Chapter 16. The Little Prince in the Ossuary (16)
# High Risk High Return (3), Paso Robles
Despite the arduous battle, the team’s 「Combat Fatigue」only saw an insignificant increase. It was a somewhat obvious result since Gyeoul had taken all the dangerous tasks by himself. However, Yura remained downcast throughout the course.
As the team reached 13th Street, Gyeoul stopped in front of a small store that didn’t have a sign.
“Let’s take a quick break here,” said Gyeoul as he pointed to the store.
“But… do we have time for that?” The young man asked in a low, cautious tone. It seemed like the favor revision had affected his attitude towards the boy.
“It should be okay, I think. Besides, there’s something I have to take care of real quick.”
“Right now…?”
Gyeoul then walked to the window and took a peek inside the store. The interior was too dark without the lights on, but he could still recognize some things.
“I see tables and chairs, a counter, a logo… Looks like it used to be a pizzeria.”
After confirming that no mutants were visible from outside the window, Gyeoul pushed the door open.
The jingling sound of a hanging doorbell broke the silence inside the store. Gyeoul quickly readied his rifle and looked around vigilantly. If mutants were hiding inside, the bell ring might’ve alerted them, and depending on their numbers, the events of the church might occur all over again. Thankfully though, after a whole minute passed, still nothing showed up. Only then did the boy relax and raise his hand to signal it was clear.
His three teammates walked into the store. Noticing that they were still anxious, the boy dragged a chair out, intentionally making a loud noise.
“Have a seat.”
Gyeoul grabbed the bag that the young man was carrying and began taking out the canned food. Then, he dusted off some forks and knives that were on the table and handed them to his three companions.
“You guys haven’t had a chance to eat your fill since everything started, have you? This is a little gift for coming with me. Go ahead and help yourselves, everyone.”
For the refugees, satiation was something they hadn’t felt for a very long time. Park Jinseok and Ahn Jaejoong exchanged glances.
“Then, the thing you said earlier…”
“Yup, this is it. I mean, going by the book, I’m not supposed to give you any extra rewards but… sometimes we need to deviate a bit from the rules, don’t you all think?”
Jaejoong laughed slyly. “Haha, our little boss sure knows his stuff! You’re right, we can’t go by the book all the time.”
The two men then dug right into the hams. On the other hand, Yura was sitting at the table, staring gloomily at the food. It seemed like she was still dispirited from her mistake at the church. Although her current condition wasn’t too bad, if it went on for too long, there was a chance she could end up with semi-permanent negative status effects such as Depression or Combat Trauma.
Gyeoul feigned a smile and pushed a can of food towards Yura and opened its lid.
“Go ahead and eat some. Otherwise, it’ll go to waste.”
“…I don’t deserve it.”
“Hmm…”
‘What would be the best thing to do in this kind of situation? What kind of expression should I make?’ After spending some time searching through his memory, the boy picked up a fork and scooped up a piece of meat submerged in an oily broth.
The meat used for canned food was usually cheap, but it was still a luxury for the refugees. And sure enough, the smell successfully caused Yura to take a big gulp. Her face turned red almost immediately.
“Th-that was just…”
“Say ah~”
“…”
“Come on, noona.”
“Noona?!”
Jaejoong and Jinseok went completely stiff whilst stuffing their mouths with food. Hearing the word ‘noona’ coming from someone who, just moments ago, had been slaughtering mutants, took them completely by surprise.
Yura fell into a panic, not knowing what to do, but Gyeoul’s hand didn’t leave the front of her mouth.
“Hap-“
“Good job.” The boy smiled silently when she finally took the bite.
Yura’s face was fully flushed, but he knew it was just from embarrassment and not romantic feelings.
When Gyeoul offered another bite, Yura waved her hand in shock. “I-I’ll eat on my own now!”
“This is your punishment for making me worry.”
“…”
“Look who’s having fun, huhu.” Jaejoong and Jinseok snickered at the two of them. Yura shot them an angry glance before resignedly biting off the piece of ham.
Even though his actions were out of his calculations, for some reason, he was beginning to find the whole situation rather fun, as her teary eyes and pouting lips looked somewhat cute. ‘But why?’
It took nearly half an hour for Yura to finish a can of ham. It might’ve been because she was a girl, or maybe because she hadn’t had a proper meal in months. In the meantime, the two guys had already finished five cans each.
“I did tell you to eat your fill, but you should stop eating before you get sick.”
“Oh, don’t worry about a thing, cap. You know I used to be a marine,” Jaejoong answered with an awkward laugh.
Gyeoul nodded as he put on a sour face. “If that’s what you say… Oh, you can have some more if you want, Yura. We still have some time to spare. Of course, you’ll get some anyway when we get there.”
Though he said that, they were actually getting a little tight on time. However, the boy didn’t bother sharing his concern with them. He knew it wouldn’t do any good to make them worry when they were already risking their lives.
After spending 40 more minutes at the store, they resumed their march. Route 101 was a highway that divided the whole city of Paso Robles from north to south, and 13th Street crossed the highway as an overpass. From over the iron railing, some mutants could be seen roaming the street down below.
As the team was overly alert, perhaps due to the unforeseen skirmish outside the church, they managed to spot the mutants in time and react accordingly. Of course, their course of action was completely up to Gyeoul.
“Looks like we’re almost there,” said Gyeoul, pointing at a yellow sign that read ‘SCHOOL XING’. And indeed, they found the school’s entrance after passing by a fallen truck that was obstructing their view.
As soon as they stood at the entrance, they found several mutants hanging around the open corridor. Strangely, all of them were positioned near a building’s entrance, as if distracted by something inside.
It would take Gyeoul less than a minute to get rid of them, but this time he didn’t step up. It was also important to make sure his teammates could fight. Gyeoul first called Yura to the front and ordered the rest to stay alert.
“Do you see the mutants over there? Do you think you can shoot one in the head with your rifle?” Gyeoul asked as he pointed at the group of mutants. The nearest one was standing approximately 30 meters away from them. Considering a rifle’s usual engagement distance, it shouldn’t be hard even for an unskilled person to hit the target from there. The problem would be whether they could get a headshot.
“I’ll try…” Yura spoke in a barely audible voice.
Gyeoul opened the skill window and invested some of his experience points on 「Instruction」.
「Instruction」, as its name suggested, was a leadership-type skill that provided an upward revision to the target’s learning efficiency when doing certain actions with the owner of the skill, or when being directly taught by them.
The progress gauge filled up and made six consecutive ringing noises. Gyeoul also raised the level of both 「Close Combat」 and 「Small Arms Mastery」 to 10 before closing the skill window.
Gyeoul then ordered Yura, “Don’t worry too much about failing. Think of it as a practice. I can cover for you even if you make a mistake.”
Yura answered with an uncertain nod before grabbing her rifle. She then struggled to get herself into shooting position. While breathing heavily, which caused the crosshair to go up and down, her hand grabbing the handguard was shaking from the tension. If she were to shoot right now, it was 100% guaranteed that she’d miss the target.
It was understandable since the refugees only had a few days of training to get themselves accustomed to guns and rifles. It would take a genius to grasp it within that short time.
“Try to breathe slowly,” Gyeoul instructed as he pressed on her shoulder to get her to the right position. “Take your finger off the trigger first. There’s no need to hurry. You can take as long as you need until you’re ready.”
With repeated encouragement, Yura’s breathing gradually became steadier. Gyeoul told her to close one eye and adjust her gun to align the front and rear sight of the rifle.
Once Yura seemed to be almost ready, Gyeoul got in position next to her in order to back her up, and in the meantime, he told her some trivia with a composed voice. Very trivial facts such as a common misconception around the physics behind a bullet’s spin.
Of course, Gyeoul didn’t expect her to understand it. What he wanted was to help her relax. And indeed, her trembling subsided significantly.
“Okay, that’s much better. You can put your finger on the trigger now. Check if your rifle is set to burst mode and aim at the leftmost mutant. You can shoot whenever you’re ready. Again, whatever happens, I can take care of it, so don’t worry. Alright?
“Alright, boss.”
And soon after, the crackling sound of the suppressed gunfire rang next to Gyeoul, and the mutant under its sight thrashed as if hit by a hammer. Its rotten, corrupted blood splashed on the pillar next to it. Though Yura’s bullets didn’t pierce its head, one of the three seemed to have penetrated its spinal cord.
As the mutant plopped down on the floor, the rest of the mutants jerked their heads in reaction to the noise. But each of them was looking in different directions.
Yura flinched at their sudden movements. Gyeoul comforted her once more.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Relax. You did a great job. Now, aim for the left one again. We’re going to take them down one by one. Catch your breath and shoot when your aim is steady.”
And about half a minute later, the gun went off again. This time, however, she didn’t succeed. One bullet missed its mark and the other two only managed to smash the mutant’s jaw. Having survived the shots, the mutant turned their way with its jaw grotesquely hanging from its cheek.
“Eeiik!”
Yura jumped in surprise as she faced the sheer horror. The mutant seemed to have found the party for it opened its mouth, but before it could let out a single groan, its head exploded.
“You see? I’ll cover you even if you miss. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just stay calm and take another shot.”
“O-okay…”
Despite the cool weather, Yura’s forehead was soaked with sweat. ‘Maybe I should bring a handkerchief next time,’ The boy thought. Of course, it wasn’t out of pure kindness. The Control AI rewarded players for establishing good relationships with NPCs.
The shooting practice ended when Yura shot down five more mutants. Out of seven mutants she shot, she was only able to kill three of them within her first shot. The rest of them were taken care of by Gyeoul himself.
“Well? You did great for a first-timer.”
“Hoo… Thank you for all the encouragement, boss. I feel more confident now,” Yura replied with a broad smile. Although her face was covered by the gas mask, her eyes showing through the transparent visor were cheerful.
“Next are those in the courtyard. Jinseok, would you like to give it a try?”
“Sure,” answered Jinseok confidently. And as if to prove his confidence wasn’t unfounded, he did fairly well. Except for the first one, he succeeded in shooting down the rest of the mutants by himself.
Jaejoong, on the contrary, was only able to kill a couple of them despite being a former marine.
“Haha… Well, it’s been a long time since I was discharged…” Jaejoong said as he scratched his head in embarrassment. Perhaps him being a former marine was a lie—not that it mattered.
Gyeoul glanced up at the sky. Based on EENT (End Evening NauticaI TwiIight), which he had been notified with before departing, there was seemingly a bit less than an hour before sunset.
“Let’s begin searching. I’ll take the lead.”
Daniel Lewis Middle School was made up of several single-story buildings. Since each one wasn’t too large, Gyeoul planned to spend 10 to 20 minutes searching each building.
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