Terrence M. Iode. He was a stereotypical white American. His large size, muscular body, and the slanted hat he uses revealed his identity. Unlike me, who was covered with body armor all over, he was wearing nothing but a T-shirt, letting his muscles clearly visible.
I know that thereâs some people who are proud of their muscles after working out a lot, but isnât looking like that a bit too dangerous in an apocalypse like this?
Terrence walked over to Paige regardless of my concerns, making the freckled lady curled up.
âBaby, what are you doing here? Everyone is waiting.â
ââŠI donât want to go.â
âYou canât do that in community life. Thereâs a time when you have to do it even if you donât want to.â
Surely he didnât mean doing an orgy?
Paige glared at him while clenching her legs.
âI donât like it, I donât want it! I donât like the other uncles touching me!â
âLook at that temper⊠You are sexier now, Paige.â
As Terrence approached, she shook her head.
âI donât feel like doing it right now.â
âSo what? Thereâs no one here right now⊠meaning thereâs no one to stop me. Not even James with his shotgun can.â
She bit her lips at his smirk.
âDad should have shot you back then.â
âHahaha⊠Even if he did that, Iâd still be alive since Priest Ahn would have saved me.â
âThat man is a scammer.â
Terrence sighed at her reproach.
âThat was what people always said about the prophet. But heâs here to help us⊠isnât it true that we havenât lost a single person from our community thanks to him?â
âThatâs not because of the power of gods! Itâs just the power of the resurrection scroll! I know that there are people who are resurrected like them here in Korea sometimes.â
âDonât believe that nonsense, Paige.â
âAnd about that girl! I know sheâs a ghoul! How could you even have a thought of having sex with a monster like that?â
I could see Terrenceâs muscles stiffened at those words.
âWhere did you⊠hear that?â
âAt first you called me baby, then Paige, now itâs you? Fuck you, you idiot.â
âI didnât mean it that wayâŠâ
I have learned something from their conversation so far. Terrence was a useless idiot. Heâd been completely brainwashed by Ahn Geun-seok, leaving him no room to think for himself.
He finally grabbed Paigeâs knee and tried to force it apart. I hurriedly wrote a word on a piece of paper and showed it to her.
Paige glanced at me and slightly nodded her head. I quickly asked her to pretend to hug him and asked him to go through his pockets. After all, If he had a resurrection scroll, all the work I was about to do would be in vain.
Terrence smiled contentedly as Paigeâs face drew closer to him.
âYeah, sometimes itâs not bad to give up everything and just enjoy the flow.â
Terrence hurriedly took off her pants and poked her stick towards Paige. She accepted his kiss and rummaged through his pockets to find the scroll.
I blew the paralyzing stinger I had prepared in advance at that moment. Surprisingly, Terrence survived the poison. He just slowly turned around to where I was.
âI had a strange feeling from the beginning, but to think there was a mouse hiding thereâŠâ
Before he moved, I took off my cloak and opened the portal.
A silver wolfâs upper body came out of the portal and bit Terrenceâs leg.
Terrence groaned, but he did not let Paige go.
Paigeâs eyes widened when she belatedly laid her eyes on the big silver wolf. She must have been terrified to see a monstrous wolf coming out from the blue portal.
As Dingo pulled Terrence relentlessly, his large arms couldnât hold towards Paige any longer as he finally got dragged away by Dingo. I tried to give a soccer kick to his face, but to my surprise, he was able to grab my ankle.
âKuahahahahaha! Youâre the only one whose abilities are blocked, idiot.â
As he put strength in his hand, I felt a pain which I rarely felt.
This bastard is not affected by the battlefield!
Dingo growled and bit his leg harder, but he just tightened the grip on my ankle more.
âPain only fueled my will! Hahahaha, I bet you didnât know this!â
Isnât that a typical villainâs remark?
I put my hand into the portal and snapped it. A bolt popped out of the blue portal and pierced Terrenceâs side without mercy.
Even if you have the Pain Tolerance skill, surely you wouldnât be able to stand that kind of pain.
The grip on my ankle was released at that moment. I quickly groped the bottom of the portal to find the shotgun. The moment the gun was turned into him, Terrence laughed at me.
âEven if I die, I will come back to life! Priest Ahm will save me!â
âWill it be possible without this?â Paige interjected with a scroll in her hand. Instantly, Terrenceâs complexion turned grim.
Fire came out from the muzzle, slinging a round of ammo towards Terrence. After the ammo pierced his shoulders and head, the guy shook and blood burst from the gaping wound.
Paige bit her mouth all the way through the shocking scene without screaming. It seemed like being a cowgirl played a vital role in nurturing her strong mentality.
I lifted her up and put her on Dingoâs back.
âHold on to him so you donât fall. Dingo, run!â
It was about 500 meters to where Sangshin and James were. As long as they went away from the area, she wouldnât be affected by the Shackles of War debuff any longer.
Dingo, who was slightly smaller than a bull, smashed the door with force and ran out. Paige, who had been keeping her mouth shut when she saw a human being shot with a shotgun, finally screamed.
After making sure that they had gone away, I went to confirm the kill. The points had come in, but the stats and skills remained the same, proof that he got nothing to do with the Battle Royale battlefield. It is probably the effect of Ahn Geun-Seokâs meddling.
âThe bastard is a priest now? Heâs been working hard, huh?â
I ran into the opposite direction of where Dingo and Paige disappeared to.
And at that moment, the redneckâs hideout broke into commotion.
Dingo ran with Paige hanging on his back. Gunshots rang out all around them, but the clumsy firepower could not completely penetrate the fur of the adult silverwolf.
Even though there were bloodstains on his silver fur, Dingo didnât stop running. When a few rednecks blocked their way, Dingo simply jumped up above the human wall and landed on the roof of the building.
Leaving the flabbergasted rednecks, Dingo quickly left the hideout. After running for some more, he finally found the place that smelled like his masterâs friend.
The man would deny it, but Dingo definitely sniffed it. In other words, itâs the smell of his mouth.
Paige hugged his thick neck tightly.
âMy dear wolf, where are you going to take me?â
Even though it might sound like nothing but howl, it was pretty short and full of temper. In other words, Dingo was scolding the girl. What made it feasible for him to do something like that was because he had lived with the shelter members for quite some time, thus he had gotten used to their communication method.
When Paige shut her mouth, Dingo stepped on the window sill and ran to the roof of the building. There, James and Sangshin were waiting for him.
âPaige! My daughter!â
Sangshin scratched the back of his head while the father and daughter duo were having a reunion. Then, he shifted his gaze towards the people below.
âLook at those guys⊠They looked mad.â
âLetâs get out of here.â
As Sangshin gestured, the concrete shards flew up.
âIâll clean up those bastards first.â
As soon as he finished speaking, several rednecks came up to the roof with amazing movements. Sangshin remembered Soye had made that kind of move before.
Was it the Terrain Mastery unique skill?
The rednecks pointed the pipe guns at them, but Sangshin just yawned at it. When the rednecks pulled the trigger, a thin barrier formed around Sangshin.
Black smoke rose out of the muzzle, but the shield remained firm. At that moment, four long knives slid out from the bag on Sangshinâs back. The long knives, which took everyoneâs attention, spread like a fan and flew in a straight line towards the rednecks.
With the sound of the air being ripped, the rednecksâ clothes were torn here and there, and blood was splattered to the ground. As their joints were ripped, the rednecks screamed and collapsed. The four long knives continue moving like a swimming fish, and sometimes like a hail of bullets.
One of the rednecks, who came up late, had his whole body pierced by a long knife and instantly covered by his own blood. As they were about to fall to the street below, a shard of concrete flew towards them and supported their backs thanks to the gesture of Sangshin.
âIf you die now, I will become a murderer.â
Although heâs not as good as Seongho, Sangshin still knew a lot about the murderer system. After all, the live broadcast of the man who had made exploiting the system his hobby was his everyday lullaby.
As Sangshin released his telekinesis, the rednecks, together with the pieces of concrete holding them, fell to the ground.
After the dull sound, the surroundings became quiet. Sangshin then lifted a few concrete shards and supported himself and Dingo. After that, he said to James,
âWe are going to hunt some cows later, right?â
James couldnât answer right away since he was still shaken from the battle that had just taken place. He thought that Seongho was the only one who was strong, but the man in front of him also transcends his common sense.
âW-we will⊠But where did Mister Kang go?â
âGood. Now, we should get out of here. You donât need to worry about him.â
âIsnât he your comrade?â
âThatâs right, but I have to say that my standing is lower than him⊠Letâs just leave. Heâll do fine by himself.â To be honest, when Seongho starts to fight properly, Sansghin would become nothing but a burden. Sangshin was also quite strong compared to the average survivors, but his power was still far from enough to join the fight between stagnant water-level individuals.
âLetâs go before the annoying guys come.â The ones Sangshin talked about were the crying ghoul and Ahn Geun-seok.
Sangshin beckoned, and four concrete shards quickly moved them away.
I put on my cloak and wandered around the hideout. Thankfully, after running around, I found something interesting. It was a totem towering inside the mall. However, it was different from what I knew.
I tried to pull the totem from the ground, but I was caught up in an ominous sense of incongruity before doing it. I felt like something very bad was going to happen if I got closer.
âJust what are those bastards doing?â
As soon as I heard a sound from behind my back, I opened the portal and hid in the shelter. Ahn Geun-seok suddenly appeared and looked into the air with strange eyes.
âThis is your subspace, huh? I wanted to see what it looked like, what a pity.â
Ahn Geun-seok made a chair appear by shaping the floor before sitting down right in front of the portal.
It seemed like he knew a little bit about the portal.
I jolted down some words on a piece of paper and sent it to him.
The guy read it all and laughed.
âYou found me rude for standing in front of your door? Then what about you? You, who had come to my house uninvited, and had made a mess everywhere?.â
-Keep waiting there. Iâll do something else, something better than this.
âAre you going to have some fun inside? The portal wonât move, so Iâll wait here until you come out.â
Looked like he didnât just know a bit about the portal but a lot.
As a programmer, he might have looked at the Auction Houseâs comment log. For him, tampering with the system would be easy.
As I was keeping my silence, Ahn Geun-seok spoke to me.
âIsnât it frustrating to be inside? Letâs talk.â
The shelter members looked at me while they were working, but they soon turned away. It seemed like they knew I was doing something and decided to leave me to my own device.
Ahn Geun-seokâs voice was once again heard inside the portal.
âYou must have had a good look at her. How about it, Iâm willing to give her to you.â
-I have no need for a ghoul.
âIsnât she pretty? Our designers made her with her appearance as the top priority. Her current look was something that already went through several revisions. The designers had a hard time.â
The face of the ghoul girl was prettier than Da-jeong, Sooyeon, or even Soye. But I donât like doll-like girls. Itâs better to have someone who was a little bubbly and feral on some occasions.
(P/n sad Mikyung didnât even got mentioned)
As the silence grew longer, Ahn Geun-seok made an additional suggestion.
âIf her skin bothers you, we will get rid of them. You will have a doll that is absolutely loyal to you.â
-I donât need it, just take her for yourself.
âFufu, I knew you were going to say that. Unless youâre like us, thereâs no way youâll accept the offer.â
-Why do you keep asking me if you know?
Suddenly, several rednecks came and scattered around the portal. There was also the crying ghoul and a skinny man in a suit that I had never seen before. The suited man suddenly pulled out a notebook from his pocket and ripped out a page from it. Then a monster suddenly popped out of the air.
Ahn Geun-seok laughed in a low tone.
âThis is the power of our designer. As you can see, his ability is monster summoning. No matter what weapon you use, you wonât be able to kill them all.â
It seemed like heâs the reason why Hyun-woo couldnât find the Monster Lab.
This is bad⊠Rocket cannons and anti-tank mines wouldnât kill them until they explode. The latter might even kill me if I got completely caught up in the detonation.
But thereâs one thing Ahn Geun-suk didnât know. I pretended to be in trouble and sent a note.
Ahn Geun-seok smiled and stood behind the monster, Sniffles.
âHahaha⊠It seemed like the strongest stagnant water sometimes gets in a hurry too. But you can rest assured. Iâm not going to kill you.â
âTo be precise, I will not kill you and Da-jeong. I need high level people.â
Why are you suddenly involving Da-jeong?
I mean, Seokhyun is also quite high-level, Geom-in too.
-If you tell us your purpose, we can cooperate.
He and the designer snorted.
âAre you taking us for fools? We know better that Seongho has no intention of doing that.â
I closed the portal and headed towards the second portal. This portal connected to the dormitory of the Korean shelter.
âYoohyeon, come here for a sec. I need your help.â
Yoohyeonâs paper airplane flew through the sky and scouted over the redneckâs hideout. It was flying so high in order not to get detected, in exchange, we could only see the rough shape of the people below.
âThey are still waiting there?â
Jokes on you, that portal isnât the only portal I have.