Chapter 767

Bzzzt.

At the sudden vibration, Team Leader Choi pulled a smartphone from inside his coat. He checked it—one of the five phones he carried, no less—then mouthed my name.

Mr. Jin Taekyung.

The reason he wasn’t speaking aloud was obvious. I quickly drew up my internal energy and spread it around us.

Fwoooosh.

An invisible barrier of qi sealed the suite without leaving a single gap.

Bzzzt.

Blue light poured from the smartphone lying on the table. In the blink of an eye, it gathered into a human-shaped hologram, and a deep voice rang out.

“Sorry I’m late. I just saw your message… But what happened to that guy? Don’t tell me you’ve already had a fight.”

Magic Johnson.

The towering Grand Mage blinked at the Skeleton King, who lay clutching his chest. I answered weakly.

“It’s a long story.”

Unlike the Skeleton King and Team Leader Choi, Magic Johnson’s reaction was brief and clear.

“Fuck.”

Of course, he didn’t stop there. After muttering nonstop about a son and a beach, and about a third hole he normally kept hidden from view, he rubbed his perfectly smooth, hairless scalp.

“This… is about as bad as it gets.”

Only then did something I hadn’t considered occur to me. If the Skeleton King’s existence were exposed, I would not be the only one to suffer a serious blow. Neither would Team Leader Choi.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve been more careful.”

“No need to apologize, Jin. I chose to help you.”

Johnson waved off my belated apology, then frowned.

“But how did he find out? My illusion Magic should have been perfect.”

Magic Johnson was one of only three Grand Mages in the world. No—now there were only two. He had gone to great lengths to inscribe that illusion Magic, and its effectiveness and secrecy were second to none. No wonder his face showed so many conflicting emotions.

“With Siegfried dead, there’s only one mage left who could see through my illusion Magic… And I guarantee you, even Michael couldn’t get her to act.”

If Magic Johnson was speaking with such certainty, it had to be true.

I had heard plenty about the other Grand Mage myself, and after decades had passed, most of what I had heard had turned out to be fact rather than rumor.

But even leaving her aside, we had enough clues. And I wasn’t the only one who saw where they pointed.

“Japan.”

“Leviathan.”

Although the words were different, they meant the same thing. Team Leader Choi, who had spoken at the same time as me, continued slowly as everyone’s eyes turned toward him.

“As you all know, what happened in Japan wasn’t simply a terrorist attack or a Monster Wave.”

“Choi told me about it. I think Michael Silbert was most likely behind it, too.”

“But what we need to reconsider now is his objective.”

“His objective?”

“Why did Michael Silbert wake Leviathan from its sleep deep beneath the sea? And…”

“Why lure it to Japan, of all the countries he could have chosen?”

I picked up where Team Leader Choi had left off. The five oceans covered a staggering seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface. There was no shortage of countries with coastlines. So why had Michael chosen Japan as the place to let Leviathan run wild?

And there was the second terrorist attack, which struck around the world on the same day.

The answer was already there, as Team Leader Choi’s next words made clear.

“He calculated everything meticulously from the beginning, taking Japan’s situation at the time and every other factor into account.”

Johnson grasped what he meant and spoke with a groan.

“Then all of it—including the second terrorist attack—was meant to draw you in?”

“Yes. I’m certain.”

“But why Japan? If that was his goal, wouldn’t it have been easier to lure Leviathan to Korea?”

Team Leader Choi shook his head and continued in a calm voice.

“From Michael Silbert’s perspective, it was the only possible choice. Even setting aside the fact that Korean Hunters are far stronger, our government has been on high alert ever since Go Jun artificially caused two Monster Waves. If magical power had suddenly surged, they would have noticed immediately.”

“The Magic Gem…!”

“Exactly. But Japan had recently been hit by the first terrorist attack. The area around Tokyo, in particular, would have suited him in several ways.”

It wasn’t just any Magic Gem. It was an unrefined S-rank Magic Gem. The sheer amount and concentration of magical power it gave off had been enough to wake Leviathan deep beneath the distant sea.

But near Tokyo, magical power levels were already running wild because of the Monster Wave caused by the first attack. Another surge would have been hard to spot. Most importantly, there hadn’t been a Gate near Tokyo Bay—the area Leviathan destroyed—that would have given anyone cause for alarm.

“Yes,” Johnson said. “It all fits.”

“He drew the outline based on that from the start, then colored it in with the second terrorist attack. Since Japan was fairly far from the major Hunter powers, it would not have been difficult to predict that its own forces would be unable to stop a Named Monster like Leviathan.”

The Supreme Peak masters of Murim were proof enough that people at the same level could differ enormously in strength. Modern S-rank Hunters were no different.

And Japan’s S-rank Hunter, Yamamoto Genji, was stuck on the lower floors of that pyramid of power.

If he was really as strong as all those Japanese netizens and Japan-worshipping fanboys dickriding him claimed, why had he shown up so late that Leviathan was already dead when he’d had an entire day to get there?

The answer was obvious.

The Japanese government must have known it, too. That was why they’d swallowed their pride and asked for help.

A country that had come through both worldwide terrorist attacks with little damage. An indisputable Hunter powerhouse, and a neighbor close enough to reach them faster than anyone else.

Korea.

And Korea had me.

No. Us.

“……!”

A chill ran down my spine. I abruptly raised my head as though I had just woken up and stared at the Skeleton King.

He’d been listening in a daze, too distracted even to put his dislocated bones back in place. At my stare, he flinched and shrank back.

“I—I’ve just been sitting here.”

“……”

“I told you, I was joking because everyone looked so serious! Haven’t you heard of lightening the mood?”

“That’s not it.”

“Th—then why?”

Damn it. My teeth had clenched without me noticing. My voice came out low and strained.

“It was you. From the beginning.”

“This body? From the beginning? What are you talking about?”

The Skeleton King frowned. Team Leader Choi answered, his expression grim.

“Michael Silbert’s target was never Mr. Jin Taekyung. It was you.”

“…What?”

“Don’t you see? The second terrorist attack. Leviathan. He arranged all of it to target you.”

“……!”

The Skeleton King’s pupils trembled. Johnson, who had been thinking in silence, let out a sigh.

“So he’d suspected it for some time.”

“He would have needed evidence to turn that suspicion into certainty.”

“Even at the cost of so many lives?”

“Do you still not know what kind of man he is? Hundreds could die. Tens of millions could die. Michael Silbert wouldn’t bat an eye.”

Team Leader Choi looked at me. His voice was rough as iron filings, nothing like it usually sounded.

“If it meant achieving his goal—if he could get the proof he needed—he could end all of this right now.”

“……!”

He was right.

That was all the bastard had wanted: the weakness that would guarantee his victory in a war against me. So he’d set the entire stage, cutting off any chance of reinforcements from other countries and creating a situation where the Skeleton King had no choice but to step in.

And then… he finally got his hands around that weakness.

That wasn’t all. His willingness to launch the second terrorist attack must also have had a great deal to do with the World Hunter Federation.

The worse the damage, the greater the chance of reestablishing it.

How far ahead had Michael Silbert calculated?

The question stole my breath. It felt as though an invisible cord were tightening around my neck. I took a deep breath and looked around.

Team Leader Choi. Magic Johnson. Finally, the Skeleton King.

At some point, all three had fallen silent. They were looking at me.

No. They were waiting for me to speak. Waiting for me to decide where we went from here.

Thoughts and doubts raced through my mind. At last, I broke the long silence.

“I…”

Three days passed.

No one said a word about the tremendous boom that had echoed across the vacant lot outside Munich, where the Odin Guild Master’s private aircraft had landed on the night disaster struck.

The reporters who had all but been driven from the scene wanted to know what had made the sound they’d faintly heard from a distance. But the German Armed Forces, which controlled the Munich area, gave them a firm answer.

First: no pointless questions, and no approaching the site.

Second: anyone who failed to comply would be deported immediately.

Even the most hot-blooded reporters, who had bristled at the first point, fell quiet at the second. With the proposed revival of the World Hunter Federation shaking the world, getting deported over something like this would be madness.

Two people central to that debate were still in Munich. One was Jin Taekyung, whose behavior in front of the cameras the previous night had baffled everyone. The other was Michael Silbert, the man who had lit the fuse on this powder keg.

“Hey, sorry, but have you heard anything about either of them?”

“No.”

“Do you mean there’s nothing to hear, or that you know something and won’t tell me?”

“Hmm. Both?”

“Come on, we’re colleagues. We ought to help each other out. Those Germans can’t take a joke, and they’re being ridiculously strict. What’s your name, anyway?”

“Franz Meyer.”

“…You’re not German, are you?”

“I believe I am. A strict, foul-tempered German who can’t take a joke. That’s me.”

“I didn’t say foul-tempered—damn it. Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

“It wouldn’t matter even if you did. But if you’re really sorry, throw me a decent scoop.”

“A decent scoop? Then how about the emergency convening of the UN General Assembly?”

The bearded German reporter gave a short laugh.

“You’re joking. Who doesn’t know about that? The meeting’s been going on for ages.”

He was right.

At midnight three days earlier, following the Munich incident, the UN—reorganized after the Great Cataclysm—had called an emergency General Assembly. The leaders of 185 countries, led by the six permanent member states, were locked in fierce debate over videoconference.

They had gathered for one reason: the proposal to reestablish the World Hunter Federation.

Given what was at stake, the emergency session was being held under unusually tight secrecy. But word always leaked out. Major news outlets had already learned of it and were watching closely.

“And you call something everyone knows a decent scoop? Your sense of humor is worse than I thought. You’re in no position to make fun of Germans.”

“Hmm. What if I told you the vote is about to begin?”

The German reporter stopped as he was turning away. He stroked his stubbly beard.

“…Now that’s interesting.”

“Glad you think so. It isn’t a joke.”

“You’re sure?”

“Is anyone ever sure of anything? If you want a number, I’d say ninety-nine point nine percent.”

99.9 percent.

The German reporter repeated the near-certain figure under his breath and swallowed.

“That means…”

“Yes. That’s right. The UN will announce it soon.”

Simon, the reporter who looked a good ten years younger than the German man facing him, went on slowly.

“The result of the vote on the birth of the World Hunter Federation. An organization that would span the globe.”

“……!”