Chapter 39

Leading his three wolves and burning away the remaining black energy in the valley with his Will-o’-the-Wisp, Jun-sang soon discovered a group of undead. However, perhaps due to the noisy sound of the Will-o’-the-Wisp burning the black energy, the undead also spotted Jun-sang almost simultaneously and charged.

“Huuu…”

First, Jun-sang took a deep breath to calm his mind, then he dashed forward with his wolves. Equipped with the Martial Artist Combo, Jun-sang began the battle by activating Shoulder Charge towards the zombie rushing at the very front.

CRASH!

The moment Jun-sang’s body, shooting out like a cannonball, collided with the savage zombie’s torso, an explosion erupted. The noise wasn’t the only thing violent. The moment the Shoulder Charge slammed into its chest, the zombie’s body shattered and tore apart, bursting in all directions.

“Hmm…”

Jun-sang tilted his head. It felt like the power had increased, but he found it difficult to gauge exactly how much stronger it was, perhaps because the opponent was too weak. Just then, a skeleton soldier charged straight at Jun-sang, thrusting its sword. Jun-sang quickly pulled his arms to his sides, assumed a stance, and activated Counter, deflecting the blade aimed at his face.

THWACK!

Jun-sang’s punch, crossing paths with the straight-thrusting blade, immediately broke into the skeleton soldier’s lower jaw, snapping its neck, and the skeleton soldier’s head, unable to withstand the destructive power, flew off behind its body.

“Hmm…”

For a first attempt, it was a quite excellent Counter, but Jun-sang somehow wasn’t satisfied. How should he describe this feeling? Perhaps not clean enough. It was like hitting a flying ball with a bat and sending it far, but something about the impact felt unclean, as if he had forced the strength.

As Jun-sang tilted his head in thought, three zombies simultaneously attacked him. Jun-sang snatched the wrist of a zombie that charged from behind, pulled it forward, struck its head with an elbow to crush it, then pulled its body forward to use as a shield. And as a zombie charging from the front, baring its yellow teeth, hesitated, momentarily blocked by the headless corpse, Jun-sang turned to another zombie that was rushing low as if to embrace him, grabbed its head, and smashed it with his knee. The zombie that had been charging head-on pushed aside the headless body blocking its path and fiercely extended its arms, but it was hit by Jun-sang’s Counter, whose cooldown had instantly finished, and its own head was also crushed.

“Hmm…”

Although he had felled them all with single strikes, in a chaotic fight, it was difficult to time Counter with its cooldown, tending to devolve into a free-for-all. This rendered the Martial Artist Combo meaningless. While it was true that the Berserker Combo was far more efficient in a chaotic fight, Jun-sang couldn’t shake off a feeling of dissatisfaction. Above all, this Counter skill seemed to require considerable practice, unlike other skills he had used previously. Indeed… even in a martial arts dojo, Counter was considered an advanced technique and wasn’t easily taught. At the time, he wondered if they were intentionally withholding it, but upon actually using it, just accurately gauging the opponent’s attack timing was nearly impossible without significant experience. If it was this difficult against zombies that charged blindly without tactics, it would be even harder to time a counter against a more intelligent opponent.

“No choice.”

Fortunately, there were plenty of opponents to practice on. Since he couldn’t return to the real world for about 50 hours anyway, fully mastering the Counter skill now wouldn’t be a bad idea. Jun-sang lightly shook his wrist, then launched himself towards the charging zombies.

Meanwhile, earlier, when Jun-sang was just defeating the boss…

A battle was underway against the undead in the village.

“Yawn…”

Seo Yoo-mi was waiting, unlike before, without rushing out of the palisade. This was because with Jun-sang gone and Lim Seo-yoon leading the battle, the tactics themselves had changed. In truth, the tactics were nothing special. Jin Sea-ah, hidden behind a steel cabinet, would block the front of the palisade with a Wall of Fire, draw the undead as close as possible, then instantly detonate two pre-installed claymores to wipe out the swarming undead in one go. That was the entirety of their current tactics.

Lim Seo-yoon, waiting for the soldiers consisting of zombies and skeleton soldiers to enter the kill radius of the claymores, sniped down the skeleton archers who were shooting arrows from behind, one by one. Seeing Seo Yoo-mi yawning, he chuckled. “Are you bored?”

“…”

Seo Yoo-mi, embarrassed at being caught yawning, blushed and bowed her head. Lim Seo-yoon laughed at her reaction, then after felling the last remaining skeleton archer with a newly loaded arrow, checked the undead’s positions.

“Detonating. Get ready.”

“Yes.”

Before using explosives, the unhelpful villagers were moved entirely behind the second line of defense. This was done to avoid unnecessary complications if they were seen installing or using explosives. Lim Seo-yoon poked his head out of the palisade to check the undead’s positions one more time, then firmly pressed the two detonators in his hand.

Then,

BOOM!

With a violent explosion, the two claymores that had been set up outside the palisade in a crossed X pattern simultaneously exploded, spewing out the steel balls they contained in all directions. Hundreds of steel balls flew through the air, piercing the flesh of zombies and shattering the bones of skeleton soldiers.

Lim Seo-yoon, seeing the successful claymore explosion, raised his head again and surveyed outside the palisade. Most of the undead had been caught in the explosion and shattered, but seven or eight undead were still seen stumbling and moving. Lim Seo-yoon raised his hand to Jin Sea-ah, who was maintaining the Wall of Fire behind the cabinet, and shouted, “Now!”

“Yes!”

Jin Sea-ah dispelled the Wall of Fire in response to Lim Seo-yoon’s signal. Then, Seo Yoo-mi, who had been ducking her head in surprise at the explosion, finally got up and went outside. Seo Yoo-mi trudged out through the air heated by the Wall of Fire and cleared the remaining undead who had survived the claymore explosion.

As Seo Yoo-mi, having finished off even the last one wriggling on the ground, returned inside the palisade, Jin Sea-ah approached and offered her a drink. “Good job.”

“Yeah…”

Jin Sea-ah couldn’t help but give a wry smile at Seo Yoo-mi, who looked utterly drained, unlike before. “Is that red wolf really that good?”

“…”

At Jin Sea-ah’s question, Seo Yoo-mi’s cheeks flushed, and she nodded. If it weren’t for the kitchen knife in her hand, she would have looked exactly like a girl in love.

“By the way… I wonder if he’ll really be okay by himself.”

“Mr. Jun-sang?”

“Yes. Seo-yoon says not to worry, but still, by himself…”

But just then, their phones simultaneously began to ring. It was a message notification.

“What is it?”

Jin Sea-ah, opening her phone to see what it was, gasped as she checked the message content.

“Gasp!”

Their phones displayed this message:

Defend the Village.

• A cursed army, moved by the overflowing dark power, is invading the village. Protect the village until reinforcements arrive from the city. [Time Remaining: 53 hours 18 minutes]
• [Multiple individuals are participating in this quest simultaneously.]
• Status: Complete!

(Hidden) Uncover the hidden secret in the Valley of Death. (Cooperation) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Minimize villager casualties (10 or fewer) (Cooperation) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Annihilate all undead within the time limit (Cooperation) -> Complete!

• Calculating your actions and performance in this quest. This process will take a moment. Please wait.

“This is…”

Seeing Jin Sea-ah’s astonished expression, Lim Seo-yoon could only give another wry smile. “It seems Mr. Jun-sang cleared all the undead outside by himself.”

“Good heavens…”

Even as they talked, the messages continued.

“I’m B-rank. What about you, Seo-yoon?”

“I’m A-rank.”

“Wow… I’m B-rank too…”

“Really? I thought Seo Yoo-mi would be A-rank.”

Even as they talked, the messages continued, and soon, a countdown for their return began. Jin Sea-ah first bid farewell to Lim Seo-yoon and Seo Yoo-mi. “It was a pleasure working with you. I hope… we can meet again.”

“…”

“…”

Lim Seo-yoon and Seo Yoo-mi replied with silent nods. There was an unspoken prerequisite that they had to survive and remain healthy until then, but they didn’t voice it.

However,

Just before being teleported, Seo Yoo-mi didn’t forget to murmur in a small voice, looking in the direction Jun-sang had left, “See you again, Jjong-ah.”