Arena - Chapter 135

“If Heising were smart, he would stop fighting and withdraw his troops.”

On our way back to the harbor, Cha Ji-hye voiced her opinion.

I nodded my head.

“That’s the amount of damage just from me, one person. If he wants to avoid further damage, it would be right to stop fighting.”

“But with his personality, chances of that are slim.”

Explained Cha Ji-hye.

“Even coming out to fight to begin with, it was to make up for his failure last time. Probably, Lee Chang-wee goaded him into doing it.”

“I think so too.”

Funnily enough, Lee Chang-wee was expecting quite of lot from me.

After meeting me last time, he seemed to have some faith in me?

That I would cause Heising some trouble, it seems he was expecting that of me.

“Anyway, there is no need or wiggle room to go easy on Heising. Our side must carefully focus on the pirate battle. If possible, it would be good to not let Heising return alive.”

“Yes.”

While we were conversing, Vincent rowed silently.

And right at that time, the harbor dock came into view.

“We have arrived!”

Shouted Vincent in a good mood.

“Waahhhh!”

“They’re back!”

“Vincent ajusshi!”

From the lighthouse, we could hear shouting. The fisherman gathered at the lighthouse waved their hands and greeted us.

It seems they were rejoicing at the sight of seeing us safely return,

The sailboat landed at the dock.

The soldiers guarding the dock lined up alongside it.

And a middle aged man taking care of the soldiers walked briskly between them.

It was regiment commander Ajen.

Unlike his usual self, his military uniform and hair was clean, he looked like a different person.

“You’ve returned.”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad, you don’t look injured. How did it go?”

“Among the 32 pirate ships, 9 are down.”

“A whole 9?”

Regiment commander Ajen’s eyes grew wide.

“Is that true?”

“You’re not lying?”

“Regiment commander! I saw it with my own eyes. You won’t disregard my eyes because I’m old will you?”

Vincent interjected.

Regiment commander Ajen nodded his head.

“The eyes that God gave you, how could I dismiss them? Tell me what happened.”

“He was incredible! The long and strange weapon he had, every time it spewed fire, one of their masts broke and eventually the ships tilted and sank.”

Vincent excitedly explained the fight that he saw himself.

“My sailboat zoomed with the power of the spirit. Really, I’ve never had such an interesting experience in my life!”

Vincent pointed to me and continued his excited speech.

“This man, he also fought with Heising!”

“You don’t mean that pirate leader Heising?!”

“Yes! That bastard Heising, he jump ran at us on top of the water and this man was flying around the sky and had a big fight with Heising. He traversed sea and sky and fought it was really……!”

Listening to Vincent chatting away, the faces of regiment commander Ajen and his soldiers were overcome with awe.

And from those gazes looking over, I could see that they had started to respect me.

Then regiment commander Ajen grabbed my hands.

“I am truly moved! What this country could not do, you single handedly did! You are a hero!”

“No, really.”

“Their morale will be strongly shaken. Since they know now that a hero like you is at our harbor.”

“Well, no doubt they will feel very discouraged now. They’ve suffered a rather big and chaotic loss, they won’t be able to recover from it all.”

Rescuing the pirates from the sunken ships, reforming the messed up ship formation, on top of the mountain of other things they need to manage and fix now.

“But we can’t relax because of it. They took a huge hit but the pirates will not give up on the attack.”

At my words, regiment commander Ajen agreed.

“Of course, we must avoid carelessness and cannot let our guard down. Today, we must surely repel their advance and make it so they can never attack this port again.”

I nodded along in agreement.

Somehow, its not like there weren’t any parts going according to Lee Chang-wee’s wishes but there was no doubt that this was a good opportunity.

In the midst of the fight, by eliminating a ton of the corrupt examinees, it was a great opportunity to get lots of karma.

From the fight just now, I killed a whopping 5. The more the better.

***

Under regiment commander Ajen’s orders, everyone was immersed in preparations for battle.

I alone sat on a hilltop overlooking the harbor. I decided to set up here to snipe.

Oh by the way I should see how much karma I got from killing those corrupt examinees.

“Board summon.”

-Name: Kim Hyun-ho

-Class: 33

-Karma: +16,500

-Mission: block the pirate attack

-Time limit: none

‘Wow!’

I felt like rejoicing. 16,500 karma!

The result of one fight.

These bad people, acting as pirates and working with black magicians, had accrued a lot of minus karma.

Then if I kill the leader of the pirates, Heising, how much karma could I get for that?

Thinking about that, it made me want it that much more.

‘Am I somehow the same as them?’

Those bastards kill people to collect majeong, I kill them to get karma.

The awful sight of body parts exploding from the giant sniper rifle, I felt nothing from it now.

Rather, I just felt satisfaction when it was done in one shot.

“Weapon, AW50F.”

I summoned the AW50F and put it on the ground, lay down, and assumed my position.

They’re bad people anyway.

What’s so bad about gaining some from killing the bad guys?

….. Thoughts like that kept taking root in my mind.

I suddenly questioned.

How many people are there that want to clear the missions in this world?

The capitalists and politicians who had invested heavily into the Arena, I’m sure they don’t want a situation where it becomes impossible to collect majeong.

The Chinese examinee group is acting most openly about it but honestly, everyone must feel the same.

But was that just how the investors thought?

I don’t know if a majority of examinees themselves don’t want the clear the missions.

The identity of an examinee!

The specialness, knowing you are different from others, it gave you the pride of being a chosen one.

If all the exams are cleared and you never have to do the exams again, then what?

And all the skills you got from doing the exams, what if they disappeared?

I would return to the plain old me that I used to be.

Spending my days hung up on the civil service exam. Just a nobody.

I won’t be treated as the important person I am now.

Will I be able to handle that?

Money wasn’t the problem.

The fear inside an examinee’s head, it’s probably something like that.

Perhaps the corrupt examinees now, they are afraid of that and maybe that’s why they chose the path they did.

‘I’m not too sure about skilled people like Cha Ji-hye though.’

Originally even before being an examinee, Cha Ji-hye was skilled. I don’t know what she might think.

But I am afraid of my past self. I’m scared I may return to that time.

But despite that, I will clear the exams.

Lee Hye-su.

Lee Jun-ho.

Kang Chun-seong.

My friends that died in the 3rd round. How badly did they want to live?

At the cost of their lives, I could live.

Thinking of that, aside from the ultimate goal of completing the final exam, I could have no other goal.

I wondered how much time passed.

Deng, deng, deng.

In the deport harbor, a bell rang out loudly.

Looking far out at the water’s edge, I could see the pirate ships appearing.

5 pirate ships encased in defense magic led the way with the other pirate ships trailing behind.

It’s a plan specifically targeted to protect themselves against me. Huh, seems like they’re starting to use their brains a bit.

‘Can’t be helped.’

First, I decided to give up on aiming for the pirate ship masts.

I would observe the fight a little longer and when a strong opponent appeared, I planned on killing them right away. A strong pirate on the ship? Chances were high that it was a corrupt examinee.

The battle began on both sides.

The pirates got off the ships and attempted to land.

Starting from the docks and all the way in from the water, the soldiers began to rain down arrows.

The pirates were continuously falling down after being shot with arrows.

The pirates were relentlessly trying to land so they could launch their counterattack but it wasn’t working.

I could sense a bit of panic spreading amongst the pirates.

‘I see. They didn’t realize there would be this much resistance at the docks.’

In the past while they were in concert with consul Adsel and regiment commander Decker’s help, they had always just walked in and achieved a bloodless victory.

From the position of the pirates that don’t know of those two’s deaths, this was a shocking situation.

At the relentless arrow attack and the pirate advancement being halted, regiment commander Ajen must have given out orders because the soldiers yelled out.

“Waaaaah!”

“Waahh!!”

“ADVANCE!!”

He was shouting as if we had already won. I think regiment commander had succeeded in getting the soldiers hyped up.

Anyway, this was a great start.

The pirate horde was actually using their brains so first they attempted to have the 5 ships encased in defense magic land.

When the landing was complete, they’ll cast defense magic on the other ships so they can land. At least it looks like that’s what they were planning.

‘They must only have about 5 magicians then.’

It was a tactic to prevent me from shooting their ships but there was a huge hole in that plan.

If only those 5 protected ships attempt to dock instead of the entire fleet all at once, then the concentrated attack from the port’s defenders was enough to relentlessly beat them back.

Also, it looked like Heising has given out an order.

The pirate ships that were hiding in the back began to approach the shoreline.

‘I’ve been waiting for this.’

I aimed for the ships without defense magic and pulled the trigger.

Taang-

I didn’t ask Sylph to hide the sound so the gunshot rang out.

One ship’s front mast fell to the left.

Taaang!

Then the back mast shattered.

Not able to keep its balance, the pirate ship tilted and smashed into the pirate ship next to it.

“Waaaa!”

The harbor defenders shouted again.

Taang-tang-taaang-!

I kept shooting.

With the same method, another two ships went down.

Of course, the pirates weren’t staying still either.

The pirates that had jumped off the ships were working together and falling off the ships like ants and started to climb ashore.

The harbor defenders resisted them by pouring down arrows but eventually the pirates were able to make it to land and butt heads with the soldiers.

With shields and spears in the front, the soldiers confronted the pirates and began to fight.

The harbor defenders were in a better formation but the pirates were bold.

Against pirates with plenty of fighting experience, the harbor defenders and soldiers who had been running away from these battles for so long could only hold their positions.

In the midst of this, I was enthralled in shooting down the pirate ships masts.

But then.

One figure from the harbor jumped up into thea air.

Looking more closely through the scope, I could see his face.

It’s Heising.

With an incredible take-off, in an instant he jumped over the defense and landed on the shore.

And he jumped from one building to the next, flying through the air.

Heising was headed straight for the hilltop I was on.