Chapter 771

Bzzzt.

It wasn’t hard to identify the vibration. I had something in my own pocket that made a similar sound.

“Team Leader Choi, looks like you’re getting a call. Aren’t you going to answer?”

“Don’t worry about it. That isn’t what matters right now.”

“What, afraid I’ll jump you while you’re on the phone?”

“That…”

Team Leader Choi trailed off.

The fact that we were facing off at all was absurd. No matter how gifted he was or how quickly he’d improved, he couldn’t stop me.

The only reason he was still on his feet was that I was letting him stay there. I was holding back for a friend I had no choice but to bring down.

And I had another reason to hold back.

“If someone’s calling your direct line, it must be important. Go ahead and answer. I need to wait for enough witnesses to gather anyway.”

“Witnesses…?”

“Yes. Witnesses.”

I watched Team Leader Choi turn the word over in his mind, then went on.

“The more people who see what happens next, the better. For all of us.”

There was no other way.

Team Leader Choi and I had been in the same boat for a long time. If I killed Michael Silbert, he’d be implicated as my accomplice. And it wouldn’t stop with him. The Peace Guild, the Ares Guild, my family and friends—everyone connected to me would be hurt.

That would be the end of everything.

To prevent the worst, I have to draw a line between us where plenty of people can see it.

Soon, I’d be a criminal as notorious as The Prophet, if not more so.

A traitor to humanity who, when a longtime comrade confronted him about joining forces with an undead monster, struck him down without hesitation and fled with the monster.

And… the murderer who killed Michael Silbert, the hero of the age, in broad daylight.

“A couple of broken bones won’t be the end of it. While you’re taking the call, check that you have a potion ready.”

Team Leader Choi bit his lip.

“…You’re serious.”

“I’ve thought it through. I know which road I’m taking.”

At some point, I’d gained too many things to protect. Every choice demanded that I think it through, then think it through again.

But once I’d decided, I had to cast hesitation aside. The moment I looked back, I’d hesitate. I’d leave an opening.

Little by little, I’d learned not to look back.

In Murim. In the modern world.

Among monsters that came charging at me to kill me, and loathsome people even worse than the monsters.

“This is the path I chose. Right now, it’s the best one.”

Sacrifice the Skeleton King, or hand the world to Michael Silbert.

I couldn’t choose either. So I’d made a different decision.

Rather than let Michael control me like a puppet, I would kill a hero and become a traitor who had joined forces with a monster.

Even if that was what it took, I would tear out the root of this disaster.

He dies by my hand today.

Whoosh.

A scorching heat spread throughout my body. Spitting out a single word as though I were chewing it to pieces, I unleashed the qi wave I had drawn up to its limit in every direction.

Rumble!

A violent tremor shook not just the building, but the surrounding area.

The force dwarfed anything Team Leader Choi had released. The hologram television, which had been playing silently, crackled and shut off. Alarms throughout the building began to wail.

Beep, beep! Weeeee!

“What the hell is—ah!”

“Aaaah!”

“Emergency! This is an emergency! Everyone, please evacuate!”

The murmurs that Team Leader Choi’s earlier tremor had stirred up turned to screams.

Amid the countless footsteps passing outside the door and the desperate shouts they were vomiting out, Team Leader Choi, who had been staring at me with a hollow expression, suddenly raised the Hero’s Sword.

Thunk!

The silver blade plunged into the floor, slicing through it like tofu. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and pulled a smartphone and a potion from inside his clothes as though he had resigned himself to everything.

Then I saw his eyes widen. A moment later, his fingers flew across the screen.

Flash.

A huge man appeared in midair amid the glow of a hologram. Magic Johnson looked more frantic than I’d ever seen him.

“Damn it. Why are you taking so long to answer? Did you look at the materials I sent? I found something strange a little while ago—wait, what the hell is going on here?”

He looked from Team Leader Choi to me. I didn’t answer. I strode toward him.

More precisely, toward the documents in his hand.

This is…

Several photographs. Pages packed with tiny text.

My eyes were sharp enough to take in every detail in barely a dozen seconds. As I read, possibilities I’d never considered began to take shape.

Why the hell would this…? Wait. If that’s true…

One thought led to another, tangling with the rest. A pale fog filled my mind, and I groped for whatever lay hidden inside it.

“Ah.”

The sound escaped my lips. The energy roiling inside me, ready to explode, began to settle.

Fwoosh.

My qi wave dispersed, and the tremors slowly died away.

But my gaze wavered more than ever, as did my mind after glimpsing the true shape of something beyond the fog filling my head.

If this is true…

Yes. If it really was…

Unable to finish the thought, I stared blankly at Magic Johnson. Then I turned to Team Leader Choi—and to the Hero’s Sword planted in the floor before him like Excalibur.

“Team Leader Choi.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you pull your sword out all of a sudden? You scared me.”

“What?”

“I need to think. Put it away and calm everyone down. It’s really loud out there.”

“…What?”

What the hell? Is he insane?

Reading the thought plainly conveyed through Team Leader Choi’s eyes, I let out a hollow laugh.

No matter how people around us looked at me, I continued to quietly chuckle to myself like a madman for quite some time before suddenly slapping both cheeks hard.

Smack!

Maybe a little too hard.

The full-force slap rattled my skull, but it brought my mind back from its brief AWOL stint before it got beyond the garrison limits.

All right.

Finally back in the room, I looked at the two men’s bewildered faces and spoke.

“All right, everyone. Now let’s all…”

Good breathing. Good emotion.

Deliver the last part solemnly.

“Let’s carve out a fourth path where every last fucking bastard dies and we survive.”

Team Leader Choi’s and Magic Johnson’s eyes twitched at my grand, solemn declaration.

“Mr. Jin Taekyung…”

“Hey, Jin…”

What more needed to be said?

I gave a faint smile and nodded as though I understood everything.

The new hope I’d glimpsed at the last moment had lit a heat somewhere inside me, different from Scorching Yang Qi. It kept welling up.

No. It was overflowing.

Drip. Splash!

“…What the fuck?”

Was it really going to overflow?

Heat—or rather, a torrent of red liquid—gushed from my nostrils, which had opened up with refreshing force before the fourth path even had a chance to do so. The two men’s gazes went cold.

“You have a nosebleed. A really bad one.”

“It reminds me of the fountain in the plaza of my mansion. More precisely, it looks like the baby angel built into the fountain is pissing like that.”

“You should have slapped yourself more gently.”

“He’s going to pass out from blood loss at this rate. Choi, do you have a potion?”

“I took one out just now. I didn’t expect to use it for this…”

“Good. Give it to Jin. And what did you mean by a fourth path? No, never mind. Stop the nosebleed first, then explain.”

“Here, take it. And step back a little, please. You’re spraying blood.”

“…”

As I accepted the potion from Team Leader Choi, I thought that going straight to fight Michael Silbert might have looked a lot cooler than this.

But this was me.

A man who might look anything but cool right now, who might make a damn fool of himself, but would still struggle for the best outcome he could get.

A realistic man busting his ass for the sake of this world where no one could see him, the true man of this era who was—

“What are you doing? Swallow it. All in one gulp.”

“Jin, do you have trouble taking potions? Want me to help?”

Team Leader Choi was nagging me like a mother-in-law. Magic Johnson had started licking his lips for some reason. I looked at them in alarm, then hurriedly emptied the potion into my mouth.

Ssshhh.

Ice-cold healing energy coursed through me. The tremors stopped as if they’d never happened, and the hologram television came back on.

A familiar face filled the screen.

Gray hair. Gray eyes.

The man looked as though he had been born somewhere between light and darkness. He stood before countless camera flashes and cameras, continuing to speak without sound. Stark subtitles ran beneath him.

Live: UN Emergency General Assembly Approves Reestablishment of World Hunter Federation by Overwhelming Vote

Michael Silbert: I offer my wholehearted praise for the UN’s decision on behalf of humanity, and propose an inaugural ceremony for the newly reestablished World Hunter Federation.

“Turn off mute!”

Beep.

At Team Leader Choi’s urgent command, the sound trapped in the speakers rushed out like a flood.

“Does that statement mean that you intend to become the representative of the World Hunter Federation yourself?”

“Michael! Can an inaugural ceremony really be held in a situation like this?”

“When and where would you like it to be held?”

“We’re from the Washington Post. Please give us a statement!”

The questions came like screams.

So many reporters surrounded Michael Silbert that the cameras couldn’t fit them all in. He answered none of them, merely waving a hand with a grave expression.

Swish.

He was a hologram. In reality, he had to be several kilometers¹ away at the very least. Yet it all felt vivid.

The air around him. The sense that the entire scene had been arranged for him alone.

The presence of that man, radiating suffocating majesty simply by being seen and heard.

Only Michael Silbert was free to speak there now.

“I swear to God, I proposed the reestablishment of the World Hunter Federation three days ago for one reason alone: for this world, for humanity.”

“…!”

I could feel it. The tumult wrapping around them.

And there he stood beneath a spotlight brighter than any he’d known in his life: a born agitator and orator.

“The representative of the World Hunter Federation should go to someone other than me. A living savior, the hero of the Great Cataclysm who already saved humanity from the Demon King once before!”

His voice, infused with internal energy, carried on and on. Overcome with excitement, people looked to the sky and cried out.

Sky. Slayer. Cheon Taemin.

Many names for one man. But a considerable number of people were chanting another name, too.

Michael Silbert.

As the fervor spread like fire, he pressed on.

“The inaugural ceremony will be held without fail. Whether it is the mad terrorist who calls himself The Prophet, any monster whatsoever, or even the return of the Demon King, the Hunters of the World Hunter Federation will gather in one place, choose their representative, and swear that they have become humanity’s sword and shield!”

“Waaaaah!”

My ears rang. I could hear the roar now without the speakers.

Through the cracks around the tightly shut door, I heard the whole city shouting as one.

No. Perhaps it was happening all over the world.

Everywhere light reached and electricity flowed.

All those people cheering for the hero shining alone at the center of it, without the faintest idea that he was behind everything.

As the fervor swelled beyond anything the crowd could contain, Michael Silbert spoke with more force in his eyes and voice than ever before.

To the people caught up in it. To the cameras trained on him.

Or perhaps…

“Two days from now. Seoul, Korea.”

Toward me—the one who could do nothing but watch him from here.

Michael Silbert made his declaration to the world.

“In the savior’s homeland, where the World Hunter Federation first began, we will rise once more, just as we did then.”