Chapter 130 – Lucky Boy (2)

The Gate incident occurred eleven years ago.

When the rifts opened, monsters poured out, throwing the Republic of Korea into chaos.

It wasn’t a problem unique to Korea, either.

Gates had appeared all over the world.

Many lives were lost during that time.

Lucky Boy, Lee Han-seong, was a career soldier.

As a soldier, he was one of the men who took up arms and led the charge into battle to protect the citizens.

But having a gun didn’t guarantee an advantage in a fight.

Some creatures would recover instantly from bullet wounds, while others wouldn’t even get a scratch.

The unit Lee Han-seong belonged to was caught in a phenomenon they called a monster wave.

They fought in isolation against a horrifying flood of zombies.

Their chances of survival were practically zero. But Lee Han-seong made it back alive.

Lucky Boy.

The moniker, meaning ‘the fortunate one,’ was born then.

He was the sole survivor of his unit and became a first-generation Awakened.

Those who connected to the System usually became what were known as Hunters.

To be precise, it was a little different.

A Hunter was, by definition, one who hunts, and the term had become synonymous with the Awakened.

Unlike other Awakened, he did not become a Hunter.

Lee Han-seong continued to work for a government agency.

His awakened ability was Body Enhancement.

It made his body as hard as steel, granting him phenomenal jumping power and movements that surpassed human limits.

He had no need for guns.

With his bare fists alone, he could easily crush a monster’s skull.

The reason he was called a hero wasn’t simply because he worked for a government agency instead of joining a guild.

As a first-generation Awakened, he had been at the forefront of the Gate wars more than anyone, becoming a symbol of a stabilized Republic of Korea under the Wizard System.

Many first-generation Awakened were sacrificed before the country found stability, and he had always survived.

At some point, people started calling him Lucky Boy for returning alive even from impossible battles.

And he was S-Rank.

Classified with a rank that couldn’t be measured, he became the top Awakened in the Republic of Korea.

“Jobs are hard to come by these days, right? But that’s no reason to try and start a second life as a Villain.”

“Ghk, ghk!”

The Villain couldn’t answer Lee Han-seong’s smug question, only managing to choke.

Lee Han-seong had the Villain lifted off the ground, a hand clamped around his throat.

The Villain struggled as if on the verge of death.

“No matter how you awaken or become a superhuman, everyone dies if they can’t breathe. It’s all the same.”

The Villain thrashed his feet as if in agreement.

“You bastard!”

Another Villain swung his sword to save his comrade.

Clang!

The Villain’s sword shattered spectacularly.

“Aaargh!”

The Villain who had swung the sword clutched his hands and groaned in pain.

“Just because you awakened an ability doesn’t automatically make you a superhuman. What good is a body stronger than a normal person’s when you’re just a bookworm who’s never been in a fight? Rookies who’ve never even swung a sword always get the wrong idea.”

The Villains trembled in fear.

Just as the hostages they had just held were now looking at them.

His body hadn’t even flinched from the sword strike. Instead, the sword had broken.

Just as Lee Han-seong said, the Villains here were nothing more than rookies who had never experienced a real battle.

“In movies and comics, the main character awakens, and even though he doesn’t know how to fight, he becomes incredibly strong and wipes out all the monsters. From now on, don’t believe that stuff. It’s all lies.”

Lee Han-seong kicked the sword-wielding Villain in the stomach.

*Baaang!*

The impact was unlike anything one would expect to hear from a human body.

“Woooooah!”

“Nice one, Lee Han-seong!”

The former hostages cheered at the hero’s arrival.

Though there were several Villains, Lee Han-seong handled them as if they were children.

The battle was decided in an instant.

It didn’t even take a few minutes.

The hostages felt a wave of relief, thinking they were finally safe. But then, they felt a strange sense of unease.

*Thwack, thwack!*

“Hey, since I flew all the way here, you should play with me a little longer. Right?”

*Crack!*

“Stand up straight. Make a fist. That’s right, bring it up to your chin.”

“I… I’ll surrender…”

*Thwack!*

“What do you mean, surrender? You’re a Villain. A Villain is someone who burns with passion to uphold their values to the very end. You changed careers without that kind of resolve? Now, don’t drop your guard.”

“P-please…!”

“Weren’t you all prepared to die when you did this? Am I wrong?”

This was no longer a process of subduing Villains.

The Villains, beaten to a bloody pulp, were on the floor, weeping and crawling.

Broken ribs, arms, or legs were the lucky ones.

Some were dying with their faces caved in, unable to even open their eyes.

“…Uh, excuse me…”

“What? Mister, stop screaming. I can’t hear. Ah, forget it.”

Lee Han-seong snapped the neck of the Villain he was pounding on in a mounted position, as easily as breaking a wooden chopstick.

The Villain pinned beneath him could no longer scream.

“Ah, what was that? It was so loud I couldn’t hear you properly.”

“You can stop now…”

“Stop?”

Lee Han-seong glanced around.

The Villains were already beaten to death or crippled for life.

Of course, they were criminals who had tried to kill him, so one might think they deserved to die.

But watching them being killed like insects was far from pleasant.

The room was instantly splattered with blood.

The moving scene of a hero coming to the rescue was gone.

The hero before their eyes, the one always praised on TV, felt utterly alien.

“Hey now. Can’t do that. There’s still a Villain left.”

Lee Han-seong said as he walked toward the man.

The man flinched and stepped back as Lee Han-seong suddenly approached him.

“I-I’m not a Villain. I’m just an ordinary…!”

“Everyone says that. Let’s just check to be sure.”

The muscles in Lee Han-seong’s arm bulged.

The people couldn’t comprehend the situation.

They thought the S-Rank hero had appeared to end this terrifying ordeal. But after beating down the Villains, he was now trying to harm them.

“P-please, don’t joke around.”

“I’m not joking.”

As he said that, Lee Han-seong swung his fist at the man.

*Fwoosh!*

A sound like an explosion of air echoed.

Everyone squeezed their eyes shut.

Even the Awakened Villains had been turned to mush by Lee Han-seong’s fists.

A normal person would surely be smashed to pieces, as if hit by a car.

“?”

Lee Han-seong felt a void where his fist should have connected.

He had intended to kill, but the man had suddenly vanished.

“What are you doing?”

Lee Han-seong looked at the man who had interfered with his hunt.

A white power suit.

An outfit worn by only two people in the Republic of Korea.

“Ah, junior?”

Lee Han-seong offered a sly smile.

***

Lee Han-seong had appeared.

I got the information through Olivier, who was currently the director’s secretary at the agency.

I’d heard he had been on hiatus for over half a year due to a drunk flying incident.

Lucky Boy, Lee Han-seong, was literally a Superman-like figure.

A man whose body itself was a weapon, he never used things like armaments.

A swing of his fist was enough to destroy anything.

I had already done everything I needed to. So, Lee Han-seong would probably take care of the rest and thrash the Villains.

My business today wasn’t with the Villains, but with Lee Han-seong.

He had supposedly gone off the grid for half a year to reflect on his actions after causing an unfortunate accident while drunk flying.

Did he really spend that time reflecting?

He was probably on an assignment for a suspicious PMC.

“Did you go to another world and start shooting things up?”

If I asked him that, he obviously wouldn’t answer.

It didn’t matter if he had no intention of talking. I could just extract his memories to find out.

And even if the extraction didn’t go well, it didn’t matter, since the water always knows the answer.

I took the elevator to the top floor.

Due to the incident, there wasn’t a single employee left in the building. Everyone had evacuated.

‘What’s this?’

A special forces team was on standby, not entering the area where the fight with the Villains should be taking place.

“Oh, Hunter Lee Hyunbin.”

“It looks like there’s a battle going on. Why are you on standby here?”

At my words, the special forces members hesitated.

There was no way the agency’s anti-Villain counter-terrorism team would be here because they were scared.

“Guarder Lee Han-seong is inside, so there’s probably no need for us to go in.”

“There are hostages inside. Shouldn’t you be moving in?”

“That’s…”

The atmosphere was not good.

“Hunter Lee Hyunbin, it would be better if you didn’t go inside.”

“…?”

“I’m saying this for your own good, Hunter Lee Hyunbin. We don’t want to see you get hurt. With Guarder Lee Han-seong…”

It wasn’t a threatening tone.

If anything, they were trying to persuade me. The eyes of the team leader and everyone else held a certain fear.

These were men who didn’t fear Villains.

I knew the answer to that, which was why I was here.

I had reached the pinnacle in the other world.

I was a hero who was literally called the strongest.

In typical stories about heroes from other worlds, they’d feel proud of being the strongest, have a beautiful girl by their side, and live happily ever after.

But in reality, I was so plagued by trauma that I didn’t even want to reveal I was a hero.

The faces of those I couldn’t save always came to mind before the faces of those I did.

Was it because I was too timid?

There were also those who were the complete opposite of me.

Seeing so many people die made them numb.

Among them, some crazy bastards even found pleasure in killing people.

Was it because those guys were just that bold?

Lucky Boy, Lee Han-seong.

A first-generation Awakened, a man called the smiling hero.

The 100 Magicians. And the hardline Villains with ties to the Demon King.

While investigating to eradicate these two groups, I learned something.

-I couldn’t tell anyone… No one would have believed me.

-A hero? Don’t make me laugh. That bastard is nothing more than a crazed murderer! He… my family…

I had personally heard the victims cry out and plead about the injustice.

Of course, I couldn’t know if their words were true or not.

However, they weren’t the only victims.

On the surface, the Republic of Korea was peaceful. Life had been controlled and kept safe by the near-perfect Wizard System.

Now, the Wizard System was gone.

And the age of the wild, where the strong crushed the weak, had returned.

The social system was changing once again.

Despite the special forces’ attempts to stop me, I opened the door.

The reek of blood hit me.

“P-please… ghk!”

The Villains no longer looked human. They were just chunks of meat soaked in blood.

Looking into Lee Han-seong’s eyes, I understood.

He was a madman who found pleasure in killing people.

I activated my Inventory skill. And immediately, I stored the man Lee Han-seong was targeting in my inventory.

The air instantly fell silent.

I could hear the tense gulp of a special forces member behind me.

Lucky Boy, Lee Han-seong, was smiling with his eyes narrowed to slits.

I looked at Lee Han-seong, his cheeks caked with blood, and asked.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah, junior?”

Junior my ass.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah.”

Lee Han-seong glanced around once before shrugging and continuing.

“Can’t you see? I’m catching Villains.”

“The person you were about to hit didn’t seem like a Villain. And even if they are, is there really a need for summary judgment like this?”

Those who deserve to die should die.

I had done the same in the other world, so I had no intention of playing the saint. But if a situation could be controlled, I believed subduing was the right choice over killing.

More importantly, the Villains Lee Han-seong had just wrecked were all mangled beyond human recognition.

“What’s this.”

Lee Han-seong covered his mouth and started chuckling.

“What a self-righteous prick.”

Wow, this guy doesn’t hold back.

There was a time when Lee Han-seong had suspended his activities to “reflect.”

I think it was around the time I failed my interview with the Tushin Guild.

I heard that while arresting a Villain, an unfortunate accident had caused considerable civilian casualties.

Overcome with guilt, he drowned his sorrows in alcohol, and in his drunken state, he had a flying accident, crashing into a residential area and causing more civilian deaths.

Originally, Lee Han-seong was an idol to the people, worthy of the title ‘hero’. But at some point, civilian casualties kept piling up, he kept causing accidents, and his image began to tarnish.

The hero who used to flash his pearly whites and smile righteously on TV was not here.

In my eyes, he was nothing more than a murderer.

Shouldn’t a so-called hero be protecting the traumatized hostages first?

I couldn’t tell what kind of look he had with his eyes narrowed, but it seemed like his will to fight was blazing.

“Junior. I was working here, so you can head on down.”

“Looks like our work here is done.”

“I don’t know about that. There’s still a Villain left, you see?”

“Store.”

I activated my Inventory skill again and stored all the hostages who were inching towards me.

“Whoa. That’s new. What, you carry around something like a Poké Ball?”

“I don’t think there are any Villains among them.”

Awakened with power cannot be stored in the inventory.

It’s similar to how those kids who catch monsters with balls have to weaken them first.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Like when I caught the Earth Dragon.

Exceptions existed when I used the divine power dwelling within me, but even then, I couldn’t store beings who held hostility towards me.

“Hey, can I go in there too?”

“Want to try?”

At my words, Lee Han-seong laughed as if it were hilarious. Immediately after, his smile vanished as if it had never been there, his expression turning cold.

“Dropping the formalities with your senior, are we?”

“Let’s just speak comfortably. Are you the type who has trouble talking to your new desk mate at the start of the school year? If you’re uncomfortable, we can start by passing Post-it notes.”

Seeing how energetic he is now, he probably won’t go in. But maybe after a good beating, he will.

“I saw you catch that dragon.”

“Oh yeah? What did you think?”

“You’re pretty good. But catching mobs and fighting people are two very different things. I’m not that good at catching mobs, you see.”

“That’s just an excuse. I’m awesome at both.”

Lee Han-seong chuckled as if something was funny. He swept his hair back once, retracted his killing intent, and spoke.

“I’ll let this slide for the Director’s sake.”

“Let what slide? You want me to find you a good burial plot?”

Lee Han-seong, who was about to walk past me, stopped in his tracks.

Smiling, I spoke again.

“Where are the guys from Chimera PMC?”

“…!”

Lee Han-seong’s slitted eyes flew open.

“Oh, and you don’t have to let it slide.”

The moment I finished speaking, Lee Han-seong’s surprise punch flew at my face.

Aggro successful.

I could probably switch my class to a Tanker.

*Crack!*

Lee Han-seong’s head snapped to the side. Stumbling back, he touched his split lip and glared at me.

He’s pretty tough.

His teeth, I mean. I was trying to knock them out, but they didn’t come loose.

“Hey, close the door.”

Lee Han-seong ordered the bewildered special forces members.

Looks like this guy is shy. Trying to avoid the gazes of others.

Perfect. I wanted to have a serious talk anyway.

“You.”

Lee Han-seong’s muscles twitched, almost as if they were alive.

“You’re in for a beating today.”

I smiled and replied.

“You’re going to die today.”