Chapter 150 - Chapter 150 (1/2)

A certain man was sneaking into a large hospital.

There was only one reason why he was making d*mn sure that no one saw him. And that would be because of the jerry can full of petrol he was carrying at the moment.

In the past, one couldn't find any sort of desire or drive within this man's eyes. But now, they were burning with vigour.

'So, you dare to look down on me, huh?'

He was already resolved to die today.

This man wandered about silently for a long while, before finally choosing a suitable location. His steps came to a halt in one of the hospital's many corridors, although this particular one didn't seem to enjoy all that much foot traffic. He began cautiously pouring the petrol on the floor.

'You think I'll die all alone?'

It happened one week ago.

He got p*ss drunk and wandered around the streets, before picking a fight with some random passerby. And as a result, he got beaten up black and blue. So, he ended up in this hospital.

He regained his consciousness a bit later and declared to the doctor busy treating him. He said, 'I don't have enough money for the hospital fees, so might as well stop what you're doing and let me go'.

It happened then.

He saw it.

He saw the doctor's eyes, looking down on him as if he was a pathetic fool.

That d*mn doctor b*stard. This man couldn't quite remember the face of that doctor, but even after all this time, he could never forget those eyes.

That's why he made up his mind.

'I'll get my revenge on you.'

And that was his reason for seeking out the very hospital he once visited as its guest.

He wasn't planning to live any longer, anyway. So, he poured the petrol all over this corner of the hospital, and then, dumped what little remained on himself.

"We'll all go together."

His voice was thickly laden with spiteful rage.

Of course, this hospital was pretty d*mn huge, so something like this wouldn't even be able to burn it down completely. However, he should still be able to take a few with him. It'd be very good if a handful of doctors were included in that 'few', but if not, there's not much he could do about that.

He already ruined his life through gambling anyway. But, he wasn't planning to quietly disappear like everyone else.

He threw away the empty jerry can, and after rummaging through his pockets for a while, pulled out a lighter. The moment his thumb spins that flint, this f*cked-up life of his would come to an end.

"...."

He became expressionless and was about to press down with his thumb, but then, an eerie breeze suddenly brushed him by.

'….There's a breeze?'

The man felt something was off and scanned his vicinity. This corridor didn't even have any windows, so where could have that breeze come from?

'What was that?'

He tilted his head while looking around himself, only to abruptly realise that something felt rather empty down there. He lowered his gaze to his hand.

The lighter he held in his hand was gone.

'….!!'

What an incredibly puzzling thing that was.

He wondered if he dropped the lighter while he was preoccupied, so he carefully combed over the floor, but that turned out to be a waste of time.

'Just where did it disappear to....?'

Feeling utterly puzzled now, he raised his head and then spotted a large, black something standing right in front of his eyes.

It was an 'insect' with hands and legs.

The man was greatly taken by surprise, his eyes bulging out until they were almost popping out. Before he could scream, though, the 'insect' reached out and grabbed his mouth.

"Euph!!"

"Kiikiik."

The 'insect' raised the index finger of its free hand and pressed it against its mouth.

"Shush."

This human shouldn't raise a commotion like this. The human female his king told him to protect was sleeping in a room nearby, after all.

The man struggled bitterly, but he couldn't even budge a single finger of the monster off his face.

"Euph, eupphhh!!"

The man's eyes now saw the 'insect' – no, Beru's open mouth slowly growing closer towards him.

***

Why did 'it' happen on level 101?

As Jin-Woo drove back, he thought back to how his skills abruptly went up a level earlier in the day. Even though his mind was occupied with something else, his hands holding the steering wheel remained steady and controlled.

'It's not even level 100, too.'

He thought that, if something about him were to change because of the level ups, then that should happen on level 100. However, his expectation was a bit off the mark.

His Class-specific skills all got an upgrade after he reached level 101.

A few guesses fleeted in and out of his head, but currently, only two of them held the strongest possibilities of being right.

The first one was about what the number '1' signified. '1' meant a new beginning.

Could it be that, when his level reached 101, all restrictions on his Class-specific skills were removed and he was now free to upgrade them at will?

'If that's not it....'

Jin-Woo's expression hardened when he thought about the second theory. Personally, he'd have much preferred for this one to be wrong, though.

'Could it be because I got my Class at level 51.....?'

There was a possibility that the Skill levels rose up because he was exactly 50 levels higher than when he got his Class. Which also kind of implied that he needed to reach level 151 if he wanted to upgrade his Skills again.

'…..I don't want that.'

If he thought about his levelling up speed lately, then indeed, he could only dearly pray that this remained nothing more than his hypothesis.

Soon, the building with his Guild office came into his view. Jin-Woo drove the van into the underground parking lot. He was the only passenger riding on the trusty steed of the Ah-Jin Guild, 'Bonggo'. Yu Jin-Ho chose to stay back in the Gate's location, saying that he'd wrap up the proceedings before going back to the office.

The raid might have ended, but there was still one more step of handing over the recovered loot to the brokers to think about. Since it was Yu Jin-Ho who had contacted these brokers, it seemed that he wanted to personally take charge of handling this matter.

["Please, leave everything to me, hyung-nim!"]

Jin-Woo thought that he could still hear Yu Jin-Ho's voice filled with confidence even now.

'I wonder, will he be okay?'

It was all good and well for a Vice-Chair of the Guild to be full of drive and energy, but wouldn't it be better still to hire dedicated staff members for matters like this? Jin-Woo told himself to search for more employees and walked out of the underground parking lot.

But then....

'Mm?'

He spotted a familiar figure walking towards the Guild building from afar. And that familiar person also discovered Jin-Woo staring back at her.

"Ah...."

Her steps came to an abrupt halt right then and there.

Cha Hae-In formed a shocked expression and began to backtrack one step at a time before she turned around completely, and began running away.

'...HUH??'

Jin-Woo was utterly dumbstruck by what just happened.

The thing was, though – he could gloss over the reason why she suddenly started running away after seeing his face, but he simply couldn't....

'….You think you can escape from me because you started running?'

Just who did she think she was dealing with here?

Jin-Woo was suddenly overcome with a streak of stubbornness and pounced forward with everything he had after activating his 'Quicksilver' skill.

Time slowed down to a crawl, and only the background images seemed to move at a blinding pace. The distance between him and Cha Hae-In decreased quickly enough, and then he began thinking to himself.

'If I grab her from the back or try to touch her, she might get hurt, so....'

Jin-Woo lightly jumped up in the air, spun around once, and landed in front of Cha Hae-In's escaping figure.

'….!!'

Her eyes grew super wide in an instant.

Her escape route had been cut off, and before she could do anything else, her shoulders were caught by Jin-Woo's hands.

"Kyahk!"

And so, the foot chase between two rank S Hunters came to a very anti-climatic end. Now that she was caught by him, she couldn't even bring herself to look into his eyes.

Jin-Woo continued to stare at her with deeply puzzled eyes, before calmly asking her the important question.

"Why did you run away after seeing me?"

"..."

Well, he could concede a bit here and say that it was possible for her to bolt like that. Fine.

"If you were going to run, then why did you even bother to come to my office?"

If she wanted to avoid him that much, then she shouldn't even come anywhere near him, no? Jin-Woo's pointed question elicited Cha Hae-In to reply in a voice that was smaller than a buzzing mosquito.

"My car is... still in your parking lot...."

'Ah. Right. There was an unfamiliar car parked in the lot for the last couple of days, wasn't there?'

That day, when Cha Hae-In came to the office, saying that she wanted to join his Guild....

After they 'teleported' directly to the Association's gymnasium from the Guild office, she forgot to take her car back and left it in the underground parking lot until now.

'Looks like she came sneaking back in to get her car back because our Guild was supposed to be on a raid today.'

Too bad for her, she couldn't have imagined that he'd only need a little over two hours to complete the raid of a rank A Gate. As a result, these two young people got to meet each other again. She quickly tried to get away from him, but in the end, was apprehended by him instead.

'….....'

Jin-Woo's wordless stare continued, and Cha Hae-In's head drooped lower and lower. He let out a helpless sigh and slowly let her shoulders go.

"There's no need to run away from me, you know."

Jin-Woo spoke as he formed an amiable smile.

"A person's mind can change all the time, am I right?"

Indeed, wouldn't people lose their interest, or suddenly gain interest when there was none, to begin with? Wasn't that how a person's heart operated? There was no reason for them to go out of their way to avoid each other like this.

"....."

However, Cha Hae-In didn't even try to refute him, her head still remaining lowered.

'Maybe, she doesn't even feel like talking to me?'