The First Revenge (2)

Intestines and shards of bone rolled across the floor. The stench of gore clawed at his senses.

Just as even the faintest sound of breathing had begun to swell in the silence, it was Jeong Hantae who broke it.

"Woobin-hyung? What the hell... I'm not seeing things, am I? That's you, right?"

Hantae's expression flipped in an instant. The murderous intent he'd been carrying mere seconds before had vanished without a trace. He rubbed at his eyes, then spread both arms wide, beaming as though greeting an old friend.

"Thank god. You were alive! I had no choice because of Juseong-hyung, you know. It's been really rough on me too."

For all his forced composure, Hantae's mind was a storm.

He was definitely offered up as a sacrifice. How is he alive? Is that really Kang Woobin?

He had watched the man be sent to his death with his own eyes. It had never once crossed his mind that Woobin could still be breathing.

So how? How was he standing here?

"Come on, say something! Ah, right — we're number one now. Juseong-hyung will be thrilled when he hears you're back. Want to come with me?"

It was all noise, words thrown out to buy time. He needed a moment to get his bearings.

How did he one-shot Hyeokjae...?

Kim Hyeokjae, who had exploded and died moments ago, was the hidden card Hantae had poured years of effort into raising.

In terms of raw power alone, the man was strong enough to crack the top hundred of the rankings — a secret weapon nobody on the outside had ever known about.

Goddammit...

The gear alone that had gone into that man was worth millions of runes on the open market. And that treasure had been detonated in a single blow. The rage rising in him threatened to burn through his reason, but Hantae crushed it down hard.

That slippery snake wouldn't have just shown up for nothing.

They'd been comrades for over ten years. Even though their master Cha Juseong had marked him and thrown him away, no one knew Woobin better than Hantae did. The fact that Juseong — who judged people by strength and nothing else — had let Woobin into the party at all was proof enough of his caliber.

And yet, something didn't add up.

Five years. What has he been doing for five years?

A full five years had passed since they dumped him in that dungeon. Why surface only now?

Revenge. That must be it.

The guess didn't take long to arrive at.

"Say something already. You're starting to scare me. I said I was sorry, didn't I?"

Hantae tossed Unseong's dagger onto the floor and began walking toward Woobin.

But Woobin gave no reaction at all. He simply stared at Hantae with eyes brimming with killing intent, as if he wanted nothing more than to kill him where he stood. Unless you were a complete idiot, you couldn't miss that hostility.

"Haah..."

Hantae let out a long sigh and gave up on closing the distance. He scratched the back of his head, then shifted his expression entirely.

So that doesn't work on him.

His gaze sharpened as it fixed on Woobin.

"What's with playing friendly now, after all this time? Yeah?"

".........."

"You should've just died where you were. Now you're embarrassing everybody."

The corner of Hantae's mouth curled into a smirk as he changed plans.

Maybe I'll needle him a little.

He had always regretted the moment they threw Woobin away — regretted that it had been too clean. The sanctimonious, fake-nice Woobin had always been beneath him. A beggar who couldn't even afford a single bus ride back on Earth, strutting around Elid like he owned the place — it had never sat right with him.

He wanted to see it, just once. That bastard collapsing into despair. And how would he react to it?

"Oh, right. You remember Yuju, don't you, hyung?"

As it happened, he had some excellent news to share.

Oh Yuju. The girl in the guild who followed Woobin around like a shadow. Pretty enough to be popular, yet strangely — almost unnaturally — devoted to Woobin of all people.

"When word came that you were dead, oh man, she cried so hard. Felt terrible for her, so I personally took her to the dungeon gate."

Woobin's eyebrow twitched.

Hantae's lips curved into a wide, slow grin as he drove the wedge in deeper.

"You can imagine what happened, right? Would've been a waste to just kill her. A girl like that should get to try it at least once before she goes."

He snickered and edged toward Woobin, savoring each step.

"Except it got boring pretty quick. So I threw her to the goblins instead."

Hantae's expression sank, twisting into something creepy — as though he had slipped back into that exact moment and was savoring it all over again.

"And honestly? That part was worth watching. She was sobbing, begging for her life. And then, at some point..."

"Shut your mouth."

"Oh? So you can talk. And here I thought the shock had turned you mute."

Hantae studied Woobin's face. The flat, dead hardness was curdling into something else — a fierce, concentrated fury.

One more touch, and that face would turn into something truly beautiful.

"What, did you have feelings for her too, hyung? You should've said so earlier. Then maybe I wouldn't have let the goblins have their turn."

The words had barely left his mouth when—

KRA-BOOM!

A violent surge of current, and then— BOOM! — Woobin's new form launched forward.

KWA-BOOM! The air behind him warped and ruptured as though exploding, and with a deep whoom! he crossed the distance to Hantae's body in the blink of an eye.

"Whoa?!"

It was fast — fast enough that Hantae lost sight of him mid-motion. But only fast enough for exactly that.

A transparent membrane bloomed around Hantae, and with a harsh metallic screech, Woobin's blade ground to a dead stop against it.

"Guess you're not so shocked after all, huh?"

One look told Hantae the man had no proper equipment to speak of. The only thing worth noting was his weapon.

Huh? Isn't that... a Demon Sword?

A design covered in gnarled, vein-like ridges, wrapped in the characteristic black aura of a demon blade, with an actual eyeball set into the steel — it looked every bit the legendary weapon it was rumored to be.

Wow...

Hantae stared at the demon sword, transfixed. As far as he knew, some lunatic had stolen it from the Sword Saint ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠four years ago and vanished. So how did this guy have it?

It didn't matter why, not really.

The demon sword...

He wanted it. He wanted to take it.

It had been on his collection wishlist for the past ten years, after all.

KWA-BOOM-BOOM! — shhk!

Woobin's new form carved a furrow around Hantae's barrier. The floor was gouged away and the air shuddered with every strike, and each time, a hairline crack spidered across the protective membrane.

A destruction attribute?

The Protection of the Earth Dragon boasted defense powerful ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enough to completely no-sell a world boss's instant-kill attacks. For it to crack under slashes like these, there was only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one possible explanation.

A debuff from a destruction attribute. Nothing else.

A genuine demon sword, then.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠effects bound to it were clearly real. To think anything could scar the Protection of the Earth Dragon like this.

Thump. Thump.

He couldn't hold back anymore. He'd originally planned to toy with the man for a while — but he'd changed his mind.

"Think you can break through? Even Juseong-hyung couldn't crack this thing."

He answered casually, all the while pulling an item from his inventory.

Hidden gear capable of pinning even a monstrous field boss in place for a solid thirty minutes.

Using it here was like swinging a butcher's cleaver at a chicken — but it didn't matter.

It's mine now.

Hantae's mind was already filled with nothing but the demon sword.

Hantae pulled the item from his inventory.

Under normal circumstances, it was nothing but a cheap crowd-control trinket — something used to blind and disorient an enemy.

CRASH!

But combined with the Fangs of Paralysis, the effect became something else entirely.

Hisssss—

Dense, rust-red smoke billowed out in all directions, swallowing the space around them.

Woobin's brilliantly flaring blade-light froze mid-strike.

He couldn't see through the smoke to confirm it, but there was no doubt in Hantae's mind — the man was paralyzed now.

A situation just like five years ago had arrived. And this time, he wasn't short on time, either.

So how should he torment him?

Maybe I'll show him Yuju?

Judging by how angry the man had gotten a moment ago, he clearly still had feelings for her. How would he react to seeing what she had become?

This is going to be fun.

Hantae's face twisted into the mask of a demon.

Still — you'll pay the toll before you take anything from me.

The price for killing Hyeokjae, a card he had spent five whole years cultivating, was going to be paid in full.

Where to start — how about pulling every last tooth first?

The hazy smoke began to thin, little by little. Certain the man would be sprawled on the floor, Hantae swept his gaze across the ground.

"What the... where'd you go?"

But where the smoke had cleared, there was nothing. Only the three crippled prisoners he'd bound up, foaming at the mouths and trembling violently.

A jolt like his heart plunging into his stomach hit him.

Did he actually get away?

Before the question could even settle—

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Footsteps echoed from far away, and Woobin's figure came into view — running at full speed, not even bothering to look back.

You pathetic bastard.

The corner of Hantae's mouth lifted.

He sets out for revenge, and the moment it stops going his way, he bolts. Had he always been this pathetic? A snort of laughter escaped him before he could stop it — but first, he had to catch him.

"Hey! Stop right there!"

He sprinted at full power, but the distance only kept growing.

By feel, the man was moving faster than an A-rank mount.

"Goddammit!"

He ground his teeth as he ran, reaching for his mount — but it seemed he wouldn't be needing it.

Skree—

Woobin's footsteps stopped. There was nowhere left to run.

The only route of retreat was the single passage Hantae himself had come through.

"Haah... seriously. Aren't you even a little embarrassed? If it were me, I'd have died fighting."

Snickering, Hantae drew a single sword from his inventory.

"Oh, right. This belongs to you. Here you go."

CLANG!

A sword tumbled to the ground and rolled to a stop in front of Woobin.

"It was your favorite, wasn't it? You practically cried when I took it off you. Nobody uses it anymore — it's trash now."

Woobin picked up the sword without a word.

"What? Happy to see it?"

"Hantae."

"?"

"You've gotten awfully talkative."

"......"

"Let's start by killing you once."

"...What?"

The words made no sense — and then—

SCREEEECH—

An ominous shriek burst out, as if raking across his brain.

CLUNK.

A massive shockwave rolled across the floor beneath his feet.

"What the hell?!"

Whirling around, Hantae found something incomprehensible looming behind him.

A colossal gate, towering five meters high, stood slammed shut. The path he'd come through had been an open corridor, hadn't it—

Come to think of it, even the floor was strangely different from the basement room that should have been here.

A trap?

Before the question could fade—

Ding. A single line of text greeted Jeong Hantae.

FWOOSH—

Fierce flames roared up around him.

Strangely enough, he felt no heat at all.

Ding.

Because the Protection of the Earth Dragon carried enough integrated functions to let him survive even at the bottom of the deep sea.

The trap itself was beyond anything he'd imagined, but nothing about his situation had actually changed. His composure returned, and Jeong Hantae burst out laughing.

"Kill me once? That's hilarious."

He clutched his belly, wheezing between guffaws.

"What's wrong with your head, huh? Did you catch chuunibyou in that dungeon or something?"

Then his expression dropped all at once, and he drew out a single item.

"No, no — you're the one who's getting beaten first."

An S-rank weapon he'd hunted down purely for his own amusement.

And it happened to synergize beautifully with the Protection of the Earth Dragon. The barrier was effectively impenetrable — but it was a conditional skill, one that drained stamina to maintain.

With this spear in hand, though, that one flaw vanished completely.

"What are you waiting for? I went to all this trouble — come on, do something."

Hantae curled his lips into a smirk and taunted Woobin.

The strategy was simple: while the man's stamina drained away keeping the Earth Dragon's barrier up, Hantae would grind him down, little by little, with the Atonement of Agony. It was the same flawless, never-lose playbook he'd relied on for years. He grinned at the memory.

Now, what else would he enjoy hearing about?

Heh—

As if some delightful idea had just struck him, interest glittered across Hantae's face. He slowly opened his mouth to speak—

—and step. Woobin moved first.

Hantae had assumed the obvious: an attack with the demon sword. So what was this?

The man suddenly dropped the demon sword to the floor and came at him — fists clenched.

He really does think I'm an idiot.

The playful look drained from Hantae's face and hardened. He'd meant to toy with the man and savor his despair — but he'd changed his mind.

I'll stomp him into the dirt properly.

He dropped into a stance and drew the spear in tight against his body. Right on cue, Woobin's fist shot toward the barrier.

It was so absurd he couldn't even laugh. It looked like nothing more than a final, mocking flail of defiance — the last desperate jab of a man thumbing his nose at him.

Hantae watched that fist coming and swung the spear without a moment's hesitation. He'd skewer the arm along with the fist and drive it all the way up through the shoulder.

And so Hantae's spear pierced straight through the Protection of the Earth Dragon and, with a deep whoom, met Woobin's fragile, outstretched fist—

One brief, bone-shaking impact—

CRUNCH.

And Jeong Hantae's memory went flying, clean off the rails of consciousness.