[TS] Became a Peach Saint – Chapter 254

Dokgo Beom-bu stares at his mobile phone until his eyes nearly pop out.

Soon after, Han Ga-eul, who had entered the gate, begins to appear on the phone’s screen.

After glancing around her surroundings, Han Ga-eul opens her chest to the rabbit on her shoulder.

The white rabbit, familiar with the gesture, hops right in.

“Please, please!!”

As if hearing Dokgo Beom-bu’s voice, Han Ga-eul, seemingly ready, starts running across the weed-filled meadow.

【Matthew (Swordsman) deployed in Maze Stage 2 has fallen below 30% health】

“Ah! No!!”

Dokgo Beom-bu has already lost one of his starting members, the archer.

And not just any unit, but the only starting R unit given as a beginning bonus.

Sucked into the Refolder Gate, he can’t even make a cash dash now.

Each unit is precious.

Despite choosing an R unit for the rear guard based on experience, past knowledge has backfired again.

To mine the universal resource, Hollow Gems, Dokgo Beom-bu became a miner himself, swinging a pickaxe, but in 10 days, he only managed to extract 2 gems. That’s one gem every five days.

For all the effort until he couldn’t lift his arms anymore, it was incredibly disheartening.

Dokgo Beom-bu could at least handle the pickaxe well, thanks to his past service as an artilleryman. If it weren’t for sheer determination, he would have given up long ago.

Having invested all 100 Hollow Gems he started with into Han Ga-eul, all Dokgo Beom-bu has left now are two gems mined just before the rear guard event ended and one supporter.

“Go!!”

Inside the screen, Han Ga-eul dashes across the field, her beautiful peach-colored hair fluttering.

Though the commander’s voice couldn’t possibly reach the units in the stage, Han Ga-eul speeds up as if responding to the cheers.

Thud, thud, thud!

With each step Han Ga-eul takes, dirt flies up, accelerating her pace.

Even in his desperation, Dokgo Beom-bu couldn’t help but marvel at Han Ga-eul.

‘Incredible… She’s far beyond what a new unit should be capable of. But surely…’

Dokgo Beom-bu distinctly heard Han Ga-eul mutter that she felt much weaker after swinging her staff.

She’s a unit that just entered the village through a bond summon. She hasn’t received any ability stat boosts from building upgrades or bond stones.

Though all he’s seen is her running, Dokgo Beom-bu finds it hard to fully grasp Han Ga-eul’s potential.

Dokgo Beom-bu had been playing games for so long that just by looking at the early stages, he could picture the future of a unit in his head.

Even his running posture wasn’t just flailing his legs. To Dokgo Beom-bu’s untrained eye, it was clear that he had undergone professional training.

If you look at it purely as a blank slate unit, it’s true that a natural SSR is strong, but that’s only in the very beginning.

The moment you start nurturing it, the difference becomes as stark as a chick turning into a chicken overnight versus a snake coiling for decades to become a dragon.

The performance difference between blank slate units is absolutely insignificant.

“But this…”

Dokgo Beom-bu, operating his mobile phone, sees Matthew and Brian tanking on the front lines.

Both of them are a mess. Wounds as if slashed by something sharp and small stones embedded in their skin are draining their lives in real-time.

The culprits were the notoriously tricky early-game monsters, Goblins.

They share the common trait of green skin, called Green Skin, and each tooth is sharpened like a fang.

From their long, hooked noses covered in boils to their wide, slit eyes, they were a dwarf race that looked like they could haunt your dreams.

Goblins, looking like they were made by gathering all the disgusting things in the world, were notorious among early-game monsters for their swarming and high intelligence.

Despite their small stature of about 120cm, their strength rivals that of an adult male.

While units are naturally stronger than ordinary people from birth, making brute strength irrelevant, the problem was that Goblins used tools.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

“Matthew, fall back.”

Hearing Brian’s voice telling him to fall back, Matthew glances to the side and then focuses back on the front.

“Matthew, now’s not the time to be stubborn.”

“Brian, you know our fate. We either die or survive.”

“…Damn it.”

Brian could only pant heavily, unable to respond to Matthew’s words.

Because he knew it too. The fate that loomed over their path from the moment they were summoned here.

Once you pass through the gate and enter a stage, you can’t leave until you clear it. That was the rule here.

“Matthew, Betty, Malcolm… they’ve already left. Sigh.”

Surrounded by Goblins, fulfilling his role as the vanguard, Brian turns his head, disregarding the flying stones, and locks eyes with his comrades.

He too knew that today was…

Because they knew it was the end.

“Even though we only spent about ten days together, it was fun.”

“Haha.”

Betty, the mage who had been protected behind Brian’s back the whole time, bursts into laughter even in the face of death.

“Was there anything fun? We only went to the first stage once, and after that, all I saw was the commander swinging a pickaxe.”

“That was kinda fun, though.”

“Kukuku.”

Matthew, who had been seriously looking ahead, bursts into laughter at Betty’s words and Brian’s response.

“Phew. Betty, let’s buy some time for the last time. Give those creepy bastards a fiery blast.”

“Damn.”

Betty’s gaze drops downward.

A pool of blood has formed on the ground from how much blood Brian, who had been standing firmly in front of her, had shed.

Seeing this, Betty instinctively knew that this was truly the end, just as Brian had said.

“One minute. Just buy me one minute.”

Matthew and Brian, standing at the front, nod. Seeing this, Betty silently begins chanting her fire magic without a word.

As Matthew and Brian steel their hearts, listening to Betty’s chant flowing as comfortably as a lullaby, one of the goblins, noticeably taller than the rest, starts spinning a slingshot in the air.

The slingshot goblin, baring its sharp teeth and grinning creepily, has its eyes fixed on Betty.

“No! We have to stop it!”

Matthew knew that while he wasn’t as strong or tough as Brian, he was faster. So, as soon as he saw the slingshot goblin, he dashed forward.

At the same time, the grinning goblin hurls a stone toward Betty.

Piiing—!

The sharp sound of the stone cutting through the air plunges Matthew into despair. He knew he could never be as fast as the stone projectile launched from the slingshot.

“Ah….”

A short sigh escapes Matthew’s lips.

Thud!

Is there no god? Before Matthew could even take a full step, Brian collapses backward with a dull thud.

Brian, with a sharp stone embedded in his forehead, trembles and locks eyes with Matthew.

“Br… Brian….”

A single tear streams backward from Brian’s tilted head.

Was it because of the pain burning through his life force? The tear, flowing from his bloodshot eyes, turns into a bloody streak as it falls.

Yet, Matthew doesn’t stop. Because behind him, Betty is still continuing her chant.

“Kuk.”

The ugly-looking goblin…

The goblin, seeing the scene, drools and laughs as if delighted.

The goblin’s arm begins to rotate again.

Seeing this, Matthew realizes it’s his turn next.

Matthew felt deeply resentful about this situation.

And facing death, he realizes how futile his life is.

“I am a molded being…”

At the same time, he realizes once again.

He wants to live. That he is a living, breathing being.

“Damn it!”

Brian did his best. He dragged his heavy body and protected Betty.

Next was Matthew’s turn.

He wanted to scream that he was scared, that he wanted to live, that he wanted to be saved.

Piiing─!!

At that moment, a sound so loud it seemed to tear through the eardrums caused Matthew’s eyes to widen. It was a sound on a completely different level from before.

In contrast, Matthew himself hadn’t even arrived between the goblin and Betty yet.

“Sa, save…”

Before he could even finish asking to save Betty, a strange object flew at an unimaginable speed and grazed Matthew’s cheek.

The destination of that object was the torso of the catapulting goblin.

Kwaaaang─!!!

“Kieeeek!!”

The metal pipe, flying like a beam of light, pierced through the goblin and embedded itself into the ground with a loud noise. It was driven in so hard that the surrounding area was devastated.

Thanks to that, the goblins were in chaos, dripping blood and guts everywhere.

Tok.

Seeing this scene, Matthew’s head automatically lifted.

Because someone had lightly landed on the metal pipe, which was embedded diagonally into the ground as if it had been thrown from a distance.

In the battlefield, where the stench of blood was flowing nastily, a figure named Silence cautiously sat down.

When Matthew wiped the goblin’s blood splattered all over his face and looked up, a human figure began to appear.

“Hi? Need some help?”