Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Count to Three
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Deep in the mountains.
A familiar uphill path stretched ahead.
It was the same slope he'd passed while clinging to the underside of a car.
"Who's there!"
Click.
Gun barrels trained on me.
And magic orbs primed to fire.
Whirr...!
A checkpoint I had to pass to reach the factory.
Four sentries stood guard.
Just as I thought.
I'd asked a hunter in Yullas's garden about the vehicle that had passed.
- They're probably already dead...!
That was his response when I mentioned two people had been inside.
The factory the vehicle headed to dealt only in corpses.
If they'd been loaded onto it, they were as good as dead.
- A mage with ice magic was riding along! They preserve them with that! They're already gone!
I didn't know exactly what they did with the bodies.
But if it was about extracting something valuable from people...
...I figured they'd keep them alive until they reached the factory.
That hope had mostly vanished with the hunter's words from the garden.
Still, my footsteps carried me toward the factory.
Not because of those two's fates.
I just had business there.
"Didn't you hear me? Stop!"
Whoosh... Boom!
An orb formed in front of them and shot past my foot.
It hit the ground and exploded in a small blast.
Two mages, one gunner, one warrior.
Aside from the lights they shone on me, darkness blanketed everything.
But I could see fine.
"I'm trying to get to the factory up there."
"What...? Who the hell are you to go to the factory?"
"Got business."
The more I answered, the more I sighed.
I was getting tired of even responding.
As my replies grew shorter, energy rippled in the hand of the mage who'd fired the orb moments ago.
"Get lost now! Unless you wanna die...!"
Thud! Thud!
"Gahk!"
"!?"
Before the gunner in front could react,
I hurled Daikon's claw from my pocket, piercing the throats of the mages mid-cast.
"You bastard!"
I charged, leaping forward, straight at the hulking man blocking the path.
A build and armor fitting a warrior.
Whoosh!
The hammer he swung crashed toward my head.
I raised a hand.
And caught it mid-swing.
"!?"
[Explosion Engraving]
I drove my engraved fist into his chest.
Boom!!
The blast punched through his armor in an instant.
The shockwave sent the gunner flying with a groan as he lifted his head.
"You... what... what are you!"
Step.
The man who'd dropped his gun while airborne.
I walked slowly toward him, now defenseless.
In that fleeting moment,
His eyes, which had watched me with annoyance, filled with terror.
I bent down, picked up the Daikon's claw I'd thrown,
and brought it to the trembling man.
"Ugh...!"
I wiped the blood from the claw on his body.
Then,
Crack!
snapped his neck with a quick twist and stepped toward the factory.
* * *
Here I am again.
The factory still hummed without rest.
I approached it steadily, out in the open.
The first time, I'd hidden in the shadows.
Not this time.
Step.
Anyone watching would call it reckless.
The infamous Miru Guild—I didn't know their full strength, but their reputation preceded them.
Charging straight into a factory they controlled.
Not entirely head-on, though.
I'd already scouted their defenses on my first visit.
About twenty hunters guarded the place.
The rest were janitors.
Janitors under Miru might join a fight.
But even combined, they numbered under a hundred.
And they weren't much to worry about anyway.
I needed the exact location of the magic stone.
And intel on this Dae-wook guy.
After the long drive here,
I planned to take more than last time.
Ironic, really.
A chuckle escaped as I headed for the factory.
I could've stormed the front from the start and gotten more info.
Only one reason I hadn't:
Unlike Katabi, where my goal was the top,
here it was just gathering engravings and leveling up.
No need to massacre everyone like in Katabi.
So I'd taken only the info I needed and left.
But.
Did blood follow me?
Or did I draw it?
Either way, here I was again.
At least I'd done my best.
I'd tried to handle it quietly.
I wouldn't say I came back for those three's revenge.
But honestly, if the janitor had just settled up quietly, I wouldn't have returned.
Left a bad taste otherwise.
To wash it away,
I kept walking.
"Who's there!"
"What the?"
Click.
Just like the checkpoint goons, these two hunters drew guns the moment they spotted me.
From the look of their weapons, gunners too.
"Hello."
I approached the pair blocking the road with my friendliest face.
"Ha!"
My ragged clothes, maybe.
The gunner burst out laughing.
"What? A bum? How'd you get all the way here?"
"Checkpoint assholes asleep again? What were they doing while this climbed up?"
"This"?
They came on strong from the start.
Both wore Miru-labeled gear.
"Got a question."
"This psycho. What do you wanna ask, punk!"
Thud.
The man shoved me as I neared.
His chest tag read: Lee Myung-ho.
Do all Miru guys act like this?
Amazing.
Just a guild, same badge,
yet such uniform behavior.
"Scram if you don't wanna die. This ain't a place for trash like you."
"Miru Guild, right? You found and cleared Yullas's garden."
His eyes changed at Miru and Yullas's names.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Looking for Yullas's magic stone. Where is it? Probably with the first guys who caught it."
A straight-ball question that'd make anyone think I was insane.
Miru, the rumored danger zone guild.
Walking right into their factory, demanding the magic stone's location.
A new suicide method.
But.
This level was fine.
All the hunters and janitors combined weren't worth fretting over.
That certainty let me do this.
Not revenge blinding me into recklessness for those three from last night.
"Lee Myung-ho! What's going on!"
"This punk's asking about Yullas's magic stone!"
"What?"
A man watching from behind scowled and approached.
At that moment,
the door of a stopped vehicle opened, and something hit the ground.
"You idiot! Can't you hold it right!?"
"It fell! Useless trash!"
A small commotion nearby.
They'd dropped something unloading from the car.
"Sorry!"
The man scrambled up, grabbing what he'd fumbled.
Then, something protruded from the cart he held.
Thud.
...
The vehicle from moments ago.
The one I thought held Oh Myung-yoon and Kim Gil-sang.
I'd figured high chance of death, but seeing the arm sticking out made me sigh anyway.
Incredible.
15 years since I left Korea for Katabi.
A long time—I knew Korea had changed beyond Kalderon.
But not to the point of casually hauling people like monster corpses.
I hadn't imagined that level of chaos.
"Tae-ho, bro."
"Hey."
While staring at the janitors moving bodies from the car,
someone called the guy named Tae-ho.
"See that?"
The protruding arm, probably.
Yeah, I saw. How could I not?
I didn't even want to reply.
Seeing the corpses didn't spark rage or emotion.
If anything, it calmed me.
"What's going on over there!"
"Lee Myung-ho! What is it!?"
"This punk saw the logs!"
Lee Myung-ho shouted, and hunters scattered around the factory rushed my way.
"Just when we were short on stock. Perfect."
"Lucky day? Crawling right to us."
About twenty gathered.
All combat personnel, janitors excluded.
Familiar.
Déjà vu, even.
Strutting fools clueless about who'd die next.
Maybe fate.
"Hey, punk! Which outfit you from? You know where this is?"
"Could've let you off if you'd headbutted claiming you were lost. Tough luck."
Bad guys are easy, as always.
Laughing at their chatter.
"Blame your bad luck! What're you gonna do about seeing it!"
"If you're mad, gouge your eyes out, haha!"
Ears would rot if I listened longer.
So,
I raised my hand to the sky toward the jeering pack.
"...??"
"Anyone know where Yullas's magic stone is? Raise your hand."
"What? What'd this punk say?"
"He's nuts!?"
"I'll randomly spare one if no hand by the count of three."
"Crazy bastard!"
Slash!
Lee Myung-ho beside me drew his blade and charged.
Fulfilling his duty as the youngest, avenging his bros' insult.
"One."
Snap!
I twisted his wrist holding the sword,
and snatched it away.
"Gah!!"
Lee Myung-ho staggered back, disarmed in a blink.
The brief clash stunned the Miru hunters.
"Two."
"Kill him!!"
I eyed the Miru hunters charging with weapons instead of hands.
"Haa."
Another deep sigh.
I'd committed plenty of slaughter in Katabi.
But never mindless.
Goal wasn't extermination, but the pinnacle—so I'd given chances.
Never taken, of course.
Snort.
Katabi or here.
So damn alike.
I bit down on Daikon's claw from my pocket.
"Three."
The final count fell.