Chapter 100

Everyone had at least one hobby. Im Chunsoo was no different.

The first thing Team Leader 1 saw when he entered the Guild Master’s office was a golf ball rolling toward the door.

Roll, roll. Thunk.

The ball had rolled far wide of the hole and only stopped after striking Team Leader 1’s shoe. As he bent down to pick it up, Im Chunsoo waved him off.

“Leave it. Come have some tea.”

“Yes, sir.”

A brief silence passed between them. After savoring his tea, Im Chunsoo suddenly spoke.

“Smells good, doesn’t it?”

“Ah, yes. I suppose it must be good tea.”

“This is Longjing tea.¹ I received it as a gift, but to be honest, I don’t really know what it is. It’s just filthy expensive.”

“What?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“I thought you liked tea.”

“Not at all. I only pretend to savor it because I want to look sophisticated. At home, I drink instant coffee.”

Team Leader 1 let out a quiet laugh. Im Chunsoo’s love of tea was famous among the Guild executives. They had even begun competing to see who could give the Guild Master the better tea.

“A few people are going to be surprised.”

“For example?”

“Team Leader 3. He’s been bragging that he’ll bring back some famous tea from his upcoming business trip to China.”

“Fire that bastard. He’s lost his mind thinking about gathering weeds instead of doing his job.”

“Are you serious?”

“Of course I’m joking. Am I not allowed to joke?”

A light laugh passed between them. Im Chunsoo gulped down the rest of his tea as if it were cold water, then smacked his lips.

“So, when are you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“You brought news. I even went out of my way to tell you a secret because you were having trouble spitting it out…”

“Was it that obvious?”

“Look in a mirror before you come in next time. Anyone could tell with a face that grim.”

It wasn’t long before Team Leader 1 finally managed to speak.

“The investigation into the Peace Guild that you ordered previously… has failed.”

“Both of them?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Explain in more detail.”

“They approached carefully, but they say it would be better not to provoke the Peace Guild Master or Team Leader.”

“I expected as much. I should have made the request personally. In the end, I stayed out of it because of my useless pride, so some of the blame is mine.”

“No, sir. It was my own inadequacy.”

“That’s true, too. Even if those locked-down bastards were out of reach, you should have succeeded with that C-rank Hunter, Jin Taekyung.”

Im Chunsoo shot him a cold glare.

“Why exactly did you fail? I gave you a Familiar mage hired from outside and even assigned the Guild’s Security Team to him.”

“Well, that…”

Team Leader 1 hesitated, then finally forced out the words he had been unable to say.

“We lost contact.”

“Hm? That bastard Hong Woojin?”

“Hong Woojin left a single text message and disappeared. It’s the Security Team we lost contact with.”

“Why the Security Team? Don’t they report in regularly?”

“Yes. Reports come in every two hours, but… the last one was four hours ago.”

“Are you saying the entire Security Team deserted?”

“No. Judging by the circumstances, it’s highly likely Jin Taekyung got to them.”

“What?”

What was that supposed to mean?

As Im Chunsoo stared at him in disbelief, Team Leader 1 handed him a printout.

“Today’s report.”

Only certain sections were printed in red, marking it as an emergency report rather than a routine one.

Im Chunsoo’s eyes raced across the page.

The target had spoken on the phone with an unidentified person, and both the contents of the conversation and the target’s actions were suspicious. After reading the report from beginning to end, Im Chunsoo let out a sigh.

“Hah. He’s more interesting than I expected. What happened next?”

“The Security Team Leader contacted me directly. He said they needed to pursue the target immediately, so he would act first and report afterward.”

“And then they lost contact…”

Deep in thought, Im Chunsoo tapped the table.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

By the time he raised his head, the high-quality wooden table had frozen solid.

“Who did Jin Taekyung call? You must have at least gotten the man’s full name, or you wouldn’t be showing me this.”

“Seong Jinho. A thirty-year-old exam candidate living in Bucheon.”

“…Team Leader 1. Did I hear that wrong? An exam candidate, not a Hunter?”

“I checked again myself, but there’s no mistake. He’s the manager of the goshiwon² where Jin Taekyung lives. They’re supposedly like sworn brothers.”

“Hah. Today keeps surprising me.”

Im Chunsoo had expected him to be at least an A-rank Hunter. But what was this? A civilian exam candidate?

Shaking his head, Im Chunsoo rose from his seat.

“Ugh, we really got played. Why does a Guild with only five people have so much to hide?”

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? It’s almost dinnertime. We should go have a meal.”

“…Sir?”

Im Chunsoo clicked his tongue at the bewildered Team Leader 1.

“Stop talking and follow me.”

He was thinking of having dinner in Ilsan that evening.

The six-on-one fight ended in an instant.

To begin with, Choi Byungil was the only one who could exchange blows with me. Even he didn’t last long before dropping to his knees.

Well, obviously.

But it seemed to have been a tremendous shock to someone.

With both ankles broken, Choi Byungil kept talking to me, his face white as a sheet.

“An A-rank Hunter? Were you hiding your identity?”

“No. I never hid my identity.”

“Tell me your real affiliation! Is Ares Guild making a move against our Sangdong Guild…?”

“I’m with the Peace Guild. And Ares Guild probably doesn’t care about your Guild. You’re in completely different weight classes.”

“Then who was the person you called?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? He’s my goshiwon² manager hyung.³ Would you know him if I said his name was Seong Jinho?”

“This can’t be. This can’t be happening.”

In the end, I had no choice but to use the Mouth-Sealing Technique. I tore strips from his clothes and gagged him, then treated all the remaining wounded, including him.

Of course, I didn’t use the potions I had bought from the Store.

“Wow, Sangdong Guild really gives you guys some serious support.”

Even after looting only what they had brought with them, the quality and quantity of their Equipment and consumables were nothing to sneeze at. I used some of them for treatment, and the rest…

“I’m confiscating this for now. Anyone have a problem with that?”

Naturally, no one raised a hand.

They must have been thoroughly cowed by my overwhelming strength. Even after their injuries were treated, none of them dared to attack me again. They were pretty smart.

“Now, who wants to tell me all about your mission?”

Once again, nobody raised a hand, so I had to choose someone myself.

The choice was easy.

“You.”

“M-me?”

“Yeah, you.”

Kim Junsu, the Familiar mage, flinched before declaring with a resolute expression,

“I’m with the Security Team. I cannot carelessly disclose the Guild’s confidential information to an outsider.”

“Oh.”

I was impressed. At the same time, I grabbed him by the hair and yanked.

A small sound like tape being ripped came from somewhere, and his wig came clean off. The gleaming bald crown hidden beneath it was exposed.

“What the—!”

“From now on, every time you lie or pretend not to know the answer to one of my questions, I’ll pluck out a handful of hair.”

“…!”

Everything went smoothly after that. All kinds of information poured from the mouth of a balding man desperate to protect his hair at any cost.

“Hong Woojin?”

“Yes. He’s a B-rank mage Team Leader 1 hired from outside. Like me, he specializes in Familiar magic.”

“Really?”

What a waste. I should have caught that bastard and beaten the information out of him, too.

I’ll run into him someday. If it takes too long, I can always track him down myself.

Smacking my lips, I continued extracting information. Whenever Kim Junsu seemed to hesitate, I encouraged him by fiddling with what little hair he had left.

“That’s everything. I swear, that’s all. I may be on the Security Team, but I really don’t know anything else. So please, just spare my hair…”

His tone was full of both resentment and sincerity. The final words in particular struck a chord with me.

That should about wrap things up.

The mastermind behind it was, as expected, the Sangdong Guild—or, more precisely, Im Chunsoo.

After seeing that his spendthrift son had been shaken down for a hundred million won⁴ in income, he had immediately started digging into our Guild.

Well, in the end, I turned the tables and robbed him instead.

“The Guild Master won’t let this go.”

“Is that some stock line reserved for weaklings? Forget about invoking your Guild Master and worry about cleaning up your own shit.”

“…Tch.”

At my sharp retort, Choi Byungil lowered his head in frustration. Still, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

The Sangdong Guild Master is going to be pretty pissed when he finds out.

He had sent his subordinates to watch me, only for them to get robbed and captured instead. For the Guild Master—and the Guild as a whole—this was about as fucking humiliating as it got.

Given the seriousness of the matter, I could only hope they would quietly bury it and move on.

Should I call Team Leader Choi?

I was holding my smartphone, still deliberating, when it happened.

010-xxxx-xxxx

A call from a number I didn’t recognize.

What was this?

For some reason, I felt strangely tense as I answered.

“Hello?”

“Come down. I’m waiting below.”

“Huh? I think you have the wrong number.”

“Jin Taekyung. That’s you, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes, but… who are you?”

“My name is Im Chunsoo. I heard you have a few of my people with you.”

“…”

“Are you listening?”

I was listening. I just couldn’t speak.

The Guild Master of a mid-sized Guild had come all the way here himself to meet me. And it was Im Chunsoo, of all people—the man notorious for his temper.

“Come down. We can clear up any misunderstandings over a meal.”

There was no misunderstanding to clear up, but I had no idea what would happen if I said, “No.”

Hadn’t the man already found out my location?

In the end, I had only one option.

“I’ll come down now.”

Im Chunsoo made a powerful first impression. He was younger than I had expected, and although his eyes seemed gentle, they burned with heat.

Fiery.

Ironically, that was my first thought upon meeting a master of ice magic.

“Hello. I’m Jin Taekyung.”

“I’m Im Chunsoo.”

Unlike his burning gaze, his voice was cold. At last, he seemed like someone who deserved the nickname Frozen.

“It’s strange seeing in person a face I’ve only seen in report photos.”

There were actually people who could admit so bluntly and without embarrassment that they had dug into my background.

“What about my people?”

“They’re upstairs.”

“Any fatalities?”

“Of course not. I’d hate to become a criminal.”

“I appreciate that.”

Im Chunsoo gave me a slight nod.

“My people got impatient and made a mistake. Can you let it slide?”

“If there’s reasonable compensation.”

Im Chunsoo gave a short laugh, while the man beside him, who looked like a Team Leader, frowned.

“Young man, you have no manners.”

“I can be like that… but it feels a little strange hearing it from the people who put me under surveillance.”

“Even so—”

The man couldn’t continue. Im Chunsoo raised a hand to stop him.

“Team Leader 1, go upstairs and release my people.”

“…Yes, Guild Master.”

If Kim Butler possessed a gentle charisma, this man possessed a rough one. Maybe it was because they were both mages. Somehow, the two men overlapped in my mind.

“Come take a walk with me.”

Im Chunsoo went ahead, and I followed behind him.

“Do you know something?”

After walking briskly for a while, Im Chunsoo suddenly spoke.

“Once I have a grudge against someone, I have to see it through to the end. I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of person I am.”

Very Murim of him.

The strong devour the weak. Survival of the fittest. It seemed this man had the blood of a Murim tough guy running through his veins, too.

“That’s how I built the Sangdong Guild. I climbed higher by stepping on what I had brought down and salvaging whatever I could.”

“I see.”

“What about the Peace Guild?”

“…What do you mean?”

“The past decade has been dull. We’re allies with every nearby Guild, and we haven’t had a rival for a long time. Then you people appeared.”

I looked into his eyes, where curiosity and passion seemed to boil, and had only one thought.

This is dangerous.

Im Chunsoo continued, regardless.

“Your Guild Master and Team Leader are people even I can’t easily access information on… But more than anything, your existence has stirred me up.”

We were climbing a hill now. Despite his considerable age, Im Chunsoo didn’t seem short of breath.

“Do you know why I came all the way here?”

“To see me.”

“You’re only half right.”

Im Chunsoo’s footsteps stopped. Slowly turning around, he released a frigid chill from his entire body.

System

Level 75 Im Chunsoo

“At my age, time is money. I’m not so extravagant that I’d come all the way here just to see your face.”

Frozen. The seasoned A-rank mage who had fought his way through the Great Cataclysm himself.

The moment he extended his hand toward me—

Hissssss.

A dozen or so ice spikes formed in the empty air above my head. The midsummer air froze, and frost settled over the scorching dirt path.

I’d been well and truly caught.

I had thought he was an old man with some sense of propriety. I never imagined he would launch straight into something like this.

“Do you really have to go this far?”

“I’m going this far because it’s you.”

“I’m only a C-rank.”

“Exactly. Let’s see what that C-rank Hunter can do.”

The moment he finished speaking, Im Chunsoo clenched his fist. The ice spikes, streaming with biting cold, shot toward me.

Whoosh!

But they couldn’t even touch the hem of my clothes.

“Rise up. Fire Wall.”

At the sound of a clear voice, the mana permeating the air began to churn. The ground, which had been frosted over by Im Chunsoo’s magic, melted as flames surged upward.

Fwoosh! Roar!

It was a wall of fire in the most literal sense. Blue flames swallowed the ice spikes and split the space between Im Chunsoo and me.

Beyond the wavering flames, Im Chunsoo cried out in shock.

“This is…!”

But I wasn’t looking at Im Chunsoo.

A man standing behind him at the entrance to the hiking trail greeted us in a gentle voice.

“I’m glad I’m not late. You too, Chunsoo.”

System

Level 80 Kim Hwajong

Kim Hwajong.

Kim Butler had arrived.