Chapter 432

Magic Johnson was a good man.

Whether on the battlefield or in civilian life, he was always the same.

No matter the situation, he remained cheerful and never lost his smile. He had shown particular kindness to Team Leader Choi and me, even secretly handling the matter of the Skeleton King for us.

But there was no trace of playfulness or laughter in the way Magic Johnson looked at me now.

He stared at me in silence, a jumble of emotions in his eyes, before suddenly speaking.

“How much of it is true?”

“All of it. From beginning to end. Everything you saw and heard.”

I put particular emphasis on the word everything. Magic Johnson wasn’t dense enough to miss what I meant.

“…So you knew from the beginning.”

“As you know, I’m pretty sensitive.”

“And you didn’t care?”

“I didn’t expect you to follow me. But then I thought this might not be such a bad thing.”

“I was curious. Part of me was worried, too. It was obvious you knew something about that mysterious pattern, and just as obvious that you were hiding it.”

Before we parted, when Magic Johnson had asked about the Magic Formation, I had made the excuse that I thought I had seen something similar in a dream.

Of course, I hadn’t expected him to believe me. It had been a roundabout way of telling him not to ask about it for now.

“So I followed you, just in case…”

Magic Johnson trailed off and surveyed the blood-soaked surroundings.

“Looks like I shouldn’t have bothered.”

Two S-rank Hunters—each practically the face of his own country—had died in this momentous incident. One of them had even been a comrade who had once fought alongside Magic Johnson on the same battlefield.

Some truths were uncomfortable to know.

For Magic Johnson, this must have been one of them.

“Do you regret it?”

“A little. Maybe I would’ve been better off not knowing.”

Magic Johnson let out a quiet sigh and looked me straight in the eye.

“Jin. Why are you telling me all this?”

“Who knows?”

“You were the only one who knew the truth. If you wanted to, you could have covered it up. The same goes for him.”

I glanced at the unconscious Go Jun and shook my head.

“This wasn’t something I could hide just by keeping quiet. No matter how much I denied it, that bastard would never have believed me. Lee Jungryong and Go Jun were both ticking time bombs—dangerous enough to threaten my people.”

“Jin. You… were their enemy. You have been for a long time.”

“Yes. If you can’t eliminate an enemy, you have to make them so afraid of you that they’ll never dare look your way again. A bomb with its detonator removed can’t explode.”

“Then what about me? Why did you tell me?”

“You already know. In a situation like this, there are only two kinds of people you can choose.”

I continued slowly, enunciating each word.

“Enemies. Or friends.”

“……!”

“I thought you would believe me, Johnson. Because you’re my friend.”

Magic Johnson let out a low groan and stared at me, countless emotions mingling in his eyes.

“Being friends doesn’t mean believing everything the other person says, Jin.”

“But you believed me. You didn’t doubt me once during our entire conversation.”

“……”

“Help me. Help me protect my people and build my strength.”

For some time now, I had felt everything around me beginning to change.

In Murim, Dark Heaven had begun to stir. In the modern world, the Arch Lich—a Named Monster unlike any that had come before it—had slaughtered millions and brought catastrophe in its wake.

Then there were the mysterious patterns and symbols that had appeared in both worlds.

Or perhaps they were something that could be called dark magic.

Could all of this really be a coincidence?

Everything that happened in the world was connected by invisible links. If I didn’t want it all to topple like a row of dominoes, I had to prepare.

And to do that, I desperately needed an ally.

“Johnson.”

“…Damn it.”

Magic Johnson remained silent for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.

“You know something?”

“…?”

“That day—if you hadn’t asked me to teleport you straight into the monster army, I might have doubted you.”

That one remark was as good as an agreement.

My face lit up, and Magic Johnson couldn’t help but laugh.

“Damn it. It’s too late to turn back now. First, let’s clean this place up before the patrol arrives.”

He waved a hand, and the blood splattered everywhere vanished without a trace.

After cleaning the area in an instant with Clean magic, Magic Johnson frowned at Go Jun’s fallen body.

“He’s the problem… I’d like to erase his memories entirely, but given the circumstances, that would be difficult. What a pain.”

“Huh?”

My ears perked up.

I suddenly remembered how the Ares Guild’s mages had used memory-manipulation magic on the Myeongdong Guild members who had been present when I stormed their Guild.

“You can do that?”

“It would obviously be difficult, but not impossible. The stronger the target’s will and the more extensive the memories that need to be altered, the harder it becomes.”

“Oh.”

“He seems quite strong. In the worst case, we could fail and leave behind evidence that someone attempted to manipulate his mind.”

Go Jun might not look it now, but he was strong enough to qualify as an S-rank Hunter.

Unlike Wu Heixing, he was also fairly strong-willed, so trying it could be a needless gamble.

“Leaving evidence would be a problem.”

“Yes. If it were discovered, there’d be no avoiding punishment. Mental-manipulation magic is a serious felony.”

Yet Lee Jungryong and the Ares Guild had done such things without the slightest hesitation.

Even if someone noticed, they wouldn’t dare question it. Everyone knew how much power and influence they possessed.

“Still, if we tried and succeeded…”

“Under federal law, the minimum sentence would be one hundred years in prison without parole. Want to try?”

I answered without taking a breath.

“No.”

“Good boy. Wise decision.”

A minimum of one hundred years without parole?

If I got caught, I’d rot in prison without a chance. Even if I escaped, I’d spend the rest of my life as an internationally wanted fugitive.

I might even end up with a ten-billion-beri¹ bounty on my head, living as a pirate on Somalia’s Grand Line like some manga character.

The thought alone was horrifying…

“What a shame. If this were Korea, it might be worth trying.”

“Korea? Why?”

“If you spread enough money around and hired a former chief prosecutor who could benefit from jeongwan yewu,² you probably wouldn’t get much of a sentence.”

“Jeongwan yewu?² What’s that?”

“It’s a thing. Ah, if you said you’d done it while drunk after downing about five bottles of soju,³ you might even get a suspended sentence.”

Magic Johnson laughed loudly as if he had heard an incredible joke.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Jin. What kind of country would allow that?”

“……”

“You’re serious? My God.”

In any case, memory-manipulation magic was off the table.

Leaving Go Jun where he lay, I walked away. The three A-rank Hunters he had concealed nearby were frozen like statues, their Paralysis Acupoints struck by the Finger Qi I had fired at them.

“You saw everything, right?”

The three men looked up at me with terror-filled eyes.

Sometimes watching someone else suffer inspired even greater fear than experiencing it yourself.

Unable to move so much as a finger, they had watched Go Jun get brutally and thoroughly crushed. They looked half out of their minds.

“I remember all three of your faces. Getting your personal information is only a matter of time.”

It was the same method the powerful had always used.

If I couldn’t kill them, I had to use that method to instill fear in them. I had to make sure they never dared bare their teeth at me again.

“If we meet like this again… I’ll kill you.”

Whoosh!

The killing intent that erupted from me sliced through the air and crushed everything around us.

After reining in my qi, I slowly swept my gaze over their corpse-pale faces, then thrust out a hand.

Crack-crack-crack!

“Ghk!”

“Hah, huff…”

Finally released from the Pressure-Point Strike, the men gasped for breath. Tears pooled in their bloodshot eyes, while saliva and vomit streamed from their open mouths.

“I’ll give you ten seconds. Take that bastard and get lost.”

There was no question who that bastard meant.

Before I had even finished speaking, the three men scrambled to their feet and rushed toward Go Jun.

They hoisted their still-unconscious superior onto one man’s back and fled with lightning speed.

I called one final warning after them.

“Erase everything that happened today from your memories. And think carefully about which ship you need to board if you want to stay alive.”

“……!”

“……!”

“……!”

The Ares Guild was a massive, sturdy ship.

But its great captain, Cheon Taemin, had vanished without a trace long ago. Now Lee Jungryong, the man who had taken the helm after him, had also met his death.

The ship that had once seemed destined to sail the seas forever was beginning to list.

A captain couldn’t abandon his ship, but the sailors hired to serve aboard it were different.

If they wanted, they could find a new ship and a new shipowner.

That should be enough for them to understand.

The three men hesitated briefly at my words, then disappeared into the darkness.

They offered no answer or visible reaction, but I knew one thing.

They would never forget what I had said.

They would turn it over in their minds dozens—hundreds—of times before passing it on to their fellow Guild members. Then, little by little, water would begin seeping into the bottom of the enormous ship called the Ares Guild.

“Ooh, wicked human. Ooooooh.”

“This is what you call strategy, you idiot.”

“How can someone so stupid be this underhanded and cunning?!”

“……You son of a bitch.”

He wasn’t wrong, but it still pissed me the fuck off.

Let’s just say that after several years as a Hunter, I had picked up a few things through experience.

Magic Gems were now the essential power source of cutting-edge civilization. Naturally, that drew enormous amounts of capital. Capital attracted people, and wherever people gathered, all kinds of things were bound to happen.

I’ve put the bait out with what I know… If I wait, someone will bite.

Just as a sect’s standing in Murim was determined by the martial artists it possessed, a modern Guild’s standing was determined by the caliber of its Hunters.

And Go Jun could never fill the void Lee Jungryong had left behind.

Just as Lee Jungryong had never been able to fill the void left by Cheon Taemin.

It was only a matter of time before the fish spotted another tempting lure beyond that empty space and began swimming away.

“You certainly don’t hesitate. Are you planning to go to war with the Ares Guild?”

I shrugged at Magic Johnson’s question.

“It’s not like I couldn’t, but we should keep up appearances.”

“Appearances, huh?”

“The Peace Guild is going to grow enormously from now on. It has me, and Team Leader Choi is attracting plenty of media attention too.”

“Oh, I heard about that. Apparently Choi’s been making quite a name for himself lately.”

The global media spotlight was focused on me, but the more I avoided the press, the more attention shifted toward Team Leader Choi.

He belonged to the same Peace Guild as I did and was one of the very few people allowed to visit my hospital room.

On top of that, he had distinguished himself during this monster wave and was handsome enough to put celebrities to shame.

And his greatest secret still hasn’t been revealed.

If the truth—that he was Cheon Taemin’s own flesh and blood—ever became public, the media would undoubtedly go into a frenzy.

“Anyway, it’s only a matter of time before the Peace Guild takes off. Meanwhile, the Ares Guild’s influence will shrink by the day.”

“Hmm. I can certainly see that happening.”

Magic Johnson nodded, then suddenly spoke.

“But, Jin.”

“Yes?”

“What exactly do you know about the Magic Formation—”

“Oh, right. The club!”

“Huh?”

“You said you were going to a club with the Skeleton King.”

“Wait, wait, Jin!”

“Golgoli! Let’s go to the club!”

“Yes! Raise your ribs and scream!”

Listening to the Skeleton King spout nonsense, I hurried away.

Then, as I gazed up at the faint moonlight, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

I should go back soon.

The time was approaching.

The time to return to another world—to Murim.