The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Bam—!

The parking lot rang with a heavy thud. I felt a dull pain but fortunately, the watch on my wrist blocked the man’s baseball bat.

‘I thought my arm was going to break…!’ Though the baseball bat aimed for my head, I was able to block his swing with my arm by a hairbreadth. Yet, the man didn’t stop with one attack. I supposed that was expected since he wouldn’t have rushed at us like this to hit us once and leave the area. The man’s goal was clear: it was to kill us.

“…You said it was because it was your mission to kill us, right?” I asked.

This meant the man wouldn’t stop swinging his bat until we died. When I met this man at Yasan before, I confirmed that there was another ‘system’ attached to him. Unlike the system that gave me missions, this mission appeared to move in a different operating system. Furthermore, the mission that this man received from the system was probably, ‘the complete annihilation of Siren’.

Like how I struggled with all my might to complete my missions, this man was probably doing the same for his missions. In the end, I couldn’t avoid this confrontation with him.

“Where are the others?” The man placed his bat down for a moment and asked. “Since this is a game that will end only once I kill you all, call all of your buddies.”

“You think I will be crazy enough to call them?” I glared at the man. This man’s personality and tone changed significantly since I last talked to him. He was almost a different person now.

The man looked at me with no emotion on his face. He had the face of a skilled and experienced murderer. Then, the man threw away his baseball bat and took out a knife with a blade that was one hand-length long.

“Well, I planned to kill you first…since that’s the mission. I will kill the others a bit more slowly.”

“Ah…”

I thought I could deal with him somehow when he was holding the baseball bat, but this changed everything. I definitely couldn’t be stabbed with that knife; if he happened to slice my face with that, my life as an idol was over. I felt conflicted. Should I turn around and make a run for it?

No, I tried that before and was caught in an instant. I didn’t know how but this man was much stronger than he appeared; it was probably the benefits he got from his system. This meant that I needed to buy as much time as I could in this spot.

It was then the man said, “Don’t think of buying time.” He must have read my mind and knew that the police could come if he wasted any more time here. The man began to approach me while gripping his knife. If I couldn’t escape, I needed to stop him.

Zing—!

Though it was removed once, I activated Insight again. I didn’t try to force a command on this man again since it seemed the man had the power to forcefully take my Insight off thanks to his system.

‘This is the only way I can get that bastard.’ If this bastard’s system strengthened his physical stats, my damn system gave me Insight. My power maximized not just the hardware of my body but its software. And with Insight, it wasn’t hard to analyze him. His knife was aiming towards my stomach, and I slightly raised my hand above his hand that was gripping a knife. I didn’t need to use much strength since all I needed to do was change the direction of the power that was coming my way.

Whoosh!

The man’s knife meaninglessly grazed the air.

“Ahhhhh!” After a fruitless first attack, the man made his second attack. He gripped his knife in reverse and drew a diagonal line. He moved so fast that I heard cracking noises from the man’s body. He was probably exerting power beyond his normal physical capabilities, but while I used my Insight ability, I could clearly see the trajectory of his knife. With just a slight step backward, I evaded his attack.

The man’s attacks came at me incessantly. He swung his knife down and forward, aiming for my head. Then, he grabbed his knife in reverse and tried to slash my shoulders. Then, he regripped his knife in its original direction and aimed for my heart. My eyes caught all the knife’s trajectories. Simultaneously, I thought I would’ve died five times if I hadn’t used Insight.

The man’s physical abilities were truly astounding. Though time slowed down to the point I thought the world had stopped when I used Insight, the man’s movements were the only thing that moved. In other words, he was swinging his knife so fast that it would’ve been impossible for ordinary people to even see properly.

Yet, the fight between me and him would result in an obvious end. The ability this man possessed couldn’t compare to my power over Insight, and he would eventually succumb to mine. No matter how quickly and deeply he swung his knife and aimed for my critical parts, my Insight told me all his movements’ trajectories and the way I could evade them. Like before, I just needed to wait until this man pushed his own physical body to ruins.

Since he was overexerting himself right now, I thought veins would begin to burst from the muscles all around his body. As expected, I saw a large, thick vein pop out of the man’s neck. His body would soon destroy itself. The attack coming this time was aiming at my side. I saw the trajectory I should take to evade.

“Hmp!” The man’s arm muscles swelled up like it would burst any moment.

Whoosh!

‘What!’ The forward thrust that had been aiming for my side suddenly changed trajectories and began to climb upwards to my face. The stabbing attack quickly changed to a slicing form midway. This movement far surpassed the limits of a human body and I saw the man’s arm eerily bend.

Slice—!

The sound of something slicing resonated chillingly across the space. I reflexively touched my face to make sure.

‘Ah…’ Thank goodness. My front bangs just got a bit sliced. If my face had been sliced, it would’ve been a catastrophe. Besides that, it was the first time the man surpassed my Insight with his speed. It was at that point I realized that my Insight ability wasn’t invincible. I had planned to keep evading until this man fell on his own, but it seemed I had to change my tactics. There was no other way out.

‘Even if it’s bothersome, I have to do something.’ Before the police came, I needed to use defensive techniques to restrain the man. The man looked at me with a malicious smile. There was no emotion on his face but bloodthirst. The man made his way towards me again. His knife aimed for my face from above and then, below in a diagonal line.

—Stop.

Just for a moment, I used my Insight to make a command. I didn’t think it would really work but it was possible to restrict the man’s movements momentarily.

“Hmph!”

“Haaaah!” The man screamed and resisted my command again. My Insight was about to wear off soon.

Whoosh—!

But before any outside forces did, I deactivated it first. Then, I could minimize the side effects of my legs giving in. Thus, before the man’s knife reached me, I used my Insight again.

Zing—! Time slowed down again, and I looked at the man’s right arm, which was holding the knife. His arm must have felt the strain of our non-stop battle, and he must have drawn out even more power to resist my command just now. I saw that the moment he resisted my command, his swelled-up arms deflated quickly.

‘It’s now.’ This was the moment when his arm was at its weakest. I grabbed the man’s arm that was coming towards my face. I normally wouldn’t have been able to pull his arm towards my direction because of how strong he was. But because of how much power he had drawn up just now, it probably was difficult for him to immediately gather more strength to fight me back. Then, after grabbing both the man’s wrist and forearms, I twisted it like I was rolling a cloth.

“Hmph!” Simultaneously, I spun his body so it fell over.

“Ahhh!” The man screamed and the knife he was tightly grabbing fell to the floor.

Boom! The man’s body slammed into the floor. This was my chance to strike. I kicked the knife far away and was about to jump over the man’s chest when I realized…

‘I got counterattacked when trying that last time.’

Thus, I quickly changed my mind and stepped on the man’s right wrist with all my might.

Crunch!

“Ahhhh!” This was the weakest area on the man’s body right now since it was the part he used the most. Thus, if I just ruined this part of him, he wouldn’t be able to make additional attacks. Rather he swung his knife or bat, he needed to have a proper hand to attack, and it wasn’t like he would be able to wield the same prowess and power in his non-dominant left hand either. In short, I had to cut off his most important mode of attacking.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

I didn’t feel safe with just stepping on it once and repeatedly stomped down on his wrist. I put my feet down every time with the determination to make the man unable to use his wrist ever again while thinking that my members would only be safe if I completely crushed his wrist. I specifically focused on one point to attack.

“Ahhhh!” The man’s screams grew louder. He extended his other hand to grab my ankles.

Flick. But I moved away from his reach with just one step backward.

“Haa…ha…ha…” The man heaved hard. It seemed to be a side-effect of overusing his power. Furthermore, his right wrist was a hundred percent broken now, as evident by the way it listlessly dangled from his arm. It was time for me to block him now. I planned to hold him back until the police came but the man began to suddenly run.

Dadadaada!

“What?”

‘He’s running into the inside of the parking lot?’ He wasn’t running away but going in deeper. I wondered what sort of weird behavior this was.

Brooom—! I heard the car’s engine from far away where the man disappeared.

Screeech—! The man dragged an old, worn-out vehicle quickly past me. In an instant, the man disappeared from the parking lot. The only things he left behind were his baseball bat and a knife. Did he run away after sensing that things were hopeless? Or did he take the car to catch Dong-Jun? If that was the case…

“No.” I couldn’t let that be. I thought I needed to also get out of this parking lot to chase after him when Dong-Jun called me from away.

“Tae-Yoon!”

“Huh?”

The police rushed in from behind.

‘Did he know this would happen…and run away?’ I thought. It seemed clear why that man suddenly ran.

“Where is that man? Where did that crazy guy just run!” Dong-Jun said agitatedly.

“Ah…he ran away. He was the one who just took that worn-out white car outside the parking lot just now.”

“What?”

“What did you say? A worn-out car?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember the type of car?”

“I think it’s an Avante.”

Hearing this, the police made a call on their radio and said that the criminal was riding an old white, Avante. It seemed he was guiding the other police in the vicinity.

“Tae-Yoon, are you okay? You are all right, right? No problems?” Dong-Jun scanned my body thoroughly and checked if I was hurt anywhere.

“Yes…I’m fine.” I finally was able to let down my guard and slumped down from my spot.

“Tae-Yoon!” Dong-Jun supported me so I didn’t collapse to the floor. It was then, I saw three figures coming into the parking lot.

“…Tae-Yoon?”

“Isn’t that Park Dong-Jun?”

“Tae-Yoon! Dong-Jun!”

It was Yeon-Hoon, Do-Seung, and Woon. They all came down to the parking lot with pajama wear. They all looked at us quizzically like they couldn’t understand the situation. It was expected since they found me with my knees on the ground with Dong-Jun supporting me when they just came down to the parking lot.

“What in the world…happened…?”

It already gave me a headache thinking about how I would have to explain the situation to them.