I wasn’t a philanthropist. I was actually the opposite and was similar to Lee Ji-Hye, who was smiling like an idiot in front of me.
When we walked in with our spear and sword, a few survivors nodded at us as if they were happy to see veteran warriors join them.
‘This wasn’t what I wanted…’
At this rate, I’m going to end up being the meat shield.
“I said guide in order to make it sound impressive, but there isn’t really much I can show you. Besides the fact that the males and females have separate rooms, there isn’t much to see here,” Lee Ji-Hye explained.
“We’re still thankful for this,” Park Deok-Gu commented.
“Thank you for your understanding. I was a bit worried…” she said.
“There’s no need to worry. We’re thankful that we were even invited here,” he told her.
“Hehe, you’re very nice. Would it be okay if I called you Deok-Gu oppa?” Lee Ji-Hye asked.
“Well… do as you please…” he answered.
“You’re reliable,” she complimented him.
The innocent Park Deok-Gu was kind of getting fooled by Lee Ji-Hye. Despite the fact that she was six years older than him, I guess he liked it when she called him Oppa.
“Is that alright for you, Mr. Ki-Young?” she asked me.
“I don’t care about titles, so do as you please,” I answered.
I noticed her not looking in Jung Ha-Yan’s general direction.
“Then I’ll call you Ki-Young oppa from now on. Hehe. Oh! Please come this way Ms. Ha-Yan. There aren't any particular rules about living here, but Hyun-Sung will explain the details about this place to the rest of you. As for you, Ms. Ha-Yan. I’ll be the one to explain the details to you, so you should just rest for today,” Lee Ji-Hye suggested.
“Oh… okay! M-Mr. Ki-Young, I’ll see you in a bit. Thank you for bringing me all the way here,” Jung Ha-Yan thanked me.
“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit,” I told her.
“Okay!” she responded energetically.
Jung Ha-Yan bowed her head before entering the women’s section with Lee Ji-Hye. I was sure she was being told of the various rules about this place, but I honestly wasn’t really interested in what they were doing.
I was more interested in what we should be doing moving forward.
“Hyung-nim, don’t you think this place is somewhat a good place to live?” Park Deok-Gu asked.
“It is, but…” I said, not finishing my sentence.
“Something wrong?” he asked curiously.
“It’s not a big problem, but,” I answered.
“But?”
“It’s nothing,” I said.
“How lame…” Park Deok-Gu commented.
I frowned a bit at the thought that I could become a meat shield that would protect this safe shelter, but after thinking about it more, I realized that it wasn’t a bad deal.
‘All I need to do is get what I need.’
There were so many things I could obtain from this place. After safely hunting with Kim Hyun-Sung, I could obtain a job through the hunt, and then I would bring Jung Ha-Yan to our side. I’m sure there would be a few problems along the way, but it was none of our concern.
As expected, Kim Hyun-Sung called for both Park Deok-Gu and me the next morning.
“Did you sleep well?” Kim Hyun-Sung asked.
“I did, thanks to you,” Park Deok-Gu responded briefly.
I hadn’t been able to sleep well when it was just Deok-Gu and me. Compared to when we had to take turns taking short naps, this was an amazing respite.
I had an idea about what Kim Hyun-Sung was going to talk about today so I spoke up first when I saw him hesitating a bit. “I don’t see a lot of people that can fight. The majority of them are either women or injured and if not those, then they just don’t have the will to fight,” I said.
“Yes. Unfortunately, that’s the case,” Kim Hyun-Sung agreed.
“How are you maintaining this place?” I asked.
I decided to be straightforward about it since it was something I had been curious about. After staying silent for a moment, Kim Hyun-Sung slowly opened his mouth.
“Honestly, the situation isn’t that great,” he started.
That was what I expected. I stroked my chin as I took over.
“You don’t have food and water and there aren’t enough people that can fight. And yet, you have 30 children you need to look after, maybe even more. It looks like that number is going to be increasing.”
“…”
“You may have been able to endure it up until now with the food and water that you obtained prior to this, but the supplies that you put together ran out faster than you thought and now it’s time for you to find a solution again. Am I right? Bringing supplies from the other starting points is impossible now. As of right now, taking care of the monsters that are in front of this building has been overwhelming, and yet, the number of deadweights that can’t fight has been steadily increasing,” I explained.
“They’re not deadweights,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
“Perhaps they’ll stop being deadweights later on, but they are deadweights right now,” I told him.
Kim Hyun-Sung remained quiet. It was probably because he somewhat agreed to what I said.
“To be honest, considering the current situation, I think leaving this place may not be such a bad idea,” I suggested.
“Are you going to leave hyung-nim?” Park Deok-Gu asked.
I spoke as I shook my head.
“I’m not, but all I’m saying is that staying here won’t be beneficial for us,” I told him.
“Oh…”
“Mr. Hyun-Sung, I can’t say that Park Deok-Gu and I are amazing people. While he may be helpful, I may not be. The only thing that I did was stand by while holding my spear,” I explained to him.
“...”
“However, we can still fight together and be your strength,” I said.
“Thank you,” Kim Hyun-Sung said.
He pretended like nothing was wrong, but I was sure he was having a hard time. Not only was he exhausted physically and mentally, but he was probably at his limits. I’m sure he was really glad when Park Deok-Gu and I appeared.
“I’m not a philanthropist,” I said bluntly.
“Oh…” was all Kim Hyun-Sung said.
“I have a basic idea of what you’re thinking about, Mr. Hyun-Sung. I’m sure you want everyone to survive so that we can all return. I also agree and understand, but I’m different from you. I can’t sacrifice myself for other people and I don’t really think about returning with everyone. I have nothing to say if you tell me that I’m being a bit selfish but…” I explained to him.
“No, I understand. I’m sure there’s something that you want,” he told me.
He was easier to talk to than I thought. I had been worried that he would say it wasn’t right and then he would draw his sword against me. But seeing how he responded, I was rather grateful to him.
“Then I’ll tell you. First is having ownership to a portion of the supplies that we find from now on,” I started.
He nodded slightly. I guess this didn’t really matter to him.
“And…”
“...”
“We would like to take part in your future plans,” I said.
Kim Hyun-Sung’s face stiffened slightly, then looked at us with a strange expression. He looked a bit surprised, but he gradually gave a faint smile.
“I guess you knew,” he said.
“At the starting point, the strange woman gave us two choices. Attack and survive. I personally think that the latter is impossible, no, it may be possible if a few people possessed a large number of supplies. However, I don’t recall hearing exactly how long we were supposed to survive for,” I explained.
“...”
“If we run into a situation where our second task was setting a goal, then gathering survivors isn’t the best thing to do. If we don’t get eaten by the monsters, we’ll end up dying from starvation. Anyone can make this deduction,” I told him.
Since I knew that he was a regressor, I just mixed and matched whatever deduction I could come up with. However, he seemed deeply impressed by me putting together the small pieces and coming up with a story. I could see him slightly bowing his head towards me. My assumptions were correct.
“I look forward to working with you,” he said.
“Me too…” I said.
As I grabbed Kim Hyun-Sung’s hand, I saw a sense of trust in his eyes.
He probably already knew that I wasn’t that strong, but in Kim Hyun-Sung’s head, he should have thought of me as a useful, competent person. For example, someone like a strategist or an administrator.
* * *
“Hyung-nim!” Park Deok-Gu called out.
“I know,” I told him.
Together with Kim Hyun-Sung, the hunt for monsters became easier. Not only that, but I was starting to thoroughly believe what I had seen in the status window through the Mind’s Eye.
“Deok-Gu,” I called out to him.
“I’m going,” he answered.
Seeing the way he wielded his sword, Deok-Gu definitely seemed familiar with it but it looked like he wanted to hide his skills because he would intentionally make mistakes sometimes. However, when one of us was in trouble, the reaction he showed didn’t belong to someone that was wielding a sword for the first time.
‘Good.’
While Park Deok-Gu was handling a few monsters, Kim Hyun-Sung and I took care of the monsters in our line of sight. Since the monsters were sensitive to sound, Park Deok-Gu would hit his shield using his sword in their direction, and while he was getting aggroed, we would quickly take care of the monsters.
I guess I wasn’t used to fighting because my spear was shaking. When I attacked a monster that was charging towards Park Deok-Gu, it fell with my spear stuck to it. During that time, Park Deok-Gu used his shield to hit it.
“Ha!”
“I think there’s a few more coming. I’ll block them for a little bit, so you two…”
“Got it. Deok-Gu, grab the supplies,” I said, interrupting Kim Hyun-Sung.
“That’s what I’ve been doing, hyung-nim. Did he take kendo or something while he was on Earth?” Park Deok-Gu asked me.
“I don’t know either. Maybe he did a similar sport or maybe it’s the effect of the job that he obtained,” I answered.
“He sure is fierce when fighting,” Park Deok-Gu commented.
Kim Hyun-Sung was using his high agility stats to dodge and attack. The movement looked easy but it was definitely not simple.
Park Deok-Gu finally knew why Kim Hyun-Sung was so far ahead of him, and it was because Kim Hyun-Sung revealed that he had a job. Park Deok-Gu seemed a bit anxious after knowing that. He was feeling stressed because he was in a situation where the job he had been waiting for seemed to never arrive.
“Ha!”
When I eventually killed the last one, Park Deok-Gu quietly nodded. He looked really surprised.
“This starting point has fewer monsters than I thought,” Park Deok-Gu commented.
“I’m sure he’s already cleaning up the area nearby,” I said.
“Are you talking about Kim Hyun-Sung?” Park Deok-Gu asked.
“Yeah. There’s a lot of supplies, but no survivors…no, if there was a survivor, then I’m sure all the supplies would’ve already run out,” I explained.
“I seriously didn’t think that the three of us would be able to obtain the supplies that were at the starting point,” he said.
“It’s all thanks to you,” I said, complimenting him.
“I didn’t do anything. It’s all on Kim Hyun-Sung’s,” he said.
“That’s not true. If it weren’t for you, it would’ve been difficult for us to even arrive here,” I told him.
They weren’t just empty words. We were able to come here because of Park Deok-Gu. No matter how efficient Kim Hyun-Sung was in taking down the monsters, it would be impossible for him to handle all monsters from every direction. He was still in the midst of development, and I was sure that having someone reliable to block the front lessened the burden that was on his shoulders.
Just then, I checked the status window to see if my stats increased.
“Oh? Hyung-nim,” Park Deok-Gu called out.
Park Deok-Gu’s voice sounded surprised and at the same time, I saw something pop out in my vision.
[A few jobs have opened. Please select the job that you think you’ll need.]
‘Great.’
It happened faster than I thought. I felt eager to clean up the area with Kim Hyun-Sung.
[Reading the available jobs.]
[Warrior - Average Rank]
[Archer - Average Rank]
[Mage - Average Rank]
[Leader - Average Rank]
I saw a job that I really wanted.
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