Ch.121Steadfast Backdoor+

# 121. Steadfast Back Door+

Arang carefully considered her class, ‘Blitz Ranger,’ and its skills.

[Class Skills 6]

– Human Expert (1)

– Ambush (2)

– Pinpoint Strike (2)

– Ranger’s Dash (2)

– Silent Steps (2)

– Ranger’s Observation (1)

It was a skill composition optimized for stealth, mobility, and high burst damage—perfect for surprise attacks and hit-and-run tactics.

This must be what Seyeon meant by “unni’s specialty.”

In the game, she had breezed through countless routes with infiltration and ambush tactics, and in dungeons or raids, it was her role to overcome or break through tricky gimmicks and patterns.

– “I mean, oppa will probably use Arang unni a lot for that kind of thing.”

Though the raid leader hadn’t mentioned it specifically since the first day, he had seen her in the game, so he must be expecting the same here.

‘Definitely. Definitely.’

To live up to those expectations, she needed to succeed in this quest that Yuri had called “the final tutorial for Arang unni.”

Arang continuously scanned for anything unusual with Ranger’s Observation while activating both Silent Steps and Ranger’s Dash simultaneously to approach quickly yet quietly. It was reassuring to know her two reliable dongsaengs were following behind, but at the same time, she wanted to be evaluated as someone who could at least pull her own weight, if not excel completely.

‘It’s been so long that I don’t really remember how I cleared this quest, but…’

Isn’t it just about taking them down properly?

Arang repeatedly drew and sheathed her dagger to calm her rising tension as she approached the bandits’ hideout, poorly concealed behind crude camouflage.

[Skill ‘Silent Steps’ has reached level 3.]

‘…A sudden level up? This is…’

Arang, already in stealth, pressed herself flat against the ground. Immediately after, she heard voices nearby.

“Fuck, security’s been tight lately, so business has been shit.”

“Yesterday’s target also had some fucking mercenaries. *Khaak* *Ptui*!”

‘Bandits!’

These roadside robbers, as their name translated to, were spitting phlegm and spewing vulgar curses that were disgusting just to hear!

“Looks like we’ll have to lay low for a while.”

“For a while? I don’t think we’ll make it through this week!”

“Tsk. Not many tasty ones pass through our territory anyway.”

“We’ve got to rob even the tasteless ones somehow.”

Arang focused on their conversation while gradually moving closer. Their words were so crude and filthy that she frowned, but she thought about how she would soon take care of them…

‘Take care of them?’

Suddenly, her body froze.

– Killing monsters and killing people are completely different things. Even if they’re bad people.

“Fuck, I need to relieve myself to feel better. Because of that fucking Gerik.”

“Oh, was it Gerik who crippled that girl’s legs?”

“I told him to handle her gently. Hah. Should’ve known when she finally agreed at the end.”

“Fucking hell. How could she not last even a month? A month! So what did you do?”

“Just handed her over to Gerik exclusively. Made sure he couldn’t touch anyone else we bring in.”

Arang’s body, which had frozen from fear of killing, now stiffened for a different reason.

Crippled legs.

Though the situation, context, and cause were completely different from her own, it struck directly at a complex that had been buried deep in her heart for a long time.

‘If people like them continue to live and breathe, won’t it just increase the suffering of innocent people?’

The light gradually disappeared from Arang’s metallic gray eyes. Beyond this being a quest, she had instantly become immersed in the situation itself.

Arang, who had been extremely cautious until now, began to move more boldly.

‘Two voices. Complaining near the hideout, and no one else around besides these two.’

There would be more of their comrades inside the hideout, but for now, there were only these two.

‘Surprise attack to kill one, subdue the other for information.’

It would have been easier to start by killing one with a crossbow, but then the remaining one would obviously scream and cause a commotion, so she gripped her dagger tightly and waited for the optimal timing.

“Fuck, let’s just call it a day and try again tomorrow.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. Ah, I’m going to take a leak.”

‘…Disgusting.’

Fortunately, one of them came near where Arang was hiding, lowered his pants, and began to urinate. It was disgusting to watch, but there couldn’t be a better opportunity for an attack.

‘Now.’

Arang circled around slightly, then instantly approached the bandit.

With [Human Expert] dealing additional damage against humanoids, [Ambush] adding damage when attacking from stealth or from the sides and rear, and [Pinpoint Strike] increasing critical hit chance and damage…

“…Gurgle.”

It was a one-hit kill.

The bandit died spitting bloody foam without even leaving a single word as a dying message, let alone a scream. Arang slowly lowered the body to the ground to prevent any noise as it fell.

At first, she considered hiding the corpse completely, but seeing how these worthless bandits were just loitering outside their hideout in pairs, they must have been acting as lookouts.

If his partner had gone to urinate and didn’t return for a long time, he would either worry or get angry, and then the remaining one would likely come here too. With this in mind, Arang deliberately left the corpse in plain sight.

And her intention worked perfectly.

“Ed, you bastard, are you manufacturing piss or something? How many minutes—”

“Quiet. Open your mouth and I’ll stab you.”

In a situation where his companion, who had been talking about robbing and abusing people just minutes ago, was now a corpse, and with a knife pointed at his own throat, few people could remain calm.

“Answer only yes or no to my questions.”

“Yes, yes.”

Stab-

“Nngh!”

“Answer only yes or no.”

“Yes!”

Tears streamed down the face of the remaining bandit, Jack. Partly because his stabbed shoulder hurt so much.

‘She stabs me just for answering twice? She’s completely insane!’

Even without seeing it, Ed must have been killed by this woman. Jack briefly considered screaming while pretending to answer, but…

“Make noise and you die first.”

“Yes!”

He immediately quieted down. In his experience, genuinely deranged people like this often let you live if you obediently followed their commands. They tended to be fixated only on their goals.

If she asked, he would even tell her when he last changed his underwear.

Or so he thought.

“How many people are inside?”

“Except for me—”

Stab-

“Nnnngh!!”

“Oh, a mistake. More or less than five people? Say yes for more, no for less.”

Jack’s vision went dark.

In more ways than one.

**

‘Besides these two, there are three more. Five in total, then.’

Bandits by nature couldn’t exist in large numbers. You couldn’t expect conscience or loyalty from such human trash, and there wouldn’t be anyone with extraordinary leadership either.

So five wasn’t a small number, and taking down two of them so easily was fortunate for Arang.

But entering the hideout was a different matter. Arang didn’t know the interior, and for them, it was home ground. Additionally, entering the hideout itself would alert them to an intruder’s presence…

‘Ah!’

Arang carefully examined the entrance to the hideout. There was no complex locking mechanism. But she remained cautious. The bandit had said they were inferior to him and that there were no traps, but she didn’t fully believe it. How could she trust that there were absolutely no traps?

Arang unlocked the mechanism as quietly as possible. Then she roughly dumped the corpse in front of the entrance, flung the door open, and quickly concealed herself.

“Ed? Or Jack?”

A voice called out softly from inside the hideout. But neither Ed nor Jack, now cold corpses, could answer, and the voice from inside grew louder.

“What’s going on? No one’s here but the door is—”

Thud-

The third bandit, whose name she didn’t know, became another corpse.

This time, Arang propped the third corpse against the opposite door at an angle, then forcefully closed and opened the door again.

“What the hell! Hey! Deron! Shit, where did that door-closing bastard go?”

So the third one was Deron.

“Deron, you little shit, where the hell— Huk! You fucking—”

I don’t care and don’t want to know, but the fifth one will tell me your name.

Not that it matters at all.

**

“Wow…”

“Chilling.”

Meanwhile, Seyeon and Yuri, who had been following Arang, couldn’t close their mouths in amazement at her performance.

They had planned to watch her handle one or two opponents—apart from monsters, this would be her first real combat and first kill—and then intervene immediately.

But… she not only killed two with ease but used tactics that would work on bandits to kill two more without any real strategy. They couldn’t help but admire her.

She extracted information well and didn’t let her guard down despite easily killing the first two. Moreover, she killed all four with almost no sound—if they hadn’t been paying close attention, they might have missed the moment of the kills.

Even more impressive was how Arang’s movements were both clean and fierce.

She seemed to act without a moment’s hesitation.

It would have been terrifying if she were an enemy—actually, it did send chills down their spines…

“Unni.”

“Yes.”

“At this point, should we just announce our retirement and focus on reaching level 20?”

“Right?”

Their cutest unni, Tae Arang, was on their side.

Seyeon and Yuri took comfort in that fact as they continued to follow Arang into the hideout.