Chapter 39
He entered the Rogue Guild.
‘No Death…’
Black beanie with a white skull.
Long black leather coat. Tight black cotton gloves.
The moment that figure appeared, it was basically confirmed: Bang Hyuk-min had become Black Label’s number one target.
‘I was just thinking about it, and now it’s real.’
Hyuk-min’s tension climbed as he swept his gaze across the room.
People he would’ve never noticed before suddenly looked suspicious. Anyone could be an operative. The thought made his heart pound.
‘This is why you need allies.’
He bit down lightly on his lower lip and checked the time.
6:25 PM.
The sun was already sinking.
The moment it disappeared completely—
The hunt would begin.
Ding.
A text message arrived.
‘Just as I thought.’
It was from Hwang Ji-young.
[The executives moved on their own. I’ll figure out a way, so try to survive somehow. You can do it, right?]
Hyuk-min almost laughed in disbelief.
It was No Death.
Black Label’s top agent. A monster.
Inside Black Label, No Death was a one-man army. True to his name, he never dies—no matter where you ran, no matter where you hid, he will hunt you down.
And yet…
“Even better.”
It sounded insane, but this was the situation Hyuk-min had been waiting for.
Maybe the danger had finally snapped something in him, because he found himself grinning as he stared at Hwang Ji-young’s message.
He typed back immediately.
[Don’t worry. And sorry.]
Then, as if nothing was happening, he got up and walked over to an employee.
With a goal in mind, Hyuk-min started making small talk—something he normally never did.
All while he waited for the sun to go down.
= = =
7:05 PM.
As the sun vanished, Hyuk-min walked out of the Rogue Guild.
It was early for the night crowd, so the place hadn’t been packed to begin with.
Besides, it was Friday. Most people didn’t run Dungeons after sunset unless they had a death wish.
He left the building and stepped past the fence.
Whoosh!
A dagger flew in soundlessly from the side, aimed straight for his neck.
But Hyuk-min’s Agility had already climbed into the three hundreds. His eyes caught it cleanly.
Something like this wouldn’t kill him.
‘They still haven’t figured me out. Did the executives not give them any information about me at all?’
He struck the attacker’s elbow, knocking the angle off, then seized both arms and twisted hard.
Crack!
“Guh—!”
The attacker swallowed the scream.
Hyuk-min kicked him under the chin, dropping him unconscious, and snatched the dagger from his hand.
Then he turned and threw it.
Whoosh—thud!
The dagger punched into someone’s chest without hesitation, tearing through a black leather coat.
A man who’d been sitting in the smoking area earlier.
Black beanie. White skull.
No Death.
Twitch.
‘Three? Four?’
That was how many people moved the instant the blade hit.
‘More importantly…’
No Death stood up with a knife buried in his chest.
He casually pulled it out. The blood smeared thick on the blade told Hyuk-min it had gone deeper than he expected.
‘As expected… a dead man.’
Deep enough to tear organs.
Dead center, where the heart should’ve been.
No Death didn’t even flinch. He hadn’t bothered to dodge. (T/N : It seems like the author has no sense in naming aliases lol. Should we push with No Death? )
‘He’s coming.’
The dagger slipped from No Death’s hand.
Black smoke spilled from his body, and in the blink of an eye he was right in front of Hyuk-min.
The smoke shimmered like heat haze. A hand reached out.
‘Damn it. I can’t fight him like this.’
Thud!
He’d expected pressure. He hadn’t expected the gap to be this brutal.
No Death grabbed Hyuk-min by the neck. The grip was so strong it didn’t matter how hard Hyuk-min tried to peel it off.
With one pull, No Death yanked him out past the fence and slammed him onto the sidewalk.
Bang!
“Ugh.”
No Death’s gaze shifted toward Hyuk-min’s head.
Like always, he was trying to activate PvP Mode to check name and Title.
But—
Smirk.
[Pioneer]
[Bang Hyuk-min]
Hyuk-min had already changed his Title for this.
“You’re smiling?”
“I have something to say. Get rid of the guys around us.”
“Are you in a position to tell me what to do?”
“I think I am.”
Hyuk-min’s grin sharpened.
“No Death.”
No Death’s eyebrows twitched under the beanie.
He was rattled.
Within Black Label, almost no one knew that alias—his code name.
But No Death’s response wasn’t what Hyuk-min expected.
“The reason to kill you just increased.”
Death over conversation.
‘He was even more ruthless back then.’
Squeeze.
His grip tightened, crushing Hyuk-min’s windpipe.
Air refused to pass.
At this rate, he’d black out in seconds.
As expected of Black Label’s top-ranked assassin.
No matter how much stronger Hyuk-min had become, winning against No Death was absurd.
‘I have no choice.’
But “can’t win” only applied before Regression Mode.
‘Regression Mode.’
From here on out, it would be different.
No Death’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second as Hyuk-min’s entire presence changed—like he’d become someone else.
And it wasn’t just appearance.
Squeeze.
Hyuk-min broke No Death’s grip with raw strength alone and drove a fist into his chest.
Pow!
No Death slid back.
The surrounding assassins stared, stunned.
The hesitation lasted less than a heartbeat.
They moved instantly, like a drilled unit.
Blades rushed in from every direction.
Bang! Bang bang!
Gunshots tore through the air—right in the middle of Seoul.
Snipers.
Black Label, just like Hyuk-min had been waiting for.
But Hyuk-min knew Black Label better than anyone right now.
Thud!
He grabbed the first attacker by the neck and yanked him up as a shield.
Rattle—rattle rattle!
“Cough—! Cough cough…!”
Bullets ripped into the man’s body. Blood sprayed. Pavement sparked and tore.
The snipers stopped the moment they realized their mistake.
And that brief pause—
That was what Hyuk-min wanted.
He dropped the dying assassin.
The Immortal Demon Sword was already in his hand.
He drove it into the next assassin’s chest.
Thud!
“Ugh…”
Speed that didn’t fit his frame.
The moment was short, but it was enough to make the difference in skill obvious.
Still, he was the number one target.
The attacks didn’t stop.
He could see the snipers re-aiming in the distance. The nearby assassins tightened their grips, ready to rush again.
‘Plan B. I kill them all.’
Hyuk-min poured mana into the Immortal Demon Sword and prepared the Railgun.
He was about to fire in every direction—
“Stop.”
No Death’s voice cut in from behind, cold and absolute.
Every assassin froze at once.
Hyuk-min also halted and turned.
“Go back and tell them.”
No Death raised a hand and gripped empty air.
As he slowly lowered it, a long sword emerged as if pulled from nothing.
Hyuk-min’s eyes widened.
‘Inventory? He had an Inventory this early?’
The surprise didn’t last.
Black smoke rolled off No Death thicker than before.
No Death stood there with a sword in hand, smoke spilling from his body.
The Grim Reaper of Black Label.
Whoosh!
There was no footstep.
No sound of acceleration.
Jet-black smoke streaked through the assassins and arrived in front of Hyuk-min in an instant.
Clang!!
No Death’s sword met the Immortal Demon Sword in Hyuk-min’s hand.
Hyuk-min was in Regression Mode.
“The number one target the executives requested,” No Death said. “I’ll take care of it today.”
= = =
Clang! Clang clang!
Black smoke churned in dizzying swirls.
Inside it, flashes of light sparked with each clash of metal—brief, violent, and sharp.
Thud!
Hyuk-min’s Immortal Demon Sword pierced straight through No Death’s chest.
Right where the heart should’ve been.
Gush!
Blood spilled from No Death’s mouth.
A wound that should’ve killed a man in minutes.
But No Death smiled deeply.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
“Why do you think that?”
“You deliberately stabbed me the moment the agents disappeared.”
Swish.
He pulled the sword out of his body as if it didn’t matter.
“You’re right. I wanted to talk.”
“A conversation in this state?”
The blade had gone through his heart.
Even a hospital wouldn’t save him now.
Hyuk-min snorted.
“What are you talking about? You don’t die.”
No Death’s eyebrows twitched.
And to prove it—
Whoosh.
No Death’s head, which had sagged as if lifeless, snapped up.
He swung.
Clang!!
Steel locked between them again.
Hyuk-min’s eyes flicked to No Death’s chest.
Unharmed.
As if the sword had never gone in.
Hyuk-min smiled.
“You’re a dead man. That’s why everyone backed off earlier. Because you don’t die.”
Clang!!
No Death shoved hard, forcing distance between them.
He raised his sword over his shoulder and spoke, voice clipped.
“What are you?”
“Should we talk?”
“Is that why the executives picked you as the number one target? Because you—someone who should be nothing—know more about Black Label than you should?”
“I can’t say that’s not part of it,” Hyuk-min said lightly. “I’m a Legendary Title Holder, after all.”
“Ha.”
No Death let out a hollow laugh, as if the answer itself was ridiculous.
“No Death. I know you. I probably know you better than anyone in this world.”
“We just met. You’re mistaking me for someone else.”
“Well,” Hyuk-min said, smile deepening, “an old man over a hundred years old might not remember.”
The playfulness drained out of No Death’s face.
In contrast, something else rose in Hyuk-min’s grin.
Nostalgia.
How did he know No Death?
In his past life, No Death had been—
The only ally Hyuk-min could trust after betrayal and death.
‘If No Death had been there, I wouldn’t have died so pointlessly.’
An ally who left to chase his dream just before Hyuk-min’s end.
The first name Hyuk-min had written in his notebook when he started searching for allies in this life.
‘Good to see you, No Death.’
A dead man.
A name that meant someone already dead.
Someone who had no “next death” because death had already happened.
The only Hidden Class holder in the world who couldn’t die even if he wanted to.
“The more you talk,” No Death said, “the more annoyed I get.”
His face twisted, and the black smoke unique to the dead man erupted.
“Spirit Materialization?”
“I have enough of this. You… have to die.”
The smoke sharpened into a single line and shot toward Hyuk-min.
A speed Hyuk-min could never have followed before Regression Mode.
But now—
Hyuk-min looked straight at the incoming blade and spoke, smiling.
A single sentence that could stop No Death.
A sentence prepared for this exact moment.
The reason No Death had left Hyuk-min’s side in the past.
“I’ll kill you.”
Thud!
No Death’s sword stopped inches from Hyuk-min’s chest.
“What…?”
“I’ll kill you. You, the dead man.”
“….”
“Curious?” Hyuk-min said softly. “I know. I know the method you’ve been searching for your whole life. How to…”
He pinched the blade with two fingers and slowly lowered it.
No Death’s sword dropped, limp.
Hyuk-min’s smile widened.
“Want to join me?”