Arena Chapter 20:

Chapter 20 Within the Darkness (Part 2)

“Do you remember the first day when Park Go-Chan and Kang Chun-seong almost fought?”

“How could I forget . ”

“Do you remember what Kang Chun-seong said back then?”

“Oh, the eyeball…”

I laugh and nod my head .

“Yes, that . He said it’s something anyone can do but not everyone has the nerve to do . ”

“Yes . ”

“Hye-su, you will eventually have to do it too . You cannot be protected forever . ”

“…”

“I know it is scary . I was terrified too . I still am . But try and cross that mountain . Once you cross it, you will be better than anyone else . Hye-su, you are capable of it . ”

I stand up from my seat . I can’t delay the time any longer .

“I will be off now . ”

“Ah…!”

Lee Hye-su stood up quickly and tried to dissuade me, but I marched on forward . And so I set off for the gorge .

As I left the gorge and entered the forest, I put on my bullet pouch and rifle, and summoned Sylph .

“From now on, get rid of all the noise I make . ”

-Meow .

I take a step .

Interestingly, the crunchy sound of stepping on grass was not made .

‘Nice . ’

With this, I can easily avoid the 9 apes standing guard .

“Guide me to where the leader is . Avoiding the awake apes as much as possible . ”

-Meow .

Sylph signaled she understood and hopped onto my shoulder, pointing the way with her paw . I walked in the direction my cute guide instructed me to .

I retrieved my board and checked on Sylph’s remaining summon time in real time .

Getting rid of any noise was using her time twice as fast . The bigger a noise I make, the more power is used to get rid of that noise .

When I walk as softly as possible, the time given to me is about an hour . And so that is why I told her to escape if I was not back within the hour .

‘They will have a hard time without me . Plain as day . ’

Not to mention food, but even with starting a fire they will suffer . I think to myself that when that time comes, even Park Go-Chan will long for me and it suddenly makes me laugh .

And Lee Hye-su .

‘You are the only one that has protected me . ’

That I appeared righteous and brave to one woman makes me proud .

Of course in her shoes, my help was crucial to her survival .

But I don’t think she calculated for that and used me . If she was a calculating women, wouldn’t she have flirted with me from the get go?

Seeing as how she didn’t, Lee Hye-su is just a nice girl who grew up in a nice house, not wanting for anything .

Honestly, I liked her the moment I saw her, her pretty face, void of any primping . It’s why I disliked Park Go-Chan even more . Taking care of her wasn’t completely empty of an ulterior motive for me .

My insides boil at the thought that with me gone, Park Go-Chan may sexually harass her as he pleases .

‘You think I’m doing some heroic sacrifice? I just want to go back to living . ’

If I succeed in this task, I will have made the biggest contribution to clearing this exam and will earn a lot of karma . Not to mention it will make me more appealing to Lee Hye-su .

It is this double motivation that keeps me forging on .

Of course, the most important thing is my life .

I move carefully .

Not long after entering the forest, I can see the red apes . They were bunched together sleeping, here and there .

With Sylph’s, help I weaved through the sleeping **** and passed them .

My skin shivers, having to go right past the sleeping **** . I feel my heart getting tense . If I take one wrong step and step on one, it’s the end for me .

Then, Sylph taps me on the shoulder .

‘What is it?’

As I look at her, she points to the left . From the left, an awake red ape is strolling about .

I immediately lower my body and carefully move . I hide my body behind the bushes and continue on .

Sylph draws on my shoulder with her front paw .

There is 50 meters left until the leader .

40, 30, 20…… .

The distance gets shorter .

At 15 meters, I put a lead bullet in the chamber . Using Sylph to quietly slit its throat is the best option but you never know, so I keep the gun loaded .

Then, 9 meters .

Hiding behind a thick tree, I look at the situation before me .

‘Is it that?’

The red apes’ leader is a **** with an incredible build . His height looks similar to Kang Chun-seong, and its muscles are intense . He looks to be about three times as heavy as the other apes .

‘I wonder if he’s a mutated one?’

It it’s this much, he must’ve been destined to be the leader since the day he was born . Superior since birth, he must have a strong hold on the gang .

Nonetheless, all that’s left to do is kill it .

Like a strong being, he sleeps in a big starfish shape, with all limbs out . He appears magnanimous in his sleep . I will let you sleep for eternity .

As far as obstacles go, near him are two red apes that are wide awake .

Leader, 2 guards .

I have to kill all three at once .

“Sylph, do you think you can slit all three of their throats at the same time?”

Sylph nods her head up and down .

“Okay . Slit them . ”

-Meow .

She flew like the wind .

Chwak! Chwak! Kwajik-!

From all three of their necks, blood pour like a fountain .

‘It’s done!’

I gripped my fists and celebrated . I just have to quietly escape the way I came, but…

“Ki ruh ruhk!”

“Huh?”

I’m completely surprised .

The red ape leader **** makes a sound like he’s coughing up phlegm from his blood pouring neck and wakes up . He hasn’t died?

The leader presses down on his blood gushing neck and gets up . His body is stumbling back and forth dangerously .

“Sylph, kill!”

I give out the order to Sylph .

But then, right at that moment .

“Ki eeeeeeek-!”

The leader rips out a roar . At the same time, the blood goes ‘pu hak!’ and, as if exploding, pours out his neck . He falls backwards and stops breathing .

But the last roar he let out has already awoken all the red apes .

“Ki ek!”

“Ggi ek?”

“Ggi ik!”

From all around, the agitated voices of the red apes .

‘Aww shit!’

To have his throat cut and still let out a roar and wake everyone up! What the hell?

Now I am in the center of a hundred woken red apes .

“Board retrieval, skill review!”

-Spirit summon (Main skill) . Lower level wind spirit is currently summoned .

*Level 1: Summons period 2 hours (Remaining time: 31 minutes . )

When the summon time is up, you may re-summon in 10 hours .

I only have 31 minutes of summon left .

‘What do I do now?’

My heart is pounding in horror . Amidst the danger, I desperately search my mind . A countermeasure, countermeasure, countermeasure!

‘Fuck, there is none! Just run!’

I start to run . Using Sylphs power, I run without a sound, quietly .

The **** aren’t completely awake from their slumber, and haven’t realized the situation . The leader is dead and without anyone giving orders, they are bound to be muddled in confusion .

Using this time to run at full speed is the best option for right now .

“Ki ek!”

One **** is face on in front of me .

‘Fuck, what are you looking at . ’

I give him a pull of my loaded magic gun .

Puk!

Thanks to Sylph’s power, the gun doesn’t make a sound, and the only sound that is made is the dull thud when the lead bullet hits its skull .

As I run I load the gun again .

“Move!”

***

As the strange shrieks of the red apes spread through the forest, Lee Hye-su is in a sheer fright .

‘What do I do!’

It seems the red apes have all woken up at once . If Kim Hyun-ho hadn’t been caught, there wouldn’t be such a disturbance .

… Kim Hyun-ho will probably not be returning alive .

In a daze and not knowing what to do, Lee Hye-su suddenly remembers what Kim Hyun-ho had told her .

“Board retrieval . ”

Retrieving the board and checking the time, almost an hour has passed . She heads inside the cave and wakes the rest of the group .

“What is it?”

“That, that is…”

At Joon-ho’s question, she doesn’t know how to respond and stumbles in her words .

“Hyu-Hyun-ho told us to immediately escape . ”

“What?”

“What are you talking about?”

As Park Go-Chan asked of her, Lee Hye-su replied with a voice mixed into a cry .

“I think Hyun-ho is dead . ”

She can barely relay the whole story to the shocked group .

“That shithole, who does he think he is to go out all alone and **** himself, pfft, I didn’t like him from the beginning anyway . ”

“Now is not the time to be saying things like that . Don’t you think we should hurry and escape?”

At Joon-ho’s words, Park Go-Chan waves his hand .

“In that big a commotion, going out will be more dangerous . ”

“But, Hyun-ho hyung…”

“Hey, **** . You wanna talk back to me again?”

Park Go-Chan is eager to assume leadership and Joon-ho quickly shuts his mouth .

The group cannot come to a decision and stays flustered . Now that Kim Hyun-ho, who had made a practical leader, has disappeared, problems are already surfacing .

“Let’s go . ”

It is Kang Chun-seong who had quietly been in silence, without a word .

“He said to run if he didn’t come back within the hour . So we shall run . ”

Kang Chun-seong thought it wise to follow Kim Hyun-ho’s request . Since it was Kim Hyun-ho’s good decision making that led them well to this point .

Park Go-Chan didn’t make a squeak and followed . And so they group left the gorge .

“Where should we go?” Asks Joon-ho .

Everyone is in silence .

Not that they think about it, the one who had decided where to go was always Kim Hyun-ho . Which direction should we go if we want to live? The person leading the way has to make those decisions constantly .

They realize the big difference in being in the front and just following in that footstep .

“Missus, in what direction did that **** Kim Hyun-ho go?”

Park Go-Chan asks and Lee Hye-su points to the right .

“Then we should go in the opposite direction!”

Park Go-Chan shifts his walking to the left . The other three people don’t have any other thoughts and so have no choice but to follow him .

Following from way in the back, Lee Hye-su felt an ominous foreboding .

Park Go-Chan decided the direction they should go, and the group decided to follow it . Park Go-chan’s desire for leadership that Kim Hyun-ho had pressed down, is starting to come up again .

And Kang Chun-seong, who has the ability to suppress him, has no desire to assert his own leadership . It seems he doesn’t want to deal with other people .

And Lee Joon-ho was weak, in strength and heart .

‘Hyun-ho, please come back alive . Please don’t die . ’

Lee Hye-su pleaded in her heart over and over .

***

Perhaps the focal point was the death of their leader, because the red apes did not chase after me .

Thanks to that I barely escaped alive but I cannot return to the gorge where the group is . It’s because I cannot divulge their location because of me .

“Sylph, the **** aren’t chasing me anymore, right?”

-Meow .

Sylph was on my shoulder waving her tail back and forth, and replied . Now, Sylphs summon time is only 5 minutes left . It is fortuitous I was able to escape in that time .

“It’s done…”

Breathing a sigh of relief, I look up at the sky .

It is still the dark night sky . But a ray of sunlight peeked through, calling on the morning .

“It’s done! I did it, ku hahaha!”

I make two fists and rejoice .

When I think to myself, I cannot believe it . I secretly went in on my own, amidst hundreds of red apes, and killed their leader and escaped .

I did it!

The unemployed, almost 30-year-old, Kim Hyun-ho!