Chapter 2
Everyone in the room was looking at me.
I looked the same way they did.
I lowered my head to see what was happening.
A dagger was buried in my chest.
But... I could tell why I was still alive.
The dagger that had pierced my chest hadn’t made it as far as my heart.
"A-are you all right...?"
The first person to move was Lee Jae-wook.
He studied my face as he slowly walked over.
Whether I was all right or merely not dead yet... I honestly didn’t know which answer was best from the perspective of a man who’d just been stabbed in the chest and somehow survived.
I answered by scratching my head awkwardly.
Then I pulled the dagger out of my chest.
"D-don’t do tha-!"
Lee Jae-wook tried to stop me in a panic, but my right hand was faster.
I yanked the dagger out in one motion, and blood sprayed out with it.
There was a lot of it, as befitted a chest wound.
Then, just as suddenly, it stopped, like someone had shut a faucet off.
“......”
“......”
Silence fell again.
I stared at the sight, unable to make sense of it myself.
The reason the blood had gushed and then stopped was simple.
The injured area had healed.
Like a healer had used a healing skill on me.
Or like I’d drunk a high-grade healing potion.
Or like I had the kind of body that could regenerate like a top-tier hunter’s.
"...Yeah. I guess I’m fine."
After saying that, I shifted the dagger into my left hand.
I still couldn’t figure out what on earth was going on.
No, there was actually one possibility I could imagine.
But there was no time to stand around thinking about it.
There were people in front of me who had tried to kill everyone in our guild.
Now wasn’t the time to think. It was time to act.
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol understood that too, and turned their attention to the men in front of us.
Of course, they also kept sneaking glances at my face and chest.
They were probably wondering how on earth that had happened.
"Ha. Hahaha. Hahahahahaha...."
The lean-looking man burst out laughing.
It wasn’t a laugh of joy.
It was more like... despair?
That kind of feeling was in it.
I understood.
He’d stabbed me in the chest to kill me outright, and I was still standing there like nothing had happened.
It would have been stranger if he hadn’t felt empty inside.
"What the hell are you? How are you still alive?"
"Because you suck at this."
"What bullshit! I stabbed your heart exactly! You think I wouldn’t know that feeling?"
"You can say that all you want. The proof’s right here, isn’t it?"
I spread both arms wide and walked forward.
I wanted to make it obvious that I was perfectly fine.
As I stepped forward, Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol moved up beside me.
"If I’m standing here like this, doesn’t that prove you were sloppy? If you’d really stabbed my heart clean through, I’d be dead, even if it wasn’t me and was Tae-cheon instead."
"...Fine. Good. I’ll make sure you die this time."
The man pulled another dagger from inside his clothes.
I threw my dagger as fast as I possibly could.
Even as the man’s eyes widened in surprise, he dodged my throw with ease.
But the man standing behind him couldn’t react in time.
The thrown dagger hit him and sent him toppling backward as if the force had bowled him over.
What a fragile little performance.
To think he’d keel over from a dagger thrown by a D-class hunter who’d retired because of an injury.
The man glanced back at his fallen subordinate, then glared at me.
"You’re making this fun, Baek Do-woon!"
"Fun? Is it really okay for you to be feeling only that?"
"What?"
"Your goal was to kill everyone here, including me."
"So?"
"Then you failed, idiot."
Not a single person had died. Not me, not anyone else.
Of course, if they kept trying hard enough from here on out, they might still manage to kill someone.
People like me, who were almost ordinary civilians, and the disassembly workers.
But Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol would be different.
They were B-class hunters, and there were only a few thousand of them in all of Korea.
Unless their opponent was a top-tier A-class hunter, they were the sort of fighters who could hold their own. Or, if they had to, they could run all day without ever needing to fight at all.
For a bunch of bastards who couldn’t afford to leave witnesses, they were a massive obstacle.
"You’re worrying about things that don’t mat-..."
"Yeah?"
"Of course! We can kill you any time we want!"
The man lunged at me.
The others charged Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol at the same time.
The man who’d reached me first thrust out his right arm.
Before I could even dodge, my face was trapped in his fist.
Pain hit me like I’d been caught in a junkyard crusher.
"Ghk...!"
I strained every muscle in my body to endure it.
I even grabbed the man’s arm and thrashed around.
The pain didn’t lessen, and the man didn’t budge an inch.
He grinned.
"Die!"
I could feel his grip tightening around my face.
It felt like my head might be crushed flat like a slab of tofu.
And, naturally, that feeling didn’t stop at “felt like.”
"......!"
Crack.
I heard the sound of bone breaking.
My face had been smashed to pieces by the man.
Maybe because of that, no strength went into my body at all.
As his hand moved away from my ruined face, my legs gave out and I collapsed.
With no strength left in me, I pitched forward and hit the ground headfirst.
"See? Easy."
The man snickered mockingly.
That little laugh was irritating, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I couldn’t even get up, because my body had no strength left in it.
"Next, it’s their turn."
As he said that, the man pointed at Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol.
I rolled my eyes and looked where he was pointing.
Fortunately, Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol were holding their own against their attackers.
But if the man in front of me joined them, there was no telling how that would end.
The man slowly walked toward Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol.
The sight of it seemed designed to drag me into despair.
I had to stop him.
Right now, I was the only one who could block his advance.
"U, uh..."
Maybe because my face had been smashed in?
Words came out of my mouth in a form I couldn’t even understand.
I’d said them myself, and I still couldn’t tell what they meant.
The man burst out laughing, as if I were ridiculous.
"Hey, just lie there nice and pretty. You’re going to die soo-!"
The laughter vanished little by little from the man’s face as he turned back to look at me.
Maybe it was because I’d planted my hand on the ground and pushed myself up.
Maybe because I’d gotten to my feet on shaking legs and was now staring him down.
Or maybe it was because...
"Y-your damn, sloppy, idiot."
I’d spoken with my face half destroyed.
The body that had seemed so drained of strength was moving under my will again, as if nothing had happened.
"W-what. What are you...! Who the hell are you?"
"Baek Do-woon."
"That’s not what I’m asking!"
Then the man rushed me.
This time I could see his movement and tried to react, but I couldn’t.
He moved faster than I could back away and swung his arm.
The man’s dagger slashed across my throat.
Blood sprayed from my neck.
Then, just as quickly, it stopped.
"......!"
The man’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
By contrast, a smile spread across my mouth.
I let the grin linger and said to him, "You’re naïve."
"W-what?"
The reason I was fine after having a dagger buried in my chest,
fine after my face was smashed in,
and fine after having my throat cut open by a dagger...
There was only one thing it could be.
The Fruit of the Previous World Tree.
What I’d just eaten was the greatest elixir in the world, and it was restoring my body.
It was probably even healing injuries I’d taken in the past.
That had to be why my body felt like it was overflowing with strength.
Of course, the man in front of me didn’t know that.
I laughed at him with a crooked grin.
"You really thought the friend of that Lee Tae-cheon was just some ordinary office worker?"
"......!"
If he’d stopped to think for even a moment, he’d have realized it was a lie.
He’d been shocked when I was stabbed in the chest, and he hadn’t even managed to react properly to my movements.
If he’d been in his usual composed state, he would have seen through the lie easily.
But the man was thrown into confusion, rattled and off balance.
Everything I was saying probably felt true to him.
I wasn’t about to waste that opening.
"Come on, then. You should kill me already, shouldn’t you?"
As I said that, I walked toward him.
The man took a step back, then realized he’d stepped back and grew furious.
He unleashed that anger by swinging his dagger.
The man’s dagger sank into my shoulder and then cut diagonally across my side.
I swallowed the scream that tried to burst out of me.
What I needed to show now was the composure of absolute strength.
Not a man screaming in pain.
I slowly reached out and grabbed the man by the shoulder.
Then I smiled.
"That’s it?"
"W-what?"
"Keep going."
"......!"
"I said keep going!"
"A-ahhh!"
Driven on by my taunt, the man let out a strange cry and flailed his dagger wildly.
He seemed incapable of aiming for a vital point that would kill a person in a single strike, and instead swung at me wherever he could.
How much time passed?
The man tore free of my grip on his shoulder and leaped back.
Had he finally seen through my lie?
No. Not yet.
He was trying to keep up the attack.
I could see mana gathering in the man’s hand around the dagger.
It was clearly his most powerful attack.
I took one step forward.
"Yes! That’s what I’ve been waiting for!"
"Die, you goddamn monster!"
As soon as the man finished gathering his mana, he charged me.
The dagger that had slashed me again and again plunged into my stomach.
Then an explosive blast ripped through me as if a grenade had gone off.
Even with the Fruit of the Previous World Tree boosting my regeneration, there was no way I could just stand there and endure that blast.
My body was hurled far away and smashed into the ground.
For the first time, I felt pain starting from my stomach.
It was worse than when the mana generator had gone out.
Back then I’d thought I was about to lose consciousness, but this was even worse.
"Puh-heehee..."
And yet I laughed.
I felt like I was going to die from the pain.
That was exactly what I thought, and still laughter kept slipping out of my mouth.
With a laugh even I couldn’t understand, I pushed myself up.
I could see the lean man and the rest of his group staring at me.
Every one of them looked shocked.
They had every reason to be. After taking a skill that caused an explosion like that and still surviving, anyone would be stunned.
I stood up.
Thud.
Something hit the ground beside me with a wet sound.
If I hadn’t heard it, I would have taken another step forward already.
"...Ah."
It was obvious the blast had been as powerful as the pain I’d felt.
My stomach was a complete wreck.
My intestines had spilled out and were lying on the floor.
"Jeez, what a hassle."
I casually lifted the long length of intestine and walked forward.
At the sight of that, the man’s eyes filled with equal parts shock and fear.
Every time I took a step forward, he stumbled backward.
He noticed, just like before, that he was retreating, but this time he couldn’t bring himself to get angry.
"D-don’t come any closer! Don’t come any closer, you insane monster!"
Instead of anger, he spat out fear.
That fear spread to his men as well.
Several of them muttered in terrified voices, "What is that?" or "A monster!"
A few of them simply collapsed to the ground, like people who had seen something they couldn’t unsee.
"What are you waiting for? Aren’t you going to kill me?"
"......!"
"Aren’t you going to kill me?"
At my goading, the man with the sharp features did what frightened people often do.
He turned and fled in a panic.
Once the leader ran, the others lost the will to keep fighting and fled too.
“......”
“......”
The only ones left were the members of the Baekwooncheon Guild.
I motioned with my chin toward Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol, who were staring at me blankly.
"Aren’t you going to chase them?"
"A-ah! Y-yes! We’ll, uh, chase them!"
"We’ll go after them right away!"
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol answered in shaky voices, then ran after the fleeing men.
Before they took off, both of them stole a glance at my stomach.
When they saw my intestines slip back inside my body, they both shuddered.
Honestly, when my intestines first came out, I had no idea what to do.
It was lucky they’d just crawled back in on their own.
"Hmm..."
After a moment’s thought, I decided to help Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol.
I’d go after the men who were running away.
They were already terrified of me, so I figured I wouldn’t need to fight to be useful.