When Hwang took out his shield and sword and started walking towards them, an unexpected system message appeared before Jin-Woo's eyes.
[ AN URGENT QUEST HAS ARRIVED. ]
What?
Now?
Seriously. Right now!?
Without saying a word, Jin-Woo ordered to open the message.
Four different windows popped up before his eyes.
[ URGENT QUEST: KILL THE ENEMIES ]
[ ENEMIES WANTING TO KILL THE "PLAYER" HAVE APPEARED NEARBY. ELIMINATE THEM AND ENSURE YOUR SAFETY. ]
[ FAILURE TO COMPLETE THE QUEST WILL RESULT IN PENALTY. ]
[ NUMBER OF ENEMIES TO KILL: 8 ]
[ KILLED: 0 ]
What the hell was that!?
He was supposed to kill all eight of them?!
Before he could think about it, he noticed behind the half-transparent windows of the system a luminous arrow that appeared in the mage's hand and then started flying towards Jin-Woo.
It happened so quickly that he had no time to dodge.
The arrow hit him, causing a strong explosion and sending him crashing into the wall.
Under the influence of the impact, the wall cracked and pieces of it fell on Jin-Woo, covering him.
- Sung!
- Don't despair over the dead body and come to us.
With tears in his eyes, Jin-Ho looked away from where Jin-Woo had hit and glared at the still-amused group of hunters across from him.
Meanwhile, Jin-Woo was in a daze, letting hundreds of chaotic thoughts run through his head.
Why?
Why did he forget about this?
Here, only the strongest will survive.
He's been going about it wrong this whole time.
It wasn't about getting stronger.
He had to stand at the very top.
Surpass everyone.
Even National-Ranked Hunters.
All of them.
He had to become the strongest.
Is this what the system wanted from the beginning?
Now, encouraging him to kill?
[ IF YOU FAIL TO FOLLOW THESE ORDERS, YOUR HEART WILL STOP BEATING ]
System?
What does it really want?
It definitely wants him to survive.
Why else would it compel him to kill?
For the system to work, Jin-Woo had to live.
This was no divine will or gift.
The system was using him.
But that was okay.
It could work both ways.
The system used him.
And he used the system.
Jin-Woo slowly got to his feet, feeling the blood trickling down his temple.
[ HP: 1360/2600 ]
- Huh? This guy survived? - One of the hunters pointed at the rising Jin-Woo.
- Dude, did you miss the target?
- Kind of embarrassing, your attack couldn't kill that guy with a direct hit.
- Gyu-Hwan, this is not the time to play. - Hwang Dong-Suk reminded him scoldingly.
- I know.
The mage watched in disbelief as the weak hunter simply got back on his feet despite attacking him with full force.
How the hell did he do that?
Did he actually miss?
Jin-Ho looked with a mixture of relief and disbelief as Jin-Woo passed him and looked at Hwang's group.
- You shouldn't be playing with human lives. - Jin-Woo said coldly.
- Don't worry, I'll take care of him.
One of the hunters walked up to Jin-Woo with laughter and contempt, threw his arm around his shoulders, leaned over him, and looked at him with pity.
- It seems you don't quite understand what's going on here...
Without intending to listen to the trash invading his personal space, Jin-Woo pulled out his dagger and with one calm motion, severed the pitiful hunter's head.
The head fell to the ground, and moments later, Jin-Woo pushed the rest of his body away, while the blood from the hunter's arteries splattered on his cheek.
- One down. Seven to go.
- Jun-Tae!
- What?!
- When did he take out that knife?!
The hunters looked on in shock as an E-rank hunter effortlessly killed one of their own. A D-rank hunter, at that.
Jin-Woo walked calmly towards the group.
He had killed a hunter.
A human.
The fact that the system had forced him to do it did not lessen his guilt.
However, he couldn't bring himself to feel remorse. If he didn't kill them, they would kill him.
However, no, the system would do it faster.
- I have no idea what he just did. But don't let your guard down. - Hwang ordered them, gripping the sword hilt tighter, feeling his breathing quicken. - Gyu-Hwan, come on again.
The mage once again sent the same attack towards Sung, trying to put even more effort into it.
- You're such a pain in the ass. - Jin-Woo stated, appearing in front of the mage before his spell could hit anything.
Jin-Woo then cut down the pest with a few simple moves.
The other hunters, completely furious after seeing their other companion fall to the ground with a huge amount of blood oozing from his entire body, rushed at him at the same time.
However, it wasn't enough.
Not for Jin-Woo.
They were too slow.
Their defenses were too weak.
They weren't thinking rationally.
[ PARALYSIS EFFECT APPLIED ]
[ BLEEDING EFFECT APPLIED ]
[ BLEEDING EFFECT APPLIED ]
[ NUMBER OF ENEMIES TO KILL: 1 ]
[ KILLED: 7 ]
Almost there.
Jin-Woo lifted his head and gazed at Dong Hwang-Suk with the eyes of a hungry predator.
- You killed the whole... Son of a bitch! You'll pay me for this! You've been hiding your true power all this time, you bastard? You're the one who defeated the boss.
Hwang swallowed hard and activated his "Reinforcement" skill.
The bastard in front of him must have been pretty tired by now. First, he fought the boss and then seven of his men.
He no longer has enough power to fight him. There was no way he could get his ridiculous dagger through his thick shield.
He looked like a skillful son of a bitch, so he shouldn't have had any skills to break through the guard.
It's over now.
But as if waiting for this moment, Jin-Woo stopped his charge, grabbing him by the face with one hand and slamming him into the ground.
Lying on the cracked earth, Hwang Dong-Suk coughed weakly, in a state of shock at how this man had managed to bring him down so easily.
Could he be a S-Ranker?
- Wait... Don't kill me! Spare me! I will give you money! You can keep all the loot.
Hwang Dong-Suk barely got up on all fours and away from Jin-Woo.
- Three times. Are you begging for mercy from a man you tried to kill three times?
First, by filling in the entrance.
Then by trying to talk Jin-Ho down.
Then by Gyu-Hwan's magic.
You said it yourself. What happens dungeon stays dungeon.
Realizing that begging would do no good, Hwang Dong-Suk turned red with anger and started screaming.
- You bastard! Do you have any idea who my little brother is...
Dong-Suk's head flew up, made a few turns around its axis, and fell to the ground.
No, he had no idea.
And he didn't care.
As he sheathed his dagger, Jin-Woo looked at his jacket.
He got his clothes dirty again.
Not only did most of his clothes become too small for him, but he also stained the ones he was wearing with blood.
And the blood doesn't come off that easily.
Well, he clearly has some serious shopping to do.
He knew he had done something wrong by killing other people.
But these people were just trash.
He couldn't feel sorry for them.
If he killed someone innocent, unable to defend himself, someone who had not done him any harm.
Then he wouldn't be able to look at himself in the mirror.
But he will never do it.
He wasn't trash like the dead ones here.
[ REWARD FOR COMPLETED QUEST ]
[ URGENT QUEST: KILL THE ENEMIES ]
[ REQUIREMENTS HAVE BEEN FULFILLED ]
[ DO YOU WISH TO CLAIM THE REWARD? ]
[ YES ] [ NO ]
He had expected this. So far, he had received rewards for every quest. Accepting it, he was curious about what he'd get this time.
[ REWARDS FOR THE QUEST ]
[ CHOOSE A REWARD FROM THE LIST BELOW ]
[ REWARD #1: STATUS RECOVERY ]
[ REWARD #2: STAT POINTS +10 ]
[ REWARD #3: SKILL: BLOODLUST ]
[ DO YOU ACCEPT? ]
[ YES ] [ NO ]
As many as ten points?!
Great!
The new skill was probably even more satisfying than the points.
Machine Translated by Google
Quickly accepting, Jin-Woo looked at the new skill.
[ SKILL ]
[ ACTIVE ]
[ BLOODLUST LV.1 ]
[ 100 MANA REQUIRED ]
[ A SKILL THAT INTIMIDATES HIS OPPONENTS USING STRONG ENERGY FOR ONE MINUTE, WHICH INDUCES A STATE OF FEAR, REDUCING THEIR STATS BY 50% ]
[ THE EFFECT CAN BE APPLIED TO SEVERAL TARGETS. ]
Though temporary and mana-draining, it had a really powerful effect. It decreased the enemy's stats by half. It probably wouldn't work on enemies with high resistance, just like the effects on his dagger.
Nevertheless, the skill was still good.
The cave was shaking, as if reminding them that the gate would soon close.
Jin-Woo looked at Jin-Ho, frozen in fear. Their gazes met, and the young boy looked like he was about to faint.
- Please don't kill me, I beg you!
He didn't want to hurt this boy.
He wasn't going to do that for a second.
The kid stood up for him twice.
When the boss woke up.
And when he was offered his own life in exchange for taking Jin-Woo's life.
But he couldn't let the boy start talking about what happened here.
Yoo Jin-Ho trembled uncontrollably. His face was completely pale. After all, he had just watched Jin-Woo kill eight people in cold blood. One of the most powerful weapons to control a person was "fear". So Jin-Woo decided to use it to his advantage.
- Why should I?
Jin-Woo had sworn he heard Yoo Jin-Ho's heart first stop and then shatter.
Had he gone too far?
- I have... I have money... I can give you...
- Who do you think I am?
Jin-Woo looked resentfully at the terrified boy. His whole life was marked by poverty, but he had no intention of using someone as a hostage for money. If he did that, he would be no different from Hwang Dong-Suk.
- I'm Sorry!
Now that he thought about it, he realized that Jin-Woo had rejected Dong-Suk's offer of money in exchange for his life.
Clearly, he was not the type of person interested in material gains but rather in pouring his heart into his chosen profession. So why did he take the boss's cores?
Magical cores, the source of great power, had many uses beyond creating magical items. But for a Hunter, they were no different from money.
The reason he got his hands dirty to look through the corpses was because he was fighting the boss for it. He would have no mercy for those who came against him, but he wanted nothing to do with what he had not earned with his sweat and blood.
So despite his brutality, he had his iron rules.
No wonder Jin-Woo got angry at his proposal.
What he needed now wasn't "father's money."
Yoo Jinho quickly spoke,
- If you spare me, I will give you all the profits from this dungeon.
- Hmmm?
As expected, Jin-Woo looked interested.
- If nine out of ten people died and the only survivor took home all the profits, that would be very suspicious.
Yoo Jin-Ho was sure that Jin-Woo was a False Ranker. What's more, he was a powerful False Ranker who liked to kill! Such a person could not attract the attention of others.
- So?
- On the other hand, if you and I leave here together as agreed, all the magical cores will become mine. Even if eight others weren't alive, no one would suspect you if you had no visible benefits.
Of course, no one would suspect Yoo Jin-Ho either. He was the son of one of the most powerful CEOs in the country. Magic cores would be worthless to him.
- Of course, the money would be yours. It's a 'fair price' for killing Hwang Dong-Suk's group and saving my life.
- Deal.
***
When he finally returned home, it was already dark outside and still raining.
After a quick shower and change of clothes, he opened the status window.
[ STATUS ]