The Support Ate it All-Chapter 567: Finals Week 17–18 (22)

Even though there was still a fair distance between us, the killing intent was sharp enough to make my skin sting.

With the terrorist who’d hit the base standing right in front of us, it was only natural to get pissed off.

Yeah, who told you to be Group C?

They stood there waiting with that shameless look on their faces, and then Sagong Uk, at the very front, charged in and slashed once.

Of course, halfway through the swing, Go Hyeon-woo cut him off.

With their blades pressed together, Sagong Uk spat the words out like he was chewing gravel.

“You traitor. No shame at all, and now you’re even playing the lackey?”

“Evaluate me however you like. But I don’t think it’s time to trade blades yet.”

“You came all the way here and you’re saying you don’t plan on trading blades?”

“Of course I’m ready at any time. I simply think talking comes first.”

Jeong Jin-myeong arrived right behind and held Sagong Uk back.

“That’s enough.”

“Do you still think you’re the leader?”

“It doesn’t matter if I am or not. I said I came to talk, so hear me out.”

Sagong Uk was about to spit something else, when Lee Seonghyeon cut into the conversation.

With a cave-deep voice that didn’t match his young face at all.

“‘Traitor,’ ‘qualified to be leader’—you run your mouth so well for someone like you. Everyone knows what you pulled during midterms.”

“...!”

“If you feel shame, you’re the one who should step back.”

The two glared at each other.

The first to break was Sagong Uk.

He shoved the blade he’d been pressing against, then turned his back and walked toward his own pack.

Go Hyeon-woo watched him with a bitter smile.

“I understand why Brother Sagong is furious. I also feel deeply sorry.”

“You don’t need to worry about it.”

Lee Seonghyeon answered in a decisive tone.

He faced Go Hyeon-woo straight on and continued.

“What matters is what you betrayed for. Betraying for your own safety or your grade and betraying to keep faith are fundamentally different things.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

The two looked at each other and smiled.

With the mood loosened a little, I spoke to Jeong Jin-myeong.

“You know I did it to keep faith too, right? Faith toward our Group B—and toward this person.”

When I pointed out “this person,” Song Cheon-hye, she flinched and protested in a panic.

“When did I ever? I never told you to go that far.”

Jeong Jin-myeong let out a hollow laugh. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

“I know. You didn’t tell him. Not just anyone can come up with an evil idea like this.”

“Right? Even I thought it was pretty evil.”

The others were subtly agreeing too.

All I did was devote myself to Group B and world peace, and yet somehow I feel a little wronged.

Jeong Jin-myeong looked at me again.

“Hey. Honestly, this was too much. I got cursed out like crazy while I was outside.”

With the dragon-tail soldier and dragon-turtle soldiers’ raid, Jeong Jin-myeong and most of the people defending the base must have been taken out of action.

While waiting to re-enter, they would’ve had to endure an unbelievable amount of outrage.

I nodded like I understood deeply.

“Yeah. It was to survive, but I went a little too far, huh?”

“You admit it that easily? That makes it even more suspicious.”

“What’s suspicious about it? I’m just saying we should keep a good relationship. I ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) even brought a present.”

With a bright smile, I pointed at the crystals the group had brought.

Jeong Jin-myeong burst out laughing.

“What is this, give me a disease and then give me the medicine? You left this much and brought it?”

“There’s more at the base. I’ll bring the rest later.”

“Forget it. We’re locked into third place anyway.”

“Not necessarily.”

“......”

Only then did Jeong Jin-myeong stiffen with a serious expression.

Looks like they realized this was the real point.

“If you didn’t prepare something ridiculous again... there’s only one way.”

“Yeah. The thing you’re thinking.”

“You’re saying we should raid them? Group A?”

“If we just break their tower, you can take second.”

If both Group A and Group C ended up rebuilding from scratch, the side getting crystal support from us would obviously be way more advantaged.

Jeong Jin-myeong narrowed their eyes suspiciously.

“Even if that’s true for us, what do you get out of it?”

“We’re going to lock it in. And we’ll also cut off the chance Moyong Jun might make a move.”

They say offense is the best defense.

If we sweep them away in advance, we won’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back.

Of course, the real reason was something else.

▷Goal 1: Defeat competitors (45/20)

▷Goal 3: Destroy an opposing team’s Crystal Tower (1/1)

We were already past the target, but if we went further past it, the reward would get bigger too.

And for the record, the trick where you hand crystals to another group, build an F-rank tower, then break it to pad the count—yeah, that’s blocked.

Meaning: if you want to raise the count, you have to aim for Group A.

Jeong Jin-myeong still didn’t look convinced.

“Even so, you’d take the risk on purpose? I don’t get it.”

“If I was worried about the risk, I wouldn’t have brought it up.”

“Seems like you’re confident.”

Instead of answering, I just grinned.

Jeong Jin-myeong seemed to think for a moment, then kept firing questions, like they wanted to hear more before deciding.

“What about cards? You barely used any.”

If finals had flowed the way the academy intended, a massive three-way clash would’ve erupted during the Day 3 lava-turtle hunt, with cards flying everywhere.

But Group C got wrecked by the dragon-tail soldier, and Moyong Jun avoided fighting altogether, so dozens of item cards ended up untouched.

If we charged in and Moyong Jun’s side started spamming [Discharge], dozens of people would get blown out on the spot.

So I offered a very simple solution.

“We soak it with numbers.”

“That’ll work?”

“Your side didn’t lose many cards either, did you?”

“We recovered almost all of them.”

They’d dropped them when they got taken out of action, but since no other group had come to grab them, other members had collected them.

I held up two fingers.

“Over there, they can’t have more than about twenty [Discharge] cards. And you’ve got around ten [Protection], right?”

“Thirteen, exactly.”

“Rough math—if we eat all seven [Discharge] hits, that’s twenty-one people out. But if you add the members you’ve got left plus us, that’s plenty.”

“......When you put it that way, it does sound like we could pull it off.”

At this point, Jeong Jin-myeong looked like they were almost on board.

Even so, there was still a trace of hesitation, so I decided to reveal the decisive hidden card.

[Freeze].

“Take a look.”

“What the hell, you had something like that? Where’d it come from?”

“Yesterday, when we were working the Hidden Piece.”

“When you got [Defection]? Damn... I seriously never would’ve imagined that.”

Jeong Jin-myeong looked like the back of their head was stinging.

Then I pressed them with a question.

“This is enough to make it worth trying, right?”

“......Fine. It’s not like we have anything to lose. I was planning to slam into someone once anyway.”

“Into us?”

“I was considering it. But with this, we go for Group A no matter what.”

“Good call.”

I held out my hand with an evil grin, and Jeong Jin-myeong clasped it with the same kind of evil grin.

“Let’s show Moyong Jun what it tastes like to get dogpiled.”

“Sounds good.”

And Song Cheon-hye stared at us like she was looking at two devils.

*****

After Kim Ho’s group left.

A long time passed, and before we knew it, it was night.

When the morning sun came up, finals would end as well.

Of course, among the Group C members, not a single person was resting.

They were all moving into Group A territory.

Jeong Jin-myeong walked at the front and thought,

Nothing to protect makes this kind of thing convenient.

They planned to take crystals after everything was done and push the tower up in one shot.

Because of that, the main base was still nothing but ruins, and with nothing to defend, there was no need to leave anyone behind.

Before long, the outline of a hill came hazy into Jeong Jin-myeong’s sight.

At the same time, a human shadow was approaching from not far away, and when Jeong Jin-myeong saw a few members show wariness, they waved a hand through the air.

“Hey, hey. It’s me, it’s me!”

“Shin Byeong-cheol.”

They’d said they were sending someone to scout and exchange signals—looks like this guy got assigned that job.

Jeong Jin-myeong looked at Shin Byeong-cheol with renewed eyes.

“Kim Ho uses you pretty often, huh?”

“Ah, of course he does. I’m a pro, you know—I always handle my work clean. Huh? Today too, over thereee, I got away from Sagong What’s-his-face and the chihuahua couple—”

Sagong Uk’s eyes flashed.

“I should sew your mouth shut.”

“—Ahem. From them, yes, I got away and kept the crystals safe.”

He felt kind of sloppy, but his mission success rate seemed high, at least.

Jeong Jin-myeong nodded.

“Let’s grab coffee sometime.”

“Oh, I’d love that.”

“Talk later. What do we do now?”

Shin Byeong-cheol pointed into the darkness and explained.

“Group A’s been running patrols all over. If you get any closer, you’ll be spotted.”

“Figures.”

“You said two [Concealment] cards, right?”

When Jeong Jin-myeong gave a light nod, Shin Byeong-cheol continued.

“If you use them back-to-back, that’s two minutes. From here, that’s enough to reach the main base.”

“How do you know that?”

“This much is obvious if you just look! Even eyeballing it, you can estimate the distance!”

“......”

Jeong Jin-myeong fell into doubt. Can we really trust this guy?

Sensing it, Shin Byeong-cheol hurriedly added,

“Just trust me once. I’m actually pretty accurate with this.”

“...Whatever. Kim Ho must have a reason if he sent you.”

“Okay, then get ready.”

Soon, all the Group C members put on their gear and took up fighting stances.

Jo Byeok put on fist bracers on both hands, clenching and unclenching their fists.

Lee Seonghyeon put on jet-black full-body armor bigger than his own frame.

Jeong Jin-myeong held a staff in one hand, and a few cards in the other.

Then, after sweeping their gaze over the members, they spoke to Shin Byeong-cheol.

“Done. Ready.”

“Move whenever. I’ll sync with you and send the signal.”

A card in Jeong Jin-myeong’s hand began to glow.

A translucent, black aura layered itself over everyone’s bodies.

Up close, you could still sort of recognize people, but from even a short distance, it’d be impossible to tell.

Meaning [Concealment] was activating properly.

At the same time, Shin Byeong-cheol used [Observe] as well—looks like he was sending a signal to Kim Ho’s side.

Jeong Jin-myeong glanced at that once, then kicked off the ground, and dozens of members followed.

“Move.”

Even as they sprinted at full speed toward the hill, Jeong Jin-myeong counted numbers in their head.

48, 49, 50......

Then they raised a clenched fist over their shoulder and stopped.

Everyone moved in near-perfect unison, gathering close, and [Concealment] layered over them again.

Group C sprinted again.

Not long after, Group A’s main base came into view.

......He’s annoyingly accurate, for real.

Jeong Jin-myeong’s evaluation of Shin Byeong-cheol rose by one level.

Still, they drove the pace hard up the hill, and a few seconds before they reached the main base—

The black aura peeled away, revealing dozens of Group C members.

A Group A member who’d been staring blankly outside spotted them and widened their eyes.

They opened their mouth to shout something, and in that instant—

“Ene—”

Jo Byeok’s punch detonated into their abdomen.

As Jeong Jin-myeong flung up mana stars, they shouted,

“Wipe them out!”