The Hero Returns

Luslec’s body froze up. Even his smiling expression from a second ago had vanished as well.

This would be a first for Su-hyeun to see Luslec’s expression freeze up to that degree.

The light in Luslec’s eyes would change often, but that smile on his lips remained constant all the time, so much so that he barely seemed to change his expressions, if at all.

“I’ve been here for a little while.”

“And did you see everything?”

“Yes, and heard everything as well.”

When Su-hyeun made his reply, Luslec couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Kang Mu-hyeok’s corpse slumped on the ground. He then curled the corners of his lips upward in his attempt to put his façade back on. He laughed nervously, “Well, sorry about this. I know you were thinking of letting him live, but I just couldn’t win against my own whims and ended up—”

“Not your whims. This was what you planned to do from the beginning, wasn’t it?”

“Well, that…”

Luslec discreetly lowered his head and avoided meeting Su-hyeun’s gaze. He seemed to be at a loss as to what to do here.

His current demeanor was the complete opposite a few moments ago when he stabbed a person to death using his finger without even batting an eyelid.

Su-hyeun silently stared at Luslec for a little while. He wondered which of the two completely different faces of the latter was the real one but failed to figure it out in the end.

“Maybe both of them are real,” he inwardly guessed.

However, the two sides were just too contradictory for that.

“A fan, huh?”

Su-hyeun initially thought that Luslec was just saying that, but now, he began thinking that the word held a far deeper meaning than he had assumed.

Just what kind of life did Luslec live through in his youth? And what kind of tales did he hear about Su-hyeun’s exploits while growing up?

“It’s fine. I’m not planning to criticize you, anyway. I only followed you after spotting you coming here, that’s all.”

“He deserved to die. That’s why—”

“I said it’s fine. I heard it all, so don’t sweat over it too much. If I knew he was that kind of punk, then I’d have killed him myself.”

Su-hyeun waved his hand and turned around to leave. He didn’t have anything else to say, and he also figured that staying here would only make the mood even more awkward.

“More importantly, I’ll be in your care tomorrow.”

Tap—

After saying that, Su-hyeun jumped up high in the direction of his room, which was originally located much higher up than where he found Luslec.

“For now, I can assume that he’s not an enemy,” he thought.

Su-hyeun continued to suspect Luslec and had been observing him.

It was the same story this time as well. Right after they parted ways, Su-hyeun kept his eyes on Luslec’s movements. Thanks to that, he got to witness the latter murdering Kang Mu-hyeok and got to learn about his true character just a little.

Luslec was a different type of person from Su-hyeun, but he definitely possessed a yearning and favorable impression bordering on being excessive in regard to Su-hyeun.

“In that case…”

For now, it seemed safe to assume that he was closer to being an ally rather than an enemy.

“A rather dependable ally, too.”

* * *

The night drew to a close, and the sun emerged once more.

Countless people gathered near the imperial palace all because of the message from yesterday.

“To think that three grand dukes have fallen in one night…”

“I heard that all of them are dead.”

“Does that mean we’ll have a new emperor?”

“This has never happened before, right?”

“You wouldn’t challenge the emperor without being blinded by your own confidence, though. I mean, you can live your life in absolute luxury when you’re a grand duke, after all.”

“You should learn how to be satisfied by such things in this f*cked-up world, you know.”

“He’s a newbie who just came here, isn’t he? It’s possible that he’s dreaming big, that’s all, and he probably doesn’t know much about the affairs of this world, too.”

“It’s been a really long time since I last saw the emperor. He’s been stuck inside the closed-door seclusion for a good few years now, so I wonder, will he come outside today?”

“His position will be threatened if he doesn’t, so he will come out, surely.”

Unlike how it was usually, the areas surrounding the imperial palace was a hive of activities.

Humans and other similar races with knight ranks or higher were descending on the arena to clap their eyes on the current emperor and the overconfident challenger.

The arena itself was located behind the imperial palace and was several tens of thousands of square meters large. Grandstands for the audiences were prepared all around the arena itself, but when people tried to enter there, they got flustered and had to stop in their tracks.

“Uh? What’s going on here?”

“What is it? What happened?”

“Something is blocking the way.”

“What do you mean, something is…Eh?”

Bang, bang, bang—

Something invisible to the naked eye—a transparent wall—had barricaded the arena’s surroundings.

“What is this thing?”

“Hey, get out of the way!”

Clang—!

Ku-rururu—

A handful of high-ranking individuals who felt confident of their own strength pounded on the wall, but it didn’t shatter.

Crack—

Still, a crack or two did appear after so many people pounded on the wall. However, it repaired itself right away, which meant that someone was still pouring magical energy into maintaining this wall from somewhere.

“Dammit! Which son of a b*tch is it?”

“Just how emboldened is he to pull the prank of blocking the entire arena like this…?”

“It’s not a prank, though,” said someone walking out from the interior of the arena.

Even though the others were blocked by the wall and couldn’t enter, this person was actually previously inside. Unless one was a moron, one would be able to tell that the person was the culprit of this event.

“You asked which son of a b*tch it was, didn’t you? Well, I’m right here. So what now? What are you gonna do now that you saw me?”

“What garbage are you trying to pull here?”

“What about you? What business do you have here, anyway? And besides all that, can’t you see this?” Luslec pointed to his chest. After handing over the tokens of the grand duke, he had been demoted to the peerage of a duke.

A “duke,” although not as high up the hierarchy as the grand duke, was still a high-ranking position nonetheless.

“A bunch of low-class dregs is trying to piss me off? Better scram or else.”

“I’m also a duke, you punk!”

Bang—!

A man who made a crack on the wall Luslec had materialized slammed his fist on the transparent wall once more.

The power behind the punch was rather considerable. It seemed that the concept of a higher rank equating to being stronger was true all along.

“Is that right? In that case, killing you will make it quiet here, right?”

“Why don’t we have a fight and—?”

The man felt a chill and hurriedly clamped his mouth shut and cautiously lowered his gaze. It was at that moment that he discovered a pitch-black blade digging into his throat.

He had no idea just when it even appeared, but without a doubt, this blade had cut open his skin, and some blood was trickling down its surface.

“Oh, really now?”

“N—no…”

“This punk, you sure do have quick wits, don’t you? Sure, I’ll spare you, then.”

Luslec waved his hand dismissively. When he did, the blade pressing against the man’s throat vanished, and the volatile atmosphere loosened up ever so slightly.

At the same time, the commotion in the surroundings had become deathly quiet in an instant.

Only then did Luslec make a satisfied expression.

Only two people were allowed to step inside the arena currently enveloped in the transparent wall. Other people couldn’t enter, and it would probably remain that way as long as Luslec maintained the wall.

“In any case, it’s just unfortunate that he had an overly caring heart,” Luslec thought.

If it was him, he wouldn’t have cared whether or not all these people ended up as collateral damage.

However, Su-hyeun still asked Luslec for a favor regarding their safety. He asked the latter to ensure that not one person must be able to step inside the arena by blocking their access.

You wouldn’t really ask a random person to stop tens of thousands of people. Even then, Su-hyeun still asked Luslec, implying that he trusted the latter to be strong enough to handle the task.

“That’s kinda making me embarrassed here,” Luslec grinned from the satisfaction at the fact that Su-hyeun had personally requested him. He then turned his head and looked back at the giant arena behind him, particularly the roofless coliseum-type arena made of gold.

“I wonder, has he met the emperor by now?”

Su-hyeun and the emperor should be inside that place right about now.

* * *

Although titles like “emperor” and “grand duke” all sounded magnificent, it wasn’t as if the ones with those titles chose to dress accordingly.

If someone said emperor, one would automatically picture an image of a man draped in a brilliant opulent dragon robe and a crown encrusted with all sorts of sparkling diamonds adorning his head, but the “emperor” before Su-hyeun’s eyes was nothing like that.

He was the complete opposite of that, as a matter of fact—his overall appearance was unkempt, and as if he hadn’t taken a bath in ages, his whole body was covered in dirt and dust. Moreover, his jaw area was covered with a piece of cloth, so only half of his emaciated face could be seen.

“This is…the emperor?” Su-hyeun thought.

Just from the man’s appearance alone, he didn’t even look like an emperor.

However, a sparkling badge shaped like a crown on his chest, plus the sense of presence he emitted, all served as ample proof that this man was indeed the emperor.

“He’s not a predator, though.”

Although his face wasn’t fully visible, his atmosphere was quite different from the other “preys” or the predator Su-hyeun had run into before. Rather, the atmosphere or the aura that could be sensed from this emperor was far closer to Kang Mu-hyeok.

In the world of martial artists called “Murim,” the type of magical energy wielded by the denizens of that world could be sensed emanating from the emperor.

And this particular aura belonged to…

“Chun Ha-jin?”

Stop—

The forehead of the emperor who was standing on the other side of the arena creased up at what Su-hyeun said.

Su-hyeun hadn’t been sure until now, but to think that it really was him.

“I thought I was sensing an aura containing all sorts of other auras, but well, it really is you.”

“You know who I am?” The emperor opened his mouth for the first time since his entrance.

Chun Ha-jin was one of the heroes from another world that Su-hyeun ran into on the 43rd floor, where he also met Luslec. He was a martial art practitioner that relied on a technique called “Death-Force Absorption” that stole away the life force and magical energy from someone else to strengthen the body of the technique wielder instead.

A lot of time had passed by since then, so Su-hyeun believed that Chun Ha-jin must’ve gotten much stronger compared to back then. As long as the latter didn’t die, then even if he wouldn’t end up as a hero, he’d certainly become a villain somewhere and continue to survive. That was what Su-hyeun believed.

But to think that they’d meet each other in this place.

“Even though he wouldn’t remember me or anything,” he thought.

He was the emperor, the strongest existence in this world where almost 10 million people lived.

Not to forget, those 10 million were no ordinary people either. They had been selected from various other worlds and had to pass trials with their own strength, allowing them to survive until this day.

And on top of that, the aura coming from Chun Ha-jin was far more overwhelming than from the likes of Kang Mu-hyeok.

“Just how many have you devoured already?”

“It seems that you do really know about me.”

When Su-hyeun asked in dismay, the “emperor” pulled down the cloth covering his mouth. With that, the unkempt bearded face of a middle-aged man was revealed to the world.

Although that face had changed a lot, it wasn’t all that difficult to recognize. That man was definitely Chun Ha-jin.

The light in his eyes had become a bit murkier, while his expression was filled with killing intent so dense that just his glare alone might be enough to kill someone.

He exuded so much of his overwhelming presence simply by standing still. That aura of his in the shape of a giant lump was still surging over in every direction even right at this moment.

“Is it because he didn’t bother to fully refine the energy and simply increased its size? Even if that’s true, its size is seriously enormous,” Su-hyeun silently observed.

Just for how long had he been devouring people up?

The “Death-Force Absorption” was a martial art technique that absorbed a person’s life force and magical energy. Judging from how his aura had increased by seemingly dozens of times compared to the last time Su-hyeun saw him, he must’ve devoured the energies of countless people over the years.

“I heard that the emperor has been secluding himself for several years, but this…” Su-hyeun groaned at length in irritation. “As it turns out, you needed a lot of time to digest everything you have devoured, didn’t you?”

“You…just who are you?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Crunch—!

Crack, spliiiit—

Ku-gugugu—

When Su-hyeun took a step forward, massive ripples of magical energy spread out all around him, and right at that moment, his sense of presence that seemed so small suddenly swept across the entire arena.

Up until then, Chun Ha-jin had been feeling curious about how Su-hyeun knew about him, but now, his eyes were steadily opening wider and wider.

Although the size of the lump of magical energy that could be sensed from Su-hyeun was incomparably smaller than Chun Ha-jin’s own, there was something else that could be detected from him.

Su-hyeun muttered, “It seems that you are one of those people who shouldn’t be allowed to live.”

Rage—now that was an emotion that Su-hyeun didn’t feel often.

He had come across countless bad people who deserved to die until now, after all, and he thought that he had grown accustomed to such people and that his rage had gradually worn away as well.

However, he would find those people every now and then—those truly despicable bastards that made him so damn angry, just like Chun Ha-jin before his eyes.

“That’s why…”

[Third Eye—Predator]

[Sage’s Eye]

The third eye in Su-hyeun’s forehead opened up, and a bluish aura was overlaid on this newly opened eye next.

“You need to pay for your crimes before dying today.”