Chapter 109

RUMBLE!

"... Haah."

Bearing the tremendous weight of the mana field on his body, Suho was neither flustered nor frightened. Instead, he sighed.

'Another guy like Ammut.'

The enormous build, the advanced age... He simply couldn't understand why every old man he ran into had to be so tough.

"Wh-what? He's withstanding this?"

Thomas Andre was genuinely taken aback. According to Laura's information, Suho was merely a C-rank hunter. And judging by the aura he could sense from the young man standing before him, he was somewhere around B-rank at the very most.

What on earth was going on?

Even if Thomas wasn't using his full strength, this mana field was more than powerful enough to crush a mere brat like him to death.

So how?

'How is he withstanding this?'

But there was something he hadn't even considered.

Mana wasn't everything for a hunter. Hadn't Thomas Andre himself possessed such extraordinarily developed physical abilities that he was called the strongest human alive even before his awakening? The synergy when mana was added to that overwhelming physique was beyond words.

But the same... was true of Suho.

ROOOAR!

A hunter's rank was determined by how much mana they possessed. And Suho's mana reserves were certainly significantly lower than Thomas's.

But when it came to strength...

[Strength: 115]

'All that training wasn't for nothing.'

A confident smile spread across Suho's face as he met Thomas Andre's mana field head-on.

The daily quest. Iron Body Arts training.

That alone had been steadily earning Suho three stat points a day, and he'd been pouring every last one into his Strength stat.

The results were showing themselves right now.

'I'm used to gravitational fields!'

"Huh? You're smiling?"

Thomas's eyes blazed at Suho's relaxed expression.

"You dare smile in front of me?"

WHOOSH!

At that moment, Thomas began putting some real effort into the aura pouring out of him. Suho's expression gradually tightened.

"I've changed my mind."

Moving beyond a simple contest of wills, Thomas reached out with his enormous hand to seize Suho by the throat.

"Even if you are the brat from the prophecy, I'm putting you in your place before I drag you off."

WHOOOSH!

At this point, Suho had to choose.

Fight back? Or retreat?

But he'd already made his decision from the start.

'Of course I'm going to fight.'

His eyes flashing boldly, Suho began drawing up his power in earnest.

'This is a chance to fight an actual S-rank hunter.'

He'd been wondering about it anyway.

An apostle of the Itarim. Not even an Itarim, but a mere underling serving them—and he'd barely managed to win after such a desperate struggle.

That wasn't good enough. He couldn't stop at that level.

To ultimately reach his father, to stand proudly at his side and wage war against the Itarim!

'At the very least, shouldn't I become the strongest human alive?'

If he could be defeated by a mere human, he wouldn't even deserve to set foot on his father's battlefield.

That was why he'd been curious. Ever since learning that Thomas Andre, an S-rank hunter known as the strongest human alive, had come to Korea, one thought had refused to leave his mind.

'Just how strong is an S-rank?'

And now the man had come to him first. What a stroke of luck!

CRASH!

Suho clasped both of Thomas Andre's approaching hands.

The grip strength he felt that instant was tremendous!

"Oh?"

He saw Thomas Andre raise his eyebrows with interest. The unexpected turn of events made the corners of Thomas's mouth twitch upward.

"Are you serious? You're actually going to pit your strength against mine?"

It was utterly absurd. Thomas had come to Korea because of Norma Selner's prophecy, not because he thought highly of Suho.

'I came all this way just to clear that Glacier Dungeon.'

The Glacier Dungeon was a hellish place that even the Scavenger Guild hesitated to challenge. As its name suggested, the dungeon was blanketed in such extreme cold that simply enduring its environment was tremendously difficult.

Worse, it teemed with powerful magic beasts. Countless hunters had ventured inside, never to return.

In fact, one particularly strong hunter from the Scavenger Guild had once declared that a little cold was nothing and confidently led his subordinates inside. After suffering terribly, he'd barely made it back before freezing to death.

Then Norma Selner had prophesied that a Korean hunter named Sung Suho would help them clear the dungeon that even the Scavenger Guild had failed to conquer. Thomas Andre had immediately decided to go to Korea.

Yet, absurdly enough, he'd arrived to find that the Sung Suho from the prophecy was only C-rank—and a summoner, at that.

'To think a little shit like this would dare make light of me. Should I just kill him?'

Thomas Andre had never been in a situation like this, where he had to ask someone for a favor. Whenever he wanted something, he simply gave orders and instructions.

So now he was seriously considering whether Korean healers could fix this pathetic brat if he tore both his arms out of their sockets.

Or perhaps he could rip off all four limbs...

"Thomas! Calm down!"

Sensing from a distance that things were taking a dangerous turn, Laura called out urgently to stop him.

"Thomas! You're not thinking of killing him, are you? Don't forget why we're here!"

... But once Thomas got into this mood, no one could stop him. However old he grew, he remained the bad boy of the battlefield. He had never let any little shit who dared show off his strength before him walk away in one piece.

Instead, he poured even more strength into the arms holding Suho's hands.

"Don't worry, Laura. What a wonderful age we live in! However badly I break him, the healers will patch him right up! Hahahaha!"

His forearms bulged as though ready to burst as he roared with savage laughter.

The problem was that Suho was baring his teeth at him with an equally savage expression.

'Give me everything you've got!'

[The Toughness skill reduces your pain.]

[The Toughness skill reduces your pain.]

...

With the bones throughout his body breaking and shattering during his daily Iron Body Arts training, this much pain had become routine.

Ammut always stressed that a true warrior could draw upon the strength of their entire body even through such pain.

Like master, like pupil. Suho could now wholeheartedly agree with him.

The countless Frenzied Blood Demons he'd encountered in the Demon Realm had been so thoroughly saturated with Frenzied Blood Poison that simply being alive was agony. Yet even through that agony, they were warriors burning with the single-minded desire to kill and devour their opponents.

And wasn't Suho the one who'd killed all those fiends and survived?

'If he's only coming at me with brute strength, I've got a real chance!'

Suho fully intended to beat Thomas Andre in this contest of strength.

"Raaaagh!"

"Hahahahaha!"

RUMMMBLE!

As Suho's and Thomas Andre's auras clashed in earnest, an immense typhoon of mana swept outward from them in every direction. Everything in sight began to shatter.

"Thomas! Thomas! Stop!"

Even amid the chaos, Laura's voice echoed as she desperately tried to stop him.

But just then...

SCREECH!

A black sedan arrived. Its door opened, and none other than Yoo Jinho stepped out.

"Whew. Thankfully, I'm not too late."

Quickly assessing the situation, he checked on Suho, who was locked in a struggle with Thomas Andre, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Because of the trouble with the Hyunmoo Guild, Yoo Jinho had already been keeping tabs on Suho in real time throughout the day. A little earlier, his secretary had informed him that Thomas Andre, the S-rank hunter who had unexpectedly visited Korea that day, was heading toward Suho's house.

'If I didn't have memories of my previous life, I would've thought nothing of it.'

As someone whose memories of a now-forgotten timeline had returned, Yoo Jinho remembered exactly what kind of man Thomas Andre was.

And those memories... were far from pleasant. Even recalling them terrified him.

["Aaaaagh...!"]

All he'd done in those memories was writhe in agony and scream.

'I never imagined I'd come face-to-face with the Scavenger Guild like this again.'

It was a shock. No matter how old he grew, Thomas Andre was still Thomas Andre. Yoo Jinho found fear rising within him at the mere sight of the man's face.

Of course, even in those memories, Thomas had never personally harmed him. He'd merely been captured by Thomas's subordinates, the hunters of the Scavenger Guild, and tortured to the brink of death.

And he remembered exactly why.

'... Because back then, I was Jinwoo's only weakness.'

Yoo Jinho gritted his teeth as he recalled how utterly powerless he'd been.

The moment he heard that the Scavenger Guild had returned to Korea, he'd had no choice but to order his employees to track and report Thomas's every move in real time.

Because he was afraid.

The Thomas Andre he remembered was unpredictable. And if he'd been Sung Jinwoo's only weakness back then...

'... Now Suho is in that position.'

He had no intention of wasting any more time. He didn't know why Thomas had come looking for Suho, but there was only one way to resolve this situation.

Recognizing Thomas's secretary, Laura, Yoo Jinho quickly approached her. Then he stood beside her and, with an utterly serious expression, put a stop to this senseless contest of wills.

"Thomas Andre."

Yoo Jinho enunciated his name in a calm, courteous tone. An S-rank hunter would be aware of everything going on around him even amid this chaos. His voice would reach Thomas's ears, too.

"My name is Yoo Jinho. I'm Yoo Jinho, CEO of Ahjin Soft."

RUMMMBLE!

The whole world was shaking as though heaven and earth were being torn apart, but he simply continued speaking.

"If you don't back off immediately, I'll have no choice but to take action."

"... What?"

Thomas twitched. Until then, he'd been focused entirely on Suho, but those words finally drew a response.

He'd already noticed someone new approaching. But the aura he sensed from Yoo Jinho was merely D-rank.

As if the insolent brat in front of him wasn't enough, now even this ignorant nobody dared spout nonsense at him.

Thomas glared at Yoo Jinho in utter disbelief.

"And who the hell are you? You're some company's CEO—so what? You must be dying to get yourself killed."

"Thomas! Stop!"

Beside Yoo Jinho, Laura shouted with a more serious expression than ever.

"Mr. Yoo Jinho is a major shareholder in our guild!"

"Oh my, such a distinguished gentleman!"

In that instant, Thomas's murderous intent vanished completely.