“Let’s decide by majority vote. I’m fine with anywhere. So, who wants to go to the Harpy?”
Ah-rin casually proposed a quick vote as if suggesting they swiftly take care of it. Since she had already experienced the dungeons, she opted out of the voting to create an odd number.
“Of course, the Harpy first.”
“… The abandoned school…”
“Me, me too! Abandoned school!”
The vote concluded with the next destination set for the abandoned school. While it was expected for the spooky girl Ham Eun-young, it was surprisingly Yeon-hee who picked the abandoned school.
As I stared at her intently, Yeon-hee scrunched her nose. “How’s that? Am I brave?” Was that the vibe she was giving off?
“Alright then. The next dungeon is decided to be the abandoned school.”
“Ugh… I hate ghosts…”
“It’s not a ghost, it’s a ghosty.”
“I don’t care!”
Despite the tension lingering during our return late at night, we arrived at the exit without incident.
The people following us expressed their gratitude upon entering a safe area, then parted ways onto another path, disappearing from view.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Yeon-hee, are you okay? Looking at how you handled the summoned creatures today, I think resting might be better…”
“Thank you for your concern… But I think I’ll be fine. Really.”
From Joo-ah’s and Ah-rin’s perspective, it seemed Yeon-hee was overexerting herself, but today wouldn’t be too much of a burden for her.
From what I observed, Yeon-hee struggled when her summoned creature died and she had to resummon it often, but she was less affected by maintaining her summoned state for a long time.
And the fact that her summoned creatures could endure for a long time without dying was largely thanks to Ham Eun-young’s abilities.
Since she was inherently quiet, and as a supporter, she kept a low profile, she contributed her share effectively.
We ultimately promised to tackle the dungeon together again tomorrow, wrapped up our accounts, and parted ways.
Yet during our return, a message that came in caused the meeting scheduled for tomorrow to be postponed by a day.
—
In the ‘Nest of the Black Wyvern,’ rated as a mid-tier A-rank dungeon,
at the starting point of the ominous underground floor five, stands a short-haired man.
Though he had a plain look, his eyes curved gracefully, with a sharp nose and three tear moles perfectly lined under his left eye. Standing at 187 cm, his model-like proportions made it impossible for anyone to not notice he was a handsome guy.
[Disguise]
This was one of Jo Gi-man’s favorite skills, allowing him to temporarily transform into the appearance and voice of someone he remembered.
It was a remarkable ability that could change him to such an extent it was indistinguishable even for parents or lovers.
However, this skill had a downside: it would drastically reduce his ability level for the duration of use. But that was precisely why it was beloved by Jo Gi-man.
He discovered during his fifth reincarnation that once he used this ability, he could repeatedly use it to continually drop his level. Since only a few guilds knew about this info, he learned of it rather late.
This trick allowed him to enter dungeons rated lower than his original inability level.
It was a useful ability depending on how one used it, but as the usage count increased, the cooldown also significantly extended, so he couldn’t use it too often.
“Ugh… Why! Ji Seok-jun, you traitor!!”
Before him lay a collapsed man.
With one eye gouged out and the other remaining, the man glared at Jo Gi-man as if he intended to kill him.
Jo Gi-man, seemingly unconcerned by such glances, playfully skewered the gouged eye on his knife and spun it around like a chicken skewer.
He had experienced killing this man multiple times before.
Over the cycles, he had killed various people having grudges against him—big and small—but this was the only man he made a point to kill every time.
The collapsed man was the scum who had brought on horrific nightmares to Jo Gi-man and his sister, as they struggled to survive without parents.
The man previously was just a neighborhood thug. They had known each other for years, their faces having crossed paths countless times.
Jo Gi-man’s house was in a poor neighborhood.
So shabby it would occasionally be featured on TV as a backward residential area.
The dilapidated home easily allowed for the intrusion of strangers. One day, this man broke into Jo Gi-man’s home while completely drunk and mercilessly violated them.
He still vividly recalled the filthy, ecstatic expression on the man as he mounted his sister.
At the time, Jo Gi-man, a 9th grader, was frail and slow to mature. He could only meet the fading light in his sister’s eyes while getting beaten to a pulp by the man.
After that day, his sister slowly withered away and ultimately took her own life the next day after hearing news of the man’s lenient sentence.
Five years.
The man was sentenced to prison for a duration deemed mentally unstable.
But as insensitively as the world could be, the man awakened a month after being released from prison—rich with abilities.
On the day Jo Gi-man was issued a Hunter license in his first life, he encountered this man in the association’s building.
Though he had undergone significant changes, that unforgettable gaze and peculiar way of speaking made it easy for him to recognize him.
In a moment of lost sanity, Jo Gi-man charged upon him, only to be battered once more, nearly facing death.
Jo Gi-man’s point of reincarnation was after his two grim encounters with this man.
Thus, due to the continuous replay of memories with each reincarnation, his rage remained unquenchable.
“Heh, you always look at me with that dumb face as if you can’t understand. Your life hasn’t been a clean one that was innocent of being murdered either.”
“Ugh… Wh-what the hell are you talking about, you bastard-!!”
Seeing the man who still didn’t recall a single crime, even with a finger gouged into his eye, Jo Gi-man felt his forehead heat up as if it had been scorched, his temples thumping like his heart rhythm.
He felt a wave of relief seeing this unchanging rage within himself each reincarnation.
Tzzzzzz—
Jo Gi-man tore off the rough skin covering half of his artistic face that had been veiled by [Disguise].
Upon seeing Jo Gi-man’s original appearance, the man momentarily froze, then his eyes widened.
“Jo, Jo Gi-man? Gi, Gi-man—wait! Just listen to me for a moment. What I hit you for back in the building was—uh-uh-”
He began rambling about the incident where he had beaten Jo Gi-man at the association building. That bastard should have recalled his previous memories and begged for forgiveness first. Of course, even that wouldn’t change anything.
Stuffing a gag in the man’s mouth so that he couldn’t utter a word, Jo Gi-man pulled out a massive coffin, large enough to easily fit three people, from his inventory and said,
“Haha, fuck. How can this bastard remain the same every time? I was worried you’d end up dead like Yoon Han-gyeol, but I’m glad you’re still just as you are. Now, let me explain this coffin to you. Listen well.”
When he first started to reincarnate, Jo Gi-man desperately tried to take revenge as quickly as he could. But after killing him several times, that desire was no longer satisfying.
So starting from the fifth cycle, he changed his tactic to inflict pain by waiting until this man was at his most vulnerable.
One of the greatest pleasures was showing this man the video of his ugly life to his two daughters, whom he loved dearly.
After becoming a Hunter, the man lived a seemingly decent life on the outside, but behind the scenes, he had committed countless heinous acts. Thus, it was not difficult at all to obtain a team of people to film a revolting hour-long video.
People never truly change.
He recorded his daughters’ reactions to the video and sent them back to this man, also sending daily clips of his daughters being held captive, with a message saying he’d set them free if he left 100 million won at a specific location.
Of course, Jo Gi-man wouldn’t be going to retrieve that money. So there was no chance of being caught by the Hunter special forces. They wouldn’t be able to handle Jo Gi-man anyway.
In that state, things couldn’t possibly go smoothly. He tightened the funds by seizing the dungeons the man had managed.
He began posting one by one the records of this man’s movements on the internet.
Thus, the things this scumbag had built while hiding his past through extensive plastic surgery began to crumble.
Having stifled him socially and economically, it was now time to bury him physically.
The man had been subjected to hollow hopes of having his daughters returned before ultimately tracking down their captors, leading him to a dungeon he would never dare to enter.
It was due to the information from a fake artifact Jo Gi-man had scattered. Even with minimal thought, anyone would realize such information couldn’t be true, but the man wasn’t in his right mind anymore.
It was a ridiculous situation. This man, who had easily destroyed others’ lives, could somehow feel affection for his children.
As he entered the dungeon, the man hurriedly gathered his remaining funds to recruit a fake party member under the pseudonym Ji Seok-jun.
Of course, Jo Gi-man had entered the dungeon using this ridiculous alias so that he could inflict pain one last time. Killing him outside felt too luxurious for this bastard.
He should rot in the dark underground until he died.
Fortunately, by the sixth reincarnation, he had already obtained an artifact that would grant this trash eternal suffering.
The Great Sorcerer Palkai’s Eternal Torture Coffin
– A coffin designed to eternally cycle through 99 methods of suffering the greatest pain a human can feel.
– It has life-supporting mechanisms and self-healing features, allowing the man to suffer until he dies of old age.
It was an artifact Jo Gi-man had obtained by slaying Palkai, the loyal servant of Ashran, at the end of the sixth reincarnation.
Choosing this for the three artifacts during reincarnation was a massive waste, but Jo Gi-man didn’t hesitate to select this coffin for even a moment.
“AAAHHHHHH――――!!! EEEK――!! IUAAGHHHH――!! Ughhhh… It hurts!! Please, it hurts!! Kill me, you piece of shit!! Aaaahhh――!! Crinkle-crinkle-”
As soon as he put the man inside the coffin, various metallic sounds of different pitches and his terrible screams filled Jo Gi-man’s heart with peace.
Overwhelmed by the unprecedented satisfaction, Jo Gi-man smiled widely, clapped for a long while, and, moments later, the coffin activated advanced healing, restoring the dying man once again.
And the man’s screams echoed anew.
Jo Gi-man leisurely unfolded a chair, sipped coffee, and surrendered himself to the sweet sound of agony. This hidden space in the dungeon, discovered by his partner Jung Joo-in, would now become a healing spot he would frequently visit.
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