Chapter 274

Hospital? Why so suddenly?

I was just about to ask what had happened when the call ended amid the sound of hurried footsteps.

I tried calling back two or three times, but it was no use.

—The number you have dialed cannot be reached. After the beep, you will be connected to voicemail…

I hung up when the automated message began repeating. A creeping unease rose from somewhere in my chest.

This was the first time. Team Leader Choi was always calm, but he had sounded so frantic.

Could it be…?

No. Don’t jump to conclusions already.

This wasn’t the time to think. It was time to move.

Ilsan Hospital. He said Ilsan Hospital.

I grabbed my things and left the changing room. The rookies waiting outside turned their heads when I appeared.

Kim Jinsoo, who had been chatting animatedly in the middle of the group, sprang to his feet.

“Ah, Senior. Are we leaving right away?”

“No. Something urgent has come up.”

As it happened, this worked out perfectly. There were two hours until the next raid, and thankfully, the next Gate was nearby. It wouldn’t take long to get there.

“Mr. Kim Jinsoo.”

“Yes.”

“You’re the acting team leader for the next two hours.”

“What?”

“Take the others to the next Gate. And don’t start the raid under any circumstances until I get there.”

Kim Jinsoo nodded with a dazed expression. I gave him a light tap on the shoulder, then hurried out of the building.

I climbed into the taxi that had been waiting for a passenger, told the driver where to go, and immediately started making calls.

Pick up. Please pick up.

Ring. Ring.

The longer the ringing continued, the more anxious I became.

Just as the signal stretched on and I was about to hang up and call again—

Click.

“Hey, son.”

“What? Is that my brother?”

“Be quiet. Don’t touch the phone while you’re eating.”

“Seriously? Is what Mom’s holding a brick instead of a phone?”

“You little brat!”

“Whew.”

Thank God. It wasn’t them.

The tension drained from my body when I heard my family’s voices on the other end of the line.

I gave Mom a vague excuse when she asked what was going on, then hung up.

Then it must be a problem with the Guild.

Who was in trouble?

If Team Leader Choi wasn’t answering, the person who would have the clearest understanding of the situation was Butler Kim.

But then someone else’s face flashed through my mind. His noticeably reduced number of words. The heavy expression he had been wearing lately.

Uncle Kkeokjeong.

My guess had been right.

When I called the number saved in my phone, I was greeted not by Im Kkeokjeong’s gruff voice but by a cold mechanical message.

—The phone is turned off. After the beep…

When I arrived at the hospital as though flying, Song Song was waiting for me at the entrance with an anxious expression. She had apparently been contacted in advance.

“You’re here?”

“Tell me while we walk.”

As soon as we passed through the revolving doors, the hospital’s distinctive smell lingered around the tip of my nose.

Civilians, Hunters, hospital employees—people of all kinds crowded the building. We pushed our way through them as we walked.

A few people who recognized me pulled out their phones and started taking pictures.

“Hey, hey. Look over there.”

“That’s Jin Taekyung.”

“Jin Taekyung? Lord Fuck?”

“Wow, he looks incredible in person.”

I forced down the stress that was surging through me.

As the crowd parted like the Red Sea, I whispered to Song Song.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know all the details, either…”

“Tell me what you do know.”

She bit her lip.

“He seemed to have a lot on his mind lately.”

“On his mind?”

“You know how things are. The Guild keeps growing, and talented young rookies keep joining…”

“That’s enough. I know what this is about.”

Im Kkeokjeong had been with the Peace Guild since its earliest days. But he was also the only D-rank Hunter among us.

After the Peace Guild began attracting attention from the media along with me, rumors about him had begun circulating as well.

People called him the Guild’s only weak link. Some even left hateful comments telling him to quit instead of trying to ride our coattails.

Im Kkeokjeong had laughed heartily while stopping us from getting angry over it.

And yet…

“Whew.”

My chest felt tight.

I had promised myself that I would always look after my people, but I had failed to pay enough attention to someone close to me.

“So what happened after yesterday’s raid?”

“Apparently he went out for a drink alone and got into an argument.”

“Go on.”

“I heard he was drunk when the fight started… He was badly injured.”

My heart dropped.

Strangers could say whatever they wanted about him being a low-rank Hunter or anything else, but Im Kkeokjeong was a D-rank Hunter with twenty years of experience.

Even if ten grown men attacked him at once, they wouldn’t be able to bring him down.

“So the other side were Hunters.”

Song Song gave a small nod.

“How badly was he hurt? Is it serious?”

“His treatment is finished for now, but…”

Song Song hesitated, unable to continue, then stopped walking.

A sign reading Special Treatment Ward swayed above her head.

This wasn’t a ward staffed by doctors, but by practitioners known as healers.

That alone showed how severe his injuries were.

“You’d better see for yourself.”

With a sigh-like murmur, Song Song opened the hospital-room door.

Creak.

Along with the harsh smell of medicine, I saw three people pacing around the bed.

Team Leader Choi. Butler Kim. And a middle-aged woman who I assumed was Im Kkeokjeong’s wife.

My heart pounding, I approached the bed.

“……Uncle?”

Hhhk. Hhk.

Instead of an answer, I heard a faint, ragged breath. Im Kkeokjeong lay beneath the pure white sheets with an oxygen mask over his face.

And then…

The hairy arm that he habitually used to pull me into a tight hug had been cleanly severed just below the elbow.

The silence was long.

Even after leaving the hospital room and climbing to the rooftop, I couldn’t figure out what I should say first.

I listened quietly as Team Leader Choi and Butler Kim explained what had happened. At last, I opened my mouth.

“Where are those bastards now?”

Everyone present knew exactly who I was talking about.

Team Leader Choi’s lips moved. Then he silently shook his head.

No way.

“You didn’t catch them?”

“No. All three fled the scene.”

“What about the CCTV footage? They were drinking at a store. Their faces should have been recorded.”

“The investigating authorities have already been there. They’ve also reported the results.”

These days, CCTV footage was as clear as anything shot on a proper camera. If the bastards’ faces had been captured clearly, it should only have been a matter of time before they were caught.

There weren’t many Hunters and Awakened people in the country, which made them easier to track down.

“Then that’s fine. We’ll find those bastards right away and—”

“They say their identities are unknown.”

“What?”

Had I heard him wrong?

When I stared at him in bewilderment, Team Leader Choi continued with a sigh.

“Their identities are unknown. Apparently, they aren’t any Awakened or Hunters registered as existing in this country.”

“……Could they be Korean-Chinese? Chinese or Japanese?”

“No. According to the witnesses, the suspects were definitely Korean. They were also the ones who started the argument.”

“Then what the hell is going on…”

Butler Kim, who had been listening silently to my conversation with Team Leader Choi, suddenly spoke.

“They may be Black Hunters.”

Black Hunters?

The term itself sounded filthy. Butler Kim continued in a low voice.

“Not every Awakened person is registered with the Gate Management Agency and the Association.”

I wondered what he meant by a term I had never heard before.

Rubbing my throbbing temple, I asked,

“Isn’t that just an unregistered Awakened person?”

In modern society, Awakened people were both powerful shields that protected the world from Gates and dangerous blades that had to be handled with care.

Even the lowest-rank Hunter possessed strength far beyond that of an average human.

That was why Awakened people were always subject to strict oversight.

Even if they had no intention of becoming Hunters, their names were still included on the list of Awakened people.

The only time someone was removed from the list was after they died.

Unregistered Awakened was simply a term for an Awakened person who had failed to register with the Association within the designated period.

Of course, sometimes they were called something else.

Crazy bastards.

There was a reason unregistered Awakened people were treated like lunatics.

If they didn’t voluntarily report their Awakening within a month, they stopped being Awakened people and became inmates instead.

Suspended sentences or any other bullshit didn’t matter. They were thrown straight into an Awakened-person prison, and when they were released, they even received an electronic ankle monitor as a free gift.

Who would be crazy enough to gamble their entire life like that?

“Are there still lunatics like that these days?”

“There always have been, and there still are. Isn’t that why crimes continue to occur without end?”

“So the people who attacked Uncle Kkeokjeong were unregistered Awakened people. Then how do we find them…”

Butler Kim cut me off gently.

“They were Black Hunters.”

“Yes. In other words, unregistered Awakened people.”

“They’re different.”

Butler Kim stroked his neatly trimmed beard and continued.

“Hunter Jin Taekyung, what do you think is the greatest difference between an Awakened person and a Hunter?”

It was an unexpected question. I felt as though we were going around in circles.

If the person asking hadn’t been Butler Kim, I might have said something.

Suppressing the anger boiling inside me, I answered.

“Training. Just because someone owns a gun doesn’t make them a hunter.”

“Unregistered Awakened people and Black Hunters are the same way.”

“So what you’re saying is…”

Butler Kim nodded.

“Exactly. An unregistered Awakened person who has received systematic training like a Hunter. That is a Black Hunter.”

I was stunned for a moment.

It was a very simple concept when you thought about it, but I had never considered it before.

And for good reason.

“How is that possible?”

An unregistered Awakened person was a serious criminal. Where would they obtain weapons, and who would provide them with systematic training?

“Are criminal organizations raising Black Hunters? Something like that?”

“Criminal organizations… That’s half right and half wrong.”

“Then what is it?”

The next moment, a short answer burst from Team Leader Choi’s mouth.

“Guilds.”

“……What?”

“Money gathers wherever people gather. And wherever money piles up, disputes are bound to follow. Do you really believe today’s Guilds exist purely to protect the world from the monsters inside Gates?”

I couldn’t answer.

I hadn’t become a Hunter to protect the world, either.

The Great Cataclysm was already a thing of the past. When people thought of Hunters, they no longer imagined noble duty or a spirit of self-sacrifice.

They envied the money and fame Hunters possessed, and the people who grew up watching that became Hunters themselves.

The collection of those Hunters was a Guild.

“Do you know the domestic business rankings? From first to tenth place. On the surface, they are all private companies, but in reality, they are little more than puppets of massive Guilds. Things aren’t much different overseas.”

Team Leader Choi let out a cold laugh.

Only then did I finally begin to emerge from my shock.

“Is… is all of that really true?”

“You once asked me why I left Ares Guild.”

Team Leader Choi didn’t continue, but I understood what he meant.

They were all pieces of shit in the same cesspool.

To them, Black Hunters were daggers hidden up their sleeves. No one knew they existed.

No, they might know and simply pretend not to.

While I was still reeling, another unanswered question came to mind.

“Fine. Let’s say all of that is true.”

I took a deep breath, and my head gradually began to cool.

“But why did those Black Hunters specifically target Uncle Kkeokjeong? Why go this far just to keep a Guild so far beneath them in check?”

“Taekyung.”

Team Leader Choi cut me off and licked his parched lips.

His eyes were strange. He was looking at me as though I were a greenhorn.

It felt as if I had returned to the day I had first become a Hunter.

“You’re naive.”

Before I could answer, he continued.

“This is a place crawling with monsters. A place where one bothersome person—or even one entire Guild—can simply be erased. Discard that half-baked common sense.”

That cold sentence pierced my chest.