Chapter 447: Ally or Enemy (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 447: Ally or Enemy (1)
The S-rank Villain, said to stand opposite the S-rank Hunter.
Their existence wasn't born overnight.
They were individuals who, for one reason or another, had to step outside the bounds of society.
Having turned the world into their enemy, they faced countless crossroads between life and death.
And each time they miraculously survived, they seized more power.
That is usually how a Great Evil is born.
Survive, survive, and survive again.
Only those who have survived against the world for a viciously long time earn the right to threaten it.
There are surprisingly few S-rank Hunters who turn into villains.
Wealth, fame, power.
When you hold all the elements that stimulate human greed in your hands, why would you?
But just as the word ‘absolute’ doesn't exist in this world, there are some who cast it all aside and switch sides.
Perhaps they were swayed by a dangerous ideology, or they attained enlightenment in the wrong direction.
And one more thing.
There are cases where they dabble in a method of growth that is undeniably attractive, despite knowing it is utterly evil.
Kim Tae-yang fell into this last category.
“It’s pretty funny when you see stuff like this.”
Shin Yu-jeong, lying naked beside me, suddenly blurted out.
Wondering what she was on about, I glanced at the smartphone she was looking at. It seemed she was reading an article about Kim Tae-yang.
I reached out, lightly grasping her breast, and asked.
“What’s so funny?”
She replied.
“I mean, come on. If you’re an S-rank, you have a lot of money and you’re plenty strong.”
“And?”
“So I just don't get why someone like that gets so greedy and ruins themselves.”
“Hmm, I don’t know.”
I knew there was a lot of talk about Kim Tae-yang in the online communities.
Most people were asking the same question as Shin Yu-jeong.
Why would an S-rank Hunter go so far as to commit murder just to become stronger?
But my thoughts, and those of other S-rank Hunters, were different.
“I get it, to some extent.”
At my words, she whipped her head around and stared at me with wide eyes.
“…You get it? That bastard?”
“Yeah.”
To others, S-rank is perceived as the end.
Since there’s no higher rank, it’s an understandable assumption.
In fact, many A-rank Hunters think that all they need to do is reach S-rank.
I was like that when I was A-rank, too.
But once you actually get there, your mindset changes.
“Because being an S-rank isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning.”
“A new… beginning?”
“Yep.”
S-rank is an admission ticket.
A ticket to a world that others cannot see, a world that only those who have reached S-rank can glimpse.
A ticket to set foot in that place.
“But progress there is very slow.”
“Why?”
“Because you have to carve out a path with your own strength.”
As the history of Hunters has grown, a variety of knowledge has accumulated in the world.
Methods for growth focused on the stats you want.
Training regimens to quickly master the essential skills for each class.
Juniors walk a smooth path paved by the trial-and-error notes of their seniors.
That’s why modern Hunters grow faster and more easily than the 1st Generation Hunters.
“But from S-rank on, no one else’s knowledge applies.”
“How come?”
“Because everyone walks a different path.”
Even for mages, even for mages who have mastered the exact same attribute, their paths do not overlap.
At a glance, they might seem to be heading in a similar direction, but a closer look reveals they are distinctly different.
Couldn’t they share knowledge since they’re roughly similar?
No.
Even in a math problem that uses the same formula, if the numbers within it are different, isn't the answer different?
The path an S-rank walks is the same.
Faint but distinct differences create countless variables.
If you rashly try to follow another’s path, you might instead lose your own and wander for a long time.
After hearing my explanation, she muttered with a sullen expression.
“…What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
It seemed she didn't understand.
She’s always been a bit slow to grasp theoretical concepts, but this time, it wasn’t her fault.
It’s like trying to describe the outside world to a frog that has only ever lived in a well; it can’t empathize. This was the same.
“It’s just… a thing. You’ll understand naturally when you reach S-rank.”
At that, she pouted and shot me a sharp glare.
“…You smug bastard.”
“……”
I wasn’t trying to be condescending, you know.
Anyway.
For those reasons, I understood his feelings to some extent.
His growth was already stagnating, and then he was soundly defeated in a promotion match by a junior who was leagues behind him. With his personality, imagine how furious he must have been.
So, I could somehow understand his state of mind.
However, there was one thing I still couldn't figure out.
Who on earth taught him that method?
And of all times, they targeted him when his greed for power was at its peak.
That’s what I needed to find out from now on.
Who was the one that provided the cause for his corruption?
And which of the Seven Deadly Sins did they belong to?
But before that.
“Haven’t you rested enough?”
“…I don’t know. I’m in a bad mood, so I’m not doing it anymore toda—Ugh…♥”
Says who?
Our slightly cooled bodies quickly heated up again, warming the entire room.
* * *
The severity of Kim Tae-yang's punishment, charged with the heavy crime of special serial murder, was decided quickly.
There were several reasons for this.
One was that public attention was excessively focused on this case.
【Kim Tae-yang's Foretold Downfall.】
【An S-rank Hunter's S-rank Crime.】
【Kim Tae-yang, ‘Special Serial Murderer,’ What Will His Punishment Be?】
A flood of sensational articles poured out.
The reporters, who had been forced to hold their tongues under Kim Tae-yang's tyranny, began to vent their frustrations.
As a result, the already intense public interest burned even hotter.
The only way to cool it down was to wrap up the case quickly.
The second reason was Kim Do-jin.
Almost every day, he visited the association's board members and high-ranking government officials, declaring to their faces.
“I’m not asking for anything else. Just make sure he’s punished as much as he has sinned.”
He could have killed him if he wanted to.
But the reason he didn't was to show the victims' families, and everyone else.
The all-too-obvious fact that if you commit a crime, you must receive a corresponding punishment—a fact that is not always properly upheld.
Was it because he hated Kim Tae-yang?
No.
It was simply because he thought it was the best comfort he could offer the victims' families.
To this end, Kim Do-jin pushed very hard.
“I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’ve been getting a lot of international calls lately.”
“Wh-what does that…?”
“Something about how if I just close my eyes and change my citizenship, they'll give me a life beyond comparison to what I have now.”
“……!”
He said it to threaten them, but it wasn't a lie.
The number of countries contacting him was indeed growing.
One even said they would let him live like a king if he just changed his name from Kim Do-jin to Muhammad Do-jin.
“Of course, I’m proud to have been born a Korean, so I flatly refused, but…”
He grinned and continued.
“You never know what the future holds. Right?”
“……”
They were helpless when the S-rank Hunter who was supposed to be responsible for the future of the Republic of Korea came at them like this.
An S-rank Hunter with a severed arm, arrested in the act of committing a heinous crime.
An S-rank Hunter whose popularity was soaring by the day after taking down that criminal.
Wasn't it obvious whose side they should take?
And so, a month later, Kim Tae-yang's sentencing day arrived.
Kim Tae-yang, who appeared tightly bound in specially made chains, had changed drastically in a month.
His once-burly muscles had deflated like a popped balloon, and his hair had turned black.
Above all, his expression was dead.
In a way, it was to be expected.
Not only was he arrested as a special serial murderer caught in the act, but his arm was also cut off in the process.
Even the Sejin Group, his last bastion of support, had coldly turned its back on him.
In other words, there was no one left in the Republic of Korea to help him.
Thoroughly isolated, he stood in the courtroom with a dazed look on his face.
“The court will now deliver its verdict.”
He thought the details didn't matter.
He had already lost everything, so what did the length of his sentence matter?
But he didn't know.
He didn't know that below what he thought was rock bottom, there was an even deeper abyss.
“The defendant, Kim Tae-yang, is sentenced to thirty years in the special correctional facility, ‘Prison Belt’.”
“Wh-what…!?”
The moment the judge finished his sentence, Kim Tae-yang jumped to his feet.
“P-Prison Belt, you say.”
Prison Belt.
It is a vast artificial island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
A large main island sits in the center, surrounded by smaller islands connected to each other by thick chains.
There is only one reason for this island's existence.
To separately house villains who have committed heinous crimes.
To criminals, it is also known by another name.
‘The Hell of Criminals.’
No one knows exactly what happens there.
A magical fog surrounds the island year-round, making it impossible to see inside from the outside.
What about those who experienced it and came back out into the world?
They don't exist.
The records clearly show that there are people who have completed their sentences and been released.
However, they have never shown themselves anywhere in the world since.
So people always wonder.
Were they really released?
Or perhaps, did they die there long ago, only to be marked as released on paper?
To this day, no one knows the answer except for a few tight-lipped officials.
That’s what makes it all the more terrifying and dreadful.
“Th-this isn’t right…! How many people have I saved in this country until now, how can you do this to me?! Huh?!”
His spirit crushed by its infamous reputation, Kim Tae-yang began to struggle.
“I saved thousands! So shouldn't you overlook it if I killed just a few people, for fuck’s sake?!”
“……”
Everyone in the courtroom was enraged by his words.
“That, that crazy bastard…!”
“How dare he spout such nonsense!”
Amid the piercing glares, Kim Tae-yang fell to his knees before the judge.
“Please, I’m begging you, just spare me from that place…! I’d rather you give me a life sentence, just please don’t send me there!”
A desperate cry.
But there was no way a verdict, once decided, would be overturned.
The judge’s face grew even colder as he spoke.
“Take him away.”
At his command, the waiting officers immediately grabbed his arms and led him out.
As he was forcibly removed from the courtroom, Kim Tae-yang finally unleashed his fury.
“You sons of bitches… I’ll kill you all! I’ll find a way out of there and I’ll grind every single one of you, no, this entire country, to dust! You hear me?!”
A chilling declaration of revenge.
But his revenge would never come to pass.
Because that place was…
“That’s if he could even get out.”
…a place from which not a single person had successfully escaped in the last twenty years.
Quietly rising from his seat, Kim Do-jin left the courtroom and soon came face to face with someone.
“I knew you’d be here, Hunter Kim Do-jin.”
The man greeted him in a friendly manner.
It was Park Se-jun.
The man who had made a distinguished contribution in helping him arrest Kim Tae-yang.
Thanks to him, the Sejin Group was able to avoid the public's wrath.
If it hadn't been for him, the Sejin Group's stock price would have been in a miserable state by now.
“Thirty years in Prison Belt… It may be thirty years, but it’s practically a death sentence.”
“You could say that.”
It wasn't just Kim Do-jin's influence that led to such an extreme punishment.
“I heard the Sejin Group also pulled some strings.”
The Sejin Group had worked behind the scenes, just as he had.
“Haha, I specifically asked them to keep it a secret…”
Park Se-jun trailed off with a troubled expression.
Ever since he found this out, Kim Do-jin had been curious.
“Why did you do it?”
Simply cutting their ties was enough to protect the Sejin Group's stock price.
Whatever happened to Kim Tae-yang after that was no longer their concern.
So why did he mobilize the Sejin Group's connections to push Kim Tae-yang into a deeper abyss?
To this, he replied.
“I did it because I feared his revenge.”
“Revenge…”
“Even with his arm cut off, he’s still an S-rank Hunter. I figured he could probably escape from any ordinary prison.”
He wasn't wrong.
With the slightest opening, an S-rank Hunter could escape from prison.
This was even more true for Kim Tae-yang.
With his trait, he could easily smash through prison walls and flee.
‘He’s not wrong, but…’
It certainly sounded plausible.
But it didn't quite ring true.
It felt like I was listening to a story he'd prepared in advance to make me understand.
Perhaps that's why my suspicious gaze kept turning to Park Se-jun.
‘Could it be?’
Is it possible that the man in front of me was the one who taught Kim Tae-yang the wrong method?
Just as that suspicion, soft as a cloud of mist, was about to sharpen into a point.
“I’ll be on my way now. Let’s meet in a more comfortable place next time.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
“Haha, you’ve agreed, then? I’ll be in touch soon.”
With that, he left.
Park Se-jun turned and walked away after his final words.
Kim Do-jin watched his retreating back.
He watched until he had completely disappeared from sight.