Sinuiju Free Market (9)

Hyeonseong took the equipment the arena manager held out. She first covered her face with the mask, then gripped the pickaxe handle with both hands.

‘It’s not as good as mine, but it’s still not too bad.’

The borrowed pickaxe was a piece of equipment with an item grade of C-rank. Compared to Hyeonseong’s A-rank pickaxe, it was nothing special, but the pickaxe Hyeonseong used in the first place was an absurd object.

For borrowed gear, and for non-combat equipment at that, this meant they had at least brought out an item that could still somewhat be expected to function as a weapon.

‘I did consider the possibility that they’d have put out complete trash and called it a so-called gimmick weapon.’

After swinging the pickaxe once through the air, Hyeonseong lowered her arm.

Once Hyeonseong and Hyeonyeong finished checking their borrowed equipment, the manager guided them to one of the waiting rooms. The manager, after bringing Hyeonseong’s group to the waiting room, left after only a brief explanation.

“We really do end up going to all sorts of places…….”

Haesu, having been permitted to come in with the group, looked around.

“Seriously. I never thought I’d end up in an arena participants’ waiting room rather than the spectator stands in my life.”

Hyeonseong lightly agreed with Haesu’s words.

“B-But I never imagined you’d be Ye Hyeonseong, Ms. Hyeonseong.”

Then Haesu said as he looked at Hyeonseong. There was an awkward note in his voice.

That reaction was not particularly strange. Until now, Hyeonseong and Hyeonyeong had never once shown Haesu their faces. Even when writing the contract, they had not revealed their real names to each other.

Even now, they had not revealed either their names or faces at all. But Hyeonseong had written a decisive clue revealing her identity on the player registration form.

‘When I blatantly wrote Infinite Corridor under the skills used, it would’ve been stranger not to know.’

No matter how she looked at it, there was no way for Hyeonseong to win arena fights while hiding her identity. That was why Hyeonseong accepted that her own identity would be exposed and put Infinite Corridor on the list of skills she would use.

Infinite Corridor was known as a skill possessed by Hyeonseong alone. There was no one who had stepped into the world of the Awakened and did not know that fact.

“What do you mean, you never imagined it?”

“Well…… um…….”

At Hyeonseong’s lightly thrown question, Haesu trailed off.

“……Don’t tell me you thought I was someone in the same line of work or something…….”

“Oh, w-well, that……!”

She had only lightly prodded once, but Haesu was startled and tried to make some excuse. It seemed she had guessed right.

‘Well, considering what I’d been doing until we got here, I can see how it might have looked that way.’

It did not feel great to be treated like some back-alley criminal, but she could understand it. With a dubious face, Hyeonseong let Haesu’s words slide.

“But they made this better than I expected. This waiting room.”

This time, Hyeonyeong spoke.

“Yeah. They even let you know what’s happening outside the waiting room. ……Though that really is the actual situation outside, right?”

Hyeonseong cast her gaze toward the multi-monitor installed on one wall of the waiting room. On the four-split monitor, footage filmed from multiple angles was playing, showing the contestant currently in a match and the spectator stands.

“The sound from outside matches the sound from that screen. It’s live footage.”

Hyeonyeong answered after focusing for a moment on the sounds outside.

‘The physical abilities of an S-rank combat-type really are convenient.’

That was the thought that came into Hyeonseong’s head the moment she heard Hyeonyeong’s answer.

Most S-rank combat-types had overwhelmingly high base stats connected to their bodily senses. Because of that, with just a little concentration, they could pull off feats similar to detection skills.

“So it is live.”

Hyeonseong focused on the footage for a moment. Naturally, the place her eyes went first was the footage filming the match currently in progress.

The contestants in the footage were wielding an axe and a hammer respectively. Since both were the type to use heavy weapons, the sound of their weapons clashing rang out heavily as well.

‘Their skill levels…… would both be around C- to B-rank, maybe.’

There was no separate field for Awakened rank in the information provided when registering contestants. Naturally, then, the information disclosed to the audience also contained nothing about the contestants’ ranks.

But if one wanted to estimate their ranks, there were any number of ways to do it. You could tell by looking at how well they handled their weapons, the power felt in their offense and defense, and the kinds of skills they used.

‘They both have high weapon proficiency. Looks like they’ve been making a living through combat for a few years. And seeing how they keep aiming only for vital points without hesitation, more precisely it’s anti-personnel combat…… no, they probably have quite a long history of killing.

That axe skill, at that level of power, the skill rank would be at least B-rank. The hammer skill that just went off is C-rank, but since it’s a skill accompanied by a shockwave, if it lands properly it’ll have power about half a rank higher…….’

Hyeonseong naturally began analyzing the fight between the contestants in the footage. Since neither of them was hiding anything and they were fighting at full strength, the analysis was not difficult.

‘If I had to fight one of those two…… the hammer would probably be more manageable than the axe. The hammer is slightly slower after all, and there are weaknesses I could aim for…….’

Once she had grasped their level, the flow of her thoughts naturally shifted to finding ways to deal with the two of them.

If match opponents were paired randomly, she could very well end up meeting one of the two currently there. So thinking up counters in advance would not be useless.

“Um, Ms. Ye Hyeonseong.”

While Hyeonseong was concentrating on her thoughts like that, Haesu suddenly spoke.

“Yes?”

“Um…… who do you think is going to win? Of those two over there.”

“……Why?”

“It’s just that you were watching so intently……. I thought maybe you were interested…….”

Perhaps because Hyeonseong had unconsciously asked back in a prickly voice, Haesu answered in a timid tone.

“It’s not that I’m interested. I was watching because one of them might be my next opponent.”

“Ah, come to think of it, they said the opponents are chosen randomly, right? Then…….”

“……Well, even so, I can still roughly guess who’ll win.”

Hyeonseong pointed to the contestant holding the axe.

“That one.”

“Why?”

“Because the difference in reaction speed has gradually started to show since a little while ago. The hammer is still barely keeping up somehow, but…… the gap is going to become noticeable soon.”

The hammer’s reaction speed, which had been similar to the axe’s, had begun gradually lagging behind a little while ago. That meant the hammer user was getting tired, physically or mentally.

‘Considering their basic attack power and speed, their stats are probably roughly similar too. But when it comes to stamina and concentration…… the axe definitely looks better.’

That was the kind of information you could not easily grasp at the beginning. It was an ability that only started showing after some time had passed.

‘It could just be an innate trait of the person themselves, separate from Awakened abilities, or maybe a hidden passive skill is compensating for it…….’

Whatever the reason, in the end the total sum of the axe user’s abilities was slightly superior. And that small difference became what decided victory and defeat.

Klaang—

In the footage, the axe user hurriedly knocked aside the incoming axe blade. The axe flying toward his temple was deflected to the side.

“I-I surrender!”

Before the axe user could attempt another attack, the hammer user shouted in an urgent voice. The axe that had been swung again stopped awkwardly in midair.

Immediately afterward, the victory of the axe user was announced in subtitles on the screen. The audience’s cheers and jeers in the footage were loud.

‘So if it really looks hopeless, yelling surrender and running is allowed too.’

As soon as the end of the match was announced, the hammer user fled the arena as if escaping.

The axe user, still remaining in the arena, was showing dissatisfaction through the motion of lowering his weapon. To anyone looking, it was obvious he was unhappy that the hammer user had surrendered and left.

‘Looks like surrender is handled by the manager watching over the match, not by the opponent.’

If the condition for surrender had depended on acceptance by the opposing contestant, the outcome of that duel a moment ago probably would have been very different. Hyeonseong thought as she watched the axe user leaving the arena.

‘So maybe that principle about killing being prohibited wasn’t entirely just for show. Even so, I should still be careful of the ones who seem interested in killing rather than in simple duels.’

“Wow…… you were really right.”

Haesu said in a surprised voice.

“Well…… by that point, not getting it right would’ve been stranger. She probably would’ve known even faster than me.”

Hyeonseong pointed at Hyeonyeong. Hyeonyeong did not particularly deny it.

“Even if I look at it around that point, I still wouldn’t really know…….”

“That’s just because your field is different. If you do some dungeon runs, you’ll probably be able to see it all too.”

“Oh, come on, that’s a bit…….”

At Hyeonseong’s words, Haesu denied it in a dubious voice.

‘More importantly, the next turn is…….’

Hyeonseong turned her gaze to the panel that sent guidance messages to those waiting. Since her turn had apparently not come yet, there was no particular message on the panel.

After waiting a moment, two new contestants appeared on the screen. Subtitles introduced the aliases the two had submitted and the weapons they used.

Just like before, Hyeonseong’s group waited while watching the screen until the fight ended. They had to repeat that waiting process two more times.

After watching a total of three more teams fight, Hyeonseong carefully assessed the level and traits of each participant. At the same time, she thought up strategies under the assumption of facing them herself.

‘There’s a chance they might come out after swapping the skills they use, but…….’

Even in that case, it would not actually be much of a problem. The patterns that could emerge from certain traits and skill levels were bound to be somewhat fixed.

“I’m up first.”

And after yet another match ended, a message arrived on the guidance panel for Hyeonyeong. It was a message telling her to come out because her opponent had been decided.

“Oh, it’s that person who was using the axe earlier, isn’t it?”

After checking Hyeonyeong’s opponent, Haesu said it in a slightly raised voice.

“I don’t need to tell you, right? The weak points and how to deal with him.”

Hyeonseong asked Hyeonyeong. Hyeonyeong nodded.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Leaving those words behind, Hyeonyeong went out of the waiting room. Soon Hyeonyeong appeared on the multi-monitor.

“Um…… that person is your younger sibling, Ms. Ye Hyeonseong…… so that means that’s Ye Hyeonyeong, right?”

Haesu asked, pointing at Hyeonyeong.

“That’s right.”

Hyeonseong nodded. Since she had not hidden the fact that they were family in front of Haesu from the start, there was no reason to hide it now.

“Will she be okay? It feels like Ms. Ye Hyeonyeong is also going to stand out a lot…….”

“She said she’d handle it herself, so it’ll be fine.”

At a glance, it sounded irresponsible. But Hyeonseong was not especially worried about Hyeonyeong. Hyeonyeong knew far better than Hyeonseong herself how to reveal or conceal herself.

‘If she doesn’t want to make it too obvious, she’ll probably start by just avoiding attacks as if she’s properly analyzing her opponent.’

Soon on the screen, Hyeonyeong began her match against the axe user.

Just as Hyeonseong expected, Hyeonyeong did not attack first and only avoided the axe user’s attacks.

To Hyeonseong, they looked like extremely relaxed evasive movements, but apparently they did not look that way to the audience. The audience on the screen jeered as if disappointed.

‘Looks like the people who sit around here all day gambling don’t have much of an eye for things. Or maybe, from other people’s perspective, Hyeonyeong’s acting is better than I thought.’

While looking down on the arena audience, Hyeonseong soon realized that her own perspective might not be objective.

‘More importantly, after dodging that much, shouldn’t she start testing the waters around now?’

That was what Hyeonseong guessed next.

Clang—

As soon as she finished that thought, Hyeonyeong swung her sword and deflected the axe user’s attack.

This time, cheers erupted from the screen. The audience had gotten excited by the sound of weapons clashing.

‘Now that she’s blocked one, the next step is to go back to just dodging. Then around here, the opponent will probably use a skill once.’

Just as Hyeonseong expected, Hyeonyeong lightly dodged the axe blade again. Then the axe user sharply twisted the direction of the blade and activated an aura attack skill.

‘Against that level of attack, the usual Hyeonyeong wouldn’t even need a skill and would just crush it outright, but…….’

Aura gathered over the blade of Hyeonyeong’s sword on the screen. She was trying to nullify the attack by using a skill of her own.

‘If she crushed it with just the tip of her sword, it’d be too obvious that Hyeonyeong is overwhelmingly stronger. To make it look like she’s just about as strong as that person, or a little stronger, she has to answer skill with skill.’

With a loud sound, the weapons were knocked back. Riding that recoil, the two widened the distance between them for a moment.

The battle continued. Hyeonyeong avoided attacks two or three more times, and clashed weapons with the axe user three or four more times.

Then, around the point when to every onlooker except Hyeonseong, Hyeonyeong and the axe user appeared roughly equal in skill,

Hyeonyeong adjusted her grip on the sword and thrust quickly. Aura coated the blade she drove forward.

Kaaang—

The tip of the sword struck the joint binding the axe blade to the handle. The axe blade and handle came apart.

What the……!

The opponent, having lost his weapon in an instant, cried out in a bewildered voice.

And right after that, Hyeonyeong’s blade threatened the opponent’s nape.

[Winner: Anonymous Swordsman 26]

The name arbitrarily assigned to Hyeonyeong by the arena was displayed on the monitor. With this, Hyeonyeong had succeeded in filling one of the three required wins.

‘Well, for Hyeonyeong, it was easy enough. More importantly…….’

Watching Hyeonyeong recover her sword and leave the arena, Hyeonseong thought.

Every pattern she had predicted while watching Hyeonyeong’s duel earlier had been correct.

‘Well, Hyeonyeong is family, and I’ve seen her a lot, so that part makes sense, but…….’

Putting Hyeonyeong aside, she did not know what to make of the fact that she had correctly predicted every pattern of the axe user Hyeonyeong had fought as well.

‘Maybe my guesses just worked out well.’

After all, there had not been that many offense-and-defense patterns shown by the axe user. The duel itself had not lasted very long.

‘There weren’t that many possible answers to be wrong about in the first place, so it wouldn’t be strange if I just happened to get them all right.’

Soon Hyeonyeong returned to the waiting room. And as if passing the baton, a message calling Hyeonseong appeared on the panel.

“Oh boy, looks like I’m next.”

Hyeonseong muttered as she stood up from her seat.

“Um…… are you really going to be okay? With that skill combination. No matter how I think about it again, I don’t think there were any attack skills at all.”

Haesu asked Hyeonseong in a worried voice.

“I wrote it because I’ll be fine. And even if I put in some half-baked attack skill, it’d be hard to get any mileage out of it. Anyway, I’m off.”

After giving Haesu a rough answer, Hyeonseong left a brief word to Hyeonyeong and headed for the arena.