Chapter 4

Jang Sam was a bandit.

Born and raised near Mount Wutai, he had never ventured beyond the surrounding area in his life. Since around the age of twenty, he had made a living extorting tolls from travelers who looked like easy marks.

Perhaps thanks to his diligent round-the-clock operation, the name Jang Sam the Heavenly Axe had eventually become fairly well known.

Today was no different. He had risen before dawn and set out to work with his five loyal underlings, the Five-Colored Ghosts… but for some reason, his feet simply refused to stop.

How long had he been walking since leaving his home turf of Mount Wutai far behind? When his feet finally came to a halt, he saw a carriage approaching in the distance.

How did I get all the way here?

Had a ghost possessed him? Jang Sam was bewildered, but the moment he saw the luxurious four-horse carriage, his professional instincts came roaring back to life.

I have to take that.

When Jang Sam and the Five-Colored Ghosts blocked the road, the coachman pulled on the reins.

Four fine steeds, their coats gleaming, snorted clouds of vapor as they came to a halt. At a glance, each one looked worth at least a thousand nyang.

Today’s my lucky day.

Jang Sam smiled contentedly and adjusted his grip on his axe. Now, put some power into the dantian. One, two—

“Hand over your money!”

What was that voice? Is he an opera singer?

But it would take more than that to make me blink. I’d spent seven years as a Hunter and been through every kind of battle imaginable—even aerial combat.

…Still, he was kind of scary.

“There are six of them in total. I don’t see any signs of an ambush.”

The coachman reported the situation in a voice as calm as a secret agent’s.

Does this guy have some kind of ace up his sleeve? Why is he so relaxed?

When I stared at him, he scratched his head.

“It happens from time to time. Though this is a first in this area.”

“Why?”

“Why? Unless they belong to a sizable mountain stronghold, attacking a martial family is practically suicide. Robbing people in the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s own backyard… I wonder what kind of reckless fools they are.”

Who else? Tutorial NPCs.

Judging by the way he kept calling it the Jin Family’s backyard, we must have been fairly close.

Should I stall for time?

My current realm was second-rate.

The way my body felt after distributing my stats was beyond anything I’d experienced as an F-rank Hunter, but I had no idea whether that would be enough in Murim.

Six against one. Six against two, if I counted the coachman.

Could I do it?

There was a reason people said no one could stand against overwhelming numbers. The moment they tied up my hands and feet, I was done for.

“How much farther is it to our destination?”

“We’re nearly there. Another hour should be enough.”

Another hour…?

I’d suspected it, but apparently, the coachman and I had very different definitions of nearby.

What do you mean, nearly there?

Maybe it was because this was a continent-sized setting. The scale was different. The scale.

Either way, I had to assume no reinforcements were coming. At least I wasn’t alone.

The coachman’s unflappable attitude practically screamed that he was a master. Just like now.

“Shall I handle this?”

He coiled the horsewhip in his hand as if one crack would separate the bandits’ flesh from their bones.

He’s a master!

Of course. I was the heir of a prestigious martial family and a VIP customer of Honghwaru. There was no way they would have sent an ordinary coachman with me.

Wolhwa must have arranged this. She isn’t just beautiful—she’s kind, too.

My anxiety vanished, replaced by a pleased smile. The coachman must have taken it as permission, because the moment he turned away, a second shout rang out.

“You bastards! Can’t you hear what the Heavenly Axe is saying?”

I peered through the carriage window and saw a hairy man shouting with an enormous double-bladed axe in his hands. His upper body was massive, and his arms and legs were as thick as pillars.

But the coachman muttered as if the sight were laughable.

“Where do these little pups get off?”

Damn, that aura.

Then the coachman laid into them.

“How dare bandits who suck the lifeblood of innocent civilians block our path! I will have you dragged before the authorities and punished to the fullest extent of the law!”

It was a speech worthy of Judge Bao, but the hairy man—the Heavenly Axe—and his underlings didn’t seem particularly moved.

“Yeah, we blocked the road. What are you going to do about it?”

“I will gouge out your eyes, grind your limbs to powder in a mortar, and scatter the dust across the Nine Provinces! I will also exterminate all nine degrees of your kin—”

…Those punishments are no joke. That’s practically treason.

As if he had read my thoughts, the Heavenly Axe spoke up.

“Hey, is there some member of the imperial family riding inside? Listening to you has my knees shaking. Why don’t you let us see that precious face?”

“You will regret not retreating now once you learn this man’s identity!”

“Okay, okay. We get it. Now come out already.”

“You fools…!”

The coachman clicked his tongue and turned toward me. My heart began to race. Was I finally about to see a true Murim master in action?

“Young Master, I believe you’ll have to come out.”

“Huh?”

Me? Why me?

“They won’t shed tears until they see the coffin. To think they would dare block your path! They’ll pay dearly for failing to recognize a master.”

With a determined look, he opened the carriage door for me.

“I have heard much of the Heaven Shaking Sword’s fame. A genius swordsman who reached the Peak realm at barely twenty! You cannot imagine how my old heart trembled whenever I heard stories about you, Young Master.”

…The Heaven Shaking Sword? A genius swordsman?

My thoughts tangled together. Who was the Heaven Shaking Sword? Who was this genius swordsman who had reached the Peak realm? And what the hell was this coachman playing at?

You said you’d handle it. Weren’t you a master?

“You bastards! Do you know who this man is?”

This was bad. The coachman was careening out of control like an eight-ton truck with a broken steering wheel.

No. Stop. Please stop!

I grabbed his wrist tightly, and he turned to look at me.

He smiled as if he understood everything. His eyes shone with boundless trust.

“W-wait. I’m Jin—”

Before I could say another word, his thunderous voice rang out.

“He is the Second Young Master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, the Peak master whose name resounds throughout Shanxi! The Heaven Shaking Sword, Young Master Jin Mukyung!”

“I’m Jin… Taekyung.”

At that moment, a cold wind blew.

“Pardon?”

“I mean, I’m Jin Taekyung, not Jin Mukyung. And I’m the Third Young Master, not the Second…”

“…The Third Young Master? That Third Young Master?”

Yes, you idiot.

The coachman’s pupils began to tremble. It was an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale.

“Th-then where is Young Master Jin Mukyung?”

“How should I know?”

He’s probably sleeping at this hour.

The coachman stared at me with the expression of a man who had lost his country, then collapsed like an inflatable toy with the air let out of it.

He had fainted.

Fuck. Some master.

I released his wrist.

His wrist was as thin as a chicken bone. Something had felt off from the moment I grabbed it. He had put on quite a show, only to turn out to be an ordinary civilian.

“Ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!”

The bandits shrieked with laughter. My back was already damp with cold sweat, and I hadn’t even noticed when it started.

If I’m really unlucky here…

I couldn’t bring myself to say the word death. I swallowed it instead.

I swept my tense gaze over the bandits.

Fuck. I’d rather fight six goblins than deal with this. How am I supposed to beat guys that huge…?

Wait.

“Huh?”

Was it my imagination? No. No matter how I looked at them, it wasn’t.

Massive upper bodies. Thick arms and legs. And… short.

The other five weren’t much different. The Heavenly Axe at least had a decent physique, but the rest were about five hundred light-years away from anything you could call “well-built.”

In other words, the bandits were built exactly like…

“They’re goblins?”

Goblins?

I stood there dazed for a moment, until an axe came flying at me and snapped me back to reality. They had the numbers, and they were launching a preemptive attack too?

“Hey, hey! Time out!”

The axe slammed into the ground ten meters in front of me. No—it flopped over. The bandit who had thrown it scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

“Should I have thrown it a little higher?”

…Maybe.

I might actually survive this.

The monster I had fought more than any other over the past seven years was the goblin.

Naturally, I knew them inside and out. They were even the reason I had chosen a spear as my primary weapon when I was a novice Hunter. Its reach gave me an overwhelming advantage.

And these bandits were exactly that size. To me, they no longer looked like bandits. They looked like six goblins. The Heavenly Axe was about the size of a goblin chieftain.

The other five might be even weaker than goblins.

At least goblins were good with poison darts. Judging by that axe throw, I had a hunch. A very strong hunch.

I licked my parched lips, then raised both hands high.

A few of them looked confused by my gesture of surrender, while the Heavenly Axe smiled proudly, like a father watching his son return from military service.

“Good lad.”

Yeah. Laugh while you can.

One step, two. I slowly closed the thirty-meter distance between us.

With a steady stride and balanced posture. One breath per step. My breath escaped my mouth in white clouds that pierced the dawn air.

I could feel it just from putting one foot in front of the other.

It’s different!

I realized it once more.

The version of me inside this game was stronger than the real me.

My heart pounded. At the same time, a warning stirred in the back of my mind.

I had to stay focused until the very last moment.

“I heard the Jin Family had a son they’d given up on. Third-rate at martial arts, first-rate with women. Now that I see you, you’ve got pretty good instincts too.”

The Heavenly Axe spoke with the hand holding his axe hanging loosely at his side.

I knew exactly how I looked to them.

A useless playboy with nothing but a good family name. Empty hands.

The Heavenly Axe had let his guard down.

And letting your guard down gets you killed.

I might send most of my salary to my family and live miserably in a tiny goshiwon room, but I was still a Hunter.

Even an F-rank Hunter risked his life fighting inside Gates. No—an F-rank Hunter had to risk his life precisely because he was only F-rank.

For seven years, I had fought every single day. I was a competitor—and a martial artist called a Hunter.

So I knew.

Life and death were separated by a hair’s breadth. Letting your guard down meant death.

The distance had been cut in half. My steps gradually quickened.

The Heavenly Axe beckoned me over.

“Now, now. Take your time. If you trip on the way over, you’ll lower your ransom.”

Twenty meters.

“Boss, doesn’t the way he’s toddling over look just like a puppy?”

Fifteen meters.

“A puppy? Ha-ha-ha! You’ve got that exactly right!”

Ten meters.

The moment I took my next step, heat began to churn in my stomach.

It was a sensation I had never experienced before, yet somehow, it felt strangely familiar. What was it?

Could it be… internal energy?

The heat flowing from my dantian raced toward my lower body.

It had only one purpose: faster, lighter, stronger!

Whoosh. I drew a long breath. Every muscle in my body pulled taut like a bowstring.

Boom!

I shot straight forward. The ground sank beneath my foot, and the sound followed after me. In that frozen moment, the Heavenly Axe’s mouth slowly fell open.

“No way…”

The Heavenly Axe and his underlings stared at me in disbelief.

I could see everything about them now. Feel it.

Their stiff, greasy hair. Their cracked lips, like a rice paddy in a drought. Their teeth that reeked just from looking at them…

All of it.

The corners of my mouth lifted before I knew it.

Open Inventory. Equip Sharp Spear.

A cold spear shaft appeared in the hand I had thrust into empty air.

I drove it forward with all my strength. The Heavenly Axe hastily raised his axe to block, but the sharp spearhead shattered the axe blade and punched straight through his chest.

At the same time—

System

Critical One Strike! Status effect Bleeding activated!

“Ghk!”

A fountain of blood erupted. The Heavenly Axe’s eyes trembled once, then went dark.

System

Lv. 10 Jang Sam defeated.

Level up!

You received 10 Stat Points as a level-up reward.

You received 10 Skill Points as a level-up reward.

Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique unlocked.

Whew.

I let out a long breath. Notifications had sounded, but all I could hear was my own pounding heart.

One breath. Everything had happened in a single breath. I pulled the spear from the Heavenly Axe’s lifeless chest.

So this is possible.

Raise my abilities with points, enhance them with internal energy, and link them together with skills. This was the power of the System—the power that belonged to me alone.

A power F-rank Hunter Jin Taekyung could never have dreamed of.

I can do this. I will.

The road home was beginning to look brighter and wider.

I gripped the spear shaft and turned around.

“So…”

The five pairs of eyes fixed on me wavered uncertainly.

“Anyone else want to try?”

The bastard who threw that axe can go first.

“…”

Thud. Thud. Clatter.

The five bandits exchanged glances, dropped their weapons, and threw themselves flat on the ground.

“Please forgive us, Great Hero!”

System

The enemies have lost their will to fight and surrendered after losing their leader.

Defeat the Bandits complete.

You have fully recovered from all fatigue and injuries.

You have subdued the bandits. Fame increased by 10.

Tutorial—Stage 3 complete. Rewards will be distributed.

Chain Quest Tutorial—Stage 4 created.

Now I can finally catch my breath.