Chapter 224

A few hours earlier, it was Won Myunghoon’s shout that stopped the dozen-plus Star Guild members as they made their way back toward the Gate entrance with all their might.

“Wait. Everyone, halt!”

Every eye turned toward him.

With the tension of a terrifying Named Monster possibly appearing behind them at any moment, Won Myunghoon—who had been lost in thought by himself—finally opened his mouth.

“Scout.”

“Yes, Guild Master.”

The Guild member assigned to scouting answered immediately.

He was fast on his feet and skilled with a bow. Thanks to the good luck of drawing lots, he had barely escaped death, unlike his other comrades.

“Report our current location.”

“According to the coordinates, we’re at 175.37.990.”

“Fuck the coordinates. How far are we from the Gate entrance?”

“Based on our speed so far, it should take approximately seven minutes.”

“Not far, then. There’s only one route to the Gate entrance, right?”

“……Yes. There is, but…”

The scout trailed off with an uneasy expression.

The other Guild members sensed that something was wrong and exchanged glances. Then a single sentence turned their unease into reality.

“We’ll form a cordon here.”

“What?”

“You mean a cordon? In this situation?”

“Guild Master, that’s—”

The Guild members would normally have obeyed without complaint, but Won Myunghoon’s eyes turned cold at their resistance.

“Shut up and follow my orders. I have my reasons.”

“Even so, this isn’t right! We’re talking about a Named Monster—urk!”

Won Myunghoon seized the throat of the Guild member who had raised his voice the loudest and growled.

“You’re disobeying the Guild Master’s orders in a Gate? You suicidal son of a bitch…”

It happened in the blink of an eye.

The atmosphere froze.

Everyone there knew that Won Myunghoon’s words were not aimed at only one person.

They had watched him for years. They knew he was more than capable of following through on his threats.

“I—I’m sorry.”

“This is your last chance. There won’t be a second.”

Thud.

Won Myunghoon turned away from the Guild member, who collapsed to the ground with a white face, and swept his sharp gaze across the area.

“Fucking idiots.”

Even in the face of the unfiltered abuse, a dozen pairs of eyes remained fixed on the ground.

They had already spent several years dealing with Won Myunghoon. This was nothing new to them.

They had to be even more careful around him inside a Gate. He was an A-Rank Hunter—a powerhouse none of them could defeat even if they all attacked him together.

“Do your brains not work? Do I look stupid enough to take on a Named Monster?”

The heads that had been bowed so deeply began to rise, one by one.

“Then…”

“We’ll deal with those losers.”

“You mean the Peace Guild?”

“By now, they should all be dead.”

While fleeing in a panic, they had heard the roar of the monster.

It was pure terror—the kind of roar that made their knees go weak and sent chills down their spines just by hearing it.

They had never managed to see what the creature looked like. That was precisely why they were still alive.

How could five people possibly fight something like that? They’re all dead by now.

That was what every one of them believed.

Except for Won Myunghoon.

“What if even one of them survived and escaped?”

“Th—that…”

“No way.”

They had never considered the possibility.

Normally, they might have. But their minds had been paralyzed by fear of the Named Monster and the instinct to survive.

Won Myunghoon spoke to the Guild members as they hesitated.

“If even one of those losers survives and gets out of the Gate, every single one of us is finished.”

“…….”

“An A-Rank Hunter who’s been soaking up the media spotlight is dead. Then one of the only surviving Peace Guild members starts talking about us? You don’t need me to explain what happens after that, do you?”

The attention of the media—or rather, the entire country—would turn toward them.

Investigators would get involved. The news and mass media would treat the matter as a major story and pour out new reports every day.

Even if the survivor couldn’t provide clear testimony or physical evidence, the contempt and condemnation directed at them would not disappear.

They might even have to leave the country. They would be reduced to people who needed a visa just to visit their parents’ graves.

The thought alone was horrifying.

“Sometimes, people’s perception matters more than the truth. You all experienced that eight years ago, didn’t you?”

“Guild Master!”

“That’s—!”

Agitation spread violently among the Star Guild members.

It was an unspoken taboo. Yet Won Myunghoon himself had brought it up.

Wasn’t he the one who had planned everything and recruited them in the first place?

At the Guild members’ hardened gazes, Won Myunghoon let out a quiet laugh.

“Look down, you fucking bastards. Before I pluck all your eyes out.”

“……!”

“You joined because you wanted to. Is there a single bastard here who didn’t take my money? You used that money to buy houses and cars, drink and chase women, then got married and had kids. Now you’re living well while pretending to be good fathers and devoted husbands, aren’t you?”

Won Myunghoon irritably ran a hand through his hair.

Every time his gleaming eyes swept past them, the people around him trembled.

They wanted to deny it, but every word out of his mouth was true.

They had already crossed a river they could never return across, and Won Myunghoon was the one who had ferried them to the other side.

The ferryman had already hidden the boat. Without his permission, they could never return to the far bank.

Not until their dying breaths.

“I won’t waste any more time talking. Hide and form a cordon. When I give the signal, be ready to kill anyone.”

Won Myunghoon’s voice, thick with killing intent, was no different from a written verdict handed down by the Supreme Court.

Realizing that there would be no appeal, the Guild members scattered and began forming the cordon.

“Fucking idiots. It’s been eight years already…”

As Won Myunghoon muttered the words through clenched teeth, one of the Guild members cautiously approached him.

“Guild Master.”

“What?”

“Team Leader One, sir—I mean, what should we do about Team Leader One?”

“Kim Jonghun? Where the hell is that bastard?”

“We moved him over there for now.”

Won Myunghoon turned his head in the direction the Guild member pointed and let out a hollow laugh.

Only a few meters away, Kim Jonghun was pale and clacking his teeth together. He looked like a man possessed.

“Pathetic bastard. I was the idiot for keeping something like that around and calling him an A-Rank Hunter.”

Won Myunghoon clicked his tongue softly and waved a hand.

“Handle it quietly.”

“What? I—I can’t!”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I mean, I won’t commit murder.”

“What? You lunatic, what the hell are you thinking—wait.”

Won Myunghoon had been about to smack the Guild member when he suddenly stopped.

What he had originally meant was for them to keep Jonghun quiet somehow, with Silence magic or whatever else was necessary.

But was that really necessary?

Come to think of it, there’s no one who knows more about my secrets than him.

He had used that man as his right hand for no less than ten years.

Jonghun had some underhanded cleverness of his own, and his skills as a Hunter were excellent.

Even when that incident had occurred eight years ago, Won Myunghoon had believed that Team Leader 1 was the only one who would never betray him.

If he opened his mouth, he wouldn’t have gotten off unscathed either.

It wasn’t a matter of trust. It was a matter of mutual interests.

Their greed might have differed in size, but in some ways, the two of them were cut from the same cloth.

But…

He’s useless now.

Won Myunghoon had seen plenty of people exposed to the Fear of high-level monsters.

Their symptoms differed, but they all had one thing in common.

Junk.

Those whose souls had been branded by fear could never return to the way they had been before.

Some went mad and were locked away in special wards. Even if they barely recovered, their lives as Hunters were over.

He knows the most about my secrets. And he was the one who personally acquired Yeti’s Necklace.

On top of that, his credentials as an A-Rank Hunter had become nothing more than a scrap of paper.

Won Myunghoon’s deliberation was brief, and his decision was even faster.

“Bind him. I have a use for him.”

“What?”

“When that Named Monster comes, don’t you think we’ll need at least one piece of prey to throw to it?”

“……!”

“It works out well in more ways than one. Since Jin Taekyung is dead, we need to throw in an A-Rank Hunter from our side to make the story convincing.”

Won Myunghoon patted the frozen Guild member on the shoulder as he passed and hid himself in the nearby undergrowth.

Come on. Anyone. Come.

He didn’t have to wait long.

When he saw two people emerge from the undergrowth several dozen meters away, the corners of his mouth lifted.

That old Guild Master and Jin Taekyung. Is everyone else dead?

Jin Taekyung was covered in blood from head to toe, with an old mage carried on his back.

No matter how he looked at it, they had the appearance of wounded survivors who had lost a battle.

This should be easy.

Especially Jin Taekyung. Won Myunghoon wanted to kill that bastard with his own hands.

He had just finished preparing to signal the Guild members when—

“Come out, you fucking bastards.”

Jin Taekyung crooked a finger directly toward the undergrowth where Won Myunghoon was hiding.

The smile at Won Myunghoon’s lips vanished without a trace.

“What a rude bastard.”

Seeing Won Myunghoon’s twisted face, I couldn’t help but laugh under my breath.

What could I say? It felt like I had finally seen the absolute bottom of one human being.

“You’re laughing?”

Apparently, my reaction had made him even angrier.

He licked his dry lips and exhaled a hot breath.

“You bastard…don’t you understand what kind of situation you’re in?”

“I understand it perfectly.”

“And someone who understands the situation is grinning?”

“Choose your words carefully. When you say things like that, it makes me want to split your head open.”

“……What?”

“You should’ve stopped when I called you Mr. Won Myunghoon. Won Myunghoon, you fucking bastard.”

The hyenas’ faces went blank.

After being pressed tightly shut for some time, Won Myunghoon’s lips finally managed to open.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“I’m always perfectly sane. Aren’t I, Butler Kim?”

Butler Kim, who was still on my back and watching the situation unfold, answered.

“Entirely normal. Never losing your composure, no matter the situation—that is one of the basic qualities a Hunter should possess.”

“What about that bastard?”

“If this had happened during the Great Cataclysm, we wouldn’t have found even his corpse. Those were somewhat rougher times.”

“That’s what he says.”

Bang!

A single punch smashed apart a tree thick enough to wrap both arms around.

Won Myunghoon’s face flushed bright red as he glared at Butler Kim and me.

“You fucking bastards!”

“What a rude bastard. There’s nothing he won’t say to an elder, is there? Right?”

Butler Kim answered calmly.

“The young fellow is somewhat lacking in manners. But, well, isn’t this a good world? We ought to give him a chance.”

“Is that so?”

“Life is a series of choices. And from what I can see, it appears you have already made up your mind.”

“You’re a ghost.”

“I don’t particularly like that word. I am somewhat advanced in age, after all.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I’ll get down first. One, two, three.”

Crack.

As Butler Kim hopped down from my back, the sound of a bone slipping out of place came from his knee.

“Oh dear, are you all right?”

“My knee is a little troublesome. Heal.”

Once the orb of light disappeared, he tapped his knee a few times and smiled.

“I’m fine now.”

“Wow.”

Magic really was incredibly convenient.

After letting out that exclamation, I turned my head toward the knife-like gazes stabbing in from every direction.

A dozen or so Star Guild members, including Won Myunghoon, were glaring at us as if they wanted to tear us apart and kill us.

“What the fuck are you trying to do?”

“What else? I helped him down. I thought he’d be shaken around quite a bit during the fight.”

“Fight?”

“What, didn’t you come here to fight me?”

“Of course not.”

Won Myunghoon added with a savage laugh,

“We came to kill every last one of you.”

“Oh… You sound exactly like a villain in a web novel.”

I was fairly impressed.

At the same time, the hesitation I had been clinging to until the very end faded away, leaving my mind clear.

Right. I just had to do it.

“Thanks for saying that. My headache’s completely gone. Maybe you’re not a son of a bitch after all—maybe you’re Dogvorin.”¹

“You bastard!”

“Maybe not. Then let’s go?”

“……What?”

Whoosh!

I suddenly found myself wondering what expression Won Myunghoon was wearing.

But when I thought about it, there was no point.

Whatever expression he had worn until now, the expression he was about to make had already been decided.

“Bear with the pain. No crying now.”

Crack!

As he hurriedly turned and swung his arm, I caught it and twisted it.

The bone broke in an instant. His grip went limp, and the spear slipped from his hand.

His smooth, wrinkle-free face twisted like a demon’s as a scream burst from his throat.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

I continued in a calm voice.

“Never bare your teeth at me again.”

At the same time, I drove my tightly clenched fist into his maw.

Crunch!