The air. Time.
Everything seemed to have stopped.
That was how it felt to the master of Area A, hidden in the strictest secrecy within Ares Guild in Jongno, Seoul.
How?
The question kept circling through Go Jun’s mind.
He had forgotten Go Se-won was standing beside him. His face rigid, he stared at the holographic television mounted on the wall.
Live footage from dozens of unmanned reconnaissance drones deployed by the government and various media outlets filled the screen.
“Right now, you’re looking at Mount Balwang, near Pyeongchang in Gangwon Province, where the Monster Wave occurred. And…”
It was the voice of the public broadcaster’s nine o’clock news anchor. Usually calm and serious, the unseen man sounded highly agitated.
“Can you see this, everyone? That is the corpse of Behemoth, the Named Monster! Around it, survivors of the disaster are being evacuated by emergency helicopter…”
Go Jun’s eyelids trembled.
The brutally dismembered corpse of the monster. The survivors. The voices of the Peace Guild members and the anchor explaining the situation.
All of it fed his fury.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, the latest-model holographic television—replaced more than ten times in the past month—burst into dust.
Go Jun did not care.
The instant Choi Minwoo appeared on the screen, being evacuated with a respirator over his face, everything else became meaningless.
He survived. Choi Minwoo survived.
The knowledge weighed on him.
To Go Jun, Choi Minwoo was a bastard who deserved to die. A bastard who had to die.
That was why Go Jun had laid the trap.
He had lured Jin Taekyung to Busan and used Song Cheonwoo to turn his enemies against each other, intending to leave both sides crippled.
But…
What went wrong?
Red light flickered in Go Jun’s eyes. In his hand, two unpurified S-grade Magic Gems ground against each other without pause.
Crk. Crk.
What had he missed?
Crk. Crk.
He had thought the plan was perfect. Perhaps it really had been.
Its one flaw was that someone beyond perfection stood on the other side.
Jin Taekyung.
It had to be him. Behemoth’s magical barrier had kept the media from learning exactly what had happened, but Go Jun had no doubt.
The bastard who had killed his Master, Lee Jungryong—a man who had seemed like a living god—and branded Go Jun with a terror he could never erase had interfered again.
Even after Go Jun had set a trap there was no escaping. Even then, again!
Crkkkk!
Instead of a roar filled with resentment, a chilling grinding sound filled the office.
Go Jun forced down his surging anger and barely managed to speak.
“Song Cheonwoo… What about Song Cheonwoo?”
When no answer came, he roared.
“I asked what happened to him!”
“……”
“Team Leader Go! Go Se-won!”
Go Se-won, the Head of Security, had watched his superior’s fury in silence. He answered flatly.
“He isn’t on any of the survivor or casualty lists we obtained.”
“What about the Gate access records?”
“Nothing there either. We believe the Peace Guild, which effectively owns that Gate, deliberately left no traces behind.”
“Of course. That makes sense. Even if Choi Minwoo is a little bastard, he’s extremely careful. Isn’t he?”
“……Yes.”
When a secret never passed beyond the walls around it, that was both the strength and the weakness of keeping it.
Go Jun raked a hand through his hair. He picked up the whiskey in front of him, drank straight from the bottle, and muttered, “Fine. Things went to hell, but they still can’t do anything about it. Song Cheonwoo can prove his alibi with the stand-in we prepared. If that gets too difficult, we make it look like he acted alone. There’s no trace left in Busan, so we don’t need to worry about that. Right?”
“But, Vice Guild Master, the Pyeongchang incident is too serious to pass off as Song Cheonwoo’s lone crime. According to the information we obtained, Kim Hwajong—the nominal Guild Master of the Peace Guild—died, and Song Cheonwoo is unquestionably a member of Ares…”
“Listen, Team Leader Go.”
A chill seized Go Se-won’s entire body. His frozen figure was reflected in Go Jun’s red eyes.
“Then make it less serious.”
“V-Vice Guild Master.”
“I don’t care if it costs tens of billions1 or hundreds of billions2 of won. Throw money at the prosecutors’ office. Threaten the old men sitting in the National Assembly. Grab anyone with a camera or a microphone by the collar. Isn’t that your job?”
“……!”
Go Se-won’s eyes trembled violently. The malice radiating from one man, along with his horrifying aura, pressed down on him.
How can someone become like this…?
It went beyond surprise. It was horrifying.
Could a person change this much in only a few months? Fall this far?
And what was this overwhelming power bearing down on him?
As he stared at Go Jun in disbelief, Song Cheonwoo’s voice from several days earlier echoed in his mind.
The boundary between human and monster. That bastard Go Jun… has already become a monster.
Song was right. Go Jun—his superior—had already become a monster.
He had exploited his subordinates’ near-religious loyalty and sent them to their deaths. He had deliberately caused two Monster Waves that might have left thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands dead or injured.
All to eliminate his enemies.
A monster that has forgotten even the minimum duty a human being should possess.
Go Se-won was struggling to hide how shaken he felt when Go Jun spoke again.
“Make sure it’s handled. Choi Minwoo survived, but at least we took care of Song Cheonwoo. Get us through this, and there won’t be a problem.”
Go Jun had regained his composure. His voice was cold.
He had failed to bring down the enemy outside Ares, but he had eliminated the one within it. That was half a victory.
Once the fake Song Cheonwoo he had put in place completed his retirement and disappeared, it would all be over.
No rumors or condemnation could bring down Ares Guild.
“Thirty years. It’s been thirty whole years. Politics, business, the prosecutors’ office, the media… They all grew under Ares’s shadow.”
Crk. Crk.
Cheon Taemin had laid the foundation, but after he lost consciousness, Lee Jungryong had built the pillars and roof.
Young politicians Ares had supported long ago had become prime ministers, ruling-party leaders, and opposition heavyweights. It was the same in business, the prosecutors’ office, and the media.
Some portion of the astronomical sums Ares Guild earned from Gates—the diamond mines of this world—had been scattered everywhere as dirty money. Those seeds had grown into a dense forest surrounding an impregnable fortress.
Go Jun was one of the people who knew that fact better than anyone.
Among the things he had inherited from his Master was a ledger packed with records of corruption and weaknesses.
“Even if everyone points fingers at us, this world itself is what protects us.”
In his impatience and anger, he had forgotten how much power he held.
And just as Go Jun’s confidence fully returned and a deep smile spread across his lips—
“You’re wrong.”
“What?”
Go Se-won looked directly at the monster before him—his superior—with an unreadable expression.
“The old politicians raised under Ares’s name, the Prosecutor General, the business and media dynasties dating back to the Japanese occupation3—none of them will protect you, Vice Guild Master.”
“Team Leader Go. What are you—”
“Some of what you said is true. Ares won’t fall just because people point fingers and condemn it. But even if the whole world protects you, there’s one person it can’t stop.”
“……!”
Go Jun froze.
The thought of grabbing the Head of Security by the collar for daring to spout nonsense to his face vanished.
It was because of the name of the one person who had struck him in the mind.
Jin Taekyung.
Go Se-won read the thought in his trembling eyes and continued quietly.
“Have you forgotten who brought down the man who personally cultivated the world you’re counting on?”
“……!”
The words hit Go Jun like a blow to the back of the head. He clenched his teeth without realizing it.
Unfortunately, the bastard in front of him was not talking nonsense. Every word was true.
Master.
It was true. Lee Jungryong—Ares’s master and a man who had been no different from the king of Korea—had ultimately been killed by Jin Taekyung’s hand.
The whole world had been his, and no one in it had protected him.
Go Jun spoke through clenched teeth, his voice seething.
“Team Leader Go… You bastard.”
“I only said what someone had to say.”
“Shut up.”
“If that is your order, Vice Guild Master, I’ll obey. But please don’t dismiss what I said.”
“I told you to shut your mouth.”
Rumble!
A massive aura burst from Go Jun’s entire body like an explosion. The office shook as though an earthquake had struck.
Go Se-won’s face went pale before that overwhelming power, but his fear was nothing beside the disgust he felt.
Monster.
Go Jun saw it in his eyes and bared his teeth.
“Team Leader Go, have you gone mad? Lost your mind?”
“……”
“I only put you in the position of team leader because your abilities were at least useful. Did wearing a title that was never meant for you suddenly make the world look different?”
He gave an angry laugh and went on.
“Team Leader Go, you’re a coward and a piece of trash. You wrapped it in pretty words and called it loyal counsel, but you’re more afraid of Jin Taekyung than you are of my Master and me.”
“……That isn’t true.”
“It’s too late to deny it. Let’s admit what we both know. Yes, that bastard Jin Taekyung is strong. But how long do you think he’ll stay above me? Hmm?”
Crk. Crk!
“It’s only a matter of time. Now that I—now that I’ve decided to kill that bastard—I’ll find a way worthy of it… Damn it. Do you understand?”
Crkkkk!
His chilling voice mingled with the grinding of the Magic Gems. Go Jun glared at Go Se-won, his eyes so red they were nearly the color of blood.
He leaned his upper body forward toward the subordinate who had dared to commit an unforgivable crime. An old necklace slipped out and spun slowly in front of Go Se-won’s eyes.
“Team Leader Go. Go Se-won. You ungrateful piece of trash.”
“……”
“A year at most. Jin Taekyung… That bastard you’re so afraid of will die by my hand. Sichuan, Seoul—I don’t care where. I’ll kill him without anyone noticing, the same way Master was killed.”
“……”
“Until then, the world is on my side. No one can touch me unless I leave this fortress myself, you stupid bastard.”
The thrill of revenge mingled with his obsession with one man. Go Se-won watched the murk in his eyes for a moment, then spoke.
“A year. That’s a long time.”
“What?”
“I don’t know what method you’ve found, Vice Guild Master, but… Jin Taekyung won’t wait that long.”
“What, do you think he’s going to come charging in right now?”
“Yes.”
At the short answer, Go Jun laughed aloud. He laughed until his face twisted and the office seemed ready to fall apart from the sound. Then, suddenly, his expression sank, and he parted his lips.
“You fucking idiot. This is Ares Guild. Fall forward and you land at the Blue House4; fall backward and you land at the National Assembly. Do you really think he’ll do something insane enough to turn the whole world against him?”
“I hear someone I know artificially caused a Monster Wave. Do you really think Jin Taekyung is incapable of doing something less insane than that?”
“……!”
“And, Vice Guild Master.”
Go Se-won let out a wry laugh despite himself. He remembered what he had learned from watching Jin Taekyung’s every move and investigating his past.
“Jin Taekyung is a lunatic. Didn’t you know?”
“You bas—!”
Go Jun’s eyes flew wide.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Ares Guild headquarters shook. The skyscraper of more than a hundred floors trembled.
As the roar began to fade, Go Se-won’s voice reached him.
“Dealing with that lunatic will probably be my final assignment. Thank you for everything, Vice Guild Master. If I survive, I’ll submit my resignation formally.”
Carrying both his gratitude for everything until now and his disgust toward Go Jun as a human being, Go Se-won bowed deeply. He threw open the door that had been shut tight.
Emergency sirens were waking Ares Guild.
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