Chapter 148 – Hero Raid (3)

The Revolutionary.

That was the title bestowed upon Jean-Pierre after he stopped the monster wave that broke out in the heart of Paris.

“I was going to let you off with a warning not to join the Union.”

When Jean-Pierre drew his sword, it was comparable to a tactical weapon.

That was one of the most prominent descriptions among the many used for the global hunter, Jean-Pierre.

And now, that same Jean-Pierre had drawn his sword.

The atmosphere shifted.

A vicious killing intent consumed the area, rising to a suffocating level.

“Good. It seems there are no witnesses here besides us. I didn’t have any particular grudge against you. Just consider yourself unlucky.”

“But I had a grudge. So don’t blame me, okay?”

At Hyunbin’s words, Jean sneered and raised his sword.

The trembling blade began to hum, resonating with Jean-Pierre’s magical power.

*He can’t win.*

The two men prepared for battle.

Henri had a premonition that his friend, Jean-Pierre, the number one hunter in France, would be defeated.

*It wasn’t staged.*

The video titled “Dragon Raid” had been seen and praised by many.

While some reactions were of awe, there was no shortage of opposing ones.

There was even criticism that it was all staged, a Korean-style hoax.

Jean-Pierre himself had once made a disparaging comment about the video on a broadcast.

But Henri thought differently.

He believed it was real, and what he was seeing now was even more astounding.

It looked as though the squad members killed by Hyunbin had died from a single, simple swing of a blade.

But those men were by no means easy opponents.

It was true their close-combat senses had dulled since they started relying on firearms as their main weapons, but their actual combat abilities hadn’t declined.

He killed them cleanly and precisely. A simple, unadorned execution with no wasted movements.

Without a shred of hesitation.

*Jean. That thing might be a completely different creature from what we thought.*

The Deliveryman Henri knew was a hero who helped his neighbors with the money he earned and didn’t hesitate to throw himself into fights against villains.

*Does that mean we’re the villains?*

Henri read it in Hyunbin’s eyes.

Eyes that didn’t seem to see people as people.

Jean-Pierre was strong. The strongest in France.

But this time, Henri had a feeling he had picked the wrong opponent.

“I’ll show you.”

Jean’s sword skill activated.

“The difference in class.”

Jean’s figure vanished.

In the next instant, he was swinging his rapier to slit Hyunbin’s throat.

Hyunbin took a step back, dodging the attack by a paper-thin margin.

“Hah!”

Jean stepped forward again, swinging his sword with elegance and grace.

Hyunbin sidestepped, evading.

Jean thought his opponent was lucky. He was barely, narrowly dodging his attacks.

“Well, how long are you going to keep running?”

Jean lunged at Hyunbin with a thrust. Once again, Hyunbin dodged by moving half a step to the side.

As if he’d been waiting for that, Jean changed the thrust into a horizontal slash.

A feint to catch his opponent off guard.

Fencing was light and prioritized speed.

The rapier’s usual weakness, its lack of durability, had been eliminated by manufacturing it with the latest techniques using mana stones.

In other words, it was a ridiculously overpowered weapon with the hardness to rival a two-handed sword and a nimble blade.

Indeed, when he moved through monster waves, he left afterimages like phantoms, cutting down everything in his path.

But this opponent was very different.

*He dodged that?*

Hyunbin’s face was impassive. He put his sword away into his inventory.

Seeing him suddenly sheathe his weapon, Jean-Pierre sneered.

“Putting your weapon away now? I have no intention of going easy on you.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s just that you’re not even worth using the Holy Sword on.”

“Ha. Is that so? You plan to fight me bare-handed?”

Like master, like disciple.

Their bluffing was identical.

Jean-Pierre scoffed at his opponent’s recklessness and charged again.

This time, he properly activated his sword skill.

He enhanced his legs to increase his movement speed and imbued his sword with magic, making it hard enough to shatter an HP Shield.

*Crack!*

Jean suddenly felt his leg buckle.

He’d been hit by his opponent’s low kick, and an excruciating pain shot through him.

“Kghh!”

Jean aborted his thrust and stumbled back a few steps.

Thankfully, his leg wasn’t broken.

No, worrying about a broken leg was ridiculous in the first place.

As befitting France’s top hunter, his HP Shield was in the thousands.

In other words, he had a solid shield of energy to nullify damage. And yet, he felt as if he’d been hit by a car.

“Come on.”

At Hyunbin’s relaxed words, a cold sweat broke out on Jean’s forehead for the first time.

“Jean, you can’t do it alone. Together…”

“Shut up!”

Jean cut Henri off, cracking his neck as he swung his rapier through the air a few more times.

Jean checked his system window.

-HP: 820 / 1088

A single low kick had blown away over 200 points of his shield.

*Ha, what is this?*

Even a monster’s skill didn’t deal this much damage.

“It’s been a while, this feeling… like a duel.”

“Oh, really?”

Hyunbin laughed at that. It was an unmistakable sneer.

Seeing Hyunbin laugh at him, the strongest in France, Jean saw red.

“Do you like minced meat?”

With those words, Jean vanished, leaving only an afterimage.

“I love it.”

In an instant, Jean’s rapier was right in front of Hyunbin’s face, glinting sharply.

Like a fastball thrown by a pro baseball player. The attack would land in the blink of an eye.

A lightning-fast attack, too quick for the eye to see, thrust, slashed, and slashed again.

It was an attack so fast that an ordinary person would have been hacked to pieces.

*Crack!*

“Kghh!”

Jean gritted his teeth, barely swallowing a scream.

It was unbelievable. His opponent had dodged all his attacks and landed another light low kick.

-HP: 420 / 1088

*More damage?*

Nothing like this had ever happened before.

It wasn’t that his opponent felt fast.

No, he was overwhelmingly superior in speed. Yet his attacks weren’t connecting, and he was the only one taking damage.

“You lost to a guy like this? Hah…”

Hyunbin sighed in frustration, sweeping his bangs back.

“Looks like I’ll have to put Tae-yang through some hellish training.”

Seeing Hyunbin say that with complete sincerity, a blood vessel burst in Jean’s eye.

“Jean, he’s stronger than you.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”

“He hasn’t even shown his true power…”

“The same goes for me.”

Jean’s aura changed. Seeing this, Henri’s eyes filled with alarm.

“You, that’s…!”

“Today, I will become a beast once more.”

His opponent was stronger than he thought.

That relaxed attitude. But it wasn’t a playful atmosphere either.

It was an atmosphere that said, *I’m just confirming what a pathetic insect you are.*

*Unforgivable.*

Jean-Pierre’s muscles swelled abnormally.

His skin began to crack, forming a hard, scaly epidermis, and his pupils turned into vertical, blue-green slits.

Talisman Release.

The power he possessed from the other world.

An ability that unleashed the user’s latent potential, allowing them to exert superhuman strength.

It had the drawback of losing one’s reason, but in return, it granted immense power.

High risk, high return.

Jean-Pierre laughed like a beast.

*Swoosh!*

He swung his rapier through the air.

*KRAKOOM!*

A deafening roar shook the earth, and cracks formed on the ground.

“Khahaha, good. I’m overflowing with power.”

Mana coursed through his body, more than it could handle.

Just swinging his sword generated an overwhelming pressure of mana that could slice through anything like tofu.

Jean looked at Hyunbin.

Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit.

That was the dignity of the king of beasts.

***

The Frenchman transformed.

Whoa, is this the transformation I’ve only heard about? I shouldn’t hit him while he’s transforming, right?

That’s like, an unwritten rule.

His muscles swelled up, reminding me of a gorilla.

He definitely seems to have powered up.

“Consider it your misfortune that I was your opponent.”

The guy named Jean was laughing heartily, as if pleased with his transformation.

Yep, I get it.

Kids who watch the transforming robots their moms buy them and wish they could transform too.

It seems the number one ranker in France still cherished his childhood dreams like some grand fantasy.

He started charging at me.

As he rushed in with a thrust, I felt an immense sword pressure, unlike before.

I probably shouldn’t just take that head-on, right?

I took a two-handed sword out of my inventory.

As I dodged his thrust, I spun halfway around and swung the two-handed sword upward in a diagonal arc.

*Slish!*

A crimson arc was drawn where the two-handed sword had passed. At the same time, Jean-Pierre, his right arm now severed, let out a horrifying scream.

He stared at his own right hand lying on the ground, as if to deny reality.

Ah, you want it back?

I kindly stomped on his hand, crushing it under my foot.

Can’t give him any false hope. Gotta make him give up completely.

Disbelief, rage, and fear filled his eyes.

I didn’t even need to use my Insight skill to know.

He roared and charged.

He’d lost his weapon and a hand, but he was still an S-Rank, after all.

They say if someone strikes you on the right cheek, you should offer them the left one too.

*Slish!*

So I cut off his left hand too.

Screaming horribly, he backed away.

Does it hurt? Doesn’t hurt me.

“Kghh, huuk, what… are you! Just what! Kgh!”

Jean-Pierre’s anger management issues were cured.

“Henri, you fucking idiot! Are you just going to stand there and watch!”

The number one ranker was wailing.

What a sight.

In the future I saw, he was standing over a corpse, stomping on it and laughing arrogantly.

He had deliberately stomped on the dead knight’s hand, as if to provoke me.

“Henri, you bastard!”

Once again, the number one ranker cried out pathetically.

Hearing the command of the almighty number one, the bald number five ranker walked towards me with a stiff expression.

Time for a player swap?

The bald player forfeited the match and dropped to his knees. Then he spoke.

“Please spare me.”

“?”

“I will keep this a secret. Please spare me, I’ll do anything.”

Pathetic.

Declaring surrender without even trying to fight properly.

Who would believe his promise to keep a secret anyway?

No, more importantly, these guys weren’t worth keeping alive.

They were the kind of scum who massacred the powerless and cackled about gaining experience points.

The kind of scum who found the life savings of the weak and poor people from the other world, only to curse that there was no gold.

“The people you killed probably said the same thing.”

The bald man flinched at my words.

I readjusted my grip on the two-handed sword.

Jean-Pierre was looking at me with fear, as if I were a butcher about to slaughter him.

Now that’s a look I can appreciate.

Just then, the bald man stood up.

No point in staying on his knees if I wasn’t going to spare him.

“Is it so enjoyable to kill people like insects?”

What is this guy talking about?

Can’t he remember what they did?

Oh, he’s crying. After slaughtering countless people, is their own life so precious to them?

If you shoot someone, you must be prepared to be shot yourself. That’s how the world works.

In that instant, the bald man vanished.

In the brief moment it took to blink, I felt a fist flying toward my jaw.

*CLANG!*

I blocked his punch with my two-handed sword.

With a dull thud, I was pushed back several steps.

White smoke rose from the two-handed sword as if it had been scorched.

A tingling sensation in my wrist that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Well, look at this.

“I can’t just let you kill me.”

The bald man took a stance, his expression resolute.

His previous groveling face was gone, replaced by the face of a fine warrior.

I think the French rankings are wrong.