Chapter 15: S-Class Awakened Criminal, Ma Ak-Soo (1)

South Chungcheong Province, Gongju City, Museong Mountain.

Booom!

Crack! Bam!

The desk was shattered with a single punch.

After all, there was no way that a desk made of ordinary wood could withstand the fist of an S-Class Awakened.

"

Gulp!

" Glancing down at the desk that had been split into two, a nervous man unconsciously swallowed.

Across from him was a muscular man who had an ear missing. The S-Class Awakened criminal, Ma Ak-Soo, asked, "The Teleportation Skill isn't working?"

"Th-that's right," the nervous man confirmed.

"Who are the enemies?"

"The Shine Guild, the Golden Lion Guild, and the Hunter team that's affiliated with the Association."

"What about the guy in the Association who's been taking our money?" Ma Ak-Soo growled.

"He said that they were just dispatched after receiving a report of a Gate being discovered."

Gritting his teeth, Ma Ak-Soo sprang up from his seat. "How many are there?"

"There's at least three hundred of them," the man quickly answered.

"Over three hundred Awakened suddenly arrived in Gongju City and you didn't hear anything?"

"W-we've found out that the Shine Guild arrived here discreetly."

"And the Golden Lions?"

"We received a report that they were visiting the city to obtain the reward of a certain Gate."

Ma Ak-Soo narrowed his eyes, "But their real target was us?"

The nervous man could only stammer, "W-we haven't managed to get that far—"

"Are you fucking serious?!" Ma Ak-Soo roared.

So there were barely a few things that they had been able to confirm.

Booom!

With a kick, the office door was ripped off of its hinges and sent flying.

An Awakened criminal who had been passing by was struck by the door and slammed into the opposite wall. Ma Ak-Soo walked past his crumpled body as if it had simply been a swatted fly, asking, "What about an escape route?"

The nervous man was struggling to keep up. "W-well, that's..."

Ma Ak-Soo just snorted. "So there aren't any. That means we'll just have to force our way through."

The Shine Guild and the Golden Lion Guild were working together. In that case, he would have to launch his counterattack on the side where the Association's team was deployed.

Ma Ak-Soo strode out of the building and quickly glanced at the Awakened surrounding them.

He spotted someone from the Shine Guild bearing the emblem of a sword crossed over a shield.

He also saw an Awakened from the Golden Lion Guild who wore the emblem of a golden lion.

Then, he looked over at the Awakened from the Hunters Association, all of whom were carrying the emblem of the Association: a large circle with the letter "E" on the inside.

"They're all mixed together." After observing them, Ma Ak-Soo turned toward the most eye-catching man and woman among the Hunters currently surrounding the building. "Lee Yeon-Hwa, Baek Min-Hyuk."

The Guildmaster of Shine Guild, Lee Yeon-Hwa, slowly pulled out her longsword.

The Guildmaster of Golden Lion Guild was no different. As Baek Min-Hyuk stepped forward, he activated his Beastfolk Transformation ability, preparing for the battle to come.

"

Tsk.

" Ma Ak-Soo clicked his tongue as he strode forward to meet them head on. As everyone was watching the three figures approach each other, Ma Ak-Soo stopped midway and asked the two Guildmasters, "What could have brought you two, a girl from Seoul and a guy from Daegu, all the way here?"

"I came here because I heard about some criminal scum hiding in his hole out here," Baek Min-Hyuk growled. Having completely transformed into his Beastfolk form, he extended his long, curved claws.

Ma Ak-Soo snorted. "I can see how a guy from Daegu may have found us because he came looking for a Gate, but what brings the girl from Seoul here?"

Lee Yeon-Hwa didn't respond to his question.

Ma Ak-Soo had been busy observing his surroundings while talking to the two. He lightly clicked his tongue again and made a suggestion, "If we fight here, our side might take some damage, but so will yours. Why don't we bid adieu and leave it at that?"

"

Hah!

" Baek Min-Hyuk let out a snort while Lee Yeon-Hwa quietly began to emit killing intent.

Just as Ma Ak-Soo was about to open his mouth to further stall the two Guildmasters, whose reactions revealed their readiness to fully unleash everything onto him...

"

Aaaah.

Testing, testing." An out-of-place sound was heard reverberating.

Ma Ak-Soo, along with everyone who had been looking at him, turned their heads toward the sound.

For some reason, a man was just standing there with a microphone in one hand and a smartphone in the other.

"Who the hell is he?" Ma Ak-Soo scowled.

The man armed with a microphone slowly began to speak.

***

Kim Ki-Rok had three goals for this operation.

The first was the rescue of Kim Ji-Hee and all the other children.

The second was to establish a relationship with the Shine Guild and the Golden Lion Guild.

And last but not least, the third was to promote the DG Guild.

Awakened Criminals Hunting Livestream #Hunter, #Awakened, #ShineGuild, #GoldenLionGuild

⤷ Awakened Criminals Hunting Livestream?

⤷ Are they even allowed to livestream something like this?

⤷ They're allowed to stream fights against monsters, so what's wrong with this?

⤷ ?

⤷ ?

Many people were drawn to the livestream because Kim Ki-Rok had deliberately given it a provocative title that was sure to attract plenty of viewers. He was confident, however, that his viewers wouldn't have felt misled by the thumbnail.

"

Ahem!

" Kim Ki-Rok cleared his throat while looking at the smartphone and began his livestream.

"To our viewers from all over the country, and our viewers from overseas. To the Hunters who are protecting the country from the threats of monsters and Awakened criminals day and night, as well as the support teams of the Hunters Association and the various guilds who are working hard to support said Hunters from the rear. And lastly, to the soldiers who are protecting the country, or more specifically, to all the Commanders, Officers, and Soldiers who are currently serving on duty."

Kim Ki-Rok bowed politely, using the ring on his index finger—an artifact enchanted with the telekinesis spell—to float his smartphone in the air.

"I, the Guildmaster of the newly created DG Guild, Kim Ki-Rok, would like to convey my greetings."

⤷ Clap clap clap!

⤷ Oh! A strange person has appeared.

⤷ ?

⤷ ?

⤷ The DG Guild?

In order to grow a guild, one could not focus on Gate activities alone. In order for latecomers to catch up with the large guilds that had already established themselves, something more was needed.

And that something was promotion.

For example, whenever a guild had destroyed a Gate, the general public usually thought, "It was 'Hunter So-And-So' who destroyed the Gate."

The fame was concentrated on the individual Hunter rather than their Guild.

It was similar to how, even if someone knew the name of the lead actor in a hit movie, they would not normally know the name of the agency that actor belonged to. That would normally be the case even if it was an extremely large and famous agency.

In other words, the newer the guild, the more often it needed to receive promotion in order to catch up with the larger guilds.

Kim Ki-Rok hadn't been aware of this during his first Attempts, and his guild had suffered terribly in terms of exposure.

He had already been suppressed by all the famous guilds that had already established a name for themselves. To add to that, his own reputation was so low that he had no allies to reach out to, and public opinion was of no use to him either.

He was slapped around.

Pushed to the ground.

And kicked while he was down.

After going through all that hardship, Kim Ki-Rok had always prioritized promoting his guild.

He had used all the money that he had earned by selling the Treasure Goblin's loot to attempt all sorts of advertisement.

Since he hadn't known the first thing about advertisement, the results had been very minimal despite him burning a large sum of money.

Fortunately, however, he had gained experience as the Attempts piled up.

"Wow!" Kim Ki-Rok dramatically exclaimed.

Despite it being early in the morning, the number of viewers was rapidly increasing.

By borrowing the names of two famous guilds and shifting the spotlight onto a group of Awakened criminals more dangerous than any monster, the view count skyrocketed at an almost terrifying rate.

Among his viewers, there were definitely members from other large guilds who had been drawn into his live room after seeing the names "Shine" and "Golden Lion."

"I may have opened a livestream, but since I'm not a professional channel, I won't mention the current number of viewers. Well then, allow me to begin by explaining the situation," Kim Ki-Rok announced as he spun his smartphone around with the telekinesis spell.

As the camera turned around, the Awakened criminals who were holding their ground in front of the building came into view.

⤷ Could those guys really be a group of Awakened criminals?

⤷ I can see the Guildmasters from the Shine and Golden Lion Guilds.

⤷ Is it really them?

⤷ We can't clearly see their faces, but one of them is holding a longsword, and the other person has transformed into a Beastfolk.

⤷ Oh, so it's true!

It was only natural that his viewers were immediately drawn to the appearances of the two well-known Hunters, rather than the group of Awakened criminals whose faces weren't known to the public.

Kim Ki-Rok made sure to get a good shot of the two Guildmasters before turning his smartphone back toward himself.

"As the title of our livestream suggests, we've come out here today to subjugate a group of Awakened criminals. Since we have them completely surrounded, the criminals have no way to escape."

Do-ding!

Lee-Seul-Fairy donates 1,000 Won.

⤷ Are you allowed to stream something like this?

"I will be sure to end the livestream before the fighting starts," Kim Ki-Rok promised. "After all, I don't plan on being suspended on my very first day of streaming. Thank you for donating 1,000 Won, Lee-Seul-Fairy. Your donation will be used to fund the DG Guild's operating expenses. Please make sure to remember the name, DG Guild."

Cheese-Tteokbokki-is-Sacrilegious donates 1,000 Won.

⤷ Why did you start a livestream when you won't even show us the fighting?

"I'm here today to explain to you just what kind of criminals we're planning to eradicate. Thank you for donating 1,000 Won, Cheese-Tteokbokki-is-Sacrilegious! Your donation will be used to fund DG Guild's operating expenses. That is, DG Guild."

Kim Ki-Rok made sure to plug his guild again before switching the camera to zoom in on the man standing in front of all the Awakened criminals.

The muscular man now filling their screens was so intimidating that the viewers felt scared, even from the other side of their screens.

"This is Ma Ak-Soo, an S-Class Awakened criminal," Kim Ki-Rok explained. "He is a suspect in a total of eighty-eight murder cases, but his most noteworthy crime was ordering a group of criminals to start a riot for the sake of his own personal gain."

Convenience-Store-Part-Timer-is-Very-Sleepy donates 2,000 Won.

⤷ Huh? Ma Ak-Soo? Is that the same Ma Ak-Soo who raided the auction house?

"Ma Ak-Soo did unleash a group of criminals to incite a riot some distance from the auction house, using it as a distraction to raid the auction house himself. You might remember it as the Seodaemun District Criminal Riot Incident."

A flood of comments from the viewers filled the screen.

Kim Ki-Rok turned his smartphone slightly to the side to focus on a different criminal.

"Awakened criminal, Kang Do-Wook. He is a B-Class Awakened criminal and was charged with leading the rioting criminals during the incident."

Whoooosh!

Just as he finished his explanation, an arrow came flying toward him.

Kim Ki-Rok casually pulled his smartphone away from the trajectory of the arrow, then immediately caught it with one hand. The power that had been contained within that arrow was incredible, but he had easily caught it as if it were nothing.

This was the power of an A-Class magic scroll.

It might be a consumable that would only last an hour, but with the increase it gave to his stats, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Kim Ki-Rok was currently in a superhuman state.

Of course, the scroll did have its drawbacks.

After the hour was over, his stats would all be fixed to 1 for a week, and his level would be permanently reduced by 10. However, this did not really affect Kim Ki-Rok, who was still only at Level 1 and whose stats were all at 1 anyway.

"

Hehehe!

" Kim Ki-Rok chuckled arrogantly.

The camera had clearly captured the arrow flying toward the smartphone.

⤷ Wow. Fuck.

⤷ How awesome. He caught it without even looking.

⤷ Couldn't this all just be a hoax?

⤷ The Shine Guildmaster and the Golden Lion Guildmaster are there with him. Do you really think that it's a hoax?

⤷ He's working together with those two guilds in order to subdue this group of Awakened criminals, isn't he? It's only natural for him to be so skilled.

The speed of the replies kept increasing.

Kim Ki-Rok didn't forget to say his tagline.

"Convenience-Store-Part-Timer-is-Very-Sleepy, thank you for donating 2,000 Won. Your donation will be used to fund DG Guild's operating expenses. The DG Guild."

Lee-Seul-Fairy donates 10,000 Won.

⤷ By the way, why do you keep bringing up your guild's name? Not just once, but twice now.

"That's..." As Kim Ki-Rok was about to explain, he turned the camera around and threw the arrow that he was still holding in his hand.

Although he was only Level 1, he was equipped with high-class artifacts and had even used an A-Class scroll.

Swiiiiish! Thud!

"

Gaaargh!

"

The arrow pierced the abdomen of the Awakened criminal who had first shot it at Kim Ki-Rok.

With his screams still ringing in the air, Kim Ki-Rok turned the camera back around as if nothing had happened and zoomed in on his own face as he finished speaking.

"For the sake of publicity. It seems like the subjugation will be starting soon, so I'll have to end the stream here. Thank you for taking the time to watch the livestream of Kim Ki-Rok, Guildmaster of the DG Guild, up until this point."

Kim Ki-Rok politely bowed and said goodbye, ignoring the viewers' comments begging him to continue streaming as he grabbed his smartphone from where it was floating.

"

Ah!

" Kim Ki-Rok let out an exclamation just before pressing the button to end the livestream.

⤷ ?

⤷ ?

Question marks were filling the chat window.

Kim Ki-Rok smiled broadly and said one last time, "This is the DG Guild, signing off."

With that, the livestream was over.

"

Whew.

" Kim Ki-Rok let out a short breath as he fidgeted with his smartphone. "Let's see now... Here we are."

He had used MeTube to host his livestream. The number of subscribers were increasing each time he refreshed the page.

This was enough to satisfy him for now.

Kim Ki-Rok nodded as he put his smartphone back into his subspace pocket.

"

Hm?

" Kim Ki-Rok raised his head and hummed quizzically.

It was too quiet.

Both the Awakened criminals and the Hunters were staring at him.

Some of them had dumbfounded expressions.

Others were wearing expressions of disbelief.

There were some who looked as if they were staring at a crazy person.

Kim Ki-Rok spread his arms out invitingly and declared, "Well then, shall we begin?"