Solo Leveling - Chapter 22

Chapter 22

I Alone Level-up: Chapter 22

Good timing .  He was thirsty after the fight .  Still, Jinwoo took the cup with a confused look .

gulp gulp gulp

The cold water went down refreshingly down his throat .

“How is it, hyungnim?”

Now that he thought about, Jinho’s title for him had gone from “hyung” to “hyungnim” .

“Mm, it’s refreshing . ”

He returned the cup to Jinho .

“So what you just saw here-”

Jinho interrupted before Jinwoo could finish his sentence, almost as if to tell him not to worry .

“Of course! I’ll carry this secret with me to the grave . ”

“No, you don’t have to go that far…”

“How can I not? It’s my promise with hyungnim . ”

“Well… Okay . If you feel that way . ”

“Don’t worry about me, hyungnim . ”

Besides, there was no way someone would believe that an E-rank Hunter took down a C-rank Gate’s boss on his own .  Still, Jinwoo was thankful that Jinho promised his silence on his own .

‘Thought he was bad at taking a hint .  He sure doesn’t seem like it now . ’

“Is there anything else, hyungnim?”

“ . . . No . ”

It was strange .  Jinwoo looked up and down on Jinho’s figure that was standing at attention .

‘Well, I guess I did save his life . ’

After all, it was normal for someone to be respectful towards the person who saved their life .  It was understandable if that was the case . Of course, the truth was a little different .

shaaake~

The Dungeon lightly shook again, then stopped .  The shaking was the signal that the Gate would be closing soon .  The tremors would increase as time passed, until right before the Gate’s closing, when it would feel like an earthquake .

“Let’s go . ”

“Yes, hyungnim . ”

Jinwoo started walking towards the blockage .  Suddenly, the collapsed rocks blew apart with a flash .

Bang!

Hwang Dongseok and co . entered the boss room .  Seeing the collapsed spider behind Jinwoo, their looks were incredulous .

“What the, it’s dead?”

“Those two took it down?”

“Was the only thing scary its size?”

“Well, if it got taken down by an E-rank and a D-rank . . . ”

“Hwang hyung, what do we do now?”

Hwang Dongseok looked at Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho and scratched his chin .  With the spider dead, the Gate would close soon . It was too late to start mining the mana crystals now .  They weren’t prepared for it, and the time remaining was less than an hour . He had to change the plan .

He shouted toward Yoo Jinho,

“Yoo Jinho!”

Yoo Jinho flinched and took a step backwards, face was full of nervousness .

Hwang Dongseok smirked,

“Your equipment really caught our eye, so we did a little investigation .  Your daddy turned out to be someone crazy! Yoojin Construction’s chairman, Yoo Myunghan . ”

“So- so what?”

“Well, we’re giving you a chance . We have some things we want to talk over with your daddy .  But if what happened here got out, our situation would become a little uncomfortable . So if you want to live, become our accomplice . ”

“An accomplice?”

Hwang Dongseok raised his chin towards Jinwoo .  At his unpleasant gaze, Jinwoo grimaced .

“Kill Sung Jinwoo . ”

“What?”

Yoo Jinho panicked, but Hwang Dongseok looked at his face and laughed .  Their original plan was to kill Jinho as well . But they had discovered that Yoo Jinho’s father was the chairman of one of the top construction companies of the country .  With that in mind, a devious thought came to him . What if they filmed Yoo Jinho killing Sung Jinwoo, and used that to blackmail Yoo Myunghan?

‘Yoo Myunghan’s known net worth is about 10 trillion . ’

If everything went right, they could earn several times more than what they would’ve gotten from the mana crystals .

“That is your way out of here . We’ll let you live if you kill Sung Jinwoo with your own hands . Otherwise, we’ll kill you both . ”

Hwang Dongseok’s eyes became murderous .

“What are you waiting for? No one’s going to know what happened in a Dungeon anyways . Is a D-rank cowering before an E-rank?”

Yoo Jinho looked to his side .  Jinwoo just shrugged in response .  “Do what you want” was what he was telling him .  Yoo Jinho took out his sword with a determined face .

‘Looks like he made his decision . ’

Hwang Dongseok smiled .  

But the results were not what he expected .

Yoo Jinho took his sword and stood at Jinwoo’s side .

“Oh? Going to team up against us?”

Hwang Dongseok spoke to himself .  The young master sure got gutsy after luckily taking down a C-rank boss .  

Jo Gyuhwan whispered to him from his side,

“Hyung, what should we do?”

Hwang Dongseok whispered back,

“For now, take care of Sung Jinwoo . We’ll hold on to Mr . Moneybags for now . Our loss was too big today . ”

“Got it . ”

A bright light appeared in Jo Gyuhwan’s hands .  Jinwoo’s eyes narrowed .

‘So we’re doing it this way, after all . ’

This would be his first time fighting a Hunter .  However, he had no plans on being merciful to those who had threatened his life multiple times .

Suddenly!

ring~

The electronic sound rang in his head .

‘Emergency quest?’

He raised his head .  He did not give the command to open it, but the quest screen had opened up on its own .  This was the first time this had happened .

Jinwoo’s eyes were open wide .

‘The quest requires me to kill Hwang Dongseok’s entire party?’

Something behind the screen flashed .  It was the arrow of light released from Jo Gyuhwan’s hands .

Bang!

Jinwoo’s body was thrown from the explosion and crashed into the wall with great speed .

Slam!

The wall broke apart on impact and the pieces landed on Jinwoo .

“Hyungnim!”

Yoo Jinho tried to run to Jinwoo in panic, but Hwang Dongseok stopped him,

“Yoo Jinho!”

Yoo Jinho flinched and stopped .

“You better not pay any mind to a dead person and come here . ”

Hwang Dongseok gestured him to come over .  Yoo Jinho turned and looked at where Jinwoo was .  Like Hwang Dongseok said, Jinwoo was buried in rocks and did not appear to be moving .

“You… you murderers…”

Tears gathered at the corner of Yoo Jinho’s eyes .  Hwang Dongseok and his party laughed at his words .

It was the truth, after all .  They lost count of the number of people they had killed in Dungeons .

As they laughed at Yoo Jinho, Jinwoo was questioning his eyes below the rubble .  This was because the quest’s contents were changing before his eyes .

Several of the letters broke apart and reformed into new words .

It was a very clear threat, “I’ll kill you if you don’t do the quest . ”

‘Kill if I don’t want to be killed?’

It was a shocking message, but his confusion did not last long .  The confusion quickly turned to comfort . He could not believe it, but it was true .  From the day the quests and stat screens appeared, a single thought had plagued Jinwoo’s mind .

“What if this strange occurrence ends?”

If all this happened out of coincidence, could it end just as suddenly?

Such worrisome thought always followed him .

But now, with the appearance of this quest, he obtained a certainty .

This was neither coincidence or kindness .  

If the System came to him out of some kindness, it would’ve given him the option to avoid the danger .  It would not use a penalty to force him to kill .

The System had a goal .

Not “to make Sung Jinwoo become strong”, but “need Sung Jinwoo to become strong” .

‘Depending on the situation, even kill fellow Hunters…’

That was what he gathered from the appearance of the quest .

Still, Jinwoo found comfort in the thought .

‘Thank god . ’

Because it was not a coincidence .

There was a clear purpose .

Every time he faced danger, he wanted to become stronger .  He wanted the opportunity to rise above his life that felt like holding onto the edge of a cliff .  And on that day, in the most dangerous moment of his life, the opportunity came to him .

The System’s goals were perfectly aligned with Jinwoo’s desires .

‘The System uses me, and I’ll use the System . ’

That’s all he had to do .  As long as it had a goal, he would be able to hold on to this phenomenon .

Jinwoo rose from the rubble .

He really did get hit by a C-rank Hunter’s magic .  A single hit took half of his life down . There was no room for error going forward .  A coldness crept into Jinwoo’s eyes . He began to walk towards Hwang Dongseok .

“What?”

Having surrounded the cowering Yoo Jinho, Hwang Dongseok’s party noticed Jinwoo .

“What the, he’s alive?”

“Gyuhwan hyung, looks like you’ve lost your touch . ”

“How embarrassing, against an E-ranker, too . ”

Hwang Dongseok scratched his chin,

“Gyuhwan, do it right next time . ”

Jo Gyuhwan’s face reddened with embarrassment,

“I-I got it . ”

No .  He definitely used his most powerful spell .  It was an attack that used up a third of his magic power, how could he get up? Did he miss? No, if he missed, it wouldn’t have made such a loud sound .  He had many questions but did not get the chance to ask .

Because Jinwoo was the first to speak,

“You’ve played with people’s lives . ”

Hwang Dongseok’s group’s eyes were fixed on Jinwoo .  Jinwoo stopped before them . Yoo Jinho was surprised, but the other Hunters were nonchalant .  Few of them even had a mocking expression .

Jinwoo continued dryly,

“You’re ready to pay the price, right?”

At that phrase, Hwang Dongseok snorted .

“The hell is this fucker saying?”

“Hyungnim, I got this . ”

A Hunter with narrow eyes went over and draped an arm around Jinwoo’s neck .

“It looks like you’re not really understanding the situation here,”

The narrow-eye’s expression became strange as he put strength on his arm .

‘ . . . What? Why is he not bending?’

He used all of his strength to try and put Jinwoo in a headlock, but no matter how much he flexed, Jinwoo’s body did not bend .

Wasn’t this fucker an E-rank?

The narrow-eye’s brows moistened with cold sweat .

‘What’s with this pow-’

slash .

The narrow-eye’s head fell onto the ground .

thud

“J-Joontae!”

Hwang Dongseok’s eyes shook .

“Wait, what?”

“When did that fucker get a dagger?!”

“Where did it come from?!”

Hwang Dongseok’s party quickly drew their weapons and took a step back .  In Jinwoo’s hand was Casaka’s Poisoned Fang he had summoned from his inventory .

The dagger dripped with blood .

ring~

‘7 left . ’

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