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Black Market (3)

The tables and chairs in the bar were pushed aside, creating a circular space like a makeshift arena. The three men stood proud as the audience whispered among themselves.

“They’re so shameless.”

“He’s barely over level 10, and they want to use him to get their name out…? They’re animals.”

“Well, if he ends up being weak, that’s just how things work in this world. It’s not like I want to help, either.”

“Seo Jun-ho’s at his peak right now. It’ll be a huge blow for him.”

“That’s exactly why they’re picking a fight. If they win, the media will go crazy.” In fact, there were those that were using their Vita to record them. Seeing this, the three men smiled at each other.

This is perfect. 

What did I say? This guy’s a walking gold mine.

After today, we—the Gangnam Trio—will be famous!

They were confident because their levels were high.

Since our levels are higher, our stats will be higher too. 

He’s just a novice who’s never fought against other people in earnest. 

The first one that stepped up was the level 22 player who held a lance.

“They call us the Three Reapers of Gangnam. We wield the lance, the sword, and magic with great talent. I am the Life-Severing Lance. You should be honored.”

“……Sigh.” He wasn’t the one who should be honored. He’d never even heard of such a lame-sounding group. Even the onlookers looked at each other in confusion. “Three Reapers?” “Gangnam?”

This will do. Seo Jun-ho pulled out a small dagger from his inventory. It was thin and small, about the length of his palm. The Life-Severing Lance wrinkled his forehead as he watched.

“……Is that your weapon? It’s different from what I saw in the papers. Aren’t you a sword user?”

“That’s for catching cows. This…”

“Are you gonna say it’s for catching chickens?” Seo Jun-ho twirled the dagger in his hands as he turned.

“No, it’s for killing bugs.”

“……You bastard!” Red-faced, the Life-Severing Lance lunged without warning like a third-rate fighter.

“Oh my god!”

“What a cheat!” The audience erupted in disapproval as they held their breath. As they did, the space between the two men shrank from 10 meters to 5. In the blink of an eye, the Life-Severing Lance’s weapon arrived in front of Seo Jun-ho’s heart. And then—

Crash! 

The Life-Severing Lance rolled onto the floor.

“Gah…..!” He couldn’t even scream as his back folded.

“You’re not supposed to swing a lance so obviously…” Seo Jun-ho spoke in a soft voice as he stood over him. He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t find the energy to do so. “……Well. I’d say you live up to your name.”

“The bastard, he was too cocky. He’s the Association’s rising star, after all.” His teammates shook their heads. They still looked confident.

He thought Seo Jun-ho wouldn’t be able to react at all and rushed in. 

His opening was too big. It’s not hard to flip him over if the opponent is waiting for it. They didn’t seem to make much of it.

This is a lot easier than I thought. Seo Jun-ho stepped on the Life-Severing-whatever’s back.

“Ack! It—it hurts!”

(TN: He switched to formal speech lol)

As soon as he cried out, his teammates’ faces fell.

“Hey, move your foot!”

“You’re still being so disrespectful to your sunbae.”

“I was never respectful in the first place though? You said you’d teach me.”

The Life-Severing Sword brandished his weapon, as if provoked. Seo Jun-ho recalled what he’d said earlier.

It was that guy. He said killing a monster and killing a human are fundamentally different.

He knew that all too well. When you fight monsters, you immediately go for the weak points. But it was hard to do that with a human—especially if you’d never killed before.

But he chose the wrong opponent. His words were irrelevant to Seo Jun-ho. When he was Specter, he’d killed a countless number of fiends.

“No more playing around. Take out your sword, Seo Jun-ho.” He held out his dagger. His opponent let out a deep sigh. “It seems that you’re underestimating the Three Reapers of Gangnam because of that guy.” He assumed that Seo Jun-ho chalked them up to the same level as the Life-Severing Lance. “Don’t regret it later on.”

“Speak for yourself. Don’t make excuses when you lose.”

Neither the Three Reapers of Gangnam nor their descendants would be able to live up this battle. Whether he knew or not, the Life-Severing Sword silently charged his sword with magic.

Wooong!

A faint, thin aura covered the sword. Seeing this, the audience ooh’d.

“Woah! He knows how to use sword ki?”

“You’d have to be good at magic to use that.”

“That’s amazing for his current level.”

Sword ki* was a technique that overlaid the sword with magic to enhance its sharpness and durability. If you used it on a knife, it became knife ki; if you used it on a lance, it became lance ki.

(TN: Weaker version of sword aura, where the ki physically manifests.)

Sword ki? Yeah right. Seo Jun-ho shook his head. People who didn’t know better would be impressed, but it was a fake. He probably saw it once and is trying to imitate the shape. 

There was a reason why sword ki was so impressive. With it, you could cut things that couldn’t be cut and pierce things that couldn’t be pierced. But his sword ki was all for show and barely did anything.

The sword is probably more destructive, but its durability is decreasing at this very second.

Seo Jun-ho was bored by the sloppy technique, but the Life-Severing Sword took his expression differently.

“Hoo, it’s no surprise that you’d be scared after realizing how much stronger I am. But it’s too late for you.” He slowly walked toward Seo Jun-ho.  He thought he would be able to win if he didn’t give an opening like the Lance had. But Seo Jun-ho thought differently.

He’s messing up. He’d hunted a lot of fiends as Specter, winning consecutive matches against those that were much stronger than the average player. Some thought that he was able to win because of his incredible weaponry skills or because of his S-rank skills. Of course, those were part of the reason, but there was a bigger factor.

Breath. Seo Jun-ho was good at stealing his opponents’ breaths. Experts let in and let out an equal amount of breath from the beginning of the battle. But inexperienced fighters couldn’t do that.

Generally, when someone untrained is caught by surprise, they take a deep breath. In the moment that their lungs get filled, their body would get stiff. Seo Jun-ho relished in interrupting his opponent’s breath and creating an opening.

Of course, it doesn’t work on people that are good… But luckily, the one in front of him wasn’t.

“Hm?”

“Huh?” The onlookers were confused. They thought Seo Jun-ho had been cornered, but he walked up to the Sword on his own.

Is he giving up?

It’s like a trapped mouse going up to a cat. 

Let’s keep watching for now. All the anticipation, concern, and confusion was directed at him. And Seo Jun-ho lowered his palm-sized dagger.

To novices, his body looked like the perfect target.

“He’s completely open!” The said novice swung his sword. But right before it could hit his shoulder, Seo Jun-ho’s dagger met the blade.

Woosh!

Instead of Seo Jun-ho’s shoulder, the sword stabbed the empty air. The Life-Severing Sword’s face darkened.

…He dares to block me? I guess the Lance was an easy match for him. Seo Jun-ho had a better eye and reaction time than he’d expected. After all, he was being trained under the Association as their rising star.

But you can’t make up for the difference in level, you cocky bastard. He twisted his wrist, showing the side of the blade. It cut forward in a straight line. If Seo Jun-ho didn’t block or dodge it, it would cut his head clean off.

“……I think I’ve indulged you long enough. You’ve crossed the line.” Seo Jun-ho’s eyes narrowed. He’d only planned to play around a bit, but the Sword’s attack was filled with murderous intent.

He couldn’t let them go anymore.

Drip, drip. 

There was a sound like water dripping from a faucet. It came from an artery of the Life-Severing Sword.

“Ahhhhhh!” Blood spurted from his wrist like a fountain, overlapping with the sound of the loud clang of the fallen sword. Seo Jun-ho’s dagger had cut him precisely.

“You won’t be able to hold a sword with that hand anymore. You might be able to hold a spoon though.” It was a death sentence for a sword user.

The Life-Severing Sword looked down at his trembling hand with a blank look in his eyes as if it wasn’t his. He tried to stop the bleeding with pressure, but his hand wouldn’t stop shaking.

“You… You…!” He stood hunched over for a moment before picking up his sword with his left hand. Dripping blood with a look of venom, he looked terrifying.

But Seo Jun-ho looked at him with pity, not fear. He muttered with a tired voice.

“……You came for my life first.” His opponent had no right to feel wronged, and there was no need for him to feel guilty. But as he watched the Sword who looked as if he’d lost everything, his mouth was filled with a bitter taste.

Clang!

Seo Jun-ho swiftly dodged the flying sword and kicked his knees. As the Sword lost his balance, Seo Jun-ho landed a punch in his stomach.

“Gah!”

“You fucking bastard!”

As the Sword fell, the Life-Severing Magic stepped in.

(TN: I’m sorry for the lame names, you won’t hear them after this chapter lol   |   PR: Lame names for a lame group, makes sense anyway.)

Anyone could see that the Life-Severing Sword had attacked first, but men were blind to their causes.

Woosh!

A lance made of magic formed in the air and flew toward Seo Jun-ho, aimed at his heart.

“You guys started it.” But even in situations like these, he always felt like he was the bad guy.

Seo Jun-ho slapped aside the lance with the back of his hand and swung his other. The dagger stabbed perfectly into his opponent’s stomach.

“Gah! Urk!” Breathing shallow, he instinctively reached to pull it out, but Seo Jun-ho leaned toward his ear.

“If you pull that out, you’ll die. Go to the hospital and you can live,” he said coldly. He stiffened and let go of the handle, swallowing hard. As soon as he said that, the situation started to look bleak.

It hasn’t even been a month since he’s become a player… Why is the gap so big? A chill went down the Magic’s spine. If Seo Jun-ho hadn’t been merciful, they would have all been dead.

It’s over. The fight had lasted a little over three minutes, but the result was the complete opposite of what everyone had expected. The Three Reapers of Gangnam laid on the floor, groaning. But instead of being appalled, the crowd clapped and cheered.

“Wow, that was amazing!”

“He took out three players that were higher-leveled than him!”

“He didn’t even have to try. He’s just too good.”

“It seems that a great player has come out of the Association!”

“That was so cool, Seo Jun-ho!”

After the world had become like a game, this was one of the ways common sense had twisted. Instead of being concerned about the injured, they only cheered the victor.

Yeah, I’m the only normal one. It’s only gotten worse after 25 years.

There were three ways to survive in this crazy world. Go crazy with the rest, suppress all your emotions, or always be in despair.

You couldn’t survive if you didn’t choose one.

“……Phew.” Seo Jun-ho walked up to the Life-Severing Lance, who was the least injured, and crouched down.

“Will you come after me for revenge?” He asked casually, as if he were asking if he was hungry.

But he understood instinctively what Seo Jun-ho meant. If he said yes, he would kill them all right now.

Trembling, he bowed his head. “N-no. We will not. W-we won’t even look at your shadow for the rest of our lives……”

“Really? Okay. Have a good life.” Satisfied with the answer, Seo Jun-ho turned around and walked up to the bartender.

“Is the teleporter ready?”

“Yes.”

“Lead the way.” The teleport was over in an instant, just like when he’d come. Seo Jun-ho landed in a dirty alleyway in Insa-dong. He looked up at the narrow sky.

“……I miss my friends.”

His chest stung again today.

No matter how much and how long people resented him, he never got used to the feeling.