Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Tyrant's Secret Vault
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Just as Tyrant's hunters had stepped out beyond the barrier.
Kang Jin-hyuk, who had remained in the building, dashed toward a door in the corner of the first floor.
It looked like an ordinary storage room at first glance, but clearing away the stacked boxes revealed a hidden door in the floor.
The door was securely locked with a sophisticated mechanism.
It was designed so that no one could enter without the password or an authorized person's fingerprint, but that posed no obstacle to Kang Jin-hyuk.
"Hup!"
He took a deep breath and swung his baseball bat, neatly slicing the steel door in two.
The vertically split steel door showed a clean cross-section, as if cut by a blade.
Confirming the same result as when he had sliced through iron bars earlier, Kang Jin-hyuk broke into a satisfied smile.
"Definitely easier to handle since the aura's color changed."
When he used aura with holy power, it only reinforced strikes.
But now, he could even mimic a sword like this.
"Looks like I'm more suited to this than a cleric, after all."
The hidden class that had replaced cleric.
He still didn't know exactly what powers it held.
Even so, the abilities he'd discovered so far were more than satisfying.
Among them, the one he liked most was being able to visually check karma values.
Descending through the opened door, Kang Jin-hyuk spotted twelve karma readings, each exceeding 300 on average.
'You'll find people making the rebirth pills if you go down through the hidden door.'
Recalling Jeong Dae-yoon's words, Kang Jin-hyuk met the gazes of all twelve staring at him.
Jeong Dae-yoon had said they were all civilians, not hunters, but Kang Jin-hyuk saw no reason to go easy on them.
No decent person would show karma values that high.
"W-Who are you?"
Kang Jin-hyuk posed a test to the middle-aged man eyeing him anxiously.
"I'm a cop. I got a tip there were innocent people locked up here."
"A c-c-cop?"
The man's pupils trembled noticeably, betraying extreme unease even to a fool.
He reacted with the terror of a criminal caught red-handed at the mere word "police."
"Oh, thank goodness you finally came!"
Sensing the man's anxiety, his colleagues couldn't stand it any longer, so their ringleader stepped forward slyly.
"We had no idea what was going on and got trapped here. Thank you so much for coming!"
He even squeezed out a few tears in an Oscar-worthy performance, but it was useless against Kang Jin-hyuk.
Kang Jin-hyuk could see the man's karma value rising in real time.
And it didn't make sense for people supposedly just imprisoned and working to be spotless without a speck of dust.
Facing the blatant lie that left no room for doubt, Kang Jin-hyuk pretended to buy it and smiled.
"Don't worry anymore. We'll get you all out soon."
As the men inside relaxed, thinking their act had worked.
Kang Jin-hyuk casually asked them.
"By the way, what exactly were you doing here? Looks like you were making something...."
"W-Well, you see, we just do what we're told, so we don't really know."
"Is that so? Mind if I take a closer look inside to investigate properly?"
The ringleader and the other men exchanged glances, showing clear agitation.
Refusing here would look suspicious to anyone.
But letting him inspect risked exposing the Alraune rebirth pills.
Weighing the risks, they concluded refusal was the lesser evil.
"It might be dangerous, so how about investigating separately later?"
"Dangerous? Were you making weapons or something?"
"No, not that... We just need to be cautious since we don't know what's in there. Haha."
The ringleader, who had butted in clumsily, grabbed Kang Jin-hyuk's arm and tugged.
"We'll get caught by the hunters if we dawdle—let's get out of here quick!"
"Shall we?"
As Kang Jin-hyuk let himself be led toward the door, the ringleader signaled his cohorts with his eyes.
The men inside then approached Kang Jin-hyuk's back with grim expressions, slowly closing in.
In their hands were hammers, awls—tools that could inflict lethal wounds if used right.
Mistaking Kang Jin-hyuk for being preoccupied with the door, they aimed for his seemingly defenseless head.
The instant the lead man swung his hammer at the back of Kang Jin-hyuk's skull.
A watermelon-splitting sound rang out, but it was the hammer-wielder's face that shattered.
"Gah!"
The man let out a strangled scream as he tumbled backward.
The others pieced together the situation by alternating glances between their comrade's caved-in face—like a kicked milk carton—and the baseball bat in Kang Jin-hyuk's hand.
"Son of a bitch! Beat him down!"
The ringleader, who had been holding Kang Jin-hyuk's arm, pressed even closer.
It was an attempt to pin his limbs and restrict movement, but a normal person's grip strength was futile.
With a slight twist using a bit of force, the flabby ringleader was flung lightly into the air.
"Uwaaaah!"
While the others were distracted watching the ringleader soar toward the ceiling, Kang Jin-hyuk smashed the heads of the three in front of him with his bat.
By the time the remaining men realized what was happening—unable to even scream as their comrades collapsed—two more heads had been bashed in.
"P-Please... spare..."
One man belatedly dropped his weapon and begged for his life, but Kang Jin-hyuk's bat mercilessly struck his face without mercy.
"Gurgh!"
The ringleader, whom Kang Jin-hyuk had thrown, slowly rose from atop a shattered desk.
Excruciating pain shot through his back, but he had no time to care.
Not a single comrade who had ambushed him remained with an intact head.
"N-No way... am I the only one left...?"
He hoped it wasn't true, but the only person standing unscathed was Kang Jin-hyuk.
The ringleader belatedly realized Kang Jin-hyuk wasn't an ordinary cop.
"Y-You...! You're not a cop—you're a hunter!"
"You just figuring that out?"
As a reward for uncovering such a minor secret, Kang Jin-hyuk spared the ringleader's life for the moment.
He grabbed the man by the collar, hauled him up, and shoved him deeper into the basement.
"Take me to the rebirth pills."
"If I do that, Tyrant will kill me!"
"You worried about that now? Do as I say, or you die right here."
"Ughhh."
Tyrant's fist was far away, but Kang Jin-hyuk's baseball bat was right in front of his nose.
Unwilling to die, the ringleader had no choice but to guide Kang Jin-hyuk to the safe storing the rebirth pills.
After navigating a maze-like corridor and unlocking two thick steel doors, they arrived at a secretive spot worthy of hiding Alraune rebirth pills.
Kang Jin-hyuk immediately spotted the complex locking mechanisms, the transparent door, and the blue-glowing barrier inside.
"That glass?"
"Looks like it, but I heard it's actually a special alloy made from monster materials."
"Hmm. Is that so."
Kang Jin-hyuk figured using aura on an unknown door wasn't wise.
It might damage the rebirth pills stored inside. Better to play it by the book for now.
"Can you open everything?"
"N-No. The hunters set up that barrier so even we can't."
"Then what about the other doors besides the barrier?"
"Well...."
An ID card was needed to unlock it.
Using the ID card would log the user's name, naturally.
To avoid Tyrant's retaliation, the ringleader didn't want to use his own.
"I don't have the authority for that door."
It was a lie to get out of the situation, but useless against Kang Jin-hyuk.
He didn't miss the karma value spiking the instant the lie was told.
"No funny business—open it quick."
"What are you talking about? I just said I can't!"
When the ringleader stubbornly refused, Kang Jin-hyuk swung his bat at the man's left arm.
"Kaaaaagh!"
The ringleader clutched his snapped-like-a-pretzel arm and rolled on the floor.
To keep the pain-wracked man conscious, Kang Jin-hyuk splashed water from a bottle taken from his inventory.
The cold water on his face drew a groan of agony from the ringleader.
"Fine! I'll do as you say—just stop!"
"Should've done that from the start."
Tears streaming, the ringleader pulled out his ID card with his good hand.
He tapped it against the door and worked the buttons, disengaging the lock.
Beyond the sliding doors stood the barrier they'd seen from outside.
It emanated intense blue light in all directions, as if vowing not to let a single soul pass.
Kang Jin-hyuk shoved the ringleader aside to inspect the barrier closely.
"Can't tell what kind of effect it has just by looking."
As Kang Jin-hyuk pondered how to dispel it, the ringleader saw his chance.
'No matter how strong a hunter, touching the barrier directly will finish him!'
Having used his own ID card to open the door.
The ringleader's only path to survival was capturing Kang Jin-hyuk and begging Tyrant for mercy.
Steeling himself, he gripped his broken arm tight and charged at Kang Jin-hyuk.
Planning to bull-rush him into the barrier, but things didn't go as planned.
"Huh?"
The ringleader watched the Kang Jin-hyuk he'd meant to shove vanish from before his eyes.
Where did he go?
The question flashed in his mind as he lost balance and toppled toward the barrier.
The instant he touched it, the ringleader's body charred black like a bug zapped by an electric swatter.
At least it happened so fast he had no time to feel pain.
"Tsk tsk."
Kang Jin-hyuk eyed the ringleader collapsing amid the acrid smell with pity.
"I was gonna let you live, but you brought this on yourself."
Kang Jin-hyuk wasn't soft-hearted enough to save someone who'd tried to kill him twice.
He shoved the obstructing corpse aside and stood before the barrier again.
Thanks to the ringleader's sacrifice(?), he now knew how it worked.
Understanding the mechanism made breaking it simple.
"Just do it the usual way."
His most reliable and favored method.
Kang Jin-hyuk coated the bat gripped in both hands with aura and swung with all his might at the barrier.
"Hrah!"
Where aura met barrier, it flared brighter and began resisting.
Pushed back by the recoil, Kang Jin-hyuk gritted his teeth and poured strength into his grip.
Soon, unable to withstand the aura, cracks formed in the barrier.
Like ripples spreading from a stone in a pond.
The cracks from the bat's impact point spread across the entire barrier.
Crash!
Finally, it shattered like breaking glass with a sharp sound.
Stepping beyond the vanished barrier, Kang Jin-hyuk found a small box right in front of him.
[Alraune's Rebirth Pill]
Confirming the contents with his appraisal skill, Kang Jin-hyuk couldn't help but smirk.
"Nice."
Two Alraune rebirth pills destined for Tyrant's guild master and vice-guild master.
One had been lost to the raid midway through production.
The one already completed now lay in Kang Jin-hyuk's hands.