The moment he opened his eyes, he barely managed to suppress the dry heave that surged up as his stomach lurched violently. As his blurry vision slowly cleared, the scene that unfolded before him was something entirely detached from reality.
In the middle of a massive cave, a centipede the size of a house was thrashing about, writhing its dozens of legs wildly. Scattered at its feet were the mangled remains of monsters and Hunters, crushed beyond recognition, while those fleeing and bleeding were tangled together in absolute chaos.
……What the hell is this.
His pupils shook uncontrollably. In his everyday life, he had such a weak stomach he couldn’t even watch medical dramas, let alone zombie films. And yet right now, a blood-soaked massacre was playing out live right before his eyes.
Before he could even process the situation, a bone-chilling shriek tore through his ears.
KIEEEEK—!
It wasn’t human.
“Ugh…!”
In that instant, a searing pain ripped through his mind as a flood of unfamiliar memories came pouring in. Hunters. Guilds. Monsters. Rifts. It was a world he had read about somewhere.
No way….
Immediately after, he realized whose body he had entered.
Baek Eunseong.
The villain of the modern fantasy novel The Returned C-Rank Hunter Hides His Power.
Eunseong slowly looked down at himself. Ornate rings adorned every finger, and a pristine white suit without a single speck of dirt was visible. It was the outfit the original Baek Eunseong had stubbornly insisted on wearing even inside dungeons.
On top of that, Baek Eunseong was worthless garbage — someone who, under the pretense of his obsessive cleanliness, had a visceral aversion to close-quarters combat, shoved guild members into the jaws of death, and then swooped in to steal the final blow.
……That Baek Eunseong is me?
He wondered if he was dreaming from reading too many novels. But it was too vivid to be a dream — the damp, sticky air, the metallic, rust-tinged stench, and the putrid smell of something rotting.
The situation in the dungeon gave Eunseong no time to dwell on it. At the distant, eerie sounds of monsters, Eunseong clenched his fist tight and bit down on his lip.
Dream or not, this place was pure terror to him. A giant centipede was already disgusting enough — but being right in the middle of a blood-splattered slaughter? It was horrific.
He pressed a hand over his mouth to hold back the rising nausea. At that moment, his gaze locked onto a man fighting desperately against the boss in the middle of that blood-soaked hell. His entire body was torn and drenched in blood, breath ragged and heaving, yet he gripped a broken longsword firmly in his hand.
Despite the distance, the man’s figure came into sharp focus.
Huh? …Kang Mujin?
Beneath jet-black hair disheveled from the battle, the features the author had described so meticulously were vividly apparent. Even in that wretched state, Eunseong couldn’t tear his eyes away.
Eunseong held his breath without realizing it.
It’s really Kang Mujin!
The horrific scene unfolding around him didn’t even register. Only his favorite character, Kang Mujin, was seared into his vision, refusing to disappear. His light brown eyes followed Kang Mujin’s every movement.
In the original novel, he had been exploited his entire life and met a miserable end — but after returning, he took revenge on those who had trampled him and ultimately saved the world.
The reason Eunseong had become so fixated on Kang Mujin was that ruthless tenacity of his. No matter how many times he was knocked down, he got back up — and even when betrayed and left isolated, he never abandoned a path once he had chosen it.
Eunseong hadn’t been able to live that way in real life, which was exactly why he’d fallen even deeper for Kang Mujin.
So he’d read the novel over and over again. Even knowing it was a story already finished, every time Mujin crumbled, he’d wanted to be right there beside him, holding him together.
Eunseong, who had been blankly staring at Kang Mujin, snapped back to awareness and turned his head. The bloodstains he hadn’t registered while zoning out now flooded his vision. Around Kang Mujin, there was monster slime splattered everywhere, along with bloodstains and wreckage left by the Hunters. He barely managed to resist the urge to scream and collapse to the ground.
As Eunseong stood frozen with his lips pressed shut, the nearby Hunters held their breath and exchanged glances. In their eyes, Eunseong looked like he was irritated that the boss hadn’t been dealt with faster.
Just then, Team Leader Park — who had tormented Kang Mujin mercilessly in the original — glanced at Eunseong cautiously and spoke.
“Sir. How about we use that one as bait to buy some time, and once things are safe, finish it off cleanly?”
Team Leader Park pointed at Kang Mujin, who was holding his ground against the boss. There were clearly many Hunters around the boss, yet it was unmistakable who he was pointing at.
“He’s only C-Rank anyway, so even if he dies, it won’t be a hassle. While he keeps the boss occupied, everyone else falls back, and then we hit it all at once — it’ll be over fast.”
It was a flippant tone, as if treating a human life as a disposable commodity.
At those words, Eunseong turned to look at Team Leader Park, the color drained from his face. The very idea of throwing a lower-ranked Hunter — his favorite character, no less — into that ferocious fray as a sacrifice was horrifying.
When Eunseong stared back at him with a cold, hardened expression, Team Leader Park’s shoulders shrank. Interpreting it as anger in his own way, Team Leader Park quickly waved his hand toward the waiting Hunters.
“Everyone except Kang Mujin, fall back! Those are the boss’s orders! Kang Mujin, hold the boss’s attention from there! Everyone else, don’t interfere — fall back!”
“…What? Wait, stop—!”
Eunseong hurriedly opened his mouth, but his voice was swallowed by Team Leader Park’s. At the word that the order had come from the boss, the Hunters hesitated briefly, then began to move.
I never gave that order!
The Hunters were already moving quickly, and without being able to correct the command, Eunseong spun his head around frantically.
No. Kang Mujin is weak right now!
In the end, left completely alone, Kang Mujin was charged at by the boss. The centipede’s razor-sharp tail whipped at him with ferocious force.
“Ugh…!”
Unable to dodge in time, Kang Mujin’s shoulder was ripped open and red blood sprayed out. His gaze — desperately searching for any way to survive — landed on Eunseong standing at the rear of the formation, dressed in his pristine white suit.
……Disgusting bastard.
Deep contempt settled into Kang Mujin’s eyes. Baek Eunseong was always like this. Before the regression, rotting away at the bottom of the guild, he had seen this exact scene dozens of times over.
[‘Shadow Centipede of Vicious Poison’ has entered Phase 2.]
KIGIGIGIGIK!
The centipede’s body swelled, and from dozens of its segments, a blue-tinged toxic mist began to pour out.
“Ah, ARGH! My eyes!”
“Get back! It’s acidic poison!”
The formation collapsed in an instant. Among the fleeing Hunters, only Kang Mujin stood rooted to the spot. Eunseong, who had been watching the whole time, bit down on his lip.
At this rate, he’s actually going to die!
He couldn’t let this continue. Eunseong instinctively searched through the information in his head. The moment he recalled the unique skill belonging to Baek Eunseong, he pushed his trembling legs forward and burst ahead. It wasn’t just about his favorite character dying in front of him — if he moved any further away, he’d be out of the skill’s range.
The surrounding Hunters stopped mid-escape and doubted their own eyes. Everyone was trying to get out of the boss’s attack range, yet the boss — dressed in that pristine white suit — was charging forward toward the boss with a hardened expression.
[Skill ‘Tyrant’s Guidance (A+)’ activated.]
[Target: Kang Mujin]
Eunseong’s vision flooded red. The crushing pressure behind his eyes made him grit his teeth involuntarily.
…Nobody said there was a recoil! My eyeballs are going to pop out!
To have endured this pain raw while using a skill. The original Baek Eunseong was definitely a tough bastard.
[Temporarily acquiring dominion authority over target ‘Kang Mujin’.]
Got it!
A system window indicating the skill had been used appeared alongside the unfamiliar pain. Without taking his eyes off Kang Mujin beyond the blue window, Eunseong kept running to get closer.
At the same time, a deeply unpleasant pressure crashed over Kang Mujin’s entire body as he fought for his life at the front.
“Kang Mujin…!”
Even amid death raging all around him, only Eunseong’s voice — coming from far away — was driven clearly into Kang Mujin’s mind.
[‘Kang Mujin’ has entered the Tyrant’s Forced Awakening state.]
[All physical abilities increased by 30%]
[Pain resistance maximized]
[Time remaining: 04:59]
That damned skill again.
Kang Mujin grimaced at the nauseating sensation of foreign mana seeping through to his very bones. The horrifying revulsion of having control of his own body wrested away by someone else closed around his throat. But to survive, he had to wring out even this loathsome power.
Might as well make use of it.
Kang Mujin’s heart rate quickened by one beat. Along with the surging mana, the excruciating pain from his ripped-open shoulder vanished as if it had been wiped clean.
[Hidden Passive: ‘Inviolable Sanctuary (C-Rank)’ has been forcibly triggered.]
[Partially nullifying externally-infiltrating target manipulation mana.]
Like a crack spreading across glass, a hairline fracture formed in the coercive grip of the ‘Tyrant’s Guidance’ skill binding his entire body. It was the hidden skill Kang Mujin had obtained through his regression, triggered by force. Because its skill level was low, it couldn’t completely negate it — only the coercive force had loosened. Even so, Eunseong’s voice came through with perfect clarity.
While Kang Mujin remained on guard, Eunseong himself was too busy trying to steady his swimming vision to think about anything else. He had forced himself here because of the skill’s range, but the horrific sensation of something squelching underfoot made his skin crawl. In that brief moment, he regretted not just squeezing his eyes shut and running away.
With teeth still clenched, Eunseong barely managed to speak.
“The body — …third segment.”
He was too terrified for his words to come out in a full sentence. But the information contained in them was precise.
To Eunseong, it was a strategy he had memorized from dozens of read-throughs. To Kang Mujin, it was the one and only weak point he had staked his life to find before his regression.
Kang Mujin’s pupils widened ever so slightly.
……He knows the weak point?
