With a clashing sound, Gukhan’s second man was also thrown away.
“…YOU!!”
Another man tried to strike Dohyuk with his hand axe. It was a short distance attack, so it would have been a clean move, but the axe was stopped a few centimeters away from Dohyuk as he held the blade with three fingers. Dohyuk didn’t even turn his head to glance at the blade. The man gritted his teeth as he tried to push down on the axe, but it didn’t even budge.
“700… no, about mid-800?”
“…?!”
The man’s face dropped at Dohyuk’s mumble. It was his Strength stats.
“I guess you have about the same in Agility too.”
Dohyuk then twisted his wrist and the axe was thrown off from the man’s hand. There were eleven men, including the one who tried to attack with hand axe, circling Dohyuk, but they couldn’t dare to attack. They were strong, but they were still weak compared to the larger world. Because of this, they knew who to fight and who to flee from.
“H-hey…”
Someone tried to speak, but Dohyuk disappeared. It was the same as before, Dohyuk moved with incredible speed.
He knew his opponents had lost the will to fight, but it didn’t matter. They were beasts that he needed to defeat. These people mercilessly attacked whenever the chance arose.
Dohyuk kicked five men within his range with his ‘slashing’ kick. All those men fell to the ground with at least one of their legs chopped.
“Dammit! Kill him!”
Then, another six men shouted as they attacked. It was too much for Dohyuk to get away from as the attacks were incoming from all sides. However, the attack was not aimed at Dohyuk anymore. Dohyuk’s body divided immediately.
This was the most unbelievable sight Jaehoon had ever seen in his life. He knew Dohyuk was one of a kind, even in the previous life. But this… Dohyuk now had exceeded the Dohyuk he knew by far.
‘He… he said he doesn’t have any memory…’
Jaehoon already realized Dohyuk was strong as he deflected the attacks easily. But even then…
‘He wasn’t trying to attack me from the beginning then… even before he knew who I was.’
Jaehoon then turned and was surprised again. Heeyun didn’t seem to be surprised by Dohyuk at all.
“…Huh?” She seemed to notice Jaehoon watching her and so she asked, “Did you say something? I’m sorry, I was thinking of something.”
“No, nothing. What were you thinking though?”
“Oh.” Heeyun then pointed to where Dohyuk was fighting, “I was wondering how many I could fight if it were me.”
“…”
‘How many-‘ Jaehoon wanted to ask so many questions, but asked the main one first.
“So, how many can you fight?”
“Yeah. I can probably fight up to three maybe.”
Heeyun probably didn’t mean it, but it meant that she could fight against three Jaehoons at least.
“T-that’s amazing.”
“It’s nothing…. Oh, I’m not trying to boast. But you’ll know soon. You’re better at fighting than me, so you’ll become strong quickly once you learn from our teacher.”
“Teacher…”
Before Jaehoon can ask again, someone shouted. A man’s body was being thrown towards them. The man fell to the ground, and all his bones were crushed.
‘He threw it here on purpose.’
Jaehoon thought instinctively, and he was right.
“So, what were we talking about? I’m not sure if I’m allowed to join in though.” Dohyuk had appeared already. He had been stepping on the man whom he threw out with one of his legs.
“Mister.”
“….!!”
Mr. Hwang moaned silently as Dohyuk spoke to him.
“If anyone else shares the same thought as him, what I’ll be talking about will apply to all of you.”
Silence fell and Dohyuk pointed at Jaehoon.
“Jaehoon is a man whom I owe greatly from the previous life. In a way to give my thanks, I am asking Jaehoon to become one of my lieutenants in the group. If all of you join Jaehoon, I promise you that I will treat you as my people.”
It was different from a while ago. Dohyuk was a monster that they had never seen in this life, but he was no beast.
“I’m sure there might be some who won’t agree… and I see that there were lot of you who wanted to leave. I’m not sure how big ‘they’ are as a group, but I’m sure that they are much stronger than the scouting group I just fought.”
“…”
They were not a scouting group, but nobody dared to point that out to Dohyuk. They didn’t seem to remember Jaehoon explaining to Dohyuk who these people were.
“If you decide to go on your way, I won’t stop you. I have no right to stop you and I do not want to force you to follow me.”
Dohyuk then raised three fingers.
“30 minutes. I will give you time to discuss and decide. Like I said, I won’t force you or hurt you in anyway… but…”
Dohyuk then confidently said, “If you are following me, you must remember two things.”
First.
“I always act for the safety and well being of my people. I might ‘order’ you to do various things as a leader, but I promise you that it’s all for your benefit.”
Second.
“In return, you must trust me fully. I’m not Jaehoon. If there are people who will bring fear among people against the trials that we must face as a group…”
Nobody dared to meet Dohyuk’s eyes.
“…I promise you that I will remove the person from my group.”
Dohyuk then nodded.
30 minutes. That was the time given to them to discuss. No one did however. It wasn’t because they feared Dohyuk. No matter the various feelings they had toward Dohyuk, they all knew that he was their best bet.
At the same time, Dohyuk was also walking somewhere that wasn’t visible. Dohyuk did recombine his body back into one. After the fight was over, one Dohyuk went to Jaehoon and another Dohyuk came to this place.
“…”
Jang Gukhan was sitting against the wall. That was the only thing he could do, as he couldn’t move his lower body after he was kicked.
“P-please… don’t kill me.” Gukhan begged. Dohyuk did not have a reason to kill him since Gukhan had no way to fight anymore. But it was better for Dohyuk if Gukhan didn’t know this.
“Only if you don’t waste my time.”
Dohyuk then sat down a bit further away from Gukhan.
“I will do anything. Anything that I can do… t-tell me.”
It wasn’t a bad start. Dohyuk then started talking to the man.