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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
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Chapte 14: Performance Pressure (4)
— Thud!
When I pulled the insect out of the back of my neck, the charging zombie crumpled to the ground like a machine that had lost its power source.
Dealing with the Split Needle Beetle, which burrows into the host's body and issues commands—
This was the strategy to handle the zombies that neither died nor ran away.
"We've hit the target!"
At Jieun’s words, I lifted my head to check the performance status.
Unlike before, the scoreboard now displayed a dense array of numbers for each team.
▶ Performance Results for Round 1
Team 1: 101 / 100p
Team 2: 60 / 100p
Team 3: 50 / 100p
Team 4: 15 / 100p
Team 5: 85 / 100p
As the scoreboard numbers increased, the zombies visibly decreased.
Roughly the same number as the people desperately fighting them with various tools in hand.
"The zombies have really thinned out."
"Only thirty-eight left. If we split them among the task forces, we can handle them."
Both our team and Team 5, with the homeless man, had comfortably reached their targets.
Even the other teams, though clumsy at first, had started extracting and destroying the Split Needle Beetle after watching me.
The only problem was...
[3 minutes remaining in Round 1.]
There wasn’t much time left.
"What do we do? Time’s almost up!"
"Just one more!"
As the system began its countdown, the desperate movements of those sensing "restructuring" grew increasingly frantic.
"Ugh, come on! Mister! That one! Hurry!"
Team 2, which included accountant Lee Yeji and the security guard, was managing decently thanks to the sword and shield they got from the random box.
"If you're done, lend me that shield!"
Team 3, with the bespectacled man, was just two zombies short of their target.
They blinded a charging zombie by covering its head with a cloak from the random box before extracting its Split Needle Beetle.
"Just die already… please!"
Those who were horrified by the zombies’ grotesque appearances were gone.
Now, people were desperately throwing themselves at the zombies, hitting, throwing, and destroying them.
Some tore off zombie limbs and used them to bash their heads.
No one cared about dignity or humanity anymore. Survival was all that mattered.
Amidst all this, however, Team 4...
"Fuck! Isn’t someone gonna give us a break?! It’s all because of that kid!"
"Y-Yeah! There were only three of us, not four!"
They were fighting.
Not just the zombies, but each other, and even pointing fingers at a young child who looked about six years old.
Blaming others, even with death looming—it was pitiful.
‘It’s not just because of the kid, though.’
Team 4’s performance was only 15 points.
Not even half of the team ranked just above them.
Clearly, the adults in the group, aside from the child, hadn’t been doing their part either.
Still...
"Daddy! Waaahhh!"
"Y-Yura! Don’t cry. It’s okay!"
It wasn’t incomprehensible.
‘The team composition is awful.’
A child, so small they should still be learning how to hold chopsticks, flailing their little hands to fight monsters and getting hurt.
A man, frantically trying to protect his daughter while fighting zombies and hunting worms.
And two others who had either given up or were so overwhelmed by resentment and rage that they’d lost all rationality.
"Did they… give up?"
Jieun asked nervously, glancing back and forth between the crying child and the ticking timer.
"I don’t think so,"
I replied, pointing to the man who, despite gasping for air, refused to put the child down.
Even while fleeing from zombies, his eyes never left the silver Split Needle Beetle.
"We’re going to see Mom, right…?"
"…No, Yura. Daddy won’t let them erase us. Not ever."
He was a father.
A man who couldn’t fight zombies or worms properly with his bare hands.
But still, a father.
Even as tears streamed down his own face, he held his crying, pleading daughter tightly and kept fighting.
[01:00]
1 minute left in Round 1.
Jieun gently tugged at my sleeve.
"Eunho, I…."
Her hesitant tone belied the fact that her feet were already pointing toward the father and daughter.
She wanted to help. But...
"Jieun, you won’t be much help."
Fifteen zombies left to kill in one minute.
Jieun wasn’t the answer.
"I know, but…."
"Go to Team 3. I’ll handle them."
Startled, Jieun’s eyes widened.
"What?!"
Was my response that unexpected?
"Is it really that surprising?"
"No, it’s just… no, not really!"
Of course, it wasn’t because I was altruistic, or moved by the plight of a child, or inspired by some forgotten fatherly instinct.
It wasn’t anything noble like that.
"Why, then?"
"…Because it’s disgusting."
This disgusting system, this disgusting restructuring.
Even now, I could feel the people above us watching and evaluating.
The thought of so many lives being played with in their hands made my blood boil.
"I plan to pay them back in kind."
I wouldn’t play into their hands.
If they wanted us to compete and kill… I’d do the opposite.
I’d save.
I refused to be a pawn in this absurd game.
"I’ll make them beg for it to stop."
"Do you think… that’s possible?"
"I’ll make it possible."
I would exploit this disgusting system to its very core.
And I would use it to leap beyond those watching us from above.
"Jaehyuk, Team 2! Move quickly!"
"Yes!"
Jieun flashed a relieved smile and dashed off.
Now alone, the loudmouth from earlier grabbed my sleeve.
"And what about me?!"
"You take care of the kid."
"What? What kid—"
"Accelerate!"
"Waaahhh?!?"
In the stopped time, I darted between the zombies.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five….
Carefully extracting them, mindful not to accidentally trigger an explosion, they flung them at the feet of the child’s father.
Amidst the despair, the father and daughter gazed into each other’s eyes, as if trying to imprint the image of their faces one last time.
Accelerating even further, with superhuman speed, the delivery of the creatures was completed.
"Da...d...don’t cry..."
Tears fell from the round eyes of the child, dropping onto the ground.
The child blinked, noticing the sudden appearance of someone new.
"Yura, right?"
"...?"
"Don’t cry. Go over to the man in the hat over there. Cover your ears if he says anything."
"What are you... No, this—?!"
The father, initially trying to question him, froze with his mouth agape.
It was hard not to be shocked.
One moment he blinked, and an unfamiliar man appeared.
The stranger seemed to be trying to send his daughter somewhere.
And at his feet, a pile of monsters lay, despite his own struggles over the past hour to barely handle a few.
"Your feet will work better than your hands. Step on them and crush them."
"This... this is...!"
"There’s no time to explain. They’ll attack again soon after just fainting."
"!!"
The man alternated glances between the stranger’s face and the results laid before him.
Finally, he hung his head deeply.
When he looked up again, gone was the bewilderment—replaced by hope and determination.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
What he crushed beneath his feet were not just bugs but also the helpless despair he had felt at the brink of giving up.
"They... can’t take my daughter from me...!"
[Mission will end in 10 seconds.]
Ten seconds before the first round ended.
Except for Team 4, all other teams had met their targets.
While searching for the remaining zombies, some female students joined in to help the father and daughter.
"We’ll lure them in!"
"I’ll go first—ahhhh!"
And then—
Suddenly, a homeless man, his eyes wide and menacing, grabbed one of the students by the wrist.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
"Ahhh!"
Was he upset about them helping another team?
The girl’s thin wrist was caught, and she screamed in pain.
'Should I help her?'
But time was running out.
Five seconds.
Four seconds.
Three...
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!w
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Using the momentum of his returning speed skill, the stranger handed the last remaining zombie to the father.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, sir! I’ll never forget this!"
Leaving behind the father bowing endlessly in gratitude, the stranger turned toward the students.
"What on earth are you doing, mister?!"
A nearby student picked up an empty can rolling on the ground and threw it.
Clang!
Using his hand to block the can, the homeless man momentarily let go, allowing the student’s friend to escape.
"Piece of..."
A few leftover drops from the discarded can splashed onto the man’s clothes.
"Ah!"
"Hey! Just run!"
— Tap, tap!
Like herbivores fleeing from a predator, the students quickly retreated, leaving the man opening and closing his fist silently.
"Arrogant brats..."
At that moment, the announcement broke the tense atmosphere.
[Round 1 complete. Results are being tallied.]
[Targets for restructuring are...]
Whether moving or too exhausted to stand, everyone turned their eyes to the sky in unison.
A small hope emerged amid the heavy silence, broken only by the sound of gulping.
"Please..."
As if responding to their wish, the system spoke.
[None.]
"Ahhh!"
"We’re alive! We survived!"
"Thank you, Eunho! And Mr. Kim!"
Cheers erupted from the people Eunho had helped, starting with Team 3.
Relief swept over the square, densely packed with the corpses of the 109 fallen creatures, along with the realization that they might make it through the remaining rounds.
"Yura! We’re alive!"
"Dad... are you okay?"
Wobbling, the father braced his trembling knees, and the child peeked her head up cautiously.
Then came a tearful hug of relief.
Watching the scene, Jaehyuk clenched his fists in an emotional grip.
"You saved them, hyung!"
"It was a team effort."
"If not for you, hyung, I would’ve..."
As the overwhelmed Jaehyuk continued, the stranger tried to calm him down.
Suddenly—Zap!
From a distance, his eyes locked with the homeless man’s.
A chilling gaze, the kind one would expect from a butcher holding a knife.
'What an intense stare.'
When the stranger didn’t look away, the man grabbed a nearby zombie corpse.
— Crack!
He twisted its neck.
The gesture was clear—a posthumous execution, a sign of protest against the system’s sparing of lives.
"...What’s that supposed to mean?"
"Pardon? Did you say something, hyung?"
"No. I just don’t think this will be easy."
[Round 2 begins.]
[Defeat the enemies and achieve the target within the time limit!]
With the scoreboard reset, the second round began.
— Thud, thud, thud!
This time, zombies came rushing in at a pace far beyond comparison to before.
"Ahhh!"
"What the hell?! Why are they so fast?!"
— Leap!
"Jaehyuk! Cover the rear!"
— Wham!
Kicking the side of a zombie that spilled crimson insides.
Dodging the teeth of another that mistook his left arm for a chicken leg.
Slashing the calf of one lunging for Jieun’s back.
"Thank you!"
It was a grueling fight but one with an end and a strategy.
Everyone seemed to feel the same, repeating their own cycles of combat and survival.
As the second round neared its end...
▶ Round 2 Scoreboard
Team 1: 100 / 100 points
Team 3: 65 / 100p
Team 4: 85 / 100p
Team 5: 80 / 100p
"At this pace, everyone seems to be doing just fine!"
"This is all thanks to you... uh, wait, what?"
The people, who had been naively reassured, suddenly felt a burning sensation on the back of their necks.
It wasn’t just the heat from the excited crowd.
It was closer to a sudden flash of flames, like oil igniting in an instant, rather than the gradual warmth of a summer day.
"F-fire!"
Following Jieun's horrified gaze, everyone whipped their heads around, only to see flames where there shouldn’t have been any.
Flames were flickering in the middle of an ordinary plaza, devoid of any fuel or high temperatures to ignite them.
— Whoosh!
On the palm of a homeless man...
"T-this is... F-Fuhuhu...!"
Bright red and yellow flames were dancing on his bare, empty palm.
The sound he made was ambiguous, unclear whether he was laughing or crying.
"Could it be...?"
"A skill?!"
Fwoosh!
The man began attacking wildly, his face lit with exhilaration.
The ecstatic expression and the newly unlocked ability were thrilling him to no end.
He wasn’t driven by a goal or a mission; he was captivated by the power itself.
‘This is bad. He’s completely lost it!’
The flames, short-ranged and brief as they were, turned destructive when combined with the man’s brute strength.
He grabbed at the necks of oncoming zombies one by one, and before he could crush them, the flames burned them to ashes.
Zombies and insects alike.
"W-what’s going on? Stop killing them!"
"What are you doing right now?!"
People who hadn’t yet reached their goals began shouting in protest, one after another.
Yet the man, clearly neither deaf nor foreign, ignored them and stared at the flames pouring from his hands, as though hypnotized.
Truly entranced.
"Eunho, could that be a unique skill?"
Jieun recalled a conversation about my own unique skill, Acceleration, which had unlocked itself by analyzing data and adapting to me.
If the man’s flames were similarly unlocked through intense desire or memories etched into his body...
‘He’s more dangerous than any zombie. Far more dangerous.’
[10 seconds until the end of Round 2.]
The notification of the time limit acted like a trigger.
9 seconds.
The man glanced at the leaderboard and then at my face before striding toward a nearby female student.
8 seconds.
He grabbed her by the neck.
"Ka-hek...! W-why are you doing this?"
"You brat! So arrogant...!"
"What are you doing?! Let go of her right now!"
The student’s friends screamed at him, their faces contorted in rage, ready to tear him apart.
"Soyoung!!!"
"You bastard...! What are you doing?!"
Crack!
As the students rushed at the man, they were stopped in their tracks by a horde of zombies, unable to move and wailing in despair.
One of them was even bleeding from their leg.
Did they get bitten on the ankle?
"Let go of her, you insane jerk!"
"You think I’m stupid? You laughed at me earlier, didn’t you? Don’t think I wouldn’t notice!"
— Crack!
With the sound of something hard breaking, the female student’s body went limp.
Flames spread from her neck and shoulders, engulfing her entirely.
"Ughhhh...!"
He tossed her body down the stairs, where zombies were gathered below.
— Fwoosh!
"Two birds with one stone! Hehehe..."
The man cackled, glancing between the flames spreading among the zombies and the steadily increasing numbers on the leaderboard.
[...3, 2, 1. Round 2 ends.]
"My god..."
"T-that bastard... Sir, I can’t take this anymore!"
"Fuck...!"
Amid the extreme shock and fury of the others, a chilling malice spread across the group.
"W-what should we do...?"
A student collapsed to the ground, crying helplessly.
Another, with their zombie-bitten ankle bleeding, hobbled down the stairs.
"This can’t be real, right? Answer me, Kim Soyoung! Tell me it’s not true!"
A female student sobbed, clutching the remains of her burned friend.
‘Was it for the leaderboard? Or just because he wanted to kill?’
Either way, he’s unbearably dangerous.
He can’t be allowed to grow any stronger.
— Clap!
"Eunho? Why are you suddenly grabbing your bag...?"
"Everyone, gather around. We need to get ready."
"Ready for what?"
— Zzzt.
"To catch that bastard."
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!w
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