Kang Dong-taek stared at the closed door and spoke to me.
“If he goes into the forest tonight, follow him.”
I replied in retaliation.
“Yesterday he clearly warned me that if I follow him again, he will kill me. “
“He can’t kill you for ten days. You know that.”
“It’s possible to kill in self-defense. Angels can consider killing fellow humans as self-defense. I don’t want to take that risk.”
I tried to copy Byeong-Woo and leave, but I wasn’t as strong as him, so I ran as fast as I could.
Bang!
After closing the door, I put the chair behind the handle and exhaled. Minji Park asked me in surprise.
“What happened? What’s going on?”
I shared the conversation I had with Kang Dong-taek regarding Kim Byeong-woo.
“Someone went missing.”
She asked with a worried expression.
“Is he dead?”
I didn’t tell her everything.
“Maybe.”
“Now, I’m in the gang’s top fighter’s bad side.”
“Gang Dong-taek puts his weakest men out first, that’s why recruits never last long.”
We sat on the floor and talked, Park Min-Ji felt uneasy about the future. She was afraid of death; I was too but not as much as her. This is because Kang Dong-taek believed that even if I survive the tutorial, I’d eventually die. To be honest, I didn’t want to die, and I wanted to live with Min-Ji.
“I really want to live.” Park Min-Ji said.
“Maybe you can.”
“How?”
“A black marble might have special abilities. There is hope.”
I think back to the black beads I ate and the power it gave me. I have hope. Park Min-Ji shook her arms while jumping.
“I don’t think I ’ll ever find a bead like that.”
She kept herself busy until the sunset. I went out to get a spider for lunch and found an angel.
“An angel! An angel appeared!”
People began begging for help, even those injured and bedridden asked their acquaintances for help to see the angel.
“Please send us home.”
“How long should will we be here?”
“What monster is attacking next?”
“Can I have some good quality beads.”
“Please give me food.”
It was noisy, like a phone getting too many messages.
“Silence.”
The angel spoke with a stern look and erected its tail like a scorpion. Then the noise suddenly stopped. The angel flapped its wings and ascended. It was beautiful, especially with the sun behind its back.
“Let ’s see how many survived? There are 197 people. I thought there would be less. I expected only 100 to be left. There are more survivors than I expected.”
It was because Kim Byeong-woo went out every night to kill nearby monsters.
“This is not good, there are still too many survivors… what should I do about this…”
I asked.
“Why are you troubled?”
“It’s annoying to manage many survivors. It costs too much to return you. The tutorial is now over.”
I got goosebumps on my back.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t care if you start killing each other now.”
The angel frowned and flapped his wings.
“Goodluck.”
The angel flew out of sight. At that moment, I realized.
Chaos is approaching.
Gang Dong-Taek smiled when he heard the news.
“Huh! The protection period is over.”
He shot me.
“Can’t you see we have bigger problems?”
I said, pointing outside the town.
“We don’t have time to fight each other.”
They screamed when they saw where I was pointing.
“It’s a monster!”
Dozens of giant lizards like the ones I fought yesterday raided the area. Park Min-Ji was enthusiastic about hunting until she saw the monsters, she trembled at their sight.
“Ew, they’re gross!”
“Do you hate lizards?”
“I hate all reptiles.”
She said, biting her lips.
“Do I need to slay it to survive?”
“Absolutely.”
With the sudden declaration of the angel, the trial period ended. We had to be strong. To do that, we needed to slay a lot of lizards and collect their beads.
Today I’ll take the lead.
I started running while shouting, Park Min-Ji wanted to fight despite her dislike for reptiles. I stopped her from coming forward.
“Get behind me.”
“I also ate the blue beads. I will fight by your side.”
“It’s not that, that lizard has poison spit.”
“Won’t you be in danger too?”
“I’ll be fine.”
I laughed with a big smile.
“I have antibodies.”
I have detoxifying abilities, so I can easily handle lizards. However, others will have a hard time.
As I approached, the leading lizard opened its mouth to the fullest and spat poison out. It looked like spraying pesticides with a sprayer. I endured the poison and put a knife in the neck of a giant lizard.
The lizard made me nauseous. I wanted to vomit, but I kept pushing the knife in until my arm went into its throat.
The lizard tried to bite my arm that was in its mouth, but once the knife was deep enough, it began shaking and eventually stopped moving.
I want to slaughter it, but a bigger lizard started attacking me. I reached for my ax and aimed for the dark area between the lizard’s neck and chest.
Puck.
The ax penetrated through, and the lizard screeched in agony. I guess learning its weaknesses yesterday was a blessing in disguise.
Thud.
The lizard fell. I tried to recover the ax; it was lodged too deeply and wouldn’t budge. I screamed, reaching out my back.
“Shield!.”
Park Min-Ji put a shield in my hand. Then Kim Byeong-woo jumped out from the side to fight his next target.
I thought about warning him about the poison, but I assumed he already knew, my assumption was confirmed when he grabbed his shield from his back.
Yeah, he knew.
Kim Byung-woo blocked the poison attack and pierced the lizard’s soft part with his sword.
I really liked his sword.
After admiring, I aimed my attack at the lizard next to Kim Byeong-woo. This monster was overflowing with poison. As I approached, the poison poured down like a waterfall. The poison completely covered my upper body, melting my skin as well as my clothes.
Still, I didn’t step back and continued to poke the spear into the lizard’s mouth. Finally, the lizard died.
I took the dagger and stabbed the lizard’s soft spot. The scales fell off quickly, and I already knew where to cut to get the beads.
“Please, stay.”