Chapter 76
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Breaking the Moon (2)
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The battle lasted for about thirty minutes.
No, it wasn’t a battle.
What would be the most fitting way to describe this situation?
A one-sided mockery.
- Ah… um…
Yes, something along those lines.
After its first appearance, Im Juntae’s golem hadn’t maintained its complete form for a single moment.
Ever since being shattered by Gono’s club, the golem was completely neutralized, merely repeating its attempts to regenerate.
Gono was now enjoying the situation itself.
*Crumble.*
He would wait until the golem, which had been reduced to little more than dust, managed to take on a vaguely lump-like shape.
“Kiruk!”
*CRACK!*
And then he would shatter the barely-formed golem once again.
It was no different from a child smashing a sandcastle with a single punch just as it was nearing completion.
Finally, around the tenth time Gono smashed the regenerating golem.
“Keuk.”
Im Juntae, who had been standing still, clutched his chest and fell to his knees.
A golem was a doll created by consuming mana.
Therefore, it was only natural that each regeneration took a toll on his body.
He had finally reached his limit.
- M-Mr. Im Juntae! Hey! What are you doing, get the medical team…!
“Shut the hell up! I haven’t lost yet… Ugh.”
Im Juntae, squirming on the floor, finally threw up everything he had eaten.
“Wooooo! Get that loser the hell out of here!”
“Serves you right, you bug-like bastard!”
“That’s what you get for using nothing but dirty tricks! Just get lost!”
Trash spewed jeers at the trash.
In response, the sprawled-out trash lifted his head and shouted.
“Shut up, you damn insects! The one using dirty tricks is that bastard…”
But his words were cut short.
“Kiruk.”
*CRUMBLE!*
The moment Gono blew the regenerating golem’s head off for the eleventh time.
“Keoheok.”
Im Juntae’s body contorted as if he, too, had been struck in the head.
The sanpaku eyes rolled back in his head, and the golemmancer collapsed to the floor, foaming at the mouth.
He never got up again.
“Woooooah! Gonoooooo!”
“Yeah, this is it! This is what I wanted!”
“The underdog won, the underdog won! How much did I make today alone?!”
The cheers continued even as the arena staff dragged away the sprawled-out Im Juntae and the golem’s remains.
In the middle of it all, the announcer, dripping with sweat, shouted for them to calm down, but no one listened.
The banquet hall pulsed, seized by an unprecedented frenzy.
“Enough.”
Until, suddenly, a somber voice echoed out.
I lifted my head.
Yu Wolha had risen from his seat and was looking down at me.
His gaze was colder than it had ever been.
‘As expected, when things get this out of hand, even he can’t maintain his poker face.’
This had to be the situation he wanted the least.
He might have been able to tolerate Gono achieving ten consecutive wins with a single swing of his club.
But Im Juntae’s pathetic retirement was a fatal blow.
“Hey, I think the operator’s pissed.”
“Pissed is an understatement. His so-called vice-operator just got schooled by a goblin.”
“Exactly. His own guild’s A-rank Hunter went down without landing a single blow. Yu Wolha has every right to be furious.”
“Hey, you shouldn’t say his name here…”
“The hell do I care? Isn’t the Samwol Guild actually nothing special? Im Juntae was a pretty big deal in Samwol, wasn’t he? And a guy like that got taken down just like that.”
It didn’t matter that the miscellaneous Hunters before had become Gono’s sacrificial lambs.
But Im Juntae was the vice-operator of the banquet hall and an A-rank Hunter from the Samwol Guild.
His disgraceful exit brought about a completely different situation than before.
“Hey, this… maybe Yu Wolha isn’t so untouchable after all?”
“Maybe we’ve been too scared of him. Come to think of it, that bastard can’t say a single word to the big three guilds.”
“If it weren’t for his daddy, he might be scraping by in some bottom-tier guild.”
This was what I wanted, what I had guided them to.
His position, once reigning as an unshakable, absolute ruler.
Cracks were beginning to form.
“I believe I said, enough.”
Suddenly, Yu Wolha spoke in a low voice.
An eerie voice swept through the murmuring banquet hall.
The Hunters fell silent, their expressions reluctant.
[The Sage reports that a wide-area fear-type skill is being applied!]
Just as I thought.
The Hunters’ fear of Yu Wolha wasn’t just due to psychological factors.
He must have used a fear skill to subdue them every time he called them into his office for identity verification.
And since Yu Wolha’s fear skill was powerful.
For most of the Hunters, the memory of that moment must have remained as trauma.
‘Well, in a place this large, it seems it’s just barely enough to quell their discontent.’
I was curious.
What would happen here if the leash he so precariously held were to snap?
And so, I spoke.
“Announcer.”
- Y-Yes! Y-You called, Young Master!
“Isn’t there one last opponent remaining?”
- Ah… w-well, that is…
“Very well.”
Yu Wolha answered in the announcer’s stead.
“Please wait in the waiting room for a moment, Mr. Kim Woohyun. I will make the preparations.”
Yu Wolha’s narrow, slanted eyes were raised.
But his voice was thick with unmistakable anger.
***
“You’re quite diligent, Mr. Kim Woohyun.”
It was Yu Wolha.
Without taking my eyes off Gono, I asked.
“Is there something you want to say?”
“There are many things. But first, let me ask just one.”
“Kiruk?”
Gono, who had been blissfully receiving my touch, suddenly had sharp eyes.
For an instant, the aura surrounding Yu Wolha had changed.
“Who are you.”
I stared at Yu Wolha with an indifferent expression.
Only he and I were here.
Thus, he was showing his true colors.
The very same Yu Wolha I remembered.
“I am Kim Woohyun.”
“There’s no chaebol heir named Kim Woohyun. In the first place, there’s no story of a third-generation chaebol with that level of assets visiting Korea recently. And there’s no third-generation chaebol sponsoring the Sanarae Guild.”
“Kim Woohyun might not be my real name.”
“Hey.”
Yu Wolha took a step forward.
“Kiruk.”
Gono raised his club, but I stopped him with my hand.
Then I stood up and met his gaze.
Yu Wolha glared into my eyes and growled.
“Do I look like a pushover to you? I don’t know where you crawled out from, but if you’ve had your fun, then get lost. Before I tear you to shreds and feed you to the monsters.”
“I’ll do that.”
I continued, a faint smile on my face.
“Right after I crush you.”
“Ha, so you finally show your true colors. I knew something was suspicious when Sanarae tried to shove you in here, even paying for it. There’s no way that snake of a woman would make a losing proposition.”
Yu Wolha spat on the floor and looked up again.
“Did Changcheon send you? Or Pungwol? Even Sanarae wouldn’t join hands with those bastards and risk a guild war.”
“You must have made quite a few enemies. The way you’re rattling off guild names.”
“Of course. You think it’s easy getting this far? How do you think I climbed up to this point, only for some bug I’ve never seen before to try and tear me down like this?”
“Anyone listening would think you achieved all this through hard work. But in reality, you’ve never properly achieved anything on your own.”
“…What?”
For a moment, Yu Wolha’s breath hitched.
“You always chose the easy path. And yet, you were envious and jealous of those who crawled their way up the hard path, so you dragged them down to the bottom.”
“What do you… know about me…”
“That’s the kind of person you were. Even back in Hunters Den. You were like that from the very beginning, so how could the path you’ve walked so far have been anything but easy?”
Yu Wolha’s pupils dilated.
Among all the words that hit their mark, one word in particular had struck a nerve.
“…Hunters Den?”
Not many outsiders knew of his low-life, hooligan side.
Especially a person who had learned of his true nature in Hunters Den.
“You, don’t tell me.”
And now was the time to reveal my own true self.
The final card to cloud his judgment and ultimately make him walk to his own ruin.
I was certain.
Because I knew very well how to handle this type of person.
“Uh…”
I slowly removed my mask.
And so, with a slight delay, my forehead, eyes, nose. And finally, when my face was fully revealed.
“Shit…”
Yu Wolha stared at me, his eyes filled with a mixture of confusion, anger, anxiety, and a host of other negative emotions.
He remembers.
Yes, there’s no way he wouldn’t.
“Kim Han… ul.”
“Still calling me by my name. We’re four years apart, isn’t it about time you started calling me Hanul-hyung?”
“Kim Hanul, how are you…”
“It’s nothing personal. There’s something I want from you. I heard that if you beat the operator, he’ll grant you anything within his power.”
- I don’t want anything from you. It’s just personal.
Exactly seven years ago, you said that as you trampled me.
I was throwing those exact words back at him, but in reverse.
And he understood my intention.
His breathing grew even more ragged.
“Ha, it looks pretty damn personal no matter how you slice it.”
“I told you. It’s not personal, there’s just something I want from you.”
“What is it you want.”
“You think I’d tell you that now?”
With your garbage personality, you’d obviously get rid of it immediately.
*Grind.* Yu Wolha ground his teeth.
“Ha, so you finally crawl out like this. I should have crippled you back then.”
“You should have.”
“What?”
“You should have made sure.”
I took a step forward.
Yu Wolha took a step back.
In that instant, his face twisted in a visible grimace.
He had realized that he had instinctively created distance.
So I took another step closer, looked at him, and spat out my words.
“You were foolishly complacent, and that’s why you’re about to be crushed by my hands now.”
“Just because you have a mouth…”
“You seem pretty resentful. That the me who was crawling on the floor seven years ago is now trying to pull you down.”
“Shut…”
“Why don’t you try telling the audience like you did back then? That I’m the son of a single mother, that I’m from the countryside. Or maybe call your underlings and throw a tantrum like a child, telling them to beat me up. You don’t seem to have matured mentally at all, then or now.”
I kept pushing him.
So that his still-immature emotions would boil over into uncontrollable rage.
Boil over, so that he would cross the final line.
So that he would create a situation where he self-destructs.
“Ha. You’ve been doing well for yourself lately, so you think you’re untouchable, don’t you?”
“I wonder.”
“In the end, you’re just a B-rank Hunter, a nobody rookie.”
Yes, that’s important. It’s because I have just that level of recognition that I can reveal my identity to you now.
But if I don’t say those words out loud. Yu Wolha smirked.
It was a terribly vile smirk.
“Fine, go ahead and run wild.”
In that moment, Yu Wolha’s eyes flashed.
The last mask of hypocrisy that had veiled his face was stripped away.
“This time, I’ll be sure to tear you to death and throw you out as monster feed.”
With those final words, Yu Wolha turned and disappeared.
Exactly as I intended.
As expected, he was a man who never changed.
That’s why it was easy.
“Alright. See you later, Wolha.”
I replied with a smiling face.
Speaking to the passage where Yu Wolha had turned and disappeared.
***
About an hour later.
- W-Well, then, we will now begin today’s final matchup…
The announcer spoke with the face of a zombie.
The psychological pressure must have been immense.
The same went for the audience; they all just swallowed hard and looked this way.
“Wait. Before we start, I’d like to draw up a contract first.”
- A c-contract?
“Didn’t you say that if I win against the management, you’ll grant my wish? I’m saying I need a contract to properly guarantee that.”
“Do I look like the kind of person who would go back on his word?”
Yu Wolha asked.
He had returned to his usual poker face.
I answered in a plain tone.
“I don’t know you that well.”
“…”
A small crack appeared on his smiling face.
- W-What will you do, Operator? It seems he wishes to draw up a mana contract…
“That’s right.”
I took a contract out of the dimensional pouch at my waist.
A contract from which a somber, red energy emanated.
It didn’t take long for the Hunters to recognize it.
“What, what is that? That’s an Annihilation Contract?!”
“Where in the world did he get something so expensive… no, more importantly, it should be impossible for a normal person to even obtain one of those, right?”
As the murmuring grew, Yu Wolha bit out his words.
“Isn’t the risk on my side a bit too great? It would be problematic if you asked me to hand over my guild.”
“It’s fine. I’ll state what I want right here and now.”
“What is it you want?”
“Raum.”
“What?”
-?
““?””
A silence of a different nature than before filled the vast space.
Yu Wolha was also staring at me with a face that said he couldn’t understand.
It must have felt completely out of the blue.
After the first day, I had never once shown any interest in the gnome in front of him.
“Raum, you mean that potato lump I keep around for amusement?”
Yu Wolha muttered in a small voice, inaudible to the audience.
“Yes. He seems like a rather unique creature, so I took an interest.”
“You’d steal a monster someone else tamed just out of interest? You’re the same kind of bastard after all.”
“Think what you will.”
Yu Wolha let out a short laugh.
And this time, he shouted in a loud voice for the audience to hear.
“Fine, I will sign the contract. If I admit defeat, ownership of Raum will be automatically transferred.”
The announcer, sweating profusely, took the contract and brought it to Yu Wolha.
Yu Wolha scribbled his name with a pen.
After confirming that the red energy had flowed into him, he handed it back to the announcer.
- W-Well then, may we begin?
The announcer, holding the contract, asked cautiously.
However.
“What are you talking about, Mr. Announcer.”
Yu Wolha spoke with a vile smile on his lips.
“Hasn’t it already begun?”
- Excuse me?
*RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!*
Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate.
It was the sound of a pack of beasts moving with ferocious momentum.
*Creeeak.*
The eight gates connected to the arena.
The moment those iron gates opened, dozens of red glints scattered through the air.
As the vibrations grew stronger.
“Grrrrrr.”
Numerous monsters began to reveal themselves from the eight gates.
Starting with a Werebear the size of a house, to a massive wolf-like White Fang.
Even a pack of Boar Lords, a higher species of the Bloody Boar.
They were all monsters tamed by Yu Wolha.
- Huh?! W-Wait a minute! O-Operator! What is all this…?!
“Wait, what the hell is he doing right now?! Why did he bring out all his monsters!”
“The fuck, how is that fair? That’s against the rules!”
The audience seats rippled like a wave.
Regardless, Yu Wolha’s monsters surrounded me like beasts in front of their prey.
The beasts’ killing intent prickled, digging into my skin.
I stroked Gono’s head and opened my mouth.
“The audience seems to have a lot of complaints.”
“Silencing a bunch of pigs and dogs is easy. You don’t know me at all, Kim Hanul. You think I’d just let an opportunity like this slip away?”
Right. An opportunity to bury me for good.
He really is a predictable guy.
But I didn’t say that out loud, instead replying teasingly.
“Well, as someone who used to be one of the rabble hooked on a crappy game, I know this much. You shouldn’t underestimate the rabble.”
“Cut the pointless wordplay.”
With that, Yu Wolha gestured with his hand.
“Grrrrrr!”
The numerous monsters began to close in, baring their fangs.
He seemed to have no intention of continuing the conversation.
He likely intended to deal with me quickly, then use fear to suppress the Hunters who were screaming their complaints.
Although blinded by rage, Yu Wolha had something he could rely on.
But what could he do?
“To think you don’t know me,”
You’re already in the palm of my hand.
“Gono.”
I gazed at the small dagger Gono was holding.
A gift from the Primordial Emperor.
“Let’s begin.”
The stage was set. All that remained was to completely shatter and scatter everything.