Lee Kanghyun recoiled at Kang Yujun’s words.
What the hell is this creep doing?
He yanked his hand away.
“Ah, fuck off.”
“I offer to do it for you and you still complain.”
Kang Yujun let out a quiet laugh, as though he had expected exactly that reaction from Lee Kanghyun, then drew his sword again. The eyes that had curved warmly toward Lee Kanghyun turned cold the instant they shifted to the monsters.
For no particular reason, Lee Kanghyun rubbed the back of the hand Kang Yujun had stroked.
Seriously, this is a little…
Gross.
While Lee Kanghyun scrubbed furiously at the back of his hand, Kang Yujun walked toward the monsters.
He swept his sword horizontally through the air. A long stream of blue water shot from the tip of the blade.
SPLAAASH—!
The moment the wave swept past them, all four charging wolves froze at once.
Then, in the next instant, their upper and lower bodies separated cleanly and tumbled across the ground.
Before the blood could even spray, Kang Yujun flicked his sword. The water wrapped around the blade scattered in every direction, washing away the wolves’ blood with it.
The entire situation ended in seconds.
Lee Kanghyun stared blankly at the scene.
You could’ve killed them that fast, and you put on that whole fucking show just to make me move?
Anger surged up inside him, but he did not even have the energy to argue.
“You got all of them, so let’s go home now.”
“What are you talking about? We’re just getting started.”
Kang Yujun answered while expertly cutting open the monsters’ stomachs and extracting their mana stones.
“We killed the monsters at the entrance. Now we have to go farther in. The gate won’t close until we kill the boss.”
“Oh. Right.”
A gate only fully cleared and closed once its boss had been killed.
Lee Kanghyun had wanted to go home so badly that he had forgotten even that basic fact.
His expression darkened at terrifying speed. Kang Yujun gave him a pathetic look, as if wondering how anyone could possibly forget something like that.
Lee Kanghyun stared ahead.
Deeper inside, it was darker, wetter, and even more humid.
The ground was a swamp of sticky mud, and unidentified insects crawled over it.
He looked down at the mud as though it were a lake of boiling lava.
Then he let out a sigh like his entire world had just collapsed.
After that, he very carefully crouched down and stared fixedly at the ground.
“What are you doing?”
“Searching for the optimal route to prevent contamination.”
“Cut the bullshit and walk!”
In the end, unable to withstand Kang Yujun’s nagging, Lee Kanghyun took his first step.
Squelch.
“Ugh…”
His entire body shuddered at the sensation of sticky mud clinging to the sole of his shoe.
Wearing the expression of a man who had lost his country, he took a second step.
From then on, he used the several-billion-won A-rank longsword Kang Yujun had lent him as a walking stick, planting it against the ground and barely supporting himself as he walked.
The end of the sheath dragged along the floor, scraping through the mud with a miserable sound that echoed inside the gate.
“Carry the sword properly.”
“It’s heavy.”
“You swung it just fine earlier.”
“That gave me muscle loss.”
Lee Kanghyun ignored him completely and kept dragging the sword behind him.
Anyone watching might have believed he was being hauled to a slaughterhouse rather than raiding a gate.
“Are we there yet?”
“We’ve gone fifty meters.”
“Liar. Feels like five kilometers.”
“Stop exaggerating.”
Lee Kanghyun repeatedly stopped and started.
Whenever a drop of water fell from the ceiling, he would stop with an, “Ah, cold,” and brush off his clothes.
Whenever there was even a slightly large pebble on the ground, he would stop and mutter, “Ah, fuck, that hurts.”
“You just swore at me, didn’t you?”
“No.”
Kang Yujun was beginning to reach the limit of his patience.
This isn’t going to work. If I keep matching this bastard’s pace, we won’t get there even by sunrise.
Unable to tolerate the frustration any longer, Kang Yujun strode over.
Then, before Lee Kanghyun had a chance to respond, he hoisted him over his shoulder like a piece of luggage.
“Hey, are you fucking insane? Put me down.”
Lee Kanghyun flailed his arms and legs a few times for form’s sake.
He did not actually resist with any real effort.
Because this was exactly what Lee Kanghyun had wanted.
He had deliberately been walking so slowly and infuriatingly just to provoke Kang Yujun.
Kang Yujun carried Lee Kanghyun over his shoulder like a sack of rice and strode forward.
Lee Kanghyun, who had been pretending to complain behind him, quietly stopped struggling.
He rested his chin against Kang Yujun’s broad back and watched the filthy ground whip past beneath his feet.
Ah, this is comfortable.
No mud on my shoes, and I don’t even have to move my legs. Should’ve done this from the start.
The corners of Lee Kanghyun’s mouth slowly crept upward.
“Hey. You’re smiling right now, aren’t you?”
“No. I’m suffering. Ugh, I’m dizzy.”
“Say that again without smiling before I throw you.”
Kang Yujun threatened him while hitching Lee Kanghyun higher on his shoulder.
His firm shoulder pressed painfully into Lee Kanghyun’s stomach, but Lee Kanghyun decided to regard even that as a soft cushion.
Perhaps thanks to his S-rank physical abilities, Kang Yujun showed no sign of strain at all.
His pace never slowed.
Hisssss…
After they had walked like that for around thirty minutes, an unpleasant rasping sound wormed its way into their ears.
Kang Yujun stopped dead.
Carried forward by inertia, Lee Kanghyun tipped toward the front and grabbed Kang Yujun around the neck to steady himself.
For greater stability, he simply shifted position entirely and climbed onto Kang Yujun’s back.
“What? Why’d you stop?”
Then he raised his head and looked ahead.
Hundreds of fluorescent points gleamed in the darkness.
From the ceiling, from cracks in the walls, and from the mud on the floor, snakes with slick scales were pouring out.
They were as thick as a man’s forearm, each one exuding purple poison.
An entire horde of Venom Snakes.
“Ugh. Fucking hell.”
Lee Kanghyun’s face went pale.
“Hey, turn around. Back up. Now.”
“What the hell are you talking about? We have to kill them if we want to get out of here.”
“Ah, they’re disgusting! I hate snakes!”
Lee Kanghyun wrapped his arms so tightly around Kang Yujun’s neck that he was practically strangling him.
Kang Yujun tried to pry Lee Kanghyun’s arms loose.
No matter how much strength he used, however, they did not budge an inch.
“Ghk—why the hell are you so strong?”
“You’re just weak.”
“I’m S-rank too, you know? Forget it. Ugh, let go for a second. I need to grab my sword.”
“Right. You’re S-rank. So you should be able to fight while carrying me.”
Kang Yujun gave a disbelieving laugh at Lee Kanghyun’s shameless demand.
Hiss!
At that moment, one of the snakes at the front spat venom and launched itself at them.
Lee Kanghyun recoiled in horror and buried his face against Kang Yujun’s back.
Kang Yujun extended the arm that was not supporting Lee Kanghyun and clenched his hand around empty air.
The airborne snake’s head was crushed by atmospheric water pressure and exploded.
“Lee Kanghyun. How about you actually get off now?”
Kang Yujun once again tried to pry Lee Kanghyun’s arms away.
But Lee Kanghyun’s survival instincts had kicked in, and his arms still refused to move.
He glanced down.
Whatever purple substance—blood or otherwise—had poured from the severed snake head was mixing with the mud, creating a horrifying sludge.
I’d rather spend the rest of my life clinging to Kang Yujun’s back like a parasite than put my foot in that.
On top of that, the hissing coming from every direction was unpleasantly stimulating every single auditory cell he possessed.
This was no time to worry about dignity.
Lee Kanghyun tightened his arms around Kang Yujun’s neck and wrapped his legs around his torso.
“You fucking lunatic! Why are you wrapping your legs around me too?!”
Kang Yujun screamed and twisted his body.
The motion sent Lee Kanghyun swaying as well, but he remained stuck to Kang Yujun as though someone had smeared him with glue.
“It’s hard to keep my balance! Stop moving, you’re making me motion sick.”
They were just about to continue arguing when the mass of snakes hanging from the ceiling came pouring down like rain.
Dozens of snakes sliced through the air toward them.
“AAH! They’re coming! Hurry up and kill them! What are you doing?!”
At Lee Kanghyun’s scream, Kang Yujun swallowed a curse and reacted.
He gave up on trying to remove Lee Kanghyun and thrust one hand into the air.
Blue mana erupted from his fingertips.
BOOOOM—!
The moisture in the air condensed in an instant, forming a massive wall of water.
The falling snakes slammed into the barrier and were thrown back.
Kang Yujun swept his hand through the air, wielding the water like a whip.
Every time the stream sliced through the air, snake bodies were severed.
Blood and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere, but thanks to the curtain of water Kang Yujun had wrapped around them, not a single drop touched Lee Kanghyun’s clothes.
As expected, nothing beats S-rank auto-hunting.
“Hey, Lee Kanghyun! Shut up for a second. You’re making my ears hurt!”
Kang Yujun shouted, breathing hard with irritation.
Lee Kanghyun ignored him and peeked his head out from behind Kang Yujun’s shoulder.
“There. Right side. One’s coming from the right. Ah, that’s the tail! Aim for the head. Are you stupid?”
“Are you seriously doing this because you want to die?”
There was murder in Kang Yujun’s voice, but Lee Kanghyun kept pointing anyway.
Following Lee Kanghyun’s directions, Kang Yujun’s water danced through the air.
A snake leaping in from the right had its head pierced by a bullet of water and crashed to the ground.
Lee Kanghyun clapped in admiration.
“Oh. As expected of our national hero.”
With a single gesture from Kang Yujun, snakes were crushed to death or sliced apart.
Lee Kanghyun watched with satisfaction.
Kang Yujun’s back was broad and warm, and barely jostled at all.
But the number of snakes showed no sign of decreasing.
If anything, the smell of blood seemed to be drawing even more of them in.
The ground was already so covered in snake corpses that there was nowhere left to step.
Lee Kanghyun could feel Kang Yujun’s breathing gradually growing rougher.
For the briefest moment—truly, the briefest moment—Lee Kanghyun felt something resembling guilt.
Should I get down for a bit?
But the thought vanished almost immediately.
Looking at the writhing mass of snakes and the swamp of mangled carcasses in front of him, he decided he would rather jump straight into the fires of hell.
Besides, this was Kang Yujun.
South Korea’s number one Hunter. The strongest S-rank Hunter.
Monsters this pathetic were at a level where he could butcher them one-handed with his eyes closed and his ears plugged.
There was no way he could not handle them just because one piece of luggage happened to be hanging off him.
“You can do it, Kang Yujun. Go, Kang Yujun.”
Lee Kanghyun offered the most soulless encouragement imaginable while settling more comfortably against his back and rubbing his cheek against him.
Clearly, he had left his conscience at home.