Chapter 277

An endless rain of blades and arrowheads poured in from every direction.

I didn’t need to think about how to move. A picture formed naturally in my mind, and my hands moved at the same time as my thoughts.

Fwoosh!

Blue flames wrapped around the spearhead and traced a semicircle.

KRAAASH!

The arrows and weapons caught in its path split apart like tofu.

Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron was hard and sharp enough to destroy Body-Protecting Qi on its own. With Spear Energy added to it, the result was only natural.

Though perhaps not to them.

“Gasp!”

The closest Black Hunter gasped as he stared at his sword, melted by the fiery qi of the Fire Gate Divine Technique.

He was my first target.

Crack!

My grip could crush stone and rebar. When I tightened my fingers around his forearm, his flesh was mangled and bone burst through.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

I had memorized the descriptions of every man who had attacked Im Kkeokjeong. I stared intently at the Black Hunter’s face as he screamed in agony.

“You’re not one of them.”

“Die!”

With a venomous shout, he drove a dagger up beneath my chin. Even in that much pain, his hand didn’t hesitate.

This wasn’t how someone moved in a raid.

These were the movements of a skilled killer.

And I tried to reason with people like these.

Once again, I reflected on what a fucking idiot I’d been.

I let out a hollow laugh and dodged the dagger. At the same time, I seized his other arm and pulled with all my strength.

No, I tore it off.

Crack-crack-crack!

“Urrrrgh…!”

His mouth gaped wide, but the pain was too great for him to scream.

I kicked him in the back as his whole body convulsed. He gasped raggedly, barely clinging to life, while blood gushed from the torn stumps.

I tossed both arms onto the lawn.

“One down.”

“……!”

“……!”

A heavy silence descended over the yard.

The Black Hunters faltered after seeing a comrade on their level taken apart in an instant. Behind them, Im Yeongjun’s eyebrows twitched as he watched.

“So you had something to rely on.”

“Yeah. That’s why I came. You don’t seem to have anything, though.”

“You fucking bastard, Jin Taekyung…”

“You should’ve listened while I was asking nicely. Because of you and the other two, this bastard can’t even jerk off by himself anymore.”

My voice remained flat as I swept my gaze around. Wherever my eyes passed, anger and confusion churned across their faces.

Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, Im Yeongjun glared and roared.

“What are you waiting for, you bastards?! I’ll save every last one of you even if I have to bathe you in potions! Don’t be afraid—beat him to death!”

I blinked. For a moment, I wondered if I had heard him correctly.

Ah, right. Potions.

“If you lose an arm or a leg, you’d need at least a high-grade potion. You guys must be loaded.”

“If that’s what it costs to remove one major obstacle, it’s worth every penny. We should’ve eliminated you from the start… I never liked the order we were given.”

“Should you really be blabbing about having someone powerful behind you? Aren’t you worried they’ll kill you to silence you?”

“Kill me to silence me?”

A sneer spread across Im Yeongjun’s lips.

“We’re the ones who silence witnesses. Besides, you’re going to die here anyway.”

“Sure, let’s put that aside for now. There’s something I’ve been wondering.”

I asked with complete sincerity.

“Those potions of yours—can they bring the dead back to life? Or do you carry three or four spare lives around?”

“What?”

Slice!

The spear answered for him. The Black Hunter groaning at my feet lost his head.

I gave the severed head a light kick, sending it rolling toward the others.

“Go on. Save him.”

“……!”

“Oh, right. Even potions can’t save you if your heart bursts or your head comes off.”

Shhk!

Without hesitation, I flicked my hand.

Two daggers shot out with terrifying speed, becoming flashes of light.

Thwack!

Two Black Hunters staggered, then collapsed.

Their bodies had been unable to withstand the internal energy carried by the daggers. Half of each man’s head was gone.

“Ah. I was trying to plant them neatly between the eyebrows, but I couldn’t control my strength.”

“……!”

The air around us seemed to vibrate.

The sneer had vanished from Im Yeongjun’s lips. A tempest now raged in the eyes of the remaining twenty-five Black Hunters.

“H-How…?”

“What the fuck…?”

Suppressed groans rose from here and there. It was something they had never experienced before.

Hunters hunted monsters.

Black Hunters had been created to hunt those Hunters.

Murder, kidnapping, blackmail, and every other filthy job—they had served as enforcers for a major Guild.

But they had clearly never imagined that they might be hunted themselves.

Much less that it would be this one-sided.

I spat phlegm onto the headless corpse.

“You bastards are like dark-path knife fighters.”

No. In terms of their mindset, dark-path knife fighters were actually better.

At least those men accepted that they might someday be stabbed to death in a back alley.

“What… exactly are you?”

His voice was bone-dry, reflecting the turmoil inside him.

I grinned at Im Yeongjun as he stared at me.

“You already know. Why bother asking?”

His gaze turned cold.

“You fooled everyone completely. That’s not the skill of a man who’s only killed once or twice.”

“Killing beasts doesn’t count as murder. Usually, it’s called slaughter.”

Step. Step.

Every time I advanced slowly, the Black Hunters surrounding me in a semicircle took a step backward.

Even the dullest among them must have realized by now that I wasn’t merely an A-rank Hunter.

They could feel the qualitatively different killing intent and the thick scent of blood clinging to me.

“Jin Taekyung.”

Im Yeongjun spoke, his face rigid.

“Taking out that D-rank Hunter was a warning. The order came from above.”

“I didn’t like the way you delivered that warning. Not one bit.”

“I understand your position. Stop here.”

“And if I don’t?”

“The next warning could be worse.”

“Worse?”

“Aren’t you worried about your mother and younger sibling?”

“……!”

The words caught in my throat.

My slow but steady advance came to an abrupt stop, and strength returned to Im Yeongjun’s voice.

“I can negotiate with the people above us. I’ll act as the stepping stone between you.”

“A stepping stone…”

“You only have to give up one thing. Stop living as A-rank Hunter Jin Taekyung and live as the civilian Jin Taekyung instead. Of course, you’ll be generously compensated.”

I gazed into Im Yeongjun’s eyes.

They held wariness toward me, but they were also the eyes of a wolf constantly searching for an opening.

After a brief silence, a dry voice escaped my lips.

“A stepping stone. That sounds good.”

The corners of Im Yeongjun’s mouth began to rise slightly. I continued smoothly.

“Since you’re a stepping stone, I can just step lightly on you and pass over. I’ll find out who’s on the other side of the stream when I get there.”

“……!”

There would be no compromise.

They had crossed the line. They were already my enemies.

The modern way and the way of Murim. I had weighed the two against each other and agonized over the choice until the very end…

But today, I would choose the latter.

“And listen, asshole. When you make an offer like that, try doing it with a more trustworthy look in your eyes.”

“Jin Taekyung!”

I heard his shout as I kicked off the ground.

The Black Hunters charged at me with gritted teeth, and I brought my spear down upon them.

Slice!

Boom!

A single punch infused with three-tenths of my internal energy.

The enhancement magic shattered, and the Tower Shield broke apart.

The tank hiding behind it stared at me in shock.

Thrust!

White Flame’s spearhead pierced his chest and burst out through his back.

The mage behind the sturdy shield hurriedly stepped backward.

Thwack!

I flicked my hand, and a dagger buried itself in the back of his head.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“Die!”

Shhhhhk!

Neck, chest, shoulder.

Three blades hurtled toward me with a fierce rush of air. Faint Sword Energy shimmered along their edges, marking their wielders as A-rank Hunters.

Slice!

I pulled the spear from the dead tank’s chest and swung it.

The three swords shattered beneath that lightning-fast strike, and one of the men collapsed clutching his throat.

Blood sprayed over me like a fountain. I released my spear and thrust both palms toward the other two men as they tried to cut me down with their broken swords.

Crack—BOOM!

Compressed air exploded outward.

The Flame Divine Palm struck them squarely in the chest, and they sank to their knees as blood poured from all seven orifices.¹

Their melted magical armor clung to their upper bodies and burned into their flesh, but they were dead before they could feel the pain.

“Goodbye.”

I had just wiped the blood from my face with my sleeve when—

Shhk! Shhhhhk!

I tilted my head slightly.

An iron arrow thick and heavy enough to pass for a small spear flew past me and buried itself in the stone wall behind me.

Boom!

A cloud of dirt erupted as the arrow drove deep into the solid rock.

Its power was tremendous.

They’ve been getting on my nerves for a while.

Like ordinary Hunters, these men had a balanced distribution of roles.

They had tanks, mages, and melee damage dealers. Naturally, they also had ranged damage dealers.

Three archers had remained inside the mansion from the beginning, loosing arrow after arrow from the second-floor windows.

Shhk-shhk-shhk!

I clicked my tongue and was about to knock the arrows aside with my spear shaft when the air rippled.

A black silhouette burst from empty space and brought a dagger down to cleave my skull.

Shrrrkk!

Fast and precise.

He was clearly a melee damage dealer with an exceptional stealth-type Skill.

How many people had he killed this way?

I didn’t know, but one thing was certain.

Today, he picked the wrong target.

Bang-bang-bang!

I twisted the spearhead with a deft motion.

The iron arrows, which should have been swept aside like fallen leaves, changed course and pierced the Black Hunter who had been trying to bury a dagger in my crown.

Thwack-thwack-thwack!

“Urgh!”

Struck by arrows out of nowhere in midair, the Black Hunter fell with a heavy thud.

I pulled an iron arrow from his upper body. His body convulsed, then went still. At the same moment, I hurled the arrow back in the direction it had come from.

Shhhhhk! Thwack!

The iron arrow infused with internal energy did its job perfectly.

It flew back toward its original owners twice as fast and with twice the force it had carried when first fired.

The three archers, who had been nocking their next arrows, died almost simultaneously.

“This is fucking insane…”

The men who had been about to charge stopped in their tracks. Their hands trembled around their weapons.

They had just watched more than ten of their comrades die in the blink of an eye.

But I had no intention of stopping there.

Shrrrkk! Slice!

I charged straight into them, cutting, stabbing, and smashing.

A mist of blood formed, and someone’s arms, legs, or head flew in every direction.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

“Argh!”

Screams erupted all around me.

From among the terrified enemies, a knuckle wrapped in Fist Energy shot out and slammed into my spear shaft.

Boom!

“Retreat into the mansion!”

I let out a short laugh at Im Yeongjun’s shout. He had bought them a brief moment.

“Did you set up some magic circles as traps?”

“Shut up!”

Whoosh!

He was their leader for a reason. As expected, he was the best of them.

No, at this level, he could even be called a Peak master in Murim.

He knows how to use qi.

One reason Hunters seemed so inferior to martial artists was the way they handled qi.

But Im Yeongjun and the other Black Hunters moved far more efficiently than ordinary Hunters.

Even so, this is as far as they go.

No matter how high someone flew or how low they crawled, there were walls they could never cross.

I drove my fist toward the knuckle.

Refusing to back down, Im Yeongjun gritted his teeth and met my punch head-on.

Boom!

One Strike.

The knuckle shattered.

Boom!

Two Strike.

Im Yeongjun’s fist was crushed.

KRA-BOOM!

Three Strike.

The first move of the Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist slammed into his shoulder.

His flesh melted, and his bones were pulverized.

It was as though a fire dragon had devoured his entire shoulder.

Im Yeongjun spat blood and flew backward.

“Team Leader!”

But he still had subordinates left.

The Black Hunters who had waited until the last moment quickly hoisted Im Yeongjun onto their backs and rushed into the mansion.

Thud!

The door had barely closed when layer upon layer of transparent barriers wrapped around the mansion.

A defensive spell?

It had to be an extremely powerful one. It felt even sturdier than the defensive magic Butler Kim had once shown me.

But I didn’t stop walking.

One step carried me to the door. I punched the dozens of defensive barriers.

Four Strike.

The Heaven-Destroying Divine Fist, unleashed with all my strength, hammered into them.

Just as it had shattered an unnamed cliff on Mount Song, the Heaven-Destroying Divine Fist broke and crushed everything blocking its path.

KRAAAAAASH!

With a roar like the sky splitting apart, the defensive barriers were torn to shreds.

The roof flew off, and the walls turned to ash.

Beyond the melted front door, I saw the enemies frozen in place.

Im Yeongjun stood at their center.

His jaw trembled. A single word, sounding almost like a groan, escaped between his lips soaked in blood.

“What… what the hell are you?”

I gladly answered him.

“A monster. Same as you.”

Team Leader Choi had said it before.

This world was teeming with monsters.

So I had decided that, every once in a while, I would become a monster myself.

Just like today.

“Have you ever heard of Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting?”

It didn’t take long for Im Yeongjun to open his mouth.