Chapter 38
Loners (9)
“Call them if you want to live.”
Kang Hyeon’s words were met with Kang Dong-il’s silence.
“This won’t end just because you keep your mouth shut!? One way or another, I’m confident I can make you open your mouth.”
“But isn’t that troublesome? Wouldn’t it be so much better if we settled this nicely? Hm?”
“Kill me.”
Kang Dong-il raised his head and glared directly at Kang Hyeon.
“You think you can make me open my mouth? Go ahead, try torture or whatever you want. Things won’t go as you wish.”
“Haa… I’m starting to get annoyed.”
While Kang Hyeon sighed, conversely, a smile spread across Kang Dong-il’s face.
“That’s why I’m saying to just kill me comfortably. I won’t open my mouth anyway. That’s the way to avoid unnecessary trouble for both of us.”
“I’ll make you regret those words.”
Just as Kang Hyeon was drawing his knife with widened eyes.
“Guild Master!”
Three guild members came running breathlessly from somewhere.
“What is it? I said I was in the middle of an important conversation.”
“It’s a, a rift!”
“Is it serious enough that I need to go?”
“It’s record-breaking! On Vice Guild Master Shin Seong-ah’s orders, a full guild mobilization has been issued!”
“Huu…”
Kang Hyeon roughly ran his hand through his hair.
“I’ll go right now, you three stay here.”
“Us…?”
“We can’t let these guys escape. So you watch them until I return.”
“Understood.”
“I’m counting on you then.”
“Yes!”
With Kang Hyeon’s sudden departure, awkwardness settled among the remaining men.
“Who are these guys?”
“I heard they’re connected to the warlords, but I’m not sure of the details yet.”
“There were also rumors about them being connected to the undead?”
The guild members were cautious of Jang Jae-seon and Kang Dong-il at first, but as time passed, they began to loosen up.
“Lately, rifts seem to be happening more frequently?”
“Yeah. Can’t even drink properly.”
“Hey hey. Don’t you know you’ll be in trouble if you get caught drinking these days? The Guild Master said he’ll assign proper holidays soon, so wait until then.”
“Khe! How can I wait when it’s this good!?”
The man pulled out a stainless steel liquor bottle from his chest and gulped down the vodka inside.
“This crazy bastard!”
“What? Want a drink too?”
The smell of alcohol quickly spread around as it flowed from the bottle. The other guild members next to him swallowed hard.
‘Stupid fools.’
Kang Dong-il, watching from the side, smiled.
‘Looking at their magical power, their level seems quite high, but they’re completely defenseless.’
The Badass Guild members were too busy entertaining themselves to properly monitor. Kang Dong-il quietly looked for an opportunity to escape from them.
‘Not even minimal restraints. This goes beyond arrogance to stupidity.’
During the recent meeting with Kang Hyeon, Kang Hyeon didn’t put any restraints on Kang Dong-il.
That showed his confidence that he could stop whatever Kang Dong-il might try to do.
‘But what about your guild members?’
He should have at least put some restraints when he left. Kang Dong-il was a powerful figure who had fought on par with Vice Guild Master Shin Seong-ah.
Escaping from ordinary guild members was as easy as eating rice cakes lying down.
‘That arrogance will be the cause of your defeat, Kang Hyeon. Next time we meet, I’ll make you regret today.’
As soon as he made his decision, Kang Dong-il moved like lightning.
“What the!?”
“This bastard dares!”
The guild members immediately threw punches at the approaching Kang Dong-il.
‘Indeed, even a rotten croaker is still a croaker?’
Kang Dong-il inwardly admired.
Their response without any panic to his sudden movement definitely showed a different level from ordinary thugs.
“Blame your Guild Master’s stupidity.”
But they faced the wrong opponent. Kang Dong-il moved quickly and accumulated damage to the guild members. As a result, the battle gradually tilted in Kang Dong-il’s favor.
“Kugh, that bastard!”
“Support! Request support!”
Feeling they couldn’t handle Kang Dong-il, one guild member turned back to request reinforcements. The remaining two seemed to plan on buying time until then.
‘This should be enough. Let’s escape.’
Kang Dong-il decided to flee. The guild members’ level was higher than expected, making it impossible to deal with them quickly. If reinforcements arrived now, he would be the one in trouble. If he got caught, such a perfect opportunity would never come again.
‘Need to cut off their mobility.’
Kang Dong-il targeted the guild members’ lower bodies with his sharp claws. He was willing to take some damage to wound their legs so they couldn’t chase him.
‘Done!’
Fortunately, the strategy was successful. As soon as he confirmed the guild members were wounded in their legs, Kang Dong-il turned and started running.
“He’s, he’s running! We have to catch him!”
“Shit! My legs won’t move properly!”
Running while hearing their voices growing distant, Kang Dong-il. His face was full of mockery directed at the stupid Badass Guild.
***
Ippotranslation
***
“Ah! That bastard is running away!”
“No! We’re going to die by our crazy Guild Master now!”
“Nooooo!”
The two men who were shouting at the top of their lungs suddenly stopped. They glanced at each other quietly.
“Is he gone?”
“Seems like it.”
“Great!”
The two guild members suddenly high-fived and started grinning. At the same time, someone walked out of the forest.
“You’ve arrived?”
Those who emerged from the forest were the guild members who had gone to request support. And Kang Hyeon, who had said he went to deal with the rift.
“Did he go?”
“Yes.”
“How was it? Did he notice?”
“He didn’t seem to notice at all? Seeing him grinning, he seemed to be thinking ‘I’m escaping thanks to these stupid bastards!’”
“Is that so?”
A smile deepened on Kang Hyeon’s face.
“Thanks for acting. Are you okay? Any injuries?”
“This much will heal with some spit.”
“Guild Master. If something like this happens again, please call us.”
“Hehehe. It was so funny seeing him run away frantically with that ‘I did it!’ expression.”
“Okay. Good work everyone. Besides the reward for this job, I’ll treat you all to something big soon, so look forward to it.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Of course. Have you ever seen me lie?”
In fact, these three guild members weren’t ordinary members. They were all team leaders managing dozens of guild members. In other words, they were high-ranking executives. Before Badass existed, they were part of the Guardian Guild that ranked among the top 10 guilds. These were the elite of elites who had come over with Han Si-hwan and had been with the Badass Guild the longest.
Their individual skills in close combat were similar to or slightly better than Shin Seong-ah’s level. Originally, having just one of them should have been enough to not lose in a fight against Kang Dong-il.
“I hope Shin Seong-ah tracks him well.”
Kang Hyeon showed a worried expression as he thought of Shin Seong-ah, who was tasked with tracking Kang Dong-il.
“With the Vice Guild Master’s tracking skills, there won’t be any problems.”
“By the way, what I’m curious about is what wind blew for the Guild Master to plan something like this…”
“Yeah. It’s strange that someone who we suspected had a brain made of muscle suddenly does something he never did before.”
“Maybe dying too many times affected his head?”
“You bastards have no filter even when the person is right in front of you!? Want me to remind you of the old days?”
“We’re sorry!”
At the mention of old days, the executives stood at attention like exaggerated new recruits. Kang Hyeon shook his head and sighed at their playfulness.
“That’s enough joking around, let’s start moving. Bring them along, we can’t let the distance get too far.”
“Yes.”
What was the full story behind this? In fact, Kang Hyeon had assumed two scenarios from the start. One was if Kang Dong-il cooperated. The other was if Kang Dong-il didn’t cooperate. While basically trying to persuade Kang Dong-il by presenting both carrot and stick… If that failed, they would immediately move to the second plan.
For this, Kang Hyeon had already gathered guild members for a meeting.
-No use threatening those skeleton bastards.
-But Kang Dong-il is human, isn’t he?
-No. I can smell it. That bastard is definitely either a skeleton kind or a fanatic. He’s the type who would just grin while being tortured, calling it a noble sacrifice.
-Is that so…?
Experience from fighting countless undead was screaming. That threatening Kang Dong-il would be impossible. Then there was only one thing to do.
-Let’s trick him and find out his base.
For this operation, Kang Hyeon didn’t lay a hand on Kang Dong-il no matter how angry he got. Because if things went wrong, the guy needed to be able to subdue the guild members and escape. If they injured Kang Dong-il even slightly, it would greatly disrupt the plan to follow him and find his base. So they pretended to listen and tried to persuade him with words as much as possible.
“Guild Master. We’ve arrived.”
“It really went according to plan. Amazingly.”
Badass Guild members were gathering one by one to attack the undead base. Ahn Yu-seong and Yoon Na-rae. Fifty members selected as the elite attack team.
Han Se-yeon and Kim Yi-hyeon too.
Among them, Kang Hyeon shouted with an excited face.
“Kya! Even I think I’m too smart!”
He felt like he could fly since everything was going smoothly.
“The quality is unbelievable considering it was hastily put together, right?”
“Tsk tsk. Sister Seong-ah and Yu-seong planned all the details, why are you acting so proud?”
Kang Hyeon’s expression crumpled at Yoon Na-rae’s nitpicking. But soon he smiled sleazily as if he had never been angry.
“Ugh… What’s with that expression?”
“Right. You probably can’t accept it.”
“What do you…”
“No! You probably don’t want to accept it! The fact that your Guild Master is an excellent man skilled in both literary and martial arts!”
Yoon Na-rae shook her head.
‘He’s so excited, playing both sides all by himself…’
It seemed Kang Hyeon was quite thrilled about accomplishing something with his head rather than his fists for the first time.
“Alright! Let’s depart!”
“Yes!”
Kang Hyeon and the elite Badass Guild members set out to eliminate the undead.
***
Ippotranslation
***
Lisa Asas.
She had considerable influence even within the radical faction, and came to Korea personally to lay the groundwork for eliminating Kang Hyeon. For him, Kang Dong-il was quite a useful card. He possessed absolute loyalty and had decent intelligence. He was not only fluent in Korean but also had considerable combat ability.
When Kang Dong-il returned completely beaten up, Lisa Asas instinctively felt something had gone wrong.
“What happened?”
“I’m sorry!”
Kang Dong-il prostrated himself, banging his head on the floor.
“I asked what happened.”
At Lisa Asas’s ice-cold words, Kang Dong-il explained while trembling. About recruiting forces from the Cheongwoo Guild and Jang Jae-seon. Meeting Shin Seong-ah during that time. Wanting to report immediately, but being ambushed by Badass Guild members before he could. And the story of his dramatic escape when his power shone in the moment of crisis.
“I managed to escape here by taking advantage when they let their guard down.”
When Lisa Asas remained silent, Kang Dong-il banged his head on the floor again.
“I’m ashamed! But at least I didn’t give them any information. If you give me one more chance, I will definitely get Kang Hyeon…”
“You said you didn’t give them information?”
Kang Dong-il nodded repeatedly.
“Yes! Of course!”
He had actually leaked some information, but there was no need to mention that. After all, what really mattered was Lisa Asas’s existence, and Kang Dong-il hadn’t revealed anything about that.
“Foolish thing… I shouldn’t have expected anything from a mere human after all…”
“What…?”
Kang Dong-il was momentarily confused by Lisa Asas’s unexpected response.
“You didn’t even notice you brought a whole bunch of tails with you.”
“What do you…”
At that moment.
Kang Dong-il could feel it too.
That dozens of massive magical forces had somehow approached right up to their doorstep.
“I’ll give you one last chance, you piece of trash. Go out and buy us time somehow. Meanwhile, I’ll need to clean up this place.”
As he spoke, Lisa Asas threw something. When Kang Dong-il hurriedly caught it, it was a transparent bottle containing a purple liquid.
“It will temporarily boost your power.”
“Don’t disappoint me again.”
“That will never happen.”
“Go.”
Kang Dong-il bowed his head with a grave expression and left.
ated third parties.
