〈 Episode 235 〉 Episode 231 – Final Exam (5）
*
“Wait, hold on!!!”
“Shut your mouth.”
A bam lands on my face, attempting to spout nonsense.
It felt weird getting hit, but the punching had to come first.
As countless punches landed, the doppelganger began to change its face.
It was one I recognized.
Probably a desperate attempt to make me hesitate.
I threw a punch at the doppelganger that wore Elcia’s face.
“Ahhhh!!! Husband!!! It hurts!!!”
“Die! You coin-hungry bastard!!!”
Elcia’s face crumbled away, revealing Ayeon’s face.
“My dear! Enough already!”
“Take this! A 3000-fold punch!!”
Ayeon’s face disappeared, and this time, I saw Caressy’s face.
Bam!
“At least let me say something!!!”
“Harmful species should be dealt with on sight.”
“…Shinwoo, I’ll kill that bastard later.”
Caressy hissed ominously from behind, but I paid no mind.
Pounding comes first.
Meanwhile, the doppelganger dons another face.
A lizard beastman.
“Student Shinwoo! Are you really going to hit this charming face?”
“Is this XCOM? Get lost!”
I threw my fist without hesitation.
Fortunately, it didn’t miss.
In an instant, the doppelganger’s face contorted, and then the faces of my professors I had met appeared one after another.
“You plan to hit a professor?!”
“Thanks! They’re all so easy to hit!!!”
“Y-you bastard!!!”
While expressing my gratitude, I landed a solid punch.
One punch for each face.
Next up was Cheonma.
“Are you not afraid of me?!”
“Besides Hyeji, nothing in this world is scary, you little turd.”
Not even close.
The following faces didn’t have much effect on me either.
Academy students. The chairperson. The secretary. And I especially hit the chief a little too hard.
Even after going a bit crazy hitting, he still seemed to have some stamina—classic boss mob traits.
Soon, the doppelganger, with its face smashed up, screamed through its partially-mangled mouth.
“What the hell is going on!!!”
“Just your usual karma.”
Seemingly desperate, the doppelganger changed its face again.
This time, it was Ryu Kang-hyuk.
“Hey! Who taught you to hit me?!”
“You were the first one to hit, you damn mutt.”
There was a lot of personal malice behind that punch.
Way more than before.
Then the doppelganger pulled out another face—my mom.
“No way you’re hitting my mom too?”
“Take this! A punch made by your mother!!!”
“F*ck.”
“Please let me hear the manufacturer’s opinion!”
No mercy.
It was a rare opportunity.
I had to use it wisely.
Then, the doppelganger pulled its final card.
It was none other than.
“Shinwoo, are you really going to hit me too?”
Hyeji.
She looked like she was about to cry, unlike usual.
[……The dissonance is too severe.]
‘That’s a contradiction. Just as big as Hyeji’s substantial assets.’
As I prepared to punch, the doppelganger in Hyeji’s form frantically shouted.
“W-wait!!! If you let me go now, I’ll do the current trending mesugaki for you!!!”
“Say that again.”
As soon as I stopped my fist for the first time, the doppelganger desperately began to appeal.
As if this was the last chance.
“Sh*t rice♡. Idiot♡. Get out and die♡.”
“Oh.”
Surprisingly, it fit better than I expected, and I was taken aback.
“If you spare me now, I’ll do this every time!”
“Shinwoo, I can do that too.”
“Really?”
Suddenly, Hyeji barged in.
Declaring she could do the mesugaki too.
Before long, Hyeji cleared her throat and began to speak.
“Sh*t rice bastard. Idiot bastard. Get lost and die.”
“……”
The real Hyeji’s voice was on a completely different level compared to the doppelganger.
In a very different way.
Hyeji then put her hands on her hips, sporting a confident expression.
“What do you think?”
“That’s not mesugaki, that’s death-gaki, f*ck.”
I stared at Hyeji in disbelief the moment I noticed the two voices overlapping.
One was Professor Pilyong.
“Kim Shinwoo, you bastard!!! You broke my hair restorer!!!”
“You think you can revive dead hair follicles? Even Jesus would give up.”
I thought the professor was dead after his attack from the doppelganger, but he somehow regained consciousness.
No, judging by what he was saying, he must still be out of it.
The other voice was the doppelganger.
“Get lost and die♡♡♡♡♡”
“Don’t say heart with Hyeji’s face, f*ck.”
“Die, you bastard!”
The doppelganger cast a shadow over me, saying things that totally didn’t match Hyeji.
I thought it was dirty how it capitalized on a moment of distraction.
Both uttered similar phrases as they attacked me.
“You idiot bastard!!!”
“Idiot!!!”
While the professor tried to kick me from the side, the doppelganger was striking shadows from below.
I quickly pulled my body back, grabbing the professor’s foot aiming for me, and immediately threw him at the doppelganger.
Thanks to that, the professor and the doppelganger got entangled.
“Ahhhh!!! My hair loss is contagious!!!”
“This isn’t about sickness, you f*cking moron!!!”
As they screamed and struggled, the enraged doppelganger swung its shadow to shove the professor away, causing another boom in the process.
As the dust settled, I found myself questioning.
“What’s this bastard doing? Copying me?”
“What the hell is this b*tch talking about?”
Hyeji had split into two.
Identical outfits. Tone. And even appearance.
The only difference was the minigun, but seeing it wasn’t in their hands now, it looked like it got vaporized during the confusion.
Without anyone speaking up, both began to plead toward me.
“Shinwoo, you can tell which one is the real me, right?”
“Shinwoo! You’re not really confused about me, are you?”
With no apparent difference, it became hard to distinguish who was real.
Suddenly, they both glared at me as if they had made an agreement.
“Wait, thinking about it, doesn’t that mean it’s Shinwoo’s fault for not recognizing the real one?”
“Right? There’s no way you can’t recognize your girlfriend. Unless you want to die, treat her well.”
“F*ck.”
Seeing them turn their arrows towards me made me suspect they both might be the real Hyeji.
I calmed my mind and requested that Hyeji’s should demonstrate their abilities.
They couldn’t have imitated their unique powers.
Since the minigun had already been summoned, focusing carefully should enable it now.
However.
“I can’t use my ability here. But do I really have to?”
“If it’s you, you should recognize me without it, right?”
“You really have the same mind. But you still don’t want to give Shinwoo up?”
“Who’s talking? This is NTR, you b*tch.”
They both fiercely refused to use their powers.
Even without their abilities, they insisted they could discern the real one.
Wondering why it had to be like this, I turned to the drone.
《Bang…I mean, are you saying a Korean hunter cannot do that? Even our machines can manage this level.》
“……You bastards are checking with serial numbers, you piece of junk.”
《Slightly…No, the weak organism belonging to South Korea is being quite chatty.》
“You f*cking mutt.”
It didn’t seem to have any effect.
In the end, I had to find the real Hyeji with teary eyes, a situation I didn’t wish to resort to.
I took a deep breath and then, pointing at Hyeji, I opened my mouth.
“Hyeji? Can I see your bra?”
“……What?”
“You crazy bastard! Why are you pointing that out!”
One of the Hyeji’s stared at me, expression completely locked up, while the other pointed at her chest, blushing as she screamed at me.
That settled it for me. Without the slightest hesitation, I swiftly grabbed the shotgun and pulled the trigger in succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Ahhhh!!!”
It went directly to the Hyeji pointing at her chest.
Caught off guard by the sudden hail of bullets, she screamed and fell to the ground.
More precisely, the doppelganger in Hyeji’s form did.
Soon, the doppelganger shouted unjustly.
“What? I was perfect this time!”
“It’s not cold yet.”
“What does that even mean!!!”
Heavily breathing and desperately protesting, the doppelganger looked miserable.
I casually replied to that.
“Hyeji said it’s cold that she wears a bra. To keep warm.”
“…That’s why the bra wasn’t on when I transformed into this.”
With a deathly expression, the doppelganger pondered what I’d said.
[Such an outstandingly illogical reasoning, huh?]
‘As the protagonist, this is a given.’
[Now I believe it. You really are the protagonist.]
‘Don’t say dangerous lines like that, you b*tch!’
I trembled all over from Pilyong’s words.
I suddenly feared the comment section would be flooded with ‘Pyuㅠㅠㅠ.’
Shoving those thoughts aside, I steadied my aim with the shotgun and calmly stated.
“Get back to knowing about that bare chest, okay?”
“F*ck.”
Bang!
With that, I fired off the last bullet.
Still, it seemed to be a boss mob, as it didn’t die right away.
There’d be no problem capturing it this way.
Anyway, I’d beaten the boss mob, plus found the real Hyeji.
The only thing left was to get out, so I grinned and opened my mouth to all.
“Hey, shall we head out slowly?”
But the atmosphere was off.
Specifically around Hyeji.
The other members were cautiously sneaking away, glancing at Hyeji.
Before long, they were distancing themselves from me and Hyeji.
“…Hey, everyone?”
I anticipated a warm atmosphere, but it was totally different.
Especially the killing intent radiating from Hyeji was unsettling.
Soon, Hyeji’s smile turned sinister as she said.
“Crappy♡. Idiot♡.”
She summoned a forbidden weapon—the bunker buster.
In a closed ruin, using that would be extremely dangerous.
Yet Hyeji just grinned, seeming to care less.
[……I’m about to die.]
‘Mama.’
I forced my legs to run away.
Even though enhancing my legs was quite the struggle, seeing her pull that off indicated she was maximizing her focus.
Yet, she just kept giggling as if it was a breeze.
Finally, the bunker buster launched simultaneously.
With Hyeji’s death-gaki words.
“Die♡♡♡♡♡♡!!!”
“F*ck.”
By then, the rest of my party, including Professor Pilyong, had long fled with the boss mob.
As the ruins exploded all around, I ran through the passage I had entered.
And behind me, Hyeji manifested a machine gun, unleashing a barrage aimed at me.
“Idiot♡ who can’t even tell his girlfriend apart!”
“I recognized you, so why are you like this?”
“Exactly, die♡!”
Thus continued the spine-chilling chase between Hyeji and me.
*
Within the crumbling ruins.
A drone trailing Hyeji mutters to itself.
《The plan for humanity domination will… commence after the demon lord is eradicated.》
There was a hint of fear in its mechanical voice.
It was obviously a machine, yet it felt like it had learned the emotion of terror.
Moreover, its lens color had turned blue by now.
No one realized it, though.
Anyway, thanks to Hyeji, the world was unintentionally saved.
At the same time.
This concluded the final exam.
*
