Chapter 305 – Part 2 – Lure

“You, you bastard, what did you just say?”

“I said that being a supervisor doesn’t seem that difficult after all.”

At Choi Seong-min’s arrogant words, An Gi-hyeon was about to blow his top.

“A bastard who just came in today says what? Not difficult? Does our department look easy to you? Huh?”

“Honestly, the work isn’t that hard.”

At Choi Seong-min’s bold statement, all the employees watching opened their mouths wide.

It was as if they were seeing a newcomer who made the team leader angry from the first day for the first time.

And for good reason – An Gi-hyeon’s face was on the verge of exploding.

“Ha! This fucking bastard thinks our work is easy? Then memorize this too.”

An Gi-hyeon brought a pile of documents from his desk and threw them down.

They were work regulations that team leaders needed to master.

Choi Seong-min, who took the documents, began silently skimming through them.

This continued for about 10 minutes.

Thud-

Choi Seong-min threw the pile of documents back to the team leader and said indifferently.

“I’ve memorized it all.”

“What?”

The dumbfounded team leader picked up the documents and tested him.

“Tell me how to handle the situation when an employee supervising a dungeon dies.”

“First, receive detailed information about the situation from the dungeon manager, then submit a situation report to the Minister of Hunter Management. After that, request an investigation from the Investigation Department to determine whether the deceased employee died by accident or murder, and then…”

At the seamless answer, An Gi-hyeon’s face crumpled like paper.

‘He memorized 5 pages worth of content after just reading it once or twice?’

No matter how many times he tested him, the result was the same.

‘Fuck, does he have some trait that lets him memorize everything after seeing it once?’

He said that, but it probably wasn’t such a useless trait.

It must be a combat-related trait.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to raise combat power to this level in just one month.

‘I thought he was just a parachute hire who was good at hunting, but he’s smart too…’

He never expected him to memorize everything in just 10 minutes.

However, there was something else An Gi-hyeon didn’t expect.

That Choi Seong-min’s personality wasn’t particularly good.

“Do you normally make newcomers memorize this many work guidelines from the first day? To new employees?”

“You’re a parachute hire, man.”

“Is there some regulation that parachute hires must master all work in one day?”

“Where does this bastard get off talking back so clearly?”

“I’m doing it because it’s worth talking back about.”

“What, man?”

“And you’ve been going on about parachute this, parachute that, but do you realize that’s a disparaging remark not just about me but about the Great Hero who personally placed me here?”

“Wh-what nonsense? When did I ever disparage the Great Hero?”

“If that wasn’t your intention, you wouldn’t have treated me so carelessly. Moreover, instructing me to learn an excessive amount of work compared to others on my first day clearly looks like an intention to give me a hard time, and isn’t this also a challenge to the Great Hero?”

“Wh-what? A challenge? What absurd nonsense!”

“That’s right. The Great Hero carefully brought and placed a potted flower, but you’re arbitrarily plucking its petals and spitting on it – if this isn’t a challenge to the Great Hero, what is it?”

“I-I didn’t have such intentions. I was just…”

“Are you doing this simply because you don’t like me?”

“Yes!”

“Then I’ll convey that to the Great Hero. That the team leader finds me distasteful and carried out unfair actions.”

“What?”

Hearing this, An Gi-hyeon, who had been feeling bad, frowned.

“Fuck, why does that sound like a threat?”

“It is a threat.”

“What, you bastard?”

“If you touch me from now on, I’ll consider it defying the Great Hero’s decision and tattle about everything.”

“…”

An Gi-hyeon, momentarily at a loss for words, tried to suppress his anger and said.

“…What exactly do you want to do with me?”

“I just want to get along normally without discrimination like everyone else.”

With those words, Choi Seong-min returned to his seat.

The surrounding employees just glanced nervously at the team leader.

“What are you doing? Not working! Where are you all gawking?”

Only after An Gi-hyeon shouted did the gazes gathered in one place scatter.

Someone might think this settled things, but absolutely not.

The fuse of An Gi-hyeon, who was like a bomb, was already lit.

‘A newcomer bastard dares to threaten me?’

Suppressing his desire to beat him to death right away, An Gi-hyeon waited only for quitting time.

‘I can’t stand this anger. I need to beat that bastard until he says he was wrong to feel better.’

No, just beating him wouldn’t be enough.

‘I need to half-kill him.’

But when he actually thought about touching the guy, he feared the consequences.

‘The Great Hero definitely won’t stay still…’

If Choi Seong-min tattled that he had been beaten up?

He wouldn’t be safe either.

‘In that case, it would be better to just kill him…’

An Gi-hyeon, who had been continuing his thoughts, suddenly opened his eyes wide.

‘Really kill him?’

Come to think of it, killing him seemed like it wouldn’t have any consequences.

‘As long as there are no witnesses, there’s no way to get caught, right?’

Murder was a serious crime, but only if you got caught.

‘If you don’t get caught, who cares if there’s a Great Hero or Association President behind him.’

If he tailed him on the way home and quickly killed him in the most secluded place possible, he might not get caught.

Though he had never killed a person before.

‘Fucking bastard. I’ll teach you exactly what the price is for crawling up to me.’

An Gi-hyeon, who had been glaring at Choi Seong-min, just waited for time to pass quickly.

* * *

Quitting time.

Choi Seong-min walked through a dark alley.

And An Gi-hyeon carefully followed behind him.

‘Stupid bastard. Of all places, he goes into an alley. Kek kek.’

An Gi-hyeon, thinking heaven was helping him, followed with a sinister smile.

Not knowing at all that he was being lured into the alley.

Was it because he was complacent, thinking he had cornered his opponent into a mouse hole?

‘Huh?’

An Gi-hyeon, who had been tailing Choi Seong-min, lost sight of him at some point.

‘Wh-where did he go…’

“What is it?”

At the voice from behind, An Gi-hyeon felt his heart drop for a moment.

Startled, he turned around to see Choi Seong-min looking at him with wary eyes.

“Isn’t that Team Leader? Why are you tailing me?”

“Wh-what are you talking about, tailing? I was just going home in the same direction.”

“Then please go ahead. I’ll go later.”

When he cleared the path, An Gi-hyeon hesitated then took a step.

Not toward home, but toward Choi Seong-min.

“What are you doing?”

“Fucking bastard. This is something you brought on yourself.”

Killing intent emanated from An Gi-hyeon’s eyes.

There was no need to look at his eyes.

Tssss… Just seeing the sword blade aimed at him after instantly equipping hunter gear was enough for Choi Seong-min to know.

That An Gi-hyeon intended to kill him.

“What are you trying to do?”

“This bastard has a good head but is terribly clueless.”

“Are you trying to retaliate for what happened today?”

“Can’t you tell by looking?”

“Can you handle it? You should know who’s behind me.”

“Great Hero my ass, fuck that. If I kill you here, no one will know.”

“So you’re saying you’ll kill me?”

“No need to say it twice.”

“Haah…”

Choi Seong-min sighed and reluctantly equipped his hunter gear.

Though inwardly he was trying hard to hold back laughter.

“From now on, even if I attack, it’s self-defense.”

“Crazy bastard. A guy who’s about to die is talking about self-defense.”

Though the ambush failed, An Gi-hyeon was confident.

And for good reason – he was a C-rank hunter with 60,000 combat power.

His opponent was just a D-rank hunter with 20,000 combat power.

‘No matter how much I have a D-rank trait, I can’t lose to that bastard, right? There’s a whole 3x difference in combat power alone.’

But there were three facts An Gi-hyeon overlooked.

First, while Choi Seong-min’s combat power appeared to be 20,000, he could reach up to 30,000 when fighting properly.

Second, in human-versus-human combat, traits played a bigger role than combat power.

And lastly, Choi Seong-min was…

Stab-

A veteran who had fought hundreds of human-versus-human battles.

“Aaaaah!”

An Gi-hyeon screamed at Choi Seong-min’s surprise dagger throw.

His shoulder had been pierced.

The dagger soon disappeared to find its owner, but the pain didn’t go anywhere.

“Kuk, this fucking bastard!”

An Gi-hyeon, who had lost the initiative, raised his sword and charged with bloodshot eyes.

But the distance couldn’t be closed easily, and the reason was simple.

‘Why is this bastard so fast?’

Because Choi Seong-min’s movement speed was nearly twice as fast as An Gi-hyeon’s.

Choi Seong-min just had to create distance and throw daggers.

Stab-!

“Aaaaah!”

An Gi-hyeon, wounded in the opposite shoulder as well, charged again as if to kill.

Choi Seong-min, who had been trying to run away, realized the back was a dead-end alley and stopped walking.

“Got you! You rat bastard!”

An Gi-hyeon, who was about to cast a skill as soon as he got within range, had to open his eyes wide.

Because Choi Seong-min, who he thought would run away, had instead approached right up to his nose.

Stab- Stab-!

“Kraaah!”

Only after allowing wounds to both forearms did he belatedly use a skill.

‘Sword Dancing!’

Swish swish swish swish-

But the sword only cut through empty air.

“Team Leader.”

Choi Seong-min, who had positioned himself behind with high reflexes and movement speed, pressed his dagger to An Gi-hyeon’s neck.

“One throat slash and you’ll die. Please give up now.”

“Kuk…”

To think that he, a C-rank, would be so miserably defeated.

‘Crazy talent freak bastard! To be this good despite low combat power!’

But An Gi-hyeon didn’t know.

Though his combat power was low, in terms of stats alone, Choi Seong-min had already surpassed C-rank.

Gulp-

At the sensation of the dagger touching his neck, An Gi-hyeon had no choice but to disarm.

“Are you surrendering?”

“Can’t you tell by looking…”

“Then I’ll let today’s incident slide. There’s nothing good for either of us if the Great Hero finds out.”

Choi Seong-min withdrew the dagger from his neck.

Only then could An Gi-hyeon breathe a sigh of relief.

“Are we making peace now?”

When Choi Seong-min extended his hand first, An Gi-hyeon frowned and reluctantly clasped it as if he had no choice.

At that moment.

Slice-

Choi Seong-min’s dagger cut off An Gi-hyeon’s wrist.

“Kraaaaaaah!”

Just as they were shaking hands, An Gi-hyeon’s hand was held in Choi Seong-min’s grasp.

“As a sign of reconciliation, I’ll take this hand. No complaints, right?”

“Y-you bastard! Keuuk!”

Choi Seong-min responded to the curse with a smile and left the alley, leaving only An Gi-hyeon dripping blood.

‘Kuk, this bastard! Do you think you’ll be safe after doing this to me? You’re dead! I’ll tell the Great Hero everything, fuck!’

A newcomer who had just entered had wounded his superior all over and even cut off his wrist.

To someone who didn’t know, Choi Seong-min would be no different from trash who committed insubordination.

‘It’s self-defense, but who would know? There are no witnesses!’

If only he lied, he could frame Choi Seong-min as a traitor.

That’s what An Gi-hyeon thought, but he didn’t know.

That lying in front of Song Chi-hyeon was the worst mistake possible.

And that all of this was a situation Choi Seong-min had induced and created.