Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 40

“You can’t buy time!”

Suho charged towards Kim Secretary.

The opponent was a B-rank Hunter.

Suho had to keep pressing on without giving him a chance to recover from the shock.

“What’s the difference between kidnapping people for stardust? Is that any different from demons?”

The effect of ‘Skill: Heavy Strike’ that was previously imbued in his fists had already disappeared.

Instead, Suho wielded the fangs of Lakan and the horns of Bolkan in his hands.

Swoosh!

“Wait a moment! Why are you attacking me…!”

Kim Secretary, whose legs were still wobbly, dodged Suho’s attacks and stumbled backwards, while trying to engage in conversation.

“Wait! Stop the attack! I am from the Divine Guild!”

“….”

But Suho remained silent and continued to press on.

Kim Secretary didn’t know what to do and kept retreating.

“What’s going on? Why is a demon attacking me? How did you even find me here?!”

Numerous questions raced through Kim Secretary’s mind.

For the past year, the Vice President of the Divine Guild, Lee Min-sung, and the demons of the Factory had been engaged in a secret trade.

Although there was minimal direct contact due to the interference of the Hyena Guild, shouldn’t they at least try to stop the attack and initiate a conversation when the name of the Divine Guild was revealed?

And Suho’s intention had succeeded.

Originally, he had appeared wearing a crow mask with the intention of causing this kind of confusion.

“I am from the Divine Guild…!”

Snap.

“Oh no!”

As he turned around in a hurry, Kim Secretary’s back was blocked by a glass window.

When he looked back desperately, he saw a transparent glass window.

“Well, at least this works out.”

Suho’s eyes sparkled as he witnessed the situation.

It was much clearer outside the building than inside for swinging his sword.

Perhaps Kim Secretary had the same idea.

“Alright, let’s fight for real then!”

Suho made up his mind.

Blame!

Suho chased Secretary Kim out the window and jumped after her.

And behind him…

“Ah….”

Min Byung-gu, who was left standing there bewildered, didn’t know what to do.

[Cough.]

A small shadow approached him quietly at that moment.

Bae-r, awkwardly clearing his throat, spoke to him.

“Don’t worry too much. Sogunju will take care of it….”

“Euaaaaak! Ant, ant, ant, ant?!”

[Kyak?]

Thump….

The moment Min Byung-gu saw Bae-r, he fainted again, causing a commotion.

“No, even I received her protection….”

Bae-r felt wronged.

***

Bang!

Citizens who were walking in the downtown suddenly heard a loud noise and looked up.

And at the same time, their eyes widened.

“What, what is that?”

“Somebody jumped!”

Someone had broken the window on the 5th floor of a building and was jumping out of it.

“Kyaak!”

“Watch out!”

The citizens scattered in panic, afraid of getting hurt by the broken glass shards.

But soon, another person jumped out through the same window.

However, before the second person could land on the ground, the person who had jumped earlier swung a pair of swords in mid-air without hesitation.

[Using skill: Storm Slash.]

Kuwaaaang!

“Euaaak?!”

The first person who jumped was hit directly by the fierce blade storm and crashed to the ground.

Clang!

“Kyaak!”

“The hunters are fighting!”

The citizens realized the seriousness of the situation and screamed as they fled.

“Kheuheuk….”

Meanwhile, Secretary Kim struggled to get up with a battered body.

Her face showed a desperate expression.

But now was not the time to complain.

Thud.

Suho, who had landed right in front of her, immediately swung his sword without giving her a chance to rest.

“Damn it!”

Secretary Kim quickly rose to his feet and raised his hands, summoning magic power.

“Explode!”

Whoosh! Bang!

A fiery ball of flames exploded in front of Suho, but he blocked it with his crossed swords.

“Magic realm hunter!”

Suho had already anticipated that Kim would be a magic realm hunter, so he was prepared to counteract quickly.

Kim’s attacks inside the building had been ineffective, as Suho had been able to keep his distance and evade them, typical of a magic realm hunter’s style.

On the other hand, Suho was relentless in his pursuit.

“Do it, explode!”

Boom! Crash!

“Explode!”

Boom! Crash! Bang!

Numerous fireballs exploded, accumulating damage on Suho’s body, and his HP was steadily decreasing.

“I’m still okay!”

Suho believed in his total HP and continued to press on towards Kim.

After all, he was already at his limit.

He had used a surprise attack with his strong attack skill and had even fallen from a height of 5 floors with a Storm Slash.

It was a miracle that he was still standing on two feet.

“Argh! Why are you attacking me? Can’t we negotiate instead? I’ll do anything to resolve this!”

“Anything? What do you think I want?”

As Suho’s MP gradually surpassed 300 after drinking a mana potion,

[Using skill: Strong Attack]

Grrrr!

A dark energy enveloped Suho’s fist and forearm as Kim’s complexion paled at the approaching fist.

He desperately shouted,

“Let’s negotiate instead of doing this! I’ll resolve whatever you want!”

“What do you think I want?”

Suho approached Kim step by step, with a sinister smile.

Hearing his vague words, Kim found a glimmer of hope and his eyes lit up.

“We know about your factory being destroyed! We are also struggling with the shortage of stardust because of it!”

“So what?”

Suhoh clenched his fists.

Secretary Kim closed her eyes tightly and shouted.

“So we’ve built a new factory!”

Pause.

“…What?”

Suhoh’s movement came to a sudden halt.

“It worked! Just as I thought it would!” Secretary Kim was excited and started yelling at Suhoh.

“Star Dust Research Institute! That was the reason we were trying to persuade Min Byung-gu! We’ve prepared the facility and materials, but we don’t know how to produce it!”

Dr. Min Byung-gu was the only researcher of Star Dust in the country.

If he had developed a doping test for Star Dust, it would have been possible to manufacture Star Dust with just the facility and materials.

But now that the devil appeared in front of them, there was no reason for Min Byung-gu to cling to it anymore.

“So we’re going to hand over the facility we built to you! Use it as you wish! We’ll take responsibility for the supply of materials from now on!”

“Supply of materials?”

“Yes. We’ve already prepared about ten people! We were planning to experiment with Min Byung-gu starting today! If you need more materials, just let us know. We’ll bring as many people as you need right away!”

“….”

Suhoh’s expression was getting colder and colder.

Secretary Kim probably didn’t know.

That just by calling humans the materials for Star Dust, Suhoh had already seen him as nothing more than a devil.

Suhoh asked one last question.

“So where is the location of the factory?”

“W-well….”

Secretary Kim, sensing Suhoh’s mood, rolled her eyes pitifully.

“If you let me go from here, I’ll contact you separately.”

“So you’re asking me to spare you.”

“Of course…”

“Don’t worry.”

“What?”

“There are many ways to find out even if I kill you.”

That was the end of their conversation.

Suhoh drove his fist down mercilessly.

Crunch!

“….!”

Skill: Strike.

In the end, Secretary Kim couldn’t even scream and fell to the ground.

Ding!

[A quest has been triggered.]

A message arrived just in time.

[Quest: Rescue the Hostages]

Please rescue the people kidnapped at Stardust Research Institute.

Current number of hostages: 10

Current number of rescues: 0

Suho stared at the quest window in front of him and spoke.

“Ver.”

[Yes.]

Ver appeared in front of Kim Secretary’s corpse.

“Do you know what I’m going to ask you to do?”

Suho’s words made a sinister smile spread across Ver’s lips.

Perhaps it was a smile even more wicked than that of a demon.

***

A while later.

“They… They’re gone?”

“Did they leave?”

As Suho disappeared with Kim Secretary’s corpse, the people who had been hiding to avoid the battle began to come out onto the streets one by one.

“Whew, that was shocking.”

“Why did those hunters fight each other?”

“Why are the police so late again? It hasn’t even been 10 minutes since we reported it.”

“It hasn’t been even 10 minutes since we reported it. They’ll come soon…”

It was truly an event that happened in the blink of an eye.

The windows shattered suddenly with a loud crash, and explosions rang out, bang, bang, bang…

The two sides fought fiercely for a moment, but both disappeared in the blink of an eye, not even 10 minutes had passed.

The citizens looked around in a frenzy, trying to grasp the situation, but the puzzle was too incomplete.

“But wasn’t that person Crow?”

Someone remembered Suho’s appearance and muttered.

At that, the people murmured in surprise.

“What? Crow?”

“The King of Beasts, Crow, are you talking about him?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you see him wearing a crow mask?”

Just last night, there had been news articles about the Magok Field incident.

Today, there was still a lot of gossip about it, and it just so happened that a person wearing a crow mask appeared right in the middle of the city.

Crow, the King of Beasts.

The one who overcame the trials and obtained the power of the King of Beasts.

According to the survivors of Magok Field at that time, he was said to have worn a crow mask on his face.

“Oh my gosh. That’s right! The crow mask!”

“Wow! That person was Crow!”

“No wonder he was so strong!”

Although Suho couldn’t hear their conversation from a distance, many people witnessed Crow’s fighting scene.

Of course, with the average person’s eyesight, it was impossible to follow the trajectory of his sword swinging.

But at least the last strike.

The enormous fist, with its dark energy swirling around it, left a vivid impression on everyone’s eyes.

“Could that be the power of the Beast King?” People speculated, murmuring the name of the Beast King Crow after witnessing the devastating blow.

Soon, new articles began to appear on the internet.

***

“What, what is this again!”

Lee Min-sung, the vice president of the Messenger Guild, stared wide-eyed at the rapidly emerging news articles.

-(Breaking) Beast King Crow appears in Seoul!

-(Breaking) Clash between two hunters!

-(Breaking) Witnesses of the Beast King’s power.

Unlike during the incident in Magok, this time the articles were accompanied by photos taken by witnesses with their smartphones.

Most of the hunters’ movements were too fast for the photos to be in focus, but one of the hunters’ faces stood out to Lee Min-sung.

However, the problem was that in the last photo, the hunter’s body was slumped over Crow’s shoulder as he departed.

Lee Min-sung immediately called Secretary Kim.

Ring…

But no matter how many times he called, Secretary Kim did not answer the phone.

“Secretary Kim! Secretary Kim! Answer the phone! Answer it!”

Lee Min-sung yelled anxiously into his phone.

At that moment.

Ring!

An urgent message arrived on his phone.

“Vice President, please contact me. There’s been a problem at the facility.”

“…!”

As soon as he saw the message, a foreboding feeling rushed through Lee Min-sung’s mind.

The word “facility” was a euphemism for the secret research laboratory he had painstakingly built.

And now, coincidentally, Secretary Kim, who had been sent by him to capture Dr. Min Byeong-gu, the most crucial element of the laboratory, had been caught by Crow.

Lee Min-sung urgently called the laboratory.

Ring-ring… Click.

Fortunately, the call was answered quickly on this end.

“What’s going on? What happened at the facility?”

“Mon, monster…! Ahhhhh!”

“…?!”

Lee Min-sung was taken aback by the sudden scream that erupted on the other end of the phone.

A cacophony of horrific screams could be heard beyond the phone.

“What’s going on there? Tell me!”

“M, monster…! Ahhhhh!”