Shouting Duel at the Center of a Dead Game

Tanker.

The most reliable position among the various positions that exist in the game.

Among the countless nonsensical posts uploaded to the community, there was a topic: "Which position would be good for a prospective son-in-law?" Some of the comments that I remembered that were posted there were the following.

─If he's a Rogue, I'll sell my daughter out of the family register.

─If he's a Mage, he'll probably cheat?

─If he's a Warrior, he'll probably be a bit dumb.

─But if he's a Tanker, he'll probably be reliable.

Like this, the Tanker position has an amicable image to many people.

However, my thoughts on that are different.

First of all.

'If I had confidence in my control, I would have played a Dealer.'

The "Shield Tanker", which is the main build among the Tankers in 'Last Savior', holds a shield at the very front of the line and blocks the enemy's attacks with their large body.

In that process, the elements that "detail" or "physique" can intervene in are too few compared to other positions. In other words, boasting about "how long you can take a hit" with equipment and traits is almost everything.

Then who puts in the damage? The hired NPC Dealers, of course. In other words, it can't be that leaving the clear to the NPCs and just enduring is proper gameplay.

And secondly.

Most users hire NPC Shield Tankers as essential and take them around, but not me.

Because the space that a Tanker "blocks" becomes a problem often.

If the Dealer is long-range like a Mage or an Archer, there isn't much of a problem, but if you prefer a close-range dealer like me, the Shield Tanker becomes a huge obstruction to my movement.

At the timing when I have to compete with flexible play and movement, I would get frustrated when the heavy and reliable Tanker blocked my movement.

On top of that, I'm more comfortable playing alone, so I didn't hire NPC mercenaries often.

However, there were some gates that appeared after 10 years that you could only clear if there was a Tanker as essential. But I really didn't want to take Shield Tankers around.

I struggled to solve this problem, and in the end, the conclusion I came to was to raise an "Evasion Tanker" myself and take them around.

"Evasion Tank", the core of that is the "Tailwind" trait.

I spoke to RabbitBoneSoup Hong Su-ah with the brightest smile possible.

"Try doing a Tailwind Evasion Tanker once. It's good."

I slightly raised the corners of my lips and gave a smiling look. Hong Su-ah seemed to be entranced by my ultimate smile that even made the platoon's top-tier seniors approach me without reserve.

"……Um."

Hong Su-ah said.

"What would I believe about you……?"

***

Hong Su-ah was confused.

This situation of falling into the game that she enjoyed.

The people who had misunderstood her kindness and had gone far away.

Wei Xingcheng, who she thought was kind but turned out not to be.

But what was causing more confusion than all of that was none other than Han Hae-il.

'What kind of person is he?'

At first, she thought he was a bit lacking. There are people like that, aren't there, people who are clumsy no matter what they do and take longer than others. Hong Su-ah thought that Han Hae-il was one of those people.

So she tried to take care of him more kindly, but she got tired of it after seeing him not giving any real help while catching ants for several days.

So she thought he was a shameless person. A lot, in fact.

But just now, that evaluation changed again.

'A person I can't trust.'

Han Hae-il was not a beginner, and he was hiding it.

She didn't know what Han Hae-il's thoughts were for hiding it, but it was only natural that it was hard to trust someone who was hiding something.

Hong Su-ah decided to ask about the thing that she didn't understand the most out of the many questions.

"Why didn't you help me catch the ants when you knew this game well?"

Then Han Hae-il thought about something for a moment and said nonchalantly.

"I don't need to level up."

"Huh?"

"I was level 20 from the moment I came in here. There's no meaning to catching them even if I do, so I gave it up to you."

"What is that……? No, more than that, how are you level 20? Didn't you say you can't level up in the 2nd stage?"

"I know, right. It should have been like that."

Han Hae-il sighed heavily with a complicated expression.

"Anyway, that's how it turned out. That's why I didn't touch them so you could hoard all the experience."

Hong Su-ah stared blankly at Han Hae-il.

'……This person, it doesn't seem like he's lying.'

Certainly, the movements Han Hae-il had shown just now were not something you could do at level 1. And when she thought about it a little more, the timing when Han Hae-il threw stones was mostly when the ants were rushing from behind.

'Was he really helping me? Is this person?'

If I think about it, Han Hae-il had also saved her from almost being knocked out after eating the poisoned fruit just now.

Emotionally, she was still panicking, and situationally, she didn't know much about the person Han Hae-il, but circumstantially, Han Hae-il's words were the truth.

"Okay."

Hong Su-ah decided to think rationally.

"I'll believe you. I don't know the reason, but thank you for helping me."

She expresses gratitude for things that are thankworthy. Hong Su-ah thought that was right, so she said that. Then Han Hae-il asked.

"But why did you hide the trait? Tailwind is a really good trait."

"……Because it was a trait I didn't know about."

Hong Su-ah continued as if she was a little embarrassed.

"I was in a position where I was going to take the lead and guide you, right? But I thought that if the leader didn't know their own trait properly, it wouldn't inspire trust."

Hong Su-ah endured the embarrassment and answered honestly, but soon a strange question came back.

"So you're going to be a Tanker?"

"Huh?"

Hong Su-ah frowned.

"Hae-il, I've never been a Tanker before. No matter how grateful I am…… that's a different issue."

She had entered the world of the game. She didn't know how long she would have to be here, what dangers she would face. He was telling her to play a position she had never done before in that kind of situation.

But unlike Hong Su-ah's frustration, Han Hae-il's expression was very peaceful.

"If you become a Tanker, I will definitely raise you."

"……What if I don't?"

"Don't say that, let's consider it positively."

In Han Hae-il's imagination, Hong Su-ah was already a Tanker. Right now, when I don't know when I'll be able to meet a newbie with the Tailwind trait, enlisting Hong Su-ah was essential to the big picture.

"I'm sorry, but I don't really know what you mean by you raising me."

Han Hae-il looked at Hong Su-ah, who was hesitating, and smiled.

"Then let's do this."

"What?"

"I'll make you level 10 by tomorrow. Would you be able to believe that I would raise you to that extent?"

"Huh?"

Hong Su-ah doubted her ears.

"You're saying you'll raise me to level 10 in just one day?"

From what she felt, leveling up in this world was the same as the system in 'Last Savior'. In other words, the speed at which you level up slows down the higher your level is.

That was true even with the experience buff right now. It was true that she had quickly reached level 6 in three days, but she could already feel that the speed at which she was leveling up was slowing down.

Even though she had caught all the ants she had encountered, it had taken her a full day to go from level 5 to level 6, wasn't it.

But you're saying you'll raise me to level 10 in just one day, it was a physically impossible number.

But strangely, she couldn't just dismiss it as nonsense. From the fact that it was the words of Han Hae-il, who she couldn't identify, she had a strange expectation.

"Are you serious?"

"If it's hard to believe, you don't have to do it."

"……Hmm."

Hong Su-ah was pondering.

Even though Han Hae-il was her benefactor, completely trusting him was a different issue.

'But…….'

Hong Su-ah made a decision after trouble.

"Okay. Let's do that. Instead, promise me you won't kill me even if I fail."

Hong Su-ah had seen Han Hae-il stabbing the Chinese summoners with the hoe without any hesitation. Even though you weren't actually dying, even so, she was a bit scared of him stamping on people and then being happy that "the points were good."

She needed a guarantee that she wouldn't turn out like that.

"Okay. I promise. Instead, I'll put one condition on you too."

Han Hae-il smiled and said.

"From now until tomorrow, you have to unconditionally follow my words."

"I…… understand."

Hong Su-ah forced herself to ignore the unease that was rising in her heart and slowly nodded her head.

***

One hour later.

"Huff, huff…… hufff……."

Hong Su-ah was holding her side and running. Her lungs felt like they were about to burst, but Han Hae-il, who was running next to her, said very firmly.

"We are not resting!"

"We, we can't res……get any tim…… Huerk!"

How could he say such words when he wasn't even giving her time to rest?

But Hong Su-ah wasn't even given time to think of such questions.

From an hour ago until now, Han Hae-il had started running without resting even for a single moment.

"Alright, left foot, left foot, left foot!"

"Huerk!"

"You're doing well! Wash away the dirty habits you've been dyed with as a rogue with your sweat!"

Hong Su-ah felt like she was really going crazy. It had been a long time since she had reached the limit with the physical abilities that had increased while raising to level 6. On the other hand, Han Hae-il was smiling brightly.

'This is it.'

For mental unification, marching is the best after all. If Hong Su-ah's rogue spirit is not reformed, there's no way she will be good at being a Tanker.

But she wasn't just running aimlessly. Han Hae-il was listening carefully to Hong Su-ah's breathing.

─Wheeze, wheeze.

When he heard the sound of her lungs passing out air as the air left her throat, Han Hae-il finally stopped running.

“Rest!”

Hong Su-ah, unable to even speak properly, collapsed on the spot and just gasped for breath.

“Huff, huff!”

Hong Su-ah's entire body was soaked in sweat, and her lungs were panting heavily to get even a little more air.

"Huff…… huff."

After a little time had passed, a question finally surfaced in her head.

'Why…… am I doing this?'

When she thought about it, it was a bit strange. She hadn't done anything wrong, so why was she being treated like this just because she was mainly a Rogue?

"Um, Hae…… huff, Hae-il."

"Yes, Su-ah."

Han Hae-il answered with a bright smile, as if he was saying he felt refreshed.

"What…… are we doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why am I being scolded?"

Hong Su-ah glared. Even though she had promised him, there was no reason for her to receive such unfair treatment.

They were just running around aimlessly, and they hadn't even caught any ants. Rather, hadn't they avoided them every time they saw them? No matter how she thought about it, it was time only for tormenting her rather than efficiency.

But.

"Scolded? I was just moving as fast as possible."

"Huh?"

Hong Su-ah frowned deeply.

"You see that, right?"

Han Hae-il smiled and pointed at the sandy field behind the thicket. A large pit was visible there.

"……A pit?"

"To be exact, it's an Antlion's pit."

"Huh?"

Han Hae-il continued, looking at Hong Su-ah's spaced-out eyes.

"You know there's an Anthill on this Cavallo Island, right?"

"Yes, that's why ant monsters come out."

Cavallo Island has a large Anthill in the center. And the closer you get to the Anthill, the stronger the ants that come out.

"So to eat those ants, Antlions dig pits here."

"Yes, I remember seeing it in the community. But…… does that mean we're going to catch that Antlion?"

Hong Su-ah said with a puzzled expression.

"Antlions are known to be very dangerous, though."

Hong Su-ah recalled the strategy she had seen in the community. In order to catch an Antlion, you need three Mages to pull it out of the pit, and two Dealers to pierce its thick shell. And they said that you should try it with at least level 30 or higher.

But Han Hae-il said nonchalantly.

"We could catch it, but it's a bit cumbersome and the reward isn't that good either, so our goal is something else for now."

"Huh?"

'He could catch it?'

Even if Han Hae-il was really level 20, Hong Su-ah herself was level 6, right?

'Is this person lying?'

But before that question could be resolved, Han Hae-il said.

"Then let's go right away."

"……Go? Go where?"

Hong Su-ah forced herself to ignore the anxiety that had enveloped her body for a moment. But Han Hae-il said so nonchalantly.

"Where else would we go?"

Han Hae-il pointed at Antlion's pit and said.

"We have to go into the sand pit, that way."

Hong Su-ah was speechless at that outrageously crazy talk.