Oh Chan-seok was an unremarkable man.
He was the type who would gain weight just by drinking water.
Thanks to this, his body gradually swelled, his appearance became increasingly grotesque, and he struggled with social life.
Perhaps due to this, his personality also became warped, with anonymous trolling and provoking others becoming his hobbies.
“Don’t bare your teeth.”
“Ugh. Hmph.”
He issued a commanding order and kicked Seo Yuna in the abdomen, newly adding her to his collection.
Though Seo Yuna was in pain, his command was absolute, so she continued her task.
Her stomach, exposed due to her lack of clothing, was covered in bruises.
“How did you manage to get into the bank with that head of yours?”
“I’m…I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t as if Oh Chan-seok, who had dropped out of high school—let alone college—was in any position to criticize someone else’s intellect, but he mocked Seo Yuna without any regard.
She apologized but had no idea why she was saying such things.
‘My body isn’t moving at my will…’
Oh Chan-seok’s skill couldn’t completely dominate Seo Yuna’s mind.
Once his words were spoken, she obeyed, but other than that, she was free to think.
And that made it all the more pitiful.
Ding dong.
The doorbell rang throughout the house.
Oh Chan-seok checked the security camera to see who it was, then opened the door.
“Already been a month?”
“Yeah.”
“Come in.”
The man who carefully entered Oh Chan-seck’s house was the C-rank Hero, ‘Clean Water.’
He was both the contact person for the collection orchestrated by Oh Chan-seck and one of the collection members himself.
‘Clean Water’ frowned upon seeing the room filled with naked women.
He was a hero who originally pursued justice.
If he hadn’t fallen prey to Oh Chan-seok’s skill, he would have immediately torn his limbs off.
“Everything you’re thinking is obvious. I’ll let you kill me if I解除 your skill. Right?”
“No, no sir.”
‘Clean Water’, resembling a soldier with tight military discipline, shook his head in response.
“Well, what are you gonna do? I’m A-rank now. You, some trash C-rank hero, can’t beat me.”
He opened the bag that ‘Clean Water’ had brought.
Inside were numerous ‘Orbs of Growth.’
Oh Chan-seok had brainwashed dozens of C-rank Awakened Ones and ordered them to mine these Orbs of Growth.
They abandoned all aspects of their daily lives and entered dungeons, even at the cost of going into debt.
Thanks to this, Oh Chan-seok quickly ascended in rank.
The highest rank he could control was now B-rank.
Until recently, it had been C-rank, but with his recent promotion to A-rank, controlling B-rank became possible.
“Wow, you really mined a lot. Thanks?”
Oh Chan-seok said this while consuming the Orbs of Growth.
‘Clean Water’ trembled.
His life was now utterly destroyed.
Because he had been mining the Orbs of Growth for that man, he couldn’t carry out his hero duties, leading to the citizens branding him as a subpar hero and getting fired by his management company.
Since he couldn’t use the official dungeon through his management, he had to pay to enter private ones, depleting all his savings and incurring debt.
“Someday, you’ll pay for this…!”
Unable to suppress his anger, he muttered these words, filled with hatred and a curse.
“What? A lot stacked up on me, huh? How much debt do you have, again? That’s an order.”
“…700 million won.”
“Whew~ Borrowed quite a lot, didn’t you? No collateral either, right? Ah, but awakened beings use their bodies as collateral, don’t they?”
Oh Chan-seok chuckled, but despite his smirk, his eyes were cold.
“You….”
*
I am Kim Seung-hwan, a student in 1-B class.
This morning, I went to the storage warehouse to retrieve the armor and weapons I brought over from my family estate.
Although I brought them, they had just been gathering dust because they weren’t necessary for the academy curriculum—until now, thanks to Shinnoda.
“What’s this? Did you drag all of 1-B here? Why are you all gathered like this?”
Teacher Song Si-yeol, who had been our homeroom teacher at the beginning of the semester and now handled the gate assignments, asked.
“Well, we thought we might try group combat practice, based on what we learned in theory class recently.”
“Hmm, is that so? Not really my concern, I guess.”
Shinnoda spoke up to explain, and the teacher simply nodded in a bored manner before dismissing it.
“Let’s go in!”
Approximately sixty students lined up to enter the gate. It was quite an impressive sight, and I felt proud to be among them.
—————–[Dungeon Entry]——————-
[You have entered the ‘Gigantic Forest.’]
————————————————
The translucent message displayed in front of my eyes. I felt a thrill of excitement.
‘If what Noda said is true, this is where we’ll experience a proper raid!’
It was completely different from the ordinary dungeon practice sessions conducted under the supervision of academy instructors.
Typically, our training took place in abandoned dungeons purchased by the academy. As expected from an abandoned dungeon, there were barely any monsters, nor any puzzles or tricks, leaving us somewhat dissatisfied.
‘And using this kind of experience won’t really set us apart when we need to boost our profiles later. Everyone else has done it, after all.’
On the other hand, as Noda explained, there’s another dungeon inside the ‘Gigantic Forest,’ and if we help clear it, that’s no small feat. At the very least, it puts us ahead of the A-class students.
‘Though, if the girl rumored to be Noda’s girlfriend is part of the A-class… Still, she’s only one person, right?’
Noda, known for being cool with the chairman’s granddaughter of the K Group, held hands with this girl every morning while walking to school and treated her with affection.
Most people were already aware of it.
Following Shinnoda in a double column, we started moving.
Senior students and kids from other classes, who were at the base camp for maintenance, began whispering.
“What’s this? Some kind of group picnic?”
“Those guys are from 1-B, right? They’re probably scared of D-rank monsters, which is why they all came together like this.”
“They said this year’s freshmen are the worst of all time, apart from Shinnoda. Guess it’s true.”
Grinding my teeth, I couldn’t stand their thoughtless comments.
‘How dare they talk nonsense when they don’t even know where we are headed?’
I wanted to turn around and loudly protest, to explain the situation, but since Shinnoda wasn’t doing anything, neither could I. So we continued following him.
Deep within the Gigantic Forest.
Shinnoda stopped near an open area where trees and bushes were sparse.
“We’re going to make preparations here.”
Shinnoda, dressed in crimson full armor, stood on a small rock and spoke.
I couldn’t help but admire his outfit.
‘How much must it cost to get an armor like that?’
Even just by its color and appearance, it was clearly one of the highest-tier dungeon artifacts.
Well, Shinnoda was already known to be among the upper ranks of B-class, so such equipment was basic for someone like him.
I heard that top performers in the academy would receive sponsorship from management companies.
‘Is this the case with him? Or maybe Min-seo’s management company is offering support.’
Anyway, it was impressive and enviable.
“Our destination is likely a Goblin village. Therefore, the monsters we’ll encounter will mostly be Goblins. And certainly, there will be a lot of them.”
Shinnoda began his tactical briefing. We stopped our idle chatter and focused our attention.
“You mustn’t underestimate the Goblins. Though their default rank is D, they grow like humans, meaning some might evolve into warriors, archers, wizards, cavalry, and more.”
Goblins, huh.
I hadn’t seen one but based on what I’ve seen in movies and games, they’re supposed to be pretty weak.
“According to my research, when the Goblin village appears, the gate to the Gigantic Forest will close. And we can only exit once all of them are exterminated.”
Murmurs rose among the group. The weaker ones started to get nervous.
‘What cowards. With this attitude, how will they ever become heroes? It’s just a bunch of goblins. Just kill them.’
I mocked them inwardly.
“If we go about 20 km further, we’ll reach a large open field. My plan is to lure the Goblins there and wage a rotational battle.”
Even though we are fewer in numbers, a rotational battle could work.
Thinking about it logically, an ambush in the forests might make sense, but we’re outsiders here. Acting rashly might get us killed.
‘Our individual capabilities far outweigh theirs, so a direct confrontation would be more advantageous.’
As if reading my thoughts, Shinnoda continued his explanation.
“I also considered various tactics. But in the end, it’s meaningless. We’re stronger, so why overcomplicate things?”
And with those words, Shinnoda abruptly hurled the spear he was carrying.
“Zzzziiip.”
A sound slicing through the air.
“Keeaaack!”
A scream followed. We rushed toward the source of the sound.
A single goblin was impaled by the spear.
“Wow, it’s Shinnoda, alright!”
“I didn’t even sense it coming.”
“We can win!”
The goblin, who had been on surveillance, fell to Shinnoda’s blow.
“Wow, the spear…!”
“Amazing!”
The spear that pierced through the goblin’s heart suddenly retracted itself and returned to Shinnoda’s hand. It was an almost miraculous, otherworldly act.
A sense of reverence washed over me.
“We are going to perform the traditional hammer and anvil maneuver on the plain. Those who have Agility B-rank or above will be the hammer, the rest will form the anvil group. If you qualify as hammer, come to the left.”
I subtly moved to the left.
My Agility stat was actually “C 991,” but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. It wouldn’t differ that much, should be okay.
“About 12 of you, right? Good. You will follow me. And everyone in the anvil group will follow Park Hayeon with the pink hair. She’s B-rank, the second strongest here after me.”
No one dared to voice an objection. Just surprise.
‘Sure, Shinnoda is at another level, but his girlfriend is B-rank too? And she’s only a freshman…’
No one had complaints about being led by someone strong. Though it was somewhat odd because she was unfamiliar with us.
“It’s reported that the goblins’ numbers range from 500 to 700. Thus, the anvil group will inevitably be surrounded. Your job is simply to act as bait and keep them occupied.”
The kids in the anvil group seemed a bit uneasy at the mention of being bait. Even I, despite being in the hammer group, thought the anvil group was in too much danger.
“Right. It will be dangerous for the anvil team. However, if you just hold on a bit, we will eliminate the enemy ranged units and provide support. After that, dealing with the remaining enemies will be as simple as eating a sandwich.”
At least we all came properly equipped with full armor. Most might be mass-produced cheap ones but are sufficient to block arrows and blades from goblins.
“No one who selfishly retreats by themselves will mean there will be no casualties. Our abilities and defenses are overwhelmingly superior. Moreover, each team leader has potions. Shout for help if you suffer a critical injury.”
‘They have potions!’
I sighed in relief. At least, we won’t die easily. Goblins aren’t strong enough to kill us in one hit, so if we get injured, we have potions to heal ourselves.
“Thereby conclude my briefing. Now, keep your focus. Anyone who acts selfishly, I will personally kill.”
Shinnoda growled as he lifted his spear.
“To victory!”
He shouted in a loud voice.
The sun hung high in the sky, and Shinoda, standing on the small rock, blocked its direct light. A halo seemed to radiate behind him.
‘This is what A-rank feels like…’
In this world, there are individuals capable of leading a group, and then there are those who can’t even take responsibility for themselves.
Shinnoda was clearly the former. The words “hero of the ages” aptly described such a person.
There was no hesitation in entrusting our lives to him, even for a brief moment.
We all lifted our weapons.
“For victory!”
“For victory!”
And together, we shouted.
