Kill the Hero

“Huff, Huff…”

On a battlefield covered in the broken corpses of Kobolds, a man stood panting.

Just from looking at his face, one could tell that the man desperately wanted to lay down and rest.

The man, whose eyes were full of despair looked over to another man who was also finishing up his own fight.

“Hey, that was all of them.”

His expression was earnest and polite as he continued.

“Can we take a break now?”

As usual, Kim Woo-jin didn’t respond to Lee Jin-ah’s question, instead a skeleton walked up to him and shook its head, as if to say,

‘No, you can’t.’

Lee Jin-ah closed his eyes tightly when he saw this, Kim Woo-jin’s figure flashing in his mind.

‘This motherfucker…’

He recalled the fight that just happened. Previously, Lee Jin-ah believed that without the Skeleton Soldiers, he could defeat Kim Woo-jin.

It wasn’t empty confidence either. Though he’d lost one to Kim Woo-jin before and he had even surrendered to him, he hadn’t been fighting for his life then.

‘Crazy Monstrous bastard.’

However the battle he just witnessed caused him to rethink that thought.

‘How is this fair for the rest of us? This guy is like a monster who returned from the future or something. How could someone who isn’t even level 30 be that strong?’

He was too efficient. When fighting, the energy expended in the process of trying to injure your opponent was enormous. However it seemed that Kim Woo-jin didn’t feel any strain at all.

This was possible because Kim Woo-jin looked at the whole picture. When he fought, he did not just look at what was in front of him like an RPG game, instead he looked at the whole picture as those he was playing a strategy simulation game and made his decisions after considering the best direction.

‘I have to learn to fight like that…’

For Lee Jin-ah, he didn’t just watch on in surprise, instead he watched to learn.

This was the actual reason why Kim Woo-jin tested and fought with Lee Jin-ah.

‘This is how the ‘Immortal’ fights.’

Kim Woo-jin had once studied Lee Jin-ah’s fighting style, and now that Lee Jin-ah was looking at him, he would ensure he taught him properly.

‘He will digest it bit by bit.’

He would watch and learn.

‘Just a little longer and he should be able to use it.’

In other words, Lee Jin-ah’s current abilities were not up to Kim Woo-jin’s standards.

It was natural. Currently, the amount of experience that the players had was at a pitiful level when compared to Kim Woo-jin who had survived many conflicts before he was betrayed. If there were many people who could meet his standards, that would be strange instead.

‘I can work with this.’

But now, the circumstances were different.

‘Johann Georg wouldn’t be a threat anymore.’

With the halo that he had currently, Kim Woo-jin was certain. At the rate he was gaining the favor of the Emissary of the Underworld, it would be hard for Johann Georg to reach his past level.

While there wasn’t much that Kim Woo-jin could do to impact him currently. The halo’s favor, or lack thereof would be fatal to Johann Georg’s growth.

However the absence of Johann Georg meant that the Messiah Guild would be much freer than in the past.

‘Without Johann Georg, the influence of the Messiah Guild after the war with Japan in 2025 would spread much faster than in the past.’

In fact, Kim Woo-jin remembered that the greatest difficulty the Messiah Guild encountered after 2025 was the King of Undead.

The Messiah Guild became the shining beacon for all those who wanted to escape from under the shadow of the King of the Undead.

‘The speed at which they reveal their ambitions will increase.’

It meant the day that the day the Messiah Guild took off their mask. It also meant that the amount of time Kim Woo-jin hand was shortened.

‘Lee Se-jun, you will take off that damn mask even earlier.’

The day Kim Woo-jin and Lee Jin-ah finally met was soon approaching.

‘Just like I wanted.’

Kim Woo-jin was satisfied with the situation.

He started walking forward.

“Fuck it! Let’s go till we die!”

With that, Lee Jin-ah followed after him.

[24 hours remaining.]

There was a notification as the 5th day started.

[Your level has increased.]

[You have achieved level 30. Inventory spaces increased by 6.]

[The Emissary of the Underworld is impressed by your growth. Inventory spaces increased by 6.]

[The Emissary of the Underworld sent a catalogue as a gift.]

At the same time, the notification that Kim Woo-jin reached level 30 also appeared.

‘Hunting on this floor is almost over.’

Kim Woo-jin looked around.

More than twenty-nine corpses and Skeleton Soldiers and an exhausted Lee Jin-ah could be seen.

“Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”

Lee Jin-ah’s expression was similar to that of a landmine. The moment you stepped on it, it would explode.

Boom!

A Skeleton Soldier approached Lee Jin-ah who turned toward it, his ferocious expression nowhere to be seen.

At that moment, the Skeleton Soldier opened its mouth.

“It’s time to eat.”

“Where should we spread the mat?”

Lee Jin-ah smiled brightly and started looking for a place for them to eat.

Meanwhile, Kim Woo-jin examined his status.

[Kim Woo-jin.]

• • Level: 30

• • Halo: Emissary of the Underworld

• • Stats:
    • • Health: (92+123)
    • • Stamina: (2+65)
    • • Magic Power: (3+95)

• • Achievements: 18

• • Extra Points: 3

If other players saw his status, they would wonder if something was wrong with their eyes.

‘This should be enough to clear a level 50 dungeon.’

At the least, Kim Woo-jin’s stats were comparable to players over level 40.

‘It’s not enough yet.’

However for Kim Woo-jin, his stats were far from enough. The prey he was intending to hunt was more of a monster than monsters.

‘Okay, I still have more to go.’

Kim turned his gaze to Lee Jin-ah who was comfortably eating a chocolate bar while being surrounded by skeletons.

“Huh?”

Lee Jin-ah started shaking his chocolate bar at one of the skeletons.

“Do you want a piece? Huh? If you want it, come and get it.”

Of course Lee Jin-ah didn’t think that the skeleton would actually try to do it.

Boom!

“Uh?”

At that time the skeleton, like a trained dog, lunged toward Lee Jin-ah’s hand and bit it.

“Oh my God! See this? Now he’s opened his heart to me!”

Lee Jin-ah who was surprised by the action, pulled his hand back and placed the chocolate bar that he just started eating into the skeleton’s hand. Then he said, his voice soaked with emotion,

“Kuh! See, after all it was possible for us to be friends.”

The Skeleton Soldier immediately turned and delivered the chocolate bar to Kim Woo-jin,

“Wha..?”

Kim Woo-jin took a moment to take off the Grim Reaper’s Mask before collecting the chocolate bar.

Lee Jin-ah shouted at him,

“Were you controlling it just now?”

In response, Kim Woo-jin took a bite of the chocolate bar.

“Whatever, what are we gonna do now?”

“Hunt the needle snake.”

Lee Jin-ah’s expression turned serious.

“We start the second floor tomorrow, right?”

Honestly Lee Jin-ah had been so busy hunting monsters that he hadn’t had time to be nervous.

“Are you ready?”

If it wasn’t for Kim Woo-jin, Oh Se-chan would never have sent Lee Jin-ah into the dungeon even if he begged. For Lee Jin-ah, Kim Woo-jin was practically a lifeline.

When Lee Jin-ah asked his question, Woo-jin had already started organizing the information he had on the Needle Snake.

The Needle Snake was a 30 metre long snake that was covered in long needle-like spines, like a hedgehog.

‘It won’t be easy.’

It was extremely dangerous.

‘There’s also the poison.’

Not only did the Needle Snake have extraordinary physical prowess, its spines were also coated in poison. Extremely potent poison at that, to the point that even those who had resistance to poison would not dare guarantee they’d be unaffected.

‘And if it shoots its spines, it would be devastating.’

The snake had the ability to shoot the spikes out of its body when it felt threatened. This ability made it extremely hard to deal with, but it was already dangerous even without it.

‘This is probably all that the others will be able to imagine.’

Of course all the parties that encountered the dungeon had made their own plans and conjectures as to the monster’s abilities and how to deal with them. However since it was never successfully captured before, there was no confirmed plan as to how to deal with it.

“In my opinion, the Needle Snake will probably explode like a shrapnel grenade and send spikes flying all over.”

If even Lee Jin-ah could consider this idea then it was to be expected that other players would also and prepare accordingly.

The fact that no player had ever successfully defeated a Needle Snake, that meant that there would be something that would be hard to deal with.

“Maybe it shoots poison gas from its body.”

“Gas?”

“That could be why its nickname is Death Snake.”

Poison Fog.

That was the real weapon of the Needle Snake.

“Its body is covered in needles and the spikes and each of the spikes are coated in poison. So if the needles come out, the poison would likely come out too.”

“That’s true.”

“So what happens to the poison, if the needles disappear?”

“But if the poison flows out of its body…won’t it hurt?”

Lee Jin-ah made a contemplative expression.

“It’s poison gas, it wouldn’t feel it.”

Lee Jin-ah’s face relaxed as he thought about that. However Kim Woo-jin stopped paying attention to him.

‘But this still isn’t difficult enough to be an A+ ranked dungeon.’

The part that Kim Woo-jin thought of the most, was that the Needle Snake wasn’t enough to make the dungeon A+ rank.

If hunting a needle snake was ranked at A+, then every dungeon with a mission to hunt the Needle Snake would be A+. However there were dungeons with missions to hunt Needle Snakes that were only B+ rank.

The strength of a Needle Snake, no matter how you estimate it, was B+ at most.

‘There must be another reason.’

This also meant that there was something else that made the dungeon A+.

‘If you couldn’t find a legendary item in an A+ dungeon, it wasn’t because it wasn’t there, it’s because you didn’t look hard enough.’

In every A+ dungeon, if one searched hard enough, one would be able to find a legendary item or skill and that was Kim Woo-jin’s goal.

“Right now, it’s good just to hunt monsters.”

“What?”

Beep!

Suddenly a loud sound, similar to that of a flute could be heard from far away.

“An SOS beacon?”

Lee Jin-ah turned his head in surprise.

“Now?”

All the players who made it to the 5th day were those who at least had a bit of strength. And after Kim Woo-jin and Lee Jin-ah had almost cleared out the floor completely, there was even less reason for someone to activate a help beacon.

“Did we miss some monsters?”

Though it was unlikely, that didn’t mean it was impossible.

“It’s not a rescue request.”

“Huh?”

Naturally, it wasn’t someone calling for help.

“It’s a call for players to join together to hunt the Needle Snake on the second floor.”

At this Lee Jin-ah laughed.

“They think they can beat the snake? Their confidence pierces the sky.”

It was funny to him that they thought they could beat the Needle Snake that no one killed before simply by banding together.

However Kim Woo-jin didn’t laugh.

“You rested for 4 days, it’s time to work.”

“That was letting me rest?”

Only then did Lee Jin-ah realise that this was all part of Kim Woo-jin’s plan.

“What are you going to do?”

Kim Woo-jin didn’t answer him.

‘Now I only need to check the catalogue.’

“Catalogue.”

“Catalogue? Eh? Golden again?!”