Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Lightning Strikes Twice
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Kang Jun-tae felt something ominous from the baseball bat that clashed against his iron mace.
The instinct he had honed over years as a hunter, dancing on the edge of life and death, was more than just for show.
But even with that sharp instinct, dodging Kang Jin-hyuk's attack completely was impossible.
What Kang Jin-hyuk unleashed was lightning, and no matter how fast he moved, he couldn't outrun light.
“Guhhh!”
Kang Jun-tae gritted his teeth, trying to hold out.
He hated looking pathetic after letting the enemy strike first.
“Uwaaaak!”
But human will has its limits, no matter what.
Even as he desperately tried to endure the pain, the stinging shock coursing through his hand finally surpassed his endurance.
In the end, Kang Jun-tae spewed smoke from his entire body and dropped to one knee on the floor.
True to his S-rank Hunter status, he still clung to consciousness after a blow that would have turned an ordinary person into a lump of charcoal on the spot.
“I almost got done in because I let my guard down…….”
He had expected the guy to have some hidden trump card, but he never imagined it would be this powerful.
From what he had heard, the opponent was a rookie C-rank Hunter who had registered just a few weeks ago.
Even the rumor about taking down a new type of monster—he had dismissed it as sheer luck.
“That weird red light earlier, and this attack now…… You’ve got some real skills to back up your big talk.”
Kang Jun-tae thought stepping in early instead of just watching had been a wise choice.
If he had sent the other Titan Hunters instead, they all would have ended up crippled by Kang Jin-hyuk’s hand.
He was satisfied that he had averted a crisis where he’d unnecessarily weaken his forces.
Any shame from letting that first strike through due to carelessness had long faded.
‘Damn it!’
Kang Jin-hyuk wanted to press the attack while the opponent was out of it, but with his MP completely drained, he couldn’t.
He could still use lightning without MP, but it had limited uses left, so spamming it recklessly was dangerous.
He needed to save them for when enemies swarmed from all sides.
To recover his MP, Kang Jin-hyuk hurriedly rummaged through his inventory.
When Kang Jun-tae saw Kang Jin-hyuk pull out a potion to drink, he flicked a coin from his pocket with his finger.
The coin, propelled by finger strength alone, flew with the force of a bullet.
“Huh?!”
The potion in Kang Jin-hyuk’s hand shattered upon impact with the coin.
Kang Jin-hyuk stared blankly at the potion’s contents scattering across the floor amid the broken shards.
“Kekeke, doping mid-fight is against the rules~”
Kang Jun-tae recited a rule that might apply in a game as he slowly rose to his feet.
When Kang Jin-hyuk pulled out another potion without backing down, Kang Jun-tae closed in personally this time.
“I said no.”
“Gah!”
To dodge Kang Jun-tae’s fist, Kang Jin-hyuk retreated.
Kang Jun-tae feinted toward Kang Jin-hyuk’s face but had targeted the potion from the start.
In the end, the potion shattered again, spilling onto the ground.
“Obsessing over potions like that means your MP is bone dry, right?”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s expression twisted involuntarily at the bullseye.
Kang Jun-tae didn’t miss that split-second change.
“As I thought! Time to die!”
Kang Jun-tae swung his iron mace fiercely, no longer holding back.
If that last reckless charge without considering remaining MP was him going all out, there was no need to go easy anymore.
‘This is bad!’
At this distance, pulling out and drinking a potion was impossible.
His only option left was to use the lightning from the baseball bat.
Hesitating over remaining uses could mean his head getting smashed right now, so Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t hold back.
“Grah!!”
A flash of light accompanied the bursting lightning, striking Kang Jun-tae’s body once more.
“You fuck! How the hell is a guy with no MP……!”
Kang Jun-tae had charged in assuming the opponent had no skills left, so this turn of events blindsided him.
“If you don’t know, you get zapped!”
As Kang Jin-hyuk said, without knowing the bat’s secret, he had no choice but to take it.
“Kwaaaaaak!!”
Han Young-seok broke into a cold sweat hearing Kang Jun-tae’s scream louder than before.
If things went wrong, it would all be over.
Unable to watch any longer, Han Young-seok ordered his waiting subordinates.
“What are you all standing around for! Grab those bastards quick!!”
“Y-Yes!”
“Got it!”
The Titan Hunters belatedly grabbed their weapons and charged toward Kang Jin-hyuk.
Even amid the electrocution, Kang Jun-tae spotted them and bellowed through gritted teeth.
“Get lost, all of you!!”
His roar, like a beast’s, froze every Titan Hunter in place.
“Shut up and watch until I crush this fucker! Anyone who steps in, I’ll kill myself!!”
Getting done in twice by such a cheap trick had badly wounded Kang Jun-tae’s pride.
To heal that wounded pride, he had no choice but to smash Kang Jin-hyuk’s skull personally.
“You’re dead today……!”
Despite spewing smoke from his gaping mouth from severe injuries, Kang Jun-tae stood firm on both legs.
His bloodshot eyes burned with fierce determination.
Kang Jin-hyuk nearly buckled under that intimidating presence like the other Hunters.
After taking deep breaths to regain his composure, he deliberately bluffed.
“If you charge in that pissed off, you’ll just get zapped again, you know?”
Once could be dismissed as coincidence.
But twice in a row meant it could happen a third time.
Kang Jin-hyuk wanted to remind Kang Jun-tae of that and make him hesitate.
But Kang Jun-tae had no intention of playing along.
“Then show me.”
“What?”
“I don’t know how you’re pulling off that power without MP…… But it’s not infinite, is it?”
“You’re writing a novel mid-fight.”
“Kekeke, a novel…… Is it, though?”
Kang Jun-tae easily saw through Kang Jin-hyuk’s bluff.
The number of Hunters, monsters, and items he had encountered dwarfed Kang Jin-hyuk’s by hundreds.
From that vast experience, Kang Jun-tae was certain.
There were no cheat skills without weaknesses in this world.
“It’s gotta be a limited-use skill. That’s why you held it back until your MP hit zero.”
Even an S-rank Hunter like him couldn’t see and dodge it.
Yet Kang Jin-hyuk had withheld it until his MP bottomed out.
Kang Jun-tae deemed that evidence enough.
“Go ahead, fire it again. I’m bracing for one more anyway.”
Kang Jun-tae lowered his stance, bending his knees.
Unlike before, this serious posture meant no more lapses in vigilance, not even for a moment.
He had already paid for that with two humiliations.
Either he dies, or the opponent does.
Kang Jun-tae intended to end it with this attack.
On the other hand, Kang Jin-hyuk had zero desire to do that.
‘If I go all-out life-or-death with a guy like that, I’m the one who dies.’
It hadn’t even involved him from the start.
Kang Jin-hyuk was just an innocent bystander who got dragged in.
‘But I can’t back out now saying it’s none of my business.’
Having zapped the guy twice with lightning, a simple sorry wouldn’t cut it.
At best, he’d have to hospitalize him half-dead to stop this.
‘No choice. I don’t wanna die or end up in a hospital bed…….’
Kang Jin-hyuk subtly reached for his inventory.
‘If brute force doesn’t work, use your head.’
Like any higher being, he decided to rely on wits and pulled an item from his inventory.
Even with rage boiling over, Kang Jun-tae didn’t miss the sight.
“Trying something again?!”
Kang Jun-tae grabbed a chunk of broken floor and hurled it at the item in Kang Jin-hyuk’s hand.
In that instant, he caught Kang Jin-hyuk’s lips curving into a smirk.
“Idiot.”
In his hasty reaction, Kang Jun-tae hadn’t properly checked what Kang Jin-hyuk pulled out.
He had just assumed it was a potion from the context.
In reality, what Kang Jin-hyuk held was a smoke grenade, a favorite among Hunters for obscuring monster vision.
The smoke grenade collided with the debris and exploded on the spot with a bang.
Dense smoke billowed out, instantly filling the living room.
‘If I’d thrown it on the ground myself, he would’ve rushed to block it first.’
Given Kang Jun-tae’s movements, stopping it before detonation wouldn’t have been hard.
So Kang Jin-hyuk figured he’d make him detonate it himself.
With all focus on exploiting openings and rage at its peak, he’d react faster than anyone.
And that belief proved spot on.
“You fuck!! What the hell are you doing, you fucking bastard!!”
Kang Jun-tae, smacked from behind despite seeing it coming, went berserk.
“Uwaak!”
“Kyaaak!”
“Please stop!”
Blindly swinging his iron mace wildly, he smashed the heads of innocent Titan Hunters.
“Come out right now!”
‘Am I insane?’
Kang Jin-hyuk, face covered with a pre-prepared gas mask, hoisted up Seo Sang-ho, who lay in the room.
“Don’t open your eyes until I say so.”
Lee Hye-na, coughing nonstop from the smoke, nodded with difficulty.
Kang Jin-hyuk hurriedly took the tight-eyed Lee Hye-na to the attic.
“Cough! Cough! Open all the windows and doors right now!”
Han Young-seok directed calmly amid coughs, but the Hunters couldn’t comply easily.
“Can’t see through the smoke! *Cough*!”
“Kang Jun-tae’s rampaging—we can’t get close!”
“Damn it all!”
With vision obscured, stepping forward recklessly meant getting their heads bashed.
No Hunter stepped up in this mess.
“Then at least have the guys at the door go outside and watch where that Kang Jin-hyuk bastard flees!!”
“Got it!”
The four Hunters who hadn’t entered the house raced straight to the rooftop.
They each took a cardinal direction, scanning every passerby without miss.
While the four scouted outside, the remaining Hunters and Han Young-seok waited for the smoke to clear on its own.
That took a full 15 minutes.
Plenty of time for someone to slip out and vanish.
As expected, with no sign of Kang Jin-hyuk or his group inside, Han Young-seok called the rooftop Hunters.
“Where’d those bastards go!?”
“W-We don’t know!”
“We kept watch, but no one came out!”
“That doesn’t make sense?!”
Even as Han Young-seok raged, the Hunters had nothing else to say.
They couldn’t lie about no one exiting when that was the truth.
“You incompetent fucks!!”
Kang Jun-tae smashed the few intact living room furniture with his iron mace.
“Me, guild master of this pathetic guild?! Fuck!”
The Titan Hunters shot dirty looks at Kang Jun-tae as he vented his frustration with curses.
“If you hadn’t been so stubborn and we’d all rushed him together…….”
“What’d you say?”
Kang Jun-tae’s ears caught a subordinate’s mosquito-like mutter.
As his flushed face snapped precisely toward him, the gossiping Hunter’s face drained of color.
“N-No, that’s not…….”
The Hunter shut his mouth before he could even explain.
No, he no longer had a mouth to call it.
Kang Jun-tae’s iron mace had pulverized the gossip’s head like a watermelon and embedded firmly in the wall.
Kang Jun-tae slowly approached the headless corpse and yanked the iron mace from the wall.
“Any other fuckers wanna yap? Step up.”
In that bloodthirsty atmosphere, the Titan Hunters who didn’t want to die swallowed their complaints.