Settling the Score
It was early dawn.
I was already getting ready to go out.
Aside from a single dinner with my teammates, I had spent all my time cooped up inside the Association headquarters.
This was my first real outing in a very long time.
"Hmm."
A hoodie and jeans.
Did I look too scruffy?
Well, it's not like I need to dress up to catch a scammer, I thought. Let's just go.
"Oh, right."
It would probably be best to cover my face.
I pulled a black baseball cap low over my eyes and stepped outside.
"Please, get in," Do Sangjin said, holding the car door open for me.
I didn't know much about cars, but even I could tell it was a luxury model.
Did the Association provide this too?
"We are departing now."
The car glided forward silently.
Our destination was the outskirts of Seoul.
When we arrived, the place looked like a perfectly ordinary office building.
"Is it really here?" I asked.
"Yes, Hunter-nim. This is the place."
I scratched my head, looking up at the building.
"Do you truly intend to go inside with me?" Do Sangjin asked.
"Yes."
"..."
"Don't worry. I can protect myself," I said with a grin.
Do Sangjin nodded.
It wasn't an empty boast.
No matter how notorious these rental scammers were, they were still just ordinary humans.
Step. Step. Step.
It was a five-story building with no elevator.
It had looked normal from the outside, but the interior was gloomy and depressing.
There wasn't even a hint of life.
When we reached the fifth floor, I saw a massive pile of cigarette butts discarded near the stairwell door.
"*Sob, hic...*"
"Please... not that..."
A faint weeping sound drifted through the door.
I didn't know exactly what was happening, but they were definitely up to no good.
"Please wait behind me," Do Sangjin said.
"Got it."
I replied as meekly as a lamb and stood behind him just as he asked.
Click.
The heavy sound of the doorknob turning echoed.
Creeeeak.
The door swung open.
And inside...
"I can't do this anymore!"
Someone was wailing and begging on the floor.
Their face was a bloody mess, clearly having been beaten severely.
I didn't even need to ask to know what had happened.
"Who the hell are you guys?"
A man who had been about to throw another punch glared at the open door, his face twisting in irritation.
"We are from the Babel Tower Hunter Association," Do Sangjin replied in a dry, flat voice.
"What? Babel Tower? Association?"
"The Association acts to protect hunters..."
"Are these bastards crazy?"
The man let out a scoffing laugh and began walking toward us.
One step.
Two steps.
Do Sangjin watched his movements with calm precision.
And the moment the man took his third step...
"Hunter Lee," Do Sangjin said.
"Yes?"
"Do you feel threatened?"
At the businesslike question, I grinned widely.
"Yes. I'm absolutely terrified right now."
"Understood."
Do Sangjin nodded, and then—
Smack!
He threw a straight punch right into the man's face.
Thud! Crack! Bam!
Oof, his nose was definitely broken.
"Ack! What the—argh!"
I never knew the screams of a rental scammer could sound so sweet.
Seeing their boss getting thoroughly thrashed, the other thugs in the room ripped off their headsets and leaped up from their desks.
"B-Boss!!!"
"Who the hell is that guy?!"
They rushed straight at Do Sangjin.
Do Sangjin, who had been holding the fallen boss by the collar and beating him to a pulp, calmly let go.
Bam! Crack! Crunch!
He lightly dodged the punches thrown by the charging thugs and immediately countered with precise strikes of his own.
His movements are completely clean!
It was flawless. Almost textbook perfection.
I wondered if I would lose to him if we fought purely in hand-to-hand combat without skills.
"Incredible..." I muttered, unable to hide my awe.
Smack!
Thud!
Crack!
Bam!
After turning three or four grown men into bloody heaps, Do Sangjin brushed off his suit and turned back to me.
Then, in an incredibly polite tone, he said, "I have neutralized the suspicious individuals, Hunter Lee."
He had said he wouldn't "kill" them.
And indeed, he had only stopped short of killing them.
Noses, cheekbones, jaws, teeth, collarbones, and more—he had systematically broken them all.
"So, what do we do now?" I asked.
"Since they threatened the safety of an Awakened, they will receive the appropriate punishment under the law."
Well, to be fair, they hadn't even touched a hair on my head.
But hey, whatever works, right?
"Furthermore, if we hand over the evidence found here..."
It was at that moment.
Creeeak.
A worn-out door on one side of the wall opened.
"What was that about evidence?" a raspy voice asked.
A snickering laugh followed.
I turned my head to look.
"Where did these little bugs crawl in from...?"
A heavily scarred man with a messy beard walked out of the room.
Do Sangjin's expression stiffened, suggesting he hadn't known this scarred man was here either.
The scarred man slowly approached us.
Shlick.
Suddenly, a dagger materialized in his hand.
It had a serrated blade, and a mana crystal was embedded in the hilt.
My eyes narrowed.
That was no ordinary knife.
A Tower item...!
Which meant this scarred man was also an Awakened.
Whether he was an officially registered hunter or not was a different story.
"Mr. Sangjin, I'll take it from here," I said, stepping in front of him.
"Please take this man and step back."
I gestured toward the man who had been crying and begging on the floor just moments ago.
Once I saw Do Sangjin pull the victim up and retreat, I glanced around the room and shouted at the scarred man.
"Hey, it's not like you're fighting a monster. Isn't using a Tower item against a human cheating?"
The scarred man cackled at my words.
"If you know that, you'd better run away while you still can."
"..."
"Hehehe... Though you'll probably die before you even make it down a single flight of stairs!"
The scarred man lunged straight at me.
At the same time, his figure vanished.
An afterimage!
Did he have a movement speed skill?
With a buzzing sound like a mosquito, his afterimages flickered in and out of sight all around the room.
Ah.
Dealing with this kind of opponent was always a pain.
Of course, it wasn't like I had no options.
If I slit the throat of just one of the guys lying on the floor, Killing Time would activate instantly.
Then, I would be much faster than him.
But...
No matter how much of a piece of trash the guys on the floor were...
In the end, they were humans, not monsters.
Yes, humans.
These scumbags who sucked the lifeblood out of ordinary citizens—myself included—deserved to die.
But even "trash" like them had human rights.
Well, I wasn't entirely sure if "human rights" was the right term to use here.
Anyway.
Buzzzzz!
The mosquito-like sound grew louder and faster.
Now, even the afterimages were becoming difficult to track with the naked eye.
It would be nice if he shouted something cliché like, "I'll kill you!" to give away his position.
Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be that type of fighter.
If so...
I guess I have no choice but to use that method.
Tsk.
I pretended to panic, looking around wildly.
A faint snicker brushed past my ear, and then—
Stab!
I felt a sharp thrust against my flank.
"...!!!"
But that was it.
There was no agonizing pain in my side.
Not a single drop of blood spilled.
Instead...
Slither.
My shadow flowed down like a living thing.
Shadow Armor: First Attack Negated
Because the shadow was swallowing the blade, the scarred man's movements ground to a halt.
"W-What is this?!" he gasped, his afterimages vanishing as he was forced to stop.
At the same time, I muttered, "Wow, that actually worked."
I took the ballpoint pen I had secretly grabbed while pretending to look around and—
Stab!
I jammed it straight into his ear canal.
"ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Since I couldn't kill him, I settled for doing half the job.
Clatter.
The scarred man dropped his dagger and collapsed to the floor.
Blood poured from his ear as he rolled around, screaming in agony.
"Man, you're loud."
Thud!
I kicked him hard in the stomach and turned around.
"Mr. Sangjin."
"Yes, Hunter Lee."
"This counts as self-defense, right?"
"Yes, it does."
"Then we should call the police now, right?"
"Yes, I will make the call."
I kicked the scarred man's fallen dagger far away and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Whew, that was terrifying. Tell them to hurry up."
"Thank you for your cooperation."
It didn't take long for the police to arrive.
Honestly, there wasn't much for me to do.
Do Sangjin handled almost everything, from making the report to submitting the evidence.
I simply stood by and watched like a law-abiding citizen.
Perhaps because the Hunter Association was involved, the police searched the scammers' building with extreme thoroughness.
As a result...
"So, they were basically human traffickers too?" I asked.
They had uncovered a shocking new truth.
The scammers hadn't just run rental frauds.
They had also operated a loan shark business, saddling their victims with astronomical debts.
Worse yet...
Using that debt as leverage, they had forced their victims to enter the Babel Tower.
If the victims survived and returned, they were enslaved as tower climbers to pay off the debt.
And if they died? There would be no evidence left behind, so it was the perfect crime.
The crying man we had seen when we first walked in must have been one of those enslaved climbers.
They were truly vile bastards.
Damn it. I should have jammed another pen into his other ear.
Anyway.
It was unclear whether I would ever get my stolen deposit back, but at least the scammers were caught.
Besides, money wasn't really an issue for me anymore.
Resolving this rental fraud business made me feel much lighter.
"Thanks, Mr. Sangjin," I said.
Do Sangjin shook his head. "No, Hunter-nim. You were the one who—"
"Nonsense! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have even known these rats were hiding here."
I grabbed his hand firmly.
"I'll be relying on you in the future too."
"Of course, Hunter Lee."
"Well then..."
I grinned and stepped forward.
"Let's go get some food!"
After returning, Do Sangjin and I raided the buffet.
The Association cafeteria was strictly divided into sections for civil servants and hunters. Do Sangjin had initially refused, saying it would be inappropriate, but I insisted and dragged him in anyway.
"...If you eat this much, my cooking indeed wouldn't have been enough," Do Sangjin murmured, letting out a soft sigh as he watched me clear out the buffet.
"Well, it's just a side effect of the item, so it should go back to normal soon, right?" I replied.
This massive appetite was a side effect of my mana core activating, thanks to the Deep Sleep Socks.
Once my mana core stabilized, my food intake would return to normal.
Until then, I had no choice but to keep raiding buffets.
"Ah, I'm stuffed!"
After practically wiping out all the food in the cafeteria, we headed back to the First Section.
"Lee Taepyeong."
Someone called my name.
It was a voice I had never heard before.
I turned around.
"..."
"..."
Although he was in civilian clothes, the man staring at me exuded a distinct, military-like aura.
His face was unfamiliar.
We had definitely never met before.
Step. Step. Step.
The man walked slowly toward me.
He didn't look like a civil servant.
Was he a fellow hunter?
I silently watched him approach.
"Why did you reject it?" the man asked abruptly as he stopped in front of me.
"Excuse me?"
"I asked why you rejected the offer."
Huh?
What was he talking about?
Who was this guy, and why was he suddenly demanding answers?
As I stared at him with a bewildered expression, Do Sangjin whispered from behind me.
"Hunter Lee..."
"...That is Hunter Choi Muryeong."
Choi Muryeong?
South Korea's No. 1 Hunter?
That Choi Muryeong?