Master of White Silver
Kim Honggyeom was one of the most dangerous men on the wanted list, ranked Red.
He had a record of 100 fights, 99 wins, and 1 draw.
He had gone toe-to-toe with just about every strong hunter in the country, with only a tiny handful left untouched.
And over the past ten years, he had beaten all of them except one.
Not only the martial artist Goseokhyeon, the brute of the North and the monster of the Xuanwu Guild, but also Jeong Seonghwan, the spear master of the East and one of the hunters representing the Azure Dragon Guild’s lightning-fast spear style.
Even Yun Changmin, the west’s divine horse and a man from the White Tiger Guild like himself, had been among them.
Whoever it was, he fought them all without discrimination.
Of course, the S-Class hunters were always dragging a tail of escorts behind them, so he never got the chance to settle things with them.
Still, it was no exaggeration to say he had already cleared out most of the hunters who represented the regions.
I’m strong.
And yet.
What the hell was this guy?
To do this to him, Kim Honggyeom, a high-level alchemist known as the Master of White Silver...
Fwoosh!
An approach so fast he couldn’t react.
And at the same time, an audacious attack without the slightest hesitation.
Crack.
“Kyaaah!”
It happened in an instant.
It took less than a second for both of Honggyeom’s hands to be broken.
“Hey, goblin. I’m warning you now: if you don’t want to die, do exactly what I say. If you listen well, I’ll let you go in a bit.”
My nose may be a little long, but a goblin?
Honggyeom answered through a face twisted in pain.
“Ghk... I’m not a goblin.”
The corner of the man’s mouth twitched.
“Sure. The Great Thief Lupien, who infiltrated the Cathedral of Dior. He used to say he wasn’t a thief, either.”
What in the world was he talking about?
It was an incomprehensible situation.
No way... did some major guild send an assassin to kill me?
To avenge the guild member who had been taken down before?
If that’s the case, I can’t just sit here.
If he handed over the initiative like this, he’d really get killed.
I told the Association I’d wrap things up quietly and come back.
At this point, there was no helping it.
Honggyeom drew in a long breath and adjusted the mana in his abdomen.
Then he used his awakened ability.
Hissss!
The steel armor that had wrapped around his body began to writhe and shift, as if it were alive.
“What the hell?”
Kang Juhyuk let go of both hands and leaped backward.
Fwoom.
A few seconds later, when the armor finished transforming, Honggyeom’s entire body had become gleaming steel.
Not only that, but both of his broken hands had changed into drill-like shapes.
“I don’t know who sent you, but you’ll regret ever coming at me.”
Kim Honggyeom slowly curled his lips.
A faint but insane smile surfaced, the primitive instincts of a killer laid bare.
Whirr!
Honggyeom poured mana into his drill hands and set them spinning.
Bang!
Then he vanished in an instant, boring straight through the ground.
Even if the contract with the Association was broken, I’ll deal with you with my own hands.
The crime of breaking both my arms is not light.
I’ll keep you alive and tear apart your limbs one by one, until pain floods through you so completely you’ll regret remaining conscious.
From this moment on, you’ll pay dearly for picking a fight with Kim Honggyeom.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
The ground trembled violently, and Kang Juhyuk narrowed his eyes, scanning his surroundings before shouting to Minho.
“Lee Minho! Don’t move from that spot until I give the signal.”
It was Minho’s first battle, and he was completely dazed.
What the hell was happening?
In the hunter academy written exam, goblins had definitely been explained as low-ranking monsters. So why was an F-Class monster using an ability like that?
Did I underestimate the world of hunters too much?
Gulp.
Minho swallowed hard, his expression tense.
“Okay. Uncle, you be careful too!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Minho’s warning turned out to be meaningless, because the fight ended almost immediately.
Kim Honggyeom, Master of White Silver, burst from the ground in his steel suit, drilling upward.
Bang!
At the very same instant, Juhyuk shot forward like lightning and brought a fist crashing down on his head.
“Getcha!”
Crash!
Blood spurted from Honggyeom’s mouth.
“Kuhk!”
Juhyuk didn’t stop. He kept attacking.
He seized Honggyeom’s arms, ripped out the steel drills, then...
Smash!
“Kraaaah!”
He grabbed him by the collar, spun him around, and hurled him into the ceiling.
Bang!
It was over in a flash.
It took Kang Juhyuk less than ten seconds to subdue him.
And it was such an absurd display that Minho, who had up until now doubted Juhyuk’s strength, was left with his mouth hanging open.
Incredible!
Was this what a hunter’s fight looked like?
No.
Uncle was actually that strong?!
In Minho’s eyes, his uncle looked far stronger than the hunters he had seen in videos and news footage.
No, he really was that strong.
What human in the world could crumple and tear steel with bare hands like it was paper?
Keekekeek!
Juhyuk tore open the steel suit with a calm expression on his face.
Can hunters really do that?
No, this was different. Uncle was special.
Wasn’t there even a hunter from the Hwasin Guild called the Flame Emperor who supposedly lacked the grip strength to open a bottle cap properly?
Uncle.
He hadn’t been lying.
He really was strong.
Minho found himself smiling without meaning to.
“Minho! This one’s a rare monster, so he’s taking some work. I’ll clean him up and turn him into training stock soon, so wait for me.”
“Ah, yes. Uncle.”
And then he thought to himself that from now on, he definitely shouldn’t act cocky.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Team leader of the NIS Second Branch, Choi Junhyuk.
He entered the dungeon together with his agents.
“Everyone maintain position and move on my signal.”
The hunters who obeyed the order gave short nods at once, then broke into a full-speed run deeper into the dungeon.
Before long, Junhyuk’s emergency response team found the Red wanted man, Kim Honggyeom.
At the end of the passage, a man’s voice echoed from the far side of the corner.
“This is the end.”
A low voice, deliberately suppressed as if hiding its strength, yet sharp with murderous intent.
Kim Honggyeom?
That voice was definitely Honggyeom’s.
He had spent four years with him at the academy.
Junhyuk recognized the voice at once and reached to his waist for his sword.
If he wanted any chance of taking down an A+ hunter like Kim Honggyeom with his own skill, he had to cripple his momentum with a surprise attack.
Thinking that, he was about to rush in when...
“?!”
Honggyeom, as it turned out, was already in no condition to fight.
The steel armor that had symbolized White Silver lay dented like a crushed can on the ground.
“I... it’s really the end now. You said it was the last one.”
Honggyeom himself was trembling in nothing but his underwear, glancing around nervously.
What the hell is going on here?
The man pointing a gas gun at him was wearing a beginner hunter set and answered, “I know, so just stay still.”
Fshsh!
“Kuh, kuhk. I... I can’t breathe!”
And watching the two of them was a hunter hiding a power beyond precedent.
No.
Rather, it was Kang Juhyuk, a blatantly powerful ordinary man.
“Good. When you subdue a monster with a gas gun, you shoot the face first from that distance. If they can’t breathe, they can’t resist, right? Then you grab them by the hair, yank their head back, and—”
Juhyuk yanked hard on Honggyeom’s hair.
Snick.
He brought a dagger to Honggyeom’s neck and said, “Stab right here, the carotid artery. Goblin bodies are structured almost the same as humans. One clean hit here, and they can’t fight back before they die. See? Simple.”
Minho checked his wristwatch, changed the gas canister, and nodded.
Click.
“Got it, Uncle.”
“That’s enough for today. We’ll use this guy for training for a while and then sell him to the Association, so let’s not kill him.”
“Yeah. Then I’ll fire one more shot and we can leave. That should line up perfectly with the double EXP event time.”
The goblin, no, Kim Honggyeom, sobbed through a face soaked with tears.
“You said it was the end... why are you shooting again...”
Juhyuk tapped his neck with the dagger and replied, “That was the final end. This is the real final end. I’m only firing one last shot before we go, so hang in there.”
After Kang Juhyuk kicked Honggyeom down and stepped back, Minho fired the gas gun again.
Fshshsh!
“Kuhhaaaack!”
Honggyeom rolled on the ground in agony.
Juhyuk crossed his arms with a satisfied expression, then picked up the eco-bag he had set on the ground and asked Minho, “Still, lucky we ran into a goblin. Good practice.”
“Thanks to you, Uncle. But that goblin really does look human.”
“That’s why you can never let your guard down on the battlefield. You never know when or where something will happen.”
“Okay! By the way, how about pork-bone hangover soup on the way home? I worked out for the first time in a while, and I don’t feel like doing the dishes.”
“Sounds good. Then since my phone battery’s still fine, let’s stop by a café and have a coffee too. Hey, goblin!”
When Honggyeom flinched, his face drenched with tears and snot from the gas gun, Juhyuk took a cream bun out of the eco-bag and pressed it into his hand.
“Good work. This is for you.”
Honggyeom stared at him in disbelief.
Is this guy insane?
Giving him bread in a situation like this?
“What are you waiting for? Eat.”
At Juhyuk’s urging, Honggyeom glanced around and took a large bite of the cream bun.
Gulp.
“Tasty, right? Truth is, I’m not actually a bad person. I’m human, and you’re a monster, so I had no choice but to attack you.”
I’m human too.
“We’ll come back tomorrow, so recover well until then. Don’t get weird ideas and try to run out of the dungeon. If you do, a dangerous human will catch you and kill you.”
You’re more dangerous than anyone else here.
“Ah! And just in case, let’s leave a mark on you.”
“A mark?”
“We might get you mixed up with some other goblin when we come back.”
Kang Juhyuk lit a cigarette.
Then, with a deep inhale and exhale, he pressed it straight to Honggyeom’s forehead.
Sizzle!
“Aaaagh!”
“Checkmate. No, actually, that’s just check.”
Choi Junhyuk, watching from a distance, fell into deep thought.
Kim Honggyeom had displayed such vicious behavior that hunters spoke of him as the devil’s reincarnation. His skill was so outstanding that no one had been able to stop him by force until now.
Even the four major guilds that moved South Korea had given up on revenge. Taking him on would cost more than it gained.
To subdue someone like Kim Honggyeom this easily...
Then just how strong was Kang Juhyuk?
It was an endless series of shocks.
He transcended common sense.
Junhyuk drew a deep breath, cautiously leaned out, then rushed forward with his sword in hand and his agents at his back, surrounding them.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
“That’s far enough! Red wanted criminal, Kim Honggyeom. As of this moment, you are under arrest on charges of first-degree murder!!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Kang Juhyuk scratched his head with an awkward expression.
He looked down at the Red wanted poster in his hand, at Kim Honggyeom’s mug shot and the information written beneath it.
So they even mixed humans in with the monsters on the wanted list.
He had no idea.
Of course he wouldn’t.
Juhyuk wasn’t an official hunter, and there had been so many wanted notices delivered to the house that he had only checked part of them so far.
Still, he didn’t show that on his face and simply gave a short nod.
“Please deposit the bounty into the account I mentioned last time as quickly as possible.”
Choi Junhyuk bowed his head slightly, looking very satisfied.
“Understood. By the way, I didn’t expect you to move this quickly just one day after I handed over the wanted notice.”
Juhyuk glanced sideways at Minho.
“There were circumstances.”
“Circumstances?”
“Yes.”
Junhyuk was curious what those circumstances were, but he didn’t press the issue.
I need to respect boundaries.
If he wanted to win Kang Juhyuk’s favor, he had to keep personal and public matters clearly separate.
“Let me thank you again for today’s work, Juhyuk-ssi.”
“It’s nothing.”
“I hope we can count on you again in the future.”
Choi Junhyuk held out his hand.
Juhyuk took it with a light shake.
“See you around.”
After the conversation ended, Juhyuk turned to leave and said to his nephew, “So? How was it? You thought he was a goblin, but it was a person, so you were pretty surprised, huh?”
Minho opened his eyes wide and replied, “Yeah! Wow... I really thought that guy was a goblin until the very end. Since Uncle kept saying he was a monster, I was fooled completely.”
Juhyuk almost answered, I got fooled too, but instead he just nodded lightly.
“But why did you fool me like that? From what I heard, he was an insanely strong hunter enough to get a bounty posted on him.”
“When you don’t have teeth, you use your gums. Since there were no monsters around, I figured I’d train you on a human instead. Remember when I taught you how to ride a bike when you were little?”
“Yeah.”
“I was holding the seat from behind, then secretly let go and lied that I was still holding on. You thought I was really gripping it, so you kept riding without fear.”
“That’s right. Thanks to that, I could ride a bike on my own after that.”
“It’s the same thing. If your opponent is stronger than you, whether they’re human or monster, you freeze up if you get scared. Then you can’t do anything.”
“Ah...”
Juhyuk lifted his head and looked off into the distance, thinking for a moment. Then, with a kind smile, he shook his head and replied, “I wanted to teach you how to overcome it, just like that day. You’ll have to live hunter life on your own even if I’m not around. And since we were here already, I figured we might as well make some bounty money.”
Minho clenched both fists with a moved expression.
“Thanks, Uncle!”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Still, Uncle really is strong.”
“Of course. I’m a hero.”
As Juhyuk and Minho chatted idly and walked away, a crow watching them from atop a tree spread its wings and rose high into the air.
Flap.
“Caw!”