LRAB Chapter 382: Deadly Strike (1)
Chapter 382: Deadly Strike (1)
I can’t rule out the possibility that this is something Purple Eyes did. The Shinsu Guild executives were taken out that way, after all.
There was a case of similar damage that had happened close to home.
An incident in which five top-level executives, including Guild Master Go Cheon-yeong, had all died in a dungeon.
There should only be one or two so-called “abnormal growth methods” even being mentioned, but there are way too many. It’s not easy to narrow down which hunter might have such an ability.
A furrow formed between his brows.
At the same time, his thoughts broke through in a different direction.
Stephanie Baker?
She was a South America–based hunter who wasn’t born in Bolivia but also used Bolivia as one of her main stomping grounds.
There had been no mention in the story of a constellation or ability that demanded human sacrifice from her.But she did have a means of indirectly exerting influence over hunters inside a dungeon by inducing dungeon imbalance.Just because it wasn’t mentioned doesn’t mean I can be sure it doesn’t exist. A Reaper constellation could have attached itself to her.
The range of his thinking broadened.
La Paz, the capital, was a place where multiple guilds were vying for dominance.
It was also the main production and supply point for low-grade drug-type stimulants mass-produced through illegal channels.
It was entirely possible that Stephanie had moved in order to secure those profits.
She was the sort of person who did anything as long as it made money. Let alone when it came to stimulants that brought in huge sums—there was nothing more to say.While Kang-hoo and Jung Yuri were chatting about all sorts of things,
news came that Kang Bok-hwa had returned, and Kang-hoo headed straight to the market with her.
Aside from the unexpected Bolivia story he’d been able to hear through the unlikely route of Jung Yuri, there was nothing particularly flashy.
Most of it had been about how obsessed she currently was with leveling up and how much she had grown in the meantime.
Even if it wasn’t quite to his level, Jung Yuri was also growing at an explosive pace.
If things just continued on this trajectory, she was expected to enter a full-blown growth highway like Lee Ye-rin had.
Given that both Jung Yuri and Lee Ye-rin would end up, in the long run, as people standing opposite the Jeonghwa Guild, their growth was a welcome sight.
As always, he followed the VVIP-only route to go meet Kang Bok-hwa.
As he had done before, he looked around along the way, wondering if he might see Baek Seon-tae while they were moving this time as well.
But no matter where he looked on the way, Baek Seon-tae was nowhere to be seen. Had he been reassigned to a different post?
“Welcome! I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting. I hurried as much as I could, but this body just doesn’t listen anymore. Maybe I should just die when I get too old, eh.”
“Grandma...! I told you before, you’re never allowed to say things like you’re going to die!”
‘You die when you get old.’
It was the sort of thing elderly people always said.
So Kang-hoo had just let the words pass without much thought, but Jung Yuri quickly raised her voice, eyes already brimming with tears.
He didn’t feel it was some kind of emotional overreaction.
That’s how precious Kang Bok-hwa and Master K are to Jung Yuri.
The existence of those two people, who had given her a reason and will to live and had become sturdy pillars for her, was huge.
For Jung Yuri, losing the two of them would be a grief greater than her own death.
“Ah, you scared me! All right, all right! This old granny will live so long you’ll be sick of me, right up until I’m drooling in my diapers! Happy now?”
“Yep! I’m happy now! Hehe.”
“You go from crying to laughing just like that? What am I supposed to do with you, really... hohoho.”
Even though their voices had risen, it was a very heartwarming scene. He was secretly a bit jealous.
On the other hand, he wondered if he and his master, Celestial Assassin, could ever have an exchange like this.
Of course, he didn’t have the kind of emotion that would make him tear up like Jung Yuri, and his master’s reactions weren’t exactly entertaining either.
In any case, after exchanging cheerful greetings with Kang Bok-hwa, Kang-hoo casually asked about Baek Seon-tae, who wasn’t there.
He hadn’t paid him any particular mind when he could see him, but now that he couldn’t, it nagged at him a bit.
“By any chance, Mr. Baek Seon-tae...?”
“Oh, Seon-tae? He went to Russia. I tried to stop him several times, but his own will was too strong;
I couldn’t.”
“Did he decide on Russia from the start and go for that specifically?”
“Yes. He said he’d been thinking about it for a long time.”
If he’d gone to Russia, there was only one reason: he had the Kashimar Guild in mind.
It was true that the Kashimar Guild was a good place for a hunter to grow.
All the choicest dungeons in Russia belonged to the Kashimar Guild.
Once you became a Kashimar Guild member, you were sent to raid dungeons according to the guild’s established training curriculum.
Every plan was focused entirely on leveling up;
in terms of growth measured purely by the “number” that was level, it was overwhelming.
The problem is the heart demon.
The Kashimar Guild’s withdrawal rate was known to be virtually 0%.
That was because the guild carried out a steady, gradual, and discreet program of brainwashing.
There was a separate training team organized professionally at the guild level.
It was an organization composed of mental-type hunters, and publicly, only its name was known.
They called them “Daveriye”—a name that, in Russian, meant “trust.” A frightening name once you knew the substance behind it.
Once your mind was subjugated by them, it became impossible to leave the guild.
They made it so that guild members who followed the Kashimar Guild gradually lost their own will and became “willing” in only one direction.
What Kang-hoo called “simma,” seen from another angle, was essentially a relationship of mental enslavement and dependency.
There was no point pouring his heart into someone who had already left;
nothing would change.
Just as he was trying to shake off his thoughts about Baek Seon-tae, Kang Bok-hwa smoothly changed the subject.
“How’s Infernus? Are you making good use of it?”
“Thanks to you, yes. Though I think I’ll need a lot more time to really get to its essence.”
“The bereaved family contacted me a while ago. They said the original owner appeared to them in a dream.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. They said he told them that, having met a good owner, he could finally leave in peace.”
“It seems their earnest wish reached him. I’m also doing my best to live up to the original owner’s expectations.”
When it came to Infernus, there was overwhelmingly more he needed to learn than what he knew.
Hell, and its divine soldiers.
For Kang-hoo, this was an area he had never experienced;
he could practically be said to have zero prior knowledge in this field.
He could go to the very gate of Hell right now if he wanted to, but he didn’t because of the severe uncertainty involved.
He could take “risks,” but “recklessness” was forbidden. He still had far too few clues about Hell and its divine soldiers.
“Oh, I should mention one more thing before we move on to the room where we handle mana-shot rifles. Lately, people in South America and Africa have been looking for a lot of ritual-type items.”
“Are they looking for items similar to Infernus? There’s really no need to go that far.”
“It’s not that Shin Kang-hoo-nim requested it, but I had a feeling that if I dug some up, you’d open your wallet nice and wide as a customer.”
“Ho...”
“I don’t mean you’re a pushover! It’s because I know you have more than enough ability to handle such items.”
“In that case, I’ll ask you to go ahead. If something like that turns up, I doubt I’ll just walk past it, like you said.”
Kang-hoo nodded.
Items like Infernus, which couldn’t be understood in ordinary terms, definitely had hidden secrets.
If Kang Bok-hwa was going to look into it for him, it meant one less thing for him to worry about personally, which was convenient.
And since she hadn’t even said she would charge extra commission or search fees, he decided to accept her goodwill with a light heart.
It was still in the realm of “maybe,” but there was a possibility that another charm existed that formed a pair with Infernus.
To grasp such a thread, attempts to search for it were essential, so Kang Bok-hwa’s consideration was quietly appreciated.“May I look around quietly?”
“Take as much time as you like. Any information you need can be checked on the tablets placed in front of each product.”
“Oppa, take your time looking. Grandma cleared this time just for you!”
“Got it, thanks.”
Soon after, Kang Bok-hwa and Jung Yuri stepped out of the Gun Room. This area was filled exclusively with mana-shot rifles.
“I think I get why gunners value their guns more than their own lives. Even I’m tempted, looking at these.”
The mana-shot rifles on display weren’t just “tools” that condensed and fired mana.
They felt like individual works of art. You could feel the artisan’s touch etched into them, stitch by stitch.
The red dragon painted along the barrel alone radiated a level of terror that was overwhelming.
If just watching from the sidelines made you feel fear, then from the shooter’s perspective, it would inspire that much confidence and reassurance.
“Assassins and snipers have a lot in common.”
He had long wondered why, unlike with other weapons, he was particularly drawn to guns.
Thinking it over, it seemed that the defining trait of sniping ultimately came from “assassination.”
Because you could take someone’s life from a position and timing the opponent never realized.
In that sense—being able to attack unilaterally without taking damage yourself—the two were of the same stripe.
Of course, not every gunner specialized purely as a sniper. Each gunner had their own type.
Ayane.
She was a pure, 100% sniper who always fired in sniper mode, even in close-quarters combat.
She specialized in a single concentrated shot, which meant that, conversely, she had a critical weakness when it came to scattered, suppressive fire.
Baen Se-yeong, on the other hand, was centered on mid-range shooting, with long-range sniping as a secondary concept.
So she didn’t exactly favor sniping, which required lots of time and meticulous setup. Her accuracy also dropped.
But in mid-range battles where she fought at a reasonable distance while using terrain features, she had enormous strengths.
“When I buy a gun this time, I should ask Ayane to teach me about sniping.”
Considering the Deadly Strike skill, and the way his congenital mana hyper-sensitivity led to over-concentration of mana, he had a build that fit best with a sniper type that poured everything into a single shot.
In that case, it was best if his mana-shot rifle matched that style.
Spending too much money on a gun would be putting the cart before the horse, so he planned to set his budget at around fifty billion won.
Durability that can withstand Deadly Strike’s overload is the top priority. Let’s look for something that’s rough, but tough as nails.
Calming the part of his heart that had nearly been carried away, Kang-hoo shifted his gaze to focus on durability.
His eyes did keep drifting toward the ones that looked less and less attractive, but it couldn’t be helped.
What mattered in a weapon designed to kill an enemy was its sharpness, not how flashy it looked on the outside.Ten minutes later.
Having finished purchasing one mana-shot rifle for fifty billion won, Kang-hoo followed Jung Yuri’s lead down to the basement.
The market’s basement had a dedicated testing chamber where you could check the firepower and strength of items you’d bought.
After showing him where it was, Jung Yuri withdrew immediately. She didn’t want to use her friendship as an excuse to intrude on his time.
“Let’s see here...”
Entering the testing chamber, Kang-hoo tapped on the touch panel set up by the entrance.
Once you configured the settings there, you could summon a dummy for testing.
The dummies were a kind of condensed mana construct, created by compressing mana around a core made of magic stone.
So by configuring the dummy with whatever settings you wanted, you could check roughly what level your firepower was at.
Level 400.
For the first setup, he chose a dummy with defensive capabilities equivalent to level 400.
Would a single Deadly Strike be able to pierce the toughness an average level 400 hunter should have?
“......”
Holding the mana-shot rifle, Kang-hoo focused his mind and finished preparing to use the Deadly Strike skill.
He needed to pack in as much mana as possible so the firepower would rise exponentially.
At the same time, he had to brace himself mentally for the pain that would follow as a price.
【Deadly Strike】
At last, he activated the skill.
Whooom. Whooom. Whooom!
From that moment on, the surrounding mana began to gather explosively, using Kang-hoo’s body as a stepping-stone.
The more he endured the pain himself, the higher the probability that he would kill his target—this was the beginning of a brutal test of endurance.