A Player Who Eats Metal

Chapter 8: The Tiger and the Buffalo

< Chapter 8: The Tiger and the Buffalo – 3 >

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Crrrack!

The leg kick landed. It was already the 8th time.

“Ghhh…”

Finally, Lee Won-seok lost his balance and staggered.

At that very moment, Lee Hyunwook rushed in.

He moved as smoothly as flowing water, quickly moving behind Lee Won-seok, grabbed his waist, and pulled him forward.

“Back Mount!”

Someone shouted.

It was a position that sat on the opponent’s waist and restricted the movement of the lower body.

Furthermore, when held from behind like that, there was no fear of being grabbed by the powerful grip of the ‘barbarian’.

If one borrowed Cheon Myung-ho’s analogy, it was as if a tiger climbed onto the back of a rampaging buffalo, minimizing the risk of being hit by the buffalo’s horns while targeting its airway.

“Uuuugh!”

But the buffalo wasn’t dead yet.

It tried to shake off the tiger as if kicking its hind legs.

However…

“The hunt is already over.”

Cheon Myung-ho poured cold water on the scene with just one sentence.

“Huh? Senior, what are you seeing to say that?”

Captain Kang Seong-chun, along with Oh Sang-guk and Kwak Jin-cheol, couldn’t understand. Lee Won-seok, that barbarian, looked as if he could turn the tables and stand up any moment because of his immense strength.

“We honestly still need to watch. He could reverse the position and pummel in return.”

However, Cheon Myung-ho calmly shook his head.

“That size, truly like a buffalo. He only knows how to rampage and doesn’t know how to defend vital points. On the other hand, that guy, like a true tiger, watches the prey’s vital points, preparing to sink his teeth.”

“Vital points, you say…”

The next moment, Lee Hyunwook’s arms moved like a snake and wrapped around Lee Won-seok’s neck.

“Gack!”

Lee Won-seok was startled and moved as if spasming, but his reaction was slow.

“Kuh!”

Rear Naked Choke – a technique to suppress the carotid artery with both arms, cutting off blood flow to the brain, was applied perfectly.

“Look at that, the tiger has finally bitten the nape.”

“….What?”

“It’s a matter of moments. Like the teeth of a beast cutting off the prey’s airway…”

Lee Won-seok writhed and tried to pry off Lee Hyunwook’s arm, but his forearm was unusually solid, and the grip wouldn’t release.

This was due to the ‘hardening’ ability.

Just by hardening, grip strength increases almost threefold. Both arms turned as hard as steel, interlocked tight like a padlock.

Lee Hyunwook tightened his grip with all his might.

‘With my ability added, it will never be released.’

The advantage of hardening was that one could use ‘abilities’ on their metal-made body. Lee Hyunwook concentrated 2,558g of force on his fingers, which had become as hard as steel, increasing his grip strength.

Screeeech!

Such was the force that it sounded as if metal was being scratched.

Choke! Choke!

All Lee Won-seok could do was scratch Lee Hyunwook’s clothes with his nails in futile resistance.

“Ch, cough! Ch…gh…”

Like that, 5 seconds, 6 seconds, 7 seconds… time passed,

And Lee Won-seok’s body began to slump,

Soon,

Thud-

His thick arm helplessly fell to the ground.

“….Ah!”

The movements of both players stopped simultaneously.

“Hahaha! Yes, that’s the real difference in ‘class’ I was talking about.”

With Cheon Myung-ho’s voice, Lee Hyunwook rose to his feet.

He wasn’t even panting, and his face was as calm as if he had just taken a brief rest.

On the other hand, Lee Won-seok was stiff and couldn’t move.

The one lying down and the one standing…

Like that, the winner and the loser became clear at a glance.

“Insane, this doesn’t make any sense. What the…”

Kwak Jin-cheol could only shake his head in denial.

He didn’t want to believe it.

But the figure of Lee Hyunwook right now truly…

“…Tiger!”

He looked like a tiger that hunted a buffalo, which was twice its size, and now stood atop its prey.

And as the eyes of that tiger shifted to the spectators,

“…”

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Silence.

The training ground became as quiet as a library.

Shuffle- Shuffle-

As Lee Hyunwook descended from the combat box, the spectators parted to the sides.

And at the end of it stood a man in combat attire, a lieutenant from the Black Tiger Unit – Cheon Myung-ho.

He looked at Lee Hyunwook with a faint smile.

“Soldier, what’s your name?”

Lee Hyunwook looked at his face and checked the name tag on his uniform.

‘Lieutenant Cheon Myung-ho? Why is he here right now?’

This figure was also someone Lee Hyunwook knew well.

‘He’s someone who will soon recruit Corporal Choi Young-jun and groom him to be the best.’

He had heard that Cheon had gone to great lengths to bring Choi Young-jun to the Black Tiger Unit.

It seemed like this was his first visit, and it appeared he had come across this duel training by chance.

“I am Corporal Lee Hyunwook from the 1st company.”

Cheon Myung-ho extended his hand for a handshake.

“I am Lieutenant Cheon Myung-ho, the Raid Tactics Instructor of the Black Tiger Unit. That duel just now was quite impressive.”

Then, he took out a business card from his pocket.

“Being a Corporal means you’ll soon be thinking about your path after discharge. Are you interested in ‘Special Operations Raids’ by any chance?”

There were gasps of astonishment all around.

“Wow…”

“Is this for real?”

‘Special Operations Raids’ referred to the most difficult tasks against monsters.

In simple terms, it was a special force within AMT.

The public knew them for boss monster assassinations, dungeon infiltrations, and demolition tasks.

However, the specific details of their missions were a national secret.

“Did he just… get a recruitment offer from the Black Tiger Unit? Right?”

“It seems so, but they probably don’t know he’s F-class, right? Can this be true?”

The spectators unanimously spat out expressions of disbelief.

They had just witnessed the unbelievable scene of an F-class defeating a D-class… But no matter how you sliced it, they found it inconceivable — and perhaps didn’t want to believe — that an F-class, whom they considered far below them, would get a recruitment call from the Black Tiger Unit.

“I’m sorry, but I’m an F-class player.”

Lee Hyunwook said so and didn’t accept the business card. But Cheon Myung-ho persistently pushed the card toward him.

“In my eyes, before being F-class, you seem like a warrior.”

Warrior,

Lee Hyunwook was well aware that the grand word coming from Cheon Myung-ho’s mouth wasn’t just lip service.

When the Black Tiger Unit recruits agents, they prioritize an individual’s judgment and combat instincts over player capabilities.

Even if someone was an S-class player, if they lacked teamwork, they would be excluded from operations.

‘Ironically, that’s why the Black Tiger Unit was strong.’

With a team composed of C-class players, tackling an A-class dungeon with distinction – that was precisely the Black Tiger Unit.

In other words, fighting within the Black Tiger Unit as an organization that truly cultivates ‘specialists’ meant being an elite warrior.

‘No matter how high the player’s rank, there are places you can’t join just because you want to. Only those chosen can belong… and later, it’s also the place leading the most significant operation in South Korea’s AMT history, the <Bihyeongrang Plan>.’

Simply put, it was a place of honor.

However, Lee Hyunwook had no intention of staying in the military.

‘The military is inevitably insular.’

He couldn’t confront the villain group while staying in a confined environment.

He couldn’t act freely and would be held back at crucial moments.

“Corporal Lee Hyunwook, are you planning to keep me holding onto that?”

Prompted by Cheon Myung-ho’s words, Lee Hyunwook took the business card.

“Thank you for considering me. I’ll think about it.”

Lee Hyunwook saluted and passed by him, then headed outside the training grounds without any second thoughts.

Lieutenant Cheon Myung-ho watched his departure with a faint smile, muttering with a hint of regret.

“F-class, an unlucky genius… He’s perfect.”

As Lee Hyunwook disappeared, the spectators began to murmur again.

Amidst them, a thin line of gray smoke rose.

The source was, unsurprisingly, from the corner of Kwak Jin-cheol’s mouth.

He felt like he hadn’t just been hit once, but had taken at least a couple more hits.

“Sergeant Oh, what on earth just happened?”

“…”

Oh Sang-guk didn’t have an answer to Kwak Jin-cheol’s question.

“Sergeant Oh Sang-guk?”

Oh Sang-guk silently stared at Lee Won-seok, who was leaning against the wall with drooping shoulders, blinking.

To be precise, he looked into the eyes of Lee Won-seok, who seemed terrified and on the verge of tears.

Although he had regained his senses, he was still out of it, trembling while muttering incoherently.

At that moment, a chill ran down Oh Sang-guk’s spine.

“Damn…”

If it had been him, Oh Sang-guk, in that position, could he have truly… overcome it?

He swallowed hard.

“Jin-cheol, I really don’t know either. What on earth happened? What is this…”

In the end, he couldn’t say anything more.

Meanwhile, nearby were members of the support squad, specifically the 5th unit members.

To be exact, it was An Min-tae and Park Junmo.

“Hey, Junmo, this isn’t a dream, right?”

An Min-tae also seemed to be in a daze.

“I’ve been wondering since my night shift yesterday if this isn’t all a dream.”

“Wow, then that means he really…”

Although An Min-tae was close to Lee Hyunwook, being in the same squad and having a senior-junior relationship, he honestly didn’t trust him completely.

Rather than viewing him as a trustworthy senior on the battlefield, he saw him as a kind-hearted older brother.

That perception hadn’t changed at all over the past year.

“Really, truly…”

But that person, who had seemed somewhat off in the past few days, was said to have achieved something incredible this morning out of nowhere.

Back then, he had dismissed it as just luck.

But now, he had to acknowledge it.

“Really, he has changed.”

He had changed overnight.

And perfectly at that.

* * *

The incident at Yeongnae Gate,

The combat training observed by the Black Tiger troop’s officers,

The two events that happened in one day were enough to shake this small community, especially since the protagonist of both incidents was the same individual, and furthermore, an F-ranked player.

The impact was not insignificant.

“…Th-thank you for your hard work.”

As Lee Hyunwook walked down the hallway, he felt an increase in the number of salutes and greetings.

The soldier who just passed by after greeting him was from the 2nd unit, a private who usually would have just passed him without even a nod.

But now, he gave a courteous bow.

In addition to that, the countless stares and murmurs, were quite bothersome.

‘It seems the matter has gotten bigger than I thought.’

He had no intention of hiding the fact that he had changed, but if things got too noisy, it would be just as troublesome.

‘Still, there’s no need to hit the brakes.’

Since things had come to this, he had to change everything around him even faster, Lee Hyunwook thought.

After all, being the center of attention meant that it would be easier to bring about change.

And it was when he entered the living quarters.

“Corporal Lee Hyunwook.”

Someone approached.

It was An Min-tae, his junior.

The look on his face was quite different from when he had confronted Lee Hyunwook about his conflict with Kwak Jin-cheol.

Back then, it was full of defiance and protest, but now, it was filled with awe.

“Um… May I ask just one thing? What’s your secret?”

“Huh?”

“How could you change so dramatically overnight? Honestly, I still can’t believe it.”

At An Min-tae’s earnest question, all the members of the 5th unit looked at Lee Hyunwook.

Clearly, not just An Min-tae, but everyone seemed to have the same question.

‘It’s natural for them to be curious. Seeing someone in the same situation as them change their fate, they’d desire to do the same.’

And that was, in fact, possible.

Lee Hyunwook could tell them the method.

“As you can see, all you have to do is exercise every day. Do 100 pull-ups and run 3km in combat boots every day.”

“…”

Everyone had a stunned expression at his response. Some even looked as though they had been deceived.

Lee Hyunwook continued with a smirk.

“So what I’m saying is, don’t confine yourself within the artificial limits of a ‘rank’.”

“So, are you saying that the current rank doesn’t matter at all?”

An Min-tae asked, tilting his head.

“An Min-tae, what did you see on the training field today?”

“Ah…”

Upon hearing that, An Min-tae nodded his head vigorously, as if he had been struck.

Even though he had clearly witnessed the scene where the lowest rank, F-rank, brought down and knocked out a D-rank player… he still questioned if rank was an absolute value.

“Everyone thinks that anyone from the 5th unit will lose in a fight. Why? Because their rank is low.”

The 5th unit, also called the support unit, is considered the weakest among the players in the company.

The reason was very simple.

Those like Lee Hyunwook or Park Junmo with an F rank, either considered incapable of skill growth or despite having a ‘level growth trait,’ are practically excluded from combat due to the low combat efficiency of that trait, hence hardly having an opportunity to level up…

“But think about it. This rank isn’t defined by this unknown game. It’s just a label we arbitrarily attached.”

Ahn Min-tae, as if realizing something, looked into the void and nodded again.

“Come to think of it…”

One day, the world suddenly turned into a ‘game’.

The reason and purpose of this transcendent game are still unknown to humanity.

They are only adapting to this unknown game, creating their own ‘rules’.

“…As Corporal Lee Hyunwook said, many things can be seen as merely a form of ‘caste system’.”

From the beginning, the game only assigns random attributes to the player and does not specify their qualitative level.

In other words, the ‘player rank’ is a rule artificially created by humans, akin to a ‘caste system’.

While it is accepted now based on rational criteria,

‘In a few years, the rediscovery of the F-rank reveals the fatal flaw of that caste system.’

That’s why Lee Hyunwook was against the player rank system.

It creates a kind of stigma.

“And Park Junmo, you.”

“Private First Class, Park Junmo! Yes, sir!”

“You almost died this morning. You know that, right?”

“Uh… yes.”

Park Junmo recalled.

The goblin, his pathetic response, Lee Hyunwook’s dagger…

“Ah, yes, that’s right. If it weren’t for Corporal Lee Hyunwook, I would have…”

Then, he drooped his head down listlessly.

“What secret? Just leave everything behind, join the support squad, and don’t slack off in training or strengthening. Not only will you not change overnight, but you also won’t even be able to save your own life.”

The sharp remark resonated with An Min-tae, who nodded in agreement.

“…You’re right. Sergeant Kim Ho-jong was also lost during his escort, and back when I was a private, Park Ho-min, who was a squad leader, was killed by a kobold raid. The casualty rate of the support squad, which is generally considered safe, is higher than one might think.”

‘The weight of words changes after proving one’s ability.’

Just a few days ago, it would have been dismissed as nonsense, met with a sneer and moved on from.

However, this wasn’t just simple advice. It was a kind of ‘hint.’

‘This will happen tomorrow evening.’

The reason Lee Hyunwook gave such an earnest speech was all because of that incident.

Tomorrow, the first ‘operation’ after the regression begins.

A gate opens in the jurisdiction of the 1st battalion, and an emergency dispatch order is issued.

During this operation, in the rear where the support squad is stationed, considered relatively safe, a significant event unfolds.

‘There comes a time when even the support squad must fight for their lives.’

But at that moment, the support squad was not prepared.

In the end, 5 people are severely injured, and 1 person dies. Even Lee Hyunwook suffered a wound, tearing about 7cm in his thigh.

‘Even if I’m present this time, someone might get severely injured.’

If only the squad members would be a bit more vigilant…

‘…This crisis can also be turned into an immense opportunity.’

That was Lee Hyunwook’s judgment and the purpose of his earnest speech.

At that moment, a message appeared before his eyes.

[ Metal Absorption has been completed (Mana Stone) ]

-Controllable metal weight has increased by 91g

-Total mana has increased by 11

-Controllable metal weight: 3,099g

By absorbing the mana stone obtained from hunting the goblin, not only did his controllable metal weight increase but also his total mana.

‘With this, I can simultaneously move about 10 daggers.’

* * *

The next morning,

As Lee Hyunwook had heard from the company commander, he went to the battalion armory to receive a ‘special reward’ from the battalion commander.

“Salute, thank you for your hard work. I’ve come to receive the item reward.”

“Ah, there you are! Our F-rank hero, Corporal Lee Hyunwook!”

The man in charge of the battalion armory, Lieutenant Oh Jung-tae, greeted Lee Hyunwook with a slightly exaggerated tone.

“Ha, I heard about what you did that dawn! You were lucky, congratulations!”

“Yes, I was quite fortunate.”

“Right, right, just surviving is lucky enough, but to have taken down a goblin shaman too? That’s amazing!”

He said, laughing lightly. But it wasn’t sarcasm.

He was genuinely happy for him.

‘Poor neighborhood brother-like D-rank player, Oh Jung-tae. He’ll probably be discharged soon…’

In AMT, administrative or management players weren’t treated that well.

Given that AMT was thoroughly combat efficiency-centered, it was perhaps an inevitable treatment.

Despite being an officer, he couldn’t fully showcase his potential.

“Let’s go pick out your special reward!”

Koo-koo-koo-koo-

When Oh Jung-tae turned a lever on the wall, the ground inside began to open, letting up cold air.

A basement facility designed with magical engineering, containing a ‘barrier’ device, was the battalion armory. Inside this approximately 700m² space, hundreds of items were stored.

Boom!

A massive iron door, several centimeters thick, opened with a heavy sound.

“Sorry, but you don’t have the luxury to shop leisurely. You have to choose within 30 minutes. Otherwise, the security system will alert the higher-ups, and they’ll call to scold me.”

He didn’t even need 30 minutes. He had already made up his mind.

There was a weapon here, bound by the arbitrary classification of ‘F-rank’ by humans.

It was dormant for quite a long time.

Until a legendary figure named Choi Young-jun happened to grasp its hilt.

However, this time its awakening was set to be slightly ahead of schedule.

‘It’s right there.’

A sword caught Lee Hyunwook’s eye.

It was as if sharp claws were about to emerge from a savvy tiger.