Black Hunter - chapter 16

Jung Ho-Bun said.

“I have a question too.”

I wanted to buy more time, so I nodded. I let him ask me anything.

“Your face is a mess.”

“What do you mean?”

“The skin is peeling off. It looks like a piece of meat hanging in a butcher’s shop.”

He might get suspicious of how I survived the lizard’s acid attack.

“I ate a goblin, which was highly toxic. The side effect was my face began to peel.”

“Your face looks terrible. I didn’t think toxic goblin meat did that much damage.”

“Yeah, the lizard must’ve been really hungry to want to eat me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, the other one ate Han Kyun. Look behind you…”

Jung Ho-Bun’s face fell.

“You’re lying.”

“It’s not a lie. Really, see for yourself”

Jung Ho-Bun looked back and confirmed that my words were right. At that moment, he fell from shock and fear. He realized that there was another one.

Why did he?

Then I realized he must’ve seen me lying down earlier and thought that the poison attack merely stunned me and that Han Kyun had suffered the same.

He was waiting for the lizard to come and open its open his mouth.

Was he trying to do the same thing I did?

“Be careful.”

I moved slowly and tried to whisper some advice to Jung Ho-Bun. He was panicking, his nose widened, and his lips swelled. I shouldn’t have said anything.

I wanted to slap myself.

I still had my dagger in my hand.

“The lizard’s saliva is poison acid.”

Jung Ho-Bun’s ear twitched, he didn’t believe what I was saying.

The lizard approached Jung Ho-bun and opened its mouth. Its neck started shaking, and it spits out its attack.

Jung Ho-Bun stood up to stabbed the lizard’s neck. He screamed while covering his face; his skin began to smoke and melt. His condition was much worse than mine.

The lizard’s acid landed on his face, and then the lizard kicked Jeon Ho-bun, he staggered and fell to the side. The lizard leaned towards me. When our eyes met, I saw its yellow pupils soaked in madness.

“Hi.”

I rolled away after I stabbed the lizard’s foot. It was the only part of its body without scales, so the dagger penetrated it quickly, almost like a nail. I kept rolling while admiring my strength. Once I was far away, I looked back at the lizard.

Was I always this strong?

When I thought about it, I ate a blue marble, and thanks to that, I was 50% stronger than an ordinary man, but that wasn’t enough strength to beat a lizard.

Things are different now. First, I knew where to stab the lizard, and because of that, I managed to land a surprise attack. Most of all, I knew that the lizard’s most vigorous attack couldn’t kill me.

.

When I tried to cut the lizard’s back earlier, the scales were hard, so the knife did not enter.

I had to aim at an area without scales.

The lizard turned its body while trying to catch me. Its foot was stuck in the dagger, so its body did not turn completely.

I shouted provocatively.

“Spit on me! Come on, Spit on me!”

The lizard opened its mouth wide and spat poison. I held the knife in my mouth and closed the lizard’s mouth, forcing the poison back down its throat.

The lizard shook and glowed. I took the knife in Jung Ho-bun’s hand and pierced the lizard’s eye.

It fell with a thud.

The lizard fell, the poison started to spread, and its legs began melting from the inside.

“Oh, how tragic.”

Still, I wasn’t paralyzed because I developed resistance to poisons, or I had antibodies. My skin, however, was flaking.

I took the dagger from the lizard’s feet and peeled the scales one by one as I did before. Then I discovered that peeling the scales from the dark area around its neck down to its crotch made it easier. I stabbed the dent in my fingers. It was soft.

“Here’s your weakness.”

I didn’t notice the fat lady hiding behind the door and listening to my conversation with Min-Ji. I didn’t see Han Do-Kyun following me, and I didn’t notice Jung Ho-bun hitting my back with a stone. So, I wanted a white marble to enhance my senses.

But blue beads came out. It was a little sad, but it was 100 times better than none. I put the blue beads in my pocket and swallowed the black beads from Jung Ho-Bun’s hand.

“Ohh.”

It wasn’t as painful as eating the striped beads. Instead, my body was relaxed and revitalized.

I still had something to do.

“Hey. You okay?”

I waved my hand in front of his eyes to check; his pupils were still shaking in fear.

He must be anxious because he attacked me earlier.

“I think I’ve seen pupils shake like that on the internet.”

I held my breath and firmly placed the dagger with the lizard’s blood on Jeon Ho-Bun’s neck. I’ve never killed anyone before, so I had to prepare myself mentally.

“Help me.”

Jung Ho-Bun spoke, his voice now coarse, he sounded like an old man. I shook my head.

“I hate you.”

“Please.”

“Have you ever spared anyone’s life when they asked for it?”

As I asked the question, I expected that the answer would be “No.” Before I’d kill him, I’d sternly scold him, saying, ‘You have never saved someone else, so why should I save you?’ But then an unexpected answer came out.

“I have.”

I was speechless.

“Many.”

I only responded after 30 seconds.

“Lies.”

“Really.”

“It doesn’t make sense that a gangster like you would save people’s lives.”

“Dead body.”

“What do you mean ‘dead body’?”

“Do you know what’s the most troublesome thing when you kill people? It’s to take care of the bodies. Once a body is found, an investigation is sure to follow, and then the killer gets caught. So you have to make sure no one can find it, but as you know, there are CCTVs everywhere, and the car has a black box, so it’s not that easy to do.”

“Don’t you usually dispose of them in the mountains?”

“Sometimes it’s buried in the mountains, and sometimes it’s thrown into the sea. There are several ways to do it. It’s tough; I sometimes get injured from doing it. So I can help you dispose of the bodies, no one can find them in the mountains.”

He shouldn’t have said the last part, I nodded, and his pupils grew with anticipation.

“Yeah, you don’t have to deal with the corpse secretly here.”

Swish.

I put the dagger in his neck.

He gagged.

Blood squirted from his mouth. I closed my eyes and covered my ears until his breath stopped. After about 10 minutes, I opened my eyes, Jung Ho-bun died with his eyes wide open. I held the knife and closed my eyes again before pulling it out.

I turned away. I didn’t need to dispose of the bodies. They’d probably think that Jong Ho-bun killed Han Kyun anyway, or that they both died while fighting the lizards.

The only thing that could lead to my suspicion was the blood on the knife, so I need to get rid of it. I started looking for a place to bury the knife.

Digging was so bothersome, maybe I should just leave it, but then I might get caught, but I want to stop digging.

Wouldn’t a spider-like monster eat it if I just leave it? It’s hard, can I just leave it?

To dig or not to dig, that is the question. Eventually, I finished digging while complaining and buried the knife deep into the ground.

I went back to the village to wash my clothes. When I entered the house, Min-Ji Park was frightened when she saw me.

“Why is your face like that? Oh, your arm is a mess too.”

“I faced a monster and fought in the middle of the forest.”

“What about Kim Byeong-woo?”

“He saw me.”

“Is he the monster that you fought with?

“No. If I had fought with Kim Byung-woo, I wouldn’t be alive. He just warned me and left, then the monster that beat me up arrived”

She kept asking me questions, but I was too tired to talk. II waved my hand.

“Let’s talk later.”

I went to bed immediately, and the third night passed.

—

The morning of the fourth day came. As I was laying down, I stared at Park Min-Ji’s beautiful face. Bullies kept teasing me, saying that Min-Ji’s not pretty. Something must be wrong with their eyes. She looks gorgeous to me.

Hitting and threatening people, that’s only tin they were good at. She looks like Kim Tae-hee … … No, not Kim Tae-hee.

Park Min-Ji opened her eyes and looked at me and pulled up the blanket to cover her face.

“Don’t look.”

“why?”

“My eyes are puffy.”

“you’re pretty even without any makeup on.”

Park Min-Ji lifted her face off the blanket”.

“you’re lying.”

“It ’s true.”

I tickled her side.

“No! Stop!”

She wrinkled her nose.

“I have a gift.”

I went out of bed and put on my clothes and took out the blue beads.

“Oh, it’s a bead!”

When she raised her body, the sheets came down, revealing her chest.

“Are you giving me this?”

“I said it was a gift.”

Park Min-ji had tears of joy.

“Thank you so much.”

I watched her swallow the marbles.

“Oh-oh.”

She opened her eyes.

“Wow, this is great. The blue marble has an immediate effect.”

“What effect did the black marble have?”

“Huh. It must have been a dud.”

“No. It just takes time to manifest.”

I spoke with confidence, reminded of the detoxifying powers presented by the black striped yellow beads.

“The ability will appear.”

The black marbles I ate yesterday will undoubtedly bring me power. We had an arm-wrestling match to test her theory.

Someone knocked on the door, and I checked to see who it was. It was Park Tae-Shik, he was frowning.

“Your brother is calling for you.”

“People keep barging in here and bothering me, tell my brother to come here if he has something to say.”

“Do you want me to tell him that?”

“Of course…not, it was only a joke. Wait a minute.”

I took my dagger, ax, my new knife, and went out. Kang Dong-taek and his men were baking and eating spiders in the town square. I intervened and broke a spider’s leg.

“I heard you called for me, brother.”

Gang Dong-taek directly asked him.

“Did you see Han Do Kyun?”

“Why are you asking me about him?”