Chapter 281

The limousine sped down the road without so much as a jolt.

Park Jihoon took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and offered it to the middle-aged man sitting across from him.

“Would you like some?”

“At a time like this? And where did you learn to offer someone else’s things as if they were your own?”

“Then I suppose it’s all right if I drink only half. I have at least that much of a stake in bringing Myeongdong Guild to where it is today.”

“……”

Myeongdong Guild Master Park Tae Seop glared silently as Park Jihoon tipped back the bottle.

“You’re awfully calm.”

After drinking exactly half, Park Jihoon leaned back against the plush seat.

“Is there some reason I should be worried?”

“This whole mess has erupted, and you’re acting as though nothing’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing more than a minor incident.”

“A single drop of water can bring down a tower of sand.”

“Because it’s made of sand.”

“You’re saying Myeongdong Guild is different?”

“Five hundred Hunters under its banner. Twenty of them A-rank. At this point, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it an iron tower instead of a tower of sand. And…”

The corners of Park Jihoon’s mouth curved gently upward.

“Myeongdong Guild shouldn’t even be part of the comparison. We have ‘that person,’ after all.”

“……That’s true.”

Park Tae Seop nodded reluctantly, though his expression remained displeased. Park Jihoon studied him.

“What is it? What has you so anxious you can’t sit still?”

After a brief silence, Park Tae Seop spoke.

“A feeling.”

“What?”

“When you reach my age, you develop instincts you can’t explain.”

Ha.

Park Jihoon suppressed a laugh. He had wondered what the man was going to say, but in the end, it was nothing more than the grumbling of an old man past sixty.

Just a feeling? What a load of nonsense.

The thought showed plainly on his face, and Park Tae Seop had lived too long not to notice.

“You may think it’s nonsense. I understand. It’s beyond greenhorns like you.”

“Ah, I’m sorry if you took it that way.”

“And only a greenhorn could apologize in a tone without a shred of sincerity.”

“I simply don’t understand. What exactly is bothering you so much?”

After a short silence, a name slipped out.

“Jin Taekyung.”

He breathed the name like a sigh. It had haunted his thoughts ever since they lost contact with Team 11.

For a moment, he had dismissed it as lingering unease over the operation going awry.

But that wasn’t it.

His intuition, which had even endured the Great Cataclysm, had given him the answer to what troubled him.

“He’s a siege cannon. One capable of cracking not just a tower of sand, but an iron one.”

Without waiting for a reply, Park Tae Seop reached out. He picked up the bottle of water Park Jihoon had left behind and drained it in large gulps.

His throat had become unbearably dry as soon as he finished speaking.

Park Jihoon watched with a deep frown.

Has the old man gone senile?

He could admit that the operation had not gone entirely smoothly. There had been unexpected complications, particularly with the Black Hunters and Team 11.

But even taking that into account, Park Tae Seop’s reaction was far too extreme.

It was only natural that Park Jihoon, who absolutely worshiped “that person,” should feel displeased.

“I didn’t realize you held Jin Taekyung in such high regard.”

“He’s proven himself.”

“Jin Taekyung only began attracting attention recently.”

“And he’s shown us a great deal in that short time.”

“Shown us?”

A mocking smile touched Park Jihoon’s lips.

“Won Myunghoon was trash. He was at the very bottom of the rankers, and even then, they only put his name on the list once as an act of charity during all that Korean Wave¹ hype. You know that too, Guild Master.”

“I heard he was stupid and greedy, and that his fame made him look more skilled than he really was.”

“And the Named Monster? They called it a Named Monster, but that Black Drake was the weakest one to appear in nearly twenty years. The Magic Gem recovered from its corpse wasn’t much different from one taken from an A-rank monster.”

“Then could you kill that weak Named Monster by yourself?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Park Jihoon answered without hesitation.

He took pride in his own abilities.

His natural talent had earned him the honor of being chosen by “that person.” It was why, despite not yet being thirty, he could sit across from the Guild Master of Myeongdong Guild and look him in the eye.

But the next question made him falter.

“Then what if you fought Jin Taekyung? Are you certain you could defeat him?”

“……Of course.”

His answer came half a beat late. Realizing it, Park Jihoon pressed his lips together.

“That hesitation just now seems to say something about what kind of person Jin Taekyung is.”

Park Jihoon replied coldly, “I was merely reminded of the past.”

“Ah. You said you two were friends, didn’t you?”

“I don’t want to discuss that. My point is that this incident isn’t as serious as you think, Guild Master.”

“We don’t even know whether Team 11 is alive or dead, and the most talked-about public figure in the country has stormed Myeongdong Guild headquarters. Yet you’re saying this isn’t serious?”

“He’s an idiot. He couldn’t control his temper, so he recklessly barged into Myeongdong Guild headquarters.”

About ten minutes earlier, Park Jihoon had been speaking with the Team 1 Leader when Jin Taekyung’s voice suddenly came over the phone.

He had been startled.

And relieved.

This will make things easy.

Myeongdong Guild had more than five hundred Hunters. Even if half were away on raids, an enormous number remained at headquarters.

Among them was Team 1, the Guild’s elite force.

“Jin Taekyung walked straight into the tiger’s den. All we have to do is keep him there while we sort everything out.”

Even if reporters caught the scent of the story and swarmed in, there was nothing to fear.

He had—no, “that person” had—the power to render cameras and microphones useless.

“I’ll have everything cleaned up by the end of the day.”

Park Tae Seop’s face suddenly looked much older as he muttered, “This feels wrong. Maybe it’s my age, but I’m starting to feel the strain.”

“It’s only a passing breeze. It wouldn’t do for the legs of a man who survived the Great Cataclysm to start trembling now.”

The remark held more reproach than encouragement. Park Tae Seop recognized that and fell silent.

Just then, the dull chime of a phone notification sounded.

“That isn’t mine.”

“It’s mine.”

“Who is it?”

“Manager Kim, the man in charge of my security. I sent him to find out what happened to Team 11. It seems he’s just arrived.”

“Good. Tell him to erase every trace of Team 11 first.”

“Are you giving me orders now?”

Frowning, Park Tae Seop answered the phone.

“It’s me. What happened? Hm? Ah, I see.”

His brow furrowed, then smoothed. His pupils dilated and contracted.

As his expression grew increasingly strange, Park Tae Seop pulled the phone away from his ear.

“What happened?”

“Take it.”

Park Tae Seop thrust the phone toward him, a vein bulging on his forehead.

“What?”

“Hurry!”

Bewildered, Park Jihoon took the phone and pressed it to his ear.

A voice as soft as a cat’s paw slipped into his ear.

“Hunter Park Jihoon of Myeongdong Guild Team 1?”

Park Jihoon knew the instant he heard it.

The caller was not Manager Kim, whom he had encountered in passing several times.

The voice was young and polite, yet carried an air that discouraged familiarity.

“This is Park Jihoon. Who am I speaking to?”

Something felt wrong.

The unfamiliar voice answered the unease in his question.

“My name is Choi Minwoo.”

“Who?”

“Ah, I’m with the Peace Guild. I’m a Team Leader there.”

“……The Peace Guild?”

“Yes.”

Fuck.

Park Jihoon’s lips twitched.

Those few words were enough for him to understand what had happened. Myeongdong Guild’s people had walked straight into the Peace Guild’s trap.

There was no need to see what had happened to Manager Kim, the phone’s owner. He was obviously either bound tightly and unconscious or helplessly watching someone else use his phone.

Myeongdong Guild, you fucking idiots.

Team Leader Choi’s voice drifted leisurely through the receiver, as relaxed as a victor’s.

“I called because I’d like to have a conversation.”

“Well, the thing is…”

Park Jihoon clenched his teeth, his mind racing.

Then he felt a vibration against his chest.

It had not come from Park Tae Seop’s phone.

“Hunter Park Jihoon?”

“Wait. Just a moment.”

With his free hand, Park Jihoon pulled his own phone from the inner pocket of his suit.

A text message had arrived. The sender was…

[Team 1 Leader]

It’s done.

Relief spread across Park Jihoon’s lips in a smile. Jin Taekyung, who had entered the tiger’s den known as Myeongdong Guild, had finally been forced to his knees.

The scales that had tipped against him were balanced again.

But then—

“……Huh?”

The smile vanished from his lips.

Filling the six-inch screen was not a report that the Team 1 Leader had captured Jin Taekyung, but a single photograph.

What is this?

He recognized the faces.

A young man grinned broadly at the camera, blood spattered across his face. Beside him, caught firmly in his grasp, was a middle-aged man whose complexion had turned as blue as a drug addict’s.

Jin Taekyung…and the Team 1 Leader?

That wasn’t all.

The background was familiar too.

The nameplate reading Hunter Park Jihoon, Myeongdong Guild Team 1 made it unmistakably clear where they were.

And there was one more thing.

No way…… Did no one stop him? That one Jin Taekyung?

A reality he did not want to believe.

Park Jihoon’s eyes darted helplessly around as they began to tremble.

Bzzz.

Another text arrived. Its contents were brief but devastating.

Five Korean characters were enough to shatter Park Jihoon’s composure.

Team 1 Leader

└ Team 1 Leader: Bring Melona when you come.²

“This—this fucking…!”

Crack.

The phone in Park Jihoon’s hand crumpled like a sheet of paper.

Watching him, Myeongdong Guild Master Park Tae Seop muttered quietly,

“We’re fucked.”

Team Leader Choi

└ Team Leader Choi: We’ve captured the people dispatched by Myeongdong Guild.

The text was from Team Leader Choi.

A few hours earlier, after burning down the safe house used by the Black Hunters, we had split up.

Team Leader Choi and the others would lie in ambush to secure solid evidence, while I had insisted on acting alone.

It was because Team Leader Choi had argued that we absolutely had to capture something that could serve as evidence or a witness.

He was right.

Every Black Hunter, including Im Yeongjun, had been managed so meticulously that their identities had already been laundered clean. There wasn’t even the slightest link connecting them to Myeongdong Guild.

Team Leader Choi had identified that problem exactly.

He’s always calm and composed.

Looking back, he had never once lost sight of the right path.

Having Butler Kim as both an excellent mage and a wise adviser probably helped, but at this point, Choi had to be a natural.

Now we have solid leverage.

On top of the captured Black Hunters, we had official Myeongdong Guild employees in our hands.

That should make an excellent shield.

Or a dagger.

I sent him a message thanking him for his hard work, along with the photograph I’d taken earlier.

Maybe it was because it was an AdultPhone,³ but even a picture taken with my foot came out great.

“Maybe I should replace my phone while I’m at it.”

Someone flinched at my mutter. It was the Security Team Hunter I’d hired as my personal cameraman for the day.

Of course, I wasn’t paying him.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing, sir!”

“Make yourself comfortable. Don’t just stand there. Sit on the sofa or something.”

“I’m comfortable like this!”

“You look pretty uncomfortable to me.”

“I’m fiiiine!”

Was it my imagination, or was there a sob mixed into his shout?

As an ordinary Security Team Hunter, he’d just watched me beat the living shit out of Team 1, the Guild’s elite—people he normally wouldn’t even dare look in the eye.

His reaction was understandable.

The ones who came later weren’t much different.

The other Myeongdong Guild Hunters who arrived afterward didn’t dare attack me after seeing the scene before them.

Of course, quite a few of them were armed with fierce devotion to their Guild.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the skills to back it up. Everyone who charged me got beaten to a pulp and carried away.

After I had knocked down around fifty of them, no one else tried to attack me. Park Jihoon’s office became forbidden territory that no one could enter.

I sank into his chair.

He must be racing here like a madman by now.

Just thinking about him made my heart turn cold.

A middle-school classmate I had happened to run into on the street after ten long years.

How much of what I saw was the real Park Jihoon?

Hurry up and get here. Before I get any angrier.

Crack.

The armrest snapped beneath my grip.

“H-He’s here!”

“Guild Master!”

Murmurs spread beyond the office door like a wildfire.

At the same time, I sensed two immense presences approaching without hesitation.

He’s here.

And in the next moment, the door blew apart with a thunderous roar.

BOOM!