Chapter 10 : Stairs

Chapter 10: Stairs

The family?

“Family? Are you talking about our Danri Family?”

“Yes.”

Gi Dae-hyo briefly scratched his chin and fell into thought. It was his habit whenever he was deep in contemplation.

A moment later.

“Where is the place where the two committed suicide?”

He made his decision.

“Bongyang Inn.”

“Let’s go.”

“Yes?”

The reason Gi Man-ji was surprised was because Gi Dae-hyo said he would go personally. Normally, the head of the Black Five Division did not step forward in matters like this. It was customary for him to issue orders from behind the scenes.

“For Father to go in person, this much is…….”

“No. I need to see it myself.”

Gi Dae-hyo cut off Gi Man-ji’s words and, without delay, left the Black Five Hall.

Ssssss-.

Gi Dae-hyo immediately unfolded his movement technique and vanished toward the east.

The direction was where the main gate of the Danri Family was located.

● ● ●

At the same time, Gi Dae-hyo was heading to Bongyang Inn.

Dong Bong-su was spending his day as always, living the daily routine of Sosam, the horse stable hireling.

He had already finished waking up early in the morning to clean up horse dung and feed the horses.

From now on was the most important task of his daily routine.

Taking the Blood-Sweating Horse for a walk.

Within the Danri Family, there was only a single Blood-Sweating Horse.

Its name was Yeoro. It was the beloved horse of Dan Ri Cheon-u, the Danri Family Head.

With its white coat and mane magnificently fluttering, Yeoro was by far the most expensive horse in the Danri Family.

Because of that, it was the top-priority management target for all horse stable hirelings in the family. If even the smallest wound appeared on Yeoro, the horse stable hirelings might end up holding a line of funerals. In fact, once before, when a small boil had appeared on Yeoro’s skin, the horse stable hirelings had been beaten as a group.

However.

Ever since Dong Bong-su—no longer Sosam—had taken charge of Yeoro, such incidents had never occurred.

Animals instinctively knew which ‘beasts’ should not be provoked. From the moment Sosam changed into Dong Bong-su, all the horses in the eastern stables became extremely docile.

In the past, accidents would occasionally happen, but now such things never occurred. Even newly brought-in wild horses only ran wild at first, and the instant they met Dong Bong-su’s eyes, they became as gentle as lambs.

Those who saw this whispered among themselves.

[After Sosam was injured, he lost his words but gained a horse spirit!]

At times, they even called him a Horse Demon. That was how freely Sosam could control horses. As a result, many of the contemptuous gazes directed at him diminished.

As an entirely natural consequence, the management of Yeoro became Sosam’s responsibility. Although there were several horse stable hirelings in the Danri Family, aside from Dan Ri Cheon-u himself, the only person who could perfectly control Yeoro was Sosam.

From Dong Bong-su’s perspective, there was also no reason to refuse taking responsibility for Yeoro. There were many benefits to be gained by being in charge of Yeoro.

After he took on the duty of caring for Yeoro, he gained a great deal of free time. The number of people who picked fights with him without reason decreased, and there were almost no longer any people who tried to dump work on him. Machil, who had tormented Dong Bong-su the most, had already sunk into the pits of hellfire.

Naturally, he was left with plenty of spare time.

And…….

At the same time, the number of people dying from the Suicide Plague in Bongyang also increased.

● ● ●

Dong Bong-su led Yeoro out of the family grounds and headed toward the market streets of Bongyang Fortress. During walks, he usually searched for prey. If possible, he dealt with them on the spot. However, there were cases when it was difficult to take care of things immediately. In those situations, he observed the target, stored them in his memory, and killed them later.

Yeoro was like wings to him not only within the family grounds, but also outside them. When he walked around with Yeoro, people avoided him on their own. Everyone in Bongyang knew whose horse Yeoro was and what kind of existence it represented.

Borrowing the might of a horse.

It was a phrase people coined because Mabyeonsam borrowed the prestige of the horse to put on airs. In truth, it was not so much putting on airs as merely passing along the road, but that might have been how it appeared to others.

In any case, Dong Bong-su was fully enjoying the benefits Yeoro provided. Thanks to the horse, he could stroll through the market streets without trouble while searching for suitable prey.

However.

‘It’s no longer useful.’

Dong Bong-su realized that the time had come to stop this kind of hunting. He had killed 196 people recently, but the experience bar had only filled to about one-third. At this rate, there was no telling when he would level up and grow stronger.

From the perspective of efficiency, it was clear that he had nearly reached the point of diminishing returns.

‘There’s a clear limit to gaining experience like this.’

Just as he was having these thoughts.

Dong Bong-su finally confirmed clearly that there were differences in the amount of experience even among humans.

The day before yesterday, he had killed a man near here, and at that time the experience bar had filled quite a bit. Only then did Dong Bong-su realize that the difference in experience between people could be quite large. The single man he killed last held more experience than the 195 people he had killed before.

His goal changed.

From simply killing people to eliminating stronger people.

Then who were the stronger people?

There was no direct way to verify it, but instinctively, he already knew who the relatively stronger people were and where they were.

Martial artists.

Why wouldn’t that be the case?

Even in games, high-level elite mobs give dozens of times—perhaps hundreds or even thousands of times—more experience than the rabbits in front of the village.

That was only natural.

If it was a world where a level-up system was applied.

‘It should be that way.’

It was almost certain.

If he killed martial artists, he would be able to accumulate experience with ease.

However, he had not yet directly sparred with martial artists or crossed hands with them.

He had merely watched them train occasionally within the Danri Family.

Based on that experience, the judgment he reached was…….

‘Even the weakest warrior in the Danri Family would still be too much for now.’

He needed time to become stronger.

Or else.

‘There needs to be an intermediate step.’

No matter how much an ordinary person trains in high jumping, they cannot leap straight up to the second floor in one go.

There has to be stairs, footholds, or a ladder.

An intermediate prey that could bridge the gap between ordinary people and martial artists.

What could that be?

Someone like that man he killed the day before yesterday. Someone like that was just right.

‘What kind of man was he? Where would I have to go to meet more guys like him?’

With such thoughts, Dong Bong-su was naturally walking along Bongyang’s market streets, his usual walking route.

As he passed by the side of one alley.

A coarse voice rang out from inside the alley.

“Hey, Mabyeonsam. Why are you just passing by? It’s been a while since you saw your big brother—shouldn’t we sit face to face and have a little talk? You ssi-beol-eom bastard.”

Dong Bong-su turned his head toward the alley.

There, five or six men were squatting in sloppy postures. In particular, the man staring at him from the front had thick sideburns covering his jaw, making him look exceedingly vicious.

‘Dopald u.’

Dopaldu.

He was the leader of the market street hoodlum gang. Commanding around twenty thugs, he was one of the bottom-feeding lives who lived by squeezing money out of the market vendors.

Lately, the authorities’ constables had been spread throughout every alley, so he had not been seen for a while. Yet for some reason, he was loitering in a conspicuously visible alley.

Their prey was not limited to market merchants. At times, servants or farmhands from great households, like Sosam or Machil, also became targets. The reason Dopaldu usually refrained from provoking them was because he feared that the great households might find out. And when that great household was a martial family, it was all the more reason to be cautious.

But that was only when their bellies were not empty.

The thugs’ eyes were glinting.

Dong Bong-su could tell at a glance. Just how hungry they were. Well, considering the recent atmosphere in Bongyang, it was only natural. Even when they got money, it never lasted more than a day. They spent it as soon as it came, on alcohol and women. For people like them, with the Suicide Plague running rampant these days, it must have been nothing short of a complete economic downturn.

Today, it would be fair to say they had come down the mountain and raided the village while bearing a certain level of risk.

Even wolves, in the midst of a severe drought, come down to places where people live, and even lions, when cornered, hunt giant prey like elephants.

However.

They had chosen the wrong opponent.

The target they had chosen as prey today was—

Not Sosam, but Dong Bong-su. They simply did not know that fact.

Dong Bong-su opened his mouth wide and put on a foolish grin. Maintaining that expression, he walked toward Dopaldu.

Dopaldu and the hoodlums led him, together with Yeoro, deep into the alley where there were no people. Dopaldu seemed to have judged that as long as Yeoro was not harmed, it was fine to do whatever he pleased to someone like Sosam.

Before stepping into the alley after the hoodlums, Dong Bong-su surveyed the surroundings. Perhaps because it was still early in the morning, there were not many people around. Far off, he could see a few merchants, but this place was somewhat removed from the main market street, so no one was paying attention to this alley.

The reason he checked the surroundings was simple.

If he were to eliminate all of ‘these things’ here, how should he handle the aftermath? Should he process this as suicides again this time?

By principle, that was what should be done. However, given the nature of the location, it was not appropriate. Making it look like a dozen or so men committed suicide inside an alley was no easy task.

What about staging it as mutual knife fighting, or putting the corpses into his inventory and dumping them somewhere else? That was not bad. But it wasn’t about being merely not bad; there was no particular gain to it.

Even if he killed them all, the experience gained would not amount to much, and if he did not kill them, the disadvantage he would suffer would amount to nothing more than taking a few hits and losing a bit of money.

The balance between benefit and loss, and the weight of risk, swayed back and forth.