The group stared at Park Jin-ho, mouths agape, before their attention was violently pulled away. A wave of tense silence fell over them, broken by hushed whispers.
“My god, look at him fight… Who is he?”
“Huk-yeong. Even his nickname is badass.”
Their awe was cut short as the goblin horde, peeling away from the lone warrior, began to shamble toward them. They couldn't just stand there and watch anymore.
“We can do this,” someone said, his voice trembling slightly. “Goblins are just fodder in the games, right?”
“This isn’t real life,” another added, with more confidence than he felt. “It’s just a highly advanced virtual reality.”
“If that one guy can kill hundreds of them, they can’t be that tough.”
Perhaps it was watching Park Jin-ho’s brutal efficiency that had planted this seed of false hope. The terror that had paralyzed them moments ago receded, replaced by a reckless surge of confidence.
But it was short-lived.
The sickening thuds of daggers sinking into flesh echoed through the air. As the first wave of goblins crashed into their ranks, fresh screams tore through the battlefield.
Those who had dismissed the threat as child’s play were now wailing like infants, begging for their lives.
“Please, stop! It hurts so much!”
“Aaaah, my arm! My arm!”
Some were struck down by crude clubs, collapsing into unconscious heaps. Others were stabbed repeatedly, their last breaths bubbling up through their own blood. A few tried to flee, only to trip over bodies and be trampled underfoot. Others simply crouched on the ground, seized by panic attacks, unable to move.
The goblins were relentless. They swarmed over the fallen, thrusting their blades into anyone who still twitched.
No one thought it was a game anymore. There was no room left for such a delusion.
A single thought dominated every mind: survival. Primal instinct took over, eclipsing all reason.
And so, while many scrambled to escape, a few stood their ground, lashing out when the goblins drew too near.
“Die, you monster bastards!”
They swung their fists with desperate force, the impact of knuckles on leathery skin surprisingly solid. A few goblins were even knocked out cold.
But killing them was another matter entirely. These were modern people, many of whom had never so much as killed an insect. They could not bring themselves to snap a goblin’s neck or crush its skull.
Instead, they were the ones who collapsed, their brief defiance ending with a dagger in the gut. Body after body hit the ground with a soft, final thump. Surrounded by goblins that swarmed like hyenas, they were trapped and helpless.
[Kekeke, now this is amusing. Goblins eating humans alive.]
The Cheon-sa watching from above giggled. To her, this was no different from watching a cat toy with a mouse. It was simple, bloody entertainment.
[Even if your opponent is a child, you have no chance when dozens of them charge you at once. Especially not when they’re all holding daggers.]
And yet, there was one person who was withstanding dozens of attackers. The human who had been slaughtering goblins from the very beginning.
“Who is that human?” the Cheon-sa Seo-rin wondered aloud, her interest piqued. “And what’s with that name, Huk-yeong?”
She didn’t know his real name; system regulations prevented her, an Cheon-sa, from viewing a player’s status window. Naturally, that meant she couldn’t see what kind of rune he possessed either.
“Such a pathetic system,” Seo-rin muttered with a frown. “They let us see quest progress but block us from seeing player information.”
She had never liked being assigned as a guide. It was beneath her. But now… things were different. Her lips curled into a smile as she watched the human bloodbath unfold.
Being put in charge of a flock of inferior humans is a humiliating task for a noble being like myself, but… This fierce, brutal spectacle suited her tastes perfectly.
To be honest, she hadn't expected much from a fight between humans and goblins.
[Kekeke. But this is more fun than I thought, isn’t it?]
The desperate faces of the humans struggling to fight back, their agonized screams, the blood staining the earth—it all amused her to no end.
“Kill them! Kill them all, you worthless vermin! Fight and die like the insects you are! Kekeke!”
As Seo-rin surveyed the slaughter, her eyes were suddenly drawn to a specific area. Unlike the rest of the field, which was soaked in crimson, this one patch of ground was slick with green blood.
And in the middle of it all stood the player with the nickname Huk-yeong.
“That human again? He’s still alive?”
When she’d first watched him emerge victorious from his battle with the goblins, she had felt a brief flicker of excitement. She’d assumed he must have stumbled upon a powerful rune that gave him an early advantage.
But that was all. She had quickly shifted her gaze away, certain that his stamina would eventually run out and he would meet the same fate as the others.
Yet, to her surprise, he was still fighting with breathtaking ferocity. He was tearing through the goblins like a rabid wolf, having already slain more than seventy of them. Even Seo-rin, who was tracking the quest’s progress, found the feat impressive. It’s his first time in battle, but he fights like he’s done this a thousand times before, she marveled.
His movements were swift and precise, his weapon a blur of deadly grace. Even the goblins seemed momentarily cowed by his intensity. She couldn’t help but wonder, Could a human on Earth have a profession as a killer?
As she watched Park Jin-ho, her mood brightened considerably. She didn’t know what would happen next, but the situation was turning out to be far more interesting than she had anticipated.
A satisfied smile spread across Seo-rin’s face.