Surviving in the Trash Hell Game by Tossing a Coin

Chapter 12 - Erin's Request (3)

Escape.

Erin's life could be summed up in that one word.

After her parents and all her relatives were murdered, Erin spent her entire life on the run.

She fled her hometown, fled the village, and fled the facility.

At the end of a long escape, she had drifted into Reblen Village four years ago.

That was the only reason she had given up on resisting.

Because she had never been given a chance to resist.

Because she, who had lived such a life, knew it would be futile even if she tried.

A frail constitution and physique, a non-existent talent and background.

That was Erin.

She had brought the Halberd out of a vague sense of hope that it might be okay.

So, from the moment she made her request, Erin never thought a situation would come where she would have to step forward.

A situation where she, who would fail even if she tried, had to step up should not have occurred.

But now, thrown forward by Kang Woon, she could only stare blankly at the window that had appeared before her.

[ Suppression Cannon: Small ]

Can be used by raising your arm, opening your palm, and concentrating.

Fires a water cannon with the pressure of a fire hydrant from your hand.

Cannot be used for a certain period after spraying a certain amount of water.

However, it cannot be sprayed 'directly' at people.

The firing will be stopped if you attempt to spray it at a person.

A skill card.

The skill card she had only heard about in fairy tales and stories, said to be given only to 'mercenaries'.

A card said to imbue its wearer with special power.

Kang Woon gave that card to Erin.

He gave Erin the power to resist, without any hesitation.

‘Why?’

That was the only question in Erin's mind.

Why would he give power to her, who was so weak she could accomplish nothing?

It would be meager anyway.

She didn't know how to wield a weapon properly, nor did she know how to use a skill.

She would surely end up being a dead weight.

She wouldn't be able to do anything.

There was no way Kang Woon and Maletta didn't know that.

‘Then fight.’

But Kang Woon, despite knowing this, met Erin's eyes.

He didn't just throw her onto the battlefield; he handed her the means to resist and instilled in her the will to fight.

‘Fight with your own hands.’

He had uttered low, threatening words, different from his previous urgent tone.

But his eyes were deeper than his words, Erin recalled.

Also.

She realized that he had been right.

She was still weak and didn't know how to fight.

But was it right to stay frozen like this?

Was it right to draw a line between the strong and the weak and blame herself for not being able to cross it?

How long could she keep running away like this?

And was that the right thing to do?

When they left and those thieves approached Reblen Village again.

Would she just cry and wait for a hero then too?

Only then did Erin recall from her subconscious.

She recalled the reason she had stood up to stop the Village Chief from being beaten.

Because it was an unjust act, and because she herself had secretly wished to resist.

‘Even I.’

So Erin stood up.

If not now, then when could she ever do it?

‘Can I do it.’

Wiping her tears, Erin’s eyes, as she stood up.

Shone with a deep, blue light.

***

I could read her expression without even looking.

She was probably making a face similar to mine.

Otherwise, there was no way she would stand up again and use the skill.

All I had to do was think about what came next, The act of Erin spraying water around me right now probably didn't just mean, 'I can fight too.'

There had to be an ulterior motive for spraying the water.

That water cannon couldn't be aimed and fired directly at people.

Because the water pressure of a fire hydrant could easily knock a person over.

In the end, she had no choice but to aim at the terrain.

If so, what could be done with the terrain?

“Damn it, what's with the water!?”

“Ugh, fall back for now, sir!”

Fortunately, I had bought enough time to think.

Faced with the sudden spray of water, the men chose to distance themselves again instead of counterattacking.

Also, while it would have been natural to target Erin if the water was annoying, they couldn't approach her easily, perhaps because Maletta was nearby.

And toward those men, Erin fired the water cannon again.

Not knowing her scheme, the men just ran around in all directions.

This was happening because the men didn't know about the penalty that 'you can't shoot people'.

Then, what was next?

What was Erin's plan?

If she was spraying water in all directions just to drain their stamina, it was inefficient.

For now, she was shooting it ambiguously, just barely reaching them, but someday the men would figure out the penalty.

The situation was simple.

Erin was spraying water intensely enough to turn the dirt floor into a difficult-to-walk-on mire.

That was all.

But it couldn't be a meaningless act.

There must have been a plan.

So I just observed Erin's and Maletta's actions.

I observed them talking, and I received the gazes they sent my way.

I believed there would be an ingenious move.

At the end of that belief, I finally figured out the move they were thinking of.

Aha.

Right, so that's it.

So I just shouted, raised my sledgehammer, and rushed toward the men.

“Alright, start it!”

“Putting out the, fire!”

Simultaneously with my reply after the clear realization, Erin's declaration followed.

A stream of water cannon flew onto Maletta's hand.

Psssh.

With a cold sound, the only source of light illuminating the tunnel, went out.

The inside of the tunnel was dyed in an impenetrable darkness.

“Wha, what the!?”

“The floor- Gaaack!”

And at the same time, wails echoed from all sides.

It was probably the sound of the flustered men slipping and falling on the mire.

But I was different.

I did not fall.

It wasn't because I wasn't moving.

I didn't fall even though I was running.

It was because I knew Erin's plan.

“D, damn it! Light a fire! Fuck, light a fire!!”

“Leader, we don't have a flashlight!”

The panic-stricken men tried to find a way out somehow, but it was already too late.

Your coin had landed completely on tails.

“Leader! We now….”

“Shut up!! Don't give away our positions! It's not like they can see either!”

“But!”

The men at least had the brains to think a little.

Knowing that the darkness applied to me equally, they tried to block off 'hearing', the only available sense.

But it was already too late by the time they had that conversation.

Because I had already approached right in front of them, where the voices were coming from close range.

The fight was already over.

I brought my sledgehammer down toward where the sound came from.

“What, who- Ggeok!?”

That was the man's death rattle.

The cracking sound of bone breaking and the tingling recoil that shot up my arm was proof that I had smashed the man's head.

“Belsher…. Belsher!?”

“Dammit, I told you to shut up!!”

It was also easy to predict that the men would be agitated by that ominous cracking sound and start talking.

The next thing to do was a repetition of what I was doing now.

Even if the men tried to run away, the squelching sound remained, showing them no mercy.

I could tell their direction and location by the sound.

“We have to attack now! It's now or never!”

“B-but where is he!?”

“Damn, really!!”

Of course, their hearing was also effective.

Meaning they could find me by listening for my sounds.

But there was a blind spot in that.

They couldn't distinguish between the sounds of their allies and my sound.

I was different.

Every sound other than my own was, in the end, a sound made by the enemy.

I just had to go wherever a sound was made and swing my sledgehammer.

“Dammit, how does he know!?”

The men had a right to be frustrated.

While they were slipping or couldn't move because their feet were caught in the mire, I was running around as if I could see.

The reason was simple.

I just quietly closed my eyes and pictured it.

A chessboard drawn in a grid pattern, centered on the ground I was stepping on.

And I was only stepping on the white squares of that chessboard.

The mire wasn't made randomly as it was sprayed.

The mire and the flat ground were divided in a checkerboard-like grid pattern.

Of course, it was hard to notice at a glance.

It would have been obviously difficult for the men, who were busy trying to escape, to notice it.

But I noticed.

I, who had been observing without avoiding the water cannon, was able to notice.

That if I moved in a grid pattern, I could move without stepping in the mire.

Whether I had gained momentum, my senses remained incredibly sharp, and I was able to move without falling even once.

Toward the direction where the conversation was heard, I ran, stepping only on the white, water-free ground.

Forward diagonally, forward diagonally.

Forward, forward.

I kicked off the ground, and leaped.

Just like that, I stepped on the white ground again.

Forward, then leap, attack.

“Kuaaaack!!”

Forward, then leap, attack.

“Eu, eu-aaa….”

“Leader, save me-eok!”

Crack, crack, a couple of sounds were heard.

As fate would have it, the last one remaining seemed to be the Leader.

The Leader, as if he had completely lost his will to fight, or perhaps waiting for one last chance.

He fell completely silent after that cracking sound.

But, it was already too late.

I had already pinpointed his location with that dumbfounded 'eu-aaa' sound from before.

I ran for the last time, and brought my sledgehammer straight down.

“S-save me-Euaaaack!!”

The man, sensing his fate, begged like that, but I didn't bother to answer and just brought my sledgehammer down.

Because I knew that if the situation were reversed and I had said the same, the men wouldn't have spared me.

Crack.

With the end marked by the crisp sound of bone breaking, no more voices were heard.

“Heok… Heok….”

Only my ragged breathing from running around and swinging the sledgehammer could be heard.

Maletta, realizing the situation was over, immediately lit a flame.

The tunnel brightened, and I briefly closed my eyes from the glare.

When I opened my eyes that had been closed against the glare, I could finally see what we had accomplished.

The five horribly dead bodies.

A scene of victory.

We had won.

Although it wasn't a victory achieved completely without help, I had still won by stepping forward 'myself'.

As I was picking up the weapons and armor that turned back into coins with a glow, Maletta and Erin ran to me and checked my condition.

“Captain! Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Hoo, of course not. Wow, that was a great plan. Who came up with it?”

“Th-that was half me, and half Maletta….”

“You little punk! I told you, you can do it if you try. Why were you so scared.”

Erin, who had been frustratingly helpless just minutes ago.

I grinned, happy that she had used her head brilliantly.

I felt that I could entrust the village to her at this rate.

However, the celebration couldn't last long.

Because the quest window updated immediately.

[ Erin's Request ]

You have splendidly defeated the group controlling the tunnel.

However, you failed to do so without Maletta's help.

Reward:

?? gains 1 stack.

You can toss the coin again.

Special Reward:

Maletta has intervened.

You cannot obtain the special reward.

The quest window naturally informed me of my failure to obtain the special reward.

I had already been prepared for this from the moment Maletta stepped in to block for me.

But there was a part of me that felt it was unfair.

Not only was the performance of the armor and weapon not that great, but I had naturally assumed Erin would participate in the battle from the beginning.

It meant this was an unfair contract that I didn't need to just sit back and accept.

“Wait a minute!”

So for a moment, I decided to be stubborn.

As a form of revenge, too.

“Maletta did not intervene in defeating that group.”

Because in the first place, I was a very greedy person.

[That is incorrect. Maletta blocked the enemy group's attack, thereby-]

“What is the definition of involvement?”

[The definition of involvement is-]

I raised my voice and stopped the quest window from updating.

What I wanted wasn't to quibble over the definition of involvement.

“No!”

Whatever that explanation was, what was important was that I 'hadn't heard it'.

How long was I supposed to be the only one talking about the definition of defeat and involvement?

If you're going to force a quest on me, shouldn't you provide me with something as well?

“That explanation is invalid. It's an explanation given after the event is already over.”

[That, Kang Woon, is something you should have asked.]

But the quest window shamelessly insisted it was my responsibility.

Was there any reason for me to endure such absurdity forever?

“From now on, am I the only one who has to take responsibility for not asking?”

[That is not a responsibility, but closer to a basic literacy.]

“Do I have to worry about such things on top of the already difficult conditions?”

It was true that I was getting annoyed, so I kept picking at its 'just endure it' stance.

It had the meaning of lashing out from rising irritation, but of course, that wasn't its only meaning.

“Was this quest even meant to be solved in the first place? Aren't you just doing this for your own amusement?”

[That is incorrect.]

“If you keep doing this in the future. How can I trust you from now on?”

I needed to clarify whether the quest window was an ally or an enemy.

Whether it was the type to simply enjoy hardship, or the type to give understandable trials.

As if I had indeed hit a nerve, the quest window disappeared and didn't update for a while.

Just as I was waiting to see what kind of answer it would give me after its deliberation.

Finally, the quest window updated with a ding.

[ Erin's Request ]

Your opinion is accepted.

I want the resolution of the event, not just to make you suffer.

Otherwise, there would have been no reason to offer you a reward.

However, a situation like this will not happen again.

Special Reward:

It has been acknowledged that Maletta did not intervene.

?? gains 2 stacks. (Current stacks: 3)

I was relieved that it seemed to be an ally after all.

Of course, the fact that I had clung on relentlessly played a major role in leading to this negotiation.

This is me.

Did you see that?

Quest window.

“Watch how you act from now on.”

I gave a smirk toward the quest window.