Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 145

Chapter 145

The Sea of Afterlife.
Gang Taesik’s soul was descending into the endless abyss.
‘……So this is death.’
The pain was brief, but the moment of death felt eternal.
The ephemeral moment.
The place of the afterlife was dragging his soul into the darkest depths.
And in that continuous descent, Gang Taesik’s soul was…… watching his flashbacks.
The life he has gone through was being displayed before him like a panorama.
And in every moment, he was taking the life of someone else.
‘Killing, then killing, then killing again…….’
He looked down on his bloodstained hands.
Right.
After awakening, these two hands took the lives of countless humans.
There was not a day that the blood dried from his hands.
Even he himself thought that he was insane…… but he enjoyed it.
But it has been only two years.
There were times he got caught by the police for minor offenses. After becoming a villain hunter, the start of murders had only been for the past two years.
……However.

Click click click click!

As the flashbacks continued, Gang Taesik’s appearance became younger and younger.
To reach the memories of ‘that day’.
‘……right. That’s when it started.’
A bright light flashed from his eyes as he was falling into this death.
Flash!
A boy getting hit appeared before him.
-You leech! Only if you didn’t exist! Die! Die! Die! Go fuck yourself!
-Ack! I, I’m sorry……! I was wrong! Please, it hurts! dad!
Broken alcohol bottles.
A cramped and messy room.
A small boy was getting mercilessly trampled by a drunken man.
In that memory, the boy was always covered in bruises and crying out till his voice went hoarse.
That it hurts.
To stop hitting.
That he was wrong.
But no matter how much he pleaded, his father’s beatings grew more relentless.
The boy finally understood after years of beatings.
That in order to stop being abused.
That he had to grow stronger.
And the first step to achieve that was to stop crying.
-Ummph! gasp……!
No matter how scary and painful it was, when he managed to stop the crying and the groans of pain, his father’s beatings got reduced albeit little.
And he had to quiet down as much as he could.
So he wouldn’t bother his father.
No, he had to become invisible.
Any sound he makes will wake his father up.
Then he’d start drinking again.
Then he’ll get beat again…….
So he had to stay inside of his house as if he never existed.
So that his father’s anger wouldn’t be directed towards him.
Then suddenly.
‘……Ah.’
The boy realized.
The way to never get hit. The easiest and simplest method.
‘Aah, I just have to do that.’
Why didn’t he realize this sooner?
He should’ve just done this from the beginning.
And that’s how the seven year old Gang Taesik.
With his two tiny hands.
‘I killed him.’
That was the ‘first murder’ that Gang Taesik committed.
And surprisingly no one knew of that fact.
Actually, no one was curious.
Since no one would’ve thought that a seven year old boy could kill his own father.
Not even the police, nor the doctors.
Everything got resolved as an accident.
That a drunkard committed when he was drunk.
……And that’s how.
The boy who personally erased his father’s existence. As he looked into his bloodstained hands to realize.
‘I am strong.’
Correct.
He was strong all along.
Strong enough to kill his scary father.
As he realized that, Gang Taesik was overwhelmed with a sense of euphoria.
Aah, yes.
He just had to kill them all.
No matter how scary they were.
Even if they were strong.
‘Since all humans die!’
From that point on, Gang Taesik was never fearful of anything.
Since he became strong now.
He could kill anyone as long as he wished for it.
Of course, he was not a bloodthirsty murderer and had no plans to kill just anyone.
All it was…… was that he realized that murder is an option to solve certain issues.
As time flowed, the cataclysm occurred on Earth.
And monsters appeared.
Gang Taesik luckily awakened to become a hunter. But seeing the m monsters mercilessly rip apart through the people made him sigh.
‘What, monsters and humans are the same in the end.’
Only their appearances were a little different.
In the end, monsters and humans could kill people alike.
Actually, considering all of history, there would be more humans that got killed by humans instead of by monsters.
To be honest, it was pretty disappointing.
And that’s when it happened.
When the ‘chairman’ of the association came to him.
-Gang Taesik. You awakened not too long ago, correct?
-……what? I thought I lived peacefully enough?
-I’m aware. That’s why I came to meet you.
-what are you on? You geezer?
His sudden visit was absurd at first.
Chairman Woo Jinchul was the one who personally handcuffed him when he committed some minor offenses.
And then he established some weird organization called the hunters association. Then what?
-I was thinking about how to handle you and got a good idea.
The chairman smiled knowingly and made an odd proposal.
-Gang Taesik. I made this position called ‘Authorized Association Bounty Hunter’ for you.
-What is that?
-also known as, a certificate from the country to authorize you to legally commit murder.
-……have you gone insane?
-Why? You don’t like it?
-…….
Although his expression of ‘I know you’re going to accept’ was annoying
Gang Taesik couldn’t refuse that offer.
It was way too good to be true.
People that could be killed.
Getting paid after murdering.
‘Right. Killing people is far easier and interesting than killing monsters.’
That’s how Gang Taesik became a bounty hunter and murdered over a hundred villains for the past two years.
‘Haha. I killed so many.’
His soul snickered while observing his moments of murder as he traversed across the sea of afterlife.
But why?
But why was it that the more deaths he accumulated, the more his soul got buried deep within the abyss?
Hundreds of hands emerged from within to drag his soul deeper and deeper into the depths.
‘Let me go you bastards! I can’t breathe! I can’t…… cough……!’
Looking at it again, that was an abyss that Gang Taesik himself dug.
At that moment.
[Haha. What a tasty looking evil soul you are.]
‘……!’
Gang Taesik’s soul trembled at the sudden eruption of laughter coming across the darkness.
An instinctive repulsion.
He realized at that moment.
That his soul was trapped at the center of a sorcery spell created by a red thread.
The spell trapped his soul like a spiderweb.
And.
[Come hither. I will turn you into a demonic spectre.]
A bony hand of an elder emerged from the depths to violently wrenched his head.
‘Acccck……!’
In that moment, a pain akin to tearing apart all his limbs suddenly erupted.
Gang Taesik let out a terrible scream and struggled to escape the giant hand of the older man.
But even that struggle was mere entertainment to the old man.
[Haha. what a good scream. A perfect ingredient for creating a demonic spectre.]
‘Aaaaaaaack!’
[Good, good. Swallow and digest every sin you’ve committed. The process will be arduous, but if you can withstand it…….]
The old man smiled with his teeth beyond the abyss.
[……You’ll be reborn as a fallen soul that will be eternally trapped in this suffering!]
――――――!
Soonafter the crimson sorcery sigil was completed.
The huge hand of the old man grasped Gang Taesik’s soul to lift.
[Hahaha! Fallen soul! You are now my……!]
It was at that moment.
-Arise.
A ray of darkness from the unfathomable heights spotlighted his soul.
Rip!
The dark power ripped through the sorcery spell.
[W-What is this……?]
The old man let go of Gang Taesik’s soul in bewilderment.
‘Aaah, this power is…….’
Gang Taesik trembled whilst getting dragged up by that darkness.
‘W-What are these memories……?’
Suddenly, one by one, his memories of his past life started emerging.
For some reason, even in that memory, he was…… dying.
And he saw a guy who stared down at him with cold eyes before his dying form.
-let me ask you one thing.
He asked while meeting those cold eyes.
-what are you? An assassins class using healing magic…… on top of debuff spells. I never heard of anything like that.
But instead of answering that question, the man answered the question with a question.
-……If I was a hunter that grew every time I fought, how strong do you think I’ll become in your perspective?
-Heh…….
Gang Taesik laughed at that absurd question.
Was he truly asking?
-your shadows…… are connected to the darkness.
Death means power.
-you will be as strong…… as the depths of your shadows.
Fwoooosh!
Second death.
Second life.
At the end of it all…….
Gang Taesik’s soul walked on the world once more.
[Shadow Assassin Lv.1]
Knight Rank
Fwoosh.
[……O great shadow.]
Gang Taesik, who got reborn as an assassin, kneeled before Suho who beckoned him back into the world of living. His body emitting a black smoke as he bowed before his summoner.
To ask with the utmost respect and cold gaze.
[Who should I kill?]
“…….”
And thought.
Those eyes of Suho who looked down on him…….
Resembled those eyes of the man who killed him someday.
Suho’s cold gaze fell on the countless villains that attacked from all sides.
They were the murderers that killed everyone in this town to overtake the place.
There would be no mercy for them.
“All of them.”
[……As you command.]
The moment Suho spoke those words.
Gang Taesik, the shadow assassin, disappeared from sight.