WPRAF 02

Chapter 2

I thought hard.
Which would be more beneficial — saving Jung So-mi, or not saving her?

She had introduced herself as an office worker,
but in truth, she was an agent from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) sent to monitor me.

I didn’t hold a grudge against her.
She was just doing her job, after all.

Still, whatever I said, she shouldn’t complain.
If she had a problem with it — well, that would be unfortunate.

“I’ll save you. But on one condition — you have to grant me one request. Whatever it is. Do you agree?”

“Huh?”

In this situation, talking about a deal made her let out a laugh of disbelief.

‘Hmm… must be a rookie who just joined the agency.’

A proper intelligence agent should be quick to assess whether a situation is advantageous or not.
But here, she was clearly the one at a disadvantage.

If it were me, I would’ve accepted the offer without question.

‘Is she just inexperienced… or is her head full of flowers?’

If it was the latter, I’d honestly suggest a career change.
Anyone holding onto idealistic morals like “you should always help someone in danger” would be better off finding a new job.

Anyway, I decided to help her.
Not only because I wasn’t cold-blooded enough to ignore someone in danger,
but also because saving her might prove useful to my own safety and situation.

An active NIS agent could come in handy in many ways.

“Should I take that smile as a refusal?”
“N-no! I agree!”

After hearing her answer, I slowly opened the door.
Through the crack, I saw Jung So-mi leaning against the wall, panting for breath.

Her arms and legs were slashed, and the floor beneath her was soaked with blood.

“Come in.”

I helped her inside and closed the door behind her.
Then, instead of my Glock, I gripped a knife and glared down the hallway —
at the two monsters standing at the end.

They were short — around 150 cm — with pointy ears and large eyes filled with greed and murderous intent.
Their green skin bulged with grotesquely developed muscles.

For a moment, I remembered a documentary I once saw —
a chimpanzee tearing apart a coconut with its bare hands.

The image of these green creatures ripping my body apart flashed in my mind, and I shivered.

‘Still… it’s something I have to do.’

Since they’d already spotted me, hiding in the house would be stupid.
It would be safer to eliminate them here and now.

Besides, sooner or later, I’d have to fight them anyway —
so this, when I could face just a few of them, seemed like a good chance to test their strength.

When I showed signs of fighting, Jung So-mi grabbed my collar in alarm.

“W-wait, what are you doing?”

“As you can see — fighting. My blood’s boiling too much to sit still.”

I grinned as I spoke.
It was a joke — a way to ease my tension — but she didn’t understand that.

She just looked at me in confusion,
and without bothering to explain, I ignored her and shut the door.

Only the two monsters and I remained in the hallway.
We glared at each other — a moment of silent observation.

If they saw me as prey, they would’ve rushed in immediately.
Instead, they seemed to be assessing me — as if recognizing me as an equal opponent.

That realization lifted my mood slightly.
But at the same time, I couldn’t deny I was tense.
It had been a while since I’d felt this kind of primal thrill.

“Phew…”

I let out a long breath and began closing the distance, knife in hand.
The two green monsters stood side by side, one holding a spear and the other an axe.

Spear and axe — not weapons you see every day.

During my overseas training, one of my instructors, a former Spetsnaz soldier, had said this:

“The best way to deal with a melee weapon is with a gun.
Don’t let some dumb sense of pride make you fight with the same kind of weapon. Just shoot.”

He was right, of course.
But right now, I couldn’t use my gun — the gunfire would be too loud.
Besides, I was actually more confident with a blade.

When someone had once asked that instructor,
“What if you don’t have a gun?”
he’d answered simply:

“Every weapon has a fixed reach — and that reach will never change.
Understand the reach, and you’ve already won half the battle.”

He said as long as you kept that principle in mind, you had over a 60% chance of victory.
The other 40% depended on external factors — especially mental discipline.

“Never let your guard down. Don’t get cocky.
Stay sharp, no matter the conditions.”

That training had saved my life countless times —
and it looked like it would again today.

Chrrrk!
Chrrr!

The two green monsters exchanged glances and charged.
One thrust its spear toward my stomach, the other swung its axe at my shoulder.

Their reach was short — their arms, even shorter.
As long as I managed the distance, they wouldn’t land a hit.

Whoosh—

I twisted my body to dodge the spear aimed at my gut,
then grabbed the shaft as it brushed past my chest and yanked hard.
The green creature stumbled forward, eyes wide in surprise.

“Hmph!”

With my other hand, I slashed across its throat.
I felt the blade tear through flesh —
a thin line appearing across its neck before splitting open and gushing dark blood.

The monster clutched its throat, gurgled, and collapsed.

I immediately turned to block the incoming axe with an upward slash.
Sparks flew where the blades met,
and through that flash, I drove my fist straight into its forehead.

Thud—

My knuckles ached from the impact —
its skull was as hard as stone.

But the creature had it worse.
It staggered, dazed from the blow.

I didn’t miss the opening.
Switching the knife to a reverse grip, I drove it down into its skull.

The blade didn’t go all the way in,
and the goblin, seizing the moment, swung its axe down.

I kicked off the wall, vaulting over its head,
and landed behind it, smashing its knee out from under it.

As it dropped to its knees,
I grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and slammed it down like a hammer onto the knife still lodged in its head.

Crack—!

The knife buried deep — the hilt disappearing completely.

Grrk—!

The creature let out a strangled scream and fell lifelessly to the floor.

And just then, a message appeared before my eyes.

[You have defeated a Goblin Soldier.]
[You have earned 50 coins.]
[You have defeated a Goblin Soldier.]
[You have earned 50 coins.]
[Total Balance: 100 coins.]

Two things learned.
The monsters I fought were called goblins,
and killing goblins earned me coins.

I’d seen that term — coins — before, in the skill [Collateral].

“Lend 1,000 coins to obtain 1 stat point as collateral.”

That meant each goblin was worth 50 coins.
So I’d need to kill twenty to gain one stat point.
Not too bad, considering how easy they were to deal with.

But that wasn’t all. The message continued.

[Player Han Se-hyun’s first video, “2 vs 1 Fight with Goblins,” has been uploaded to ‘Pidomena Universe.’]

[‘Pidomena Universe’ is a multiversal video streaming platform created by Pidomena.]
[Videos are automatically selected, edited, and uploaded by the platform.]
[You can view your uploaded videos under ‘My Videos.’]

So now it was clearer how Earth was meant to repay its debt.
Pidomena Universe selected footage of creatures from Earth,
uploaded their “achievements,” and used the revenue from those views to pay off the planet’s debt.

[Title: Storytime — My 2v1 Fight Against Goblins]

Views: 0
Comments: 0
+1 coin per 10,000 views
Coins are settled at the end of each month.

I checked [My Videos].
The fight I’d just had — barely a minute ago — had already been uploaded with that ridiculous title.

And, surprisingly, the view count was rising in real time.
In seconds, it jumped from 0 to over 1,000 views.
More than fifty comments appeared too.

Curious, I tried to open the comments by tapping the small hologram window floating before my eyes.

[Access Denied. You do not have permission to view comments.]

Denied from viewing my own video.
How absurd.

The message basically meant: “Stay in your lane, creature. Just fight and make us content.”

Back inside, I treated Jung So-mi’s wounds and gave her two painkillers.
She was sweating buckets, so I handed her a towel and a change of clothes.

When she came out of the small room after changing, I asked:

“Were you able to contact the NIS?”

“…What?”

“No time for twenty questions. I already know, so let’s be honest.
You’re an NIS agent, aren’t you, So-mi?”

“…How did you know?”

She asked, startled.
I shrugged.

“Who wouldn’t? You make it obvious.
Who the hell goes to work at exactly 7:57 every day?”

“Th-that could happen!”

“And that potted plant you gave me as a housewarming gift — it had a listening device inside, didn’t it?
That picture frame you gave me a few days ago had a micro-camera installed too.”

Her pupils trembled like an earthquake.
Definitely a rookie — her acting was about one year’s worth of training at best.

How could they assign a newbie like her to keep tabs on me?
The NIS must really be short-staffed these days.
Or maybe they decided it’d be a waste of resources to assign a veteran to a retired black ops agent.

“I’m not blaming you, So-mi. You were just doing your job.
Now, answer me. Has the NIS issued any orders?”

Under my calm but firm questioning, she shook her head.

“The signal goes through, but… no one responds.”

So the NIS had been hit too.
I’d been hoping to use their safehouse or an old tunnel route to escape,
but it looked like we were on our own.

“Do you know any safe places?”
“Not really. Are you seriously planning to go out now? There are monsters everywhere!”
“Anywhere is better than here.”
“Then we should head to a shelter. The national emergency manual says to evacuate to a shelter, a school gym, or a subway station.”

I blinked in surprise.
This was the first time I’d met an agent who actually read the emergency manual.

When she asked why I was staring, I slung a backpack over my shoulder and asked,

“So-mi, you were a model student in school, weren’t you?”
“Huh? Why do you ask that all of a sudden?”
“You always listened to teachers, got along with everyone, and probably never got a single demerit, right?”

She didn’t answer — but her eyes darting away said everything.
I hesitated for a moment, wondering if bringing along someone this naive and by-the-book was a good idea.
People like her tended to crumble when improvisation was needed.

Then she spoke up.

“Actually… I know one safehouse.”

See? Everyone has some useful quality.

“Where is it?”
“Goyang City.”

That was close enough to reach.
She added that the safehouse was stocked with food and water to last a while.

That sealed the decision — we were going.