Reborn as Sung Jin Woo

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***

My eyes are wide open.

All my attention is focused and directed at my opponent. My heart sank and my breathing stopped. A surge of adrenaline that felt as if time itself had stopped. Blood pulsing in my temples and....

A loud clang, the blade of the dagger just bouncing off the monster's scales.

But, at the same time, catching the snake's fang, I thrust my sword into the flesh of its open mouth. My hand was burned by the creature's spit. And the next moment, when the serpent closed its jaws, I drove my blade deeper into the bone, but the blade broke. I barely had time to grab the hilt with the chipped blade before I was able to make a dash and thrust the broken sword into the monster's eye.

Now pull back!

- Hssaaaaa...

The monster's massive carcass whizzed past. Flailing in agony, the monster crashed into the wall with its head. But in doing so, it hit me with its torso and threw me into another wall with force.

- Kha...

It was painful...

But I felt that the blow didn't really hurt me. My body had become much stronger than before. And as I went down to the floor, I looked at my hand, shaking off the purple bubbling saliva of the snake. The clearly poisonous contagion stung my skin, but never got inside. And even remembering the longevity effect that neutralises poisons, seeing that the monster had collapsed to the floor and was no longer moving, I breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to treat the burn from the snake's spit.

- Quickly...

The boss fight was very intense. But it was also just as fast.

I felt like an equilibrist on a thin rope. One mistake and that thing could have killed me. My heart almost stopped when the monster's fangs flashed a few centimetres from my hand. A fierce battle, the outcome of which is decided in seconds. And, I honestly don't want to risk it again!

It took me a while to come round. I just needed to catch my breath.

Attention!

You have defeated "Lord of the Swamp, Blue Poison Rasaka!"

Your level has been raised!

Still, leveled up for a boss.

I felt a surge of strength chase away the fatigue, and I became a little stronger again. And then followed another enjoyable part of defeating the monster.

Loot collection!

From Rasaki's body I got a nice dagger, as well as a pouch of poison powder. Although, the bonuses of the powder were questionable. It increased resistance to physical attacks, but decreased strength. Considering that the penalty to strength is fixed and the bonus to resistance is measured in percentages, it might be more useful at a higher level. But, in any case, I have a longevity effect that cancels out the poison penalty.

The dagger, on the other hand, had good damage, and two effects at once. Paralysis and bleeding.

This weapon was far superior to my broken sword.

And, this is the same dagger that Jin Wu got. I feel like I'm travelling on a paved track. Nevertheless, I wasn't going to refuse such a gift.

Attention!

The boss has been killed. The appearance of the dungeon will return to its previous state.

Stretching my neck, I looked round myself.

Torn sweatshirt, cuts on my trouser leg. Bloody bandages. All in all, I didn't look good.

Meanwhile, the space around me was distorting. The body of the serpent disintegrated with particles of light and disappeared, and a wave travelled along the walls and ceiling of the underground, which returned the place to normal. Dirty walls and broken lamps were replaced by clean rooms and bright lights. It was a normal underground again. True, there weren't many people, but....

Glancing towards the stairs, I could tell by the tone of the light that it was already dark outside and the upper level was lit only by the lamps of the underground itself.

And, indeed, when I went up, I found that it was already night all around. But, there was something else...

Monsters...

The bodies of monsters that had escaped from the gate. But they weren't the monsters of my dungeon. More like some kind of demonic creatures, these dead bodies lay here and there, pouring their blood on the broken pavement. There's the crumpled car, which had clearly been hit with great force. And the few bodies of people who died from the monstrous wounds.

Taking a deep breath, I looked around.

My perception had completely changed.

Just a moment, and I felt a pulse of power to the side. A monster stronger than the scarlet wolves, but much weaker than Rasaka. It didn't emanate a threat, but it felt a certain amount of power. Considering how much stronger I had become, I wasn't even going to ignore such a phenomenon.

Taking out a broken sword from my inventory, I headed towards the source of power.

With a rumbling sound, a powerful golem figure does battle with the hunters. It looks larger and more dangerous than the blue serpent, but if my senses are to be believed, it's not like that. This creature is weaker. Moreover, my title of beast killer also increases the damage on animal monsters. And snakes, well, they're animals, too.

- Let's see. - I grinned.

And, when I was already close enough, but without even approaching the cordon by the military, I swung.

The effort...

A jerk...

And the blade takes flight from my hands. I put all my strength into throwing the shard of sword. But the effect was even better than I expected. The projectile simply exploded the monster's head, blowing it into rubble. After that, the golem fell backwards.

You have defeated the Stone Golem.

The boss has been destroyed!

It was the dungeon boss... who had come out of his gate.....

Meanwhile, when the monster was already dead but had not fallen yet, it was hit by a fireball launched by one of the hunters, after which the golem finally collapsed to the ground. And the people cheered. And I decided not to claim the glory, and retired. I still had to get back to the hospital.

And by the way, I'd been in that dungeon for quite a while.

The daily quest had already been updated. Here, just as I was returning to the clinic, I fulfilled the running standard. But, the value in the task itself did not freeze at ten kilometres, but continued to increase the scale. So, I jogged some more in the courtyard until the running task value froze at twenty kilometres.

- Huh... interesting. - I grinned.

After so many level ups, I was just overflowing with vigour. And, even though it was still night, I returned to the ward and started the other exercises.

Daily task "Get Stronger!" completed

Getting rewarded:

Recovery

Performance Points + 10

Choose your reward!

Blessed Box of the Unknown

Cursed box of the unknown

This time I got three types of rewards again, but in addition to the bonus points being increased, the regular box was replaced by a choice of two decidedly unusual boxes.

And from the blessed box, I received an ominous red key.

The key of the demonic lock

Rank - S

Allows you to enter the "Demon Castle" dungeon, can be used in Songpa Tower.

And for now, I only had to put this key away in my inventory. I'm definitely not ready for such a dungeon yet. I still need to upgrade my skills. Preferably a profession as well.

Now...

I didn't want to sleep yet, so I took my smartphone and started to study the news feed.

I also wanted to keep up with the events, and I was also gathering information about the world in general, and myself in particular. Song Jinwoo... the weakest hunter in the world, I even have some reputation already. Although, it's not really such a famous title.

Among other things, I found my sister's social media page.

Sung Jin-Ah...

I'll have to remember the name.

I also found the official website of the hunters association with a catalogue of quests. Here, entire guilds or individual groups of hunters were calling people to raid together. Or the association itself was organising campaigns to shut down newly opened gates. Some simply didn't have enough people to clean up the mess. And somewhere, because of the deaths, units were losing combat effectiveness and were looking for new members. And, of course, guilds are recruiting new hunters. The Association sets requirements for the composition of the raid group, and if there are too few people, they will simply not be allowed to mop up. Although, there can be exceptions for high ranked hunters, I suppose. But, you have to realise that, say, if a dungeon has a C-rank, it doesn't mean that a C-rank hunter can go through it. Only a group of similar hunters. And, accordingly, a C-rank boss will be much stronger than a lone hunter of the same rank. And it's about the same with higher ranked dungeons. There's only one S-rank gate at all in Korea, but since it appeared on an isolated island, they've never been able to close it. A group of S-rank hunters were unable to do so.

Anyway, there's a lot to get caught up on here. When I'm discharged, I'll have to look into the regular dungeons as well.

In the meantime.

For a while, I went back to the hospital routine. Rest and daily tasks, which now brought even more character points due to increased rewards. I didn't get any more special boxes, but I did get another green dungeon key in one of the regular boxes.

During this time, Sister Jin Wu also visited me a few times. They were awkward encounters, but I was getting used to her. So I tried to be friendly with her.

- Brother, here, I brought you some food! - Smiling happily, this girl showed up.

And brought junk food.

- Ohhh... I shuddered. - Jin-A, you just... come here!

- W-what? - The girl hesitated.She hesitantly moved closer, placing the box of chicken strips on the nightstand, along with a can of beer. I grabbed the girl and hugged her tight.

- I love you!

My stomach made a pitiful rumbling sound.

- Haha... looks like they don't feed you very well here, huh? - Jin-A cheered up.

- Not that it's not good... but I just miss junk food.

In fact, we actually got along pretty well. Well, considering that she thought I was her brother and I was in no hurry to reveal that misunderstanding. As for the treats, if the chicken was fine, the alcohol was perceived by the system as poison and its effect was neutralised by the longevity ability. Well, not that I like alcohol at all, I can survive without it.

Almost a week had passed and I was supposed to be discharged the next day, when I decided to visit a new dungeon. Especially now I felt stronger and more confident.

Characteristics:

Strength - 50

Dexterity - 50 (+1)

Stamina - 48 (+2)

Perception - 25

Intelligence - 24.

Much stronger.

I'm already thinking that it's time to increase not only physical characteristics, but also perception and intelligence. Although, they are not so critical now. But I can already feel a significant benefit from the same perception. And the intelligence score doesn't make me smarter, but I can feel my magic power growing. I only have one active skill, but it's useful enough, but not enough to pay too much attention to increasing my mana reserves.

In any case, I went to the new dungeon full of confidence in my abilities.

And even though it was the same E-rang, the monsters were a bit stronger. Of course, the dungeon was created by the system, and did not appear on its own. Naturally, the monsters here are at least good for boosting my strength.

- This dagger is really good..." I smiled.

Just one blow.

Light as a feather and deadly.

Although, I was a bit uncomfortable because of the short length of the blade and even its lightness felt wrong. Still, I could directly feel the superiority of this weapon over the one I had used before.

Monsters in the form of large dark jaguars died with a single blow.

A little later, I came across some more cat-like, upright humanoid monsters, but they too were animals that my title worked on.

- Grrraaaa!

I got through this dungeon much faster than the previous one.

Quite quickly, after raising a few levels, I pretty much stopped getting experience from the common monsters, and travelled onwards to the boss.

A three-metre tall figure of a humanoid lion, shrouded in armour. His powerful body was bulging with muscles, and although he was clutching a huge sword in his hands, there wasn't even a shadow of reason in his eyes. I guess he was very strong, but I never took a single hit. Sprinting, I became even faster, and it turned out that the monster just couldn't keep up with my movements. And its armour was not full armour, I saw many vulnerable parts, which I used my dagger to strike at.

- Raah!

I ducked, avoiding a sword swing.

And plunging the knife into the monster's thigh, severing the veins. On top of that, the monster itself just froze after each of my blows. Blood spurted from his eyes and nose. And before its resistance overcame the effect of paralysis, I was able to strike again.

Even though this boss was stronger than Rasaki, it was even easier to defeat him. Mainly because my stats had increased significantly since the last raid.

- Hrrr... - The lion exploded exhaustedly.

The final blow.

The point of the dagger stabs into his eye and pierces through the bone, going straight into his brain.

You have defeated the Ruthless Rakshasa.

Oh those pathos monster names.

Grinning, I calmly collected the loot from the monster. And to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the loot. Although it turned out to be just another weapon.

An excellent steel sword.

Attack +40.

It was just a large two-handed sword, without any special effects, and even its appearance seemed ordinary, without any frills. Except that its dimensions were a bit larger than a normal two-handed sword designed for humans.

And, in general, my dagger, despite the lower damage, is still better. It's lighter, and I can just do a lot more damage in an instant than I can with this two-handed dagger. And I have to deal with the inertia of a heavy sword. But still, taking it in my hand, I felt that this weapon just felt more comfortable than the dagger. Perhaps I'll use it again.

Well, the next day...

- I'm home...

Finally getting home, I didn't find anyone here. Yeah, that's right, Jin-A is still at school. And Jin-woo's mother is in the hospital. A disease related to the appearance of magic in this world. Some people just fall asleep and never wake up again. Although, there is a way to save her. Later, in that very same Demon Castle, you can find ingredients to create a potion that heals any disease. And anyway, it's not that I'm that kind, but I felt indebted to Jin Wu in a way, so, I decided to heal his mother as soon as the opportunity arises.In the meantime...

- Ohhh... - I groaned unhappily, looking at the new messages on my phone.

Bills, bills, and more bills.

I have to pay for the house, the utilities, and my mother's hospital bills. And all I have of money are gold coins, which I still can't spend in the in-game shop due to insufficient levels. But, in general, I already had an idea of how to deal with it. I had some adverts on the hunter website in mind.

- Jin Woo! You're back! - Jin-A rejoiced after returning from school.

- Yeah... - I sighed, - How are you doing?

- Eh? Why do you ask?

The girl got worried.

- What? Is there a problem at school? Teachers think you're stupid?

- You're the stupid one!

- No? Did you find a boyfriend?

- Of course not! What a stupid question! - Jin-A got angry.

- Huh... sorry, just wondering how you survived here without me.

- I can take care of myself. - She muttered.

Walking into the living room, she noticed the TV I had been watching recently. There was a news programme on about gate activity.

- Brother... are you going to go to the dungeons again?

- Yes." I answered calmly.

The girl pressed her lips together....

She didn't say anything about it, though she clearly didn't like the fact that her brother was risking his life in those dungeons. Especially after the recent events, when I ended up in the hospital for almost two weeks.

And the next day.

I was approaching the construction site where the gate had recently opened. A clean-up job had just come up, and it was paying very well. But I guess it wasn't the money that attracted me, it was something else.

- Hey! Over here! - A tall, large man waved at me.

He was wearing a dungeon outfit. Ridiculous-looking armour that didn't protect anything, but like my equipment, it gave some bonuses to its owner. Behind the hunter's shoulder, a short sword and a shield hung on his belt.

Looking at this man, I felt a murderous coldness in my soul.

Seeing this order, I decided to make enquiries.

This guy, Dong-Suk, is the older brother of the top class hunter Dong-Su that left Korea and joined the American guild. Though I couldn't recognise the face and name, but these related circumstances told me who it was. A story arc in a comic book where the protagonist is framed by a group of "lizardmen", hunters who leave their teammates to be slaughtered by monsters, or even kill them themselves for profit.

- My name is Dong-suk! And you are? - He smiled welcomingly, coming closer and extending his hand for a handshake.

- Sung Jin-woo. - I answered calmly.

But despite his true nature, this man was quite charismatic, his facial expressions exuding friendliness.

- You have an E-rank, right? - He clarified.

The hunter did not show any disdain in this regard.

- Yes...

- Haa? I know him! - Exclaimed another member of the team.

A dandelion guy, I mean, with a nest of curls on his head.

- That's the famous Jin Woo! The world's weakest hunter! - He said with a bit of excitement. - If he's going to the dungeon, then it's definitely safe, hahaha.....

- Hey, calm down. - Dong-suk frowned.

He also put his palm on my shoulder so reassuringly, showing his support.

- We already talked about it on the phone. - He looked at me. - It doesn't matter what rank you are, you don't need to fight, just leave the sweep to us and you'll get two million for participating. We just need two more people to complete the set.

Nevertheless, two million won....

It's really not that much. Although, for any other profession, just for being present that much would be paid, unless it's some official who sets his own salary. Still, it's barely enough money to pay off all the bills that have accumulated. But, it's a one-time contract, which is not bad for an E-rang hunter.

Even though I need the money.

I'm not here for this contract.

- I'm sorry to bother you. - A young guy with a sparkling smile came up to me. - Looks like we're the only two newcomers here! Yes, I'm Yoo Jin Ho, twenty-two years old and D-rank. Nice to meet you.

And it wasn't just his smile that sparkled.

He was shining with a shiny armour that reeked of wealth.

In fact, he's the reason why I joined this mission. It wasn't even because of his family's wealth, but because he would make it much easier for me to clean up the dungeons. Although, I remember that line in the comic rather vaguely. I just need to go to the dungeons as often as possible to destroy monsters and level up.

- Let's go. - Dong-suk smiled after glancing at me. - It's enough for you to just carry things...

- We'll take care of the rest. - One of his companions grinned.

And, if the leader himself was quite skilfully portrayed friendliness, but from his assistants smelled a kind of vileness, which they did not hide, but as if proudly displayed. But, not only that. My senses allowed me to feel the ripple of power of these people. And while before it was only a sense of threat, now that the perception characteristic had become higher, I could notice how this ripple created a kind of aura of power. And besides being able to understand the level of the hunters by this aura, I could also sense a certain... meanness in them?

- Don't worry Jin Wu! - Eugene smiled encouragingly at me. - Just stick with me!

His heroic smile made me cringe.

Besides, if everything goes as it should, I'll be the one who has to save him....

And yet.

Am I really going to have to kill people?

*** 

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