Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Exposing the Accomplice
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Unlike what he had feared, even after time passed, none of the men inside stirred.
They lay sprawled out like earthworms crushed under shoes, and it didn't look like they were faking it.
Kang Jin-hyuk figured the situation was more or less under control and strode toward the bar.
There, he grabbed the shoulders of the brown-haired man who had collapsed behind it.
"Hey, I have some questions. Get up."
The man, blood streaming from his broken nose, groaned and opened his eyes as Kang Jin-hyuk roughly shook him back and forth.
"Uh... huh?!"
The first thing he saw upon regaining consciousness was Kang Jin-hyuk's face.
It was only natural for him to thrash about like a fish flung onto dry land upon seeing the man who had beaten him senseless.
The brown-haired man tried to back away to put some distance between them, but with his shoulders firmly gripped by Kang Jin-hyuk, he couldn't move as he wanted.
As punishment for his pointless resistance, he took a heavy body blow.
"Guuuh!"
Kang Jin-hyuk released his grip, anticipating the man might vomit up his meal.
Fortunately, the guy knelt quietly on the floor without dirtying it with puke.
He clutched his stomach, struggling to endure the pain, looking utterly pitiful.
While the brown-haired man paid the price for his own actions, Kang Jin-hyuk squatted down in front of him.
Matching eye levels, Kang Jin-hyuk glared at him with wide eyes.
"Looks like you've done this a time or two."
The approach might have been crude, but he'd positioned his accomplices around the area.
He'd even set up this spot to drug drinks and carry out his scheme.
Every step had been meticulously planned.
'Fuck this shit!'
The bartender, hiding behind the bar, cursed inwardly.
He was pretending to be a frightened victim for now, but at this rate, it would be obvious he was in on it.
'Got to take that bastard out before he says anything unnecessary.'
While Kang Jin-hyuk had his back turned, the bartender stealthily opened his inventory and drew a weapon.
With Kang Jin-hyuk's attention fixed on the brown-haired man, this was the perfect chance.
The bartender swung his sword, convinced Kang Jin-hyuk was oblivious and off guard.
But that was just his delusion.
Kang Jin-hyuk had spotted his high karma value from the start and known he was an accomplice.
"No surprise a guy with over 400 karma isn't just some civilian."
The bartender paled as Kang Jin-hyuk dodged the blade at the last second, despite seemingly looking elsewhere.
If even a sneak attack failed, how could he hope to beat the man who had taken down his whole crew single-handedly?
The bartender expected a fist to come flying at his face or gut, just like what had happened to his comrades.
Terrified, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Yet, contrary to his expectations, no punch came even after time passed.
Kang Jin-hyuk kicked the sword out of the bartender's hand and seized him by the collar.
"You were the real target from the start."
He'd bothered waking and beating the brown-haired man as bait to lure the bartender out.
He'd chosen this roundabout method to secure solid evidence rather than relying solely on karma values for interrogation.
Most high-karma folks were criminals, but it was still just speculation.
He couldn't completely rule out the chance they were unrelated, so he needed concrete proof to be certain.
Pinned against the wall by Kang Jin-hyuk, the bartender choked and coughed.
"Spit it out."
"W-what do you want me to say?"
"Who's backing you guys?"
"Th-there's no one like that."
The bartender's denial was a pathetic, unbelievable excuse.
"You pull this shit over and over without getting caught, and you expect me to buy that you have no backers?"
Even with his collar gripped, the bartender nodded vigorously, insisting on his innocence.
But Kang Jin-hyuk could see his karma value rising every time he nodded.
No amount of acting would work on him.
"Don't lie."
"I-I'm not lying! It's true!"
Kang Jin-hyuk's anger boiled over at the bartender's shameless display, as if his face were made of iron plating.
He swung the hand gripping the collar hard, slamming the bartender to the floor. The glassware on the nearby counter shattered as it tumbled down.
"Keurk!"
The impact shook the bartender's guts, nearly knocking him unconscious.
Barely clinging to awareness, he faced Kang Jin-hyuk's question once more.
"If you don't want more pain, tell me who's backing you."
"There really isn't anyone...!"
The bartender stuck to his denial until the end.
For a coward who squeezed his eyes shut in fear of a beating, he was putting up a desperate fight.
His stubborn silence meant either intense loyalty or that his backers terrified him more than any punches.
He wasn't going to crack easily.
"Tch."
Wasting time had let the wail of police sirens start echoing from outside.
"No way these guys called them... Must be one of the people who ran off."
Kang Jin-hyuk was innocent, but he wanted to avoid dealing with the cops right now.
It felt off to face police questioning again so soon after being tangled up in a murder case.
"Heh heh, if you don't want trouble, you better let go."
Far from fearing the arriving police, the bartender taunted Kang Jin-hyuk instead.
It wasn't hard for Kang Jin-hyuk to guess why he had done a complete 180.
"Guess you've got cops in your pocket too."
"Who knows?"
The bartender smirked, as if the tables had turned.
Thud! Thud!
Outside, the police began ramming the door with all their might.
When it didn't give despite their efforts, they started shouting threats.
"We know you're in there!"
"Open this door now!"
Even as the police yelled, the bartender remained unafraid, his expression relaxed.
"That door's sturdy, but it won't hold out much longer."
"So?"
"That means now's your only chance to run."
The bartender was brimming with confidence, brazenly turning the tables.
A total shift from when Kang Jin-hyuk had been pounding him.
He was flaunting his powerful backing.
Unable to stomach the arrogance any longer, Kang Jin-hyuk finally unleashed a punch.
"Kraaak!"
The blow to the gut twisted the bartender's insides.
Unable to endure the agony, he rolled his eyes back and passed out on the spot.
Kang Jin-hyuk hoisted the unconscious bartender over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
Lucia couldn't fathom why he was doing this.
"You're taking that guy with us?"
"Figured I'd sort out his story first."
"Why bother?"
To Lucia, this seemed like a pointless detour from their original plan.
"Our goal was to see what these high-karma guys were up to, right? We've seen that already. Why drag him along?"
Logically, she had a point.
They now knew the purpose behind these karma-300-plus hunters approaching him.
Dragging out a finished experiment served no purpose.
But Kang Jin-hyuk saw it differently.
"Something still stinks. Can't wrap this up feeling this uneasy."
He picked up the sword the bartender had dropped and continued.
"And it reeks of money too."
Still not getting it, Lucia watched as Kang Jin-hyuk held out the sword.
"Appraised it—it's Rare grade at least."
"Rare grade?"
"Means it's a super valuable item. Description says it's made from a rare metal."
Lucia inspected the blade to confirm.
She wasn't a craftsman like a dwarf, so she couldn't gauge its exact worth just by looking, but it was clearly superior to the junk flooding the market.
The keen edge gleaming on the blade was beyond what ordinary steel could achieve.
"From how they came at me, they're clearly low-rank hunters at best. Weird for them to have gear like this."
Recalling the hunters who had picked a fight with him, Kang Jin-hyuk was convinced.
The ones collapsed in this place were C-rank or lower at most.
Without guild support, they couldn't even hunt monsters properly.
It made no sense for such people to wield Rare weapons.
A day-to-day C-rank hunter scraping by would cash in a Rare item for money the moment they got one.
"Someone's definitely backing these guys."
And not just anyone—someone loaded enough to equip them and with enough pull to plant people in the police.
Digging into them with half-baked skills could backfire, but Kang Jin-hyuk figured the risk was worth it.
"Robbing other hunters' items is a big crime. But raiding a criminal gang? That's not."
"Ah, so that's your angle."
Lucia finally grasped Kang Jin-hyuk's aim.
Raiding bandit lairs for loot was something she'd done plenty of times as an adventurer short on cash.
"It's lucrative and smart, but... mess with the wrong ones, and it gets real messy."
She offered advice born of experience.
She'd once wiped out what she thought were mere bandits, only to find out they were tied to the local lord, turning nobles against her.
It never ended cleanly.
"I've got my own backing on this side, so it's fine."
"Your backing?"
Lucia noticed Kang Jin-hyuk's gaze fixed on her.
She could guess what that meant.
"Don't tell me your 'backing' is me?"
"Hahaha. Since we're in the same boat, might as well ride it out together."
"What do you mean 'not bad'? How much trouble are you dragging me into?"
"No need to worry. Far as I know, no hunter's stronger than you."
"Is that even the issue right now?"
Lucia let out a deep sigh, venting her frustration.
She wanted to give him an earful, but the door the police had been battering was starting to give way.
No time for chit-chat.
"Let's get out of here first. We can't get nabbed by those cops, right?"
She was right—getting caught by the police now would be a disaster in every way.
Even innocent, the staff's attitude suggested he'd be framed as the prime suspect in this mess.
"Back door—let's go."
Lucia dashed toward the door Kang Jin-hyuk pointed out.
She lashed out with her left foot, kicking it hard.
Despite her slender legs, she blew the sturdy locked door wide open in one go.
The crash echoed loudly enough for the cops outside to hear.
"What's going on in there!?"
"Open the door now!"
It sounded like they'd brought professional lock-picking gear—the door's mechanisms clicked as they started disengaging.
No more time to waste. Kang Jin-hyuk hurried out the back door.
While he emerged, Lucia used her sharp senses to scout an escape route with no presences ahead.
"This way."
Kang Jin-hyuk readjusted the bartender slung over his shoulder and followed Lucia, vaulting over the walls as they ran.