-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Hermes' Shoes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Hermes' Shoes"
"Jinwoo oppa..."
Kim Seoyeon was trying to stop him from behind with a flustered expression, but even that was fake.
I knew the 'fluster' etched on her face wasn't because a man had stepped up.
It was fluster over the lie she herself had just spouted.
Honestly, it was ridiculous.
When do people usually badmouth their exes as 'stalkers' after a breakup that's not even amicable?
'She's dragging it down to the very last drop.'
Even the good memories were starting to rot. Looking back, I felt like I'd lived like an idiot.
And the guy who believed that crap wasn't right in the head either.
Birds of a feather. A match made in heaven.
"Excuse me. The more I listen, the more bullshit you're spouting."
That's when Kim Hana stepped in.
She shot to her feet, glaring daggers with both eyes.
The man, Jeong Jinwoo, smirked.
"And who the hell are you? Some paid girlfriend-for-hire?"
"What did you say?"
"How much did she pay you? Looking at your size, maybe 50? Getting 230 a month, you must've stretched for this? I'll double it, so know your place?"
Even the specific number 230.
Looks like Kim Seoyeon had spilled everything about me. Mostly the bad stuff, not the good.
Five years of memories were getting flushed down the toilet.
"...I booked this place myself, and since she helped me out, I'm treating her. Don't just run your mouth because you've got a hole in your face..."
"Four times? 200 should do it?"
Jeong Jinwoo pulled out his wallet and offered a wad of 50,000 won bills.
Kim Hana looked at him like rotten garbage, her face twisted in utter disgust.
"What kind of asshole is this?"
"This asshole?"
"Yeah, this asshole. Think money solves everything? How pathetic can you be? Where'd you shove your age to grow up this worthless?"
"...Is she nuts?"
Jeong Jinwoo's face hardened as he raised his hand.
A normal person would just feint, but Jeong Jinwoo swung his arm for real.
The moment Kim Hana instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.
Thwack!
I grabbed his wrist, and his eyebrows shot up.
"Ha, stepping up like you're some man."
"Let's take this outside."
"No need for that. Get on your knees and apologize first... Hng?!"
Crunch!
Jeong Jinwoo snapped to attention mid-sentence.
A pain like his bones were shattering surged through his wrist out of nowhere.
'What the—? Why's this bastard so strong?'
It wasn't normal grip strength.
How many people on Earth could even have this kind of power?
But as far as Jeong Jinwoo knew, Park Hyun-myeong was the type who'd never touched exercise.
Work, home, dates—otherwise holed up in his room playing games like a loser. No way he'd trained his grip professionally.
So, maybe?
'A player?'
Someone who'd synced using a Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule?
No, impossible. Syncing as a player turns you into your Pangeniar game character. But the Park Hyun-myeong in front of him was just plain old Park Hyun-myeong.
So he was born with this grip strength? That made even less sense.
"Feeling like talking outside now?"
"You little..."
Jeong Jinwoo shook his freed wrist, scowling.
Talk outside?
In your dreams.
'You picked the wrong guy.'
He could stomach a lot, but not losing to trash like this.
Park Hyun-myeong and he were leagues apart, different calibers. Bending even a little to a punk like this would be more humiliating than anything.
In that moment, waves of golden light began swirling around Jeong Jinwoo's body.
Jeong Jinwoo was a player.
Using the Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule, he could synchronize to reality.
Becoming a Pangeniar warrior granted transcendence that a thousand normals couldn't touch.
No matter how strong the grip, he was still just a normal. Beating a synced player? Impossible.
Jeong Jinwoo flashed a meaningful smile.
'I'll make him grovel and beg forgiveness.'
The thought of forcing him to his knees kept the smile plastered on.
The world had changed anyway.
Players would lead the future.
Already hailed as Dimension Warriors, even praised.
Who'd blame him for neutralizing one measly normal?
"W-What's that?"
"It's a Dimension Warrior!"
"Transformation? He's actually transforming?"
People buzzed at the sight of Jeong Jinwoo's changed form.
Blue hair. Ripped muscles. A true warrior gripping a spear.
Fewer than a hundred known Dimension Warriors in Korea right now. Jeong Jinwoo wasn't one, but the rare sight left everyone stunned.
A hero's emergence!
Jeong Jinwoo's shoulders swelled with pride.
"Kneel, you punk."
Jeong Jinwoo was relaxed. Waste of Golden Rule duration, sure, but a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Wipe Park Hyun-myeong from Kim Seoyeon's eyes for good.
But the smile didn't last.
Rumble!
'...Earthquake?'
The ground suddenly shook, cracks spiderwebbing the building.
And that wasn't all the weirdness.
"M-Monster!"
"Aaah!!"
Giant pill bugs.
About a meter long with razor teeth, bursting up from underground.
Monsters that shouldn't exist on Earth.
But familiar forms.
'Chidworms! Incursion?'
The erosion had restarted.
Jeong Jinwoo clenched his fist.
'Just level 2 trash.'
No matter how many level 2 pill bugs, they were still pill bugs.
Slow, low aggression.
In fact, the Chidworms had surfaced but weren't attacking humans.
But monsters terrified by mere presence.
People screamed and fled in panic.
"You... consider yourself lucky."
With erosion starting, Park Hyun-myeong was irrelevant.
Jeong Jinwoo seized the moment.
A golden opportunity to become a hero.
"Everyone! Don't worry! I'll—Jeong Jinwoo—protect you!"
How many had shot to stardom after the Giant Mantis attack?
No law saying he couldn't be a real hero.
Slash!
He slammed his spear into a Chidworm.
Its carapace split, guts exploding. Slime sprayed everywhere, but he didn't stop.
Four Chidworms inside the restaurant.
He dispatched them in seconds, then spun his spear into stance, scanning the room with a smug face.
Click! Click!
Everyone whipped out phones, snapping pics of Jeong Jinwoo.
'Perfect.'
He inwardly cheered.
Done. Once the videos uploaded, he'd be a star by tomorrow.
Imagining it brought a grin.
Rumble!
But the erosion and invasion weren't over.
Chidworms were crawling in from outside now.
Hordes of them surging in.
"These damn bugs..."
Numbers were high, but perfect.
A chance to show his heroism to the world.
How many more entrance-rushing Chidworms did he slay?
-...Who killed my children?
Something not a Chidworm entered.
Chid Mamba.
A monster with a fat human shape grafted onto Chidworm skin!
It appeared spewing poison mist, and Jeong Jinwoo's face froze instantly.
'Why's the main raid boss here?'
Giant Mantis was a field raid boss.
But Chid Mamba was another level.
Like Hydragon, it needed at least ten people. Actually higher tier than Hydragon.
"Ah..."
Jeong Jinwoo's body locked up.
Chidworm slime turned neurotoxin by Chid Mamba's skill, paralyzing him.
Chid Mamba glared at the dead Chidworms.
-My poor children. That human killed you innocents.
"Aah..."
Drip, drip, drip.
As Chid Mamba closed in, Jeong Jinwoo pissed himself in terror, urine running down his legs to the floor.
I'm dead. Stay still and I'm dead.
But his body wouldn't move. Chid Mamba's hand brushed his cheek. Trapped in poison mist, Jeong Jinwoo shuddered, eyes rolling back.
Then.
"I'll kill you all! You monster bastards!"
Hallucinations hit.
Jeong Jinwoo swung his spear at people.
"R-Run!"
"W-Why are you doing this all of a sudden!"
Panic. In Jeong Jinwoo's eyes, people looked like Chidworms.
Soon, his gaze locked on Kim Hana.
Terror flooded her eyes.
'Ah...'
Jeong Jinwoo was out of his mind.
She'd seen plenty of crazies, but this was top-tier.
Murder-lust in his eyes.
Her feet glued to the floor.
"Grr, grrrgh!"
Madness. A total lunatic.
Thud thud thud!
Gripping his spear, he charged at Kim Hana like a maniac.
"Die!"
Kim Hana squeezed her eyes shut.
And.
Crack!
Thud!
A sharp slice through something thick, and it was over.
Kim Hana opened her eyes.
Jeong Jinwoo stared in panic at his arms.
"Huh? What? Where're my arms? Why're they, why on the floor...?"
His arms were gone.
From the elbows, sliced clean like paper.
Only after a while did reality hit Jeong Jinwoo.
"M-My arms! Aaaagh! My arms!!"
He rolled on the floor, wailing in agony.
Someone had severed both his arms.
Who?
Jeong Jinwoo barely lifted his head.
There stood the man who'd cut them off.
Holding a massive greatsword, eyes like an emotionless abyss.
Looking down like at a bug.
Eye contact alone sent chills.
He was a destroyer.
Someone who'd massacred numbers beyond comparison to him.
"P-Please... spare... spare me."
Begging for life, the man turned and walked away.
As if he wasn't worth noticing.
Like he'd just cleaved a roadblock...
Insult upon insult.
But Jeong Jinwoo could do nothing.
Ssssh!
Golden Rule ended.
Transformation undone, back to normal human.
But his arms didn't return.
"Ah."
Realization dawned, despair filling Jeong Jinwoo's eyes.
A dream.
This had to be a dream.
Stepped up cockily, pissed himself, hallucinated and attacked people. Arms chopped off.
Could it get worse?
He'd thought he'd be a hero like the others by tomorrow.
Hope turned to despair in a flash.
Click!
Even now, people snapping photos, recording videos, live-streaming on SNS.
All his blunders captured there.
...Yeah. A dream. No way this is real.
Wake up and it'd be over.
But no matter how he shut and opened his eyes, reality stayed.
*
'Player.'
Jeong Jinwoo had used a Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule.
Proof he was a player.
[Lv. 4]
But the level was pathetic.
A player meant at least a year in Pangeniar.
Yet only level 4.
Like me, did he pick so many talents that EXP requirements exploded exponentially?
But watching him fight Chidworms, no.
'Game and reality differ. He chickened out on hunting.'
Stuck at level 4 from fear of death.
Not everyone starts with Iron-Blooded Lord's Heart like me. His level felt more realistic.
But weird.
I synced with Randolph and got pretty strong in reality too. Yet Jeong Jinwoo, a player, wasn't much beyond normal.
Am I the outlier? Or is he just weak?
Plenty of questions, but one certainty: Jeong Jinwoo was the world's biggest moron.
Slaughtering the sudden Chidworm swarm like it was great.
Hadn't even properly progressed the main quest.
'Class is a high-tier spear master category. Ranked in class acquisition for logout rights.'
Shame about the class.
He logged out after ranking in class acquisition main quest, then used the fragment.
'...Where Chidworms swarm in masses, Chid Mamba always lurks.'
Anyway, Chidworms aren't aggressive.
But don't kill them carelessly.
Do that, and Chid Mamba comes for revenge.
While everyone's eyes were on Jeong Jinwoo and Chid Mamba, I quietly slipped away, used a Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule in a deserted spot.
Then sliced off both arms as he lunged at Kim Hana with Michella's Sword.
-Ooh. A tasty-looking human.
[Lv. 6]
Main raid boss, stronger than Hydragon.
Chid Mamba eyed me, licking its lips.
My level was barely 3. Even summoning Hydragon wouldn't make it easy.
But I wasn't worried.
"You equipped 'Michella's Armor.'"
"You equipped 'Michella's Helmet.'"
"Set option 'Heavenly Dragon' activates!"
"You equipped 'Hermes' Shoes.'"
"Your stats are below the equip restriction."
"'Fairy Queen's Tear' greatly lowers the equip restriction on 'Hermes' Shoes.'"
"You can now use 'Swiftness.'"
I smiled contentedly at the rising messages.
'Glad I raided that secret auction house ahead of time.'