Solo Leveling : Ragnarok - Chapter 145
The Sea of the Afterlife.
In the endless darkness, Kang Taesik’s soul was falling.
‘…Is this death?’
The moment of pain was brief, yet the moment of death felt excruciatingly long.
A fleeting instant.
The abyss, seemingly eternal, dragged his soul downward.
As he continued to plummet, Kang Taesik’s soul… was seeing his life flash before his eyes.
Fragments of his past unfolded in a panoramic display before him.
And in every single moment—he was taking a life.
‘Killing, killing, killing…’
Kang Taesik suddenly looked down at his blood-soaked hands.
Yes.
Ever since he awakened his abilities, he had killed countless people with these very hands.
There was never a day when they were free from blood.
Even he knew how insane that was… but he enjoyed it.
However, that period lasted only two years.
Before that, he had committed petty crimes and had even been caught by the police a few times, but he had only started fully embracing murder as a villain hunter for the past two years.
…But then.
—Swish!
As the visions continued, Kang Taesik’s past self regressed further and further in age.
And at the very end, that memory surfaced.
‘…Yes, that was the beginning.’
In that instant, as he fell into the abyss of death, his eyes gleamed with a ghostly blue light.
—Flash!
At that moment, a scene appeared before him—a boy being beaten.
“You worthless little bastard! If it weren’t for you! Die! Die! Die! Just get the hell out and die!”
“Aaah! D-Dad…! I was wrong! Aah! Please! It hurts too much…! Aah!”
A shattered liquor bottle.
A cramped, filthy room.
There, a drunken man was mercilessly trampling on a small boy.
In that memory, the boy’s body was always covered in bruises, and he was always crying out, screaming.
Saying it hurt.
Begging him to stop.
Apologizing for whatever he had done.
But the more he pleaded, the harsher the beatings became.
For years, this brutal violence continued—until the boy finally realized something.
If he didn’t want to be beaten anymore…
He had to become stronger.
The first step to becoming stronger was learning to hold back his tears.
—Hic! Hic…!
No matter how much it hurt, no matter how terrifying it was, if he covered his mouth and suppressed even the smallest whimper, the beatings lessened. Just a little.
And he had to erase his presence as much as possible.
To avoid provoking his father’s wrath.
No—he had to become invisible altogether.
If he made a sound, his father would wake up.
Then his father would drink again.
Then… he would beat him again.
So he had to exist as if he weren’t there.
He had to hold his breath, making sure that terrifying, powerful man’s rage never turned toward him.
And then, one day—
‘…Ah.’
The boy realized something.
There was an easy, simple way to never be beaten again.
‘Ah, this will work.’
Why had he never thought of it before?
It had been so obvious from the start.
And so, at seven years old, Kang Taesik—
With his small hands—
‘Killed his father.’
That was the first murder Kang Taesik ever committed.
And surprisingly, no one had ever found out.
No—no one had ever even questioned it.
After all, who would ever suspect that a seven-year-old child had killed his own father?
Not the police. Not the doctors.
Everything had simply been dismissed as an accident.
Just another drunkard who died in a drunken mishap.
And so—
The boy who had erased the existence of his father from the world with his own hands looked down at his bloodstained palms and realized something.
‘I am strong.’
Yes.
He had been strong all along.
Strong enough to kill his terrifying father.
And with that realization, an overwhelming shudder of pleasure coursed through Kang Taesik’s body.
Ah, yes.
All he had to do was kill.
No matter how frightening.
No matter how powerful.
‘Because all humans die.’
From that moment on, Kang Taesik was afraid of nothing.
He was strong now.
If he set his mind to it, he could kill anyone.
Of course, he wasn’t some crazed criminal who went around killing at random.
He had simply come to understand that murder was a viable solution.
Time passed, and then the Great Cataclysm struck Earth.
Beasts emerged.
Kang Taesik was lucky enough to awaken as a Hunter, and when he first saw the monsters tearing people apart, he let out a sigh.
‘What, so they’re really no different?’
They just looked a little unusual.
In the end, anyone could kill—beasts or not.
No, if anything, throughout all of human history, more people had been killed by their own kind than by monsters.
To be honest, it was underwhelming.
And then—
‘The Association President’ came looking for him.
“Kang Taesik. You awakened recently, right?”
“…What do you want? I’ve been keeping a low profile lately.”
“I know. That’s exactly why I’m here.”
“What the hell is this old man talking about?”
At first, he was dumbfounded by the sudden visit.
Woo Jin-Cheol, the President of the Hunter Association, was the very officer who had personally put cuffs on his wrists when he was caught for petty crimes in the past.
And yet, out of nowhere, he had established some strange organization called the Hunter Association.
And now—what?
“I was thinking about what to do with you, and I came up with a good idea.”
Woo Jin-Cheol gave him a meaningful smile and suddenly made a bizarre proposal.
“Kang Taesik, I’ve created an official bounty hunter license for you.”
“What the hell is that?”
“In other words, it’s a government-issued license to kill.”
“…Are you insane?”
“Why? You don’t like it?”
“…”
The smug look on his face, as if he was sure Kang Taesik would accept his offer, was annoying as hell.
In the end, Kang Taesik couldn’t refuse Woo Jin-Cheol’s offer.
Honestly, it was too enticing.
People he was allowed to kill.
And he would even get paid for it.
‘Yeah. Killing people is way easier and more fun than killing beasts.’
Thus, Kang Taesik became a bounty hunter, and over the past two years, he had personally slain hundreds of villains with his own two hands.
‘Heh. I really killed a lot.’
As his soul wandered through the Sea of the Afterlife, he chuckled to himself, reliving each and every one of those deaths.
But why?
Why was it that the more he saw their accumulated deaths in his mind, the deeper his soul was being consumed by darkness?
From within the darkness, countless hands emerged like vengeful ghosts, dragging his soul further into the abyss.
‘Let go, you bastards! I can’t breathe…! Gah…!’
Only now did he realize—this abyss was one he had carved out himself.
And then—
[Kehehe. What a deliciously wretched spirit we have here.]
‘…!’
A voice. An old man’s laughter echoed from beyond the darkness, making Kang Taesik’s soul tremble.
An instinctive revulsion overwhelmed him.
At that moment, he realized something terrifying—his soul was trapped at the center of a ritual circle woven from crimson threads.
Like an intricate spider’s web, it held him tightly, refusing to let go.
And then—
[Come forth. I shall personally transform you into a Maeryung.]
A withered hand suddenly emerged from the darkness, grabbing him by the hair and yanking him upward.
‘Aaaaaagh…!’
A searing pain, as if his limbs were being torn from his body, consumed him.
Kang Taesik screamed in agony, thrashing desperately to break free from the old man’s grasp.
But to the old man, this was nothing more than a bit of amusement.
[Kehehe. What a delightful scream. You are a perfect specimen for becoming a Maeryung.]
‘Aaaaaaagh!’
[Yes, that’s it. Devour all the sins you have committed with your own hands. The process will be excruciating, but if you endure it…]
From beyond the darkness, the old man grinned, revealing sharp, white teeth.
[…You shall be reborn as a thoroughly corrupted soul, destined to feel that pain for all eternity!]
――――――!
The crimson ritual circle was complete.
The old man’s massive hand clenched around Kang Taesik’s soul, lifting him into the air.
[Kehehe! Now, arise, my fallen Maeryung! From this moment forth, you are mine—!]
And then—
“Arise.”
From the farthest reaches of the abyss, a single strand of darkness descended upon Kang Taesik’s soul.
—CRACK!
That darkness shredded the crimson ritual circle apart.
[W-What is this…?!]
The old man recoiled in shock, his grip on Kang Taesik’s soul slipping.
‘Ah… this power…’
Dragged upward by that darkness, Kang Taesik’s soul trembled for an entirely different reason.
‘T-These memories… what are they…?’
Suddenly, memories buried deep within his past began to resurface, flashing before his eyes.
And in those memories—he was always covered in blood, dying.
And before his dying self, there stood a man, staring down at him with chilling indifference.
“Let me ask you something.”
Meeting that piercing gaze, his past self spoke.
“What the hell are you? An assassin-class Hunter using healing magic… and even debuffs? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
But instead of answering, the man posed a question of his own.
“If I grow stronger with every battle I fight… how strong do you think I can become?”
“Hah…”
The absurdity of the question made Kang Taesik laugh dryly.
Did he really not know the answer?
“Your shadow… is connected to the abyss.”
“As deep as that darkness goes… that’s how strong you will become.”
—Whoosh!
Two deaths.
Two lives.
At the end of it all—
Kang Taesik’s soul walked back into the world.
[Shadow Assassin Lv.1] (T/N: This is awesome. I think this is the first time we’ll be having a Shadow Assassin)
[Knight Rank]
—Whoosh.
His entire body now shrouded in black mist, Kang Taesik knelt before the one who had summoned him—Suho.
Then, his eyes gleamed with an utterly ruthless intent as he spoke with utmost reverence.
[Who do you want me to kill?]
“……”
And in that moment, a thought crossed his mind.
The way Suho looked down at him from above…
It was eerily similar to the gaze of the man who had once killed him.
Suho’s cold eyes then shifted toward the horde of villains surrounding them—murderers who had slaughtered the innocent villagers and seized the town for themselves.
There was no mercy for them.
“Kill them all.”
[…As you command.]
The moment Suho’s order fell—
Kang Taesik, the Shadow Assassin, vanished from sight.