“There.”

We found our target when my legs almost gave out. A giant octopus ran amok near the beach. Its black hump looked like a second head.

“I’m ready.”

Yoo Yeonha lowered her body into the thicket as Jin Hoseung and Hazuki took out their sword and axe respectively.

“Baby octopuses will pop out of its hump when we charge. When that happens, the two of you should fall back until I kill them all. Warriors need to save their magic power as much as possible. Black hump octopuses have high regeneration, so we need to remove its hump in a single blow…”

Yoo Yeonha continued explaining. Honestly, it was best to leave the baby octopuses to me. A handgun had a high base power, so it could kill any number of baby octopuses in 1 blow. On the other hand, it would be quite difficult for me to damage the main body unless a critical hit occurred. However, Yoo Yeonha didn’t say anything to me, so I just stood there and refrained from yawning.

“Then let’s start.”

The moment her words fell, Jin Hoseung and Hazuki charged. Jin Hoseung let out a deafening roar after closing in.

“Kueeeeek!”

“Kyaaak!”

My ears throbbed, but it had the desired effect. The black hump octopus lowered its head after discovering us and pointed its cannon-shaped hump at us.

BOOM!

A thunderous noise erupted and dozens of creatures shot out. Mushy lumps rained down on us. Jin Hoseung and Hazuki stepped aside as Yoo Yeonha brandished her whip, but I held up my gun before she could do anything.

“Hey, you don’t have to…”

Yoo Yeonha tried to stop me, but I ignored her. Now was the only time I could shine. I activated bullet time. Immediately, the blood in my body began to boil. My vision grew clearer and the world slowed down. I could see and predict the trajectory of every raining octopus. Their one-dimensional movements made them easier targets than the mole crickets. I had 20 magic bullets loaded and just had to aim and pull the trigger. My additional luck would be icing on the cake.

The magic bullets silently cut through the air and left behind blue traces. One bullet per target. I emptied the clip in a second, but instantaneously reloaded. I shot another 20 bullets, then another 20. The world returned to normal after I fired 60 bullets nonstop. 

“… Huh?”

The creatures that covered the sun disappeared without a trace. The sudden change confused Yoo Yeonha and the others.

“C-Come on. Let’s go.” 

“Ah, right.” 

“Yeah!”

Yoo Yeonha snapped out of her daze and rebuked Hazuki and Jin Hoseung. Only then did the 2 warriors charge at the main body. Yoo Yeonha’s long whip shot out and grabbed onto its hump.

A mole cricket shot out from the ground the moment she crushed the hump. Kieeek — It cried and jumped towards Yoo Yeonha. I fired my last bullet and hit it on the mark. The mole cricket exploded and all its blood and mucus splashed on Yoo Yeonha. She quickly spread out her magic power before the goo covered her. The mucus slid down after hitting her barrier.

“Uk…”

However, she couldn’t block everything. Yoo Yeonha gave me a deathly glare, but she knew it wasn’t the time to complain. Her whip shot towards the octopus once again. It danced among the sword and axe against the tentacles.

***

[Mission accomplished. Time elapsed: 9 minutes 40 seconds.] 

Yoo Yeonha brilliantly severed 4 of the 8 tentacles without straying more than a foot away from me. She thoroughly fulfilled her duties of supporting the warriors and protecting the sharpshooter.

“…”

Yoo Yeonha closed her eyes and sighed after the battle ended. The mole cricket’s blood and mucus had dried around her ankles and snow-white collarbone. She took out a handkerchief and wiped it off. Then she turned towards me.

“Excuse me.”

Her eyes smiled, but she didn’t seem so friendly. I silently looked at her. The hidden anger in her eyes shone like blades. Yoo Yeonha was a fearsome woman. She hated getting dirty more than anything else.

“You didn’t need to bother. I can take care of a mole cricket just fine. And much more cleanly.”

“…”

“My clothes ended up dirty because of you.”

Two insensitive warriors suddenly approached.

“Whew, that was swift thanks to you. You killed all the baby octopuses, right? Guns have their advantages, huh.”

“That was amazing!”

Jin Hoseung and Hazuki were covered in blood and ink. Yoo Yeonha slowly stepped away, afraid of getting dirtier.

***

[Team 5 — Total time: 58 minutes 58 seconds. 16/100]

We placed 16th out of 100 teams. Yoo Yeonha didn’t seem too happy even though we placed high, but she didn’t mind too much since grades were based on individual performances filmed through the drones. Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak’s teams obviously took first and second place respectively. She was bitter that Chae Nayun’s team came in higher.

“Drones filmed everything. They’ll be sent to your smartwatches, so analyze why you were quick or slow, your team’s compatibility, and how you can improve for next time. It’ll be part of your grades.”

Kim Soohyuk gave a long-winded statement. Yoo Yeonha looked behind her. A dull-looking man yawned in a daze. It was entirely his fault they couldn’t reach the monster sooner. What should’ve taken 10 minutes ended up taking 50.

However, they also managed to finish 16th thanks to him. His bullets quickly killed every baby octopus in just 3 seconds. Yoo Yeonha had prepared to fight them for 15 minutes, so he contributed a great deal. Of course, she played the biggest role since she crushed the main body.

“…”

Yoo Yeonha held back her impulse to blame someone, but that only increased her envy towards Chae Nayun. She faced forward and glared at the back of Chae Nayun’s head. She would’ve smacked the back of that head if she could get away with it. Yoo Yeonha’s hands trembled towards Chae Nayun, but she only lightly tapped Chae Nayun’s shoulder instead of doing anything extreme.

“Nayun, how was it?”

“Hm? Ah, as you can see, 4th place. What a shame. I wanted to beat Shin Jonghak and Rachel. What about you?”

“I'm… 16th.”

“Oh? Wow, you got 16th with that gun-using sharpshooter?”

“We got the black hump octopus, so we just had to remove the hump.”

“You were the one who did it, right?”

Yoo Yeonha nodded with a bright smile.

“Yep.”

***

I worked out in the training room late at night. I felt like dying after I ran. It was necessary, so I focused on working out for 3 hours. Thankfully, the training equipment wasn’t too different from Earth’s, only that the weights were heavier. For example, the leg extension machine went from 15 kg to 500 kg.

“Ugh.”

I fumbled back to the dressing room like a zombie and collapsed on a seat. I took out my laptop and a fatigue recovery drink after catching my breath for 5 minutes. First, I checked today’s results on the laptop.

[Luck has been applied! Your accuracy has greatly increased because the enemy is low-ranked!] [All attacks have hit their mark! Your gift’s proficiency has increased by 20%!] [Perception has increased by 0.03.] [Luck has been applied! Your eyes and ears seem to work better!] [You have gained 27 SP.]

As expected, I got lucky with my accuracy during today’s combat training. I gained some SP too because I stood out to Yoo Yeonha.

[Your strength has increased by 0.02 after working out.] [Your stamina has increased by 0.02 after working out.] [Your vitality has increased by 0.02 after working out.] [Mana has mysteriously seeped into your torn muscle fibers! Your strength, stamina, and vitality have increased by 0.03!]

I received more stats from working out than I expected. Something like this would’ve been impossible on Earth. My enlightenment and luck played a huge role.

I wasn’t sure I could even get up tomorrow with sharp pains all over my body. Of course, I already had a solution in mind.

[Fatigue Recovery Drink] — Will restore your body from fatigue. Contains a tiny amount of temperate mana.

Current SP: 36

This was a fatigue recovery drink provided by Cube. I planned on modifying its effect. Of course, something that completely restored the body probably wouldn’t be possible. Even if I could, it would be a huge waste of SP. I could come up with a decent product with the right amount of restrictions. I added a line to the drink’s description.

— If Kim Hajin goes to sleep within 2 hours of use, he will slowly recover from physical fatigue over 8 hours.

I added 4 restrictions: only Kim Hajin, sleeping within 2 hours, physical fatigue only, and non-instantaneous recovery, but slowly over 8 hours.

[You can save the modified setting using 0.5 SP.]

The drink already had a similar effect, so it only required exactly what I gained from working out. I gulped down the drink after saving the modified effect.

Burp.

Now, I had to go back and sleep. Otherwise, the drink would be a waste.

“Agh, my joints.”

I staggered away like a zombie.

***

At the same time, Yoo Yeonha analyzed the day’s video from combat training. She could watch the battle from multiple angles with several drones filming each team.

“At least he’s quick.”

She became more curious the more she watched it. The black hump octopus fired a total of 59 babies, but the sharpshooter killed all of them before they could even touch the ground. Black hump octopuses usually reabsorbed the babies they shot out to recover their energy. Then they’d shoot more out from their hump. Yoo Yeonha had prepared for a drawn-out battle because of this annoying trait, but the actual fight ended in just 10 minutes.

“I don’t remember seeing him in Military Agent Academy.”

This sharpshooter grew stranger the more she thought about it. He had abnormally low stamina and had also suddenly changed his weapon. That was all Yoo Yeonha noted down about Kim Hajin. Then she suddenly received a message.

[What’s up?]

It came from Shin Jonghak. Yoo Yeonha tapped away on the hologram keyboard with a grin.

[Analyzing the video from today.] 

[Why are you doing that now?] 

[I’m going to inherit a guild in the future, so I have to look for promising talents.] 

[There are none in your team. They’re all trash.]

Yoo Yeonha snickered. He was right, but also arrogant. She would’ve found such behavior detestable from anyone other than Shin Jonghak, but the fact that he was Shin Jonghak turned it into chicness. It wasn’t logical, but the reason she liked Shin Jonghak was far from logical.

[How’s that gun-shooting guy?]

“Haha.”

So he was curious after all. He had a pretty cute side.

[He’s okay. He did a man’s worth of work. Exactly what you’d expect from rank 934.]

In 2.78 seconds. He shot 60 bullets and hit 59 in that short amount of time. Yoo Yeonha pulled with her index finger. Was it possible to pull the trigger 20 times in a second? Or did that handgun have an automatic firing function?

Ding Dong —

The bell rang in the middle of her thoughts.

[Ah, my room service is here.]

Yoo Yeonha hopped towards the door and opened it. Her neatly dressed butler waited in front. She was happy to see the butler her father picked out for her.

“Thank you, Sechan.”

The butler respectfully bowed. Yoo Yeonha took her food and came back to her seat.

[I’m back. Were you waiting?]

Yoo Yeonha lifted the dome-shaped lid off the elegant silver platter.

[No.]

She had ordered fast food. A hamburger with a side of french fries and a bottle of Coke, a meal only for commoners.

First, she munched on a fry.

[What did you order?]

Shin Jonghak asked. Yoo Yeonha casually replied.

[Just the usual. A little bit of foie gras entier.]