Chapter 13
A man came through the teleportation circle.
He looked like he was chasing someone.
The man grabbed the collar of a hunter standing nearby.
"Hey. Where'd that bitch go?"
"Huh? That bitch? Who are you talking about?"
"Yoo Se-ah! You dumbass!"
Who was that guy?
They didn't seem to know each other, but he was talking to her like that.
Meanwhile, the teleportation circle flashed again, and more people kept appearing.
The newcomers spotted the man and hurried over, busy trying to calm him down.
"Shin-hoo! Calm down!"
"Yeah, it's not too late yet. We can start preparing now, too!"
"What the hell are the guild master and vice guild master doing? We're going to get left behind by Nebula!"
"Hey! Getting worked up won't solve anything!"
"Can't you see Nebula's already made a move? They're acting faster than us! What the hell are you guys doing?"
Who was that guy?
Why were the guild master and vice guild master so intimidated by him?
Even after venting his anger, the man still wasn't satisfied and continued to seethe.
The guild master and vice guild master glanced at me, then hurriedly resumed trying to persuade him.
"There's an NPC here, too, so let's try talking it out first."
"Right. One of our guild members has already raised their affinity with them."
But the man roughly shook off the arm holding him and was instantly in front of me.
'What?'
He was so fast I could barely see him.
Before I could gather my thoughts, he grabbed my head and shook it around.
"Is this an NPC?"
I didn't like what he was doing.
It felt like he was turning a machine this way and that to see if it was working properly.
Of course it pissed me off!
ㅡ Smack!
I slapped away the man's hand as he shook my head.
"Well, well~ Playing human, are we?"
He was really getting on my nerves.
The others treated me respectfully even though they thought I was an NPC.
This man didn't seem to care about that.
Naturally, the masters watching were furious, too.
ㄴTaebaek Sword Lord: One who knows no manners is no better than a beast!
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: Weak dogs bark. This guy's no better than a yard-cleaning lackey.
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: He may be strong among mortals, but he's utterly vulgar.
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: Strange. I feel as if I'm overlooking something...
The hunters watching from the side felt the same way.
Everyone was lined up to get Bigu Pills, and then an S-rank barged in.
Even Yoo Se-ah had stood in line and waited her turn, yet this guy just appeared and started causing trouble.
Grumbling could be heard from all around.
The problem was, amid the hunters' grumbling, someone said something very clearly.
"Mad Dog Baek Shin-hoo..."
It seemed to have just slipped out without thought.
Or maybe it was more like a way of confirming who the person before them was?
But apparently, he didn't like that.
Baek Shin-hoo vanished from right in front of me in an instant and appeared before the hunter who'd muttered.
ㅡ Wham!
"Aaaagh!"
Without hesitation, he kicked the hunter in the shin.
"Fuck, I know people call me Mad Dog, but it pisses me off when you talk about me behind my back."
"Ugh..."
"There are times you could fly a drone and still not know what killed you, you get that?"
"…"
"Ah! Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying I'm going to do anything. Just watch your mouth if you don't want to die, okay?"
"S-sorry."
The hunter apologized, clutching his shin.
But Baek Shin-hoo didn't seem satisfied, and kicked his other shin, too.
ㅡ Crack!
"Agh!"
The man clutched his leg.
After clutching his shin for a while, the man gave up on waiting in line and headed toward the teleportation circle.
He was limping along slowly, so he must've been pretty badly hurt.
He'd been waiting for quite a while...
Poor guy!
I called out to the limping hunter.
"Here."
The man snatched the Bigu Pill flying through the air.
The grimace on his face instantly turned into a bright smile.
"Th-thanks, GOAT-chan!"
Watching that, Baek Shin-hoo curled one corner of his mouth upward.
What an irritating expression.
In the meantime, he appeared in front of me again in an instant.
Maybe because he was S-rank, he seemed really skilled.
Could he teleport?
Was it some kind of hunter skill?
Still, he had no manners.
Before I could gather my thoughts, he came at me aggressively.
"Hey. Hand over all the bait you've got."
"...."
"You really are a dumbass. Can't you understand what I'm saying? Hand over all the bait you have! I'll buy it all!"
He meant the Bigu Pills, right?
Well, they did look like fish bait.
"I only have a few left."
"Then hand those over."
"Get in line."
"What? Fuck?"
It wasn't that I wasn't afraid of the man.
I was just naturally like this.
At the orphanage, the kids always teased me for being a chihuahua.
Maybe I just had a rebellious streak.
No matter how strong the other person was, I hated blindly doing what I was told.
Baek Shin-hoo, like the thugs you always saw, looked off into the distance and gave a rotten smile, as if he couldn't believe it.
"Ha—fuck. It's killing me trying to talk to a dumbass."
"…"
"Hey!"
"…"
"Hey! Are you deaf?"
"…"
"How many did you give Yoo Se-ah?"
"Fifty."
"Ha—fuck, that bitch. She's damn fast."
"...."
"Then you should give us fifty, too!"
"That's up to me."
"You're an NPC. What the hell does 'up to me' mean?"
I knew he was mistaken, but every word he said was pissing me off.
Honestly, I hadn't even called myself an NPC!
I'd put up with it because, in a way, I was deceiving them!
If he talked to me nicely, I might even consider it, so why did he keep crossing the line?
Now, just having that man stand beside me made my face twist in disgust.
But why did he keep harassing me?
This guy named Baek Shin-hoo kept needling me.
"Ha~ fuck. An NPC acting like it's offended?"
"…"
"If you're a system, act like one and serve your customers! Can't you understand plain speech?"
I couldn't put up with it anymore.
I wasn't going to act superior just because I had an item everyone wanted.
It just made me a little... No, maybe somewhere in the middle? happy that the item I'd made was useful.
No matter how strong the other person was, I didn't want to be treated like this.
I held back and held back, then gave the man an ultimatum.
"Even if I have any, I'm not giving them to you!"
Look at that glare, suddenly sharpening just because I said something he didn't like.
"What? What did you just say?"
So what? You think I'm going to back down because you tried to scare me?
No matter how strong you are, I won't sell to someone I hate!
"I'm not giving any to anyone in your guild from now on, either!"
"You fucking bitch!"
For a moment, I didn't know what had happened.
My brain felt scrambled.
My body moved before I could even understand the situation.
I went flying through the air,
while that man had one leg raised,
ㅡ WHAM!
When the impact reached my ears, pain flared in my stomach.
The pain didn't stop.
The pain kept reaching new heights.
It felt like my insides were being gouged.
A heavy pain reached deep into my abdomen.
Had my organs ruptured?
Only then did my brain seem to figure out what was happening.
I'd been kicked by that man and sent flying.
'He really is fast...'
I hadn't even seen what he'd done.
My body flew a long way, then hit the ground as gravity took hold and rolled across the floor.
Then, as if following a set procedure, the pain came rushing in.
"Kgh—!"
Something hot rose up from my esophagus.
A fishy smell assaulted my nose.
I couldn't hold it in and suddenly vomited.
Saliva mixed with thick blood came out of my mouth.
Seeing that, the watching hunters began to speak up one by one.
"Even if he's S-rank, isn't that going too far?!"
"It's a friendly NPC! How can you hit them like that?!"
"Even if Blitz is a major guild, isn't this too much?"
"This is all being streamed! I'm reporting every one of you!"
"So being S-rank means you can do anything!"
Their complaints grew louder and louder.
The atmosphere turned hostile in an instant.
It was like we'd all become allies against a common enemy, speaking with one voice.
People were strong when they banded together.
No matter how crazy he was, he couldn't take on dozens of people.
Meanwhile, the Blitz Guild Master and Vice Guild Master noticed the rapidly changing situation and hurried to control it.
"Shin-hoo! That's enough! We already have warnings on our record!"
"Yeah. Calm down a little and handle this rationally."
"Shut up!"
From the sound of it, Baek Shin-hoo was a guild member.
How skilled did he have to be for the guild master and vice guild master to beg him?
Had they spoiled him too much?
He was a real spoiled brat.
Was he not afraid of anything?
Was he really that strong?
Did S-ranks just act however they wanted?
No, that woman Yoo Se-ah hadn't acted like that?
Anyway, what the hell was that man even talking about?
Why was he making such a scene?
"Why are you all pretending to be so innocent when you should know better?"
"NPCs aren't Korean citizens! You can't be charged with a crime for killing one!"
"They're beings created by the Tower!"
"No matter what they give us, anything that comes from the Tower is an enemy, isn't it?"
"Besides, when an NPC dies, it comes back the next day like nothing happened!!"
"You all know they don't even remember what happened the day before!"
One of the hunters listening to his long speech spoke up in protest.
"That NPC is one you have to build affinity with!"
"Yeah... build affinity."
Baek Shin-hoo looked around with a vile smile.
"I don't give a damn."
"What do you mean..."
"That bitch got to them first, so there's nothing we can do about that... No, even if the bait's that effective, fifty might barely be enough. She could still die during the raid."
"No, but we're all hunters..."
"Shut up! Fellow hunters? We're all competitors. If that bitch dies in the raid, that's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Even if you're S-rank, isn't that going too far?"
"What's too much is all this. Starting tomorrow, our Blitz guild is claiming exclusive rights to that NPC, so know your place."
"What do you mean?"
"Open your mouth one more time and you'll die! Our guild's taking over this spot, so if you've got a problem with it, come at us!"
The area fell silent in an instant.
So, to sum it up, they were going to monopolize me?
More importantly, from what he was saying, he planned to kill me?
Would they kill me, then monopolize the new NPC that appeared?
Or were they going to capture me now?
But I wasn't an NPC.
I thought he was just crazy, but was he crazy enough to be scheming, too?
More importantly, the masters watching the situation were in an uproar, too.
The chat window looked like it was on fire.
ㄴTaebaek Sword Lord: What in the world is that damned demonic cultivator doing?!
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: You think every lunatic is a demonic cultivator? If he pulled that in the Demon Realm, he wouldn't last a month.
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: I've been to your land, but I didn't see a single sane person.
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: If someone acted like that just because they were strong, everyone around them would grind their teeth at them. Do you think they'd survive?
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: Child! Hurry and take a Small Revitalizing Pill!
At that moment, a message appeared from Taehyun Zhenren, who'd been quiet.
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: Child, pick up the Reverse Blood Sword right now.
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: Zhenren, what are you talking about?
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: Why are you suddenly acting like that?
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: You want a child who's only just learned to walk to wield a demonic sword? Have you lost your mind?
Everyone was confused by Taehyun Zhenren saying this, of all people, instead of Blood River Patriarch.
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: I was mistaken. I was at ease because I trusted the child when they said there were no cultivators here...
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: But there aren't any cultivators, are there?
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: There may be no cultivators, but look at that man.
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: What's wrong with him?
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: His appearance and techniques are different, but isn't he a martial artist?
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: Ah!!! So that's what a hunter is—a martial artist!
ㄴTaebaek Sword Lord: Hah. Now that you mention it, that's true. For a mortal to be that fast, it looks like the martial arts of an assassin.
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: At that level, he seems to be at the Peak... no, the Transcendent Realm.
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: If he's in the Transcendent Realm, is he top-tier among mortals?
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: Precisely. Isn't he the sort of being one must be most wary of at the Qi Refining stage? The Patriarch is right. If the child has no hidden trump card, there's nowhere to run now.
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: But a demonic sword? What if the child is overcome by madness? How are we supposed to handle that? We can't intervene, can we?
While they argued back and forth, Blood River Patriarch, who'd been quiet, finally spoke.
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: It's fine. Would you go mad from cutting down one little nobody like that?
ㄴJade-Cold Ice Empress: Can you guarantee that, Patriarch?
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: Of course. I've used it since my Qi Refining days.
ㄴHeavenly Secrets Pavilion Master: What? Since your Qi Refining days? Then, no... excuse me, I'll visit the Scripture Pavilion for a moment.
ㄴFive Azure Demon King: That fucking nerd.
Everyone seemed to be making a fuss.
I could feel how flustered they were.
Blood River Patriarch didn't seem to care about the commotion and spoke to me again.
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: Little one, don't worry. You won't be consumed by madness.
"Really?"
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: Yes. Even if a hundred martial artists like him attacked, you'd win.
"What do you mean?"
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: You'll see.
In the end, summing up what the masters were saying, it seemed like I couldn't win in my current state.
Taehyun Zhenren, who fought with Blood River Patriarch every day, had told me to take up the demonic sword.
Did that mean the man was that strong?
Well, he had been so fast I couldn't even see him.
"Taehyun Zhenren, are you really... sure it's okay for me to wield the demonic sword?"
ㄴTaehyun Zhenren: Yes. You have to wield it to survive. Keep your mind firm so you aren't consumed by your heart demon.
ㄴBlood River Patriarch: I swear on the Great Dao. It's fine, so don't worry.
Heart demons? A Great Dao oath?
I was told heart demons were the bad thoughts that came into your mind.
Still, if he'd even sworn a Great Dao oath, it didn't seem like he was lying.
Well, it wasn't like I had any other choice.
I got to my feet and drew the Reverse Blood Sword.