Chapter 12 : Level Up

Chapter 12: Level Up

“It just happened, somehow.”

It was at that moment.

From Dong Bong-su’s body, a strange and mysterious white light burst forth.

Holy Light.

It was an exceedingly sacred radiance that did not suit Dong Bong-su at all. It was the kind of scene he would never have experienced in his entire life, yet he had already gone through something like this before.

In Murim Online, that virtual world, he had experienced this kind of light.

“So this is leveling up.”

At last, in this New Murim Online, he succeeded in his first evolution.

“....”

At the instant of leveling up, silence flowed through the alley. However, that moment did not last very long.

“Hi, hiiik!”

The thugs recoiled in terror, stepping backward. Jangho’s death—something they could never possibly handle—and the cruelly white light that had just spread throughout the alley made it so.

Tap.

Dong Bong-su took a single step toward them. As if matching his step, the thugs took one step back as well. No, they tried to—but behind them, not even a single step was allowed. This was a dead-end alley.

Was he smiling?

Dong Bong-su’s lips parted slightly, revealing white teeth. His advance began once more.

The first to be caught by Dong Bong-su was Dopaldu, who was still clutching his broken arm and writhing in pain. Dong Bong-su lifted his foot high and stomped straight down on Dopaldu’s neck.

Crack, crunch.

With the grotesque sound of neck bones shattering, Dopaldu departed this world on the spot.

“K-k-kill him!”

Seeing Dopaldu die so meaninglessly, the thugs, gripped by fear yet desperate to survive, all charged at Dong Bong-su at once.

Dong Bong-su’s response to them was simple and clear.

He lightly raised his hand to chest height.

Sssrrk.

In his palm unfolded a scene like watching a flower bud form at hundreds of thousands of times normal speed. Except it was not a flower—it was a blade.

A single saber that sprouted from the inventory and bloomed into Dong Bong-su’s hand.

Just like the dagger earlier, every weapon inside the inventory had been secretly purchased or siphoned off while helping Machil with Military Hireling work.

Slash.

His saber mercilessly cleaved through the air.

Thud.

The blade sank halfway into the neck of the thug charging at the very front. Having swung a weapon for the first time in far too long, he failed to sever the neck cleanly in one strike. Dong Bong-su immediately discarded the saber and drew a dagger.

Gripping the dagger with its edge facing downward, he leaped straight into the midst of the thugs.

Stab, slice!

“K-kuaaaargh!”

Each time the dagger moved, the thugs’ arteries were severed, and blood spurted out like a fountain.

Dong Bong-su did not know martial arts, but when it came to fighting, he was a master. He was a powerhouse who had mastered nearly every form of combat that existed on modern Earth.

He was proficient not only in barehanded fighting and joint locks, but also in the Eighteen Martial Skills. Naturally, the weapons he could handle were limitless. If circumstances were unfavorable, he even possessed the adaptability to use everything around him as a weapon, just like the Chinese-action-film actor Jackie Chan. That was precisely the kind of man Dong Bong-su was.

Above all else, the most important thing was this.

There was one thing that hindered people the most in a fight, and Dong Bong-su did not have it. Mercy. It was something he lacked entirely. Dong Bong-su did not hesitate to use any means or methods under any circumstances.

Dirty tricks? Despicable methods? Cowardice?

Those concepts did not exist for him in the first place. If he could subdue and kill his opponent, none of that even entered into consideration.

“Uaaagh!”

Dong Bong-su’s cruel dance looked as though it would not stop until every single thug was dead.

Thud, thud, crunch!

The brutal dance of slaughter finally came to a halt only when a single person remained.

After his killing dance stopped, all that was left in the area were corpses, blood, and the stench of gore.

“Uuuuh....”

Dong Bong-su pressed his dagger against the neck of the last remaining thug and, with his other hand, pointed at one of the corpses sprawled behind him.

“What was that guy?”

“A-are you asking about Jangho?”

The thug answered immediately despite trembling violently. It was because he thought there might be a chance he would be spared. Even though he knew it was futile, he could not let go of that small thread of hope.

“Yes. What was Jangho?”

“H-he was a member of the Black Snake Society....”

“Black Snake Society? What’s that?”

“O-one of the Black Divisions th-that control the back alleys of Bongyang.”

From the name Black Division, Dong Bong-su could roughly guess what it was. thugs were just petty thugs. A Black Division was probably a far more specialized gang of hoodlums than they were. Interpreted in modern terms, it would be something like an organized crime syndicate.

After that, Dong Bong-su asked the thug a few more questions about the Black Snake Society and the Black Division, then killed him. The thug died on the spot without even getting to beg for his life. He would not have been spared anyway, so it was probably not all that unfair.

Once the job was finished, Dong Bong-su put all the corpses into the inventory. After that, he took off his clothes and roughly wiped up the blood on the ground. Then he took out the white cloths he had prepared in the inventory and wiped away the remaining blood as well.

Although he had been steadily developing the inventory’s abilities since the moment he became aware of its existence, he still could not freely control liquids.

A short while later.

It could not be called perfect, but on the surface, he had wiped away the blood to the point where not a single bloodstain could be found. Unless someone sprayed investigative reagents used in modern forensics, such as luminol solution or hydrogen peroxide, there would be no way to confirm the presence of blood. There was no way such things already existed in this world, so this was a perfect crime by any reasonable standard.

In a place like this, where techniques that violated physics such as martial arts existed, it would take at least several hundred more years for investigative capabilities and forensic science of that level to be sufficiently established. Perhaps it might be impossible forever.

Soon, the scene was cleaned.

No one would ever know that a blood-soaked fight had taken place here.

So now, it was time to return to being the mute Ma-a-sam.

After perfectly wrapping up the cleanup, Dong Bong-su took out the new clothes he had stored in the inventory, changed into them, then led Yeoro and left the alley.

The walk began again.

Dong Bong-su arrived at Bongyang Mountain at the end of the walking route and disposed of all the bodies. If there had been something called Bone-Melting Powder, as spoken of in this world, he could have handled things much more cleanly, but even without such a thing, it did not matter.

When it came to matters like this, Dong Bong-su was more of an expert than anyone.

Disposing of corpses did not require many things. Even if he did happen to possess something like Bone-Melting Powder, he would not have used it. If it were an item with such excellent efficacy, it would have far greater utility as a weapon—so why waste it on dealing with mere corpses?

Soon, the bodies were buried somewhere hidden deep in the mountains.

Yeoro watched all of it from right beside him, yet remained indifferent. To Yeoro, Dong Bong-su was a frightening beast, but also a fairly friendly owner who fed him.

Dong Bong-su gently stroked Yeoro’s head once, then retraced the path he had come from.

Today, he had learned several important facts.

First, the existence of the Black Division.

He had been looking for level-up hunting targets that lay between martial artists and ordinary people, and he had discovered them without even intending to. A goal had been set. It was unfortunate for the Black Divisions, but for ordinary people, it was actually good news. Starting today, the Suicide Plague would disappear.

The next thing he learned concerned the characteristics of leveling up.

First, at the moment of leveling up, all the injuries he had sustained up to that point were completely healed. On Dong Bong-su’s body now, the wounds he had received from the thugs before Jangho appeared had vanished without a trace.

This was information with considerable value. Did it not mean that if the moment of leveling up was imminent, he could afford to take on a certain amount of risk?

Although he had not yet tested it, perhaps even damage to the heart or brain might be healed.

The next characteristic was the light. The radiance that filled the alley at the moment of leveling up—Holy Light.

However, this characteristic was a drawback of leveling up. The light was dazzling to look at, but it carried a strong possibility of attracting danger. A hunter hiding among prey must be ordinary. Only when he was the most similar to others, indistinguishable from them, could he become the greatest hunter.

The moment they noticed that Dong Bong-su was different from them, they would reject him. And that would put him in just that much more danger. This was no exception, even for the killing methods that made use of the inventory. He could not be caught by anyone.

Because of this, he realized that leveling up had to be done at the point when a hunt was finished, or in a place where only prey existed. And it had to be somewhere no one’s eyes could possibly reach. One misstep, and his true identity could be exposed.

‘I’ll have to be even more careful from now on.’

He still knew almost nothing about this New Murim Online. Everything that happened today had occurred suddenly, at a timing even he had not anticipated.

If Jangho had been a little more cautious, or just a little stronger, today could have become extremely dangerous.

Now, relying on nothing but the camouflage of being a mute was no longer enough to endure. He had to grow stronger, and faster.

Today was the day he confirmed that.

He turned his body and began descending the mountain. There were many things he needed to check immediately once he returned. He had to review what had happened today, and he also had to examine the abilities that had arisen due to leveling up.

Leveling up literally meant that his level had risen. Simply put, it meant he had become stronger.

In fact, Dong Bong-su could already feel it. By becoming Level 2, he had grown stronger. His body felt lighter than before, and his strength had increased as well. He could not quantify it precisely, but he was definitely stronger.

Just what kind of abilities had increased?

“Hi-hihing!”

Yeoro seemed curious as well and let out a sound, as if urging him to hurry back.

Dong Bong-su stroked Yeoro’s neck once more and then quickly descended the mountain.

Before his eyes, a hologram message like this floated into view. The shimmering hologram was broken and torn in places, making its contents impossible to discern clearly.

[Critical ERROR has... occurred in the Murim Online system. There will be no issue with continuing the game......]

“Critical error, huh.”

This was getting more and more interesting.

Dong Bong-su’s lips parted slightly, revealing snow-white teeth. In the real world, he had never had reason to smile—but here, although rare, there were moments that made him smile. Very rarely, that was.

His footsteps toward the Danri Family grew faster and faster.