Chapter 172  

The watchers had initially thought they would be able to take care of the assailant pretty quickly. Although one of their comrades had fallen, that was only because they had let their guard down…

Or so they thought. It didn’t take long for them to realize how wrong they were.

“Kargh!”

The first scream belonged to the second person who had charged in from behind the man. The poor fellow must have thought that his sudden attack was perfect, but he was now kicking helplessly on the ground, rolling around with both his knees completely smashed.

His colleagues who followed him soon after faced the same fate. They all had at least two of their limbs broken, and the watcher watched on with terror as his colleagues lay crawling on the floor.

The assailant, who had incapacitated and manhandled the ten dungeon babies carefully selected and hand-picked by the Association with great ease, asked without missing a beat, “Are you just going to stand there and watch?”

Instead of reacting to the man’s arrogant words, the watcher bowed his head and averted his gaze.

“If you’re not coming, then I’ll go instead.” As soon as the man finished speaking, the hems of his clothes could be heard rubbing. The terrified watcher closed his eyes involuntarily.

“Argh!”magic

“Stop him!”

But the pain the watcher anticipated didn’t come; instead, he heard ear-piercingly loud screams. The watcher slowly opened his eyes, realizing that the man’s attacks weren’t directed at him.

“How do we stop him!?”

His colleagues had exited the building before he knew it, but they were being indiscriminately beaten up by the mysterious man. Each touch from him ripped their flesh to shreds, and each kick resulted in a broken limb.

Once again, the watcher’s colleagues weren’t able to stand up to the man. Within ten minutes, everyone lay collapsed on the floor.

“Fuck… If only we had the cadres,” someone lamented.

But the watcher already knew that even if all the cadres from the Association were to gather here, they would be no match for this man. That was how powerful of an existence he was.

“What are you doing!? Stop that bastard!” his colleagues shouted at him.

Only then did the watcher realize belatedly that he was the last man standing.

“Eek…” Pressured by the criticism of his colleagues from behind him, the watcher squirmed as he slowly approached the man.

“If you draw that, you die,” the man said.

Only when the watcher heard those words did he realize that his hands were on his dagger instead of his three-segment baton. The moment he realized it, he was startled as he quickly took his hands off the hilt of the dagger. He felt that if he didn’t do so, the mere gaze of the man would tear him apart at any moment and end his life there and then.

“Good choice,” the man said, his indifferent gaze sweeping past the watcher.

“Urgh…” The Watcher moaned in frustration.

Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.

The man started to walk away before disappearing from the watcher’s vision. The watcher finally eased up and collapsed hard onto the floor as his legs gave way.

The man’s gaze still vividly glared at him in his mind. Just the thought of it made his whole body tremble. He had never felt this helpless ever since he had fled the Underworld. He felt as weak and helpless as when he had beena tunnel digger. The man had looked down at him like one of the monsters that had observed him during that time.

There was nothing but dread and doom in his voice as he barely squeaked a word out. “Monster…”

***Kim Jin-Woo, the man who had taken care of all the watchers at the Association, was quite surprised by his own power. He knew that he had become stronger than before, but after he had faced a number of dungeon babies, he realized that his growth had far exceeded his own expectations.

Even though his usual array of amplification effects hadn’t been activated, it had been enough to overwhelm dozens of dungeon babies with his innate abilities alone. And the dungeon babies he had taken out weren’t any pushovers either, as they were carefully hand-picked by the Association.

“Phew.” Only now did his tension start to ease up.

[The parasite has detected a hidden enemy.]

But that peace only lasted for a moment, as Kim Jin-Woo smirked as a status message told him that the parasite’s ability had found a hidden watcher.

“Yes, this is how it should be,” he remarked. Blue streaks of light began to flow from the corners of his eyes once more.

***

The watchers inside the building were several times stealthier and smarter than the ones on the outside. They seemed to be aware of the situation on the outside, as they hid themselves while waiting for an opportunity to strike. They cautiously approached, entering the parasite’s detection range, which started to strike a nerve within Kim Jin-Woo.

“How cute,” he muttered. He was able to know the approximate location of the watchers thanks to the parasite’s ability, but it was undeniable that it would be troublesome to deal with enemies that were able to appear and disappear quickly all at once. Thus, he decided to ignore the watchers altogether.

But when he felt movement again, Kim Jin-Woo lowered his body before looking around at the ceiling and jumping straight through it.

Crash!

The ceiling collapsed with a roar, and Kim Jin-Woo found himself one floor above.

“That fucking crazy bastard!”

Profanities could be heard from afar, but Kim Jin-Woo simply ignored them as he jumped once more.

“Stop him!”

Only after Kim Jin-Woo climbed two more floors did the watchers finally reappear. They must have been in a hurry, as they even deactivated their signature stealth abilities while rushing toward him in their attempt to block his advance.

“Ignorant bastard,” one of the watchers said.

Kim Jin-Woo smirked. He was certain that they were planning on using the narrow passageway as an advantage, to strike him from his blind spots. It was a rather reasonable tactic. If their opponent weren’t Kim Jin-Woo, their tactics would certainly have worked.

Unfortunately for the watchers, their opponent was several steps ahead of them in combat. Fighting against a strong enemy using a narrow passageway as a sort of shield was one of the main tactics that Kim Jin-Woo and the Nagas used. Thus, he was also well aware of the loopholes in it.

He didn’t move toward where his enemies lay in waiting. Just that inaction alone was enough to throw off his enemies’ plans.

If the layer between the floors had been thick and there had been only one way forward, just like the Underworld, he would have had no choice but to engage in combat; but this was the surface, not the Underworld.

Thus, without hesitation, instead of engaging them in combat, Kim Jin-Woo decided to continue breaking the ceiling as he climbed to the upper floors. His plan succeeded; the watchers had no choice but to abandon their positions where they had laid their traps, and were forced to expose themselves.

The tables had turned.

The watchers who had laid a trap for Kim Jin-Woo were the ones now afraid of when and where he might strike them, and were forced to adopt a preemptive stance. The geographical advantage was now in the hands of Kim Jin-Woo.

In fact, the watchers were scared beyond belief just from Kim Jin-Woo bending his knees slightly as if he were ready to jump.

“Attack!” a watcher exclaimed in a paroxysm of fear

The battle began again.

***

“Kurgh!”

The watcher who rushed in first was struck in the jaw. As his jaw was smashed to smithereens, his body fell and collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud.

Another watcher popped out from behind the fallen watcher, exclaiming, “You son of a bitch!”

Perhaps it was because he had just seen his colleague suffer horribly right in front of his eyes, but the follow-up attack from the second watcher was rather fierce. Even though he was only holding on to his three-segment baton, the threat behind his swings was real.

However, Kim Jin-Woo effortlessly read the watcher’s moves and broke his joints with relative ease. With another scream, yet another enemy was neutralized.“Attack him all at once! You retards!” screamed a voice. It was a rather late order, and only after losing two of their colleagues did the enemy forces start to coordinate their attacks.

Various attacks flew toward Kim Jin-Woo from in front of and behind him. Like gusts of wind, all their attacks swooped in as they aimed for his vitals. Just one of their attacks would have been more than sufficient to break his arm.

But that was only if they could land those attacks.

Crash!

The floor was destroyed with a loud bang, and Kim Jin-Woo’s body disappeared. A few of the watchers were swept away by the shockwave, as they lost their balance and fell to the floor below.

Kim Jin-Woo instantly kicked the fallen watchers from where he had been lying in wait, and they were thrown into a corner from the impact.

“Eek!”

The watchers who witnessed the scene through the hole in the floor squirmed as they clenched their teeth. But they weren’t ready to hastily jump through the hole; they lay patiently in wait, waiting for the right opening to strike.

But Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t one to give them an opportunity to wait and observe him. He once again disappeared, away from the lines of sight provided by the holes in the floors above and below him.

Then, with a bang, the floor on which the watchers were standing collapsed once more.

“Spread out!”

They weren’t stupid enough to be beaten twice by the same tactic. The watchers fanned out as they jumped around like grasshoppers, thus avoiding being swept away by the collapse of the floor around them.

But that was something Kim Jin-Woo had already predicted would happen. “Hmph!” He took a quick breath before kicking off the floor, flying up to the floor above him and knocking down the scattered watchers one by one.

“Have you ever seen an asshole like him before!?”

The watchers, belatedly realizing that they’d fallen right into Kim Jin-Woo’s trap, quickly reunited before swinging their batons once more.

Thud! Thud!

“Huh?” As a dull sound and a heavy feeling reached their fingertips, the watchers’ eyes widened, surprised that they were able to land their attacks so easily.

“Keuk…”

But they soon realized that it wasn’t Kim Jin-Woo that they had beaten senselessly, but rather one of their colleagues. Their comrade, pummeled mercilessly to a pulp, collapsed on the floor as his eyes turned white.

“What a vicious bastard!” The watchers ground their teeth as the realization fueled their anger even further, rushing toward Kim Jin-Woo once more.

“You little rat!” Seeing Kim Jin-Woo easily run around and dodge their attacks infuriated the watchers even further, as they started swearing even more while wildly swinging their three-segment batons around.

However, one of the watchers, who clearly thought Kim Jin-Woo was going to evade his attack, was caught by surprise when his opponent simply stood still and allowed himself to be hit.

“What the?” The watcher let out a sound of bewilderment, apparently quite startled by the sudden change.

Kim Jin-Woo turned toward the watcher. He was frowning, but it clearly wasn’t a look of pain. Otherwise, his black-eyed gaze wouldn’t look so annoyed as he remarked, “You have a nasty mouth.”

“Keuk!” The watcher who had been swearing was struck in the chin, spitting out a couple of his broken and shattered teeth. Seeing his teeth crumble onto the floor, he realized that he was going to find it difficult to eat for the rest of his life. “Kuuuuurgh…”

Seeing their colleague grab onto his jaw as he drooled all over the floor, the rest of the watchers’ faces turned pale. Only then did they realize that all their colleagues who had been cursing had their jaws smashed to bits. Perhaps due to that, they were now consciously keeping their mouths shut, as they exchanged glances before dropping their batons.

“Have you given up? No. That can’t be.” Kim Jin-Woo looked on as the watchers drew the daggers from their waists instead.

From under the hood, the corners of his lips rose. At that moment, he couldn’t feel more joyful.

***

The Watchers thrust forward toward Kim Jin-Woo with all their momentum, but instantly found themselves lying all over the cold floor.

Seeing that their chests were still expanding and contracting, it seemed they weren’t dead, but judging from the damage they had suffered at the hands of Kim Jin-Woo, it wouldn’t be surprising either if they died at any moment.

“Lame.” Kim Jin-Woo looked down on them indifferently and turned around. He’d thought he would finally be able to have a taste of excitement run through his body, but the Association’s watchers were too weak to fulfill his desire for a good fight. Thus, he had to curb his excitement.

He belatedly realized that he had dragged this out for too long and had been delayed longer than expected, so he headed straight to the top floor of the Association building, where Song Jong-Chul’s office was located.

Kim Jin-Woo found it strange that Song Jong-Chul hadn’t shown himself despite all the commotion, but eventually realized that he wasn’t even present. Although it was highly likely that, if he had heard the news, he would be on his way to the Association right now.

The office was completely empty. Kim Jin-Woo casually ripped the locked door apart and headed straight toward the wall where the safe was hidden. After he tore off the cleverly hidden plywood panel over it, a thick iron safe revealed itself.

Without hesitation, Kim Jin-Woo clenched his fist. A single punch dented the solid iron safe. With another punch came another loud bang. A couple of blows later, the safe’s iron door fell off and a dazzling light streamed out of it.