Chapter 157 – Combat Angel
The ordinary angel, Kallen, couldn’t hide her panic.
‘W-What did that bastard just call me? What did that human just say?’
For a moment, she wondered if she’d misheard, but looking at the human’s expression, that wasn’t it.
It was a clear sneer.
A lowly bug was curling its lips into an irritating smile right at her.
[This bug of a human…… has something happened to its head?]
“My head’s perfectly fine, you X-bitch.”
[What? Ha, ha, ha…….]
Maybe it was truly absurd to her, because Kallen let out a mechanical laugh—then her expression crumpled all at once.
[You goddamn human bastard! This won’t do. You just need to die.]
Without even hesitating, Kallen used the one-time special ability [Sisal] on the human in front of her.
It was a privilege that worked only on humans, given for the sole purpose of controlling humans.
But.
[Huh? W-What, why is this happening? Huh? Huh?]
Kallen was so genuinely flustered she muttered without realizing it.
[Why? Why isn’t it working?]
No matter how many times she tried, it wouldn’t work.
‘There should definitely still be chances left to use Sisal, though?’
Ever since she’d been granted the ability, she hadn’t used it on a human even once.
Because even without using it, humans would grovel on their own.
‘Then why won’t it work? Why?’
She wanted to blow that insolent human’s head apart like a firecracker, but it didn’t even budge.
‘Die! Just die! Die, you bug bastard!’
No matter how murderously she glared, no matter how she screamed over and over inside her head, nothing changed.
What she heard wasn’t the sound of a head exploding, but only the human’s irritating taunting.
“What are you doing? I told you to kill me. Why? You can’t?”
[I-Iik……!]
“Of course you can’t. Sisal is an ability that strikes the mind.”
[H-How do you know that…….]
“You don’t need to know.”
Ryu Min approached with a devilish grin.
“There’s just one thing you need to understand. Who’s the one on top, and who’s the one underneath.”
[Obviously I’m the one on—]
“Have you ever been slapped by a bug before?”
[What?]
Ryu Min’s hand flashed.
Smack—!
The angel’s head snapped to the side, and she collapsed limply like a tragic heroine.
A moment later, the cheek that had been hit flushed red-hot.
Ryu Min’s hand moved again in succession.
Smack— smack— smack—
The angel couldn’t respond—so fast she couldn’t even see when his arm swung.
No—more accurately, she couldn’t even think to respond to a shock she’d never experienced in her entire life.
Who could have imagined that she’d come down because a request for an oracle had arrived, only to be getting her cheeks slapped by a human she’d dismissed as a bug?
Smack— smack— smack!
The more she was hit, the angel’s lips swelled, and blood sprayed.
Without Sisal, an angel was no different from an ordinary person.
There was no way she could withstand a Player’s strength.
At a glance, they looked like cold, merciless slaps with no pity at all, but in reality, Ryu Min was focusing all his attention on controlling his strength.
Because, no kidding, all his stats had doubled.
It was the effect of the title [The First Angel Slayer], which increased stats against holy-type opponents.
‘I can’t accidentally kill her. I should only hit her enough to crush her pride.’
Only after slapping her ten times did Ryu Min’s hand stop.
‘This should be enough.’
The angel’s cheeks, once snow-white, were now red like heated iron, and her lips had split, blood dripping down.
“So? How does it feel to be hit by a bug?”
[…….]
“Do you get the situation now? Who’s on top and who’s underneath?”
Instead of answering, Kallen shot the human a poisonous glare.
She meant to use Sisal once more, but it failed again without exception.
‘Why the hell isn’t it working? Whyyyyy!’
In the middle of her inward scream, her gaze suddenly caught on a human.
‘Don’t tell me… Sisal doesn’t work on me?’
As a test, she used the ability on that human.
Thud—!
The Seonghwang’s head behind Ryu Min burst like a firecracker.
She’d wasted her one remaining Sisal on a completely unrelated human.
‘It works perfectly like this, so why is there no reaction on him?!’
It was absurd, but either way, she’d used Sisal, so her means of counterattacking was gone.
‘No—this isn’t over yet.’
A feather dagger hidden inside her wing.
If she used that, maybe she could kill that damned human bastard.
But Kallen stopped at thought alone.
She had no confidence.
No certainty, either.
Could she subdue a human who was toying with her using overwhelming power—with nothing but a mere dagger?
‘F-First, I need to ask what this bastard wants.’
Grinding her teeth and deciding to wait for the next chance, Kallen asked in a resentful voice.
[What is it you want from me, human?]
“What I want? Isn’t it obvious?”
The human spoke with a swagger like a thug, then held out his hand.
“Hand over items.”
[What?]
“I’m not going to make absurd demands like ‘exclude me from the survival game’ or ‘let me survive until Round 20.’ Looks like even you angels can’t change the system.”
[…….]
“Instead, I’ll make a reasonable demand. If you’ve got items or anything, hand them over.”
[Ah… items?]
“You angels made this system, didn’t you? So hand them over—while I’m asking nicely. There has to be a way, right? If you don’t have items, then give me something else.”
The human’s demand was simple.
He wasn’t asking for some massive thing that would interfere with the system.
He was saying: give me something that could be beneficial.
‘As if that’s even possible. I’m just a 9th-rank angel who sometimes fills in as a substitute guide!’
Receiving oracles, or occasionally going out as a stand-in guide—that was Kallen’s job.
There was no way she could hand out items at will.
The system was designed that way to begin with.
‘And it’s not just me. No matter which higher angel it is, they don’t have the authority to hand out items.’
Everything was just a world that ran on the system.
Humans believed the angels had planned it and dragged them into this survival game, but in truth, it was completely different.
They themselves were just ordinary angels—mere guides.
‘What do I do? If I tell the truth, this insane human won’t stay quiet…….’
When Kallen fell silent, Ryu Min frowned and slapped her cheek again.
Smack—!
“You’re not giving them? You’re not talking?”
[Uuugh…….]
He didn’t hit as hard as before, but Kallen cried out in pain.
Her cheeks were already swollen to the point that even a light slap hurt.
‘Damned human bastard!’
More than the pain, it was humiliating.
That desire for revenge sparked an idea in a flash.
‘Right. I’ll trick this idiot and bait him into a trap. He’s a moron who actually believes I can give him items in the first place, isn’t he?’
When Ryu Min moved to slap her again, Kallen hurriedly shouted, hiding what she was really thinking.
[S-Stop! I’ll give them—items!]
“Now we’re finally communicating. Hurry and hand them over.”
[W-Wait. I don’t have the authority, but another angel can give them. I’ll call one.]
“Another angel?”
Ryu Min tilted his head, then nodded readily as if telling her to do as she pleased.
“Call them. Even if you call more winged bird-brains, it won’t be a threat. But you can’t move even one step from here. You can do that, right? Angels have a way to communicate, don’t they?”
[A-Alright. Wait three minutes. I’ll call an angel who can give the reward…….]
Ryu Min crossed his arms and waited, and Kallen, inside, let out a sigh of relief.
At the same time, she had to forcibly hold back the sneer threatening to leak out.
‘Heeheehee, you bug-like human. Your life is already forfeit. How dare you look down on an angel?’
The angel Kallen was going to call was a combat angel.
A being on a completely different level from ordinary angels—an angel made solely for destruction and slaughter.
‘Once a combat angel arrives, your life is forfeit.’
Watching the human’s mood, Kallen sent an emergency signal and a message to the higher-ups.
Luckily, the bastard didn’t even know what she was doing.
He didn’t know who she’d called, either.
He looked indifferent, as if he didn’t care one way or another.
‘Well, of course. There’s no way a little bastard like him could know who I’m calling. Heh.’
She swallowed her sneer—but there were three facts this angel didn’t know.
First: that every single one of her thoughts was being read by the human in front of her.
Second: that the human in front of her was strong enough to tear a combat angel apart.
And lastly—
‘He’s acting on purpose to lure in a combat angel.’
There was no way Ryu Min, who could read thoughts, wouldn’t know.
What kind of scheme the angel was plotting.
‘She thinks calling a combat angel gives her a chance, but not a chance in hell.’
To begin with, Ryu Min’s goal was to kill a combat angel and receive the first-kill reward.
Calling a combat angel was exactly what he wanted.
It was what Ryu Min intended, too.
‘That’s why I threatened her while demanding a reward that wouldn’t even work. If I do this, her pride will be hurt enough that she’ll call a combat angel anyway.’
If he’d demanded from the start that she call a combat angel, she might have refused out of sheer contrariness.
Angels were a prideful race.
‘So I played dumb and acted like a punk shaking her down.’
Fortunately, she was moving exactly the way he wanted.
Soon, a combat angel would arrive, and he could receive the first-kill reward.
Ryu Min glanced at Yamtti, who was hidden behind him.
He signaled with his eyes, and Yamtti understood, hiding itself so it wouldn’t interfere.
Unless the Rune of Allure worked, there was no reason for Yamtti to step in.
Dealing with angels was, from start to finish, Ryu Min’s domain.
‘Come. No matter who it is, I’ll tear you apart.’
With eyes gleaming like a beast, Ryu Min waited for his prey to appear as soon as possible.
Angels were divided into ranks from 9 to 1.
Ranks 9 to 7 were ordinary angels.
Ranks 6 to 4 were standard combat angels.
Ranks 3 to 1 were among the highest tier even among combat angels.
And then there were the seven archangels, called beyond classification.
That was the heavenly ranking chart any angel would know.
Once you knew the ranking system, anyone would dream of earning merit and becoming a higher-ranking angel.
But to Bayel—a 6th-rank combat angel—merit didn’t matter at all.
Because he felt like he was going to go insane from sleepiness.
[Haaahm. I’d have no wish left if I could sleep for even one hour.]
Bayel, who’d pulled an all-nighter standing watch since yesterday, yawned again and again.
Angels, like humans, had physical bodies.
Their living environment was different, but they still slept and shook off the day’s fatigue.
It’s just that they didn’t have the sensation of hunger, so they neither ate nor relieved themselves.
[Sleepiness for noble angels… I don’t know why God made us like this. Wouldn’t it be better to make us spiritual bodies with no desires at all?]
Of course, it was better than humans, who had all sorts of desires—eating, sleeping, relieving themselves, and so on.
[I don’t know how humans keep repeating such annoying things. Ah… is it because they can’t help it—it’s desire?]
Bayel knew.
That angels were a noble race with power and mental strength humans couldn’t compare to.
He was dissatisfied that he had a body weak enough to lose to drowsiness, but overall, he was satisfied.
Though he wasn’t satisfied with his current position—having to stand by for emergency signals.
[I’m sick of this. I wish something would happen.]
Just as he muttered, trying to fight off sleepiness—
Something really did happen.
‘Huh? An emergency signal?’
An emergency signal came from his assigned zone.
He immediately listened closely, and a message delivered by a 9th-rank angel came through.
[I’m being threatened by a human suspected to be a Player. Please help me, combat angel.]
‘An angel being threatened by a bug-like human?’
It was impossible—but not completely impossible.
If you got caught while you didn’t have Sisal, an ordinary angel wouldn’t be able to resist.
That was why ordinary angels were never supposed to get close to Players.
‘Stupid bitch. What are you even keeping those wings for?’
Bayel shook his head as if it were pathetic.
This was an embarrassment to angelic dignity.
But unlike his annoyed voice, the corners of his lips curled upward.
[Perfect timing, when I was bored.]
It was a chance to blow off steam after a long time.
A Player who dared to raise a hand against an angel was, no questions asked, worthy of immediate execution.
In other words, he could disassemble the human’s body and play with it, and there would be no problem.
And besides—small as it was—he might even have it recognized as merit.
[No matter what kind of human it is, they picked the wrong target. I’ll go kill them right now.]
He already knew the location, because it had been transmitted through the signal.
Bayel vanished in a flash of light.