The Assassin Hunter Stops Time
Nothing unusual happened.
After entering the headquarters of SW Technology, he immediately returned to his home office in the officetel.
The path was so monotonous that it seemed almost suspicious.
Following closely behind Dojin, Junyeong lit a cigarette.
“It looks like we’ll need to infiltrate the SW headquarters to get the answer.”
Otherwise, we’d never uncover anything.
Without figuring out the connection between that guy and the SW headquarters, there’d be no progress.
So the fastest way was obvious.
“We have no choice but to recruit someone else.”
High-ranking personnel would be hard to sway, but approaching desk staff or personnel in related departments was child’s play.
We could bribe them with money or threaten their families.
When it came to such matters, Junyeong was a pro among pros.
Becoming the chairman of Red Circle wasn’t just because of his skill.
Eventually, the lights in the officetel went out.
An interesting fact: his pattern was incredibly straightforward.
After leaving the SW headquarters, he didn’t come out until nearly midnight.
Then he returned to the officetel to sleep.
The next morning, he would head back to the SW headquarters at the same time.
Since the lights always went out at the same time, Junyeong placed a cigarette in his mouth and turned around.
He was heading toward the car parked a short distance away.
“Starting tomorrow, I need to change the plan.”
He’d been watching for days with zero results.
Or was it a result that he’d figured out the guy’s pattern?
Click.
Junyeong opened the car door and slid into the driver’s seat, already pondering tomorrow’s changes.
But the moment he closed the door, a strange, unfamiliar feeling hit him.
Junyeong instinctively lowered his head.
Hiss!
A chill ran down the side of his neck.
Junyeong wrenched the door open and rolled across the ground as if launched by force.
Because the door had been slammed shut with such force, it nearly crumpled from the shock.
But he had no time to worry about that.
The bleeding from his neck was far worse than he’d expected.
“You…?”
Junyeong stood up from his seat and spotted a man stepping out from the back seat.
Ha Dojin.
How the hell had he gotten here…?
“I was sure I saw you go inside…”
He’d even checked that the lights were off.
But…
“Good instincts.”
Considering Dojin’s skills, he hadn’t even breathed until the door closed.
Among Red Circle’s executives, he was the one constantly training in real combat.
Junyeong frowned.
Wasn’t it…?
“So this entire multi-day routine was just bait?”
Junyeong’s question earned a simple response.
Dojin wiped the blood from his dagger clean.
After all, he already knew Junyeong had been tailing him.
He just wanted to make that crystal clear.
“He probably intended to change the plan before long.”
Timing was timing.
The moment you thought someone was getting comfortable, you had to be the most cautious.
Even after he’d changed his pursuit pattern multiple times.
But even that pattern had a shape.
After all, every human carried habits.
And even the habit of deliberately trying to break those habits.
That was why he’d waited.
He’d been waiting for that guy’s vigilance to grow just a little weak.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t killed Junyeong outright.
“If only he’d leveled up by thirty, I would’ve ended him.”
He couldn’t immediately fill the stat gap, but that didn’t matter.
It was just a pity; the outcome wouldn’t change.
Dojin looked at the blood still dripping from Junyeong’s right neck.
The sight of him squeezing the wound shut made his blood boil.
Pam!
Without hesitation, Dojin charged straight at Junyeong.
Junyeong, startled by the sudden assault, reached for his weapon.
The moment his dagger gleamed.
Clang!
Dojin’s blade met Junyeong’s in a shower of sparks.
Junyeong frowned.
“This guy….”
He was stronger than expected.
Of course he was.
He was the kind who’d survived in the Dragon’s Nest.
Junyeong quickly scanned the surroundings.
No CCTV.
He’d deliberately chosen a place like this.
But if the hunters started fighting seriously, the police would arrive within minutes.
That would actually turn the tables and trap that guy.
“You insane bastard. Not even a dungeon, and you’re starting a fight out here?”
Junyeong spat out curses.
No reply came.
Dojin’s form seemed to slide forward.
Swish!
He vanished as if splitting apart and rejoining.
“…!”
Junyeong’s eyes widened in shock.
Instinctively, he knew.
Night Walker.
But how could Night Walker move like that?
Thwack!
Clang!
Instinctively, he spun and swung his blade to block.
But…
Crack!
“Kuk!”
After blocking, his balance was shattered.
Dojin exploited the instant and slashed Junyeong’s calf.
It was a shallow cut, but still serious.
“You bastard…!”
He could sense the guy’s emotions.
Even slowing his movement slightly was extra.
Dojin glanced at the blood on the tip of his dagger and looked back at Junyeong.
“He’s definitely….”
Not easy.
If this had been a situation where Junyeong was aiming at him, the fight would have been much harder.
Just looking at the stats, that guy was far above the Shadows.
Dojin exhaled lightly.
Steadying his breathing, he searched for Junyeong’s opening.
Dojin had always been skilled at facing opponents stronger than him.
And most of his fights had been assassinations.
But he’d fought straight-on many times too.
“Like….”
It felt like going back to that time.
When he’d played the part of a shadow beside Gang Seungho.
When he’d taken countless lives and lived like a monster.
Dojin’s gaze grew calm.
The wind itself seemed to stop.
“…Who are you?”
Junyeong asked, sensing the change in Dojin’s atmosphere.
Up to now, he’d fought countless people.
Monsters in dungeons.
Fast ones, strong ones, sturdy ones.
Hunters?
No need to say.
The number of hunters he’d killed with his own hands had long since passed into the hundreds.
None of them had been weak.
At least B-rank.
Some even A-rank.
But he’d never seen a guy move like this in all those fights.
“…He’s specialized in killing humans.”
Warning.
The warning sensors across his entire body were screaming.
“He’s not fast or strong….”
From the collision earlier, Junyeong could see that.
His opponent’s strength stat was lower than his own.
“But he’s not that fast either….”
Strange.
He was supposed to be someone you couldn’t catch even if you tried.
That was the guy who’d sunk into his bones.
Junyeong bit his lip hard.
But that made it even more certain.
“So it’s been you all this time, interfering with our work.”
“Maybe.”
No need for long speeches.
Dojin pushed off the ground and charged at Junyeong, who responded with full force.
Like he’d been waiting for Junyeong to get flustered.
Swish!
Junyeong’s attack was sharp.
The sharpest he’d ever faced since returning.
And the way he’d extended his empty hand first was flawless.
Whish!
Though it looked like a feint, it wasn’t.
Dojin tilted his head to dodge the blade hand.
Swish!
The blade came from the side.
Any normal person would have ducked or raised their weapon in panic.
But…
“Predictable.”
Dojin had already learned a lot about Junyeong.
His attack patterns, his habits.
The final fight of his previous life.
Junyeong had been there then too.
Even though he hadn’t killed the guy who only knew how to strike and retreat, he’d left behind wounds deadly enough to force retirement.
Dojin tilted his head back slightly.
“…!”
Junyeong’s blade sliced through the air just beside Dojin’s eye.
They say even paper can’t cut it.
Mostly exaggeration.
But this time, it was true.
If it had been even a little deeper, it would have sliced both of Junyeong’s eyes.
Thud!
For a moment, shock registered.
Right next to his right thigh, a chill of pain spread.
“W-when…?”
His right hand had been holding the dagger, yet Dojin had pulled out the knife he’d been keeping at his waist.
“You bastar…!”
Boom!
Junyeong swung his blade wide, buying himself time.
He wanted to pull away.
Whish!
But Dojin instead lowered his stance and clung to Junyeong with desperate persistence.
Junyeong’s expression twisted into something savage.
“You disgusting leech!”
Uuuuung!
Blue light flickered across Junyeong’s blade as he focused his mana and activated his skill.
“Die.”
Triple Slash!
At almost the exact same instant, three strikes landed at once.
Normally impossible to block with a sword, even with a wide shield.
But the moment Junyeong’s skill activated.
“Time Distortion.”
At the same time Junyeong’s blade extended.
Sssssh.
The flow of the world slowed, as if the slow-motion button had been pressed.
In that subtle sensation, Junyeong’s panicked expression while trying to swing his blade became crystal clear.
Pam!
Within the slowed space, only Dojin moved like lightning.
Crack!
And as the brief slowdown ended, the instant the world resumed.
“Kyaak!”
Junyeong screamed in agony, staggering.
Blood poured from the gash Dojin’s sword had carved along his side.
Junyeong desperately clutched his side.
His neck wound was already bleeding heavily.
“Such a wound….”
His vision blurred.
Junyeong forced his eyes open and glared at Dojin.
That guy was still standing with zero openings.
In such a situation, he should have had time to breathe.
“Hah… hah… hah….”
His breathing grew ragged.
The problem wasn’t the pain.
It was that his body was slowing down because of the wounds.
“The bleeding is serious too….”
Junyeong was soaked in blood from head to toe.
His back, his sides, his thighs—everything was soaked through his clothes.
“Damn it… damn it….”
How had things come to this?
He’d planned to start buying SW employees tomorrow and gathering information on that guy.
As always.
“There shouldn’t be any problems….”
Junyeong’s eyes trembled for a moment.
So that’s how it was…?
“So it was slowly twisting like this…?”
Suddenly, he understood Gang Seungho’s feelings.
In a situation that felt subtly off.
Like trying to pull a foot out of a swamp— the more you struggled, the deeper you sank.
“Master must have been warning about this.”
That was why he’d said to be careful.
Junyeong recalled all the warnings Gang Seungho had given him and bit his lip harder.
But thinking about it now changed nothing.
“When did you…?”
“From the beginning.”
“….”
Unlike before, this guy was finally answering.
Was he starting to feel confident in this situation?
Even so, he kept his senses sharp, ready to pounce the instant Junyeong tried to run.
He didn’t loosen the tension in his muscles.
“You damned… gapless bastard.”
But even as he thought that, the most baffling thing was this:
“Why…?”
Why weren’t the police coming…?
Not even in a dungeon.
Two awakened people deliberately releasing mana and fighting each other, and why…?
But perhaps sensing Junyeong’s suspicion.
Dojin told him.
“No matter how long you wait, no one will come.”
“…What?”
“You’re going to die here.”
The SW had already taken action.
As long as there was no explosion capable of changing the terrain here, no one would arrive.
Soon, Dojin raised his sword.
“Let’s end this.”
This was just another gift he was sending to Gang Seungho.
And…
“More gifts are coming, so enjoy them.”
Gang Seungho.
Dojin charged at Junyeong like a shadow.