Chapter 393 – Part 2 – Melissa Ramos

The reason Choi Seong-min was looking at Melissa’s memories was simple.

‘There might be some helpful information.’

After peering into Kwak Min-cheol’s memories, he had realized something.

Great Heroes shouldn’t be killed carelessly.

Their memories were definitely helpful.

‘Even if I kill them, I should get information first before killing them.’

Looking at memories was much faster than torture for obtaining information.

‘Oh, did she recently have a conversation with Woo Seong-jae?’

Already, useful memories were visible.

Melissa was reporting to Woo Seong-jae over the phone.

‘Woo Seong-jae is suspicious of Kwak Min-cheol.’

Woo Seong-jae had given instructions to Melissa.

To investigate Kwak Min-cheol more thoroughly.

He seemed to think there was some connection to Song Chi-hyeon and Kogo’s deaths.

‘Well, he’s not the type to easily believe the story that they died fighting each other.’

Given Woo Seong-jae’s nature, he wouldn’t be satisfied without confirming it directly.

Sure enough, even in the memories, Woo Seong-jae had mentioned coming to see for himself.

‘He said he’d come to see Kwak Min-cheol after a week?’

He didn’t know the exact date, but it seemed he’d have to vacate after a week.

It wasn’t time to face Woo Seong-jae yet.

‘Everything has its order. For now, dealing with the weaker ones first is the priority.’

The boss should be saved for the final finale.

For now, it seemed better to focus on killing Christopher.

‘Let’s avoid Woo Seong-jae as much as possible. Considering his trait, I shouldn’t even make eye contact with him.’

He dug through more of Melissa’s memories.

Scenes of her enjoying torturing slaves were also visible.

‘She’s really quite insane.’

Though he bore no grudge, seeing such scenes made him want to kill her.

‘I shouldn’t kill her. This woman also needs to be turned into a living corpse.’

There was still one Potion of Life remaining.

If he killed Melissa and then revived her, he could obtain her trait while hiding the fact of her death.

‘Come to think of it, there’s no need to kill her. Just erasing her memories would be sufficient to make her a living corpse.’

The only benefit from killing Melissa was her trait alone.

But it wasn’t even a trait that would help Choi Seong-min.

‘Since it’s a trait that only gives buffs to others.’

Since it wasn’t a particularly necessary trait, it was awkward to kill her.

‘But it would be a waste to use the one remaining potion…’

Since it was a matter of trading a trait for a potion, he couldn’t help but be conflicted.

But if Melissa had a potion, there would be no need for such worries.

That’s why Choi Seong-min diligently searched through Melissa’s memories.

If she had a Potion of Life, he could kill her without burden.

‘Found it. The memory.’

After considerable effort, he found the memory he wanted.

‘As expected, Melissa also had a potion.’

Choi Seong-min was as happy as discovering an oasis in the desert.

This way, even if he killed Melissa and revived her, there would still be one Potion of Life remaining.

He could obtain Melissa’s trait without losing a potion.

That wasn’t the only useful memory.

‘This is…?’

Melissa was having a conversation with other Great Heroes.

There had been a conflict of opinion over ownership of the Magic Core obtained from defeating a boss.

After arguing for a full two hours, the Magic Core didn’t enter anyone’s inventory.

After dividing only their respective shares, they decided to store it in the Pentagon, the heart of Westland.

‘There’s a Magic Core deep within the Pentagon.’

And to protect that Magic Core, dozens of S-rank hunters were armed and standing guard.

‘Obviously they must be Peter Fields’ subordinates.’

It was a well-known fact that Peter Fields, who valued military strength, had many S-rank subordinates.

‘Perfect. I was planning to hit the Pentagon someday anyway, so I should clean them all out with this opportunity.’

While hitting the Pentagon, he could clean out Peter Fields and all his subordinates, plus get the Magic Core as a bonus.

The corners of Choi Seong-min’s mouth naturally curved up.

This was the most beneficial information among Melissa’s memories.

‘Nothing more to see now.’

Choi Seong-min, who removed his hand from her head, opened his eyes that had been closed.

Due to the aftereffects of having her memories viewed, Melissa was in a dazed state.

Stab-

He immediately thrust a dagger into her chest.

[You have killed Hunter Melissa Ramos.]

[You have stolen the trait ‘Guardian’s Authority’.]

[You have stolen 18 pieces of equipment.]

[You have stolen 22 Magic Stones.]

[You have stolen 1 consumable item.]

[Synchronization rate 32.0%]

[You have replicated the appearance of the killed target.]

Thud-

Melissa collapsed powerlessly, but Choi Seong-min didn’t even glance at her.

His gaze was focused solely on his inventory.

‘As expected, it’s there. The Potion of Life.’

Just as he had seen in the memories, she had the potion.

The other items weren’t much.

Being a mage, she only had equipment with magic power attached.

The only useful thing was her trait.

[Trait – Guardian’s Authority]

-Grade: S

-Description: Casts a defensive buff on targets other than yourself that reduces damage taken by 99%. Can be cast on up to 4 people simultaneously and lasts 5 minutes. Has a 1-hour cooldown.

‘As expected of an S-grade, it’s an overpowered buff.’

If it reduced 99% of damage, it could practically be considered invincibility.

‘A 5-minute invincibility buff that can be used every hour.’

A 1-hour cooldown was by no means a long time.

Even in just one day it could be used 24 times, and in a 3-day dungeon conquest, it could be used 72 times.

‘Compared to VIP Assassination’s 10-minute invincibility with 24-hour cooldown, you can see how good this is.’

However, the weakness was that there was no immunity to debuffs.

‘Even so, the fact that it’s overpowered doesn’t change.’

If Melissa had cast buffs when facing Great Heroes simultaneously?

Even Choi Seong-min would have struggled.

‘That’s only if I had grown normally, though.’

In the current case where his combat power exceeded 10 million, even if Great Heroes swarmed him, there would be nothing to fear.

‘Then shall I bring Melissa back from the underworld now?’

Choi Seong-min took out the Potion of Life and used it on Melissa’s corpse.

“Hueok!”

Melissa, who had been lying on the floor without moving, suddenly raised her upper body.

“Haa, haa… What happened? I definitely…”

“How does it feel to return from the afterlife?”

At Choi Seong-min’s question, Melissa turned her head, but.

Grab-!

Without a chance to answer, he grabbed her head.

“What, what are you doing!”

“Stay still. If you wait just 10 seconds, you’ll feel better.”

“Let, let go of this?”

Though Melissa resisted, without traits or items, there was no way she could be threatening.

“Memory deletion, finished.”

After completing the work, he let go of her hand.

Melissa, who had been struggling just moments before, was docile.

She was in a dazed state due to the aftereffects of memory deletion.

Eventually, after a minute passed.

“Eh?”

Like Kwak Min-cheol beside her, she had lost her language abilities.

* * *

Having secured hunting time for a while, Choi Seong-min entered a dungeon.

The Dragon’s Nest.

It was among the highest difficulty S-rank dungeons in existence, but.

‘It’s nothing special.’

For Choi Seong-min with combat power exceeding 10 million, it was as easy as a horn rabbit dungeon.

‘I had some expectations, but even this place is a one-shot kill…’

Being the highest difficulty, the dragons appearing in the dungeon were undoubtedly the strongest among mobs.

But no matter how strong, they were meaningless before Choi Seong-min’s dagger.

‘To die in one hit even from the weakest skill, Dagger Throw.’

Thanks to this, he hunted countless monsters to his heart’s content for three days before coming out.

‘My combat power has already surpassed 25 million.’

His combat power, which had been 12 million, more than doubled in just three days.

It was probably because he had accumulated so much data against such strong specimens.

‘Seeing that my combat power is still rising, there must be more potential combat power remaining.’

25 million was sufficiently high, but it seemed he hadn’t reached the peak yet.

‘If I conquer the Dragon’s Nest three or four more times, I should be able to update it to the maximum.’

Before that, he should rest for today.

No matter how high his stamina, hunting for three days and nights was mentally taxing work.

“Have you come out? Association President? I’m glad you’re safe. Here…”

The dungeon manager who came to greet him at the right time offered a wet towel.

“Thank you.”

After wiping off the dried monster fluids and sweat, the manager’s flattery continued.

“You’re truly amazing! You’re the first person to conquer the Dragon’s Nest alone, Association President!”

Even for Kwak Min-cheol with 1.8 million combat power, it would be unreasonable to conquer alone.

Therefore, it was necessary to hide his skills so no unnecessary rumors would spread.

“Conquer? Who said anything about conquering? I just spent some time inside.”

“Haha, is that so?”

Since just surviving for three days counted as conquest, there would be no problem saying it this way.

“You didn’t make any records as I told you, right?”

“Of course. I’ve arranged it so no one entered the dungeon.”

“Anyone who came looking for three days?”

“No one. You were the only one to visit the dungeon, Association President.”

“Understood. I’ll be going now.”

“Take care!”

There was no need to erase the dungeon manager’s memory for secretly using the dungeon.

When he could manipulate the dungeon manager with just a few words like this, why would he?

‘The position of association president is quite nice.’

Being the leader of a continent, there was nothing he couldn’t do.

There was no one to be mindful of either.

‘At least within Eastland.’

If expanded to the whole world, there would be more people to be mindful of.

Even that was gradually decreasing, though.

‘Woo Seong-jae, Peter Fields, Frank Larson, Christopher Gibson. Four remain like this.’

The assassination targets had been reduced by half.

Among them, Christopher would die first.

‘Is the strategy meeting the day after tomorrow?’

On Revolution’s strategy meeting day, when he met Christopher, he could cast Soul Tracking and kill him anytime, anywhere.

Only two days remained.

‘I’m looking forward to the day I kill that guy.’

The place Choi Seong-min drove his sports car to wasn’t the association.

It was Kwak Min-cheol’s mansion.

Choi Seong-min was living here like his own home without servants or butlers.

This was inevitable because there was a secret in the basement that no one should see.

Beep- Clank-!

When he opened the prison door, Melissa, who had been lying down, raised her head.

“Eat this at least.”

When Choi Seong-min placed the bread and milk he had bought in advance on the floor, she quickly took them.

Then she tore open the packaging and ate hungrily.

Though the door was open, she didn’t even think of escaping.

‘Since only the instincts to eat and defecate remain, it’s natural.’

Clank-

After locking the door, Choi Seong-min threw bread and milk to Kwak Min-cheol in the next room as well.

He had to keep them alive like this to deceive other Great Heroes and bring the situation to his advantage.

Buzz- Buzz-

As he came up from the basement and returned to his room, his pocket vibrated.

Checking, it was Melissa’s phone.

‘It’s a call from Woo Seong-jae.’

He immediately put on the Doppelganger’s mask and transformed into Melissa’s appearance.

If he imitated Melissa’s way of speaking as seen in the memories, there would be no way to be caught.

“Yes, Lord Woo Seong-jae.”

A thin, high-pitched voice flowed from Choi Seong-min’s throat.

There was no way for Woo Seong-jae on the other end of the call to notice.

-Are you adapting well? Melissa?

“Of course. This is all thanks to Lord Woo Seong-jae’s consideration.”

Though Woo Seong-jae had done absolutely nothing, flattering him like this was the custom among other Great Heroes.

-Have you taken over the association president position?

“Of course.”

-Then what are you hesitating about? Even now, three days later, it seems you haven’t announced it publicly yet? Shouldn’t you announce to the entire nation that you’re Eastland’s new association president?

“You’re absolutely right. However, an immediate announcement might be difficult right now.”

-Why?

“This is still just the investigation stage, but it seems Kwak Min-cheol killed the other Great Heroes to monopolize the association.”

-Kwak Min-cheol did?

“Until I get solid evidence, I think I should postpone hasty announcements. There’s no need to stimulate Kwak Min-cheol by taking the association president position unnecessarily.”

-Hmm… So you’re saying you’ll crouch down until you catch evidence? Your judgment is better than I thought.

“You’re too kind…”

-Understood. I’ll leave the Kwak Min-cheol matter to Melissa. Try to find evidence by the time I arrive.

“When are you coming?”

-I plan to visit in four days.

“Understood. I’ll search for evidence as much as possible by then.”

After ending the call, he released his transformation.

‘He’s coming in four days?’

Though he had said he would prepare evidence, Choi Seong-min had absolutely no intention of doing so.

‘I should be going through dungeons at that time.’

He must not face Woo Seong-jae even in Melissa’s form.

That guy’s trait ‘Insight’ could see through even the Doppelganger’s transformation.

‘Cutting off Woo Seong-jae’s lifeline comes after cutting off all his limbs.’

While postponing the meeting with him for later and thinking about how to kill Christopher.

Another vibration came.

It was a text message to Choi Seong-min’s phone.

[The strategy meeting schedule has been changed to today. Executives please gather in the operations room by 2 PM.]

The strategy meeting date, which had been two days away, was changed to today.

‘What’s going on?’