As Min-ho stared at the girl, the pincer of the Spector fell above them. He grabbed her and rolled to the side with her in his arms, his body tingling as he felt her press against him.
Feeling uncomfortable, Min-ho shot onto his feet the mont he had the chance and gripped his dagger. He wanted to attack the Spector, but it paused in place—then fell the next second.
[Your Subject Has Slain A Tier Three E-Ranked Spector ’Roctopie’]
[You Have Received A 20% Coin Bonus As Monarch]
[You Have Acquired 100 Coins]
Standing over it was the long blue hair, who had a javelin in his hands and a wide grin on his face.
***
Looking at their Z-Eyes, their pace had slowed as the value ca into view.
As he stared at the numbers, Min-ho rembered the rules of the Z-Tower.
If a Z-Strear wanted to accumulate a massive amount of viewers, they would need one of the Trinity Golden-Fingers.
The first Golden-Finger was that a Z-Strear needed an interesting personality that stood out—either by being incredibly charismatic, being a hidden psychopath that killed for the fun of it, or by performing feats seemingly impossible.
The second Golden-Finger was that a Z-Strear had to be of a high rank or given a very unique and powerful Affinity.
And the third was...
"We’re Nightshade Strears, in case you were wondering," Shin-ji said, noticing their uneasiness and their line of sight.
Ponytail frowned, then stole a glance at Shin-ji.
Sae-wee recoiled at the ntion of the word Nightshade, then she frowned.
As for the others, the tension that had taken hold of them had deflated a bit.
"I see," Min-ho said, continuing forward.
Once they reached them, Min-ho was the first to speak up.
"I assu you want us to rge into a team, am I right?"
Shin-ji nodded.
"But you and your friends are wary of us, possibly because of a bad encounter, am I correct?" Shin-ji asked, and Min-ho paused.
"True," he responded. "But it’s obvious we need the manpower."
Min-ho’s team shifted a bit upon hearing this.
Jang-book was the only one to frown, while the others had managed to hide their emotions.
Min-ho could sense their uneasiness, especially since this was not what they had talked about. But he deduced it was the best option.
They had agreed that they wouldn’t team up with them. It was a unanimous decision. But after much contemplation, Min-ho felt it was too dangerous to turn them down. What would happen if they decided to attack here and now?
Min-ho and his cohorts would be obliterated.
He felt it best to keep a close eye on them because he knew they would be safe for the anti, otherwise the trio would have disposed of them the night before. He just had to pray they were genuine—because in truth, they needed the manpower.
"So what do you suggest we do then?" Shin-ji asked.
Min-ho paused for a mont, then he spoke.
"Well, as a show of trust, we’ll all reveal our Tiers and Affinities to one another. But leave out the Whiplashes until we know we can trust each other."
Everyone listened in as Min-ho spoke—his teammates equally as intrigued as the trio.
"We’ll stay in separate locations not too far from each other at nightti. And..." he paused.
Shin-ji frowned.
"And?" he asked.
Min-ho lifted his gaze and t that of Shin-ji’s.
"And... you and your team will have to utilize my Affinity, for the benefit of us all."
Shin-ji and his cohorts raised their brows, askance.
"What is your Affinity?" Shin-ji asked.
***
The blue hair, or rather, Go Hang-wa, had managed to hit the Spector’s weak spot. It would seem he and his peers had finished up the Spector they were fighting and joined in to help Min-ho, Sae-wee, and Dok-su.
It was then that Jang-book had finished off his Spector.
Turning his sights to their surroundings, Min-ho couldn’t believe they had done away with eight Spectors almost all at once. Though it required so coordination and distraction on their part, it was astonishing nonetheless.
Had the trio not joined their team, they would still be struggling with the Spectors.
’If only they used their full strength,’ Min-ho thought with indignation as he rembered what Shin-ji said about their ranks.
’We’re all Third Tiers,’ Shin-ji had said, lying through his teeth.
Ignoring this for a mont, Min-ho took the ti to observe his team. They were all physically exhausted, and so were more hurt than others. Not to ntion the fact that they had traveled a long distance without rest.
Ten kiloters, to be exact.
They needed rest, even if it was just a little.
Turning around, Min-ho called out when he saw Ji-su.
"Yes?" Ji-su answered, walking across the corpses of Spectors toward Min-ho.
Im-hee, on the other hand, began healing the wounded, while Jang-book busied himself with gutting the Spectors.
"I would like us to rest up a bit," Min-ho said, then turned around. "Is this place safe?"
Ji-su nodded without having to even think about it. He had spent the few minutes hiding from the fight surveying their surroundings. They were in the clear.
"Good," Min-ho said, then walked toward the others.
As he did, Ponytail—whose na was Lee Seo-bi—sat on one of the Spectors, though her leg was bleeding, she acted indifferent to it, cocking her head as she stared at Min-ho.
He ignored her for now as he made his way into the circle, before announcing they would be resting for so ti.
Once he did so, Im-hee had given Ji-su the cooking items to prepare sothing for them to eat.
Dok-su kept his gaze on the trio carefully as Im-hee produced the food items. Sae-wee sat in a corner, lost in thought. And Jang-book watched as Im-hee healed Lee Seo-bi, his heart bleeding as he watched her endure pain.
Min-ho did his best to keep his gaze away from the trio.
Because he was afraid they would see the suspicion on his face.
It was now known to Min-ho that these people’s intentions were not in favor of their survival.
They even went as far as lying about their Affinity. Though he wanted to chalk all of it off to them being cautious, he couldn’t help but feel otherwise—especially considering how Lee Seo-bi had gotten hurt multiple tis in easily avoidable situations. Which in turn would fall upon Im-hee to heal her, causing Im-hee pain.
It was as though they were playing so sort of ga with them. One in which Min-ho would not entertain.
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