==============================
Chapter 168 – Seeing You Again?
Pretending he was going to the bathroom, Ryu Min immediately transformed into Hwang Yong-min’s appearance.
He hid it further by equipping low-level gear over his outfit.
No one would ever imagine it was Ryu Min.
‘Joo Seong-tak, that bastard—won’t he lose it the moment he sees me and come charging after me?’
With his preparations complete, Ryu Min loitered just outside the front gate.
Then his eyes met Joo Seong-tak’s.
“You… you bastard!”
Joo Seong-tak, his face twisted with rage, came running at him like he meant to kill him.
Just as expected—though he didn’t throw away his crutches right away.
“X-fuck, you finally show your face! Even chewing you to death wouldn’t be enough!”
As he charged, Joo Seong-tak equipped his gear and hurled a crutch.
But Ryu Min had already foreseen everything with the Rune of Foresight.
‘After I dodge the crutch, he’ll slash with a dagger and use Curse of Fear at the same time.’
He planned to pierce his neck while he was stiffened by fear.
‘Not a bad plan. But I have no intention of letting it happen.’
Instead of dodging, Ryu Min lightly knocked the flying crutch aside.
Smack—!
It disrupted Joo Seong-tak’s vision instead, and in that opening, Ryu Min closed the distance and drove a fist into his face.
Thwack—!
“Guhk!”
A few teeth snapped as the bastard toppled, and Ryu Min lightly kicked him in the ribs.
Crunch—
“Kyaaagh!”
As he collapsed, Ryu Min grabbed his hair—his face contorted with pain—and slammed his head into the floor.
Once, twice, three times.
His forehead split open and blood ran, and seeing him unable to gather his wits, Ryu Min suddenly lost the urge to keep hitting him.
“Hey. Joo Seong-tak.”
“Uuugh…”
“Snap out of it, you bastard. Or I’m going to smash your head again.”
-Ugh, X-fuck you.
‘If I can hear his thoughts, he’s snapped out of it.’
Amused on the inside, Ryu Min pressed his head down and blocked his line of sight so he couldn’t use Curse of Fear.
“You piece of shit—after I went out of my way to make you a cripple so you’d get a grip, you still come charging at me like you’re ready to die? You trying to get yourself killed? You still haven’t learned, have you?”
“……”
“Seriously—why do you charge in when you don’t have the skill? What, you thought you could win if you came at me again? Huh? You couldn’t even use one skill and you went down.”
“……”
“If you throw yourself at me like that, do you suddenly get strength you didn’t have? Know your place, you cripple. Or what—did you miss the feel of my hands? Then I’ll grant your wish. Where should I cut you this time? Want me to dig out an eyeball or something?”
He didn’t even need to read thoughts to see how the bastard was trembling with rage.
‘It’s humiliating, isn’t it. His pride is sky-high.’
If he pressed him just a little more, he could drive him off exactly the way he intended.
“Hey. Say something. What should I do for you? Should I just start the procedure my way?”
“……”
“You’re not even talking. Boring. Just get lost, you beggar bastard.”
At the order to leave, Joo Seong-tak rose without a word and picked up his crutches.
Tap— tap— tap—
“Tsk tsk. Look at you—moving the second I tell you to get lost. Guess you do want to live, huh?”
Ryu Min openly mocked him while staring at the back of his head, but Joo Seong-tak didn’t turn around.
He just walked off in silence like a defeated soldier.
“You bastard—if you show your face in front of me one more time, I’ll really kill you next time. Got it?”
Acting like he hadn’t heard, Joo Seong-tak left through the gate and soon disappeared from view.
‘After humiliating him like that in front of people, he’ll be too ashamed to show up for a while.’
With a snort, Ryu Min turned his head.
The Reaper Church’s stinging gazes were all fixed on him.
“Ahem. Sorry for starting a fight in your sacred order. As you can see, that bastard came at me first with a knife.”
“Ah… do you know him?”
At Eom Jun-seok’s question, Ryu Min nodded vaguely.
“I do know him, but don’t worry about it. He’s just a lunatic.”
Just then, Ryu Min’s eyes met Seo Arin’s.
The sudden anger burning in her gaze made Ryu Min realize something too late.
‘Oh, right. I’m wearing Hwang Yong-min’s face right now.’
Hwang Yong-min had ambushed Seo Arin early on, so they weren’t on good terms.
‘I can’t stay long.’
He hadn’t planned to remain in this form anyway, so he turned away with a grumble.
“Everyone, go about your business. Sorry for causing trouble.”
“Weren’t you here to join our order?”
“I was, but I’ll join next time.”
Leaving only that behind for Eom Jun-seok, Ryu Min slipped away to a spot where people’s eyes wouldn’t reach.
And immediately reshaped back into his original appearance.
After removing his gear, he used invisibility, snuck back in, and tapped Min Juri’s shoulder from behind.
“Ah! You scared me! When did you get here?”
“A little while ago.”
“Where were you?”
“Over there, watching the fight.”
“You saw it too? The two of them fighting.”
“If you can even call it a fight. It was one-sided.”
“Well, yeah. One side was just beating the other up. Hitting someone whose arms and legs aren’t even okay like that… I was seriously wondering if I should step in or not.”
‘To people who don’t know the situation, it probably looked like I was beating an innocent disabled person half to death.’
But there would also be people who understood.
As they’d seen, the bastard’s eyes flipped first and he started slashing with a knife.
Ryu Min slid Seo Arin into the corner of his vision.
She looked like her head was a mess because of the Hwang Yong-min she’d just seen.
‘She’s thinking about whether to chase Hwang Yong-min down and take revenge.’
Summoners only truly shine in the mid-to-late stages, when their summons increase.
But as Seo Arin was now, she wouldn’t be at a disadvantage against anyone in a fight.
Revenge on Hwang Yong-min would be laughable.
That was only true if Hwang Yong-min had still been alive, though.
‘That aside… that bastard Joo Seong-tak. I’ve got a bad feeling he’s going to cause trouble.’
He’d succeeded in sending him outside the order, but that didn’t mean the bomb was defused.
In front of a stronger opponent, he could control his anger—but in front of weaker ones, there was a high chance he’d go berserk without hesitation.
‘Considering Joo Seong-tak’s nature, it’s more than possible.’
As Ryu Min decided it was dangerous to leave him like that, Heo Tae-seok guided people back inside.
“Alright, alright. The show’s over. Come back inside. We’ll finish what we were saying and wrap up.”
As Ryu Min followed them in, he glanced back.
He couldn’t help feeling uneasy about that ticking time bomb of a man.
Tap— tap— tap—
Limping, Joo Seong-tak returned home in a pathetic state.
Beep beep beep— click—
Living on the top floor of a four-story multi-family building, Joo Seong-tak flung aside the crutches he’d been leaning on.
“X-fuck… X-fuuuuuck!”
As he huffed out angry breaths through his nose, a sudden pain stabbed through his ribs.
He’d used emergency treatment while walking back, but it seemed it couldn’t knit bone back together.
His head throbbed, his jaw felt numb, and the traces of what he’d taken—everywhere—tormented him.
“X-fuck.”
Pulling a beer can from the fridge, Joo Seong-tak sat in a chair.
Hiss— clack!
Gulp gulp—he emptied a whole can on the spot, then tossed it away like it was annoying.
“Khh… that bastard… I’m going to pay back the humiliation I took today. No matter what.”
Of course he had no intention of backing down like this.
He was the kind of person who couldn’t stand not repaying what he’d suffered.
From the moment he stabbed his parents to death, Joo Seong-tak had decided he would be reborn.
He would throw off boredom and live a life no longer bound by anything.
‘Still… I shouldn’t have charged in so mindlessly…’
He’d been reckless, unlike himself.
Even fighting with a plan, it was a question of whether he could win—but he’d just stabbed with a dagger first, without thinking.
‘I should’ve made a corpse like last time and lured him in with a trap…’
The instant he saw him, he’d gotten excited.
He remembered the pain of the last four months.
To attach fake arms and legs like a robot, he’d had to pour all his living expenses into it, and he’d been forced to live like a beggar.
It was still manageable because there was the PlPl Market—he could sell items he’d obtained in the other world and gather funds easily.
But—
‘It didn’t change the fact I was disabled.’
To become disabled in an instant, unable to even properly control his body.
His head had always been heated with rage.
Day after day, he endured with only one thought: find that bastard—whose name he didn’t even know—and kill him.
And then, by luck, he’d been able to meet him today.
For Joo Seong-tak—who hadn’t missed a single day imagining tearing him limb from limb—there had been no room left to find reason.
That was why his eyes flipped over and he rushed in without thinking.
“X-fuck, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.”
Bang—!
He punched the wall, leaving it caved in.
Even without arms and legs, he was still a Player—someone who had transcended humanity.
He had more than enough confidence he could win.
There was definitely a chance.
‘If I could’ve just used my skills, it would’ve been over…!’
Originally, he’d planned to approach, cast Curse of Fear, then stab him with the dagger.
But the bastard moved a beat faster and smashed his face first.
After that, he hadn’t even had time to use skills—he’d just gotten beaten.
‘This made it crystal clear. Getting close to him is dangerous.’
From what he could tell, the guy was a warrior class who’d pumped his Strength, and he himself was, if anything, closer to a mage type.
Isn’t it common sense that when a mage fights a warrior, you don’t let them close the distance?
‘The mistake was thinking I could just fear him and stab him, like I do with monsters.’
He’d used Curse of Fear last time too, and the bastard had resisted it.
Now that he thought about it, rather than fear, aiming to land Corpse Explosion would give him a higher chance of success.
‘Next time, I won’t lose. I’ll prepare perfectly, then kill him.’
He didn’t know his name, didn’t know his nickname—only his face—but there was a way to find him.
Now that he knew he was interested in the Reaper Church, all he had to do was go again and ask about him.
‘If I learn his real-world name, I can find him with [Tracking].’
And if the leader refused to give information over “privacy”?
‘Then I’ll torture that leader bastard until he tells me.’
He was giggling to himself at the thought when—
Ding-dong— ding-dong—
Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
Ding-dongding-dongding-dongding-dongding-dong—!
“Ah, X-fuck, who is it? Don’t spam it like that.”
Limping to the entrance, Joo Seong-tak opened the door.
A tattooed, muscular pig of a man who looked to be in his forties stared at him with a nasty expression.
“What.”
“This punk—first thing out of your mouth is ‘what’? Is this for real?”
“What do you want?”
“Ha. Look at this—young-looking bastard talking down to me.”
Kim Jong-seon, a gangster in his forties, wanted to throw a punch right away, but he held back.
‘These days, the younger ones act like having fewer years is a title. A title.’
Players had been running around like the whole world belonged to them.
Even this disabled-looking bastard in front of him had a high chance of being a Player.
‘Cripple bastard.’
A sneer almost rose to his lips, but if he provoked him, he’d be the one losing out.
It was widely known common sense that ordinary people couldn’t stand against Players.
So he swallowed his temper.
“I asked what’s going on.”
“Whew. I live downstairs, and I heard something like wall-banging earlier, so keep it down. I was taking a nap, and it was so loud it woke me up.”
“What? A nap?”
Joo Seong-tak stared at him like he couldn’t believe it, but Kim Jong-seon turned as if he’d said everything he needed to.
“Anyway, watch it.”
Until the sound of the downstairs door closing echoed up, Joo Seong-tak couldn’t shut his own door.
He was too dumbfounded.
“Ha… X-fuck, that pig bastard—he definitely laughed at me just now, didn’t he?”
Now he wasn’t even being disrespected by Players—he was being looked down on by an ordinary nobody.
Thud—
After closing the door, Joo Seong-tak went back to the living room and let out another disbelieving sigh.
“What, your nap got ruined? Do I have to be considerate of your nap time too, you X-fucker?”
Furious, Joo Seong-tak went back to the entrance and brought his crutch.
“Fine. Since you’re already awake, I’ll wake you up more.”
And then he slammed the floor repeatedly.
Thud thud thud thud thud! Thud thud thud thud thud!
“How about it, X-fucker? This enough to wake you up? Huh? Wake you up?”
Thud thud thud thud thud! Thud thud thud thud thud!
After openly creating floor noise, Joo Seong-tak threw the crutch with a burst of irritation.
That was when—
Ding-dongding-dong!
“This X-piece-of-shit came up again?”
The doorbell ringing again sent his anger straight to the top of his head.
“He thinks I’m an easy target because I’m disabled, huh? Fine. While I’m at it, I’ll rip his guts right out.”
Equipping his gear, Joo Seong-tak gripped a dagger and limped over, then threw open the door.
But the person ringing the bell wasn’t the downstairs neighbor.
“Hey. Seeing you again?”
The bastard who’d given him unforgettable humiliation at the order was standing there, smiling as he waved his hand.