The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess

009 – Even the Ugly Ones Enjoy Each Other’s Company #3

009 – Even the Ugly Ones Enjoy Each Other’s Company #3

“I am ‘Artist’ Choi Chang-sik. I possess a standard first-grade concept. But don’t expect much help from me in actual combat.”

Swoosh.

Choi Chang-sik, who introduced himself as Artist, picked up a pebble nearby, placed it on his palm, and blew on it.

What’s going to happen?

As I watched with slight anticipation, the stone turned into a round candy!

“My ability is ‘Transformation’. All I can do is change stones into candy or turn junk into something slightly useful. Moreover, the backlash of my ability is that I have to speak in this strange manner. If I don’t, I get a headache all day.”

He said it as if it was nothing, scratching the back of his head, but I was truly amazed.

The ability to turn stones into candy?

That’s awesome! Damn!

“Hey, you’re really amazing! Can you change the flavor of the candy too?”

“A…amazing? That’s the first time I’ve heard that. As for the flavor, I can change it to the extent of my memory. It doesn’t have to be candy; “If it’s food of a similar size that I’ve tasted, I can change it to some extent.”

Is this for real?

If I had this ability, I could live happily eating candy every day even in a world that’s going to end in a year!

I must become friends with him no matter what.

“I’m Oh Deok-hee. My call sign is ‘Silence’. My concept is ‘Stillness’. I can make the surroundings quiet. “The backlash of my ability is…dancing.”

The girl with long bangs, Oh Deok-hee, introduced herself and her ability.

Her explanation was simple and concise, but she seemed embarrassed and fidgeted after speaking.

Now it was Geum Tae-sung’s turn.

“I’m ‘Reversal’. My ability is simply to heal wounds. The backlash is that the ability itself can be considered my backlash. It’s a high-risk concept, so I don’t use it often.”

Listening carefully, it seemed that ‘backlash’ referred to the side effects that occur when using a concept’s ability.

It could be a change in speech or a sudden urge to dance, or even more bizarre behaviors.

To someone like me, who ended my awakened life as soon as it started due to a shattered leg, it felt unfamiliar.

I have the concept of ‘Leap’.

If I use this concept’s ability, will I also experience some kind of backlash?

Before I knew it, everyone’s eyes turned to Baek Yeoul.

Baek Yeoul hesitated for a long time, then grabbed the hem of her uniform skirt tightly and introduced herself in a nearly crying voice.

“I, I’m Baek Yeoul, and my concept is…a first-class ability, ‘Misfortune’. I don’t know the backlash. I still can’t control my concept…”

Small sighs were heard here and there.

Misfortune.

Everyone knew well the meaning of that word.

“Falling off the cliff at the starting point was probably because of me…”

So that’s what happened.

Being with Baek Yeoul brings bad luck!

So, the seat next to me was empty, and no one wanted to team up with Baek Yeoul when we were forming groups!

Was the drunk truck accident also because of Baek Yeoul’s bad luck?

Was it also because of my legs getting shattered?

Global warming coming?

The extinction of the dinosaurs!?

Thinking like that, it was indeed scary.

It was scary, but there was something that didn’t quite add up.

Are we really that unlucky right now?

Nope.

I didn’t think so.

“In my experience, the most dangerous moments are also the moments when the greatest opportunities come. Right now, there’s no one higher than us in this training ground. That means we can observe our surroundings the best.”

I carefully looked around the forest.

My scavenger instincts kicked in, sensing where useful items might be.

“By the way, I possess the concepts of leap and emotion.”

“What, Namjin, you have multiple abilities…!?”

“I thought you were just an exhibitionist pervert, but I didn’t know you were that amazing!”

I could see the light of expectation and hope in everyone’s expressions.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t explained myself to everyone.

In fact, I preferred showing rather than explaining everything in words.

“Hey! Everyone, just follow me! We need to earn some points!”

# # #

“Climbing down this cliff is freaking hard!”

Climbing down a rock cliff nearly thirty meters high with bare hands was a real pain. If the awakened ones’ stamina wasn’t stronger than that of ordinary people, we would have all collapsed.

“Reached the bottom! It didn’t take long, only 30 minutes.”

Soft, soft.

It felt good to step on the weeds spread out like grass.

The forest scent was strong all around. The forest breeze felt good after sweating a lot.

Seo Ga-eul must be feeling this breeze too, right?

I wanted to meet her right away, but without knowing her exact location, I couldn’t just wander around aimlessly.

In that case, it would be more reasonable to focus on earning points to get the special class audit ticket rather than searching for Seo Ga-eul.

Ha, I knew I was smart!

“…So, what are you going to do now?”

Baek Yeoul hesitated, watching my reaction.

Was she worried about me, who just transferred today, taking the lead in the group project? Blessed are those who believe without seeing.

“Just wait. I have a plan.”

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh-.

I picked up a few pinches of dirt with my hand and put it in my mouth, chewing it.

Baek Yeoul and Geum Taeseong, who saw this, were startled and frowned in disgust.

“Hey! Why are you eating dirt!”

“What are you doing?”

“The dirt has a lot of moisture. If you look closely, there are many shaded areas. There must be a water source nearby.”

It was my first time in this place, and I didn’t have a map, but I had a rough idea of ​​where to go. There was also a place I had seen from the cliff earlier.

“Let’s go!”

“Hey! Wait for us!”

Thud, thud, thud-.

As I ran, the group members followed me.

We arrived at the stream.

Drip, drip, drip-.

The flowing water looked very refreshing.

At that moment, the artist Choi Changshik screamed. He couldn’t hide his intense emotions as he looked at the sole of his shoe, his face turning bright red.

“Isn’t this poop! Ugh! The smell! How can I be so unlucky!”

Stepped on poop?

The smell was indeed strong.

It wasn’t ordinary animal poop.

“Is it because of me…?”

I thought as I watched Baek Yeoul, who quickly became depressed.

Baek Yeoul’s concept was misfortune.

It meant that misfortunes would happen to people around her even if she did nothing.

I suddenly became curious. Why did Baek Yeoul awaken the ability called ‘misfortune’? The abilities of the awakened come from strong desires.

That means Baek Yeoul must have desperately wished for her own or others’ misfortune. Thinking that way made Baek Yeoul’s personality seem utterly broken.

But!

“Luck is like a seesaw. Just like a seesaw where one side goes up and the other goes down, when someone laughs, someone else cries, and when someone cries, someone else is bound to laugh.”

Stepping on poop was a big misfortune for Candy Maker Chang-sik. But for all of us, it could be considered a great fortune.

“Chang-sik, make some candy.”

“Candy? What are you planning to do?”

“Just hurry up!”

“Got it. Then gather some stones. In the meantime, I’ll wash my shoes in this stream.”

I diligently gathered stones. Wadadat!

Geum Tae-sung, Baek Yeoul, and the quiet female student also picked up stones with subtle expressions on their faces, following my words.

They must be thinking, “There’s nothing to lose.”

They’ll be surprised when they see my grand plan.

“Then I’ll turn them into grape-flavored candy! Hooo-.”

As soon as Chang-sik blew on them, the stones transformed into candies of similar size. I felt it before, but his ability was so enviable that it almost brought tears to my eyes.

Being able to eat candy with unlimited refills.

“What are you planning to do?”

Seeing the pile of candy, Geum Tae-sung showed a slight interest, so I answered simply.

“You have a lighter, right?”

Geum Tae-sung was a former delinquent.

Even if he doesn’t smoke now, he would still carry a lighter.

Sure enough, Geum Tae-sung took out a lighter from his pocket.

“I do have one.”

I stacked the stones and gathered dry firewood to make a makeshift stove. For someone like me who lived in a junkyard, starting a fire was not difficult.

Fwoosh-.

I placed a mess tin, one of the practice tools, on the firewood I had made, and poured water and candy into it. The children’s expressions became even more subtle.

“Let’s add the pudding we saved earlier.”

Bubble bubble bubble-.

The pudding and candy started boiling over the campfire.

By now, everyone must have smelled it too.

The faintly spreading sweet aroma!

“We need to boil it more. Just wait a little longer.”

It was about a minute into making the pudding candy porridge.

Rustle-.

The bushes near us shook violently, and something jumped out.

━Graaah!

It was a black-furred dog.

Its size made it look like a wolf, but the most peculiar thing was its unusually large nose.

And its ears and eyes were so flat they seemed almost atrophied.

At a glance, it was a specimen that deviated from the usual category of living creatures.

Seeing it, Choi Chang-sik foamed at the mouth.

“Giiiik! It’s a monster! A monster has come! Running into a monster in this vast forest! What bad luck! Whenever I’m in the same group as Yeoul, it’s always like this! Yeoul! How are you going to compensate for this?”

“… I… I don’t know! Everyone, we have to run!”

From noble mtl dot com

━Grrrr-.

The big-nosed dog drooled heavily.

While everyone was tense and on edge, I felt a chill down my spine.

I never thought things would go this well.

“Even though it’s a vast forest, I thought there would definitely be monsters near the water.”

In a world that had perished, every day was survival for me, who couldn’t enter the ‘safe zone’. The days when I had to watch out for robbers and monsters to drink the contaminated stream water were now proving useful.

“Judging by the warmth of the poop Chang-sik stepped on, the one who pooped it shouldn’t be far away! But since I didn’t know the exact location, I boiled pudding and candy!”

Monsters are attracted to sweet smells like bees to flowers.

Even the Yingying I tamed was crazy about sugar water.

Ah, I suddenly miss Yingying.

Anyway!

“Usually, monsters are very cautious and don’t easily fall for temptations. In that sense, Bbangdaengi’s ability seems to have worked properly. Things went so well that I honestly wonder if this is okay!”

Encountering a monster in such a forest is quite an unlucky event.

In fact, everyone faced the monster froze like mice before a snake.

But someone’s misfortune can also become someone’s fortune.

“Finding something like the captain’s ‘awesome pen’ in this forest is honestly difficult. So from the beginning, I aimed for the monster! Hey Taeseong. How many shop points do you get for taking down a monster?”

“Taking it down?”

Geum Taeseong, who seemed quite started by my words, flinched.

He kept his distance from the monster and answered in a small voice.

“Namjin, do you think it’s okay that we don’t have a concept suitable for combat? Maybe if we were in Class F with all the supernovas, but in real combat, only our class leader has ever defeated a monster!”

They were asking if our ragtag group could really face a monster.

I was rather puzzled.

Why do they think we can’t?

I think our abilities are more than enough.

“Alright, everyone, listen carefully to what I’m about to say. The most crucial person in monster hunting from now on is… Oh Deok-soon, you!”

“……!”

The quiet girl I pointed at trembled.

It was quite funny to see her flinch as if struck by lightning in her sleep.

“My, my name is Oh Deok-hee, not Oh Deok-soon…. And me, the key person…? That’s ridiculous. I’m clumsy and always get kicked out of group projects….”