Ch.2Victory Report 2

Victory.

The wyvern, which I thought was impossible to defeat, had been reduced to chunks of meat scattered across the sky.

In that shower of gore, Jisoo landed slowly on the ground.

“Noona…”

I hurried over to her.

Gyuseon was already standing beside her, praising her finishing blow.

It’s a happy occasion.

The noona I admire has once again surpassed herself.

But the more I experience these moments, the more strangely bitter I feel.

The stronger she becomes, the further away from me she seems to drift.

Imagining a future where she becomes a ranker and leaves me behind, with me just watching her go—I couldn’t bring myself to smile at the thought.

“Why the long face on such a good day?”

Hyunsu hyung asks while smoking a cigarette.

He stands idly beside me, gazing at Jisoo and Gyuseon together.

“Just… I don’t think I was much help this time either.”

Hyunsu glances at me, then flicks his cigarette ash onto the scattered meat below.

“You were actually decent today.”

Unexpected words come from his mouth.

His expression wasn’t the contemptuous one he usually showed me.

“Jisoo’s final strike just now. There was a faint holy attribute buff applied to it.”

“Holy attribute buff…?”

“What… you cast it and didn’t even know?”

“Not at all.”

Hyunsu placed his thick arm on my shoulder.

His forearm, which always felt heavy, seems quite bearable today.

“Think about it. The difference between the heal you gave Jisoo earlier and your past heals.”

Difference…

I rolled those three syllables around in my mouth, thinking hard.

What could have changed?

The manifestation point of my ability was the same.

“Oppa! Dohyun!”

Jisoo runs toward us with a beaming smile.

She stumbles over a chunk of meat while rushing over.

“That… clumsy girl.”

He shakes his head and flicks his finished cigarette to the ground.

“Did you both see it? How I sliced that huge dragon in one strike!”

“Yeah, we saw it. How does it feel to land the killing blow after we fought to exhaustion?”

“It feels amazing!”

She grins with a blood-spattered face.

“Congratulations, noona. You took down a Grade 7 monster without any connections. You’re going to be famous now.”

“Of course! Someone might have already uploaded it to YouTube.”

Jisoo tidied her face with her powered-off phone, preparing for potential broadcast appearances. But with the wyvern’s blood all over her face, she’d need a proper wash before any decent appearance.

“When you get famous, don’t pretend not to know me-.”

I smiled, trying my best to hide my bitter feelings.

“What are you talking about?”

She tilts her head to the side.

“Of course we’ll do the next raid together too!”

Jisoo shoves my shoulder playfully.

“That’s right, kid. We agreed to stay together at least until we take down a Grade 3 monster.”

Hyunsu answers with his arms crossed and a tired tone.

“Which means we’ll have to keep seeing your annoying face for a while longer.”

“Oppa, you don’t like it? Then leave. I should recruit a handsome warrior class with much better abilities instead.”

“What? Who’s been training you all this time? You should be paying me tuition fees!”

When Hyunsu hyung mentions money, Jisoo noona shudders.

While they laughed and chatted, I looked down at my hand that had performed a miracle.

I wonder if I’ve grown a little through today’s experience.

If I really have developed a buff skill as hyung said, I could laugh and joke around with ease like my teammates.

Yes, from now on, I won’t just wallow in frustration anymore.

“Come on, let’s go collect the loot. Let’s divide it up before Gyuseon steals it all.”

Jisoo rubs her palms together as she heads toward the wyvern’s corpse.

Hyunsu follows her, moving his heavy feet slowly.

“Hyung.”

“What?”

“I heard there’s a bar in Seoul called ‘Moment.'”

“Why are you suddenly talking about a bar?”

“They have a drink called ‘Victory Toast.’ It’s a commemorative drink they serve to hunters who succeed in raids.”

“All alcohol tastes the same anyway.”

“Still, I want to drink it with you. And with Gyuseon, and with noona too.”

Hyunsu stops in his tracks.

“If you want…”

He muttered in a low, quiet voice.

Then he shoves his hands in his pockets and heads back toward the wyvern’s carcass.

Left behind by my departing teammates, I tilt my head all the way back.

The sky, which had been ashen gray, is now perfectly clear without a single cloud.

Yes, my life is just beginning.

I close my eyes.

And take one deep breath.

“…”

My body already feels lighter, as if I’ve become a new person.

I should get going too…

I recall watching YouTube videos about what loot drops from wyverns.

If we refine its teeth, we could make excellent protective gear.

Maybe I’ll make wrist guards for noona, whose wrists always hurt from sword practice.

The rest could be used for Gyuseon’s arrowheads.

And knee guards for Hyunsu hyung.

“…”

While lost in these thoughts, I suddenly sense something off in the sky.

Someone seems to be standing on the steel frame of a collapsed building.

“Who is that…?”

Wondering if I was seeing things, I blinked several times.

In the moment I rubbed my eyes, the small silhouette had already disappeared from the steel frame.

“Did I imagine it…”

Well, today’s raid was the most difficult one we’ve faced so far, so I might just be tired.

I turned my gaze away and walked toward my teammates.

But as I approached, a strange red dot appeared in the space where my teammates were standing.

“What the…”

I frowned as I stared at the dot.

Is everyone so distracted by the loot that they can’t see it?

I stopped walking as I suddenly realized what the dot meant.

A chill ran down my spine as if all the blood in my body had drained to the floor.

“Hyung! Noona! Get away!”

When I shouted urgently, all my teammates turned to look at me.

A small rod fell from above onto them.

“No!”

An eerie scream emanated from the rod that had embedded itself near them.

As I reached out toward my teammates, a red wave spread from the rod.

Gyuseon and Hyunsu’s bodies began to liquefy.

Gyuseon’s form completely distorted, then disappeared, spraying blood in all directions.

Soon after, Hyunsu’s body couldn’t withstand the wave either and burst into blood, following Gyuseon.

Only Jisoo noona remained, enduring by stabbing her sword into the ground.

But even she was struggling, as black blood began to flow from her eyes and mouth.

“How…”

“Dohyun! Don’t come this way!”

She shouted to me while coughing up boiling blood.

What on earth is happening?

This… this has to be a dream, right?

It makes no sense otherwise.

I’ve never even heard of an ability like this!

“Wow, your teammate is impressive.”

A strange voice suddenly speaks beside me, though no one was there before.

The alien presence freezes me in place.

“Most D-rank people burst immediately, but how is she holding up?”

I somehow manage to turn my frozen eyeballs to look at the owner of the voice.

Black hair, red eyes.

A young woman wearing a navy blue hoodie and sweatpants.

Through her hood, I can see the number ’09’ tattooed on her neck.

I instinctively knew.

This woman must be the person who was standing on the steel frame earlier.

“Let’s see what happens if I increase the intensity.”

When she snaps her fingers, the screaming from the rod grows louder.

So loud that all the windows in the surrounding abandoned buildings shatter.

I need to move.

I need to stop this woman.

But my body won’t listen.

Just like when I faced the wyvern, my pathetic body is paralyzed with fear again.

I thought I had grown a little, but I was a fool.

While I stand frozen in helplessness, Jisoo’s body gradually collapses.

“By the way, aren’t you going to help her? I’ve been watching, and aren’t you close?”

The insane killer stares directly into my eyes as she asks.

Her red eyes lack focus, like those of an insect.

“Oh, you think there’s no point in trying because you can’t help anyway? That’s actually quite smart.”

The woman’s eyes narrow.

“Then just stay there like the insect you are and watch.”

She pulls out a small dagger from her sleeve.

The dagger is covered in an unpleasant purple liquid.

Steam rises from the ground each time a drop falls.

If noona gets hit by that, she’ll surely die.

I have to stop this somehow.

But why…

It’s pathetic that all a man can do is cry.

Hot tears roll down my lips.

When that salty taste touches my tongue, I suddenly remember what noona once told me.

“Humans weren’t originally meant to rely on skills anyway.”

I bit my tongue.

I bit and tore at it frantically, driving my teeth into the flesh.

A red chunk of meat falls to the ground.

With that, the blood rushes back through my body.

The fear that had gripped me finally dissipates.

My freed legs begin to run wildly.

Even if I charge at a ranker without a single attack skill, there’s nothing I can do.

But what does that matter?

With only the thought of saving noona, I grabbed the psycho ranker’s shoulder.

“What…”

When my hand touched her shoulder, a soft white light burst from my fingertips.

The light enveloped the ranker’s body.

“…”

The red-eyed woman froze in place as if her power had been cut off.

Thanks to that, the graviton bullet’s pressure on Jisoo noona also subsided.

What just happened…?

Does my skill include a stun ability?

Taking advantage of the opening, Jisoo rose to her feet again.

She drew her sword and spoke to me with a trembling voice.

“Well done… Dohyun…”

There wasn’t a hint of vitality in her dry voice.

“This… this…”

Noona’s lips quiver.

With blood streaming from her eyes, she points her sword at the ranker who killed our teammates.

But there was no anger in her eyes.

Jisoo showed me an expression I had never seen from her before.

Yet I know that expression well.

I probably know it better than anyone else in this world.

Because it’s an expression I often wore myself.

That face of resentment and injustice toward the whole world.

On that day, I learned for the first time that even she, with all her talent, could make such an expression.

The ruined city fills with the sound of her screams.

I still can’t forget that sound to this day.