19

“At that time, we were in An-Seong, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Hunter Yoo Ee-Na, he looked at you and asked me to take you home.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“At first, I thought he was doing you a favor, but I was wrong. Lee Joo-Heon wanted to screw you, Hunter Yoo Ee-Na, and he used me for that. That’s it. I almost became a long-term partner of the undisputed bastard. That’s why I killed him. Even if I can endure everything else, I can’t stand people playing with me or using me as a chess piece.”

“…….”

“How come I kill people for that reason? You may not understand, and I don’t mean to make you understand. To tell you the truth, quite a few people have already tried to use me as a chess piece, I think about eighty people? What do you think happened?”

“…….”

“I killed every single one of them. Even an old lady from the noble house and a young lady from the same noble house, I killed them all. Is this a good enough answer?”

It was. It worked, but not everything was clear.

Slurp.

“I like my coffee hot. Would you like to have a drink?”

His attitude made goosebumps rise on her skin once more. How little did this man think of a person’s life?

“Anyway, that’s why I killed him. Did you come all the way here to ask me that? Should a public official skip work do something like this?”

Ee-Na stared at Hwan, who was looking mischievous, and asked, “You—what are you?”

“What else?”

He didn’t answer her question, which piqued her curiosity even more. Lee Joo-Heon was an A-rated Hunter, but how did Lee Hwan manage to grab his neck and break his limbs? He said he overpowered an A-rated Hunter so easily. She could not understand it. No matter how much she looked at him, Lee Hwan looked like a normal person.

There were only two ways in which Hunters could gain skills. The first was to break a Skill Stone from the dungeon. Usually, these Skill Stones were traded at auctions and managed at the guild or national level.

The second way was the method of learning through ‘repetitive actions.’ Many people practice martial arts in China. Tai Chi and Wing Chun were examples of skills that were usually acquired through repetitive actions.

Among the Hunters, Yoo Ee-Na had one special skill, which was technically obtained through the second way of gaining skills. The name of her special skill was Acceleration. It wasn’t a unique skill like Lee Ho’s implementation. To be more accurate, it should be called a semi-unique skill because it was a skill that only Yoo Ee-Na possessed in this world.

She shouted the starter word in her head.

‘Acceleration.’

In the blink of an eye, the world slowed down. The dust floating in the air slowed down their descent. The air also seemed to move slower. Lee Hwan’s hand, which was putting down his cup of coffee, suddenly moved at a sluggish, lagging pace. The ripples of coffee that were swaying inside the cup also slowed down. Only Yoo Ee-Na moved at the same speed as usual.

1.4 times. This was the maximum output that she, a B-rated Hunter, could use. Ee-Na moved quickly, approaching Hwan. She wondered whether she should subdue or attack him. With her skill, she will be able to do anything to him. It only lasted for a while, but she had really thought so.

“This is amazing.”

Time was definitely slowed down. Ee-Na was using her Acceleration skill right now.

However, why was Lee Hwan speaking at a normal speed?

Lee Hwan put down his coffee cup. Both the swaying coffee inside and the cup landing on the table were all slowed down. The thumping sound of the cup hitting the table rang out belatedly.

Lee Hwan turned his head toward her, the movement swift and the same as usual. It was horrifying to see. He was moving at his usual speed as if unaffected by her Acceleration skill. It was really creepy.

“You have a lot of questions,” Lee Hwan muttered before saying out loud. “Shall I go first? Or do you want to attack me first?”

Yoo Ee-Na did not answer. She just moved. In return, Lee Hwan also moved accordingly. Obviously, Ea-Na had made the first move, but it was Hwan who attacked her first. His hand reached out quickly. Instinctively, she leaned her head back to avoid it while raising her left foot to strike a kick at the same time. She twisted her body in a very flexible posture, aiming to kick Hwan’s jaw.

Just before reaching his jaw, however, she got caught. Hwan had a tight grip on her foot, but it wasn’t tight enough to restrain her completely. She turned around, and her right foot, full of centrifugal force as she rotated it in the air, swung toward him again, this time aiming for his head.

However…

Tap-

Both of her legs had been caught, this time in a tighter grip than before. Naturally, she fell, hitting the table on her way down.

Swoosh-!

She landed hard on the desk, and the books soared into the air.

The world’s speed was still slowed down, and the muscles in her waist and core were alive and stimulated.

Yoo Ee-Na immediately lifted her upper body to a sitting position as Hwan held her legs tightly. She stretched out both hands and grabbed his neck, strengthening her grip. She was pressing on his neck full-force, but nothing happened. It felt like holding onto a steel pipe, but it wasn’t exactly steel either. It was too simple of a comparison.

In a moment, Ee-Na’s body turned around. She had given strength to her arm and endured as much as possible, but before long, her body turned and…

Baang-!

She broke the table and landed hard on the floor. Still, she didn’t take her grip off his neck. Hwan’s hands, which were holding both of her legs tightly, did not loosen as he fell to the floor on top of her.

Yoo Ee-Na frowned at the pain blooming in her back. Lee Hwan’s voice reached her ears.

“Don’t you think our position is a little weird?”

His hands were still gripping her feet while hers were clutching his neck. For this position to be possible, Yoo Ee-Na had her entire body down under him. Her hips pressured his lower abdomen until she broke the table and landed on the floor, bringing him down with her. And now that they were both on the floor, they looked like they were hugging.

At this, Lee Hwan burst into laughter.

“You use an interesting technique, but it’s far better than Lee Joo-Heon’s.”

At Yoo Ee-Na’s hardened stare, Lee Hwan continued smiling.

“If I let go of your legs first, will you loosen your grip on my neck? We can’t stay like this forever.”

“…….”

“I guess you hate losing. I hate it too, so should we just keep doing this?”

Yoo Ee-Na was still trying to suffocate Hwan with her hands.

Sniff-

“Did you put on perfume? The scent of lavender?”

“…….”

“How much did you put on? You smell like you took a bath with perfume.”

“…….”

“Come to think of it, it’s lunchtime already. Have you eaten?”

“…….”

“If you haven’t, do you want to eat some ramyun?”

Eventually, Yoo Ee-Na let go of his neck. She had tried to strangle him, but it seemed that she had not done any damage at all. No matter how hard she analyzed their scuffle, it was not Lee Hwan who had been overpowered, it was her.

.

When she released her grip on his neck, Hwan also immediately let go of her feet.

There was no time for the awkward atmosphere to settle down.

“Who will do the dishes?”

“…I guess I have to do it.”

“Okay then.”

Chapter 7

It was only my personal opinion, but when it came to ramyun, Ansung-Tamyung (spicy miso noodles) was definitely the best. Strangely, I really liked this one. Even though the world is in such a mess, the taste remained the same as it was ten years ago.

I prepared two bowls of Ansung-Tangmyung and served one bowl to Hunter Yoo Ee-Na. The dining table was broken so we ate it on the living room table, but she kept staring at me.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Do you need to poop?”

“…Are you really like this?”

“What?”

“Asking me about pooping? Is that really the way you speak?”

I chuckled as I slurped my noodles. “I wasn’t like this before, but as I grew up, it just became this way. If you are going to poop, go to the bathroom. The ventilator is turned on.”

Yoo Ee-Na opened her mouth as if she had just heard something ridiculous, the look on her face seemingly saying, ‘There really are people like this.’

“If you’re not going to poop, I think you have a question, so just ask me. What are you so curious about?”

“…You’re not a Hunter, are you?”

I put down my chopsticks for a while to think. “In this world, when you call someone a Hunter, you mean people who ‘awaken’ and use the ‘system,’ right? Like a game character.”

“Right.”

“Then I am not a Hunter. I didn’t awaken, I don’t use a system, and I’m not a game character.”

Yoo Ea-Na tilted her head as if something was philosophically wrong with my answer, then she hurriedly shook her head.

“But how can you be so strong?”

“Well, three days and nights won’t be enough to tell you about it.”

“…Did you go missing?”

“Yes.”

I grabbed my chopsticks again and slurped my ramyun. “The ‘Valhalla Continent’ that you mentioned before in the Providence Thousands Guild, did you grow up there?”

“Yes. If you ever find yourself there, just mention my name. I’m sure people will treat you extravagantly.”

“Extravagantly?”

“There will either be a flood of people trying to kill you or a flood of people trying to protect you. Well, something like that.”

She didn’t say anything for a while, and she didn’t even bother touching her ramyun.

“…What on earth did you do there?”

“Survive.”

“Survive…?”

“There were people around me who wanted to take advantage of me. I ended up going up the ranks, not in order to be swayed or to be used, but to survive. As I went up, more people tried to kill me, and when I killed them all and went further up, I made even more enemies. I also killed them all and went even further up until at some point there was no one above me anymore.”

To sum everything up, this was it. This was all I did in Valhalla. I struggled to survive, learned Mana from the witch, and grew up. I kept growing up and fighting, again and again. And after ten years of that, there was no one else above me anymore. That was how I reigned.

But…

“Aren’t you going to eat your ramyun? If you’re not going to eat it, give it to me.”

With this, Yoo Ee-Na hurriedly lifted her chopsticks. She was going to do the dishes, so she felt like she should at least eat something.

“So, does it bother you that Lee Joo-Heon died?”

“…Not really.”

I didn’t think so.

And so, we ate our ramyun. I don’t know if it was because I prepared only two, but they ran out fast. Ee-Na looked at me and asked, “Aren’t you going to try it, being a Hunter?”

I laughed a little.

“Why? Do you want me to be a Hunter?”

“…Because you are very strong, you can do anything with such strength. I actually wonder if there is still a need for you to take the GED.”

I shook my head. It was not like I hated fighting. To be honest, I was also interested in the Gates and things like that, but I had another priority right now.

“It was one of my mother’s wishes for me to have a high school diploma. I want to grant her wish first.”