Even though there was still quite some distance between us, the killing intent was sharp enough to sting my skin.
It was understandable for them to be angry, with the one who had terrorized their base standing right in front of them.
Well, who told them to be Team C?
As I stood there shamelessly waiting, Sa Gong-wook at the front soon rushed in and swung his sword.
Naturally, he was intercepted mid-charge by Go Hyeon-woo.
Clang—
With their blades locked together, Sa Gong-wook spat out his words through gritted teeth.
“You traitorous bastard… Have you no shame, now acting like someone’s lackey?”
“You may judge me however you wish. I care not. However, I believe it is still too early for us to cross blades.”
“You came all the way here and claim you don’t intend to fight?”
“Of course, I am prepared whenever you are. I simply think conversation should come first.”
Jeong Jin-myeong who had arrived behind him stopped Sa Gong-wook.
“That’s enough.”
“You think you’re still the team leader?”
“I don’t have to be. We came to talk, so let’s at least hear them out.”
Just as Sa Gong-wook was about to spit out another remark, Lee Seong-hyeon cut into the conversation.
With a cavernous voice that didn’t match his youthful face.
“For someone talking about traitors and leadership qualifications, you sure run your mouth. Everyone knows what you did during the midterms.”
“……!”
“If you have any sense of shame, you should step aside.”
The two glared at each other.
Sa Gong-wook was the one who backed down first.
He shoved the locked blade away and turned his back, walking toward his own group.
Watching him go, Go Hyeon-woo gave a bitter smile.
“I can fully understand his anger. I feel deeply sorry as well.”
“There’s no need to worry about it.”
Lee Seong-hyeon replied in a firm tone.
Looking straight at Go Hyeon-woo, he continued.
“What matters is why you betrayed them. There is a clear difference between doing it for your own safety or grades and doing it to uphold one’s loyalty.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
The two looked at each other and smiled.
As the atmosphere eased a little, I spoke to Jeong Jin-myeong.
“You know I was trying to keep my word, right? My word to Team B… and to ‘this person’.”
As I said that and pointed to Song Cheon-hye, she flinched in surprise and protested.
“When did I ever? I never told anyone to go that far.”
Jeong Jin-myeong let out a dry laugh.
“I know. It wasn’t something you ordered. Not just anyone could come up with something that wicked.”
“Right? Even I thought it was pretty wicked.”
The others seemed to agree with that sentiment as well.
All I did was devote myself to Team B and world peace, yet somehow I felt a bit wronged.
Jeong Jin-myeong looked back at me.
“Hey, honestly, that was too much. I got cursed out like crazy while I was outside.”
With the dragontail soldier and draconic soldiers attacking, not only Jeong Jin-myeong but most of the people defending the base must have been rendered incapacitated.
While waiting to re-enter, he must have had to endure an enormous amount of resentment.
I nodded as if I deeply sympathized.
“Yeah, I went a bit too far just trying to make a living, didn’t I?”
“You’re admitting it that easily? That just makes it more suspicious.”
“What’s suspicious about it? I just want to keep a good relationship. I even brought a gift.”
With a bright smile, I pointed to the crystals my group had brought.
Jeong Jin-myeong let out another laugh.
“What is this, poison and antidote at the same time? You even saved up this much to bring here?”
“There’s more back at the base. I’ll bring them later.”
“No thanks. We’re already locked into third place anyway.”
“Not necessarily.”
“…….”
Only then did Jeong Jin-myeong’s expression grow serious.
He seemed to realize this was the real point of the conversation.
“Unless you’ve prepared something completely ridiculous again… there’s only one way.”
“Yep. Exactly what you’re thinking.”
“You’re saying we should attack them? Team A?”
“If you break their tower, you can take second place.”
If both Team A and Team C have to start rebuilding from scratch, the side receiving crystal support from us would be far more advantageous.
Jeong Jin-myeong looked at me with suspicion.
“Let’s say that works out for us. But what do you gain from it?”
“What I’m really trying to do is lock things in for good. And cut off any chance of Mo Yong-jun making a comeback.”
There’s a saying that the best defense is a good offense.
If you wipe them out in advance, you don’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back later.
Of course, there was another real reason.
▷Objective 1: Eliminate competitors (45/20)
▷Objective 3: Destroy the rival team’s crystal tower (1/1)
I had already exceeded the target numbers, but the more you exceed them, the greater the reward becomes.
For reference, the trick of giving crystals to another team to repeatedly build and destroy an F-rank tower is prohibited.
In other words, if I want to raise the count, I have to target Team A.
Jeong Jin-myeong still didn’t seem fully convinced.
“Even so, you’re willing to take that risk? I don’t know about that.”
“If I was worried about the risk, I wouldn’t have brought it up.”
“Sounds like you’re pretty confident.”
Instead of answering, I just gave him a grin.
Jeong Jin-myeong seemed to think for a moment, then continued asking questions, as if he wanted to hear more before making a decision.
“What about the cards? You’ve barely used any, have you?”
If the final exam had unfolded the way Dragon Slayer Academy intended, a massive three-way battle would have broken out during the hunt for the lava turtle swarm on the third day, with cards flying everywhere.
But Team C got completely wrecked by the Dragontail Soldier, and Mo Yong-jun avoided the fight altogether, so dozens of item cards ended up unused.
The moment we entered, if Mo Yong-jun’s side started spamming [Discharge], dozens of people would be blown away on the spot.
So I proposed a very simple solution.
“We overwhelm them with numbers.”
“Would that really work?”
“It’s not like your side lost many cards either.”
“We recovered almost all of them.”
They had dropped them after becoming incapacitated, but since no one else came to take them, their teammates had gathered them back up.
I held up two fingers.
“They can’t have more than about twenty [Discharge] cards. You guys should have around ten [Protection] cards, right?”
“To be exact, thirteen.”
“Roughly speaking, if seven [Discharge] cards land, that knocks out twenty-one people. Add the rest of your members and us together, and we should still have more than enough left.”
“……Now that you mention it, it does sound doable.”
By this point, it seemed Jeong Jin-myeong was almost completely convinced.
Even so, it seemed a trace of hesitation still remained, so I decided to reveal my decisive hidden card.
It was [Freeze].
“Take a look at this.”
“What? You had something like that? Where did you get it?”
“Yesterday, while working on the hidden piece.”
“When you got [Transfer]? Wow… I never would’ve imagined that.”
Jeong Jin-myeong looked like the back of his head was still tingling.
Then I threw him a question.
“Does this make it seem more doable now?”
“……Alright. It’s not like we have anything to lose anyway. I was planning to charge in at someone sooner or later.”
“Us?”
“I was still deciding. But if it’s like this, then we’re definitely going for Team A.”
“Good choice.”
With an evil smile, I held out my hand, and Jeong Jin-myeong clasped it with an equally evil smile.
“Let’s show Mo Yong-jun the bitter taste of a joint attack.”
“Sounds good.”
Meanwhile, Song Cheon-hye was staring at us like she was looking at two demons.
***
After Kim Ho and his group left,
Quite some time passed, and before long it was night.
When the morning sun rose, the final exam would come to an end.
Of course, not a single member of Team C was resting right now.
All of them were moving toward Team A’s territory.
As he walked ahead, Jeong Jin-myeong thought to himself,
Since there’s nothing to protect, this actually makes things easier.
They had decided to receive the crystals and upgrade the tower all at once after everything was finished.
Because of that, their base was still nothing but ruins, and since there was nothing to defend, there was no need to leave anyone behind.
Before long, the faint outline of a hill came into Jeong Jin-myeong’s view.
At the same time, a human silhouette was approaching from not too far away. Seeing a few team members grow wary, the figure waved a hand in the air.
“Hey, hey, it’s me! Me!”
“Shin Byeong-cheol.”
Apparently he had been given the role after being sent ahead for scouting and signaling.
Jeong Jin-myeong looked at Shin Byeong-cheol with renewed curiosity.
“Kim Ho seems to use you pretty often, huh?”
“Ah, of course. I’m a total pro when it comes to getting the job done, you know. Huh? Even today, that guy Sa Gong-whatever and the Cha-Wawa couple—”
Sa Gong-wook suddenly glared, his eyes flashing.
“Maybe I should sew that mouth of yours shut.”
“—Ahem. I managed to escape nicely from them and secure the crystal.”
He came off a bit frivolous, but it seemed his mission success rate was high nonetheless.
Jeong Jin-myeong nodded.
“Let’s grab coffee sometime.”
“Ah, I’d love that.”
“We’ll talk more later. So what do we do now?”
Shin Byeong-cheol pointed into the darkness and explained.
“Team A’s members are patrolling around here and there. If we get any closer, we’ll be spotted.”
“Figures.”
“You said you have two [Concealment] cards, right?”
When Jeong Jin-myeong lightly tilted his chin in confirmation, Shin Byeong-cheol continued.
“If you use them back to back, that’s two minutes. That should be enough to reach the main base from here.”
“How do you know that?”
“This kind of thing, you can just tell at a glance! Even just looking it gives you a rough estimate.”
“……”
Jeong Jin-myeong wondered if he could really trust this guy.
Sensing the hesitation, Shin Byeong-cheol quickly added,
“Give it a shot. I’m surprisingly accurate with this.”
“……I don’t know. Kim Ho must’ve had a reason for sending you.”
“Okay then, everyone get ready.”
Soon, all the members of Team C began equipping their gear and preparing for battle.
Jo Byeok slipped on his gauntlets and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists.
Lee Seong-hyeon donned a jet-black full-body armor larger than his own frame.
Jeong Jin-myeong held a staff in one hand and several cards in the other.
After scanning over the team members, he spoke to Shin Byeong-cheol.
“All right, we’re ready.”
“Head out whenever you want. I’ll send the signal to match your timing.”
At that moment, one of the cards in Jeong Jin-myeong’s hand began to glow.
Sssssss…….
A translucent, dark aura draped itself over everyone’s bodies.
From up close, they were still somewhat recognizable, but from even a short distance away, it would be hard to make them out.
It meant [Concealment] was working properly.
At the same time, Shin Byeong-cheol also used [Observe], apparently sending a signal to Kim Ho’s side with it.
Glancing at him briefly, Jeong Jin-myeong kicked off the ground, and dozens of teammates followed behind.
“Let’s go.”
Even as they sprinted at full speed toward the hill, he was counting numbers in his head.
48, 49, 50…….
Then he raised a clenched fist over his shoulder and came to a stop.
Everyone immediately gathered around him in perfect coordination, and [Concealment] was cast over them again.
Sssssss…….
Team C began sprinting once more.
Not long after, Team A’s main base came into view.
…He’s actually pretty accurate?
Jeong Jin-myeong raised his evaluation of Shin Byeong-cheol by one level.
Even so, he kept up the pace and climbed the hill, and just a few seconds before reaching the base,
Sssssss…….
The dark aura faded, revealing the dozens of members of Team C.
A Team A member who had been blankly staring outside suddenly spotted them and widened his eyes.
Just as he opened his mouth to shout something,
“In—”
Boom!
Jo Byeok’s fist exploded into his abdomen.
As mana stars burst into the air, Jeong Jin-myeong shouted,
“Wipe them all out!”
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