I stared at the hulking man before me.
His aura? Presence? The flow of his Magic Power?
I could not see anything so grand. There was no way a mere Scavenger like me possessed that kind of ability. And yet, my ability reacted on its own.
─BZZT.
[The target is a higher-level being.]
[Analysis failed.]
The man standing before me was a Hunter. A genuine Hunter on an entirely different level from rats like me.
“You look like an ordinary little rat…… Hmm. And you did all this by yourself.”
The man adjusted his sunglasses as he surveyed the corpses strewn across the office floor.
His gaze held neither admiration nor wariness, only interest. That made me even more uneasy.
─Clench.
I tightened my grip on the dagger.
I had a bad feeling about this.
More precisely, the unpleasant sensation of his gaze piercing straight through my heart weighed down my entire body.
“I came to collect my tribute, only to find this mess. Tsk. Well…… I suppose it doesn’t matter. You’re going to have to come with me. That way, I’ll have something to tell the bosses.”
─Tap.
The man took a step. In response to the sound, I merely turned my ankle slightly.
It was the smallest of movements, shifting my center of gravity toward the exit.
But then—
‘……!’
The man’s right hand came to rest on the sheath at his waist.
He did not draw his sword. He merely placed his hand on it, yet the air in the room turned razor-sharp.
I instinctively knew that if I had moved any farther, if I had taken even a single step in an attempt to escape, my head would have flown from my shoulders that instant.
He was overwhelming. No other word could describe him.
And I realized one more thing.
‘I can’t use Shadow Step.’
Those senses of his reacted like a ghost to the faintest sound and presence. I was certain that Shadow Step at its current rank could not completely deceive that monster’s senses.
If I tried to force my way out, he would split my back in two on the spot. I had to save Shadow Step for the final moment.
“Sigh. Of course. What did I expect from a bastard crawling around at the bottom?”
─Flick.
He flicked the cigarette from his mouth with a finger. The cigarette butt traced an arc through the air before landing on the oil-soaked floor.
─WHOOSH!
Flames surged up in an instant, filling the office with heat.
Now I had to get past the man to leave, while staying put meant burning to death.
“Well, cut one thing off and you’ll start crawling on your own.”
There was no choice.
─DASH!
I was the first to spring forward.
Hesitate, and I would die. Lose the initiative, and I would be even more certain to die. The only way for someone who did not know how to fight to survive was to strike before his opponent was ready.
But—
─CLINK!
The man drew the sword at his waist faster than my eyes could follow.
The motion was so natural that “drawing” hardly seemed the right word. It flowed like water.
─CLANG!
The dagger and sword collided.
The instant we crossed weapons, excruciating pain shot up my wrist and into my brain, nearly tearing a scream from my throat.
My entire body was flung backward, and the world turned upside down in an instant.
“Kuh…… Cough.”
“Sss, that’s strange. With this level of skill, you killed all of them by yourself……?”
Something sent my body flying the moment our weapons met, and the follow-up strike drove into my stomach through the opening.
I rolled across the floor, every scrap of air blasted from my lungs by the pain. My mind nearly went blank, but I gritted my teeth and looked up at him.
He advanced slowly, raising his sword high.
The instant the blade came down, I kicked off the wall and desperately hurled myself to the side.
─CRASH!!
The concrete wall in the sword’s path tore apart like a sheet of paper.
Had I been even a moment slower, my body would have ended up the same way.
“Ah, shit…… Is my hangover still lingering? Fucking annoying.”
‘What a monster.’
I gasped for breath and reached a hand toward him.
“Enfeeblement.”
[Using the skill ‘Enfeeblement (B).’]
[Reduces the target’s stamina and strength.]
The power of Enfeeblement swept over his body.
But he merely rolled his shoulders as though mildly irritated.
The skill had reduced monsters and thugs to half-dead wrecks in a single use, yet to him, it appeared to be no more than a prick.
Still, it was not completely ineffective. The tip of his sword trembled ever so slightly.
“Some cheap trick? How irritating.”
“If once isn’t enough……!”
His eyes sharpened. But I refused to back down.
There was only one thing I had gained from living this gutter of a life: the will to struggle until the bitter end.
He lowered his stance, preparing himself. Gritting my teeth, I extended my hand toward him once more.
“Enfeeblement.”
[The skill ‘Enfeeblement (B)’ has stacked. Its effects are accumulating.]
─CRASH!
Once again, I avoided his sword strike by a hair’s breadth.
The effect of Enfeeblement was weak, but it was undoubtedly working. If once was not enough, then I would use it twice, three times, as many times as it took until an opening inevitably appeared.
It was my only way to win this fight.
“Enfeeblement.”
[The target’s physical functions are rapidly deteriorating due to the accumulated stacks of ‘Enfeeblement (B).’]
─CLANG!
Our weapons met for the third time. But I was not sent flying one-sidedly like before.
The pressure still felt as though it might break my wrist, but it had decreased to a level I could endure.
“Enfeeblement.”
“You bastard!”
“Enfeeblement!”
I blocked, endured, and blocked again.
There was no technique to it. I simply endured. When his sword came at me, I blocked, and whenever my hand reached him, I cast Enfeeblement.
It was a simple, brutish method, but little by little, my chances began to build.
“Enfeeblement.”
[The skill ‘Enfeeblement (B)’ has reached maximum stacks.]
─CLANG!
“Kgh……!”
This time, both of us were forced back. Our physical capabilities were now nearly equal.
The problem was how we fought.
That was when it happened.
─BZZT!
[The Difference in Level has decreased.]
[Beginning Analysis.]
[Analyzing the target ‘Liam.’]
Sparks erupted before my eyes, and things that had been invisible began to reveal themselves.
The first time Analysis activated on a person had been with Jo Cheol-gu. Back then, it had read the true intent behind his words.
This was different. I could see his movements.
[Analysis complete.]
[The target’s experience has been understood.]
[Experience is being sublimated.]
“Ha ha…… It worked.”
I smiled at the blue window floating before me and tightened my grip on my weapon.
[You have acquired the skill ‘Swordsmanship (D).’]
I took my stance.
Though I held a dagger, I could feel what was wrong with my current posture and corrected it.
The best stance for confronting an opponent who was stronger and more skilled with a sword than I was.
“What the hell are you……? Where did you learn that stance?”
I merely smiled instead of answering.
“You think some half-assed imitation will be enough?!”
The instant his shoulder drew inward, I moved one step to the side.
Then—
─SWOOSH!
Just as I had predicted, a thrust shot out, piercing the space where I had stood a moment ago.
That was not the end. When his leg twisted—
─WHOOSH!
A diagonal slash.
I stepped back once more, and the tip of his sword cut through empty air.
‘This works.’
I was beginning to see how he moved.
No, that was not all.
I felt as though I knew how to deflect and redirect his attacks the moment I saw them.
On top of that, my opponent was growing slower and slower from Enfeeblement.
‘I can do this.’
He swung his sword again.
But I had already moved beyond its trajectory.
At that moment, I extended the dagger that had been preoccupied with nothing but defense for the first time.
The same thrust he had used.
─SLASH!
“You…… bastard!”
Blood sprayed for the first time.
Flustered, he forcibly changed the path of his sword into a diagonal slash.
But I already knew. I knew which muscle he would twist next and where he would send his sword.
‘Feint the thrust, then counter!’
His sword turned horizontal. Its path swept through at waist height. Taking it head-on would split my upper and lower body apart.
But instead of retreating, I burrowed even deeper into his guard.
And then—
“Shadow Step.”
The instant his momentum reached its peak, I erased every trace of my presence.
“What……?!”
Having lost sight of the target before his eyes, Liam’s sword went astray and cut through empty air.
Into that perfect opening, my dagger drove beneath his chin.
“Farewell, Mr. Genuine Hunter.”
─SQUELCH—!
A cold, heavy sensation traveled through my fingertips. The dagger had completely pierced his throat.
“Kuh, hgh……!?”
The sword slipped limply from his hand. His legs, already weakened to the brink by Enfeeblement, finally buckled.
The hulking body slowly toppled over.
I stared blankly down at him.
My breathing was ragged, and my heart pounded as though it might burst. My hands—my entire body—trembled.
“Ha ha. I really won.”
Victory against an opponent I had never imagined I could defeat.
An inexplicable exhilaration spread from the depths of my mind. The overwhelming sense of accomplishment briefly robbed reality of its substance.
And that was not all.
[Experience has accumulated.]
[The skill ‘Swordsmanship (D)’ has changed to ‘Swordsmanship (B).’]
[The skill ‘Trained Physique (F)’ has changed to ‘Trained Physique (F+).’]
It seemed I had stolen his movements even during that brief battle, raising the effects of my Swordsmanship skill even further.
I could also feel that my body itself had grown stronger.
The fight had lasted only a short time, yet I had become even stronger.
The satisfaction of victory and the thrill of growth surged through my mind.
“Kuh…… Fuck, that hurts.”
My joy was short-lived. Excruciating pain rose from around my solar plexus where he had struck me.
It seemed one of my ribs had cracked.
‘Even with Regeneration, this’ll take a while to heal, won’t it?’
On top of that, the flames that had been consuming the room were already licking the ceiling.
“I need to grab what matters and get out.”
I pulled the sword from the fallen man’s hand.
It possessed a weight and chill that could not be compared to my dagger.
The intricate patterns engraved along the sheath and blade made it clear that they were more than mere decoration.
“Something like this has to be expensive.”
I never thought the day would come when I wielded a proper sword like this.
Smiling at the unexpected windfall, I took the golden lighter from his pocket as well, then set fire to every last corner of the office.
“Goodbye, motherfuckers. Let’s never meet again.”
I left the office with the roaring flames at my back.
The shackles that had bound me for years were crumbling into ash.
This made it the perfect crime at last.
***
Men in white suits knelt in a line, holding their breath.
The tension in the room had long since passed its breaking point. It was a powder keg ready to explode from the smallest spark.
At the end of that suffocating silence stood a hulking man.
Each time he spoke, crushing pressure bore down on the men’s shoulders.
“Liam died in a back alley in District 12.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a subordinate beside him threw something onto the floor. It was a charred wrist.
“A Grade 3 Hunter, one on the verge of reaching Grade 2, came back as a corpse from some back alley?”
It was an unbelievable story.
As difficult to believe as an elephant being bitten to death by a rat.
“I sent him to retrieve the item…… and all that came back was this burned scrap of a wrist. Who the hell dared touch Liam?”
The man’s voice remained low and even.
His killing intent was not an explosion of rage, but something frozen solid.
It drove even greater terror into his subordinates.
“Was it another organization? No. None of those dying outfits have anyone capable of touching Liam. If they did, there’s no way I wouldn’t know.”
That territory had already been cleared out and was merely waiting to be swallowed.
Yet the outcome had been twisted. That left only two possible explanations.
Either an enormous variable had emerged in the blink of an eye, too fast for them to catch.
Or the organization had grown so lax that it could not even filter out information of this level.
Neither possibility was pleasant.
But something else mattered more to him right now.
“And you’re telling me it disappeared too?”
“Y-yes. That’s……!”
─CRUNCH—!
The man’s thick fingers clamped down on the subordinate’s shoulder.
With the sickening crunch of bones shifting out of place, blood trickled down the sleeve of his suit.
Even then, the man making the report could not scream.
Fear greater than the pain was constricting his throat, leaving him stiff as a doll whose senses had gone numb.
“The item is gone. A man I personally raised is dead. Do you understand what that means?”
The man shook the blood from his hand and continued coldly.
The close aide at his side quietly bowed his head and accepted the brunt of his fury.
“We’ll find whoever did this and tear them out by the roots. We’ll make certain it never happens again.”
“Right. If you’re going to fuck someone up, do it properly. Make sure they never even think of touching our property again.”
The middle-aged man looked over each of the kneeling figures.
Wherever his gaze fell, the men lowered their heads even farther.
“Send out the men. Crush every suspicious bastard you find. If they won’t open their mouths, shut them forever. Whatever it takes, drag the culprit before me.”
“Yes, sir!!”
“And make sure you find the item. Your lives depend on it.”
With those final words, the man placed a cigarette between his lips and left.
Only after the massive door closed did the men release the breaths they had been holding.
A small storm was beginning to stir in the quiet back alleys.
For now, it was nothing more than a faint breeze. But storms of this kind always started small.
***
“Kuh. I’m seriously dying here.”
Regeneration was healing my body, but it still felt heavy.
It was so bad that whenever I tried to move, I almost imagined my body wanted to scream.
Even so, I had to keep walking without a destination.
‘If I collapse in an alley like this, I’m done for.’
Who knew what would happen to me if I collapsed in the back alleys?
Waking up the next day would probably be a miracle in itself.
That was why I had to keep dragging my body along the alleys, no matter how difficult it was.
“He really got me good.”
I lifted my shirt slightly and looked down to find a dark blue bruise.
And that was not all.
Perhaps merely clashing blades with him had been too much, because I could barely put any strength into my fingers.
It seemed I had worn down a fair amount of cartilage.
“Ha ha…… It’s fine. This is enough.”
Even so, I did not feel bad. No, I felt incredible.
In my hands were the bundles of money I had taken from the safe, the mysterious blue gem, and—
“Where the hell do you even get a sword like this?”
The sword used by the Hunter who had tried to kill me.
It looked extraordinary at a glance.
The bastard had been far higher-ranked than I was, yet even for him, the weapon had seemed excessive.
I caressed it, then drew it from its sheath.
─BZZT!
“Ugh…….”
My vision began to ripple. Before I could react, my ability activated.
[Activating the ability ‘Analysis.’]
[Deciphering the fragments of memory dwelling within the item.]
[Someone’s Sword]
─A sword engraved with plum blossoms.
─A sword once used by someone from the ── Guild.
─Contains memories. (Analysis failed)
─BZZT.
[Warning: Insufficient information for Analysis.]
“Insufficient information?”
Until now, there had been nothing I could not analyze. No, to be precise, there had been times when I lacked the level to read something, but never when I lacked the information.
I placed the sword beside the bed and closed my eyes for a moment.
‘There are memories inside it…… but I can’t see them yet.’
Whenever I had read an object containing memories, I had obtained something.
The characters written in blood in the canyon, the white spheres that held souls, the sage’s message.
“Ugh…… Ah, screw it. I don’t know.”
─Thud.
I set the sword down and once again forced my screaming body to move.
“That old man should know.”
The Sage of the Back Alleys. A damn old snake who had lived forever. In any case, he was a man known by all sorts of nicknames, and at least among the people I knew, he knew the most.
It seemed the time had come to pay him a visit after all these years.