The Pavoni Family could not be called skilled in combat, even as empty praise. Even when aiming at a large shield, less than half their bullets hit.
‘Is their shooting bad, are their guns defective, or are both the problem?’
Kim Yi-hyeon himself was not confident enough in his shooting to look down on others.
A K2 would be one thing, but [Ivory] was a pistol-type weapon. He did not even know the proper grip.
However, the gun’s performance was overwhelming.
‘I never thought a 20 percent increase to normal attack accuracy would help this much.’
In Polaris, the “accuracy” option was extremely useless. That was because ordinary enemies had 0 evasion.
To begin with, every attack was guaranteed to hit. It was a game mainly focused on calculating attack power and defense.
‘It isn’t completely meaningless, though.’
Enemies with evasion gimmicks appeared occasionally, but even then, [Ivory] was not something anyone brought out. It had no other ability, and its stat bonus was low.
‘The Riot Shield is just as awkward.’
A shield whose “physical defense” alone was comparable to 4-star equipment. However, it had no special ability at all, and its attack stat bonus was exactly 0.
Could you not just give it to a damage dealer with a weak body? Not quite.
Polaris had the concept of classes, so unless someone was a tank, they could not use a shield. You also could not give a gun to a swordsman and make them attack from range.
‘That was how it was in the game.’
The difference in freedom between the game and reality. Taking that into account, [Special Armament Crafting] was an even more broken skill than he had thought.
Ratatat!
The bullets fired by the mafia embedded themselves in the wall. The sound naturally made his heart chill. Kim Yi-hyeon kept retreating with the shield raised in front of him.
“What are you doing? Keep shooting!”
Thud, thud-thud!
There were 10 people remaining.
Three were hurriedly reloading, apparently having failed to load their bullets in advance. Pavoni was doing nothing but shouting.
As he had expected, they were an undisciplined mob. Even though he saw openings, Kim Yi-hyeon did not try to force an offensive.
The enemy had numbers. Greed and carelessness were both forbidden.
If he got injured while dealing with one person, it would be a loss. A small injury could lead to a dog’s death.
‘Let’s take this slowly, one at a time.’
The warehouse door was still half torn away. Kim Yi-hyeon backed out, went outside, and stuck to the wall, preparing for pursuit.
“That bastard!”
Two people. There were guys with hot blood.
Crack!
A bullet lodged in the forehead of the man who chased Kim Yi-hyeon out. As the man’s body toppled over, he obstructed his comrade’s path.
“S-save......”
The trigger was pulled again. The mafia member collapsed limply, and the corpse with a ventilation hole in its head piled on top of his body.
Kim Yi-hyeon fired two more shots. It would be troublesome if he squeezed out his last strength and fired a gun.
The mafia member’s shallow, rapid breathing abruptly cut off.
“Hoo, hoo. Hold it in, please.”
The recoil transmitted to his hand reminded him that he had just shot a person.
Damn it all, incidents that made nausea rise happened all too often in the world of Polaris.
This time, he held it in. He could not die while vomiting. He had to think coldly.
The warehouse door was not that large. The corpses were suitable to use as obstacles.
“G-get a grip. Don’t split off! Stay together!”
Pavoni’s voice, berating his subordinates, was trembling unsightly.
It seemed he himself was not getting a grip. Apparently, the opponent was less calm than Kim Yi-hyeon.
Kim Yi-hyeon set the Riot Shield down on the ground. New equipment appeared in his freed left hand.
An object that looked like a grenade no matter how one looked at it. He pulled the pin and tossed it into the warehouse.
Everyone’s gaze focused on the round object flying in.
“That crazy...!”
Pavoni threw Asterike’s sword away without hesitation and forcefully pulled his subordinates over. Two large subordinates conveniently became walls.
Immediately after.
Poom.
An explosion sound rather modest for a grenade.
Pavoni cautiously opened his eyes, which he had unknowingly shut. The traces of destruction he had imagined were nowhere to be found.
Only a large amount of mud had been scattered around.
“Wh-what is this?”
The 2-star Special Armament [Clay Bomb].
A support equipment that could be used once per battle and reduced the defense of enemies it hit by 5 percent for 10 seconds.
Unlike [Sticky Brush], it could not be stacked. A truly 2-star-level, ambiguous performance. It was only used when squeezing out extreme damage through gimmick builds.
It was perfect for drawing attention.
Bang!
By the time Pavoni realized he had been toyed with, the muzzle was already spitting fire. A bullet pierced through a subordinate’s side.
It was not only one person. All three bullets hit.
Two of them somehow protected their vitals, but each suffered gunshot wounds to the arm and hand.
‘Damn it. How many were taken out?’
Pavoni hurriedly calculated the damage. Two from the surprise attack. Two who chased like idiots and were counterattacked. Three from the trick just now. More than half had already been lost.
‘Any more than this is dangerous.’
Even assuming he survived, it was a problem.
The Pavoni Family had around thirty members. If their numbers decreased any further than now, there was a high chance the other organizations would bare their teeth.
The moment he thought he had to do something, an idea came to him just in time. Pavoni’s lips curled into a grin.
“Let’s stop around here, hm?”
Pavoni took a handgun from his coat. Keeping his head fixed toward the entrance, he thrust the gun behind him.
The muzzle aimed precisely at Asterike.
“You, I know who you are. You’re that immigrant bastard who came over recently, aren’t you? There were rumors everywhere about you wandering outside the safe zone with armfuls of food, so I thought you were raising some stray cat.”
Pavoni snickered. Ease was gradually returning to his attitude.
“But would you look at that? You’re shacking up with a Pecatum bitch? All kinds of lunatics really do exist. Or did you know each other from the start?”
It was no different from spitting in his own face. After all, Pavoni himself had tried to make Asterike one of his members.
However, Kim Yi-hyeon did not pick at that. He had no intention of listening seriously either. He peeked slightly inside the warehouse and steadied his breathing.
‘This is harder than I thought.’
The consumption was severe beyond the amount of activity. It was the backlash from crafting three 2-star pieces of equipment in succession.
‘Still, it’s about to end.’
Kim Yi-hyeon dismissed [Ivory] from his hand. In preparation for an emergency, he only picked up the Riot Shield he had set down.
Judging from the situation, it did not seem necessary to bring out any more weapons.
“Madman. That’s one creative way to commit suicide.”
Of all people, taking Ast hostage. If he could, Kim Yi-hyeon wanted to applaud. The phrase “ignorance is courage” suited this perfectly.
Of course, how would that bastard know Ast’s power? To begin with, if things had gone according to plan, Ast should indeed have become Pavoni’s puppet.
That was only “if things had gone according to plan.” Judging by her state, it seemed she had been quite stimulated.
“......I think I understand what you meant now.”
Asterike murmured as if talking to herself.
“I shouldn’t endure it. To a bastard, I should’ve acted like a bastard too.”
“Huuuh?”
“I have nothing, and nothing to leave behind. They’re all people who don’t matter anyway, so what if I don’t endure it?”
“What the hell are you saying? Both of you are......”
He could not finish his words.
Pavoni turned his head back and opened his mouth wide. His pupils shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck them.
—Fwoosh!
At some point, flames had been rising from beneath Asterike’s feet. A torrent of blood-red fire swirled around her.
“Ugh!”
Pavoni dropped the gun. The heat had traveled along the barrel and reached his hand.
He hurriedly retreated from Asterike. An ominous instinct ran up his spine and struck his brain.
“Damn it, just kill this bitch first!”
He crumpled up the plan to use her as a hitman and threw it into the trash. Only after that thunderous order fell did the mafia members begin firing.
The bullets did not reach her.
Before they could reach Asterike, the flames melted them all down. Within the fire, golden eyes shone fiercely.
“W-wait. I didn’t know it would be like this......!”
RUMBLE—!
The curving flames swallowed Pavoni. He did not even have time to scream his death throes. Before sound could leave his throat, his vocal cords burned.
The shadow swallowed by fire shrank by the moment and soon could no longer be seen. It was a sight more than enough to make the mafia lose all will to fight.
Run, save me.
Cliché words were left behind as last words. The mafia members who tried to flee were swept up by flames the moment they turned their backs.
Not even the corpses remained intact. Heat filled the warehouse, enough to make the field of vision seem warped. Lumps of fire dripped down like blood.
“Sh-shit. Nobody said anything about this.”
The last remaining young man fell on his backside. Ironically, he was the person who had first gotten involved with Asterike.
The young man she had saved from monsters. The young man who had lent her the “magic sword.”
There was no second mercy. In the place the flames swept through, only ashes piled up.
It had all happened in an instant. Watching the situation unfold, Kim Yi-hyeon smacked his lips with a sour taste in his mouth.
‘At that point, it doesn’t even feel cruel.’
With this, the Pavoni Family had half collapsed. Since a large amount of their fighting strength, including their leader, had fallen, they would no longer be able to swagger around as before.
It was not a problem for an outsider to worry about.
“By the way, what do I do about that?”
Even though all the enemies had burned away, the fire did not die down. Asterike stood in the center of the raging flames, gasping for breath.
‘As expected, she can’t control it.’
Asterike. Ast, for short.
A 6-star operative suited for both wave battles and boss battles. One of the commonly called must-have characters.
In particular, the DPS of her second skill was at a level that ranked within the top five among all playable characters.
‘The problem is that she’s inconvenient to use.’
Second skill, [Blood Calamity Fire]. A buff-type skill lasting 30 seconds, it changed her normal attack to deal magic damage over a wide area.
The attack power increase was truly absurd. However, it had penalties to match.
‘The friendly fire is pretty severe.’
Ast, after activating [Blood Calamity Fire], blew up even allies without discrimination.
It could not be manually canceled either, and when the skill ended, her defense became 0 and she fell into an incapacitated state.
The setting was that her Spell was so powerful she could not control it.
She also had a past where her Spell went berserk and burned her house and family cleanly away, so from then on, she almost never used her Spell unless absolutely necessary.
‘So after being used for years, she finally couldn’t endure it anymore and used her Spell, destroying the Pavoni Family... That was the background.’
Afterward, Ast met the Professor and joined the Lab, receiving a Spell suppressor. That was the employment contract between Selvlogics Lab and her.
The process up to that point was glossed over with “pulling” her.
‘Honestly, it isn’t something a suppressor can solve.’
It only allowed her to use her Spell at low output. What activated that way was her first skill. It was highly versatile, but its ceiling was far lower.
When things became dangerous, she removed the suppressor and used her full power. That corresponded to her second skill, [Blood Calamity Fire].
In other words, she went berserk every time she used her second skill. She was a typical berserker-type damage dealer.
At least in the game, it was enough to use the skill and let her die. But reality was not so easy.
‘Is the duration different from the game too?’
Thirty seconds had long since passed, yet the Spell was still maintained. Then again, if she collapsed just because she used a Spell for a mere thirty seconds, that would be troublesome in its own way.
‘I won’t be able to use her second skill for a while.’
There was a weapon that compensated for Ast’s weakness according to the setting, but... he could not make it right now. For the time being, he had no choice but to use the suppressor.
In any case, he had been able to confirm her potential. Since she also had a broken “Talent,” she was a person who would shine depending on Kim Yi-hyeon’s own growth.
‘For now, should I leave her alone until she calms down?’
Ast’s Spell did not harm her herself. If she burned too, Ast would have died the first time she went berserk.
“How long will it take?”
Kim Yi-hyeon withdrew to a suitable distance and sat on the ground. Now even the warehouse walls had melted, so Asterike could be seen from outside.
After watching for a moment, he turned his head. Because her clothes had burned away, the sight was far too embarrassing.
“......I need to get her clothes first.”
Reality was inconvenient in many ways.
***
Only after about ten minutes did Asterike lose strength and pass out. By the time the flames settled, the surroundings had nearly become ruins.
Kim Yi-hyeon took off his jacket and draped it over Asterike. Then he fell into thought. He could not judge what to do immediately.
“I’m not sure if I can take her with me like this.”
To begin with, where should he go?
There was a high chance someone had been watching the commotion just now as well. The information would soon be conveyed to Ulanz too.
‘If they’re quick, they’ll make a move as early as tomorrow.’
Of course, the remaining members of the Pavoni Family would not stay still, and neither would the other factions. With the balance broken, there was a risk that a conflict would begin.
He did not particularly want to get involved.
‘For now, assuming we wander outside the safe zone. What was the closest region from here again......?’
It was not exactly a situation where he could beat the unconscious Asterike awake either. He needed time to think.
He had been working his brain hard for a while when it happened.
“Hm?”
From somewhere, the exhaust sound of a vehicle reached him. It was gradually drawing closer. Kim Yi-hyeon lowered his posture and followed the direction of the sound with his eyes.
An old pickup truck was rattling as it drove toward them. Because the sun had set, he could not see the driver’s seat.
Soon, the vehicle stopped nearby, and a man with a cigarette in his mouth stuck his head out the window.
“What the hell have you people done?!”
It was a familiar face.
“Information broker, what brings you here? The request is over.”
“Over, my ass. I told you not to do anything stupid. My life is screwed because of you!”
“What kind of sudden nitpicking is this?”
“Does this sound like nitpicking to you? I advised you to stay quiet, and then you shot the Pavoni Family bastards dead, while that Pecatum lady went and set everything on fire. What do you think that means?”
“Were you watching from somewhere?”
“Is that what’s important right now?!”
Because he kept shouting, it was hard to think. When Kim Yi-hyeon frowned, Rosco seemed even more frustrated and delivered a heated speech, spitting as he spoke.
“Do you still not get it? It means my head is in serious danger because I sold you information. The Pavoni Family, the Red Scarves, Svedeniye, and every other bastard under the sun will all come rushing at me!”
“......Ah.”
Only then could he understand the situation Rosco was in.
It was a realistic enough story. In fact, the person most deeply tied to Kim Yi-hyeon in Ulanz was Rosco.
There were two actions Rosco could take here. Sell out Kim Yi-hyeon and Asterike, or.
“So you want me to take responsibility?”
“That’s right, you son of a bitch!”
Cling to them and flee together.
“I packed my things and came as soon as the incident happened, so there shouldn’t be anyone chasing us right away. It’s better to get out completely before things become annoying. Hurry up and get in!”
He was one quick decision-maker.