Chapter 57: I Didn’t Know That
“In the end, you see me as a patient…”
Ha-seong splashed his face with cold water. Then, he silently turned away.
He didn’t want to admit that Kiyreo’s words had shaken his heart.
“Excuse me.”
“Oh, Jeong Ha-seong Hunter…”
Ha-seong bowed slightly to the nearby association employee and walked away.
No greetings for the F-Class.
His thoughts were too chaotic for now; he planned to reach out again after calming down.
But how could he possibly know what others were thinking?
‘Looks like my face is too ugly to see.’
Kiyreo assumed that Ha-seong was just angry and had left.
‘Well, since I didn’t get beat up, the mission was a success, right?’
Long live Ahn Yoon-seung!
Anyway, the real bravado had worked perfectly. Wasn’t that a big discovery?
The mages of Earth were so careless. How could they not properly gauge their enemy’s skill and end up flailing about?
‘Jeong Ha-seong doesn’t recklessly challenge someone who looks stronger than him.’
Hehe.
Kiyreo vowed to ensure that the S-Class Hunter wouldn’t get any funny ideas and to keep him firmly under control.
What’s the big deal about acting strong?
He had already lived as a real powerhouse, a Great Mage, so all he had to do was mimic his past behavior.
‘Well, I’m going to regain my power soon anyway, so it’s not like I’m lying!”
But at that moment.
Kiyreo spotted a woman’s figure.
From a distance, Seonwoo-yeon was silently wearing a serious expression.
“Ms. Seonwoo-yeon?”
Seonwoo-yeon flinched slightly as Kiyreo approached. Then she spoke softly.
“If you’re thinking of silencing me, there’s really no need. I won’t mention what I saw today.”
“Uh?”
“I promise.”
Certainly, there’s no benefit in spreading rumors about being targeted by an S-Class. Kiyreo was touched by Seonwoo-yeon’s consideration.
“Thank you for that.”
Of course, he wouldn’t explain how this looked to Seonwoo-yeon.
After the argument ended.
12:10 PM. Restaurant near the association.
‘I can’t eat.’
Seonwoo-yeon was currently feeling miserable.
Just when she thought she had barely escaped the deadly clash between the first-ranked and the identity masquerader, the next trial hit her immediately.
“This place has delicious pickled vegetables.”
Someone plopped down next to her.
Long eyes without double eyelids and small pupils.
The identity masquerader.
“Is that seaweed soup?”
“Yep….”
“Does it have beef in it?”
How on Earth did this happen!
She never expected this man to be on par with Jeong Ha-seong…!
“Uh, maybe.”
Uncomfortable.
But she had no choice about her current company.
Kiyreo had been demanding some information from her since earlier, and using lunch hour was the quickest way to explain it.
“Ahem. Anyway, you’re curious about what happened to that attempted murderer we met in the park.”
“Yes!”
Seonwoo-yeon reluctantly got to the point.
What followed was her one-sided explanation.
“As I said this morning, I expect to hear from the police soon, but to put it bluntly, catching them is difficult.”
“Hmm.”
“They couldn’t accurately identify the suspect. We tried tracking the rare item that Awakened person had as a temporary measure.”
“There would have been too many people with the same item.”
“Yeah, well. To be honest, this method has plenty of unstable factors…”
Clank.
Kiyreo quietly rattled his utensils.
“The police ultimately failed to pinpoint the suspect’s address.”
“Ah-ha.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Seonwoo-yeon fell silent for a moment before speaking again.
“…But there’s good news too.”
Upon hearing this, Kiyreo looked up from his soup. Good news?
“You recently got trapped in a gate with Jeong Ha-seong Hunter, right?”
“You know about that.”
“At least the mastermind behind that incident has been identified. We recently caught wind of the terrorists.”
Seonwoo-yeon shared this and paused, then took out her phone and began writing something down furiously.
“Why suddenly…?”
Just as he was about to ask why she stopped speaking.
Ding. Kiyreo’s phone buzzed.
The message she sent contained just one line.
[Have you heard of Nachalsawon?]
Nachalsawon.
Kiyreo quietly pondered over that word.
*
A few days ago.
Exactly 48 hours before the major terrorism in August and the cult’s suicide bombing took place.
Pyo Na-gil’s hideout.
“Damn those bastards!”
“Hyung, what’s wrong?”
The young leader of the criminal organization stormed into the warehouse.
He had just executed an assassination operation on an S-Class.
“By the way, what happened with Jeong Ha-seong…?”
“Can’t you see? He came back without a scratch, there’s no way I was tussling with him!”
Pyo Na-gil looked displeased.
Plans went awry because an unknown F-Class had attached himself to Jeong Ha-seong.
That was certainly frustrating, but the real source of his anger wasn’t that.
“Hey, get Su Ye-hwi that bastard right now.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Bring that cult follower! Tell him the assassination was successful. Got it?”
As soon as Pyo Na-gil returned to the hideout, he searched for a specific individual.
The financier who was in a cooperative relationship with him. A believer of Nachalsawon.
“Anyway, I’ve recognized that hilarious pseudonym, Su Ye-hwi. He’s not someone to trust!”
Pyo Na-gil recalled the situation from earlier.
He was told, if he encountered an S-Class in the gate, to use this.
A favorable situation would arise for him.
They had handed him the [Collapse Particle] item.
[Collapse Particle] was a rare item that hardly came on the market, so he accepted it without hesitation.
‘They were planning to trap me and the S-Class in the gate!’
Realizing the item’s effect, Pyo Na-gil felt utterly blindsided.
There wasn’t a hunter who wanted to be isolated in a different world with an artificially erased passageway.
“Hyung, I found him. He should be here soon.”
“Alright.”
Pyo Na-gil sharpened his resolve.
He couldn’t let it go after being ambushed like this.
He had to repay all those crazy cultists who almost made him a fool.
Especially Su Ye-hwi, that transporter, would endure excruciating pain before dying.
‘Just change my face and name, and that’s all there is to it.’
After slaughtering the believers, he could just abandon the base.
He had always done so effortlessly.
He hadn’t slain the S-Class yet; things just weren’t going his way for a moment. He was at the peak of interpersonal battles.
“Just try to come.”
Pyo Na-gil set traps all around the hideout and quietly held his breath.
A short while later. There was a knock at the door.
Thud, thud, thud.
“It’s probably them.”
“Open up.”
After waiting a moment, someone peeked their head from beyond the heavy iron door.
“Jun-tae! I received your message! You succeeded in the assassination, huh?”
With a pretty face and a thin frame, wearing a translucent white raincoat.
The believer bowed slightly and entered. The moment he did.
“Ah!”
A high-pitched scream rang out.
It was the voice of the person named Su Ye-hwi.
In the blink of an eye, Pyo Na-gil severed his ankle.
“W-Why so sudden…?”
“Just answer the questions I ask.”
Gasp.
“What the hell was that damned destruction item for?”
“Destruction item? Uh, t-the red orb?”
“Don’t answer a question with another question!”
He placed his hand on Su Ye-hwi’s head, which lay on the ground.
Pyo Na-gil’s awakening skill activated once again.
Swish.
“Ahhh!”
Blood flowed profusely from the cut shoulder, and the Nachalsawon believer trembled.
“What do you mean by intentions? I was just doing the will of our leader!”
“An item that erases the entrance to the gate. If I had known beforehand, I would never have used that thing!”
“B-but still, didn’t it help?”
“What?”
“Ugh! N-no. I mean, either way, you wouldn’t miss your target, right? You wouldn’t have succeeded in the assassination otherwise, right?”
If they trap him in the gate, a typical hunter would find it impossible to escape. In some ways, it was a useful assassination item.
“Conversely, that also means I wouldn’t be able to escape. Especially not in a gate with an S-Class!”
Pyo Na-gil shot him a cold stare.
“Jun-tae…”
“But don’t worry. At least your leader will be delighted.”
“Huh?”
“You said the mission was completed, right? While Jeong Ha-seong went into the gate, I erased the passageway from outside.”
At that, the believer stopped trembling and raised his head.
“You didn’t kill him directly, did you?”
“What?”
“Did you just destroy the gate and come back?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“Why? Are you saying there’s a way to get out separately without being forever trapped?”
“Y-Yes. If you kill the boss, an exit will arise. That was a premise that couldn’t be obstructed in any way.”
The cult member in the raincoat appeared panicked. However, Pyo Na-gil seemed not to care much.
“Oh? Then, how unfortunate, but let’s give up on the S-Class assassination.”
“Wha-? Y-you said you’d take responsibility for this! And you took so much money!”
“Do you think I want this? Who would have guessed that an F-Class would stick to Jeong Ha-seong?”
Tap, tap.
The leader of the criminal organization places his hand above the informant’s head once more.
“This is all your fault for nagging me from the sidelines, you cult bastards!”
Then the informant looked up at him.
“We’re not a cult…”
“….”
“I serve the real higher power, unlike those fake religions! Do you really believe that Dungeon Shock happened naturally? It’s all a test from our Lady of Nachalsawon to trial sinners like us…”
Even at this moment, the nonsense continued. Was this religious nut unafraid?
“Anyway, I’m gravely disappointed with this. Another assassination failure.”
Hah.
“If you just trap me in the gate, an S-Class will probably kill the boss and get out naturally. The failure is guaranteed. We gave you the last opportunity.”
The believer of Nachalsawon scolded in a cold voice. To that, Pyo Na-gil scoffed.
“So what? Don’t you realize whose hands your life is in?”
Slowly, pressure was applied to the hand gripping the informant’s head. With the strength of an A-Class upper-ranked Awakened, it was a piece of cake to crush a skull with sheer force.
“…It seems that faithless sorts are not to be treated lightly.”
But then.
For some reason, the believer’s attitude changed.
“You don’t understand why you need to do this, so you’re neither desperate nor responsible.”
“What?”
“If your plan to expand the influence through money is…. then I must withdraw it.”
Unnecessarily bold.
Pyo Na-gil’s words strange enough to irritate him, he attempted to slice the believer’s fingers off.
However.
“Have you just now realized something strange?”
The cutting skill didn’t activate.
Pyo Na-gil froze, listening to what the believer was saying.
“If going by your usual personality, you would have sliced my neck in an instant upon seeing me. It would have been quick and safe.”
Pyo Na-gil continued to remain silent.
“But why the sudden decision to just slice my ankle? Why the thought to not end my life easily, but rather to torture me slowly.”
His body refused to move as he desired.
“Now, you must realize. There’s an unconscious thought in your mind that you must never kill that head of Su Ye-hwi.”
The figure in the white raincoat lightly rose from his seat.
Despite limping from the severed ankle, he still maintained a relaxed air.
“I had my eye on you as a useful talent. It’s a pity.”
Cough, cough!
“I am a delegate connected to Lady Nachalsawon. I will not tolerate a wound on this precious body nor shamelessly prolong my life.”
Pyo Na-gil pulled out a poison-coated dagger from his pocket.
Shiver, shiver.
The unique item that had taken many lives slowly turned its blade toward his own neck.
“Pay the price for failure.”
“Ugh, ugh!”
“All of you are sinners.”
This is a neuro-linguistic programming skill…!
Finally, he realized Su Ye-hwi’s true identity but was a step too late.
Thump.
Then, ghastly sounds began to echo throughout the warehouse.
The leadership of the criminal organization led by Pyo Na-gil committed mass suicide.
“Hah.”
Su Ye-hwi calmly looked at the blood splattered on his raincoat.
As the leader of Nachalsawon, he had seen this kind of sight more than once or twice.
“Wow. Is this a divine revelation to take good care of the faithful rather than running a multi-tiered operation?”
Thump, thump, thump.
Su Ye-hwi quietly wandered through the now silent warehouse. Rummaging through the stacked boxes and casually opening drawers in the corners.
“Why is nothing going smoothly?”
During that time, he discovered a document in the third drawer of a metallic filing cabinet.
[Hunter Profile]
[Kim Gi-ryeo]
“Ah, seriously…”
Through the blurry black-and-white photo, someone’s silhouette became visible. Su Ye-hwi squinted his eyes.
“Things seem suspiciously not to be going well.”
