The Player Who Eats Steel - Episode 8
8. leopard and buffalo - 3
=================
Ugh!
The leg kick was spot on. It was already the 8th time.
“Pfft······.”
In the end, Lee Won-seok lost his balance and stumbled..
At that very moment, Lee Hyun-wook rushed in..
He moved like water, and in the blink of an eye, he went behind Lee Won-seok, grabbed his waist, and threw him forward..
“Back Mount)!”
someone shouted.
That was a posture that involved sitting on the other person's waist and blocking the movement of the lower body. And if you held back like that, there was no fear of being caught by the ‘Barbarian’s’ grip..
To borrow Cheon Myeong-ho's analogy, a leopard was able to ride on the back of a rampaging buffalo, minimizing the risk of being hit by the buffalo's horns while aiming for its throat..
“Ugh!”
But the buffalo is not dead yet.
He tried to shake the leopard off by shaking his body as if he was kicking his hind legs..
however······.
“The hunt is already over.”
Myungho Cheon poured cold water on that scene with just one word..
“yes? Senior, where are you looking??”
Boss Kang Seong-chun, Oh Sang-guk, and Kwak Jin-cheol could not understand. Lee Won-seok, that barbarian was so strong that it looked like he could turn over and get up at any moment..
“Honestly, I still have to keep watching. I might have reversed the position and struck it in reverse..”
However, Cheon Myeong-ho calmly shook his head..
“That big guy looks like a real water buffalo. They only know how to run wild, but they don't know how to defend their vital points. On the other hand, that guy is watching his prey's vitals like a real leopard, preparing to sink his teeth into it..”
“If you are at a critical point······.”
The next moment, Lee Hyun-wook's arms moved like snakes and wrapped around Lee Won-seok's neck..
“100 million!”
Lee Won-seok was startled and moved as if he were convulsing, but his reaction was slow..
“Ugh!”
Rear naked choke, a technique that blocks blood flow to the brain by compressing the carotid artery with both arms, was applied properly..
“Look at that, the leopard finally bit the nape of the neck..”
“······ah?”
“It's an instant. Just as the teeth of a wild beast suffocate its prey,······.”
Lee Won-seok wriggled and tried to grab Lee Hyun-wook's arm, but his forearm was so strangely strong that he couldn't loosen his grip..
This was also due to ‘rigid body’..
Just strengthening your body increases your grip strength by almost three times. The two arms, which had turned into steel, were interlocked and closed like a lock..
Lee Hyun-wook tightened his ‘grip’ with all his might..
‘If I add my abilities to this, it will never be resolved..’
The good thing about being rigid was that you could use your ‘abilities’ on your body made of metal. Lee Hyun-wook increased his grip strength by concentrating 2,558g of force on his fingers, which turned into steel..
Gi-gi-geek!
There was a strange sound of metal scraping..
Buck! buck!
All Lee Won-seok could do was helpless resistance, scratching Lee Hyun-wook's clothes with his fingernails..
“Big, wow! kuhhh······.”
So 5 seconds, 6 seconds, 7 seconds... time passed.,
Lee Won-seok’s body sags.,
Within,
chin-
His thick arms fell helplessly to the floor..
“······ah!”
The movements of both players stopped at the same time..
“ha ha ha! Yeah, that's the real 'level' difference I was talking about..”
At the same time as Cheon Myung-ho's voice, Lee Hyun-wook stood up..
He wasn't even out of breath, and his face looked very calm, as if he had just relaxed for a moment. On the other hand, Wonseok Lee was stiff and could not move..
Those who fell and those who stood up······
So, let’s see the winners and losers at a glance,
“Crazy, ridiculous. What is this······.”
Kwak Jin-cheol could do nothing but shake his head and deny it..
I didn't want to believe it.
But what Lee Hyun-wook looks like right now is really······.
‘······leopard!’
I felt like a leopard hunting a buffalo twice my size and resting its front paws on it..
And as the leopard's eyes shifted to the onlookers,,
“······.”
silence,
The training ground became quiet as if it had become a library..
Jeopuk- Jeopuk-
As Lee Hyun-wook came down from the battle box, the crowd of onlookers split to left and right..
And at the end of it stood a man in combat uniform, Warrant Officer Cheon Myeong-ho of the Black Tiger Unit..
He looked at Lee Hyun-wook with a faint smile..
“Soldier, what is your name??”
Lee Hyun-wook looked at his face and checked the name tag on his combat uniform..
‘Warrant Officer Cheon Myeong-ho? why is this person here now?’
This person was also someone Lee Hyun-wook knew well..
‘He is the person who will soon recruit Sergeant Choi Young-jun and train him to be the best..’
I heard that he tried to trick Choi Young-jun into taking him to the Black Tiger unit..
This seemed to be his first visit, and he happened to be watching this duel training..
“My name is Corporal Lee Hyeon-wook of the 1st Company..”
Cheon Myeong-ho extended his hand to shake hands..
“I am Warrant Officer Cheon Myeong-ho, a raid tactical instructor for the Black Tiger Unit. The duel just now was quite impressive..”
Then he took out a business card from his inner pocket..
“If you are a corporal, it may be time to think about your career path after discharge. Are you interested in ‘Special Operations Raid’??”
Exclamations erupted from all directions..
“and······.”
“Crazy, it makes sense.?”
Special warfare raid refers to a special mission of high difficulty among missions dealing with monsters..
To put it simply, it was a special unit belonging to the AMT. It was known to the public as being responsible for assassinating boss monsters, infiltrating dungeons, and detonating bombs, but the detailed mission was a state secret..
“Have you received an offer to scout for the Black Tiger Unit? Right?”
“Well, it seems like that, but maybe you don’t know that it’s F-class? Honestly it makes sense?”
The onlookers all lamented as if they could not understand..
I just witnessed an unbelievable scene where the F-Class beats the D-Class... but even so, the F-Class, whom they considered to be far below them, receives a love call from the Black Tiger Unit. It's beyond unbelievable, and I want to believe it. It wasn't going to happen.
“Sorry, I'm a F-level player.”
Lee Hyun-wook also said the same thing and did not accept the business card. But Cheon Myeong-ho didn’t care and held out his business card..
“In my eyes, he looks like a warrior before being F-class..”
warrior (warrior)),
Lee Hyun-wook also knew well that the grandiose words that came out of Cheon Myeong-ho's mouth were not just lip service..
When selecting agents, the Black Tiger Unit places more importance on individual judgment and combat sense than player ability..
Even S-level players would be excluded from operations if they did not have teamwork..
‘Ironically, that's why the Black Tiger unit was strong.’
The uniqueness of conquering an A-level dungeon with a team of C-level players was the Black Tiger Unit..
In other words, as an organization that trains true ‘specialists’, fighting in the Black Tiger Unit means you are an elite warrior..
‘No matter how high the level of play, it is a place where you cannot enter even if you want to, a place where you can only belong if you are chosen... and it is also a place that leads the most meaningful operation in the history of AMT in Korea in the future..’
In other words, it was a place of honor..
But Lee Hyun-wook had no intention of staying in the military..
‘The military is inevitably closed..’
I couldn't stay in a closed place and fight against a group of villains. Since I couldn't move freely, I would be caught at a critical moment..
“······Corporal Lee Hyun-wook, do you plan to keep holding this??”
At Cheon Myeong-ho's urging, Lee Hyun-wook accepted the business card..
“Thank you for a good look. Let me think about it..”
Lee Hyun-wook saluted and passed him. And he walked out of the training ground as if he had no regrets..
Warrant Officer Myeong-ho Cheon looked behind him with a faint smile. He spoke regretfully..
“F grade, unlucky genius... perfect..”
As soon as Lee Hyun-wook disappeared, the onlookers began to murmur again..
And a line of gray smoke rose from between them. The origin of it was, of course, Kwak Jin-cheol's mouth..
He didn't just get one hit, he felt like he got at least a couple more..
“Oh Sergeant, how did this happen??”
“······.”
Oh Sang-guk had no answer to Kwak Jin-cheol's question..
“······Sergeant Oh Sang-guk?”
Oh Sang-guk was silent, looking at Lee Won-seok, who was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed..
To be precise, I saw Lee Won-seok's eyes, so scared that he was crying. He came to his senses, but he seemed to still not be able to tell what was going on, so he was making strange noises and shaking..
At that moment, I got goosebumps.
“Fuck······.”
If Oh Sang-guk had been there, would he have been able to win??
He swallowed dry saliva..
“Jincheol. I don't know either. What on earth happened, what on earth is this?······.”
He couldn't say anything at all.
Meanwhile, there were also members of the support squad and 5th squad nearby..
To be exact, it was Ahn Min-tae and Park Jun-mo..
“Hey Junmo, isn’t this a dream? yes?”
Ahn Min-tae was also mesmerized..
“I've been wondering if it was a dream since I started working early yesterday..”
“Wow, then that guy is really······.”
Ahn Min-tae was close to Lee Hyun-wook as he was a senior and successor in the squad, but honestly, he did not trust him very much..
Rather than a senior I could trust and follow on the battlefield, I thought of him as just a good older brother. That thought hasn't changed one bit over the past year..
“really, really······.”
However, I thought that such a person had become quite strange a few days ago, and this morning, out of nowhere, he said that he had made a huge contribution..
Even back then, I thought it was a coincidence..
But now I had no choice but to admit it.
“······Really, it's changed..”
A person changed overnight.
And that too, perfectly.
***
A gate occurs within the compound,
Duel training attended by Black Tiger unit executives,
Those two incidents that occurred in one day were enough to shake up this small society. And since the main character of the incident was the same person and even an F-rated player, the repercussions were significant..
“······Wed, thank you for your hard work..”
As Lee Hyun-wook was walking down the hallway, he felt that he was receiving more greetings than usual..
The soldier who just said hello and passed by was a private from the 2nd squad who would normally just pass by, but now he looked at me and lowered his head..
Besides that, the numerous stares and whispers, all of it was quite annoying..
‘It turned out to be bigger than I thought..’
I didn't intend to hide the fact that I had changed too much, but it would be a hassle if I made too much noise..
‘There's no need to hit the brakes though..’
Lee Hyun-wook thought that since things had already come to this, he needed to change everything around him faster. Gathering attention also meant that changes could be made more easily..
And that was when he entered the dormitory..
“Corporal Lee Hyun-wook.”
someone approached.
The successor was Ahn Min-tae..
Lee Hyun-wook's expression was quite different from when he asked about the reason immediately after the conflict with Kwak Jin-cheol. If back then I protested with a feeling of repulsion, now I felt a sense of awe..
“Let me ask you just one thing. What is the secret??”
“huh?”
“This is the secret to making such a difference overnight. Honestly I still can't believe it.”
At Ahn Min-tae's very serious question, the entire 5th squad looked at Lee Hyun-wook. It seemed like this was a question that everyone, not just Ahn Min-tae, was curious about..
‘You can't help but wonder. Since someone in the same situation has changed their situation, they will probably want to do the same..’
And it's actually possible.
Hyunwook Lee was able to tell me about the method..
“As you can see, you just need to exercise every day. Do 100 pull-ups a day and canter 3 km..”
“······.”
Everyone looked shocked at his answer. Some even looked like they had been deceived..
Lee Hyun-wook chuckled and continued speaking..
“So what I mean is, don't confine yourself to the artificial limitations of grades..”
“So are you saying that the grade has nothing to do with it now??”
Ahn Min-tae tilted his head and asked..
“Mintae Ahn, what did you see at the training ground today??”
“ah······.”
At those words, Ahn Min-tae nodded his head sharply as if he had been hit..
Even though I clearly saw the lowest grade, Grade F, defeating Grade D and causing it to faint... I ended up asking questions as if the grade was an absolute value..
“Everyone thinks that anyone in the 5th squad will lose no matter who they fight. Because the grade is low.”
5Squad, these are called support squads and are considered the weakest players in the company..
The reason was very simple.
Like Lee Hyun-wook or Park Jun-mo, who are F-rankers, they believe that ability growth is impossible, or even though it is a 'level growth characteristic', they are virtually excluded from battle due to the characteristic's low combat effectiveness and have little opportunity to level up.······.
“But think carefully. This level is not defined by this unknown game. It's just a label we put on ourselves..”
Ahn Min-tae nodded once again, looking into space as if he realized something..
“Come to think of it······.”
One day, the world suddenly turned into a ‘game’..
Humanity still does not know the reason and purpose of this transcendent game..
However, we are adapting to this unknown game and creating our own ‘rules’..
“······As Corporal Hyunwook Lee said, many things can be seen as nothing more than a kind of ‘social system’..”
In the first place, the game only grants random characteristics to the player and does not specify their qualitative level. In other words, ‘player class’ was a kind of ‘status system’ with rules artificially created by humans..
Although it is now accepted as a reasonable standard,,
‘A few years later, the rediscovery of Class F reveals a fatal blind spot in the status system..’
That's why Hyunwook Lee was opposed to the player rating system. Because he creates a kind of stigma..
“And Park Jun-mo, you.”
“Private, Park Jun-mo! yes please say!”
“I almost died this morning. know?”
“uh······.”
Park Jun-mo remembered. Goblin, his pathetic response, Lee Hyun-wook's great sword······.
“Oh, yes, that's right. If it weren't for Corporal Hyunwook Lee, I would······.”
And then he lowered his head helplessly..
“What's the secret? Just leave everything behind and be a support squad and don't neglect training or training. Let alone change overnight, I won't even be able to protect your lives..”
Ahn Min-tae nodded and agreed with those words, which were like a warning..
“······you're right. In addition to the fact that Sergeant Kim Ho-jong was evacuated, Corporal Park Ho-min, who was a division commander when I was a private, was killed in a kobold raid, so the casualty rate of the support squad, which is considered relatively safe, is higher than expected..”
‘Once you prove your ability, the weight of your words changes..’
If it had been just a few days ago, I might have scoffed and moved on, calling it serious bullshit..
But in fact, this was not simple advice. It was a kind of ‘hint’.
‘Because it's happening tomorrow evening.’
The reason Lee Hyun-wook gave such a heavy-handed speech was all because of that incident..
Tomorrow, the first 'operation' after the regression begins. The gate opens in the 1st Battalion's guard area and an emergency dispatch order is given..
During the operation, something serious happened in the rear, where the support squad was located, in a place where it was thought to be relatively safe..
‘There comes a moment when the support squad must also risk their lives in battle..’
But at that moment, the support squad wasn't ready..
In the end, five people are seriously injured and one person dies. Even Lee Hyun-wook suffered a 7cm tear in his thigh at that time..
‘Even if I'm here this time, someone could get seriously hurt..’
However, if only the squad members would come to their senses a little more.······
‘······Once again, we can turn this crisis into a tremendous opportunity..’
That was Lee Hyun-wook’s judgment, and the significance of this weighty speech..
At that moment, a message appeared before my eyes..
- Metal absorption is complete. (Mana Stone)
* Steerable metal weight increased. : 91g
* Mana total has increased. : 11
- Steerable Metal Weight: 3,099g
By absorbing the mana stones obtained from hunting goblins, the weight of the metal control increased considerably, and the total amount of mana also increased..
‘At this level, I can move 10 daggers at the same time..’
***
next morning,
As he heard from the company commander, Lee Hyun-wook visited the battalion armory to receive a ‘special award’ from the battalion commander..
“Loyalty, thank you for your hard work. I'm here to take over the item reward..”
“Oh, you're here! Our F-class hero, Corporal Lee Hyun-wook!”
Lieutenant Oh Jeong-tae, the man managing the unit's armory, greeted Lee Hyun-wook in a somewhat exaggerated voice..
“Wow, I heard what happened early in the morning! You're lucky, congratulations.!”
“Yes, I was pretty lucky.”
“Okay, I'm lucky that I didn't die, but I also happened to catch a goblin shaman, so that's awesome.!”
He chuckled as he said that. But he wasn't really laughing. He was truly happy.
‘Oh Jeong-tae, a D-level player like the poor neighborhood brother, will probably be discharged soon as if he were kicked out.······.’
Within AMT, players in these managerial or administrative positions were not treated very well. Since AMT is strictly focused on combat efficiency, it was probably a natural treatment..
These were the words of a man who was unable to fully utilize his potential even though he was an officer..
“Now, let's go pick a special reward.!”
Ku-ku-ku-ku-
When Oh Jeong-tae turned the lever on the wall, the inner floor began to open and cool air came out..
An underground facility with a 'barrier' device designed through magic engineering, it was the battalion armory, and hundreds of items were stored in a space of approximately 700 m²..
thud!
The steel door, which was tens of centimeters long, opened completely and made a heavy sound..
“I'm sorry, but I can't give you time to shop leisurely. You have 30 minutes to choose. Or the security system rings and the higher-ups call and peck at you..”
I didn't even need 30 minutes anyway. It's already been decided.
Just like the stigma of Class F, a weapon bound by the rules arbitrarily defined by humans was sleeping right here, and its hibernation period was supposed to be quite long..
Until a legendary figure named Choi Young-jun happened to hold the hilt of the sword..
But this time its wake-up time was scheduled to be a little earlier..
‘It's right there.’
A sword caught Lee Hyun-wook’s eyes..
It was the moment for the seasoned leopard to grow sharp claws..
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