Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Suspicious Cocktail
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Kang Jin-hyuk activated his skill to immediately check the status of the men who had followed right in.
“All of them are over 300…….”
Just the karma values alone lent credibility to his guess that the man approaching Lucia was one of them.
“Why didn’t I spot those guys on the street?”
“They were watching me from a spot like an alley, out of easy sight.”
“How did you notice?”
“Don’t think my senses are on the same level as you humans.”
Elves never got lost in forests tangled like mazes because their senses were several times more developed than a human’s.
Even as a half-elf, Lucia had inherited many of those elven strengths.
No matter how they hid their bodies, unless they were too far away on the street, escaping her sight was impossible.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
The brown-haired man returned with the cocktail.
To anyone unaware of the situation, he would have looked like nothing more than a handsome guy approaching with a friendly smile.
But from Kang Jin-hyuk’s perspective, who could see the karma value, there was no way to accept it with a smile.
Kang Jin-hyuk stared hard at the cocktail the man offered, then stood up from his seat.
Lucia spotted the serious expression on his face, like he was about to kick things off any second.
‘What’s this? Weren’t you just going to watch for a bit?’
She shot him a look asking if he was really about to start already, but Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t stop.
He strode forward without hesitation, snatched up the cocktail, and thrust it right in the brown-haired man’s face.
“What did you put in this?”
The blunt informal question made the brown-haired man gasp and stagger back.
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t miss the cold sweat trickling down the man’s forehead.
Normally, he wouldn’t have suspected much, but right now, he had numbers he could see with his own eyes.
Lucia, aware of that fact, rose from her seat to follow him.
“Did you see something?”
Kang Jin-hyuk nodded.
“The value shot up the moment he handed over the drink.”
“Then it’s over for them.”
While Kang Jin-hyuk and Lucia conversed about something only they understood, the men who had caught on to the anomaly began moving from nearby tables.
“Tell me honestly what you mixed into the drink.”
“I keep telling you, I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
As the brown-haired man shouted in feigned outrage, the gazes of the people around focused on them.
But Kang Jin-hyuk had solid grounds for confidence, so he wasn’t the least bit intimidated.
“Then drink it yourself.”
The brown-haired man stared at the cup shoved right up to his mouth, then clicked his tongue.
“Damn, what a pain in the ass.”
He wiped the friendly smile off his face and turned dead serious in an instant, then spun around and lashed out with a kick.
The heavy incoming foot slammed into Kang Jin-hyuk’s side with brutal force.
The power behind it sent Kang Jin-hyuk—who weighed about as much as an average man—flying over two meters.
The brown-haired man smirked smugly upon seeing him crash through a table and collapse.
“A nobody like you should’ve just taken it quietly. Why act above your station?”
The brown-haired man leered at Lucia while twitching the corner of his mouth.
With his facade stripped away, his smile instinctively triggered disgust.
“If you don’t want to end up in a bad way, drink that and get some sleep.”
“Sleeping pills, huh?”
“Kukuku, so you knew and still threw this tantrum while playing dumb.”
The brown-haired man turned his head to sweep his gaze over the customers watching them.
He drew a deep breath, then bellowed at the five or six patrons.
“What are you all gawking at? Get the hell out now, or you’re all dead!!”
Startled by the thunderous roar, the people hurriedly grabbed their things and fled the bar.
Once everyone was gone, the remaining men locked the door tight to keep anyone from entering.
“I thought it was too easy that you idiots followed along so obediently.”
He’d figured he got lucky hooking a woman with that unreal beauty.
But the brown-haired man wasn’t happy at all with how things were twisting.
“Looks like you came after us on purpose…… Who sent you? Cops or something?”
The brown-haired man mistook Kang Jin-hyuk and Lucia for people sent to dig into their operations.
“Quit yapping and answer. What the hell are you doing here!”
“Something I wanted to investigate.”
Lucia’s response turned the man’s misconception into certainty.
“So that’s it…….”
The brown-haired man gave a curt nod as a signal, and the other men surrounded Lucia, forming a circle.
“Aim away from the face when you hit her. It’ll lower her value.”
The men who received the order narrowed the distance bit by bit, poised to lunge at any moment.
Lucia, about to draw the dagger from her pocket, sensed the stirring presences nearby and paused.
Standing casually with no stance at all, she flashed a grin.
“I’m not for sale, so smash the face first.”
Before the brown-haired man could demand what nonsense that was, Kang Jin-hyuk burst out from the shattered table.
It was far too late to react after seeing it coming.
Kang Jin-hyuk closed in like a shot arrow and swung his fist before the brown-haired man could even twitch a hand.
The punch flew straight along the shortest path, piercing dead center into the man’s face.
With a meaty thud, blood erupted as the man went flying all the way to the bartender’s station.
He crashed into the display of liquor bottles, shattering them with a crash, and showed no sign of getting back up.
“That must be the new skill you got.”
Lucia focused on the red aura enveloping Kang Jin-hyuk’s fist.
That energy was clearly distinct from holy power or mana.
Holy power felt more defensive, while mana had a balanced vibe overall.
But the aura Kang Jin-hyuk displayed looked aggressively offensive.
The fiercely rippling aura resembled a living beast.
“Didn’t want to test it out on people first, though.”
A hunter’s job was catching monsters, not people.
On top of that, it hadn’t been long since Kang Jin-hyuk’s first time killing a person, so punching humans felt even more repulsive than usual.
“Then I can step up. That was the deal from the start.”
Handling the attacking humans in his place.
That was one of the conditions Lucia had laid out for going outside.
But Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t just hand the situation over to her.
It wasn’t some childish urge to play the tough guy or avoid hiding behind a woman.
“No.”
“Why?”
“You’re planning to kill every last one here.”
Instead of denying it, Lucia playfully stuck out her tongue.
Kang Jin-hyuk let out a sigh.
As expected, the killing intent she’d shown wasn’t a bluff.
“I never let anyone who comes after my body live. If you don’t want to watch them die, then bust your ass.”
With a chilling smile, she warned that she’d slit their throats the moment he showed any weakness.
It was obvious whose heads would roll, but Kang Jin-hyuk still got chills like it was him.
“Gonna drive me nuts.”
Having to step up himself just to keep these human scum alive was utterly ridiculous.
‘Still, getting info out of them alive is the smart play…….’
Kang Jin-hyuk tried to frame it in a positive light.
Oblivious to his inner turmoil, the men grimaced and charged.
“What the hell are these bastards blabbering about!”
The men were furious at the pair’s attitude, casually discussing killing them right to their faces.
On top of that, this was the guy who’d sent their brown-haired leader flying in one hit, so mercy was off the table.
“Die!”
Kang Jin-hyuk bent low, and the full-force punch whiffed into an innocent pillar.
The concrete pillar shattered with a deafening crack, proving the men weren’t ordinary folk.
“All hunters, as expected.”
He’d guessed as much from the hit he took from the brown-haired guy.
Kang Jin-hyuk sighed deeply at how a bunch of hunters had swarmed like this over one woman.
“If you’re hunters, then act like it and go hunt monsters…….”
“There have to be monsters to hunt!”
“You think you know our situation, saying crap like that!”
The men’s outburst, venting their resentment, was laughably pathetic.
“So this is what you chose? You fucking bastards!”
No normal person turns to crime just because their circumstances suck.
Their self-pitying excuses were utter bullshit.
Realizing they were irredeemable trash left no room for mercy, and Kang Jin-hyuk’s strikes gained automatic power.
“Argh!”
His full-force punch was blocked at the elbow, and the man screamed as he stumbled back.
Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t miss the opening, planting his left foot square in the man’s gut.
He’d wanted to go for the solar plexus but held back, figuring vital strikes could be dicey.
Thud!
The heavy-bodied man hit the floor with a boom like an earthquake.
That sound filled Kang Jin-hyuk with confidence and etched tension into the remaining men.
Doubts crept into their minds—had they picked the wrong guy to mess with?
“G-Goddamn! What the hell are you doing against just one guy?!”
“Rush him all at once!”
The seven men targeted Kang Jin-hyuk, charging from front, back, left, and right simultaneously.
Lucia hesitated for a split second on whether to help, then stopped upon seeing his relaxed expression.
‘Hmm~ Pretty confident, huh.’
Comparing Kang Jin-hyuk to the other men made it easy to understand.
The gap between someone who could wield an aura and those who couldn’t was stark. Even outnumbered, his overflowing confidence was natural.
‘Now they’re starting to feel that gap on their own skin.’
From time immemorial, fights hinged on spirit.
No matter how skilled you were, cowering and trembling meant you couldn’t bring your full ability to bear.
In that sense, recognizing you were stronger than your foes and moving boldly was a solid mindset.
‘Just don’t let overconfidence make you careless.’
Lucia’s worry dissolved as Kang Jin-hyuk carefully parried each attack one by one.
His efficient deflections and blocks showed zero carelessness.
At the same time, Lucia felt gratified by how hard she’d pushed him in the dungeon all this time.
“Uwaaak!”
“Kuuk!”
The men whose attacks failed took a solid hit before they could recover their stance.
These were guys whose stats let them shrug off a bull’s charge, but the impacts from Kang Jin-hyuk were beyond what raw grit could endure.
Once down, they could scarcely stand on two legs again.
A few managed to struggle up, but follow-up strikes sent them crashing back to the floor before they could even clench a fist.
The writhing, groaning men didn’t look liable to come at him again.
Still, who knew when they might strike from behind.
Taking advantage of the breather, Kang Jin-hyuk caught his breath while keeping watch on the situation.