Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Park Dong-jae (4)

Kang-hoo deliberately used the master key to unlock all the iron doors, freeing the other hostages trapped behind them.

He didn’t forget to issue a warning, however.

“I’ve unlocked the doors, but I won’t be responsible for your safety. The choice is yours.”

It would be wonderful if, like the hero of a superhero movie, he could safely rescue all the hostages.

Kang-hoo wasn’t devoid of such desires. It’s not that he was heartless or emotionless.

However, it was impossible to safely lead more than a dozen hostages out.

Especially since he was the only combatant inside the building.

All the hostages were hunters, but they were left without any useful items.

They had been stripped of everything by the Osho Mercenary Corps, a common fate for those kidnapped.

Without their core weapons, even using skills would result in reduced firepower and combat effectiveness.

“Thank you! Thank you!”

“Let’s stick together and get out!”

“Running separately will only lead to death if we’re caught!”

“Let’s do it!”

Being hunters at their core, they quickly reached a consensus on their thoughts and actions.

However, some hunters showed no intention of moving even after Kang-hoo unlocked the doors.

That was also a choice.

They preferred to seek safety here rather than risk death by attempting a reckless escape.

If asked whether it was a good choice, Kang-hoo could confidently say it was not.

Whether the hostages and Kang-hoo escape successfully or not, those left behind are likely to become targets of vented frustration.

“I gave them the chance to choose, so I’ve also given them the chance to be responsible for the outcome.”

Kang-hoo thus freed himself of any lingering regrets for the remaining hostages. Everyone’s fate was not his responsibility.

He maintained his stealth, using lateral movement and blending in with the hostages.

Rather than using them as shields, he waited for the attention naturally drawn to them.

Sure enough.

“The hostages are escaping! Catch them! It’s okay to kill anyone who resists! Crush them!”

A hunter from the Osho Mercenary Corps shouted upon spotting the escaping group.

He didn’t seem to be the leader but appeared to have the authority to command the five mercenaries with him.

“Let’s overwhelm them! We outnumber them!”

A man among the escaping hunters naturally took command and shouted. It was a wise decision.

Panic and fleeing would only increase the number of deaths.

It was better to strike first, even at the cost of some sacrifices, and seize their weapons.

【Technique of Concealment】

Kang-hoo deployed the Technique of Concealment.

The invisibility gained from lateral movement would be immediately canceled upon attacking, so this was to better hide himself.

“Kill them! They’re unarmed!”

An Osho Mercenary Corps member confronted them head-on.

While everyone was rushing out with the single-minded intent to escape, Kang-hoo saw the sacrifice of one or two individuals as inevitable.

But two men at the forefront caught his eye. They seemed deeply committed to the mission of saving people.

“Hmm.”

It troubled him.

Using their ‘lives’ could make it easier to exploit the mercenaries’ gaps.

He wanted to give credit to the courage of the two men who were willing to risk their lives despite knowing the danger.

To speak coldly, it wasn’t that he couldn’t help them. It was just a matter of efficiency.

【Lightning Quick Blade】

【Lightning Quick Blade】

He consecutively used the Lightning Quick Blade skill and threw two throwing knives he had on him.

The knives were cheap, meant more for deterrence and mobility interruption than for killing, and did not need to be retrieved.

Swoosh!

The two knives flew through the narrow space between the hostages with a swooshing sound.

Thunk! Thud!

“Argh!”

“Damn it!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The knives hit a mercenary who had been about to split the heads of two men in half with his greatsword.

One knife lodged in the armpit of a mercenary, causing him to drop his greatsword.

The other knife lodged in the back of another’s hand, completely altering the trajectory of his sword at the final moment.

“Ah…!”

“Did you save us?”

The two men regained their senses.

They realized.

Kang-hoo had just saved them from a situation where they could have died.

At that moment.

Suddenly, Kang-hoo appeared out of thin air.

Thanks to the invisibility from the Technique of Concealment, Kang-hoo, who had been invisible, revealed himself as he stepped out from behind the veil.

【Stepping out of the veil immediately removes the invisibility effect, the veil disappears, and you gain doubled movement speed for 2 seconds.】

Enjoying the speed enhancement from stepping outside the Technique of Concealment.

Whoosh! Wham!

A series of coordinated knife attacks immediately overwhelmed the two mercenaries.

From such a close distance, and appearing silently to slit their throats and move on.

“Gah!”

“Ugh.”

The two mercenaries realized too late that there was a problem with their necks and hurried to stem the bleeding.

Whoosh!

But the blood spurted out much stronger, gushing forward like a flood.

“It’s this bastard!”

The remaining three mercenaries noticed Kang-hoo and tried to change their direction of attack.

However, the situation worsened for them as the two greatswords dropped by the just-killed mercenaries ended up in the hostages’ hands.

“No, let’s retreat!”

“Throw a smoke grenade!”

One of the mercenaries, quicker to judge than the two who had died, detonated a smoke grenade.

Consequently, the entire fourth basement level was engulfed in smoke and chaos.

Kang-hoo was also caught in the smoke, unable to see through it by any means, including night vision.

However, Kang-hoo had a different ability to detect enemies.

The Stellar Scan ability.

The three fleeing mercenaries each had a stellar contract, which allowed Kang-hoo to see red dots above their heads.

This meant that even without sight, he could still pinpoint targets and directions.

“Sigh.”

He took a deep breath.

Swish!

With all his might, he threw the grade 2 dagger, Corrupted Conviction, using the Lightning Quick Blade technique.

Trusting in the Molis Maniche gloves, which allowed him to retrieve one ‘recognized weapon,’ he launched his attack.

Then,

“Argh!”

One of the Osho mercenaries was instantly killed as Corrupted Conviction lodged squarely in his neck.

The knife, without deviating, smashed straight through the cervical vertebrae.

“S-shit, f-fuck…!”

“What the hell is that guy? What on earth?”

The end for the five mercenaries, who had shown up with great bravado to subdue the hostages, was pathetic.

Three died, and two fled without looking back.

They were so hurried they left the door, which should have been properly closed to auto-lock, wide open.

As a result, their escape route inadvertently became the same as Kang-hoo’s and the hostages’.

A total disaster.

From the beginning, apart from their name, the mercenary group was nothing more than a gathering of mediocrities.

Especially since they had no attachment to the organization, the idea of regrouping was a far-off concept for them.

Inside and out.

The fate of the Osho Mercenary Corps, which had been profiting off hostage-taking, was racing towards its end.

Zero hostage casualties.

Numerous mercenary casualties.

The situation turned out much better than Kang-hoo had anticipated.

An unexpected variable had made the situation resolve in a favorable direction.

‘I thought even if they were remnants, they would at least have some structure or sense of mission.’

The state of the enemy was too severe.

Too selfish.

Even though they could have easily made Kang-hoo’s pursuit or the hostages’ escape difficult.

Instead, they chose to flee to save their own lives, not looking back.

Of course, one of them had his wits about him.

They encountered their leader in front of the elevator on the second basement floor.

His name was Park Jun, one of Jeon Jong-du’s confidants, and he was an assassin-type hunter like Kang-hoo.

A man with a short sports haircut and dozens of piercings on his lips and ears was striking.

As soon as Park Jun saw Kang-hoo, he displayed hostility.

“You’re the bastard who released the hostages on your own.”

“And you’re the bastard who locked up the hostages on your own.”

Giving back as good as he got.

There’s no better way to irk someone.

Kang-hoo maintained a distance of about 10 meters from Park Jun. For assassins facing each other, it was a distance that could be closed in the blink of an eye.

Aware of this, a tense standoff ensued despite the proximity.

“Because of you, I lost a whole business deal. Of course, killing you would more than make up for it.”

‘That Constellation is interesting.’

Kang-hoo savored the information on Park Jun’s Constellation caught in the Stellar Scan. Then Park Jun snapped at him.

“Do you like men, you bastard? Why are you drooling over me?”

“Because you look tasty.”

“Huh… You’re crazy.”

“Even with good ingredients, if you can’t cook, it won’t taste good. That’s exactly you.”

“What are you babbling about, you homo?”

Park Jun seemed to interpret the ‘taste’ Kang-hoo mentioned in a completely different context.

Kang-hoo then slightly lowered his stance, ready to respond to Park Jun’s movements.

A fight between assassins rarely lasts long. It ends quickly, sometimes in an instant.

That’s why Kang-hoo didn’t even consider taking Solarkium.

Kang-hoo, who usually enjoys taking the initiative, exercised caution this time against Park Jun.

Seeing Kang-hoo, who had been eagerly slashing his other mercenary subordinates, become cautious, Park Jun scoffed.

“I don’t know how you killed our boss. Probably just got lucky.”

“Maybe I did.”

Kang-hoo nodded in agreement.

“The boss was the type to let his guard down a lot. I’ve warned him repeatedly, but he never changed.”

“Park Jun. How about we quietly make a peace treaty here and both back off?”

“What?”

“Why waste our energy and risk our lives needlessly? If we just ignore each other, I can escape, and you can find a way to live.”

“Idiot! You’re all scared and now spewing nonsense!”

Park Jun, who took great pride in his abilities as an assassin, thought Kang-hoo was scared.

In reality, the death of Jeon Jong-du remained an unsolved mystery to everyone.

It made no sense that Jeon Jong-du, with his high level and physical prowess, would lose in a one-on-one fight.

So, everyone assumed that Kang-hoo had stealthily approached right before the fight.

And that Jeon Jong-du, who was engrossed in boosting his combat power through life force absorption, missed Kang-hoo’s stealth.

A ridiculous death due to carelessness and exposing a vulnerability. A plausible conclusion, albeit completely different from the truth.

Kang-hoo’s passive response immediately provoked the aggressive Park Jun.

Originally, he had planned to measure the timing of his attack while observing, but now it seemed clear that taking the initiative would be advantageous.

Then.

Swish!

Kang-hoo made the first move.

He chose to engage directly by leaping forward and thrusting his dagger, opting for a frontal assault.

“What a fool.”

Park Jun was not flustered.

His specialty was precisely evading such attacks with rapid avoidance, even transformed into an ultimate skill through the effect of his Constellation.

But, at that moment.

“…?”

His evasion skill did not activate.

“Damn it.”

Park Jun’s mind went blank.

He was unaware of Kang-hoo’s fifth Constellation privilege.

The perfect counter to his space movement skill limitation.