"You sure this is a good idea?"
Hyunsoo's voice trembled, laced with dread. He wasn't scared of a fight—he'd seen plenty. He was scared of this one.
He'd watched Jinwoo—the Hero Hunter—throw down with an A-Ranker before. It was a spectacle. Brutal. Clean. Effortless. But the name he just heard?
Min-sik.
Not just any A-Ranker. A Peak one. The kind that headlines guild wars, the kind sponsors throw millions at. The kind people whisper might go S-Rank any day now.
The kind who walks like he owns the world.
Jinwoo, with a little furious face, slid his phone out of his pocket with that trademark and flipped to a chat. He held it up.
No words. Just the screen.
Hyunsoo leaned in.
> [Name Redacted]:
Please. Kill him. I don't want to share this, but…
He assaulted my sister.
He's a devil in human skin.
[Jinjin]:
I'm sorry. Killing isn't what I do.
[Name Redacted]:
Then beat him.
Beat him so badly that even death steps back.
Please. I'm begging you.
The words hung in the air, heavier than silence.
Hyunsoo swallowed hard. "…Is this real?"
Jinwoo nodded, his expression unreadable now—like a storm behind calm eyes.
"She found me herself. Waitress in some run-down district. Pulls double shifts, sells handmade jewelry online to make ends meet. No parents. Just her and her little sister."
He tucked the phone away like it burned. "She didn't want revenge. She wanted justice."
"But… why you?" Hyunsoo asked, voice low.
Jinwoo shrugged, but there was a sharpness behind it. Like a knife hidden in silk.
"Because she knew the system wouldn't do sh*t. Min-sik's too famous. Too strong. Too important."
Hyunsoo let out a breath like the air had turned to lead.
"This isn't a bounty," Jinwoo muttered, cracking his neck. "It's a message. For every ranker who thinks power makes them untouchable."
And for the first time since he'd met him, Hyunsoo saw something terrifying.
Jinwoo wasn't angry.
He was holding it in.
Holding back the storm. Holding back the urge to walk out and make Min-sik bleed right now.
And that scared Hyunsoo more than rage ever could.
---
It wasn't even nighttime—the usual hour Jinwoo hunted down his targets like a ghost in alleyways. No, today, justice walked in broad daylight.
The sun hung high, merciless and clear, casting no shadows to hide behind.
Jinwoo stood in front of the Header Guild.
The sixth-largest in Korea. Corporate-backed. Politician-proof. A fortress of polished glass, steel, and lies.
Next to him, Hyunsoo felt the air thrum. Not from tension—but from power. A soft, pulsing blue aura shimmered around Jinwoo like static clinging to a stormcloud. His presence distorted the light, like the world was bracing for thunder.
And he hadn't even moved yet.
"Are you really gonna walk in there?" Hyunsoo whispered, eyes flicking to the guards near the door.
"I already did," Jinwoo said, stepping forward.
The glass doors of the Header Guild parted with a whisper.
Security glanced up from their posts—but didn't move.
Something in the air told them not to.
Jinwoo stepped inside, slow and steady. Hyunsoo trailed behind, swallowing the tension clogging his throat.
And then Jinwoo did it.
Right there, in the lobby lit with golden chandeliers and polished floors—he reached into his pocket, pulled out a sleek, black half-mask, and slid it over his face.
Smooth. Minimal. Iconic.
The face of the Hero Hunter.
The moment it clicked into place, the room froze.
Phones slipped out of hands. Whispers exploded. A ripple of panic tore through the guild staff like a wave smashing a sandcastle.
"Where's Minsik?"
The crowd went silent, that was a name that was feared. And the hero hunter coming and asking that only meant one thing. This was going to be a fight.
Hyunsoo also wore a black mask given to him by jinwoo. He held his sword on the sheathe by his left hand, as his right was in the pocket.
There was a long silence before a pressure could be felt. It was an immense pressure, making everyone except the two panic and run outside.
"...Hero hunter, right?"
The voice rang with an echo in the-now-quiet hall.
There he was.
Minsik f*cker.
There were several hunters with him.
All armored. All armed. All high-ranked.
But none of them mattered.
Because Min-sik was the real monster.
He stood tall at the top of the grand staircase, shoulders loose, face cocky. His hair was slicked back like a K-drama villain, and his smile oozed the kind of arrogance you only get when the law bends for you.
"Didn't think you'd have the balls," Min-sik said, cracking his knuckles. "But I'm glad you showed. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down later."
Jinwoo didn't respond.
He didn't have to.
The mask said enough.
Minsik's smile twitched. "Let me guess. This is about that lying b*tch? You here playing white knight now?"
Hyunsoo flinched.
"So you know.." jinwoo replied, tone as cold as ice.
He brought his palm towards Minsik, aiming right at his head. A fireball manifested before anyone could even react. Moving through the hall and right at Minsik.
Min-sik raised a single hand.
BOOM.
The fireball detonated mid-air—meters from his face—shattering into waves of heat and embers that scorched the nearby walls but didn't touch him. His barrier hadn't even flickered.
"Cute," Min-sik said, smirking like he'd swatted a fly. "You throw tricks. I throw death."
The hunters flanking him stepped forward.
Four of them. All A-Rank. All notorious in their own right.
One with a cleaver longer than her body.
One with dual pistols humming with magic.
One cloaked in shadows that crawled along the floor like liquid fear.
And one—massive, built like a tank—cracking his knuckles with a grin wider than his shoulders.
"Hyunsoo," Jinwoo said, his voice low but sharp. "Take care of the four idiots. And if you won't be able to," jinwoo turned towards Hyunsoo ",you won't survive either."
Hyunsoo gulped, then composed. Rushing right at the hunters.
The room exploded into motion.
Hyunsoo blurred forward, shadows streaking behind him like smoke chased by wind. The giant swung first—his arm a slab of reinforced muscle—but Hyunsoo ducked, drew, and shing—his blade slashed across the man's thigh, carving through enchanted armor like it was tin foil.
"ONE!" Hyunsoo shouted, spinning, eyes wild.
But he didn't get time to flex. The girl with the cleaver was already on him, weapon whistling through the air with a scream of mana. He parried—barely—then had to leap back as the dual pistols lit up, shots pinging across the marble floor like exploding stars.
Behind him, the one in shadows vanished.
Crap.
Meanwhile, Jinwoo didn't move.
He stared up at Min-sik.
No words. No posturing. Just that unreadable mask, tilted slightly as if he was bored.
Min-sik snarled. "You think you scare me? You're just a freak in a costume!"
He leapt.
CRACK.
The marble stair shattered beneath his boots as he launched down, closing the gap like a bullet fired from rage itself.
Jinwoo stepped forward—once—and the air screamed.
It wasn't magic. It wasn't skill. It was intent.
Killing intent.
The floor beneath Jinwoo's foot cratered. Glass cracked across the lobby windows. Lights flickered.
Min-sik hesitated mid-air—and that hesitation cost him.
Jinwoo moved.
Just a blur.
And then—BOOM—Min-sik was slammed into the floor, headfirst, by a wave of pure force that came from nowhere. A gravitic pulse, sudden and brutal.
The air twisted. Furniture crushed. Walls cracked.
"Y—you bastard!" Min-sik coughed blood, scrambling up, hair wild, eyes insane. "You think this is enough?!"
He activated his buff—Skybreaker Form—and golden armor burst over his limbs, ethereal wings unfurling from his back.
A high-tier artifact merge.
But Jinwoo?
He was already there.
Palm glowing.
A magic circle spun in the air between them—black and blue, runes old and wrong—and a bolt of lightning, no, a lance of thunder, speared downward like a god's judgment.
KRA-KOOM.
Min-sik screamed.
Armor melted.
The floor gave way.
Smoke rose like incense at a funeral.
Above it all, Jinwoo stood. Mask still on. Cloak fluttering in the heat waves.
And then—
A pistol round cracked through the air.
Jinwoo didn't flinch.
CLANG.
Hyunsoo, bloodied and panting, parried it midair.
"I'm done with three," he gasped. "Shadow guy's slippery."
"Then burn the shadows," Jinwoo muttered.
And Hyunsoo understood.
He unsheathed his second blade—Sunfang—a sword that glowed like dawn bottled in steel.
The temperature rose.
"Come out, coward!" Hyunsoo roared, slashing in a wide arc.
The shadow hunter screeched as the light licked his cloak, his form flickering like static.
Meanwhile—
Min-sik staggered out of the smoke, half his armor gone, face burned, fury in his eyes.
"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!" he howled.
Jinwoo's mask tilted.
And then he grinned.
"No."
And he raised a finger.
The ceiling above cracked—then shattered—raining down a hundred mana-tipped bolts.
A spell Jinwoo cast before he entered the building.
"This is what I got."
And hell fell from above.
---
Hyunsoo dealt with the others fairly easily. He approached jinwoo with confusion.
"If you could have beaten him alone. Why did you need me?"
"I haven't beaten him yet, he has a special class."
"Special class? This guy too? What is it?"
Jinwoo didn't answer right away.
He just stared at the crater that used to be Min-sik.
Smoke curled from the ground. The air still sizzled. But somewhere beneath the wreckage… something pulsed.
Then—
A heartbeat.
Loud. Clear. Wrong.
THUMP.
The ground rumbled.
THUMP.
A pulse of mana flared red from the ruin, like a dying star refusing to fade.
Hyunsoo stepped back, eyes wide. "What the hell…?"
Jinwoo's voice came low, grim.
"Predator Class."
The rubble exploded.
Min-sik emerged—no, evolved—from the wreckage, not as a man, but something more primal.
His body had changed.
His muscles bulged grotesquely, veins glowing with red mana. His skin was no longer human—scaled, armored, like obsidian plated over fury. Horns curled from his temples, and his eyes…
They weren't sane anymore.
Just hunger.
Just rage.
"RAAAAAAGH!"
The roar shattered nearby glass. A wave of pressure rolled out like a shockwave, knocking Hyunsoo to one knee.
Jinwoo stood tall.
Unshaken.
"He's not fighting to win anymore," he said. "He's fighting to consume."
Hyunsoo's eyes trembled. "You mean…"
"Yeah," Jinwoo muttered, tightening his fist. "He's going full beast. Predator Class doesn't just grant power—it feeds on it. Every strike, every kill, every hit landed or taken—it evolves him."
"He's turning into a monster."
Jinwoo pulled his hood up over the mask. Shadows wrapped around him like a cloak.
"No," he said coldly. "He always was one. And it looks like I will,"
",kill someone today"
Min-sik's mouth twisted into something that might've been a smile once—but now it was all teeth and murder.
"I'LL RIP YOU APART, HERO HUNTER!"
And then he lunged.
Hyunsoo stepped forward, pointing his sword directly at Minsik's head.
As the sword hit, it broke. The sword shattered into shards.
Hyunsoo was flung back like a ragdoll, crashing into a marble pillar with a sickening crack. Blood spilled from his mouth as he slid down, sword hilt still in hand—now nothing more than a grip and a few jagged inches of metal.
"Hyunsoo!" Jinwoo shouted, the calm finally cracking in his voice.
But Hyunsoo didn't stay down.
His fingers tightened around that broken hilt.
Breathing heavy, limbs screaming, he pushed himself up. Stumbled once. Didn't fall.
His eyes locked on Min-sik, whose monstrous form now loomed like a demon god, laughing as if pain was perfume in his lungs.
"You done, kid?" the beast snarled.
But Hyunsoo wasn't listening.
He raised the broken sword.
And something happened.
The remaining blade—those few inches—lit up with a glow that bled from his veins into the metal. A resonance. A bond. Like his will alone forged it anew.
And then—
He moved.
Faster than before. Too fast to track.
In one clean, perfect line—
SHHHNK.
The broken blade—lit with raw mana—sliced clean through Min-sik's right arm.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then the limb hit the ground with a wet slap.
Min-sik howled.
Not in pain. In rage. In disbelief.
But he didn't get a second breath.
Because Jinwoo was already there.
No chant.
No mercy.
No delay.
He pointed a finger, right at Min-sik's exposed chest.
"Burn."
FWOOM.
A lance of flame—white-hot, narrow as a bullet, fast as death—pierced Min-sik's heart.
Right through it.
Out the back.
The roar died in his throat.
His monstrous body trembled.
Then stilled, then fell.
A god-killer's silence took the room.
Smoke curled from the hole in Min-sik's chest. His eyes stayed open—blank, uncomprehending—like he still didn't believe it.
Like he thought he was too strong to die.
He wasn't.
Jinwoo turned away without a word.
Hyunsoo, gasping, dropped to one knee again, blade hilt still glowing faintly in his grip.
They didn't celebrate.
They didn't gloat.
They stood there for a minute before burning the whole building to the ground as they vanished without a trace.