Volume 1, Episode 13
013
Kwaang!
The monster, the Hobgoblin’s double-bladed axe clashed with Gim Seungyeon’s sword.
A great explosion rang out, and simultaneously, a massive shockwave spread in all directions.
“Kueok!”
Gim Seungyeon screamed, his voice filled with excruciating pain.
Even though he had blocked the axe, the impact felt as though his organs were twisting.
‘Just what…’
A monster of unknown identity, different from the Hobgoblin he knew.
The monster’s strength was as tremendous as its massive frame.
It was a power one could never experience in an E-Rank Gate.
‘What is this monster!’
That was why, even as he experienced this situation, Gim Seungyeon simply could not believe it.
A situation he had never once experienced before, neither as a Hunter nor as an instructor.
To think he was suffering such a hard-fought battle in an E-Rank Gate he had thought to be utterly worthless.
‘I have to find a way.’
But now was not the time for this.
He had to come up with a solution immediately.
Because his intuition told him that if he didn’t, he would die by that monster’s hands.
But the problem was.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
It wasn’t giving him even a moment to think.
Under the giant axe hammering down consecutively, Gim Seungyeon literally felt as if his whole body was being shattered.
“Keok!”
In the end, Gim Seungyeon even vomited a mouthful of blood.
Seogeok!
Had it not been for Yun Hyeongi, he might have been beaten until he became a mangled mess.
“Th-thank….”
Gim Seungyeon spoke, barely holding onto his faltering consciousness.
Yun Hyeongi said, after widening the distance from the Hobgoblin.
“You think I did that because I wanted to save you?”
A voice devoid of any warmth.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s because if not for you right now, there’s no answer. That’s all.”
Yun Hyeongi said, glaring at Gim Seungyeon.
In the meantime.
Hwi-iik!
The Hobgoblin swept the Hunters aside as if sweeping the floor with its axe.
“Kuaaak!”
“Keoheok!”
Because of that, the place was filled with screams of terrible agony.
Jureureuk.
Before anyone knew it, the ground was being dyed bright red.
“Save me….”
The Hunters reached out toward Gim Seungyeon as they died.
Pandemonium.
It was chaos itself.
At that moment.
Kuwung!
A loud noise erupted from the ground, causing it to tremble.
“Kweeeek!”
A deafening roar echoed throughout the place.
The Hobgoblin’s red eyes gleamed as it charged somewhere.
“Damn it!”
That place was exactly where Yun Hyeongi was.
Kaang!
“Do something! You have to hold out!”
When Yun Hyeongi furrowed his brows deeply and blocked the Hobgoblin once more.
“.......”
Gim Seungyeon’s pupils gradually clouded over like rotten fish eyes.
“Ah….”
Wasn’t this what they called a flashback.
His life that had passed by.
A life where he had Awakened as a Hunter and lacked for nothing, to his current fallen, messed-up state.
-Do you think there’s anywhere that would accept you?
It brushed through his mind as if a scene from a movie was being played.
It had truly been a shitty life.
Kkwak.
But truthfully, he still wanted to live.
He didn’t want to die like this.
“Gim Seungyeon! You bastard!”
Yun Hyeongi called out to the instructor at the top of his lungs.
“What are you doing right now!”
Yun Hyeongi, shouting for him to help immediately, and.
“In-Instructor! What should we do!”
Hunters clinging to Gim Seungyeon with desperate voices.
Tuk.
Gim Seungyeon, the one they all wanted, pushed a Hunter forward.
“What are you doing…?”
The Hobgoblin’s eyes shifted, and it charged at the Hunter, beginning to tear him apart and devour him.
Kwaang!
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!”
Yun Hyeongi’s flustered cry.
“We have to survive!”
To that, Gim Seungyeon shouted with completely clouded eyes.
“We need to buy time! No matter what we do, we can’t face that thing on our own!”
“What?”
“So that’s why….”
Gim Seungyeon rolled his eyes and looked at another Hunter.
Kwadeuk!
He dashed like an arrow and broke the Hunter’s leg.
“Kuaaak!”
And he threw the screaming man toward the Hobgoblin.
“I’ll buy time….”
Gim Seungyeon’s face was completely vacant.
* * *
I Seojun observed the Hobgoblin.
Unlike the pathetic goblins he had seen in the Gate moments ago….
‘It’s the real one.’
It was the real Hobgoblin he knew, exactly the same as the ones from the planet Lumer.
Everything, including its appearance, was exactly the same as that one.
The one he had seen on the planet Lumer, the one in his memories.
-Kweeeek!
It was a monster that had led hundreds of goblins to raid an Orc settlement.
It possessed enough strength to not even kneel before an Orc Warrior Chief in one-on-one combat.
-Ttuk, ttuuk.
On top of that, it was a monster that possessed the most troublesome poison.
The number of monsters that had lost their lives to that poison was not just one or two.
“This guy is completely insane!”
“So we should all just die! We have to survive, don’t we!”
Putting the argument between Gim Seungyeon and Yun Hyeongi behind him, I Seojun continued observing the Hobgoblin.
While doing so.
Seuk.
I Seojun’s gaze soon shifted somewhere.
Where his gaze headed was the instructor.
“This will be dangerous.”
The man called Gim Seungyeon.
I don’t know about his abilities as a B-Rank Hunter, but his head was utterly pathetic.
No, it was clear he knew nothing about Hobgoblins.
Ageujak!
That thing….
“The more it continues to eat, the more ferocious it becomes.”
That was its habit.
Ttuk, ttuuk.
Also, to prevent being attacked while consuming its meal, poisonous fluid flows from its entire body.
So if this were the beginning when it hadn’t consumed anything yet, that would be one thing.
‘Now it’s become a headache.’
At this rate, it would become even more ferocious and spew out even more poison.
The saying that things grow increasingly difficult could not be more appropriate.
‘How foolish.’
Ignorance makes the body suffer.
If he had just stayed still, things would have passed moderately well, no matter what.
“W-we’re buying time….”
Time?
Would that thing really give it?
“You too…!”
Gim Seungyeon shouted toward Yun Hyeongi.
“You want to survive too, don’t you!”
“.......”
“You’re the youngest of Tirion! You were born with everything! And yet!”
Gim Seungyeon spoke as if venting his resentment, veins bulging in his neck.
“Do you plan on dying a dog’s death here?”
Gim Seungyeon looked at Yun Hyeongi with wildly shaking pupils and asked.
He flinched.
At that, Yun Hyeongi’s body trembled.
‘No way…’
Born as the youngest son of the Tirion Guild Master and having received all kinds of education, he could pride himself on being cold-headed.
Having grown up in such a massive background, he had never walked only the righteous path.
‘.......’
But the instructor, Gim Seungyeon, was if anything even worse than him.
At the coldness and cruelty that surpassed his own, Yun Hyeongi felt goosebumps all over his body.
“If we survive, it’s all over. If you and I just keep our mouths shut….”
Gim Seungyeon picked up another Hunter and threw him toward the Hobgoblin.
Ageujak!
“We can survive.”
There were not many Hunters left alive here now.
But even they.
-Y-you! You’re the instructor who should protect us! And yet why…!
-Kuaaaak!
-Kwadeuk!
There were only a few who could move their bodies properly.
Because Gim Seungyeon had broken the legs of those who tried to flee.
Seuk.
Gim Seungyeon’s eyes turned toward a Hunter whose limbs were still intact.
“You.”
And those eyes were aimed at I Seojun.
“Come here. It won’t hurt that much.”
Yun Hyeongi closed his mouth at Gim Seungyeon’s voice.
“If I get out, I’ll take care of your family, or whatever. No, Yun Hyeongi here will do it. Don’t worry and just do as I say for now.”
A subtly tempting voice.
Just as I Seojun was slowly beginning to move.
“Stop.”
Yun Hyeongi said, blocking Gim Seungyeon.
“What do you think you’re doing? You think you can play the hero now?”
Gim Seungyeon spoke with a sneer.
“The guy who was just watching Hunters die all this time?”
At Gim Seungyeon’s words, Yun Hyeongi couldn’t say anything.
Instead, he raised his sword.
“Fine, then you die. All the better.”
Gim Seungyeon glared at Yun Hyeongi.
He gripped his sword tightly.
“With two more baits, my chances of survival just got higher.”
Instructor and student.
A mysterious tension flowed between the two facing each other with swords drawn.
“Surely you don’t think what I showed during the Tutorial was everything?”
And the next moment.
Kaang!
Their swords clashed, and the sound of impact rang out.
* * *
“Ha.”
I Seojun let out a scoff.
Ugeujeok.
On one side, the Hobgoblin was devouring a Hunter as a meal.
Kaang!
On the other side, Hunters were clashing swords, gnashing their teeth at each other.
When they should be combining their strength, they were baring their fangs at each other in a crisis.
Pishik.
Such a ridiculous sight was not something easily seen even on the planet Lumer.
‘To think something like this would happen during battle.’
Even the monsters on planet Lumer never bit their allies during battle.
With an enemy to kill right before their eyes, where was the time to fight among allies?
Kaang!
But Earth was different.
Even with an enemy that must be executed immediately right before their eyes.
“This bastard…!”
The so-called instructor was swinging his sword with all his might to kill his student.
Kaang!
And the so-called student was also swinging his sword, glaring as if to kill his instructor.
All while saying things too vile to utter.
I Seojun could not understand them.
‘Just what.’
What were they doing that for?
To I Seojun’s eyes, that fight held no gain whatsoever.
‘Pathetic.’
It wasn’t as if they would gain power by killing each other right now, nor would they obtain monetary value.
In the end, if they couldn’t kill that thing over there, it was all pointless, wasn’t it?
‘They have no chance of winning anyway.’
But they were already far too late.
Even if they combined their strength now, it was too late.
Wageujak! Wageujak!
Because they were still providing food to that Hobgoblin even now.
For them, a fight that already had no chance of victory was becoming even more certain.
“To return… in this manner….”
I Seojun muttered to himself.
“I never thought I’d feel that I returned to Earth in this manner.”
Past memories rose up vividly in his mind.
Those unpleasant emotions surfaced, and his senses began to sharpen.
At that moment.
[Synchronization rate rises as memories are restored.]
[Some of your suppressed stats have been unlocked.]
Blue windows rose before his eyes in succession.
Along with such voices, he began to feel some strength returning.
At this unexpected bonus, I Seojun wore an even more relaxed expression.
‘This makes it even easier.’
He had been planning to take that thing down alone from the start.
With such a bonus on top of that, things could only go even more smoothly.
Just then.
Seuk.
A loud shout directed at him was heard.
“How long!”
It was Yun Hyeongi’s urgent voice.
“How long are you going to stand there doing nothing!”
That voice was mixed with anger and desperation.
“You should be helping me!”
Yun Hyeongi’s shout echoed throughout the place, ringing in I Seojun’s ears.
The greatest villain of all time returned.