It wasn’t a regular tattoo. There were colorful cherry blossoms blooming on his chest and the God of Fire with a furious expression on his back. Therefore, whenever he got stabbed in the back, it looked like the God was shedding tears of blood and desperately vowing to avenge as the blood flowed down. Of course, the people who had tried to kill him were all dead.
“So, how many are left?”
The person who was speaking had a strange-sounding accent that anyone could tell that it wasn’t authentic Korean. It was inevitable because he rarely left Roppongi[1] even though he was ethnically Korean. In fact, many of his relatives lived in Korea. Inagawa-kai had been formed by Korean-Japanese executives, and Takeru was the leader of the Takeru-jo, a subgroup in Inagawa-kai. He had been the one who had eliminated the Chinese mafia and Yamaguchi-gumi in Kobe. His Korean name was Hwang Kwan-Ho.
“There are thirty-three.”
“Thirty-three?” Takeru asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Yes.”
“That’s fewer than I thought.”
“We could have lost more if you weren’t there.”
“Just bring me water.”
Takeru didn’t have any more questions. Seok-Ju, who had been a hotshot accountant in Seoul, was thorough at his job. Takeru picked up the dagger that Seok-Ju had left and hung it on the wall as it reminded him of the knife he had brought here, which was worth ten million yen. He always used that knife whenever he had to cut off the finger of someone who had betrayed him on Earth, but it was used for murder here. Of course, he had never been professionally trained in knife work, but he had no difficulty in separating a person’s neck ever since his Strength had been upgraded. Therefore, the knife hanging on the wall was a symbol of his dictatorship.
“Sir.”
Seok-Ju came back and knelt down in front of Takeru. Then, he politely received the precious water that Takeru had poured for him.
“Thank you.”
“Everyone must be complaining a lot, right?” Takeru remarked.
“Yes.”
Above all, they lacked water and food. During the sixth wave, they had found a puddle at one of the boundaries, but they had to fight monsters to reach it. There were so many monsters crowding there that they ended up with more casualties fighting over the pond than they had lost during the wave. Takeru knew that the water he was currently drinking was the last cup left in the village.
“Tell me what you think.”
“Other than one boundary, the rest are closed. I think Act One, Stage Two will be about the tasks that need to be done inside the boundary. I have no clue what that will be, but reducing the number of monsters in the boundary to a certain extent will definitely help us complete the quests in the future.”
“And it’s good for securing food and water.”
“Yes, and…”
“And?”
“If the end beyond the boundary is connected to other stages, we will have more options on what to do.”
Although the System stated Act One, Stage Two would begin pretty soon, it gave them enough preparation time until the first quest started. No one knew how wide the inside of the boundary would be, but Takeru came to the conclusion that it was worth a try to explore. It was also an opportunity for them to supplement their supplies and manpower if their stage was actually connected to other stages. He was confident that he would be able to win no matter what stage they were linked to.
***
Everyone had become familiarized with combat. They had received a lot of rewards after finishing the first wave. Their previous visibility problem was now offset by items that expanded their line of sight.
That night, Takeru ordered the people to sleep, although there was no need to call it night as the entire boundary was filled with darkness. Everyone fell asleep in the area guarded by the folks on night duty, but Takeru couldn’t sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking about something that he wasn’t supposed to.
It was the money he had left behind! Although the number had fallen as he had followed the advice of the organizational fund manager to urgently dispose of their assets, it still was a lot of money. That was his power that moved the ten thousand members of Inagawa-kai! During the holidays, local officials and politicians visited him with their families. What he used to enjoy wasn’t comparable to what he had here. Even though the extraordinary event of an alien invasion had broken out, the world had remained unchanged and functioned quite well.
When is this damn thing going to end?
Some weirdos actually considered awakening as an opportunity, and Takeru laughed bitterly without realizing it when he remembered them.
However, his best opportunity in life occurred with the decline of Yamaguchi-gumi ten years ago. According to reliable sources, their slush funds had evaporated at some point. Their head had even died before they collapsed. That was Takeru’s chance to completely regain Tokyo’s night streets, taking them from Takeuchi Ryusei, who had dominated Yamaguchi-gumi. Therefore, Takeru strongly insisted on the war against them as a caporegime[2]. He led the team at the forefront. Even after he obtained a faction with his name in the organization, he didn’t let newcomers take over his role as a hitman. Well, he did let them go to jail on his behalf.
Anyway, he had been on a roll for the past decade. If he hadn’t been sucked into this shitty place, he could have been counting his money with the ladies in Roppongi right now. Skills? Supernatural powers? Physical abilities that overwhelmed ordinary people? All of that was ridiculous to him, and he thought they were devices for the guide to make the stage more interesting. He personally believed that the guide was laughing somewhere with a small red face while watching the participants getting drunk on their power and killing each other flamboyantly.
Takeru licked his lips as he was desperate for some alcohol. He thought he would happily slice ten people’s throats if he could get drunk.
***
The next day, thirty-four people, including Takeru, continued to break through the darkness. There was a series of neverending battles with monsters that clung to them. Then, at one point, the monsters stopped showing up. Everyone knew what would happen if silence filled the air, so they tensed up. After all, the guide could suddenly appear and instruct them to kill each other. They slowed down.
When they thought that night was coming, Takeru stopped. The search team, which was walking in front of him, also halted. The corners of his lips went up when he saw people fishing.
Ah, so this is how it goes.
He didn’t know from which point the boundary connected to the other stages since he had never been this deep before. Every time he reached the puddle after fighting monsters, he had to return immediately after securing food and water. If they were sluggish, it was very likely they’d get surrounded by new monsters soon.
Anyway, his assumption that the boundary could be linked to other stages turned out to be true. Takeru beckoned, and his search team quietly came back to the group. He replaced any verbal conversation with the hand signals he used during the waves. There were only ten people fishing in the puddle ahead of them.
Attack!
Takeru ordered.
***
They had missed nine out of the ten.
I didn’t expect most of them to have the Teleportation insignia.
Takeru’s temper rose sharply, and he tore the woman’s shirt. Her big chest jiggled when her bra was ripped off, but he wasn’t interested in her at all. He was sick and tired of such things. His eyes were fixed on the woman’s skin, and he saw that there were no more insignias left.
“I used my precious insignia for no reason because of you. How are you going to compensate?” he snarled.
She stuttered a reply, “Who… who are you?”
She made eye contact with one of the people who were looking down on her. Her eyes shook. Those were certainly the eyes of hunters with no pity. Her body trembled as she instinctively realized that.
“Who are we? We are just people like you.”
Takeru swept the woman’s cheek with a dagger, and blood drops formed on the tip of the blade. When he stood up, his group members who had been looking down at her started taking off all her clothes. Then, Takeru noticed Seok-Ju’s expression and approached him. There was a piece of monster leather the size of A4 paper in his hand.
「You can exchange for fifty mana stones.
– Mana Stone Bank」
There was a big thumbprint and a signature on the side.
Takeru laughed, “Hahaha. Are they fucking kidding me?”
It was his first sincere laugh since entering the Stage of Advent. He snatched it from Seok-Ju’s hand and tore it apart. Pieces of leather fell brutally over the woman’s naked body. Seok-Ju whispered a few words into Takeru’s ear with a thoughtful look on his face. Then, Takeru nodded and squatted in front of the woman while stabbing the dagger into her thigh and covering her mouth with another hand.
“You don’t need to worry about scars. What a great world it is for women. I’m going to ask you a few questions, but if you lie to me, I will kill you right away. No second chance.”
The woman nodded as tears welled up in her eyes.
“How many are there left?”
Takeru took his hand off the woman’s mouth. She knew that if she screamed, the dagger in her thigh would move to pierce through her skull. Therefore, she contorted her face, focusing on swallowing her moans, “Eight… Eighty…”
“Eighty people?”
“Y…yes…”
Takeru continued, “Tell me about your leader. Who is controlling you guys?”
“There is no… such thing…”
She hurriedly added as if she could see her death reflected in Takeru’s eyes, “But there is a man named Odin.”
At that time, Seok-Ju squatted next to Takeru and said, “Sir…”
Takeru rose with a grimace, and Seok-Ju’s voice filled the silence. His kind expression was a little comforting to the woman even though she knew his true nature was completely different.
“Tell us more about the man named Odin.”
She responded instantly, “He is the strongest among us.”
“That doesn’t tell much about him.”
She pleaded, “I don’t know anything about him except that he is the strongest. I’m telling you, please trust me.”
“Fine. You said he is the strongest, so how strong is he?”
“He killed the majority of the monsters by himself. The biggest one… that appeared in the last wave.”
“If it was the last wave… are you talking about the boss monster? Stop trembling and tell me the details. Don’t you think it’s a waste of your effort and time to die here? You have a family to return to.”
The woman was about to say yes, but…
Sheeeeek-
A katana, which flew obliquely across Seok-Ju’s shoulders, penetrated the woman’s mouth.
“Keuk!”
Takeru collected the katana on the ground that had dropped after piercing the woman’s mouth. The moment when he drew the sword at her forehead was her last moment.
Splash!
Blood was scattered in all directions.
“We will attack them first before they get ready to defend themselves,” Takeru said.
There are eighty left in town, and this guy killed the boss monster by himself? Fucking lies.
1. A district in Tokyo, famous for nightlife. ☜
2. People who act like a buffer between the boss and his/her subordinates. They often handle the work of the gangs themselves by directly commanding the subordinates. ☜