Became a Swordsman Genius in a Pretty Girl Game

381. Purging the Fiends (4)

Another moment, and I would have missed Master entirely.

‘Seriously, she does this every single time…’

My gaze fixed on the green injection in my Master’s stiffened hand.

I knew that thing.

The kind that, the moment you use it, boosts your physical fatigue, mana, and condition to their absolute peak, but leaves you utterly immobile for ten days afterwards.

What to call it?

A drug that buys you time by bartering away your lifespan.

I’d been indebted to it once myself, back when we rescued Alice, trapped by the Demonic Tree in the Sword Emperor’s Forest.

Having personally experienced the aftereffects, I couldn’t help but furrow my brow.

‘It’s agonizing, just enough to keep you from dying, really. Couldn’t move an inch for ten days. Full recovery took almost two weeks…’

“Disciple, how did you…”

“How? Because Master’s off doing foolish things, and I came to help.”

Before I knew it, a disgruntled tone slipped out.

“That’s…”

“I know. You wanted to share my burden, my responsibilities.”

Master averted her eyes, clearly feeling a prick of conscience.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s not sharing my burden; it’s unilaterally snatching it away.”

I let out a long sigh, meeting Master’s gaze.

“…Well, we can talk later. There’s something more urgent at hand.”

Right, wasting time on nagging will defeat the whole purpose of me being here.

“I heard a rough explanation of the situation on the way. Master, you take Water-Than and Bahawalpur, I’ll go to Quetta. Is that alright?”

Baek Seolhui simply nodded in response.

* * *

Inside the [ Nest of Kalam ] gate in Quetta.

“Kuhahaha…”

A cluster of fiends gathered atop a colossal, ancient tree, casting a malevolent gaze downward as they spewed forth sinister laughter.

What coated the gate floor was, quite literally, a hellscape.

Growl… Growl…

Three-headed wolves, with fur as black as pitch and crimson eyes, bared their fangs as they stalked about.

From their fangs, a crimson, viscous spittle dripped incessantly.

*Peeeeeeeee!*

Above them, the sky choked with winged Hippies, a feathered throng. Armed with sharp talons and beaks, they repeatedly dove toward the earth only to ascend once more.

*Kugugugu–*

And at the epicenter, a behemoth, a mountain of muscle standing over four meters tall. A monster wielding a maul the size of a tree trunk.

A troll, dribbling thick saliva, scanned its surroundings with ravenous eyes.

“Ugh, makes my skin crawl… Think I need another spritz of monster repellent.”

“But Unni, things look bad out there, no? Something must have happened. The others were supposed to report in, but still nothing.”

“Those Demon Hunters, that lot. They’re probably swamped. We just need to focus on our task.”

The woman cradled her face, the skin throbbing with the ghosts of burns. Beneath the crimson, warped flesh, eyes glinted with a contained madness, a simmering rage.

“No matter how high and mighty Slaughtering Madwoman thinks she is, there’s no way she’s focusing on us with everything going on out there.”

“That’s true. Not when we’re detonating all three Gates. How could she?”

“Exactly. She’ll choose. She’ll pick Multan and Bahawalpur. Those two areas are close together, after all.”

*Tsk.*

“She never even considered that we’d invest our efforts here, from the very beginning.”

Most of all, the thought of finally marring Baek Seol-hee, the one who had tormented them for so long, filled her with delight.

The Demon Hunters, unknown and hidden in the shadows, were impervious to typical propaganda. It simply didn’t work.

But Baek Seol-hee had exposed them, revealed their existence, and thus, the stage was set.

And manipulation, that was the demons’ specialty.

The demons around her grinned in agreement, corners of their mouths twisting upwards.

“We’ll utterly shatter this region, and by using that to incite outrage, the people themselves will turn on the Demon Hunters.”

“Right, the aftermath will take care of itself. We just need to keep feeding the fire.”

“What a fool. All that waving around of blades must have fried her brain, eh?”

“Hehehe, to finally see that b*tch’s face contorted in agony…”

Cruel smiles bloomed on their faces.

*

Before the Quetta Gate, Shin Se-hee presented me with an unexpected proposal.

“Broadcasting? As in, on TV?”

– Yes. If we frame it from the start as ‘a joint operation between Utopia and the Demon Hunters,’ we can significantly dilute any attempts to sway public opinion.

“Mmm…”

Certainly, there was reason to it.

– Once they learn that our Utopia Sub-Party will be appropriately deployed, they’ll feel a sense of crisis. They’ll truly think, ‘I might just die here with absolutely nothing to show for it.’

Indeed.

The reason these Minds are acting up now, swarming out at once to cause terror,

is because they’ve calculated that the small number of Mind Hunters won’t be able to handle them.

But what if they know Utopia and the Utopia Sub-Party will be deployed there?

“If they realize the close connection between us and the Mind Hunters, suppression will become easier,” I nodded at Shin Sehee’s suggestion.

“Good. Then set up the broadcast.”

– Hehe, understood.

While Shin Sehee set up the broadcast, I was lost in thought.

‘Shall I test out the skill I acquired this time?’

From the third Demonic Realm Gate, we obtained two skill books of the Mazoku.

One was [Spider Web].

A skill that converts magical threads into potent poison or induces movement impairment, just like Arine uses.

I naturally gave this to Senior Gaeul.

It was a perfectly fitting skill for the senior, who uses magical threads and possesses the [Slow] skill.

And the other one was…

[Parsimony].

I was truly lucky.

It was rare to get two skill books at once, and to top it off, it was the very essence of authority.

A skill that doubles the ability scores you’ve raised beyond your potential.

It doesn’t apply to ability scores raised through gacha pulls; it only affects gains achieved purely through hard work.

Perhaps because Parsimony inherently dislikes sharing with others,

it seems to only acknowledge accomplishments achieved through one’s own effort.

In other words, this skill demonstrates the highest efficiency for characters with low inherent potential and are hard workers.

‘That’s why it was so effective when used on Gukbap in the game.’

Despite the limitation of being a 3-star by birth, Gukbap, the embodiment of hard work, showed an ability score increase that overwhelmed even other 5-stars when it was used on him.

So, I explained this skill to the party members, and asked if giving it to Gukbap would be a good idea, but…

At that moment, the party members stared at me, mouths agape, as if questioning my sanity.

Even Gukbap, the one directly involved, regarded me with eyes that suggested he couldn’t quite grasp it.

I panicked and asked why they were looking at me like that, and the replies that came back were:

– You’re saying the most effective skill goes to the one who worked the hardest? And you’re giving it to *me*? You’re pulling my leg, right?

– Tch, Nooroongi. Is this some kind of humblebrag?

– Jin Yuha-ssi… I have a lot to say, but I’ll hold my tongue.

– Jin Yuha-nim, I never thought I’d say this to you, but you’re being a little annoying…

– Sunbae… Even after watching that video, you *still* haven’t achieved self-awareness?

– Instructor. Even someone who just arrived like me knows who the owner of this skill should be.

– Benefactor… I have an individually edited version for my personal collection.

And with that, the video Ichika had supposedly created for her personal collection began to play.

The video was of my training, as seen by the party members.

Whenever the party members went to the training grounds, I was there, already drenched in heavy sweat, training harder than anyone else.

Even when the party members left the training grounds one by one, I remained, still there.

Not a single day was missed.

It was commonplace for me to collapse from exhaustion during training, falling asleep for a moment on the training grounds.

And then, to rise again and resume wielding my sword.

Watching the video, two thoughts crossed my mind.

‘Was I… really that intense…?’

And.

‘If I had to do that again, I truly don’t think I could.’

Born as a one-star character, gifted with utterly trash-tier stats.

To break through that limit, I swung my sword almost daily.

I engaged in training that was as close to real combat as possible.

‘…I see.’

Because I had used wealth to improve my stats when I first possessed this body,

And enjoyed various benefits as a privilege of being the possessor.

I had been undervaluing the effort I had put in myself.

And so, the owner of [Stinginess] became me.

Activating Stinginess in front of the Gate…

*WHoooSH─*

The stats I had so painstakingly built with pure effort doubled, ballooning beyond measure.

I felt an inexplicable power surging through my entire being.

And then, a soft chuckle escaped me as I conceded.

‘So, I am the rightful master of this authority.’

And, at that very moment.

The gate’s dedicated camera turned to focus on me.