The spot was perfect.
He'd picked one of the most deserted alleys in Suwon.
'It's broad daylight, but that's not a problem. This time of day, hardly anyone comes through here.'
He knew that for a fact—he'd watched the place for days.
'I've already secured my escape route too.'
If a witness showed up, he could just duck into the two-story building at the back of the alley and be fine.
No CCTV either, so he could slip out without worrying who was watching.
'The plan itself is perfect.'
Once the guy came ten more steps closer, he'd trigger the corpse he'd stashed inside the clothing donation bin and blow it up.
'Then, while he's staggering from the damage, I'll hit him with Curse of Fear and put him on his knees.'
After that, all he had to do was stick a dagger in the guy's neck. Simple.
'But I'm not planning to let him die easily. I'm going to play with him and make it hurt as much as possible.'
He would make sure the bastard paid for pissing him off.
With that in mind, Joo Sung-tak stood in the alley and waited.
Waiting for the buyer to come closer.
'Yeah, just a little more. Five more steps.'
The buyer walked toward him, completely unaware.
The distance to the clothing donation bin shrank.
'Four steps, three steps, two steps… One more step and…!'
And then—
He froze—
The buyer stopped with a single step left to go.
Naturally, Joo Sung-tak's expression twisted.
'What the hell, why'd he stop all of a sudden?'
They were still a bit too far apart for a normal conversation.
Even so, the buyer stayed back and shouted:
"Hey! You the guy selling the Fragment of Immortal Skin?"
"Yes, that's me."
"What are you doing over there? You not planning to make the trade or what?"
He gestured for him to come over, and it made Joo Sung-tak's blood boil.
'F*ck, if he takes just one more step, he'll be inside the Corpse Explosion radius!'
The guy kept motioning him over, but Joo Sung-tak couldn't move any closer.
'If I move in, I'll be the one in range of the Corpse Explosion.'
Corpse Explosion didn't discriminate between friend or foe.
There was no way he could go closer.
Of course, he could give up on Corpse Explosion and just walk up, cast Curse of Fear, and subdue him easily.
But there'd be no fun in that.
Above all—
'That's not the plan I came up with.'
The idea that things wouldn't go according to his carefully laid plan made his feet hesitate.
"What are you doing? Aren't you coming?"
"C-could you… come this way instead? My leg hurts…"
Even he knew how ridiculous that excuse sounded, but he had no choice.
'All I need is one step. Just one single step.'
But the man stood there as if his shoes were glued to the ground.
It was just one step.
Instead, he crossed his arms and scowled.
"Hey, you think my legs don't hurt? If anyone's in pain here, it's the guy who came all this way."
"I'm disabled, you know. It's hard for me to move."
He even resorted to the extreme excuse of claiming he was disabled.
"Disabled? For someone disabled, your legs look just fine."
The buyer didn't budge an inch.
'This f*cking bastard, is he doing this on purpose?'
No. That was impossible.
Who would ever imagine there was a corpse inside the clothing donation bin?
He couldn't know his class was Shaman either.
He'd have no idea that taking a single step would be a death sentence.
'So why the hell won't he just come over instead of arguing with me?'
Still wearing an annoyed expression, the buyer shouted again without moving.
"F*ck, you're not even planning on doing a trade, are you?"
"W-what are you talking about?"
"Don't tell me you even have the item. You're bullshitting me, aren't you, you piece of sh*t, huh?"
The sudden explosion of anger from the buyer actually caught Joo Sung-tak off guard.
"W-what are you talking abou—"
"Judging by how rattled you are, I'm right. You were trying to lure me in and mug me, weren't you? That's why you keep telling me to come farther in. Isn't that right, you miserable f*ck?"
"..."
The guy clearly had the wrong idea, but hearing it still rubbed him the wrong way.
When was the last time someone swore at him like this?
Probably not since the army.
'C-calm down. Don't get dragged along by this bastard's tempo.'
No matter what, he had to clear up the misunderstanding.
Once he got the guy to take a single step, it would all be over.
He'd have the bastard kneeling at his feet.
"I-I think you're misunderstanding something. That's not what I'm doing at all."
"Not what you're doing, my ass, you f*cker."
"Your language is pretty crude."
"Crude, my foot. You expect polite words for some sh*tbag who posts fake listings and tries to mug people?"
"I've never lied about anything, okay? Look!"
Stung by the unfairness of it, Joo Sung-tak pulled an item out of his inventory.
The Fragment of Immortal Skin he'd put up for sale.
Only then did his opponent's attitude ease up a bit.
"Huh. You really do have it."
Inside, Joo Sung-tak smiled in triumph.
'Good. Now I just have to use this to draw him in…'
But then something odd happened.
Just moments ago, the buyer had been cursing at him—now he was suddenly smiling warmly.
'What's with this asshole? Why the creepy smile…'
In that moment, a wind seemed to whistle past—and his arm went numb.
"Huh?"
His arm lay on the ground at his feet.
His left arm—the one holding the material item.
"Ah, aaagh!"
Pain belatedly crashed over him, snapping his mind awake.
'Wh-when? When did he get close? I could've sworn there was still plenty of distance between us…'
When he looked up, the buyer was still standing in the same place, smiling.
'W-wait, he hasn't moved an inch?'
So how had his arm been cut off?
He turned his head—and saw someone with a sword standing at his side.
When he looked back, the smiling buyer was still right in front of him.
"Tw-two of you…?"
Stunned, he kept glancing back and forth.
Same clothes, same face—like a pair of twins.
"Two of me? What are you talking about? There's only one."
When he turned back at those words, the one that had been in front of him vanished in the blink of an eye.
Only the one holding the sword at his side remained.
It was enough to make him think he'd seen a ghost.
In reality, a doppelganger had drawn his gaze, but there was no way for Joo Sung-tak to know that.
"H-how did you…?"
"Do I really have to explain that to you too?"
His opponent spoke casually as he stooped to pick up the material item from the severed arm.
Then he slipped it into his own inventory, as if it belonged there.
For a moment, Joo Sung-tak was too stunned to say anything.
"Y-you f*cking bastard!"
He finally managed to shout and met the man's eyes, casting Curse of Fear.
Curse of Fear.
The first skill a Shaman learned upon a job change—a broken skill that plunged the target into terror.
With this skill, he'd subdued most of his enemies with ease.
The moment he cast it, one hundred out of one hundred victims had gone limp with fear and started shaking.
He had no doubt the man in front of him would react the same way.
But something happened that he'd never seen before.
[The opponent resisted Fear.]
[You failed to cast Curse of Fear.]
'What? Failed?'
For a second, he wondered if he'd misread it.
He had never once seen that message in all his time reaching this point in Round 6.
"Nothing to be so shocked about. With an 18% success rate, it's normal to fail most of the time."
"Wh-what are you—"
Before he could even ask what that meant, a fist slammed into his jaw.
"Guh!"
Teeth flew, and his vision swam.
'What kind of damage is this…'
Wasn't the guy holding a sword?
And yet his punch hit that hard?
'Just how high is his Strength stat…'
Ridiculous as it was, he was more shocked by his opponent's strength than by the pain.
Thwack—
"Gah!"
A blow to the gut sent him sprawling and coughing up blood.
He tumbled right to the edge of critical condition.
Whoooosh—
A warm energy washed over him, and his internal and external injuries vanished.
"Wh-what just happened?"
"I healed you."
His opponent's voice was indifferent.
"Because I want to keep hitting you."
Crack—!
Before his jaw could fully reset, another punch crashed in.
Crunch— Smack— Crack!
A barrage of one-two punches drove him staggering back until he toppled over.
Whoooosh—
He nearly blacked out, but his wounds healed again and his body felt good as new.
"Y-you f*cking bastard…"
"Still not beaten enough, huh?"
Without knowing why, Joo Sung-tak was beaten senseless.
The sword went unused, as if there were no need for it—fists alone did the work.
'F*ck, if only I could cast Curse of Fear…'
Curse of Fear had a cooldown of one minute.
He'd been hit dozens of times now, but the skill still wasn't ready—apparently, the time hadn't passed yet.
'A minute has never felt this damn long.'
But even time that seems endless eventually runs out.
At last, a chance came to the battered, reeling Joo Sung-tak.
[Curse of Fear cooldown has ended.]
'You're dead now, you f*cker.'
Earlier, the man had gotten lucky and resisted—but this time…
Stab— Stab—
"Huh?"
Suddenly, he couldn't see.
Agonizing pain exploded around his eye sockets.
"A-aaagh!"
"Your parents must be shedding blood tears in the afterlife for having birthed someone like you. Just like you are now."
"Ghhk… you motherf*cker!"
Swish— Swish—
He quickly drew his dagger and swung, but blind attacks weren't going to land.
"You tried to trick me?"
Whump—!
A kick sent him flying; he rolled across the ground.
Even without sight, he could piece together what had happened.
'Did he seriously time that to line up with my cooldown? No way.'
There was no way the guy knew you had to look at someone's eyes to cast Curse of Fear.
It had to be a coincidence.
'Hurts like hell, f*ck. What the hell am I supposed to do now?'
He couldn't see, and one arm was gone.
If his opponent hadn't healed him somehow, he'd already be dead from shock.
'Is there really no way I can beat this bastard…?'
Then a clever thought hit him.
He still had one more skill.
'You bastard. You seriously underestimated me.'
If he had to die, he'd drag the guy down with him.
With that resolve, he activated his last skill.
He had no idea if it would work.
'It's kill or be killed.'
[Corpse Explosion]
'Pass out or—'
KABOOM—!
When the explosion went off in the alley, the nearby shopkeepers came running.
"Wh-what happened?"
"Gasp, over there!"
Charred black scorch marks, a clothing donation bin blown to pieces, and scattered chunks of flesh.
They called the police at once, but none of them knew.
That someone was watching them from a distance.
'Whew, that was close. Almost let this bastard blow himself up too.'
From inside the second-floor building, where he'd retreated, Ryu Min looked over at Joo Sung-tak, unconscious in a corner.
'Crazy f*cker. Using Corpse Explosion when he can't even see.'
It was only because he'd read the man's thoughts in advance and blocked it that the bastard wasn't a pile of meat scraps himself.
'Sure, he deserves to die a hundred, a thousand times over…'
But Ryu Min still had no intention of killing Joo Sung-tak.
If he had, he'd have grabbed the material, slit his throat, and left already.
'He's a psychopath, but there's still a way to make use of him. The Rune of Drops he has is worth a lot.'
Joo Sung-tak's nickname was [Dumbass].
Like [Cheonma] Ma Kyung-rok, he was one of the talents vying for second and third place across the whole zone.
But the fact that he was a serial killer made him a problematic ally.
'Obviously, I'm not planning to drag him all the way to Round 20. I'll just use him for boss hunts before that.'
The Rune of Drops was exactly what it sounded like—a rune that increased item drop rates.
Especially for special items dropped by boss-class monsters, it raised the chance by a factor of ten.
'So if the drop rate is 10%, it effectively becomes 100%—a busted rune.'
That was how he'd managed to get legendary material off the High Orc.
'If I use this guy's rune right, it'll be a big help to me.'
He'd just put legendary material up on the Pl.Pl market, hadn't he?
With his level of skill, it was obvious he'd keep posting good materials in the future.
'The problem is that he's a serial killer…'
If left alone, he'd clearly keep killing innocent people, and that made it hard to just walk away.
'Not that there aren't ways to handle that.'
Ryu Min drew his ring-pommel saber.
There was no need to use a scythe and give anyone something to trace back to him.
Slice—
One arm was already gone, so he cut through a leg instead.
Then he left him with just one arm and one leg and used Emergency Treatment.
The wounds closed and the cut surfaces smoothed over.
'I used it on his eyes too, so his sight should come back when he wakes up.'
The severed limbs, however, he chopped into pieces so they couldn't be reattached.
Joo Sung-tak was now missing an arm and a leg.
'If I cripple his real body, he won't be able to go around killing whenever he feels like it. What I need is his Otherworld avatar—the one that can farm items.'
Even if he was disabled in reality, his avatar in the Otherworld would be fine.
Now, Ryu Min could leave with an easy mind.
'Of course, once he wakes up, he'll definitely come after me for revenge…'
But that wouldn't be a problem.
The face Ryu Min had shown him was the face of the dead Hwang Yong-min.
[End]