The Assault (3)

Confusion flickered across Woobin's face. The flood of experience points and runes was one thing, but this—

Ring—

The information floating before his eyes was difficult to make sense of.

The monster from just now... was Kim Baekcheong?

Kim Baekcheong—the name of the degenerate thug Woobin had run into at the gates of Bushin. As far as he knew, the man had been locked up in jail. So why had he appeared in the village looking like that?

Artificially crafted, huh...

Woobin's eyes narrowed. Judging from the information alone, he could infer one thing clearly: someone had deliberately turned Kim Baekcheong into that state.

Turning a hero into a monster—was that even possible? And why would anyone do such a thing in the first place?

Countless questions surfaced, and then Lee Jeonghoon's words came back to him.

Sponsorship. Interpreted differently, those words meant Bushin had not yet joined the UN.

No way...

'That lunatic.'

Woobin curled the corner of his mouth upward, as if a certain suspicion had hardened into conviction.

'If things go well, I can lure him out with ease.'

His tangled thoughts were finally falling into place. And just then, a familiar figure was approaching from the distance.

"Might I have a word with you?"

The man who would pin down the first button of his plan—Lee Jeonghoon.

Beneath a collapsed building.

"Shit, what the hell was that?"

A man clutched his head and pulled himself to his feet. His name was Yu Cheolyoung. A sudden earthquake had brought the building down around him, and he'd been out cold for a while.

He touched his forehead—blood was trickling from it.

Maybe I should have pumped my stamina a little, knowing this would happen.

Yu Cheolyoung was a 17th-Wave hero who had spent one year in Elid. But his level wasn't anything to brag about.

Barbaric work like hunting monsters never suited him. Money-touching business—that was his true calling.

"Oh, right!"

As if remembering something, Yu Cheolyoung scrambled up from the floor. The lamp was dead and nothing was visible.

"Fire—the fire!"

Groping along the ground, his hand closed around the extinguished lamp. He cast the ignition skill he'd installed just in case, and whoosh—the lamp burst into flame.

The wrecked office came into view.

'Ah...'

It had only been last month that he'd set up this office and the business system had started running properly. And now this—a lightning bolt from a cloudless sky.

"Fuck!"

Yu Cheolyoung rushed frantically toward the operating table. The NPC he'd gone through hell to procure lay sprawled there, bleeding out.

"Hey! Hey! Wake up! Hey!"

He even stuffed his precious Holy Grail into the man's mouth, but there was no response. The man was long dead.

"Haah..."

Yu Cheolyoung let out a long sigh and stared down at the operating table. The man on it, not yet fully disassembled, had already gone cold.

"After how much I paid for this stuff..."

Kidneys and livers were one thing, but the brain and the heart had cost him a serious sum. Throwing them all away would be a painful loss.

'Should I do it myself...'

He considered it for a moment, then shook his head.

'I must really be desperate for money. Forcing myself to touch filthy work like that.'

Gritting his teeth, Yu Cheolyoung moved to the next room.

'Come on, come on. Be alive.'

Renting this office alone cost a staggering 1.6 million gold. If the last one was dead too, he'd be forced back into that godawful hunting grind.

"Damn it, why won't the door open!"

Thud! Thud!

He rammed his shoulder against the stuck door, and crack—it broke apart. Yu Cheolyoung lost his balance and pitched forward.

"Owowowow. My knee. Huh?!"

There was no time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to nurse the pain. He'd spotted a small boy lying unconscious, bleeding.

"Hey, eat! Eat it!"

He shoved the Holy Grail into the boy's mouth. The torn wounds knit together bit by bit, and his breathing eased.

"Phew..."

Yu Cheolyoung let out a breath.

This little brat had come bundled with the man on the operating table—part of the package, thrown in as a freebie. What was the phrase... master and servant, even in death?

Normally he'd have raised the boy up nice and tidy and put him on the black-market auction block, but circumstances had soured.

'Nothing to be done about it.'

A boy wasn't worth much anyway—but he no longer had the luxury of haggling over such things.

Yu Cheolyoung's face went cold.

Flinch!

The unconscious boy's eyes snapped open.

Eeeek! The kid screamed in terror,

"No—no! NO!!!"

and began thrashing like a madman. The boy's foot smacked Yu Cheolyoung square in the face.

"Argh! You little bastard!"

From the flash of pain, Yu Cheolyoung's hand instinctively backhanded the boy across the face. The child's body went limp.

"Ahh... seriously, this is pissing me off."

He could hear faint, shallow breathing—so the boy wasn't dead.

"What the hell is going on today?"

Yu Cheolyoung was grinding his teeth in frustration when it happened.

Crackle—crackle—

A bright light seemed to seep down from the ceiling, and a clear, bell-like voice rang out.

"Are you all right in there?!"

Ring—

Crrrunch—

The air around him turned suffocatingly heavy. Under normal circumstances, his lungs would have been crushed flat and everything from his eyeballs to his stomach acid would have come spewing out.

The memory of the first time he'd endured this agony was far too vivid. His teeth clenched on their own, but he forced himself to stay calm.

Woobin swallowed his fury and sank into thought.

The plan was flawless. As long as Lee Jeonghoon didn't slip up, he would deliver this pain to that bastard by the end of the day.

But a little more preparation was needed. First, he needed to confirm his current power. That meant checking the levels he'd gained from this battle.

Ring—

The experience gained from this hunt came to roughly 1.6 billion. His level had climbed beyond even his expectations.

Ring—

At this point, agonizing over stat allocation was a thing of the past. He'd felt the greatness of Technique firsthand with every hunt he undertook.

'Almost 200, huh.'

Had any hero ever pushed a pure stat all the way to 200? No sane person would dump everything into a single stat, which meant Woobin was likely the only one alive who had.

Then, a sudden curiosity welled up.

'Can I still raise it with runes?'

How many runes would it take to push the stat up by just one, at his current level?

"...Fifty million runes..."

The amount required was enough to make his jaw drop.

'So they've set a hard ceiling.'

It felt like a number designed specifically to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tell players not to go any higher. Well, if stats could be raised infinitely with runes, the balance of the entire system would collapse—it was a reasonable safeguard, he supposed.

That settled the stat allocation. Next: items.

Ring—

"Hmm..."

Woobin frowned at his inventory.

The items from the 18th-Wave heroes' exclusive supply crate were undeniably good.

And yet, for boosting Woobin's current strength, they all fell a little short.

Cerberus was a combat mount, useful in PVP—but at level 1, it was unusable right now. The Spear of Judgment was, to begin with, a weapon he'd never trained in, so its practical value ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was low.

The only thing he could put to immediate use was the Skill Card: Thundergore.

"Let's give it a spin."

Ring—

With his setup complete, Woobin rose from where he stood. He lowered into a crouch and began to chant the trigger words.

KRAKA-KRAK—

A violent current erupted from the demon sword, and with a snap—his body shot forward.

KWAGAGAGAGA—

Electricity bloomed along the path he'd torn through. The air itself seemed to be destroyed, wobbling and distorting—the power looked considerable.

Ring—

After unleashing the skill a few more times into the empty air, the skill card's level hit MAX.

Effect after effect scrolled past, but the summary was simple: it had become enormously better.

The most eye-catching change was the unlocked consecutive activation. How had it changed, exactly?

Ring—

BANG!

Woobin's new form shot forward. KRAK-KRAK— the air behind him screamed as it was torn apart.

Normally, after using the skill, his body would seize up and create a delay. But not anymore.

Ring—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Woobin's new form carved through the workshop interior, again and again, in every direction.

Ring—

'So eight is my limit, huh.'

Thundergore consumed not MP but stamina. After eight uses, his reserves were so drained his legs could barely hold him up.

Next up: the hidden achievement reward he'd earned this time.

For a hidden achievement, he'd been hoping for immunity to all status ailments. So what kind of effect had this one given him?

Gulp—

With a flushed expression, Woobin pulled up the title.

Ring—

"Evil deeds?"

The description was vague. It said the target's thoughts would be shown—did that mean he could literally read minds?

His rough inspection complete, Woobin moved on. There was exactly one more thing left to verify.

Ring—

The question was whether other people could enter this workshop.

There was no way to check, really. And it wasn't as if he could run experiments on Juhee.

'Not a bad idea, though.'

Come to think of it, the experience of dying in that room would be worth far more than a full year in Elid. And the agony within those walls would set his rotting mind straight and proper.

Just as the corner of Woobin's mouth curled into something sinister—

"Mr. Woobin!"

From far off, Min Juhee came rushing over, breathless, having been helping the villagers evacuate. In her arms, he could see a small boy, bleeding.

"What is that?"

But the important thing wasn't Juhee or the boy. His gaze locked onto a man standing beside Juhee.

Under ordinary circumstances, a total stranger—he wouldn't have spared him a thought. Yet above the man's head, an incomprehensible string of labels hung in the air.