Chapter 75

Lee Minsung had barely managed to escape Arsha, the queen bee, but even afterward, he had been forced to keep running from the Contaminated Lancers pursuing him. They were clearly weaker than he was, yet killing them proved utterly impossible. Every time he tried, a powerful message thundered through his mind, tormenting him with an excruciating headache.

—Obey the queen!

—Obey the queen!

["Aaargh! Shut up! I said, shut up!"]

Lee Minsung truly felt as though he were going mad. The moment he let his guard down even slightly, an urge surged through him to return to the queen bee of his own accord, kneel before her, and swear his loyalty.

—Obey the queen!

["Stop! Stop! Please, just get out of my head!"]

He tried everything to escape the voice, but nothing worked. Even when he covered both ears and slammed his head against the floor over and over, it would not stop.

Of course it wouldn't. It had never been a voice to begin with. It was the instinct of a worker bee reborn to serve its queen. And for Lee Minsung, who had always lorded over others, that feeling was profoundly humiliating.

—Obey the quee—!

["I refuse! I'm no mere worker bee!"]

Gritting his teeth, he forcibly suppressed his instincts. Ironically, the place where he finally hid after narrowly evading the lancers was the vice president's office at the Reaper Guild.

["Whew. That's right. This is where I belong. Not in some beehive."]

Still panting, he took a bottle of wine from storage to drink, as was his habit, only for his face to crumple.

["... So this was the cause!"]

The very wine in his hand was the root of this whole disaster. Royal Jelly—the fine wine the "madam" always gave him whenever he visited Queen Bee. To think it had been the queen bee's poison all along!

["I've ended up like this because I drank this crap every day—!"]

Lee Minsung whipped the wine bottle high overhead to hurl it away, then suddenly froze.

["... Wait."]

The sight of the queen bee's poison suddenly gave him an idea. He had thought of a way to suppress his worker-bee instincts. If he used this...

["I might be able to create an army of my own."]

Lee Minsung poured his mana into the queen bee's royal jelly, imbuing its properties with his own signature.

["Good. Now anyone poisoned by this should turn into a soldier loyal to me instead of the queen bee."]

He absorbed the newly concocted royal jelly into his stinger. Then he went straight outside, attacked low-rank hunters, and tried injecting them with it. For some reason, however, they died on the spot.

["Tch. Weaklings. They can't even withstand this much poison."]

Clicking his tongue, Lee Minsung sought out stronger, mid-rank hunters. But the result was the same. Every one of them vomited blood and died from the poison.

["Why do they keep dying?"]

He was bewildered. Was there something wrong with his royal jelly? He kept attacking hunters, again and again, determined to discover the reason.

At last, he succeeded. But as it happened, his successful subject was... a hunter from his own Reaper Guild.

["... A coincidence?"]

At first, he thought it was mere chance. But it wasn't. No matter how many times he repeated the experiment, the only ones who survived the royal jelly were Reaper Guild hunters.

["What's going on?"]

Eventually, he realized why.

["Could it be because they already followed me?"]

Royal jelly was, by its very nature, a poison that created worker bees. And naturally, those workers owed their loyalty to the queen bee.

["But I'm not a queen."]

No worker bee would pledge its loyalty to Lee Minsung, who was at best another worker, no matter how hard he forced it. The Reaper Guild members who had already been his subordinates, however, were an exception. Loyalty to "Vice President Lee Minsung" was already ingrained in their minds.

That loyalty amounted to no more than a shallow master-servant relationship bound by salary and rank, but ironically, among humans, it was the most tightly binding master-servant relationship of all.

Once he understood how it worked, Lee Minsung let out an incredulous laugh.

["So royal jelly infused with my mana only works on Reaper Guild members? Heh heh heh. How amusing. Very amusing."]

No wonder he had thought the slaves created with his royal jelly looked so different from the soldier-bee-like lancers. His slaves had been reborn as Contaminated Ghouls, closer in appearance to humans than bees.

["Heh heh. Perhaps this, too, is fate."]

This was just as well. With this ability, he might be able to take everything from that insufferable bastard Lim Taegyu. No, a man like him had never deserved to be guildmaster in the first place.

["I always said Lim Taegyu was better suited to being my chauffeur. While I'm at it, I should poison him too and make him my slave."]

He didn't know whether his royal jelly would work on an S-rank, but if it did, he would hit the jackpot. That bastard had once been his chauffeur, obedient to his every word, so the odds were good enough. The thought of keeping Lim Taegyu as a slave lifted his spirits.

In truth, being reborn as a worker bee wasn't all bad. Aside from the instinct to be loyal to the queen, there were far more advantages. The queen bee had melted down and compressed everything that made up the human Lee Minsung, recreating him as a highly evolved member of a race built for combat.

It was a little disappointing that all his human skills had vanished as a result, but weren't skills ultimately meant for fighting? All that power had been compressed into a transcendent body specialized for combat, making it a considerable gain overall. Perhaps, as he was now, he could even beat Lim Taegyu.

["Heh heh. S-rank or not, Lim Taegyu is just an archer who shoots his bow from the rear. If I poison him first and keep him from using his weapon, I'll have a good chance..."]

... And that was how Lee Minsung had come this far. Every part of his plan had succeeded so far, and as a result, Lim Taegyu now stood before him, looking exhausted.

'I can beat him now!'

Lee Minsung was certain. He would beat that loathsome Lim Taegyu down with his own hands, grind his face underfoot, and spit on him. Then he would make him his slave and work him for the rest of his life, just as he had before the Cataclysm. That had been the plan, but...

'What the hell is that human beside him?'

An ominous feeling crept over Lee Minsung as he looked at Suho beside Lim Taegyu. It was almost like standing before the queen bee... No, if it had been the queen bee, he would have felt compelled to be loyal. What he felt from Suho was the exact opposite.

Fear. Pure terror welled up inside him, as though he were facing a natural predator.

'Why? He doesn't even look that strong.'

Since becoming a worker bee, Lee Minsung's ability to gauge an opponent's strength had developed to an extraordinary degree. Judging by the mana he could sense from Suho, the man was definitely a C-rank hunter. Even by the most generous estimate, he was only B-rank. In fact, the A-rank hunter Baek Miho beside him was a greater threat.

So why? Why did he want to flee this place right now? Why had his body gone rigid, like a frog facing a snake?

'Natural Enemy of Insects'

That unsettling feeling wounded Lee Minsung's pride.

["... There's something unpleasant about you."]

Forcing himself to shake off his unease, Lee Minsung unleashed his full power.

ROOOAR!

An immense surge of energy swirled around him.

Suho, meanwhile, felt the exact opposite.

'He's definitely stronger than me, but I just can't see myself losing.'

The first thing Suho did was open the shop window.

CLINK.

[You have purchased 'Item: Quiver (100).']

[You have purchased 'Item: Quiver (100).']

Two heavy quivers appeared in his hands.

"Here. If you can't use mana arrows, use these instead."

"...!"

Suddenly finding himself handed two quivers, Lim Taegyu stared at Suho, wide-eyed.

"Wait, where did you suddenly get these...?!"

"I'm a summoner, remember?"

Suho shrugged, brushing the question off with a halfhearted excuse.

"They're not free, of course. I'll bill you for all of them later, so don't hold back. Use as many as you need. I'll give you more when you run out."

"R-right! Thank you!"

Lim Taegyu nodded, his face lighting up.

It no longer mattered whether Suho was a healer or a summoner. He could puzzle over that later. As he turned toward their enemies, his expression changed completely.

The Reaper’s Bow was an S-rank weapon capable of killing magic beasts even with ordinary arrows. And the moment that bow and those arrows rested in the hands of Korea's strongest S-rank archer, he became a hunter in the truest sense.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Lim Taegyu's arrows pierced the heads and hearts of the ghouls charging from every direction.

"Leave the covering fire to me! You two focus on taking down Lee Minsung!"

He wanted nothing more than to beat Lee Minsung down himself, but he had already confirmed that it was impossible without his mana. He could no longer afford to waste time indulging his own desires. With his shout, the battle began in earnest.

"Let's go!"

"Y-yes!"

Suho and Baek Miho launched themselves at Lee Minsung.

["Krrrik!"]

At that moment, Shadow Lancer wings sprouted from their backs.

WHOOOSH!

They flew toward Lee Minsung at tremendous speed and unleashed a furious assault.

SWISH! BOOM! KABOOM!

["Too slow."]

But Lee Minsung mocked them as he dodged their attacks with ease.

'How can he be this fast?!'

Alarmed by his movements, Baek Miho urgently warned Suho.

"Suho, be careful! His speed is far beyond A-rank!"

Perhaps those words pleased him. Lee Minsung's lips curled upward, an expression of utter bliss spreading across his face.

["Heh heh heh! That's right! I've already transcended humanity. Your sluggish attacks can't even graze me!"]

"Oh, really?"

He flinched. Suho's casual reply soured his mood in an instant. No matter how hard he tried to ignore him, Suho's very presence kept nagging at him.

["... That settles it. I'll kill you first!"]

Unleashing a savage surge of power, Lee Minsung flew straight at Suho. And just as the sharp spear attached to his hand was about to pierce Suho's heart, Suho grinned.

'This is the moment I've been waiting for.'

His eyes flashed as he shouted, "Come out!"

...!

SHWAAAAASH!

Countless black streaks of light suddenly shot out of Suho's body, all rushing toward Lee Minsung at once.

["Wh-what is this...?!"]

Lee Minsung's eyes went wide with bewilderment.

With the superhuman vision of a worker bee, he could see what those streaks of light truly were. Lancers. The queen bee's lancers, which had pursued him so relentlessly, had appeared!

["This can't be—"]

Horrified, Lee Minsung abruptly changed course just before his attack reached Suho. He was much faster than they were anyway. They were far too close, but he could still get awa—!

GRAB.

"...!"

Suho suddenly seized the tip of the spear that had been aimed at his heart, holding it in an iron grip.

"Got you, you little pest."

["Let go!"]

Startled out of his wits, Lee Minsung tried with all his strength to shake Suho off. But it was already too late.

"Kill him."

["Krrrik!"]

["Kreeee!"]

The Shadow Lancers swooped in from every direction, their spears beginning to carve Lee Minsung's body to shreds without mercy.