Translator: Seven
Editor: Ana_Banana
At the foot of the Mindongsan Mountain, where no trees could be found, was a dungeon gate, appearing as though monsters would come pouring out of it at any moment.
Slowly, a rundown bus drove up to the dungeon gate.
“Get off!”
As the voice rang out, people on the bus began to step off one by one, quite similar to the appearance of prisoners stepping out of a convoy arriving at a prison.
“Team leader, the warehouses are here.”
A subordinate of Suzuki Eiji, who was observing the scene from a distance, reported the situation.
But instead of answering, Suzuki Eiji pointed toward the satellite phone he held to his face with his right hand and then put his left index finger to his lips.
The subordinate closed his mouth.
“Yes. I understand. I’ll prepare.”
Soon after, the subordinate carefully and hesitantly asked Suzuki Eiji a question.
“Who was it?” (TL: In english, the text seems rude and unlike something a subordinate would say, but this was in fact asked in a deferential way)
“The Queen wants us to adjust our leveling pace.”
When he heard this, the subordinate’s expression became slightly fierce.
It was the expression of a hunting dog, who had been unable to fill his stomach with the food he was given so far, was given new prey.
“Who is the next target?”
“Kim Woo-jin.”
However when the name Kim Woo-jin came out, the man’s fierce expression became a bit dull. It seemed he had never heard that name before.
It was understandable.
Suzuki Eiji and his team were the hunting dogs the Messiah Guild sent to hunt fierce tigers, many of whom were pretty famous, though it was not rare for them to not know the person.
“Well, we’ll know when we see him, he doesn’t appear to be a simple guy.”
In fact, the fact that they were ordered to wait and hunt this person was evidence that this Kim Woo-jin was not an ordinary person.
“It’s fine like this.”
Of course, that didn’t mean that they were gonna ponder about it for a long time.
“If the order comes, we just have to hunt.”
No matter who the prey was, no one would doubt Suzuki Eiji and his team’s ability to hunt that person.
This had always been the case.
Hence, Suzuki Eiji didn’t even bother to discuss this Kim Woo-jin any further.
“How are the warehouses?”
“There was no special signal from our actor so we can proceed with the dungeon attack.”
At his subordinate’s words, Suzuki Eiji nodded.
“Then tell everyone to get ready for the dungeon.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll kill anyone who screams in the C+ rank Dungeon.”
…
“Kuak!”
When Suzuki Eiji entered the dungeon, the first thing that greeted him was the screams of someone gradually moving away.
[Defeat all the Red Orcs to advance to the next floor.]
Subsequently, the notification of the conditions to clear the first floor sounded in his ear. It was also the reminder that no more players could enter the dungeon.
Of course, Suzuki Eiji didn’t pay much attention to the notification, instead he grabbed one of the men near him and pulled them closed.
“What’s going on?”
“As soon as one of the warehouses came in, he killed one of our teammates and ran off with two others.”
It was then that he realized that the screams he’d heard were actually the screams of his subordinates.
“Shall we chase?”
Suzuki Eiji didn’t answer his subordinate’s ensuing question, instead he walked over to the corpse on the ground.
It was not difficult to figure out the cause of death.
It would be weird to ask how he died after seeing his head detached from his body.
Nevertheless Suzuki Eiji carefully examined the corpse to properly identify how he died.
‘He cut the skin by putting the knife in the gap before breaking the neck and cutting it.’
The information he got from his observations made Suzuki Eiji convinced.
‘This is someone who knows how to properly kill a player.’
The person who’d come in with them was clearly targeting himself and his subordinates, this was not just some bloody murderer, instead it was a sufficiently competent and well trained person.
As he had such thoughts, Suzuki Eiji quickly gave an order to his men.
“Clean this up.”
His subordinates moved quite swiftly.
Chulong!
Shick!
They all drew their weapons and pointed them toward the warehouses that they had hired.
“Huh? Wh-, what the hell?!”
“Wa-, wait!”
“Kuuh!”
“Kuak!”
While the warehouse players, who had been stunned by the sudden change of situation were frozen, two people were stabbed and fell to the floor with bloody screams.
“Huh? Uh! Hey! Wa-, wait! I have a different contract!”
Jo Han-ho, who had been hired separately also could not avoid being cut down.
“Fuck!”
Of course, the threatened players also attempted to counter attack, after all they were still players whose skills and abilities were outside the scope of the ordinary people.
It would be strange for those who committed horrendous crimes and were able to escape the hands of the government and live like low end demons in the Special District to just roll over and die.
“Hey, you bastards!”
“Attack!”
They immediately counterattacked and the clearing soon became a hell like battlefield, but Suzuki Eiji paid no attention to it.
In his eyes, the mouse could freely attack and bite the lion, but it could never kill a lion.
Based on Suzuki Eiji’s observations, the difference between his subordinates and the warehouses was even more than that.
Evidence in that the warehouses treated themselves like rats in the first place.
What filled Suzuki Eiji’s mind instead was the battle ahead.
‘You killed one person and captured two…’
As soon as the attacker entered the dungeon, they dealt with three and then ran away without engaging further.
‘Meaning they intend for this to be a protracted battle.’
It was paving the path with a long term battle in mind.
And that was the standard procedure.
In order for the weaker to eat the stronger, they had to dig a trap and slowly nibble away at the stronger’s strength.
‘There’s no reason for us to accept their dog fight.’
Conversely, from the strong’s perspective, they simply needed to avoid it.
Cleaning up the warehouses now was also a part of that avoidance, as it eliminated any other unknown variables.
‘The first thing to do is take our time and find out who this is.’
While Suzuki Eiji was planning to deal with this new opponent, and his men were busy battling the warehouses, a change occurred.
“Team leader!”
“What’s going on?”
“Th-, there! Go-, a Golem is coming!”
“What?”
Kim Woo-jin’s second attack had begun.
What is the best timing to hunt other players?
Kim Woo-jin could answer this question without the slightest hesitation.
Immediately after entering a dungeon was the best time to attack a player.
Without a doubt. As soon as they entered a dungeon, players immediately focused on their surroundings.
It meant that at that moment, they didn’t pay attention to what those around them were doing.
Moreover, players who had just entered the dungeon would not have any formations or built any positions.
Most crucially however, was the fact that most players had never been attacked the moment they entered a dungeon.
As always, you cannot cope properly without experience.
‘A preemptive strike is always valid.’
Aiming for this gap was one of Kim Woo-jin’s specialties.
In fact, before returning to the past, when Kim Woo-jin hid his name and affiliation and played as a hunting dog, nearly half of the players he hunted were killed within an hour of entering the dungeon gate.
For Kim Woo-jin, the ‘Hunting Dog’, the hour after entering the dungeon was the golden time for him to hunt anything.
The problem was that after returning to the past, the strength he had was incomparable to the strength he had before.
At the same time he had many conditions for his skills.
Without any sacrifices, he had no skeletons, no blood weapons or corpse explosions and so he was forced to use the golden time to instead make preparations and build up power for his first strike.
[The Book of the Dead has been opened.]
[10 Pages are currently filled.]
However the Book of the Dead had made all of that a story of the past.
[Page 1 has been destroyed. A Skeleton Soldier that had been sealed within has been released.]
[Page 2 has been destroyed. A Skeleton Soldier that had been sealed within has…]
With the Book of the Dead, he had been able to summon 10 skeletons in a minute.
[The effect of Ruler of the Battlefield has been superimposed to the maximum.]
[The Black Bone effect has been applied.]
These were the strongest Skeleton Soldiers that he had at his disposal.
And there was still one card he had that could be used without the need for sacrifice.
“Summon Golem.”
[A Golem has been Summoned.]
A very powerful subordinate of the Messiah Guild would instead be a gift for him.
Kim Woo-jin measured the time since he’d entered the dungeon and soon figured out that it had been 3 minutes since he’d entered the dungeon.
However the number that stayed in his mind was not 3, instead.
“57 minutes left.”
Kim Woo-jin was planning to finish his hunt within the golden time, just as he had in the past.