Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Purging the Scavengers
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“Haa~ I ate well and gratefully, but dealing with the aftermath is such a pain.”
Jeong Min-su sat deep in thought, having turned the hotel lobby into something like a throne room, surrounded by fellow Demons under the Slaughter King and a bunch of Scavengers.
Going from B-rank to an S-rank Demon in an instant had been great, and he’d taken out the scouts too. But the Blue Dragon Guild bastards weren’t backing down one bit—they were assembling a full subjugation force.
Frankly, it was annoying him to no end.
“When are those fuckers showing up?”
“In four days, sir.”
“Damn it, they’re coming fast. Those sons of bitches…”
“What’s the plan?”
“Hold on. I’m thinking. Haa~”
For a normal guild, he could just run off or dip out to another country for a while and lay low until things quieted down.
But the problem was that his opponents were the Blue Dragon Guild, notorious for fighting to the death.
Once those guys were on your tail, there weren’t many places in the world to hide.
“Even if I did run, you think the locals there would just let an S-rank Demon roam free? Sigh~”
They were categorized as Demons, but their true designation was minions of the Slaughter King constellation.
The existence of an S-rank Demon was provocative enough to rile up every nation on Earth, so stepping into the territory of another evil-aligned constellation meant the locals there wouldn’t sit idly by.
The Slaughter King wasn’t the only one—other evil constellations were seen as psychopaths or lunatics by human standards, with personalities just as twisted, and their underlings were no different.
“Let’s see… Frozen Death up north, the Qin Emperor to the west, the Japanese to the east—or maybe the Sixty-Six Heavenly Demons. Past that, across the Pacific, there’s Eternal Wrath. No matter where I look, the Blue Dragon Guild seems like the best bet.”
“Even without that, holding our ground here is way better.”
If he went somewhere else, he’d face turf wars, dirty looks, and backlash from both sides for abandoning his constellation and invading another’s turf.
Plus, as long as he didn’t defy the constellation’s will here, he could live like a king.
Plunder to his heart’s content, hoard money and treasures, booze and women whenever he wanted. Right now, he’d ditch this damn meeting in a heartbeat and go screw the new girl he’d bought from a Scavenger merchant yesterday—that was his real mood.
“Ah~ I should’ve just stayed B-rank. Damn it!”
“Anyway, word from the info broker in Seoul says they’ve put together a subjugation force against you, Brother Min-su: ten A-rank Awakeners and one S-rank, with the rest from the Blue Dragon Guild and five allied guilds. Total size is over a thousand easy, counting Staff, other Awakeners, and mercenaries. They’re bringing magi-stone engine tanks, helicopters, even artillery support from Seoul—they’re throwing everything at us.”
It was a massive subjugation force driven by the Blue Dragon Guild’s grudge, the threat of an S-rank Demon, and the fear of it growing even stronger.
The fact that they were mobilizing every military asset available made it no different from an all-out war.
“Ugh~ They’re flipping out even more because they know we can’t run.”
“But compared to heading into another constellation’s turf and fighting their Demons and monsters, this is a million times better. And if there was no chance of winning or no fun in it, you wouldn’t have set this up, right?”
“You punks, catching on quick. Heh heh heh!”
“We’ve been in this game for more than a day or two, haven’t we, boys?”
“Puhahaha.”
“Heh heh.”
Jeong Min-su and his underlings exchanged rotten grins, while the other Scavengers and Demons in the meeting snickered.
Scavengers and Demons—they were all rotten to the core in this line of work, so they knew each other inside out.
In other words, Jeong Min-su had some trump card that meant he didn’t need to fear or dread the Blue Dragon Guild at all. And these hyena-like Scavengers, who’d survived by reading the room, had already sniffed it out.
“Heh heh heh, you bastards~ Good thing you’re not dumb.”
The grumbling from moments ago was gone. Jeong Min-su’s face turned cold and composed.
He rose from his jade throne, weapon in hand, and swept his gaze over the Scavengers.
Their eyes gleamed with raw desire—no shred of loyalty in sight.
But in this world, that was actually more reliable.
Things like trust, loyalty, brotherhood? Those were just stepping stones or tools to screw someone over.
“Yeah, they’re after me anyway, and you lot’ll just grab whatever benefits you can while I’m tangling with them. Some’ll snatch loot worth money, others’ll snag some hot Blue Dragon Guild women—Staff or guild members—to keep as sex slaves. Some’ll offer sacrifices to the Slaughter King for power, and then there’s the utterly insane ones dreaming up shit beyond imagination.”
It sounded like a joke, but not quite. The gathered Scavengers tensed up as Jeong Min-su spoke.
Sure, backstabbing each other at every chance was routine—they even bragged about it—but him saying it outright now…?
“…Gurk!”
One Scavenger sensed something off and bolted for the exit, but an arrow from Jeong Min-su’s crossbow pinned his hand, stopping him cold.
Jeong Min-su blew the smoke off his crossbow like a revolver in a Western and kept talking.
“Hey, hey, I wasn’t done. At least wait for ‘ready~ set~ go!’ before you start, huh? So anyway, if you’re gonna get backstabbed, better do it first. No point fighting with untrustworthy trash when you can fight with ones you can trust.”
Swoosh…
At his words, gates like dungeon entrances ripped open to his left and right. Demons under the Slaughter King poured out.
Flesh Slicers and Starving Flesh Hounds—boss-grade monsters from E-rank dungeons—emerged in droves like regular soldiers.
Then came the C-rank dungeon boss Blood Extractor and the B-rank Giant Butcher, sauntering out to flank him like loyal pets.
“I offered those scouts to the Slaughter King, and my rank shot up instantly, letting me hire them with points naturally. A-rank demons are too pricey for a bunch, though. Anyway, these guys stick to the contract once hired, so no betrayal worries. Downside is I gotta keep feeding them, though. Heh heh heh!”
[Grrrrrr!]
[Blood… I want blood.]
[They’re all small fry. I want giants.]
The demons pouring from the portals were friendly only to Jeong Min-su. Even fellow Slaughter King apostles got treated as food if their rank was low, so no one else in the room could relax—except the summoner.
Let your guard down even a little, and they’d pounce to fill their bellies.
“But these guys always work for prepayment, you know? Got it? Dinner time, boys.”
At Jeong Min-su’s signal, the demons charged the surrounding Scavengers in unison.
The quick ones who sensed it first had already bolted for the hotel doors and outside, but Living Traps buried underground sprang up and ensnared the escapees.
“T-Traps? That fucker Jeong Min-su!”
“Damn it! When did he set these up? Aaaagh!”
“Trap detection! You bastard! Becoming S-rank just means more goddamn traps? He turned it into a minefield!”
“Crazy fucker? This many traps?”
“Aaaaagh!”
“Kaaaagh!”
“Kill them!”
Boom!
Those who spotted the trap zone with skills froze, but screams and combat noises kept coming from behind.
No time to escape meant they’d end up as demon chow—talk about a dilemma.
Inside the hotel, Jeong Min-su watched the demons devour Scavengers while picking off any charging at him with his crossbow.
“Oho? Didn’t know about this.”
[Lv.79 41.33%]
[Lv.79 41.58%]
[Lv.79 41.69%]
[…]
“Who knew I’d get EXP just from them eating without me lifting a finger.”
Jeong Min-su alternated between watching the demons tear into live Scavengers and the status windows popping up, grinning in satisfaction.
Of course, he couldn’t get cocky—some of the remaining Scavengers in here could still hurt him.
“I’ll offer you up and hit S-rank myself! Gah! Lucky bastard!”
“In this game, luck is skill!”
“Die! Die!”
The Slaughter King’s domain wasn’t limited to this spot in Gae-seong, so C- and B-rank Scavengers with pull from up in Manchuria, Pyongyang, and beyond had mixed in.
They’d come either to leech off his new S-rank status or to claim his head, so he couldn’t let his guard down. But home turf advantage and preemptive summoned beast strikes gave him the edge.
“Damn it! Move! Move, you dogshit—gurgh!”
“You move!”
‘This is a total cakewalk.’
[Grrr… Thanks for coming to us. Kahahaha!]
[Tickles. Like bugs.]
Especially with the massive Giant Butcher and Blood Extractor covering his flanks and rear, Jeong Min-su just had to aim and fire his crossbow leisurely.
And among Scavengers, “coordination” and “teamwork” were as good as nonexistent. In the chaos, the wounded never recovered—they fought solo, and when push came to shove, even killed each other in pandemonium.
[Grrrk!]
[Yap yap!]
[Take the meat after draining blood and guts. Don’t forget the marrow in the bones. Nom nom.]
[The brain’s the delicacy. Heh heh heh…]
A short time later, the outcome was obvious.
The hotel lobby was filled with Scavenger and demon corpses and blood. Jeong Min-su stood tall amid the grotesque scene, enjoying it gleefully.
“Hoo, hahahahahaha! Nice. Nice. Perfect! Level up! New trait unlocked! Fat stack of points too! SS-rank’s just around the corner?”
“But still, wasn’t this a bit much?”
“Oh? You survived?”
As Jeong Min-su basked in his gains, his chatty second-in-command from earlier popped up beside him.
Emerging from a secret passage under the jade throne, he brushed dust off his clothes, scowled at the corpse-strewn demons chowing down, and grumbled.
“Who the hell renovated this place? Anyway, if word gets out, no one’ll come here. How’re you gonna handle the fallout?”
“Think Scavengers give a shit? Just say some traitor started it and I defended myself. That’s the plan from the start, right? Lv.79 and Lv.80 are worlds apart.”
“Fair point.”
From the beginning, gathering here for contingencies and fights had been Jeong Min-su’s scheme to level up.
As he’d said, even-numbered tens granted skill points, so Lv.79 to Lv.80 meant one extra skill—and a top-class one rivaled high-end gear. That’s why he’d orchestrated this.
“Head’s gonna explode thinking about cleanup. Haa~ Moving this mess’ll be a chore.”
“Skip it and you miss out on EXP too.”
“Got it. I’ll do it.”
“Anyway, I’m off to crush those Blue Dragon Guild punks. When I get back, I’ll be an SS-rank Demon, so look forward to it. Keh heh heh! Hahaha!”
With that, Jeong Min-su left his second-in-command and departed the hotel.
The demons and monsters that had been feasting on corpses formed ranks behind him like an army.
He headed south of Gae-seong—packed with dungeons and forests—to meet the Blue Dragon Guild.
It was familiar home turf, where a flesh-hunting specialist’s advantages would shine, so he’d chosen it as the battlefield.
‘Four days? Plenty of time to prep and smash them. Heh heh heh.’
He’d played whiny to fool the other Scavengers, but he was a veteran of over a decade in the game, with big plunders and wars under his belt.
Leading a demon army that fought like extensions of himself, plus intel on the Blue Dragon Guild—his hunt plan was already mapped out in his head.
Smiling at the thought of gaining more power through the slaughter and rounding up slaves.