chapter 31
31 – Interlude, Dark Hero (1)
031.
Yoo Seol-hyeon arrived home.
‘…… I’m tired.’
My eyelids are as heavy as steel bars.
Nodding with both eyes half closed.
He was sobbing, like someone who had not slept for several days.
‘Shower, shower…… Right…… I did it when I visited the clan…… ?’
Then, should I at least change my clothes?
Yoo Seol-hyeon approached with sleepy eyes and opened his closet.
He took out whatever pajamas he could get his hands on and roughly changed his clothes. It was a one-piece silk pajamas. He remembered that he had bought it a long time ago to pretend to be an adult.
‘Ah…… I’m sleepy.’
Soon, Yoo Seol-hyeon stumbled around, unable to control her body, which was as cold as wet cotton, and soon fell onto the bed.
There was no other paradise than sinking into the soft bed.
Yu Seol-hyeon buried his face in his pillow and slowly closed his eyes.
As her eyelids slowly lowered, the events of today began to vaguely appear in Yoo Seol-hyeon’s mind.
Exploring dungeons, defeating boss monsters, rescuing people, farming items, arriving at the clan for thorough examination and treatment, writing reports, etc…….
When I think back, a lot of things happened.
‘Still, it looks like the fire was put out…….’
Yu Seol-hyeon breathed a sigh of relief deep in his heart.
How surprised was he when he first heard the news that he had failed to conquer the dungeon?
Not only did the attack fail, but there were even missing people, so Yoo Seol-hyeon could not calm his nervousness.
That was because it was as obvious as hell that the hyenas, who had been spying on Yoo Seol-hyeon’s weaknesses, would reveal their molars.
‘It was quite difficult, but…… Anyway, I’m glad it ended safely.’
Anyway, since the results are good, should we say that all is well?
If you look at the results alone, you rescued the missing people, successfully conquered the dungeon, and obtained several items.
He could be seen as having safely overcome a major crisis.
‘And then I almost died again.’
Not long ago, I was almost killed by a black-handed gibbon at the academy, but this time, I was almost killed by a half-human, half-animal snake woman in the dungeon.
If Jinhyuk Lee had not been there, he might have already lost his life.
‘… ….’
In a flash, Yoo Seol-hyeon pursed her lips.
When I thought about Jinhyuk Lee in my head, many doubts and questions could not help but follow me.
‘Lee Jinhyuk, Lee Jinhyuk…’ … ‘I don’t know either.’
What kind of person is he?
He thought about it for a while, but couldn’t find a suitable answer.
Especially the way he fought with Kate, I still couldn’t understand it.
Kate’s fierce breath of fire was cut off with a simple slash of the sword.
I thought it was right to use abnormal abilities.
But… ….
‘I heard that Jinhyuk Lee’s strange ability is to predict the future. Looking at his actions so far, it didn’t seem like he was lying.’
Do you possess many abnormal abilities?
Or it could be the ability to copy someone else’s abilities.
‘There may have been hidden relics.’
When you think about common sense, it is extremely unlikely that a mere trainee named Nabulaengi possesses relics.
Because even Yoo Seolhyeon, the bloodline of the Gaonnuri Clan, did not possess the relic.
The number of relics was very small, and useful relics were even rarer. There is no way Jinhyuk Lee, who has no special background, would have owned it.
‘No. Jinhyuk Lee can predict the future, so he might have obtained a relic from somewhere?
What on earth is he hiding?
Unusual ability?
Swordsmanship?
Relic?
The more I think about it, the stronger the doubt becomes.
‘…… Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.’
Soon, Yoo Seol-hyeon chuckled and laughed.
I don’t know what he’s hiding, but aren’t the achievements Jinhyuk Lee has shown so far a lie?
No matter what method he used, Lee Jin-hyuk’s performance was truly amazing, including fatally wounding the gibbon, teaching him how to conquer the dungeon, and defeating the boss monster.
Okay, what do you think Jinhyuk Lee is hiding?
The fact that he is useful doesn’t change.
‘Jinhyuk Lee. ‘It’s definitely worth it.’
Maybe even more than Lee Si-woon.
Lee Si-woon was the scout’s top priority, but judging by his performance so far, Lee Jin-hyuk was more valuable.
Isn’t he outstanding not only in his tactical skills but also in his combat skills?
If you put all the complex factors together, Jinhyuk Lee had no choice but to be the top priority.
Yoo Seol-hyeon thought as she fell asleep little by little.
‘Something I want.’
I didn’t want to miss out on a great talent like Jinhyuk Lee.
That is because Yoo Seol-hyeon was a person with a great desire for talent.
Also, since long time ago, Yoo Seol-hyeon was the type of person who would only get rid of her obsession if she had to have what she wanted, so for the first time in a long time, Yoo Seol-hyeon could feel her desire stirring.
***
A quiet city night in the darkness.
In a dark back alley where the bright city lights could not reach, a woman was shaking with fear.
I tried hard to run away, but it was no use.
That man has extraordinary abilities.
In other words, he was a wicked person.
“Please save me…… Please!”
“Ugh.”
Dae Seok-gang, a villain in his mid-thirties, approached the woman step by step with a sinister smile on his face.
“So who wants to go to a place like this alone at night? So you’re saying you’re meeting a bad person like me?”
“Ah, ah.”
Feeling a sense of freedom that he had not felt since he was locked in a prison cell, Dae Seok-gang wanted to pursue a hobby for the first time in a long time.
So, while you were looking for a suitable prey, didn’t you luckily find that woman?
If I looked like that, I felt like I was lucky.
Of course, it would be bad luck for the woman.
Daeseokgang has already reached the woman’s nose.
He stretched out his clumsy hand and tried to gently grab the woman’s neck.
“If I want to blame, blame the society for letting people like me go again…” ….”
“Okay. “Why did they let someone like you go?”
It was then.
The voice of a young man penetrated Daeseokgang’s ears.
Daeseokgang reflexively turned his gaze to look at the source of the voice and realized that there was a man staring at him.
His face seemed to be half covered by a mask, with his larynx pressed down, so it seemed like he was not an ordinary person.
The voice was quite young, he seemed to be in his late teens or early twenties, but perhaps because his face was covered, it was very suspicious.
Could it be that he is a villain like Daeseokgang?
Or… ….
“Daeseokgang. Age 36. He has 17 criminal convictions including illegal use of abnormal abilities, aggravated theft, aggravated robbery, violation of road traffic laws, robbery causing injury, etc. That’s right?”
The man quietly looked at the Daeseokgang River.
“You’re releasing a 17-year-old criminal with abnormal abilities. Sounds like a great country for criminals, doesn’t it? “Did you really think you would be resocialized in prison?”
“What are you doing again?”
“Me? Well.”
The man casually shrugged his shoulders.
“Union dropout?”
“Ha.”
Daeseokgang snorted. It’s funny. At best, you were a Union dropout?
“Uh, heh. What are you? “Are you playing hero because you dropped out of school?”
“It’s similar.”
A man obediently bowing his head.
Because there was no official license, in some ways it was similar to playing a hero.
Daeseokgang looked at him in bewilderment and then raised his fist.
What, I thought I had the misfortune of falling for a hero, but he turned out to be a wannabe hero or something.
“It looks like he’s arrogant because he went to Union… ….”
Suddenly, Daeseokgang’s right arm swelled up like a balloon, and soon it became so enlarged that it was reminiscent of a giant’s forearm.
Threatening with his right arm, which felt like an overwhelming mass, Daeseokgang laughed in his heart at the ridiculousness of that man.
Union Academy dropout?
It’s funny, it’s funny.
Dae Seok-gang was also a graduate of Union Academy.
Although he was expelled from school and did not graduate, he was once a promising figure, so his use of abnormal abilities and combat abilities were different from others.
He was not expelled from school in the first place because of lack of ability, but because he engaged in all kinds of assault and drinking.
“…… “You can hit me in one hit, kid.”
Daeseokgang’s abnormal ability is hypertrophied.
He could make his body large and strong at will.
It was a very simple but quite powerful strange ability.
Enough to crush the head of a monster with this ability.
“Hmm.”
The man who was looking at that scene slowly lifted the sheath of the sword that was hanging on his waist as if it was nothing to worry about.
…… An empty scabbard.
“What the f*ck, you? “Are you kidding me?”
“Ah. “There are circumstances.”
The man smiles vaguely.
“Once upon a time, a friend stole a sword and ran away. “It was a relic.”
To be exact, the sword itself was not a relic, but it could be said to be a famous sword in its own way. It was a set with this scabbard.
“She doesn’t know how to use it, so I don’t know why she took it. Well, I knew it was a relic, so I was eager to get it.”
“What kind of relic is this? Search!”
Daeseokgang immediately swung his fist and threatened the man, but the man naturally tilted the scabbard and twisted the trajectory of his fist.
The series of movements was so natural that Daeseokgang could not react properly, and suddenly the man raised his sword and struck Daeseokgang’s temple, collarbone, lower jaw, and uvula in a fluid motion.
“Uh, uh, huh?”
Daeseokgang sat down.
His head was pounding and his vision was dizzy, so he had no choice but to gulp down all the gastric juice inside him.
He tried to get up, but his body and legs just trembled uncontrollably.
“Are you dizzy? “It’s because the brain and semicircular canals are shaking.”
“You, you, you, huh?”
“The body seems to be quite strong, but… ….”
After concentrating magical energy into the sword sheath, he struck Daeseokgang’s defenseless philtrum with all his might.
“Turn it off, huh?!”
Then the two front teeth appeared in the air. The nose bone also appears to have been crushed. My nose was bleeding.
“Nothing much.”
“Now, now, just a moment!”
“What do you say?”
The man attacked Daeseokgang several more times, who had already lost the will to resist, but Daeseokgang only continued to be beaten.
“f*ck you! Young, Youngwoo, it’s okay to do this…… !”
“Are you saying I’m not a hero? “I dropped out, but what kind of hero am I?”
Daeseokgang shouted, dripping blood, but the man shrugged his shoulders and swung his scabbard once again.
Every time he was hit by a sword imbued with magic, Daeseokgang’s body became tattered like rags.
This guy is playing with me on purpose.
He can finish as much as he wants, but Daeseok bites Kang-eun when he realizes that he can only be tormented with enough strength not to fall.
‘Hey, you bastard!’
I tried to resist using my hypertrophy ability, but it had no effect.
Even if it has the power to crush a rock or bend a rebar, it is meaningless if it is not used properly.
Therefore, all Daeseokgang could do now was to get hit hard.
sh*t, f*ck. Are you a dropout?
Why is it so strong?
“Oh, now that I think about it, you were also from Union?”
“Ugh, ugh, ugh.”
“It reminds me of the old days. “Even back then, I beat up guys who were so senior and condescending.”
“Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh!”
There was a lot of talk inside the academy, saying it was the lowest price or something. Thinking of old times, the man shook his head alone.
“G-gmaaa, no! Please stop…… !”
I don’t know how much I was hit.
I couldn’t even pronounce words properly because five or six teeth were missing.
My nose is broken, my cheekbones are sunken, and every bone hurts. It seemed like he was really going to die, so Daeseokgang cheered him up with an urgent voice.
“Now, embroidery! I’m going to turn myself in…….”
“What do you do when you go into the cell? It’ll probably come out again in a few years anyway. It is not so?”
“Ugh, ugh…” ….”
The man spoke with a grave expression.
“Human rights activists are the problem, the problem. “Why are human rights violations being imposed on these evildoers?”
In fact, human rights groups in Europe often press the government to grant parole, claiming that serving more than 10 years in prison is a human rights violation.
The government may have compromised on the realistic limitations of the saturation of prison facilities, but it also released criminals in the name of human rights.
South Korea is also in a similar situation, so unless it is a truly heinous and violent crime, there are very few cases where people are sentenced to death.
What in the first place… ….
Korea is a country that imposes sentences like sentences for drunkenness, right?
“Did you also get a reduced sentence for being mentally and physically weak?”
In the past, there was a terrible criminal who brutally murdered and s*xually assaulted a child while drunk, but his claim of mental and physical weakness was acknowledged and he was sentenced to around 10 years in prison at most.
If there is a special law regarding the punishment of crimes involving the use of abnormal abilities, it is normal for people to claim that they are mentally and physically weak.
At that time, more than hundreds of thousands of national petitions were filed regarding the abolition of the punishment for intoxication, but so far there has been no news of the reduction.
Of course, the Republic of Korea’s laws were never just wielded with a soft bat.
Most dangerous people who should not be released into society were imprisoned and sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, many ordinary people and victims were not convinced.
Why do we forgive such evildoers?
“Has the law failed to keep up with the times? Oh, really. If you’re going to release him, you could at least plant an electronic chip in his brain. Oh, isn’t this going to work because of human rights?”
A lot of time has passed since the monsters appeared and humanity discovered strange abilities, but Korea is still like this.
Well, in the old days, even the laws related to self-defense were so lax that you could only beat a robber who came into your house with a washing machine, but wasn’t he prosecuted for assault with a deadly weapon under the Act?
Even though the thief is brain dead, there is no way that an ordinary person would be able to watch and fight him since he may be carrying a weapon.
If a man thinks about the law, it must be really funny.
“You know, there’s no need to turn yourself in now.”
Therefore, the man decided to take care of it himself.
The wicked who are not afraid of the law.
“Uh, huh? You, you…….”
Suddenly, a memory passes through Daeseokgang’s head.
Now that I think about it, I heard a few years ago that there is a hero who is not a hero who travels all over Korea and eliminates evildoers.
A psychotic person who completely destroys vicious criminals who have not been properly punished or who have been released back into society, preventing them from enjoying a normal life anymore.
The way he punished the villains himself, rather than putting them in the cell like a hero, was no different from being a villain by another name.
But people were enthusiastic.
The people who were harmed had no choice but to cheer because the evildoers who were happy to receive relatively low sentences and the infamous evildoers who did not dare to punish were maimed and made to live in pain for the rest of their lives.
People gave him a nickname.
Vigilante, it is said.
“Are you that guy called Rain, Vigilante? You?”
“Ah, I don’t know why they call me that, but for now, what?”
Daeseokgang’s whole body trembled because he had heard rumors of how cruel Vigilante’s hands were.
Vigilante slowly turned his head and spoke to the woman who was watching.
“I think it would be a good idea to go there now, right? “It’s going to look pretty bad from now on.”
“Ah, ah, yes, yes! “Thank you for saving me!”
“Nothing to say.”
After saying thank you in a trembling voice, the woman immediately got up and started running away.
Vigilante, looking at the back of such a woman, turned her head towards the Daeseokgang again…….
Burr, burr.
Huh?
The sheath is trembling slightly.
Is this really possible?
‘What, have you detected the location of the stolen sword?’
The sword and sheath are one set.
It was a scabbard with the function of determining the location of the sword.
Originally, you should have been able to determine the location long ago, but if you were trapped in an unusual place like a dungeon, you couldn’t detect it.
‘I thought he had crawled into some dungeon and died, but is he still alive? Or maybe he just took the sword and sold it?’
It doesn’t matter what the reason is.
Now that I can figure out the location of the sword, I have no choice but to visit it in person.
‘Is it still difficult to determine the exact location? I think all I know is the general direction.’
Well, what does it matter?
If the direction is right, you will be able to reach it someday.
Vigilante grinned and began beating Daeseokgang again.
She felt like it wasn’t long until she recovered her lost sword and artifact.