Chapter 111 – LV.Seven Martial Artist Gaeulbi – [Four]

The Dark Mage’s face twisted. Being treated as a junior must be quite bewildering for him.

“Who the hell does this little bitch think she is, calling me a junior and spouting nonsense…”

It made sense. Among Players, seniority is determined by the difference in their Levels. So, by calling him a junior just now, she was essentially saying she was stronger, just phrasing it differently.

“Tsk, what’s with the lack of manners among Players these days?”

At Seo Yun’s words, Han Siwoo looked at her as if she were ridiculous. His expression seemed to question why she was talking nonsense in such a serious situation, but Seo Yun pretended not to notice.

Seo Yun even clasped her hands behind her back and recited a phrase she’d once seen online.

“In my day, we weren’t like this, you know? Huh?”

It wasn’t just pointless cheekiness; it was a kind of social tactic. She needed to emphasize her superiority while allowing the other side to save face and laugh it off.

Another fight had to be avoided. Not because she thought they’d lose, but because they had already killed three people.

Seo Yun glanced at Gaeulbi.

For someone who had declared she would kill all the soldiers in the world, the girl’s body was still trembling from killing those three. She needed rest, even if just for a moment.

Fortunately, her intention seemed to work.

A stifled laugh briefly flickered across their faces before disappearing. The Dark Mage muttered, trying to maintain a stern expression.

“The world’s been like this for about four years, what are you talking about… So, what’s your Level?”

Well, with this face, it would probably be taken as amusing rather than annoying. From her perspective, it was disgusting, but maybe it looked cute.

Right now, that was preferable.

“Can’t you tell by looking at that Summon? Seems like you’re pretty low-level.”

When Seo Yun revealed she was Level 9, the Dark Mage groaned, looking at the Flame Spirit.

“Nine? Is that even possible?”

“It’s possible, so I achieved it, right?”

Fortunately, this Level, which had been high-ranking in Happy Village, seemed to carry weight here too. The Dark Mage’s voice shrank back.

“Well, whatever. Your Level is what it is…”

The Dark Mage looked down at the corpses sprawled at the entrance of the alley and changed the subject.

“These Military Grunts, did you kill them?”

Seo Yun sighed.

“That seems to be the case.”

“Can we take their guns and ammo?”

“Do you have things like toilet paper or canned food? If you give us some, we’ll let you take everything.”

“We have guns.”

“Want to try firing one shot at the ground? I can show you a Magic that stops bullets.”

At Seo Yun’s words, the Dark Mage raised one eyebrow.

“Are you a Mage?”

“Maybe.”

“If not a Mage… a Hearth Priest?”

“What if I am?”

The Dark Mage paused for a moment before speaking.

“If you want daily necessities, we can give them to you. But we didn’t bring them with us right now. It’s too far to bring the stuff here. If you follow us to our Camp…”

“Follow you? You said to follow you earlier too, why do you keep saying that?”

“There are many injured at the Camp. We’ve run out of medical supplies, and some look like they could die any moment…”

“So, you need my Healing Spell, is that it?”

“Yes. If you come and use your Spell, I’ll give you the daily necessities you want.”

Seo Yun exchanged a few words with Han Siwoo and then said.

“Following you is out of the question. Tell us the Camp’s location. We’ll find our way there later.”

“You will come, right? Then we’ll take the stuff now?”

“Go ahead.”

The Dark Mage said thank you and signaled to the riflemen.

The riflemen began collecting clothes and items from the soldiers’ corpses. They even stripped off the gas masks, revealing the faces that had been hidden until now.

While she was sick of seeing the gaunt faces of people these days, the faces of the soldiers who died here were even worse. The cold of a Gangwon-do winter had further withered their faces.

Before the world became like this, these were young adults dragged into the military right after starting their working lives. There were no youthful faces here that you could believe belonged to high school students. Only faces, wrinkled and shriveled like long-abandoned tangerine peels, twisted in agony.

After finally stripping the corpses bare, the Dark Mage and the riflemen left.

Only the three of them remained again. Six, if you counted the dead.

Gaeulbi stared openly at the corpses she had created.

Her body trembled slightly, and her breathing grew rough again. She seemed quite shocked.

Perhaps this girl had only spoken bravely and had never actually killed a soldier before. Or, even if she had killed before, she might have only shot them from afar with a Crossbow and this was the first time she had seen a corpse up close. This time, she had even beaten someone to death herself, so the sense of having committed murder would be much stronger.

“Eulbi? Step aside.”

At Seo Yun’s words, Gaeulbi hesitated and stepped back.

Seo Yun gestured toward the corpses. Following her guidance, the Flame Spirit approached the three bodies.

As the Flame Spirit wrapped its thick arms around the corpses, they instantly burned, leaving only ash and bone. They also dragged out the Two-and-a-Half-Ton Truck’s corpse and burned it the same way, completing the funeral and corpse disposal.

The three of them walked the road again. This time, they walked closer to the buildings to better avoid people’s eyes.

While moving in silence, Gaeulbi spoke up.

“Seo Yun?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t misunderstand, just listen. I’m absolutely not trying to blame you. Like I said before, I’m incredibly grateful to you just for finding out about your aunt’s whereabouts…”

Seo Yun sighed inwardly. The long preamble suggested she was about to say something unpleasant.

“I won’t misunderstand, so tell me. What do you want to say?”

And then Gaeulbi said.

“The soldiers who attacked us… do you think it was those guys from earlier?”

“Those guys from earlier?”

“The six people who said they spent a night in the same building as us. I’m wondering if they told other soldiers about us…?”

“Why do you think that?”

“We were attacked by soldiers less than an hour after we set out, right? It’s too much of a coincidence. Unless someone informed them that a precious Hearth Priest had appeared…”

“But those people warned me to be careful of other Dawn Corps soldiers.”

“Still, they tried to persuade you, Seo Yun, saying they needed a Hearth Priest at their place, right? Even though they let us go peacefully at first, I’m suspicious that they might have changed their minds later.”

Seo Yun groaned inwardly. Indeed, for something a Chimpanzee thought up, it was a plausible suspicion.From the start, Seo Yun hadn’t completely dispelled the suspicious glances from those six men. Creating a long-lasting fire for them was an act half of kindness and half of calculation—it wasn’t merely a goodwill gesture but also an intention to make them leave that place later. That way, they could delay the moment those soldiers would join others and reveal their presence…

“That could be the case.”

When Seo Yun nodded, Gaeulbi’s face brightened.

“Right?”

“But it might not be. There’s no evidence, is there?”

“Of course there’s no evidence…”

“Still, I don’t particularly want to go back to interrogate or seek revenge. Do you want to do that?”

Gaeulbi shook her head.

“No, if you don’t want to, Seo Yun. But still…”

“Still, what?”

“In my view, those bastards are the culprits. All those who go around in groups calling themselves soldiers are like that.”

Her voice dripped with disgust, and it was understandable why she suddenly blurted out a bunch of unsolicited speculations.

From Seo Yun’s perspective, Gaeulbi was currently soothing her own feelings. It was clearly an effort to rationalize that her act of killing was justified, a process of reaffirming her hatred toward soldiers.

Seo Yun didn’t want to leave a seventeen-year-old girl to do that.

But she knew that preaching in this situation would likely be taken as criticism. She also knew that it might only hurt Gaeulbi’s feelings and push her further astray.

In fact, even before that, she doubted whether she had the right to preach in the first place. She wasn’t a teenage counselor or anything, and even if she had such a profession, she wouldn’t know the appropriate advice for this situation.

What on earth was she supposed to say? That even though the guys who kidnapped her aunt suddenly started shooting, she should have shown mercy? Anyway, Gaeulbi did her best to protect her own life and her teammates’ lives. Seo Yun didn’t like that she pursued and killed them as they fled, but…

Instead of saying this or that, Seo Yun made a different suggestion.

“Let’s rest for a while.”

“Already?”

The three of them sat down in an alley. Seo Yun rummaged through her Bag of Infinity and said,

“I brought cocoa too, you know?”

“Huh?”

“I’ll brew it, so drink up.”

“Okay…”

Gaeulbi, looking bewildered, accepted the cocoa Seo Yun brewed for her. Seo Yun poured another cup, hoping the sweet, warm drink would stop the troubling thoughts.

Drinking a cup herself, she organized her thoughts.

What mattered now wasn’t judging whether Gaeulbi did right or wrong. The most important thing was preventing that girl from destroying herself.

It was something she, as the adult, had to do.

“The cocoa was delicious. Thank you!”

After resting quite a while to compose themselves, the three headed toward the survivor camp mentioned by the Dark Mage.

It could have been a ploy to detain two pretty girls or to capture a precious Hearth Priest, but they had to accept that level of risk.

If they were to continue their life on the run, which could last who knows how long, they needed even a little more daily necessities. Also, to find Gaeulbi’s aunt, they needed more information.

They conducted a preliminary reconnaissance, however rough.

Since the party lacked a Rogue, the Martial Artist took on that role. Gaeulbi equipped the Bracelet of Haste, received a spell that amplified her Strength, went to scout the location, and returned to report.

“It doesn’t seem like a trap. There were definitely several people moving around who looked like injured folks…”

Trusting her words, they went to see for themselves. The camp was located in a mountain valley. It seemed like a place that might have been a rural village before.

Seo Yun cast all sorts of spells and entered the aforementioned camp. She revealed herself as imposingly as possible so they wouldn’t look down on them.

A man guarding the camp entrance pointed his gun at them, then quietly lowered it.

“Who are you…”

Seo Yun stepped forward.

“You said you needed a Priest?”

The man’s eyes widened.

“Ah, the one who was coming here?”

The man turned around and shouted with all his might to call the people in the camp.

“Hey, come here! The Priest has arrived!”

Thirty minutes later, Seo Yun received a welcome beyond what she had expected.

It was an enthusiastic welcome, the kind an ordinary person would rarely experience in their lifetime—something she had never experienced during her time as a firefighter, nor even while living in Happy Village.