Chapter 20: One head smashed, two heads smashed (3)

Even if you’re a wolf that eats human flesh, you’re still just a beast.

In the end, you’re something that will be easily crushed beneath my feet.

“Gah! Urgh!”

“The goddess’s blood will flow down your throat, starting from your stomach, slowly—very slowly—delivering salvation through death to your organs.”

“Your own blood… as poison!”

It seems like he still has enough energy to talk.

But how strange.

You’re already as good as dead.

“As expected from someone who offers no salvation besides death. But don’t worry. The goddess’s blood will soon reach your heart, and then you’ll die.”

“Urgh!”

“Do you see this? This is the power of the goddess. No matter how much you bite, tear, taste, and try to enjoy, my body remains intact.”

Look at this perfectly unharmed body.

You could say it’s truly a body bestowed by the goddess herself.

“I won’t let you get away with this!”

“You’re misunderstanding something here.”

As I spoke, I grabbed Choi Beon-gae’s outstretched paw and snapped it.

Does he not listen to what people say?

I even gave him the courtesy of waiting for his transformation.

But then again, I guess that’s what makes him a criminal.

“Aaaaargh!”

“If someone speaks to you, at least pretend you’re listening. Ah, right, you’re just a beast.”

What more is there to say?

A lowlife who devours humans.

That’s why salvation in the form of death must be bestowed.

And that salvation will be delivered by sending him to the goddess.

-Though he’ll probably end up stuck in the cycle of reincarnation.

I suppose it ruins the mood when I try to play the part of a holy saint, but the goddess is the real deal.

Yet, this wolf pup’s body is still twitching.

What can he do, squirming all by himself?

“I’m going to kill you!”

“Well, you’re the one who’s going to die. You’re being a bit noisy. Why not wait quietly for your salvation? I guess I’ll have to deliver it myself.”

Since you’re begging to be killed, I’ll oblige.

The mace, which has shattered so many heads, came crashing down on the beast’s skull.

Crunch!

“They say a mad dog needs to be beaten.”

It seems there’s no real difference between the brain of a beast and that of a human.

Actually, it might even be smaller.

No wonder its intelligence is so pathetic.

Look at that—its brain is the size of a fist.

Now, there’s just one left.

“H-Help! Please!”

The last guy, the one who was getting all cocky earlier, collapsed to the ground.

What a sight. Is he really wetting himself?

“Ah, you’re the idiot who was showing off earlier, right?”

“Please… Spare me. I was wrong! I have a wife and kids!”

A wife and kids, huh?

That does complicate things a little.

I decided to ask the goddess for help.

“Goddess, has this guy killed anyone?”

-Rape, murder—he’s committed a lot. It’s fine to kill him.

The goddess herself has given the green light.

So, I guess I’ll have to kill him.

It seems the goddess wants his soul, too.

Isn’t that a good thing?

He should feel honored to die by the same mace that took down his beloved boss.

“You… Did you spare the lives of the people who begged you for mercy?”

“…..W-Wait! Aren’t you curious about who hired us?”

I paused just as I was about to swing the mace.

Now that’s a little interesting.

Alright, let’s hear it.

Who hired you lot?

I gently grazed the man’s body with the mace as I asked.

“Who?”

“The… the Hero Guild! It was the Hero Guild’s Kim Gi-tae!”

Ah, that cripple?

Does that mean Yoo Ji-ho is behind this?

No, there are too many suspicious points for that.

“So, please! I told you! I’m begging you!”

This trash is really ruining my train of thought.

“Oh, you want me to spare you?”

“Yeah, you promised you’d let me live!”

Is this guy really an idiot?

“Your head’s about to get smashed in, you fool. Are you stupid? I never said I’d spare you.”

“W-What?”

Without another word, I swung the mace.

Crunch!

“Anyway, even if you stayed alive, your kids would just carry the label of ‘criminal’s children.’ It’s better to die quietly while no one notices.”

He’s already dead, though.

-That takes care of everything, doesn’t it?

“By the way, wasn’t the Silver Lightning Gang wanted?”

-Didn’t they say so?

“Let’s check the forums.”

I took out my phone and started typing quickly.

I figured the unemployed losers are always online, so there shouldn’t be any problem.

—

[Author: HeadSmasherSaint]

[Title: Took down the entire Silver Lightning Gang.]

[Summary: Censored images of the Silver Lightning Gang’s corpses.]

[Comments]

Hundred-Year Succubus: Hey, you crazy b****, stop posting gore like this.

└ HeadSmasherSaint: Come on, looking at their criminal history, they all deserved it.

└ Hundred-Year Succubus: I only ever went into men’s dreams!

└ HeadSmasherSaint: Leave your address in the guestbook, and I’ll send you some too.

└ Hundred-Year Succubus: You b****! You’re just going to copy-paste and send that image to my address, aren’t you?

Revolutionary Leader: Wait, did you take them all out by yourself? The bounty for wiping them out was like a billion won.

└ HeadSmasherSaint: Lol, their hideout was a great spot. I let one of the guys go, and he led me straight to their base.

└ Revolutionary Leader: Damn, I should have found them first.

└ Hundred-Year Crafting Master: Did you get the boss, Choi Beon-gae?

└ HeadSmasherSaint: Yup. He turned into a wolf, so I smashed his skull in. There were a lot of victims.

True Battle Mage: Why didn’t they come after me? I hit them first!

└ HeadSmasherSaint: Calm down. I guess I looked easier to deal with.

└ Purehearted Elf: Take me with you next time!

Overweight Orc: I wanted to crush those bastards myself.

└ HeadSmasherSaint: Why?

└ Overweight Orc: They picked a fight with me, and when I beat them up, they said they thought I was a real orc.

└ Sad Slime: They just peed in the pool when I was relaxing.

—

Overweight Orc and Sad Slime must have had it rough, huh?

But at least I beat them all, so that’s good, right?

“Anyway, that’s enough talking. A billion won, huh?”

-That tiny guild gave us 10 billion, so one billion isn’t much, huh?

“Well, it is what it is.”

A billion won isn’t small change, after all.

Normally, you’d have to work hard to make that kind of money.

“By the way, Kim Gi-tae, huh?”

Should I pay a visit to the Hero Guild?

Even if Yoo Ji-ho isn’t behind this…

At the very least, I need to bring back Kim Gi-tae’s head.

*

Hero Guild.

In the Hero Guild’s building, Guild Master Yoo Ji-ho was furious.

It wasn’t because of the recent failure to persuade Karina.

It was because Kim Gi-tae, who had already embarrassed the guild at the Tower of Destruction, had hired the Silver Lightning Gang to get the key to the 4th floor.

He had hired villains.

“You idiot. You hired the Silver Lightning Gang?”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

Yoo Ji-ho grabbed Kim Gi-tae by the collar and slammed him against the wall.

“After everything, you partnered with criminals?”

“W-What’s the problem? It’s all about the key in the end, isn’t it? Besides, there are plenty of guilds that work with groups like the Silver Lightning Gang… Gah!”

Yoo Ji-ho lifted Kim Gi-tae again and threw him to the ground.

This fool, who couldn’t even use his arm properly, had done this all out of revenge.

And now he was trying to use the key as an excuse?

“Yeah, you said you wanted the key. But this isn’t the way to go about it!”

“If we get the key, isn’t that good enough?”

Kim Gi-tae responded with a defiant look in his eyes.

Did he really think that was an acceptable excuse?

“You idiot. You didn’t do this for the key—you did it for revenge, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but… The Silver Lightning Gang couldn’t take down just one woman? Especially when she was asleep? If it hadn’t been for a sneak attack, I wouldn’t have lost to her in the first place.”

What a fool.

Doesn’t he realize that the returnees have been holding back so far? He has no idea what would happen if they decided to make a move.

Most returnees, according to the management agency’s investigation, were people who had gone through all sorts of battles, even among different species.

If you provoke them, you’ll only end up disrupting the entire hunter society’s ecosystem.

If you’re going to deal with them, you need to apply pressure in a more socially acceptable way.

And yet, he just threw caution to the wind.

“You pathetic fool. You couldn’t even assess your opponent’s strength, and now you’ve put the entire guild in danger.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Do you really think that so-called saintess is just some crazy woman swinging a weapon?”

“She’s nothing but a fanatic lunatic, right?”

Does this guy have nothing in his head?

This is why we should’ve recruited someone with more brains.

The guild was desperate for members, and this is the price we’re paying for letting anyone in.

“In another world, there would be different gods, wouldn’t there? And that woman is a returnee who’s already spilled countless gallons of blood in the name of her goddess.”

“W-What does that mean?”

Who hired this idiot, anyway?

“We don’t even know what she’s done across the world. And you sent the Silver Lightning Gang after her? Under the guild’s name? If she really is as crazy as she seems, she could take revenge on the entire guild because of you!”

Yoo Ji-ho isn’t a fool.

That woman killed all the Wraiths on the 3rd floor.

What does that mean?

It means she has the ability to take down Wraiths, which are immune to physical attacks, by herself.

According to the community, she even took down the rare Golden Wraith.

Could a mere villain organization really take her down?

“Y-You don’t think she really wiped out the entire Silver Lightning Gang, do you?”

Yoo Ji-ho struck Kim Gi-tae again.

Smack!

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“I-I’m sorry! I was wrong!”

Fine.

At this point, we need to make contact with her as soon as possible.

Even if it’s rude, we need to at least inform her that this has nothing to do with us.

Wait, isn’t it the middle of the night? If I go now, can I see her?

Or maybe she’s in the middle of wiping out the Silver Lightning Gang right now?

That’s what I thought.

“Excuse me, Master.”

An employee who guided visitors to the Hero Guild approached.

“What is it?”

“Well, a woman who calls herself a saintess just showed up at the guild with a bloodstained mace.”

“What did you say?”

It seems the saintess has already taken care of the Silver Lightning Gang.