Chapter 19
[Translator – Prøks]
[Proofreader – Prøks]
Chapter 19: The Intruder
A vast forest spread out before his eyes.
Whooosh!
Crunch!
Cries could be heard from a distance.
To massacre those gorillas….
[Warning!]
[There is currently 1 outsider inside the gate!]
“Huh?”
He wasn’t particularly surprised.
That was because it was one of the fairly common events that happened while playing Gate Hunter.
‘Someone must have infiltrated.’
The gate divides into sections each time you enter.
Section 1, Section 2, Section 3…
It felt like parallel worlds with the same boss existing in each section, making it easier to strategize by entering one by one as a party.
‘They must have entered together before the sections were divided.’
Usually, they’re assassins.
They’re skilled in stealth and assassination, making them adept at hiding.
Their reason for entering was simple.
‘Because killing pays.’
No matter how many ordinary monsters you kill, you’ll only get one piece of equipment.
But what about the Awakened?
If you catch one, you can strip it from head to toe.
It would be easier to hunt since they would be of a lower level than them, and there would be those who enjoy killing people more than anything else.
This was one of the main reasons awakeners formed parties in this game.
For gates of D-rank or lower, the maximum number of entrants per section was five.
By forming a party of five and having the party leader stand in front of the gate, all party members receive an entry message.
This prevents assassins from sneaking in beforehand.
Of course, associations or governments also react sensitively to this issue, often stationing awakeners to guard popular gates.
‘But you can’t stop those who are determined to come.’
Assassin stealth is difficult to detect even among same-level players.
To reliably catch intruders, the level of the guarding side needed to be much higher.
That wasn’t easy.
The world is vast, and there are many gates.
From the cost of hiring to the scarcity of high-level awakeners.
Preventing intrusions was fundamentally difficult.
‘At least they must be C-rank.’
If the assassin is D-rank or lower, it becomes a problem when they exit the gate.
Whether they clear and exit, or exit from the middle zone, a light bursts from the gate.
It is a signal that they are saying, “We are coming out.”
But what if nobody comes out?
It means the assassin killed everyone and used stealth to escape.
Then the investigation would begin immediately.
D-ranks are highly likely to get caught.
Levels 101 to 150.
Up to this line, there were almost no skills that could erase traces.
‘But it’s different from C-rank and above.’
Levels 151 to 250.
This is the section where they move from the lower ranks to the middle ranks for sure.
They learn the art of the assassin, Trace Erasure.
With this, one can’t track an assassin who has disappeared, even with a decent tool.
He thought he knew roughly why this guy had followed him.
He went into the gate alone?
Unless they’re suicidal, they must have high standards, and ultimately, that means they have good equipment.
That must have piqued their interest.
Minwoo smirked.
‘I know why you came, but…’
Does the guy know?
That the number of assassins he has killed in the gate so far is in the thousands.
He’s really good at dealing with these guys.
[Using Cedric Summon (SSS)!]
[Using Skeleton Summon (F)+9!]
After summoning the undead.
[Consume Detection Potion (Highest Grade)!]
[Effect will be activated for one hour!]
[Consume Strength Enhancement Potion (Highest Grade)!]
[Strength increases by 50% for one hour!]
[Agility Enhancement… …]
.
.
He took the potions he bought from the auction house. It was time to hunt him down.
* * *
Woo-woo-woo!
Ook! Ook-ee!
Chattering sounds echoed from afar.
The giant gorillas and monkeys rushed forward, filled with excitement.
However, their momentum was quickly turned to blood as the small dagger swung, killing them instantly.
“Hmm.”
She seemed to be enjoying herself.
With a sly smile, the woman killing monsters, Lee Seoyoon, continued her spree.
She was an elite assassin.
In Korea, known as a country of low-ranked awakeneds, she had reached the B-rank.
And among those B-rank awakeneds, she belonged to the higher echelons.
Levels 251 to 350.
The segment of B-rank awakeneds.
And among them, her level soared to nearly the early 300s.
She had another name.
Shadow.
Given for her ability to move stealthily.
Beautiful and graceful, she possessed an intellectual demeanor.
She was very popular.
To the point of being compared to the Sword of Justice, if that’s not an exaggeration.
But behind her active public persona, there lurked a cold-blooded killer.
Stabbing, killing, dismantling.
She enjoyed it.
But she was bored with monsters.
She had killed too many.
‘But people are different.’
The joy she felt when she cut off the tendons in their limbs and made them crawl!
Her pupils contracted as she recalled past memories.
It was a sensation one could only experience firsthand.
Similar to the pleasure of pouring soda into one’s veins.
That’s why, even though she couldn’t do it every day, she made sure to kill at least one a month.
“I’ve been too busy lately.”
She hadn’t been able to enjoy herself for a while, as she had been busy with the work assigned to her by the ‘organization’.
[TL/N: Name not finalised]
It had been a long time since she had had the time.
An E-rank gate.
It was the perfect place to play with her prey.
And there were suitable prey.
A man entered the gate alone.
Entering an E-rank alone, he must be around D-rank.
Even if he’s higher, maybe up to C-rank.
Even if he’s B-rank, it wouldn’t be a problem.
She was confident in her abilities.
Since it wasn’t a party, the positions generated inside the gate were random.
That didn’t mean that one side had an advantage of being closer to the middle area, for example.
By now, he must have received a message and would be rushing through with his back on fire. she hoped she would reach the middle ground first.
Then.
[Humanoid Tracking (B) activated!]
Her skill activated.
It signaled that the prey was nearby.
With a smirk, she activated her skill.
[Shadow Concealment (B) activated!]
[Skill may be deactivated upon receiving an attack or colliding with an object!]
Her body blurred in an instant.
She didn’t activate the skill for a careful surprise attack.
The level difference was overwhelming.
Unless the enemy was an A-rank or above awakened, there was no need to move cautiously.
Just…
‘I have to go and surprise them.’
It was all for the pure fun of it.
Usually, when she revealed herself in front of them, they would be so surprised that they would tremble as if they were having a seizure.
The process of instilling fear in prey.
That’s why she had come here personally.
Thud.
Thud.
Her body, hidden in the darkness, seeped into the forest.
And then, the moment she found her prey.
‘Oh, my?’
Her eyes widened in surprise.
This was because she was faced with a sight she had never imagined.
A group of gorillas had been defeated.
There was nothing strange about that so far.
But the beings that had defeated them were a group of skeletons.
At a glance, there were over four hundred skeletons.
‘A Necromancer?’
When she came in, she thought he was a swordsman because he was only carrying a sword.
It was a job that shattered her expectations.
But what was even more surprising was.
‘Is this… maybe him?’
The hottest super rookie in Korea right now!
Kim Minwoo.
There was a reason she couldn’t help but think of that name.
Each skeleton was armed, and they were armed with equipment that easily cost hundreds of millions of won per piece.
If it were just dozens, she might not have noticed.
But there was no Necromancer in Korea who could arm hundreds of skeletons like that other than Kim Minwoo.
‘Oh my god!’
Lee Seoyoon’s eyes sparkled like crazy.
When she thought about it, it wasn’t strange for Kim Minwoo to come here in disguise.
He wouldn’t want to attract too much attention.
So, he probably forged his ID.
With his identity, it was a piece of cake.
‘There it is! That’s it!’
Cedric.
The skeleton that had been introduced on broadcasts and had numerous articles written about it.
It was there among the skeletons.
She had come here just to play around, but she had unexpectedly caught a big fish.
Like a cat looking at a mouse, her eyes were full of curiosity and mischief.
And then, the moment she stepped forward, full of excitement.
Click.
‘Huh?’
[You have stepped on an Explosive Debris Trap.]
Boom!
A huge explosion erupted.
* * *
‘Found you.’
Kim Minwoo’s eyes lit up.
Even though he had drunk the highest grade detection potion, there was still a basic level difference.
It would help with detection, but it was not easy to find an assassin approaching in stealth.
In the end, the key to victory was whether he could find the assassin before they approached him.
If he didn’t find them, he would be stabbed in the back and die.
That’s why he used traps.
Unless they were a professional thief who was an expert in finding and disarming traps.
‘Assassins are vulnerable to traps.’
He had not just placed one or two traps.
He had used the skeletons to set them all around him.
Assassins basically have a lot of tracking skills, such as body heat detection and humanoid tracking.
‘So they’re supposed to approach first.’
This was especially true in lower-rank gates like this.
They were not hunting monsters of the same level, but rather opponents who were much lower level than them.
Nine times out of ten, they would be careless.
They would be filled with the desire to kill them quickly and take their items.
And since traps were generally pricey, there wasn’t much investment in preparing for assassins in these lower-rank gates.
‘She probably didn’t think she would step on a trap.’
In fact, judging from the skeletons, the prey was that rich Kim Minwoo?
The equipment alone cost hundreds of billions of won.
And his level was also widely known to be in the 20s, making him a newbie.
Would she hold back and not attack him?
If she did, she wouldn’t be an assassin, but a Buddha.
His expectations were exactly right.
Just like numerous assassins before, this one also rushed in like a moth to a flame and stepped on a trap.
‘Well, the damage itself isn’t that much, but…’
Exploding debris traps had a very effective feature.
Once the debris gets on your body, it doesn’t come off easily.
The body of the assassin in front of him was sparkling as if covered in glitter.
That’s why the assassin’s body in front of him was sparkling.
If she tried to hide now, she would be caught.
“Nice to meet you?”
“Huh.”
The assassin snorted as he greeted her, as if to say this was ridiculous.
The moment the assassin raised her head, Minwoo’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Huh?’
A woman with a familiar face.
He knew that woman very well.
‘Lee Seoyoon?’
She was one of the most famous villains in Gate Hunter.
A character who pretends to be kind on the media but is a psychopath on the inside.
If left alone, she would continue to grow and even reach S-rank Awakened, becoming a damn character that would interfere with the game’s progress.
‘I’m meeting her now?’
Of course, she is one of the characters that users would love to kill.
The problem was that it was difficult to kill her in reality.
She was a celebrity, so it would be very difficult to deal with her.
So if he was going to kill her, he had to do it in the gate when she appeared randomly.
But the word ‘random’ was there for a reason.
It was random when she would appear to hunt Awakeneds, and in which gate she would appear.
And he happened to meet her now?
‘This is great.’
Just then.
Lee Seoyoon’s eyes narrowed.
“Mr. Kim Minwoo, you have a lot of guts, don’t you? I thought you would run away, but you set up traps instead.”
Poison dripped from the dagger she was holding.
“You have a lot of guts too? You’re trying to attack me all by yourself.”
“Ha…”
Lee Seoyoon sneered as if she found it ridiculous.
Given, the level difference between them was over 200.
Even with talent and skills, it was normal to run away without looking back at this level of difference.
“Don’t you know who I am? I’m a celebrity.”
“Let’s see, right now… you’re just a level 300 assassin, right?”
“I’ve never encountered a crazy person like you before.”
[Translator – Prøks]
[Proofreader – Prøks]
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