Black Snake Clan... Annihilated!

The Black Snake Clan... annihilated!

Yoon Yoon-joo, the SS-class Assassin of the Taebak Guild—one of the nation's foremost major guilds.

She had once been the pride of the Taebak Guild. Everyone sang her praises and looked up to her. But that was then.

Now her name was stained with the guild's worst disgrace: filthy traitor, hideous murderer. The reason wasn't simply that she had left the Taebak Guild without permission.

Yoon Yoon-joo was greedy. Her hunger was a bottomless pit that no amount of wealth could ever fill.

Others envied the generous support and staggering sponsorship a major guild provided, but she believed the treatment she received was far beneath what her abilities deserved.

The same went for conquering the Tower. She had risked her life on those ascents, yet after taxes, commissions, profit-sharing with the guild, and every other deduction, the money left over was little more than pocket change compared to the value of her life.

Of course, calling it pocket change was only in her mind. To anyone else, it was a fortune they could never dream of earning in a lifetime no matter how hard they worked.

What mattered was how she felt.

And she felt that way because of her spending habits—habits so extravagant that even the phrase "spending money like water" felt insufficient.

She shopped for luxury goods every day, tossed cash around host bars until she received VVVIP treatment, and when that wasn't enough, she turned to gambling.

The hundreds of billions that had once filled her accounts vanished in the blink of an eye. When she finally came to her senses, only debt remained. Yet she still refused to wake up.

No—instead, she blamed the world. Why was this all the treatment she received? Why couldn't she earn money in proportion to her efforts?

It was around that time that the former representative of the Black Snake Clan, having learned of her situation, secretly reached out.

She fell for the temptation. The moment she tasted money on a scale incomparable to what the guild had given her, she fell completely into villainy.

She felt no hesitation toward illegal businesses. In their eyes, children were nothing but currency, and the enterprise guaranteed profits worthy of her skills.

In fact, she even felt a sense of accomplishment.

Then some strange mutt of a bastard showed up and destroyed her comfortable nest. And now he stood blocking her path.

Was this even acceptable?

Yoon Yoon-joo's fingers tore through the air as if playing a string instrument. Ahn Humin's pupils narrowed slightly.

In that instant—

Countless silver threads erupted in every direction around Ahn Humin. Walls, ceiling, floor, pillars—everything the threads touched collapsed with deafening roars.

Ahn Humin deflected the invisible slashes with his sword and quickly repositioned. He was trying to close the distance to her while dodging.

His movements were lightning-fast. Most martial-type awakeners wouldn't even be able to track him with their eyes.

But—

He suddenly twisted sideways. A thread sliced through the spot where he had just been, splitting the concrete floor cleanly in two.

It was as if someone had taken an exquisitely sharp chef's knife and sliced through soft tofu.

Ahn Humin's gaze locked onto Yoon Yoon-joo. She was still sizing him up, a cold smirk playing on her lips.

She still had plenty of leeway.

This is what an SS-class hunter looks like…

He had already faced S-class opponents twice before. During the Devils Clan incident, Goblius had stepped in, and Lee Dong-hoon had only been level 15—barely worthy of the title despite being S-class.

Level 15 was still strong, of course, but it fell short of a true S-class battle.

Yoon Yoon-joo was different.

Her last recorded level with the Taebak Guild five years ago had been 54. It was safe to assume she had gained at least another twenty levels by now.

Even among SS-class hunters, not all were equal. She had been one of the top three in Korea.

The Taebak Guild's expectations of her had been that high—and so was their disappointment and shock when she betrayed them.

I remember the news being flooded with articles about her back then. Of course, her subsequent activities hadn't been properly revealed, so I hadn't known she had joined the Black Snake Clan.

Yeah. Go ahead.

The attack patterns Slim had analyzed flowed directly into my mind.

Suddenly, I could see faint lines of light tracing through the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠air around me. They weren't real threads—they were Slim's predictive overlays showing the most likely trajectories of Yoon Yoon-joo's next attacks.

The very next moment—

The floor, walls, and ceiling exploded along nearly the exact lines Slim had predicted.

Fortunately, Ahn Humin had reacted in advance and avoided major injury, but a chill still ran down his spine.

Definitely... an annoying ability. Now I understood why she had been called the Assassin Berserker during her time with the White Dragon Guild.

Her traits and weapons were famous enough that anyone who mattered already knew them.

Her primary weapon was silver thread.

Silver thread was a standard weapon for the Assassin class, but it was notoriously difficult to master. Yoon Yoon-joo possessed a natural talent that let her wield it like an extension of her own limbs without any skills.

Moreover, one of her traits amplified the silver thread's power even further.

As expected of an SS-class hunter, she possessed two traits. One was Hidden Weapon Mastery, and the other was Phantom Silver Art.

Hidden Weapon Mastery allowed her to render one equipped weapon completely invisible.

For assassins who primarily used twin daggers, the trait was somewhat mediocre since it only worked on a single blade. But for Yoon Yoon-joo, who fought with a single strand of silver thread, it was the ultimate ability. There were no restrictions on size or length.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Thanks to that one trait alone, she could stand at the very front line and slaughter monsters more effectively than most tankers.

Her weapon and trait actually made her stronger when fighting alone than when surrounded by allies.

…….

Yoon Yoon-joo grew irritated when Ahn Humin ignored her provocation without so much as a reply.

If he had simply been overwhelmed by her attacks and unable to respond, she would have toyed with him, mocking him the entire time before killing him.

But that wasn't the case.

The bastard was deliberately ignoring her with clear intent. He wasn't even distracted by defending against her attacks.

In fact…

His reaction speed is getting faster and faster…!

At first, he had barely been able to react and block her strikes.

Then, during the subsequent barrage, he only defended against attacks aimed at vital points while letting the rest slice into his body.

It was only natural that he was covered in wounds.

The problem was that the number of new wounds was decreasing at a terrifying rate as time passed.

Impossible! He's already adapted to my invisible silver threads in this short amount of time?!

But it wasn't her imagination. At some point, no new wounds appeared at all, and the number of times he blocked with his sword had been reduced to the absolute minimum.

And then—

He dodged. Without blocking. The difference between dodging while defending and dodging without defending was like heaven and earth.

Dodging without blocking meant he had completely grasped her attack patterns.

In just three minutes since the fight began…

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. All that remained was to wait obediently for death.

This was her strongest one-versus-one combat skill.

Of course, she hadn't spoken the activation phrase. The reason the skill activated anyway was her second trait—Phantom Silver Art.

Phantom Silver Art allowed her to trigger skills through thought alone, without any verbal command.

It was the favorite trait of assassins, for whom secrecy was life. Thanks to it, she could attack opponents without ever revealing her skills.

But she didn't know.

That her opponent also possessed something that wasn't a skill, yet was far more powerful than any skill.

Amid the powerless falling fragments of thread, Ahn Humin stared at Yoon Yoon-joo with piercing eyes and shouted.

With a furious shriek, invisible threads shot forward.

The deflected thread's momentum was so great that it carved through parked cars, pillars, and walls in the underground parking lot as it flew past, detonating with explosive noise.

But Ahn Humin wasn't aware of any of that.

He had entered mu-a-ji-gyeong—the state of no-self that came with the first stance of Imperial Swordsmanship: Dawn.

Meanwhile, in the lobby—

The building shook violently.

When the underground parking lot finally gave way and began to collapse, Goblius scooped up Kwon Si-young from the first-floor lobby and swiftly carried her outside.

At the same time, the central building came crashing down.

Kwon Si-young cried out in terror as she watched the building collapse. Goblius calmed her.

As if to prove his words, two figures burst out from the rubble.

Ahn Humin, covered in dust, looked at Yoon Yoon-joo—who was also coated in dirt—and curled his lips into a smirk.

Ahn Humin had also lost a considerable amount of blood from her attacks in the beginning. By now his vision should be blurring and his senses should be dulled.

I'll turn you into minced meat in one strike!

There was no reason to hold back anymore. Yoon Yoon-joo unleashed her strongest skill—one she had almost never used because she had never needed to.

At that exact moment—

Slim!

BOOM!

A streak of silver thread flying like a ray of light collided with Ahn Humin, who was also moving like a ray of light.

In that instant, Slim finished its calculations and twisted its master's body by roughly one centimeter.

As a result, the thread that had been aimed precisely at his forehead only grazed his right sideburn before shooting past.

Schlick.

Almost simultaneously, Ahn Humin slipped behind Yoon Yoon-joo and stopped.

A thin red line appeared across her neck.

Yoon Yoon-joo touched her neck, then stared at the blood covering her palm. Her eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck them.

Thud. Thump…

Only after her severed head slid to the floor with a wet sound did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her body finally register its death and collapse forward.

The moment one person's defeat and another's victory were decided—

EX-class, expelled from the guild without knowing he was EX-class.