Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 307

Greed’s past—that is, Hwang Dongsoo’s past—was worth examining.

Before the Great Cataclysm, Dongsoo had operated as one half of the Con Brothers, with the other half being his older brother, Hwang Dongsuk. They had lived as third-rate criminals for more than twenty years. During that time, Dongsoo often found himself in police stations and prisons, but still, it was a life he enjoyed. Then his brother went and abandoned him.

“You get lost now.”

When Hwang Dongsuk’s abilities suddenly awakened, he no longer seemed to need his non-awakened brother.

“You useless bastard.”

That was how Dongsoo, after being abandoned by the only family he had, found himself facing a pitch-black future.

He was lost. What was he supposed to do now? How was he supposed to live? Until that point, he had simply followed his brother’s lead.

For a while, he drowned himself in alcohol, but that didn’t last long. As Dongsuk built up a reputation as a villain, Dongsoo—still tied to him by name as “the Con Brothers”—ended up hunted by the police as well.

However, it seemed that the universe had not fully abandoned him. The moment he was surrounded by the police, Dongsoo miraculously awakened. It had been a close call, but what a comeback!

Unfortunately, it turned out that the police who had been after him were no ordinary police.

“Holy sh*t. Why is Choi Jongin here?”

It was absurd. Jongin had appeared out of the blue, almost as if he had known in advance that Dongsoo would awaken.

Choi Jongin was the greatest hunter of the Hunters Association, a newly founded organization. He was such a frightful force as an S-rank hunter that he was nicknamed the Ultimate Soldier.

Fleeing from someone like that was impossible, so Dongsoo fought back. He had no other choice. But as he did, he realized something unexpected.

“This is surprisingly doable.”

To Dongsoo’s astonishment, he and Jongin seemed to be evenly matched.

That was when Dongsoo realized he had awakened with the power of an S-rank. He was far stronger than the brother who had abandoned him.

This revelation gave him newfound courage. Perhaps he could even defeat Jongin in a one-on-one fight instead of simply trying to escape.

Jongin was not alone, of course. He had come fully prepared, bringing A-rank and B-rank hunters with him. However, they proved to be of no use.

“Haha! Get lost, all of you, before you become roadkill! Make way for those with real power!”

Dongsoo laughed maniacally as he demonstrated his prowess to the association’s hunters.

It made no sense for lower-ranked hunters to interfere in a fight between two S-ranks. They would only get in the way or become Dongsoo’s hostages. But that was why his own brother had dumped him in the first place, wasn’t it?

As the battle between Dongsoo and Jongin raged on, Dongsoo eagerly tried to take a few of the weaker hunters as hostages. As it turned out, there was actually someone quite impressive among the small fry.

“Haha! Well, I never imagined. Even the famous Woo Jinchul has come out to capture me?”

“Dongsoo, surrender yourself immediately. You’re still just a petty criminal—”

“Petty! You call me petty?!”

Dongsoo lashed out at Jinchul, who had shown up wearing a full suit. He reached out to grab the chairman by the collar at such an incredible speed that a gust of wind tore through the air around them. But Jinchul calmly pulled off his fluttering tie with one hand, extending the other toward Dongsoo.

“Slow Speed. Slow Senses. Disturb Sight. Weaken Attack Power.”

It was then that Dongsoo realized that something wasn’t quite right. Jinchul was only A-rank, but there was a reason he was Jongin’s superior and not the other way around.

The chairman caught Dongsoo’s slowed punch in the palm of his hand, and the exchange was over before it had even begun.

“Chains of Oppression.”

“Wh-what the hell?”

Dongsoo was deeply confused as mana chains flew at him from all directions, wrapping around his limbs. Jinchul was only A-rank, however, and Dongsoo used his own mana to tear the chains apart.

He began to deflect the debuffs one by one, but there were simply too many of them. Even as he struggled, Jongin continued to attack.

“Hmm. Is that all you can do?”

“Y-you coward!”

Dongsoo was furious. It was extremely upsetting to see Jinchul calmly making use of these petty skills with an S-rank villain standing in front of him.

Perhaps that was why he decided to focus on targeting Jinchul first, even though a terrifying flame attack from Jongin was heading for him from behind.

“Ignore Defense.”

“Ah...?!”

Jinchul used another debuff at the perfect moment. Dongsoo’s powerful defense weakened for just an instant, and that was when Jongin’s fire skill exploded behind him.

“Gah!”

Dongsoo was helpless against their flawless teamwork, and he ran as best as he could. Fortunately for him, Jongin, an S-rank like himself, was a magic-oriented hunter. No one was fast enough to catch up to Dongsoo—but there was someone who could slow him down instead.

“Slow Speed. Chains of Oppression.”

“Oh, come on! Cut it out already!”

Due to Jinchul’s constant stream of debuffs, Dongsoo was forced to take every one of Jongin’s attacks as he tried to flee. He barely escaped, but he was battered and broken. He was forced to live in hiding for a while to recover from the wounds he had suffered that day.

Dongsoo hid his identity carefully, staying in shady locations where the association couldn’t find him and visiting freelance healers. His only focus during that time was recovering from his injuries. He wanted to leave South Korea immediately, but he wouldn’t be able to do so until his injuries had fully healed.

That was when he encountered the Church of the Outer Gods.

At first, not even Dongsoo knew who they were. He hadn’t heard their name before, and he didn’t care to know it. But their paths kept crossing. Like him, the church operated in the shadows, eager to hide their activities from the association. That was how they established a relationship.

“What’s that? You’ll send me a healer to treat me?”

“Yes. A B-rank healer, at that. In return, we would like to ask you for a small favor. You are free to refuse, of course.”

The Church of the Outer Gods approached Dongsoo very carefully. They were still a small organization at that point, and the powers of an S-rank villain like him could be very useful to them.

However, Dongsoo was just as cautious as they were.

“I refuse to get involved in any crime. If the association finds me in this state—”

“Don’t worry about that. We won’t ask you to do anything that attracts attention. We’d simply like you to clear out gates that haven’t been discovered by the association yet.”

“Well... Why not?”

And so Dongsoo began carrying out the “small favors” the church asked of him. He might have been wounded, but his S-rank powers hadn’t gone anywhere.

Each time Dongsoo cleared a gate without the association’s knowledge as requested, the church sent a healer. The healer would treat his wounds until their mana ran dry, then leave. Unfortunately, such treatments were only a temporary measure, since it took much too long for him to recover in this fashion.

But even if the church had failed to provide more suitable healers, they repaid him by other means, such as giving him safe places to hide from the association. Because that damnable Jinchul had turned Dongsoo into a wanted man all over the country, he couldn’t stay in one place for too long. The hideouts the church provided him were invaluable.

Then one day, as he was nearly fully recovered and planning to flee the country, the church had come to him with a new offer.

“Go to Yangpyeong.”

Dongsoo no longer had a need for healers, but the church slyly whispered to him that perhaps he would like to know who had killed his brother, Dongsuk.

In the end, Dongsoo accepted again. The request wasn’t that hard, anyway. They simply asked him to deal with another gate in Yangpyeong, a gate just like the others. He was already planning to leave South Korea, so he agreed, saying it would be the last task he would do for them.

When he arrived, a priest of the Church of the Outer Gods welcomed him with a smile.

“I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Kim Chul.”

“Hmm...”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m sorry, have we met? I feel like I’ve seen you before.”

“Ah! I was thinking the same thing, actually. Great minds think alike, eh?”

“You don’t seem to be someone from my hometown. Did we meet in prison?”

“Prison? My goodness. I’ve never committed a crime in my life. Never even been near a prison. Perhaps we met in a previous life? Haha!”

“Previous life, my ass. You’re not from the association, are you?”

“How did you know? I recently quit, actually. The work just wasn’t rewarding or fun.”

It was strange that the priest, Chul, would chat so casually while knowing that Dongsoo hated the association. He seemed intrigued by the fact that the infamous S-rank villain Hwang Dongsoo felt so familiar.

“In any case, good luck with the gate. Let me give you this.”

“A necklace? What’s this?”

“It’s an artifact from the headquarters of our church. I hear you’re planning to leave the country soon. It’s only right we give you a useful item to walk away with, given our past involvement.”

“It’s useful? What does it do?”

“It’s a Star Fragment necklace of the highest quality. It boosts your mana amplification and recovery speed. You’ll be able to put it to good use when you’re wandering overseas all by yourself.”

“Hmm. Not bad.”

Perhaps it was because of the strange sense of familiarity that Dongsoo felt toward Chul, but he accepted the necklace and put it around his neck without much thought. The priest himself was wearing a similar necklace.

Chul led Dongsoo to the gate, which he entered. Once he stepped into the church’s temple within, he lost consciousness. When he woke up hours later, his eyes were filled with ghostly blue energy.

“O Itarim...”

Instinctively, Dongsoo knew who he was.

“I am... a high priest... who serves the great... Itarim...”

He grunted and nearly vomited as a deep-seated sense of wrongness welled up from somewhere within his soul. But the feeling passed quickly, replaced by a dull ache in his forehead.

“You’ve awakened, High Priest.”

Chul stood reverently before him, and Dongsoo watched him.

“I sense... something in my body. Something that doesn’t belong. What is this?”

“There isn’t much that I can tell you, since I only know what headquarters has told me. All I know is that this is part of a great, noble experiment.”

“An experiment? For what purpose?”

“Evolution and creation.”

“Evolution and creation...”

Chul, who had become a priest long ago, had madness in his eyes.

“Yes, High Priest. I have been told that evolution of the highest degree isn’t so different from an act of creation. That is what this experiment seeks to achieve.”

“Evolution... of the highest degree... No wonder you call it a great experiment.”

***

“Great experiment! Ha!”

Greed shuddered and ground his teeth viciously as the dark memory of that moment resurfaced.

“You dared to turn me into a slave of the Outer Gods!” he shouted at the villains from China.

“Wh-who? We didn’t—”

“That wasn’t—”

An overwhelming energy swept through them like a tidal wave. This was the sort of violence that could overturn the earth and shatter the very sky.

Greed didn’t find their excuses worth listening to. All he wanted was to obliterate these bastards who reminded him of his past self.

Next to him, another shadow cautiously rose up and shouted, “I shall join you! How dare they do that to us?! We are the glorious soldiers of our Monarch!”

It was none other than Priest Kim Chul—or rather, Iron, since he was now a shadow soldier.

“Huh?”

But in that moment, Iron’s vision was flipped upside down. Greed had grabbed him by the ankles without hesitation and was using him as a club to smash the villains into the ground. After all, this was all Iron’s fault to begin with.