Jo Gu-bin chuckled repeatedly as he alternated between putting on and taking off various items.
Each time, he reveled in checking the changing stats.
“Who calls Ground Zero a land of death? It’s a land of opportunities and treasures!”
His shoulders shook with amusement.
This place was essentially North Korean territory.
Thus, even if officers from the Hunter Public Safety Bureau conducted searches, they would overlook this area.
That was why Jo Gu-bin had killed a hunter who lived here.
“This is the perfect place to settle down. Good. I won’t have to worry for a while. Keke.”
He muttered to himself as he began to bury the body of the original owner sprawled on the ground.
He seemed intent on erasing his tracks, given the depth of the hole he had dug.Dug-dug!
As he was busily sweating to bury the body,
“Huh?”
Jo Gu-bin sensed something.
An unidentified chill was lurking nearby.
At the same time, his instincts warned him.
“Damn it!”
He flung his body to the left instinctively.
Not because he saw something, but because he felt someone’s presence.
In that instant,
Swish!
“Argh!”
A dagger that narrowly missed his thigh, leaving a long cut, was Kang-hoo’s.
Had he not moved, it would have been his waist, not his thigh, that would have been pierced.
“Damn it!”
Jo Gu-bin cursed and pressed a button to activate one of the defense mechanisms installed by the previous owner.
Whirr.
With a mechanical sound, dozens of hanging water buckets overturned, spilling their contents.
It was a thick black liquid that resembled paint and was menacing at a glance.
It seemed designed to both visually hinder and physically impede intruders.
“Die, you bastard!”
As Jo Gu-bin reached toward the sky, the spilling liquid instantly froze into sharp, spike-like formations.
[Ice Witch]
[From the ancient glaciers, this constellation bestows ice attributes and enhances ice abilities.]
[Frenzied Murderer]
[After killing twenty humans in succession, he inexplicably became a constellation, wreaking havoc in the celestial realm.]
[Once your kill count exceeds twenty, the constellation bestows random stat boosts at unpredictable intervals. These boosts are ongoing and permanent.]
“One insignificant constellation has latched onto him.”
Kang-hoo reviewed the list of constellations bound to Jo Gu-bin and let out a sardonic chuckle.
Providing extra stats for each kill? It’s almost like an incentive for murder.
Regardless, he had a solid understanding of Jo Gu-bin’s capabilities.
The man was a hunter with mastery over ice powers.
He could turn ambient moisture or any spilt liquid into deadly weapons.
Whoosh.
Surrounding Jo Gu-bin, ice sharpened into lethal spikes whirled in the air.
It was a protective measure of sorts.
If Kang-hoo teleported recklessly while Jo Gu-bin was in that state, he’d likely end up in even greater peril.
First, Kang-hoo took note of the substantial wound on Jo Gu-bin’s left thigh.
Without a means of rapid healing, the injury would surely hinder his mobility.
Endurance is key in combat.
That’s why Kang-hoo aimed for that obvious vulnerability.
Since the objective wasn’t to rescue the man but to eliminate him, Kang-hoo wasn’t about to quibble over tactics.
“……”
Kang-hoo intently watched the circling ice spikes around Jo Gu-bin.
At first glance, they seemed to move randomly as he brushed away several spikes.
But on closer examination, each spike orbited Jo Gu-bin at a constant speed.
Every shard had its own distinct pace.
Kang-hoo, with his sharp eyesight, quickly discerned the variation.
And as Jo Gu-bin readied a skill, Kang-hoo executed his teleportation maneuver towards him.
“Uh-oh! Keuk.”
Caught midair and pulled toward Kang-hoo, Jo Gu-bin scoffed in mockery.
Though taken aback by the unanticipated offensive strategy, he was certain he wouldn’t be outwitted by such simple tricks.
Even if he were dragged along, Kang-hoo would also have been significantly wounded by the ice spikes.
But.
“……What?”
Just when the ice spikes were expected to attack Kang-hoo.
Tadak.
Kang-hoo rolled forward through the gap.
Fwook!
He easily thrust his dagger into the front of Jo Gu-bin’s thigh.
It wasn’t a simple basic attack.
He used the Decapitation skill.
Kang-hoo was determined to inflict a critical wound, even if it cost him 25% of his health and mana.
“Keeoek!”
Bang!
Simultaneously, Kang-hoo’s shadow, which had sprung back like a spring, had already secured a safe distance.
Soon, Kang-hoo’s figure, which had been right in front, blurred suddenly, and then he appeared, having switched places with his shadow.
“Keeeuuuh!”
Jo Gu-bin clutched his left thigh and writhed in pain.
The place where the dagger had entered and exited felt like it was burning with searing pain.
It was as if fire had been lit inside the wound, or as if it was being branded with a hot iron.
The pain intensified.
“Heuk. Heuk.”
I can’t exert any strength.
It feels like my muscles and nerves are completely severed.
Jo Gu-bin tried to maintain some defensive measures and use a skill against Kang-hoo.
But his mind, consumed by pain, couldn’t provide the necessary concentration.
Jo Gu-bin exclaimed.
“Damn it, who, who are you? What are you?”
“What do you mean? I’m the guy who came to catch you.”
“I’ve never seen you before…”
“I don’t know what you want me to do about that.”
Kang-hoo looked at Jo Gu-bin with a disdainful expression.
A weakness of magic-using hunters is their vulnerability to pain.
Unlike close-combat hunters, they need mental focus to use magic skills.
When pain occurs simultaneously or becomes unbearably deep and intense,
His concentration was disrupted, causing his accuracy to plummet or making him unable to prepare at all.
Kang-hoo’s brief pause in attacking to respond to Jo Gu-bin’s words wasn’t out of complacency.
Jo Gu-bin tried to counterattack, aiming to inflict a fatal wound.
He deliberately offered a timing.
“Why are you trying to kill me, you bastard!”
“I don’t think I need to listen to a guy who was just digging a hole to bury a corpse.”
“Did someone hire you or something?”
“Don’t try to stall; just come at me. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
As Kang-hoo spoke, Jo Gu-bin, perhaps feeling provoked, clasped his hands together.
Then the air around him began to swirl, quickly forming a sharp ice spear.
It goes without saying that the tip was sharp, and it seemed to possess high piercing power as it was imbued with mana.
But.
Tap!
As if he had anticipated it, Kang-hoo flicked his finger, activating Blood Flower, which unleashed havoc upon Jo Gu-bin.
Boom!
“Aaaaah!”
With a scream, Jo Gu-bin’s forming ice spear dissipated into nothingness.
It shattered.
But that was a secondary issue.
The real problem was that Jo Gu-bin’s perspective of the world began to shift sideways.
The explosion of Blood Flower had severed the already heavily damaged area below his left thigh.
It resulted in an amputation.
As his left leg, which had been barely supporting him, vanished, Jo Gu-bin’s body tilted and fell.
“This is impossible…”
Jo Gu-bin wore a look of shock.
His opponent was a dagger-wielding assassin-type hunter.
Unless he was blind, he had clearly seen that characteristic.
There’s something known as common sense.
Magic hunters typically employ long-range restraining spells, while assassin hunters favor close-combat attack skills.
There might be exceptions, but the general pattern remains.
For instance, it’s unusual for an assassin to wield magic or for a mage to carry out close-range assassinations.
Yet, Kang-hoo had used ‘magic’ to cause an explosion in Jo Gu-bin’s left leg from a distance.
Before Jo Gu-bin could make sense of this unimaginable scenario and understand what had happened.
Boom!
“Ouch!”
He lost his balance and rolled on the ground.
Needless to say, his face hitting the wet and cold ground, covered with fallen leaves, was unpleasant.
Thud! Thwok!
With a leap to close the distance, Kang-hoo pulled out the Dagger of Sky’s Joy and drove it into the back of the fallen Jo Gu-bin’s hand.
The ground, somewhat hardened, allowed the dagger to penetrate deeply.
“Aaaah!”
Jo Gu-bin screamed.
Not stopping there, Kang-hoo took a practice dagger and drove it into Jo Gu-bin’s other hand.
Now with both hands pinned to the ground, Jo Gu-bin flailed helplessly on his stomach.
Crunch!
“Keeoek!”
As if that wasn’t enough, Kang-hoo pressed his heavily soled shoe onto Jo Gu-bin’s cheek as he stood up.
It was a pathetic sight.
“What sin do children have, to be kidnapped and killed by someone like you? But then again, asking you for a reason is a luxury.”
“Keke! It’s a sin to have a rich father! Isn’t it? If you’re that rich, protect your daughter better, kekeke!”
Kang-hoo shook his head at Jo Gu-bin’s response, which had lost all semblance of logic.
He felt that even calling this waste ‘human’ in the term ‘human trash’ was too generous.
Jo Gu-bin, thinking his previous statement hadn’t conveyed enough meaning, continued with a giggle.
“You see, kids! They have an innocence that doesn’t know the ways of the world, which makes deceiving them ten times more enjoyable… Aaaaah!”
Before Jo Gu-bin could finish his sentence, Kang-hoo’s dagger struck again.
Armpit, behind the elbow, entire wrist, groin, hamstring, Achilles tendon.
These were areas where even a minor injury could hinder movement and cause immense pain.
He had no intention of seriously listening to Jo Gu-bin’s nonsensical ramblings.
“Aaaah! Ah! Please! Aack! It hurts so much…!”
Jo Gu-bin writhed in pain.
He knew his own pain so well, yet why couldn’t he understand the pain of others?
It’s likely because he’s that kind of person that he became a criminal.
Kang-hoo didn’t bother trying to understand Jo Gu-bin.
Overwhelmed by pain, Jo Gu-bin couldn’t even think of using magic.
The situation had already been settled.
All that remained was to conclude the task.
Kang-hoo took out his smartphone and dialed the number given by Lee Ye-rin.
He called the father who had lost his daughter to Jo Gu-bin.
Before the ringtone could finish once,
“Yes, I’ve answered the call,”
The man’s voice tried to sound calm but couldn’t hide the trembling emotion at the end.
Kang-hoo didn’t reveal himself.
Instead, he filmed Jo Gu-bin writhing on the ground.
Calmly, he said,
“Sir, I will now begin the revenge for your daughter.”
It was a statement with a clear purpose, and for the listener, it was chilling.
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