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Chapter 48




SMH 48
Swordmaster Healer – Episode 48
TL: Boko
Editor: Ren
Chapter 16 – Secret Strife (3)
In the past, Sung Joon had come to Namhae County for a vacation with his father, Soo Hyuk. However, today was different. Sung Joon travelled to Namhae County via taxi without any rest.
As they got close to the toll gate, the taxi slowed down. Sung Joon, who was chewing gum, felt killing intent from afar.
Immediately after, something shimmered in the air and flew towards the taxi.
“Something’s coming!” Rishubalt warned.
Sung Joon opened the door and jumped out of the car. In order to pass the toll gate, the taxi had significantly slowed down, but because of his heightened physical abilities as a Hunter, he didn’t sustain any injuries.
Boom!
The projectile flew through the air and collided with the taxi. With a huge boom, the taxi was swept away by the explosive. The taxi was destroyed disastrously, reddish flames spewing out of the wreckage.
The cars that had slowed down to enter the toll gate must’ve heard the explosion, as they all picked up speed.
“Did you decide to go all out…”
The perpetrator was obvious. Sung Joon shook his head at the fact that the Governor had involved and killed civilians.
“Rishubalt! Scout!” Sung Joon ordered.
It would be difficult to grasp their composition, just based on their killing intent.
“I will carry out your order!” Rishubalt proclaimed.
Like a shot fired, Rishubalt stormed away and returned. Although he hadn’t taken very long, he had grasped everything regarding the enemy.
“There are two men armed with rocket launchers and there are five Hunters. There are two B-rank Hunters and three C-rank Hunters.”
Rishubalt had sucked in modern knowledge through the internet and TV like a sponge, so he even knew about rocket launchers now.
‘They even have rocket launchers…’ Sung Joon mused.
When the dungeons had first appeared, various weapons began to be sold on the black market. If they had a position like a Governor, for example, it wouldn’t be difficult for them to acquire rocket launchers.
‘It seems like they thought they’d be able to kill me easily with a surprise attack.’
Sung Joon drew and raised his sword. A Hunter who was in a transport vehicle was most at risk of an ambush. Perhaps Jin Woong had prepared his plan, aiming for that moment, but there were only five Hunters waiting in ambush.
Boom!
The rocket struck the earth and exploded. Sung Joon threw himself to the side, escaping the vicinity of the rocket.
“He evaded it! Get him!”
“I’ll cover you!”
The rocket had missed, so the two men who had carried the rocket launchers suddenly took up the sniper rifles at their sides and aimed at Sung Joon, yelling into their radios. They pulled the breechblocks of their sniper rifles and when they looked through their scopes, they saw it…
Sung Joon’s icy stare.
“AH!”
“Ugh!”
Although they were over six-hundred meters away, the killing intent emitted from his hollow eyes was definitely transmitted. Their trigger fingers froze and their pants dampened.
What’s worse, one of them let go of his sniper rifle and fainted. Although they were far away, Sung Joon’s killing intent could even overpower Hunters, and thus would be impossible for a normal citizen to handle.
Retch.
The remaining sniper vomited and was unable to stand.
“What’s happened to our rear support?”
“There’s no response.”
“We’ll just proceed as planned!”
The Hunters had no idea that Sung Joon had already dominated their sniper support and they closed the distance, swinging their swords.
Sung Joon tracked the trajectory of their swords. With his plentiful combat experience, he calculated the best way to evade the oncoming attacks.
“H-He evaded it?” someone said. The confusion was written all over his face.
The five Hunters had pierced with their swords and spears in five different angles, so they had thought it would be impossible to evade their attack. However, Sung Joon didn’t just evade their attack, but countered with his sword, piercing a C-rank Hunter’s thigh.
“AH!” the C-rank Hunter groaned.
As the wounded C-rank Hunter’s stance crumbled, Sung Joon drew his dagger and slashed his throat. Blood spurted out like a fountain from his throat.
Their poorly made formation broke.
“Don’t panic! He’s only one man!”
“Attack immediately!”
Blades came from every direction.
Sung Joon’s eyes moved busily.
‘There’s no time. If I defend, I’ll expose a vital point.’
They had mixed in a clever feint. If he evaded or defended, a vital point would be in danger.
‘Give up the flesh to save the bones.’
Sung Joon grabbed the incoming spearhead and felt a dizzying pain, but it wasn’t at a level he couldn’t endure.
At the same time, he deflected a sword to his right and rotated his body, giving up his waist to the sword strike to his left. If he hadn’t done that, the front spear would’ve pierced his heart.
“Ugh!”
Blood flowed from his left hand and his waist.
“Nice. Corner him!”
The Hunters thought that they had seized victory, so they attacked more aggressively. However, they were careless, and Sung Joon seized that small opportunity to use his aura.
“H-He’s an aura-user!”
“Shit!”
Sung Joon swung his sword. The Hunters pointlessly raised their swords and spears to defend themselves. His aura-clad sword sliced through the steel swords and spears and cut their arms and legs.
“AH!”
“Ugh!”
The two B-rank Hunters had been his targets. One of the Hunters lost both his arms and the other lost his left arm and his legs, spurting blood and collapsing.
Both of the B-rank Hunters had been taken down, as well as one of the C-rank Hunters, so the remaining two C-rank Hunters became timid.
However, that was a mistake.
“Heal.”
Since their attacks had stopped, Sung Joon treated his injuries. Also, he didn’t stop there.
“Stealth,” Sung Joon said, activating his item and disappearing.
“AH!”
Sung Joon sliced open a C-rank Hunter’s stomach and his organs spilled out. Since he had ‘collided’ with something, his stealth effect was released, and Sung Joon was exposed. However, the only remaining Hunter could do nothing.
He was paralyzed with fear.
“S-Sniper support…” the C-rank Hunter said, speaking into his radio, but there was no response.
The two snipers had been unconscious for a while.
“P-please don’t… ugh!”
Sung Joon cut off one of his arms.
“Doesn’t it hurt? It hurt for me as well,” Sung Joon taunted.
Then he pierced his lung. Eventually, Sung Joon slashed his neck without hesitation.
“Absorb.”
Sung Joon absorbed the mana from the Hunters’ bodies. He also killed the two snipers and attempted to absorb mana from them, but they were just manaless civilians, so it was impossible.
“What’s my synchronization rate?” Sung Joon asked, glancing at Rishubalt.
“Your synchronization rate is at 17%. It raised by 1%,” Rishubalt reported.
“At this rate, I’ll become addicted to this.” Sung Joon smiled.
His synchronization rate had increased faster than if he had hunted monsters.
Perhaps he would truly get addicted to this. It was a terrible joke. Sung Joon shook his head.
“Do you have another plan?” Rishubalt asked.
“I have to go and kill him,” Sung Joon responded, as if it were obvious.
Based on his information, Jin Woong’s house wasn’t that far from there.
He had lost his transportation vehicle, but with a Hunter’s improved physical ability, he could arrive there quickly.
Ring. Ring.
Right as he was about to move, he heard a ringing noise from a sniper’s body. Sung Joon had a hunch that something was there. He turned the body over, picked up the phone, and put it to his ear.
“Did you take care of him?”
It was the Namhae County Governor, Son Jin Woong’s voice. Sung Joon smiled.
“I’m coming to kill you now. Wait for me,” Sung Joon said, ending the call.
“My lord,” began Rishubalt.
“Let’s go,” Sung Joon ordered.
“I’m right behind you!”
Sung Joon lead and Rishubalt followed behind him.
Since the stealth item consumed mana, Sung Joon only activated it when he arrived at Jin Woong’s house.
His body merged with the darkness.
“I’ll scout out for you.”
Although Sung Joon hadn’t separately ordered him to do so, Rishubalt took the initiative and started scouting out the area. It was a two-story house with walls surrounding it, and there were two D-rank Hunters in the yard, with their spears at the ready. There were also four snipers atop the rooftop, keeping watch over their surroundings.
There were also three Hunters on guard inside of the house; two C-rank Hunters and one B-rank Hunter. Since Jin Woong was a single orphan, there were no relatives inside of the house.
Rishubalt thoroughly reported this all to Sung Joon.
‘So this was his limit…’
Sung Joon smiled. Jin Woong had embezzled government subsidies, but because Sung Joon had acted so quickly, he hadn’t been able to hire an A-rank Hunter in time.
Sung Joon, with his stealth activated, moved to the front door. Then, he cautiously opened the door. Opening the door softly didn’t count as a ‘collision’, so his stealth effect wasn’t released.
“The door’s opening?”
“Shit! It’s stealth!”
One of the Hunters quickly noticed that Sung Joon was using stealth, so he aimed his spear at the front entrance, but Sung Joon had already gotten behind him.
“AH!”
Something had pierced through his chest from behind. With this ‘collision’, Sung Joon’s stealth effect was removed, and the Hunter could see the bloody blade protruding from his chest.
“This… Shit…!”
His comrade had been taken down, so the remaining Hunter was really confused. Sung Joon turned his attention to the snipers on the rooftop from the yard. Sung Joon didn’t use his killing intent, but instead threw his dagger.
His dagger pierced the center of the sniper’s forehead. His nose began bleeding profusely, and he fell off the rooftop.
“He’s in the yard!”
The remaining three snipers aimed their sniper rifles at the yard, but by then, the last remaining Hunter had fallen.
They couldn’t find Sung Joon because of his stealth effect.
“The Governor is in danger!”
“Let’s go inside!”
They discarded their sniper rifles and grabbed their submachine guns. Then, when they went down from the rooftop… Sung Joon appeared behind them.
His sword was coated with blood.
“What, what are…”
The sniper couldn’t finish. He felt a dizzying pain across his body as blood spurted from his wound.
As Sung Joon passed them, he had attacked them with several dozen sword strikes.
“I’ve cleared the rooftop. Rishubalt, find the Namhae County Governor.”
“I will carry out your order,” said Rishubalt, concealing himself.
Sung Joon went inside the building. When he entered, two Hunters immediately threw themselves at him.
However, before he had even opened the door, Sung Joon had already felt their presences and therefore stepped back, easily avoiding their surprise attack.
‘They have two daggers.’
They both wielded daggers, weapons that were effective indoors. Daggers were more effective in close quarters combat indoors, but they were nothing before Sung Joon’s combat swordsmanship.
It didn’t take even two minutes to kill the two dagger-wielding Hunters.
“It’s that way.”
Rishubalt had appeared and revealed Jin Woong’s hiding place to Sung Joon.
“There’s a B-rank Hunter with a stealth ability lying in wait.”
“So it seems,” replied Sung Joon.
Although his opponent had a high degree of control over his ability, Sung Joon was still able to detect his presence.
‘For a B-rank Hunter to have a stealth ability… It must be a rare case of him gaining the ability as soon as he awakened.’
Sung Joon opened the door that Rishubalt had pointed out. When he entered, he saw the Namhae County Governor, Son Jin Woong, and at the same time, he felt a sharp killing intent to his left.
“How sloppy,” Sung Joon muttered leisurely, and moved aside.
A longsword cut through the ground and the Hunter’s stealth was released.
“S-Shit!”
Did he finally realize that he was in danger?
The Hunter cursed as he quickly withdrew his sword. However, Sung Joon had already pierced his neck.
“AH!”
“Absorb.”
“Ugh!”
As Jin Woong watched the B-rank Hunter die in vain, he became aware that he had messed with an opponent too great for him.
Even when he had heard the report that he had killed an A-rank Hunter, he had never expected that Sung Joon would be this dangerous.
Facing him in person was terrifying.
“Namhae County Governor, Son Jin Woong?” Sung Joon asked.
Jin Woong couldn’t say anything in response. It seemed like Sung Joon was just identifying him before his execution.
So, he was even more afraid.
“You seem different from when we first met?”
“L-Let me live… I’ll do whatever you want if you just let me live…”
“Do you think I’ll kill you right now?”
Jin Woong slowly nodded his head.
“So you already know that you’ve done something unforgivable.” Sung Joon smiled coldly.
“I can’t let you live for such a grave transgression.”
As he finished talking, Sung Joon swung his sword, cutting deeply into Jin Woong’s throat.
“AH!”
He attempted to staunch the bleeding, but the blood spurted out endlessly. He collapsed helplessly, and the shock of his fall caused the frame on the wall behind him to fall. The frame had hidden a safe behind it.
“A safe?”
Sung Joon felt curious. It wasn’t because of the money.
“Don’t these things, in general, hide things like ‘corruption’?” Sung Joon asked.
Rishubalt nodded his head.
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“Let’s open it.”
Sung Joon used his aura and opened the safe. An alarm rang out, but he didn’t worry about that. Instead of money, it was filled with hidden ledgers, records of corruption.
Sung Joon smirked.
“Bingo.”