The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess

024 – The Three Problematic but Strongest #2

024 – The Three Problematic but Strongest #2

Yoo Yeoreum is invincible.

Kidnapping him meant certain death.

In other words, Seo Ga-eul in the basement was clearly planning to use Yoo Yeoreum to kill me. But a man’s pride surged.

Who is Yoo Yeoreum?

If he’s human, he must have at least one weakness, right? So, I aimed for the moment when Yoo Yeoreum would be most off guard to confirm it.

Shuuung, Paaat-!

I launched my body, coiled to the limit like a spring, towards Yoo Yeoreum’s back.

“Namjin Kick!”

“Hey! What, what the hell!”

“Yeoreum! Watch out! That lunatic─.”

“Hieeek…!”

Everyone trembled as if they were startled, but my body was already like an arrow that couldn’t be turned back.

My “Leap” had reached the second grade, fully deployed.

No matter how fast Yoo Yeoreum was, he couldn’t dodge this sudden attack. I was determined to thoroughly identify his weakness when it happened.

Srrrr-.

In that fleeting moment, Yoo Yeoreum’s white eyes turned towards me, raising his arms to guard.

Reacting to my speed in this dark, murky sewer?

Zzeooong-!

When I finally collided with Yoo Yeoreum, I was shocked.

It felt like kicking an iron pillar.

At the same time, Yoo Yeoreum grabbed my outstretched leg and threw me to the ground, punching my chest as I lay in the filthy sewer.

Bang-!

It hurts.

So much that I couldn’t breathe.

“Just stay down. If you come at me again, it won’t end like this.”

“Yeoreum, are you okay?”

“What the hell is that crazy b*stard doing all of a sudden?”

“Anyway, the guys from Class D are full of problems…!”

“The monster in front of us is ours!”

Yoo Yeoreum and her team disappeared splashing into the distance, and I couldn’t move a finger. It felt like being hit by a train rather than a punch.

I realized from the recent sparring.

No matter how strong I am, I would need five lives to kidnap someone like her.

In other words, if I had five lives, it would be possible to kidnap Yoo Yeoreum.

“…That’s really amazing. Is she the leader of Class F? I didn’t expect our Namjin to be no match at all.”

“I’ve only heard about it, but seeing heat vision shoot from her eyes for the first time was truly surprising.”

“In my opinion… at that level, there’s no one among active explorers who can match her. I heard one of her concepts reached level 5. Oh, sorry, I talked too much….”

“Whatever it is, the door is open! My prediction was right, wasn’t it? How about it! My ‘misfortune’ that reached level 2! Hey! Han Namjin! What are you doing! Get up! We have to go too!”

These were the impressions of Geum Taeseong, Choi Changshik, Oh Deoksun, and Baek Yeoul in order. Maybe because there were so many people, even a single word echoed loudly in the underground waterway.

By the way, the number of our team members on ‘No Leftovers Day’ is exactly five, including me.

Five.

Five lives.

I am indeed a math genius!

Jump-!

With the excellent solution, my aching body miraculously stood up on its own.

“Let’s go too! We can’t let the monster be taken! Hahaha!”

“Hey! What’s wrong with you! Did you go crazy after getting hit?”

“Yeoul, that’s not correct. Our friend has always been a bit strange.”

# # #

“Idiot, let’s see you die.”

A single light bulb flickered from the ceiling in the basement.

Lying in the cold and damp place, Seo Gaeul thought of the boy who must be suffering.

Seo Gaeul presented him with the condition of ‘kidnapping Yoo Yeoreum’ as if it were a request. The boy seemed unaware of how foolish and stupid this condition was, but Seo Gaeul knew well that it meant ‘death.’

In other words, Seo Gaeul intended to use Yoo Yeoreum’s hand to kill the boy.

She felt that she had to tear the boy who locked her in this place and made her taste ‘humiliation’ to pieces to feel relieved.

“Try all you want. Can you really kidnap Yoo Yeoreum?”

Pfft-. Puhahahaha-.

The thought of a boy dying with a hole in his body because of Yoo Yeoreum made her laugh. How long had it been since she laughed without caring about others’ gazes?

But that laughter didn’t last long.

“Yoo Yeoreum….”

The moment she thought of that tanned face, Seo Gaeul’s expression turned grim.

If anyone had seen this expression, they would have taken a few steps back in fear. No one could have imagined that Seo Gaeul, the princess of the Seonam Group, could make such a face.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Seo Gaeul was the only one in this place.

Therefore, Seo Gaeul didn’t have to hide her inner self.

“b*tch.”

Seo Gaeul hated Yoo Yeoreum.

From the first time they met, she instinctively knew she couldn’t get along with that girl.

She hated how Yoo Yeoreum stood out more than herself and how she acted so leisurely as if she was above everything, pretending to be humble while flaunting her superiority.

Seo Gaeul couldn’t tolerate anyone being above her, so she hated Yoo Yeoreum, but she didn’t do anything about it, nor did she plan to.

From noble mtl dot com

To be precise, she couldn’t─that would be the right way to put it.

Seo Gaeul recalled the ‘duel’ she had with Yoo Yeoreum during a special class.

That day, Seo Gaeul experienced defeat for the first time and felt for the first time how hard the ground could be.

The humiliation of having all attention and focus stolen away.

She began to think that maybe she wasn’t the ‘protagonist’ of this world.

In that sense, Seo Gaeul felt a small sympathy for the boy named Han Namjin. If he felt a thorough ‘wall’ from Yoo Yeoreum, his spirit might break.

For adolescents who thought of themselves as the ‘protagonists’ of their lives, despair was more harmful than poison.

Therefore, kidnapping Yoo Yeoreum was absolutely impossible.

Seo Gaeul thought so and closed her eyes.

Growl-.

She was hungry.

The hungrier a person is, the more sensitive they become.

In such a state, Seo Gaeul heard a presence.

Ding dong-.

Voices could be heard.

It was the voice of a man in his forties.

Seo Ga-eul thought that the perfect opportunity for escape had come.

She opened her mouth wide─.

# # #

“Ah, damn, I feel like I got hit by a train. Is my chest okay? Huh? Is there a hole in it, like a donut?”

I took off my top and showed my chest to everyone. Baek Yeoul and Oh Deoksoon turned their heads away, embarrassed to see a man’s upper body, but Taesung diligently touched my chest.

Suk-suk, suk-suk-suk-.

He was really diligent in examining me.

As the ‘healer’ of our group, he had a great sense of responsibility.

“It doesn’t look like you’re hurt anywhere. Amazing. I thought at least a bone would be cracked.”

“The ground is wet. It’s easier to slip, so the punch didn’t have as much force.”

Until a while ago, I thought walking through this damp underground waterway was the worst, but those aspects actually helped.

Soon, Bbangdaengi laughed, hehehe-.

“Bad luck turned into good luck! So it’s thanks to me? Say it!”

Bbangdaengi’s personality changed after dyeing his hair pink. I seriously wondered if the pink dye had invaded his brain through his scalp and caused some kind of mutation.

Anyway. The important thing was that I got to taste Yu Yeoreum’s skills, even if just a fragment.

It was an overwhelming difference in skill.

If I were an ordinary kidnapper, I would have despaired here and shouted, “Yu Yeoreum kidnapping over! Story ends!” but I am a man who doesn’t know how to give up.

For the sake of ‘Malleable’.

To give Seo Ga-eul, who would doubtlessly believe I would fail, a satisfying blow─.

If I succeeded in actually kidnapping Yu Yeoreum and making her Seo Ga-eul’s roommate?

The twisted expression on Seo Ga-eul’s face would be fantastic.

Seeing that, I would be so happy that my tailbone might tingle and harden.

Even if that wasn’t the case, I felt like, “I can do this.” Because there was no ‘killing intent’ in Yu Yeoreum’s attacks.

“Guys, let’s beat Yoo Yeoreum’s team in this practice. We took a hit, so we need to pay them back, right?”

I thought that raising our team’s teamwork was the priority.

We need to at least get first place in this group project so that the five of us can become one and execute the ‘kidnapping operation.’

In other words, this group project could be seen as a rehearsal for the big event to come. Choi Chang-sik was impressed by my bold declaration.

“To think that you haven’t lost your fighting spirit even after battling a monster that shoots beams from its eyes. My friend, your indomitable spirit is the greatest among those I know. Honestly, I thought you would give up on this practice. “

Give up? Why would I do that?

If I had given up on various aspects of life, would I have been able to meet Seo Ga-eul in that shanty house that day? Would I have been able to get a second chance?

“Life is something no one knows until they’ve seen it through to the end. Until the nails are hammered into the coffin! So don’t be discouraged just because the wall is high.”

You really shouldn’t be discouraged.

You all have important things to do with me in the future.

First, it seemed best to make them forget their fear and terror of Yoo Yeoreum.

If we get first place in this practice, won’t they feel lighter, like “Yoo Yeoreum is no big deal!”?

With that feeling, we continued to enter the underground waterway following Yeoreum’s team. As we kept walking down the two-pronged path, a strange monster appeared in front of us instead of Yoo Yeoreum’s team.

“It’s a monster! Nam Jin-ah! It’s a monster!”

“It doesn’t look strong! But the points should still be 2 million!”

“…An amorphous monster… The concept of ‘droplets’? Or maybe….”

“How about it! The power of my spit for finding the way? Strong, right? Feels crazy, doesn’t it?”

It did feel crazy.

Does something like ‘fate’ really exist in this world?

━Gyuing.

Looking at the blue slime monster the size of a baseball, tears welled up in my eyes without me realizing it.

“Yingying….”

It was Yingying.

My friend Yingying! My emergency food! My family!

To think we would meet in a place like this! Just as I was reaching out in my excitement.

Ziiiiing-!

A strong heat ray flew from behind me and scorched Yingying.

━Krrr…!!!

In an instant, Yingying was severely injured. Half of its body melted from the intense heat.

Just as my hair was about to stand on end, Yeoreum’s team appeared and shouted.

“It’s a monster! Yeoreum! The other team will steal our points!”

“Ye, Yeoreum?”

“Yeoreum!”

“Yeoreum-noi!”

As I turned my head, Yu Yeoreum, whose eyes were glowing white, strode towards us.

His gaze was fixed on Yingying, who was writhing in pain on the ground.

“All monsters must be killed. Every single one.”

Yu Yeoreum muttered in a voice as cold as ice, contrary to his fiery name.

His eyes were filled with murderous intent, as if they were about to shoot death rays, looking like a drug addict gone mad.

Ziiing-.

Eventually, Yu Yeoreum’s heat ray was aimed at Yingying.

However, the blue slime Yingying did not evaporate from the heat ray. When I came to my senses, I was holding Yingying.

“What are you doing, Han Namjin? Are you not planning to kill that monster?”

Yu Yeoreum asked me.

His voice, usually cynical and indifferent, was now filled with a sharp determination.

“Namjin! What are you doing! We have to kill the monster before Yu Yeoreum does!”

“Two million points, they say!”

“Yeoreum! We’ll lose them!”

“Hurry, we have to take it down first!”

“We must defeat that monster…!”

Amidst the chaotic situation, I looked at Yingying in my arms.

━Gyuiiing….

What if I said, “This guy is a good monster, so we should spare him!”?

Everyone would look at me like I was a freak, with expressions of disbelief. Then they would surely snatch Yingying from my arms, trample him, and melt him with the heat ray.

Honestly, I didn’t want to see such a scene.

If everyone killed Yingying, I would never be able to like them again.

Here’s the problem.

When you don’t want to lose both your newly made friends and your long-time friend Yingying─.

─What is the most correct thing for the freak Han Namjin to do?

Answer.

“Why I’m called a ‘monster’, I’ll show you clearly from now on.”

I opened my mouth wide.

Soon, Kim Taesung realized my intention and was horrified.

“Wait, wait! Hey! Namjin!”

“Stop! What are you trying to do! You! Friend!”

I shoved Yingying’s plump body straight down my throat.

Gulp-.

For some reason, my emergency food Yingying tasted like grapes.

“Now, it’s done, right? The monster is… Ugh- Our ‘No Leftovers Day’, I, Han Namjin, have taken care of it. Now the points are ours. If you’re upset, try burning that proud Heat Vision on my stomach.”

“You…”

“Name: Yoo Yeoreum

Status: 《Admiration》 – Purely admiring your skill in defeating the monster in such an extraordinary way.”

“That, that crazy b*stard. He ate the monster!”

“Why are all the D-class guys like that?”

“Then what happens to the points…? Are they taken from us…?”

Bulge, bulge-.

I felt something rampaging in my stomach, but it was bearable.

Yingying, just hold on in my stomach for about 2 hours!