My Students Regret It After I Retired

18 – Just wait, I’ll authenticate you with your corpses

Leo immediately charged towards the Olderik raider group. His target, naturally, was their very center. In battle, going into the enemy’s core is generally insane, but an exception could be made in a place like this with thick brush.

Visibility is limited, making it hard for the enemy to tell friend from foe, and Leo is completely alone, without any allies. In such a chaotic mess, the enemy has to figure out who is who, limiting their attacks. Leo, on the other hand, can just kill anyone moving nearby because they’re all enemies. A very simple approach to combat.

The Olderik leader, Kyler, yelled, eyes wide with surprise.

“He knows how to fight! Don’t let him tear through us!”

He had already noticed the tail, and had waited until a situation where they could use the terrain. On top of that, he’d even bothered with a conversation, to see if there was malice. And to top it all off, despite having the overwhelming numerical advantage, Leo had audaciously killed one of them first. It was enough to strike fear into the Olderik guild members.

These combined factors caused the Olderik guild members, who should’ve stopped Leo, to hesitate, unable to move forward.

“You moronic b*stards! Go already!”

But his underlings just fidgeted, none of them willing to move first.

‘S-scary… fuck…’

He was someone capable of hitting a person’s head so accurately, even through the brush. No matter how low someone’s intelligence might be, they’d understand what it meant to charge at a man with that kind of skill.

‘If I go first, I’ll die. I’ll definitely die…’

Comparing the difficulty of throwing a dagger versus swinging a blade, the former was obviously far more difficult. The idea of facing a man who could accurately hit someone from afar with a dagger, up close, was unthinkable.

The time they hesitated was barely three seconds, but it was enough for Leos.

-Thwack!

Killing the one in the center, Leos immediately kicks off a tree, changing his trajectory. Then, he retrieves the dagger from the hand of the man he killed and throws it directly at another enemy trying to flee.

-Thud

With another one dead, they finally realized that they couldn’t survive even if they ran, and they all began to charge at once. But the moment of realization was too late. Leos was already standing in the center of their formation.

Leos immediately crouched down, pulling out a weapon with a sword attached to the end of a long, whip-like chain, and swung it out in a flash. The chain shot out, tearing into the legs of those around him.

“Kaaarrraaagghh!”

With horrific screams, the sounds of several Alderik members falling to the ground echoed repeatedly. Kyler couldn’t even think about charging; he just stared blankly at the scene.

“A monster… he’s a monster…”

The Alderik, who operated within the Redgate vortex, had seen countless monsters and mutants. But he could confidently say that he had never seen a creature as ruthless, cunning, and utterly lethal as the man before him.

-Gulp

Kyler swallowed hard. Leos had stopped moving. As if he knew where the man was, Leos walked slowly and spoke.

“To send your subordinates to their deaths and try to save yourself, I despise scum like you.”

“D-do you… do you know us? About… Alderik?”

“I don’t know about your Alderik, but I do know you’ve been lurking around here lately. Artificially scattered corpses. You’ve stripped everything of value, so it’s obvious. The countless, irregular footprints always around the bodies. And as always, monster bite marks that seem to appear after death when I check the bodies.”

“…”

“You practically advertise that you’re plunderers without having to say it, how could I not know?”

“I don’t know who you are… I think I’ve made a mistake. Are you the leader of an upper-tier plunderer group?”

“I don’t associate with pathetic scum like that.”

This was impossible. To kill over a dozen people like butchering animals without a second thought, and for this man to have no ties to this world. This man must be from an upper-tier plunderer group, those at the top, Kyler was sure of it as he bowed his head.

“Spare me, please. I didn’t realize this area was already claimed. I’ll turn back immediately… just spare my life this once.”

Leos slowly walked toward him and asked,

“Are there others around?”

“As you know… you’ve killed them all. We’re all that’s left of our group.”

“Any other raider groups you’re connected with?”

“Renlocks. We pay tribute to Renlocks, a mid-tier raider group. Do you… know them?”

Leos nodded, and as if he didn’t need to hear anymore, he raised his sword.

“Come at me. I don’t make a habit of killing those who don’t resist.”

Kyler was sure the man was involved with the raiders, but after seeing his actions now, he started to doubt it. Raiders don’t care about loyalty, justification, or fair play. Seeing him try to keep up appearances like this made Kyler think that he might actually have nothing to do with the raiders. He said hastily,

“…I…I don’t know who you are, but if you’re not connected with the raiders, something you can’t handle will happen. We’re all connected on a communication network, and if they hear I’m dead…”

-CLANG!

Leos immediately lunged at the man and swung his sword. Kyler desperately raised his sword to defend, but the moment it was knocked aside, a dart flew from Leos’s other hand.

-THWACK!

The dart grazed Kyler’s face. And at the same time, his body began to stiffen.

“P…poison… You… you said you’d fight fair…”

“You were careless, you idiot.”

Looking aggrieved, Kyler slowly swung his sword at Leos, his face turning red. But it was the man’s last act.

-THUD

With Kyler now also fallen to the ground, Leos began to examine each of the corpses, collecting anything that might be of use. Then, he roughly erased any traces of the battle that had happened around them.

After piling the corpses one by one, Leos, without any particular emotion, threw the bodies to the monsters. This was more effective for erasing traces than starting a fire to incinerate them.

Leos, mid-throw of a corpse, suddenly had the thought that they could use the human bodies as bait for the mutants, making their disposal a waste.

– Are you crazy, brother? We need to live like humans!

“Garff, why do you always have to talk like that? Using these could save Herisia and Bendict from danger sometime.”

– If you compromise like that, you’ll end up just like those looters! If you use those, I’m not talking to you anymore, brother.

“Alright. I’ll dispose of them all.”

As Leos was throwing the corpses one by one towards the monsters, his distance device rang. Checking it, he received unwelcome news.

[Sender: Herisia]

[Content: Leos! Please check the Interrunner’s trending posts right now!]

Leos immediately accessed the Interrunner site and began checking the trending post list.

[KAR]

[Title: Hunting Proof, If You Don’t Make This Trending, I’ll Kill Everyone]

[Body: I wrote this earlier too, make it a trending post. Otherwise, I’ll kill anyone I come across. If it goes trending I’ll post more proof.]

A guy who named himself KAR openly posted a picture of a human corpse on the Interrunner. At first, everyone thought it was a joke and left mocking comments.

[LMAO wtf ㅋㅋㅋ What’s with the gore pic, some random grab? Who’d fall for this?]

[Let’s upvote this first. If there’s no more proof after getting to the trending list, we’ll downvote the shit out of it ㄱㄱ]

But shortly after, the guy’s second proof post went up.

[KAR]

[Title: Make This Trending Again.]

[Body: Human corpse photo.PNG]

This time, there were no words, just the photo. Except, carved into the corpse’s body was his nickname, KAR. Leos tried not to pay it any attention. Whether that guy was killing someone or not, it wasn’t something that concerned him.

‘Is he doing this for the points?’

Interrunner points were unimaginably scarce in the current situation. Even Leos, enticed by the goods sold in stores, had been diligently collecting them, so there was no need for further explanation.

‘He’s good with brute force, but he doesn’t have the knack for getting on popular posts, so he’s resorting to this.’

He’s taking people’s lives hostage, forcing his way into the popular feed. At first, people didn’t react much, but as the corpse photos piled up, they started frantically hitting the recommend button out of fear, wondering if the guy was near them. As a result, every post he made was now dominating the popular feed.

[KAR]

[Title: Since we properly got our post on top, we’ll release some info.]

[Content: The area where the Red Gate chain reaction unfolded. There’s a safe zone in the middle of it. Don’t know why, but monsters aren’t appearing near there. We’re heading there, so we’ll kill any that come near us.]

Leos stared at the post with cold eyes. It was probably because of this that Herisia had sent that urgent message.

‘Whether KAR is a lone wolf or a group, they’re definitely near our territory. If they’ve found a safe zone, it must be around here.’

Leos checked his posts one by one. All the posts had been pushed down from the popular feed, and now the TOP 10 was entirely filled with KAR’s posts.

Because people were actually starting to die, the public, seized by terror, had engaged in a mass click frenzy to recommend.

‘This isn’t good.’

If guys like this started monopolizing points, it would severely hinder Leos’ point acquisition. Cut off from the Empire, the only way to get supplies and produce artifacts was through Interrunners. If people were manipulated into recommending such sensational posts, pushing others down, it would inevitably turn into chaos.

Leos hesitated for a moment, then took a picture of a corpse he hadn’t yet tossed at a monster, and uploaded it to a post.

[LEO]

[Title: Corpses of the trash who were killing people.]

[Content: (corpsephoto.PNG) Don’t be afraid of these buggers. When you actually face them, they’re pathetic guys who die doing nothing. Don’t be swayed by propaganda, pick up a knife or weapon and beat them to death.]

The public reaction was explosive, and comments praising Leos began to appear. And the moment he reached the #1 spot on the popular feed.

KAR, the guy’s comment appeared.

[KAR: 771521.99666312 That’s our location. If you’re confident, try coming here. You’re a pathetic fool who manipulates people with fake photos, why don’t you give proper proof like us?]

Leo posted a comment, then moved slowly.

[LEO: Hold up, I’ll vouch for it with your corpses.]