Arena

Chapter 5 Clear (Part 1)

It had one head, a pair of arms, and a pair of legs. It has eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears, and walks upright. But with a bent waist, interestingly long arms, and a body completely covered in red hair.

“It’s ...an anthropoid?”

Indeed. The identity of the red ape is an anthropoid. Kind of like a man and monkey mixed half and half. In appearance, it was closer to a monkey, but the expression of surprise and pain on its face was similar to a human.

‘I was supposed to eliminate this?’

I can’t even capture a chicken. A plain animal would have been better. This is analogous to a human.

“Kirook! Ggiroorook!”

The bastard’s thinking seems to be different than mine. He looks at me with thoughts intent on killing me. At the end of his right hand I can see he is holding on to a hatchet with a sharp rock tied to the tip.

‘Isn’t that a hand weapon?’

Damn it. Seems he has the ability to craft a weapon.

‘If I get hit by that, I’ll meet my end’

Shit. I hesitated for no reason.

When I had succeeded in my attack, I should’ve gone in and taken that first!

“Ggiroorook!”

It shouts loudly and the red ape threatens me.

Without even thinking, I am alarmed and take a step back. That was clearly a mistake.

As I took a step back, the bastard grew confident. He began to shorten the distance. Thankfully, the bastard’s size is only about 150 cm tall (almost 5 feet tall.) His arms and legs are thin and don’t look incredibly strong.

‘I should get a weapon...’

At this point, while I’m looking at the ground, I’m looking for a rock to throw.

“Kirook!”

As if he had been waiting for me to turn away, he attacks.

“Huk!”

Without knowing that I was doing it, I guarded myself with my left arm.

The stone headed hatchet he was holding pierced my elbow.

BAM

“ACKKKK!”

A scream automatically escapes from my lips.

It hurt like the muscles in my left arm were being ripped. The tears flow.

“YOU FUCKER!”

In my rage, not looking left or right, I attack.

I quickly grab his right wrist which is holding the stone headed hatchet. I grab it tightly and twist it around and he drops the hatchet screaming.

‘I did it!’

I am actually stronger. As long as he doesn’t have a weapon, my chances of winning are much greater.

...

Book!

(TN: it’s a noise, not...well...a book.)

“ACK!”

The hatchet wasn’t his only weapon. I felt it through my left cheek that the bastard’s nails are also a sharp weapon.

Even so, only because I reflexively turned my head did I just get scratched like this. I almost lost an eye. But there’s no time to catch my breath.

In addition to his nails being his weapons, so are his front teeth. As if imprinting his teeth, the red ape bites down hard on my left shoulder.

“Kwajig.”

(TN: It’s supposed to be a biting down sound.)

“KAAK! SHIT! LET GO!”

I let out a scream and, in an effort to throw him off. I shake my body and throw my fists around.

The bastard clings and hangs off of me and thrusts his teeth deeper.

The bastard’s front teeth are long and sharp. If he evolved, he would probably turn into a vampire.

I’m flailing around in my pain and fall into a panic.

Because he was small, I assumed less of him, but now that I look at it, this fight is not in my favor.

In comparison to the red ape, which has probably experienced many fights like this, I’m just a normal guy that has never fought once in my entire life.

The blood keeps flowing from my scratched cheek and bitten shoulder.

“I’m gonna die like this!”

The fear sets into me and I urgently search my surroundings.

All the vines hanging between the branches catch my eye and I think ‘this is it.’

Having discovered my vein of hope, I start walking in that direction.

The bastard is still hanging off of my body; still engrossed in biting my shoulder.

“Gulp gulp.”

As I see his throat swallow, I get shivers down my spine

Disgusting thing!

This bastard is all caught up in sucking my blood out.

I grab him with my left arm and with my right, untangle some of the vines.

He finally realizes that something weird is going on and comes to his senses. But it’s already too late.

I swiftly wrap his neck in vines.

“Kirook?!”

The red ape stubbornly resists.

I tug on the vine in my right hand as hard as I can.

The vine tightens around the bastard’s neck super tight.

“Kirook...!”

“Die you bastard!”

I almost died and so, like a crazy person, I tug on the vine and choke the bastard’s neck.

The red ape goes pale and white.

His feisty flailing dies down.

I wonder how much time has passed.

His eyes flip over and his mouth starts foaming. It is only now, after the stress passed, that I realize what I have done.

“Ack!”

I let go of the vine and take a step back.

Koong! (Thud sound)

The red ape’s body falls to the ground and flips around.

I gasp for breath and stare at the corpse.

‘Did I just do this?’

The animal that was so fiercely alive with movement has become an eerie corpse. It has a pained expression on its face.

I made this.

A safe and average life, although lame, but a peaceful life, was the life that I had lived.

And to think that even inside of me, such violence existed; I could not believe it.

‘Damn.’

To shake off the nasty feeling, I call upon my board.

Name: Hyun-Ho Kim

Class: 3

Karma: +500

Mission: Eliminate the red ape

Time Limit: –

The changes on the board were telling me that I have cleared my mission.

And then...

BAM

Right in front of me appeared a familiar door.

It’s the mission door.

CREEEEK~~

I open the door and step inside.

I am now tired, I want to rest.

Bboo-bboo!

(TN: sound of a horn)

“Congratulations! Wow! You’ve achieved a great score!”

The baby angel flaps about like a little fruit fly, obnoxiously blowing into a tiny horn that he got from god knows where.

(TN: lol there’s the horn)

Congratulations?

Do you think I’m in the mood right now to deal with your jokes?

“SHUT UP!”

(TN: literally translates to mean ‘it’s loud’ but used colloquially to mean to shut up because you’re being loud.)

I scream in a loud voice.

It was only then that the baby angel parts the horn from his lips and stares straight at me.

“Oh. Are you upset?”

‘Damn.’

I dug deep inside to control the boiling rage inside of me.

I don’t know if the baby angel knows of these feelings of mine but he gently pats me on my shoulders.

(TN: literally said ‘he tap taps my shoulders’ but that sounds weird.)

“You must feel uncomfortable because you’ve killed a beast that resembled a human. Well. What are you gonna do. You just have to get used to it.”

“I’m supposed to become used to this shitty feeling? Do I look like that kind of person to you?”

“Yes, you do look like that kind of person.”

At the angel’s answer, I become a chick eating honey.

(TN: An idiom meaning that he just stops responding. Like a chick that makes noise but stops when you give it honey to eat.)

The baby angel spoke.

“I’m sure you caught on that the red ape was a hybrid race.

“...of course.”

I’m sure that it was tracking me and cautiously waiting to attack all as a method of hunting. And that disgusting image of it sucking the blood out of my shoulder...

And the crazy gaze in that bastard’s eyes showing it wanted to eat me.

“If you hadn’t’ killed it, examinee Hyun-Ho Kim would have met a dreadful end. Just like the rules of nature, it was a fair fight. Did anyone ever criticize a predator for hunting its prey? Did anyone every say it’s wrong to go up against a predator?”

“I know too. It’s not like I’m feeling guilt or anything!”

I say it shaking.

“It’s just that it’s scary knowing that such violence exists inside of me.”

“While you are completing the arena’s exams, you cannot be protected with laws. Examinee Hyun-Ho Kim must accept violence as a means for survival.”

“...”

“Hey...try being a little happier than that. You got 3 class and 500 karma on your exam. Do you know how great these scores are?”

“Great score my ass. After I’ve become this bloody mess...huh?”

I stopped mid-sentence in surprise. It was as if all the injuries had been washed off my body.

The elbow that had been axed. The bitten shoulder. Both were both clean.

“Once you pass through the door, all injuries and diseases become completely healed.”

“Oh that’s very convenient.”

“Of course. Examinee Hyun-Ho Kim’s heart diseases also disappeared when you passed through the door.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Now you don’t have to worry about dying from heart disease. Happy?”

“I’m so frickin’ happy about it. Now, as long as I don’t get fucked over completing these exams, I don’t have to worry about dying. Wow. So happy. I feel like I could live a thousand, ten thousand years.”

“Oh there you go again. Stop with your sarcasm and listen for a minute. I say again, but examinee Hyun-Ho Kim’s first exam scores were ridiculously good.”

“What in particular did I do so well? I barely escaped with my life. “

“The only thing with the red ape is that you weren’t used to violence. You can get special training and learn to be more disciplined. The reason you got a high score was because of your decision making.”

“Decision making?”

“Yes. Using all of the given hints, it took you less than 6 minutes to realize the red ape was hiding and waiting for you. Usually, people can’t do what examinee Hyun-Ho Kim did.”

Now that I hear it this way, I suddenly feel awesome.

“According to you, if I’m such an awesome bastard, how come I keep failing the government exam?”

“Examinee Hyun-ho Kim’s decision making skills only kick in when you’re in danger. Duh”

The baby angel continues to speak.

“You haven’t shaped up because you haven’t starved. You probably would’ve passed the exam had you been threatened with death when you weren’t studying.”

“...”

It’s fair so I have nothing to say back.

“Check your board.”

“Board retrieval.”

I retrieve my board.

Name: Hyun-Ho Kim

Class: 3

Karma: +500

Mission: Rest until your next exam

Time Limit: 11 days

The descriptions have changed again and I have been given 11 days to rest. It’s like my death has been put off for another 11 days.

“When you return to the real world, it’ll be 11 AM and you’ll be waking up from your sleep. However, if you chalk this all up to being a dream, things will begam to get very complicated.”

“And the prize? I thought the karma could be traded for a prize.”

“Once you return to the real world and retrieve your board, you will find out how you can claim your prize.”

“I can retrieve my board in the real world too?”

“Yes. Besides, the board is only visible to you anyhow.”

“Got it.”

The baby angel waves his cute little hand at me.

“Alright then. Have a happy break.”

Ddak-

The baby angel flings his finger and yet another door appears.

I open the door and walk through.