Chapter 55
It was about five minutes before Yu-Seong broke the Barrier. Do-Jin, who was wounded all over, suddenly had a thought while continuing the battle against Ghost.
‘Choi Yu-Seong… Did he run away?’
When Yu-Seong suddenly ran elsewhere while Do-Yoon was fighting, Do-Jin thought that Yu-Seong had some kind of plan. Do-Jin knew it by his skill–Sixth Sense–which maximized his intuition. This thought initially brought about no doubts, but…Yu-Seong did not come back even after quite a long time.
‘I wonder if he’s up to something.’
Do-Jin frowned and stopped in place while pointing his sword at the ground. After a short silence, he heard a voice that resonated from some other place.
“Have you finally given up?”
“So it wasn’t that you couldn’t speak. Is it a Voice Amplification Skill?” Do-Jin smiled strangely while hearing the voice spreading out of nowhere.
Voice Amplification Skill was a skill that was seldom used since it was not beneficial for ordinary hunters. However, it was quite useful for Ghost, whose main ability was stealth. This showed that Ghost was a fairly skilled hunter since he had the ability to select skills that suited his aptitude.
“I just thought there was no need to talk with you because my mission is to win you over. I just waited for you to get tired first.”
“Win me over?”
“The Godfather of the Organization wants you, Kim Do-Jin. Come with us.”
“Organization, huh. So, it must be quite big.”
“I can’t tell you the details… But, it can be said that it is powerful enough to overthrow a small country like this.”
At Ghost’s words, Do-Jin’s eyes slightly lit up.
‘It’s at the level that can overturn Korea?’
Though Korea was surrounded by powerful countries, it was still globally considered one of the Top Ten player powerhouse. Many predicted that Korea would be in the top five in the next few years since there were a lot of talented hunters and cream-of-the-crop rookies. Do-Jin, being one of those rookies himself, obviously believed that Korea would soon become the best.
Anyway, Korea currently had a formidable power, despite Ghost’s casual comment that his organization could simply overthrow this country.
‘It means there's a bunch of them who are like this guy fighting against me.’
With a few words of conversation, Do-Jin had guessed the size of the organization. He sneered bitterly. There was no particular reason, but he felt a bit angry all of a sudden.
‘If I hadn’t lost my strength when returning, I wouldn’t have to worry about these trivial things now.’
Not only that, but this painstakingly planned revenge would be much easier for Do-Jin. However, of all things, most of his initial power had been lost in the process of crossing the dimension from the Aliode Continent. His body, which was extremely trained, had returned to its regular form while he was on Earth and the pure yet heavily accumulated mana had disappeared without leaving any.
When he first realized this change, Do-Jin had felt indescribably empty and frustrated, but he did feel at ease thinking that was the price for returning afterward. He had also been excited to think that he could be stronger when he gained new abilities as an Awakened player. However, he couldn’t help but get annoyed whenever he faced a situation like this.
“Kim Do-Jin, now I get how powerful your skills are. It’s definitely incredible. I know I won’t be your match in about a year. I guess that’s why Godfather himself nominated you. But for now, I recommend that you just give up. You can never get out of here.”
“Who do you think you are to decide that?”
“It’s not my decision. Rather, I’m just telling you the obvious outcome.”
Ghost felt both admiration and astonishment in the fight with Do-Jin. It was because Do-Jin was only at the beginning of C-rank, which was severely different in rank with Ghost himself. He felt a sense of crisis that he might lose to Do-Jin.
This was a feeling Ghost had never felt before toward a lower-rank hunter since he had gained dark mana from joining the Demon King Worshiper, which allowed him to indefinitely maintain invisibility. However, he could not back off.
‘Kim Do-Jin would die the moment that monster comes here.’
Ghost unconsciously trembled as he recalled Rachel, the Slaughterer Queen who was like a demon with a beautiful appearance and a distinct crazy personality. Perhaps he felt like Do-Jin could grow into an existence no less than her. Though that would only happen if he survived.
“I’ll say it again, come join our organization. Just by joining us, you can have an entirely different level of power than you have now.”
“A different level of power?”
“…”
Ghost shut his mouth. He was smart enough to know that if he led the story any further, he would be giving too much information.
“There are very few ways to strengthen power other than rank-up and level-up… Hm…I see. You guys are Demon King Worshipers.”
The problem was that Do-Jin was a person excellent enough to see through the situation with that brief clue alone. Ghost was startled but he remained silent. He had no reason to show agitation here.
“Now I understand. Demon King Worshiper… Not bad since it would be easy to regain strength there. Good, I’ll accept your offer. But there is something I’d like to request for as well.”
Ghost tilted his head at Do-Jin’s vague words about regaining strength. He asked, “What do you want? Money, beauty, authority, we have a lot of things. Maybe you can achieve most of what you want.”
Ghost was confident. Whatever desires Kim Do-Jin had, the organization called Demon King Worshiper could satisfy them all. Mission was accomplished. A smile crept to his lips. However, Do-Jin’s following words easily caught him off-guard.
“I’ll be the leader.”
“…What?”
“What I'm saying is, when I enter the organization, all Demon King worshipers must follow me.”
Ghost’s brain stopped for a moment.
‘What nonsense did I just hear?’
He had never heard of such a proposal while convincing numerous hunters before.
“Oh, for your information, the Demon King must also be under my feet. So, the name of the organization should be changed.”
A dejected laugh escaped from the red-faced Ghost’s mouth. “Haha, hahaha.”
Ghost was now convinced that Do-Jin was fooling him.
“How dare you play with me? The sin of insulting the Godfather and the Demon King can only be repaid by death.”
Anger soared to the very top of Ghost’s head. Instantly, He got rid of the command from his head.
‘This kind of guy would only be harmful to the Godfather.’
Ghost would be somewhat reprimanded, but that wasn’t a problem for him anymore. First of all, he would beat Do-Jin until the man became a half-dead person and make him beg for his wrongdoings under his feet. After that, with a snort, he would decapitate Do-Jin, who would be weeping by then, and throw him away. Otherwise, his anger would not go away.
“I’m not kidding. I’m pretty serious, you know.” Do-Jin tilted his head.
Instead of answering, Ghost approached Do-Jin’s side and swung his toes. Do-Jin avoided the attack by tilting his neck and laughed. He said, “You’re not very pleased with my proposal, then.”
“From now on, I will do my best to kill you. Don’t expect me to cut you some slack as before.”
Ghost followed Do-Jin and kicked him frantically. Subsequently, he aimed for Do-Jin’s neck or heart using a throwing tanto, which he had never taken out unless for contingencies.
Ghost’s Special Skill–Invisibility–was to make everything that directly touched his body invisible. Therefore, the thrown dagger was bound to be exposed, but the direction of the attack became much more unpredictable. Kim Do-Jin would not be able to hold out for a long time, since Ghost’s attacks would be several times more varied than before.
In fact, Do-Jin’s wounds increased rapidly. Nevertheless, he managed to avoid fatal injuries despite the unchanging nature of his movement speed. In fact, he was seemingly adapting to Ghost’s attacks and even slowing himself down. And in the meantime, his occasional counterattacks were still sharp.
Barely escaping a crisis that almost cut his front by stepping back, Ghost clenched his teeth. “You…!”
“Who gave slack to whom? You’re very mistaken.” Do-Jin snorted while listening to Ghost. Then, he raised the sword and cut his left wrist, making a long wound.
At the sight of a handful of blood gushing out, Ghost was puzzled.
‘Self-harm?’
Do-Jin did not seem like a person who would do something like that, so why? The question lingered in the air for a mere moment.
At Do-Jin’s ensuing provocation, Ghost rushed forward in anger. “What are you doing, coward? Don’t have the courage to fight now?”
With a cool smile, Do-Jin blocked Ghost’s following attacks with his bare body. He did not flinch even at the burning sensation that extended from his upper left chest to the shoulder blade. He swung his left arm out.
‘Blood? There’s no way…’
Ghost came to his senses when he saw the blood being splattered in front of him.
“If I do this, I can see you clearly,” said Kim Do-Jin coolly. He had sprayed blood all over Ghost’s face and clothes.
As mentioned, Ghost’s Invisibility made everything that directly touched his body invisible. However, what if the blood was splattered over the already invisible clothes? Ghost had fallen into Do-Jin’s trap after all.
‘It’s not a big problem. I can just take the clothes off!’
Unfortunately, Do-Jin had no intention of waiting anymore. Toward the bewildered Ghost, Do-Jin swung the sword accurately.
Ghost twisted his body to take his foot off Do-Jin’s shoulder, but he couldn’t completely avoid Do-Jin’s sword attack this time. “Keaargh-!”
After screaming, Ghost realized that one of his legs had lost all feeling. “My, my leg, my leg! Aaargh!”
Psychic-type players tended to have poor physical protection abilities. For Ghost, who mostly slaughtered the weak through his Invisibility skill, had an extremely poor defense.
Do-Jin pulled out the heavily stuck dagger in his shoulder and slowly walked toward the screaming Ghost.
Ghost still maintained Invisibility, but his bloody hem clearly exposed his position. His thought about taking off his clothes had already been erased from his mind. He was dying. This fact made Ghost’s mind go blank.
“Do- don’t come! Don’t come here!” Ghost retreated slowly by using his butt while shouting with a desperation to live.
Do-Jin ignored Ghost and slowly approached with a face similar to that of the Grim Reaper. He raised his sword and said with an indifferent look, “Please be aware of this one thing. It wasn’t you who cut me slack. I just waited because I was curious about what Yu-Seong would do.”
Was it important to have such pride in this situation?
“Un- understood. Admit. I admit it. I lost and you wo…!” Ghost crazily nodded. He spoke with desperate eyes, but his expression couldn’t be seen by Do-Jin.
And even if his expression could be seen, the results would be no different. The sword swung in a beautiful trajectory in the empty space. Ghost was praying with both hands together and eyes wide open, but…his head still fell to the floor.