Chapter 122: A Sneaky Infiltration Attempt, But…

Episode 122

“Hurry up and finish him off!”

As Franco shouted, his companions began to attack Karen with even more ferocity.

Karen immediately assumed a defensive stance.

**Clang! Clang!**

Karen managed to block the consecutive attacks, but he couldn’t help but step back.

He was overwhelmed by the relentless assault, and the mana seal made it even more difficult to defend.

‘Ugh…!’

Karen gritted his teeth, his hand aching as if it would burst.

He had concluded from their previous exchanges that he could defend and counterattack if only he could use his mana.

But no matter how hard he tried to draw upon his mana, it wouldn’t budge.

‘Damn it! What kind of absurd skill is this…!’

**Clang!**

Karen blocked another attack with a grimace. His face gradually turned pale.

For a hunter, being unable to use mana,

meant that there was no way to turn the situation around.

* * *

**Thud!**

The massive body of the last remaining hybrid monster crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.

Kim Jinsung finally lowered his sword. He wiped off the blood and checked the number of corpses.

‘Six in total. These definitely look like Super-Large monsters.’

The Twin Head Ogres he had seen on the island so far were also Large monsters.

But these were noticeably larger, so they seemed to be Super-Large class.

‘Well, even if they’re not Super-Large, I’ve completed the entry exam.’

He had already hunted fourteen Large monsters with his party members.

Having just killed six Super-Large monsters, he had fulfilled the exam requirement of twenty Large monsters.

‘Of course, that’s assuming I catch Franco, who has the sack.’

Franco was carrying all the Ogre remains. That’s why he had to catch him.

Kim Jinsung approached the corpses and began to cut out the belly buttons, just like Franco had done.

As he put the remains into the black bag he received from the Immigration Control office, Kim Jinsung thought,

‘Were they really crossbred monsters?’

He checked the notification that he had temporarily ignored while hunting.

—

▶ You have defeated a monster.

▶ Acquired 215 Beast Karma points.

▶ You have acquired the monster’s comprehensive trait ‘God-Forged Mutant Ogre’.

▷ God-Forged Mutant Ogre: Grants the following traits and permanently stored skill:

– Permanently increases Strength and Stamina by 100, and Agility by 80.

– Permanently increases Skin Defense by 100.

– Glasgow Kiss: Headbutts the opponent with full force. Skin Defense increases by 1,000% for 5 seconds upon skill activation. Consumes 250 mana.

—

‘The stats I gained are similar to the combined stats from the Twin Head Ogre and Minotaur.’

Judging by its appearance and the name ‘Minotaogre’, it seemed to be a monster born from crossbreeding.

‘Could it be that crossbred monsters are common in the New Continent?’

Kim Jinsung collected all the trophies from the six corpses into his bag.

He then turned and headed towards the collapsed cave entrance.

**Clang! Clang! Clang! Swoosh!**

He faintly heard the sounds of battle reaching his sensitive ears.

Moreover, it was definitely coming from outside the collapsed cave entrance.

‘…I can tell just by the sound. Franco is still fighting with the others.’

Kim Jinsung was certain.

In fact, he had been hearing the sounds of battle from outside the entrance even before he finished off the monsters.

* * *

**Swoosh!**

Another stream of blood spurted from Karen’s body.

“Ugh…!”

Karen groaned and stepped back.

His entire body was already stained red with blood from numerous wounds.

As his opponents were about to charge at him again, grimacing in pain,

“Wait, wait.”

Franco raised his hand and stopped his companions.

His companions looked at him with questioning expressions, but Franco’s gaze remained fixed on Karen.

**Clap. Clap. Clap.**

“Impressive. I never thought you’d last this long with your mana sealed.”

Franco, applauding, had a genuinely impressed expression. He seemed genuinely surprised by Karen’s skill.

“Your fundamentals are incredibly strong. Your swordsmanship, physical balance, stamina, strength, speed… You’re not lacking in any area.”

“…Why are you suddenly praising him?”

Ivan, who was standing next to him, asked, and Franco looked at him.

“He’s too talented to just kill. Don’t you think so?”

Ivan’s eyes widened at Franco’s words.

“…Are you saying you want to recruit him?”

Franco nodded without hesitation.

He looked away from the surprised Ivan and asked Karen,

“Make your choice. Do you want to keep fighting and die here, or join me?”

“……”

Looking at Karen, who remained silent, Franco reached for his waist and took out something.

“If you’re going to join me, put on these hunter shackles.”

Franco tossed the shackles.

Karen caught them and silently looked down at them.

Franco, unable to discern what Karen was thinking, turned to his companions and asked,

“What do you guys think? He seems like a good addition, doesn’t he?”

His companions looked at each other, then began to voice their opinions one by one.

“Hmm…”

“He’s not bad…”

“I don’t think he’ll be a hindrance, but will he really obey us…?”

Although they all had uneasy expressions, no one voiced any opposition.

Karen’s combat prowess was undeniable.

“If there are no objections, I’ll take it as everyone agreeing.”

No one objected to Franco’s words.

Some even lowered their swords slightly.

Having gathered his companions’ opinions, Franco urged Karen.

“Make your choice quickly. I’m not a patient man.”

“……”

“I’ll give you 10 seconds.”

Karen continued to stare at the shackles.

But this time, his face clearly showed his inner turmoil.

‘Will they really accept me as a companion if I agree to this? They might turn me into a slave or even eat me.’

Karen looked up at Franco.

This was a man who had deceived and killed even his own clan members, whom he had known for a long time.

And he had only met Karen for the first time today. There was no way he could trust Franco in this situation.

‘But if I don’t wear this, I’ll die.’

With his mana sealed, continuing to fight would only lead to a certain death.

If he didn’t want to die, he had no choice but to put on these shackles.

It was then that,

“Wait!”

Ivan raised his hand and shouted loudly. Everyone’s gaze turned towards him.

Ivan’s eyes were fixed on Karen’s left chest, where his clothes were torn to shreds.

A large black dragon tattoo was drawn there.

“That bastard, he’s from ‘Ukobachi’!”

Everyone’s eyes widened at those words.

But no one was more surprised than Karen.

As his eyes wavered violently, Franco quickly asked Ivan,

“Is that true?”

“Yes! He originally had a burning devil tattoo on his left chest, but he covered it up with a dragon tattoo!”

Karen’s eyes shook even more violently as he heard Ivan’s answer.

‘How did he know…?’

He had been confident that he had perfectly covered the devil tattoo with the dragon tattoo so that no one would recognize it, but Ivan had seen through it immediately.

“What, so this bastard was originally from the New Continent?”

Franco said, looking at Karen with a changed expression.

‘Ukobachi’, a group that had been quite famous in the New Continent until recently.

If he was from ‘Ukobachi’, it meant he had already been active in the New Continent.

“He managed to get past the screening machine and onto this island?”

“He must have gotten plastic surgery on his entire face. There are many who sneak in by avoiding the screening that way.”

Karen gritted his teeth as he listened to Franco and Ivan’s conversation.

There was nothing wrong with what they were saying.

“If he’s really from Ukobachi, that changes things. Don’t they still offer a bounty for those guys?”

“Yeah, I think it’s at least 30 billion.”

“Then we can’t let him live.”

A murderous glint returned to the eyes of Franco and his companions.

“Guys, he’s worth 30 billion! Kill him quickly!”

As Franco and the others were about to charge at Karen again,

“……!”

Franco suddenly hesitated, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.

Then, as if sensing something, he jumped high into the air.

At the same time, something shot up from the ground where he had been standing.

**Swoosh!**

“Argh…!”

Franco screamed as his thigh was deeply cut, unable to dodge in time.

He landed on his back, clutching his bleeding thigh with one hand, and looked up at his attacker.

‘…Jin!’

The black-haired Asian youth.

Franco’s eyes widened as he recognized Jin.

‘How did he escape from the habitat without making a sound?’

To get here from the habitat, he had to break through the collapsed entrance.

But he hadn’t heard any sound from the entrance.

If he had broken rocks or made a hole, there should have been a loud noise.

‘Could it be… he has a teleportation skill?’

Before Franco could sort out his thoughts,

“So this was why you separated me?”

Kim Jinsung spoke as he looked around.

He saw the corpses of his former companions.

“You trapped me, the most troublesome one, separately, then took care of the others before coming to hunt me down.”

Kim Jinsung’s gaze, which had been scanning the faces of Franco’s companions, settled on Franco.

“How insecure are you about your skills that you have to resort to such a troublesome trick?”

“You bastard…!”

Franco’s eyes flashed with anger.

He shouted to his companions,

“It’s the black-haired bastard I told you about! Take him down first!”

The companions who had been surrounding Karen immediately moved to encircle Kim Jinsung.

Just as the encirclement around Kim Jinsung was about to be completed,

a murky gray smoke suddenly began to emanate from his body.

Franco was startled as the gray smoke quickly enveloped the surroundings.

‘This is… could it be!’

As the people around him disappeared, Franco realized the identity of the gray smoke.

‘Why is the Mist of Illusions here…!’

Franco looked around with uneasy eyes, turning his head repeatedly.

The memory of the only time he had experienced the Mist of Illusions was still vividly etched in his mind as a bad memory.

“Franco!”

A familiar voice called out from beside him.

Eight hunters were approaching Franco through the gray mist.

It was Rio and his party members, whom he had killed.

“Why did you kill us!”

“I never disobeyed you, I always followed you!”

“Were those magic stones more important than our memories!”

Franco gritted his teeth as he saw them shouting one by one with anger on their faces.

“You useless… Get lost! You’re all trash with no skills!”

“You’re the trash!”

“You’re the trash!”

“Die! You piece of trash!”

Rio and his party members, their faces contorted with rage, charged towards Franco.

Franco began swinging his sword wildly, screaming at them.

“Who’s the trash! Get lost! Die! Die, damn it!”

**Thud!**

Suddenly, a sword tip pierced through Franco’s neck and protruded from the front.

As Franco froze, a voice whispered in his ear.

“I’ll put that Mana Seal skill to good use.”

Kim Jinsung, who had approached silently from behind and stabbed Franco in the back of the neck with a dagger, twisted the handle and slashed diagonally.

**Swoosh!**

Franco’s head flew into the air.

—

(To be continued in the next episode)