“Shit! Run!” I cried out.

I didn’t know why, but Cha Hee-Ra was chasing me. The way she glared at me with those bloody eyes, and the way she smiled while making sounds only a beast would make gave me goosebumps.

‘Shit…’

The strong and independent Cha Hee-Ra had become a bomb. I was able to stop Jung Ha-Yan before she blew up, but Cha Hee-Ra’s explosion was totally unexpected. The majority of the situations were predictable, and this expedition was no different. Even though I realized it later, I still discovered the reason behind the monster wave, and the fact that the first wall would collapse. For this defense war, I had prepared a lot for the variables, and I even made a manual in case a named monster appeared. I simulated the situation with all sorts of variables, but I had never imagined I would get chased by my own ally.

‘I didn’t include this kind of situation in my simulations.’

It was ridiculous how Cha Hee-Ra started running up the wall after throwing the monster’s head. Based on her unique habit, I had a feeling why she was looking at me instead of the enemy. Right now, Cha Hee-Ra’s intelligence was lowered, and I was sure that she also didn’t expect this to happen. She would usually focus on unleashing the violence within her whenever she activated her attribute and transformed into a madwoman crazy about blood. But this time, it seemed as if she had unleashed something else. Moreover, she would have warned me if this had happened before.

‘This must be the first time…’

[Checking Player Cha Hee-Ra’s Status Window and Potential.]

[Name - Cha Hee-Ra]

[Title - Madwoman Crazy About Blood, Red Mercenary, Holy Empire’s Red Madwoman]

[Age - 28]

[Nature - Unpredictable Innovator]

[Job - Mercenary Queen - Legendary Rank]

[Job Effect - Acquired basic swordsmanship knowledge]

[Job Effect - Acquired intermediate weapon knowledge]

[Job Effect - Acquired advanced weapon knowledge]

[Job Effect - Acquired advanced dual weapon knowledge]

[Job Effect - Acquired advanced magic operation knowledge]

[Stats]

[Strength - 117/Above legendary growth limit]

[Agility - 90/Below epic growth limit]

[Stamina - 90/Below epic growth limit]

[Intelligence - 00/Above rare growth limit]

[Endurance - 90/Above epic growth limit]

[Luck - 56/Above rare growth limit]

[Magic - 82/Below epic growth limit]

[Gear - None]

[Attribute - Madwoman Crazy About Blood - Epic Rank]

[Lowers her intelligence temporarily to increase her attack power.]

[Overall Review - Cha Hee-Ra’s intelligence stat has temporarily decreased. Even though her strength stat has temporarily increased to 117, she’s going beyond her legendary stats. She has lost her mind, so it would be best if you didn’t go near her. You must be careful because Player Cha Hee-Ra will rip your paper-like endurance to pieces. I pray this will not be our last meeting. I hope you survive…]

‘System, you're not being helpful at all! I'll really kill you no matter what it’ll take!’

As expected, Cha Hee-Ra had lost her mind, but what caught my attention the most was that her strength stat and growth limit had exceeded legendary rank.

‘Is that even possible?’

I felt like her sneeze was enough to blow me away.

The Red Mercenary Guild member looked confused when they saw her charging toward us.

“H-How?!”

“Just run!” I cried out once more.

I needed a shield to protect me, so I immediately checked their stats.

‘Not bad.’

They seemed capable of blocking one or two of her attacks, so it wouldn’t be bad to keep them around.

“Has this happened before?” I asked.

“N-No. I’ve never…”

Cha Hee-Ra continued to climb the wall as we were talking, and even though we tried to run as far away as possible, my agility and stamina stats were lacking.

“Block her!” I yelled.

“O-Okay!”

They held up their shield and tried to block Cha Hee-Ra, but since they weren’t able to block her kick, they fell behind the wall.

Crack!

“Ahhhhh!”

She had to be somewhat conscious, as she didn’t kill her subordinate, but an ordinary person would have exploded into pieces before they could even land on the ground.

“Juliena! No! Whitefall! Whitefall!” I yelled desperately.

I remembered the griffon I rode on the way here. I wasn’t sure if it heard me, but all I could do was desperately call out its name. However, the griffon that I thought was brave didn’t answer my call. I wasn’t sure whether it didn’t hear me, or if it was intentionally ignoring me to save itself, but if it was the latter, then I could agree that the griffon was truly like me.

Maybe nothing untoward would happen even if Cha Hee-Ra caught up to me, but the worst-case scenario meant being ripped into pieces. Just in case, running was the right thing to do. I wasn’t sure if I was lucky, but Juliene quickly flew toward me.

‘She’ll buy me some time.’

This was a ridiculous situation during a defense war. The people on one of the walls couldn’t defend properly because of Cha Hee-Ra, so to win this war, I had to lead her into the city.

‘I need to head down the wall first.’

Even without Cha Hee-Ra or me, the defense war should continue smoothly. It would be a different story if the baby’s mother appeared, but the troops fighting hard to protect Castle Rock knew we were winning this war. Unless the other commanders were idiots, there shouldn’t be any issues.

Even as I was desperately running, I heard screams from behind me. Cha Hee-Ra was probably pushing away everything in her way, and her push might be light, but it would still cause a lot of damage. Still, this wasn’t the time to worry about the others.

“Grrrrr…”

‘Is she a monster or something?’

I felt like she was getting closer, and thousands of scenarios ran through my head. Most importantly, I thought about what to do if I got caught since no one could guarantee my safety. All of a sudden, someone lifted me, and when I was about to scream, I found myself soaring into the sky. I realized that my situation had changed. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in Jo Hye-Jin’s arms.

“Hoo!”

“What’s… going on?” Jo Hye-Jin asked.

“It’s a long story. I think it’ll be better if we head inside the city first,” I suggested.

“Oh… okay,” she replied.

“Be careful, Miss Hye-Jin,” I warned.

“Sure…”

“How’s the defense war looking?” I asked her.

“It’s going as planned. It just seemed like you were being chased by Miss Cha Hee-Ra…”

“Alright. Does the commanding unit know about this situation?” I asked.

“I was told that to stop the monsters invading from the underground waterway, you and Miss Cha Hee-Ra should head there with some of the troops.”

“Who told you that?” I asked.

“Th-That’s just what I… Oh! We let the master of the Giant Guild command the defense war,” she explained.

Jo Hye-Jin had become a bit more flexible. I was sure it was to prevent confusion among the troops, but I wanted to applaud her for being able to lie. The guild master in charge of command was competent enough to question the troop formation at the west wall, so I was certain he would lead the defense war based on the manual.

“But… why is Miss Cha Hee-Ra suddenly…”

I was really embarrassed to explain it to her, as I couldn’t even understand it myself. When I remained silent, she realized that she shouldn’t ask any more questions, and she simply nodded in response to my silence. We seemed busy because Cha Hee-Ra was chasing us. While checking the alleys, I guess she was angry about losing me because she started charging toward us while destroying the buildings in the city. Jo Hye-Jin managed to dodge the debris flying our way as she continued to hold me with one hand. Eventually, we ended up further into the city. We must have been moving rather fast because the scenery suddenly changed.

“Grrrr…”

The situation was so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh. Using the word unexpected to describe this situation would be too shallow—it was so ridiculous to the point that Song Jung-Wook might have cursed me in the afterlife. That was how unrealistic this situation was, but I was sure it wouldn’t last a long time. Since it was an attribute, there had to be a time limit and a penalty. When I used Mind’s Eye and looked at Cha Hee-Ra, I saw her attribute. From what I could recall, this function never existed, so I guess it appeared when Mind Eye’s evolved.

[Checking Player Cha Hee-Ra’s Attribute, Madwoman Crazy About Blood.]

[Lowers her intelligence temporarily to increase her attack power. Duration: 1 Hour - Time Remaining: 49 Minutes]

‘1 hour...’

It felt like it had been thirty minutes, but only eleven minutes had passed. Still, I was relieved that there was a time limit. If her attribute lasted until she was exhausted, I might’ve chosen to do something drastic.

“I can hold out for an hour,” I said.

“Huh?”

As Jo Hye-Jin questioned me, I saw Cha Hee-Ra jumping from afar.

“Careful!” I cried out.

Jo Hye-Jin turned around, but it was too late. She bit her lips and threw me away before taking out her spear. Unfortunately, the difference between her stats and Cha Hee-Ra’s stats was so massive that she wouldn’t be able to block the latter. But I was wrong; I heard an explosion, but I didn’t see Jo Hye-Jin being blown away. When the sound disappeared, I saw Kim Hyun-Sung blocking Cha Hee-Ra.

‘Hyun-Sung!’

Our Hyun-Sung came to save us, but the sight of him trembling against Cha Hee-Ra was a sight I wasn’t used to seeing. When I saw holy magic being used on him, I discovered that he wasn’t alone.

When I looked back, I saw Sun Hee-Young extending her hand toward Kim Hyun-Sung while Jung Ha-Yan was quietly glaring at Cha Hee-Ra. Even Kim Ye-Ri and Hwang Jung-Yeon came to help us.

“What’s going on, hyung-nim?”

Park Deok-Gu asked while holding his shield in front of me.

“I’m not sure, but I think she went berserk…” I replied.

“You’re probably right. I’ve heard of the Mercenary Queen’s attribute before.”

“I see...”

“She decreases her intelligence to increase her attack, but the attribute’s effect only lasts an hour… since some time has passed already, we just need to hold out. I’m not sure what happened, but we should stop Miss Cha Hee-Ra first.”

“What about the walls?”

“The defense war is going fine, so it should be okay even if we leave for a while.”

Our lovely regressor was the one who answered my question.

“Oh… I see.”

“We’ll subdue her without killing her,” Kim Hyun-Sung ordered.

“Is that possible?”

Jung Ha-Yan shook her head when Park Deok-Gu asked. I wasn’t sure if Jung Ha-Yan would use this chance to kill her, but the fire in her eyes gave me goosebumps. The situation would become more complicated if Cha Hee-Ra died here. Actually, based on our powers, our party was at a disadvantage, so we were the ones who should be afraid of losing our heads. The only reason why this balance of power was being maintained was that we had a high-ranked mage, Hwang Jung-Yeon, and our regressor, who always went above and beyond. Jo Hye-Jin was also a contributing member to the balance. If those three weren’t here, Park Deok-Gu would die in three seconds, Kim Ye-Ri in fifteen seconds, and she would end up wiping out everyone else in an instant.

“I don’t know what’s going on…” Park Deok-Gu commented.

We came here to stop the monster wave, so I was certain no one here imagined that we would end up stopping Cha Hee-Ra instead.

‘This was such an important event…’