97. The Pursuers (2)

Sin City. That was Las Vegas’s nickname, and it fit a place brimming with every kind of pleasure and amusement; the very phrase “city of sin” suited it all too well.

“Where exactly are we headed?”
“An ordinary casino won’t take Hunters.”

Thanks to their Agility stat, a Martial-line Hunter had reflexes and dynamic visual acuity far beyond an ordinary person’s. A 4th-Rank Hunter, one who’d cleared the wall even once, could read the number on a rolling die at a rough glance. And a Magic-line Hunter could quietly prep a spell and change the outcome outright.

“Which is why there are casinos exclusively for Hunters.”
“Aww. I wanted to play at a normal casino…”
“They’ve just swapped out some of the games to suit Hunters. The atmosphere isn’t much different.”
“How d’you know all this?”
“Picked it up here and there.”

Truth is, I know because I did all of it before the regression.

The party reached the Hunter-exclusive casino, and Yujin pressed the dollars he’d exchanged ahead of time into his three companions’ hands.

“Once you’re cleaned out, that’s the end of it.”
“Brooo. I brought some cash of my own too, you know.”
“That’s all you get. Pull money out on a card and I’ll throw you out.”

Kang Minyeong’s eyes positively dripped with reluctance.

Leave her be and she’ll end up an earthbound spirit of the casino.

One flare of Yujin’s eyes and she gave up, shrinking back with a yelp.

“And where are you off to, Boss?”
“The basement. Going to check out the arena.”

The odds of winning money at a casino weren’t high.

Since I was here anyway, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to pull a lever for fun, but —
‘I’ve got no hobby of playing a game with a 100% chance of losing.’
Still, since I’d come to the casino, shouldn’t I walk away having won at least a little?

Below the Hunter-exclusive casino lay a world a full 180 degrees from the gaudily decorated ground floor.

— Thwack—!

— Thwack!

“Hit him one more time!”
“Dodge! Dodge it, you idiot!”
“Oh, come on. He’s just gonna stand there and take that?!”

— Thwack—!

A Hunter crumpled with a heavy thud. Hunched over like a shrimp, he must have taken that fist to the gut hard. The man who’d driven it in, by contrast, looked fresh, like he had stamina to spare.

“One, two, three… nine, ten!”

— Ding— ding—.

“Black Jaguar is down! Victory goes to Tiger Mask!”
“Bullshit!”
“And the underdog payout is sweet.”
“Aw, why?! You feline son of a—! You go down in one hit? Bite down and get up, dammit!”

The instant the bloody bout ended, the crowd’s joy and despair split clean in two. Cheers poured down on the victor; curses, resentment, and jeers rained on the loser. This was where primal emotion writhed, a place of contests fought fist against fist: the underground arena.

‘Isn’t it fun? You get to see the bottom of human nature.’

‘Don’t be such a picky eater, Constellation.’

A person couldn’t feast only on the sights he wanted and pick out only the parts he liked. Everyone had moments where, like it or not, they had to toss down the bell pepper they hated too.

‘Who should I bet on?’

His reason for picking the arena with such confidence was simple. The fighters who had made names for themselves here were, in other words, the ones he more or less remembered from the long future before his regression.

‘So Tiger Mask is still on the active roster.’

That Hunter who’d just taken the win with the heavy body blow was Tiger Mask. The man behind the tiger mask had stayed active in the arena right up until just before Yujin regressed.

If I’d come down a little sooner, I’d have bet on him.
Shame.

‘That’s exactly why the arena exists.’

The Hunter casino and the underground arena, much like the temple on Yeonpyeong Island, formed a sanctuary steeped in the power of a particular Constellation. That Constellation went by the name Herald of the Wind, the being the Olympus stellar field called the god of wayfarers, thieves, and heralds. The whole gambling den ran under a Hunter who held Hermes as his patron Constellation.

‘Here, you can’t cheat with your abilities.’

Skill use was prohibited in any gambling-related activity. Fighters who climbed into the ring had to swear to Hermes that they would “compete fairly,” and with the oath came a penalty that lowered their ability scores. Since it leveled everyone to a similar weight class, bouts came down to innate combat sense and experience.

‘Hermes was never anywhere close to noble, you know.’

‘And who was it that birthed that Zeus, again?’

Clamping Kronos’s mouth shut, he leisurely scanned the fighter list and the bracket.

‘Fewer names I recognize than I expected.’
I’d figured there’d be more familiar fighters like Tiger Mask.

Guess that had been wishful thinking. Not a single familiar face stood among the names of the fighters waiting on standby.

‘Quiet. It’s not like I remember every single thing.’
At this rate, did I really have to just guess based on the payout odds and past match records?

While he mulled it over, rubbing his chin, Yujin’s eyes caught on one spot and held there for more than five seconds.

‘Snake Eye?’

‘Hm. Could be, could be not.’

‘Because it’s not a name I saw in the arena.’

Snake Eye. A master of pursuit, a born hunter. “Hunter,” the byword for an Awakened, had originally meant just that: a hunter. And it was hard to find anyone the title suited as well as Snake Eye.

‘He uses a wide variety of weapons, so he can handle everything from close to long range, and he’s skilled at tracking on top of that.’

But there was a catch.

I’d never heard that Snake Eye fought as an arena fighter.

Was it really him, or just a coincidence?

For now, I couldn’t tell.
‘I’ll have to check for myself.’

‘I should work on my sense of humor.’

‘One look and I’ll know.’

Yujin headed for the fighters’ waiting room. Through the space partitioned off by iron bars, he could see the fighters awaiting their turn to climb into the ring, and he swept his gaze swiftly over them.

Kronos muttered, eyeing one man with disbelief.

Yep. That was him.

I told you, one look and I’d know.

The corner of Yujin’s cheek twitched.

Eyes slit long and narrow like a snake’s. A man in his forties, unsettling to face by the mere meeting of eyes, sat on the bench breathing deep.

Yujin checked Snake Eye’s record.

‘His win rate’s pretty low, huh?’

Not much luck in the arena, then. No wonder his time as an arena fighter had gone largely unknown in the world before the regression.

“Snake Eye.”

At Yujin’s call, a sharp light flickered across the eyes of the man steadying his breath.

Heh.

That glare was the decisive reason the title “Snake Eye” had stuck to him. Looking into it, even Yujin nearly flinched back a step for a second.

“You lose money on me too? Or are you about to?”
“I’m someone who’s planning to walk away with a tidy bundle.”
“Guess your eyes are just for show.”
“Mind if I give you one piece of advice?”
“Asking me to throw a match is useless. We signed a contract, so we have to give it our all every bout.”

Wow. To think Snake Eye was steeped in defeatism.

It was such a rare sight — one I’d never have seen on the man before the regression — that it felt almost novel.

But still.

I’d have to say my piece for him to make me some money, wouldn’t I.

“Try using several weapons.”
“What?”
“Two sword breakers, a broadsword, and maybe a short spear would be good.”

A sword breaker was a dagger with teeth like a saw running down the back of the blade. A broadsword was a longsword with a blade about a meter long. The short spear he’d named last measured some 2.5 meters in all. Not a single common thread ran among them.

The man knit his brow.

“If you’re going to talk nonsense, get lost.”
“You’re free to believe me or not, but you’ve got nothing to lose. Think it over.”

Leaving behind a sly smile, Yujin returned to the betting area.

“Big Bear versus Snake Eye! Can the cunning snake beat the bear?”

The host’s worked-up voice rang out from the venue’s speakers.

The Hunter registered at the arena under the fighter name “Snake Eye,” Terence D. Smith, rose from his seat. He passed the waiting fighters and stopped at the weapon rack.

‘Big Bear. One of the arena’s stars. A fighter who handles a heavy mace with skill.’

The man gripped a single broadsword, as he always did.

The odds weren’t in his favor. But still, he couldn’t give up. The way the fighters of the underground arena earned their money was simple: seize victory up in the ring. His opponent was one of the arena’s stars and his chances were slim, yet he had no wish to give up.

‘If there were some way I could win no matter what it took…?’

In that instant, Terence D. Smith reached unconsciously for a weapon breaker. Why, of all moments, did the words Yujin had spoken come echoing back in his ears? For the sake of his ailing daughter, if nothing else.

‘I have to win.’

Terence bit down hard on his lip and, with the thought that he had nothing to lose, fastened two weapon breakers at his waist and strapped a short spear across his back.

A short while later, Big Bear, one of the arena’s mighty fighters, dropped to his knees before Snake Eye’s irregular assault.

What he could scrape together on the spot came to a million dollars. Exchanged, that ran a bit over a billion won, and he’d gone all in on Snake Eye.

‘What? Money can be copy-pasted?’

Yujin had, quite literally, struck it rich. Four billion won.

Right after coming back to the past he’d been trembling over a measly twenty million won, and now, barely three months on, one word of advice and one helping of courage(?) had brought him to a place where he could copy-paste four billion won.

‘Then keep the temple plain and frugal the whole way through, why don’t you.’

Look at him backpedal.

‘Even setting aside the Black Herb farm, two billion won lands in my lap.’

‘What would a Constellation who’s never earned a single coin know about it.’

The more money, the better. That was a truth that held for Yujin right up until the moment of his death.

‘Let me check my spare funds and buy up some corpses.’

Hunting down usable monster corpses one at a time was poor on efficiency. Right after the regression, with a thin wallet, he’d had to wear out his shoe leather; now things were different. Expanding and defending the Necropolis would call for several powerful undead too, and he’d already put in a commission with the black market, so income would come soon enough.

‘Whether he won by gearing up with several weapons?’

‘You have to look at Snake Eye’s Unique trait.’

Master of Arms was Snake Eye’s Unique trait, an ability that raised the efficiency of whatever weapon he used.

‘He himself supposedly read it as nothing more than a boost to proficiency-gain speed.’

He’d taken up kendo as a hobby before awakening, so a longsword had naturally become his main weapon, and apparently he’d just swung the one weapon over and over. Then, by chance, he got the opportunity to use several arms at once, and Snake Eye realized the true way to wield his Unique trait.

‘Because I hired Snake Eye once.’

Central Africa had turned into a beastly hellscape after the Great Cataclysm.

I once hunted a monster, a drake, that had settled in the country called Congo decades ago.

Snake Eye, able to handle pursuit and every kind of situation, made the finest of mercenaries.

‘Time to head back, I suppose.’

‘Knowing when to stop after a big haul takes courage too.’
Collected my winnings, that I have.
No more familiar names around, so it’s about time to head back.

He turned to head back up to the casino.

“Excuse me.”
“Snake Eye?”
“I won because I listened to you. I’m truly grateful.”

The man with the frightening eyes, Snake Eye, had come looking for Yujin, still panting for breath.

“You don’t owe me anything, so off you go. I made my wallet plenty fat thanks to you too.”
“I know it’s rude on a first meeting, but there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

Snake Eye twisted that distinctively sharp gaze of his and bowed his head deep.

“Please train me!”
“…Huh?”

I was so startled the formal speech slipped out.

Yujin looked down at the bowing Snake Eye, dumbfounded.