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Translator: Vine
Chapter Title: Master-Disciple Journey (5)
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It was when Baek Seol-hee was five years old, just beginning to run and learning about the world, one step at a time.
The world back then was monochrome.
It was an era of chaos, where you had to kill if you didn't want to die.
Gates had appeared, and monsters that burst forth from them indiscriminately slaughtered people.
Of course, even then, Lina, the Sun of Korea, was actively working, and the Velvet Hunter Academy had been established, but it was still a clumsy period, before everything had truly been set right.
Especially the area where Baek Seol-hee lived was a slum, still untouched by hunters.
It was a high-crime area.
"—God is wroth, and the end of the world has come! Everyone, pray! If you pray earnestly, you will shed your mortal flesh and awaken!"
The streets were overrun with Gate doomsayers, who preached that the Gates were a punishment from a god fed up with human arrogance.
"—That's mine! I found it first!"
"—Ha, possession is nine-tenths of the law, what's yours or mine? Take it if you dare."
Law and order had long since collapsed, people couldn't trust each other, and violence, theft, and rape were everyday occurrences.
In such a land where strength was the standard, if one was lucky enough to awaken,
they might have been treated like nobility and even lived a more prosperous life than before.
Unfortunately, Baek Seol-hee's family consisted of two ordinary parents.
In other words, they were people from the lowest class.
Because of this, Baek Seol-hee's family had no choice but to live in a shabby, single-room dwelling in the slum, where water and electricity were cut off, and the roof leaked when it rained, constantly hungry.
Even then, Baek Seol-hee was, in her own way, happy.
"Honey, the food we ate yesterday, it hasn't gone bad yet, has it?"
"Hmm, it has a little mold, but if we just cut that part off, I think it'll be edible."
"You and Seol-hee share that, and give me the moldy part."
In a world where even blood relatives betray each other,
she had grown up under parents who still cherished the old value of family.
Such a humble yet precious daily life was shattered
when a group of Awakened individuals settled in the slum.
"Ahahah! Let's start here! No matter what happens here, that damned Lina won't care anyway!"
They had gained powers different from ordinary civilians through awakening,
but instead of hunting monsters with that power, they sought to hunt humans and lord over them.
At that time, such individuals were not called 'Demons,' but 'Villains.'
"Alright, from now on, I'm going to sweep this place clean, so drag out all those hidden rats!!"
CRASH! BOOM! BANG!—
When the woman with the massive forearms swung her arm heavily,
the already dilapidated buildings collapsed in an instant.
"Aaaah! P-Please, save me!"
"I'll—I'll go out! I'll go out, just please, not my house!"
"Kya ha ha ha ha ha ha!! See? It would've been better if you'd come out when I first told you to, huh?"
The nightmare of the slum began that day.
Every space to lie down was destroyed, the area scorched to the ground.
Everyone who had been hiding, holding their breath, was dragged out by them.
And the Villains made those people they'd dragged out build a new stronghold.
"Alright, alright! Move it, quickly! Build it cleanly! You saw what happens if you don't, right? If you want to live your whole life as a cripple with one leg missing, then feel free to be lazy!"
A kingdom for them, by them, to serve them.
And in that hell,
Baek Seol-hee's family was no exception.
"Heh, nice eyes, aren't they? Yes, you'll do."
"Se-Seol-hee! N-No!!!"
Among them, Baek Seol-hee was forcibly separated from her parents and dragged away by a woman.
Her face was covered in white powder, and bright red lipstick was smeared all the way to her temples.
She called herself 'Joker,'
but 'Red Mask,' as the other Villains called her, suited her more.
"What? Why'd you keep this brat alive? Kids just eat up food, why not just kill her?"
"Ah, this one's an experiment for my ability, an experimental subject. I'm curious what'll happen if I use my power weakly, you know? And if she dies because it's too strong, that's fine, and if she lives a long time, then I get to see her suffer for a long, long time, so that's good too..."
"...Crazy Red Mask bitch. Enough with the act. You fake psycho."
Other Villains hurled a word or two at her, shook their heads, and left,
but Red Mask didn't seem to have any intention of giving up.
She was an Awakened individual with the ability to turn the blood flowing in her body into a deadly poison.
*Slice*—
She sliced her finger with a kitchen knife.
Then she pushed the flowing blood towards Baek Seol-hee.
"Here, drink it?"
"...No."
At first, Baek Seol-hee clenched her mouth shut and resisted, refusing to drink it.
But each time, the woman chuckled and said,
"You really won't drink it? Then I'll make your mom and dad drink this instead?"
"Wow, what an unfilial daughter. Unfilial. If parents die because of a bad kid, what a dog's death, right?"
"Heh heh heh, you know your dad's quite handsome, and there are lots of people eyeing him, right? But why do you think no one can lay a hand on him? It's because *I'm* protecting him."
"Alright, alright, so hurry and drink it? Come on, if you drink this, your family won't be touched~"
If she didn't drink that blood, her family would die.
Young and powerless as she was, Baek Seol-hee had no other choice.
She had no choice but to bite her lip and say,
"...I'll drink it. I'll drink it!!!"
Then, Red Mask grinned—and clapped loudly.
"Good, good, you made a wise choice! Now, gulp, gulp—that's a good girl!"
*Drip, drip*—
One drop.
Another drop.
Blood drops falling into her mouth.
Revolting, metallic-smelling blood slid down her throat.
She wanted to vomit her churning stomach contents right away, but.
She swallowed it all down.
Soon, the potent poison seeped into her body.
A scorching pain, as if her body was on fire, flared throughout her.
"Cough!!!"
Baek Seol-hee, veins bulging all over her body, clutched her throat and vomited black blood onto the floor.
*Splatter*—
The black blood she vomited splattered onto Red Mask's shoe.
Red Mask's face immediately hardened.
"...Ugh, damn it. Disgusting. Tsk. I thought this would be fun. It's totally boring."
Baek Seol-hee trembled like a paralyzed frog.
Red Mask looked down at her with eyes that had lost all interest.
"Should I just kill her? Hmm, no. No. Ah, how about raping her dad and killing him right in front of this bitch? Oh? That actually sounds pretty good?"
*Touch her family.*
*Flash.*
Baek Seol-hee's murderous eyes shot upwards.
Even so, Red Mask snorted.
"Ha, what are you looking at, bitch? You look like you're about to die. I'll give you a good show for your last moments."
With that, Red Mask grabbed Baek Seol-hee by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up as if she were an object.
At that moment, something entered Baek Seol-hee's vision.
It was the kitchen knife she had used to cut her finger, hanging at her waist.
*I have to grab that.*
Instinctively, that thought dominated Baek Seol-hee's mind.
However, her body, already poisoned, refused to move.
'Please, please, please───!'
She gritted her teeth and forced her arm to move.
And at that moment.
*Ding!—*
A clear bell sound, entirely out of place with the current situation, rang in her mind.
And with that bell sound,
her body moved.
*Whoosh!*—
*Grab!*
Baek Seol-hee moved her arm and succeeded in snatching the kitchen knife.
"...You, how—"
Red Mask's eyes widened in surprise, but.
*STAB!*
"Gaaahhhh..."
The woman, whose throat was already pierced, could only make a deflated wheezing sound, unable to say anything more.
She stared wide-eyed, as if wronged, but with her throat already pierced, death was the inevitable outcome.
*Thud.*
Red Mask collapsed right there.
"..."
It was the moment the Slaughterous Madwoman awakened.
* * *
"...This is insane—! Th-Three are already dead!"
"Dammit—!"
"Kill her! Kill that brat!!!!"
CRASH! BOOM! BANG!—
*Whoosh!*
Various Villains recklessly unleashed their abilities, trying to catch Baek Seol-hee,
but she used her small body to move through the terrain of the slum.
And, if she saw a Villain who had separated from the group, she would approach, holding her breath behind them.
*Slash*—
She sliced their neck.
"Ugh—"
*Thud.*
Another Villain collapsed.
The moment she held the kitchen knife in her hand, she already knew.
How to wield it.
How to slash to kill an opponent in one go.
And how to hunt efficiently.
This was possible because she had blossomed with S-rank sword mastery and the traits [Swiftness] and [Intuition].
Originally, the insane talent of S-rank swordplay was a rarity, perhaps one or two individuals in the entire world.
In other words, it was the absolute limit of talent a human could be born with.
S-rank meant that.
Rather, Utopia, where S-rank talents were abundant, was an utterly bizarre place.
There was no way the Villains, who had merely tried to lord over a slum, could catch someone like her.
As time passed, the Villains realized that they weren't chasing her,
but rather, they were being hunted themselves.
"Fuck, we escaped one monster brat and now there's *another* monster brat!!"
"Insane... Fuck, we got into the wrong place. Damn it!! Where did all the others go?! Did they all die to just one person?"
"Who the hell was the bitch who said we should come to this kind of place to escape Lina!!!"
And then, Baek Seol-hee, realizing she no longer needed to hide, finally revealed herself before them.
In one hand, she held a bright red kitchen knife, stained with blood.
A small girl with long black hair and deep-set black eyes.
*Step*—
*Step*—
As she approached, the Villains, gripped by fear, stumbled backward.
"I-Insane!"
"Don't come any closer!! You monster bitch!!"
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!!"
Then, the woman with the massive forearms suddenly seemed to remember something and shouted.
"Hey! Earlier! Bring out this bitch's mom and dad!"
"..."
In that instant, Baek Seol-hee kicked off the ground, knowing she couldn't let this happen, but.
Her mother and father were taken hostage first.
"Hey, you! Do you want to see your mom and dad's heads fall off!?"
The woman with the massive forearms grabbed her mother's and father's heads with each hand and thrust them forward towards Baek Seol-hee.
"...Ah."
And upon seeing that scene, Baek Seol-hee's eyes wavered violently.
"Se-Seol-hee! We're fine!"
"It's okay! Don't worry about us—"
"Shut up!"
*Crunch!*—
As she squeezed her hands,
"Ugh—"
"Gah!"
Her mother and father grimaced in pain.
'What... what do I do?'
What on earth should she do?
Baek Seol-hee didn't know.
She knew she had become strong.
But not strong enough to save her family from that Villain's grasp.
If only she had more, *more* power, she could have saved her family...
'What, what on earth should I...!'
It was then.
*Whoosh!*—
"Gasp...!?"
Suddenly, a pure white light descended from the sky without any warning.
The light shone down on the Villain, her mother, and her father.
And in an instant, it erased only the Villain without a trace.
"...Huh?"
When she looked up at the sky,
she could see it.
A small girl with twin purple pigtails
slowly descending from the sky, wearing an unfittingly arrogant expression.
"Did you truly think you could escape Lina's grasp, you trash?"
That was the first meeting between Director Lina and Baek Seol-hee.