Chapter 288

In the back seat of the spacious limousine, Lee Jungryong held Go Jun’s arm and sent his mana flowing into it.

The limp body twitched, and strength soon returned to it.

Go Jun opened his eyes with difficulty and let out a faint groan. Lee Jungryong asked him,

“Are you conscious?”

“……I’m sorry. I should have kept him occupied longer.”

Go Jun lowered his head, his face stiff.

His earlier attack on Jin Taekyung had not been an impulsive act.

Go Jun was Lee Jungryong’s Disciple and the head of his security team. A man with exceptional composure and self-control would never have done such a thing unless it had been ordered by the master he respected beyond words.

Jin Taekyung. I suppose we’ll have to see what he’s really capable of.

What should I do?

Keep him occupied as long as possible. Find out everything he’s got.

I never liked the bastard from the start. Looks like I’ll get to teach him a proper lesson.

He should not have said that last part.

He had spoken so boldly, only to fail to withstand even a single blow. He had no face to show Lee Jungryong.

“You’ve exchanged blows with him directly, so you must have felt it yourself. Tell me exactly how strong he is.”

It did not take long for Go Jun to answer.

“He’s strong.”

Jin Taekyung had stormed into Myeongdong Guild alone. Go Jun had known from the beginning that he was not someone to take lightly.

But even after taking a mana-infused punch directly, Taekyung had not fallen—or even taken a single step back. Go Jun had never imagined that someone could possess such absurd toughness.

“I hit him squarely in the jaw, but he was harder than rebar. I’ve never seen anyone like him.”

Go Jun could not understand how Taekyung could look so unharmed without wearing armor or being covered in defensive magic.

The bigger problem was that Jin Taekyung was not simply a man with exceptional toughness.

“His strength and speed were both superior to mine.”

“What if you had gone all-out from the beginning, Team Leader Seok?”

After a brief hesitation, Go Jun answered in a rigid voice.

“……It would have been difficult.”

He remembered Taekyung’s lightning-fast hands.

By the time he realized his mistake, his arm was trapped and his foot had been driven deep into the ground. He had hurriedly raised his arms to protect his face, but the punch carrying monstrous force had broken through them and slammed into his face.

“I don’t know how it happened, but Jin Taekyung has extensive combat experience. He’s on an entirely different level from ordinary Hunters who only fight monsters.”

“And?”

“Pardon?”

“There’s something you haven’t said yet, isn’t there?”

“…….”

“I believe I told you to speak without holding anything back.”

When Go Jun met Lee Jungryong’s gaze, he realized it.

Lee Jungryong had reached the same conclusion.

“You had already guessed.”

“Yes. Today, that suspicion became certainty.”

“You mean…”

Lee Jungryong’s voice sank low.

“There’s no doubt about it. Jin Taekyung has learned a mana cultivation method.”

“……!”

A mana cultivation method.

A tiny ripple appeared in Go Jun’s previously unwavering eyes. The words that had come from Lee Jungryong were that shocking.

“An insignificant F-rank Hunter grew this strong in only half a year. People are babbling about reawakening or a measurement-device error, but that’s just nonsense from people who don’t know anything.”

Go Jun muttered like a groan,

“But how……? Aren’t mana cultivation methods among the most closely guarded secrets?”

“Top secret? That’s a meaningless phrase. As long as someone knows something, it can never be a perfect secret.”

“Could Team Leader Choi have done it?”

Lee Jungryong shook his head.

“That boy Minwoo never learned a mana cultivation method. Neither did Kim Hwajong, who stayed by his side since childhood.”

“Isn’t it something no one knows about? If the Guild Master…”

“Who?”

Go Jun could not finish his sentence. He froze where he sat.

The moment he met Lee Jungryong’s deeply sunken eyes, he realized that he had said something he should not have.

“I believe I told you not to even open your mouth about my older brother.”

“I-I’m sorry. I misspoke…”

Go Jun’s voice trembled like a wounded bird.

He had been so flustered by the news that Taekyung had learned a mana cultivation method that he had broken an unspoken taboo. Cheon Taemin, the Ares Guild Master, was someone who must never be mentioned.

Thud!

Both of Go Jun’s knees struck the floor. He bowed deeply and said,

“Please forgive me, Vice Guild Master.”

“Forgiveness? These things happen in life.”

“…….”

“Get up.”

Even after carefully lifting his knees from the floor and sitting back down, Go Jun could not look Lee Jungryong straight in the eye.

He had spent years at Lee Jungryong’s side, seeing and learning many things.

To Go Jun, Lee Jungryong was an object of both respect and fear.

Go Jun’s usually machine-like expression was now tinged with quiet fear.

“Team Leader Seok.”

Lee Jungryong was the one who broke the suffocating silence.

Go Jun lowered his head even further.

“Yes, Vice Guild Master. Please speak.”

“You’re going to be very busy from now on. If you let your mouth run carelessly like this again, you’ll put me in a difficult position.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll keep it in mind above all else.”

“Strengthen surveillance on the Peace Guild from now on. Find out whether they have anyone useful.”

Go Jun cautiously raised his head.

“Are you planning to reinforce the security team?”

“Yes. We can’t continue like this. We need to prepare for any situation.”

“Yes. I’ll put it into action as soon as we return to the Guild.”

“And…… don’t overlook the movements of the executives, either. That includes the situation at our overseas branches.”

“I’ll carry it out without a single omission.”

Lee Jungryong’s position within Ares Guild was already secure.

But not everyone followed him blindly like Go Jun did.

There were always people dissatisfied with the status quo, and they watched Lee Jungryong’s actions with suspicious eyes.

The security team, on the other hand, was little more than Lee Jungryong’s personal army.

Having received enormous salaries and instruction in mana cultivation methods, the security team offered absolute loyalty to one person alone: Lee Jungryong.

Yes. Things have been too peaceful until now.

Lee Jungryong turned his gaze toward the window. Beyond the spotless glass, the Han River stretched wide into the distance.

Only thirty-some years ago, its waters had been filled with the corpses of humans and monsters. Now they were clear and clean, as though nothing had ever happened.

Older brother. The world has changed so much.

Lee Jungryong’s thoughts did not escape his lips.

His eyes had already begun slowly tracing the distant past. Cities engulfed in flames and people dying. Monster armies charging forward, turning heaven and earth upside down……

And in the midst of that hellscape, there had been one person shining alone.

Don’t take so much as a single step out from behind me.

Lee Jungryong had been thirty years old and filled with cynicism toward the world. The moment he met that man, he was captivated.

Though they did not share a drop of blood, Lee Jungryong regarded him as an older brother and always looked up to him with respect and fear.

Even now, past the age of sixty, those memories and emotions remained vivid.

Lee Jungryong was staring silently out the window, lost in thought, when Go Jun’s voice brought him back.

“We’ve arrived.”

At the same time, the limousine door slid open. A skyscraper towered before them as though it could pierce the clouds, surrounded by a forest of buildings encircling it like guards protecting a king.

Dozens of Hunters waiting outside bowed toward him. The lapels of their suits bore the emblem of Ares Guild.

“Welcome, Vice Guild Master Lee Jungryong!”

Their shout was perfectly synchronized, as though measured with a ruler.

With a faint smile on his face, the man in power stepped onto the red carpet.

This was a world where even white-haired old men wore wireless earbuds and watched iTube.

Whenever snow fell and icy roads formed, nursing homes shut down, while Old Man Kim and Granny Park chatted through a voice-chat app and played online Go-Stop.¹

If magic was a mysterious realm whose origins were unknown, the internet was the concentrated essence of twenty-first-century civilization.

With just a few clicks and keystrokes, you could learn about events happening all over the world as easily as looking into the palm of your hand.

In a world like this, information about the most famous person among several billion people went without saying.

Tap. Tap-tap.

Cheon Taemin.

His name completed itself after I typed only the initial consonants. It even ranked higher in searches than heaven.

People were more interested in the person who had stopped them from nearly going to heaven than in heaven itself.

I was no different.

Muttering inwardly, I tapped the search result that read “Cheon Taemin—Profile.”

The face I had seen hundreds, thousands of times since elementary school filled the phone screen.

Thick eyebrows and chiseled features. He looked like a handsome Greek god reincarnated.

And then……

“He looks like him.”

“Now that I see them side by side, they really do look alike.”

“Whoa, they’re identical.”

They really did look alike. Enough to make me wonder if this was why people said you could never hide your bloodline.

I, Im Kkeokjeong, and Song Song all stared at the phone screen, then at Team Leader Choi, our mouths hanging open.

“Ahem.”

Only when Team Leader Choi finally gave an uncomfortable cough did we manage to come to our senses.

No, not yet. Come to my senses, my ass.

What the hell is going on?

Things had become spectacularly complicated, with no distinction between the Murim and the modern world.

When Park Jihoon stabbed me in the back and Lee Jungryong suddenly burst onto the scene, I’d been certain nothing could surprise me anymore……

But this was shock and horror in its purest form.

Not the president’s grandson, but Cheon Taemin’s grandson.

A president’s term lasted five years, but Cheon Taemin had no term.

The achievements and Fame built in his name would remain immortal and be passed down through the generations.

He had driven a sword into the Demon King’s heart and saved all of humanity. What more needed to be said?

Humanity’s hero. The world’s greatest Hunter, recognized by the entire world.

Unprecedented and unmatched. He was the very definition of it.

Team Leader Choi was that Cheon Taemin’s sole grandson through his daughter.

Cheon Taemin had only one daughter, and there was no information about any other relatives. He was probably the only heir.

Good God. Cheon Taemin’s heir.

Even thinking about it made my skin crawl.

I opened my mouth in a trembling voice.

“Team Leader Choi.”

“Yes, please speak.”

Team Leader Choi answered as though he had been waiting for the question. He even looked relieved that the awkward silence had been broken.

“If you don’t mind, may I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Then may I continue calling you Team Leader Choi?”

“What?”

Team Leader Choi looked dumbfounded.

“Then what exactly were you planning to call me?”

“Mr. Choi Minwoo. Minwoo hyung.”

“I refuse.”

“There’s one more option……”

“Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Please adopt me. I’ll call you Dad. I’ll be a good son.”

Team Leader Choi’s face turned bright red.

If I had really been his son, he looked ready to disown me on the spot.

A moment later, he let out a deep sigh.

“……This isn’t the time for jokes.”

“I’m not joking. I’m serious.”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung!”

Team Leader Choi continued in a voice that had gone completely flat.

“Didn’t I explain everything? My situation and what I’m dealing with?”

“You did. We all heard it.”

Im Kkeokjeong and Song Song nodded.

An hour earlier, after Lee Jungryong had left and we were still unable to recover from the shock, Team Leader Choi had told us everything.

His true identity and everything that had happened until now. He had also explained why he had no choice but to act as he did.

“Lee Jungryong is an extremely ambitious man. He considered me a thorn in his side and kept me under surveillance at all times. That’s why he kept transferring me from one overseas branch to another so I couldn’t even set foot in the headquarters.”

Team Leader Choi said that his surroundings had been filled with watchful eyes.

Lee Jungryong had assigned him to insignificant posts so he could not achieve any noticeable results, and even then, his placement had to be changed once a year. They were called overseas branches, but it was no different from exile.

“Cheon Taemin—no. Did the Ares Guild Master simply stand by and watch?”

“As I said, my maternal grandfather……”

Team Leader Choi bit down hard on his lip.

“He’s a special person. It’s only a memory from my childhood, but he absolutely didn’t think like an ordinary person.”

Butler Kim, who had been standing quietly nearby, added,

“He was the same in the past, and he remains the same now. I served the old master for many years, but I have never once managed to understand what he was thinking.”

Was this the dark side of the hero that no one knew about?

Team Leader Choi sighed and continued.

“Even after I submitted my resignation and left Ares Guild, they must have continued watching me. Later, I founded the Peace Guild…… but even recruiting one ordinary mid-rank Hunter was difficult.”

As I listened, I learned something for the first time: Im Kkeokjeong and I had not been the Peace Guild’s first members.

Several high-ranking Hunters had joined before us, but after receiving unexpectedly generous contract offers, they transferred to other Guilds. Some of them even suddenly disappeared before signing their contracts.

It was probably Lee Jungryong’s doing.

No matter how much money you had, a Guild without Hunters was not a Guild.

Squeezed by pressure from Ares Guild on every side, Team Leader Choi began looking for personnel through the Hunter Office. That was when Im Kkeokjeong and I appeared on his radar.

Fortunately, there had been no significant pressure this time.

Two low-ranked Hunters probably weren’t worth bothering with.

And that had been Ares Guild’s miscalculation.

No one could have imagined that an F-rank Hunter who looked useful only as a porter would create a whirlwind like this.

“This situation is no different. When I heard that you had met Lee Jungryong, Mr. Taekyung, I thought it had happened because of me.”

“So?”

“Pardon?”

I scratched the back of my head vigorously.

“So what are you trying to say, Team Leader? You still haven’t said it clearly.”

“The difference in strength is too great for us to make an enemy of Ares Guild.”

“Everyone knows that.”

“Similar things will continue to happen.”

“More detail. Be precise.”

Team Leader Choi gritted his teeth.

“I’ll terminate your contracts. If you cut ties with the Peace Guild, Ares Guild won’t bother any of you.”

His voice was boiling over. Team Leader Choi closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

I stared at him for a moment before opening my mouth.

“I don’t like that.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t like it.”

“…….”

“They’re dinosaurs. We’re ants. We’re weak, so let’s back off before we get hurt worse. That’s what you’re saying, right?”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung.”

“Then it’s simple.”

To Team Leader Choi, who was staring at me wide-eyed, I continued, each word slow and clear.

“Let’s get stronger.”

No.

“I’ll make you strong. I will.”