The Watchful Eye (2)
Kim Jun turned toward the pillar behind him.
“Come out.”
His cold voice echoed through the twelfth floor.
But there was no response from behind the pillar.
Divine Surveillance Count: 01:22
Time kept ticking away. He could no longer afford to wait.
Kim Jun strode toward it.
His feet felt heavy with slime, but that didn’t matter.
And then—
Whoosh-
When Kim Jun reached the pillar, all he found was empty space.
“Where did—”
The moment he turned his head, he caught a faint afterimage flashing from behind another pillar in the distance.
Running away?
It was obvious now. Someone was watching him while keeping their distance.
“Having fun playing hide-and-seek?”
Kim Jun raised Dragon Eater. Black Flame began to blaze along the blade.
“Then how about this?”
Fwoooosh—!
A massive black firestorm shot toward the pillar.
The marble column melted almost instantly and collapsed.
Rumble—
But when the dust cleared, no one was there.
Kim Jun’s gaze moved to another pillar. There, too, he caught a tiny flicker of movement.
He’s still moving.
Divine Surveillance Count: 01:35
The situation was getting worse by the second. As long as that bastard kept looking at him, the count would keep climbing.
But something was strange.
How can he move that fast?
The floor around him was slick with the Lumina Worms’ slime.
Even Kim Jun had trouble moving; his feet stuck every time he took a step.
Yet that unknown presence moved freely, as if none of those restrictions applied.
Pretty damn fast.
Kim Jun analyzed the opponent’s movement.
If he were a hunter, his speed was at least on par with an A-class.
But compared to a beastman, it’s nothing special. I can catch him.
Kim Jun made up his mind. It was time to end this game of hide-and-seek.
He took up his familiar stance.
Knees slightly bent, center of gravity leaning forward, all the strength in his body gathering to a single point.
Crack—
The air around him began to whirl toward Kim Jun.
Fwoosh—
The target was behind the third pillar.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
And the instant his pupils flared molten red—
“Acceleration.”
───!
BANG-!
Rumble—
“Ghk!”
The being hiding behind the pillar was sent sprawling across the floor by Kim Jun’s charge.
As the black hood was thrown back, its identity was finally revealed.
“So you’re finally showing me your face.”
Kim Jun said as he pressed Dragon Eater against the man’s throat.
It was a man with half his face horribly warped by burns.
The sight of the melted, scar-like skin was grotesque, but Kim Jun’s expression didn’t change at all.
“Who are you?”
“…What?”
The man’s eyes widened. So he really didn’t recognize him.
“I asked who you are.”
Kim Jun repeated it, sounding genuinely unconcerned.
“…Keh. Kheh-heh-heh-heh!”
The man’s face twisted. Rage and humiliation mingled in his expression.
It was even more degrading that the bastard who had done this to him didn’t even remember his face.
“My name is Kim Yoonseok!”
“And who’s that supposed to be?”
“Y-you—! How dare you!”
Kim Yoonseok shouted through gritted teeth.
“Because of you! Because of you, I ended up like this!”
He clutched at his own face.
The lumpy, uneven scars looked even more revolting up close.
“Because of you, all my comrades died! Because of you, I—”
“Ah. So one of the worms survived?”
The bastard’s identity was Darkness.
Kim Jun cut him off coldly.
“If you were going to hurt others, you should’ve prepared yourself for the consequences.”
“Hurt others?”
Kim Yoonseok laughed instead.
“That’s right. We killed people and took their equipment. So what?”
His voice was calm, as if he were stating something perfectly ordinary.
“That’s just how the world works. The strong prey on the weak. It’s only natural.”
“So you’re saying you killed innocent people.”
“Innocent people?”
Kim Yoonseok burst out laughing.
“Where the hell do you find anyone innocent in this world? They’re all just bastards stabbing each other in the back to survive.”
“Interesting way of thinking.”
Kim Jun snorted.
“Then it’s only natural if you die, too. You’re weak.”
“Weak?”
Kim Yoonseok’s eyes turned vicious.
“Yeah, I used to be weak. But not anymore.”
He slowly rose to his feet.
“I’ve got power now. Far greater than the wound you gave me.”
Shiiing—
Two curved daggers gleamed in his hands.
“You’re the prey.”
Ssssssh—!
Rolling low across the floor, Kim Yoonseok slipped into Kim Jun’s blind spot.
Softly, silently—like a snake.
Whoosh—
The dagger in his left hand aimed for Kim Jun’s Achilles tendon. At the same time, the one in his right shot toward his ribs.
Clang-!
He had thought he’d slaughtered every last one of them, so there was no way of knowing why this bastard was still alive.
Ching-!
But one thing was certain: the mistake he had unknowingly left behind had come back of its own accord, giving him a chance to correct it.
His murderous gaze locked onto Kim Yoonseok.
“!!”
Kim Yoonseok’s body was crushed beneath that killing intent.
And yet he twisted his body again and lunged at Kim Jun.
Whatever price he had paid, he hadn’t abandoned being human just to look like this.
Divine Surveillance Count: 02:10
The time was now 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
He had to hold out for about eight more minutes, and Kim Jun would die.
So with everything he had, he would pour all his strength into the final eight minutes.
Kim Yoonseok lowered his body and set his stance.
“Shadow Fusion.”
For an instant, his body seemed to blur before merging with the surrounding shadows.
Shiiiiiik—
The two curved daggers came at Kim Jun from different angles.
One aimed precisely for his throat; the other for his heart.
Clang! Clang!
His movement has changed.
The attack was far more refined and faster than before.
Kim Yoonseok landed and vanished again at once.
Ssssh—
There wasn’t even the sound of footsteps.
Where?
The moment Kim Jun scanned his surroundings, a cold chill brushed against his back.
Whoosh—
He turned to block it, but that sensation was a feint set by Kim Yoonseok.
The real attack came from his side.
Pat-
His collar was torn, and a shallow cut opened on his skin.
This energy…
It was the exact same energy he had felt from Opa-nim.
The count rises when Opa-nim’s sight catches me. That means the monsters share his vision.
The pieces began falling into place in Kim Jun’s mind.
Then if the count rises when Kim Yoonseok sees me, that means…
“Chain Shadow Daggers!”
Kim Yoonseok’s assault began again.
This time, daggers flew at him from every direction at once, as if several people were attacking him.
Thud!
Kim Jun slashed Dragon Eater in a blur to block them, but it wasn’t perfect.
I didn’t block it?
NAME:Kim Jun
RACE:Half-Human, Half-Demon, Half-Dragon
RANK:S-class
LEVEL:45
CURRENT STATE:No abnormalities
His movement speed and attack speed are declining.
Kim Jun calmly checked his condition.
There was no doubt his movement speed and attack speed were falling.
And yet no debuff was showing in the status window.
I’m getting slower, and he’s getting faster?
At first he had been on the level of an A-class, but now his speed was approaching that of an S-class.
The moment Kim Jun tried to think more deeply about the connection between Kim Yoonseok and Opa-nim—
“Is now really the time for that?!”
Kim Yoonseok roared and revealed himself.
His face was twisted with rage.
“You’re fighting me and thinking about something else? You’re still looking down on me!”
A thicker, more vicious killing intent burst from his body.
Divine Surveillance Count: 02:45
“Die!”
Kim Yoonseok charged, gripping a dagger in reverse in each hand.
Divine Surveillance Count: 03:02
The same attack.
Clang-
Divine Surveillance Count: 03:15
The same pattern.
Crack-
Divine Surveillance Count: 03:49
The same speed.
Slash—
“Kuhahaha, kuhahahahahaha!”
“...”
Kim Yoonseok’s attacks were clearly identical, yet they became harder and harder to counter as time went on.
Why?
Divine Surveillance Count: 04:30
Before long, time was nearing halfway, and the bastard’s attacks were becoming even more powerful.
It had clearly been only monsters that were affected by Opa-nim’s count.
So why was this bastard growing stronger?
The energy radiating from his body—the same light attribute energy Kim Jun had felt from Opa-nim.
Light attribute power isn’t something you can just get easily.
And the phenomenon of becoming stronger over time.
“Ha.”
Kim Jun let out a laugh of disbelief.
“You’ve become a monster, haven’t you?”
*
Blood dripped from the bodies of his comrades.
Shhhh—
Rain began to fall. Red blood and cold rainwater mixed together and ran into the drain.
“Kkheh—! Khuk!”
Kim Yoonseok, now little more than a half-dead corpse, was leaning against the wall and barely breathing.
The pain of half his face being burned away. The blood pouring from all over his body.
But there was something else that hurt even more.
“Damn it… It can’t end like this.”
Memories of the past flashed through Kim Yoonseok’s mind.
Even as a child, he had been different. While other kids tried to be good, he found pleasure in tormenting the weak.
Catching cats and torturing them, or throwing stones at stray dogs until they died—those things were everyday life to him.
It was the same after he awakened as a hunter.
He had been an awful E-class, but even that made him absolute power over ordinary people.
“Hand over your money, you bastard.”
He made a living extorting cash from regular citizens in back alleys.
He threw punches at anyone who resisted, and sometimes beat them until their bones broke.
Then he met the Darkness Guild.
“A guy like you is exactly the talent we were looking for.”
The Darkness Guild saw through his nature. A born sadist, trash who enjoyed other people’s pain.
“Pl-please…”
Thud—
“Hahaha! This is what makes life worth living!”
After that, he killed countless innocent people.
Kill to get stronger?
“Wahahahahaha!!”
So there was such a great method after all!
For Kim Yoonseok, the Darkness Guild was a place that let him indulge his true nature to the fullest.
He had always been the predator. Everyone else was just prey.
The cries of the weak, the eyes filled with despair, the sight of them begging for their lives.
All of it was the greatest pleasure to him.
But Kim Jun—
The moment that bastard appeared, everything changed.
Kim Yoonseok, who had believed himself to be a predator, had been reduced in an instant to a fragile piece of prey.
“How dare you... how dare you!”
That hopeless sense of helplessness he had felt in front of Kim Jun. The humiliation of being forced to taste the exact emotion he had enjoyed inflicting on others.
A man who had spent his whole life trampling others was suddenly treated like a joke, like an insect.
That completely shattered Kim Yoonseok’s pride.
“Did he just call me a bug?”
Kim Jun’s gaze. That cold, indifferent look, as though he were staring at a bug on the roadside.
That was the one thing Kim Yoonseok could never forgive.
Crackle-
Fwoosh-
“Kuhh, kuhuhh…!”
But the black flame lodged between his wounds would not go out; it was melting Kim Yoonseok’s body from the inside.
He wanted revenge.
He wanted to kill him.
And he wanted to kill people again.
There were still mountains of bastards he had to kill! He could still grow stronger!
Then someone appeared.
『Do you want revenge?』
“...Who are you?”
『More importantly.』
He approached Kim Yoonseok.
『Do you desire revenge?』
Kim Yoonseok’s eyes flashed.
“Can you make it happen?”
『Of course.』
“Why would you help me?”
『To deal with an anomaly.』
“An anomaly?”
『You don’t need to know. Isn’t that right?』
Yes. That was true enough. Whoever this person was, whatever they wanted—
Kim Yoonseok pushed himself up and shouted.
“I want it. Give me power! Power enough to kill Kim Jun!”
And he wanted to taste that thrill again. The ecstasy of ending someone’s life with his own hands. Especially Kim Jun, that bastard!
『Keh-heh. Aren’t you curious what the price will be?』
“I don’t care!”
Kim Yoonseok screamed.
“Take my life, my soul, take whatever you want! Just let me kill him! Let me kill people again!”
『Good, good.』
The unidentified being nodded in satisfaction.
And then unknown tentacles began to coil around Kim Yoonseok.
“Khahk!”
He wanted to kill people again.
“Ughh!”
He wanted to hear those screams again.
“Kuhhh!”
He wanted to see those faces collapse into despair again.
“KRAAAAAAH!”
Even if that meant becoming a monster.
“I’ll kill him! I will!”
18