CHAPTER 231: A HERO FOR THE LITTLE THINGS (1)

Kwon Oh-Jin frowned as he heard a scream. “What the hell?”

The scream itself didn’t make him frown.

That sounds like a kid’s voice.

He changed directions with Lightning Steps and fired his wire shooter toward the direction of the scream.

Whoosh!

Kwon Oh-Jin cut through the air like a bullet. It took less than ten seconds to reach the source of the scream.

“Kyaaaa! Somebody help me! Cough, cough. Ow, my throat hurts from yelling too much.” A young girl, crouched inside a cave, continued coughing.

She looked to be around ten years old with a unique hairstyle streaked with green highlights.

“Krrrr! Kurgh!”

About ten meters ahead of her stood a monster growling fiercely. Baring its vicious fangs, the monster charged at the girl.

“Krrr!”

Crackle!

The green pendant around the monster’s neck flashed, and it staggered back as if repelled by an invisible force.

“Hehe. Annoying, isn’t it? Come and get me! Come on, I dare you!” The girl stuck her tongue out and taunted the monster that couldn’t get any closer.

Kwon Oh-Jin dryly chuckled. The whole thing looked like some cheap skit.

So this is the safety system they put on the civilians.

The monster’s eyes looked bloodshot with rage as it kept trying to charge at the girl, only for the pendant to force it back every time.

The girl spotted Kwon Oh-Jin and waved enthusiastically with a bright smile. “Oh! Mister! Over here, over here! A helpless citizen is being terrorized by a scary monster!”

When he first heard about the civilian rescue missions, he wasn’t sure how it would actually play out. Now it became clearer.

“Krrr!”

Perhaps the monster had noticed Kwon Oh-Jin too. Its glowing red eyes turned toward him. With legs that looked like a panther’s, the monster launched itself at him at a frightening speed. The monster looked quite powerful, fitting for a competition to determine the next Seven Stars, but it stood no match against Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Azure Lightning.”

Crackle!

Blue lightning fanned out and engulfed the monster.

“Kraaa!” The monster writhed in pain as the lightning shocked it.

Kwon Oh-Jin ducked under its wild flailing, pulled a folding knife from his belt, and quickly swung it downward.

Shhhk. Click!

The blade transformed mid-swing into a spear. In the blink of an eye, it pierced the monster’s throat and drove up into its skull.

Ring!

—Kwon Oh-Jin has defeated a green-ranked monster.

—Kwon Oh-Jin has earned five points.

A glowing blue message didn’t appear in the air like the system window or anything. Instead, a voice spoke from the silver bracelet on his wrist.

Glancing down, he saw the number on the bracelet change from zero to five.

“Wow! You took it out in one shot!” The girl clapped delightfully and giggled.

Kwon Oh-Jin approached and asked, “How long have you been here?”

“Ah! Minus points, mister! That’s the wrong question to ask!”

“What? Why?”

“You’re supposed to ask if I’m hurt first!”

He had literally just watched the monster fail to touch her thanks to that necklace. She was clearly fine.

So this is how they’re scoring things.

She wasn’t wrong. If this had been a real rescue with an unprotected civilian, he should’ve checked for her safety first.

“Sorry. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Hehe. You apologized quickly, so I’ll let it slide. Nope! As you can see, I’m perfectly fine!” The girl stood up energetically and brushed the dirt off her knees.

Now, he would earn more points as long as he could escort her to the nearest safety zone.

Guess I’ll need to change my plan.

Originally, he had planned on heading to the underwater zone and monopolizing the monsters there to rack up points. However, it looked like finding a safety zone while escorting the girl would have to come first.

“Mister, you’re the Thunder Wolf, right?”

“I am the Thunder Wolf, but I’m not a mister.”

“I’m a huge fan of you mister, you know!”

This damn brat...

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m civilian number two!”

“That’s a pretty dehumanizing name.”

“Hehe. Apparently, I’m not allowed to give out my real name according to the rules. Civilian number two sounds kinda lame, right? Just call me number two, NT!” NT beamed brightly and raised her hand high.

Kwon Oh-Jin chuckled and nodded. “Let’s get out of here first.”

He prepared to leave and start searching for the safety zone.

“Ah! Mister, minus points! Another deduction!”

What now?

“You’ve got such a delicate little girl with you, and you’re just going to walk off without holding her hand? What if I get left behind?”

“Holding hands makes it harder to move in emergencies if a monster attacks. It’s safer to stick close together instead.”

He made up a reasonable counterargument.

“Oh?” NT blinked and scratched her head. “W-When you put it that way, that does make sense. Ahem, I’ll cancel the point deduction then!”

“You’re quite the strict evaluator, huh?”

“Hehe. The rules say I have to grade thoroughly.” NT scratched her head shyly.

That wasn’t a compliment. I was being sarcastic.

He smirked and started descending the mountain trail with NT.

“Do you know where the safety zone is?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t know either! But I heard it shows up on a map or something once we get close!”

Kwon Oh-Jin looked down at the silver bracelet on his wrist. So far, he had only seen his own location displayed on the map.

So we really just have to wander around, huh.

Just as he thought that and started walking, he heard something moving in the bushes.

Rustle!

“Mister?”

“Quiet.” Kwon Oh-Jin held a finger to his lips and activated the Stigma of Canes Venatici.

He could smell a monster coming near.

There’s only one, and it's right below us!

Boom!

With a burst of dirt, a monster that had been moving rapidly underground revealed itself. Its overall form resembled a shark, but it had four limbs with vicious claws instead of fins.

Blue-ranked.

Kwon Oh-Jin looked at the necklace around the shark monster’s neck and gripped his spear.

“Krrrrk!” The shark monster fiercely cried and stomped both its legs onto the ground.

The ground shook like waves, and sharp stone shards shot upward. The tips of the stone shards sparkled with a bluish mana.

A monster that can manipulate mana too?

While most monsters had mana to some degree, they rarely used it offensively like an Awakener using a Stigma.

“The assembly really prepped this place to be brutal.”

Crackle!

Blue lightning burst outward, deflecting the incoming stones.

“Lightning Flames.”

A fierce blue flame raced along the blade of his spear as he slammed the spear down on the charging shark monster’s head.

Clang!

A loud metallic clang echoed as the spear bounced off. The jolt from the impact traveled through the shaft of his spear.

“Damn, that’s tough.” Kwon Oh-Jin frowned at the shark monster.

Even though it had deflected the spear, it seemed shaken and staggered from the impact.

If its skin is that tough...

A grin crept onto his lips as he stared at the monster.

Lightning Charge.

Crackle!

Blue lightning gathered at the spear’s tip.

After three stacks of Lightning Charge, Kwon Oh-Jin waited for the shark monster to recover. Based on typical monster behavior, it would show a predictable pattern after being struck like that. Sure enough, the monster finally came back to its senses and glared at Kwon Oh-Jin.

“Kraaaaaaa!”

Regardless of the type of monster, roaring after glaring was one of the most common follow-up patterns.

“Yeah, open wide.”

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t miss a beat and threw his spear into the monster’s open mouth.

“Lightning Discharge.”

“Kraaaaa!” The shark monster collapsed, smoke pouring from its mouth as the spear electrocuted it from within.

Ring!

[Kwon Oh-Jin has defeated a blue-ranked monster.]

[Kwon Oh-Jin has earned thirty points.]

“It’s five times the points compared to the green-ranked one, huh.”

It had clearly been much stronger than the green-ranked one from before.

From behind a tree in the distance, NT clapped and exclaimed in awe, “Wow! Mister, you’re not even a high-ranking Awakener, right? I heard even high-ranking Awakeners struggle against the blue-ranked monsters!”

He had slightly worried that a stray shard would hit her, but she thankfully seemed unharmed.

“Hold on a second,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

Activating the Stigma of Canes Venatici, he confirmed no other monsters nearby.

Then, he turned to NT and asked, “By the way, isn’t this kind of thing way too dangerous for a kid like you?”

Minimum safety measures had been put in place, but it was just that, the bare minimum. She would have gotten hurt if Kwon Oh-Jin hadn’t deflected all the stone shards.

“You’re right. That’s why in the contract? Or consent form? It actually says that if I get injured or die in an accident, the assembly can’t be held responsible.”

“What?

Kwon Oh-Jin’s expression twisted with anger. They made a kid barely ten years old sign something like that?

Has the assembly lost its damn mind?

No matter how crazy the world had become, this was just wrong.

“Hehe. But don’t worry! You’ll save me if I ever get in danger, right, Mister?”

“What about your parents? Didn’t they say anything?”

“I don’t have any.” NT smiled brightly as she continued. “I heard that a looong time ago, my mom and dad went on a faraway trip and left me behind.”

Kwon Oh-Jin looked at her with a hardened expression.

Seeing his stiff face, NT suddenly burst into giggles. “Hehe! Mister, your face looks so funny right now!” She poked him playfully in the side. “Don’t make that scary face. The teachers and kids at the orphanage are suuuper nice to me!”

“Really?”

He looked at her with concern as his own experience of orphanages had been far from pleasant.

“So did you sign up for this job on your own?”

“Yup! I saw the notice and went straight to sign up myself!”

“Why would you choose to do something so dangerous—”

“Because it pays a ton of money!”

She had a very simple, but also understandable reason.

“If I just hide quietly for six hours, all the kids and teachers at our orphanage can eat delicious food as much as they want! How could I pass up a deal like that?”

Seeing the sparkle in her eyes left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He knew it was a stupid question. However, he couldn’t help but ask while looking at NT’s bright smile. “Weren’t you scared?”

“Hmm. I was scared at first, but now I’m okay.” She shrugged with a bright grin. “Honestly, eating gross oatmeal every single day is way scarier than this!”

It wasn’t hard to imagine an orphanage’s finances in a world overrun by monsters. Who would donate to orphanages when everyone was too busy trying to survive themselves? All the kids probably lived rough lives, barely getting even one decent meal a day.

He looked down at NT, feeling an aching pain in his chest. For some reason, her bright smile overlapped with an image of Song Ha-Eun from his childhood.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay!”

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t have time to dwell on pointless emotions. He turned around and resumed searching for the safety zone.