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. Unease crept into my chest.

This was a first. Team Leader Choi was always calm, but he had sounded 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.”

The timing could have been worse. 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, looking dazed. I gave him a light tap on the shoulder, then hurried out of the building.

I climbed into a taxi 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 phone rang, the more anxious I became.

Just as I was about to hang up and try again—

Click.

“Hey, son.”

“What? Is that my brother?”

“Be quiet. Don’t play with 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 left me all at once when I heard my family’s voices on the other end of the line.

Mom asked what was going on, so I gave her a vague excuse and hung up.

Then it must be a problem with the Guild.

Who was in trouble?

If Team Leader Choi wasn’t answering, Butler Kim would have the clearest picture of the situation.

But then someone else’s face flashed through my mind—how quiet he had become lately, and the heavy expression he’d been wearing.

Uncle Kkeokjeong.

My guess was right.

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

—The phone is turned off. After the beep…

I raced to the hospital. Song Song, who had apparently been contacted in advance, was waiting outside with an anxious look on her face.

“You’re here?”

“Tell me while we walk.”

The hospital’s distinctive smell hit me as soon as we passed through the revolving doors.

Civilians, Hunters, hospital staff—the place was packed. We pushed our way through the crowd.

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?”¹

“Wow, he looks incredible in person.”

I forced down the stress surging inside me.

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

“What happened?”

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

“Just 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 get it.”

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

Once the Peace Guild began drawing media attention because of me, people had started talking about him, too.

They 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 and stopped the rest of us from getting angry over it.

But…

“Whew.”

My chest felt tight.

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

“So what happened after yesterday’s raid?”

“Apparently, he went out drinking alone and got into an argument.”

“Go on.”

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

My heart dropped.

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

Even ten grown men attacking at once 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…”

Unable to continue, Song Song hesitated and came to a stop.

A sign reading Special Treatment Ward swayed above her head.

This wasn’t a ward where doctors treated patients. It was staffed by practitioners known as healers.

That alone showed how severe his injuries were.

“You’d better see for yourself.”

The words left Song Song like a sigh as she slid open the hospital-room door.

Rattle.

A harsh medicinal smell washed over me, and I saw three people pacing around the bed.

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

My heart pounded as I approached the bed.

“…Uncle?”

Hhhk. Hhk.

Only faint, ragged breathing answered me. Im Kkeokjeong lay beneath the stark white sheets with an oxygen mask over his face.

And then…

The hairy arm he always wrapped around me in a crushing hug had been cleanly severed below the elbow.

The silence stretched on.

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 there knew exactly who I meant.

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 investigators have already examined it. They have the results.”

Security cameras these days offered practically the same image quality as regular cameras. If the bastards’ faces had been captured clearly, catching them should only be a matter of time.

Hunters and Awakened people were few enough in number to make them easy 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 confusion, 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 ethnic Koreans from China? Or 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 silently listening to my conversation with Team Leader Choi, suddenly spoke.

“They may be Black Hunters.”

Black Hunters?

Even the name sounded filthy. Butler Kim continued in a low voice.

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

So that was what this unfamiliar term meant?

I rubbed my throbbing temple.

“Aren’t those just unregistered Awakened people?”

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

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

That was why Awakened people were always kept under strict supervision.

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

The only way off that list was to die.

An unregistered Awakened person was someone who had failed to register with the Association within the designated period.

Of course, they were sometimes called something else.

Madman.

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.

To hell with suspended sentences or any other bullshit. They were thrown straight into a prison for Awakened criminals, and when they got out, they even received an electronic ankle monitor as a free gift.

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

“Are there still lunatics like that these days?”

“There always have been, and there still are. Why else do you think crime continues to exist?”

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

Butler Kim gently cut me off.

“They’re 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?”

The question came out of nowhere. I felt like 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.”

“The same distinction applies to unregistered Awakened people and Black Hunters.”

“So what you’re saying is…”

Butler Kim nodded.

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

For a moment, my mind went blank.

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?”

Unregistered Awakened people were felons. Where would they get weapons, and who would provide them with systematic training?

“Are criminal organizations training Black Hunters or something?”

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

“Then what is it?”

The answer burst tersely from Team Leader Choi’s mouth.

“Guilds.”

“…What?”

“Money gathers wherever people gather. And wherever money piles up, conflict inevitably follows. 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.

Guilds were nothing more than collections of those Hunters.

“Do you know the country’s corporate rankings? From first to tenth place? On the surface, they’re all private companies, but in reality, they’re 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 recover from the shock.

“Is… is all of that really true?”

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

Team Leader Choi said nothing more, but I understood what he meant.

They were all pieces of shit in the same cesspool.

To them, Black Hunters were like daggers concealed 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, cooling my head.

“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.

There was something strange in his eyes. He was looking at me as if I were a greenhorn.

It felt as though I had gone back to the day I first became a Hunter.

“You’re naive.”

Before I could answer, he continued.

“This place is crawling with monsters. It’s the kind of place where one bothersome person—or even an entire Guild—can simply be erased. Get rid of that half-baked common sense.”

That cold sentence pierced my chest.