CHAPTER 77: CHAPTER 76: GLOO

Before they could continue their arguments, clapping sounds echoed throughout the corridor.

Zaen froze upon registering the presence of the masked person. Hina stopped growling as well. Mimi lowered her blade a fraction.

As for Ben, he had already slipped inside one of the open rooms, looking for a change of clothes.

Up on the railing above them, a masked individual leaned forward, elbows on the metal bar as if watching a theater performance.

"What a lovely scene," the stranger said. "You’re awfully popular, aren’t you?"

From the man’s words, one would think he was praising Zaen, when in reality, the person was brimming with jealousy. Not because Zaen had women fighting over him, but because looking at him reminded the person of someone else. Someone who was far beyond in a league of his own.

But Zaen was just a newbie. By crushing him, he could take out some of his pent-up frustrations. Before the group could react, the metal bars the masked man was leaning on bent like candle wax on fire.

The melting point of iron is 1535℃, but judging from the rising vapor from the golden liquid, letting them know the temperature was close to its boiling point at nearly three thousand Celsius!

The molten iron turned into a puddle, hovering before the man.

"Ugh... it’s too hot here?" Hina mumbled and quickly hid behind Zaen. Not one to be topped, Mimi did the same.

Their actions only infuriated the man even more.

"Killing you is out of the question," the man mumbled. "But no one said anything about scarring your face."

The man held the bubbling molten iron in his hand and yet wasn’t burned. Instead, he took some of it, turning it into a ball of fire and aimed it towards Zaen.

Just as he was about to throw it, a strange pain erupted in his arm. It felt as if his hands had been shoved into a thick bush of thorns.

"Ugh!"

It wasn’t just his imagination. Cuts and rashes appeared all over his body like mushrooms in the rain, starting from his hands, and soon his entire body was coiled around with invisible thorns.

[Ring of Thorns dealt 186 HP damage to the target.]

[Mark of Aceso healed 3.5 HP.]

So this is how it works. Excellent!

The molten iron ball slipped from his grasp. He tried grabbing it, but the molten iron from before had burned through the floor under him. His knees buckled, and he stumbled backward with a strangled groan.

All the molten liquid he had been handling expertly, fell right on them. Even Physical-type players would have a difficult time surviving if a puddle of molten iron were thrown at them.

And well... they weren’t one, as far as Zaen knew.

In an instant, the molten iron showered over them. Zaen could have jumped away, but couldn’t because the girls had instinctively grabbed him, keeping him in place.

Here I thought I won’t play hero for anyone...

Just as he was about to pull them closer to shield them, the opposite happened. They pushed him back as if shielding him with their own bodies.

It made sense for Hina to do something like it, but he couldn’t wrap his head around for Mimi doing the same. It seemed... she was serious when she put that ring on his finger.

"Wait—!"

Zaen yelled, but gravity didn’t stop for a second and dumped all the iron on them.

Just then, a golden light surrounded the two women. Zaen couldn’t see the light, but he could see their silhouettes in place, unharmed by the molten iron.

The droplets of molten metal struck the barrier and slid down its surface like water droplets on glass.

"Phew... I barely made it."

Zaen turned around and saw Ben standing there, holding what seemed to be a static-textured voodoo doll. It also had a similar barrier around it, only it was much smaller.

Who would have thought Zaen would be happy to see the person he had relegated as a burden? But he really was. So much so that he almost ran up to hug Ben.

Almost.

Instead, he turned towards the masked man, who had just managed to get his leg out of the burned hole.

"Curse this foundation level restriction!"

The man’s frustration was understandable. He had enough strength to hinder the movement of the earth’s core if he concentrated hard enough, but thanks to the senseless restriction, he couldn’t even control a few droplets of molten iron properly.

Zaen wasn’t interested in his curses and ran towards Ben. The latter was on his knees when he saw Zaen hurrying towards him. For a moment, all the ill feelings he had towards his blind roommate disappeared.

It would be stupid to hold grudges when Zaen was clearly worried about him.

"I’m fine, Zaen," Ben said, looking smug. "There’s no need to kiss my feet in reverence—"

The rest of his words were cut off as Zaen planted his own feet on Ben’s face before jumping towards the masked individual. Using Mimi or Hina’s back would have made more sense, but he couldn’t bring himself to kick them like that.

"I’m sorry!" Zaen hurriedly apologized.

"..."

Ben didn’t reply. He was too occupied caressing his face to do anything. But if looks could kill, Zaen would have died ten times over.

Meanwhile, their opponent had already stabilized himself and hurled another volley of molten iron at Zaen. Thankfully, the latter was one step ahead.

Zaen had placed all his weapons back in the inventory to free his hands. The blindfold was enough to help him out as long as his luck didn’t run out.

He grabbed a ledge, then jumped and rolled somewhere else. He was too fast for the ’foundation level’ attacks to hit him.

"You’re a cockroach!" the masked man yelled, hurling another ball of molten iron at Zaen. "Stop jumping around!"

"You’re not putting any effort into throwing those balls," Zaen smirked, hanging upside down from a ledge. "At least try to do something about those generic dialogues."

"Try meaningless dialogues," Mimi shrugged. "Since when do cockroaches jump?"

"More like senseless dialogues," Hina chimed in.

"How about useless?" Ben said, holding his nose.

"You—!"

The momentary distraction was enough for Zaen to sneak up on him. By the time the masked man noticed him, he had already swung both the stick and the Boning sword at him.

His vision returned with new vigor. The victory was in sight... but just like that, it also slipped away from his grasp.

The man... he disappeared.

Zaen was taken aback. Even when he focused, he couldn’t see the guy anywhere.

"Zaen, below you!" Hina yelled.

He didn’t bother looking and just jumped up. The second he did, hundreds of spikes shot out of the ground.

"What the hell...?"

Only then did Zaen sense it. The spikes weren’t distorted but had a faint, familiar silhouette. The masked man’s presence... was coming from the spikes themselves.

He couldn’t understand what was happening. How could a person turn into liquid?

At most, the human body has 5 grams of iron in it. Even if he could control iron, mere 5 grams couldn’t possibly constitute his entire body?

It had to be something else, but whatever it was, Zaen didn’t have any time to think about it as more and more spikes kept appearing under him.

"Captain, Gloo broke the rules," Lolita said, innocently pointing at Zaen and the spikes.

"I know," the leader replied, pinching her cheek. "Sometimes, one has to break rules for the greater good."

Lolita looked at the masked man, wondering if what he was saying made any sense. After all, Johann had always been strict with her, telling her to follow the rules even if it meant ruining innocent lives.

Behind the group, all of the newbies were sprawled out on the ground. They had taken care of them with ease, wanting to rush and be the one to face Erina’s son.

They didn’t think Gloo would abandon everything and just go for Zaen first. As for his hatred... he had his reasons.

Erina was more of a mother figure to Gloo, rather than a senior sister. But then she ’retired’ by taking on more responsibilities closer to her home when she had Zaen. It was the only way people retired from F.O.R.C.E..

The others understood, but Gloo didn’t. He had a habit of getting possessive over people. That, coupled with the fact that her husband was experimenting with other females to help ’create’ more hunters without the influence of the games, didn’t sit well with Gloo.

The research was completely platonic, involving no intimacy. It was more like an IVF procedure, yet Gloo thought Erina was being cheated on and held a grudge because she refused to see him as long as he kept badmouthing her family.

Seeing Zaen surrounded by multiple women must have triggered his buried emotions, and now he was taking it out on Zaen.

"Captain, should we—?" Storm wanted to say something, but got cut off.

"Not yet," the black-masked captain replied. "Let them sort it out themselves. Just make sure no one dies."