I will be the Strongest

Chapter 5

"I-I am..." Trembling, a man crawled backward on the floor. He hurled the chair beside him at the figure before him. "I am your father! You can't do this to me!"

"Father..? Ha!" A sneer formed on the figure's face. For a brief moment, a smile full of disdain appeared. "What a bad joke."

After placing the chair that had been thrown at her back on the floor, she sat down. "This will be the first and last time. Don't make me come to this place again, or else..."

The house shook. Looking around, with walls cracking, windows shattering one by one, and parts of the ceiling falling beside him, the man wondered if he would truly die that day.

"I'll make you wish you never sought us out," she continued. She stood up, walked past the terrified man, and headed toward the door. "So don't think about contacting us again, and definitely don't use his name ever again. This is my final warning."

With a touch, the door fell. Outside, people were looking around in terror.

Cracks had appeared in the streets, from one end to the other. Entire houses, those that were nothing special, were completely destroyed, while those with components imbued with mana for added strength cracked from the inside out.

No one was hurt. At least not physically. No one except the terrified man inside the house, paralyzed in front of an empty chair.

At that moment, anyone could say that the man was in a vegetative state. Which would not be an exaggeration if he were just an ordinary person. But no, he is an S-rank hunter.

The sight he saw, the eyes that stared at him for just over three seconds, carried such immense power and pressure that these mere seconds were enough to break his mind and make it never return to normal. But not to kill him or completely incapacitate him.

Perhaps one day he might recover, not completely, but enough to remember that conversation even in his dreams, that sensation, that fear, he will certainly recall everything.

"I think we have a problem..." the figure said on a call as she walked away from the place.

"What did you do? Wasn't it just supposed to be a conversation?"

"I talked to him... But I think I overdid it a bit..."

"And what happened?"

"The neighborhood, or was it a condo? Well, I don't think this place was well built; the houses here are very fragile."

"You destroyed the entire condo?!" exclaimed the voice on the phone. Knowing what was coming next, the figure pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment. "...Did anyone see this happen?"

"No, why?"

"Then why are you wasting time? Get out of there now, you i***t! Are you kidding me?! Do you know how many problems I already have to solve without you guys constantly causing more?"

"Sorry..."

"That i***t you call president requested a meeting, and now you have to go to another country just to cause problems!?"

"Sorry..."

"Sorry? Come back now! I need a vacation urgently, and you're going to take my place."

"...Okay..."

****************

Reclined on a sumptuous bed, spacious enough to accommodate three people of his stature, the manager looked as terrified as he had been when trapped in the dungeon, surrounded by threatening lamias and gigantic basilisks.

With silent and cautious movements, he got up and walked toward the richly decorated wooden door near the bed, a direct passage to the kitchen.

The imposing white door on the other side of the room opened.

"I just left here. It's not possible that he is already..."

The manager froze. He glanced to the side. His eyes met those of the two young people who had just passed through the white door; twins, a boy and a girl.

The young people smiled.

The manager trembled. He closed his eyes and raised his arms in a defensive gesture as if preparing for an attack. In moments, the comforting warmth that enveloped him made him relax and embrace the twins.

Seconds later, still embracing, two blows simultaneously hit his stomach.

"What did I say?" asked the boy. "I warned you that we can't continue with this outdated method of evaluating candidates. Why didn't you listen to me?"

"That's true," the girl agreed. "What would have happened if the dungeon had turned into a high-rank one? Those fools, just because nothing had happened in Asia until now, they think they're different?"

"If it had...?" the manager wondered, slowly crawling back to the bed. He struggled to climb onto the bed and let his body fall onto the covers.

"Do you know what monsters inhabited that place?" he asked, holding his hand where he was hit.

"They were bugbears, weren't they?" the boy replied. "Luckily, they were D-rank monsters. What would you have done if C-rank or higher monsters appeared?"

"Bugbears?!" the manager exclaimed. He sat up abruptly on the bed, ignoring the pain from the punches. "Who told you that...?"

"Who else?" said the boy. "The model who was with you. The other survivor."

"Model..?"

"Yes, you also saw how handsome he was."

"Yes, but he's not a model. I already researched..."

The manager's laughter interrupted the girl.

"Bugbears, huh... Why did he say that?"

"What do you mean? Weren't those the monsters in that dungeon?"

"29 people lost their lives. Would we have had so many casualties if they were just bugbears?"

The twins sat beside him. "Then what was it?" they asked.

The manager looked at them. "They were lamias," he revealed.

"Lamias? But those creatures have never been seen before, and it's speculated that they are top C-rank monsters...!" The twins exchanged a worried but curious look. "So how did you survive?"

"How did we survive...? Ah, maybe that's why he made up that story. That boy was already level 131 before even entering any dungeon."

The twins exchanged looks again. "How? That's impossible!"

"Missions."

"Missions...?"

"Yes, according to him, he receives four missions a day, and each one gives him a point."

"Even so, it would be impossible to reach level 131 without entering any dungeon."

"True," the girl agreed. "It would take decades, even for us. For others, probably hundreds of years."

"It could be," the manager said, "but missions aren't the only thing that sets him apart from us."

"What else? Tell us."

"To level up, he only needs the number of points equivalent to his current level."

"What...?" the boy asked, confused.

"It means that if he were at level 10, he would only need ten points to reach eleven, idiot."

"I already understood, imbecile..."

"You shouldn't be so impressed. Not when you have these ridiculous systems."

Even though 42 years have passed since the emergence of portals and systems, the criteria for creating systems remain a mystery.

However, with the discovery of differences in the speed at which different hunters level up, a theory has emerged: the system is created based on one's ability to sense, understand, and receive mana.

In the end, it all comes down to natural talent. And in this regard, when compared to normal hunters, the twins are simply "monsters."

"And I don't know if it will be the same in all dungeons where lamias appear, but the boss of this one was absurdly strong."

"What level was it?"

"Level... I don't even know if it had one."

"What?" The twins looked at each other, both confused.

"I don't know if the level of that creature could be measured by current standards."

"Okay, but what was it?" asked the boy, clearly excited.

"One, no, two colossal serpents that stretched for hundreds of meters." After a brief pause, the manager continued, "Actually, the white one was like that. That other monster didn't even fit in the space where the lamias were, in the place where the dungeon should have been. To see it, it simply destroyed the entire place and made us fall freely towards it. It was like a second dungeon, much larger, but lifeless. Everything there was stone, no matter where you looked."

"And what happened?" the twins asked, both excited.

The manager smiled. "I don't know..." he replied. "That demonic creature had the power to turn everyone who looked directly into its eyes into stone. And I was the lucky one."

"Then how did you get out of there?" the girl asked. "This creature seems to be at least S-rank, maybe even higher. So how did you survive?"

"I have no idea..." The manager looked into the twins' eyes. For a few moments, something sharp seemed to pierce his chest. "Honestly... while running from the white serpent and hearing the others being killed one by one... I had already lost hope. But when I saw that monster that made the previous one look like just a cub... I... I accepted that I was already dead."

Silence filled the room. The twins lowered their heads. Even with the manager speaking so naturally, they finally understood how frightening the situation had been. The fear they faced against an enemy they could never defeat... The two knew it well.

"We'll let you rest now," said the boy. "Oh, and don't even think about going to work in that place again. You're fired. Now you're a manager of the Twins guild."

"Wait! What? What's the difference between us?"

The twins looked at each other. They smiled as they walked through the door. "We are strong," they replied.

Their laughter even infected the manager, who still felt the pain from the blows, making him smile. "Don't forget, don't tell anyone about this!" he shouted.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!..." A more intense pain followed that scream. He writhed on the bed, clutching his stomach, but the smile on his face didn't fade. Even amidst the pain, there was a sense of relief and joy. He was alive. And that was what mattered most.

***************

"Uff..."

[You have completed the daily missions:

Run 5,000 kilometers while holding your breath

Do 10,000 squats

Do 10,000 push-ups

Do 10,000 sit-ups]

[The missions were excessively completed]

[10 times the required amount was done]

[The secret reward has already been received once]

[Points will be doubled]

[You received 8 points]

[Status

Level: 150

Strength: 330

Agility: 330

Endurance: 330]

Sitting on an outdoor bench, Hye leaned his head back, resting his body against the back of the bench, and sighed. Looking towards the sky, his eyes seemed to be looking beyond everything, beyond all those clouds.

He was alive. I am alive. But how? How did we get out of that place? How did that monster... And more importantly, what was that voice...?

He sighed again and closed his eyes after covering them with one of his arms.

Despite everything that had happened, despite seeing death apparently inevitable before his eyes, as if nothing had happened, his mind was as calm as it should be possible.

His goal, in part, had been fulfilled. Not that it changed anything. It was brief, only a few seconds, but he finally understood how other people feel.

Nervousness, anxiety, and a strange whirlwind of indescribable emotions, all experienced for the first time in a short period. Unlike he imagined, his trip to Korea did not seem completely useless.

He rested his arm on the bench, but, unlike expected, for some reason, the sunlight did not seem to reach his eyes. Slowly, Hye opened his eyes.

Those stellar blue eyes more beautiful than anything. Those golden hairs that gently landed on his face. Something had happened again. Faced with that indescribable beauty, that dazzling smile, his heart raced.

"Hello again, how have you been?"

That hypnotic voice. Hye didn’t even notice. How could he? He was too busy admiring that unparalleled beauty while his mind seemed to be entering shock, in a deep and constant trance.

"Huh? Seriously? This again?"

[Syncing...]