Chapter 409 – Part 2 – Slaughterer

He had killed Frank.

Not with a single strike like before, but painfully and cruelly.

‘The people who died at that bastard’s hands must have suffered much more.’

Though knowing this fact was part of why he killed him more brutally, the main reason was that he had tried to harm his family.

‘If I hadn’t moved them to a safe house earlier, my family would have almost been kidnapped because of me.’

Not just kidnapping either.

They might have been sexually assaulted as well as tortured in various ways.

‘Just imagining it is horrifying.’

That’s why he had unconsciously put more emotion into his dagger.

‘To think I’m getting angry even though they’re not my real family, I guess I’ve grown attached to them.’

At the sudden thought, Choi Seong-min chuckled.

‘Anyway, it was good that I registered this place for Homing Instinct.’

Thanks to Homing Instinct, he was able to immediately stop Frank’s intrusion.

‘He would have been a dead man anyway even if he ran, since Soul Tracking was on him.’

Leaving Frank’s corpse behind, Choi Seong-min examined the trait he had acquired.

[Trait – Slaughterer]

-Grade: S

-Description: Kill points accumulate when you kill targets. Kill points are determined according to the target’s level.

If you say ‘Use Kill Points’ mentally, you can convert 1,000 kill points into 1 stat point of your choice.

You can see your accumulated kill points with the command ‘Check Kill Points’.

‘Points accumulate when you kill targets.’

Slaughterer was a good trait.

It was perfect for hunters whose daily life involved killing monsters.

‘But the points accumulated from catching ordinary monsters would be pitiful.’

The points gained from killing one ordinary monster were between 5 and 10.

And that was only when facing monsters of the same level; you’d get nothing when facing weak monsters.

‘You’d need to catch at least 200 to raise 1 stat…’

Not bad.

Actually, it was incredibly good.

Considering it was similar to the probability of getting runes, it meant stats would increase at twice the speed compared to others.

‘So that’s why the stats absorbed from him were more than expected.’

The total stats absorbed from killing Frank were about 600.

It was quite a lot for killing just one person.

‘It seems his pure stats were higher than others thanks to the Slaughterer trait.’

But Choi Seong-min knew.

The Slaughterer trait didn’t only apply to monsters.

‘Kill points increase even when killing people…’

And like when catching monsters, it varied according to their level.

When killing strong opponents, many points were gained; when killing weak opponents, relatively few were gained.

‘Still, it’s 10 times more than catching ordinary monsters.’

Frank probably didn’t know at first either, but discovered it by chance after committing murder.

‘It’s a completely insane trait. No wonder he couldn’t help but commit murder like eating meals.’

Like Kwak Min-cheol’s trait that steals stats, it was a trait that encouraged and incited murder.

‘My trait is the same, so I’m not in a position to criticize.’

Anyway, for Choi Seong-min who had to kill hunters, it was like adding wings to a tiger.

‘I can raise my stats even more with this.’

Choi Seong-min, who smiled wickedly, said a command as a test.

‘Check Kill Points.’

Since he had just acquired the trait, there probably weren’t any points anyway.

That’s what he thought, but…

‘Huh?’

At the unexpected situation, Choi Seong-min had to open his mouth.

[Remaining Kill Points: 2,130,772]

‘There are… points?’

And an enormous amount at that.

‘Since there are points even though I just acquired the trait…’

It seemed the records of monsters and people he had killed so far had been converted into points.

‘Perfect.’

A smile spread across Choi Seong-min’s lips.

It felt like unexpected money had come in.

‘Use Kill Points.’

[You can raise 1 stat of your choice per 1,000 points. How many points would you like to use?]

Choi Seong-min spoke without hesitation.

‘2.13 million points.’

[You can raise a total of 2,130 stats. Which stat would you like to raise?]

There was no need to think.

‘Agility.’

When he raised agility, strength and stamina also increased together.

It was thanks to the Assassin trait.

When stamina increased, additional strength was added through the Overflowing Power trait, and strength doubled through the Mighty Strength trait.

When the strength inflated by such boosts was concentrated into agility through Unbalanced Power…

‘Agility exceeded 90,000.’

Before he knew it, one stat had reached a level approaching 100,000.

Choi Seong-min looked down at Frank’s corpse and thought.

‘That trash bastard’s trait at least helps.’

That wasn’t the only helpful thing.

In his inventory was an item that any Great Hero would have.

‘This guy even had a Potion of Life.’

This brought his total potions to 3.

There might be places to use them, so it wasn’t bad to have them.

‘Come to think of it, among recent Great Heroes, this bastard is the only one whose memories I haven’t seen.’

If he had decided to, he could have easily subdued him and seen his memories, but Choi Seong-min didn’t.

He didn’t want to.

Frank the slaughterer’s past was obvious.

‘It would only be dirty memories anyway.’

Since it might just worsen his mood, he deliberately killed him without seeing his memories.

‘Even if I tried to save him now to see his memories…’

The corpse was too damaged for that to be possible.

It would be a waste to use a Potion of Life on such trash.

‘I don’t need any more information anyway. I just need to execute the plan.’

Now only two Great Heroes remained.

Plans to assassinate them were already in place.

Choi Seong-min looked around the living room soaked with blood.

‘First I need to clean up here.’

He didn’t need to worry about cleanup.

If he ordered in the association president’s name, subordinate staff would clean it up neatly.

Wiggle wiggle-

Choi Seong-min’s face holding the phone wiggled and transformed.

* * *

Inside a luxurious private jet.

Tap- Tap-

Woo Seong-jae looked out at the night sky through the window while biting his nails.

It was a habit that unconsciously emerged whenever he felt anxious.

‘Did I really do the right thing? Hunter Choi Seong-min won’t hold me responsible, will he?’

He was anxious because he had helped Frank’s kidnapping.

‘Even though it was Hunter Choi Seong-min’s instruction, it’s true that I made Frank attack the house.’

He had encouraged Frank over the phone to enter the house.

If there really had been family members at home, he would have contributed to the kidnapping.

That’s why he couldn’t shake off his uncomfortable feelings.

‘He won’t use that as an excuse to turn his anger on me, will he? Hunter Choi Seong-min said it was okay, didn’t he?’

But what if Choi Seong-min’s family really got kidnapped?

What if they suffered terrible things at Frank’s hands?

‘I would probably… die at Hunter Choi Seong-min’s hands.’

Hunter Choi Seong-min wouldn’t just stay still.

He would look anywhere to find a target for his anger.

‘And that target would be me…’

This was why he felt anxious.

Though he said it was okay, he was worried about being blamed for this incident.

‘I can’t just stay like this. I need to somehow save Hunter Choi Seong-min’s family.’

That was why Woo Seong-jae was flying to Eastland on a private jet.

‘Even if I’m late, it doesn’t matter. I need to at least try to look for them. That way I can score some points with Hunter Choi Seong-min.’

Choi Seong-min said he hated trash.

Meaning he disliked Woo Seong-jae because he was trash too.

He didn’t know why he saw him that way, but he needed to change his image.

‘I can’t give Hunter Choi Seong-min a justification.’

If he at least pretended to help like this, he wouldn’t blame him.

With such calculations, Woo Seong-jae was worrying about Choi Seong-min’s family without meaning it.

‘Hunter Choi Seong-min is probably on a plane to Eastland right now too?’

He didn’t know for sure, but since he had departed early on a private jet rather than a commercial flight, he would arrive first.

‘First I’ll go to Hunter Choi Seong-min’s house.’

Woo Seong-jae was also confident in his information network.

There was no way he wouldn’t know the home address that even Frank had found out.

“We have arrived, Great Hero.”

At the crew member’s words, Woo Seong-jae looked out the window.

After 12 hours, he had arrived in Eastland.

Getting off the private jet, he took a VVIP limousine that had been waiting and headed to Hunter Choi Seong-min’s house.

‘I’ll call during the trip…’

Woo Seong-jae called Frank.

He had called before boarding the private jet too, but Frank hadn’t answered.

‘Damn, he’s still not answering…’

Frank, who would answer his calls no matter what was happening, was ignoring his phone.

‘Why? He shouldn’t know that I’m cooperating with Hunter Choi Seong-min, should he?’

If anything, he had helped, not betrayed him.

He was just puzzled why Frank wasn’t answering.

‘Is he not answering because he’s already kidnapped Hunter Choi Seong-min’s family and is on the move?’

12 hours had passed since Frank broke into the house.

It had to be considered too late to save the family.

‘Still, I need to go to the house. He might still be lurking there.’

If the family had gone on a trip or something and hadn’t come home, Frank would still be hiding in Choi Seong-min’s house.

Then he could subdue that guy and present him to Hunter Choi Seong-min like tribute to score points.

‘That would be the best outcome, but the possibility is low…’

Frank had probably kidnapped the family.

In the worst case, he might have already killed them.

‘If that happens, not only Frank but I will die too.’

If Choi Seong-min was merciful, he wouldn’t kill him, but Woo Seong-jae knew.

The word mercy didn’t exist in his head.

‘I can only rely on a thread of hope…’

Arriving at Choi Seong-min’s house in 30 minutes, Woo Seong-jae got out of the car.

‘Frank probably broke in through the pipes.’

But he couldn’t enter like a thief himself.

He decided to try pressing the doorbell first.

Frank inside might open the door for him.

Ring ring-

He went to the front of Choi Seong-min’s house and pressed the doorbell.

He tried pressing it two or three more times, but there was no response.

‘Am I already too late?’

But he didn’t think the family had been kidnapped.

This wasn’t Insight but personal intuition.

‘I have no choice. I’ll have to quietly break in through the window.’

To assess the situation, Woo Seong-jae climbed the exterior pipes like Frank had.

Since the window was open, there was no difficulty in breaking in.

‘What? Is no one here?’

The house was quiet.

Even when he stopped walking and listened carefully, he couldn’t hear any signs of people.

Then Woo Seong-jae’s gaze turned to the living room.

It was an empty living room with no one there, but Woo Seong-jae knew.

‘Someone died. Someone died here.’

Though it had been cleaned up so thoroughly that there were no traces or smells, Woo Seong-jae could tell.

Because he had the fraudulent trait called Insight.

He could quickly realize who had died too.

‘Frank… died here.’

He didn’t know how he died, but he could tell who killed him even without his trait.

‘Hunter Choi Seong-min killed Frank.’

That’s when it happened.

“Impressive.”

At the voice from behind, Woo Seong-jae was startled.

In his sight was none other than Choi Seong-min.

“You figured out that Frank died even though I erased the traces as if nothing had happened. As expected of a fraudulent trait.”

“Choi, Choi Seong-min sir…!”

Woo Seong-jae was puzzled how Choi Seong-min was here.

‘Surely I who took a private jet should have been faster? No, more than that, how did he hear what I said? I didn’t even speak aloud about Frank being dead.’

The question could be answered as soon as he saw Choi Seong-min.

‘Is there mind reading among his traits?’

He knew well what kind of trait mind reading was.

It was the trait of Song Chi-hyeon, a fellow Great Hero.

‘Dual Wielding, Demon’s Contract, Guardian’s Authority, Paladin, Slaughterer…’

Traits he hadn’t paid attention to before were clearly visible.

‘These are all Great Heroes’ traits?’

Only then did he realize.

The reason why Choi Seong-min had so many traits.

‘What’s that? Hunter Slayer? It steals the traits of killed hunters? And it’s an EX-grade trait…?’

That meant Choi Seong-min had killed nearly 300 hunters so far.

That included other Great Heroes too.

‘So Hunter Choi Seong-min was the one who killed Song Chi-hyeon and Kogo…’

At that moment, Woo Seong-jae realized.

The death of six Great Heroes was never a coincidence.

‘He’s… hunting Great Heroes?’

Woo Seong-jae’s pupils shook.

Because he was unmistakably a Great Hero too.

“You finally figured it out? What my purpose is.”

In the sight of Woo Seong-jae who had come to his senses was Choi Seong-min wearing an eerie smile.

“Now, what will you do?”