Chapter 17
Squirming.
The dagger twitched. Slowly, like an earthworm.
“Seo Hunter, over here for a sec!”
Choi Kangshik called out, and Seo Boseok approached. His expression twisted strangely right after.
“This is……”
“Do you know what it is?”
“Yes.”
Of course he does.
‘Wonseok, you.’
Seo Boseok picked up the blood thread.
He laid the red strand across his palm.
It felt like it was guiding him somewhere—like a path of blood.
Meanwhile, in the Library of Stars and Moon.
“I’ll go.”
Finally.
The burly man with a long scar slashed across his face strode forward boldly.
“How do I do it?”
He spat the words at Shylock.
《Oh! A new intelligent being takes interest!》
“Cut the crap.”
《Haha, such an impatient one. Very well. I, Shylock the Ruler, shall teach you how to accumulate achievements.》
Shylock snapped his fingers again.
Two books soared in like seagulls, then unfurled with a rustling shrrk.
《Every book here holds the legend of a single hero—a heroic saga.》
“……!”
Auspicious light poured from every page.
《Here, you can indirectly experience fragments of those heroic sagas! A picture’s worth a thousand words—see for yourself!》
Shylock flung his arms wide.
Whoosh.
Beams of light streamed from the books to the floor. At the same moment, a gust scattered their hair.
Woof! Woof woof!
A pack of kobolds materialized.
The hunter who stepped up staggered back, then muttered in confusion.
“……Kobolds…… right?”
They were shrouded in hazy glows, their forms translucent. Kobold ghosts, maybe.
Shylock kindly cleared up the doubt.
《What shining intellect! These are the non-intelligent beings from heroic tales scaled to your strength! Your achievement is to subjugate them!》
“That’s it?”
《As expected of an intelligent being.》
Shylock smirked. His excessive courtesy grated on these Homo sapiens like sand in the gears.
《Designate one from your party—the one who racks up more achievements in the time limit tips the ‘Scale of Righteousness’!》
Eyes naturally drifted to the scale. And the headless corpse beneath it.
“Got it.”
That was all the hunter said.
‘Quick on the uptake.’
No visible reaction to the body, either.
“Indeed……”
While I let out a low groan.
“Maknae, come out here.”
The hunter called without turning, singling out one specific person. The short hunter jolted.
“M-me, hyungnim?”
“Yeah, you.”
“……I……”
A few nearby shoved the lone hunter forward.
“Eldest hyung says go. What’re you waiting for?”
“N-no! Why me, one of your own……!”
Right on cue.
They definitely knew each other.
‘If my guess is right.’
They were the violent thugs who mugged hunters inside Abyss Gates.
I dredged up the article on the COEX Gate subjugation from my memories.
Those thugs were part of the original COEX Gate crew.
Even with variable entrants like us, their lineup wouldn’t change. My hunch was spot on.
“Ugh, aaak! No, I hate it!”
“Maknae, it’s fine. Come on, yeah?”
Pushed from behind, the short hunter ended up shoulder-to-shoulder with the scarred man.
《Excellent intellects. The stage is set! Before we begin—any questions?》
“Can I hurt a fellow participant?”
“Hyungnim!”
Shylock tittered.
《Tempting…… but alas, this is a sanctuary of knowledge! Such barbarism violates the rules!》
“Got it.”
The scarred man cracked his knuckles.
The short hunter finally snapped, his face twisting viciously.
“Hey, you fucking prick! Plenty of people here—why pick me right off?! You think I’m fucking……”
Crack.
《Let’s begin!》
05:00:00
The scarred man spared his underling not a glance. He shot forward like lightning, smashing the phantom kobolds.
Before the short hunter could even react, their numbers visibly thinned. He spat curses and stomped in frustration.
Jeong Hamin spectated the bickering thugs. He let out an incredulous chuckle.
“Infighting, huh. Infighting.”
“…….”
Even bad guys clicked when it counted.
I clocked it right away.
These thugs planned to cull their own ranks—from the bottom up.
“If they pointed at outsiders, the rest would band together against them. So they drag out an easy mark from their own crew.”
“Whoa…… hunters, man.”
Jeong Hamin, full of admiration, glanced my way.
“Seo Hunter, you saw that coming?”
“Yes.”
“How??”
“HunterNet post yesterday. Guy with that scar lost a friend.”
“Ah.”
Easy to fool.
00:00:00
《Time over!》
It was over.
“Haa, haa……”
No twists.
The scarred man had crushed his subordinate in kills. The short hunter collapsed, wailing.
“N-no……”
《We shall weigh achievements on the ‘Scale of Righteousness’!》
No surprise there. The pan on the scarred man’s side slammed down with a thud. He’d won.
《Victory!》
“Nooooo!”
《Loser, please exit!》
The short hunter thrashed and sobbed in defiance.
Futile.
Crunch!
The loser rammed his own blade through his throat.
Shylock beamed at the scarred man.
《Continue?》
“If I stack achievements, does that make me the top contributor to clearing this gate?”
《If it gets cleared!》
Perfect.
That was the clue I wanted.
‘He singled out “clear” separately.’
Meaning the Scale of Righteousness was distinct from clearing the gate.
‘Got it.’
As I brightened, the hunter—catching his breath—wiped the fresh blood from his blade.
“Right away.”
《Splendid! Such a fiery intellect!》
He was having the time of his life.
“N-no, not me!”
The same selection method forced another sacrifice from the pack.
The outcome was identical.
《Loser, please exit!》
“Uwaa! Uwaaaaa!”
Stab!
“Next.”
《Right away!》
“Hyungnim! Bro! Wasn’t it just that one guy?!”
“…….”
《Start!》
Slash!
Screams.
Hunting.
Scale.
Bursts.
By the fourth repetition.
Hunters started passing out left and right.
Made sense.
The floor was a sea of blood.
Before the irresistible
rules,
humans danced to Shylock’s tune.
“Hiya.”
Jeong Hamin whispered to me.
“Seo Hunter, isn’t this the same as our plan?”
“…….”
I didn’t deny it.
We were just spectating their infighting.
But I knew their true colors.
I remembered. They were so vile, even a battle-hardened reporter couldn’t hold back vomit.
“Seo Hunter’s a whole different breed.”
“…….”
“Thought you’d be like Seo Boseok Hunter, brimming with justice.”
“Me?”
I stated my banner for this life.
“I can’t afford to be noble.”
Not against these guys, anyway—that’d be ridiculous.
《Your fourth achievement already!》
The tension crested.
Time for us to kick things off.
‘Other hunters’ll get called out soon.’
Cut the momentum first.
I shifted my blood-soaked gaze sideways. Our eyes clashed in midair.
Han Biyeol’s pupils quivered.
Since entering the gate, Han Biyeol hadn’t had a moment’s peace. He was visibly wasting away in real time.
All because of Seo Wonseok.
‘……This bastard’s the real deal.’
Worst case.
Han Biyeol felt like he was wearing a bomb collar—tormented by death’s shadow awake or asleep.
‘Awakening ability has restrictions…… gotta be some precondition.’
Y-yeah.
Right.
Come to think of it……
Every goblin with its head exploded had stabbed this pale wreck once.
‘The <Instant Death> skill only triggers on those who’ve harmed him!’
Han Biyeol finally felt two days’ worth of heartburn dissolve. Just don’t cross paths.
Today was bad luck running into him at COEX—lay low for a while, and he’d be fine.
With his rational assessment done, Han Biyeol resolved.
‘Don’t poke the bear.’
Even in his past life, he’d habitually nitpicked just a bit.
Did that set him off?
“I’d like Han Hunter to step up.”
“……What?”
Han Biyeol blinked blankly.
“I’ve more or less grasped this gate’s rules.”
“…….”
Seo Wonseok ignored Han Biyeol’s opinion and summed up the gate’s mechanics.
One: No physically attacking the Ruler Shylock. Do it, and you rack up zero achievements—then the Scale of Righteousness judges you to self-destruct.
Two: Victory hinges on more beast kills within the time limit. The metric? ‘Achievements.’
“My take: achievements here mean EXP.”
If that hypothesis held, we had a shot.
Meant we could take down the Ruler.
“……!!”
Han Biyeol and Jeong Hamin froze, the idea too wild to fathom.