Round Two, Fight! (1)

"About time you showed up," YuWon said, casually walking to the girl.

"Stay right there," the girl warned, raising her scythe.

A moment later, her skeleton soldiers jumped in, forming a barrier between YuWon and her.

"Easy. I just want to help you get rid of the monster chasing you."

The girl raised her eyebrow when YuWon mentioned the monster. As far as she knew, the monster had only shown up around her. As such, it was unlikely anyone else would know about it.

"How do you know about that? Are you some kind of oracle or something?"

"An oracle, huh?" YuWon chuckled, nodding along. "Yeah, something like that."

Unknowingly, the girl had given a way for YuWon to justify knowing the future. It was the perfect fake class for someone like him.

Before the girl could respond, Min-Joon stumbled up beside YuWon, his face flushed. He stared at the girl, unable to form any coherent words.

"Y-you… you're… uh… I mean, do you… uh…" Min-Joon stuttered.

Watching his reaction, YuWon raised an eyebrow. "What is wrong with you now?"

"Do you even know who she is, YuWon?" Min-Joon finally managed to say.

Being an outcast, YuWon was too busy focusing on survival than wondering what was happening around the campus. But by the way, Min-Joon was talking about the girl, it seemed she was a hotshot, probably the daughter of some rich guy.

"Not really. Should I?"

Upon hearing YuWon's words, Min-Joon's eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn't believe someone didn't know about Korea's leading track and field idol.

"She's Lee Soo-Ah! She's set to represent South Korea in the next Olympics. A literal track and field star, the greatest prodigy—!"

Min-Joon continued yapping about her, but neither Soo-Ah nor YuWon were paying any attention to him. But YuWon saw Soo-Ah smile as Min-Joon introduced her.

"That's right. But I'm guessing all that doesn't really matter anymore, does it?"

"I mean, watching people run for medals with monsters on their ass would be a funny sight."

Soo-Ah frowned as he said that. She knew the possibility of her showing her skills on the grandest stage of them all was little to nothing.

Even so, she had trained her entire life for that and it wasn't something she could just forget about, like YuWon said.

But for that to happen, she had to first make it out of there and deal with the monsters. Unfortunately, that meant facing the hobgoblin.

So far, she has tried various tactics to defeat the beast, but all of them failed, leaving her with no option but to run.

It seemed like the monster was obsessed with her and would only go after her, even if there were an entire group of humans right in front of it.

But can we defeat it?

Soo-Ah looked at YuWon. His torn baggy clothes made it seem like has had a tough time with the goblins. As for Min-Joon... it didn't seem like there was much he could do.

As much as she didn't want to put her trust in anyone, there was little Soo-Ah could do on her own regarding the monster. But maybe... their numbers could help her defeat the hobgoblin.

"What level are you two?" Soo-Ah asked them.

"Level... 4," Min-Joon murmured. "As for him? Don't bother, he won't answer."

"He will," Soo-Ah said, staring into YuWon's eyes. 

"Does it matter?" YuWon replied.

"It matters if you want me to fight alongside you," Soo-Ah replied. "I'm not teaming up with someone weaker than me, even if they are an oracle."

"Level eight," YuWon lied.

He knew if he told them the truth, it would raise questions. After all, it wouldn't have been possible for someone to reach that level so soon. But even though he lied, Soo-Ah didn't believe him.

"Huh? You told her, but not me?" Min-Joon acted offended. "As I thought! You're a womanizer—"

YuWon took a deep breath before grabbing Min-Joon by the back of his neck and pulling him towards him.

"If you don't stop yapping, I just might feed you to the hobgoblin."

"U-Understood, boss!"

However, Soo-Ah had no interest in their bickering and shoved Min-Joon aside, getting into YuWon's face.

"You're lying. To reach level 8, you'd have to kill hundreds of goblins, and there hasn't been enough time for that."

"Are you sure about that?" YuWon asked, pointing at the sun and then tapped on his wristwatch. "How long do you think the sun's been stuck up there?"

Soo-Ah looked up and sighed. She had been too busy running away from the hobgoblin to pay attention to the minor details. But it was true.

While Soo-Ah and Min-Joon were thinking about it, YuWon quietly marked a second checkpoint.

He hadn't planned to do this at first, but after seeing how hard it was to make them believe him, he figured it would be easier to just set up the checkpoint rather than deal with all that trouble again.

[Checkpoint marked!]

[The host with respawn here upon death.]

[Respawn Points: 725/1000]

Now then, this should be easy... I guess?

With his preparations complete, YuWon turned to ask Soo-Ah about the hobgoblin. Since he knew little to nothing about the creature, he was hoping she would have some information about it.

"Huh? Do you think I'd be running away from it if I knew its weakness?" Soo-Ah shook her head. "You're the oracle. Shouldn't you know about these things?"

"...my powers have certain limitations—" he said, but was interrupted by the thumping footsteps of the hobgoblin.

The skeletons jumped before Soo-Ah as the hobgoblin appeared with its contingent of goblins.

"I guess we'll have to find out about it ourselves," YuWon said, pointing at the skeleton's arm. "Are you going to use that?"

"What?" Soo-Ah looked at YuWon, thinking if he was on drugs. "Of course, Mickey will use his hands—"

However, to her surprise, the skeleton casually ripped off his arm and handed it to YuWon like it was the most normal thing in the world. All the while, Soo-Ah watched on with her jaw dropped.