Chapter 59. Uninvited Guest (4)
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Eun-Ho had equipped the Almighty Observer’s Eye the moment he received it. Naturally, since he never knew when someone would attack. And in this case, someone already had.
“Aaah...!”
“Thank you, young lady! Thank you so much!”
Just a few hours ago, Sol-Ah had been going around healing people with everyone sitting patiently in line. Eun-Ho had taken that opportunity to examine each face one by one. He had also confirmed that each person’s stamina had fully restored to hundred percent.
That means no one should’ve taken any damage since then.
Out of the five suspects, only the two women showed even the slightest drop in stamina. It was barely noticeable, but the Almighty Observer’s Eye didn’t lie.
Still, he couldn’t just throw out accusations with no solid proof. They could’ve been scratched somewhere, taken a fall, or have gone through minor injuries. That was why he’d called on Sol-Ah. Besides healing, she could also read their status effects.
I used to think her power was just for healing, but who knew it’d come in handy in such a way?
“Take the others back upstairs,” Eun-Ho said. “It’s not safe here.”
“Got it.”
As Sol-Ah began moving the others to safety, the chef suddenly shouted, “Y-you there! What the hell do you think you're doing to a lady?!”
“A lady?”
Give me a break.
Clearly, this guy could tell good ingredients from bad, but not people. He still hadn’t wrapped his head around the situation.
“Grabbing innocent people like this! How dare you—”
“Don’t move!”
Before he could finish yelling, Ji-Eun calmly pressed a dagger to his neck. The sight of it shut him up real quick.
“Aaah! O-okay, okay!” He stiffened, eyes glued to the blade, visibly rattled. “I-I don’t know anything! Let’s just talk things out, yeah? Nice and calm?”
Honestly, the way he trembled reminded Eun-Ho of Jae-Hyuk back in the day. He even seemed too scared to properly shake. If that was acting, the guy didn’t belong in a kitchen, but on stage.
I’ll deal with him later.
“First off, let’s talk about you, terrorist Yoo Ri-Na. ”
“What are you even saying?! I don’t know anything about bombs! I swear!”
Despite being caught red-handed, she still had the nerve to cry like a victim.
“She could’ve been lying for you! Maybe you two planned this together! Why should we trust anything she says?!” she yelled in a hysterical tone, teary-eyed, just like someone under a false allegation.
“I never asked you to believe me,” Eun-Ho replied.
However, anyone could fake that kind of face, especially a serial killer hiding in plain sight.
Crack.
Eun-Ho twisted her fragile-looking wrist. One hand’s grip was enough to snap it like a twig.
Huh?
Or so he thought.
“Kyaaaaah!”
The scream was delicate, but the wrist felt like solid steel. It wasn’t like a twig, but a goddamn tree branch.
She really pumped up her Defense stat.
“Let go, you perv! That hurts!”
She was obviously the one behind the gas attack. That much was clear. Now there were just two questions left: Was Yoo Ri-Na actually X? If so, was she working alone?
“You’re crushing my earring! At least let me take it off! My ear’s gonna tear!” she thrashed her head side to side like a maniac, probably hoping to land a headbutt and break free.
Eun-Ho clamped both her wrists and pinned her nape against the cold cement wall. “Just answer my question. Are you X?”
“Ooow! I don’t even know what that is! You’re hurting me, damn it!” she screamed like he was the villain.
However, Eun-Ho didn’t flinch. “You seriously don’t know?”
“Why the hell would I?!”
“You should. Because X was placed second on the donation rankings, after all.”
She flinched.
“When the trial ended, that big results screen popped up right in your face. And don’t tell me you missed the fireworks going off in the sky.”
Yoo Ri-Na went silent. Her nose crinkled, her jaw tightened, and she bit her lip hard. That look said it all.
That’s enough confirmation. So she is X. Now the next question is if she did everything alone.
“I-I don’t know anything! I just said what she told me to say!”
It was hard to imagine that chef guy was an accomplice to a murderer, but who knew? There could be someone else hiding nearby.
If she attacks alone, she must’ve been acting solo. If she keeps stalling, maybe she’s waiting for backup.
Besides, if anyone was hiding out there, they wouldn’t be able to stay hidden for long, as their lives would be on the line.
That means, it’s time to play along for a bit. See what crawls out. Now, let’s see where she might have put that gun.
If Subject X still had the same gun from back then, she had likely hidden it somewhere. Objects unaffected by the system couldn’t be stored in an inventory, since they didn’t qualify as items. However, Yoo Ri-Na was wearing a thin T-shirt and shorts.
So where is it? She wouldn’t have just left it behind...
As Eun-Ho silently scanned for clues about the weapon’s whereabouts, Yoo Ri-Na slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again with a sigh of admiration.
Her full lips parted, and she whispered, “Aaah, busted.”
The tone, smooth, casual, almost bored, was a jarring contrast to the panicked screaming just moments before. The shift sent a cold shiver down Eun-Ho’s spine.
With a quick flick of her head, she tossed her hair back. Then, came a faint sound like a pen being clicked.
Her earring had split in two, right above where his right arm was pinning her. It was the oversized hoop earring she’d worn since their first meeting. He’d thought it was an odd fashion choice, but it turned out it wasn’t for fashion at all.
“Petrify,” Eun-Ho muttered.
“Haha. It’s a paralysis needle. Technically speaking...” she added with a twisted smile, “it’s poisonous. It should spread through your whole body in under a minute.”
It was a stealthy poison needle, no doubt followed by a fake antidote she had no plans to give. What a classic setup. Anyone could see this was a death flag.
Crack.
Eun-Ho could feel his skin, muscles, and his very bones resisting. The poison couldn’t find a way in, as if his physique had hardened and sealed itself off.
Thunk!
The needle, her trump card, snapped off against his arm and bounced to the floor.
“W-what the hell?! Why didn’t it work?!”
“If that’s the best you’ve got, I’m disappointed.”
She grit her teeth and snapped her head back, trying to land a blow. Eun-Ho tilted his head just in time, dodging the attack. Just then, she twisted herself and slipped through the opening, trying to force her way out.
She’s fast! Inhumanly so...
Her movements were flexible, deliberate, yet full of explosive force. She wasn’t just fast, she was trained.
This might actually be dangerous in close combat...
She was much stronger than she seemed. It made him realize he had been solely focused on skill development and slacking on physical stats. Trying to match an expert in their own specialty and domain was suicide.
It’s time to flip the script.
***
It worked!
Yoo Ri-Na smirked to herself. She’d pegged this bastard, Lee Eun-Ho, as a thinker, but it turned out he’d trained himself.
The poison hadn’t worked. Sure, that was annoying, but maybe he’d dumped everything into his Defense stat. It didn’t matter to her anymore.
Let’s see how long he keeps that smug face with a bullet in his brain!
Swoosh—!
She slipped away, putting distance between them. Once she had enough room, she was planning to summon the gun and blow him away. If one shot didn’t do it, she’d fire two, and so on, and so forth. She wouldn’t stop until he was limp and twitching in a pool of his own blood. He better coughed up the lens or anything else valuable he had on him.
He looks smart—smarter than all the idiots I’ve dealt with before, so he must have good stuff! It’s too bad my cover was blown but it’s no big deal. I’ll clean up the mess and disappear just like always.
“You know, all those people upstairs? They’re gonna die because of you,” Ri-Na said, looking at Eun-Ho.
“What?”
“You should’ve let me handle this quietly when you had the chance.”
Eun-Ho didn’t respond. He seemed focused, as if calculating something behind those steady eyes.
She scoffed and thought, These brainiacs always know when they’re about to die. Pathetic.
Unfortunately, she was done playing.
“Summon.”
***
“You should’ve let me handle this quietly when you had the chance.”
Eun-Ho didn’t say a word. Ri-Na was already acting like she’d won, her right hand twitching slightly, itching to summon the weapon. He could feel her gaze flicking across the area like a sniper lining up targets. Those tiny, almost imperceptible movements were what he’d been waiting for.
Now is the time.
Ever since he’d seen that footage of Subject X, he’d replayed it again and again to study how to fight someone with a gun. He thought of wearing body armor, having reinforcements around the limbs, and wearing a helmet to deflect headshots. However, even that had its weaknesses.
One couldn’t shield every inch of themselves, and even if they could, once the enemy saw it, they’d just stop shooting altogether.
And then they’d just go for someone else.
That was when Eun-Ho made his decision. He’d defeat them before they started shooting. If the gun was hidden on themself, he was ready to sever the limb. If it was in the inventory, he was ready to intercept it the moment they summoned it.
After all, the safest strategy would be to stop the attack before it began, and he was prepared for it.
Ri-Na uttered, her lips puckering around the first syllable, “Sum—”
“Acceleration!”
However, Eun-Ho had finished his word first.
“---moooon.”
A shimmer appeared between her fingers like droplets of water, distorting the light. It materialized, color forming from nothing, mass condensing from thin air. A slender, ornate gun, longer than a pistol, but not quite a rifle. There was no cylinder or magazine in sight.
Before it could finish forming, Eun-Ho snatched it and ripped it from her. He didn’t expect the weapon to be so peculiar-looking and elegant. It seemed more ceremonial than practical, but there was no time to ponder it.
“Store.”
He slipped it safely into his inventory.
I thought it’d be some kind of modern gun, but I guess I was wrong.
“Summon.”
He should’ve realized it the moment she summoned it. However, for now, he decided to focus on his own weapon: the familiar, sleek, and solid blade.
“Diiie—!”
Click.
Time locked back into place.
“What the?” Ri-Na stared at her empty hands, flexing her fingers in disbelief.
“You said those people upstairs would die because of me, right?” he said.
“Huh?”
“You’re dying because of your own words,” Eun-Ho replied.
Swoosh—!
Eun-Ho lunged.
“Wait... Did you take my gun?”
“Goodbye.”
“Wai—!”
Shhk!
He didn’t even let her finish. No more monologues and speeches. Enough with villains rambling and escaping unscathed. The blade slid clean through her gut.
As she was thin, it pierced through easily. The blade went in on one side, then came out the other.
“Kuk...!”
Blood sprayed from her mouth. Her eyes, once sharp, now dulled and distant. She slumped to the ground.
[You have defeated Subject Yoo Ri-Na.]
As the last of her breath left her, unidentified items spilled out onto the floor.
Eun-Ho collapsed to his knees.
Thud.