First Steps I: Arrival and Execution

vol 1 | Solo Leveling

arc 0 | Prologue

Ch. 3 | First Steps I: Arrival and Execution

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Time heals everything they say.

This was true in his case as the initial discomfort and the disorienting feeling he had initially felt towards his new body or rather, the body he was now occupying, had begun to subside with time.

Slowly, but surely he felt more familiar with his circumstances as he became comfortable in his new flesh.

The reincarnation system had worked perfectly and he was grateful for that.

Thanks to that, there wasn't a threat of him developing a personality disorder soon or ever down the line. The system had assimilated both of his experiences as an orphaned detective-serial killer and the world's weakest hunter quite well.

He still is Jacques Lorcan Wallace just as much as he is Sung Jinwoo now.

Both now were a part of his being just as his 'Jack The Ripper' persona had been.

But even though his discomfort with his body disappeared, strangely he still wasn't past feeling utterly disconnected from the person that sat beside his bed berating him, or rather, the past him, the weakest, pathetic E-Rank Hunter for his rash actions.

Skimming through the newly assimilated, but still somewhat foggy sets of memories, told him that the predicament he was in right now was nothing out of the ordinary.

Getting hurt to the point of death in the weakest-ranked dungeon and then getting berated by his younger sibling might seem like a rare sight but for him, Sung Jinwoo, it was just another ordinary weekday.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?!" The rambling of a beautiful brunette brought Jinwoo out of his musing as she grabbed his ear and pulled on it. "Are you paying attention to what I'm saying?! How can you be so selfish?!"

Curbing his annoyance, he resisted the urge to pinch the young lady back. Staring at her face his musing turned into amusement as she tried to knock some sense into him.

"Huh? You are smiling?! Do you have no shame?! Didn't I tell you to stop getting injured?! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

Jinah almost yelled out at the irksome smiling Jinwoo who just blinked to himself. The latter opened his mouth to retort but stopped once he saw the tears welling up in her eyes. He kept his mouth shut as Jinah began to punch his chest while she berated him for putting his life in jeopardy yet again.

Jinwoo sighed to himself internally as he let her vent her frustration on him.

There was no power behind her punches nor any bite behind her curses. She was simply worried for her brother, her only remaining family after their mom left them. There was anxiety mixed with a lot of affection and it made Jinwoo...

Awkward.

And it only became more so as she suddenly hugged him. It was just a hug shared between siblings but it was suffocating for Jinwoo. He had the memories but the connection was missing. She was so, so familiar and yet such a stranger to him. But he relented from pushing her away when he heard her next words.

"Getting lost in a dungeon! Separated from your party for almost a week?! You nearly starved to death?! Do you understand how close I was to losing you?!"

"...I..." Jinwoo was tongue-tied for several reasons.

"None of this would matter if you end up dead do you understand?! None of it! You are the only one I have Jinwoo... Please... Please don't leave me..."

Jinah's distraught was one reason and the other was her recounting the facts of the events that lead to him ending up in a hospital bed yet again.

The foggy portion of his memory cleared as he reaffirmed the timeline in his head.

He was transmigrated before the Double Dungeon incident. How early he was in his arrival wasn't something he could determine yet but Jinwoo recognized the opportunity as it presented itself.

He could use it to his advantage to prepare himself for the inevitable Double Dungeon incident.

"Don't worry, Jinah..." Jinwoo said as firmly wrapped his hands around her. "I'm not gonna leave you. Shhh, I'm always with you."

This time the story was going to be a lot different. Staring at his buzzing phone, he frowned while skimming through his memories. He just woke up and trouble was already brewing. If Jinah knew, she'd tell him to avoid it and run away with her as far as they can but he was done running.

"I'm not going anywhere."

It was time to get his life on track.

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*Ring!**Ring!**Ring!*

"Who is that, oppa?"

"Ahhh, an acquaintance. There's something I need to deal with."

"Aaaaaa! Already?! No! You should rest! You aren't going anywhere until I say so-"

"It's urgent and very necessary, Jinah. Don't worry, it's nothing troublesome."

"...No-I... *Sigh* Alright, but don't get yourself in trouble again. And you come back hurt, I will break your leg myself and force you to stay home!"

"Haha~ Who's going to buy you the new Zelda if you do that?"

"You obviously, even if you have to sell your kidney, right oppa?"

"Don't talk rubbish and go. I need to get dressed and check myself out for the time being."

"Hehe~ Alright then. I'll be going first! Bye, oppa! I'll come to see you tonight."

"Bye!... What a troublesome lady. Now..."

*Ring!**Ring!**Ring-*

"Oh, Mr. Sung, I was getting worried thinking you might have died! Who was going to pay me back if you had passed away? Fortunately, you are still kicking because I would have hated to collect my debt from your dear, young, pretty sister kuku-"

"Listen here fuckface, you want to settle my debt and so do I. Let's meet at one of the warehouses you stash your cane. We'll negotiable the fine details then. Don't call me."

"Listen here you punk-"

*Cut!*

"Alright... I'll need something to aid me in my 'negotiation'. Ahhh, a scalpel, it's too small making its reach small as well but it's not like I have any other choice. But by the end of the day, I'll have a better alternative. If everything goes well that is."

"..."

"*Whistle* Who am I kidding? Everything is gonna be just fine."

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Sung Jinwoo always had bad luck. Some days it was just one bad roll and on others, it was a streak of shit that would fuck up several of his days to come.

Sung Jinwoo always had bad luck.

Or so he had assumed. But was it truly bad luck that fucked him over, or was it his inability to deal with the situations that presented themselves before him that led to colossal setbacks in his life.

Because if you have enough strength. There's opportunity even in the bleakest situation.

"When you called me to meet up, I thought it was because you felt guilty and decided to rightfully apologize and compensate us for our losses but... I never imagined a brat like you would try to negotiate and push us around. Did you get so crazy eating mushrooms in the cave you almost died that you came looking for trouble?" A slimy-looking man gloated as seven of his equally slimy-looking grunts jeered at Jinwoo as he stood before the man in an empty warehouse. "Because if you want trouble you are gonna get it, young man."

Troubles came in all forms, sorts, and at any given time to Sung Jinwoo. Monsters, traps, deadlines, debts, debt collectors, and occasionally shitty hunters that he'd have to pair up with to get by. These low lives before him weren't that strong.

The leader was a mid-D-Ranker and the rest of his lackeys ranked below him. They were pathetic but even as they were, they were still a bit more powerful than the E-Rank Hunter who was the weakest, and that gave them the right to leech off his labors.

Right?

Wrong.

"I called you here because I wanted my share of monster cores that I had hunted. What's the trouble with that? They are all of the lowest grades and just a dozen of them. Parting with them shouldn't hurt you?" Jinwoo asked as the leader frowned. "Actually, it shouldn't even concern you to begin with. Since they are mine and you've done jack-shit to earn them except steal from me when I was incapacitated. I won't repeat..."

"Give them back."

Neither the manhwa nor the novel suggested such troubles but considering how he was in the past and even now. It wasn't a surprise. It was probably one of those things that simply disappeared without becoming a big issue as Jinwoo became stronger.

And that was proof that while power and violence cannot fix all of life's issues, they sure as fuck can fix a good chunk of those.

"Or what are you gonna do, you little shit?" The man sneered as Jinwoo just smirked at himself.

And... He was going to use that to fix the problem before him.

"Otherwise I'm going to rob you of everything you own, from all of your monster cores to your equipment, your clothes, your car, your house to every last penny." Jinwoo said as the man stood up, blistering in anger while Jinwoo just reached into his pocket and pulled out a scalpel that he had lifted from the hospital. "But before I do that..."

"I'm going to beat the shit out of you."

"Beat this bastard up!"

Smirking to himself, he gripped the scalpel tightly in a forward grip, tracing the spine with his thumb as he formulated a decisive plan in his head.

Even though Sung Jinwoo was the weakest hunter, he was still stronger than the strongest unawakened human by a decent margin. So, his new body was without a doubt better than his previous one.

This coupled with the skills he retained from his previous life, opened a lot of possibilities that were scarce to the previous him and this reflected in the execution of the punishment he dished out.

Leaning back to avoid a battle-axe to his face, he shuffled ahead and stabbed the first grunt in his spine four times in quick succession before grabbing him by the back of his neck and throwing him into the approaching two.

"One."

Raising his left hand he deflected a punch aimed at his face towards his right allowing him to stab the offender in his outstretched forearm. The enchanted blade used to cut open the hardened skin of the toughest hunters, sunk into the man's flesh like a hot knife through butter. Stepping ahead he dragged the blade across the goon's arm tearing the skin and flesh open as blood began to pool the ground.

"Ahhhhhh-!" The man screamed in agony. His hands shaky as he tried to close the wound but it was too wide and deep as even his bones were visible. The man's screams were cut short as Jinwoo grabbed him by the back of his head and slammed his face into the floor, breaking the tiles.

"Two."

Sung Jinwoo casually counted the men he downed as he stared at the head honcho with a carefree smirk on his face who just sneered back at him while gesturing the remaining of his five men to attack him.

The five men rushed at him but this time Jinwoo met their charge with one of his own. He jumped deflecting a spear as his knee slammed right into the nose of the mob nearest to him.

With a sickening crunch, it broke, incapacitating the hunter temporarily as Jinwoo rolled landing to maintain his momentum.

With a flick of his wrist, he stabbed the second hunter in the rib, piercing through the left lung before landing a devastating punch to the same side of the face sending the man into the ground, unconscious.

"Three-"

Suddenly, Jinwoo jerked back, avoiding a dagger that nearly slashed his eye open. Steadying himself, he grunted while tightening his fist as he punched the man in the dick-

"Ahhhhhhh-"

-making him scream like a bitch but a stab to the neck cut his vocal cord in half silencing the scream and replacing it with the sound of gurgling as the man fell to the floor, clawing at his neck while choking on his own blood.

"Four."

"Y-You... Kill! K-Kill him!"

Cocking his right hand back, he coiled his torso, lifting his leg as he tensed all the muscles in his body. And then, he loosened his clenched muscles. His left foot, landed on the floor, cracking it with sheer force as his hand let loose of the scalpel.

The enhanced blade, cut through the air and the sides of the hunter rushing at him, before whizzing past the lone boss' head and nearly destroying the wall behind him.

"Five."

The man fell on his ass petrified, as he felt something warm flow down the left side of his neck. Shakily he touched his neck and brought the hand to his face only for his eyes to widen as he found it doused in red.

It was blood.

It was his blood.

Tears welled up in his eyes, the eyes shaking in the sockets of his skulls as he looked down beside him and the sight made him more afraid than he already was.

It was an ear.

It was his ear.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"

The man screamed, his brain finally acknowledging the missing organ, as the pain hit him full force. The man rolled clutching his head, while rolling on the floor and in his own blood, convulsing in agony.

"Six."

Jinwoo rolled his shoulder walking towards the downed man as he kicked up a spear lying near his feet and gripped it tightly after giving it a test twirl.

The man recognized Jinwoo's footsteps as he scrambled backward, cowering in fear as he backed himself against the nearly destroyed wall. Jinwoo stood in front of the trembling man who had pissed himself at this point, and looked down at him with a small smile on his face as leveled the dangerous end of the spear at the man's head.

"Seven." Sung Jinwoo finished counting heads as the man spluttered to himself, too scared to even beg for mercy.

"H-How... A-An E-Rank... How?!"

"How? Hmm..." Jinwoo made a pondering face before he smirked looking down at the man. "I used 100% of my body. I am truly wonderful aren't I?"

The man sweated profusely as he stared into the eyes of a killer. An executioner who had done this repeatedly over a hundred times as if taking lives was a ritual to him.

"Now... Let's negotiate? Ha... Haha... Hahaha!"

"No... Nononono! NOOOOOOOO!"

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The screams of the terrorized permeated the night sky of Seoul, but there was hardly anyone willing to step out of their routine to investigate the ruckus.

Especially, in areas considered the underbelly of Seoul. An area where the lowest of the low gathered. Be it humans or hunters.

A place for monsters in human skin.

Naturally, Sung Jinwoo, or rather the Jacques Lorcan Wallace, The Ripper, part of him felt welcomed as the gray clouds crowded the crescent moon while he carried on with his task.

*Thump!**Thump!**Thump!*

"-and that's how I ended up here. Pretty crazy right? I know you must be thinking that 'Hey! This guy fucking mental!' and you would be right, I am fucked in the head a bit but I'm not lying, trust me, bro. But... it doesn't matter even if you do or don't." Sung Jinwoo said, wiping the sweat and the dirt away from his face as swung the shovel over his shoulder.

Turning back he looked at the tied and taped up, physically and mentally broken man, who looked back at him with dead eyes. His spirit to live had long perished under the pain Jinwoo put him through. Every bone broken, muscles torn, nerves severed and internal organs bruised. Humans would have perished a long time ago but hunters have a strong threshold for pain and overall stronger vitality.

Thanks to that, Jinwoo was able to familiarise his new body with his old ways. And truly, as weak as this body was compared to the rest of the hunters, it was magnificent compared to his previous one.

"I wasn't planning on killing you all. I merely thought you were just bullies on steroids and I just wanted to beat you up, set you straight with broken spines, long ass hospital bills, and no money to pay them but as fate would have it. My first night in this brand new world and I'm already burying the scums of earth in the dirt." Jinwoo said as he hissed down at the man and his dead lackeys.

"Where they truly belong."

*Thump!**Thump!**Thump!*

"Rape, extortion, murder, human trafficking, and the cherry on top, child trafficking. You checked all of the boxes to land on my shitlist. So, don't blame me. Blame yourself and your shit luck, that you were unlucky enough to be alive when I was just reborn." Jinwoo sneered as he continued digging. "Normally, I would dump you into a river but Han River is always crowded due to the proximity of the gates that constantly open nearby and while I'm strong enough to dispatch untrained low-rankers like you I'm not strong enough to deal with high-rankers be it from the Law or the Outlaws. So, 'six feet under' will have to do for now. So, I'm sincerely sorry for the inconvenience-"

*Thump!**Thump!*

"Ahaa, there!"

*Clang!*

Throwing aside the shovel, he grabbed the dead lackeys of the broken criminal hunters and threw them into their respective ditches, and buried them before turning towards the last man.

The man didn't even resist as Jinwoo grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to his grave nor did he complain when he was thrown below. He didn't care.

He didn't care what that monster had been babbling on about, he didn't care as the dirt began to fill his grave and bury him under. He didn't care that he was about to die. He was just truly, utterly broken and he just wanted it to end.

"There is a special hell for fuckers like you. Say my hellos to Ani if you see her. But considering the kind of shit you are, that's highly unlikely." Jinwoo said, venom dripping from his tongue. Even in this life, his hatred for these scums remained the same.

"I pray that you burn in hell and that your torment never ends. So that you understand the pain and misery that you have put others through."

*Thump!**Thump!**Clang!*

"Hah... Day one. Decent."

Jinwoo muttered to himself as he finished leveling the graves and erasing any tracks before getting rid of the shovel and any evidence that might lead to him being a suspect.

Jinwoo frowned to himself, feeling that his work was not up to par. In his previous life, removing physical evidence and avoiding digital surveillance was enough to avoid getting caught but in this new world, where hunters with various abilities are capable of ridiculous feats, it was inadequate to just get rid of the physical evidence.

But, he wasn't capable of anything else right now so he tidied up to the best of his abilities and in time he will only become more efficient.

'I just have to be patient and focus on improving myself and my circumstances for now. The rest will fall into its place in time... For now, I should sleep.'

"I'm beat."

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Alternate Titles:

-Baby Steps:

-Day One: Murder

-That Time Got Transmigarated As A Gentleman Serial Killer!

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Word Count = 3300+

※ Notes:

Day one and MCs already murking people.

I mean, it's an Ashes™ fic, just what the hell did you expect?

Lol, don't answer that.

Anyways, MC won't be evil. He would just be non-cordial with mofos that do bad stuff. But I think we established that in the very first chapter itself.

Actual fun begins with the next chapter or the next-next one. So... Look forward to that.

Anyways, that's it for this one. Take care and I'll see you legends in the next one.

Love you all 3000.