I Killed the Game's Heroine - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Arc 01: Today, I killed one of the main characters in the game. Or maybe it was yesterday.

***

To be honest, my life has been pretty messed up. No, it *is* pretty messed up.

I’ve been cheated out of money more times than I can count, been scammed, sought revenge, and even screwed people over.

I’ve caused accidents, too. Once, I even left tire tracks on the head of some guy who tried to rip me off by taking my motorcycle.

But despite all that, I’ve done whatever I could to make money, determined to raise my younger brother to be a decent person.

As I said, back when I was younger, I thought that maybe I could make a living by dipping my toes into the underworld. But I quickly realized that was a stupid idea and pulled out before I got in too deep.

Why is the underworld called the underworld anyway?

No matter how hard you struggle, you keep sinking deeper into the muck. Even if you try to live like a decent person, it’s impossible. That’s why it’s called the underworld.

Once your hands get dirty, the consequences follow. Even if you haven’t dirtied your hands yet, the people around you will pressure you to do so.

It’s like they’re already screwed, so they want everyone else to be screwed too. That’s the kind of psychology at play.

Ah, who was it? Some guy I don’t even remember said that humans create a swamp at the bottom of society. That’s exactly the right word.

Why am I suddenly talking about this crap? The reason is simple.

“Wow. You guys are really petty.”

“Kid, you might not understand yet, but the adult world is cruel like this.”

“Your mom.”

The world in the game isn’t much different from the underworld I know.

After dealing with Mr. Cuckoo, I headed to the office of the businessman who had hired me to collect my payment. The guy looked a bit surprised at first, but then he called someone in.

The person who appeared was clearly the muscle, the kind of guy who intimidates people.

He was holding something like a sickle and an axe, and the sense of danger you get when you pass by those kinds of guys? Yeah, I got that from him.

Judging by their spirit power, they were definitely exorcists.

No, actually, considering they were using their power in the underworld, maybe they weren’t just exorcists…

What was the word? There’s a term for exorcists who kill people. Viva? Vee? Curse-slingers? Rain? What was it?

Damn, I can’t remember. Anyway, the businessman, flanked by the muscle, smirked at me and sarcastically said I’d done a great job.

I didn’t expect this crap right from the start. They were clearly messing with me because I looked like a kid.

But do these guys not know that if you mess with the wrong person in this world, you could lose your head?

I clenched my jaw, glaring at the businessman, wondering what to do. The businessman, seeming to misunderstand my gaze, became even more smug and said,

“Kid, why don’t you just go home? Oh, right, since you worked hard, here’s something for dinner.”

Acting like he was doing me a favor, he pulled out a measly 10,000 won from his wallet and tossed it on the floor. The muscle guys started laughing.

A 10,000 won bill, not even a 50,000 won one.

They were trash, straight out of a comic book. I placed my hand on the hilt of my hwandu, seriously debating what to do next.

Of course, it’s not like I was about to go on a rampage just because they disrespected me.

It’s not that easy to kill someone, you know?

I had thought long and hard before killing Yeong Hyeong, that piece of trash.

The only reason I could bring myself to kill her was because she had no remorse or sorrow for the people she had killed. She was irredeemable.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive these guys for treating me like a joke, or that I’m going to run away crying.

What I’m really debating is how hard I need to kick this guy so that he won’t be able to sit on a toilet for a few months.

If you let this kind of thing slide, you’ll just get treated like a pushover. But if you fight back and make them bleed, they won’t mess with you again.

Besides, those muscle guys? Honestly, they didn’t seem as strong as the exorcists I’ve seen on the street. Their spirit power and the energy I felt from them were weak.

For a moment, I worried that dealing with them might bring more trouble later, but after a bit of thought, I figured it wouldn’t be a problem to take care of these illegal exorcists.

If those thugs were part of a gang, they wouldn’t be able to report losing to a kid like me. In the world of fistfighters, losing to someone weaker means you’re out. There’s no way they’d go back to their gang and admit they lost to a kid.

Of course, they weren’t just ordinary thugs. They were using spirit power to kill and curse people, so calling them regular gangsters wouldn’t be accurate…

But the ecosystem of people who kill and beat others is pretty much the same everywhere.

That businessman? He’s just some jerk who doesn’t want to pay a kid. How many connections could he possibly have? He seemed like just another small-time boss.

Once I sorted out my thoughts, I drew my hwandu. As soon as I did, the muscle guys who had been laughing at me came into focus.

I decided I’d deal with them, collect my payment, and be on my way. I took a step forward—

“Superhero Randy-iiing!”

Boom! Someone crashed through the ceiling with a familiar voice.

The office was underground, as you’d expect from people doing shady deals, but now the line between underground and aboveground was gone, thanks to the massive hole. The person who appeared kicked the thugs and the businessman in an instant—

Ah, damn. A piece of debris hit me in the head. The situation was so sudden that my eyes followed the action, but my body didn’t move.

I winced at the pain in my forehead and looked at Nokra, the one responsible for the familiar voice, and then at the gaping hole in the ceiling.

Is this place going to collapse? The hole was so big that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Sorry for being late— but everything’s fine now! Because—”

“You show up out of nowhere, smash my head, and that’s all you have to say?”

“Ah.”

I pointed to my forehead, cutting off her nonsense that sounded like it came straight out of a comic book.

When I showed her my forehead, already swelling up like a balloon, Nokra let out a dumb “Ah” and looked away.

What the hell is she doing, showing up out of nowhere and causing this mess? I tightened my grip on my hwandu and glared at her.

***

I picked up my spoon. Just looking at the intestines and blood sausage in the cloudy broth made my mouth water.

The restaurant near the office Nokra had destroyed was apparently a local favorite, and the kimchi smelled amazing.

In the past, I would’ve eaten it to get some cheap nourishment, but these days, the price has gone up, making it harder to enjoy like I used to.

But since Nokra offered to pay as an apology for turning my forehead into a baseball, I didn’t hesitate to order more.

“Can I get another bowl of rice, some boiled pork, a large order of blood sausage, and a drink, please?”

“Eh?”

“Sure, coming right up~”

While the shop owner smiled brightly at my order, Nokra’s face stiffened. I grinned at the contrast.

“Are you really going to eat all that?”

“Of course.”

At first, I had dismissed her as a fraud and spoke informally, but now that I recognized her, I used polite speech. I started eating the soup that had come out.

Using the skills I’d honed from labor jobs, I quickly gulped down the broth.

As I ate, Nokra sighed and spoke.

“…I heard you saved one of our students. I wanted to thank you for that, but I realized just saying thanks wasn’t enough. So, kid, I’m going to teach you how to use spirit power.”

“Suddenly?”

I was halfway through drinking the soup directly from the bowl when she suddenly said something strange, making me frown.

It had only been about three hours since I’d gone to confront the businessman, so how did she find out what happened?

Then I remembered that they had been watching me all along. They probably learned about it while keeping an eye on me.

But why was she suddenly offering to teach me this? I thought about it.

Was this just another way to rope me into joining the academy? You know, the whole “Your talent is amazing! You can’t waste it!” spiel?

But this time, her tone was serious, without the usual drawn-out speech or playful attitude.

I thought about it. Learning how to use spirit power… that would be a good thing.

As I mentioned before, my younger brother had told me everything about this game, but I didn’t remember all of it.

Especially when it came to spirit power, my memory was fuzzy.

From what I recall, it’s like magic in a fantasy world, a special power. If you receive blessings from spirits, you get more of it.

Because of that, I had struggled a lot when spirit power first entered my body. I accidentally broke my friend’s dishes over ten times by unconsciously strengthening my body with spirit power.

I felt so guilty every time, but my friend and his mother just laughed, calling me a muscle gorilla, never getting mad or kicking me out.

Their kindness made me even more determined to control the power in my body, so I practiced day and night. Eventually, I managed to sense and control the spirit power.

Now, I can fight malevolent spirits by infusing my sword with spirit power and cutting them down.

Yeah, it was thanks to people like them that I was able to manage.

“…Hmm.”

“…You don’t have to be so wary. I’m just… investing in someone who’ll become a great exorcist in the future. There’s no weird plan behind it!”

I started to feel a bit down, thinking about the memories of a friend I’d never meet again.

Nokra seemed to misinterpret my mood, but I shook it off with a sigh.

More importantly, spirit power. Learning how to use it would definitely be beneficial.

I mean, I was able to handle Mr. Cuckoo easily because he wasn’t my main target and I caught him off guard. But other B-grade malevolent spirits wouldn’t be so easy.

If it had been me instead of the protagonist who turned around when Mr. Cuckoo called, I probably wouldn’t have won so easily.

Some might say I should just stick to weaker spirits instead of going after B-grades.

But after taking down Mr. Cuckoo, I got a quest completion message and 3 million won deposited into my account. Before that, I had about 1 million won, but now I had 4.5 million.

It didn’t take long to figure out where the extra 500,000 won came from.

I earned that money by taking down a B-grade spirit.

You think I miscalculated? Do you think I’d make a mistake counting money?

When I exorcise spirits or complete quests, the money automatically appears in a strange space that only I can access, which I call my “bank.”

After various experiments, I found that the bank doesn’t spill or lose items, and I can store things other than money there. It’s been incredibly useful.

But the point is, the money doesn’t increase unless I put it in myself, so the extra 500,000 won had to have come from defeating the B-grade spirit.

Lower-level spirits barely give me 100,000 won after a whole day of hunting, but one B-grade spirit earned me a fortune.

Of course, B-grade spirits are so strong that most exorcists can’t beat them unless they’re blessed by spirits, and there aren’t many of them.

But with the body I’m using now, just learning to control my spirit power better would make it much safer and easier to defeat B-grades.

Of course, if things go south, I’ll run away.

With that thought, I nodded, and Nokra smiled, clearly pleased.

She seemed genuinely happy that a kid like me was willing to accept her help, as if she were confirming that she wasn’t just a game character but a real person who had given up the power of the spirits to blend into human society.

But in the end, she was still an adult who might try to manipulate a minor like the protagonist. I subtly leaned back in my seat.

“Wow~ This is great~ Honestly, if you had said no to this, I wouldn’t have known what to do. But… hey, kid, before I teach you, there’s something I need to ask.”

“…What is it?”

“Back there, before I arrived, were you planning to kill those curse-slingers and the businessman?”

“? Do you think I’m some kind of butcher?”

I glared at her, genuinely disgusted.

I was just going to subdue them and take my money, but she suddenly showed up and made a mess of things.

Was she under the impression that I was about to kill them, so she rushed in?

If that’s the case, her sudden appearance makes more sense, but it still pissed me off.

Especially since I now had a huge bandage on my head because of her misunderstanding.

“Do you think people just go around slicing others up for no reason? Is that what they teach at the academy? To just cut people down? That’s insane.”

“Eh. No, that’s not it…”

Nokra scratched her head, a bit flustered by my words, then smiled as if she understood.

But her smile had a hint of pity in it.

I wasn’t one to turn down free stuff, even if it came with pity, so I just let it slide.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nokra made even less sense than my brother when he got all excited and spouted nonsense.

There are too many crazy people in this world.

I let out a sigh, my mouth slightly open.

End of Chapter