Chapter 20 – Rule 11. The Leader Eliminates the Villain Group (3)

 

“Joined up. I leave the rest to you.”

 

Ahn Woo-jin spoke softly as he walked towards Lee Ji-Soo and Jang Ha-Moon, issuing the command through a wireless earphone.

 

“Sigh.”

 

Lee Ji-Soo stood up with a sigh, her hands shoved into her pockets as she looked at Woo-jin.

 

“I heard he’s strong for a 4th Tier… but in the end, he’s still a 4th Tier. He must heavily rely on elemental magic,” Ji-Soo remarked. “Unfortunately for you, your match-up with us is terrible. Lightning magic is useless in front of us.”

 

“Ha-ha!”

 

The giant man, Jang Ha-Moon, tore out chunks of his hair and slurped them into his mouth like noodles.

 

As Ha-Moon swallowed the hair,

 

Zzt!

 

a translucent magnetic field made of magic quickly spread from him.

 

His unique ability, ‘Magnetokinesis.’

 

Magic Formula Type 1: ‘Magnetic Field Deployment.’

 

Crackle… The teal current flowing through the black truncheon dissipated instantly. Even Woo-jin’s wireless earphone was rendered useless.

 

Both the truncheon and the Lightning Rod started trembling, as if they were being pulled towards Ha-Moon. It was because of the magnetic force.

 

It was a situation Woo-jin had anticipated. He naturally secured his two weapons to his belt.
He had deliberately conducted lightning magic through the black truncheon to induce the magnetic field.

 

The power of Ha-Moon’s magnetic force greatly varied depending on the distance between himself and metallic objects. Luckily, Woo-jin was quite far from Ha-Moon, so he had no worry of losing the two weapons secured to his belt.

 

“Turning hair into a magnetic field… Lightning magic is useless in front of me!” Ha-Moon laughed awkwardly.

 

Eating hair was the activation condition for his unique ability, Magnetokinesis.

 

He wouldn’t last long. Deploying such a strong magnetic field required a significant amount of magic power. It was a fact easy to understand, even without game knowledge.

 

“Don’t mess with the functions. Just float it in the air.”

 

Ji-Soo pulled out her smartphone and let it float gently in the air.

 

She then showed her face to the phone’s camera.

 

“Can you see me? Good. This is a special broadcast from Anomia~.”

 

Suddenly, Ji-Soo waved her hand at the smartphone camera with a fake smile on her face.

 

“?”

 

Woo-jin looked at Ji-Soo, puzzled by the situation. It was something he had never seen in the game.

 

Ji-Soo pointed at Woo-jin with her thumb.

 

“The Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahsung High is standing right in front of us. Now, we’re going to utterly crush him. Huh? You call this rigged!? Does this look rigged to you, idiot? Keep your eyes open and watch. The fight is about to start.”

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Can’t you see? It’s a broadcast.”

 

Ji-Soo answered bluntly with a grin.

 

“A JTube live broadcast. This will be the proof that we defeated you. Our notoriety will grow, won’t it?”

 

Notoriety has the power to attract people.

 

Anomia is a villain group that rejects hypocrisy. Their goal is to spread their ideology by gaining notoriety. The more notorious they become, the more potential villain recruits they attract, along with sponsors and clients willing to provide funding.

 

In other words, the event of ‘subjugating Ahn Woo-jin, the Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahsung High’ would serve as quality nourishment for Anomia’s rapid growth. The leader of Anomia had also endorsed this plan in advance.

 

“So many attention-seekers…”

 

Woo-jin scoffed, recalling the Sword Master of Sindorim.

 

“Disciplinary Leader, why don’t you die honorably for us?”

 

Ji-Soo laughed brightly as she raised her right arm.

 

Whirring. The drones targeting Woo-jin made mechanical sounds.

 

The air grew heavy.

 

“…Fire.”

 

With a command from Ji-Soo, the drones all fired magic bullets at Woo-jin simultaneously. The battle had begun.

 

Bam! Woo-jin immediately kicked off the ground, carrying Park Min-Hyuk on his back, and hid behind a nearby pillar.

 

The drones continued their barrage on the pillar.

 

Several drones that approached were pierced by Woo-jin’s thrown daggers and fell uselessly to the ground. These were special Anomia daggers, weapons Woo-jin had collected from enemies he had knocked out on the way up.

 

‘Excellent accuracy.’

 

To Ji-Soo, Woo-jin seemed astonishingly experienced. Such skill couldn’t simply be achieved by enhancing the body with magic. It required extensive practice. She was curious about the true identity of this Disciplinary Committee Leader.

 

“Ugh, aaah…”

 

Meanwhile, behind the pillar, Min-Hyuk trembled with fear. He was terrible in combat.

 

“Can you move?”

 

“Huh? Y-Yes…! I secretly healed my legs while they were distracted…!”

 

However, Minhyuk had a natural talent. He was born with healing magic as a healer, allowing him to cast healing spells on himself or others.

 

“That’s good.”

 

Woo-jin nodded. Despite the relentless barrage of magic bullets, Min-Hyuk asked,

 

“But, Leader, what do we do now!? They’ve neutralized your lightning magic, and the match-up is too unfavorable…!”

 

“We’ll win anyway.”

 

Woo-jin declared.

 

“Huh? How…?”

 

Minhyuk knew Woo-jin was strong. However, he found it hard to understand Woo-jin’s confidence in defeating two Tier 5 opponents with such a disadvantageous match-up.

 

Click.

 

As the drones reloaded their magic bullets, Woo-jin ordered,

 

“Run.”

 

Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk bolted from the pillar towards the emergency stairs.

 

“Trying to escape the magnetic field?”

 

Ji-Soo smirked.

 

Once deployed, Ha-Moon’s magnetic field’s location and range were fixed. It was easy information to discern if one paid attention.

 

Seeing them risk distancing themselves, Ji-Soo guessed they had figured out the limitations of the magnetic field.

 

There wasn’t much of a ‘limitation.’ Ha-Moon could simply close the distance and redeploy the magnetic field.

 

The problem was that deploying the magnetic field consumed a lot of magic power. It couldn’t be used recklessly.

 

“Stop the drone fire.”

 

Ji-Soo tapped Ha-Moon’s arm.

 

Continuing the drone fire would prevent Ha-Moon from approaching the enemies. So, Ji-Soo chose a different method.

 

“Float these scraps.”

 

Ji-Soo gestured with her chin and instructed.

 

“Got it…!”

 

Due to the daggers thrown by Woo-jin, four broken drones floated in the air at Ha-Moon’s gesture, controlled by the powerful magnetic field directed by his will.

 

“Hyaa.”

 

With a quick lick, Ji-Soo touched the floating drones with her tongue. The saliva darkened rapidly, spreading like a virus and seeping into the internal mechanisms of the drones. Ji-Soo channeled fire magic through her fingers to the spots covered with her saliva. Whoosh! Flames ignited.

 

“Throw them.”

 

“Hup!”

 

Ha-Moon swung his arm, hurling the four saliva-covered drones at Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk with the force of the magnetic field. The accuracy was off, but Ji-Soo didn’t care much.

 

Whoosh! Woo-jin swiftly shielded Min-Hyuk and hid behind a structure. The drones exploded in mid-air.

 

Boom!!

 

The powerful blast, containing a shockwave, spread out with no escape. The force was far greater than that of a magic grenade. If hit directly, even Woo-jin, with his body maximally strengthened by magic, would have suffered severe burns.

 

Turning saliva into explosives.

 

The unique ability, ‘Flame Cannon Tongue.’

 

Magic Formula Type 1: ‘Explosive Liquid.’

 

The explosion’s power varied based on the amount of magic Ji-Soo concentrated into her saliva and the material used for the explosion. Normally, one couldn’t imbue saliva with magic, but Ji-Soo could due to her unique ability.

 

The limitation of her ability was that she couldn’t create and store explosives separately. The magic imbued in her saliva would dissipate within a minute, forcing her to create the explosives on the spot.

 

Whoosh!

 

Crack!

 

Flames and metal fragments from the drones scattered like bullets, fiercely striking the structure.

 

Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk remained safe behind the structure.

 

“Tsk.”

 

Ji-Soo clicked her tongue, sensing something was off.

 

‘Is his reflexes that good? No, it’s more like… he knows our abilities.’

 

Even though it was their first fight, Woo-jin was handling things expertly, as if he had fought Ji-Soo and Ha-Moon several times before.

 

‘Could our information have leaked?’

 

It was likely. Woo-jin had already thwarted Anomia’s plans before. But it didn’t matter much. Ji-Soo decided to taunt him.

 

“Hey, aren’t you ashamed to keep running away like a coward, Disciplinary Leader? Fight us, you weakling! Only then can we have some fun!”

 

Ji-Soo laughed and repeated the process from earlier.

 

Boom!

 

Another two drones flew and exploded where Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk were. But they had moved to another structure to avoid the blast.

 

Zzt…. The magnetic field began to flicker. It was a sign it would disappear soon.

 

“Huh, huh…”

 

The giant man, Ha-Moon, charged at Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk hiding behind the structure. He tore out more chunks of hair and slurped them like noodles.

 

Zzt! The old magnetic field faded as a new one was deployed. No matter how much Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk ran, Ha-Moon could just eat more hair and redeploy the magnetic field, making it impossible to escape.

 

“I just need to take your weapons…!”

 

Ha-Moon’s goal was to close the distance and pull Woo-jin’s weapons with his strong magnetic force.

 

No matter how hard Woo-jin tried to keep his equipment, if the weapons were pulled strongly enough, he would follow. Then, it would be a close-quarters fight.

 

At that moment,

 

Ssshhh!!

 

The repeated explosions triggered the sprinklers, spraying water vigorously. Woo-jin and Min-Hyuk were soaked.

 

The water didn’t reach Ji-Soo’s location.

 

“…”

 

Water started to pool on the floor. While this posed a risk if lightning magic was used, the pervasive magnetic field nullified that concern, as long as Ha-Moon didn’t disrupt the magnetic field.

 

“Hmm?”

 

Ha-Moon was surprised.

 

Woo-jin, now soaked, emerged from the structure gripping his black truncheon and Lightning Rod. He faced the charging Ha-Moon.

 

“Haha!”

 

A smile spread across Ha-Moon’s face.