Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Purging the Human Hunters
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After Kang Hyun-su left,
Cecilia ordered her subordinates not to pursue the Dark Knight.
She was dying to uncover the identity of her liege, who held her life in his hands.
But there was no need to incur his wrath by digging too deep.
‘For now, just knowing his name is enough.’
Simply having the three characters of Kang Hyun-su’s name allowed her to deduce that he was a player from another dimension—specifically from a country called South Korea on Earth.
‘Now I’m one of the Dark Knight’s people.’
If the Goldroad Trading Company was the Dark Knight’s source of funds,
then the organization she led would become his intelligence network.
‘But what kind of skill lets him command so many powerful summons?’
Cecilia couldn’t help but wonder.
“Show your faces.”
Cecilia commanded the summons assigned to her command.
Clank!
The fully armored summons removed their helmets in unison.
“Gasp!”
Cecilia was stunned in that instant.
‘Those are...’
They were all familiar faces.
‘Named players and rankers from the Rokto Empire and its vassal states who were mobilized during the Mana Dragon Raid.’
They were the ones reported to have all perished.
‘To think they’ve become my liege’s summons.’
Reviving the dead as summons.
One wrong move, and he’d be mistaken for a demon king’s minion.
‘But it’s not like necromancy.’
They weren’t corpses—they were made of mana.
And there wasn’t a trace of demonic energy.
However.
‘That’s not the point.’
The existence of these summons, born from players who died fighting those who attacked the Dark Knight, would provide perfect justification.
The public was easily swayed by sensational rumors.
That was why, sometimes,
‘people were more deluded by lies than the truth.’
Cecilia was building an intelligence network spanning all of Atlantis.
She knew better than anyone the ripple effects of false information.
‘I have to keep the summons’ identities strictly hidden.’
They should never remove their helmets.
If their identities were at risk of exposure,
‘mass dismissal.’
Using this new skill she’d acquired,
she could prevent their true natures from being revealed.
‘I’ve gained tremendous power.’
A bright smile bloomed on Cecilia’s lips.
‘Mass Reverse Summon.’
At Cecilia’s words, the hundred summons turned into black smoke and seeped into her body.
‘This is just the tip of the iceberg.’
He had placed a hundred summons under her command.
But the number of named players and rankers who died in the Mana Dragon Raid exceeded three hundred.
‘And he wouldn’t have made summons only from the Mana Dragon Raid.’
Her liege, Kang Hyun-su, undoubtedly commanded far more.
That was why he’d so readily handed over command of a hundred summons.
‘It’s just borrowed power.’
These hundred summons were a force Kang Hyun-su could reclaim anytime he wished.
But.
‘If I prove myself, he might lend me even more.’
Then.
‘I can fulfill my desires that much faster.’
Grit!
Cecilia ground her teeth.
Even as direct imperial blood, she’d received nothing because she was a bastard child.
She had seized control of the Shadow Guard using her imperial blood as a weapon, but
she thought it would take far too long to achieve her desires that way.
‘But not anymore.’
She had acquired vast wealth, military might,
and a way to subjugate high-level players.
On top of that, she’d learned that Emperor Rodius I would die in three years.
With this much?
‘I’ll eliminate the crown prince and his spawn in three years and seize the throne.’
It would be more than enough to fuel her desire for revenge.
* * *
Having recruited Ivan and Cecilia and issued a warning to Rokto Empire’s Emperor Rodius I, Kang Hyun-su returned to Luzabenu.
“You’re back already?”
The Fist Emperor asked in a bored tone as Kang Hyun-su appeared.
“Hyun-su!”
Song Hana, on the other hand, welcomed him with tears welling in her eyes.
“Did you level up a lot?”
“Yeah, I grinded hard. And I got a real sense of how easy we’ve had it hunting together.”
“Tell me about it. It really brought back the old days.”
Both Song Hana and the Fist Emperor seemed to have made solid progress in their short time apart.
Kang Hyun-su shared a brief reunion with them before diving back into hunting.
‘This is insane.’
After leveling up and dumping all his unallocated stats into Strength, Kang Hyun-su’s mouth hung open in a goofy grin.
Herculean Strength.
He’d known it was a cheat skill.
But experiencing it firsthand?
The effect was jaw-droppingly enormous.
‘I’ll fill them up in no time.’
He’d wondered when he’d ever fill the five thousand new summon slots from advancing to One-Man Army.
But it looked like he could do it faster than expected.
Kang Hyun-su’s party hunted until late evening before returning.
Along the way,
they spotted a group of players.
‘Huh?’
They weren’t normal players.
‘Human hunters.’
The players Kang Hyun-su spotted were human hunters.
‘Come to think of it, it’s about time these bastards started crawling out again.’
Kang Hyun-su had gone to the Rokto Empire to meet Ivan after graduating from the training camp.
Which meant
‘beginner players have flooded not just the Rokto Empire, but all of Atlantis.’
With easy prey like beginner players appearing in droves,
‘the human hunters would naturally start rampaging again.’
Kang Hyun-su’s current Guardian of Freedom title rank was a mere A-Rank.
‘I was planning to clean house once.’
The war between Zhonghua Guild and Kabal Guild, plus the Mana Dragon Karas invasion, had kept him busy.
‘Time for a full purge.’
All of Atlantis might be too much,
but wiping out every human hunter organization in Luzabenu and the nations under Rokto Empire influence?
‘My current power is more than enough.’
As Kang Hyun-su moved to deal with the ones right in front of him,
“What the hell are those guys?”
The Fist Emperor’s eyes flashed.
“Human hunters.”
“Human hunters? The ones who capture beginner players and turn them into slaves?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll smash those bastards right now!”
The Fist Emperor’s eyes blazed.
“Let’s go together.”
“Right.”
Kang Hyun-su and the Fist Emperor charged toward the human hunters at top speed.
“What the— who are those guys?”
“High-level players.”
“Run!”
The human hunters, seeing Kang Hyun-su, Song Hana, and the Fist Emperor charging with murderous intent, abandoned the blindfolded, bound, and gagged beginner players they were dragging away and fled.
But.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
The Fist Emperor’s fists, wrapped in golden aura,
Kablooey!
turned them into a spray of blood that evaporated on the spot.
Even those who barely survived
“Fire Wall!”
were trapped in the flames of Song Hana’s Fire Wall skill.
Step step.
Kang Hyun-su approached the human hunters trapped in the fire.
“P-please spare me! I was just following orders from those guys!”
“He’s right. The dead ones made us join. We had no choice!”
The surviving human hunters predictably sold out their comrades.
“You know info on the other human hunters, right?”
At Kang Hyun-su’s words, the survivors clammed up.
“Don’t know? Then you die.”
Boom boom boom boom!
As blood-red aura erupted from Kang Hyun-su’s body,
“We know!”
“I even know the merchants who buy the slaves!”
They flipped and sold out their associates in a flash.
“Is that so?”
Kang Hyun-su verified the information, then
Slash!
neatly slit their throats.
“I’m thinking we wipe out every last one of these scum. What do you say?”
“Obviously.”
“I’m in.”
With the Fist Emperor and Song Hana on board,
“Let’s move out now.”
Kang Hyun-su’s party sprang into action.
“Aaaagh!”
Screams of players echoed wherever they went.
“Run!”
They even ditched the beginner players they’d painstakingly captured, but
“Gahk!”
none survived Kang Hyun-su’s party.
‘This won’t end it.’
After sweeping the human hunters, Kang Hyun-su headed straight for Zhonghua Guild’s guild house.
‘Luzabenu is under Zhonghua Guild’s control. If human hunters are rampant here, that means Jin Gu-pyeong screwed up.’
That day, the Demon-Slaying Spear King Jin Gu-pyeong had been thoroughly crushed by Kang Hyun-su.
And the next morning,
at first light, Zhonghua Guild mobilized en masse to exterminate human hunters.
* * *
‘I’ll leave Luzabenu to Jin Gu-pyeong and clean up elsewhere too.’
Kang Hyun-su took Song Hana and the Fist Emperor on patrol through beginner hunting grounds in nearby major cities.
The result?
They discovered a staggering number of human hunters.
Kang Hyun-su purged them while touring the Miteor Kingdom.
[You have achieved a remarkable feat.]
[Your Guardian of Freedom A-Rank title has grown to Guardian of Freedom S-Rank.]
His Guardian of Freedom title upgraded to S-Rank.
Song Hana earned the Guardian of Freedom S-Rank title as well.
Unfortunately, the SSS-Rank Beginner Hunting Ground Guardian didn’t grow.
‘Well, it’s SSS-Rank, so that’s expected.’
The Fist Emperor, who had started later than Kang Hyun-su and Song Hana, had to settle for Beginner Hunting Ground Guardian A-Rank and Guardian of Freedom C-Rank.
‘I can’t be satisfied with this.’
Human hunters were still rampant.
They had to be stopped.
Kang Hyun-su’s party toured the Miteor Kingdom, actively hunting down human hunters.
But good deeds always attract demons.
“You the ones stirring up shit in the beginner hunting grounds lately?”
Over a hundred players blocked Kang Hyun-su’s party.
“You’ve pissed off the big shots.”
“Should’ve known to lay low.”
“Showoffs like you always die first.”
The players surrounding them weren’t stragglers like human hunters.
They were all mid-level players between levels 300 and 400.
High enough to hold their own even in kingdom armies or major guilds.
‘Not kingdom forces or major guilds—probably mid-tier guilds?’
They kept a wary distance from each other, so not from the same guild.
‘Mid-tier guilds in the slave trade business, sending their elites.’
They’d banded together to eliminate Kang Hyun-su’s party, who were disrupting their operations.
Smirk.
A bright smile spread across Kang Hyun-su’s face.
‘Perfect prey walking right into my hands.’
It reminded him of the first time he’d taken out human hunters.
When he’d shaken them down, the higher-ups from Geo Guild had shown up.
Taking them out had earned him
‘SSS-Rank Beginner Hunting Ground Guardian and A-Rank Guardian of Freedom.’
Great prey delivering itself to his doorstep.
For Kang Hyun-su?
He couldn’t help but grin ear to ear.
“Thanks a ton.”
“What?”
“For coming all at once instead of making me chase you separately. Really appreciate it.”
Thud!
Kang Hyun-su finished speaking and charged the enemies.
“Cocky bastard!”
“Capture him alive!”
“I’ll rip out that tongue and sell him as a slave!”
The enraged foes drew their weapons and rushed at Kang Hyun-su.
But.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Before the blood-red aura erupting from Kang Hyun-su as he swung the Sword of Gluttony,
Slash! Rip!
they crumbled helplessly.
“Eek!”
“High-level player!”
“Run!”
The late-to-realize enemies tried to flee, but
Crackle! Roar!
Song Hana blocked their retreat with walls of flame and lightning,
and
Boom boom boom boom boom!
the Fist Emperor, golden aura cloaking both fists, pulverized the fleeing foes with terrifying momentum.
‘No need to even call summons.’
A hundred level 300-400 players were no trouble without them.
Kablooey! Kablooey!
“Gaaahk!”
“Spare me!”
The enemies desperately resisted to escape,
but not a single one made it out alive.