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‘Why is it coming over here…?’ The Giant Ogre could be considered the boss of this gate break. In the past, it headed head west, the direction opposite of Taehyun, where it was subdued by the A-Rank Player Hyunsoo Ahn.

‘So… why?’ Taehyun cocked his head. The Giant Ogre was approaching him, destroying everything in its path as its singular eye was focused directly on him.

‘That can’t be right.’ Right about now, countless Players should have come to defeat the monster. So it could only have been pure coincidence that the boss-level Giant Ogre had discovered him. Thinking so, he began running away from the alleyway he was in.

“Grwuaaahh!” As if it were matching Taehyun’s movements, the Giant Ogre began to sprint forward. In contrast to its massive size, the monster moved surprisingly swiftly, living up to its A-Rank title. Every step it took was accompanied by a bone-chilling crunch.

‘I won’t be able to do anything with Stone Skin.’ Taehyun’s Stone Skin was currently sitting at D-Rank. Thanks to it, he was able to fight with an Ogre, a C-Rank monster, on equal footing. However, he knew that his limits were at most B-Rank. If the massive club that the Giant Ogre was swinging hit him, his Stone Skin would not hold.

Although he wanted to check whether Devour would work on an A-Rank monster now that it had become D-Rank… ‘I’ll need Devour for a different place.’

At the moment, the best option was to run.

Just then, someone stood in front of the rampaging Giant Ogre. “You fiend! Halt all of your destructive activities immediately!” The man wearing armor of a rank clearly higher than average shouted in a comical tone.

“You filthy beast! I’ll cut you into pieces!” He cried out in anger as he activated a skill.

‘Hyunsoo Ahn. He’s finally here.’ The A-Rank Associate Player, Lightsaber Hyunsoo Ahn. That ridiculous alias came from his skill.

“Huaahh!” A glowing sword formed in Hyunsoo Ahn's hands as he shouted. It was the A-Rank skill Lightsaber, considered to be the evolved version of the D-Rank skill Weapon Enhancement.

The length of the lightsaber continued to grow until it reached about two meters long, and then cleanly sliced off one of the Giant Ogre’s arms. Whump. The club being held in its arm fell to the ground as well; the surface tremoring once more.

‘As expected, it’s a good skill.’ Taehyun licked his lips as he gazed at the lightsaber.

One of the basic effects of the lightsaber was that it ignored all physical defenses. In other words, even if the opponent has solid armor, it would be impossible for them to defend against the lightsaber unless they had a corresponding skill or trait. It was thanks to this effect that Hyunsoo Ahn had been able to become a Star Player in the future despite only being A-Rank.

However, the Giant Ogre wasn’t just staying still. With a roar, the arm that had been severed began to regenerate. As if it would no longer allow itself to be attacked, the monster began throwing whatever it could get a hold of towards Hyunsoo Ahn.

Crunch! Dodging a car that landed right in front of him, Taehyun retreated far back. Hyunsoo Ahn, who had taken that moment to close the distance, cut off one of its legs. His movements were impressively quick and agile.

Thummp! Hyunsoo Ahn quickly rode onto the back of the Giant Ogre, who was kneeling on the ground after losing its balance. He proceeded to cut off the arm that had been generating once more.

“Graghhhh!” The Giant Ogre cried in pain and swung its other hand in an attempt to remove Hyunsoo Ahn. However, he swiftly moved in a zigzag pattern and retreated.

Taehyun didn’t take his eyes off the battle for a single second.

‘I can see it.’ Taehyun was able to anticipate the A-Rank Player’s future actions by observing the movement of his upper and lower muscles. These movements were impossible to follow with normal eyes, but Taehyun's physical stats increased when he became D-Rank.

At the B-Rank level, a Player's physical stats reach a level that is far beyond that of a normal person. Because of this, Taehyun was always limited in what he could see despite witnessing countless battles between Players in the past. However, things were different now. For the first time, Taehyun was finally able to watch a battle between an A-Rank Player and a monster with clarity.

Though it was one-sided due to the Player being much more skilled, just watching the battle was providing Taehyun with valuable experience.

‘Will I soon be able to move like that?’ In the past, Taehyun had reached the limits of the human body through hard work. But if he devoured a skill related to strength or speed enhancement, he would be able to move at a similar pace to the current Hyunsoo Ahn.

Nonetheless, there were skills that he must obtain first before devouring buff-type skills, considering their cooldown time. The current skills owned by Taehyun were Devour and Stone Skin. Since his Awakened Rank increased in conjunction with his unique skill Devour, he should be able to obtain sublime physical stats if he became C-Rank. For now, that would be good enough.

‘Let’s start heading out, then.’ He would have liked to stay and watch while munching on popcorn. He could have if it weren’t for the things he had to do.

Taehyun hadn’t even been able to call Jaeyoung because of the continuous wave of monsters, so considering his nature, it was obvious he was a nervous wreck by now.

"I will bring judgment upon you on behalf of those you killed.” Leaving Hyunsoo Ahn and his cheesy lines behind, Taehyun had just been about to take his leave when he felt a strange energy emanating nearby.

A system message appeared a moment too late.

[Skill usage detected.]

When he upgraded his status page, he had set it so that it could detect even the most trivial of skills or threats directed at him. All of this had been inspired by his feud against the Back Cross thugs.

Taehyun instinctively threw his body to the side as something flew past him.

Pshk. “Argh!” Hyunsoo Ahn, who had been engrossed in his battle against the Giant Ogre, collapsed while clutching his leg. The Giant Ogre’s hand slammed towards where he fell, but Hyunsoo Ahn dodged by rolling to the side.

“Who did that?!” Hyunsoo Ahn shouted, searching his surroundings for the entity that had wounded him. His eyes lingered on Taehyun for a moment before darting elsewhere. Through a gap in the area Hyunsoo Ahn was looking at, strange energy targeted Hyunsoo Ahn once again.

Slice! He heard the sound of something being cut by the lightsaber he had swung.

“Reveal yourself!”

Slice. Hyunsoo Ahn swung his lightsaber again; the sound of something being cut at a lower pitch than before. The successive attacks seemed to have been enough to deactivate the skill.

“Keh... You’re a tough one, as expected.” Shshsssss. A middle-aged man dressed in dreary black clothing suddenly appeared out of nowhere. His entire body was splatted with blood of unknown origins.

Taehyun's eyes twinkled as he saw the sparkling ring on the man’s hand. It was adorned with three golden skulls. ‘He finally made an appearance.’

A Yvelian from the Scorn Guild. When the gate break happened in the past, the number of casualties far exceeded what was estimated due to several Yvelians infiltrating the crowd of civilians to carry out an onslaught.

“You… You’re a Yvelian!” Hyunsoo Ahn shouted in fury when he realized the man's identity, but refrained from acting rashly due to anger. The situation was not in his favor. With the Giant Ogre already recognizing him as an enemy, he had to stay wary of its fist.

“As expected of the Associate’s rookie. It seems I should have aimed for the neck on the first blow.” The man licked his lips with regret. Blood dripped from his wounded shoulder; the lightsaber had slashed his shoulder when it sliced through his dagger.

Lick. He smiled ominously while licking the blood running down his shoulder.

“You little gnat, stop right there! Once I’m done dealing with this monster, you’re…” Hyunsoo Ahn dodged the Giant Ogre’s fist, unable to finish his sentence.

The man snickered at the sight. “Woah, woah. Even I won’t be able to fight you at your full strength.”

His gaze turned towards Taehyun, who was getting up. “I think that one’s a better fit for me.” The man scanned Taehyun’s body as he took out a new dagger.

“Run away, young man!” Hyunsoo Ahn shouted at Taehyun, who had become the man's new target.

Since Hyunsoo Ahn's leg was injured, he wouldn't be able to outrun the Giant Ogre or ward off the Yvelian; therefore, Taehyun needed to escape using his own power. Finishing his analysis of the situation, Taehyun ran through the streets without replying.

“Ke... Kekekekk. Have fun playing with that monster, O’ Mr. Knight of Justice.” Sneering at the scene of Hyunsoo Ahn struggling against the Giant Ogre, the man chased after Taehyun.

Using his Stealth skill, he had cut down several civilians on his way to Hyunsoo Ahn; the schoolboy running ahead of him his next victim. However… he was unaware of the smile on Taehyun’s face as he ran away.

***

“Seriously… Why isn’t he answering...?” Jaeyoung bit his nails anxiously. He was at an underground shopping mall near the Gwangjin-gu office.

It had already been ten minutes since the agreed-upon meeting time, and the boy who had promised to call him before then was neither calling nor accepting his calls. “The phone’s still ringing, though…” He hung up the call that was not being answered.

Jaeyoung’s eyes turned to the woman in front of him; Naeyong Choi, Gungook High’s school nurse whom he had ‘kidnapped’ under Taehyun’s orders. She was sleeping on the couch, oblivious to this situation.

“Players will be dispatched to the district office as soon as something happens, so wait there.”

‘Where did he get the key from?’ He thought back to Taehyun’s calm face as he gave Jaeyoung the key. ‘And how did Hyung know that the gate break was going to happen?’

There hadn’t been a single gate break in ten years, and even though the Association attempted to predict their occurrences in advance, they couldn’t do anything to stop them. Not to mention, the scale of this gate break was unusual. It was so chaotic outside that if he hadn’t been warned in advance, he would have ditched his orders and run away into a shelter.

‘It’s not too late to do that…’ Looking at the woman sleeping on the sofa, then at his cell phone, Jaeyoung fell into deep contemplation.

It didn’t last long.

Taehyun Kim. Just a week ago, he had ignored this cousin of his, thinking of him just as some unawakened loser. However, it was as though he had become a different person overnight.

Gulp. Recalling what happened to the three Awakeneds from Back Cross, his entire body turned cold. “Ah... Please, just hurry up... Hyung-nim…”

The monsters rampaging outside were scary, but to Jaeyoung, Taehyun was even scarier.

***

Meanwhile.

Taehyun, whom Jaeyoung was waiting so fervently for, had arrived at an empty building near the Gwangjin-gu office. Monsters must have already swept the place, as he didn’t sense anyone inside.

“Are you done running, kiddo? You have quick feet.”

Shshsssss. Seeing that Taehyun had stopped running, the man belatedly deactivated his skill. There wasn’t anyone inside the building, and he didn’t see any security cameras, so there was no need for him to waste mana using skills against a teenage boy.

“Heheh... Try begging for mercy,” the man gave a warped smile as he spoke. He strongly desired to see the boy in front of him cry and beg for his life. However, the boy’s reaction was different from what he had expected.

“Hm. So your skill also applies to items you’re holding,” Taehyun commented while inspecting the man.

“What?”

“B-Rank Yvelian, Sangdo Han. I’ve been waiting for someone like you to appear.” Saying that as though it weren’t a big deal, Taehyun began to warm up his body.

“You… Are you a player?” The B-Rank Yvelian, Sangdo Han, began to let loose a deadly aura. His desire to kill was so strong that even the average B-Rank Player would have flinched. However, Taehyun merely finished stretching nonchalantly.

Craa-ca-ack. “Come see for yourself.” With his casual response, he activated Stone Skin.

Notes:

1. -nim (a Korean suffix) is a high-level honorific used to show respect to someone; used often when addressing someone who is revered and admired for having a significant amount of skill, intellect, and knowledge.

2. Hyung-nim is a Korean term for calling one's 'mob boss,' 'crime boss,' or 'Don'. It is a masculine word, meant to be spoken from one male to an older male, as it also commonly means older brother.