Chapter 377 – Part 2 – Disposal

Kwak Min-cheol, who had been awakened from sleep, was shocked to hear the butler’s report.

“What? Choi Seong-min was ambushed? By whom?”

“That… Hunter Lee Geol-ryun and the A-rank team members.”

“Ha! Those bastards finally!”

A sigh escaped from Kwak Min-cheol’s mouth.

He had thought about it secretly.

Perhaps the guys who lost in the sparring match might seek revenge.

“Those cowardly bastards ambushed him in the middle of the night. Damn it… I was too short-sighted. I should have at least given Choi Seong-min a heads up…”

Belated regret washed over him.

He was worried about Choi Seong-min’s safety.

“So what about Choi Seong-min? Was he badly hurt?”

“Pardon? Oh, no. He was fine.”

“Really?”

“The problem is rather with the other hunters.”

“Why are the other hunters a problem?”

“Most of them… are dead.”

“Dead?”

“Let’s go see the details in person.”

“Lead the way.”

Kwak Min-cheol hurriedly followed the butler who was leading the way.

“You have arrived, Great Hero.”

Choi Seong-min could be seen bowing his head in front of the VIP room.

The unconscious Lee Geol-ryun and another hunter were also there.

“Are you alright? I heard you were ambushed.”

“I’m fine.”

Kwak Min-cheol, who had been approaching Choi Seong-min, suddenly frowned.

The smell of blood could be felt through the gap in the open door.

Kwak Min-cheol opened the door to the VIP room and checked inside.

“……”

A horrific scene that was unbearable to look at.

However, for Kwak Min-cheol, who killed his subordinates to absorb stats, this wasn’t particularly shocking.

“One, two, three, four…”

Rather, with an expressionless face, he counted the heads and bodies rolling around.

Eventually, Kwak Min-cheol came out to the corridor and looked at Lee Geol-ryun and Ma Jae-seong.

“Nine dead inside, and counting those two makes eleven. All the guys who lost in the sparring match.”

Kwak Min-cheol’s eyes turned to Choi Seong-min.

“Did you kill them?”

“Yes. They tried to assassinate me, so I had no choice but to kill them.”

“Haah…”

A sigh naturally came out.

What kind of situation was this in the middle of the night?

His subordinates trying to kill each other.

‘Nine of them died, nine!’

Nine unripe fruits had been destroyed.

‘It would have been better if I had killed them myself…!’

There was no feeling of mourning.

They had brought this upon themselves by attacking Choi Seong-min without knowing their place.

He just regretted missing the opportunity to absorb their stats.

‘If only Choi Seong-min had subdued them without killing…’

If he had dealt with them personally under the pretense of execution, he could have raised his stats…

Such regretful thoughts came to mind, but what had already happened couldn’t be helped.

He couldn’t blame Choi Seong-min, who was the victim.

He had only done what he should have done.

“Let me hear the detailed circumstances from this guy.”

Kwak Min-cheol approached Lee Geol-ryun.

Slap- Slap-

After hitting his cheeks a few times, Lee Geol-ryun came to his senses.

“Get up, you trash.”

“Ouch, which bastard… Gr-Great Hero?”

Lee Geol-ryun, who opened his eyes wide, looked around to assess the situation first.

‘Choi Seong-min…!’

That guy was looking at him with a perfectly fine appearance.

‘Damn, did the assassination ultimately fail?’

He didn’t know the exact situation since he had been unconscious, but seeing that Choi Seong-min was alive, the assassination seemed to have failed.

‘What about the other team members?’

No matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t see any other hunters.

Only Ma Jae-seong was standing next to him with a somewhat frightened face.

‘Why is this guy acting like this?’

Then Kwak Min-cheol’s voice erased his thoughts.

“Lee Geol-ryun.”

“Yes! Great Hero.”

“I heard you attacked Choi Seong-min?”

“……”

For a moment, two thoughts collided in Lee Geol-ryun’s head.

Whether to be honest and ask for leniency, or lie to get out of the situation.

‘The Great Hero isn’t someone who would show mercy just because you ask for it.’

It would be much better to hope that lies would work.

‘Either way, it’s a do-or-die gamble.’

It didn’t take long to make a decision.

“Attack? That’s not true!”

Lee Geol-ryun denied it with an expression of disbelief.

“Rather, we were the ones who were attacked! That guy called us to his room and attacked us out of nowhere!”

“Choi Seong-min did?”

Kwak Min-cheol looked over, but Choi Seong-min neither confirmed nor denied it.

Instead, he just sent a glance to Ma Jae-seong.

As if it was his turn to step forward.

“……I will tell you the truth.”

Ma Jae-seong stepped forward and confessed the truth.

Before speaking, he didn’t forget to distance himself from Lee Geol-ryun.

“Hunter Lee Geol-ryun gathered the hunters who lost in the sparring match and made a proposal. How about ambushing and killing the newcomer at dawn?”

“What? When did I!”

Lee Geol-ryun stepped forward pretending innocence, but Ma Jae-seong immediately shook his head in denial.

To survive, he had no choice but to snitch like this.

“That’s not true. All the plans came from Hunter Lee Geol-ryun’s head. He personally led the assassination operation and even sent text messages. Here’s the evidence.”

Ma Jae-seong showed Kwak Min-cheol the text message he had received.

[Lee Geol-ryun: Operation begins in 2 hours.]

It was natural for Kwak Min-cheol’s expression to distort.

“You bastard…”

“No, Great Hero! It’s a misunderstanding!”

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”

“That, that… what kind of misunderstanding…”

Lee Geol-ryun tried to quickly think of an excuse, but nothing came to mind due to his panic.

“I can hear you racking your brains from here, you fucking bastard.”

Kwak Min-cheol’s killing intent was directed entirely at Lee Geol-ryun.

“Hi, hik!”

Lee Geol-ryun’s guts weren’t big enough to withstand the pressure of 1.8 million combat power.

‘How dare you lie to my face?’

Kwak Min-cheol hated traitors, but he also extremely hated liars.

‘Damn bastard. You can’t even manage the human trafficking gang properly, lose in sparring, plan assassination, and on top of that, lie?’

He wanted to kill him right away but held back.

He judged that it wasn’t his matter to decide.

“Choi Seong-min.”

“Yes, Great Hero.”

“I’ll leave this guy’s disposal to you.”

Choi Seong-min was quite surprised by that decision inside.

‘He wants to kill him right away and absorb his stats, but he’s yielding to me?’

For Choi Seong-min, who knew Kwak Min-cheol’s trait well, it was a surprising situation.

But after reading his thoughts, he could understand what intention he had given it up with.

‘He intends to draw a line saying it has nothing to do with him.’

This attack was personally planned by Lee Geol-ryun and other hunters for revenge… It was definitely not something Kwak Min-cheol instigated.

‘Even so, Kwak Min-cheol isn’t without responsibility.’

Lee Geol-ryun was Kwak Min-cheol’s subordinate.

In a way, Kwak Min-cheol, who failed to manage his subordinates, wasn’t without responsibility.

‘Kwak Min-cheol knows that too, so he’s leaving Lee Geol-ryun’s disposal to me. Completely drawing a line saying it’s not his business, that he has no responsibility.’

There was an attempt to escape responsibility, but there was another reason too.

‘He also yielded because he doesn’t want to be disliked by me.’

He had been ambushed by Kwak Min-cheol’s subordinate in the middle of the night.

If he hadn’t known in advance and dealt with it, he could have been harmed.

It was a situation where Choi Seong-min had sufficient reason to be upset.

He had also given up Lee Geol-ryun to appease Choi Seong-min’s mood.

Kwak Min-cheol wanted to maintain a good relationship with Choi Seong-min.

Anyone would do the same.

A super-large newcomer with 800,000 combat power had come in – who would want to let him go?

‘A boss who rather wants to look good to his subordinate.’

He wanted to laugh as usual, but Choi Seong-min held back.

It wasn’t the right atmosphere for that right now.

“Ch-Choi Seong-min Hunter…”

Lee Geol-ryun approached Choi Seong-min while groveling.

He had changed his attitude knowing that his life was in Choi Seong-min’s hands.

“I must have been temporarily insane. I really did wrong. I’m reflecting on it. If you show mercy, I’ll consider you my lifelong benefactor…”

Stab-

Before he knew it, Choi Seong-min’s summoned dagger had pierced through Lee Geol-ryun’s heart.

He didn’t want to hear any more false words.

“Cough… keuheok…”

Lee Geol-ryun, who vomited blood, collapsed in the corridor.

[You have killed Hunter Lee Geol-ryun.]

[You have stolen the trait ‘Ghost Walk’.]

[You have stolen 8 pieces of equipment.]

[Synchronization rate 19.4%]

Kwak Min-cheol’s eyes widened, not expecting him to kill him right there on the spot.

“Sorry for making a mess in the corridor. I didn’t want to listen to his rambling…”

“Haha, how decisive. I’ll leave that guy’s disposal to you too.”

When Ma Jae-seong looked over in surprise, Choi Seong-min shook his head.

“I’ll spare this guy. He testified earnestly and was helpful.”

“Do as you please. It has nothing to do with me.”

At those words, Ma Jae-seong breathed a sigh of relief.

He had saved his life, but that was only temporary.

‘I’ll keep him alive until I get Kwak Min-cheol’s trait.’

From the beginning, Choi Seong-min had no intention of sparing Kwak Min-cheol’s subordinates.

He knew that each and every one of them was trash who participated in human trafficking.

* * *

Rumors about the incident spread faster than expected.

“Did you hear? Hunter Lee Geol-ryun was murdered.”

“What? By whom?”

“You know the newcomer who joined yesterday?”

“The newcomer who won against eleven people in sparring?”

“Yeah. Hunter Lee Geol-ryun apparently went to that newcomer at dawn for revenge. Along with the ten hunters who lost in sparring. Then he got backstabbed!”

“Wow… he failed trying to assassinate him?”

“Yeah. Everyone died except one. I heard his methods were very cruel.”

“Wow… that newcomer is scary. The 800,000 combat power wasn’t a lie after all.”

“We shouldn’t look down on him just because he’s a newcomer.”

“Right. Next time I run into him, I should greet him respectfully and make a good impression.”

Although it happened at dawn, no one was unaware of it.

There was no looking down on him just because he was a newcomer.

The 800,000 combat power and rumors of cruelty made the subordinates bow their heads automatically.

“Hmm…”

Whether he knew this fact or not, Choi Seong-min was resting in his newly assigned VIP room.

‘Ten traits came in, but there’s nothing particularly appealing.’

The grades were all B-rank or higher, which was quite high.

There were even 2 S-rank traits.

They were traits obtained by killing Lee Geol-ryun and some hunter.

[Trait – Ghost Walk]

-Grade: S

-Description: Footsteps cannot be heard. Impact from falls is reduced by 100%. Movement speed increases by 50%. When near walls, the probability of being detected by surroundings is greatly reduced. Can walk on air once when desired. Has a 1-minute cooldown.

[Trait – Immortal Body]

-Grade: S

-Description: Resistance to all elemental magic increases by 50%. Detoxifies all toxic substances that enter the body.

‘They’re definitely good since they’re S-rank, but…’

Compared to Song Chi-hyeon’s subordinates, the number of S-ranks was relatively small.

‘Nothing to regret. I’ve already grown absurdly with the EX-grade weapon.’

His combat power alone already exceeded 8 million.

And it hadn’t even been four months since he possessed this body.

‘It’s much faster growth than in my previous life.’

Considering it took about 2 years in his previous life, this was insane growth.

‘Probably because I got aggressive traits, my growth accelerated.’

The environment without levels also played a part.

As long as the rank matched, he could immediately wear top-grade items and conquer high-difficulty dungeons.

‘The speed of gaining traits is also faster than before.’

Perhaps because there were many to kill, 69 traits had already accumulated in a short time.

‘I might be able to accomplish my goal faster than expected.’

He had enough power to kill Kwak Min-cheol, but he had to endure.

‘To make maximum use of Kwak Min-cheol’s position, it’s better to kill him after the combat power update.’

Before that, there was one thing to do.

Annihilating the remaining five human trafficking gangs.

‘I know the locations, so I should move soon.’

Then the bedside phone rang and Choi Seong-min answered it.

“Yes.”

-Is this Choi Seong-min?

“Ah, Great Hero.”

-I have something to say, come to my room.

‘What could this be about?’

Choi Seong-min immediately went to Kwak Min-cheol’s room.

Knock knock-

When he knocked, Kwak Min-cheol personally opened the door after a moment.

“Come in.”

He entered while looking around the room, which was twice as wide as his own VIP room.

“Sit there.”

“Yes.”

As soon as he sat on the sofa, Kwak Min-cheol brought up the main point.

“Choi Seong-min. I want to entrust you with one task. It’s an important matter.”

“Just give me your orders.”

His tone was calm, but actually Choi Seong-min was internally cheering.

Because he had read Kwak Min-cheol’s thoughts in advance about what he would say.

“I’m running a big business, you see? I need you to take charge of operating that business.”