Chapter 628

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 628: Slaughterhouse (6)

“Criminal hunter…?”

Faced with an origin he had never even imagined, Yeongwoo found his mouth falling open without realizing it.

Anywhere else, maybe—but to encounter a criminal hunter in a dungeon like this was something he had never expected.

“What the hell is that? Like a bounty hunter or something?”

When Yeongwoo asked, it was Tisai Mordaccio who instead looked troubled.

—You’re telling me you really don’t know… no, that you don’t know what a criminal hunter is?

“Well, yeah. This is the first time I’ve met someone like that, and it’s not like I’ve ever been hunted before.”

At that, Tisai frowned deeply.

—Think of it as a profession that captures people like you, converts your evil deeds into merit points, and gets recognized for it.

“So… basically a bounty hunter.”

Still, since he’d said he was officially sanctioned by a galaxy coalition, he clearly wasn’t comparable to some ordinary bounty hunter.

A galaxy coalition meant a grouping of at least hundreds, if not thousands, of galaxies.

“Then why not go chase criminals outside? Why come into a dungeon like this?”

At Yeongwoo’s question, Tisai drew the pistol at his waist and gestured broadly around them.

—Because places like this are where people like you gather in the greatest numbers.

“Ah.”

—And it looks like I found myself a pretty good haul today!

With those words, Tisai fired his gun straight at Yeongwoo.

BANG!

Yeongwoo had already sensed the danger, so he twisted his body sharply and dodged the bullet.

PAAANG!

The bullet sliced through empty air, ricocheted off the wall behind him, and Tisai’s eyes widened.

—He dodged…?

“What, the criminals you met before couldn’t dodge bullets?”

Yeongwoo sneered as he hurled an insult, and Tisai clenched his teeth before immediately rolling backward.

“Huh. You can roll, too.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

At the same time as the backward roll, the stake connected to Tisai’s right arm by a chain was yanked free.

THUD!

The steel stake rebounded violently from behind Yeongwoo, and at the same time as the hologram guide’s warning flashed, it smashed past the rear of Aratubank.

If he hadn’t been holding Aratubank, his arm might have been torn off.

“You bastard…!”

Realizing he’d let his guard down for a moment, Yeongwoo remotely recalled Bastard and rushed after Tisai.

Tat-tat!

This time, Tisai—who had looked like he was fleeing—suddenly spun around and hurled one chained stake from each arm.

WHOOSH!

“What the hell is this now…?”

Yeongwoo slid to avoid the stake flying at head height, and immediately understood what the opponent had intended.

Blue electricity erupted from the two stakes embedded in the walls, spreading outward along the chains that crossed the room.

CRACKLE!

“Are you insane?!”

The current discharged from the chains instantly electrocuted Yeongwoo beneath them, and Tisai raised his gun again with a vicious grin.

—You won’t dodge this one.

As Yeongwoo’s body trembled from the lightning coursing through him, Tisai pulled the trigger.

BANG!

This bullet grazed past Yeongwoo’s cheek as he shook like a quivering aspen.

“Ghk!”

He had nearly had his head blown clean through.

The moment he felt blood welling from his cheek, Yeongwoo thrust his arm forward and shouted,

“Ba— One Hundred Seventy-Seven Sword Mountain…!”

The ceiling near where Tisai stood split apart, and blades of every conceivable grade rained down like bullets.

—A Sword Mountain wielder?!

Recognizing Sword Mountain instantly, Tisai gaped and threw himself into a desperate forward roll toward the corner of the room.

And in that moment, Yeongwoo—

“You insane bastard— I’ll kill you for sure!”

He crawled beneath the electrified chains and lunged into the room where Tisai was still evading.

At the very least, he had learned one more thing from this fight.

That there were combat styles that temporarily restricted an opponent’s movement before delivering a fatal blow.

“Everyone meets their end eventually! Your criminal hunting ends today!”

As Yeongwoo swung Bastard, Tisai—who had just managed to steady himself—stared in horror.

—W-Wait!

The kind of thing the losing side always said.

Yeongwoo swung without hesitation, and in the next instant saw Tisai’s pistol and head go flying together.

SPLASH!

The final Blood Battle team had been eliminated.

THUD!

As Tisai’s head rolled across the floor, the taut chains connected to the stakes collapsed all at once.

Tisai Mordaccio, a criminal hunter certified by the Nuto Galaxy Coalition, was dead.

Moments later, 20 team points were added to Yeongwoo’s view, officially confirming Tisai’s death.

BEEP!

[200]

“Two hundred points… Is that enough for first place?”

As Yeongwoo stared at the score, lost in thought, a hologram box inscribed in the universal galactic language appeared where Tisai’s body had been.

FLASH!

「Tisai Mordaccio, deceased.」

「The Nuto Galaxy Coalition will remember this.」

“…Huh?”

Come to think of it, hadn’t Tisai said he was a criminal hunter certified by a coalition called Nuto?

In other words, he had been hired by someone to clean up criminals.

‘Don’t tell me I’m wanted now just for killing a criminal hunter.’

Yeongwoo stood still, watching to see if more text would appear, but there was no wanted notice.

Still, it was clear that the Nuto Galaxy Coalition had recognized both Tisai’s death and his killer.

‘Either way, this can’t be good. A criminal killing a criminal hunter, after all.’

Then Yeongwoo tilted his head.

‘Wait—this wasn’t some random street fight. This is a dungeon. Is this really my fault?’

Strictly speaking, Tisai was just another dungeon participant, and had simply died according to the dungeon’s rules.

It was practically an accident.

BEEP!

The Nuto Galaxy Coalition’s memorial message vanished, and Tisai’s body was enveloped in a hologram and transmitted somewhere.

Immediately after, the dungeon system broadcast a global announcement.

「Two Blood Battle teams remain alive.」

「If no new combat occurs within five minutes, the dungeon will end in ten minutes.」

“Oh.”

From Yeongwoo’s perspective—needing to return to Earth as quickly as possible—this was actually good news.

There was no way he could fight the remaining Blood Battle team, Sezail, anyway.

‘I should head back.’

With the two Blood Battle teams gathered in one place, no one short of extremely powerful would dare approach.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

‘If I’m lucky, I might make it back before reaching the black hole.’

Since there was only one remaining red arrow, returning to the original room was easy.

After passing through countless rooms and returning to where he had started, Yeongwoo saw Gehika crouched on the floor—and Sezail, whose arm had fully regenerated.

—You’re back quickly. Did you deal with your opponent?

Sezail asked, and Yeongwoo shrugged.

“A criminal hunter was waiting for me.”

—So he deliberately entered the dungeon.

Sezail muttered as if it made sense.

Yeongwoo couldn’t help asking,

“Do you know a guy named Tisai Mordaccio? He said he was famous.”

Sezail tilted his head slightly.

—Mordaccio? That’s a goblin surname.

“How can you tell his race just from the surname? So he really was famous.”

—Tisai… A criminal hunter, you said? I might’ve heard of him. He was probably well-known. Especially among criminals.

“…So I didn’t know because I’m a rookie villain.”

Well, he was dead now, so it didn’t matter.

‘Doesn’t this mean I’ve gotten that much stronger? I killed a fairly famous criminal hunter.’

After all, he had crossed another threshold of status.

Yeongwoo’s current existence rank was approaching Grade 5, and he had already begun achievements toward Grade 4.

As he had seen in the Sea of Status before, he was becoming something close to a “mountain” on a cosmic scale.

Of course, in this vast universe, mountains were practically everywhere.

“So what are you going to do once we leave here?”

Yeongwoo asked, leaning against the doorway.

Sezail glanced around.

—I’ll have to return and clear a Unique dungeon. What a hassle.

“Oh, is clearing a Unique dungeon part of the qualification to become a prince?”

—You have to clear it at the highest rank.

“Pretty similar to family’s trials. Makes sense—the purpose is basically the same.”

Then something occurred to Yeongwoo.

“How do you guys enter dungeons?”

—What?

“You’re not taking a planetary exam like me, so you’re not entering through spheres, right?”

At that, Gehika answered first.

—You enter dungeons… by paying tokens.

“Tokens?”

—Entry passes issued by government agencies. There are private tokens too. You can get them in bulk in black zones.

“The government issues dungeon entry passes…?”

—You didn’t know?

According to Gehika, official institutions distribute tokens through major families they cooperate with, and those eventually flow into the general market.

Meaning most dungeon participants actually paid money to enter.

“Then that guy—since he’s from a noble family—his family probably gave him a bunch of tokens.”

Yeongwoo pointed at Sezail, but Sezail shook his head.

—A candidate starts from the bottom. Even tokens have to be acquired personally.

“What? Then you buy them?”

—Of course not. You kill someone who has one and take it.

“…Then there aren’t that many people who actually pay to enter dungeons.”

Yeongwoo said, and Gehika nodded.

—Also, some dungeons can’t be accessed with official tokens. Private dungeons, mostly. For those, you need an invitation or a private token.

“Isn’t this place a private dungeon? I think I came with an invitation.”

—This isn’t quite a private dungeon. It’s part of the random dungeon pool. Still, it’s unusually brutal for a public dungeon.

“Random dungeon? Don’t tell me using a token spawns a random dungeon?”

—That’s right. And you can choose whether to enter or not. The token still gets consumed, though.

“Ah.”

Only then did Yeongwoo understand why so little information existed about high-grade dungeons.

You couldn’t encounter them just because you wanted to.

“Have you ever been to a Epic dungeon?”

Yeongwoo asked, pointing at Sezail again.

Sezail shrugged.

—Even if I had, I see no reason to tell you.

“This guy hasn’t been either.”

Just how were you supposed to reach a Epic-grade dungeon?

He could ask the chairman and get an answer—but his pride wouldn’t allow it.

‘From what I saw today, even Unique dungeons can’t contain me anymore.’

As Yeongwoo smirked internally, a sharp signal rang through the air.

BEEEEEP!

「10 minutes have elapsed.」

「As no additional combat has occurred, team scores will now be tallied.」

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]