Volume 1, Episode 15
015
Though many things had faded in the long passage of time, he could still remember that day, however dimly.
Having fallen into that place like hell, my first hunt, luckily….
No.
-Squelch.
The memory of when he had succeeded in surviving for the first time.
The moment he had desperately torn at and chewed on a goblin’s wound just to survive now came back to him.
“Grrk…?”
A voice that seemed unable to comprehend.
The hobgoblin’s head tilted.
But soon.
“Kreeeeek—!”
The creature began to scream like a madman.
Excruciating pain radiated from its chest.
Because Lee Seo-jun’s arm was pierced straight through the hobgoblin’s chest.
Hwoong!
The hobgoblin moved as if it would kill Lee Seo-jun at any moment.
“Lee Seo-jun!”
Yoon Hyeon-gi, having witnessed this scene, called out to Lee Seo-jun in an urgent voice, but.
“…….”
Lee Seo-jun stood still in his spot without so much as a twitch.
Hwoong!
The hobgoblin’s fist fell like a lightning bolt.
Thud.
But it had stopped right above Lee Seo-jun’s head.
“You shouldn’t think it’s a poison that only you possess.”
The poison possessed by the hobgoblins of Planet Lumer was a special poison capable of paralyzing even trolls, which boasted strong resistance to poison.
However, hobgoblins with the same poison would have resistance to it, and the poison created by Lee Seo-jun’s grafted arm would have been unlikely to work either.
“After all, I was quite adept at refining and using your poison.”
In that brief moment, Lee Seo-jun had refined the hobgoblin’s poison.
It was possible because he had used hobgoblin poison as a base for a long time even on Planet Lumer.
And the paralytic poison refined in such a way.
“Kki… reuk….”
Even the hobgoblin’s breathing was coming to a halt.
Shluck!
Lee Seo-jun pulled out the arm he had plunged into the hobgoblin’s chest.
Thud!
Then, a massive noise echoed throughout the chamber.
It was the sound of the hobgoblin collapsing onto the ground.
“Kki, reueok. Kkireu….”
The fallen hobgoblin exhaled rough breaths, savoring its final moments.
And Lee Seo-jun.
Trudge.
Leaving that hobgoblin behind, he was leisurely moving his steps somewhere.
Then, at that moment.
Ding!
[You have slain the boss Hobgoblin of the E-Rank Special Gate.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Some suppressed stats have been partially unlocked.]
A system voice that only Lee Seo-jun could hear rang out.
Trudge.
But Lee Seo-jun paid no heed to such things and continued walking out.
The place he arrived at like that.
“I think we need to finish our conversation.”
That place was right before Yoon Hyeon-gi, who was sitting slumped on the ground.
“….….”
Yoon Hyeon-gi looked up at Lee Seo-jun standing before him.
Swish.
When their gazes collided, Yoon Hyeon-gi flinched.
‘Those eyes.’
The eyes he had seen.
The eyes he had always admired and feared.
The eyes of a sovereign, like his father.
Chatter. Chatter.
No, eyes of a predator that surpassed even that. Yoon Hyeon-gi’s face was dyed with terror in an instant, and his body trembled like an aspen tree, shuddering violently.
‘What?’
Lee Seo-jun.
Why had he come before him?
Yoon Hyeon-gi was thrown into confusion by the surging sense of fear.
He couldn’t think straight.
‘Is he going to… kill me too?’
Soon, Yoon Hyeon-gi’s face was steeped in shadow.
Then, at that moment.
-If I save you, what will you do for me?
Several scenes surfaced in Yoon Hyeon-gi’s mind.
The words Lee Seo-jun had spoken to him moments ago.
-Can you do anything?
To his question.
-Just save me first!
He remembered how he had answered.
Yoon Hyeon-gi felt he could guess why Lee Seo-jun had come.
“What… what do you want.”
Yoon Hyeon-gi barely opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
The price for saving him.
What Lee Seo-jun wanted was….
“Everything.”
As he spoke, Lee Seo-jun’s arm wrapped around Yoon Hyeon-gi’s head.
Crack.
That arm was not originally Lee Seo-jun’s. It was a hobgoblin’s arm that had been grafted.
* * *
Weeeeng.
The loud blaring sound of a siren.
At this, the Association’s hunters were moving busily.
“Move, move quickly!”
“Yes! Understood!”
What was being carried out in their hands were corpses that were utterly gruesome.
Crack.
And the man watching this gruesome scene.
“Damn it.”
Kim Seung-min, team leader of the Hunter Management Department, spoke while crushing a cigarette butt in his hand.
“To think there’d be such a major accident during a Tutorial.”
The gate he had urgently mobilized to after receiving the call.
It was none other than the E-Rank Gate where the Tutorial had been in progress.
-Watch the Tutorial and cool your head.
Kim Seung-min, who had been observing the Tutorial due to the Association President’s orders.
-This batch will be over soon as well.
The Tutorial had already reached its final stage.
Jo Yu-jin had informed him that only the gate raid remained.
-They should have reached the boss room by now. I wonder how nervous they must be. I had those days too.
At the moment Jo Yu-jin spoke with a faint smile tugging at his lips.
-Jiiiing!
A loud noise had blared from the speaker.
The source of the noise.
-……!
It was the distress signal from the flare that Instructor Kim Seung-yeon, who had entered the Tutorial gate, had been carrying.
And so, now.
“Sseup…. Hoo.”
Kim Seung-min was here.
“So you see. I can’t believe it. How could something like this happen in a Tutorial gate….”
Such a reaction from Jo Yu-jin was only natural.
A Tutorial gate.
It was a place carefully selected by the Association itself.
“If there had been anomalies, they definitely would have shown up beforehand…. Just what on earth happened?”
Jo Yu-jin’s face was filled with bewilderment.
“There definitely is something….”
At his question, Kim Seung-min’s expression grew extremely heavy.
Never before had such an incident occurred during a Tutorial.
“There is something.”
Therefore, Kim Seung-min was thinking that this couldn’t be a simple coincidence.
Because the Association he belonged to was anything but soft.
Thorough and meticulous—that was the Association.
“There’s no way the Tutorial team couldn’t have distinguished that this gate was a special gate.”
They had no choice but to be perfectionists.
The Tutorial team members were selected with even greater care by the Association.
Because even a minor mistake on their part could endanger novice hunters’ lives.
“I think so as well.”
They couldn’t have made such a mistake.
It was certain.
There definitely had been something else.
Thud! Thud!
On top of that, Kim Seung-min’s heart was beating like crazy.
‘Instinct.’
A signpost that always showed him the path he needed to take.
His own instinct, with its outstanding ability to detect danger, his animalistic sense, was telling him.
“Jo Yu-jin.”
“Yes. Team Leader.”
“The moment we return to the Association, find and bring me all the data and information related to this gate.”
He meant that they needed to thoroughly investigate this Tutorial gate, which normally wouldn’t require investigation.
“Yes. Understood.”
Just as Jo Yu-jin answered firmly.
Thud-thud!
Someone approached them in a hurry.
It was an Association employee whom Kim Seung-min had given separate orders to.
“Haah…. Haah….”
The employee approached them and caught his rough breath.
“T-Team Leader. The survivor investigation is complete.”
He held his knees and opened his mouth toward Kim Seung-min.
“Didn’t you say two?”
“Yes. Tyrion’s Yoon Hyeon-gi. And….”
The two hunters standing in front of the ambulance with blankets draped over them.
“…….”
Kim Seung-min’s gaze toward them grew sharp.
“What happened?”
“Hunter Yoon Hyeon-gi says that Hunter Kim Seung-yeon and….”
The appearance of a monster that was not originally the E-Rank Gate’s boss, the Hobgoblin.
Kim Seung-yeon’s atrocity of offering hunters’ lives to the monster in order to survive.
And that monster had killed Kim Seung-yeon.
“He says they took care of it then.”
It was said that Yoon Hyeon-gi and Lee Seo-jun had handled the monster when it was exhausted from fighting Kim Seung-yeon.
“What? Did he really say that?”
The doubtful Jo Yu-jin.
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“Are you sure?”
Jo Yu-jin asked the employee again, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Yes. I’m certain.”
However, the employee’s answer remained unchanged.
At this, Jo Yu-jin’s face colored with confusion.
‘It makes no sense.’
He had asked several times, but the result was the same.
This was absolutely absurd.
“Team Leader. Does this make any sense?”
Jo Yu-jin said to Kim Seung-min, narrowing his brows.
“It’s none other than a special gate.”
Jo Yu-jin’s suspicious gaze turned toward Lee Seo-jun and Yoon Hyeon-gi.
“There’s no way those two novice hunters could have handled it. This is absurd.”
Jo Yu-jin was convinced.
That there had been something else besides Yoon Hyeon-gi and Lee Seo-jun.
But unlike him.
“What are you hiding, Tyrion.”
It was Yoon Hyeon-gi whom Kim Seung-min suspected.
* * *
An immaculately organized super high-rise apartment.
This place, with a clear view of the Han River, was Jamsil, considered the safest location in the country due to its proximity to the Association and its position in the center of what were called Korea’s Three Great Guilds.
The cutting edge of Seoul, reaching a whopping one hundred and sixtieth floor.
‘Sanctuary.’
Sanctuary Residence was known as a dream place for many, a place one couldn’t easily enter even with money.
Swish.
In such a place, a man was looking out the window.
He was none other than the youngest son of the Tyrion Guildmaster.
It was Yoon Hyeon-gi.
“The view from here is quite nice. Not to mention.”
And behind Yoon Hyeon-gi, who was speaking, a shadow loomed.
“…….”
“It could be called the safest place in the country. Perhaps that’s why everyone thinks of this place as their dream location. Also, what else….”
Yoon Hyeon-gi, who was continuing his words, cut off mid-sentence as if reminded of something.
“Ah. Right.”
Yoon Hyeon-gi let out a groan.
“I handled the Association well.”
While looking out the window, Yoon Hyeon-gi opened his mouth in a tone that suggested it was no big deal.
“I handled it the way I always have. So there won’t be any problems going forward.”
This was how Tyrion’s youngest son, Yoon Hyeon-gi, always handled things.
“After all, it was none other than my father, the Guildmaster of Tyrion Guild, who stepped in personally.”
It was the power and wealth possessed by the leader of one of Korea’s Three Great Guilds, the Tyrion Guild.
He had resolved it with that.
-I beg of you, Father.
His father, looking down at him with the eyes of a sovereign.
-If you help me just this once more, I will never again….
-You incompetent fool.
His father had clicked his tongue and spoken.
-Do you know how many times I’ve had to see their faces because of you?
Dealings with the Association’s upper echelons.
-I-I’m sorry.
-This is the last time.
His father had sternly warned him in a cold tone.
-If you tarnish Tyrion’s name one more time, then you’d best be prepared.
With those words, his father sent him out and picked up the receiver.
“But this time, unlike before, it took some effort. That Hunter Management Department team leader stuck to me and was terribly annoying.”
Kim Seung-min.
He had clung persistently like a leech.
But.
“In the end, he fell away. A mere team leader couldn’t possibly disobey orders from above.”
And.
“Now, what is it that I have to do?”
Yoon Hyeon-gi turned around and spoke.
Toward the shadow that loomed behind him.
“…….”
Toward Lee Seo-jun.
The greatest villain of all time had returned.