From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 43: Heracles. Pt. 4

A blaze began to burn on one side of the massive and broad Catalyon Mountain. Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread; only the smoke that had drifted from the embers filled the sky.

Then, some people came, following the smoke.

“What is that?”

A colossal giant and a handsome man, Demetrios and George from Olympus, appeared. The two had arrived at the origin from where the smoke had risen.

"S…save us."

"Please save us!"

To their surprise, they encountered some Hunters crying out for salvation. These people had been restrained and tied up tightly, and their eyes were fixed on the forest before them.

“Grrrr…”

“Growl!”

They looked over and saw red eyes glowing from within the leaves. As if drawn by the smoke, they had been surrounded by numerous Catalyon lions. All of these beasts were waiting for an opening while watching their prey through the foliage.

“Fuck off.”

However, the giant Demetrios exuded a vicious aura, making it impossible for these lions to easily approach.

Eventually, the beasts only fled after Demetrios turned a few of their fellows into blood.

“Growl!”

They turned tail at an incredible speed, even faster than one would expect for monsters in an A-Grade Gate. That was how overwhelming his power was.

“T…Thank you!”

"Thank you for saving us!"

The restrained hunters spoke over and over again, offering their gratitude repeatedly. Finally, they looked over at their savior in relief that they had actually been able to survive.

“...”

“...”

A giant man sat there, awaiting their reaction. This was the first time they got a good look at the man who had rescued them from the circling lions. They began to tremble as if they had seen a ghost, sweating with anxiety. Even the lions hadn’t scared them this much.

Demetrios picked at his ears as he commented, “Who are these fools?”

George saw the logo embroidered on their chest and answered, “They look like they are from Bolgin.”

"Bolgin?"

George explained, “It’s a secret organization in Africa. They are notorious for their vile actions, using the power they have to engage in drug trafficking as well as kidnapping children.”

"Oh, Africa?"

Demetrios’ original mission had been in Africa, so he shook his head as if there was something off.

“And these guys are…”

George walked over to them from behind Demetrios, close enough to touch them with an outstretched hand. The Borgin Hunters simply trembled without saying anything.

“...are the ones who attacked you at the entrance to the gate.”

“What?” Demetrios snapped.

George sighed. “Are you really an idiot? Are you telling me that you don’t even remember the faces of the punks that attacked you?”

“That’s…”

Demetrios was too embarrassed to say that it was too difficult to tell because of the smoke in the air.

“I already knew that…” he eventually said in a low voice that George couldn't hear.

"P…please help us!" one screamed.

"We made a mistake,” the rest howled.

Thud! Thud!

Demetrios approached them, his steps shaking the ground.

“Hmm.”

Demetrios looked at them and thought for a moment.

“I actually quite like punks like you.”

The Battle of Champions was a platform made for battle. It wasn’t wrong for people to unite and join forces for it. Demetrios rather liked it when people did whatever they could in an attempt to win somehow.

Of course…

“Except for the part where you don’t follow the rules.”

The Hunters’ faces changed with every passing word Demetrios spoke. Hope that they could survive for a moment had reigned, but then the next part seemed to signal their upcoming deaths.

Thud! Thud!

Demetrios struck them with a clenched fist and a blank expression.

"In your next life, live by the rules."

Even if it was the Battle of Champions between Hunters who risked life or death, there were still some basic rules. It was heavily forbidden to attack someone at the entrance of the gate where people were the most vulnerable. Demetrios was most fond of trying to win in any way possible within the rules. He absolutely abhorred trying to win by any means and methods that would ignore the rules that were in place. It was unfair to the people who had been following the rules.

[<One Who Tramples on Monsters> approves of your actions.]

Of course, it didn’t hurt that his Sponsor also liked his behavior.

“That doesn’t seem like something you should be saying. After all, you disobeyed the order of Olympus and turned Theseus into a half-dead corpse…” George commented.

“What?” Demetrios responded, raising a fist toward him.

Eventually, George took a step back and shook his head. Whether it was a cry for help, or a scream full of pain, there was nothing left to be heard from the area.

“The Underdog is a funny little bastard.”

Demetrios took out a handkerchief that didn’t match his appearance and wiped his bloody fists. They had come over when they saw the Underdog's flames, but instead of finding what they were searching for, there were only those who had attacked them at the entrance for some reason.

Furthermore, they weren’t the only ones who had shown up.

Demetrios asked, “I can think of this as a present, right?”

Other Hunters had arrived when they saw the flames, and these people were currently hiding around them.

“These people are probably colleagues of those idiots,” George said to Demetrios.

They seemed to think that Demetrios hadn’t noticed their presence yet. Overestimating themselves, they continued to suppress their presence, looking for an opportunity.

“I’m telling you, these people are my kind of people,” Demetrios said to George. He then punched one side of the air with all of his might.

‘The Roar of the Savage Beast.’

This was one of the skills he was proud of.

Boom!

It was an offensive attack that boasted a terrifying power. Even though he simply hit the air, it generated a shockwave that destroyed everything in a straight line.

“Keheok…”

Whether it was a tree, a Catalyon lion that hadn’t escaped yet, or even the Hunters who had been suppressing their presence.

“It’s my favorite style.”

Demetrios looked towards the wreckage and smiled.

The Underdog was Demetrios’ style.

“He started all over again.” George shrugged, extinguishing the rising flame.

***

"It's him."

Lee Jun-Kyeong had been moving quickly, but he abruptly stopped and turned his head.

“The fire went out,” Jeong In-Chang responded, also looking toward where Lee Jun-Kyeong was. The small embers that Lee Jun-Kyeong had lit while restraining the guys who had attacked them had gone out, the smoke no longer rising.

Thrum.

An enormous pulse of mana shook his body as it rippled through the forest. There was only one person with this level of mana.

“Looks like he bit the bait well.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong had purposely left the Hunters who had attacked them alive in order to use them as bait. However, Demetrios wasn’t the only one he wanted to catch.

Crash!

They could still hear the roar.

He had also wanted to attract the attention of the other Hunters, who would rush to see the source of the smoke.

‘He had said that there were others in his group.’

The Hunters who had attacked them had said that other Hunters were chasing them. That was why he had tried to lure Demetrios and the other Hunters that were chasing them into a fight using the restrained Hunters as bait.

Fortunately, his plan had worked out well, and the people pursuing them had been delayed.

“We still have to move quickly.”

Even with the delays he had caused, there could still be other Hunters that were chasing them. Contrary to the original goals of the Battle of Champions, many things had been warped by the presence of the large catfish, Heracles. It was impossible to know how many other variables would appear the longer they would have to stay in the gate.

“But…”

Jeong In-Chang’s voice rang in Lee Jun-Kyeong’s ear as he was about to leave.

“Wasn’t that a little too severe?”

Jeong In-Chang’s expression had stiffened slightly.

“Couldn’t we have left them alive?”

While killing other Hunters in the Battle of Champions was allowed, it wasn’t recommended. If it were a situation in which it wasn’t necessary to kill, those that had been left alive would escape the gate, and the competitors would have been dealt with in a less gruesome manner.

Jeong In-Chang had sensed it. Demetrios had killed the ones they had used as bait.

Lee Jun-Kyeong knew that his colleague was only feeling that way because he didn’t know the truth.

“Bolgin.”

"Pardon?"

"The name of their organization is Bolgin."

Lee Jun-Kyeong's sudden admission flustered Jeong In-Chang.

Lee Jun-Kyeong continued with an expressionless face, "It's a secret organization that works behind the scenes in Africa alongside another organization. They are one of the organizations that amass huge profits from drug sales and human trafficking, especially child abduction."

"…"

"Those Hunters were part of that sort of organization."

He hadn’t used them just because they had made their situation more complicated and had attacked. These people deserved to die.

‘Because their power would expand day by day.’

It was revolting. A number of secret organizations had surprisingly survived the cataclysm, but Bolgin and another group were somehow one of them. They had used any means necessary to expand their power. Their evil influence had spread all over the world, and their main target was the public.

“They are the ones who will eventually make those without power unable to govern themselves.”

Innocent civilians were transformed by them into slaves and playthings.

"Ah…"

Jeong In-Chang stood with a blank expression for a moment.

"Let's go."

Leaving the frozen Jeong In-Chang behind him, Lee Jun-Kyeong took the lead and started walking. They had to hurry. He had tried not to reveal their location to Demetrios until now, but since the bait had been taken, he knew there wasn’t much time left.

‘Our location is continuously being exposed.’

The giant wasn’t far away, so they had to hurry to where the boss would be. Furthermore, there was something else that Lee Jun-Kyeong had not told Jeong In-Chang.

‘Most of the Hunters who entered this gate deserve to die.’

The Battle of Champions had another secret.

***

“That’s a bad habit,” George frowned as he spoke to Demetrios. “Can’t you use a weapon for once? It’s not like you fought barehanded normally anyway.”

“Hunting is only fun when you can feel it with your hands. Figures that Mr. Geek here wouldn’t know what it’s like.”

However, Demetrios just grinned and wiped his blood-stained hands. There was silence all around them, not a single living being around.

George insisted, “It’s a bad habit.”

“Again with this?”

Demetrios’ mood had been soured by George's repeated nagging.

“I’m just saying.”

“How boring.”

Demetrios then closed his eyes and began to direct his energy, attempting to track Lee Jun-Kyeong using the remnants of the energy in the air.

“Whew.”

George surveyed the area with Demetrios behind him. It was filled with mutilated corpses, Hunters and monsters alike.

‘You crazy bastard.’

George turned his head again away from the corpses and toward Demetrios. The reason he liked Demetrios wasn’t just because he was strong. While people thought of him as simply a fighter or even a violent beast crazy about slaughter, that wasn’t the truth. Although Demetrium was a fighter who liked to battle and also liked to win, the guy wasn’t actually crazy about killing.

‘He only kills the deserving.’

In reality, most of his victims were villains.

This was the reason why he had made a fellow guild member, Theseus, into a half-dead corpse and even disobeyed the orders of Olympus to participate in the Battle of Champions.

‘The abandoned criminals of the organizations are the ones who go to the Battle of Champions.’

Barring the people sent from a large organization like Asgard or Olympus, most of the participants were generally villains or criminals who were being thrown away. In fact, they were often the people who were difficult for their respective organizations to deal with. Demetrios had always wanted to participate in the Battle of Champions because of that implicit rule. Still, because of his overwhelming power, Olympus had always sent others to the Battle of Champions.

That was why his hand had been so cruel. Well, at least for the sake of their mission, they would claim that most of the dead had been evil.

‘It’s not like he’s a saint, either.’

When Demetrios got too engrossed in a battle, he would become the slaughterer that everyone had heard about. This was why he had come to the Battle of Champions. It wasn’t just to punish the wicked. It had simply been because he would be able to express his overflowing fighting instincts without suppressing them here.

“Whew… It’s concerning…”

George was already beginning to worry about meeting the Underdog. He hoped that Demetrios wouldn’t do anything he would regret again…

Meanwhile, Demetrios finally opened his eyes.

“I found him.”

1. So the saying here directly translates to: Them, who were concealing their breath, looking at their livers. It’s an expression of foolhardiness, overestimating oneself. See the translator’s thoughts for more.