Chapter 558

Flash.

The man’s eyes flew open.

For a moment, he stared dazedly into space. Then he began piecing together what had happened.

An F-rank Gate. Goblins. An earthquake. And…

Jin Taekyung.

That last name brought everything back. The man sprang up as if launched by a spring.

“Gaaaaah!”

There was just one problem. He had the large build of a tank, and there wasn’t much room to spring up in.

Thump. Bang!

“Gah! Huh?”

He struck his head on the ceiling. His cry of pain cut off as his eyes widened.

It hurt. It really hurt. But if he could feel pain, that meant…

I-I’m alive!

He’d never expected to find himself thinking like a webnovel protagonist.

As the tension finally left his body, he realized he was lying inside a vehicle. An ambulance, to be precise.

An ambulance?

He was lucky to have escaped death, but this wasn’t necessarily a good sign. Surviving only to be left disabled would be its own kind of misfortune.

He hurriedly began checking himself from head to toe.

That was when—

Bang. Rattle.

The door flew open, and light poured in. He raised both arms to shield his face.

Or perhaps it was the dazzling beauty of the woman who had opened it that made him do that.

“Oh, you’re awake. I thought I heard something as I was passing by.”

He stammered at the beautiful woman who had appeared out of nowhere. “W-Who are you?”

“You’re Team Leader Lee Seungyeop, right? Thirty-three years old, a freelancer with no Guild affiliation.”

“H-How do you know who I am?”

“Questions in a moment. First, are you feeling all right?”

Her gentle but firm interruption caught him off guard, and he nodded.

“You should be fine. All you had were a few scrapes—hardly enough to call injuries. The others, too…”

The others?

That casual mention made his eyes fly open.

“R-Right! My team! Are they all right? Did anyone die or get hurt?”

“Your team members are all safe. But if you keep shouting, my ears won’t be.”

“Really? You’re sure? Guh, is that really true?”

“I know someone who always stakes something dirty on it at times like this. I don’t have any balls, so I’ll stake my ovaries. Satisfied?”

She delivered the answer without missing a beat, then continued.

“And to answer your earlier question, I checked your belongings. Thanks to that, we were able to complete your identity verification quickly.”

Tap.

She set down a small extradimensional Pocket and a briefing board. A short message had been scrawled across the board’s white surface in atrocious handwriting.

Go, Hunter Lee Seungyeop!

—Jin Taekyung

The woman gave a quiet laugh.

“That had actually fallen on the ground. Someone picked it up and handed it to me himself. Said it was going to be a family heirloom, so we couldn’t let you lose it.”

Team Leader Lee Seungyeop’s eyes widened.

“Then the person who handed it to you was…?”

“If a name just came to mind, you’ve got it.”

Her neat eyebrows lifted. Her voice was as open and bright as her features.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Song Song.”

“Song? What kind of song?”

“…It’ll be faster if I just give you my business card. Here.”

Swish.

The Team Leader took the card from her long, pale fingers and stared.

“Peace Guild?”

“Officially, I’m the Healer Team Leader. I’m temporarily heading the emergency rescue team, too.”

“…Oh.”

He caught his breath. Even someone as busy making ends meet as he was knew about the Peace Guild.

You’d have to be a monster not to.

Jin Taekyung himself belonged to it.

Its enormous financial resources and ability to draw public attention had fueled explosive growth in just a few months. The Peace Guild was no longer some unremarkable small or medium-sized Guild.

I hear it’s harder to get into the Peace Guild than Ares Guild these days.

It offered Hunters some of the best treatment in the industry, and its prospects seemed limitless. Of course talented people were flocking to it. After Lee Jungryong’s national funeral a week ago, he’d even heard that Hunters from Ares Guild had transferred there instead of renewing their contracts.

And the woman in front of him was a team leader at that very Guild. She looked barely into her twenties, but she was already a big deal.

Come to think of it, he might have seen her celebrity-like face on television once or twice.

“But… what exactly is the emergency rescue team? I haven’t heard of it before.”

“Exactly what it sounds like. It’s a new team dedicated solely to rescuing people.”

“I know Guilds of a certain size have rescue teams. But neither my team nor I belong to the Peace Guild.”

Freelance Hunters and small Guilds relied on government agencies for help; even mid-sized Guilds commonly ran their own rescue teams. He couldn’t understand why the Peace Guild had shown up for them.

“Would you rather we hadn’t?”

“N-No! How could I think that? I’m grateful, of course. We nearly died in that Mutated Gate, and you saved us.”

Song Song gave a quiet laugh.

“Then that settles it. It’s what we came to do.”

“What?”

“The Peace Guild emergency rescue team is on a trial run, focusing on mid- and low-grade Gates in the capital region. We’re working with government agencies, and we respond to all Hunters. You could call it volunteer work for public safety.”

“Volunteer… work?”

“Oh, I and the others get paid, of course.”

He stared past Song Song’s shoulder. Hunters were hurrying in every direction, each with the Peace Guild emblem on their chest.

Volunteer work? With this many people?

No matter how much of a golden goose a modern Hunter Guild was, most of its income still came from Gates. Guilds paid Hunters enormous salaries because they could make even greater profits from raids.

But the Peace Guild had sent these Hunters out to rescue people instead—and paid them properly to do it.

They all look like at least mid-grade Hunters.

Dozens of them wore equipment that looked expensive even at a glance. As a low-grade Hunter, he couldn’t begin to guess how much the Peace Guild had spent on them today.

“Um. You said you’re Team Leader Song Song?”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“I was wondering… are there treatment fees? Rescue fees? Anything like that?”

“No. Have you ever seen a firefighter rescue someone and send them a bill?”

“Then…?”

“Transport and treatment are free, obviously. Oh, and if anyone’s been hurt psychologically, we cover counseling too. For trauma and that sort of thing.”

“…?”

Wait. What treatment? Did I hear that right?

He stared at her, dazed, then asked in all sincerity, “Does the Peace Guild dig its money out of the ground?”

Song Song winked.

“No, but the man funding us has quite a lot of it.”

“The man funding you?”

“You know him. You even got his autograph.”

“…!”

“Anyway, there’s someone like that. He complains every day that he feels like he’s being bled dry, but he’s smiling the whole time.”

A smile touched Song Song’s lips as she thought of him.

When she’d first met him, she’d wondered what kind of lunatic he was. Watching him since then had taught her what it meant to be a true Hunter. What it meant to care about people.

“You. Let’s do a job together.”

“…That sounds like a line I’ve heard somewhere. First, you should know I’m not overseas Chinese.¹”

Jin Taekyung had come to her out of nowhere with that proposal a week ago. For a moment, she’d thought he wanted her to join Gold Moon²—no, Ares Guild—and act as a spy.

What he’d said next had been nothing like she expected.

“You’re better than I expected, Taurus.”

To be a little more honest, he’d been kind of cool this time.

The same had been true when he’d used the money from selling the Black Wyvern’s carcass to establish a charitable foundation. Every now and then, he showed her an unexpected side of himself.

Song Song let out a quiet laugh and looked up at the sky.

It was January, and the cold hadn’t yet faded. But the sunlight overhead was warm.

Kiiiiing.

—Jin Taekyung. Iris recognition complete.

A red light swept across my pupil, accompanied by a mechanical voice. I stepped through the door as it opened automatically and entered the Guild House.

Everyone going about their work stopped in their tracks, as though they’d arranged it in advance.

“W-Welcome.”

“Welcome!”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

“Ah, yes. Hello, everyone.”

I told them not to do this. What is this, a gangster office?

I gave them an awkward smile. I still couldn’t get used to it.

The Skeleton King whispered beside me, “Wretched human. This does not seem right.”

“You, of all people? You have thoughts like that—”

Before I could finish, he strode forward and pointed at a Hunter who looked like a new recruit.

“You there. You’re bending only eighty degrees at the waist. Make it ninety. Or you could try a grandjeol.³”

“Y-Yes! Understood!”

“…”

Don’t go adjusting their angles. And what exactly does he understand?

Just watching was enough to leave me speechless. I stopped the Guild member from attempting a grandjeol³, kindly advised him not to listen to this idiot, and finally made it to my destination.

Familiar faces were waiting there.

“Taekyung!”

“Welcome.”

Im Kkeokjeong spread both arms to greet me. Beside him, Team Leader Choi was busy dealing with something.

“Take it easy. Take it easy. What if you reopen your wounds?”

“I’m just happy to see you, punk.”

“We see each other every day.”

As soon as I sat Im Kkeokjeong down—he was still undergoing rehabilitation training—Team Leader Choi suddenly spoke.

“I received a report over the hotline. A Named Monster appeared?”

“A Cyclops. Plus three hundred Ents for good measure.”

“A Cyclops in an F-rank Gate… It was fortunate you happened to be nearby, Mr. Jin Taekyung.”

“They all knelt before this body’s majesty.”

“One more word and you’ll be listening on your knees.”

“…Sorry.”

That shut him up. Team Leader Choi handed me a folder.

“What’s this?”

“The data you requested. I compiled the number of Mutated Gates that have appeared recently in Korea and elsewhere in Asia.”

It didn’t take long to go through. Once I’d found what I was looking for, I let out a groan.

“Five in Korea alone over the past month…”

“The frequency of Mutated Gates is rising explosively. The incident in Sichuan Province is the most notable example.”

Mutated Gates were extremely rare. Even in Korea, with its hundreds of Gates, they normally appeared only once or twice a year—three times at most. Yet last month’s count had already passed five.

And it’s already happened twice this month, counting the one I just dealt with.

It was a bizarre phenomenon I couldn’t explain. But the fact that events in Murim came to mind right now couldn’t be a coincidence.

Something’s happening.

Tap. Tap-tap.

I drummed my fingers on the table in silence, then asked, “What about North America and Europe?”

“I expect the situation is similar. But for something more certain, I’ve requested data from someone I trust.”

“Someone you trust?”

The moment I asked, every one of my senses snapped awake.

Whoooooosh.

A sudden storm of qi.

An immense amount of mana, far beyond what even an A-rank Hunter possessed, was converging somewhere in the Guild House.

This is…

I knew that flow of mana. And I recognized the distinctive presence within it.

“Team Leader Choi, don’t tell me…”

“It’s the person you’re thinking of. Though I didn’t expect him to come in person.”

At Team Leader Choi’s calm answer, the Skeleton King turned to me with a bewildered expression.

“Wretched human. Whom are you talking about?”

“Your dad.”

“…?”

His confusion lasted only a moment. Someone’s message magic entered all our minds, and a smile spread across his face.

—Have you all been well?

The voice had a hip-hop soul and groove to it. I gave a quiet laugh as a name came to mind.

Magic Johnson.

The American Grand Mage had come to visit the Peace Guild.