He… walked through the barrier? What the fuck?

I rubbed my baggy eyes to make sure it wasn’t just my imagination. But I was sure of it, he was already on the other side of my barrier.

I instantly entered panic mode. How did he do that? I literally *just* got this skill, and some guy nullifies it?

I set another wall of barriers and scanned my eyes over his information again.

Name: Wang Dae-Hyun

Age: 23 

Skills: [Bulletproof] [Pistol Proficiency] [Reload] [Reaction Time] [Who’s There?] [Dodge]

What [Bulletproof] and [Pistol Proficiency] did was obvious. I instead started with the skill page for [Reload] and quickly read through the page.

________________________________

[Reload]

C Tier

Any empty guns that the user touches will be automatically reloaded.

________________________________

No dice. I still had no clue how he disabled my barriers. In fact, none of these skills seem like they could disable shit. However, his largely gun centered skills told me that this guy was most likely one of the mercenaries for the organization - Gyeong-jin always favored simplistic combinations of skills. 

By the time I looked up from the page, he had walked through the other barriers as well. He was getting dangerously close to Hyun-woo’s house.

I had no time. I created a wall of barriers around the area, not to stop Wang Dae-Hyun, but to prevent sound traveling from our soon-to-be fight. Then, I quickly left my post and ran to confront him.

Meeting him face to face, I instantly realized I had no plan. I only had 2 things I could use in this situation: My barriers and the illusion paper. And since my barriers seemed to be ineffective, all I had was… a literal piece of paper.

I’m fucked.

“Hey, who the fuck are you?”

He spoke in a frightening, jagged tone that amplified my already heightening fears ten-fold.

“Umm, er…”

While I stood in front of him like a deer in headlights, he quickly armed himself while assuming a defensive position.

He drew and fired a semi-automatic pistol faster than my eyes could follow. Somehow, even as tired as I was, my brain still managed to put up a barrier in time. 

I saw my life flash before my eyes for a brief moment before watching the bullet crash into my barrier and drop to the ground. 

…But wait, can’t he negate my barriers? I’d already seen it happen twice over. Was this a malfunction?

I wasted no time testing my hypothesis, knowing my life was on the line, and spawned a large barrier right in front of him. He still walked through it just as effortlessly, but my eyes were more focused on how he immediately prepared to fire his second shot. 

Oh God. Was it going to hit this time? Was it really just a defect?

I watched him carefully, sweat dripping down my forehead, and placed another barrier to protect myself.

However, he waited for a moment, instead approaching the barrier protecting me. I quickly backed up and made a second barrier. He touched the first barrier for a quick instant, then fired through it.

I watched as the bullet passed through my supposed first barrier and stopped at the second.

…Holy shit, I think I get it. He can only get rid of them by touching them, right? If that’s really the case, then this was doable - I actually have a chance to win!

Since I discovered that I can use barriers at a distance, my game plan became clear: If his main weapon is a gun, then all I need to do is block his bullets - That’ll at least put us on closer to even footing.

Or, if I could disarm him, I might even regain the advantage… But how?

While my exhausted ass was calculating problems in my head like a procrastinating math student, Dae-Hyun kept firing shots at me the whole time. His infinite stock of ammunition let him continuously fire without stopping for a moment.

I was getting nowhere at this rate. I had to disarm him - there was no time to think. I sprung into action, enacting the only plan I had on hand.

I created barriers around his gun, stopping him from moving the gun unless he touched the barriers. Since he held the gun with both hands, he had to take one hand off to negate the barriers. In that moment, with his grip on the gun loosened, I dashed toward him, removed the barriers around the gun and wrestled it from his hands.

It was scary and thrilling, to the point where I felt my heart beating out of my chest. I nearly lost my life multiple times if not on account of some well placed barriers. But nevertheless, I persevered in the close combat encounter and got out safely with his gun.

I quickly backed up to a safe distance and fired some shots at him, before remembering that he had the skill [Bulletproof]. Damnit. This gun was worth nothing in my hands, but thrice as much as normal in his. I watched the bullets whizz by as they all missed completely.

“Haha, your aim is dogshit! I have nothing to worry about! Piss-aim!”

…Putting the provocations aside, this seemed like an act. It felt like he was trying to distract from the fact that he had [Bulletproof] by acting happy that the bullets missed. It was such a flamboyant act that anyone would’ve known something was up. Even if I didn’t know his skills, this scene would’ve tipped me off. Simple-minded, as I’d expect from one of Gyeong’s subordinates.

But actually… There really should be no way my aim was that bad, right? Something about the way the bullets had missed definitely seemed abnormal. Maybe bulletproof works differently than I thought it did? Maybe that’s why he put on such a big act? I stole a glance at the skill page while trying my best not to leave myself open.

________________________________

[Bulletproof]

D Tier

The user cannot get hit by or die because of a bullet.

________________________________

What the hell?! How was this skill D-Tier?! This skill is super useful! Better than a piece of paper at least! Stupid gods, your ranking system is shit!

Ahem. Excuse me. 

The skill was pretty simple, but it never inherently said that the user is impenetrable. It just said they can’t get hit.

So, maybe my bullets curved or something due to the skill?

Wait… so what happens if I fire at point blank? Would the gun explode?

I had an idea. I could fire the gun point blank without getting close to him. 

I jumped in the air briefly, holding my gun straight forward and elevating it high in the air. I held it in place there with some barriers. 

I concentrated for a moment. Even though it was my skill, I still couldn’t see my own barriers, so I needed to have a clear picture of exactly where I would put them. I stalled for time by making small barriers at Dae-Hyun’s feet and tripping him constantly.

Once I was adequately prepared, I created a slide for the gun to go down, with barriers on the side of the gun to keep it facing forward without falling to its side.

I released my initial barriers and the gun slid straight across the slide, right towards Dae-Hyun himself.

When the gun approached his face, I squinted and focused while I put a small barrier in the trigger of the gun.

The gun slid into it and the trigger went off right next to Dae-Hyun. However, it was completely silent. It seems like nothing happened.

I was expecting an explosion, which is pretty different than “nothing”. Did my plan not work? There’s no way it missed at that range, right?

I created another slide which brought the gun back to me. It took me a second, as I’ve never held a gun in my life until today, but I opened up the top of the gun to see inside.

It was… jammed? The bullet jammed? Did his skill do this? What the hell, that skill’s sick!

No, wait! This worked just fine for me! If the gun was jammed, then neither of us could use it! In fact, he couldn’t even reload it anymore since it would never be “empty”! With this one move, I’ve negated half of his skills!

Suddenly, the mercenary before me looked far less intimidating.

In fact, I felt like I could win. I didn’t just *hope* I could win, I actually believed it. This guy wasn’t nearly as tough as I originally thought. Or maybe I’m just more skilled than I thought?

Met with a sudden boost of confidence, I started thinking of anything I could do to win the fight. Looking back down at the gun in my hands, I was met with a sudden flash of inspiration.

It was time to end this.

I took out the Illusion Paper which had been in my pocket. It would be the key to defeating him. 

I folded it to a decently small size while trying to hide away from Dae-Hyun’s view. Once it was adequately tiny, I opened the top of the pistol again and pushed in the mind paper, hiding the jammed bullet.

I then staged a slight performance. I backed away from Dae-Hyun in a defensive pose, then intentionally tripped and dropped the gun. I pretended to reach out for it but actually pushed it closer to him.

Personally, I’ve never been interested in acting, but I do have to say my performance was quite convincing.

He jumped at the chance, quickly snatching back the gun as I got back to my feet.

He tried shooting me, but of course, the gun failed.

“Haha, piss-trigger!”

Smooth. Real smooth, Jae-yoon.

Dae-Hyun, nearly acting embarrassed, opened up the top of the gun to see if there was anything wrong.

Now, I don’t know what the Illusion Paper was showing him right now, but the bottom line is that it was probably pretty distracting. In the best case, he was seeing that the gun actually was jammed, but can’t even take the bullet out since it had a layer of paper stuck to it. 

While he was having this moment of confusion, I sleuthed into the building behind me, which I had walked backwards into earlier, and hid away from sight.

I tore out and mended the page for [Illusion Paper], summoning the paper back in my hand. I folded it outwards multiple times so it was as big as my whole body, and I stuck it to my hands.

I hadn’t gotten to know this “Dae-Hyun” guy very well, but I did know one thing about him with relatively high certainty. That is, he probably wasn’t expecting to see a walking wall of paper right now.

I exited the building, facing the paper towards Dae-Hyun as I walked. He frantically searched around him, but saw nothing. Man, this skill was funny. 

I orbited Dae-Hyun until I was directly behind him, folded the paper to about a quarter of its size, then swiftly brought it over his head and strangled him.

It felt cruel, but it was a truly efficient method. He clawed his hands at the paper but it mended itself, leaving no opportunity to take it off.

The worst part was, he probably was still seeing the city street right now. Who could have expected being suddenly choked from behind? To him, he probably thought I was using the force or something. That is, if he had the time to think at all.

Eventually, the clawing stopped, and he went limp on the street. His dot was still on my radar, so I knew I luckily hadn’t killed him.

I was dead tired. We fought for about half an hour, and it was nearing 3 AM. I dragged Dae-Hyun with me into Hyun-woo’s house, and hardly even comprehended the skill page in my book completing in the corner of my eyes. 

With the remaining fragments of my consciousness, begging me to succumb to sleep, I used [Warden] on Dae-Hyun before passing out on the couch.

Skills stolen (4)

 [Radar] [Illusion Paper]

[Barrier] [Warden]