Chapter 53

00053 My Brother (Older Brother) Has Changed

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As I approached the beggar who was only able to gape in disbelief, the female mage looked up at me with eyes full of fear. I lowered my head and met her gaze with indifferent eyes. She was a typical beauty with slightly upturned eyes. Suddenly, seeing her trembling, a strange sense of déjà vu overcame me.

I mostly operated in the shadows during the first cycle. Not many people knew me, but those who did called me a "Beggar Hunter" at one point.

Later, the line between existing users and beggars became blurred, but originally, beggars were associated with negative images like murder, robbery, and rape. As beggar activities worsened, existing users secretly formed a clan to retaliate eye for eye, tooth for tooth. This clan was a gathering of users who hunted beggars. The term referred to users who specialized in hunting beggars.

This clan was free to do whatever they wanted as long as their target was a beggar. Whether they enslaved, experimented on, killed, or raped them, they were granted the right to be forgiven for any despicable acts as long as their target was a beggar. They were so vicious that even some existing users who knew the situation began to avoid the hunter users in the clan.

Although I only participated for a short time, I was reminded of the things I did as a member of that clan. I let the knife, sticky with the blood of the beggars I had previously killed, dangle downward. Despite being a mage, she had a decent level of skill and sense, which piqued my curiosity.

『User Information (Player Status)』

Name: Lee Bom-i (0-year user)

『Abilities』

[Strength 36] [Endurance 28] [Agility 42] [Health 34] [Magic 62] [Luck 40]

As I expected, she was a user who had not even been in the game for a year. Her experience as a beggar would be even less. Given that she was a mage, her stats were decent. Compared to Hyun, Sol, and Yoo-jung, her stats were average for her level. If I had met her during the initiation, I might have considered recruiting her as a teammate, but regardless, she was now part of the beggars who tried to kill us.

“Haaaaa….”

Feeling my cold killing intent, Lee Bom-i let out a weak scream. Even as she wriggled her fingers, which were gradually freeing themselves from the restraints, I firmly stepped on her hand and slowly raised my sword. As a drop of blood from the sword fell and stained her cheek, she finally realized that death was imminent and spoke in a hurried voice.

“P-Please, spare me!”

I ignored her plea and turned my gaze to the kids, who were staring blankly.

“See? If you try, you can do it. Anyway, this battle was pretty good. You’ve clearly gained experience from fighting other users, so you’re showing a different side compared to earlier. Of course, part of it is due to their complacency, but you did well.”

“I’ll do as you say! Please! We’re from the same country, right? I didn’t want to do this. Please, please…!”

The kids’ faces were very conflicted. They seemed happy to hear my praise, but they also looked uncomfortable seeing the woman writhing and screaming beneath my foot. I continued to ignore her and spoke.

“Still, you can’t just rely on familiar battles. Of course, you’ll improve with more experience, but always stay calm and do your job, like you did just now. And as I said, never show mercy when dealing with beggars. If you let them live, they’ll just be a nuisance… Ah, hold on. This is getting really noisy.”

“I’ll give you everything I have! If you want, my body, no, I’ll become a slave… gurk!”

Annoyed by her incessant babbling, I lightly stabbed her in the neck. As the sword pierced her slender neck, she let out a final scream, then spat out a mouthful of blood and died.

“Aaah….”

“Hiss…!”

I roughly pulled the sword from her neck and swung it to shake off the blood, and the kids’ voices, filled with shock, reached my ears. I realized I had slipped into a habit from my time as a beggar hunter in the first cycle. I had killed her without a second thought, just like I did in the first cycle, but it might create a disconnect with the image I had shown the kids so far.

Glancing at them, I saw their Adam’s apples bobbing as they looked at the woman with her head hanging down.

*

It was already getting dark. The faint sunlight that had been filtering through was now completely gone, and the darkness was slowly enveloping the surroundings. Judging by the distance we had traveled, we were still far from the halfway point. Since it wasn’t a distance we could cover in a day or two, I decided not to rush.

The kids were definitely growing with each battle. They weren’t perfect, but they no longer made the mistakes they did in the early stages. We had fought a total of six battles in the Black Forest today, and if it weren’t for the last one, we might have gotten through the day relatively smoothly.

“Healing (Cure)!”

“Grunn….”

I looked at Ahn Hyun, who was lying on the ground, groaning. Sol was sweating profusely as she cast the healing spell over Ahn Hyun, who was lying on the grass. Ahn Hyun’s body was covered in bite marks from the wolves. A pack of about 16 Black Forest wolves had attacked us, and about half of them, 8 wolves, had pounced on Ahn Hyun, leaving him with no room to complain. It seemed he had fought desperately to protect Sol, thinking that if he fell, she would be in danger.

Wolves weren’t usually difficult opponents, but with the Black Forest buff, they had a level of aggression and agility far beyond ordinary wolves. Despite being bitten and torn, Ahn Hyun fought valiantly with his spear, thanks to my support and the proper battlefield coordination. In the end, he managed to take down most of the 8 wolves that had attacked him. However, he ultimately collapsed, covered in blood, after the battle.

I quickly took out the healing potion I had brought, applied half of it to his body, and poured the other half into his mouth. Sol, upon seeing Ahn Hyun’s injuries, was pouring healing spells (Cure) excessively and crying. In the Hall Plane, getting injured to this extent is a common occurrence. With the potion and the presence of a cleric, there was no danger of Ahn Hyun losing his life.

After the healing was complete, Ahn Hyun groaned and sat up, and Yoo-jung, who had been watching with a worried face, finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew… Idiot. You’re lucky.”

“Either praise or scold, but not both.”

“Worried, that’s all.”

“Brother, did the sun set in the east today?”

Yoo-jung pondered Ahn Hyun’s words for a moment, then realized he was teasing her and glared at him. Watching the two bicker as soon as Ahn Hyun got up, I shook my head.

“How’s your body?”

“…It seems to be recovering. My joints are stiff, and I’m weak, but I can move without much trouble.”

“Then we can’t continue the battles today. We should set up camp here. It’s getting dark. Anyway, good job. You held up well.”

“I would have fallen long ago if it weren’t for your support, Brother.”

It seemed he had somehow noticed that I was helping him while he was frantically swinging his spear. The wolves weren’t much of a threat to me, but I had a reason for letting Ahn Hyun handle them.

Injured during a battle and then recovering can increase your Endurance stat. Additionally, it might help in manifesting one of his latent abilities, “Unbreakable.” Although Ahn Hyun is suffering now, he will definitely be rewarded for it in the future.

It was getting dark, and we had already fought six battles today, so I thought it was enough for the day. As I mentioned setting up camp, Yoo-jung’s body became busy, except for Ahn Hyun. I took the bag Sol was carrying, rummaged through it, and took out a mana stone.

Yoo-jung, who was busy sweeping the ground and clearing leaves and underbrush, tilted her head when she saw the mana stone and spoke.

“Brother, does that mean we’re sleeping in the forest tonight?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, isn’t it a bit dangerous? Monsters might attack at night. Just keeping watch might not be enough.”

“Hmm. We bought a mana stone for camping, so it should be fine.”

Seeing the kids talking to me so freely, I was relieved that they didn’t show much resistance to my killing Lee Bom-i. Of course, they might be pretending, but if they had said something like, “You killed someone so easily, that’s scary,” it would have been quite annoying. However, since they had been thoroughly educated about beggars at the User Academy, the uncomfortable atmosphere from the initiation didn’t arise.

Yoo-jung’s face changed strangely when I mentioned the mana stone. She looked at her weapon, Hyun’s and Sol’s weapons, the backpack, the empty potion bottles, and finally the mana stone, then spoke with a confused look.

“B-Brother.”

“What is it? If it’s not urgent, help with the camp setup.”

“No, it’s not urgent, but… where did you get all of this?”

“What?”

With a natural expression, I asked, and Yoo-jung pointed at each item with her fingers.

“Weapons, inn fees, backpack, mana stone, potions, and so on. Even if we combine the money you gave us and your allowance, it would only be about 10 gold, right? I heard mana stones are extremely expensive….”

“The mana stone for camping isn’t that expensive. It has a spirit that repels monsters. It’s not of the best quality, so we still need to keep watch.”

“Still, I can’t believe you got all of this with just 10 gold. Did you get money from somewhere?”

When Yoo-jung finished speaking, Ahn Hyun and Ahn Sol also nodded. I wanted to brush it off, but seeing their curious faces, I could tell they were determined to get an answer. I sighed, holding the four mana stones, and pretended to level the ground for the campsite.

“User Academy.”

“Academy? Did they give you money for excellent training performance or something?”

“No. I got it when I received a clan offer.”

“Huh? You refused all of them, didn’t you? They still gave it to you?”

“Brother, did you scam them?”

As Yoo-jung and Ahn Hyun took turns asking, I sighed again. Seeing my sigh, the kids flinched. It seemed the anger I showed earlier was still on their minds. Yoo-jung looked like she regretted asking, and Ahn Hyun scratched his head, worried he had said something wrong.

I cleared my throat and continued.

“They just gave it to me as a gesture of goodwill. They said to come if I ever changed my mind. It was just a simple gift, so there was no reason to refuse it.”

“Oh….”

Oh, what oh. It was a makeshift lie, but it wasn’t entirely baseless, so the kids seemed to accept it. I didn’t feel entirely comfortable lying, but I couldn’t tell them about my past, so I just kept a calm face.

“I thought it was better to take it rather than just saving face. That doesn’t mean I’m rich. They didn’t give me that much. If we don’t achieve the expected results from this expedition, we might not even be able to afford food, let alone an inn.”

“Heh. I don’t like that. That’s why I told you to check the beggars’ possessions earlier. I didn’t like that.”

Black scorpions and wolves don’t have anything valuable. Some monsters are worth money, while others aren’t. One reason beggars are so prevalent is that killing other users can earn them a lot more money in one go compared to hunting monsters. Conversely, capturing a beggar can be quite profitable for users.

If it weren’t for the kids, I would have stripped the male and female beggars down to their underwear and brought everything. But with some extra funds and the kids’ presence, I only took what was visible. It seemed to be a habit from my first cycle that I hadn’t fully shaken off.

“Don’t be so full of yourself. Gold doesn’t grow on trees. Anyway, we’ll rest for the night and push hard tomorrow. Set up the camp and get ready.”

After making Ahn Hyun lie back down, I reached for the backpack. It felt a bit heavier than when we started, probably because of the items I had taken from the beggars.

I took out a sleeping bag and watched Yoo-jung and Sol prepare dinner. They both looked exhausted, but they didn’t seem to be in shock. There were still many areas to improve, and I planned to keep an eye on them, but for now, I felt relieved.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

Hello, I’m Ro Yujin.

Haha. The author speaks through writing, but I forgot an important fact. I’ve been so focused on comments that I’ve neglected my main job. I didn’t intend to start a debate. In the future, I’ll address any questions or concerns through the story’s progression. Thank you to everyone who gave me valuable feedback.

『Replies to Comments』

1. Person’s Life: Congratulations on being number one! The frequency of you being number one is increasing. :)

2. hohokaya1: Thank you. :)

3. Toranoanal: Haha. I wanted to cater to all readers, but it seems impossible now. Honestly, I regret skipping the User Academy part in just two sessions. I should have progressed a bit more, even if it meant some criticism.

4. EinzJae: Lee Bom-i is gone. ㅜ.ㅠ

5. DragonYinYang: Haha. I didn’t intend to start a debate. I’ll try to resolve any questions through the story’s progression. Thank you for your advice. :)

6. vkfkd54: Thank you. I’ll work harder to meet your expectations. :)

7. This and That: I’m glad you understood the content. I was quite worried while writing it. ㅜ.ㅠ

8. ShiraYa: Thank you!

9. WhiteTeeMoshi: I’m glad you found it so engaging that you couldn’t look away. ㅜ.ㅠ

10. I Need to Change: Yes, I agree. It would have seemed strange if they acted too skilled in their first life-threatening battle. :)

PS. A few people misunderstood, so I want to clarify: the content in the author’s note is not included in the word count (K). After consulting with Joara, I learned that while writing the note in the content section could be problematic, writing it in the author’s note is perfectly fine. Please stop sending messages about the note. ㅜ.ㅠ

I always read all the comments carefully. If you’re not listed in the replies, don’t be too disappointed. If you have any specific questions, feel free to send a message, and I’ll respond! (Please leave more comments! And recommendations too…☞☜)

That’s all for today.

I hope you always read the story with a comfortable mind.

I welcome pre-series, recommendations, comments, reviews, and questions.