Chapter 8 – The Strongest Porter (1)

The man adjusting his black horn-rimmed glasses had a remarkably kind face.

Drip. Drip.

But the blood dripping from his briefcase painted a different picture.

“Who are you, mister?”

Kang Seon-su spoke.

A strange guy. He didn’t look like a hunter. Who wears a suit into a dungeon?

Even a guild’s sales representative would wear at least a protective vest over their clothes. That was the bare minimum safety protocol for dungeons.

‘No way.’

Kang Seon-su recalled a recent notice sent to all the guilds.

Some people awakened after entering a dungeon while working in a hunter-related job, while others awakened due to the influence of the Gates.

Many are bewildered when they first awaken, unsure of what to do.

Most of them register as Awakened. They are then evaluated on a new set of specs, rather than the ones they’d built up over their lives.

But among them are unregistered Awakened.

The reason is simple.

A background check is standard procedure during registration. If you’re a criminal, you face the judgment of the law, Awakened or not.

Everyone knows the kind of tragedy that can occur when an outlaw wields power greater than a gun.

Naturally, criminals don’t register with the Gate Management Bureau.

Thus, unregistered Awakened become criminals, and the government establishes special registration periods for them.

During these periods, even those who had committed crimes were pardoned or had their sentences reduced in consideration of the circumstances, then put to use as national assets.

Of course, there was backlash, but not every criminal registered.

Among them was one unregistered Awakened who had recently started making a name for himself.

A criminal in a neat suit with an intellectual air. A Villain known as the Company Man.

“It seems you’ve figured it out.”

The man smiled gently, his lips stretching unnaturally wide.

“I will now kill you.”

Kang Seon-su pulled a club from his inventory. It was an electric club that delivered a shock when infused with a certain amount of mana.

A melee DPS, Kang Seon-su gripped his weapon, facing the man walking toward him.

But suddenly, his hands wouldn’t move.

‘What the…’

Kang Seon-su tried to move again, but failed. His entire body was bound by something dark.

“Huh? Ugh! Aaargh!”

Kang Seon-su screamed, thrashing his bound body. Shadowy vines had crept up from the shadows at his feet, now tightening around him like chains.

The Company Man strolled leisurely forward. And Kang Seon-su, trembling instinctively. It was like a moth caught in a spider’s web.

“All hunters are evil.”

The Company Man said, walking past Kang Seon-su as if he didn’t even need to dirty his own hands.

Soon, another horrifying scream was added to the air.

It was so loud that even the hunters who were hunting or resting nearby noticed something was wrong.

“What was that scream?”

“Huh? Oh! S-so, someone’s… dead! A person!”

Just moments ago, they were mercilessly slaughtering goblins, dwarves that resembled humans. Yet they make such a fuss when one of their own kind dies.

While trampling countless lives—dozens, no, hundreds of them.

The Company Man smiled faintly. No one here could threaten him.

Their numbers meant nothing. It had always been that way, and always would be.

“Hunters. I shall now let you experience what it feels like to be the prey.”

* * *

It’s true.

“A healer! Is there a healer?”

“Contact the Bureau, quick! We need a high-rank healer! No, just call an ambulance first!”

The dungeon entrance was a total warzone.

The very place I had entered and exited without issue just a while ago. In my sight were the guards who had been protecting the entrance.

The same people who’d annoyed me by nagging about when I would awaken, but who had rejoiced with me when I told them I finally had.

I had been coming and going from this place for half a year, trying to awaken. Naturally, I’d become friendly with the people here.

It would be a lie to say I felt nothing seeing people crying, their limbs severed like toy blocks.

“Everyone… dead… Only… me…! Kkh, keuk!”

“Don’t talk! Stop the bleeding, quickly!”

“It’s already… too late…”

The guards at the outpost had been wiped out. The last one, who had been barely breathing, was now gone.

“An S-rank hunter from the Bureau will arrive within thirty minutes!”

“Are you crazy? What takes so long to fly here! There’s a murderer on a rampage in there right now!”

The one who had appeared here was the Villain known as the Company Man. An Awakened, but a madman who committed crimes without registering.

His ability was shadow manipulation. In a dim place like a dungeon, it was a power with maximum efficiency.

A hunter who hunts hunters because he hates them.

There was no way to know what had happened to Kim Tae-yang.

It was a short time, but I’d grown attached to him.

The reason I pushed the kid so hard was to make him strong enough not to die a pointless death in a dungeon.

Because a dungeon is a place where you can lose your life in an instant if you get cocky, relying on your half-baked strength.

“We can’t just sit on our hands waiting for a high-rank hunter! Call for backup now!”

The representative from the Tushin Guild who had tried to scout me earlier was also on the phone, talking nonstop.

As if he were reporting. His gaze kept landing on me, and I was sure it wasn’t my imagination.

I was at a crossroads.

A murderer was inside, one who used his abilities with deadly skill.

I had awakened too, but I was a novice who couldn’t use my abilities properly yet. In other words, I had no idea what my chances were of winning against him.

The blond kid I’d only known for two weeks. The people I knew by sight but had never formally greeted. My superiors from the training center.

-The Anyang Amusement Park Dungeon will be sealed shortly.

What?

A strange message suddenly appeared. The dungeon was going to be sealed?

It had appeared as a system window.

Everyone around me was a non-Awakened, so it seemed they couldn’t see the system message.

I looked at the dungeon entrance. Now that I was connected to the system, I had a small amount of mana.

Which meant I could see mana.

An ominous energy was stirring near the dungeon entrance.

-So, Master?

The blond kid had said that to me one day.

I’d kindly asked him what kind of nonsense he was spouting, and he’d laughed, saying we were like a master and disciple from a martial arts movie.

So I’d retorted, “Do I look that old to you?”

Why was I suddenly remembering this?

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!”

“You can’t go in there! Stop him!”

Before I knew it, I had stepped into the dungeon. And three seconds after I entered—no joke, exactly three seconds—I heard the sound of something collapsing.

KABOOM! CRUMBLE!

The dungeon entrance exploded and was blocked by a dark curtain. My escape route was cut off.

“He’s the rookie hunter I’m in charge of. It’d be a pain in the ass if something happened to him while I, his trainer, was away.”

I muttered to myself, scratching the back of my head.

-A condition has been unlocked.

-Synchronization Rate 1%.

What’s this now?

Suddenly, a blue status window on my right lit up. It was filled with text.

Like a corrupted image, the text was heavily damaged. Unreadable.

What the hell was the condition?

I understood that another status window had been activated.

And I could guess that I’d get something when that Synchronization Rate reached 100%.

Even a three-year-old could figure that out. The problem was, what was the condition?

Entering the dungeon? Or heading into a dangerous place?

‘This is annoying. I’ll just go beat up the murderer for now.’

I muttered and headed deeper inside.

Inside, blood was spattered everywhere. If I were to describe what I was seeing, it would all have to be censored.

A psycho. A complete and utter psycho.

I could understand it in the other world I came from, but this was the democratic Republic of Korea, wasn’t it?

Even if it had become a world of hunters, to commit such an anti-humanitarian crime…

I thought of the man in the suit I had run into earlier. No wonder he gave me such a bad feeling. His clothes were completely out of place in a dungeon.

-You’re very lucky. You should buy a lottery ticket today.

I didn’t know what he meant back then, but now I did.

He was saying that if I hadn’t left the dungeon, he would have killed me, and I was lucky to have gotten out?

Ha.

What would have happened if that guy had met me in the other world?

I’m not even exaggerating—he wouldn’t have been able to meet my eyes.

And yet a guy like that spoke to me as if he were doing me a huge favor, as if he were sparing me out of the goodness of his heart.

This is really pissing me off. I’m furious.

This wasn’t the awakening I wanted, but at least I had some minimal power and mana.

Even if I was only Level 1, I didn’t think I would lose to some messy murderer.

The deeper I went, the more victims I saw. But there was one small mercy.

“Kngh, help me…”

“…My kids at home… Now that I’ve awakened as a hunter… I promised to make them happy…”

There were two hunters and a trainer. One seemed to have bled to death. The other three were alive.

That piece of trash. He’d pulled off their arms and legs like a child tired of playing with LEGOs. The sight alone made me grind my teeth.

“I’m sorry.”

At my words, the people who were barely breathing looked at me with despair.

They must have been holding on by a thread, and it must be crushing that the person who finally arrived couldn’t heal them. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any healing potions. They were ridiculously expensive.

Healing potions are made with mana stones. Very high-purity ones.

So how much do they cost? A hundred million.

No, I’m not kidding, it’s really one hundred million. It’s a potion that can save someone on the brink of death. Did you think it would be cheap?

I examined the fatal wounds of the injured. They let out low groans, and I offered a short apology.

He cut them so cleanly.

The severed surfaces were so pristine it felt like you could glue them right back on.

-Store in Inventory?

-Yes / No

What?

I took my hand off the injured person. The message disappeared. When I touched him again, the prompt to store him in my inventory reappeared.

Was it talking about his clothes? Just in case, I touched his bare skin instead of his clothes.

The message remained.

“Store.”

I muttered the command.

The system converts my voice message into text and generates a pattern algorithm.

Ah, so it’s like using a skill.

The person I was touching vanished. Into my inventory.

This is possible?

I’d done all sorts of things with the system in the other world, but I’d never seen a person go into an inventory.

-Tanker Lee Chang-wook LV3

-STR: 09

-AGI: 06

-VIT: 13

-MANA: 05

-LUK: 05

-HP: 0 / 25

-MP: 1 / 1

-Current Status: Bleeding

I could see the stats of the person inside my inventory.

I tested it on the others. Whether the person I touched disappeared or not, they couldn’t see it.

They were dying, after all.

I put all three into my inventory and watched the situation.

-HP: 0 / 25

They had lost a lot of blood, even to my eyes.

Their HP was at rock bottom.

Three minutes passed. I opened the inventory and tried talking to them, just in case. Of course, they couldn’t answer.

If you can hear me, I’m saving you, not kidnapping you. So don’t go saying anything weird later.

-Temporary Skill Slot has been created.

-Tanker Lee Chang-wook’s ‘Taunt LV2’

-Melee DPS Kim Ji-hoon’s ‘Sprint LV1.’

-Melee DPS Shin Woo-joon’s ‘Dual Slash LV3.’

The three names were the same as the people now in my inventory.

It seems that by synchronizing with the people in my inventory, I can use their abilities. That must be what this power is.

I had no skills of my own, so this was much better than nothing.

I was approaching the respawn point when the dungeon suddenly began to shake. I lowered my body and leaned against a wall.

An earthquake? No, it felt artificial. The shaking lasted for about thirty seconds before it stopped. And the atmosphere of the dungeon changed.

It became sticky and unpleasant.