Chapter 780 Week 12–13 PvP: Lowerclassmen’s Revolt (5)

Dang Gyu-ri and Seo Ye-in still did not have [Time Resistance].

They only received it from Kim Ho when they needed it.

And now that Kim Ho was absent, they had no choice but to take [Freeze] head-on without any way to resist.

Ironically, that included even Dang Gyu-ri, despite the fact that they controlled Earth Eaters.

Tick— tock—

[Time Freeze] lasted three seconds. To them, however, only the blink of an eye passed.

The Earth Eaters had moved to either side of Seo Ye-in as if they had teleported.

They swung their twin clock-hand swords wildly.

SLAAAAASH!

[Seo Ye-in 93%]

[Seo Ye-in 59%]

Her health was shaved away in chunks.

She had allowed more clean hits than she could count over those three seconds.

Seo Ye-in staggered and raised her eyes.

“An enormous crisis……!”

Srrrk……

The next moment, as if she had used [Ghost Without Shadow], her body blurred, and she appeared far away.

Watching her, Dang Gyu-ri thought,

The Earth Eaters really are good.

Not only was their combat power dependable, their utility was just as solid.

[Time Plunder], [Time Drift], and even the [Freeze] they had just used.

The long cooldown is the only shame.

Since it was an inferior version, it was on the level of several hours at minimum.

And even if they increased the number of Earth Eaters through [Uniformity], the cooldown itself seemed to be shared.

In other words, there would be no such thing as seven Earth Eaters freezing time for three seconds each, totaling twenty-one seconds.

In practical terms, it had to be treated as once per battle.

Still, being able to use it at all is plenty.

With one [Time Freeze], victory had almost entirely swung their way.

Not only had they dealt a massive amount of damage, they had also forced out [Ghost Without Shadow], one of Seo Ye-in’s few survival skills.

[Time Remaining 1:27]

To make matters worse, the match would end soon as well.

So Dang Gyu-ri threw a question across the arena.

“Want to stop here? Or go a little longer?”

“…….”

Seo Ye-in fell silent for a moment, deep in thought.

Then she resummoned her mirror image and answered.

“I want to keep going.”

“Okay, do your best until the very end……?”

Dang Gyu-ri had no choice but to stop mid-sentence.

Because both Seo Ye-ins’ hair had bleached pure white.

“Finichip.”

“You’re going to use it here? You’ll lose your luck.”

This was an important match in its own way, but was it really worth spending several days as an unlucky sloth?

In response, Sloth and Fast-Luckless’s eyes shone as each said a word.

“It’s fine.”

∴ Adjustable.

Even as they spoke, both their hair kept turning whiter and whiter, and a faint glow gathered around their bodies.

Then all that energy converged into a single point and compressed.

Up to that point, it was exactly as Dang Gyu-ri had seen before.

But Sloth and Fast-Luckless did not stop there.

“Divide the Finichip.”

∴ Divide the divided Finichip again.

The mass of light split in half, then split in half again.

What formed that way were four mana bullets shining pure white.

A strange light appeared in Dang Gyu-ri’s eyes.

“You learned something new, huh? In Kim Ho Land.”

“Strong seniors.”

Then again, even Dang Gyu-ri themself had gained an enormous amount from their inner world. How much more must Seo Ye-in have gotten?

“What are you calling that one? The one where you divided the divided Finichip again.”

“……Finichipchipchipchip?”

“……Isn’t that kind of much? There are too many chips.”

“……A point I agree with.”

∴ Taking recommendations.

Apparently she did not like it much either.

If she had liked it, she would have stuck to it to the very end no matter what anyone said.

In any case, Dang Gyu-ri nodded and said,

“Right. Let’s think about the naming slowly once we’re out.”

For now, they had to finish the match.

Seo Ye-in seemed to think the same, because she gave a small jerk of her chin and took up a combat stance.

The main body took two shots of the “Finicharara-chipchip-charahoralala-chip (temporary name),” and the mirror image took the other two. Then each loaded one shot into her mana gun.

And they began approaching with [Featherstep].

Watching them, Dang Gyu-ri ran calculations in their head.

Even at one-fourth, the power should still be considerable.

Considering the terrifying power of the basic Finichip, even split up, it would not be something they could ignore.

Let’s handle this carefully.

After reaching that conclusion, Dang Gyu-ri held their ground and only moved their shadow undead.

The Research Director, Dark-Shadow Commander, Blood Sword Commander, Ghost Demon, and the two Clock Rabbit Grand Generals charged in at their respective speeds.

Once they had closed a certain amount of distance, Seo Ye-in’s mana gun fired a pure white bullet.

And when it touched the Research Director’s upper body—

Flaaaaaash!

A blinding flash covered the arena.

The next moment, the shadow undead had vanished without a trace.

Every last one had been swept away by a single Finichipchipchipchip.

“……!”

Dang Gyu-ri waved a hand toward [Umbral Corridor], intending to resummon them, but a pure white bullet was flying that way too.

Flaaaaaash!

A dazzling explosion of light erased the shadow building.

Dang Gyu-ri let out a baffled laugh.

“No, that thing can break too?”

They had vaguely thought it might be possible, but they had not expected it to actually happen.

It seemed they would have to summon it again from the very beginning.

The same went for the shadow undead.

The problem is, I’m short on time.

There was no way their opponent would miss an opportunity she had finally seized.

She would push straight through and try to end it here.

And just then, Seo Ye-in and mirror-image Seo Ye-in each still had one shot of Finichipchipchipchip left.

“I’ll finish you.”

∴ Ascension to first place.

Then they split left and right and vanished with a srrrk.

Dang Gyu-ri frowned.

What? Why can she use it again?

[Ghost Without Shadow] had a five-minute cooldown.

She had not even used it that long ago.

But soon, Dang Gyu-ri realized there was something they had missed.

Right. [Time Oblivion].

A trait that had a low probability of preventing cooldown from being applied.

And for a bundle of luck, breaking through that level of probability was nothing at all.

Which meant the right to attack first had gone to the opponent.

They had no idea when or where the Finichipchipchipchip would come flying from.

But Dang Gyu-ri quickly regained their composure and thought,

If I just hold out, I win.

Seo Ye-in had poured everything she had into this attack.

Afterward, she would weaken to the point that she could no longer continue the match properly.

Even [Fickle Trap] was luck-based, so once she became an unlucky sloth, it would be useless.

First, Dang Gyu-ri hurriedly summoned shadow butterflies.

[Reception Flight]

Then they sent them flying in every direction and raised the shadow bat above their head.

If I don’t have time to resummon them…

Then using them for an enhancement instead was the better choice.

[Standing Alone]

Sssss……

Black smoke seeped into Dang Gyu-ri’s body, granting them tremendous power.

In exchange for being unable to use undead for a certain time, it had the effect of raising combat ability in proportion to the number absorbed.

Now that they could command six, the increase was considerable.

Let’s give this a try!

Dang Gyu-ri held their stance and slowly scanned their surroundings.

Before long, a wavering heat haze seemed to ripple at the edge of their vision, and then a flash burst out.

Reflexively, but with all their strength behind it, Dang Gyu-ri swung the shadow bat in that direction.

Kwaaaaaang!

They felt a tremendous shock spread through their whole body.

As if they had struck a landslide or a massive explosion.

[Dang Gyu-ri 99%]

[Dang Gyu-ri 68%]

Why does it still hurt this much when I hit it back?

Even though they had offset much of its power, the damage was still substantial.

And this was only one-fourth of a Finichip’s power.

Then how strong was the complete version? And what kind of level was the super finisher?

But now was not the time to wonder.

There’s still one shot left.

Just as that thought said, mirror-image Fast-Luckless was aiming her muzzle at Dang Gyu-ri, having appeared behind them at some point.

Flaaaaaash!

As their vision dyed white, Dang Gyu-ri thought,

I can’t block this one.

They had not even properly digested the impact from moments earlier.

Even if they could knock it back again, it was doubtful whether their body would hold out.

But at the final moment, Dang Gyu-ri smiled mischievously.

Then I just won’t block it!

They vanished with a swoosh and appeared on the opposite side of the [Circular Arena].

They had cast [Shadow Leap] on one of the butterflies they had scattered.

Flaaaaaash!

The place where Dang Gyu-ri had stood moments before was swallowed by a pure white explosion.

Sloth and Fast-Luckless seemed to realize they had missed their target, and both turned their heads at the same time.

“……Blink.”

∴ Bad spellcaster magic.

Of course, Dang Gyu-ri merely shrugged.

“You ladies should learn it too. It’s good.”

“The sorrows of a walker……”

∴ Sad walker……

“So what now? Keep going?”

At that question, the two Seo Ye-ins looked at each other, then checked the scoreboard.

[Seo Ye-in 59%]

vs

[Dang Gyu-ri 68%]

[Time Remaining 0:27]

There was still a tiny bit of time left to trade blows, but it was nowhere near enough to close a roughly ten-percent health gap.

And even if they were given more time, nothing would change.

Just as Dang Gyu-ri had guessed, Seo Ye-in had no cards left.

“……I lost.”

“Yeah. You both worked hard.”

[Seo Ye-in Lose]

vs

[Dang Gyu-ri Win]

Soon after, Seo Ye-in and Dang Gyu-ri left the arena with light steps.

Win or lose, they had achieved the goal of checking each other’s skills.

Instead of setting up the next match, they sat side by side in the spectator stands and reviewed the battle.

“The Earth Eaters were totally good, right?”

“……They got me.”

∴ [Time Freeze].

If not for them, Seo Ye-in might have won the match itself.

Perhaps because of that, she felt a little regret.

The same was true for Dang Gyu-ri.

“We’ll have to ask Kim Ho. Tell him to share [Time Resistance].”

“It became necessary.”

Until now, they had only needed it when clearing certain dungeons—more precisely, when facing time-type enemies.

That was why they had not bothered registering it under [Shared Traits] for [Bond], and had only received it through [Grant].

On the other hand, now that they had secured the Clock Rabbit Grand General, they could use [Freeze] directly.

So for the sake of Dang Gyu-ri, the caster, and for party coordination as well, they needed to take the resistance.

Of course, trait sharing was not something that happened with a single word.

They would need to fix the copied trait with a [Fixed Pin], and add a slot as well.

Gaining the resistance might be something for a little later.

The next topic was Seo Ye-in’s Finichipchipchipchip.

Its power was one thing, but Dang Gyu-ri focused on another part first.

“You got the penalty, right?”

“My luck disappeared.”

“What about the entertainment district?”

Kim Ho had said he would decide when to go after seeing the prize list, but there was a chance that could be as soon as this weekend.

If so, an unlucky sloth would have a hard road ahead in all kinds of ways.

But Seo Ye-in answered as if it were nothing.

“It’s fine.”

“Why?”

“Gyu-gyu care.”

“……You’re going because you trust me?”

“You took good care of me last time too.”

∴ Trust and faith.

Then again, they had gone to the entertainment district together last year too, when Seo Ye-in was in unlucky-sloth mode.

Even when problems arose, Dang Gyu-ri and Zhuge Soso blocked them, so she had enjoyed herself and come back fine.

Still, Dang Gyu-ri lightly broached the subject.

“I’m grateful you trust me, and I like going around together, but……”

“……?”

“We’ve only been going around in groups too much, so I feel like there hasn’t been enough private? time.”

“Alone with Kim Ho.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ve known him for quite a while too, so isn’t it about time we made some progress? For example, kissing.”

Dang Gyu-ri subtly tried to guide her toward acting separately.

But Seo Ye-in’s reaction was lukewarm compared to what they had expected.

She kept tilting her head, exchanged glances with her mirror image, then tilted her head again.

Finding that strange, Dang Gyu-ri asked another question.

“You don’t really want to? Kiss, I mean.”

“I already did.”

“What?”

∴ She did it lots.

“I did it this morning too.”

∴ Morning kiss.

Dang Gyu-ri felt their mind go faint.