Chapter 71: Chapter 71

The figure visible beyond the shattered door was someone Han Young-seok knew all too well.

The grimace on Han Young-seok’s face turned to horror upon finding the person held captive in the opponent’s grasp.

“How did you manage to get Kang Jun-tae…!?”

Kang Jin-hyuk hurled the corpse he had brought along towards Han Young-seok, who stood there in shock, speechless.

The body of S-rank Hunter Kang Jun-tae crashed to the floor, breaking the dust-covered table beneath him.

“Don’t worry. You won’t die like him.”

Kang Jin-hyuk had no intention of killing Han Young-seok.

The large-scale rebellion that had occurred within Titan was orchestrated and executed by him.

Kang Jin-hyuk believed that keeping Han Young-seok alive and forcing him to take responsibility would be a better way to quell the situation.

“Are you saying… you killed Kang Jun-tae?”

“Can’t you see it? I dragged him all the way here for you to check for yourself.”

Lying lifeless on the floor, Kang Jun-tae’s eyes had turned completely white, and he was not breathing.

There was no doubt he looked like a dead man.

“Killing an S-rank Hunter? Are you out of your mind? Do you really think the Association will just sit back and watch this?”

“If they don’t, then what will they do?”

Normally, the act of one Hunter killing another was a grave crime.

The reason the Association had not taken charge was not from incompetence or laziness.

Conflict among Hunters happened countless times anyway.

If they were to arrest every single instance of it, the number of active Hunters would drastically decline.

With a few selected humans given stats, becoming a Hunter was limited, making it difficult to bring in new ones.

Reducing the number of active Hunters was certainly not what the Association desired.

Therefore, unless faced with public backlash like what happened with Tyrant, they wouldn’t interfere with minor incidents.

However, that mercy only applied to Hunters of A-rank and above.

The Association had no forgiveness for those without strength or talent.

“There’s no point in you, a mere C-rank Hunter, boasting! The Association will be all over you once they get a report of this…”

Kang Jin-hyuk sighed as he grabbed Han Young-seok by the collar.

“Ugh!”

Suspended above the ground, Han Young-seok’s feet barely touched it.

No matter how hard he struggled to slip away, Kang Jin-hyuk’s grip didn’t budge.

“After killing two S-rank Hunters, are you still going on about being C-rank?”

“Two? Are you seriously claiming Jo Won-cheol too?”

“Correct. I smashed his head real good.”

“No way…!”

Kang Jin-hyuk’s Hunter rank now meant little more than decoration.

He was merely C-rank as he had not taken a promotion test.

However, if he officially underwent the test, he could easily rise to S-rank.

The Association wouldn’t keep someone as talented as him locked away for murder.

In the current era, the number of S-rank Hunters directly corresponded to national power.

Losing two of them was painful, but if more capable individuals existed, the Association wouldn’t mourn the loss.

Having worked as an executive in a major guild for an extended period, Han Young-seok surely understood the Association’s policies.

“Damn it!”

If things continued as they were, Han Young-seok would find himself responsible for the attempted murder of Seo Sang-ho and the fallout from this war.

Kang Jin-hyuk, who had exhibited his dominance, would be treated as a hero with the Association’s backing once the war concluded.

Han Young-seok wanted nothing more than to avoid such an outcome.

“Why does this guy keep doing so well?”

A nameless Hunter who used to be insignificant was now favored by Seo Sang-ho.

And now, he even had the power to go up against S-rank Hunters.

For ordinary people, such results were unthinkable, yet Kang Jin-hyuk achieved it so nonchalantly.

Deep down, jealousy bubbled within Han Young-seok.

“What makes me worse than that bastard!?”

At 23 years old, when he had awakened as a Hunter, Han Young-seok had poured every penny he possessed into joining Titan.

From then on, he painstakingly worked to build up his specifications.

He endured the disdain of his senior Hunters, doing whatever it took.

Even when no one offered assistance, he pushed through with his plans and eventually achieved results.

It was a position he managed to climb to only through hard work.

“Why can he succeed without effort!?”

Han Young-seok was deeply disturbed by Kang Jin-hyuk’s mere existence.

With every ounce he grew stronger, it stung Han Young-seok like a betrayal of his own struggles.

“Let’s see how far your luck can take you…”

Han Young-seok secretly twisted his wrist without Kang Jin-hyuk noticing.

Suddenly, a syringe needle shot forth from a hidden device concealed beneath his sleeve.

What was inside the syringe was pure basilisk poison.

Even diluted, the basilisk’s toxin had almost left Seo Sang-ho on the brink of death.

Injecting it in its concentrated form was guaranteed to be lethal.

“Be thankful that you’ll be dying from this expensive poison.”

He grabbed hold of Kang Jin-hyuk’s hand that was securing his collar with one arm.

Then he plunged the syringe into Kang Jin-hyuk’s arm.

“Hahaha! It’s over, you bastard!”

Han Young-seok scoffed with satisfaction.

“Over? What do you mean?”

But against all expectations, Kang Jin-hyuk showed no signs of being affected by the poison.

“Huh…?”

Under normal circumstances, Kang Jin-hyuk should have collapsed from the poison spreading throughout his body the moment the needle pierced his skin.

No matter how long it passed, he didn’t falter but rather tightened his grip on Han Young-seok’s collar even more.

As he choked Han Young-seok with increasing force, the latter began to cough dryly.

“Gack! What the hell is going on!”

Han Young-seok wondered if the device had malfunctioned and checked the syringe for any issues.

It was only after seeing the completely crushed needle that he realized it had failed to penetrate even his skin.

“Could it be… the poison didn’t work?”

Kang Jin-hyuk reached out, grabbing Han Young-seok’s clothes to tear them apart.

The devices hidden within the rips were exposed for all to see.

“Are you filming a spy movie or something? When did you ever prepare all this?”

Kang Jin-hyuk ripped apart the devices Han Young-seok had prepared with his bare hands.

Since the basilisk’s poison seemed wasteful to destroy, he simply pulled out the syringe whole.

Whiiiirrr.

With the syringe ejected, ominous sounds echoed from within the device, where bright red lights began to flash.

“What the hell is this? Is it self-destructing or something?”

“Hehe…”

Han Young-seok didn’t respond and merely let out a sinister laugh.

“What’s happening…?”

Towering pillars of light shot up around Kang Jin-hyuk, surrounding him.

Kang Jin-hyuk recognized these pillars appeared when someone had used a return scroll.

The presence of such numerous pillars indicated that a significant number of individuals were coming this way.

“A warning device, huh.”

Kang Jin-hyuk, treating Han Young-seok like trash, flung him into a corner of the room.

“Gah!”

Han Young-seok collided with the wall, collapsing in a heap.

Amidst the chaos, a group of Hunters from Titan entered the room as Kang Jin-hyuk brandished a baseball bat.

As the cramped space filled with about a dozen Hunters, it was as though a subway during rush hour—air becoming increasingly hard to breathe.

“Kill that bastard immediately!”

With Han Young-seok still down, he barked orders, and the Titans instantly drew their weapons.

“Can we please take this outside? I can barely breathe!”

The Hunters from Titan ignored Kang Jin-hyuk’s pleas.

The weapons they wielded were primarily daggers and gauntlets, fitting for the tight quarters, proving effective in close combat.

In contrast, the baseball bat would be difficult to wield in such a confined space.

Kang Jin-hyuk had no choice but to put the basilisk’s poison into his inventory along with the baseball bat.

His alternative weapon would be the fists he had since birth.

“What are you doing, right now?”

“You plan on fighting us with your bare hands?”

“You must be out of your mind.”

The Titan Hunters roared with laughter, mocking him as they eagerly charged ahead.

With barely a meter separating them, they were positioned to attack with just an extend of their arms.

As a result, the daggers coming from the Hunters easily struck Kang Jin-hyuk’s body.

However, simply attacking didn’t guarantee success.

“What the hell!?”

“What is this?!”

The Titans, extending their daggers, found their blades halted just before they could pierce Kang Jin-hyuk’s clothing.

When looking closely, an aura of faint gold shimmered before the daggers, blocking their attacks.

Employing the aura, Kang Jin-hyuk successfully defended against their attacks while charging his fists with strength.

Winding up as if to cover his entire fist with aura before unleashing it, he aimed directly at the Hunter in front of him.

“Guh!”

The Hunter met Kang Jin-hyuk’s punch right in the face and was sent sprawling backward, spitting blood.

Beginning with that one strike, Kang Jin-hyuk knocked down a Titan Hunter after another.

“Gah!”

“Ugh!”

The cramped conditions left the Hunters with nowhere to escape, falling one after another to Kang Jin-hyuk’s relentless fists.

In only two minutes, all of the more than a dozen Hunters lay defeated.

The time it took to boil a cup of ramen was shorter.

“W-what the hell!?”

Han Young-seok lay on the floor, dumbfounded as he watched.

He had known Kang Jin-hyuk was abnormally strong, but the display he had just put on was beyond astonishing.

The Titans’ attacks had been utterly ineffective against him, while the totality of his strength surged through every punch.

What had unfolded was not a battle but rather an infliction of unilateral violence.

“Is that the best you could come up with?”

Kang Jin-hyuk brushed his hands off before glancing at Han Young-seok.

“Guh…”

“Considering you have no words to say, it seems you’re out of tricks.”

Once again, Kang Jin-hyuk seized Han Young-seok by the collar.

Forcing him to his feet, Kang Jin-hyuk clenched his fist with his other hand.

“Just dragging you along seemed boring, so why not let you take a few hits too?”

Kang Jin-hyuk’s fist crashed into Han Young-seok’s left shoulder.

As he felt force seep from the blow, Han Young-seok was struck with tremendous pain.

“Uuuah!”

Kang Jin-hyuk released his grasp on Han Young-seok’s collar.

Without a chance to roll away, he hit the ground face first, clutching his broken arm.

Kang Jin-hyuk walked over to the fallen Han Young-seok and stamped down on his knee.

“Gah!”

With an agonizing scream, Han Young-seok found both arms and legs trapped beneath him, lashes of pain ripping through his being.

“What did I ever do to deserve your unquenchable appetite for my demise?”

Han Young-seok had no time to answer the question, overwhelmed by the roiling pain.

“What you did was nothing but throw the first punch. From trying to make issues out of newly discovered monsters to barging into my home.”

Kang Jin-hyuk fully suppressed his emotions, viewing the conflict between him and Han Young-seok objectively.

No matter how many times he thought about it, there was no action that he could accept blame for.

“The more I think, the angrier I get.”

Recalling Han Young-seok’s previous moves only heightened his frustration.

“Initially I thought I could settle this easily, but that’s just impossible. You’ll be taking more beatings.”

Unable to control himself any longer, Kang Jin-hyuk smashed down onto Han Young-seok’s remaining knee with his foot.

For a while afterward, Han Young-seok’s screams echoed throughout the room.

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