Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Oh Jongyeop lay sprawled out like a star, both eyes bruised a deep blue.

He'd tried to chase off the pretty-faced stranger lurking in front of his house, and this was what he got for it.

This guy was an absolute monster he had no hope of fighting. He'd hit Level 2 not long ago and felt confident, but he was still far, far short.

Watching the man casually dust off his hands like he'd just been for a light morning jog, Oh Jongyeop's face twisted.

"Whatever you want, you won't get it."

"You know what I want?"

"Whatever you're about to say—"

"Save it. Listen to me first. You pathetic weakling."

"Kgh!"

He felt the Force laced into that low whisper rattle his insides, and he clenched his teeth hard.

This was an opponent he could never beat.

What on earth was the man after? He was already feeling helpless, unable to do anything about his brother's rare illness. And now, unable to even stop this uninvited guest from doing whatever he pleased, a deep despair settled over him.

"Don't make that face. I'm here to help you."

"Help me? With what?"

"You're struggling with your brother's hospital bills, aren't you?"

"......!"

How did this guy know that?

The man stared into Jongyeop's wide-open eyes and spoke slowly.

"I owe your father a debt. I'm here to repay it."

Rage surged up, and Oh Jongyeop shouted.

"Don't give me that crap!"

"What crap?"

"My father abandoned us and ran off the moment Jongsu was born!"

So this guy had some other motive after all. What was it? A human trafficking ring? Or a debt collector who'd come looking for the piece of trash who'd abandoned his family?

He'd strained his eyes so hard that the capillaries burst and his vision went red. But Oh Jongyeop didn't look away.

The man, by contrast, was unfazed.

"Ah, is that so? Then let's say I owe your mother."

"You son of a bitch!"

"Anyway, just know that I'm here to help you. Stop thrashing around. So—how much are the hospital bills?"

"......"

Oh Jongyeop didn't answer. At that, the man started walking toward the house.

"Want me to take your brother to the hospital?"

"Wait!"

"How much are the hospital bills?"

"Why are you doing this? Did you come here to mock me for being broke with nothing to my name?!"

Oh Jongyeop cried out. He had done everything he could to keep his brother alive. But the world wouldn't accept the two of them. Maybe this filthy world would be better off broken.

"Sometimes luck comes along in life. Today, you've been given the chance to save the brother who's suffered for so long."

"......"

"How much?"

"2.5 billion......"

Enough to ruin a family. An amount a Level 2 like him could never hope to scrape together.

He forced the answer out, and the man looked satisfied.

"That's a lot. Hold on. How much do I have on me right now?"

He pulled out his smartphone and fiddled with it this way and that, then paused and scratched his head.

"I'm short 2.498 billion won."

"......"

"Just wait a bit. I'll be right back."

With that, the man left. Oh Jongyeop, who had been watching from the ground the whole time, ground his teeth at the thought of being toyed with and forced his battered body upright.

What had he ever done wrong to deserve being toyed with like this? He wanted to kill the father who'd abandoned him and his brother, wanted it so badly he could go mad, and he missed the mother who'd passed away after a life of nothing but hardship until it ached.

Three hours later.

Oh Jongyeop, who had barely swallowed his anger and was tending to his brother, reflexively opened the door at the heavy sound coming from in front of the house.

The man who had toyed with him that afternoon was standing before the massive carcass of a monster.

"This should be worth about 3 billion, right? Bring me a knife. I'll butcher it."

"......"

What the man had brought back was a named monster corresponding to disaster tier 6—a Saber Tiger.

* * *

"......"

Oh Jongyeop stared blankly as the Saber Tiger was butchered and its byproducts piled up piece by piece.

He still couldn't believe what was happening.

This was the man who had toyed with him and his brother in their moment of despair and left. He'd been sure it was mockery, not kindness. But the man had reappeared, and he'd hunted a named monster belonging to disaster tier 6.

Disaster tiers were grades that required Awakened of the corresponding Level to hunt—and the Saber Tiger could only be taken down by a Level 6 or higher Awakened, or a team of multiple Level 4–5 Awakened.

To bring one back like he'd just gone for a stroll. Even seeing it with his own eyes, it felt unreal.

One thing was certain. The luck the man had spoken of had come to him.

Oh Jongyeop asked the man, who was holding the heart in his hand and smiling as he sampled the Saber Tiger's blood smeared on his palm.

"What exactly is your goal, sir?"

"I told you. I owe your uncle. I came to repay it."

"A minute ago you said it was my mother."

"Ah, did I? Then let's go with uncle."

"......"

This was a man with whom normal conversation was utterly impossible.

"Even just the magic stone should be more than enough for the treatment costs. Think it'll fall short?"

"It's more than enough—there'll be plenty left over."

"Then use what's left to eat well. Even with treatment, proper nutrition matters more."

With that, the man held out his hand.

"What?"

"Give me your phone. I'll help you get him admitted to Shinsung Hospital."

"Shinsung Hospital......"

"I know someone there. If I ask, they'll listen. Think they'll help?"

Just moments ago, Oh Jongyeop had heard it. The man muttering, "I was going to kill them, but I didn't."

Surely he wasn't about to ask a favor of the very people he'd tried to kill?

Meanwhile, the man finished entering a number and handed the phone back.

"Dispose of the byproducts quietly. Don't let word get out. You can handle that much on your own, right?"

"Of course—no, of course, sir. Thank you. Truly, thank you."

"Consider it reward for building up good karma in a past life."

Whatever the man said, cash was now in his hands, and that put his heart at ease.

"Ah, and there's one thing I want to ask."

"Yes, go ahead."

"You know an organization called Bigteng, don't you?"

"......"

The moment he heard those words, Oh Jongyeop's face went pale.

Bigteng was a villain organization secretly operating in Ansan—the very people who had approached him when he was looking for work to cover his brother's hospital bills. If not for the goodwill he'd received today, he might have seriously considered their offer.

"I-I have nothing to do with Bigteng."

"I know they made you an offer. Just tell me the location."

"Yes."

Under that piercing gaze, Oh Jongyeop spilled every piece of information he knew.

"I should get going."

Feeling as though he'd been possessed by a ghost, Oh Jongyeop asked.

"Just who are you, really?"

"A Grade 9 public service Hunter."

With those words, the man vanished.

"......"

Oh Jongyeop, who had been watching with a dazed stare, came to his senses.

The man was self-centered and full of lies, but the kindness he'd shown was real.

For what reason had he shown such kindness?

His head was a tangled mess, but one thing was clear.

Oh Jongyeop looked at his sleeping brother, Oh Jongsu. His brother's face, always twisted in pain, looked peaceful today, just for today.

"I'll find you. And I'll repay this debt my own way."

* * *

Honestly, the meeting with Oh Jongyeop felt more subdued than I'd expected.

He was the friend who had stood by me to the very end, but the moment I saw him today, I realized something.

The Oh Jongyeop in front of me was not the Slash Oh Jongyeop I had known.

The bond we'd forged while being hunted together as Hunters didn't exist between us. To him, I was a man he'd met for the first time today.

For me, covering his brother's hospital bills was a favor rooted in a connection from my past life—but for him, it was simply unexpected luck bestowed by a total stranger.

That's why I didn't bother telling him to become a public service Hunter like I'd originally planned. Once his brother was treated, he had the ability to live however he wanted. I didn't want to step in and decide the man's path for him.

Live the life you want.

It was the one kindness I could offer the friend I had killed with my own hands.

"...I should wrap this up quickly and get going."

And now I was heading for the villain organization Bigteng's stronghold.

For now they operated in secret in Ansan, but in about ten years they would expand their reach across all of southern Gyeonggi. Centered on human trafficking, they ran drug distribution and smuggling, drawing in Awakened who lived on the outskirts—using every dirty trick in the book, from taking families hostage to turning people into drug addicts.

The ironic reason they were able to grow this big was that I had appeared.

At the time I was out of my mind, and I began moving north, the exact opposite direction from Cheongju where my parents were. With the public service organizations' attention focused north to capture me, they grew in the gap.

In my past life, they never paid for what they'd done. This time, they would.

Besides, judging by the crimes they'd already committed, these were people whose deaths could only benefit the world. My plan was to wipe out their stronghold and make them 'disappear.' That way, the investigation would be thrown into confusion, and I could rule out any chance of myself becoming a suspect. And a disappearance, not a death, meant they'd have to search for bodies.

When I arrived at the location Oh Jongyeop had given me, thuggish-looking men were loitering around a desolate factory district. I headed for the spot where the largest number of them had gathered.

One of them spotted me and stepped forward.

"Stop! Who are you?"

"Me? A public service Hunter."

"What the—"

Before he could finish, my hand closed around his head. I blew his head apart with Arc Mine and pulled the sword from his grip.

"Let's make this quick."

It was an old blade, badly maintained, with teeth missing in places. The moment I manifested a gift onto it, it began to be wreathed in a viscous, blood-red aura.

It was Oh Jongyeop's gift—Slash.

A gift that cut through everything it touched. A unique gift that was difficult to contend with unless you had a gift of a level higher than the user's, or of comparable grade.

As the eerie blood-red blade aura sliced through the air, the villains' bodies came apart. The more blood soaked the ground, the deeper the crimson clinging to the sword grew.

After cutting down the three men firing guns, I entered the factory and found they had already sensed the disturbance outside.

"Enemies!"

Amid blaring alarms, the villains drew their weapons.

There looked to be over fifty of them.

I didn't know why they were all gathered here, but I seized the entrance and dove into their midst.

Shaaak!

The moment the blood-red Force poured off the blade, more than five villains were cut clean in two.

Unlike Arc Mine, which required direct contact, Slash was optimized for taking on large numbers of enemies even if it lacked the same tactile feedback.

As more than five of their comrades died on the spot, I could feel the villains' momentum falter.

I paid it no mind and swung my sword, killing them one by one.

Those heading for the entrance were my top priority. I cut throats, split bodies in half top and bottom, and sometimes cleaved them vertically.

Sating the blade's thirst with the villains' blood, I cut each one down for certain.

In just five minutes, over forty villains were dead.

"A m-monster!"

"We can't fight him!"

"Run!"

Just as I moved to finish off the remaining villains—

A pale figure burst out from behind cover and rushed at me at terrifying speed.

Pukang!

I reflexively raised my sword, but the old blade snapped clean in two.

Through the gap, a powerful left fist drove in. When I deflected it with the half-remaining blade, a right fist followed in combination.

But I simply lopped off the right arm with Slash.

"Kgh!"

The man clenched his teeth, and I cut off the left arm he swung too.

Thwack!

As his ashen face filled my vision, I took off his head as well. The head caught in the Slash skill shattered to pieces.

"Ah, Muscle Cat."

It was only after seeing the head rolling on the floor that his identity came back to me.

Muscle Cat was a villain with a bounty over 500 million won. He was notorious for targeting men with well-built bodies and killing dozens of them, and his movements were quick, with an estimated Level of 5—I'd been told over and over to report him immediately on sight.

But another thought dominated my mind.

"Should I take just the head? Or should I snap a proof photo?"

Villains sometimes collected bounties anonymously, but a long tail gets stepped on.

Since I had no intention of revealing I'd been here today, I decided to give it up.

Clicking my tongue, I picked up a sword rolling on the floor and finished off the villains. And as I was about to head into the office inside, two men burst out.

"I surrender! I surrender! I'm the boss of Bigteng."

I cut his throat without even bothering to listen.

My gaze shifted to the thin, early-sixties man standing beside him.

"I-I'm the deputy mayor of Ansan..."

"So what."

I took his head off after hearing that much.

When no one in the factory was breathing anymore, I looked around.

"Ah."

The horribly severed remains of bodies, flesh, and blood clung wetly to the floor and walls.

The scene of a massacre with over fifty corpses strewn about was a sight I'd seen often back when I was out of my mind.

The sticky feel of blood congealing on my hands dredged up old memories.

I'd killed far more than I'd intended.

Feeling my head go cold, I let out a sigh.

"How am I going to clean all this up."