Chapter 362. The Player Slaughterer (4)

The Butcher felt like he was dreaming.

‘What? This is impossible.’

Every fiend knew that Specter was strong, and the idiots who thought otherwise had died long ago. The Executives of the Fiend Association especially knew better than anyone how strong he was because the Heavenly Demon had personally told them about it after he fought Specter himself.

‘But… His skill level is way too different from what the Heavenly Demon described.’

With the Butcher’s current power, he should be able to throw Specter around like a child playing with a toy before killing him. And that was why he had been so relaxed all this time.

‘W-why is this happening?’

The gears in his head quickly turned. There was only one thing that he suspected as the cause—time. The Heavenly Demon fought Seo Jun-Ho five months ago.

‘But it has only been five months.’

It didn’t matter how much rage Specter poured into his training; it was impossible for him to become twice as strong as he was in just five months. Moreover, the Butcher was currently using the power of a manticore. He had absorbed 3,748 clones. Even if it was temporary, it raised his strength stat all the way to 570.

“But how…”

“You’re cute…” Seo Jun-Ho smirked and tugged gently on the hook, and the Butcher’s feet were pulled right out of the ground like radishes. As his body was dragged across the ground, he felt a swell of humiliation, frustration, and rage. Because right now, he looked no different from a child being beaten by an adult.

“Fuck!” In the end, the Butcher’s pride made him let go of the chain so he wouldn’t get humiliated even further. “You bastard, you hid your power when you fought the Heavenly Demon…”

No, that was impossible. Back then, Specter was on the brink of death while fighting the Heavenly Demon.

‘Then does that mean that he actually became two times stronger from then?’

The Butcher couldn’t believe it, but the cold reality forced him to do so. Belatedly, fear filled his eyes, and alarm bells started going off in his head.

‘I have to tell them.’

No matter what, he had to tell the Heavenly Demon and the other Executives that Specter was on a level that was far beyond their own expectations. He had to tell them that Specter had already reached a similar level of strength as their leader, the Heavenly Demon.

‘If I just manage to get out of the mosque, I can take people as hostages and return safely…’

“Sorry, but it’s too late,” Specter whispered. As soon as he saw fear filling the Butcher’s eyes, he became sure of his victory.

‘He’s probably thinking about running away because fiends never change.’

However, that wouldn’t happen. And it was all because his opponent was Specter.

Fwoosh!

A Curtain of Darkness spread over the air and trapped the two of them inside.

“Now you won’t be able to run away.”

“...!” Specter had seen right through him. The Butcher gnashed his teeth and quickly moved the right hand he had been keeping behind his back, releasing an explosion of demonic energy toward Jun-Ho.

‘There!’

Thick, blood-red smoke bloomed. It was one of the manticore’s powers, and it instilled fear in the target, weakening them.

But when the smoke faded, all he saw was an indifferent-looking Seo Jun-Ho.

[Hero’s Mind (EX) has protected you from a mental attack.]

“...”

He looked indifferent, without a hint of fear in his eyes.

The Butcher gnashed his teeth.

‘I may die here.’

He had always hunted Players as his prey. They were weak beings that he could kill whenever he wanted.

“I am the Player Slaughterer.” Demonic magic poured out of him and created thousands of weapons, surrounding the two of them. “They call me a walking armory.”

He had used every weapon in existence to butcher Players, and it was all because he was always looking for more painful and entertaining ways to kill his prey.

“I’ll slaughter you.” With his heart set, he charged at Seo Jun-Ho with a dagger in his left hand and a spear in his right.

“...” Seo Jun-Ho swung his sword and easily cut through both of them. However, even though his weapons had just been destroyed, the Butcher’s attack was not yet over.

The Butcher retreated a step backward and snatched new weapons from the ones floating in the air.

‘I see...’ Seo Jun-Ho was a little impressed. It was an extremely inefficient technique, but it was effective at instantly bolstering the tempo of the battle so that it would quickly reach its peak. There were tens of attacks every second, and each one was carried out by a different weapon. Unless the receiver of the attacks was extremely knowledgeable about the special properties of many weapons, they were bound to mess up.

‘This is a present for showing me something interesting.’

Just as the incoming halberd was about to pierce him, Seo Jun-Ho’s body turned into a shadow and flew forward.

“...!”

The Butcher’s eyes went wide. Seo Jun-Ho had become intangible—a great feat that no other Player had ever achieved before.

“Y-you monster!” the Butcher yelped, panicking.

All of a sudden, a large palm appeared before his eyes. It quickly grabbed his skull and buried the back of his head into the ground.

“...!” The pain didn’t let him scream. After painstakingly opening his eyes, he saw a fist.

Crack!

His head broke through the mosque’s stone floor and was forcefully buried in the ground.

“U-Ughn.”

“You’re pretty sturdy.” Seo Jun-Ho indifferently pointed out. He started punching the Butcher’s face like a machine. After a while, the Butcher’s body slightly convulsed before going limp.

It was an unfitting, futile death for someone who had once instilled fear in the streets of the world as the so-called Player Slaughterer.

[The battle has ended. The stat points gained from ‘One Who Perseveres have vanished.]

Seo Jun-Ho checked his status window and saw that the stats he had gained from the Title’s effect were gone.

‘I guess I have to build them back up every battle.’

The effect was practically cheating in a long battle like today’s battle. But other than that, it was hard to say whether it was effective in short battles or not. He had to look more into it to use it effectively.

“Contractor, check his memories first,” the Frost Queen suggested.

“Oh…” he muttered, “Confession of the Dead.”

The memory playback appeared, showing him the Heavenly Demon and the Executives’ location. His eyebrows furrowed.

“They’re in the Underworld?”

It was where the demons dwelled. Seo Jun-Ho finally knew where the Heavenly Demon was located, but it wasn’t like he could go there even if he wanted to.

‘So that’s where he was hiding…’

They weren’t just staying quiet. The Heavenly Demon and the Executives were growing stronger so fast in the Underworld as if it was natural.

‘The Butcher was strong, too.’

If Seo Jun-Ho hadn’t gotten a lot stronger since he fought the Heavenly Demon, today’s fight would have been extremely difficult.

“The demons are strong, too,” he observed.

“If Common demons are that strong, imagine how strong High and Arch demons are…”

“...” Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes for a bit. He did some image training based on the memories that the Butcher had collected over the course of his life.

‘Lesser and Low demons are no match for me…’

And Common demons were about half as strong as him.

However, a High demon belonged to a completely different standard.

‘They can destroy a mountain with just a flick of their hand.’

And if they just had the time and motivation, they could even destroy Earth.

Seo Jun-Ho started wondering if a human being could even become that strong no matter how much they leveled up and grew stronger.

“...”

As he looked up at the fiercely burning sun, he lifted his left hand and spoke into his Vita.

“This is Specter. Mission complete.”

***

[A Night of Terror. ‘Player Slaughterer’ Returns, Killed By Specter]

[A Tragic Victory. 392 Civilians and 7 Korean Association Players Killed in Baghdad.]

[President Shim Deok-Gu of the Korean Player Association Warns That Fiends Are Still a Threat]

[Prime Minister of Iraq, Imoham Abdul Bows to Specter in Gratitude]

…

It had been four days since he fought the Butcher. In the meantime, Seo Jun-Ho had to catch up with all the many errands he had forgotten all this while.

“Ugh, this is why being a Hero is so annoying,” he complained.

“Who told you to be one?” the Frost Queen said sarcastically.

“...Are you just gonna keep watching shows, though? Aren’t you ashamed at all?” Seo Jun-Ho grumbled, directing his frustration at her.

Eventually, Seo Jun-Ho made his way to the training room.

“Shouldn’t you rest a little?” the Frost Queen asked.

“Huh? I was resting for the last four days.”

“...That was resting?” She frowned. She considered ’resting’ to be nothing but eating cake or napping. “Then you should have rejected all those interviews and rested properly.”

“Easier said than done…” Seo Jun-Ho sighed. The world wanted a Hero. More precisely, they wanted a strong Hero who would always emerge victorious. “I already know what kind of rumors would spread if I just waved them off after fighting the Butcher because I was lazy.”

There were many people who didn’t like him, so he had to be extra careful with his actions all the time. It was best not to give them anything that they could use to criticize him.

“Hoo. Hoo.” Seo Jun-Ho did a light warmup. He leveled up once while fighting the Butcher, and he felt a sense of urgency to adjust to his new stats as soon as possible.

‘After seeing how strong the demons are, I have no time to just sit around and rest.’

He ran several hundred laps in his large personal training room, and it was only then that he finally felt his body warming up a bit. Right after that, he sat in the lotus position and started doing image training.

‘Janabi, the Heavenly Demon, Erebo, the Butcher…’

He lined up the strongest enemies he had fought in his head. He ran dozens, hundreds of battle simulations with them.

“Ugh.”

He took a shower when he was finally done training, but Seo Jun-Ho still looked uneasy.

‘The Heavenly Demon bothers me.’

While running battle simulations against him, Seo Jun-Ho won over and over again. However, it was against the Heavenly Demon from five months ago.

‘That guy wasn’t just sitting around while I was growing stronger.’

He wished that he knew precisely how strong the Heavenly Demon was, but the Butcher’s memories didn’t have that kind of information.

“Hm. Is image training actually effective?” the Frost Queen asked.

“Yup.” Seo Jun-Ho turned to her. While he had been training, she had been watching him while eating gummy worms. “Aren’t you going to train? You just recently evolved, too.”

“Train? Me?” The Frost Queen’s eyes grew round like buttons, and she giggled. “Even if I train, I will not be able to use those techniques properly, so why would I?”

“What do you mean you can’t use them properly?”

“Your mind will not be able to endure them.” The Frost Queen coyly smiled. “If I froze the entire world, do you really think that your mind will be able to take it?”

“There you go again, making those ridiculous bluffs.”

“Sigh, they are no bluffs. It is the truth.”

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head as always and checked the time. “We should get going.”

“Is it time?” The Frost Queen made haste to finish her gummy worms.

It had been a week since then. As Reiji had promised, the Administrator’s Store should now be open for business.

“Let’s go.”

As soon as Seo Jun-Ho ripped his entry ticket, they were instantly transported.

“Huh?” He looked around, surprised. The Administrator’s Store had expanded to about twice the size compared to last time.

“Did you guys do renovations?” he asked.

“Yes, sirrr. Because of you, you son of a bitch,” Reiji growled from the counter. The dark circles under her eyes sagged about an inch downward. “If the size is similar to the last time, you'll easily empty everything out.”

“Hehe.” Unable to deny it, Seo Jun-Ho chuckled sheepishly and looked around. The items here had already caught his eyes.

‘The item’s data can’t be seen here.’

In the first place, the offered products were made up of any and all items each person might need. Choosing the best item for oneself was another crucial skill a Player should have.

“You don’t have a catalog or anything, right?” he asked.

“Do you think we do?” Reiji snorted. Last time, she had recommended two potions that were good for him, but she had no intentions of doing that this time.

‘This disgusting little bastard. I let him go because he bribed me so I would have less work. But now, he’s making me work more?’

Reiji stared daggers at his nape and checked the clock. “Be quick and get out.”

“Oh, it won’t take long this time.”

“...Why do you seem so confident? That’s suspicious…”

Seo Jun-Ho softly smiled and slowly closed his eyes before speaking in his head.

‘Intuition, are you awake?’