Extra Nobody

Yoo Yoenha. She is beautiful, resourceful, and a social butterfly with connections that extends to various webs in the whole world. That is the ‘Yoo Yoenha’ I know from the novel. While she is sufficiently capable of combat, I don’t see her outside of the bounds of a rich mogul who the world will know in the future as the ‘Queen of Seoul’…

To my eyes, she is frail and weak. I am not anything great in fighting either as I am a total beginner, but I don’t care about myself. I fumble forward, my heart rate accelerating several more seconds as I dread the outcome of the Djinn getting his hands on Yoenha.

The Djinn with its malevolent eyes, leers at me condescendingly.

“YOENHA” I scream at the top of my lungs, finding disbelief in my own voice.

***

She can feel the hands of the Djinn on her waist, and she winces at the pain. With the Djinn’s strength, it can easily rip her in half, but the Djinn has not done anything like that… yet.

The Djinn is enjoying the moment, savoring the reactions of his toys.

Yoenha scoffs at its arrogance. While she does foresee this happening, she does not expect the Djinn to be this foolish. “Hey, big guy…” She calls to the Djinn making the other look back at her.

Dropping her bow, she manipulates her magic power as if it is telekinesis and pulls the fallen arrow just below her. Her granular control is impressive, and picking up an arrow from a distance is easier than removing liquid from the soaked cloth. In one swift motion, she drives the arrowhead at the monstrous Djinn’s eyes.

“RAAAraaagh!”

Yoenha feels her waist hurting as the Djinn wails in pain. “Uck…” She cannot even utter a complaint. It is too much wishful thinking on her part for the Djinn to lose hold of her just because she poked him in the eye. “Ah~ shit…”

“I will rip your head from your neck for hurting my eye.” The Djinn hatefully glares with his remaining eye while he places his other palm on Yoenha’s head.

***

Seeing Yoenha fighting back is a surprise, but that only makes the happy Djinn unhappy and more aggravated. Still, the loss of one eye will be a great help. I run my fastest, generating momentum, I leap off midair targeting the back of the Djinn’s calf.

I tuck myself in, making a human cannonball. I put all of my weight and momentum at the immediate point of contact resulting in the Djinn falling backward.

Yoenha sees this as an opportunity and pries herself open from the monster’s hands.

“You pesky little thing!” The Djinn tries to grab Yoenha, but I interfere as I hurl a javelin in the Djinn’s path. “You wait!” He shouts at me as he swats the javelin midair. His gaze returns to wandering around. Yoenha is no longer here. On top of this, only now does the Djinn realize that the museum visitors, the civilians, are also missing.

I and Yoenha are not the only Cube Cadets here. The others should be taking the fire exit already to climb to the rooftop.

“Oh no,” My voice is cold, and my face sports a dull apathy. “It looks like it is just you and me.”

“Grrr…” The Djinn growls at me like a beast.

I maintain eye contact with him, and with not an ounce of emotion, I declare. “Yoenha, this is the new strategy. You will hide and shoot him and attack him just like we always do. But this time, I will use my Gift to decrease the presence of your arrows and maybe the other projectiles you can throw at him.” I reveal the new strategy out loud while ignoring the enemy right in front of me.

In retrospect, what I am saying can be used as a bluff. Despite the beast-like features, the Djinn in front of me possesses enough intelligence. He should understand the meaning of anxiety, fear, and even tension.

My body is hurting, but the adrenaline keeps me going. Making other things from a distance decrease their presence is a far more difficult task. But what use there is in not being able to perfectly execute it when I am about to die?

I simply stand in my place, provoking the Djinn to attack. From now on, I only plan to evade, and let the Djinn die of blood loss. Sadly, it looks like it will take a long time for the Djinn to bleed to death. Despite the gushing dark red from his throat, the Djinn remains energetic.

I must outlast him.

I feel the weight of the dagger on my palm. It is light and perfect for inflicting fatal blows in close-quarters combat. Its most notable feature is it is not as exhausting as wielding other weapons.

But in the end, I decided to let go of it. No matter how light it is, I can only devote myself to dodging. The Djinn’s skin is already tough, but with his demonic power, he is already invulnerable to any method of attack that I have. If only I have light attribute equipment, then it would be better.

I smile, brainwashing myself with optimism, I start thinking to myself that I am not dead yet.

But soon, I just might.

Do or Die.

“Hey, I am now unarmed… Don’t tell me you are scared?” I taunt the Djinn once more.

***

Yoo Yoenha’s life is most important to her. She has many things to accomplish, and a Guild to lead someday. That is why after so much deliberation, she decides to escape. It is easy to use the displays around as cover and find the fire exit.

Yet, she finds it difficult to proceed. Hearing Hyon Hyung’s new strategy is most annoying. Her hand feels stuck to the doorknob. She remains kneeling and away from the angry Djinn’s perception. In her mind, she is battling what are the best to do in this situation.

“The best option right now is for me to immediately secure my escape.”

That is the logical thing to do.

As the future Guild leader someday, she will have to make hard decisions that most often deal with the gray area of humanity, and maybe some rare often, darker dealings that will challenge her morality.

“Fuck,” Yoenha, a girl who prides herself as cultured and elegant, for the first time in her life lets out the crude word from her lips. “Fuck,” She repeats, clearly irritated by the dilemma.

Best Options? Laughable. What she should do at this moment is to make the Right Choices.

Against her instinct, she returns to the battlefield. She lurks around the museum using the debris and bigger displays as cover. This is what she is aiming for when they plan their counterattack against the Djinn, but because of inexperience and the heat of the moment, her initial plans to play sniper have become ineffective.

But now. It is different. Yoenha has now the experience, while only gained just recently, she believes that it is enough for her to get accustomed. Archer. A long-range role.

Her impression of it is mostly negative as when she sees an Archer, she is being cruelly reminded of Nayun. In the back of her mind, she fears ‘inferiority’ especially if it involves Shin Jonghak. Through more ways than one, she wants to prove herself as better than Nayun, but at the same time, afraid that she will lose.

The first day of Agent Military Academy is when she first learns how to wield a weapon. Before that, she is more interested in being a girl, learning fashion, the stock market, business, management, and everything that will prepare her on leading the Guild

As a young little girl, she has been very sincere in her dreams for the future.

Hyon Hyung while making evasive maneuvers kicks the bow to the sides to where the Djinn cannot see it. Yoenha makes haste as she retrieves the bow. After that, she goes searching for the scattered arrows around the museum.

And when she is done, she sees Hyon Hyung’s torn left sleeve, showing his purple bruised arm.

Yoenha feels guilty, thus she promises herself to do better.

Take a deep breath, and then exhale.

Yoo Yoenha, Cube Cadet, is now battle-ready. Adjusting herself to her new role and eager to provide cover fire to Hyon Hyung, she releases her true first arrow with the intent to prove herself that she is better.

Not just better than Nayun, but everyone. And she will prove this by living through this.

At the release of her arrow, she immediately darts off to another location. Accuracy is important to a long-range fighter, but so is movement. Yoenha’s footwork proves herself to be a capable Archer.

Sadly, her accuracy still needs some work. She is aiming for the other eye of the Djinn, but because of external factors, the arrow lands somewhere else than she intends it to be.

Despite that, such pinpoint accuracy is unneeded.

The Djinn cannot even detect the coming arrow as it embeds itself in its shoulder. The arrow belonging to the museum certainly has a history of its own, thus its better-than-average quality. On top of this, the arrow has Yoenha’s magic power.

Never has Yoenha experienced a sense of exhilaration when in combat. If it is as usual, then there will be only the cold calculation of a leader and cruel optimization of her strategies. However, this time, for some twisted reason, she is feeling a sense of excitement. “It is fun~” She realizes.

Yoenha nocks another arrow on her bow, but this time, she takes her time more carefully.

“Release,” Under her breath, she lets go of the stray thoughts together with the arrow. She only needs to focus on what is in front of her. She only needs to focus on— the enemy.

The arrow whistles into the air and makes a beautiful arc.

It lands on Hyon Hyung’s left arm with a crunch.

“OUCH! FUCK YOU, YOENHA! It pierced my bone!”

Yoenha, “!?” is confused.

She silently cries. ‘I am sorry…’