Chapter 38: What Is Evil?

Chapter 38

[Oh! It’s Kim Jinsung, Kim Jinsung indeed! Kang Minhyuk and Kim Jinsung have clashed once again!]

[This time, it doesn’t seem like either of them will be backing down, does it?]

The excitement in the commentators’ voices reached new heights. The anticipation of viewers for the showdown between Kim Jinsung vs. Kang Minhyuk was unprecedented, fueled further by the production team’s promotion throughout the Preliminary Group A live broadcast. Their incredible battle near the barrier had already garnered over 4 million views on iTube.

As the two were captured in the same camera lens once more, the chat speed, which had slowed down a bit due to the early morning hour of 4 AM, now skyrocketed.

Even the monitoring room staff straightened up from their relaxed leans, alert at once.

“Wow, they meet in such a situation?”

“Doesn’t this position put Kim Jinsung at a disadvantage, considering Kang Minhyuk’s recent display of power…?”

“Hey, but it’s Kim Jinsung, isn’t it?”

“I’m casting my vote for Kang Minhyuk this time.”

The staff debated the outcome, while Baek Jun sat in contemplation.

‘One of them seems likely to die this time.’

Kang Minhyuk had lost his reason, now only settling down once his opponent was dead. And there was Kim Jinsung, acting like a hunter on the prowl, continuously seeking and eliminating prey. When two beings craving death meet, the encounter doesn’t end without one of them sustaining fatal injuries – a piece of insight Baek Jun had picked up over many seasons.

‘And, unluckily enough, they could both end up dead.’

[Ah! The moment I speak, Kang Minhyuk rushes towards Kim Jinsung!]

Baek Jun’s attention was caught by the caster’s exclamation.

***

“What a mess,” Kim Jinsung muttered, scratching his cheek while looking at Kang Minhyuk perplexedly.

‘I came to see who stole my prey…’

He hadn’t approached knowing it was Kang Minhyuk. Kim Jinsung had been hunting defenders and monsters in the vicinity for points when he suddenly heard a loud scream. He initially thought it was undoubtedly a monster and had rushed towards it.

‘But Kang Minhyuk… huh?’

Crash!

Kim Jinsung reflexively parried with his sword against Kang Minhyuk’s fist. And so the confrontation began.

“Roaaarrr!!”

Thump! Thump! Crash!

Kang Minhyuk lashed out with a series of wild punches at an incredible speed. Every block from Kim Jinsung sent him stepping back due to the sheer force.

‘Ugh! Why is he so much stronger all of a sudden?’

This was incomparable to their duel near the barrier by day, where Kang Minhyuk’s strength and speed seemed to have more than doubled.

‘I thought I would dominate if we met again.’

Since then, having hunted numerous monsters and defenders, Kim Jinsung’s capabilities had grown immensely.

‘But being overpowered this openly is difficult.’

Finding direct confrontation troublesome, Kim Jinsung switched up his approach. Seeing an opening as Kang Minhyuk swung, Kim Jinsung vanished using the ‘Shadow Hide’ skill.

Kang Minhyuk’s fists hammered the air where Kim Jinsung had just disappeared. But he didn’t stop there; he turned and struck towards a nearby tree.

Crack!

A sturdy tree smashed into pieces with a single blow, along with a small straw scarecrow behind it scattering into the wind.

At that moment,

Sssk.

Kang Minhyuk lost his balance and fell, his right ankle cleanly severed by a strike from Kim Jinsung, who had reappeared.

“Phew, that was close.”

Kim Jinsung exhaled as he became visible again. He hadn’t expected Kang Minhyuk to pinpoint his hiding place after using ‘Shadow Hide.’

Had he not been prepared to use ‘Metamorphosis Doppelganger’ just in case, he might have received a fatal blow.

‘Anyway, the advantage is now mine.’

With Kang Minhyuk’s ankle severed, his mobility was severely hampered. But Kang Minhyuk, seemingly unaware of his injury, swung his fist as vigorously as before.

Kim Jinsung easily dodged and continued the same tactics — vanishing with ‘Shadow Hide’ into the ground, then moving aside and preparing ‘Metamorphosis Doppelganger.’

As Kang Minhyuk swung towards where he guessed Kim Jinsung was hiding, Kim Jinsung quickly moved behind him and this time aimed his sword at the opposite ankle.

Again, the slicing sound, and Kang Minhyuk collapsed, completely losing his balance.

Yet,

“Roaarrrr!”

Kang Minhyuk sprung up like a released coil and let out another beastly cry. At this, Kim Jinsung shook his head in dismay.

‘His eyes have totally rolled back. He’s no different from a monster now.’

His eyes were so bloodshot they almost didn’t look human. The pattern of his attack was simple: lashing out blindly at any living thing before him. He was the spitting image of a mindless monster charging without thought of fire or water.

‘It made him easier for me to deal with.’

Kim Jinsung had dreaded the sane, tactical sword-wielding skills of Kang Minhyuk, not this berserk monster. Now, he could handle him more easily. After all, he had fought and slain countless monsters over the past three days.

Boom!

Kang Minhyuk’s punch landed where Kim Jinsung had been standing, but expecting it, Kim Jinsung had already stepped back. After using ‘Shadow Hide’ again, he approached Kang Minhyuk.

As he got close, Kang Minhyuk swung once more, hitting only another straw scarecrow.

During this, Kim Jinsung swept behind him and plunged his sword forcefully into Kang Minhyuk’s back.

Thwack!

The blade penetrated properly through the left chest. Despite the impalement, Kang Minhyuk thrashed wildly, but soon the vigor in his movements dwindled as if a toy’s battery had run out.

After exhausting all his strength, Kang Minhyuk collapsed powerlessly onto the ground. Moments later, a groan echoed out, this time not a cry of frenzy but his usual tone.

Kim Jinsung then walked toward Kang Minhyuk, approaching his face. The bloodied eyes had returned to normal.

Looking up with difficulty, Kang Minhyuk gazed at Kim Jinsung.

“…Did you kill me?”

“Yes,” Kim Jinsung answered.

“To be honest, I didn’t want to fight, but you were knocking down all the monsters I was supposed to hunt.”

It was a simple reason, but collecting points was of the utmost importance to Kim Jinsung.

He then casually asked Kang Minhyuk, who had fallen silent,

“Got any last words?”

It was a phrase Kim Jinsung hadn’t uttered since his daily tasks at the incinerator long ago. Kang Minhyuk responded immediately.

“There isn’t.”

“There isn’t?” Kim Jinsung echoed.

“I died simply because I was weak… that’s all. My father will probably scold me a lot, but that’s something I can hear once we meet again in the heavens…”

Kang Minhyuk then fell silent, his expression becoming tranquil. Even to Kim Jinsung, who had witnessed countless deaths in the incinerator, there seemed to be no regret in Kang Minhyuk’s demeanor.

“Let me ask you one more thing.”

Silently observing, Kim Jinsung posed another question.

“Are you an evil person?”

Kang Minhyuk’s eyes drifted to the void, as if reflecting on his entire life, and Kim Jinsung patiently waited for his answer. After a long pause, a soft voice emerged from Kang Minhyuk.

“In my life… I’ve never done anything… that would qualify me as evil.”

After speaking, Kang Minhyuk sighed deeply and closed his eyes, never to move again.

‘Impressive.’

Looking at Kang Minhyuk’s face, Kim Jinsung began to feel a hint of admiration stir within him.

‘It’s like the noble end of a warrior you’d see in movies.’

Kang Minhyuk’s last moment was shockingly profound to Kim Jinsung—a man calmly accepting his death in front of the very person who killed him.

‘With this, he surely wasn’t evil.’

In Kim Jinsung’s eyes, Kang Minhyuk didn’t seem like an evil person. The endings of evil men he had killed so far had been vastly different. Each one, facing death, spilled their regrets and all the lingering thoughts of their past, unasked.

‘It’s a pity I couldn’t get his traits… Huh?’

Kim Jinsung’s eyes widened as familiar notification windows scrolled before his eyes.

You have eliminated an evil person.

You have earned 70 Beast Karma points.

▶You have acquired the opponent’s trait, ‘Vampiric.’

▷ Vampiric: The user recovers HP equivalent to half of the damage dealt to the target.

You have acquired the opponent’s trait, ‘Berserk.’

▷ Berserk: Activates when HP drops below 10%. For ten minutes, the user loses reason and all ability stats double.

‘What?’

Kim Jinsung frowned, confused.

Kang Minhyuk, an evil person? Truly a bad guy?

‘Did he have some unrevealed wrongdoing, lasting until his death? Or, what even are the standards of being considered evil?’

For the first time since his awakening, Kim Jinsung became curious about the nature of his abilities.

What exactly is evil?

Up until now, he’d simply brushed it off, believing that evil people were just those who committed a lot of bad deeds. That was primarily because most boys in the incinerator explicitly engaged in overt mischief before they were brought in.

‘What if the standard for evil is not just about committing crimes?’

If there was a different standard Kim Jinsung hadn’t considered,

‘I’ll have to go to a place like the Hunter Library to research this properly.’

It was an issue of great importance to Kim Jinsung’s future. If he survived until the end of this program, he’d likely follow the hunter’s path, which would require him to continuously hunt down evil people and monsters to become stronger.

Especially, the rare and useful skills possessed by awakened evil individuals could amplify Kim Jinsung’s strength exponentially.

Just yesterday, he had acquired ‘Shadow Hide,’ and today, ‘Metamorphosis Doppelganger’ helped him to handle the rampaging Kang Minhyuk easily.

‘If I don’t learn the system’s standards for what constitutes evil, I might just end up toiling needlessly.’

Not knowing the criteria and indiscriminately killing everything could result in unnecessary hardship. As the saying goes, if your head isn’t up to it, your body suffers.

Huh?

Kim Jinsung’s gaze shifted skyward.

Across the particularly dark night sky of the waning moon, something resembling a shooting star was quickly approaching him.

‘Is that a mana cluster?’

Further observation confirmed it – a blue mana in the shape of a hawk.