Chapter 5  : Chapter 5  Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

‘Slash!’

The torsos of the nine level 100 hunters scattered all over with the champion’s single swing. Then, Min Sung looked back at a certain hunter behind him, who was on the ground, moaning in pain with his arm twisted in an unnatural angle. While locking eyes with the terrified and helpless hunter, the champion walked toward him and slowly pushed the blade of his sword into the hunter’s neck.

“Cough! Augh! Cough!”

As the blade gently pierced through the brown-haired man, blood poured out of the hunter’s mouth like a fountain. Soon, there was no life left in his eyes. As the hunter’s limbs hung lifelessly, Min Sung pulled the sword out of the dead hunter’s neck and shook the blood off of it, splashing the dark-red liquid all over the ground.

‘Splash!’

Shocked by what he’d seen, Ho Sung’s jaw dropped open, and the cigarette in his mouth fell out. Meanwhile, with the sword still in his hand, Min Sung walked toward the head of the clan unhurriedly.

“Who… who the hell are you…?”

Ignoring Ho Sung’s question with an ice-cold look on his face, the champion kept moving toward the head of the clan. Then, just as Min Sung was about to drive the sword through him, Ho Sung fell to his knees, begging for his life with widened eyes and tightly clasped hands. However, the champion’s expression turned even colder.

“P… Please. Don’t kill me…!”

“You tried to kill me and take everything I had. And now, you want me to let you live?”

“Please! I’ll do anything!”

“I don’t need…”

“I’ll be your servant! I’ll give you everything I have, be it money, women, power, food! Anything you want! Please let me live!” Ho Sung begged with his head on the ground, terrified.

“Ho Sung Lee, the head of the Diamond Club,” Min Sung said, sitting in front of Ho Sung, who was trembling out of control. A moment later, Ho Sung mustered up the courage to look up at the champion cautiously.

“… Food, you say?”

“I’m sor… Oh, yes! Yes! All the food you can possibly want! You will NOT be disappointed!”

At that moment, Min Sung drove his sword through one of Ho Sung’s thighs without hesitation.

“Agh!” Ho Sung let out, his back arching from the extreme pain. Then, grabbing him by his cheeks, the champion locked eyes with the helpless clan head and said, “Ho Sung Lee.”

“Ugh… Yes…?”

“What are you gonna do about the bodies?”

“We… we have guys specialized in that task. Agh! I… I’ll make sure the place is clean as a whistle.”

“Do you wanna live?”

“Yes. Please, I beg you.”

“Then, you wait for me in front of the dungeon tomorrow morning.”

At that moment, Ho Sung’s face lit up.

“Yes, sir!” he said.

“If you don’t, you’re gonna beg me to kill you.”

“Of… Of course. That goes without saying… You can count on me.”

After looking around, Min Sung stood up unhurriedly and threw the sword to the side.

‘Clank!’

As Ho Sung dropped his head to the ground, shaking uncontrollably, Min Sung walked away leisurely.

—

Having no intention of going back home or resting, Min Sung went back to the dungeon. Currently, hunting and leveling up was his utmost priority. Also, he was in desperate need of money. In the Demonic Realm, taking short naps even after having stayed up for several days became a habit. Although he was in another world, where such extreme habits weren’t always necessary, that habit remained the same. Besides, there was a more urgent matter at hand: the utility bill.

Opening his inventory, Min Sung stared at the one item that he hadn’t sold to the merchant.

[Proof of Purchase: Grayed Dungeon 30th Floor Pass]

It had been one of the items he had earned after clearing the 29th floor of the dungeon. Because he had been planning on returning to the dungeon, he had kept the item in his inventory. Even the thought of going through the dungeon from the first floor was tedious, which made the floor pass even more valuable. Looking around the so-called Grayed Dungeon, the champion took the floor pass out of his pocket and tore it in two. Then, the surroundings started to contort, and the champion disappeared in midair in a split second.

—

Ho Sung stared at the majestic-yet-intimidating building made of black mithril, which was a mysterious substance found in dungeons. He was at the headquarters of a certain intelligence organization called ‘Shadow Guild,’ which was made up by individuals who were at least level 200. Licking his parched lips, Ho Sung paced back and forth anxiously around the building’s entrance. Soon, a short man in a black suit sporting gray hair came out of the building.

‘Lv412 Kyung Tae Oh: Supervisor of the Shadow Guild Headquarters’

The man’s level alone was incredibly intimidating. Although Ho Sung was the head of a clan himself, they were merely thugs who lingered in the streets by comparison.

“Kyung Tae! I’m sorry to bother you like this. I know you’re a busy man.”

The supervisor of the Shadow Guild looked down at Ho Sung with disdain and a furrowed brow. Swallowing his pride, Ho Sung suppressed his urge to curse his old friend. Growing up together, Ho Sung had always been the superior of the two. Whenever they had had to take turns to ride the rides at the playground, Ho Sung would always go first, and whenever Kyung Tae would complain and challenge that, Ho Sung would beat him to teach him a lesson.

The abusive friendship had continued well into their middle school years. However, things started to change when dungeon gates started to appear. After becoming a hunter able to train in the dungeon, Kyung Tae had started to grow at a frightening speed.

Having a reputation as a gifted supporter, Kyung Tae had the ability to locate monsters in the dungeon, even the ones hiding in blind spots. Soon, his ability to analyze the dungeon had made him one of the most highly sought after partners among the hunters.

Similarly to Kyung Tae, there existed a handful of gifted hunters whose power grew at an exponential rate, moving up by three or even four levels by the time an ordinary hunter would reach the next level. The world seemed to have always been an unfair place, with or without dungeons.

“I thought I told you not to wait for me around the entrance? Didn’t I warn you that street thugs like you might get torn to pieces here?”

‘Why you son of a bitch…!’ Ho Sung said to himself. However, suppressing his anger, he forced himself to smile.

“Of course, you did! You see, I have something urgent to talk to you about…”

“Well, spill it. What’s your business?” Kyung Tae asked irritably, crossing his arms.

“There’s a freak on the loose.”

“A freak, you say?” Kyung Tae asked, and Ho Sung nodded in confirmation.

“Fifty! What if I told you that a level 50 took out nine of my level 100 clansmen with a single blow?”

“A level 50? With a single blow…? You’re joking, right?”

“I wish I was,” Ho Sung replied, breaking out in cold sweats and clenching his teeth.

“That makes no sense. Levels are reference points for gauging an individual’s minimum power. Unless… you’re taking me for a fool, the supervisor of the headquarters of the Shadow Guild?”

“No, no! You’ve got it all wrong! Try to see things from my perspective. I’m risking my life coming here!”

“Well, what do you know about him?”

“His name is Min Sung Kang. He looked like he was in his mid to late twenties. He’s at least 180 centimeters tall, black hair, and his eyes… those… eyes…”

“What about them?”

“It felt like they didn’t belong to a human. In fact, it almost felt like I was staring into the eyes of the devil…” Ho Sung said, soaking in sweat as he described the champion’s intimidating appearance. Wiping the sweat off his face, he swallowed nervously and kept on, “Something tells me that he’s growing as fast as a Master. Initially, I thought it was his gear, but I was wrong. It turned out that his power had nothing to do with his equipment.” At Ho Sung’s description of the mysterious champion, Kyung Tae’s expression grew harder. From the sound of it, the champion was far more powerful than Kyung Tae had expected. Master was the highest grade of hunters, above Semi-Master and Expert, and any grade above master was considered to be in the realm of absolute power, the Celestials.

‘Master, huh?’

Ho Sung studied Kyung Tae, who seemed deep in thought.

‘That freak won’t stand a chance when the Shadow Guild, the biggest intelligence group around, is in the picture. I’ll get them to start fighting and escape in the meantime!’ Ho Sung thought.

“Anything else?” Kyung Tae asked.

“I’m supposed to meet him tomorrow morning.”

“For?” Kyung Tae asked with a puzzled look, which turned into that of suspicion shortly after.

“I don’t know. He never told me,” Ho Sung replied.

“If you ask me, something’s fishy.”

“No! Whatever it is, it’s not what you’re thinking!” Ho Sung said in a hurry, and Kyung Tae replied, “Who do you think you’re raising your voice at!? Do I still look like the pushover you used to walk all over!? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t end you right here, right now!”

“Ha, haha! I must’ve not explained myself clearly. I was just frustrated that we weren’t seeing eye to eye, you know? I didn’t mean to raise my voice for any other reasons, I swear…”

“All right, whatever. Just get out of my sight,” Kyung Tae said, sighing and looking at Ho Sung with disdain. Then, waving Ho Sung off as if shooing him away, the supervisor of Shadow Guild turned around without hesitation. Staring at Kyung Tae walking into the distance, Ho Sung remembered Min Sung’s face and started shaking. Unrestricted by rank, the champion was impossible to read. His deep, dark eyes, in particular, were still haunting the head of the Diamond Clan. Then, looking around, Ho Sung swallowed nervously and left in a hurry.

—

As Min Sung kicked the ground, his body launched forward like a beam of light, piercing right through a giant spider. With an explosion, the spider’s remains scattered in all directions like shrapnel.

[Giant Arachnid has been slain!]

[You’ve earned 1,200 experience points.]

[Congratulations! You’re the first hunter to slay the Giant Arachnid with a single hit!]

[Achievement unlocked!]

[‘Arachnid Armor’ has been rewarded.]

[Inventory Full.]

[You can’t carry any more items.]

At that moment, a piece of armor with its name written in purple text spun in the air and fell to the ground. Items in purple meant that they were rare. The names of items above normal grade were shiny and written in color.

While basic items had white labels, purple labels indicated rare items, green, unique, red, legendary, and finally, gold, godly.

When Min Sung opened his inventory, he saw it was filled to the brim with various items. He was well acquainted with the dungeon by that point and he felt confident that he would be able to fill his inventory with rare items if he kept up the pace. Then, taking every single item labeled in white out, the champion threw them away. Although he was reluctant to do so, basic items weren’t of much use, and they were obviously inefficient.

After placing the Arachnid Armor in his inventory, Min Sung moved forward. The feminine, mechanical voice echoing through the dungeon, and the text floating above and in front of him was still just as fascinating as the first time he saw it.

‘How did they even come up with this?’

However, his curiosity was short lived for reasons similar to when one wondered how airplanes flew but never looked into it.

Besides, Min Sung didn’t think that understanding the engineering behind the dungeon would help him understand the secrets of the demons or their realm. Neither did he care to know. He simply wanted to enjoy his ordinary life on Earth. At that moment, with a rustling sound, another giant spider crawled on the wall toward the champion. The moment Min Sung moved his fist, the spider exploded into a green shower of blood, its pieces scattering all over the dungeon.