Chapter 288 – Part 2 – Norikane Jigoro

Jigoro was a D-rank assassin with 10,000 combat power.

He took pride in his agility of 148, which was considerably high.

That’s why he was confident he could dodge anyone’s ambush.

In the first place, how could an assassin be ambushed?

An assassin who specialized in ambushes more than anyone else?

That’s what he thought.

Until the dagger pierced his eye.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Jigoro screamed in pain he never expected.

He reached out with trembling hands to pull out the dagger stuck in his eye, but…

Tssss-

The dagger disappeared like a mirage and appeared in Choi Seong-min’s hand 10 meters away.

“You, you bastard…!”

Jigoro, confirming the dagger’s owner with his remaining eye, ground his teeth in rage.

On the other hand, Choi Seong-min looked disappointed that he hadn’t killed him in one hit.

“Seeing you’re only bleeding but fine, it seems it didn’t reach your brain. It was supposed to be 2x damage though…”

Targets marked with the assassin’s mark take 2x damage on the first hit.

Therefore, normally it would be useful to use the Slash skill which has the highest damage.

‘But even for me, getting close to a D-rank is burdensome.’

Because the opponent had high combat power, he used the safer Dagger Throw skill.

But the result was as you can see – only taking away sight in one eye.

“Does this look fine to you, you bastard? I’ll kill you!”

His body was still vigorous like that.

“Come on.”

Watching Jigoro charge straight at him, Choi Seong-min gripped his dagger properly.

The dagger’s red glow became deeper than usual.

Because the ambush succeeded, he gained +80 additional attack power for 10 seconds.

‘I’ll finish it within 10 seconds.’

Choi Seong-min used the Sprint skill.

Though only for 10 seconds, his movement speed increased by 50%.

Unaware of this, Jigoro thrust his dagger with eyes full of killing intent.

‘I’ll kill you, you newbie bastard!’

Jigoro’s dagger moved with a flash.

It was the D-rank assassin’s skill, Throat Slash.

Flash-

In Jigoro’s mind, there was no possibility of missing.

He was a D-rank assassin with 148 agility who had always taken lives.

“Huh?”

That’s why Jigoro was flustered seeing his skill cut through empty air.

He was also secondarily flustered seeing his target disappear from before his eyes.

An assassin who should be cool-headed had been flustered twice.

‘Wh-where did he go…’

Jigoro, searching for his target with his remaining eye, instinctively got goosebumps.

‘Behind!’

He quickly ducked his head but it was already too late.

Slash-

“Ahhh!”

Choi Seong-min’s Slash skill cleanly cut off Jigoro’s ear.

“You bastard!”

He also countered with the same Slash skill, but what Jigoro cut was only empty air.

Slash-!

“Ahhhhh!”

His other ear was cut off.

“Where are you, damn it!”

Jigoro swung his dagger using all his skills, but nothing was caught.

Not even anything visible.

‘Th-this guy. He knows I’m missing one eye and is thoroughly targeting only my blind spots. And with fast movement speed too.’

He got goosebumps at the expertise that didn’t match an E-rank, but Jigoro didn’t know.

That Choi Seong-min was currently playing with him.

“Stop running around and face me head-on, you bastard!”

“Okay. Accepted.”

At the voice he suddenly heard, Jigoro’s body whipped around.

“There you are!”

Jigoro’s dagger headed precisely toward Choi Seong-min’s chest.

At the same time, Choi Seong-min’s dagger also headed toward Jigoro’s shoulder.

Perfect timing.

It was a precarious moment where both could get hurt, but…

Ting-

Choi Seong-min, who satisfied the conditions for his newly acquired Counter trait, took no damage.

Stab-

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Only Jigoro was pierced by the dagger and screamed in pain.

Stab-

“Ahhhhh!”

With his remaining shoulder also pierced by the dagger, Jigoro tried to counterattack but lowered his arm.

He couldn’t even lift his arm due to the pain.

“Actually, I was trying to kill you in 10 seconds…”

When he turned his head toward the sound, Choi Seong-min was 10 meters away.

That was the last sight Jigoro saw in his life.

Stab-

“Ahhhhhhh!”

The dagger Choi Seong-min threw took away his remaining sight.

“It was too disappointing to kill you in 10 seconds.”

Jigoro collapsed to the ground bleeding.

20 seconds.

That was the time it took to kill a D-rank hunter.

[You have killed Hunter Norikane Jigoro.]

[You have stolen the trait ‘First Strike.’]

[You have stolen 8 pieces of equipment.]

[Trait – First Strike]

-Rank: B

-Description: When making a preemptive attack, damage increases by 2x once only.

Choi Seong-min’s eyes lit up as he calmly checked the trait.

‘Oh, this is a trait I learned in the previous dimension too!’

Having used it directly, he could immediately tell how useful it was.

‘With this plus the assassin’s mark, I can deal 4x damage on the first hit.’

That made the first strike even more important, but since he was an assassin, it was easy to satisfy the conditions.

‘Status window.’

-Name: Choi Seong-min (20 years old)

-Rank: E

-Combat Power: 6,111

-World Ranking: 613,016th

-Strength: 114, Health: 124

-Agility: 223, Magic Power: 3

-Traits: Interpretation (F), Hunter Slayer (EX), Stealth Detection (C), Dagger Mastery (B), Assassin (S), Counter (A), First Strike (B)

-Skills: Slash (E), Dagger Throw (E), Sprint (E)

‘My combat power roughly doubled.’

Despite the short fight, his combat power rising this much meant there was still a lot of combat power left to be reflected.

‘Since I killed a D-rank, I might be at D-rank level too.’

What was certain was that combat power of 10,000 wasn’t as strong as he thought.

‘Well, I did fight after landing the first hit, so it’s natural in a way?’

Anyway, he definitely understood that victory or defeat was determined by the success of the ambush.

‘And this thing I’ve been curious about.’

Choi Seong-min looked at the message floating in the corner.

[Synchronization Rate 13.1%]

[Synchronization Rate 13.2%]

Since he killed two people, it had risen by 0.2%.

‘I don’t know what this is, but what’s certain is that it goes up 0.1% when I kill someone.’

He had been uncertain before, but this murder made it more certain.

‘Now I understand why it didn’t start from 0%.’

The people Choi Seong-min had killed since possessing this world were four.

‘If I subtract 0.4% for four people, my synchronization rate started at 12.8%.’

That meant he had already killed 128 people, which coincidentally matched the number he killed in the previous dimension.

‘The number of traits I had before was 130. Excluding the basic traits Revenge and Hunter Slayer, I gained 128.’

If the number killed in the previous world was also counted, starting with 12.8% made sense.

‘But why is this message, which wasn’t visible before, showing up now?’

He didn’t know the reason but roughly thought it was a difference between the old and new versions.

‘Wait, then how many more do I have to kill to reach 100%?’

Since it was only 13.2% now, calculating meant he had to kill 868 more people.

‘That’s ridiculous.’

Choi Seong-min decided not to think about the synchronization rate for now.

Not only was killing over 800 people not easy, but he didn’t know what would happen when it reached 100%.

‘I’ve seen the traits, so let me check the equipment.’

Choi Seong-min looked at his inventory.

Hoping the D-rank supervisor had good items.

‘Just ordinary items.’

He had inwardly hoped since the guy was an assassin like him, but what he had were just common equipment available on the market.

Except for one thing.

‘Huh? What’s this?’

[Wind Necklace]

-Category: Necklace

-Rank: D

-Effect: Agility +25

-Durability: 2,386/2,500

-Usage Restriction: D-rank or higher

-Description: A necklace full of wind energy. Has the effect of boosting other items’ energy.

‘It looks like just a necklace that greatly increases agility, but…’

It was a necklace that activated set effects when wearing two speed-option rings.

‘I happen to have the Ring of Acceleration, so this works out well.’

If he wore a ring related to speed, whether movement speed or attack speed, on the remaining hand, the set effect would activate.

‘It’s disappointing that you need to be D-rank to wear it though.’

Choi Seong-min, who kept the necklace, looked at the collapsed Do Eun-jeong.

Since he had knocked her unconscious beforehand, she wouldn’t have seen the murder scene.

‘It’s better not to see it. For me and for her.’

He had killed the team leader and supervisor for a woman he met for the first time, but he had no regrets.

‘If I hadn’t killed those scumbags, my life would have become troublesome.’

If he had pretended not to know even if Do Eun-jeong was assaulted, those guys would have used him as an accomplice to manipulate him forever.

‘Rather than being shaken around with a weakness, it’s better to kill them and gain traits.’

Moreover, Do Eun-jeong was a woman who had helped the original owner before possession.

‘Though it has nothing to do with the current me, I did receive help anyway…’

This repaid the debt.

Though the person involved probably doesn’t know she received help.

* * *

“Mmm… ugh!”

Do Eun-jeong frowned as soon as she woke up.

Because pain was coming from both her wrists.

“Are you awake?”

At the sudden voice, Do Eun-jeong became fully alert.

And belatedly realized.

That she was being carried on someone’s back.

“Ch-Choi Seong-min?”

“Just a moment. Let’s rest here.”

Choi Seong-min carefully set Do Eun-jeong down under the shade of a tree.

During that process, the shaking transmitted pain from her wrists again.

“Ugh…”

“It hurts, right? Please bear with it a little. There are only 10 minutes left until the time limit.”

“10 minutes?”

The time limit for the Worwolf dungeon was 4 hours.

As far as Do Eun-jeong remembered, there should still be 3 hours left.

“When did time pass like this… What exactly happened?”

“Don’t you remember?”

She did remember.

Resisting the supervisor who tried to rape her and having both wrists broken.

But she had no memory after that.

“What I remember is up to when Choi Seong-min appeared saying he was attacked by the boss. After that, my memory suddenly cuts off…”

Of course it would.

She had been knocked unconscious after being hit on the head by Choi Seong-min.

But Choi Seong-min blamed it on a different entity.

“It was the Red-eyed Worwolf’s doing.”

“What?”

“You were the first person hit by the boss, senior.”

“The boss appeared?”

“Yes. It seems it finally followed me. Because of that, you fainted and the supervisor…”

Choi Seong-min couldn’t continue.

His grim expression answered instead.

“When the supervisor was being eaten by the boss, I was barely able to escape carrying you while you were unconscious. I ran to places without monsters as much as possible and killed time. We had to survive somehow.”

“Ah…”

Do Eun-jeong could finally understand the whole situation.

“Th-then are we the only survivors?”

“That’s about right…”

Though Choi Seong-min spoke in a desperate voice, it was fortunate news for Do Eun-jeong.

‘The team leader who sold me out and the supervisor who tried to rape me are dead…’

Thanks to that, she could overcome the crisis.

‘It’s a blessing that the boss appeared.’

Do Eun-jeong, who was relieved, looked at Choi Seong-min.

Though his combat power was lower than hers, he was clearly her lifesaver.

“Thank you. For not abandoning me and saving me.”

Surely he could have escaped alone, but he carried her all the way here.

Without him, she would have already become the boss’s prey.

“How can I repay this debt…”

“What debt? It was something I had to do. How could I, as a junior, abandon my senior and run away alone?”

“Still, gratitude is gratitude.”

“Think of it as repaying the debt for helping me at the company before. And please speak casually. I’m a junior and younger too…”

Then suddenly Do Eun-jeong stared intently at Choi Seong-min’s face.

“Why are you doing that?”

“I have a request. If you have time…”

Do Eun-jeong hesitated then said.

“Would you like to come to my house?”