Breaking Up with the Heroine of the Female-Oriented Game - Chapter 145

Chapter 145

Are You Really That Good at Fighting? (3)

***

“A duel? You… and me?”

Jin Soyeon tilted her small head left and right, looking puzzled.

Above her head, you could practically see question marks floating.

She stared at me with a somewhat confused expression.

It was only natural for her to react this way, as it made no sense to propose a duel to someone like her.

Currently, Jin Soyeon was far beyond what any regular hero trainee could hope to compare to.

As one of the strongest characters in this world, a growth-type munchkin, she already had enough skill to defeat a high-ranker.

Hadn’t she already taken down Ma Yongtaek, the Sura Pacheon, who had the strength of a high-ranker?

On top of that, she had annihilated multiple organizations in just a few short months.

Her power, abilities, and experience were all superior to mine.

Even if someone like me fought her head-on in a fair duel, even if I had a whole truckload of backup, I probably couldn’t leave a scratch.

Ah, of course, that’d be true of my old self.

But now, things were a little different.

Because I’d recently awakened a new and useful ability.

An ability that, depending on how I used it, could threaten almost anyone.

“The loser has to obey the winner’s every command. No complaints, right?”

I had some confidence.

If it were a contest of endurance rather than outright victory, I was certain I could last a fair amount of time.

Why? Because I knew more about Jin Soyeon than anyone else.

I knew her habits, her patterns, her abilities, strengths, and weaknesses—all of it.

She was a playable character and the protagonist, so I had memorized nearly all of her details.

And in this world, she was also my childhood friend of over ten years.

That meant I knew much more about her than was truly necessary.

Of course, she likely knew a lot about me as well, but she wouldn’t have analyzed or researched it as thoroughly as I had.

When it came to intel, I had a clear advantage.

Oh, and I’d recently analyzed the footage of Soyeon’s duel with Cynthia in detail.

That made me confident I could hold my ground—for at least 10 minutes.

“……Obey the winner’s every command?”

“Hmm?”

Soyeon muttered to herself.

She blinked rapidly a few times, and then suddenly, her cheeks turned red, as if she’d had an odd thought.

Her soft, pale skin flushed in an instant.

She glanced at me, somewhat shyly, and gulped dryly, fidgeting with her fingers.

Wait… what’s going on with her?

“Soyeon?”

“Ah, uh? I’m listening!”

When I called her name with a puzzled look on my face, she snapped back as if jolted from her daydream and shook her head quickly, as if trying to clear her thoughts.

Then, she scratched her cheek with an awkward smile.

I wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but it was probably better to just pretend I didn’t notice anything.

“So, are you going to take the bet or not?”

“Well, um…”

Soyeon fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

“I mean, I don’t mind… but are you sure about this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Honestly, it’s really unfair for you, isn’t it? No matter what you do in a one-on-one, it’s going to be hard for you to win against me.”

“Wow, look at that confidence.”

She wasn’t wrong, but hearing her say it so bluntly bruised my male pride a bit.

“Soyeon. The reason you’ve been able to crush so many organizations single-handedly is largely because of the relics I gave you.”

Thanks to her ability to amplify the power of the relics several times over, Soyeon had been able to utilize my relics to dismantle countless organizations.

To be honest, with defensive relics like Guardian’s Barrier, Aegis, and Black Star Assembly reinforcing Soyeon, who could possibly bring her down?

It would take something outrageous just to leave a scratch, let alone defeat her.

“And the reason you were able to take down Ma Yongtaek without suffering major injuries was because you knew all about him—his abilities, his weaknesses, his weak spots. Am I right?”

Even though Soyeon had grown stronger, she had only been able to defeat the veteran powerhouse Ma Yongtaek because she had the strategy laid out beforehand.

If she hadn’t known about him, things might’ve been much more dangerous.

“But now you’ve already returned the relics to me, and you don’t know much about how strong I’ve become.”

“……”

“You didn’t even realize I was hiding the ability to take down someone like Siwoon.”

“……”

“So… don’t you think you might be a little too overconfident, Soyeon?”

“……Hmm.”

I could tell she was a bit conflicted.

I mean, if I wasn’t sure of myself, I wouldn’t have pushed for a duel like this.

To her, it was probably a matter of wondering, ‘Does he really stand a chance?’ or ‘Maybe he has a hidden trump card?’

“The one who’s actually confident here is you, Jinhyuk.”

Soyeon sighed softly.

“To be honest, I was hesitating because I didn’t want to hurt you by accident… but since you’re insisting this much, I guess I can’t say no.”

Then, as if steeling herself, she looked up at me directly.

“Okay, let’s go for it. The bet.”

“Hmm.”

“Just like you said, the loser has to do whatever the winner says.”

“Wait, I didn’t say it quite like that…”

Did Soyeon’s eyes just light up a bit?

“No backing out after you lose, okay?”

“You too. Don’t go back on your word.”

She smiled faintly but meaningfully, like she was amused by my response.

“Alright, Jinhyuk, I’m heading off now.”

“Already?”

She was leaving faster than usual.

Normally, she’d try to stay by my side until late into the night.

“I want to go stretch and get warmed up.”

“Ah, right.”

She seemed unusually enthusiastic about this.

Why was she bothering to warm up for a match against someone like me? It was kind of scary.

“Anyway, Soyeon, I’ll let you know the time for the duel tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Soyeon walked toward the door and grabbed the handle.

“Oh, right. Soyeon.”

“Hmm?”

“Even if you do win the duel…”

I trailed off, then smirked and lobbed a playful quip.

Back in the day, I used to joke like this all the time.

“…No weird requests, okay?”

In the past, Soyeon would have laughed it off like “Pfft~ What are you even talking about? As expected of you, Jinhyuk, always thinking such silly things.”

But now?

“……”

“Soyeon?”

She simply stood there in silence.

Her hand still on the door handle, she slowly turned to glance back at me, her cheeks tinged pink.

…Huh?

She quickly turned her gaze away and fumbled with the door, glancing around nervously.

“Wait, S-Soyeon?”

“I-I’ll see you later! Bye!”

“Hey, wait—”

She dashed out of the room as if fleeing.

I blinked.

No way… was she really thinking about making a weird request?

This wasn’t the scenario I was expecting…

“Man, I really can’t lose this.”

Not that I had planned to lose anyway.

There was no way I couldn’t hold out for at least 10 minutes.

But then again…

Do I really have to win?

Now that things have progressed this far, maybe losing wouldn’t be so bad…

‘No, what the hell are you thinking, Jinhyuk. Stop it.’

I shook off the idle thoughts with a sigh.

A duel with Soyeon.

I had to win. Absolutely.

***

“Hmm? A duel with Soyeon… This could be fun.”

The morning of the duel day.

Yoo Seolhyun grinned, her face full of curiosity.

For her, this was going to be an entertaining spectacle.

Since Seolhyun had graciously offered the venue for the duel, I just listened in silence as she spoke.

“I wonder who’s going to win.”

Because she still believed I was Vigilante, it seemed she was genuinely curious about the outcome between me and Soyeon.

“What do you think?”

“Me? Hmm, let’s see.”

She smiled and pretended to ponder for a moment before answering.

“Soyeon will probably win, don’t you think?”

“……”

As expected, she predicted Soyeon’s victory.

I wasn’t particularly disappointed by her answer, as it was exactly what I had anticipated.

If I were in Seolhyun’s position, I’d probably bet on Soyeon too.

Soyeon had shown off quite a bit already, while I hadn’t revealed much.

“She’s gotten really strong. I saw her fight Cynthia, and I didn’t think she’d be that good.”

“Hmm.”

“Even if you are Vigilante, you’ll probably have a hard time against her, won’t you? I’ve heard your reputation, but compared to Soyeon, you’re…”

“Yeah, I guess. She’s taken down far more organizations than I ever did.”

As Vigilante, I had taken down a handful of mid- to small-sized organizations, but mainly, I focused on hunting individual villains rather than groups.

Compared to her, it did seem a bit lacking.

“I’m not sure exactly how strong you are… but it’ll be tough to win against the current Soyeon.”

“I don’t need to win. I just have to hold out for 10 minutes.”

I shrugged.

“Jinhyuk, since you’ve never shown your power, it’s hard to gauge how much you’ve been hiding. But maybe somewhere around the upper-rank? At best, I think you could reach as a low-tier high-ranker.”

“……”

Upper-rank to low-tier high-ranker for someone my age…

To others, that might’ve sounded like nothing but flattery, but Yoo Seolhyun was actually assessing me pretty well.

True, Vigilante’s strength was only upper-rank at best.

But if I’d continued growing steadily, I might have barely scratched the surface of high-ranker level.

So, Yoo Seolhyun’s guess was fairly accurate.

“Anyway, good luck, Jinhyuk.”

“Got it.”

I nodded lightly and entered the practice grounds.

Waiting there were Soyeon and Siwoon.

“You’re here?”

Soyeon was twirling a practice sword and warming up.

“Jinhyuk, ready? Shall we get started?”

“Yeah, no need to delay. Let’s get this over with quickly.”

I grabbed a practice sword and a bow, stepping onto the duel stage.

“You two can referee.”

“Okay.”

“Sure.”

Seolhyun and Siwoon responded.

I had called them here to witness the duel for a simple reason.

It would be better to have more people witness my ability for future plans.

“Huh? Soyeon, why are you putting your sword away?”

Suddenly, Soyeon sheathed her sword, and I asked in confusion.

She just gave a wry smile, scratching her cheek.

“I don’t want to accidentally hurt you.”

“Oh, really?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t go back on my word.”

Soyeon took up a hand-to-hand combat stance.

“And I don’t think I’ll need my sword anyway. Ah, does that sound too cocky?”

“Quite the words, considering you already said them.”

I turned to Seolhyun and Siwoon, signaling them to start the match.

It was finally time.

“Alright, ready?”

Like Soyeon, I braced myself.

“3, 2, 1… Start!”

As the duel began, I didn’t target Soyeon.

Instead, I activated my ability on Seolhyun.

And then…

“I’m sorry, Jinhyuk.”

Soyeon suddenly disappeared from my sight with a swift movement.

Her speed was far beyond what I could’ve followed in the past. She used a technique that allowed her to instantly close the distance between us.

Even faster than Siwoon’s Cloud Step.

It reminded me of Yoo Dahee’s Transcendent Transformation.

If the person standing in front of Soyeon wasn’t me, but Siwoon, Kang Daehan, or even Seolhyun, none of them would be able to react in time.

“This might sting a little.”

Soyeon had somehow appeared behind me.

She raised her hand for a chop toward the back of my neck.

But I—

“Yep, she moves like this, huh.”

“What…?”

With a flick, I blocked her strike easily.

“What’s this? For all your confidence, you’re not that impressive, Soyeon.”

I smirked, a bit cocky.

Good. At least I could manage this.

Not too shabby at all.

Thanks, Seolhyun.

For overestimating me so much.

End of Chapter