Chapter 84

Im Kkeokjeong thought.

This is insane.

Jin Taekyung was a C-rank Hunter. A Minotaur, on the other hand, was a B-rank monster.

And there wasn’t just one of them. There were eight. To Im Kkeokjeong, the situation looked like more than recklessness. It looked hopeless.

What the hell does money matter?

Four billion won was certainly enough to change a person’s life, but it wasn’t worth throwing away one’s life for. Im Changsoo had blinded Jin Taekyung with money, and Taekyung had lost his ability to think clearly.

I have to stop him. I have to.

Those vicious bastards from Sangdong Guild, Butler Kim for not stopping him, even Team Leader Choi—they were all insane. He had to prevent his cherished little brother from throwing his life away like a stray dog.

“Taekyung!”

It was at that very moment, when Im Kkeokjeong reached out toward Jin Taekyung, who had just gripped his spear at the ready.

Whoosh—

“…Huh?”

Along with the sound of wind, Jin Taekyung vanished. Jin Taekyung began sprinting at a speed that Im Kkeokjeong, an E-rank Hunter, could neither match nor properly see.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye. Im Kkeokjeong let out a dazed sound.

“Uh, uh-oh.”

What was this? What was happening? Had Taekyung always been this strong? No, wait. Could a C-rank Hunter really move that fast?

Whoooooosh!

A black bolt of lightning shot across the cavern.

One step. Two steps. Three steps.

The distance of several dozen meters vanished in an instant, and the spearhead flashed.

Swoooosh! Slice!

The Minotaur—the over-three-meter-tall monster’s enormous body tilted to one side.

The thick neck that should have been above its shoulders was already gone.

For one moment, it seemed as if the half-human, half-beast creature with a human body and a bull’s head were nothing more than an ordinary person.

Thump.

The head that had been severed in an instant dropped to the cavern floor.

Crash.

The headless monster collapsed. Blood burst from the cleanly severed cross-section of its neck.

“What the…!”

Someone’s voice spoke for everyone’s thoughts.

Amid the invisible shock and stunned disbelief, one person grinned.

“This is doable.”

That one remark delivered the final blow.

Im Kkeokjeong’s legs gave out, and Im Changsoo muttered without realizing it.

“Fuck… my four billion.”

Minotaurs had bodies specialized for close-quarters combat.

Like any mid-sized monster, they were huge, packed with incredibly dense muscles, and armed with heavy weapons such as maces and axes.

Boom!

But what good was that? If they couldn’t hit anything, it was all for nothing.

No matter how hard they swung, all they could do was smash the innocent cavern floor.

I’ll give them one thing—their strength is impressive.

But fights weren’t won with strength alone. I slipped inside one monster’s guard and stabbed it in the lower abdomen.

Squish.

System

Precise Attack!

Status Effect: Bleeding activated!

—Mooooo.

The Minotaur’s cry was pitiful. It had already lost too much blood to charge in as ferociously as before. The attack it had launched moments ago had probably squeezed out the last of its strength.

—Moo. Mooooo.

I approached the creature as it staggered backward.

Looking into its calf-like eyes almost made me feel sorry for it…

Like hell.

All I could see was a stack of five hundred million won.

“In your next life, please be born in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province.”

—Mooooo!

Slice.

The Minotaur’s breathing stopped.

A moment later, there were eight enormous pools of blood.

And eight monster corpses.

Ding.

System

Level Up!

The cheerful System notification was the movie’s background music. The real highlight of the movie was something else entirely.

I turned around with a wide smile.

“Now, for the fun part—the settlement.”

Among the people engulfed in shock and silence, one person stood out in particular.

I began settling the accounts loudly enough for the half-frozen Im Changsoo to hear.

“Let’s see. Five hundred million per head to start with…”

He flinched.

“One, two, three, four… Eight of them. Four billion in total. Wow, a few of them even dropped Magic Gems. You said all the byproducts were mine, too, right?”

He flinched again. And again.

“Changsoo. Why aren’t you answering? Don’t tell me you lied to me.”

Im Changsoo forced an awkward smile.

“Of course not.”

“Watch your tone.”

“How could that possibly be the case? I was just…”

“Just what?”

“Mr. Taekyung. If you could just listen to me for a moment…”

“Mr. Taekyung? I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while. How old is our Changsoo?”

“…I’m twenty-five.”

“Oh, my. What a cheeky little shit. You’re only twenty-five, and you’ve been acting so disrespectfully toward your elders?”

“…”

“What happened to your tongue? You kept spitting out casual speech, so I thought you were ninety-five. Why does your face look so weathered? You didn’t just register your birth late, did you?”

As I kept going, Im Changsoo’s face grew bright red with anger.

“Keep that expression under control. If you turn into a Hongik Ingan one more time, I’ll make you genuinely red.”¹

“I’m… sorry.”

After barely managing to compose his expression, he cautiously opened his mouth.

“Um, may I ask you one thing?”

“Ask.”

“Are you really a C-rank Hunter…?”

“Yeah. I am.”

Im Changsoo looked at me and the sprawled-out Minotaur corpses in turn, his eyes filled with disbelief.

“What? Why?”

“If you’d rather not reveal it, you don’t have to tell me.”

“Just think whatever you want.”

“Oh, no. That’s not what I meant.”

He said it wasn’t, but there was no doubt he was letting his imagination run wild.

He had thought I was an ordinary C-rank Hunter, yet I had just beaten eight B-rank monsters in a head-on fight.

That’s right. Imagine away.

There was nothing to gain from antagonizing Sangdong Guild for no reason. Since they were bowing their heads on their own, I was simply grateful.

“So, perhaps you’re laundering your identity—no, you aren’t. You wouldn’t be. Right.”

Im Changsoo had been about to spout some nonsense, but he glanced sideways at my spear and immediately changed the subject.

This guy’s reactions were kind of fun.

“So?”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t ‘pardon’ me. You have to pay me. Four billion.”

To be honest, I was a little worried that he might tell me to go to hell.

Four billion won wasn’t some random dog’s name. It was a huge sum of money that ordinary people could hardly hope to lay their hands on even after working their entire lives.

But Im Changsoo was different.

“Ah, of course I’ll pay you.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Yes. I keep my promises.”

His answer was so straightforward that it was almost suspicious.

No matter how much money a B-rank Hunter made, there was such a thing as an average income. Yet Im Changsoo talked about billions of won as casually as if it were a thousand-won bill in his pocket.

“You’re not going to disappear after saying that, are you? If you act like none of this matters because there’s no contract, I’ll be very disappointed.”

I casually stroked my spear, and he flinched violently.

“Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I can easily afford that.”

“Hmm. You must make pretty good money. Sangdong Guild treats you well?”

“No. There’s nothing particularly different about my treatment.”

“Of course there isn’t. It’s not like you’re the Guild Master’s son or something. Why would they treat you especially well?”

“…”

“…?”

“…”

Something about the atmosphere felt strange.

I thought about it carefully before asking:

“What’s your father’s name?”

“Im Chunsu.”

“What’s the Sangdong Guild Master’s name?”

“Im Chunsu.”

What a strange coincidence. Im Changsoo’s father and the Sangdong Guild Master had the same name.

Then again, the world was a big place, and there were plenty of people with the same name.

“Hey, I’m only asking just in case, so forgive me for prying…but what does your father do for a living?”

“He’s a Hunter.”

“Just a Hunter?”

“He runs a Guild.”

“Oh, I see.”

This bastard was the Sangdong Guild Master’s son.

A brief silence passed, and in that short interval, I realized what had seemed so familiar about Im Changsoo.

“Are you that guy?”

“A dog?”

“No, I’ve heard about you before.”

It was a story I had heard around this time the year before last and let pass in one ear and out the other.

The Sangdong Guild Master’s only late-born son had awakened as a B-rank Hunter and secured a position in his father’s Guild. But he was such a womanizer that he was apparently a constant headache.

And the nickname he had earned was…

“Horndog. Right?”

Im Changsoo answered by lowering his head.

It was an embarrassing nickname to hear in front of other people, to be sure.

But since I had to collect four billion won, I comforted him in a warm voice.

“It’s okay, man. Guys can be like that sometimes. I used to dream of living like you, too.”

But reality was cold, and that dream seeped into a 100-terabyte USB drive.

Jinho hyung, a renowned authority in the world of adult videos, once borrowed my USB. When he returned, he had a hollow-eyed expression and left me with a one-line review.

This should be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Anyway.

Im Changsoo lifted his head at my warm consolation.

“Really?”

Of course not.

Did I look like the kind of guy who hit on just any woman? I was the sunflower of this era, gazing at only one person in the entire world—Miss Song…

Wait a second.

This bastard had hit on Miss Song earlier.

“You little shit.”

“Gasp!”

Im Changsoo, frightened before I had even done anything, reflexively placed his hand on his sword hilt.

Shing. Clack.

But the blade had barely made it halfway out before it was forced back into its sheath.

I had moved like lightning, pressing down on his sword hilt while kicking his legs out from under him.

Crash!

When I pressed down on the neck of the man who had lost his balance and fallen, his face went white.

“Ghk! Cough!”

“You little bastard. Where do you get off pulling that thing on me?”

Getting beaten by Jin Mukyung had certainly paid off.

In the past, I wouldn’t have been able to subdue a B-rank Hunter with such a simple, fluid movement. Im Changsoo was probably surprised, but I was even more surprised.

“This is a Gate, you idiot. You already said that yourself. Did you forget so soon?”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

I wanted to beat him senseless, but since it had only been an attempt, I decided to let him off.

It absolutely wasn’t because I hadn’t received the four billion yet.

“Damages.”

“Ghk. What?”

“You drew your sword. Don’t you know that’s attempted murder? And you owe me and Miss Song—no, all our Guild members—a sincere apology.”

“What are you talking about?”

Im Changsoo looked around at the others with an aggrieved expression, but no one came to his aid.

His team members only shrank back whenever my eyes landed on them. Meanwhile, our Guild members, who had been watching the spectacle, took it one step further.

“Drawing a sword on a member of an allied Guild. Well, I never.”

Butler Kim clicked his tongue as if he felt sorry for him.

“You’re only doing this because you don’t want to pay, aren’t you? My goodness, Changsoo, that’s so low. Isn’t it, Uncle?”

“Hmm? Uh-huh. What a nasty young man!”

That was Miss Song and Im Kkeokjeong’s lowlife-and-nasty-man combo.

And then Team Leader Choi delivered the final blow.

“Now, would everyone take a look at my helmet? This product is a custom-made helmet produced by Xyliton, a famous Finnish equipment manufacturer. It has all sorts of functions, but most importantly, it has been enchanted with a video-recording spell…”

Im Changsoo stared at everyone with his mouth hanging open, betrayed and utterly dumbfounded. Then he let out a long sigh.

“I’ll do it.”

“What did you say?”

“I said I’ll do everything you tell me to!”

That was the answer I had been waiting for.

I happily helped him back to his feet.

“Good choice, kid. We can discuss the damages slowly.”

“…This is driving me crazy. If my old man finds out, I’m dead.”

“Would you rather die here?”

“You don’t want the four billion?”

“You’ve got some nerve.”

Im Changsoo let out another deep sigh before opening his mouth.

“May I ask one question?”

“One hundred million per question.”

“…”

“I’m kidding. Go ahead.”

“What do you really do?”

Was he really that curious?

I let out a quiet laugh and answered him.

“Someone with two jobs.”

A Hunter and a Murim martial artist.

The only two-job combination in the world.