Three hours later, Shin Hyuk respawned at the Yung Gong Guild headquarters. Unable to contain his fury, he began picking up and throwing things around him.
“That son of a bitch! I’ll tear him apart! I’ll rip out his eyes and shove them down his throat!” He threw his chair across the room, flipped his desk over, and toppled over his fridge, but even though he completely trashed his room, his anger wouldn’t subside.
Fifteen minutes earlier, Chun Song Yi had already respawned and given her report to the guild master. Shin Chang Il and a few others were in the room watching Shin Hyuk rampage, but no one moved to stop him. They all knew exactly how he felt.
“Shin Hyuk, that’s enough now. We’ll have our revenge.”
“He’s right. He’ll pay for crossing the Yung Gong Guild. Calm yourself.” Shin Chang Il and his brother, Shin Guhyuk finally stepped in.
“Haah…Haah… Father, I swear I’ll…!”
“I know. Follow me.” Shin Hyuk followed his father out, still seething and panting. He knew that no matter how many things he broke, nothing could calm his anger. The only thing that could calm him was if he tore that bastard in half with his own hands!
—
In a conference room on the 37th floor of the Yung Gong Guild headquarters, Shin Hyuk and that other party members that fought with him to the end were seated at one side of the table.
Guild master Shin Chang Il, his brother Shin Guhyuk, the vice-master Lee Dukhu, and eleven other analysts were gathered in the room as well. They all focused on a video that was being projected.
Crash!
“Block it!”
“Don’t get greedy.”
Boom!
“Out of the way! Provoke!”
The video showed a magnificent battle. The five-man party was heroically taking on an eight-man dungeon boss. Shin Hyuk’s battle skills were especially stunning.
Shin Chang Il and the analysts occasionally glanced over at Shin Hyuk, as if they were astounded at this new man. No doubt they were impressed. Shin Hyuk had showed incredible tanking skills, despite being heavily outmatched and unprepared. They could feel his will to absolutely defeat the boss and to block all of its attacks.
They watched him fight tenaciously for over an hour and a half.
They could hear Chun Song Yi call out the boss’s health status now and then. Every time her voice came out, Shin Chang Il and the analysts clenched their fists harder and harder.
A few minutes later, Chun Song Yi spoke out.
“He should appear soon.” Everyone in the room leaned forward in their chairs and concentrated on the video.
The stranger had appeared at the worst opportune time for Shin Hyuk and his party. Just when Chun Song Yi called out that the boss’s health fell to 2%, a large sword blade appeared through her chest. There was no warning at all.
The small one-centimeter button cam that was mounted on her shoulder could only capture the blade. A voice that only the five party members heard echoed through the room.
“You’re from the Yung Gong Guild, right? Nice to meet ya.” A shiver ran down everyone’s spines except for the party members.
The stranger’s face or body wasn’t shown in the video. They could only see his arm wrap around Chun Song Yi’s neck. Perhaps that was why it was so creepy. No one could have expected him. He was like a ghost.
“I couldn’t react with the blade of his sword impaling me completely and his arm squeezing my neck. His strength was too high for me,” Chun Song Yi commented as she watched the video.
They continued to watch the events unfold.
They saw the archer, Kang Il Hwan roll forward from being stabbed in the back, but he had already taken enough damage. But thanks to his tumble, they were finally able to see what this stranger looked like.
“Duck…Duck?”
“Isn’t that Duck Duck?” Shin Chang Il and Shin Guhyuk already knew about the Duck Duck. But the analysts were dumbstruck to see the cute Duck Duck in such a place with its eyes ripped out. Everyone knew about Duck Duck. It used to be a popular character, back before the Otadolon stage began.
‘I’m…well…hmm…Duck Duck? Yeah, that’s right. I’m the Stone Golem’s friend, Duck Duck. You messed with my friend! For that, I’ll kill you all!’
Shin Hyuk ground his teeth at the masked stranger’s sarcasm. He could feel his rage bubbling back up again.
“Hmm…”
“This is…” Everyone else in the room was visibly uncomfortable at Duck Duck’s mockery and awkwardly cleared their throats. The man was obviously not taking the party seriously. The five of them were considered the strongest in the guild, and they were made complete fools of. It was understandable that their egos were heavily wounded.
They watched in silent anger as Duck Duck easily took down the two warriors and stood idly by while Shin Hyuk was crushed by the Stone Golem.
To Lee Kitae, the supervisor of the analysis team, it looked like the stranger happily watched Shin Hyuk die, as if he was at a movie theater. All he needed was a bucket of popcorn. Lee Kitae ground his teeth in anger at the resemblance.
The video ended with Duck Duck waving off Shin Hyuk’s threats as if they were a child’s tantrum.
“…”
“…”
“…”
No one said anything. Silence enveloped the conference room for several minutes.
Shin Chang Il snapped from his stupor and quietly asked, “Are we… able to find out who he is?”His question came out as a slight whisper, but everyone in the room clearly heard what he said. They felt his anger from his quiet voice.
“The man who calls himself Duck Duck is an Unrivaled. Since the skill is expensive and there is the limit of 114 devas, we should be able to find out his identity,” Shin Soogil, the Yung Gong Guild’s head of Intelligence, replied.
“Find him no matter what. Make use of whatever resources we have. We will make him regret his decision to even think about crossing the Yung Gong Guild.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
Shin Chang Il was more furious that his guild was insulted in such a manner than failing the raid. He didn’t know who this Duck Duck person was, or what organization he belonged to, but he vowed to have his vengeance on him no matter the cost.
No one in the room objected to his order. They were also part of the Yung Gong Guild.
The Duck Duck person didn’t just attack the raid party; he attacked the Yung Gong Guild as a whole!
————————-
After about three hours, the counter in the gemstones turned to 0, and I was warped out to the dungeon’s entrance. I quickly hid in the nearby woods in case the twin-horned griffon or a crown of griffons was nearby.
“Good. They’re not here.” I took out two Blank Warp Scrolls.
“Save current location. Current location name: Seorak Mountain Dungeon entrance.”
———-
[Would you like to record your current location to this Warp Scroll?
Yes/No]
———
I pressed the Yes button.
———-
[Seorak Mountain Dungeon entrance has been recorded in this Warp Scroll.]
———-
The two scrolls shone from white to blue, indicating that they had turned into Rank 4 items.
“Item check!”
———-
[Activated Warp Scrolls (Rank 4)
This Warp Scroll has been activated. Ripping this Activated Warp Scroll will teleport you to its recorded location.
Name of recorded location: Seorak Mountain Dungeon entrance
Consumed after use
Unable to use during fights]
—————-
“Perfect.” I recorded two scrolls to make it easier to come back here. It took me more than two days to come here. If I could come back in an instant with one scroll, it was damn well worth it.
“Besides, I doubt I’ll be lucky again if I make the trip.” It was really lucky that I didn’t encounter the twin-horned griffon at least once.
I was confident that I could avoid crowns of griffons, but I wasn’t too sure about the griffon boss. It was probably thanks to the Yung Gong Guild’s dumb charge all the way here that I didn’t get to see the griffon boss. Either way, I had decided to activate two scrolls to make my life much easier.
I put the activated scrolls into my inventory.
——————-
I carefully descended the side of the mountain. A few crowns of griffons flew by me overhead, but I was able to hide between the trees and they flew past without noticing me.
I was able to safely make it to Inje on the first day and to Chuncheon on the second. On the third day, I left Chuncheon and sprinted for Gapyeong.
On the way to the dungeon, I had heard that the griffons were slowly encroaching on the area, but I saw no sign of them and sprinted at breakneck speeds.
On the fourth day, I left Gapyeong and headed for Pocheon by crossing the Yeonin Mountain National Park.
————————
“Wow… Pocheon is being used as a stronghold as well.” I had planned to cross through Pocheon City and Dongducheon to get to Paju, but I hadn’t expected that Pocheon had become an outpost like Namyangju.
I remembered that Gimpo and Ilsan were outposts in the past. The land to the north of the Han River wasn’t safe. The Sunbin Guild had poured all of its resources into securing the south side of the river. I didn’t expect the border to be this far north.
“I wonder if it’s a testament to the Sunbin Guild’s new strength.” I thought that it was nice that the guild was able to push the monsters this far back.
I had been out for more than three days and decided to shack up for the night here at Pocheon.
“Hold there!” As I got closer to the city, I noticed that there was a border barricade set up with guards posted.
“Who goes there?”
“I was out hunting and missed curfew.”
There were two guards posted at the gate, but only one of them came forward and scanned me with his eyes.
“You may enter. It’s dangerous to go out alone at night. Leveling is good and all, but you’ll lose all your hard work if you die out there.”
“Yes, thank you.” The guards let any deva in as long as they weren’t criminals and worked at clearing out the fields for them.
It was 10 PM when I entered the city, but the streets were still full of people. Most of them were devas, but there mortals here and there. I also saw several groups of friends drinking and singing jovially.
“I guess Pocheon is pretty safe, or there are a lot of strong devas around here.” The outpost had to be more than safe to see such activities.
I walked down the street until I came across several motels. I walked into the biggest one.
“Welcome!”
“I’d like a room for a day, please.”
“It’ll be 85 golden rings.” I took out the golden rings to pay the man and went up to my room. I first took a shower, then left the motel to eat at the attached all-hours restaurant. After stuffing myself, I went back up to my room.
“Eating real food is way better than eating Store bread.” I had eaten Store bread and drinks for six days straight. They weren’t bad, but they also didn’t taste like anything. They were just enough to fill me for a day.
I laid down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling.
“Paju isn’t a bad choice, but maybe I’ll check around the area here first. That way I can easily rest at night.”
I would have to stay out in the wilderness while hunting in Paju, but I had just done that for six days straight now. I didn’t want to go right back into it. Paju was also about forty kilometers away from Pocheon.
It was only a thirty-minute run away, so I decided it wasn’t a bad idea to stay at Pocheon for a few days.
I knew that the Hitman Guild couldn’t get to me here, so I was at least free of that worry. This outpost wasn’t that big, and the guild that ran the outpost seemed to be very hands on in dealing with any problems that arose. Had the guild been lax in its security, this outpost definitely wouldn’t have lasted this long.
I decided to stay around Pocheon for a little longer to stay away from the bugs that were probably still after me.
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