episode_0106

If criminals had ideas, they wouldn’t show up in situations like today where teachers are openly patrolling.

“Is something wrong?”

Even as we walked down the street, we felt that the teachers were keeping a close eye on us.

One teacher even asked Hash if he was okay.

Anyone can see me as suspicious.

“It’s okay! I know someone. It’s dangerous, so I came with you to take you there.”

“Oh really? Excuse me.”

“No. Good luck, teacher.”

Hash must have known that I was being suspected by the teachers, so he explained it quite clearly.

Still, I was secretly scared, and when I saw the hash clinging to my leg, I felt a fatherly love that I had never felt before.

For no reason, I patted the guy’s head once.

“What the heck!”

“Because it looks scary.”

“I’m not scared!”

Hash immediately made a cute protest by clenching his fist and hitting my abs.

Judging by the lack of force, it looks like they are being considerate even if they are angry.

‘What are they trying to do by kidnapping these kids?’

I don’t know what kind of people did this, but they won’t die a nice death.

Aren’t the knights and teachers dispatched by the government running around looking for them with red eyes?

“How can you get here? Unless you want to die, you can’t come here. I’m intentionally going to a crowded street, so don’t worry.”

“Heung.”

I wonder where the bold guy who said he would freeze a criminal if he shows up has gone, and he relaxes when I say that.

Rumors coming from the front lines are scary these days, and it’s sad that even the academy is in this situation.

When I was a mercenary living among commoners, I often thought that the world was in ruins, but after coming to Academy City and adjusting, I was under the illusion that the world was still worth living in.

As expected, past and present, this remains the same.

It was true that the world was in ruins.

“It’s an academy!”

Hash finally found the academy’s main entrance, and as soon as he saw it, he rushed out in relief.

Just when I was about to leave because I thought it was okay, he turned the hash lantern around and waved a wave and thanked me.

“Thanks for taking me here, mister! I’ll come back later when I go out!”

“Is that quite informal?”

He chuckled and nodded briefly before walking back to the general store.

And I was caught by drivers on the street.

“excuse me.”

“yes?”

I never thought something like this would happen until I dropped Hash off.

“Excuse me, but do you have anything to prove your identity?”

“…I run a general store right around here, so I didn’t bring it out. If you want to check, I can go to the store and have you check.”

I guess I seemed like a very suspicious person to the knights.

I decided not to curse since the child was kidnapped and I was trying to find it somehow.

In these times, if there was a suspicious person walking around the Academy, wouldn’t it be something you might touch at least once?

“Here you go.”

When I went to the general store and showed my merchant license, the driver stopped giving me suspicious looks.

“Has anything suspicious happened around you?”

“It hasn’t happened so far, but if anything suspicious happens, I will report it right away.”

“Thanks for your cooperation.”

I exchanged proper greetings with the polite driver, who was suspicious of me but was not rude until he confirmed my identity.

It was only after the driver returned that silence finally came to the general store.

“Are you going to be alone for a while again?”

A ban on going out was imposed at the Academy for a while, and even now that the ban has been lifted, a city-wide lockdown has been imposed, so the number of children going to and from the general store has stopped.

I know it’s nothing strange since it’s exam time, but…

‘I feel a bit lonely because I’m not around.’

It was such an amazing feeling.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Kwaang!!

I was taking a sweet nap in a general store when I suddenly woke up startled by a noise.

“what?”

I was confused because I couldn’t understand the situation, but then realized it was the sound of the door opening and sighed.

For a moment, I wondered if the ‘suspicious thing’ the driver had asked about had happened, but it wasn’t anything special.

“mister!!!!!!!!!!!”

“A long time.”

The customer who entered the general store was none other than Shine.

I was waving goodbye to a guy I hadn’t seen in a while, but somehow his face was so red with excitement.

“Mister! Arianne, what is that?”

Shine’s actions of suddenly mentioning Ariando left me blank for a while before speaking.

“Huh? Ariando? Why him?”

“I mean weapons. Weapons!!”

“Ah~ ah~ I wonder what you were talking about. Why is that? Can you do it too?”

“Of course we have to do it!!! They say our baby can shine too, so how can we not do that? If you had told me earlier, I would have done it first.”

Shine’s eyes sparkle.

I guess I came here after seeing Ariando’s strengthened weapon, but I had no idea that I would unintentionally do business through word of mouth like this.

“I was thinking about how many rivers I could reach.”

“I heard it would cost a lot of money, right? But even Ariando didn’t know exactly how much it would cost. So I brought roughly the amount, but will I be able to do this until it runs out?”

I nodded after seeing what Shine had brought.

“Isn’t this enough to make it to the top 10?”

After playing the battle of destruction with Ariando last time, I had an intuition that I could roughly strengthen it at this level.

Even if he couldn’t get 300 million won right away like Ariando, he got enough money to get by in the top 10.

“Top 10? I heard Ariando is top 11? His weapon is shining brightly. It’s purple. So, I’m going to get to top 12 too.”

“ah.”

They make it sound like there will be 11 lectures, but why do they conclude that it will be 12 lectures?

“Didn’t you hear the details from Ariando?”

He lost the day trying to make it to the round of 12, and eventually gave up and went back in the round of 11.

I thought that if I had heard that, I wouldn’t have rashly decided to do the round of 12.

“I heard about it. That means we have to go even further to the round of 12.”

“…….”

I can’t bear to say no to Shine’s words.

That feeling that if my friend goes to class 9, I have to take class 10.

How can you say you don’t know that?

If Ariando made it to the round of 11, the proper attitude of a friend is for Shine to challenge to the round of 12.

But was it because it reminded me of the hardships I had under the zelkova tree a few days ago?

Negative words suddenly came out.

“It’s hard to get to the round of 12. It takes a long time.”

“Maybe that’s not enough…?”

“If your goal is to make it to the top 12 in the first place, you need to have unlimited money.”

Like Ariando, you have to be prepared to put aside 300 million won and do it until it is all used up.

The items that Shine brought today were not cheap, but considering that they were going to be eliminated in the round of 12, there was a feeling that they were lacking a lot.

“Uhm… then there’s nothing we can do. Please continue as long as you can.”

“Are you satisfied and have no intention of quitting halfway?”

When asked if he would not stop until the round of 11 even if he reached the round of 11, Shine nodded.

“Yes, I won’t stop.”

Like Ariando’s Round of 12 Doomsday, Shine’s Round of 12 Doomsday.

Given that he does not have much money in his pocket, it is expected that Shine’s strengthening will be more difficult than that of Ariando.

For the first time in a long time, Shine’s unique equipment fell from his hands for strengthening.

“Please take care of my child.”

Well, I’m not even a kindergarten teacher.

“Do you want to just do it here, or do you want to go wherever you want?”

“Ah! I heard that. You said you would go to a place where you feel the feeling and do it?”

“uh.”

“Then I’ll go to the park. The park where I first met you.”

Since he met me there, saw my unique equipment, and even purchased a weapon, it seems to have a very deep meaning.

I willingly followed Shine’s wishes.

“Where should we do it in the park? Would the bench over there be okay?”

I came to the park after a long time and saw people taking a walk, perhaps because it was daytime.

“No, no. If you’ve come all the way to the park, you should go to a really safe place.”

Shine had heard Ariando talk about it quite a bit, so he had a vague idea of the importance of ‘place.’

He specified the location meticulously.

It led me to the place where we had a secret(?) meeting in the park.

“Here! Please do it here.”

“Hmm.”

“There’s a bench here. I think you can do it here.”

Because the previous meeting had been conducted so secretly, this place was unusually deserted.

Perhaps because of the unusually thick bushes around the bench, it was well hidden from people.

“Okay, then shall we begin?”

Sit on the bench, open the locker, and place the weapon in the square compartment.

“Oh oh.”

Shine’s eyes widened as the weapon disappeared before his eyes.

I applied my craftsmanship and pressed the hammer with all my might.

Kaaang~!!

The sound of the hammer rang out brightly, as if celebrating the future of Shine’s unique equipment.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

As Shine said, Ariando’s level 11 weapon was engulfed in a brilliant purple light, making it, in a word, a ‘cool’ weapon.

It is natural for highly enhanced weapons to have effects.

In order to achieve an effect that differentiates it from others, hundreds or thousands of dollars are spent on strengthening it.

‘Performance is performance, but coldness is absolutely unbearable.’

It’s good to further strengthen the weapons I cherish, but the relative feeling of deprivation from the effect was quite fatal.

In that respect, Shine…

“Let’s stop. This isn’t working in the round of 12.”

“I don’t want to. Keep going.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have any more money to spare.”

“I’ll do it. I just need to get more money. Even if I keep failing and end up below the top 11, I’ll still try.”

Ariando’s case was unlucky enough to make you think it was easy.

How many times have you tried to build it up, stitch by stitch, only to have it fall apart?

I’m getting tired of clicking and clicking.

‘You have to go up a bit for it to be fun to press.’

Even though I clicked a lot, I couldn’t even watch the 9th round due to some kind of magic.

Then, suddenly, as if something had opened my blood, I ran directly from the quarterfinals to the 11th round.

Now all that’s left is the round of 12…

‘If this fails, there is no answer. There isn’t much money left.’

Anyone can see that there is a cliff ahead, but I don’t understand why they are saying they are going to jump off it.

As it was a really difficult round of 11, I hoped Shine would make the right choice.

So I asked again, but Shine’s thoughts were very firm.

When the value of the reinforcement brought by Shine was sold to the store, 16 million won came out.

Compared to Ariando’s 300 million won, 16 million won was too small.

‘Number 10 with the money I have left? No, I can spin it about 9 times.’

Only 9 opportunities left.

Looking at Ariando’s case, he reached the round of 11 quite cost-effectively.

However, even Ariando, who had invested so much money, had no choice but to kneel before the majesty of the round of 12.

However, it is frustrating to hear that Shine, who only has 9 left, says he will challenge for the round of 12.

“Why not just use the 11th round now, and later when you have money, try the 12th round?”

“I will trust you. It’s been a difficult climb, so I hope we get meaningful results.”

Even if I fail in the round of 11, make it to the round of 10, and fail to advance to the round of 8 or higher again, I must definitely try.

“Can’t you just not trust me? I don’t think I’ve ever trusted you very much.”

Where on earth does this belief come from?

I asked in disgust, but Shine shook his head.

“Level 12. Please do it.”

I could no longer refuse what I had decided to do.

I pressed the hammer-shaped reinforcement button.

Kkow!!!!!!!

Rumble, rumble!!!!

Flash!

Para la la la- bam bam bam!!

I met a miracle.

In the world of the game, it was a moment when the words ‘who will be good’ came to mind rather than the rich person.