CHAPTER 111

The day her Initial Skill, Link, had first awakened, she’d learned that Reinhardt’s crown prince, Lord, was keeping an eye on her.

Reinhardt? Crown prince? Hae-Rin didn’t know anything about those things. Moreover, she had been young, and the things mentioned in the System message seemingly referred to a world beyond the gates. That possibility had left her feeling uncertain and vaguely afraid.

But when she first began understanding Link—using the Skill and feeling its activation throughout her body—her fear melted away. Link was a sword dance that channeled the memories of her precious connections with others. It was a beautiful and gentle Skill.

She was convinced that the creator of this sword dance must also be a kind being. Perhaps the Lord was a monster instead of a human, but she couldn’t help wanting to meet him someday.

On the other hand, her father hated Link.

He never looked twice at the values embedded in the sword dance. The successor of the Guardian Guild was expected to hold a shield and stand as steady as a mountain. His ancestors had always been like that, so he believed his daughter should be the same. He couldn’t acknowledge his daughter’s frivolous dancing and criticized her furiously. Hae-Rin hadn’t resisted, in part because she respected and loved her father, in part because Jeong Jae-Uk—whom she’d trusted and followed like an uncle—had made her forget how to resist long ago.

“What is this?”

However, now, Hae-Rin violated her father’s wishes, broke the chains left by Jeong Jae-Uk, and carried out her own will.

Chae Da-Hee and the members of the Shooting Club—she couldn’t ignore those who were hurt because of her and chose to resist.

She also remembered the hand that Jae-Hyeok had extended to her.

Respect, worry, and fear of her father... what did it matter in the moment? Helping the people in front of her was more important than all these things.

The reason her ancestors had held their shields and stood steady as mountains had to have been to help others. So even if she danced with a sword, she could stand tall in front of her father so long as she inherited and carried out the spirit of protection.

***

“They aren’t back yet.”

“Could something really have happened?”

Some of their members had gone out to scout after mentioning how suspicious it was that the number of construction sites nearby had suddenly increased.

Now those people hadn’t returned.

The Shooting Club members had experienced the kidnapping of Roh Jun-Yeop just a few days ago and couldn’t ignore the situation. They immediately stopped training, grabbed their weapons, and left the shooting range.

Roh Jun-Yeop was in the lead.

“What type of bastards are touching us again? Do they think we’re easy targets? How are we easy targets, fuck!”

Roh Jun-Yeop looked like he would explode with rage unless he beat someone half to death. He seemed more upset about being ignored than concerned for the missing club members. However, the Shooting Club members knew that, until recently, Roh Jun-Yeop hadn’t cared at all how the other club members were treated or what they were doing.

He’d really changed a lot, so much so that even a third party could recognize it.

“How surprising. Roh Jun-Yeop, I didn’t expect you to be so proactive.”

"......!"

Roh Jun-Yeop and his group were leaving the building when they flinched and stopped walking.

Dozens of students stood around the shooting range, and all of them looked fierce. Not one of them looked like they had come with good intentions.

A boy standing in the center of the group stood out in particular. He had long, black hair that reached down to his butt, bronze skin, and sharp eyes. All together, he gave the impression of a wild horse.

It was Gu Suk-Jeong, a familiar figure to the Shooting Club... No, he was someone almost any South Korean citizen would recognize, not because he was the best player in Second Year Class A, nor because he was the grandson of an elder from the Guardian Guild—both were trivial. The reason for his nationwide fame was his Profession, Crusher.

Before Gu Suk-Jeong, the world had only known the Cusher Profession to appear alongside the Bloodline Skill of a Turkish duke. So the appearance of a South Korean Crusher specializing in hand-to-hand combat and wielding many AOE crowd-control skills had been news that stirred the nation.

“Gu Suk-Jeong, you fucking bastard. Why are you aiming at the Shooting Club?”

The Shooting Club was isolated from the rest of the school thanks to the number of construction sites that had popped up overnight. And now, uninvited guests appeared the moment they went looking for their missing members.

In this situation, it was natural to be suspicious.

Roh Jun-Yeop growled, but Gu Suk-Jeong just shrugged.

“You’re being paranoid. I don’t pay attention to things that have no value.”

“If you aren’t aiming for the Shooting Club, why the hell are all of you here?”

“We obtained information that our target is close to you guys.”

“Your target? Are you talking about Kang Jae-Hyeok?”

Roh Jun-Yeop’s expression hardened. Recently, he’d gained a lot of favorability toward Jae-Hyeok after realizing that he was actually becoming stronger while being tortured every day.

By now, it was no exaggeration to say that he saw Jae-Hyeok as a great benefactor. Thanks to him, he’d grown as a person, escaped from crises, and improved his skills—if Jae-Hyeok had been older, he would’ve wanted to call him Brother or even Teacher.

“And what if I am?” Gu Suk-Jeong didn’t try to hide it. He leaned against the monument showcasing the history of the Shooting Club and rubbed his ears.

Gu Suk-Jeong disdainful attitude was apparent. His expression screamed, What are you going to do about it?

“Then, I guess I’m going to have to kick your ass, huh?” Roh Jun-Yeop barely managed a smile as he trembled with anger.

He didn’t ask any more questions, immediately pulled out his purple revolver, and opened fire.

Tatatatang!

A second later, the members of the Shooting Club screamed.

“Ack! The monument!”

“The history of our club is disappearing!”

Despite his best attempts to curve the bullets at the last moment, dozens of shots hit the monument and turned it into a beehive. Gu Suk-Jeong had disappeared from where he’d been leaning on the monument a moment before.

“Fuck!”

Roh Jun-Yeop’s eyes tracked his movements. Gu Suk-Jeong was approaching at a speed close to that of a bullet, but Roh Jun-Yeop didn’t miss it. However, seeing and reacting were two completely different things.

Gu Suk-Jeong arrived before Roh Jun-Yeop and shattered the ground beneath him with a stomp of his foot that unleashed an earthquake.

Roh Jun-Yeop was swallowed by the collapsed ground and couldn’t move. Then Gu Suk-Jeong slapped his exposed head.

“You should be cheeky in moderation. Did you think we are on the same level just because we’re both in Class A?”

“Damn, shut up!”

Roh Jun-Yeop struggled to get out of the ground, but Gu Suk-Jeong stopped him by pressing on down on his head.

Before they knew it, all the members of the Shooting Club were pointing guns and arrows at Gu Suk-Jeong.

Unforgivable. Gu Suk-Jeong smiled, but his eyes were ruthless. “Ah, Jun-Yeop, I heard that your club’s ranking has been going up lately; you must’ve forgotten your place. Here, let me remind you.

“Pathetic things.”

Boooom!

Gu Suk-Jeong’s thighs swelled and he shot forward at a speed difficult to follow with the naked eye. His steps carved a trench, resembling the mark of a massive beast’s claw dragging across the earth.

Bam!

“Kuak!”

Baang!

“Aaack!”

Every time Gu Suk-Jeong appeared and disappeared, two or three members of the Shooting Club fell.

He used various charge techniques to maintain a tremendous level of speed, effortlessly narrowing and widening the distance and leaving the Shooting Club members struggling to counterattack.

Shit!

The Shooting Club members' faces darkened. The last time they felt this overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness was when they’d been mocked by that first-year monster, the National Treasure candidate Loren.

When Gu Suk-Jeong began using their comrades as shields, the Shooting Club members grew even more frustrated, and some of them began firing wildly whenever Gu Suk-Jeong was moving between targets.

“Ack! You son of a bitch!”

“Trample them!”

Gu Suk-Jeong’s subordinates were wounded by blind fire and joined the battle. They quickly scattered in all directions and took down the already disorganized Shooting Club members one by one.

However, there was one fact they overlooked.

Roh Jun-Yeop was the best ranged player in the Shooting Club, and his opponents had just given him space.

As soon as the members drew the aggro, Roh Jun-Yeop put away his gun, took out a bow, and gathered his mana.

[Scatter Stars.]

Countless lights filled the space around Roh Jun-Yeop—each a magic arrow—and their numbers continued to swell.

The huge gathering of mana shocked everyone present. It wasn’t just Gu Suk-Jeong, even the Shooting Club members had expressions of disbelief.

“You... What is this power?”

“It’s the power that will allow me to become the next Bow Saint, you fucker.”

Roh Jun-Yeop often boasted about becoming the Bow Saint one day, and his dream wasn’t unrealistic. At the very least, he was genuine in terms of talent.

However, he was young.

“Kuek...!”

Roh Jun-Yeop’s limbs trembled as the brilliant lights grew around him.

The colossal amount of mana strained his body to its limits, then beyond.

The power was more than Roh Jun-Yeop could control, and now that he had activated it, the Skill was draining his mana reserves dry.

“Hahat!”

Gu Suk-Jeong saw that Roh Jun-Yeop was on the verge of collapse and laughed with regained confidence. “Ridiculous. You’re using a power you can’t even control!”

Baaaaang!

Rolling Crusher.

Gu Suk-Jeong shot forward like lightning. Having used his ultimate move. He immediately became many times faster and more threatening than before.

Will I die?

Unable to complete his Scattered Stars, Roh Jun-Yeop’s heart sank as he imagined how he’d be torn apart by Gu Suk-Jeong, who approached while spinning like a drill.

Fortunately—

Baaaang!

A boy suddenly appeared and blocked Gu Suk-Jeong’s spinning body with a greatsword. His red hair whipped around wildly from the force of the collision.

It was the mad dog, Baek Do-Jin.

The Mad Dog was famous for being inferior among the second-year students. Gu Suk-Jeong was confused. How is he faster than me?

Despite Gu Suk-Jeong possessing many powerful charge techniques, Do-Jin arrived on the battlefield and interrupted his attack at a speed he couldn’t perceive.

“You... How?”

“How? This is how it should be.”

Flash Steps was by far the fastest movement Skill. If Do-Jin didn’t stand at the top in this field, who could?