Chapter 6
Random Encounter.
It is a system that often appears in some open-world games, referring literally to elements encountered at random.
When moving around a game map, sudden, unscheduled events sometimes occur, and these are usually called random encounters.
It was also an utterly familiar system to someone like me, who had enthusiastically wasted his life playing games.
However,
That was a separate matter.
【Going-Out Event!】
【Random Encounter Occurred!】
An unnecessarily cheerful woman's voice.
In a situation like this, that cheerfulness felt even stranger.
‘Would it kill them to announce it in an intuitive way, like a status window?’
But unfortunately, this game did not seem to operate a customer service center.
Even after I complained to my heart's content, all I heard was the woman's buzzing voice two more times.
“Fuck.”
Only after I irritably pressed hard on my temple did the voice buzzing in my ears disappear.
I quickly looked around.
The gaze of the homeless man who had looked down at me when I first fell into the game still lingered in my mind like a trauma.
A gaze that regarded the human body as nothing more than a lump of meat.
If Christine hadn't appeared out of nowhere to help me, like an assassin sent by my chemistry teacher, Kim Ju-seok, I might by now have been looking upon the faces of my grandparents in heaven.
‘A random encounter in this situation.’
My body stiffened for an instant.
Everything around me felt terrifying, as though it were targeting me.
My breath caught in my throat, and the back of my neck tickled slightly….
I thought I understood what it felt like to sense danger through one's skin.
Amid all that, three broad-shouldered thugs were walking toward me from across the street.
Their general appearance was suspicious enough, but the timing of their appearance made them impossible to trust.
“So I told him right there. I’m taking the whole pot!”
“Heh heh, bullshit. How’s that supposed to make sense?”
“He says he made money over there, so what’s the problem? We just need to let the guy who won buy us a good meal.”
The three seemed to be chatting cheerfully as they looked at one another.
…….
…….
Still, they were sneakily looking me up and down.
Their gazes were sticky as tar.
“Heh.”
The dirtiest, most vicious-looking thug of the three—let’s just call him Thug No. 1—let out a low chuckle, and then
Wobble, wobble.
He didn't seem to have drunk all that much, but he stumbled toward me, misstepping in my direction.
“Whoops!”
Eek, ack.
I stepped aside.
Thug No. 1’s thick shoulder brushed past empty air.
“Ohhh, you dodged?”
Well, would I not dodge that?
—I put aside for the moment my urge to point that out curtly.
He looked like a nasty bastard just from his face, and there was no need to pick a fight and engage with him.
But regardless of my reaction, they simply burst out laughing as they looked at one another.
“Look at the size of you! What else could you do but run?”
“Anyone who just stands there is an idiot.”
Their behavior was highly contrived.
It was as if they were talking like they had a reason to pick a fight with me.
Sure enough.
Once again, I felt the reality of having entered a game.
‘It’s not like some kind of compulsion.’
But what could I do?
The situation had already happened.
The thugs looked desperate to pick a fight with me, and I hadn’t turned around and run the moment I saw them.
That meant I had also lost my chance to escape the random encounter event.
“Hey. Say something. I don’t recognize you—are you here sightseeing or something?”
“Look at those shabby clothes. If he were sightseeing, he’d at least have hired some half-assed bodyguards. It’s not like he has a spare life or two.”
A tone that seemed to toss out the words casually.
But I could glimpse the intent to pressure me beneath the surface.
When I showed no reaction, they apparently assumed I was frightened and approached me swaggeringly.
“You’re pretty big, but look at you cowering like that.”
And he swung his palm viciously.
Its destination: my cheek, precisely.
“You little shit, wake the fuck—”
The movement looked like slow motion.
Whoa, acceleration ability! Superhero! The Flash!
As expected, superhero stories are DC, not Marvel.
It also made no sense for a megacorp tycoon to dress up in a scrap of tin and play hero. Of course, the bat-shaped suit was a different matter.
Anyway.
I was able to leisurely think such pointless thoughts.
I saw the entire world moving in slow motion.
A thick palm that looked like it had never been washed after leaving the bathroom slowly passed before my eyes.
Droplets of spittle burst roughly from his mouth.
His pupils gleamed like glass marbles.
Even the wrinkles on the face spitting out curses.
It was a bizarre sight, as if I were watching the scene through a high-performance ultra-high-speed camera.
Maybe that was why.
‘If I hit him now, his jaw’s going to twist.’
The opening was so glaring that, without realizing it, I slapped the thug across the cheek.
With my fist.
“…Gnnngh.”
And the world returned to normal.
“Ah.”
I watched Thug No. 1 go flying, my fist still clenched.
The remaining two thugs stared blankly at their fallen companion.
“W-what the…!”
A flustered voice.
For the record, I was flustered too.
It was the first time I had hit someone since my school days, when I used to get into fights over trivial things.
The remaining thugs.
Thugs No. 2 and No. 3, from here on out, looked back at me.
Then they quickly assessed the situation.
“You little shit!”
Both of their hands simultaneously went inside their clothes.
In a situation like this, the possibility that an opponent would pull out his wallet and say, ‘Sorry for picking a fight!’ was close to zero.
So this time, too, my body moved reflexively.
One had a knife.
The other one….
I kicked hard at the hand of the man gripping the pistol.
“Ugh!!”
The pistol flew into the air, and Thug No. 2 fell backward clutching his fingers, bent in all directions. Oof, that must hurt.
Whether by chance or instinct,
the pistol I kicked spun through the air several times, then naturally traced a parabola and flew toward me.
Click.
I checked the pistol’s condition, just as Christine had taught me.
Its shape was a little different, but the basic structure was the same, so it was easy to tell which part was the safety and which was the firing mechanism.
“……!!”
The last thug standing, Thug No. 3, looked ready to charge me at any moment, but then he suddenly spotted the pistol that had appeared in my hand and stopped in his tracks.
In the time it took to blink a few times, I had neutralized three thugs.
Even from my perspective, it was a little bewildering.
‘What the hell?’
Was I really this good at fighting? If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve done UFC instead of preparing for a job.
“S-somebody help!!”
Perhaps Thug No. 3 felt no camaraderie with the others,
because he started running far away without even looking back.
I aimed the pistol at the fleeing thug’s back, then slowly lowered my hand.
I wasn’t some insane murderer, and there was no reason to shoot someone who was running away.
That left only the two thugs crawling along the ground like bugs.
Thug No. 1, who had been the first to take a slap to the cheek from me, still hadn’t come to his senses.
“F-fuck!! Did you attack us knowing who we belong to!?”
The one spitting out that resentful voice was Thug No. 2, whose fingers were broken.
How was I supposed to know that….
And I wasn’t the one who attacked them, either….
They say a frightened dog barks loudly, but I wasn’t thick-skinned enough to stay still after hearing something like that.
‘Affiliation? They have an organization? Well, they didn’t exactly look like ordinary homeless people.’
Then what should I do?
Since No. 3 had run away anyway, it didn’t seem like anything would change if I finished off these two here.
And.
Even though I had entered a game, the thugs in front of me looked like living beings no matter how I looked at them.
‘But I can’t just let this slide….’
If I let it go, I was sure it would cause another problem because of this later.
What the hell am I supposed to do?
When my deliberation dragged on, Thug No. 2 continued, lowering his voice slightly.
“…Just calm down and listen to me for a second. We belong to the Family, okay? So even now, just lower your gun and.”
“Hmm.”
“……”
Thug No. 2, who had been babbling noisily, suddenly shut his mouth.
I had only given it a little thought, but the gaze looking up at me was thick with fear.
His finger bones had been completely shattered, so even pain alone must have made it difficult for him to think straight.
That was when I came up with a good idea.
I squatted in front of fallen Thug No. 2 and pressed the muzzle against the space between his brows.
“Eek!!”
I had engaged the safety naturally a moment ago, so there was no chance the bullet would fire, but Thug No. 2 didn’t know that.
Trickle….
I did my best to pretend not to notice Thug No. 2’s pants growing damp,
“And you.”
I naturally put a lie into words.
“Do you know where my
affiliation
is?”
For the record, my affiliation is a store called 【Grocery Store】.
The boss is Christine.
Another employee is a turret that cries [Dyu!].
But Thug No. 2 would have had no reason to associate my story with a grocery store.
“……”
I pressured Thug No. 2, who kept his mouth clamped shut.
“What Family? You’re just a bunch of neighborhood punks.”
The other side wouldn’t want an organizational war to break out either.
“If you want an all-out war, fine. The justification is on my side anyway.”
“…Damn.”
In this city, in this district.
There couldn’t possibly be only one or two organizations like this.
And I had also incapacitated three thugs with my bare hands.
“Still, if we’re going to fight anyway, we might as well reduce their numbers by one here….”
They wouldn’t be able to question my identity.
I pressed the muzzle of the pistol harder against Thug No. 2’s forehead.
“O-okay! There’s no need for the organizations to fight each other! I’ll explain everything to them, so please, just spare my life.”
When I continued to remain silent, the reaction I wanted finally came spilling out.
“Please, spare my life….”
I roughly shoved the pistol into my pocket and deliberately nudged the fallen man’s body with my foot.
“Take your friend and get out of here.”
“…Yes!!”
Though his fingers were broken, Thug No. 2 helped his unconscious companion and quickly disappeared.
…Did I beat them?
It wasn’t a clean resolution, but I couldn’t exactly kill them all here.
My heart was still pounding hard.
“Phew….”
Only after taking a couple of deep breaths did my body, rigid with tension, gradually relax.
‘All right, I’ve decided.’
I turned neatly on my heel.
It had only been a few minutes since I’d come outside.
And I’d already run into this kind of incident.
I’d lost all confidence in going out.
‘I can get my things next time.’
It’s not like a person can’t sleep without a mattress, blanket, and pillow.
…….
Still, I’ll sleep with the turret tonight.