Chapter 27  

“Kraarh-!” The man screamed but did not back down. He reached out toward Yu-Seong with his eyes wide open.

Yu-Seong had no intention of fighting head-on for an extended period with this man, who was obviously a Physical defense type player. He lowered himself and rolled across the ground by using a Dodge Roll. Some of the enemies’ weapons barely missed him; they stabbed into the ground.

“Everyone, aim your stabs carefully!”

“If he actually dies, we all die!”

Their colleague cried urgently. Those who unhesitantly wielded their weapons at Yu-Seong turned pale.

‘Yeah, so they don’t mean to kill me, is that it?’

Yu-Seong had this assumption tickling his mind, but now that he knew it for a fact, he began to react more aggressively. He jumped up from the floor and stuck out his neck in the direction of the opponent’s knife.

“Waa-! Damn!” The man cursed and quickly turned around, but a long cut was left behind from Yu-Seong’s neck to his face. Blood spurted into the air.

They were still just D-rank players. Yu-Seong never expected to completely avoid getting hurt, since his opponent’s skills were somewhat lacking. Instead, he seized the opportunity and struck the man’s neck with the shaft of his spear.

Crack-!?

Yu-Seong could hear the breaking sound of the bone. The opponent was perhaps, no, almost certainly likely to be dead. However, Yu-Seong couldn’t afford to pay attention to the man’s death.

‘Just because they have no intention to kill me doesn't mean that their intention is any good.’

Yu-Seong couldn’t afford to be considerate of his enemies’ circumstances. He gritted his teeth and took a leap forward. He hit the ground and shot toward the portal not far away.

“No!” At that moment, a huge shadow stuck out in front of Yu-Seong. It opened its arms and blocked Yu-Seong’s movement. It was the Psychic-type, defensive barrier skill player who first blocked him before.

‘Spark, full power output.‘

Yu-Seong couldn’t go half-assed. He stretched out his spear with the intention of completely finishing the enemy this time. Thunderbolts shot out in all directions and dispelled all Psychic typed or distanced attacks that were approaching to restrain him.

At the same time, Yu-Seong’s spear struck the opponent’s shoulder. There was the gruesome sensation of steel piercing through flesh, a different feeling from stabbing a monster.

Choi Yu-Seong frowned. He had been desperately trying to avoid the reality of the situation—the sensation of crushing and piercing human bodies. This was his first time experiencing something like this.

“Kuaaah-!” In that short time, the man gave up his own shoulder. He was frozen up, desperately clutching onto Yu-Seong as if he didn’t mind becoming entirely charred.

“Urgh!” Yu-Seong tilted his head with his eyes wide open. The sound of broken bone resounded as a sudden great pain struck him.

“Khaha-! Got you!” The Physical defense-type player cheered loudly while exhaling white steam

“Kkeuuu-!” Yu-Seong twisted his body to escape, but the more he tried, the more pain he had to endure from the broken arm.

“You nailed it, Kim Jae-Hyuk!”

“This is why we need a tanker.”

“By the way, how can catching one single E-rank player cost this much damage….”

The men breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the mission was completed. They praised Kim Jae-Hyuk, the Physical defense type player, while clicking their tongues at Yu-Seong.

Eighteen D-rank players had been deployed to catch a single early-mid level E-rank player. Even though the goal had been to capture him alive and not kill him, there had been much more damage than they had expected.

“Park Sung-Hyung is dead.”

“His neck was completely twisted.”

Those who checked on the player who had been hit by the spear pole after swinging his sword at Yu-Seong shook their head. There was pity in their eyes, but no emotions such as anger and sadness. Generally, this was the fate of those who were called the dungeon hunters. It wasn’t a big surprise regarding when and where they died, or what they experienced before their deaths. In the case of Yu-Seong’s abduction, there had been more unexpected variables, but that was all.

“We won’t kill you, but don’t you dare think about resting comfortably. I’ll also break your limbs one by one.” Kim Jae-Hyuk threatened Yu-Seong in a low voice.

Yu-Seong loosened up and his head was down as if he had given up or fainted.

“Breaking one or two limbs is not enough. I can’t stand the fact that I was mocked by that guy earlier.”

“Isn’t it enough to keep him alive? Let’s pull out all of his nails.”

“Torture is my specialty. I’ll make him suffer just enough for him to not die.”

It was clear from the men’s horrible conversation that they were heinous criminals who thought nothing of a kidnapping.

“...bolt,” muttered Yu-Seong to himself.

“What is he saying? This…” Kim Jae-Hyuk tilted his head as he heard Yu-Seong’s voice. “Did you say thunderbolt? Did you?”

“What did…”

Suddenly, Spark swirled up from all over Yu-Seong as he raised his head and his eyes lit up.

In contrast, Kim Jae-Hyuk was overwhelmed by shock all over again. He tensed his both arms.

“My pain tolerance is D-rank, you know!” grinned Jae-Hyuk with his yellow teeth.

However, he tilted his head when he did not hear the anticipated scream from Yu-Seong. Soon, Jae-Hyuk’s eyes widened after he saw Yu-Seong spreading a thin translucent shield in the gap between his arms. ‘How could he make the shield this thin?’?

Jae-Hyuk had not detected it, nor had he gotten any indication. He was shocked by how Yu-Seong operated his shield. It seemed to be better than the original user. Immediately after, Yu-Seong threw his head back and hit Jae-Hyuk’s chin.

“Kuck-!” Jae-Hyuk frowned and screamed while loosening up his arms. Yu-Seong did not miss his opportunity. He quickly pulled himself down to the ground and rolled to the side.

Dodge Roll F → Dodge Roll E

As soon as the skill level-up message popped up, Yu-Seong stabbed straight down into the ground with his spear and jumped into the air as if he was doing a pole vault.

“Get him!” Jae-Hyuk—who was proud of his D-rank pain tolerance skill—ran out to catch Yu-Seong. Well, he tried to run after him, but something caught his ankle and blocked him. Therefore, his face smashed into the ground and he got a nosebleed.

“Kuck-!” Jae-Hyuk’s eyes widened as he screamed. He found tree roots holding onto his ankles. When he turned his head toward Yu-Seong, he found him winking and raising his hand toward somewhere else.

‘Is there a traitor?’?

In an instant, Kim Jae-Hyuk and all the other men had the same thought. The attention was naturally directed to Park Min, the player with the ability to summon tree roots and branches.

Park Min quickly shook his head and waved both hands. “No, I am not! Do you think I am crazy?”

In the meantime, Yu-Seong completely vaulted across the players blocking his way.

‘Now, if I run about 500m straight…’

He could cross the finish line, the portal. With his quick wits and grit, he had overcome the mightiest barrier. Now he was running swiftly.

“There’s no time to argue about this, stop him!”

“If we fail, we’ll be humiliated.”

A scream-like roar came from behind Yu-Seong. A relieved smile appeared on Yu-Seong’s face as he ran like the wind.

‘300m left.’?

The finish line was just around the corner. However, the moment he thought so, the ground of the dungeon suddenly shook violently.

“...?!” Yu-Seong staggered as he did not have much strength left in his legs. At the same time, part of the ground rose up like a wall in front of his eyes. It was a demonstration of the Psychic earth-type player’s skills. The player had been gathering his strength during the long confrontation.

‘If I fall down here…’

If the road was blocked again, Yu-Seong would not have enough stamina to escape.

“No.”

Even as he spoke to himself, Yu-Seong flung himself into the air again, using the spear as a pole. The spear cost nearly 2 billion won in cash, but he didn’t consider this as a waste; his life was more precious than money. This was it; this was the best choice Yu-Seong could make right now. As a result, Yu-Seong slammed his shoulder against the wall of soaring ground.

Bam-!

Along with a shock, Yu-Seong trembled with intense pain.

“Khack, khaack-!”

It felt as if Yu-Seong's body was breaking apart. He trembled and vomited blood. However, something else bothered Yu-Seong more than that.

‘I couldn’t get over it.’

He was stuck. He failed with only 300 meters left from his goal.

“...”

“Be careful, he isn’t just a regular E-rank Player.”

The group of players approached Yu-Seong. They had become less talkative than before, and they were looking at him differently.

Yu-Seong slowly raised his body while crawling on the floor with both hands, even while suffering and coughing up blood. His bloody eyes remained vigilant on the approaching players. His physical strength was also low and his body condition was a mess, but at least his mental strength was still hanging in there.

Yu-Seong was still looking for an escape opportunity and was staring at them. He glared at them as if he wanted to kill them. Perhaps that was the reason…

Despite it being obvious that Yu-Seong was captured, the kidnappers walked much slower than expected.

‘Will it be okay to do this?’

‘Maybe it will be better to kill him here…’

‘If we release Choi Yu-Seong in the future…’

Gazes of awe and fear surrounded Yu-Seong, and he was capable of reading the atmosphere. ‘If only I can use this vibe…’?

But how? There was no possible way he could think of. Unlike his unfaltering spirit, Yu-Seong was clearly aware that his body had reached its limit.

‘If I was stronger…’?

No, he should have been a lot more thorough. He should have been aware that a dungeon was a place where anything could happen and should have prepared accordingly.

Did he think that it was impossible to develop himself if he couldn’t get over such a crisis alone? He had to admit that he had been somewhat off guard. His enemies were more cunning and meticulous than he had imagined. They did not wait for him to become stronger and let him gain experiences like the villains in novels, comics, and movies.

‘I shouldn’t have thought of them the same as Choi Min-Seok, the greenhorn…’

Yu-Seong had been careless. After he had toyed with Choi Min-Seok, he thought everything else would come easy. His enemies here were monsters who did not mind using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. He exuded his powerful intention. The group of kidnappers gradually closed in even when they were swept by his emotions. They soon arrived in front of Yu-Seong.

“Sorry, but we did not have any other choice. This is our job. I hope you don’t take it too personally.” Kim Jae-Hyuk, unlike his initial attitude, reached out his hand and gave an apology to Yu-Seong. His wounded, thick hand was about to touch Yu-Seong’s shoulder.

“Don’t you dare to touch him.” There was a voice from the air and a figure dropped from above like the silver streak of a thunderbolt. The figure was wearing a dark black combat suit and had short hair and a broad back. They emitted a chilling demeanor.

Yu-Seong undoubtedly recognized the person despite his blurry vision.

‘Kim Do-Jin.’

“Choi Yu-Seong is mine.” The figure gave a cheeky grin.

***

The two men, Gong Sung-Jin and Gong Woo-Jin, were also known as the Gong brothers and they were quite infamous in the Korean mercenary industry. Their main duties included kidnapping, murder, intimidation, robbery, and even escort missions. They were not designated as Villains since they worked together with the ones with authority, but they were practically brutal criminals. In addition, both brothers had outstanding skills as they were A-rank players.

Because of that, the brothers’ rate of success in missions was 100 percent so far. They achieved such an outstanding rate because they did not even accept any tasks they thought they might fail. However, the Gong brothers were still recognized enough to rise to the Top 10 in the industry.

There were two reasons why the Gong brothers had received the task to kidnap Choi Yu-Seong. Firstly, the amount of commission was enormous from the risky venture.

Secondly, they could guess the client’s identity to some extent. The task was dangerous, but their safety could be guaranteed if they succeeded. The worst consequences of failing the task were not even in their minds. As always, they wouldn’t have accepted this task if they didn’t plan to succeed in the first place.

The trickiest thing in this mission—kidnapping Choi Yu-Seong—was the two guards by their target’s side, the Jin siblings. They were either a player of A-rank or B-rank and rarely left Choi Yu-Seong’s side except during their sleep. That was why the Gong brothers waited for Yu-Seong to enter the dungeon. They were aware that people were most afraid of unpredictable situations. With Yu-Seong not in sight, even a little stimulus would force the Jin siblings to follow him.

So far, everything was going according to the plan and the Gong brothers weren’t too concerned about the situation inside the dungeon either.

They hired eighteen D-rank players who were quite involved in this kind of work through five agencies they were familiar with. Even if Yu-Seong passed the hunter test as top honor, he was still an E-rank player. There was no reason to be concerned about failure.

While the Jin’s siblings were away, those inside who succeeded in kidnapping Yu-Seong would leave Dungeon Square, hide him, then move to the meeting place.

The Gong brothers would receive Yu-Seong at the meeting place and then leave the country for a while. That was it. The mission would clearly end. However, there was an unexpected miscalculation.

The first miscalculation was Jin Do-Yoon. They had been given information about him beforehand. Jin Do-Yoon, the Lycanthrope. He was a hunter with more defensive power than most defensive ability users and had the ferocity of a beast.

It was a general theory within the industry that players of physical-type and transformation ability could be viewed a half level above their original rank. But even so, he was still only a B-rank player. There was no reason for Gong Sung-Jin, a curse-type Psychic play, to lose.

Originally, the biggest counters for simple and ignorant physical-type players were those with curse-type abilities.

The advantage of physical-type players was that both their attacking and defending abilities were superior to the average. The downside was that that was the extent of their specialty.

If Gong Sung-Jin prevented the opponent from attacking at close range and continued to beat them down from a moderate distance, the opponent would fall into exhaustion.

Everything seemed to be going according to the plan at the beginning of the battle in the abandoned construction site. But, how come?

“Ahwoooo-!”

Gong Woo-Jin could not understand why Jin Do-Yoon was howling on top of Gong Sung-Jin. Do-Yoon’s entire body was dyed red and Sung-Jin’s body and face were thoroughly ruined.

‘Sung-Jin lost?’

This was obviously out of the calculation, and this was not even the only problem.

“My oppa is the type of person that doubles his combat power when he’s angry. Rank isn’t everything, you know,” Yu-Ri commented.

Gong Woo-Jin’s face was swollen all over and his eyes opened wide with surprise. Jin Yu-Ri trampled on his head with the shoe’s heel, then struck the floor with a black whip she had formed on one hand.

“And for reference, I’m the type of person to be three times crueler,” Yu-Ri continued.

“...Just kill me,” Gong Woo-Jin said, biting his lips. Being in this line of work, he was always prepared to die. Although it had come at an unexpected time, it wasn’t particularly unexpected either.

“What? Do you think I’ll let you die in peace? You must have heard me wrong,” Jin Yu-Ri snorted. Her whip slowly started to creep up Gong Woo-Jin’s body starting from his ankle, just like a snake. “You’d better answer my questions as honestly as possible from now on.”

“I won’t let you do as you…!” Gong Woo-Jin flinched before attempting to bite his tongue.

However, Jin Yu-Ri waved her free hand, and a mass of black energy appeared in the air in the shape of a rolled-up snake then blocked Gong Woo-Jin’s mouth.

“Hmm…?!” Gong Woo-Jin trembled when he felt a sticky, cold texture filling the insides of his mouth.

In the meantime, Jin Yu-Ri’s whip continued creeping up Woo-Jin’s thigh and slowly began digging into his crotch.

“Don’t get any funny ideas. Blink once if I’m right, and twice if I’m wrong,” Jin Yu-Ri said.

Gong Woo-Jin’s eyes filled with fear and shock when he felt the whip tightening around the area between his legs. “Hmmph… Mmph…!”

“Should I rip it out or crush it? If you want to die a clean death… You’d better be honest. Understood?” She warned him.

“Mmpph…!” Gong Woo-Jin’s head violently shook from left to right. His eyes were filled with absolute fear.

“Hoho, you poor thing. Why did you mess with someone you shouldn’t have touched? Now, the first question. Is Yu-Seong oppa near here right now?”

“Mmmmpph…!”

“Hohoho…”

The cry of a wolf, the laughter of a snake, and the screams of a human resonated from inside the dark abandoned construction site.