GM Ch60

“Here, take this.”

“I have my own.”

“It’s too big; I can’t finish it all.”

“Thanks.”

Soohyuk grinned and accepted the half-eaten chocolate. Minjun took a big bite of the sweet and bitter chocolate, gauging the distance to the intruders, then looked back at Soohyuk. He wondered how Soohyuk would handle the intruders.

When their eyes met, Soohyuk smiled, lifting the corners of his mouth. Minjun shook his head, signaling it was nothing.

After finishing his chocolate, Soohyuk looked around at the hunters and shouted loudly.

“Attention, please!”

The hunters, who were eating in the rain, turned their attention to Soohyuk. Even Joo Myunghwan, pretending not to care, glanced over at him.

“We have intruders.”

Soohyuk smiled brightly, as if he had just thrown a huge stone into a calm lake.

***

Damn it.

Joo Myunghwan cursed inwardly. The situation was completely fucked.

Yoon Soohyuk was diligently playing the role of bodyguard, as he had said he would. He gave orders to the other hunters and didn’t argue against his own instructions. But from the start, he had been making fun of people.

That much he could tolerate. He had been quiet after that. But then he suddenly started making a fuss about intruders. He claimed to have detected them with his scouting skill, but it was hard to believe.

He forced him to choose between making an emergency dungeon escape or taking the risk to capture the intruders. Joo Myunghwan wanted to curse him out but held back and said they would obviously capture them.

He hoped the guy who didn’t want to raid would back off. But Soohyuk, with an annoying smile, analyzed the intruders’ intentions.

“Two A-rank hunters, using stealth skills. Based on their rank, there are three main possibilities. They’re either after our items, after me, or after Joo Myunghwan. Don’t you think it’s unlikely they’re after you, hunter Joo Myunghwan? Running a large guild, you must have made quite a few enemies.”

Yoon Soohyuk naturally assumed it was possible the intruders were targeting him.

“Of course, I could be the target. I’ve made my share of enemies too. If they’re really after someone, I’ve heard that in other countries, they usually take hostages and make threats. If someone gets taken hostage, it’s over. I’ll catch the intruders before that happens. Don’t worry. I can handle two A-rank hunters.”

With a confident smile, Soohyuk used his stealth skill and disappeared. The tension in the air spiked instantly. No one knew what the crazy S-rank hunter would do or where he was going. There was no trace of Soohyuk’s presence.

Joo Myunghwan roughly stabbed a frog-like monster with his sword. He hated the damn dungeon, the damn monsters, the damn crazy bastard, and the rookie who reminded him of Kim Minjun. And he was annoyed by the hunters who couldn’t even handle a single C-class dungeon monster properly.

“Can’t you do it right?!”

Only after he shouted did the hunters start moving more efficiently. Meanwhile, the C-class rookie was the only one handling his spear properly, which made him even more frustrated.

“Fuck it.”

Joo Myunghwan finally cursed out loud, unwilling to admit he was scared.

There was a chance that Yoon Soohyuk, who had dropped the bomb about the intruders, might stab him in the back. Or he might just let the intruders attack. Even though Soohyuk’s precious rookie, Kim Minjun, was with them, it wasn’t reassuring. Minjun was only C-class. A low-ranking pawn could be discarded easily.

Should he just escape now?

If he used an emergency dungeon escape, he wouldn’t be able to re-enter the dungeon until it was cleared. That would severely damage the trust he had built up.

He then wondered if this was all part of Soohyuk’s scheme, hoping to see him flee in fear and disgrace. Grinding his teeth, he finished off the poisonous frog he was hunting.

“It’s all over.”

Soohyuk appeared not far away, with what looked like two people slung over his right shoulder.

“They’re the intruders.”

Soohyuk tossed the two men, bound tightly with ropes, onto the ground among the gathered hunters. The intruders, dressed head to toe in black clothes, gloves, and masks, looked extremely suspicious.

“So it really was true.”

“They look like foreigners.”

“They are foreigners.”

“They must be A-class. We can’t get any proper info on them.”

“Are they unconscious?”

The hunters surrounded the unconscious intruders, each making a comment. Minjun checked Soohyuk for any injuries, impressed that he had managed to knock out and capture two A-class hunters without a scratch.

“We can either take the intruders and escape, or we can keep them unconscious and defeat the boss. What do you think, hunter Joo Myunghwan?”

Soohyuk gave him the choice again. Joo Myunghwan frowned, looking between Soohyuk and the intruders on the ground.

“If we hand them over to the National Security Agency, we won’t find out who’s behind this. They’ll just say they came to steal dungeon loot. Aren’t you curious about who’s behind this, hunter Yoon Soohyuk?”

“Well. Not really. It would take more than A-class hunters to kill me if they wanted to.”

Soohyuk subtly implied that the intruders were targeting Joo Myunghwan. Minjun admired his smooth way of getting under the other’s skin.

And Joo Myunghwan wasn’t the type to let it slide. As expected, he bristled for a moment before putting on a haughty expression.

“Then I’ll handle it from here. Whatever I do, hunter Yoon Soohyuk, don’t interfere.”

“Well, sure.”

“You can report whatever happens to the National Security Agency. I’ll take responsibility.”

Grinning, Myunghwan pulled two pairs of handcuffs and four long, curved spears from his inventory. Without giving anyone a chance to react, he drove a spear into each of the intruders’ legs, pinning them to the ground. Minjun winced at the sight.

Hunters could use an emergency dungeon escape only once after entering a dungeon. Intruders exploited this by ambushing, stealing items, and fleeing. Amid repeated damages, a method to prevent emergency dungeon escapes was discovered: pinning the hunter to the dungeon with an item.

The exact principle was unknown, but the effect was certain.

Stabbing the already subdued and unconscious intruders with spears posed a problem. Even though this was outside the law’s jurisdiction, torturing intruders would be condemned.

However, Joo Myunghwan had gained interests related to the Poison Jar Dungeon and had built connections with the military. As long as the intruders were kept alive, it would end with a fine or a light sentence. That was why he said he would take responsibility.

The man first cuffed the intruders’ wrists one by one. Soohyuk, standing beside him, explained that the cuffs were magical tools that sealed a hunter’s skills. They were single-use and extremely expensive.

After sealing the intruders’ skills, Myunghwan picked up a spear and drove it through both of their legs.

“Argh!”

“Ahhh!”

The two unconscious intruders woke up screaming in pain. Joo Myunghwan immediately kicked the jaw of the nearest intruder, knocking him out again. Then he ripped off the mask of the remaining intruder.

As expected, the intruder was a foreigner with brown hair and yellow eyes.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

The intruder cursed in English. Ignoring him, Myunghwan pressed down on the spear embedded in the intruder’s leg. Another scream echoed.

“Who’s behind this?”

“Shit!”

“Who’s behind this?”

“Shit! I don’t know! I don’t know Korean!”

“Really? Tell me everything.”

When Joo Myunghwan demanded the other to tell him everything in English, the intruder clammed up, rolling his eyes as if trying to find a way to escape. He then spotted Soohyuk standing at a distance and swallowed hard, probably recognizing him as an S-class.

“Fucking bastard.”

Annoyed by the intruder’s gaze fixed on Soohyuk, Joo Myunghwan pressed the spear again, eliciting another scream.

“These guys are all the same.”

He drew the sword from his waist and instantaneously sliced off the intruder’s left knee. Blood splattered everywhere, accompanied by a horrific scream. The hunters watching turned pale. Ignoring them, Joo Myunghwan kicked the severed leg away and used a skill to burn it.

“Oh my.”

Soohyuk, who had approached unnoticed, stood in front of Minjun. But Minjun had already seen everything and inwardly clicked his tongue at Joo Myunghwan’s cruelty. With potions available, the intruder wouldn’t die from losing a leg. However, the severed leg couldn’t be restored. There was no skill on Earth yet that could regenerate severed limbs.

The man poured a potion directly into the mouth of the intruder, who was convulsing with his eyes rolled back, bound by ropes and pinned by the spear. The bleeding stump quickly healed.