Jeong Gyunam, a member of the "Hunting Dogs," and Bomi couldn't believe what they were seeing.
No—maybe they just didn't want to believe it.
Crackkk!
"Aaagh, damn it! M-my arm…!"
"Argh! Ughhh!"
Screams rang out from all directions.
To be honest, they didn't exactly feel like comrades—there was no real sense of camaraderie.
But seeing nearly a hundred elite members being hunted down was something that felt utterly unreal.
And all of this was being done...
Boom! Fwoooosh!
"Th-this is insane…"
By a single player.
A fierce blue flame surged through the dark night.
Centered around Han Yuseong, the blue fire spread out in all directions, engulfing the Hunting Dogs.
And in the very next moment—
"Aa-agh… oh my god…"
Kwa-ma-ma-mang!
A leg, wrapped in a blade-forged blue path like sharpened steel, cut through the darkness and slammed into the surrounding enemies.
Sweeping in a graceful arc, the leg sliced through the bodies of the Hunting Dogs and instantly cauterized the wounds with blue flame.
The Hunting Dogs screamed in agony.
"H-how are we supposed to take down a monster like that…?"
Jeong Gyunam collapsed to the ground, muttering in despair.
Martial arts, sorcery, battle techniques—none of it mattered. The Hunting Dogs were being slaughtered.
The overwhelming number of allies that once filled the area had visibly thinned out.
Fwoooosh!
A bloodstorm ripped apart the last Hunting Dog who had dared to resist.
Han Yuseong snapped an enemy's neck and turned his head.
His ferocious gaze scanned the surroundings like a predator searching for its next prey.
And in the end, that piercing gaze landed on one place—
Where Jeong Gyunam had fallen.
"D-don't… d-don't come any closer! Stay away!"
Jeong Gyunam screamed and tried to run.
But he couldn't.
A shadow surged from beneath his feet and bound his limbs before he even got the chance.
"I still have something to ask you. What's the rush?"
"W-wait! I—I'm just a low-ranking grunt…!"
"You guys always say the exact same thing, you know."
Han Yuseong shut Jeong Gyunam's mouth with a shadow.
Mm! Mmph!
Ignoring the muffled pleas, he turned away—searching among the Hunting Dogs for anyone else still alive.
"I thought I killed them all, but fortunately… looks like two of them survived."
[Can you really call that surviving…?]
Exactly two of the Hunting Dogs were still alive.
Jeong Gyunam was relatively unharmed, but the other one was in terrible shape.
Still, they might be useful—for extracting information.
["Universal Poison Mastery" activates.]
[Detoxifying the poison that has infiltrated the body. Poison is also repurposed to enhance the user's physical abilities…]
[It is a deadly toxin. All stats are increased by 15%!]
Han Yuseong spat out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva.
His internal organs had taken some damage from the poison.
"They even tried using poison… and pretty high-quality stuff, too."
[If it had been anyone other than you, they'd be dead by now.]
"Yeah, probably."
Thanks to
And if even he suffered internal damage, it meant the poison's potency was no joke.
[Thrown straight into a battle the moment you return… your life really is merciless, isn't it?]
"I kind of expected this. And honestly… it wasn't that bad."
Han Yuseong flicked the blood from his clenched fist and glanced around.
Corpses of the Hunting Dogs were strewn all over the place.
"I needed to reawaken my physical senses anyway."
At the Dragon's Tomb, Han Yuseong had once formed a contract with the Dragon Lord, Bahamut, gaining overwhelming power.
But now that the trials were over, that power had vanished along with the contract.
Perhaps because of that, his body felt strange—his senses were dulled.
This battle had been the perfect opportunity to regain those dulled sensations.
"Well then..."
"Ugh… u-ugh…"
Han Yuseong summoned shadows.
The two surviving Hunting Dogs were dragged before him like debris swept up in a wave.
He sat down in front of the relatively unscathed one—Jeong Gyunam.
"You said you're one of the Hunting Dogs, right? I'm not interested in anything else, and you don't need to say anything else.
Just tell me—where is your Master?"
"D-do you really think I'll tell you…?"
"You probably won't want to."
Han Yuseong looked down at Jeong Gyunam with a cold, indifferent gaze.
He had seen people like this countless times—useless fools clinging to some twisted sense of loyalty.
There was a very simple way to deal with such types.
"A-aghhhk…! M-my neck…!"
Han Yuseong casually pressed down on Jeong Gyunam's fingers.
Crunch!
With a sickening sound, the fingers began to break—
Slowly, and painfully, making sure he felt every bit of it.
"KaaAAAGHHHH!"
"I don't know if this will mean anything to you, but… the night is long, and I have plenty of time.
Let's see if you can still hold out after every bone in your body is broken."
"Y-you're insane… y-you crazy bastard…!"
Jeong Gyunam recoiled in horror at the cold, emotionless words.
What terrified him even more was the fact that this man—Han Yuseong—was clearly capable of carrying it out without hesitation.
Ssshhhh—
"Agh… n-no, no, please…!"
This time, shadows slithered up Jeong Gyunam's limbs.
The darkness, clinging to his skin, sharpened like blades.
And then, slowly—agonizingly slowly—it began to slice into his flesh.
Once the skin was cut, it would be the muscle next… and after that…
"W-wait! Stop! I-I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
Overwhelming terror crushed Jeong Gyunam.
But more than the pain, more than the shadows, what truly broke him… were Han Yuseong's eyes.
Eyes completely devoid of emotion—as if this kind of torment was second nature to him.
That gaze alone was enough to pry open Jeong Gyunam's mouth.
"You know what happens if you give me the wrong information, right?"
Still cold. Still disturbingly calm.
All Jeong Gyunam could do was nod, over and over again.
The outskirts of the west gate.
A building that appeared, from the outside, to be nothing more than an ordinary shopping center…
However, the place was masterfully hidden by layers of magic and enchantments.
Unless someone was directly connected to it, they wouldn't even be able to perceive—let alone enter—it.
"How many times do I have to say it? Do we look like amateurs? We've handled jobs like this more times than I can count—even with insufficient information, we get it done."
The leader of the Hunting Dogs, Lee Gap-yong, was in the middle of defending himself.
His face was tight with irritation.
The guest he was dealing with today was an extraordinary pain.
"And why the hell should I believe that?"
"You little—! Ahem. You came to us because you've heard of our reputation, didn't you? If you're not even going to trust us, why bother hiring us in the first place?"
"You were the only ones available on short notice."
"Well then. What a charming reason that is."
Seated across from Lee Gap-yong was a thin woman.
Not just thin—her entire appearance radiated coldness and hostility.
The sharp lines of her high-end suit only made her look even more severe.
"From start to finish, I don't like a single thing about this.
Even having to wait in a rat hole like this place is intolerable."
"A rat hole? You—! …Hahhh."
Wang Liuyue let out a long sigh.
Why was she in a place like this?
By her original schedule, she should've been relaxing in a luxury hotel on a business trip.
But there was only one reason she was stuck in this filthy den:
"If only it weren't for that damn Korean—Han Yuseong…"
Wei Hao, a member of the Bloodsilk Sect, had been killed.
Enraged, the sect master gave a single order: bring Han Yuseong back.
And Wang Liuyue, who had been in Korea on business, was chosen to carry out the command.
Because of this, all of her scheduled plans had been canceled.
"Still… I can't say I'm not intrigued."
Wang Liuyue recalled the things she had heard before coming here.
Things she still found hard to believe.
If it hadn't been Li Xuemian—someone with deep ties to the Bloodsilk Sect and a direct participant in the Trials—who had said it, she would have dismissed it all as nonsense.
"If this 'Han Yuseong' really is that kind of player… then it's worth stepping in personally."
The Bloodsilk Sect had lost Wei Hao, a valuable asset.
Recruiting someone like Han Yuseong would be an excellent opportunity to rebuild strength.
With talent like that, even the Grand Elder would likely approve.
As for whatever complaints Korea might raise—China could easily deal with that at a national level.
Once they had him in custody, there were countless ways to break him.
And that was a specialty of both the Bloodsilk Sect and the Chinese state.
"Tch. To think we'd have to rely on a bottom-feeding gang like this to wrap things up…"
"Hey, we've got ears, you know. We can hear you just fine."
"I meant for you to hear it—mongrels."
Wang Liuyue clicked her tongue in irritation.
Nothing about this situation pleased her.
To be so short on personnel that they had to resort to hiring a Korean crime syndicate—it was humiliating.
But she had no other choice.
"If we had more time, we would've handled this ourselves."
Now was the perfect window.
The Korean Player Association hadn't fully exposed Han Yuseong's identity yet, and that uncertainty was their opening.
"You did administer the poison I gave you properly, right?"
"Seriously, are you hard of hearing? We did exactly as you asked. Administered it properly. That stuff's some nasty poison—one of our dogs gave it a lick and dropped like a rock."
"Good. That poison is my specialty."
Wang Liuyue's expertise was poison crafting.
Thanks to her unique ability,
The problem was that the stronger the unique skill, the heavier the penalty—and in her case, it left her with extremely weak direct combat capabilities.
That's precisely why she wasn't out there herself, but here instead.
"Still… why isn't your leader, the top dog, heading out in person?"
"No need. We've already sent over a hundred men. You can relax. We accounted for his unknown strength and reputation—hence the numbers."
"Did the target show any signs of catching on?"
"None. We were observing him—he's just relaxing in some shabby one-room apartment."
If Han Yuseong himself was caught off guard, that made the operation even easier.
And the Hunting Dogs they sent weren't ordinary thugs—they were elite players, all above level 100.
Even if the target was exceptionally strong, there was no way he could handle more than a hundred players—
especially after being poisoned.
Wang Liuyue exhaled and stood up from her seat.
"Let's get this over with quickly so I can get back to my actual business."
"Yeah, and I'd love it if you paid up and disappeared just as quickly."
Lee Gap-yong snarked back.
Wang Liuyue ignored the sarcasm and turned her gaze out the window.
It was still night, but there were plenty of people wandering the streets.
And yet, none of them paid the slightest attention to this building.
Because this building… was special.
As Wang Liuyue gazed out the window, her body suddenly froze.
A flicker of confusion flashed in her eyes as she focused on a specific point outside.
"Dog—how exactly are you hiding this building?"
"With the help of a Seer. On top of that, we've layered it with magic and barriers. Civilians can't even perceive it—and the same goes for most players."
"…Has it ever been discovered?"
"Well, it's not like it's never happened.
The Union or some guilds have come snooping on purpose now and then. In those cases, we just pull out and disappear."
"And aside from that?"
Lee Gap-yong glanced at Wang Liuyue, then briefly out the window.
What's with all the questions? She should already know all this...
Casually maintaining his tone, he continued speaking while cleaning one of his weapons.
"I haven't seen it myself, but I've heard rumors.
If someone has really sharp mana control or strong perception, they can sometimes just feel something's off.
They say there was an incident where an Underworld base got exposed by someone like that."
He blew iron dust off the table with a soft puff.
"But why do you keep asking—"
"Someone..."
Outside, amid the crowd flowing through the street—
stood a man with a black hood pulled low over his face.
"He's looking… directly at us."
"What? That's impossible…!"
And yet—
he was staring straight at this very building, right where Wang Liuyue was standing.
At the exact moment Lee Gap-yong reacted with disbelief—
a massive surge of mana erupted through the surroundings.
And from outside the window—
something shot upward.
It was shadow.
A swarm of weapons—all made of shadow.
The weapons simultaneously aimed at the building—
KWA-MA-MA-MA-MANG!
"You—what the hell!"
"Ugh—damn it…!"
They were fired directly into the room where Wang Liuyue and Lee Gap-yong were.
In an instant, the protective barriers were shattered.
The windows and walls crumbled like paper.
Lee Gap-yong swung his weapon wildly to deflect the incoming shadow blades, stunned by their sheer power.
Wang Liuyue narrowly escaped the blast radius—using her own subordinates as a human shield.
"Ugh… kh-hak!"
"W-what the hell is going on?! Someone get inside—now!"
"It's an ambush! We're under attack!"
The building was thrown into chaos.
Screams, panic, the rush of footsteps, and desperate orders for reinforcements filled the air.
And amid all the noise—someone stomped into the ground.
A man stepped over the shattered wall and calmly surveyed the interior.
"Closer than I expected."
Han Yuseong.
The moment he appeared, both Lee Gap-yong and Wang Liuyue's faces twisted in shock.
Why was he here?
The very target they had aimed to capture—
The man who should have been weakened by poison and overwhelmed by the Hunting Dogs—
Why was he standing here?
Leaving behind all the stunned expressions—
Han Yuseong clenched his fist.
"This time, only one of you gets to live.
The rest of you…"
Will die.
With those words, Han Yuseong slammed his foot into the ground, and a surge of blue flame erupted around him like a storm.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : http://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]