Chapter 28
A sigh rose from the depths of me.
It was because Kim Jeong-cheol’s pained screaming looked pathetic.
He seemed to remember that we were in the middle of a fight, because he hurriedly retreated and glared at the right arm that had been blown apart and vanished.
And then... just like a lizard’s tail regrowing, the arm pushed back out.
So this really was a Demonic Apostle. His recovery was definitely not that of an ordinary human.
“Kieeek!”
Even the sounds he made weren’t human anymore.
He’d been howling like some beast ever since, and it was obnoxiously loud.
Still, he was writhing in pain, so I supposed it made sense.
But since that pain was the result of his own doing, I had no intention of taking pity on him.
Kim Jeong-cheol bared black mana and glared at me before charging again.
“D-don’t look at me like that!”
“......?”
Why was he suddenly exploding with inferiority complex nonsense?
I frowned, and Kim Jeong-cheol threw his fists wildly at me.
Maybe because he was giving off black mana, or maybe because he was holding back his strength, but his fists were still intact after striking the bark.
Which meant the force behind his attacks was weak too.
Go ahead, hit it a thousand times. Was he going to break the bark?
“Ugh, aaah! I told you not to look at me like that! I, I’ve become strong- phwek!”
I caressed Kim Jeong-cheol’s cheek with Warm Touch.
Kim Jeong-cheol went tumbling headfirst into the ground.
“Kuhk!”
Even then, both of his eyes stayed fixed on me.
They were eyes filled with fierce resolve.
Yes, fine. You must have had your reasons. Some deep inferiority complex. That’s why you sold your soul to the demons and gained this kind of power.
And then?
So what?
You used that power to hunt hunters, and now you’ve got the nerve to bare your inferiority complex at me?
If you were doing good and got taken down by some evil bastard, I might even sympathize.
But a bastard who uses overwhelming power to commit crimes and atrocities has the gall to throw a tantrum? What the hell was that supposed to be?
I stepped on Kim Jeong-cheol’s chest with my right foot, pinning him to the ground.
“...Kugh!”
He would’ve been better off before he transformed.
Back when he wasn’t all worked up, back when he was calm and aiming for a single precise strike, he had been more dangerous.
Right now, he was nothing more than a beast drunk on a power he couldn’t contain.
“I don’t have any personal feelings about this. I’m just doing what has to be done.”
I added what I wanted to say to the words he’d thrown at me.
Then I swung World Tree Swing and severed Kim Jeong-cheol’s neck.
His head came off as softly as tofu on a cutting board.
Even after his head fell from his body, Kim Jeong-cheol didn’t die and kept glaring at me viciously.
After all, I had given him one last thing to say.
“...Why aren’t you dead?”
“I’ll wait for you in hell-”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I clamped my right foot over his mouth, which had been standing on his chest.
No need to be that loud.
Kim Jeong-cheol kept going with “Mmph! Mmmph!” for about a minute, spitting out who-knew-what, before he suddenly died like someone had cut the power to a computer.
Maybe because he was dead?
His transformed body gave off smoke and slowly reverted to its original form.
...Honestly, he was disgusting beyond belief.
“How long does a guy keep living after his head’s been cut off before he finally dies?”
Was this how the people who fought me felt?
I could understand why Jeon Myeong-hwan had been so terrified he ran.
Just watching a guy talk with his head cut off was revolting, so how disgusting must it have been to see someone stabbed in the heart and still be fine, or to see a man pick up his own guts after they spilled from his stomach?
Manager Baek Do-woon has defeated a Demonic Apostle!
As a reward for defeating your first Demonic Apostle, you have received The Previous World Tree's Leaf.
The Previous World Tree's Leaf will be sent directly to your mailbox.
The Previous World Tree's Leaf...?
The Previous World Tree’s branch came to mind at once.
I remembered calling it a branch and getting a log.
Right, this would probably be called a leaf and then turn out to be something the size of a parasol.
If they called a log a branch, then a leaf would definitely follow the same logic.
Then another message window popped up.
It was a World Tree quest.
A-Rank Previous World Tree Quest
📍 Location: [Place]
🎁 Reward: [Reward]
Quest content - Manager Baek Do-woon has successfully defeated a Demonic Apostle. From here on, continue fighting and defeating other Demonic Apostles. (1/10)
Success Reward - None at present. Adjusted according to the number of apostles defeated.
Failure Penalty - None.
Since I’d taken down Kim Jeong-cheol, it was marked as 1/10.
I only needed to defeat nine more to complete it, but where was I supposed to find the rest of them?
There was no penalty for failure, so I’d think about it slowly.
...Ah, damn.
Of all the things to forget, I’d forgotten that Kwon O-seok and Han Ki-hae were still left.
I mentally scolded myself for getting distracted by the reward item and looked around.
“Hiiik...!”
“D-don’t come any closer!”
Kwon O-seok and Han Ki-hae hadn’t run.
Those idiots had done something stupid instead: they’d taken Kim Jae-sik hostage.
Somehow they’d even found rope, and had bound his arms behind his back.
They were truly stupid, foolish bastards.
Probably because their brains weren’t working right, they’d done something like that.
They must have thought they needed to do anything at all to survive someone who’d killed a man they’d been terrified of.
If they’d just run separately, one of them might have survived.
Han Ki-hae shoved a one-handed sword against Jae-sik’s throat and shouted, “Don’t move! Move and this bastard dies!”
Did he really think that would work on me?
For a hostage tactic to constrain someone’s actions, there’s one absolute prerequisite.
The hostage has to be someone “very precious.”
Maybe it would work with Do-hee or Tae-cheon, but Kim Jae-sik, whom I’d met for the first time today, didn’t fit the bill.
I shook my head and said, “Go ahead and ki-”
“Hyung.”
Kill him or don’t, do whatever you want.
That was what I was about to say, but Kim Jae-sik called out to me.
I looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
Kim Jae-sik...
Jae-sik looked back at me with a face utterly devoid of emotion.
Calmly. A face that had accepted death.
Really...
I couldn’t hold back my delight and ended up chuckling.
“W-what, you’re laughing?”
Ignoring Han Ki-hae’s panic, I kept my eyes on Jae-sik and asked, “You okay with that?”
“...I’m a hunter too.”
Even if I’m only E-class.
He probably wanted to add that, then stopped himself.
As he said, hunters accepted death no matter what rank they were.
They were the sort who entered gates crawling with monsters.
Then, as someone in the same line of work, shouldn’t I honor that resolve?
After giving a single nod, I took a step forward.
“You crazy bastard! Don’t spout bullshit...!”
“Stop! I really, really will kill him!”
Seeing that, Kwon O-seok and Han Ki-hae screamed at the top of their lungs.
They were the ones holding the hilt of the knife that decided a person’s life, and yet their faces and behavior made it look like the opposite.
Of course. The path those two were heading down wasn’t one that led to survival.
“I said I’ll kill him! Stop!”
“Do it.”
“What?”
“Kill him. He’s a hunter, isn’t he? He said he was prepared. So kill him.”
One step, then another.
My pace didn’t stop.
The two of them stared at me, dumbstruck.
From the beginning, it had been a hostage act that could never hold.
“But if you kill him, then what about you two? Can you still live?”
“......”
If those bastards killed Jae-sik, I’d just kill them in the name of revenge.
It would amount to nothing, just three stupid deaths for no reason.
My feet kept moving without hesitation and stopped in front of the three men.
Even that close, Kwon O-seok and Han Ki-hae still didn’t kill Kim Jae-sik.
They’d figured it out.
The hostage stunt they’d started in order to survive was in fact a ticket to a hellbound train they couldn’t survive.
“What’ll it be? If you’re set on taking this kid along with you, I can wait.”
After saying that, I just stared at them.
The two of them looked at each other, then nodded as if they’d made their decision.
They lowered their weapons and untied the rope binding Jae-sik’s arms.
They’d decided that going to prison alive was better than dying a meaningless death here.
Stupid as they were, they weren’t idiots beyond saving.
“Good thinking, idiots. You just saved your own lives.”
Once the rope came loose, Jae-sik let out a breath of relief.
Yes. Even if you’d steeled yourself for death, being alive was still best.
＊＊＊
The Muju Dungeon Ant Nest was a very quiet, lazy place.
The only people who ever came were hunters sent to wipe out monsters when the dungeon’s mana overflowed.
Even then, once it was cleaned out, it took three months before the mana overflowed again, so they only came four or five times a year.
For that reason, the Muju Ant Nest Management Office, which handled the place, had naturally become an incredibly relaxed posting. It was even said to be one of the top ten assignments that people at the Hunter Association most wanted.
“S-so, what brings you here...?”
Because they’d been assigned to such a place and had happily thought, At last, I can live an easy life!, the managers at the office were now sweating buckets.
There were figures before them important enough that even the office chief had to ask his question carefully.
It was Lee Tae-cheon, the guild master of the A-rank Baekwooncheon Guild, and his party.
And Baek Do-hee, the deputy guild master of the same guild, and her party.
“Sorry to show up this early. I came to meet a friend, but I seem to be making a lot of people uncomfortable, haha.”
“All we wanted was to meet my older brother, so why is everyone making such a fuss...!”
One was seated on a tree stump, laughing heartily; the other sat on empty air, cold as ice.
Her cutting words weren’t aimed at the managers.
They were aimed at the roughly ten guild members standing behind them.
The office chief, looking at the guild members’ awkward and embarrassed faces, realized they had simply followed Tae-cheon and Do-hee here without question.
“Your friend... is Baek Do-woon, then?”
“Yes. Didn’t you see him? I heard he entered the dungeon yesterday afternoon.”
“Y-yesterday afternoon?”
The office chief’s eyes went wide in shock.
He thought back to yesterday afternoon, but he couldn’t remember the man’s face.
He only remembered that there had been two people who came together with Kim Jeong-cheol’s group.
He looked at the subordinates standing behind him.
One of them held out a file folder.
Inside was a photo of a young man with a fresh, easy smile.
Next to the photo, it said: D-class Hunter Baek Do-woon.
Seeing that, the office chief thought, I’m screwed! By now that bastard must be dead!
“Ah...! I remember, I remember! Yes, that’s right...”
The office chief hadn’t bothered to check the face of the person he’d let into the dungeon.
There was no need to keep the face of someone who was going to die in his mind.
I need to run. If I stay here, I’m dead!
The office chief racked his brain for a way to slip out of the situation unnoticed.
Unfortunately, no good idea came to him.
“Phew. Finally out, huh, older brother.”
Baek Do-hee, who had been floating in the air, descended to the ground.
White hair, white eyebrows, white skin.
As she came down, entirely white from head to toe, it was as though snow had fallen.
Everyone’s eyes followed her as she turned back toward the Ant Nest.
The office chief did the same, staring at the Ant Nest while praying desperately to the heavens.
Please! Please don’t kill him!
“......!”
Soon after, Baek Do-woon and Kim Jae-sik emerged from the Ant Nest.
They were dragging something behind them.
He’s alive? How in the world?
The office chief tilted his head, unable to make sense of what he was seeing.
Kim Jeong-cheol had once hunted down and killed a B-rank hunter who’d come to clear a quest, a hunter of incredible skill.
There was no way a mere D-rank hunter like Baek Do-woon could have slipped from that man’s grasp.
And yet there he was, walking out alive and perfectly fine.
As Do-woon emerged from the Ant Nest, he came to a stop.
“Do-hee? Why are you here? You said you were arriving on Friday!”
“Oh, did you believe that? What a disappointment. It was obviously a lie.”
Do-hee narrowed her eyes and smiled.
Just to mock her older brother.
Seeing that, Baek Do-woon fell into despair.
“Aaaah, God! You’re taking my last two days of freedom from me like this?”
“......”
What a ridiculous sight.
The people standing before the Ant Nest thought that as they watched Baek Do-woon stagger and wail.
Even his precious younger sister, even his one and only friend.
Only one person thought something different.
The office chief did.
He didn’t care whether Baek Do-woon had run from Kim Jeong-cheol or fought and won.
He was still alive.
If he could just keep Kim Jeong-cheol’s people quiet, he could leave here without a problem!
The moment that thought crossed his mind, the office chief’s mind went blank.
It was because Baek Do-woon, who had been staggering, had walked right up to him.
In the blink of an eye, Do-woon had drawn a dagger and stabbed him in the side.
“Hurk! Why... why?”
“Just a hunch.”
As he answered, Do-woon grinned.
It was the same refreshingly open smile he’d seen in the file photo.