The Assassin Hunter Halts Time: Chapter 15
“Master, you’re back!”
As Dojin entered Burning Red, the manager bowed deeply at the waist and spoke.
Every time he heard that title, bile rose in his throat, but he forced it down.
“Is Sohee inside?”
“Yes, I’ve had her stay in the back room. But it seems we’ll need to set up a fight soon.”
All the men registered here had to fight.
Ultimately they came for debt clearance, yet they had to please the eyes of the spectators.
Dojin nodded.
“Good. First, I’ll go to Sohee.”
“I’ll escort you! But what’s in that bag? Let me carry it.”
“Just guide me.”
“Oh, of course!”
The manager kept chuckling as if worried a single bean might fall, leading Dojin forward.
Soon they reached the room where Sohee was.
Dojin tossed the bag in front of her.
“Here. Grab the handle in the center and pull.”
“……Huh?”
Sohee tilted her head.
The manager asked Dojin, “Master, what does that mean…?”
But the man couldn’t finish.
Pfft!
“……!”
Dojin’s arm whipped out at him in an instant.
A long, vivid red line appeared, and red blood began to gush.
“K-kek!”
The man desperately clutched his throat, trying to stem the flow, but then he collapsed.
Sohee’s eyes widened at the blood-soaked carpet.
What the hell is happening?
But Dojin spoke to her, “There’s no time for a long explanation right now.”
He pulled out his smartphone and dialed someone somewhere.
The call was answered by Sohee’s mother.
“M-Mom!”
“Sohee! Sohee!”
The mother and daughter, faces to faces, burst into tears.
Soon Dojin snatched the phone and said, “Mom, I don’t have time to talk long. I’ll hang up. I’ll return with Sohee soon.”
“Yes! Yes! Thank you! Really, thank you!”
Dojin ended the call.
He looked at Sohee and asked, “What’s your level?”
“……Thirty-nine.”
“You’ve got a long way to go.”
She hadn’t even hit fifty yet.
No, given how recently she awakened, it wasn’t bad at all.
Only a year had passed.
Dojin asked her, “I’m going to completely destroy this place from now on. Never do this kind of thing again.”
His gaze had gone ice-cold, the way it was in his assassin days.
Sohee instinctively flinched and stepped back.
Dojin continued, “Will you help me leave this place, or stay here?”
“Can we… really leave here?”
“Of course.”
Dojin gave a short answer.
There was no need for more.
Sohee was the same.
“I want to go. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Then, keep those bastards who’re coming at me at bay. That’s all.”
Dojin glanced at the bag on the floor, then immediately opened the door.
Thud!
He picked up the Blood Vein.
Black flames hovered above the countless people in the room.
That was their desire, the emotion that danced in the shadows.
Dojin’s eyes flashed.
“Dark Absorption.”
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Dozens of the men’s despair was sucked into the Blood Vein.
How thick, filthy, and vile it was.
[100%.]
Dojin swung the blade the instant the despair reached its limit.
“Explosion.”
Kwaaaang!
The despair that erupted from the blade turned into a massive explosion and tore the surrounding area apart.
Most of the men here…
No, every single one of them.
They were filthy bastards who didn’t even see people as people.
Those who thought they stood above everyone else.
Dojin’s gaze sank coldly.
And the men who moved when the explosion happened.
“Block them well.”
“……Yes!”
Sohee, gripping a huge shield, answered with a rigid expression.
* * *
Kwaaaang!
WEEEEEEEEEE!
The lobby on the first floor of the hotel shook violently.
Hunters instantly descended to the underground gambling hall.
Most were D-rank or C-rank, but their number easily exceeded fifty.
‘At least… fifty to sixty levels?’
Some stood out.
The hunters waiting in the hotel had all come down, then.
“That way. Block them from coming.”
“W-what? Alone?”
“No way.”
Dojin walked into the noisy hall of the underground arena.
To completely tear this place apart, he needed the ledger and accounting books the managers had written.
He moved into the inner room of the hall.
“That bastard! That’s him!”
“Crazy bastard…!”
“Kill him!”
The hunters who had come down to the tenth floor rushed at Dojin.
Knives, axes, maces.
Their weapons were diverse.
But before any of them could reach Dojin…
CLANG!
“Kyaaak!”
Sohee raised a shield larger than her own body and blocked their path.
Small frame.
Where did such strength come from?
The hunters attacking Dojin stared at Sohee in shock.
Then Dojin moved.
“Nice cut.”
Paf!
In the instant Dojin’s body moved,
Puk! Puk! Puk!
Holes appeared in the throats of the hunters who had been blocked by the shield.
Thud.
Sohee’s eyes shook at the sight of the hunters turning into cold corpses in the blink of an eye.
Even earlier…
‘People… are dying this easily…?’
Sohee stared at Dojin.
“Ugh!”
She realized blood was dripping from the hand gripping the shield.
The palm had been torn while blocking the three hunters’ attacks just moments ago.
Dojin glanced back at her.
“Hurts?”
“A little.”
“Then go back.”
“No, I can do it.”
She couldn’t let out a cry.
The mother’s face from the video call earlier.
Even if she didn’t know…
‘I have to follow.’
Following this man meant she could leave this place.
She knew it instinctively.
Soon Dojin finished off the hunters blocking him and headed toward the manager’s inner office.
He didn’t know the exact location, but…
‘I can guess roughly where it is.’
The men here followed the same patterns anyway.
Red Circle never left ledgers in obvious places.
KABOOM!
Dojin shattered the widest door in the corner and stepped inside.
He casually looked around.
“As expected.”
He saw a bookshelf set up behind the desk.
In movies, when you pull a book from a shelf like that, it usually slides and the shelves don’t move.
‘Similar.’
Dojin pushed aside the office chair on the large desk and opened the drawer.
First compartment—fully open and close.
‘Third compartment—half open.’
Then he opened the first compartment fully, then closed it halfway.
GRRRRRRR.
With a small vibration, the space where the chair had been opened and a staircase descended.
Sohee beside him widened her eyes.
“W-what is this?”
“Their leashes.”
Dojin glanced toward the entrance.
The remaining men gathered in front of the door.
Their momentum had dropped a little because their colleagues had been picked off one by one, but…
‘If I give up, I’ll die by the boss’s hand.’
He couldn’t give up.
Dojin told Sohee, “Block the entrance.”
“F-for how long?”
“About five minutes?”
“Five minutes?!”
Sohee exclaimed in shock.
She was under forty and how was she supposed to block that many hunters?
But Dojin pointed at the shield in her hands.
“That’s why I gave you the good one. Use your skill. And… hold on by yourself.”
After casually throwing out the words, Dojin descended the stairs.
Sohee’s expression stiffened.
“Ah, shit!”
She ran toward the hunters trying to enter the room, desperately.
Bang!
Sohee pressed the shield tightly against her body and pushed the men away, then struck the floor beneath the shield while facing the door.
“Skill! Unbreakable Shield!”
Kwaaang!
A golden semi-transparent shield appeared in front of Sohee’s shield with a dull thud.
The skill attached to the shield—Unbreakable Shield.
It had the drawback of becoming immovable the moment it was used, but its strength and defense doubled five times.
Even if her level lagged, her strength and defense would rise fivefold.
From now on, it was a battle of will.
“This crazy bitch! Clear it out quickly!”
“S-shield isn’t breaking!”
“This crazy…!”
Since she completely blocked the mouth, there was no way to escape.
The hunters holding axes and maces furiously bashed the shield.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With every strike, Sohee’s body shook violently.
Blood dripped from the hand gripping the shield, but her eyes were never those of a sixteen-year-old delicate girl.
‘Absolutely…’
‘I won’t dodge.’
Sohee clenched her teeth.
* * *
She followed the stairs downward.
A warehouse barely ten pyeong.
The bookshelves covering the walls were filled with documents listing the men’s misdeeds.
Whoosh.
Dojin pulled out one document and flipped it lightly.
Every filthy act that had happened here was written there, but…
‘This is nothing.’
If he dug deeper, he could tie at least middle managers.
Then…
‘I can completely cut off this place’s money source.’
Dojin pulled out his smartphone and texted his secretary.
―Now.
Now he was preparing the ropes to bind these men.
Squelch squelch.
Dojin climbed back upstairs to the office.
But at that moment…
KABOOM!
“Kyaaak!”
Sohee’s body was flung backward with a scream.
Dojin instinctively moved to catch her falling body.
“M-Mister…”
The hand gripping the shield trembled.
How tightly he had gripped it.
And it was covered in blood.
Sohee’s eyes looked up at him with a trembling expression as if she might cry at any moment.
Dojin carefully sat her on the floor.
“Rest for a bit.”
He turned his head.
Among the hunters entering the entrance…
‘……B-rank.’
He spotted one man spewing out an overwhelming aura.
“Hey, what the hell did you turn this place into?”
A long scar crossing the left eye.
Chain-shaped piercing connecting nose and ear.
Short-cropped hair and long arms mismatched with his build, gripping a sword like a broken blade.
“Huh? You won’t answer? If I just chop your leg from ankle to knee, you’ll listen, right?”
His calm words carried thick killing intent.
Without a doubt, this man had killed a great number of people.
‘Similar level to Heo Sang-woong?’
And behind him, the rest of the hunters.
It would take some time before help arrived, but…
Srring.
‘Doesn’t matter.’
These men here were just small fries anyway.
Killing them all didn’t matter.
Dojin pulled several daggers from inside his jacket.
And…
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every light bulb in the room shattered in an instant, plunging everything into darkness.
Srruk.
In the darkness, Dojin moved.
Puk! Slash!
“Kyyyyaaaaak!”
Dojin had moved, and a scream tore out.
Click.
And with the sound of the door locking, the hunters felt their entire bodies stand on end.
“O-open the door! Turn on the lights, quickly!”
The B-rank hunter shouted.
For him too, this environment was the first.
And the moment the lights went out, Sohee hurriedly crawled into the corner, raised her shield, and covered her body.
A faint silhouette visible in the cold darkness.
Soon the inside of the room had become hell.