Chapter 82: 82

It was quiet . No one spoke a word . No one even took a step . Everyone looked at one person .

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…”

Tramp—

The footstep sounded exceptionally loud . Lee Kang-hee had observed the ten seconds that Su-hyeun had requested . He finally walked out when they were almost over .

“Are you talking about me?” Lee Kang-hee asked .

“Isn’t that why you came out?” Su-hyeun said .

His voice was very cold . Lee Kang-hee tried to relax the frown on his face . He forced his smile and reached his hand out to Su-hyeun .

“I am sorry about what I did before . I did not mean anything by it, but…” Lee Kang-hee said .

“But…” Su-hyeun said .

“…Yes?” Lee Kang-hee looked at Su-hyeun with puzzled eyes . “But what?” he thought .

“I was wondering whether you would say that or not . But of course, you did . ”

Crash—!

“Argh, ugh—!”

Su-hyeun grabbed Lee Kang-hee’s hand reached out and used the other hand to break his arm . At the sudden pain, Lee Kang-hee widely opened his eyes and keeled over . The pain from the arm spread all over his body .

“When you apologize, you should not use words like ‘but’ or ‘still’ or ‘actually . ’ The moment you do, it becomes an excuse, not an apology . And…”

Crash—

“Argh, ugh—!” Lee Kang-hee screamed .

“Your intention is not important . An apology for the people your actions have harmed is . To everyone, including me,” Su-hyeun said .

“I…I am sorry…”

“It’s too late . And actually, I did not plan to forgive you even if you apologized . ”

“Damn…you…!”

Slash—!

Lee Kang-hee drew the sword with his left arm . The sharp blade passed over Su-hyeun’s head in a flash .

Bang—!

Lee Kang-hee had another plan . With his skill, his sword multiplied into dozens, all flying to strike Su-hyeun . It seemed to observers that Su-hyeun’s body would be cut into pieces .

“Yes!” Lee Kang-hee yelled for joy .

At that moment…

Crack—!

Lee Kang-hee felt the same horrible pain in his left arm . He screamed in pain .

“You have a good skill . If you drew the sword with your right arm instead of your left, you might have been able to cut me a little . ”

Lee Kang-hee was not able to use both arms anymore . Although he was the A-Rank awakener, it would take a while for his broken and crushed arms to recover . At that moment, it was impossible for him to fight .

“Do…do you think you can gloss over this?” Lee Kang-hee ground his teeth while he knelt . He was trying to not stammer . “What you are doing now… Many people are watching you right now . And we’re recording all this . Remember? If we leave this dungeon…”

“Do you just want to die?” Su-hyeun asked .

Lee Kang-hee got chills . He shut his mouth up . He thought if he said something wrong, he might really die . Once more, Su-hyeun twisted the shoulder of Lee Kang-hee who apparently still had some excuse .

Crack—!

“Ah-argh…”

“There’s something you’re wrong about . ”

Lee Kang-hee moaned .

“In a large team like this, a raid leader is responsible for planning the attack and having the power to lead the team . Of course, that’s when the team is in agreement . ”

At Su-hyeun’s words, Lee Kang-hee’s eyes shook . He knew very well . But…

“If somebody,” Su-hyeun continued to say, “was blinded by the reward or Ether stone or contribution and harmed the team, the raid leader has the right to punish that person immediately . It is also possible to kill that person in some cases . ” Su-hyeun paused and asked again, “Do you want to die?”

“No, no…”

“If you get it, shut your mouth . And…”

Su-hyeun released his hold on Lee Kang-hee’s shoulder . Instead, he grabbed his throat and lifted him .

“I am still annoyed… So, let me beat you up a little more . ”

Act8

It was the first time for Lee Ju-ho to see Su-hyeun hit someone that much . He had never seen Su-hyeun fight with someone before . He could not even imagine Su-hyeun was capable of that .

“When I heard that he killed Jung Dong-yeong, I thought that he’s quite spiteful…” Lee Ju-ho thought .

But when he actually saw it with his eyes, he could tell that was not true . Nobody could restrain Su-hyeun . The way he beat Lee Kang-hee seemed as if he derived satisfaction from the act . Not even the Papillon Guild members stopped him .

“What kind of idiot would die for the guild master who abandoned them and ran away?” Lee Ju-ho thought and sighed .

At least Su-hyeun did not kill Lee Kang-hee . However, he left him covered with wounds . If Lee Kang-hee were injured, he would not be able to fight anymore .

“Are you done yet?” Lee Ju-ho asked .

Su-hyeun nodded with a relieved face and answered, “Roughly . ”

“If that was rough, you would probably kill if you were precise . ”

“There are people who kill their teammates to keep the rewards for themselves . Compared to that, this guy is a gentleman . But he won’t able to work in this field anymore . Because of what he did today, he’ll probably lose his reputation . Word gets around quickly, you know . ”

“To me, he looks like someone who would kill others like if it were nothing, so long as he gets his power,” Lee Ju-ho said .

“It’s hard to kill someone because of the possibility . Also, people are watching…”

At Su-hyeun’s words, Lee Ju-ho asked in surprise, “What if people didn’t watch?”

“Well…”

“Wow . You are a scary man . ”

“This is nothing…to be called scary . ” Su-hyeun shrugged .

Su-hyeun’s answer sounded like a joke, but he was serious . To Lee Ju-ho, it looked like Su-hyeun was just a pure and kind person .

“Well . His perception will gradually change,” Su-hyeun thought . He turned and started to walk to one side .

“Where are you going?” Kim Taek-hyun asked .

“Rest for a while, please . Nothing will happen if you stay around here,” Su-hyeun said .

“I was asking about you, Mr . Su-hyeun . Not us . ”

“I have to check on something . I’ll be back soon . ”

From the beginning, it seemed like Su-hyeun did not have any intention to ask for permission . Even before Kim Taek-hyun or other people opened their mouths, Su-hyeun moved quickly . When Su-hyeun left, Kim Taek-hyun sighed and turned his head .

“Argh…gg…”

Lee Kang-hee wiggled intermittently as if he was losing his breath . Even if Su-hyeun did not say that, it looked like they could not move at the moment .

***

Swish, swish—

Su-hyeun jumped lightly and looked around the dungeon . With the light from above and its landscape, this city did not look like a dungeon . He felt like he was walking around an old village .

“This was a real village . People lived here . ”

It was clear that people had lived here, and it was also obvious who they were .

The soldiers, who lost their bodies and only had souls and armors, were probably the residents in this place .

Su-hyeun stopped . He found a slightly bigger house than others and went in .

Creak—

The old door opened with a loud noise . The dusty room was dim, lit only by the light coming through the window .

Achoo—!

Miru, who was hanging on Su-hyeun’s shoulder, breathed dust and sneezed .

Su-hyeun looked at Miru and asked, “Do you want to wait outside?”

Miru briskly shook his head as if this was not a big deal . Su-hyeun stroked Miru’s head a few times and looked around the living room .

“It is pretty old,” Su-hyeun thought .

With all the old dust about, he could tell just how long the people of this town had suffered .

Stomp—!

Su-hyeun entered one room . In the room, there was a bed, a small desk, and a chair . On the desk was a small notebook . Under the desk, there was a pen that had fallen . He picked up a notebook—it was a diary . The diary was written in a language that wasn’t exactly English, but it was familiar enough . He could decipher them, although it was not perfect . Su-hyeun slowly read the diary .

“January 13th, I decided to write in this diary for the first time, because I didn’t want to forget the happy moments . I…”

The beginning was ordinary . No, more than that, this person looked pretty happy . Was this person a man or a woman? There was no clue about gender . There was a name for someone who appeared to be a spouse, but it was difficult to determine whether that name was male or female . For the first few pages, a happy routine was recorded in the diary . And…

“A man came to our village . His face was half-human and half-skull . He had a huge octopus . He suppressed our village . He said if anyone left, they would die . He had the power to do it .

“Those who had sailed out of town had returned . No, they should not have come back . I couldn’t do anything . ”

Su-hyeun clenched his teeth . While reading the diary, he could imagine what had happened in this village . The man written about in the diary was the Lich King .

“The village was cursed . We slowly died . Why? Why did he do this to our village? It seemed like he did not want anything . That made it even more frightening . ”

Crunch—

Unwittingly, Su-hyeun grabbed the diary tight . The dried diary was crushed into powder . He couldn’t read anymore . There was no reason to continue—he already knew . He had seen a lot of cities in such a background .

“The problem is not the background, but the dungeon itself,” Su-hyeun thought .

Su-hyeun came out and looked around the inside of the dungeon . The city had sunk into the sea . It became the green-colored dungeon .

“I have to investigate further . ”

Su-hyeun continued his search, hoping some additional clues might emerge .

***

He could not find anything special in the town . Like the diary, most of the findings were records about how the village used to be .

After the raid, everybody emerged from the dungeon . The raid ended after one day . All that was left was the collection and distribution of Ether stones .

When Hak-joon came to Su-hyeun’s house, he found Su-hyeun lying on the bed, reading a book .

“What are you doing, Su-hyeun?”

” I have to check something,” Su-hyeun answered .

“What is that?” Hak-joon was curious and tried to look closer at the book Su-hyeun was reading . It wasn’t actually a book, but a small booklet about the dungeons .

“The dungeon appeared in 2020 . Sorted by the difficulty… Why are you reading this?”

“I’m curious . ”

“Are you going for the raid in earnest?”

“No . I’d rather climb the tower at that time . ”

“Of course you will . So why are you reading this?”

“I’m just curious . ”

Hak-joon did not really believe Su-hyeun’s words because his face looked more serious than curious .

“Fortunately, the future hasn’t changed completely,” Su-hyeun thought .

Su-hyeun skimmed through the booklet . He read about the locations of the dungeons in countries and regions, their difficulty levels, and other detailed information . In fact, all the dungeons that appeared so far were recorded . And of those, Su-hyeun mainly skimmed over the dungeons than were above yellow-level .

“I will never forget about more than yellow-colored dungeons…” he thought .

In his previous life, Su-hyeun had worked for the government institution . Because of his job, he was fully aware of the major dungeons above yellow . In particular, if green-colored dungeons appeared in succession, there was no way that Su-hyeun could remember . Except for one that appeared to be special . Other than that, there were no other dungeons he could remember .