Chapter 49 – Kim Byung-chul

Min Do-jun returned home and washed himself first.

He wanted to wash away the smell of blood.

‘I’ve been killing too frequently lately.’

From Kang Cheol-gyu to Bang Dae-sik’s gang, Jo Gyu-chan, and Yang Seung-hyun.

There were seven hunters he had killed outside.

‘Killing like this is too dangerous.’

He knew it himself.

That killing outside was riskier than doing it in dungeons.

But these were people he had no choice but to kill.

Besides, wasn’t it the perfect place to kill them?

‘This one probably won’t be discovered, but if I keep killing like this, it would be stranger not to get caught.’

The police and Hunter Association must be aware that hunters have been dying one after another lately.

‘There are still 11 people I need to kill…’

Even without evidence, he couldn’t take the risk of killing them.

Some special measures were needed.

‘Let me check the characteristics first.’

[Characteristic – Weapon Mastery]

– Grade: S

– Description: Can skillfully handle any weapon. Weapon attack power increases by 2x.

This was the characteristic obtained from Yang Seung-hyun.

‘This will increase my attack power further.’

Currently, he had a D-grade characteristic that increased weapon attack power by 15%, but this was a much higher-grade characteristic.

‘With multiplicative calculation, it should increase by 2.3 times.’

His already high damage just got even stronger.

The looted items were quite decent too.

While the equipment wasn’t anything special, he obtained 21 B-grade magic stones.

That meant earning over 2.5 billion in one go.

‘It’s still overpowered. This Hunter Hunter characteristic.’

Thanks to the EX-grade characteristic that suddenly appeared after regression, Min Do-jun was growing endlessly beyond his level.

‘That makes 12 characteristics now.’

So far, it seemed there was no limit to the number of characteristics he could acquire.

‘Why did I get this characteristic? No, before that, how did I regress in the first place?’

It’s not that he hadn’t wondered about it before.

But since there were no answers anyway, he just thought of it as God giving him a chance.

‘Is it a sign to hunt trash hunters while taking revenge? If that’s the case, I’ll gladly accept it.’

Min Do-jun didn’t plan to end it with Yang Seung-hyun today.

There was one more piece of trash trying to cause a dungeon break.

‘Name: Kim Byung-chul. Level: 1,280.’

That was the name of the skinny man who had dealt with Yang Seung-hyun.

Unlike with Yang Seung-hyun, Min Do-jun could see his name and level.

The information was visible through his weakness detection characteristic.

‘If I can see the information, it means he’s not stronger than me.’

That’s why Min Do-jun planned to kill Kim Byung-chul today.

‘You dare try to cause a dungeon break?’

For Min Do-jun, who lost his parents to a dungeon break, this was unforgivable.

Although he would stop the dungeon break himself, it was just a self-made plot to get the reward money, so he couldn’t just let it be.

‘It’s utterly despicable to harm others just to play hero.’

Though not a target for revenge, the intention to cause a dungeon break alone was reason enough to kill him.

[Distance to target: 74.31km]

‘Good thing I placed a tracking skill.’

After having a quick breakfast, Min Do-jun prepared to go out early.

Knowing the dungeon’s location, he planned to go ahead and think about how to kill him.

* * *

Kim Byung-chul stuffed clothes into his backpack.

He needed clothes to change into during today’s task.

‘Hehe, 16 billion. Just thinking about it feels good.’

Today was a very important day for him.

It was a golden opportunity to make a fortune if he played his cards right.

‘What should I do first when I get the money?’

He was a B-rank hunter at level 1,280.

While that level meant he shouldn’t lack money, it wasn’t enough for him.

There were many things he wanted to buy.

‘First, I need to change my car.’

Though he had a sports car bought just 3 months ago, he was already tired of it and needed to change it.

‘And move to a bigger, better house.’

Though he currently lived in a 1 billion won apartment, he planned to move somewhere bigger with a better night view.

‘I used to wonder what I’d do with lots of money, but there are surprisingly many ways to spend it.’

Expensive clothes, luxury watches, imported cars, real estate investments, and so on.

He preferred spending money on external things rather than hunter equipment.

As a result, it took him over 8 years to reach level 1,200, which others achieved in 5 years.

He was relatively late in achieving it.

Thus, he only had ordinary equipment.

His characteristics weren’t combat-oriented either.

‘That’s why I requested a C-grade dungeon.’

This was why he asked Yang Seung-hyun for a C-grade dungeon.

At his level, stopping a B-grade dungeon break would be impossible.

‘It was 2 PM, right?’

Kim Byung-chul checked the time and waited anxiously after completing all preparations.

He hadn’t even eaten for the operation.

‘It’s not difficult. Just need to kill two guys – the military and government hunter.’

With his characteristic, there was no worry about getting caught even if he killed them.

‘They might be suspicious, but it doesn’t matter. There won’t be any physical evidence.’

He felt no guilt.

He even regretted not making money this way sooner.

‘This is the right way to use my characteristic.’

If there’s money to be made, anything goes.

Even if it means killing people.

As noon passed, Kim Byung-chul started preparing to leave.

The C-grade dungeon was an hour away from home.

He decided to take the bus instead of his sports car since he couldn’t afford to stand out today.

“Ugh.”

Seated, Kim Byung-chul looked out the window while thinking about what he needed to do.

The plan was simple.

After arriving at the destination, he would approach through a secluded path and kill the soldier first.

Then, when the government hunter arrives at 2 PM as scheduled, he would kill him too.

After that, he would leave the area and return pretending to have discovered the dungeon break by chance.

‘Then just kill 200 Little Snakes and it’s done.’

Though he might be suspected, even the police couldn’t do anything without physical evidence.

Either way, he would become a hero who appeared at the right time to prevent a dungeon break.

Honestly, he didn’t even want the hero title.

‘Hero or whatever, I just need the money.’

He found out that the reward per Little Snake was 80 million won.

He could get a total reward of 16 billion won.

‘Hehe, perfect.’

The main thing to be careful about was his movement pattern.

When going to kill the soldier, he needed to move through areas without CCTV to avoid suspicion.

‘And I need to act well too.’

Without physical evidence, the police and association might try to pressure him psychologically.

He needed to act for that situation too.

Act like he just happened to pass by and prevented the dungeon break.

‘I just need to do it like I practiced at home.’

Honestly, he was confident in deceiving others.

That’s why he couldn’t help but smile even while riding the bus.

‘The only variable would be that government hunter they’re sending in…’

The information Yang Seung-hyun sent included the government hunter’s name, level, job, and even personality.

‘A level 750 hunter who just became B-rank…’

This was Kim Byung-chul’s first attempt at causing a dungeon break.

But it wasn’t his first time killing someone.

‘I’ve killed a party member in a dungeon before.’

There wasn’t any special reason.

It was over a minor dispute.

‘He looked down on me so much that I killed him in anger when we were alone…’

He felt nothing.

Rather, it felt refreshing, like a weight had been lifted.

That’s when he realized.

His characteristic was more suited for killing people than monsters.

‘Still, I’ve never killed a B-rank hunter before…’

It wasn’t that he lacked confidence.

Who couldn’t kill someone with a surprise attack, especially someone with a lower level?

‘I need to kill them for sure.’

Kim Byung-chul’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent.

[Next stop is ‘Bokdong Intersection’.]

After getting off the bus, Kim Byung-chul walked down the street.

The CCTV locations he had checked beforehand would appear after walking a bit more.

He just needed to avoid them and enter the nearby mountain.

‘Cross the mountain and the dungeon appears right away.’

While walking toward the mountain, he was bothered by a man following behind.

It was someone who got off the bus with him.

‘He’s not tailing me, is he?’

A flash of thought crossed his mind.

‘No way? Did that bastard Yang Seung-hyun…?’

What if Yang Seung-hyun had betrayed him and passed all the information to the police?

The man following him would most likely be a detective.

‘Damn it!’

For a moment, he felt anxious and considered running away, but he analyzed the situation calmly.

‘No. That bastard wouldn’t have betrayed me.’

If he hadn’t seen wrong, Yang Seung-hyun showed greedy eyes right after receiving the magic stones.

Those eyes and expression couldn’t have been fake acting.

‘I know well. Those greedy eyes…’

He would recognize them since they were just like his own.

‘He was so persistent about working together more, he’s not the type to betray.’

Moreover, he had promised 10 more B-grade magic stones after the job was done, so he wouldn’t have spread the word.

‘Then who is this guy following me?’

He didn’t know why the man kept following, but he could check.

Kim Byung-chul suddenly stopped and took out a cigarette.

While pretending to enjoy the scenery and smoking, the man who had been following passed by and kept walking.

‘Was I wrong?’

Was he just a normal passenger who got off at the same stop?

Kim Byung-chul watched the man’s retreating figure intently and only relaxed after he disappeared from view.

‘I was being too sensitive.’

Perhaps because he was about to execute his plan, he had become unnecessarily suspicious.

‘Yang Seung-hyun wouldn’t betray me.’

He smirked and started walking again.

The man he had suspected kept walking without looking back.

He definitely wasn’t a detective.

He was even going in a different direction.

‘Now to the mountain.’

Kim Byung-chul turned toward the mountain.

This was an area without CCTV.

After walking for a while…

“Excuse me… could I ask for directions?”

A man approached with a naive expression while scratching the back of his head.

‘Damn, why is there someone here of all places?’

It was troublesome to have a witness when he needed to enter the mountain.

Though irritated, he maintained his poker face.

“Directions?”

“Yes. I heard there’s a bus stop around here…”

“Ah. The bus stop?”

Fortunately, it was in the opposite direction, so this worked out well.

He needed to quickly direct him to the bus stop and send him away.

As Kim Byung-chul turned his head to point in that direction…

“Ah, it stings!”

He felt a sharp sensation in his forearm.

Then everything went dark as if someone had turned off the lights.

“What, what’s happening? I can’t see!”

After suddenly losing his vision, what he felt was…

*Squelch-*

The pain of his chest being pierced through.