Solo Leveling

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.

An emergency quest has been created.

‘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.

Emergency Quest: Deal With The Enemies!

Those with murderous intent towards the ‘Player’ have been detected. Ensure your safety by dealing with these enemies.

Enemies to deal with: 8

Enemies dealt with: 0

Non-compliance will result in a penalty.

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.

Emergency Quest: Deal With The Enemies!

Those with murderous intent towards %*@## have been detected. Ensure your safety by dealing with these enemies.

Enemies to deal with: 8

Enemies dealt with: 0

Non-compliance will result in #$%^%@$#$%#^ ! ^&#$%^$.

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

Emergency Quest: Deal With The Enemies!

Those with murderous intent towards you have been detected. Ensure your safety by dealing with these enemies.

Enemies to deal with: 8

Enemies dealt with: 0

Non-compliance will result in your heart stopping.

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.

Health: 1360 / 2600

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~

Enemies to deal with: 7

Enemies dealt with: 1

‘7 left.’